Kyiv to Solve Crimean Equation
According to Volodymyr Lytvyn, chief of the Presidential Administration, President Leonid Kuchma can solve the equation called Resignation of the Crimean Government in at least two ways. The first is to quash the Crimean Parliament’s vote of no confidence in the autonomous republic’s government and file an appeal to the Constitutional Court. The second way is to study the record of the Crimean Parliament’s session and, in case some breaches of the procedural rules are revealed, to suggest to the Supreme Council of Crimea that it cancel the decision made. The only condition for choosing either of these options, Mr. Lytvyn noted, is “that the decision should be made very quickly in order to head off a confrontation,” Interfax-Ukraine reports.
Last Friday, all the participants in the premier’s race, Crimean style (Speaker Leonid Hrach, presidential representative in the Crimea Anatoly Korniychuk, and dismissed Premier Serhiy Kunitsyn) arrived in Kyiv to meet the President as well as Verkhovna Rada and Cabinet representatives. Almost the same Crimean pols had met Leonid Kuchma in the Crimea just a few days before. At that time, according to Mr. Korniychuk, the President again told the Speaker and Premier “to live and work in a friendly way.”
Under Article 136 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the head of the Crimea’s government shall be appointed and dismissed by the Crimean Parliament of with the knowledge and consent of the President. “We are in a legal deadlock,” Mr. Lytvyn noted in this connection, adding that the law on autonomy “reduces the powers of president set out in the Constitution.” So there already are formal grounds to appeal to the Constitutional Court.
The President reacted quite strongly to the Crimean Parliament’s decision. As Mr. Korniychuk noted, “the President said that if Parliament were to take such a mindless step (dismissal of the Premier — Author), this would harbor many unpleasant consequences for Parliament, including dissolution.” The administration chief pointed out on his part that if the Crimean Parliament “failed to show good will and understanding of the situation, the President would do his utmost within the framework of his powers to ensure political stability in Crimea, so that the autonomous republic’s bodies of public administration work for the solution of economic problems rather than of political squabbles.”
“The main reasons why the Kunitsyn government is being forced out are: the conflict between large vested interests, the scandal about the arrest of the Minister of Finance and the shenanigans with securities related to Crimean property,” People’s Deputy Refat Chubarov told The Day. “Besides, Mr. Hrach is trying to clear the last hurdle to establishing his personal power in the Crimea.”
Ukrainian Parliament Speaker Ivan Pliushch also thinks that the dismissal of the Crimean government “does not seem to be the final decision,” noting that the Crimean government and Supreme Council “should work as far as the fall and seek a compromise.” In his words, the decision to fire the autonomy’s government is “unacceptable for many reasons,” Interfax-Ukraine reports.
COMMENT
Volodymyr POLOKHALO, political scientist:
“What is going on in the Crimea is a certain regrouping and a conflict of interests of financial and industrial conglomerates. As a result of political competition, some groups are relinquishing their positions. One such group is the NDP which Mr. Kunitsyn represents. The Crimea demonstrates today the general tendencies of ongoing struggle. Conflicts within the elite are settled by either a strong-arm tactics or informally. So the dismissal of Mr. Kunitsyn can be regarded as a routine event, but this dismissal and the related altercations reveal the interests of other forces. There are several central and regional elites interested in the redistribution of property in the Crimea. These are the internal affairs of the elites. But instability will continue until power has finally been redistributed and a certain balance of interests established.”
