NATO issue as an excuse for idling

Last Friday was another wasted day in parliament. There were a lot of important items on the agenda, but instead of working, deputies were chewing over the NATO issue and, as usual, blocking access to the podium.

Members of Parliament from the Party of Regions and the Communist Party demanded that Speaker Arsenii Yatseniuk revoke his signature on the letter to the NATO secretary-general because the letter does not reflect the position of the Ukrainian people and parliament. After some coalition deputies spoke, the opposition began to block the podium. “We’ve just found an excuse for idling,” Yatseniuk joked.

This gave Deputy Lukiianov an opportunity to distinguish himself again (he recently stole the speaker’s e-card during the first vote on Tymoshenko’s premiership). This time he didn’t steal anything and only tried to turn off the microphone, telling Yatseniuk that he [the speaker] was violating the law and the Constitution. Yatseniuk tried to keep his composure and spirit: “Stop shouting and rumbling in my ear.” “You are such uncivilized people! he said to the other deputies. “You’re quite capable of coming to my apartment.” After more than 10 deputies surrounded Yatseniuk, he suggested gathering the faction leaders for a “remedial class” on the legality of signing the letter.

Meanwhile, there didn’t seem to be any tensions in the parliamentary corridors, where MPs were strolling and chatting. “The reason why the Party of Regions people are doing this is simple: they want to be seen on television sticking to their principles,” Our Ukraine’s Vladyslav Kaskiv explained to The Day’s correspondent. “But this is totally mindless: Yanukovych himself signed the document that called for joining the Membership Action Plan. He did it personally! And their faction made this decision. I think the real aim is to thwart the registration of new parliamentarians, who replaced those who went to work for the government, and to slow down the decision on who will head the Prosecutor-General’s Office, Security Service, Antimonopoly Committee, who will be the new deputy prime minister, etc.” Some Regionals tried to display their righteous wrath. According to Nestor Shufrych, if Yatseniuk keeps on making such statements, “where is the guarantee that someday he won’t declare a war on somebody, referring to the resolution that approved the calendar plan of a session?”

Not all the Party of Regions MPs were so aggressive. Oleksandr Stoian was very peaceable, even though he took part in blocking the podium:

Why are you blocking the podium? There is a law on the fundamentals of Ukraine’s national defense, against which no one has ever appealed, and this law says that Ukraine aims to join NATO.

“Let it aim. This can be achieved in different ways. We can write: please admit us to NATO tomorrow because the people want it very much. But this can also be done via a referendum. Why doesn’t the president want to hold a referendum? Let the people have their say. I heard that in Georgia 77 percent opted for NATO. Here, too, people are mature enough.”

But in order to conduct a referendum, we have to be thoroughly prepared. Figuratively speaking, you should first build a house, and then a commission will come and assess it.

“Right, but let’s first draw up a design. Let the people make a design and then build their house. Why should we build a house if we don’t have a design? And the design means a dialogue with the people. I personally think we should cooperate with the alliance. But if we join, our children will have to go fight God knows where.”

But you know that that’s not true. One can always refuse. For example, France is a member of NATO member, but it didn’t support the war in Iraq. We are not a member of NATO, yet we sent our troops there. Meanwhile, Bulgaria, which is a NATO member, has declared 2008 the Year of Russia.

“But why should we rush there? What do we want from NATO?”

To be in a club of affluent and successful countries.

“We have our own affluent and successful people here in Ukraine laughs). One club is Yushchenko, another is Tymoshenko, and another is — I won’t name names. You know it very well.”

That was the end of the matter. The Verkhovna Rada will hold the next plenary session in a week’s time. But there will hardly be any productive work. First of all, there is no guarantee that last Friday’s blocking will not be repeated. Second, by all accounts, next Friday the MPs will have to explain their colleagues’ absence: some are heading for warm seas, some for ski resorts.

* * *

Yevhen Marchuk has approved Yulia Tymoshenko’s decision on Nemyria’s appointment.

The appointment of Hryhorii Nemyria as Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration will channel all the discussions of Ukraine’s NATO membership into a practical direction, said ex-defense minister Yevhen Marchuk in a Radio Liberty interview on Jan. 18.

“For a long time (I mean the past 1.5-2 years) in Ukraine it was impossible to say clearly who is dealing with the Euro-Atlantic direction. The foreign minister alone cannot tackle this problem because diplomacy in this sphere accounts for 5 percent and Ministry of Defense problems, for 15 percent. The remaining 80 percent are human rights, the justice system, freedom of speech, market economy, etc.,” Marchuk said.

Expressing praise for Nemyria’s appointment, Marchuk recalled that this position was abolished during Tymoshenko’s first tenure as prime minister.

As for Russia’s attitude to Ukraine’s likely accession to NATO, the former Ukrainian defense minister said that “it would be far more correct” to find a formula for dealing with Russia that will help “reduce to a minimum the problems that arise out of Russia’s attitude to our actions. This should be one of the most important questions during negotiations.”