Leonid Hrach did his best at the podium, painting bright pictures of
the thriving Crimea if allowed to enact its own autonomous constitution,
stressing that this would be the "guarantee of the prosperity of all Ukraine"
and "historic breakthrough." It simply did not work and no one had expected
it would.
When working on the new Constitution of Ukraine, Rukh failed to block
the clause about the Crimean Constitution, yet the party has never made
secret the fact that this document is just a formality and it would be
good if it were given a more substantial legal status. Moreover, two members
of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis in the Rukh faction also contribute to the
resistance, doing it very specifically. Les Taniuk, well-known Rukh activist,
pointed out that Leonid Hrach knows Ukrainian well but prefers to use Russian.
The Communists took a much more interesting stand. Despite the faction's
stated support, the Reds provoked the audience, when asking questions or
taking the floor, constantly raising the sharp language issue. Comrade
Baulin, for one, extended the range of grievances, voicing his confidence
that the autonomous document was the result of a conspiracy of the "Crimean
elite with Kyiv bureaucrats to colonize the Crimea." Hromada emphasized
the legal aspect while trying to sit on two stools at once, finally voting
against. "Why is the Crimean card being played today?" Oleksandr Moroz
asked from the rostrum. He answered himself and his answer tallied with
the Crimean Speaker's assumption: someone does not want the peninsula to
stay quiet and stable. During the break, Leonid Hrach, sensing defeat,
blamed "certain forces" in general and the Cabinet in particular for "directing"
the campaign to aggravate the situation "through the NDP." Mr. Hrach told
the press and spoke from the rostrum with surprise in his voice that the
President "supports the Crimean Constitution." This must have been his
worst mistake. To begin with, the President's prestige in Parliament should
not be overestimated; secondly, Mr. Hrach must have forgotten that he was
not the first person to mistake the President's yes for his actual approval.
The document was put to the vote (ayes: 203; 210; 212; 207; 210 by roll-call).
Speaker Tkachenko did his best to help the Crimea (and himself before his
trip to Moscow), but without success. The Constitution was once again returned
for further changes. In the words of Leonid Hrach, "The political ping-pong
continues."
PS: Vasyl Kyseliov, Permanent Presidential Representative to
the autonomous republic, recently called Leonid Hrach's statements about
enacting the Crimean Constitution by a Crimean referendum and the possibility
of a "legal war" with Ukraine (if Verkhovna Rada did not approve) "irresponsible
and inadmissible." Mr. Kyseliov's statement further reads that "such political
blackmail cannot be tolerated," reports the Crimean News Agency.






