Gas, NATO and language policies divide Ukraine

[Harold Schiffman]

 Gas and NATO divide Ukraine

Ukraine is about to face a political crisis. The parliament has been
virtually paralysed for the last couple of weeks and members of the
opposition are protesting against plans to join NATO. The leadership
of Ukraine – President Yushchenko, PM Timoshenko and Parliament
Chairman Yatsenyuk – sent what's been dubbed the "Letter of Three" to
the NATO alliance, asking it to accept Ukraine into the membership
plan. The opposition, the Party of Regions and the Communists, say
they had no right to do this without consulting the parliament and the
people. Intent on keeping their country from joining NATO, opposition
parties have blocked the rostrum.

"The parliament will resume work but only after we find a common
solution. We cannot allow our government to ignore their people. A
referendum must be held on the issue first," said Viktor Yanukovich,
leader of the Party of Regions.  While the Party of Regions is
promising to take people out onto the streets if no compromise is
found, President Yushchenko is threatening to dissolve the parliament.
"We all know that this blockade has no genuine reasons. Our government
will work no matter what. We don't need another election. It's not
going to change anything," said Timoshenko.

Anti-Nato balloons and posters disrupted President Yushchenko while he
delivered his state of the union speech. They agreed on Thursday that
Ukraine will only join Nato after a state referendum. However, the
coalition says the opposition alliance was only a pretence to disrupt
the work of the parliament. "It wasn't really about NATO, it wasn't
really about foreign policy. It was about this opposition that can't
work in this parliament and hoped to use this crisis to change the
situation in the country. They lost it. We have a coalition government
that is going to work westwards,"  said Andriy Shevchenko from
Timoshenko's party. The issues with gas and NATO seem to have been
resolved for now. Not for long though, say the analysts. With a
presidential election in a year's time, there might be more
speculation and scandal.

http://www.russiatoday.ru/news/news/21784

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