CRIMEAN ORANGE RULER GONE!

PM of Ukraine’s Crimean Autonomy Hands in Resignation
20.09.2005
The Moscow News


The chairman of the cabinet of the Ukrainian autonomous republic of Crimea, Anatoly Matvienko, handed in his resignation on Tuesday.

In his statement quoted by Interfax news agency, Matvienko said the reason for his resignation was that his party Sobor had not voted for President Viktor Yushchenko’s candidate for Ukrainian PM, Yuri Yekhanurov. Yekhanurov, a middle-of-the-road technocrat, won 223 votes in parliament on Tuesday, three short of the required majority in the 450-seat assembly.

Sobor belongs to the bloc led by the ousted prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

On Monday Matvienko said a “corruption coup” was planned in Crimea in order to change the main principles of rule in the autonomy. He addressed Yushchenko asking him to react to the situation in the Crimea urgently and promised to name those involved in the coup plot.

The Crimea became part of Ukraine as a Soviet republic in 1954. There is still a Russian majority on the Black Sea peninsula. The region is also home to a Russian Black Sea Fleet base. According to the Russian-Ukrainian agreement on the base in Sevastopol, Russian naval forces cannot be withdrawn before 2017. The Russian Defence Ministry plans to prolong the terms of the fleet’s stay in Sevastopol.

At least eight Russian naval subdivisions are currently based in the Crimea.