YUSHCHENKO MAY DISBAND PARLIAMENT

President of the Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko rejected the opposition’s proposal to nominate his former presidential rival Victor Yanukovitch candidate to the position of prime minister. Yushchenko issued a letter to Parliament which, as some maintain, contains a hint at dissolving the Supreme Rada (Ukrainian Parliament). Yushchenko says that Parliament's move this week to declare the Orange Revolution coalition dead and replace it with a new Anti-Crisis Alliance violated the constitution as well as parliamentary rules.
Ukraine has been plagued by political turmoil since legislative elections in March, in which the Party of Regions won the most seats but fell short of a majority. The inconclusive result underscored the divide between the largely Russian-speaking east, which looks to Moscow, and the nationalist Ukrainian-speaking west. The new elections could be a disaster for the Ukraine. Kiev does not have funds to conduct a new voting and Mr. Yushchenko’s party may turn into a marginal political grouping. The President’s rating is extremely low due to his inept leadership and incapacity to redress economy. The new elections may result in emergence of two main parties in Ukrainian Parliament: The Party of Regions of Victor Yanukovitch and the Bloc of Yulia Timoshenko. The first may get a land slide in the Eastern and Southern regions of the Ukraine. It could produce a stand-off between Ukrainian and Russian speaking areas ending up in a break-up of the country.
Meanwhile, Russian MP Konstantin Zatulin, Director of the Instutute for the CIS Studies blames the West for the turmoil in the Ukraine. Speaking at the round table in Moscow on “Relations between Russia and the West in the lead-up to the G-8 Summit”, Mr. Zatulin pointed out that the political crisis in the Ukraine was triggered by Western support of certain individuals in their drive to seize power. According to Mr. Zatulin, the West has been constantly saying to them: “Go ahead!” “Those politicians have practically brought the Ukraine to its break-up and defeat”, Zatulin said. The head of the Institute for the CIS Studies noted that “even Americans have to slow down the pace of their initiatives in the Ukraine”.