Yulia Timoshenko had her usual hair style back on Friday but left her political stance behind.
Photo: Andrey Fedoruk
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Ukraine to Become a Parliamentary Republic
The Ukrainian Supreme Rada voted to override the president’s veto on the bill on the state government late last week, turning Ukraine into a parliamentary republic. Nearly all tools of power will go to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, President Viktor Yushchenko becoming a purely nominal figure.
President Yushchenko vetoed the bill eight times. Finally, the Ukrainian parliament adopted the bill on Friday after the Yulia Timoshenko Bloc unexpectedly rallied with Viktor Yanukovich’s party secured the required two-thirds of the vote.
The bill changes the Ukrainian political system fundamentally, stripping the president of a right to appoint the prime minister, foreign, defense and interior ministers. On top of it, all presidential decrees have to be agreed with the prime minister and the minister in charge for the bill’s execution. President Yushchenko’s allies dubbed the bill “anti-Constitutional coup”. Arseniy Yatsenyuk from the presidential administration said the Ukrainian president would not sign the bill. Yatsenyuk also said that the bill had been passed “violating all agreements achieved at the highest state level”, obviously hinting at a meeting between Viktor Yushchenko, Viktor Yanukovich and parliament speaker Alexander Moroz last Wednesday when the president announced that the parties would draw up a new draft bill.
Part of Regions leader called the bill adoption “an outstanding event”, saying that the government had “gained its legitimate rights”.
Meanwhile, opposition leader and Yushchenko’s former ally Yulia Timoshenko vowed in December that her party would not support the governmental bill. The party’s deputy chair, Evgeny Kusnarev jokingly accounted the U-turn in the party’s stance for the leader’s new hair style, saying that it would be easier for Ms. Timoshenko to make the right decisions without her already-famous plait. Obviously, Timoshenko’s decision was taken with a view of new elections rather than on style preferences.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 15, 2007
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