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Russian MP Says Ukraine in Deep Political Crisis

Posted on: Tuesday, 10 January 2006, 12:00 CST

Text of report by Russian Mayak radio on 10 January

The gas contract with Russia, which became the formal pretext for the vote of no confidence in the Ukrainian government, will not be revised, Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, believes. The dismissal is more likely to be the expression of no confidence in President Viktor Yushchenko whose popularity is plummeting, Konstantin Kosachev has told our radio station.

[Kosachev] The dismissal of the Ukrainian government confirms the fact that Ukraine is experiencing the most serious political crisis in all its history. A year after the Orange Revolution, Ukraine is being led by a president who is not supported by the majority of population. It is being governed by a dismissed government which is not being supported by a parliamentary majority, and finally, it is being governed by a parliament which is busy not so much with certain strategic work as with the parliamentary election due in March.

We can only sympathize with Ukraine in this situation. The decision by the Supreme Council is, obviously, not so much a reaction to the concrete results of the Russian-Ukrainian gas talks as a rejection of the Ukrainian government's incompetent moves in the last few months which have only aggravated Ukraine's own economic problems and did not allow Ukraine to reach an agreement with Russia in a calm and normal working regime. This could have been done several months ago.

I have no grounds to believe that these agreements may be revised. They are based not on individuals but on intergovernmental agreements, and international legal practice envisages that such agreements remain in force even if a government is replaced. Any other actions by the Ukrainian side aimed at disavowing these agreements would be at variance with international law.

Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union

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