Ukraine’s Parliament voted to oust the country’s pro-Moscow government on Wednesday as European and Russian mediators took a second stab at trying to quell a political crisis raging in the strategic country.
Parliament backed an opposition proposal to dismiss Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich and replace his team with a ”people’s government,” while thousands of chanting and singing demonstrators built human chains around official buildings and effectively paralysed the ruling seat of power.
Meanwhile outgoing President Leonid Kuchma scrambled for a way out of the worst crisis to hit independent Ukraine by proposing fresh elections from scratch that would be open to all.
It was not clear whether the government dismissal would actually take effect, as Kuchma has a right to veto the measure. He had yet to comment on the vote.
The United States also picked up on the new vote proposal while Russia — which had initially recognised Yanukovich’s contested victory on November 21 over pro-Western opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko — hedged its bets and issued no comment.
The standoff’s 10th day began after the European Union’s foreign policy supremo Javier Solana spent overnight with Kuchma in a bid to find a common strategy for resolving a leadership crisis that threatens to sink Ukraine’s economy and possibly splinter the country in half.
They were joined by an increasingly anxious Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and the leader of Ukraine’s northern neighbour Lithuania as they ironed out proposals for roundtable talks that would include the two rivals and Russia’s speaker of Parliament.
The second roundtable in five days — the first ended only with an agreement that bloodshed should be avoided at all cost — followed an initial announcement by the opposition that it was pulling out of talks and would move to form a ”people’s government”.
Yushchenko had shot down two proposals floated by Yanukovich that included the opposition taking control of government and Yanukovich serving as a ceremonial head of state.
The two sides are now haggling over whether to have a brand new election or to restage a runoff between the two foes. Yushchenko supports the latter option because he won the first-round vote.
Kuchma weighed in on the side of Yanukovich and called for a completely new election.
”A new runoff vote is a farce, I will never support this because it’s anti-constitutional,” he told a government meeting called to address the growing economic implications of the wrangle.
The crisis has begun to foment panic among ordinary Ukrainians and seen first signs of a run on the banks.
Authorities have imposed currency withdrawal restrictions while the central bank warned it was slowly starting to bleed reserves as it bids to prop up the national currency, the hryvna, against the dollar and the euro, which Ukrainians see as safer.
Against this backdrop, the supreme court of Ukraine sat down for a third day to study thousands of alleged violations recorded in the November 21 vote and whether to declare the election, which officially handed victory to Yanukovich, as fraudulent.
”We expect the supreme court today to invalidate the election results. Afterwards we will work on the formation of a popular government which can work until the next parliamentary election in 2006,” said opposition lawmaker Yury Kostenko.
The foreign mediators refused to make any forecasts and urged the two rival camps to seek a joint way out of the worst crisis to grip this nation of 48-million since it broke off from Russia in the Soviet Union’s dying days.
”I hope that with the goodwill of everyone, we will make some progress in the coming days,” said Solana, while Kwasniewski warned that ”there is a risk if the crisis drags on”.
”If we keep at it and our Ukrainian partners are ready to talk, there are chances of finding a compromise,” the Polish leader added.
Ukrainian reports said Solana told Kuchma that the European Union was not trying to impose its own vision on the former Soviet republic but was only here as a mediator. He planned to take the same message on a trip to Moscow later on Wednesday.
Moscow has voiced suspicions that the European Union and the United States — which have both said the vote was fraudulent — are trying to get Yushchenko into power through what Russia says are illegal street protests.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned on Wednesday that ”excessive involvement of certain European representatives in the process taking place in Ukraine has increased tension”.
President Vladimir Putin was the first foreign leader to congratulate Yanukovich on victory after publicly helping with his campaign, although he has since scaled back his stance somewhat.
Nevertheless, Moscow still views Ukraine as a vital trading partner in the ”near abroad” that also serves as an important buffer against an expanding European Union.
Russia also fears a Yushchenko victory would eventually see Ukraine seeking to join Nato. The opposition leader wants to bring Ukraine into the fold of both the alliance and the European Union within five years. – Sapa-AFP