Yushchenko warns against sacking of Ukraine cabinet

UKRAINE president Viktor Yushchenko warned that the sacking of his pro-Western government by lawmakers over a controversial gas deal with Russia would destabilise the country less than three months before a key parliamentary election.

“This decision is incomprehensible and illegitimate,” Yushchenko told reporters in Kazakhstan, where he attended the inauguration of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. “This decision means only one thing: the destabilisation of the situation” in the country, he said yesterday.

Yushchenko spoke a day after lawmakers passed a resolution of no-confidence in Prime Minister Yury Yekhanurov’s government, in the wake of a deal the cabinet struck with Russia which nearly doubled gas prices. The agreement ended a stand-off that disrupted gas supplies and sent shudders through Europe which receives nearly one fifth of its annual gas imports from Russia via Ukraine.

Most analysts and many politicians in Kiev said the gas deal was an excuse for the opposition to strike against pro-Yushchenko forces ahead of a March 26 parliamentary poll, which will decide the future of the pro-Western course that the president has set for ex-Soviet Ukraine. “The actions by the parliament are not related to the letter and spirit of the gas agreement. It is an effort to politicise issues that should be far removed from politics,” Yushchenko said.

Olexander Dergachyov, political magazine editor in Kiev, said “any deal would have made the government the object of attacks.”

Andriy Yermolayev, a political analyst, agreed. “The main reason for the sacking is the upcoming parliamentary election.”

The sacked premier heads the pro-Yushchenko Our Ukraine electoral bloc and the opposition is counting on it losing credibility in the eyes of the voters, analysts say.

The bloc trails the party of Yushchenko’s “orange revolution” nemesis, former premier Viktor Yanukovich by 10 to 15 percentage points in opinion polls. With parliament due to close for its three-week winter recess on Friday, most pundits and politicians expected Yekhanurov’s government to continue in a caretaking capacity until the March poll.

“Yekhanurov will continue to run the country until the elections,” the Segodnya newspaper wrote.

Tuesday’s vote passed with 250 votes, well above the 226 needed in the 450-seat Upper Rada.

The resolution was supported by an eclectic coalition that included the main parties who opposed Yushchenko during last year’s “orange revolution” and the bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko, the fiery revolution heroine who split with the Ukrainian leader after he sacked her government in early September.