This two days after CanArgo Energy Corporation buys out Lateral Vector Resources Inc. thereby merging two MAJOR oil drilling companies that share the Ukrainian oil field with Ukrnafta (a Ukrainian State controlled oil and gas company). CanArgo is planning a major investment in technology to expand the Ukrainian drilling operation. Will this coup ousting the prime minister, who is a very popular banker, result in another communist taking the helm, and assuming state ownership of CanArgo's operations? Understand the IMF has frozen the Ukraine's lending program, so they are in dire straits.
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA5JGW90MC.html
Under Fair Use for educational purposes...
Ukrainian Parliament Gives Initial Approval to No-Confidence Vote
By Sergei Shargorodsky Associated Press Writer
Published: Apr 26, 2001
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine's Communist-dominated parliament gave initial approval Thursday to a vote of no-confidence in popular Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko and his reform-oriented Cabinet.
The 262-86 vote, the first of two on the no-confidence motion, came despite urgent meetings by President Leonid Kuchma and Yushchenko with parliamentary leaders in an attempt to defuse the crisis.
Addressing parliament before the vote Thursday, Yushchenko proposed a moratorium on hostile political actions, and said he was ready to sign an accord with parliament and accommodate many of its demands for Cabinet changes.
"Today, Ukraine's future road is the supreme question," Yushchenko said. "The only way to resolve the political crisis is through compromise."
Kuchma met with faction heads late Wednesday, calling for political stability to be preserved in the already troubled country. Yushchenko's Cabinet met later in a closed-doors session, and the premier held additional meetings with legislators Thursday morning.
The nation has already been rocked by a monthslong political crisis sparked by the disappearance of a journalist and allegations of Kuchma's involvement in his killing.
The possible dismissal would plunge Ukraine into political chaos and complicate the ex-Soviet republic's relations with the West, which views Yushchenko as the guarantor of reforms.
The prime minister is facing an unlikely parliamentary alliance of hard-line Communists who oppose his reforms and centrist and other factions, some of which are led by powerful businessmen. These have sought to form an obedient coalition government ahead of parliamentary elections in 2002.
Yushchenko again rejected the idea Thursday, saying he "would work only with professional ministers who obey the premier and share the path of reforms," Zarudna said. Still, he offered to make changes that would reflect the balance of forces in parliament, she said.
In spite of his conflict with the legislature, polls have indicated that Yushchenko is Ukraine's most trusted politician.
The former central banker was named to lead the government in late 1999. He is credited with reviving the country's chronically sluggish economic reforms, paying a significant portion of overdue wages and pensions, and achieving the first signs of economic growth since Ukraine gained independence in 1991.
Yushchenko's position has been complicated by the wide support he has earned among anti-Kuchma opposition groups who accuse the president of involvement in the slaying of journalist Heorhiy Gongadze and seek his ouster. There is wide speculation that Kuchma considers him a rival.
About 1,000 Yushchenko supporters gathered near the parliament early Thursday, waving flags and listening to the debates that were broadcast through loudspeakers.
A second vote was scheduled later Thursday, and a simple majority of the 450 lawmakers was needed to dismiss the government. The Cabinet would become a caretaker government for a maximum 60 days, until a new government is formed.
AP-ES-04-26-01 0503EDT
CanArgo Story: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010424/0745.html
Story implicating Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma with having the reporter decapitated, lotta that going around in the USSR these days: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010414/ts/ukraine_bodyguard_dc_1.html
From The UK Times today:
"The Oligarchs, together with centrist factions such as Trudova Ukraina that represent their interests in parliament, feel that their control of Ukraine’s few profitable industries is being threatened by Mr Yushchenko’s drive for greater business transparency, on which most of the loan pledged to Ukraine by the World Bank and the IMF depends. Yesterday Anatoli Zlenko, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, sought to allay Western concerns that his country is slipping into thinly disguised gangsterism and is returning to economic dependence on Moscow, but the IMF has already frozen most of its lending to Kiev, with a major loan tranche due for December still unpaid.
Perceived throughout the 1990s as a vital bulwark against a possible Communist resurgence in Russia, Ukraine is the world’s third largest recipient of US loans and aid and has taken £2.4billion in IMF loans alone since 1994.
Mr Putin’s drive to recapture some of Russia’s lost superpower status makes his Western neighbour, if anything, more strategically placed than ever — but Ukraine is fast losing the West’s trust."
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-119638,00.html
