Yushchenko is the new Saakashvili – Duma deputy (Kostis Geropoulos)

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko‘s decision to sink his country into a winter election may split the former Soviet state, a member of the Russian State Duma and director of the Institute of the Countries of the CIS, told New Europe recently. Konstantin Zatulin said in Athens in an interview that Yush chenko has failed to unite Ukraine after the Orange Revolution. Yushchenko, who dissolved the country’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, this month and is engaged in a bitter dispute with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, said that he is to delay legislative elections by a week to December 14, recalling the Ukrainian Parliament to enact emergency measures to fight the global financial crisis.

Zatulin, who was at one-point banned from entering Ukraine for his anti-Ukrainian statements and probably could have enjoyed the image of Yushchenko’s head on a silver platter, said the Georgian crisis is not responsible for the deterioration of relations between Moscow and Kiev. “It is not because of Georgia, it is because of the Orange Revolution and the activity of Mr Yushchenko and subsidiaries within the political elite,” the Russian parliament member said, adding that it was necessary for the Ukrainian president to unite both eastern and western Ukraine under his presidency. “What did Mr Yushchenko do all these years from 2005 to 2008? Two times he put his parliament through extraordinary elections. He did not unite.

He tried to overcome east of Ukraine Crimea, Donetsk, Donbass, in order to make sure that his vision of Ukraine would be established all over the Ukraine, I think he is a great danger, not only for Russia but for Ukraine it self,” the Duma deputy opined.“When you try to obtain victory in one part of Ukraine it’s the shortest way to split the country.” Yushchenko and Tymoshenko came to power during Ukraine’s 2004 “Ora nge Revolution,” but the government, a coalition of their two parties, has been wracked by infighting ever since. Yushchenko visited Washington in the sunset days of the Bush Administration where he stated once again that Ukraine should become a member of NATO and voiced his opposition to Russian military presence in the Crimea. Both issues have angered Moscow.

The crisis in Georgia proved that NATO should expand to the east, Yushchenko said. Tymoshenko, on the other hand, has avoided criticising Russia during the Georgian crisis and has worked to improve ties with the Kremlin. Ukraine’s relationship with Russia is a key dispute between the two Ukrainian leaders. The key issue here is whether Tymoshenko will give too much ground to Russia.A Ukrainian diplomat told New Europe that Tymoshenko is soft on Russia in order to secure a gas deal with Gazprom and win Russian support for her bid to win the 2010 presidential elections in Ukraine but does not plan to sign off on Kiev’s interests to Russia. “She doesn’t plan to commit political suicide,” the Ukrainian diplomat said.

Nevertheless, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has been asked to investigate whether the prime minister had acted “to damage the country’s national interests.” In September, Yushchenko said Tymoshenko’s actions were “aimed at destabilising the situation” and were tantamount to treason.Regarding Russia-Ukrainian relations, Zatulin accused Yushchenko of not fulfilling the treaty on friendship and cooperation between Russian and Ukraine, which was signed in 1997, and noted that Moscow did not quit the treaty but has instead pushed for advancing relations.

“Now Mr Yushchenko is proclaiming more and more provocations, not only about the treaty, but real declarations within two nations — Ukraine and Russia,” Zatulin said. “This is a huge problem because in his intentions he is supported by the United States and some countries in Europe where they look to Mr Yushchenko like young lovers, everything that he did – magnificent! The previous man they looked this way is Mr. (Mikheil) Saakashvili.Just now I understand he is not as popular in the West,” the Russian State Duma member said, with an ironic smile. Tymoshenko, who has described the Yushchenko’s election plan as “reckless” for raising political tensions at a time of dire financial crisis that has devastated Western institutions, went on television on October 19 night to urge political leaders to unite behind her to shield the country from economic meltdown.

She warned that holding a parliamentary election in Dec - ember would “des - troy the country.”Asked if Russia supports Tymoshenko as Ukraine’s next pre sident, Zat - ulin said: “We do not support anything to do with the next president. This is not our plan — to put a president in Ukraine.For example, we have our experience of the events of Orange Revolution and, of course, obtained the stability of Ukraine and we do not want to have an explosion in Ukraine that was the reason of our behaviour in Ukraine but just now it’s up to Ukrainians to chose who they want to be the president or at least if Ukraine needs to have a president or not … if Yushchenko is a champion of democracy in the West, why he is not champion of democracy in Ukraine. It’s something unusual.”

Despite his verbal attack on Yushchenko, Zatulin claimed the Russian State Duma views Ukrainian people as friends. “Not only is the Duma but the whole Russia friends with Ukraine. Nobody in Duma asked to begin the war against Ukraine or a war to return Crimea in east Ukraine. This is not the plan even of the most radical members of state,” the director of the Institute of the Countries of the CIS said.Yushchenko snubbed the last CIS summit on October 10 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The Commonwealth of Independent States, a Moscow-dominated loose grouping of former Soviet republics, comprises Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Ukraine is a founding and participating country but technically not a member state. Turkmenistan holds associate status. Georgia quit the CIS after the war with Russia over the Georgian breakaway republic of South Ossetia.

Source of information: New Europe
http://www.neurope.eu/articles/90336.php