Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07KYIV1027
2007-04-27 15:26:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Kyiv
Cable title:  

UKRAINE: LITTLE POLITICAL OR LEGAL PROGRESS, BOTH

Tags:  PGOV PREL UP 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO9744
PP RUEHDBU
DE RUEHKV #1027/01 1171526
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 271526Z APR 07
FM AMEMBASSY KYIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2158
INFO RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORP WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KYIV 001027 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/27/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL UP
SUBJECT: UKRAINE: LITTLE POLITICAL OR LEGAL PROGRESS, BOTH
TEAMS TURN BACK TO THE STREETS

REF: A. KYIV 988


B. KYIV 998

KYIV 00001027 001.2 OF 003


Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Sheila Gwaltney for reasons 1.4(
a,b,d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KYIV 001027

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/27/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL UP
SUBJECT: UKRAINE: LITTLE POLITICAL OR LEGAL PROGRESS, BOTH
TEAMS TURN BACK TO THE STREETS

REF: A. KYIV 988


B. KYIV 998

KYIV 00001027 001.2 OF 003


Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Sheila Gwaltney for reasons 1.4(
a,b,d).


1. (C) Summary. With President Yushchenko on a one-day trip
to Poland April 27 and the ruling coalition trying to decide
on its strategy in the face of the new decree ordering Rada
elections for June 24, little progress was made on April 27
toward resolving the political crisis. The Constitutional
Court sat behind closed doors--Our Ukraine MP Knyazevych
claimed to the press that 17 of the 18 judges wanted to throw
out the case regarding Yushchenko's first decree, but the
Court press secretary indicated only that the review of the
case continued. The coalition's new appeal of Yushchenko's
second decree, signed by more than 160 MPs, was formally
registered with the Court. PM Yanukovych called an
extraordinary Cabinet meeting for April 28 to discuss the
CabMin position on the decree; the coalition organized a
rally on the Maidan starting at 1600, with Yanukovych
addressing the crowd of about 7,000 calling for Yushchenko to
annul all decrees and proposing simultaneous presidential and
parliamentary elections. In private, Tymoshenko countered
public statements that her bloc would not go back to the Rada
to work on pertinent legislation in the event of a
compromise, telling the Ambassador that if necessary, BYuT
deputies would return to the Rada for a week to pass
election-related legislation, but only if early elections
were agreed. The opposition has announced a rally for the
evening of April 28 on European Square, with Yushchenko and
Tymoshenko scheduled to attend.


2. (C) Comment. The PM confirmed to the Ambassador today
that he and the President have not spoken since the second
decree was issued. Until Yushchenko and Yanukovych resume
their direct discussions, there is unlikely to be much
progress. Ambassador and his German counterpart continue to
impress this point on all sides, but with Yanukovych out of
the country April 26 and Yushchenko away April 27, there has
been little opportunity. Ministers and MPs from the
coalition told former Ambassador Carlos Pascual April 27 that

the president's team and Tymoshenko deserved the blame for
the lack of progress, arguing that once again the President
had been talked into a confrontational move by issuing the
second decree. On the coalition's side, the Rada still
refuses to acknowledge the legality of either decree, pending
court review, and passed new legislation repeating an earlier
ban on the the National Bank from financing any elections,
and the coalition continues to block the Central Election
Commission's work via a sick-out. Interestingly, Regions MP
and financier Rinat Akhmetov told the Ambassador that he
opposes the idea of simultaneous presidential and
parliamentary elections. End summary and comment.

Coalition: The President's Team Doesn't Want Compromise
-------------- --------------


3. (C) During an April 27 meeting with the Ambassador and
former Ambassador Pascual, PM Yanukovych was clearly still
angry about President Yushchenko's issuance of a second
decree, calling the decision a "unilateral act" that "broke
the agreement on stopping sharp actions and consultations,
indicated a withdrawal from the discussions" and caused an
"escalation in tensions." He confirmed that he had not yet
spoken to the President since the issuance of the second
decree. The PM said that he had been hopeful at the
beginning of the week about a possible compromise, and he
still believed that a compromise was an important part of any
solution. He still was not ruling out the possibility of
early elections as part of a deal, but worried about
establishing a bad precedent. However, Yanukovych noted that
even if early elections were agreed, there still needed to be
a new law on elections and a realistic date that should be
negotiated among the parties. Yanukovych stressed that he
and the coalition "did not want to weaken the President."
What was now important, in the PM's view, was "finding a way
to get back to where we were" in the negotiations. However,
Yushchenko's second decree meant that they would have to
start the process from scratch. Yanukovych said that he has
called an emergency cabinet meeting on April 28 to discuss
next steps. (Embassy Note. April 28 will be a government
working day in order to give workers holidays on April 30 and
May 1 and 2. End Note.)


4. (SBU) Rada Speaker Moroz contended to former Ambassador
Pascual and poloff April 27 that Yushchenko knew that a
political compromise could be reached in three days.
Unfortunately, the "Mukacheve team" (a reference to
Zakarpatiya native Baloha, head of the Presidential

KYIV 00001027 002.2 OF 003


Secretariat) and Tymoshenko wanted conflict, and they had

SIPDIS
talked Yushchenko into supporting their line, even though Our
Ukraine would lose if there were new elections. The broader
working group that had met on April 25 (ref A) had been
scheduled to present an action plan to Yushchenko and
Yanukovych on April 27, but the President's team had inserted
items into the document that they knew were not achievable,
setting the process up for failure, he claimed.


5. (SBU) Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers Tolstoukhov, in
the Rada to hear a budget discussion, claimed to Pascual and
poloff that he had heard about an alleged third Presidential
decree in preparation that would aim to dismiss the Cabinet.
When Tolstoukhov had left the broader working group on April
25 at 2000, he had thought they had made progress (Note:
press reports at the time said nothing had been achieved.
End note). Yushchenko's decree announcement on television 90
minutes later shocked him. How, he asked rhetorically, could
someone conduct negotiations and write such decrees at the
same time and claim to be working in good faith?


6. (C) Also on April 27, Regions MP and financier Rinat
Akhmetov told Ambassadors Taylor and Pascual that it was
critical to restart negotiations between the President and PM
in the "small format." It was important to Akhmetov that the
country come of this "stronger than it went in," and he
echoed Yanukovych's concern that no precedents be established
without legal justification. Akhmetov argued that the CC
decision should not be thwarted. Interestingly, he opposed
the idea of any compromise that resulted in early elections
for both President and Parliament and instead floated the
idea of a nationwide referendum on whether to hold early
elections at all, noting that this was his own idea, not the
coalition's. (Note: an idea that the coalition has supported
as part of a possible deal for agreeing to early elections.
End note.)

Perspective from the Rada: Still Working
--------------


7. (SBU) Although Moroz announced that 260 MPs were
registered in the session hall on April 27, Embassy staff saw
only 150 or so during our morning visit, highlighting the
common practice of MPs collecting voting cards to vote for
absent colleagues. MPs from the Party of Industrialists and
Entrepreneurs of Ukraine (PIEU),which broke away from OU in
late March, provoking Yushchenko to issue his April 2 decree,
sat in their original OU seats, although they had replaced
their OU flags with PIEU flags. Rogue OU MP Holovatiy sat by
himself in the front of the OU section. Regions MPs had
locked the diplomatic and journalist balconies and would not
let us in, as they have done sporadically since last July.
The Cabinet, including PM Yanukovych, had been called in to
discuss budget amendments, but when the issue was not
discussed, they immediately left the session hall.


8. (SBU) The Rada passed a resolution with 260 votes on April
26 stating that Yushchenko's second decree was groundless.
The Rada also instructed the National Bank not to provide
funding for new elections. They did, however, commend the
lack of language in the new April 25 decree immediately
banning the Rada from working. (Comment: Yushchenko's April
2 decree attempted to suspend the Rada's work, seemingly in
contradiction with Article 81 of the constitution, which
states that the old Rada works until the new one is seated.)

Tymoshenko: Willing to Give a Little
--------------


9. (C) Opposition leader Tymoshenko told Ambassador on April
26 that she would support suspension of Yushchenko's decree
and she would bring her faction back to the Rada if necessary
to complete legislation relevant to holding new elections.
However, she implied that this would only occur if there were
an agreement that new elections would happen at some point.
Her private comments suggest a more flexible position than
her public statements, which have said only that she supports
the June 24 election date and highlighted the submission of
MP resignation letters to Yushchenko. Tymoshenko also
confirmed that Yushchenko and she would be present at the
European Square rally planned for April 28.

Constitutional Court Remains in Closed Session
-------------- -


10. (SBU) OU MP Knyazevych claimed to the press late April 26
that 17 of the 18 CC judges supported dismissing the petition
on the first presidential decree because there was no longer
a valid document to consider. However, the Court's press
service would only state April 27 that the Court remained in

KYIV 00001027 003.2 OF 003


closed session considering the case. The Court did
acknowledge it had received the coalition's new appeal of
Yushchenko's second decree. The coalition's new appeal of
Yushchenko's second decree, signed by more than 160 MPs, has
now been formally registered with the Court.

Court Rulings, Reinstatements, and judicial appointees
-------------- --------------


11. (SBU) In compliance with an earlier Supreme Court ruling
from March 13, Yushchenko on April 26 reinstated Yevhen
Zhovtyak as KYIV oblast governor; Zhovtyak had successfully
complained he was fired unfairly (while on leave status).
The President then immediately fired Zhovtyak again.
Comment: The Zhovtyak maneuver, coming the same day
Yushchenko reinstated Piskun as General Prosecutor, is
suggestive of an effort to show compliance with court rulings
and thereby lend legitimacy to the legally dubious
reinstatement of Piskun.


12. (SBU) Regions MP Miroshnychenko told us that the Rada's
April 27 agenda included the formation of an ad hoc
investigatory commission to find out why the Shevchenko Court
had approved Piskun's appeal of his firing as Prosecutor
General and his demand to be reinstated. Miroshnychenko
suggested that some sort of a political deal, not due
process, was concluded. Miroshnychenko said the commission
would also look at several of Yushchenko's recent judicial
appointments, some of which seemed odd to the coalition.

Taking It Back to the Streets
--------------


13. (U) An April 27 coalition rally on the Maidan attracted
about 7,000 government supporters, and featured appearances
by PM Yanukovych, Speaker Moroz and Communist Leader
Symonenko. Yanukovych urged Yushchenko to annul all of his
decrees and called for any early elections to be both for
president and parliament. The PM said that he supported the
constitution, the rule of law and human rights, and argued
that Yushchenko had been manipulated by his presidential
administration. As a result, Yushchenko was attempting to
usurp power in all branches of government.


14. (SBU) An opposition rally is scheduled for European
Square the evening of April 28. Tymoshenko and other
opposition leaders are expected to address the crowd;
President Yushchenko is expected to attend, but it is not
known yet whether or not he will speak. (Note. It will be
interesting to see how many supporters the opposition will
attract given the start of a four-day holiday in Ukraine.
End Note.)


15. (U) Visit Embassy KYIV's classified website:
www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/kiev.
Taylor