Tears for Votes: Yanukovych Follows Lytvyn

Some laugh and sing. Others cry and cry.

Whether spontaneous or staged, tears put a human face on a politician. The Hillary syndrome has now spread to Ukraine. Tears have been shed in our presidential campaign.

Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn routinely blasts the oligarchs and claims being cash-strapped.

That’s despite privatizing 600 sq m of taxpayer-paid real estate and having a daughter who owns a luxury boutique and a brand new $100K car.

You’d think that makes him a thick-skinned materialist. Hell no!

When a fellow Lytvynite presented him with a rushnyk sewn by her mother, the gift moved the man to tears.

Presidential candidate Volodmyr Lytvyn: In...[fights back tears, falls short of igniting a standing ovation]...in Polissya...in a back-of-beyond Polissya village...[fights back tears, ignites a full-blown standing ovation]...my parents brought me into this world.

Yanukovych found himself in a similar situation during his tour of western Ukraine, where his opponents vastly outnumber his supporters.

An elderly woman mounts the stage, empathizes with Yanukovych’s childhood of growing up without a mother, gives him a vyshyvanka and wishes him the best.

Presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych: [smiles amid applause, crosses himself, bows repeatedly, thanks the woman, kisses her hands, ignites a standing ovation]: Thanks a lot, Hanna Mykhailivna! I’m deeply moved. I’m very grateful. In the area, in the region, in the land where I grew up, there’s a hu...huge industry. It was there...that I grew up, it was there that I was taught to work, to manage production, the economy. I grew up all by myself among people. Indeed, down there...nobody wore vyshyvankas...[gets sentimental]...and I’ve never worn it in my life. But I...I promise you that I will definitely wear it on holidays. [ignites a standing ovation, steps down, visibly tearful]

It’s the same tough guy who sells his apartment for Hr. 33,416,350 but reports Hr. 2,674,910 on his tax returns.

If you have a problem with that, you can sue him. So he says.

Videos uploaded/embedded from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSCu2z_rgYM
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/142467.html
Original sources:
http://5.ua
http://www.vgolos.com.ua

Rada Fires Yekhanurov

Ukraine's parliament today voted to dismiss Defense Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov, a pro-Yushchenko figure, amid intense power struggle and allegations of corruption.

The firing of Yekhanurov comes on the eve of the expected birth of a new coalition, between the Party of Regions and Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko, one that would be fiercely opposed to President Yushchenko.

The Coalition of Unity and Revival, as the two would-be coalition partners call it, plans to rewrite the Constitution and abolish direct presidential elections.

The vote breakdown:

PRU, 161
BYuT, 152
NUNS, 4
LyB, 19
CPU, 27

Sources:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/6/5/96047.htm

Presidential Election to Be Held Oct. 25, Rada Rules

In a long anticipated anti-Yushchenko vote, the Verkhovna Rada rescheduled the presidential election to October 25, 2009, almost three months earlier than the previous date, January 17, 2010.

The vote breakdown:

PRU, 174
BYuT, 155
NUNS, 26
CPU, 27
LyB, 19

Sources:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/4/1/92411.htm

What Did I Miss? (Updated)

A number of major events took place during my 9-day blogging hiatus.

Patriarch Alexy died. Influential in Ukraine, the Russian Orthodox Church needs to find a successor for the job that traditionally involves theopolitics. Of the 27,942 parishes the ROC controls, 10,875 come from Ukraine (under the title of UOCMP).

Lytvyn in, Yanuk out. On Tuesday, the Rada elected Volodymyr Lytvyn speaker. The voting breakdown: PRU, 3 out 175; BYuT, 154 out of 156; NUNS, 40 out of 72; CPU, 27 out of 27; LyB, 20 out of 20. It’s unclear whether this de facto Lytvyn coalition will gain de jure status. Nor is it clear what cabinet roles, if any, will be awarded to the Communist Party, which jumped on the Lytvyn bandwagon. What’s clear is that big boy Yanukovych remains in the opposition ranks. (Three Regionalist dissenters supported Lytvyn, among them MP Zvyahilsky.) For Lytvyn, the appointment ends more than a year of fence-sitting and opens a fast track of crisis management window-dressing. The man and his party must show some results. Empty-handed, the Lytvyn Bloc stands little chance of being reelected in case Yushchenko unfreezes his snap parliamentary elections initiative. And by the way, Yushchenko has urged NUNS to abstain from the new coalition, blessed by Tymoshenko.

Gas deal stalls as debt lingers. Ukraine owes Russia $2.4B. Negotiations continue.

Baba Paraska got beaten. By Yushchenko’s security detail, as the main theory goes. Here, the iconic Orange Revolution vet tells a story of being assaulted by a group of men as she tried to get in touch with the President. The men grabbed her and hauled her into a car, hitting her in the shoulders and kidneys, Grandma Paraska, 69, says. Once the darling of Yushchenko and Orange patricians, she no longer gets the warm reception she got in the heyday of Maidan. After marketing himself as the “People’s President” in 2004, the Yushchenko of today rarely fraternizes with the “little Ukrainian,” the elixir of his presidency. Now that he pissed it all away, he obviously believes in the divine origin of power. The trouble is, the emperor has no clothes.

Hot water went off in Kyiv. It’s not just Russia who turns the heat off in winter. Starting Thursday, Kyivenergo, the local electricity company, turned off hot water in most Kyiv districts. Background: The local utility industry belongs to Kyivenergoholding, a company started in 2006 by the City Council and two Cyprus-registered partners: Densec Ltd, and Zarova Ltd (well represented in the City Council). Kyivenergoholding, in turn, owns three utility companies: Kyivgas, Kyivvodokanal, and Kyivenergo. Citing non-payment of Hr. 347M by Kyiv municipal authorities, Kyivenergo pulled the plug on most of the city, including about 200 HMOs, 300 kindergartens and 230 schools. You’d think Kyivites would take to the streets and put the water barons in hot water. Naw. So far, we have suffered in silence. President Yushchenko, Premier Tymoshenko and Mayor Chernovetsky have issued orders and made promises to restore hot water supplies. As of 10:20 Sunday morning (Kyiv time), the hot air in my apartment has yet to become hot water.

UPDATE
As of 11:54 Sunday morning, hot water has been restored.

Sources:
http://www3.pravda.com.ua/ru/news/2008/12/9/84978.htm
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/105091.html
http://kiev.pravda.com.ua/news/4941356e452c2/
http://ua.proua.com/news/2008/08/26/162639.html

Rada Sacks Yatsenyuk

In a long-anticipated vote, the Verkhovna Rada today fired its Speaker, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, NUNS.

The effort gathered 233 votes: 175 from the Party of Regions, 1 from BYuT, 10 from NUNS, 27 from the Communist Party and 20 from the Lytvyn Bloc.

As it often happens, the voting process saw a brawl between rivaling PRU and BYuT MPs who scrambled to keep an eye on the computerized voting system.

However, the most common type of voting misconduct involves the use of absentee voting cards by fellow MPs.

According to Ukrayinska Pravda, today’s absentees included MPs Viktor Yanukovych, Yanukovych Jr., Nestor Shufrych, and Rinat Akhmetov. Neither of these Regionalists could be seen on the floor of the Rada during the vote.

Shortly after being voted out, Yatsenyuk made an I’ll-be-back statement: “They kicked me out to have me come back, but not to this place.”

The former Speaker also announced long-rumored plans to launch his own party. “This political power will be supported by a majority of Ukrainians,” he added.

Sources:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2008/11/12/84337.htm
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2008/11/12/84347.htm
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2008/11/12/84350.htm