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| Ukrainian parliament consolidates power, frees prisoners | ||||||
| 2014-02-24 | ||||||
| KIEV, Ukraine -- The Ukrainian parliament, now dominated by foes of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, took bold measures Sunday to remake the government, sacking ministers, freeing jailed protesters and announcing investigations and detentions of former officials. By decree, the parliament gave interim presidential authority to the speaker of parliament, Oleksandr Turchynov, himself a leader of the opposition. But even as demonstrators in Kiev celebrated their victory over the pro-Russian Yanukovych, there were signs of trouble in parts of the Ukraine that still lean more toward Russia than Europe. In the Crimea to the south, men gathered to volunteer for militias to oppose the decrees announced in the capital. In Kiev, the parliamentarian and former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko urged the thousands of demonstrators in Independence Square to remain where they are in order to protect the advances won by the opposition. Klitschko also said that the “self-defense” militias organized to defend the barricades at the square against riot police should remain on the streets to provide security. “There are no police on the streets right now,” Klitschko told reporters. “The police will be reorganized, and we will try to do this as fast as possible.” Another member of parliament warned his colleagues that they needed to move quickly to bring security forces back to work, saying that some of the nation’s vital infrastructure, including nuclear power plants, were unguarded. Maintaining security wasn’t the only issue. Turchynov, the new interim president, said Ukraine’s pension fund, national currency and banking system were facing “immense problems,” according to the news group RIA Novosti.
Members of the opposition, which now controls Kiev and the central government, also announced that protesters arrested during demonstrations would be freed immediately, while they also sought to detain and prosecute the dismissed prosecutor general, Viktor Pshonka. The interim interior minister, Arsen Avakov, said the new government would open an inquiry into lethal force used by riot police and security forces during the protests. Still unknown is whether a defiant Yanukovych and a bitterly divided Ukraine will accept any of parliament’s decrees. Leaders of the ousted government, especially those from Ukraine’s east and south, said they would oppose new measures. Yanukovych, whose exact whereabouts have been unknown since Friday evening, appeared on television Saturday in a prerecorded interview to say: “I am not planning to leave the country. I am the legitimate president, and I am not going to resign.” “What we witness now resembles Nazi occupation,” Yanukovych said. “My car was shot at. But I am not afraid for my life, I am afraid for my country.” Yanukovych said Russian President Vladimir Putin told him that he had spoken with President Obama and promised that “we will negotiate.”
William Hague, the British foreign secretary, told the BBC on Sunday: “We don’t know, of course, what Russia’s next reaction will be.” He noted that Russia had supported a compromise with Yanukovych last week that would have allowed him to stay in power for another 10 months. “We do know that Russia, as well as the United States, has said a few days ago that they would get behind a deal that had been made, that deal has now been overtaken by events and this is the importance of us continuing a dialogue with Russia,” Hague said. The European Union’s foreign-policy chief, Catherine Ashton, is scheduled to come to Kiev on Monday.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Saturday that the opposition in Ukraine was “pushing new demands, submitting itself to armed extremists and looters whose actions pose a direct threat to the sovereignty and constitutional order of Ukraine,” according to Russia’s Interfax news agency. The new speaker of parliament, Turchynov, told his fellow deputies Saturday that Yanukovych had attempted to flee the country. “He tried to get on a plane that was bound for the Russian Federation but was stopped by border guards. At the moment, he’s hiding somewhere in the Donetsk region,” Turchynov said, according to Interfax. The Donetsk region, in eastern Ukraine, is home to Yanukovych’s Russian-speaking political base. | ||||||
| Posted by:Steve White |