News as of October 4th, 2006

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Our Ukraine Bloc leader: Actions against ministers and governors from Our Ukraine are masterminded

Actions against some ministers and governors from Our Ukraine Bloc, fulfilled by various Ukrainian powerful and control institutions, are being exclusively masterminded; on October 2, the bloc▓s political council head, MP Roman Bessmertny is quoted by a REGNUM correspondent as stating at briefing.

⌠I may not treat kindly those, who order such actions. All these facts need appropriate assessments √ both factual and political ones; we expect official position of both control-revision directorate and general public prosecutor▓s office concerning such case. As soon as the facts will be submitted, we will act in appropriate way.■ Most likely, they are purposeful actions, aimed at torpedoing negotiation process between Our Ukraine and representatives of anti-crisis coalition," Mr. Bessmertny believes.

⌠As for governors; one should clearly realize that Ukrainian President Yushchenko appoints and fires heads of regional and district administrations,■ the leader of Our Ukraine stressed. ⌠Even according to governmental regulations, if there is wish to fire governor, individual written declaration should be worked out; separate decision should be listened to concerning one person. Everything, what we saw on September 28 at cabinet of ministers▓ sitting, is, first, uneducated process▓ organization; second, it is exclusively political attitude to Our Ukraine representatives.■

As REGNUM informed earlier, in a draft resolution, distributed among attendees of Cabinet of ministers▓ extended session on September 28, the Ukrainian government proposed to consider expediency of holding offices by five heads of regional state administrations. The matter concerned governors of Kharkov (Arsen Avakov), Chernigov (Nikolay Lavrik), Kherson (Boris Silenkov), and Ternopol (Ivan Stoyko) Regions ≈ all these officials are members of parties, which belong to Our Ukraine Bloc, as well as Poltava Region governor, member of Ukrainian People▓s Party Valery Asadchy.

Ukraine parliament should debate question on language policy

KIEV, October 3 (Itar-Tass) - Yevgeny Kushnarev, a leader of the Party of Regions and a member of the Ukrainian parliament, said that rights of Russian-speaking citizens are violated in the republic. ⌠The rights of Russian-speaking citizens are consistently trampled underfoot in the sphere of education, in the information sphere and in opportunities of getting jobs at state bodies of power,■ noted Kushnarev whose statement is quoted on Tuesday by the press service of the Party of Regions, headed by premier Viktor Yanukovich.

In response to a proposal by deputies of the Yulia Timoshenko bloc to adopt a special statement by the Ukrainian parliament, denouncing interference of the Russian State Duma in Ukraine▓s domestic affairs (in connection with the statement on ⌠discrimination of the Russian language■), Kushnarev said that the legislature should submit as soon as possible, after a painstaking examination and preparation, the question on Ukraine▓s language policy for the consideration of parliament■.

⌠At long last, it is necessary to adopt a law which would guarantee, not in words, but in deeds, the development of the Ukrainian language as the state tongue, and equally a free use of the Russian language as well as other languages of national minorities,■ Kushnarev emphasized.

In the deputy▓s words, ⌠according to the latest census, nearly 30 percent of population in Ukraine (more than 14 million) regard the Russian language as their native tongue■. ⌠I claim with all responsibility that the constitutional norm with respect to free development and use of the Russian language in Ukraine is not implemented anywhere,■ the legislator said, adding that he would not permit ⌠to hush-hush this topic with any false statements■.

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