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Tymoshenko resumes ‘secret’ Regions talks
Journal Staff Report

KIEV, April 23 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has resumed secret talks with the opposition Regions Party seeking to amend Ukraine’s constitution by changing the way the next president is elected, Segodnia daily reported Thursday citing a source.

If the talks succeed, the Tymoshenko Bloc and the Regions Party would create a coalition - perhaps as soon as May 14 – and would quickly move to amend the constitution, the source said.

The key amendment calls for electing the next president in Parliament, scrapping the nation-wide vote and effectively splitting political power in Ukraine between the two groups: the Tymoshenko Bloc and the Regions Party.

The Tymoshenko group and the Regions Party declined to comment on the report.

Segodnia, owned by Rinat Akhmetov, the wealthiest Ukrainian and the key financial sponsor of the Regions Party, said at least one senior member of the party had confirmed the talks.

Ihor Sharov, a senior lawmaker representing the group led by Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, a member of the coalition supporting the Tymoshenko government, said the coalition had never authorized the talks with the Regions.

“The Tymoshenko Bloc can hold the talks with the Regions on its own only if it quits the coalition,” Sharov said, warning Tymoshenko activists against any “temptation” for the talks.

The coalition between Tymoshenko and the Regions Party, led by former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, would be a game changer in Ukraine’s politics, analysts said.

It poses the biggest threat to Arseniy Yatseniuk, a former parliamentary speaker who is expected to run at the next presidential election and whose popularity has been growing sharply over the past several months.

The recent opinion poll by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology suggested Yanukovych would collect 37.9% of the vote, followed by Tymoshenko’s 21.3% and Yatseniuk’s 20.1%.

Yatseniuk’s popularity has been growing quickly over the past two months, while Tymoshenko’s rating has been declining as people accuse the government for slow response to the economic crisis.

Although the KIIS poll suggested Yanukovych by small margin would defeat Yatseniuk – and Tymoshenko – in the runoff, at least one poll a month ago had concluded that Yatseniuk may prevail.

Parliament, led by Tymoshenko and the Regions Party, earlier this month had set the date of the next presidential election on October 25, almost three months earlier than had been anticipated by the constitution.

Yatseniuk, 34, is widely seen as a candidate that would continue Ukraine’s pro-Western foreign policy and push to join NATO, while Yanukovych and Tymoshenko have been sending mixed and often pro-Russian signals.

Russia’s Kremlin-controlled television has been positively covering both, Tymoshenko and Yanukovych.

Another Ukrainian daily, Kommersant, recently reported that Tymoshenko, Yanukovych and their closest allies had a secret 6-hour meeting on Saturday to discuss future strategy.

The meeting was also joined by Viktor Medvedchuk, a former chief of staff of former President Leonid Kuchma, Kommersant reported.

Medvedchuk is known to have close personal relations with Russia’s leaders, including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Medvedchuk is thought to have been advising Tymoshenko on Russia policy during the past 12 months.

Tymoshenko has been holding on and off talks with the Regions Party over the coalition for most of the last year - most recently in December 2008 - but those talks had stumbled over the amendment of how to elect the president.

Andriy Kliuyev, a senior member of the Regions Party, said March 12 that 90% of their proposed amendments had been agreed between the Regions and Tymoshenko.

But Tymoshenko, who enjoyed the highest rating among Ukrainian politicians for most of the past two years, has been persistently refusing to accept the idea of electing the president in Parliament. (tl/ez)




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