by Mikhail Zyga
Yesterday, at its first session after the winter recess, the upper chamber of Ukraine's parliament passed a law forbidding the government to hand control of the country's network of gas transport pipelines over to Russia. In a single stroke, the passage of the law mooted all of the discussion lately regarding the purchase of Russian gas by Ukraine without going through RosUkrEnergo. The law is primarily an achievement for Yulia Timoshenko, who yesterday signed a cooperation agreement with the pro-Yushchenko party Our Ukraine and launched a new stage in her battle against the government of pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. The End of Old Ideas.
Yesterday the deputies in the Ukrainian upper rada, or parliament, were due to return to their seats after the winter recess. However, that turned out to be not quite as easy as it sounds: as the well-rested deputies entered the building on Kiev's Grushevsky Street, they discovered that members of Yulia Timoshenko's Bloc (BYuT) were blocking the speaker's podium and refusing to allow the session to begin.
Yulia Timoshenko's faction, the largest among the opposition in parliament, had prepared thoroughly for the beginning of the new legislative session. Ms. Timoshenko and her allies took to heart reports that the governments of Russia and Ukraine were discussing the possibility of transferring assets from the Ukrainian gas transport system to the Russian gas giant Gazprom in exchange for an equal share in Russia's gas extraction activities.
The first sign that Moscow and Kiev were intending to return to the idea of creating a joint consortium for gas transport came from Russian President Vladimir Putin last week. According to Mr. Putin, the two governments are working out a deal that would exchange a share in the Ukrainian gas pipelines that carry Russian gas to Europe for access to the extraction of gas in Russia. The possibility of such a deal was also mentioned by Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych: "Right now, we're talking about intentions. If we're going to talk about a joint venture, then it should be on the level of a partnership. This partnership should be understood as being, as they say, 50/50." Ukrainian Fuel and Energy (TEK) Minister Yury Boiko confirmed that "a basic agreement has been reached between the prime ministers."
However, the two governments' plans failed to survive longer than a week. Yesterday morning, Yulia Timoshenko and her allies announced that Viktor Yanukovych's plans to transfer Ukrainian pipelines into the hands of Gazprom are a betrayal of Ukraine's national interests. In protest against the government's plans, BYuT members demanded from their position around the speaker's podium that legislation banning outright the sale or lease of the country's pipeline system be included in the day's parliamentary agenda. "If our demands are not met, parliament will not meet," said Ms. Timoshenko.
The pro-Yushchenko bloc Our Ukraine was quick to agree with Ms. Timoshenko's demands. Alexei Ivchenko, one of the party's leaders and the former head of the oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy, declared, "The Yanukovych-Putin slogan – 'we'll give you gas deposits, and you give us Ukraine's gas pipelines' – is a mousetrap for Ukrainians and a betrayal by the prime minister of our national interests." According to Mr. Ivchenko, the terms of any agreement notwithstanding, Moscow would never allow Kiev to receive cheap gas. "The powers that be in Russia's gas fields are bound by Russian law, and [Russian laws] permit gas to be exported from Russia only for a certain fixed price, i.e., no less than $230 per thousand cubic meters," he said, adding that Gazprom will never open its doors to anyone and that "no one will change Russia's laws just for the sake of Ukraine."
The leaders of the factions conferred for around three hours and summoned representatives of the government. Deputy prime minister Andrey Klyuev, who came to the parliament building in answer to the summons, maintained that negotiations with the Russian side concerning cooperation in the energy sphere were the work not of Prime Minister Yanukovych but of President Yushchenko himself, who met with President Putin last December. Contradicting TEK Minister Boiko, Mr. Klyuev said that he had seen the proposal for more extensive fuel and energy cooperation between Ukraine and Russia and denied reports that Russia will be granted control of Ukraine's pipelines, adding that "the discussion is absolutely not about handing over the gas pipeline system." After Mr. Klyuev had made his remarks, parliament agreed to immediately adopt the amendment demanded by Ms. Timoshenko to the law "Concerning Pipeline Transport."
The speaker's podium was vacated, and subsequently 430 out of the 436 deputies present in the chamber voted for the amendment, with five deputies from Yanukovych's Party of the Regions abstaining. The law now stipulates that any "reorganization, appropriation, transfer from balance to balance, concession, rent, lease, mortgage, or privatization of state-owned long-distance pipeline transport ventures, Naftogaz Ukrainy or any affiliated or subsidiary enterprises, or gas reservoirs, as well as the transfer of assets belonging to these enterprises to the ownership of any other company, is forbidden."
After the vote, representatives of the Party of the Regions in concert voiced the opinion that the adoption of the law should not be credited to Yulia Timoshenko or to deputies from Our Ukraine. The "Regionalists" asserted that members of the two governments have not held any talks about transferring the pipelines and that the party is not opposed to the proposed amendment – it is simply that the opposition deputies "know how to do PR." Incidentally, last week Kommersant's sources in the Ukrainian government and Gazprom confirmed that negotiations are, in fact, taking place but that they are still in their initial stages. Moreover, a source in the Ukrainian government explained to Kommersant that Kiev has offered Russia three different scenarios for further cooperation in the gas sector. The first two options, which are more to Gazprom's liking, foresee the transfer of Ukraine's long-distance transport pipelines to the ownership of a concession that would be in some way tied to Gazprom. These two possibilities were permanently laid to rest by yesterday's decision in parliament. The third proposal, to allow Russia access to the management of Ukraine's gas pipeline network, is of little interest to the Russian gas giant. Thus, the future of cooperation between Russia and Ukraine in the fuel and energy sector looks set to remain via RosUkrEnergo for quite some time yet.
A Union of Old Friends
The upper rada's adoption of such a revolutionary amendment really has been a massive PR victory for Yulia Timoshenko, whose party has lately been gathering steam for another assault on Viktor Yanukovych's government. Ms. Timoshenko scored another victory with the recent statement of cooperation in parliament between her BYuT faction and the party Our Ukraine, which was represented at the signing of the document by the party's leader, Vyacheslav Kirilenko. In the cooperation agreement, both parties pledge to jointly fight against the "criminal-oligarch government" and the means of forcing early elections by dissolving parliament.
Many of Yulia Timoshenko's rivals in Our Ukraine opposed the signing of the agreement, and some even maintained that Mr. Kirilenko does not have the authority to sign such a document. However, it is clear that the union of the two factions was blessed from on high by President Viktor Yushchenko: soon after the agreement was unveiled, he signed the so-called "law of pledged electors [deputies]," which Ms. Timoshenko has long wished to see enacted and which was listed as a shared priority of BYuT and Our Ukraine in the cooperation agreement. The idea of pledged electors is that the leadership of the party will have the right to strip any member of the party of their status as a deputy for violations of party discipline. Our Ukraine has said that it considers this undemocratic and necessary only for those parties whose ranks include many businessmen who are in parliament only because they paid for their seat. Viktor Yushchenko agreed that the law, which was previously approved by a majority in the parliament, is not ideal, but he bowed to pressure from Ms. Timoshenko and signed it anyway.
The upcoming sessions of the parliament will show just how long-lived the latest alliance between Ms. Timoshenko and Mr. Yushchenko against Mr. Yanukovych will be, particularly when the president's candidate for foreign affairs minister, deputy foreign affairs minister Vladimir Ogryzko, comes before the rada for a vote of approval. Ms. Timoshenko said sarcastically in a recent television appearance that she supports Mr. Ogryzko's candidacy, if only because his name ("ogryzok" means "stub") "symbolizes what is left of the presidential authority" of her new partner, Viktor Yushchenko.
Yesterday, at its first session after the winter recess, the upper chamber of Ukraine's parliament passed a law forbidding the government to hand control of the country's network of gas transport pipelines over to Russia. In a single stroke, the passage of the law mooted all of the discussion lately regarding the purchase of Russian gas by Ukraine without going through RosUkrEnergo. The law is primarily an achievement for Yulia Timoshenko, who yesterday signed a cooperation agreement with the pro-Yushchenko party Our Ukraine and launched a new stage in her battle against the government of pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. The End of Old Ideas.
Yesterday the deputies in the Ukrainian upper rada, or parliament, were due to return to their seats after the winter recess. However, that turned out to be not quite as easy as it sounds: as the well-rested deputies entered the building on Kiev's Grushevsky Street, they discovered that members of Yulia Timoshenko's Bloc (BYuT) were blocking the speaker's podium and refusing to allow the session to begin.
Yulia Timoshenko's faction, the largest among the opposition in parliament, had prepared thoroughly for the beginning of the new legislative session. Ms. Timoshenko and her allies took to heart reports that the governments of Russia and Ukraine were discussing the possibility of transferring assets from the Ukrainian gas transport system to the Russian gas giant Gazprom in exchange for an equal share in Russia's gas extraction activities.
The first sign that Moscow and Kiev were intending to return to the idea of creating a joint consortium for gas transport came from Russian President Vladimir Putin last week. According to Mr. Putin, the two governments are working out a deal that would exchange a share in the Ukrainian gas pipelines that carry Russian gas to Europe for access to the extraction of gas in Russia. The possibility of such a deal was also mentioned by Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych: "Right now, we're talking about intentions. If we're going to talk about a joint venture, then it should be on the level of a partnership. This partnership should be understood as being, as they say, 50/50." Ukrainian Fuel and Energy (TEK) Minister Yury Boiko confirmed that "a basic agreement has been reached between the prime ministers."
However, the two governments' plans failed to survive longer than a week. Yesterday morning, Yulia Timoshenko and her allies announced that Viktor Yanukovych's plans to transfer Ukrainian pipelines into the hands of Gazprom are a betrayal of Ukraine's national interests. In protest against the government's plans, BYuT members demanded from their position around the speaker's podium that legislation banning outright the sale or lease of the country's pipeline system be included in the day's parliamentary agenda. "If our demands are not met, parliament will not meet," said Ms. Timoshenko.
The pro-Yushchenko bloc Our Ukraine was quick to agree with Ms. Timoshenko's demands. Alexei Ivchenko, one of the party's leaders and the former head of the oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy, declared, "The Yanukovych-Putin slogan – 'we'll give you gas deposits, and you give us Ukraine's gas pipelines' – is a mousetrap for Ukrainians and a betrayal by the prime minister of our national interests." According to Mr. Ivchenko, the terms of any agreement notwithstanding, Moscow would never allow Kiev to receive cheap gas. "The powers that be in Russia's gas fields are bound by Russian law, and [Russian laws] permit gas to be exported from Russia only for a certain fixed price, i.e., no less than $230 per thousand cubic meters," he said, adding that Gazprom will never open its doors to anyone and that "no one will change Russia's laws just for the sake of Ukraine."
The leaders of the factions conferred for around three hours and summoned representatives of the government. Deputy prime minister Andrey Klyuev, who came to the parliament building in answer to the summons, maintained that negotiations with the Russian side concerning cooperation in the energy sphere were the work not of Prime Minister Yanukovych but of President Yushchenko himself, who met with President Putin last December. Contradicting TEK Minister Boiko, Mr. Klyuev said that he had seen the proposal for more extensive fuel and energy cooperation between Ukraine and Russia and denied reports that Russia will be granted control of Ukraine's pipelines, adding that "the discussion is absolutely not about handing over the gas pipeline system." After Mr. Klyuev had made his remarks, parliament agreed to immediately adopt the amendment demanded by Ms. Timoshenko to the law "Concerning Pipeline Transport."
The speaker's podium was vacated, and subsequently 430 out of the 436 deputies present in the chamber voted for the amendment, with five deputies from Yanukovych's Party of the Regions abstaining. The law now stipulates that any "reorganization, appropriation, transfer from balance to balance, concession, rent, lease, mortgage, or privatization of state-owned long-distance pipeline transport ventures, Naftogaz Ukrainy or any affiliated or subsidiary enterprises, or gas reservoirs, as well as the transfer of assets belonging to these enterprises to the ownership of any other company, is forbidden."
After the vote, representatives of the Party of the Regions in concert voiced the opinion that the adoption of the law should not be credited to Yulia Timoshenko or to deputies from Our Ukraine. The "Regionalists" asserted that members of the two governments have not held any talks about transferring the pipelines and that the party is not opposed to the proposed amendment – it is simply that the opposition deputies "know how to do PR." Incidentally, last week Kommersant's sources in the Ukrainian government and Gazprom confirmed that negotiations are, in fact, taking place but that they are still in their initial stages. Moreover, a source in the Ukrainian government explained to Kommersant that Kiev has offered Russia three different scenarios for further cooperation in the gas sector. The first two options, which are more to Gazprom's liking, foresee the transfer of Ukraine's long-distance transport pipelines to the ownership of a concession that would be in some way tied to Gazprom. These two possibilities were permanently laid to rest by yesterday's decision in parliament. The third proposal, to allow Russia access to the management of Ukraine's gas pipeline network, is of little interest to the Russian gas giant. Thus, the future of cooperation between Russia and Ukraine in the fuel and energy sector looks set to remain via RosUkrEnergo for quite some time yet.
A Union of Old Friends
The upper rada's adoption of such a revolutionary amendment really has been a massive PR victory for Yulia Timoshenko, whose party has lately been gathering steam for another assault on Viktor Yanukovych's government. Ms. Timoshenko scored another victory with the recent statement of cooperation in parliament between her BYuT faction and the party Our Ukraine, which was represented at the signing of the document by the party's leader, Vyacheslav Kirilenko. In the cooperation agreement, both parties pledge to jointly fight against the "criminal-oligarch government" and the means of forcing early elections by dissolving parliament.
Many of Yulia Timoshenko's rivals in Our Ukraine opposed the signing of the agreement, and some even maintained that Mr. Kirilenko does not have the authority to sign such a document. However, it is clear that the union of the two factions was blessed from on high by President Viktor Yushchenko: soon after the agreement was unveiled, he signed the so-called "law of pledged electors [deputies]," which Ms. Timoshenko has long wished to see enacted and which was listed as a shared priority of BYuT and Our Ukraine in the cooperation agreement. The idea of pledged electors is that the leadership of the party will have the right to strip any member of the party of their status as a deputy for violations of party discipline. Our Ukraine has said that it considers this undemocratic and necessary only for those parties whose ranks include many businessmen who are in parliament only because they paid for their seat. Viktor Yushchenko agreed that the law, which was previously approved by a majority in the parliament, is not ideal, but he bowed to pressure from Ms. Timoshenko and signed it anyway.
The upcoming sessions of the parliament will show just how long-lived the latest alliance between Ms. Timoshenko and Mr. Yushchenko against Mr. Yanukovych will be, particularly when the president's candidate for foreign affairs minister, deputy foreign affairs minister Vladimir Ogryzko, comes before the rada for a vote of approval. Ms. Timoshenko said sarcastically in a recent television appearance that she supports Mr. Ogryzko's candidacy, if only because his name ("ogryzok" means "stub") "symbolizes what is left of the presidential authority" of her new partner, Viktor Yushchenko.
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