Ukraine's ruling political forces to compete with each other

Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who offered his resignation to the country's parliament on July 24 as the ruling coalition broke up, yesterday changed his mind and decided to remain in office. The head of the cabinet called on lawmakers to back government-sponsored bills on budget sequester and reform of the state-run Naftogas oil and gas company, saying that otherwise Ukraine's cooperation with the IMF will be sabotaged. "I have just talked to the heads of the World Bank and the IMF and would like to suggest these bills. I am calling on all MPs to vote for these bills on Thursday," Yatsenyuk is quoted as saying by RBC-Ukraine.

It is not clear whether Yatsenyuk will remain in office after July 31st.

Ukrainian political analyst Rostislav Ishchenko believes that there is nothing unusual in the prime minister's resignation, despite the fact that the situation is critical for the country. "For instance, Churchill replaced Chamberlain in the British prime minister's office after the Second World War had already started. Speaking about Yatsenyuk's resignation, we should take into consideration that fact that the parliamentary campaign has already started, even though the Parliament has not officially been dismissed yet. The campaign is very peculiar because the Party of Regions and the Communist Party are either destroyed or forced out of the country's politics. They probably won't have a chance to campaign properly. This means that former members of the ruling coalition will compete with each other. The Fatherland party, which was represented by Yatsenyuk, was against the dissolution of the coalition and believed that the parliament should not be dismissed before the end of the term. The dissolution of the coalition was provoked by the Svoboda and UDAR parties. This means that the Fatherland party will criticize Poroshenko for inciting the dissolution of the coalition as well as the Svoboda and UDAR parties. The Fatherland party will also try to form a parliamentary majority after the elections. It will compete with its former allies simply because there are no other competitors," he says.

If Yatsenyuk remains in office, the Fatherland party will be responsible for all the actions of the government, which is not supported by MPs. Thus the power of the cabinet will be quite limited, the expert concludes. The campaign has already started, he notes. Poroshenko, Klitschko and Tyagnibok are also criticizing the cabinet, saying that it is responsible for the economic crisis.

If Yatsenyuk really resigns, he will blame the new cabinet for the unresolved conflict in the East, Ishchenko says. "He will say that the new government does not support the Ukrainian military, does not secure economic growth. It's a very logical way to campaign," he says.

The political analyst says he does not understand how President Petro Poroshenko will organize a proper election while the forces supporting him compete against each other. "It will probably lead to further instability in Ukrainian politics and threaten the current political system," he says. "The situation is indeed tense. The competitors are very violent, while talking to each other. Taking into consideration that the political forces now have their own armed groups, I would be more careful if I were Poroshenko," he says.