Vice President of the United States Joe Biden plans to visit Ukraine in November for a meeting with Petro Poroshenko, who is currently discussing the creation of a coalition in the new Verkhovna Rada with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. After Sunday's parliamentary elections the Popular Front party of Yatsenyuk collected 21.93% of the votes, and the "Bloc of Petro Poroshenko" gained 21.50%. Four more parties are included in the Rada: "Samopomosch" of Lviv mayor Andrey Sadovyi (11,10%), "Opposition Bloc" where there are many members of the former Party of the Regions (9.63%), the "Radical Party of Oleg Lyashko" (7.39%) and Yulia Tymoshenko's "Fatherland" (5.67%).
"The election campaign was hard. It was very tense and in a short period. All the coalition agreements which people were trying to build before the process of elections, I think that now this process is already being revised on the move, because the configuration developing today testifies that the republic won't be a monopoly at all. Or rather, an absolute monopoly will be with the party in power today, but the party in power has such figures involved who in general can declare their own positions," sociologist and founder of the Research and Branding Group company Yevgeny Kopatko believes, "The party in power has reached its peak. Now a downward trend begins, because all the mobilization resources were involved - media, propaganda. A post-election demobilization begins, it is the first moment which will reduce this index of trust. We saw the show, now people will demand some bread."
The director of the International Institute of the Newest States, Alexey Martynov, considers that "Poroshenko wished to receive a malleable Rada, but he couldn't do it. Today Ukraine is entering an already-known mode. You remember Yushchenko and Tymoshenko, when the "strong" prime minister, I mean electorally strong, threw down a challenge to the president. I think that we can't expect good things from the situation in Ukraine today, the latest elections won't solve the problems facing Ukraine. Contrary to the desires of the organizers of the elections, there now exists a state of affairs where Ukraine lost first the Crimea, then Donbass, i.e. neither the Crimea, nor Donbass are participating in these early elections, though they are considered as part of the electoral role."
Alexey Martynov is convinced that "the current Ukrainian authorities are trying to maintain the status quo, the system of rigid oligarchical capitalism. These early elections fix this desire once again. I hope that Donbass will eventually be at peace, and that both implementation of the Minsk agreements and further negotiations will take place."
The government fails to develop a mechanism for interaction with the Muslim communityBy Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively for Vestnik KavkazaTensions after the protests in Mokh, a town consisting of Muslim and Christian inhabitants, continue in the Adyge District of Georgia. Georgian Muslims have been demanding possession of the old mosque for years. The building was granted to the Lenin Library during the Soviet era and became collapsing over time.Muslims want the mosque fixed and used for prayers. The authorities of Samtskhe-Javakheti say that Mokh already has a mosque and a church for both Christians and Muslims, so there is no need for a second mosque.All attempts by the Muslim to explain that the old mosque had had religious value centuries ago have been unsuccessful. On the contrary, the administration has suddenly declared plans to demolish the building and build a new library or another education center.The Muslim population responded with protests around the half-ruined mosque. Nonetheless, the demolition process has already started. When locals tried to block building equipment and the road to Mokh, the police arrested several people. They were taken to the regional police department, with criminal cases initiated for resisting the police.Neither the central nor the regional authorities plan to concede. “All citizens are equal before the law,” said Prime Minister Irakly Garibashvili at a government session.“The library construction is acceptable for me, because a library meets the interests of the whole population of Mokh,” added State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality Paata Zakareishvili.Samtskhe-Javakheti Mufti Mamuk Vashakmadze demanded a personal meeting with the prime minister then to explain the value of the mosque to the Muslim population of Georgia. So far, the request has not been fulfilled. After Muslim-populated villages said that would not send their children to school and declared their intentions to block the central Akhalstikhe-Tbilisi Highway, all people detained in Mokh were released, authorities of the region expressed readiness to start talks to find a compromise.Regional Governor Akakiy Machutadze announce a press conference soon after that and said that the demands of Georgian Muslims were unacceptable. “They insist on beautifying the building of the mufti’s residence. We intend to use the second, operating mosque as a residence,” noted the functionary, warning that the government will not tolerate any pressure.NGOs and some representatives of the Georgian Orthodox Church backed the Mokh residents, urging the administration of the region to take the opinion of the religious minority into account. The problem remains unresolved. It has not been the first religious tension in Samtskhe-Javakheti. There has been similar ballyhoo over demolition of a minaret in Chela. The government has not developed a mechanism for interaction with the local Muslim community and its leaders, which would create the atmosphere of mutual understanding needed to find a comprom
