Last Thursday, Verkhovna Rada closed its session even without considering the items on the agenda. Early in the morning, Communist Party members plastered the presidium with a huge placard demanding that the Ukrainian troops be withdrawn from Iraq. The Communists further insisted that this issue be considered by the parliament. And although the day before the lawmakers turned down the proposal to discuss this issue, with only 133 people’s deputies voting to support it, Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn heeded the Communists’ demand and again put this issue to the vote. This time around, 160 lawmakers wished to consider this matter: Communist and Socialist factions in full strength, four dozen Our Ukraine deputies, along with a handful of majority deputies. Unfortunately, the leftist forces did not stop at that. After a recess of half an hour announced at the insistence of the Communists and Socialists, the Communists pushed for secret vote on the same issue and made several other categorical demands to Speaker Lytvyn. After the latter refused to comply, a dozen Communists headed for the rostrum. Some of the lawmakers seem to be infected with an idea that besieging the rostrum is the shortest way to go about satisfying their own ambitions. For the sake of impartiality one must say that the parliament leadership indirectly encourages the pickets to besiege the rostrum by yielding to their pressure to often. This time around, the speaker did not have the nerve to continue and announced the session closed, citing the impossibility to continue work.
Meanwhile, on that day a number of major issues were to be considered on matters relating to the economy, finance, agriculture, mass media, interethnic policy, along with the problems of the army. The parliament was to vote in the second reading on the Bill On Restoring the Rights of Individuals Deported for Their Nationality and the Defense Reform Bill. Thus, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the interests of certain parliamentary factions have yet again trumped the interests of millions of Ukrainians. Paradoxical as it may sound, those political forces that profess to be the only defenders of the people’s interests themselves prevent the state from giving them social guaranties that are long overdue. Why is it so difficult for the parliament to understand the need for a defense reform? The Day approached for comment Heorhy Kriuchkov, chairman of the parliamentary National Security and Defense Committee. As he put it, the passage of this document is very complex in itself, which is due to the fact that the defense reform issue has become a factor in the political games of certain forces. “Some of the deputies have used the very proposal to reduce the army strength by 155,000 for their own populist and demagogic ends,” he said. Such statements are made by politicians, who are responsible for the current plight of Ukraine’s army, namely those who at one time kept the army on starvation rations, Kriuchkov is convinced. “Today, in the runup to elections, they pose as the defenders of the army in an attempt to win the support of the military. This is a case of pure demagoguery. Certain political forces do not care whether this bill is passed or not. But I still hope that the majority of the lawmakers will have the common sense to approve the bill and decide this matter once and for all,” Heorhy Kriuchkov said, adding that he will do all he can for this law to pass the parliament, though he refused to comment on the stance of his own Communist faction on the defense reform issue.
