5stringJeff
05-26-2007, 08:33 PM
Possible Coup in Ukraine
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President Viktor Yushchenko summoned several thousand interior troops to the Ukrainian capital Saturday but forces loyal to the nation's prime minister stopped them outside Kiev, raising fears that the two leaders' months-long struggle could turn violent.
Tensions between Yushchenko, who has sought to lead Ukraine into the European Union and NATO, and his rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who seeks to preserve Ukraine's close ties with Moscow, have been building since the president ordered parliament disbanded in April and called new elections.
But the political struggle threatened to turn into a physical confrontation this week when Yushchenko ordered the dismissal of the nation's chief prosecutor, loyal to the prime minister, who refused to leave his office. Riot police surrounded the prosecutor's offices, preventing his eviction.
Yushchenko issued a decree Friday that put the nation's 32,000 Interior Ministry troops under his command, and has ordered some of them to the capital.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1178708688145&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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Special forces loyal to Ukraine’s leader Viktor Yushchenko headed for the capital Saturday, raising fears of violence as a feud between the ex-Soviet state’s president and prime minister deepened, AFP news agency reported on Saturday, May 26.Elite units from all over Ukraine, estimated by the interior ministry to total 3,600 men, drove in convoys of buses toward Kiev in what appeared to be a show of force by Yushchenko.
Yushchenko has claimed control of the interior ministry’s 30,000-strong military branch, while his bitter rival Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has the loyalty of the rest of the ministry’s forces, including the police.
Yushchenko and Yanukovych resumed negotiations on Saturday over their power struggle, which has raised concern in neighboring Russia, the European Union and the United States.
Their talks on Friday ended with no sign of progress.
“The interior minister has given an order forbidding movement of internal troops towards Kiev so that they do not upset public order,” said Kostyantin Stogny, an interior ministry spokesman.
“But they have begun moving towards Kiev. They are being stopped by police.”
The special forces were carrying only riot gear, not lethal weapons, and put up “no resistance” when stopped for checks by traffic police, said Svitlana Pavlovska, a spokeswoman for the interior ministry troops.
An AFP reporter saw dozens of interior ministry soldiers carrying batons and handcuffs stopped on two buses at a traffic police checkpoint on one of the main highways leading into Kiev.
Some 200 soldiers were also stopped by police in the Mykolayevskaya region in the south of the the country, and 350 more were blocked in the central Poltavskaya region, Stogny said.
The spokesman said he did not have information about the remaining troops.
“It’s a difficult situation…. Some commanders of internal troops are loyal to the interior minister, others are following the orders of the president,” Stogny added.
The current political crisis in Ukraine began last month, when pro-Western Yushchenko issued an order to disband parliament and hold new elections, a move his pro-Russian premier opposes.
Fears of violence are growing as their high-stakes feud drags on.
Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko appealed for calm, asking “politicians to be more restrained” and saying: “It’s necessary to calm down. There won’t be any use of force. We won’t storm anything.”
Tsushko said that the special forces were acting under orders of a pro-president commander, Olexander Kikhtenko, who was operating “according to his own logic,” Interfax news agency reported.
On Friday, Yushchenko had issued a decree taking control over the interior ministry forces away from the Yanukovych-led government. The decree was immediately branded unconstitutional by Yanukovych and his allies.
Parliament speaker Oleksandr Moroz, a Yanukovych supporter, accused the president of a “coup attempt.” Interior ministry spokesman Stogny said that the president had no right to change laws in peacetime.
There have already been open tensions between rival security forces.
On Thursday an elite paramilitary unit from the interior ministry intervened to protect the country’s pro-Yanukovych prosecutor general after Yushchenko ordered his dismissal.
The elite forces arrived at the Kiev offices where the prosecutor general was holed up and forced out the president’s security personnel. The elite forces continued to patrol the building on Saturday.
Control over interior ministry forces was crucial in the Orange Revolution of 2004, when mass street protests helped bring Yushchenko to the presidency, overturning a flawed vote initially granted to Yanukovych.
http://www.therussiajournal.com/node/16804
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President Viktor Yushchenko summoned several thousand interior troops to the Ukrainian capital Saturday but forces loyal to the nation's prime minister stopped them outside Kiev, raising fears that the two leaders' months-long struggle could turn violent.
Tensions between Yushchenko, who has sought to lead Ukraine into the European Union and NATO, and his rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who seeks to preserve Ukraine's close ties with Moscow, have been building since the president ordered parliament disbanded in April and called new elections.
But the political struggle threatened to turn into a physical confrontation this week when Yushchenko ordered the dismissal of the nation's chief prosecutor, loyal to the prime minister, who refused to leave his office. Riot police surrounded the prosecutor's offices, preventing his eviction.
Yushchenko issued a decree Friday that put the nation's 32,000 Interior Ministry troops under his command, and has ordered some of them to the capital.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1178708688145&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
--------------
Special forces loyal to Ukraine’s leader Viktor Yushchenko headed for the capital Saturday, raising fears of violence as a feud between the ex-Soviet state’s president and prime minister deepened, AFP news agency reported on Saturday, May 26.Elite units from all over Ukraine, estimated by the interior ministry to total 3,600 men, drove in convoys of buses toward Kiev in what appeared to be a show of force by Yushchenko.
Yushchenko has claimed control of the interior ministry’s 30,000-strong military branch, while his bitter rival Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has the loyalty of the rest of the ministry’s forces, including the police.
Yushchenko and Yanukovych resumed negotiations on Saturday over their power struggle, which has raised concern in neighboring Russia, the European Union and the United States.
Their talks on Friday ended with no sign of progress.
“The interior minister has given an order forbidding movement of internal troops towards Kiev so that they do not upset public order,” said Kostyantin Stogny, an interior ministry spokesman.
“But they have begun moving towards Kiev. They are being stopped by police.”
The special forces were carrying only riot gear, not lethal weapons, and put up “no resistance” when stopped for checks by traffic police, said Svitlana Pavlovska, a spokeswoman for the interior ministry troops.
An AFP reporter saw dozens of interior ministry soldiers carrying batons and handcuffs stopped on two buses at a traffic police checkpoint on one of the main highways leading into Kiev.
Some 200 soldiers were also stopped by police in the Mykolayevskaya region in the south of the the country, and 350 more were blocked in the central Poltavskaya region, Stogny said.
The spokesman said he did not have information about the remaining troops.
“It’s a difficult situation…. Some commanders of internal troops are loyal to the interior minister, others are following the orders of the president,” Stogny added.
The current political crisis in Ukraine began last month, when pro-Western Yushchenko issued an order to disband parliament and hold new elections, a move his pro-Russian premier opposes.
Fears of violence are growing as their high-stakes feud drags on.
Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko appealed for calm, asking “politicians to be more restrained” and saying: “It’s necessary to calm down. There won’t be any use of force. We won’t storm anything.”
Tsushko said that the special forces were acting under orders of a pro-president commander, Olexander Kikhtenko, who was operating “according to his own logic,” Interfax news agency reported.
On Friday, Yushchenko had issued a decree taking control over the interior ministry forces away from the Yanukovych-led government. The decree was immediately branded unconstitutional by Yanukovych and his allies.
Parliament speaker Oleksandr Moroz, a Yanukovych supporter, accused the president of a “coup attempt.” Interior ministry spokesman Stogny said that the president had no right to change laws in peacetime.
There have already been open tensions between rival security forces.
On Thursday an elite paramilitary unit from the interior ministry intervened to protect the country’s pro-Yanukovych prosecutor general after Yushchenko ordered his dismissal.
The elite forces arrived at the Kiev offices where the prosecutor general was holed up and forced out the president’s security personnel. The elite forces continued to patrol the building on Saturday.
Control over interior ministry forces was crucial in the Orange Revolution of 2004, when mass street protests helped bring Yushchenko to the presidency, overturning a flawed vote initially granted to Yanukovych.
http://www.therussiajournal.com/node/16804