Ukraine Politics Thread:

Obama Admits US Role in 2014 Ukraine Coup

US President Obama stated that the United States took an active part in the February 2014 coup in Ukraine, which installed pro-Western authorities.

MOSCOW, February 1 (Sputnik) – The United States took an active part in the February 2014 coup in Ukraine, which installed pro-Western authorities, US President Obama told CNN Sunday.

"And since Mr. Putin made this decision around Crimea and Ukraine — not because of some grand strategy, but essentially because he was caught off-balance by the protests in the Maidan and [Ukraine's then-President Viktor] Yanukovych then fleeing after we had brokered a deal to transition power in Ukraine," Obama said in an interview.

Yanukovych's decision to not sign association agreement with the European Union in late 2013 triggered a mass wave of protests across Ukraine, which culminated in the February coup. Following the February events and the rise of agressive nationalism in the country, Crimea seceded from Ukraine and joined Russia in March 2014, following a referendum, in which 96 percent of voters were in favor of reunifying with Russia.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150201/1017625288.html#ixzz3QXA8kVGv

Ukraine's Communism Ban Undermines Gov't Credibility – UK Communist Party

Britain's New Communist Party (NCP) has condemned the Ukrainian government for its recent crackdown on leftist ideology, saying its latest action to ban communist symbols proved Kiev was a Western proxy that had no credibility, NCP leader Andy Brooks told Sputnik on Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — He added NCP supported the people in Ukraine's southeastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, as well as Russia's attempts to resolve the crisis there.

"We are not surprised," the NCP general secretary said commenting on Kiev's bill that equated the Soviet Communist regime to Nazism.

"We think that the Ukrainian regime is a puppet regime which is run by neo-Nazis, and it is a regime which was put in power by Franco-German and US imperialism. It has no credibility."

Eastern Ukraine has been in turmoil after a Western-leaning group of politicians seized power in the country in a February 2014 coup and launched a military offensive against anti-Kiev militias last April. Since about that time, Moscow has been mediating the armed conflict as part of a Contact Group.

"We said last year before Maidan that it was the biggest crisis Europe has seen since World War Two," Brooks told Sputnik.

He added everything that the new Ukrainian government has done after it came to power last year confirms that the Russian government had acted as a "remarkable restraint," as evidenced by various media reports.

On April 9, the Ukrainian parliament passed a bill to ban display, sale or use of Soviet Communist propaganda and symbols, alongside similar Nazi paraphernalia.

Ukraine's attempt to outlaw the country's communist past has made it a target for criticism from leftist parties in Europe. The Greek Communist Party earlier compared this move to an act of political terror, while Italian communists condemned Kiev for taking a totally undemocratic and revisionist course.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/politics/20150430/1021548289.html#ixzz3YloTrycl

Opposition Bloc party urges Poroshenko to stop repressions against opposition

"Political persecution and pressure on the opposition continue in Ukraine," Opposition Bloc says in its statement

KIEV, June 16. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Opposition Bloc party has called on President Petro Poroshenko to stop pressure on those who disagree with the policy of the current government in the country, says the party’s statement released on Tuesday.

"Political persecution and pressure on the opposition continue in Ukraine," Opposition Bloc says in its statement. In particular, this is "evident in the delay of registration of the Opposition Bloc political party ahead of local elections in the Kharkiv region and the illegal decision to ban the opposition in the Ivano-Frankivsk region at the level of the regional council."

"The campaign against registration of our party unleashed in the regions has nothing to do with law and democracy," Opposition Bloc says pointing to "the need to abide by the Constitution, implement the provisions of the law on free elections, protect democratic and legal procedures during the registration of the opposition in the regions."

On May 18, 2015, the main territorial department of justice in the Kharkiv region took a decision for the second time in a row on refusal to conduct registration actions to change the location of the territorial branch of the Opposition Bloc party, the membership of its governing bodies and the name of its territorial organization. The Opposition Bloc challenged the decision in the Kharkiv District Administrative Court. According to the opposition party, the court deliberately delays the passing of the judgement by postponing the hearing.

On April 17, the Ivano-Frankivsk regional council took a decision on banning the state registration and the activities of the Opposition Bloc political party on the territory of the region. The Opposition Bloc lodged a complaint against the Ivano-Frankivsk regional council with a view of protecting the right of citizens to the freedom of association and the right to join political parties and seeking the cancellation of the decision.

Ukraine’s Communist parties banned from being involved in politics, elections — official

The minister of justice has signed a decision, according to which the Communist parties forfeit the right to be subjects of political and electoral processes

KIEV, July 24. /TASS/. Ukrainian Minister of Justice Pavel Petrenko has signed a number of decisions, according to which the Communist parties in Ukraine are stripped of the right to take part in the political processes as well as in the elections, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Turchynov told a press briefing on Friday.

"The minister of justice has signed a decision, according to which the Communist parties forfeit the right to be subjects to the political and electoral processes," he said.

Turchynov called it "an act of historical justice," accusing the political parties adhering to the Communist ideology of "torturing the Ukrainian people and mass murders."

The Minister of Justice noted that he had signed three orders, which recognize that the Communist Party of Ukraine "in its activities, name and symbols" did not conform to the law on the condemnation of the Communist and national-socialist totalitarian regimes."

"The legal consequences of the orders are that, as of today, this political force and other political parties cannot be subjects to the electoral processes and won’t be able to take part in local and state elections," Petrenko said.

He also promised that the judicial processes associated with the Communist parties "would be carried through."

The Communist Party of Ukraine, the Communist Party of Ukraine (renewed) and the Communist Party of the Workers and Peasants are currently operating in Ukraine.

Barring Communists From Elections Sign of Kiev's Undemocratic Nature - MEP



Commenting on the Ukrainian Justice Ministry's decision to ban three communist parties from running in upcoming local elections, Czech politician Miloslav Ransdorf told Sputnik that Kiev's actions are undemocratic, and cast an unfavorable light on Ukraine's bid to join the European Union.

Last week, Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko said that the Communist Party of Ukraine, the Communist Party of Ukraine's Workers and Peasants, and the Reformed Communist Party of Ukraine would be barred from local elections set for October, citing recent 'decommunization' legislation passed by lawmakers earlier this year. The minister also pledged to file a lawsuit to formally ban the parties outright in the near future. The Communist Party of Ukraine called the decision an attempt to deprive voters of an alternative to the current government.

Commenting on the Justice Ministry's decision, Ransdorf, European Member of Parliament for the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, told Sputnik that "the prohibition of political parties is something which has no place in the European Union…But Kiev goes its own way which, in my opinion, is far removed from the principles of democracy."

The politician noted that it was ridiculous for Ukrainian authorities to think that they could "solve its political and economic problems" via this petty decision, adding that the country has much bigger problems to tackle at the moment. "As Prime Minister Yatsenyuk has acknowledged, the country is no longer able to service its public debt, and the massacre at Mukachevo showed the political unity of the Ukrainian nation is bursting at the seams."

Asked by Sputnik what it was that Kiev was so afraid of, and whether the Communist Party's popularity in the east of the country and among the Russian speaking population has anything to do with authorities clampdown, Ransdorf noted that at the 2012 parliamentary elections, "the Communists won 13 percent of the vote, which is not insignificant. Ukrainian authorities under Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk have sought the complete isolation of the Communist Party from the political process. Last year, I regularly traveled to Ukraine, and I know first-hand about the unbearable conditions created for the party to carry out its political activity."

Ransdorf told Sputnik that an interaction he had with the post-Maidan crop of Ukrainian politicians have led him to believe that Ukraine's current political class does not respect the central tenet of democratic politics, which is tolerance for other viewpoints.

"I had the opportunity to hold hearings on Ukraine in the European Parliament. Three members of the Verkhovna Rada had been invited to the hearings –from the Fatherland Union, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and the nationalist Svoboda party. As it happened, the representative from Svoboda threatened me on the floor of parliament, saying that he would deprive me of the right to enter his country. And then he quite literally attacked Dmitri Perlin, program director of the Ukrainian Commission on Human Rights and coordinator of the UA Monitoring project, who had spoken about Kiev's blockade of Donbass. All this confirmed to me the obvious fact that the political elite in Ukraine does not recognize the principle of mutual respect and understanding."

Asked what the future holds for Ukraine over Kiev's decision to de facto ban the Ukrainian communists from participating in politics, Ransdorf noted that events will "inevitably lead to Kiev's total political and economic collapse."

Authorities in post-Maidan Ukraine have repeatedly attempted to ban the activities of Ukraine's communists, leading a bitter and oddly fanatical struggle against parties and their members. The Communist Party of Ukraine, which has consistently spoken out against the government since its unconstitutional toppling of the government of Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014, have been subject to various forms of official and unofficial harassment and persecution ever since. Last summer, the KPU faction in the Rada was forcibly dissolved by presidential decree, three months ahead of October's snap parliamentary elections. Communists working in the civil service were subjected to Kiev's lustration campaign. Meanwhile, ordinary party members have faced regular attacks by ultranationalist gangs, which carried out house-to-house attacks on party offices and members' homes after obtaining party lists. In May, a new law went into effect enforcing a ban on communist symbols and propaganda, and equating the ideology with Nazism.
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Read more: http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150727/1025106547.html#ixzz3h7s5uNhs

Ukrainian radicals urge to change constitution via referendum

On Monday, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada passed in the first reading the amendments to the country’s constitution on decentralization

KIEV, August 31. /TASS/. A draft law has been registered in Ukraine’s parliament calling for a moratorium on constitutional changes over the conflict in the country’s east, the Verkhovna Rada said on its website on Monday.

The bill, initiated by Ukraine’s Radical party, is aimed at imposing a moratorium on constitutional amendments on decentralization and putting the issue to a referendum, an explanatory note said.

On Monday, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada passed in the first reading the amendments to the country’s constitution on decentralization. These amendments proposed by President Petro Poroshenko were supported by 265 lawmakers, above a required minimum of 226 votes. A total of 87 parliamentarians voted against the changes.

The amendments to Ukraine’s constitution should be passed at two Verkhovna Rada sessions - first by a simple majority of votes (226 votes), and then - by the constitutional one (at least 300 votes).

The voting for the constitutional amendments on decentralization has brought to an end the second session of the Verkhovna Rada. Then the document will be submitted to the next parliament session due to begin on September 1 for passing it on the whole.

Constitutional reform is an important part of the February 12 comprehensive action plan to fulfil the Minsk accords worked out by leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France in the search for peace in the embattled eastern Donbas region.

A key element of reform is decentralization of government with respect to the peculiarities of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions agreed with their representatives, as well as adopting permanent legislation on the special status of certain Donbas areas.

Special status provisions removed from Ukraine constitution, says Poroshenko

The president noted that the special order of self-government in parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions was governed by a separate law, "which has already been twice approved by parliament".

KIEV, August 31. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Monday that any provisions which could give eastern regions a special status had been removed from the country’s constitution.

"Article 92 envisioning a theoretical possibility of special status for certain cities has been removed to eliminate even the slightest legal hitch for a parade of sovereignties," Poroshenko said after Ukraine’s parliament on Monday voted in favour of constitutional changes.

The president noted that the special order of self-government in parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions was governed by a separate law, "which has already been twice approved by parliament".

Most provisions of the law has been suspended and will come into force after local elections are held in the area in accordance with Ukrainian legislation and standards of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), as well as after Kiev reinstates control of the border with Russia, Poroshenko added.

On Monday, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada passed the first reading of amendments to the country’s constitution. The decentralization draft law proposed by President Pyotr Poroshenko was supported by 265 deputies, above a required minimum of 226 votes. A total of 87 deputies voted against the changes.

The constitutional amendments should be passed at two Verkhovna Rada sessions - first by a simple majority of votes (226 votes), and then - by the constitutional one (at least 300 votes).


The voting on the bill has brought to an end the second session of the Verkhovna Rada. Then the document will be submitted to the next parliament session, due to begin on September 1, for passing it on the whole.

Constitutional reform is an important part of the February 12 comprehensive action plan to fulfil the Minsk accords worked out by leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France in the search for peace in the embattled eastern Donbass region.

A key element of reform is decentralization of government with respect to the peculiarities of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions agreed with their representatives, as well as adopting permanent legislation on the special status of certain Donbass areas.