Yanik should see psychiatrist
Yanukovych's reaction following last Tuesday's dreadful accident in Marhanetsk in which over 40 people were killed when a commuter bus was struck by a train? - "Drivers who run red lights should see a psychiatrist."
Maybe he should see a psychiatrist himself and set a better example. Last April, the driver of a vehicle escorting the president
killed the totally innocent driver and seriously injured passengers of another vehicle, during his cavalcade's regular mad dash through specially closed-off Kyiv roads.
Pathetic parliament
Last Friday, the Ukrainian Constitutional Court decided to nullify the 2004 constitutional amendments which had been voted in at that time by over 400 Verkhovna Rada deputies. The CC judges also took it upon themselves to resurrect the 1996 version of the Constitution; whether they had the authority to do this is highly 'iffy', to say the least.
This Thursday, VR deputies meekly voted through a motion to reduce their own powers and to increase the powers of the
HWMBO president.
The pathetic state of the current Ukrainian parliament, and the cynicism of its deputies, was well illustrated by the evening session when the decision was made.
It was attended by
less than 100 deputies. Deputy parliamentary speaker Adam Martynyuk bitterly opened the session, no doubt through gritted teeth, declaring: "300 voting cards had been registered - the evening session can begin.." So less then a quarter of them had even bothered to turn up to carry out this self-castration.
"This is the way the world ends,
Not with a bang but a whimper". The Hollow Men - T. S. Eliot
Judges kept their fingers crossed
On 5th February 2008 the Constitutional Court of Ukraine [CCU] rejected an appeal by 102 parliamentary deputies to re-examine the constitutionality of law No 2222 of 8th December 2004 "On Amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine".
Law No2222, which diluted the authority of the president, was passed at the height of the Orange Revolution by over 400 votes in parliament. What is often overlooked is that discontent about excessive presidential powers had been growing rapidly in the early years of the first decade of this century, both in parliament and throughout the country.
In 2008 the CCU judges were entirely satisfied that the December 2004 changes were a valid part of the country's constitution. Their
official ruling included this: "The position of the law on introduction of changes to the Constitution of Ukraine, [is that], on gaining validity, [it] becomes an integral component of the Constitution of Ukraine ...and the law's function is exhausted.. ". "The decision of the Constitutional Court is final", they concluded.
Last Friday, the CCU made a final, final decision, overturning the 2008 'final' decision and declared that law No 2222 unconstitutional after all, returning the country to the 1996 Constitution.
p.p.s When the representative audience on last Friday's
Savik Shuster show were asked what kind of government they would prefer, 72% chose parliamenary/presidential - 28% chose a presidential/parliamentary..
Gangster state
On Friday, on the 'Savik Shuster Live'
TV program, former minister of Defence Anatoliy Hrytsenko, who presently heads the Parliamentary National Security and Defence committee, suggested that current Deputy Minister of Defence, Oleksandr Cherpitsky, could be out of a job by the end of the week. Hrytsenko's committee has written to both president Yanukovych and to PM Mykola Azarov demanding his dismissal.
Hrytsenko alleged the SBU, [Security Service of Ukraine] had twice refused Oleksandr Cherpitsky access to state secrets, therefore he was not allowed to attend a recent meeting of his parliamentary committee.
[Incidentally, Oleksandr Cherpitsky's brother, Oleh, was until recently a BYuT deputy but switched loyalties and is now part of the PoR-led ruling parliamentary coalition. Last year he was
in the headlines for seriously assaulting a journalist.]
Oleksandr Cherpitsky
was appointed deputy Minister of Transport in February this year by the-then PM Yulia Tymoshenko to gain loyalty and support of his sister-in-law i.e. brother Oleh's wife, who was a judge in the Higher Administrative Court. She may have been useful to Tymoshenko when Yulka T. was challenging the result of the presidential elections, having lost to Yanukovych, earlier this year. In the event, the lady judge went 'AWOL' and was of no help.
In April this year, the authorative 'Dzerkaly Tyzhnya', citing official police records, published
an article revealing Oleksandr and Oleh Cherpitsky's sinister past.
In 1991 Oleksandr, nickname 'Chepchyk', was a member of a criminal gang 'Kuponshchyky' - and was sought by the police for extortion and other crimes. Two years later he joined the 'Akademiky' gang, and sought refuge in the Czech republic or Slovakia. In 1997 he was placed on an Interpol wanted list and was detained in 1999. In 2001, as member of the 'Vosmynohy' gang, he was linked in police reports to violent robberies.
Anyhow, perhaps in recognition of his expertise in these fields, newly-elected president Yanukovych
quickly appointed brother Oleksandr as Deputy Minister of Defence, and also director of the State Department responsible for "disposal" of surplus land and other military assets. These amount to thousands of vehicles, buildings, many thousands of hectares of land, and most alarmingly, hundreds of tons of weaponry etc. etc.
How may more 'Chepchyks' are are walking through the corridors of power in Ukraine right now, I wonder?
P.s. On the above-mentioned Shuster programme Cherpitsky confronted Hrytsenko and denied that he was ever in jail, or ever associated with such a criminal past. The looks on the faces of most of the guests in the studio suggested otherwise..
Ukrainian soldiers disgrace themselves again..
The current 'Dzerkalo Tyzhnya' weekly reports that the Ukrainian peace-keepers who are part of the NATO-led KFOR troops in Kosovo, have been involved in a gigantic fuel scam.
In four months in 2009, the 181-strong Ukrainian contingent, equipped with 47 vehicles, used 1,600,000 litres of fuel - over 34,000 litres per vehicle. They claimed each vehicle was driven over 400km every day i.e. about the same distance as the perimeter of Kosovo itself, and their generators were producing almost as much power as all of the generators at HQ KFOR.
KFOR comprises just under 10,000 troops in total.
Ukrainian soldiers also attempted to smuggle 1.5 tons of cigarettes from FYROM. These scams made millions of euros - it is reasonable to assume that it went all of the way to the top of the chain of command.
However, 'Zerkalo Tyzhnya' questions whether Ukraine's Prosecutor General wants to get involved...no surprise there then..
