Rada removes Interior Minister Lutsenko from post

The Verkhovna Rada voted yesterday to dismiss Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Yuriy Lutsenko. A total of 231 deputies voted in favor of the initiative: 171 from the Party of Regions, 27 from the Communist Party, 19 from the Lytvyn Bloc, 11 from Our Ukraine, 1 from the Tymoshenko Bloc and two other deputies. Later in the day Lutsenko was appointed First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by the Cabinet of Ministers. Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said she believed the dismissal of the nation’s top cop was meant to befuddle law enforcement’s response to alleged vote rigging in the presidential election. Brad Wells: Lutsenko, a Tymoshenko ally, has been on the chopping block since early 2009, with Party of Regions deputies repeatedly calling for his removal. We view the timing of the Rada vote, with nine days left until the second round of the presidential elections remaining, as politically motivated – opening up one more gap in and attempting to delegitimize the Tymoshenko government, which is already without a finance minister, defense minister, and transportation & communications minister.