Communists Seize Rada, Stop WTO Voting.

Members of the Communist party stormed the podium to block voting on laws needed to join the WTO. The Verkhovna Rada had planned to review eight laws yesterday, however, the disruption forced a recess and only one of the laws, on food safety standards, was passed. The Communists scuffled with other MPs and used blow horns to drown out a speech in favour of the legislation by Economic Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk.  Yatseniuk later said that he doubted Ukraine would join the WTO this year. President Yushchenko said failure to adopt the laws will only hurt Ukraine, not the WTO. Concorde Capital: Yushchenko’s compromises to garner support for WTO legislation seem to have appeased almost everyone but the Communists (the food safety law passed with 330 votes) who lack the numbers to stop the WTO laws from passing. In related news, Russia may be backing down in its race with Ukraine to join the WTO. Yesterday, Russian Trade and Economic Minister, German Gref said it was possible that Russia would not join the WTO until 2007.