Opposition Bloc faction votes to exclude Boyko, Lyovochkin

The Opposition Bloc parliamentary faction voted this morning
to exclude from its membership its co-head, Yuriy Boyko, and his close
associate, Serhiy Lyovochkin, who served as the presidential administration
head under Viktor Yanukovych. The announcement was made by faction co-head
Oleksandr Vilkul, who has been Boyko’s main rival within the faction. Vilkul is
close aligned with industrial kingpin Rinat Akhmetov, while Boyko is closely
aligned with natural gas trader Dmytro Firtash.

In response to his exclusion, Boyko said he will form
a parliamentary group named after his newly formed party, the Opposition
Platform For Life. He said he expects it will become the largest group in
parliament. Ukraine’s parliament currently has six factions and two groups.

Recall, Boyko confirmed on Nov. 17 that he will be the
presidential candidate from the Opposition Platform party.
A week earlier, Vadim Novinsky and Boris Kolesnikov – both close associates to
Akhmetov – said Boyko reached his decision to form a new party without the approval of the political council of the
Opposition Bloc party.

Zenon Zawada: This is the
latest phase of the collapse in the unity of Ukraine’s Russian-oriented forces,
which had been held together by former President Viktor Yanukovych for a
decade. The unity between the Akhmetov and Firtash groups that had been
preserved throughout this time looks to be beyond repair.

Though the Akhmetov group has secured control of the
Opposition Bloc parliamentary faction, the legal status of the party remains
unclear. Specifically, it’s not understood whether Boyko’s new party is the
legal successor to the Opposition Bloc and its assets.

It also remains unclear how Akhmetov’s group will approach
the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections. It will have to decide
whether to field its own presidential candidate (certain to be Vilkul), and
whether to launch the Opposition Bloc party under a new name and political
positions (considering that Boyko has adopted a similar name and similar
positions for his project).

Akhmetov and Vilkul will have to be very careful in
how they play the elections. Failed election campaigns, with poor results, can
not only reduce their political influence, but do serious damage to their image
as well. Akhmetov has invested in numerous political projects, but his image
and influence will be most closely associated with Vilkul’s party, which will
have to strongly distinguish itself from Boyko’s party to be successful.