Poroshenko to submit bill to require EU-NATO integration

Ukrainian President
Petro Poroshenko will submit legislation in September to parliament to amend
the nation’s constitution to require integration into NATO and the EU, Oleh
Medvedev, a political consultant to Poroshenko, told the Prime television
network on Aug. 20. Poroshenko will be able to muster 300 votes in the current
parliamentary session for such an amendment, which won’t happen in the next
session. “I predict the representation of pro-Russian forces there will grow,
for objective reasons,” he said. “Of course, the majority of deputies will be on
pro-European positions. That will be a majority of 226 votes. In the next
Verkhovna Rada, it will be impossible to collect 300 votes for Euro-Atlantic
integration.”

Zenon Zawada: This constitutional amendment is
part of the president’s re-election campaign strategy of uniting Ukraine’s
pro-Western electorate behind him to oppose what will be depicted as
pro-Russian political forces. This strategy involves creating a black-and-white
choice for voters, and convincing them to choose the president as the best
guarantor of the nation’s pro-Western geopolitical course.

As part of this
strategy, the president is also pursuing a single, canonical Ukrainian Orthodox
church that is independent of Moscow. The president’s leading challenger, Yulia
Tymoshenko, will be depicted as representing the Kremlin’s interests. We
believe this is the single strategy that can lead to the re-election of
Poroshenko, whose poll ratings are poor currently.