Ukraine opposition renews parliamentary blockade

Ukraine’s opposition MPs renewed on March 6 its blockade of parliament after Speaker Volodymyr Rybak filed a complaint with a Kyiv court last week to deprive the parliamentary mandate of Serhiy Vlasenko, the defense attorney for imprisoned opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko. During a March 5 meeting with opposition leaders, Rybak refused to withdraw his complaint, which will be reviewed by a Kyiv court today.

Zenon Zawada: Here we go again. But while the EU leadership was lukewarm on the previous blockade, in which the opposition demanded an end to absentee voting in parliament, it is far more likely to support the current blockade. Rybak’s complaint against Vlasenko is clearly politically motivated, in the view of EU leadership. The German Foreign Ministry called in for talks on March 4 Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Pavlo Klimkin, issuing him its “unprecedentedly harsh” position on Vlasenko’s persecution, reported the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The ruling Party of Regions is demonstrating that it’s not the least bit daunted by warnings from EU leaders that its persecution of opposition leaders will undermine signing the Association Agreement in November. In such conditions, we expect such conflicts to flare every few months, if not more often, with little being accomplished in parliament and increasing the likelihood that the Ukraine-EU pact won’t be signed.