[Ohio UZO News] Tarasyuk resigns - AP, Reuters; NYT; WSJ

[Deychak, Orest]

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 30, 2007

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Resigns 

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukraine's pro-Western foreign minister resigned
Tuesday, saying a monthlong struggle between him and the government
dominated by a Russia-leaning party risked damaging the country's
international reputation.

President Viktor Yushchenko, who had appointed Borys Tarasyuk, accepted the
resignation and called it ''a responsible step,'' according to the
presidential press office.

Tarasyuk, who advocates policies such as NATO  membership, had been feuding
for a month with the government run by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.
Tarasyuk said he decided to resign because the conflict could hurt Ukraine's
international image.

''As a politician, as a diplomat and as a citizen I believe that it is
impossible to drag out with it any more,'' Tarasyuk said.

The resignation reflects the struggle in Ukrainian politics between
pro-Western Yushchenko and the more Russian-leaning Yanukovych to determine
who has the upper hand. Ukraine's constitution leaves the precise division
of powers unclear, prompting a tug-of-war for authority that is largely
being won by Yanukovych.

Yanukovych appears to have the stronger hand, particularly after parliament
approved a new law this month outlining Cabinet powers.

Yushchenko had vetoed the measure, saying it undermined the balance of power
between the president and ministers, but lawmakers overrode him. 

Reuters
Ukraine's pro-Western foreign minister resigns 
By Ron Popeski 
30 January 2007 
KIEV, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk, one of President
Viktor Yushchenko's closest allies, resigned on Tuesday, leaving the
Ukrainian leader isolated and casting new doubt on his plans to move the
ex-Soviet state towards the West. 
Tarasyuk was a key figure in the 2004 "Orange Revolution" that vaulted the
president to power and chief architect of his ambitious plans to join the
European Union and NATO. 
One of only a handful of allies still loyal to the president in a government
controlled by his arch rival, Tarasyuk finally succumbed to two months of
attempts to force him from office. 
"The president of Ukraine has taken the decision to accept my resignation,"
Tarasyuk told a news conference broadcast on national television. 
The office of the president, whose powers have been sharply reduced by
constitutional amendments, said Tarasyuk's first deputy, Volodymyr Ohryzko,
had been appointed acting minister. 
Tarasyuk had been one of only two ministers still loyal to the president
since his arch rival defeated in the revolution, Viktor Yanukovich, took
over as prime minister last August. 
He had championed the president's main policy of taking Ukraine out of the
shadow of big neighbour Russia, uprooting corruption and joining major
Western institutions. 
Parliament, its powers newly expanded, sacked Tarasyuk in December and
guards barred him from cabinet meetings. He challenged the vote in the
courts and the president refused to accept it, saying he remained in charge
of foreign policy. 
UNDEMOCRATIC, IMMORAL 
In his comments to reporters, Tarasyuk accused Yanukovich's government of
"wanting to use undemocratic and immoral methods amounting to a usurpation
of power. 
"At issue here is a determined bid to remove the foreign minister as an act
of reprisal against democratic forces." 
Tarasyuk left office a week before a planned visit to Kiev by top EU
officials. Two officials seen as likely replacements, Ohryzko and Oleksander
Chaly, a former deputy minister, are more moderate in promoting Ukraine's
integration with the West. 
A spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the exact
timing of the meeting was still not clarified. 
"Our interest is in meeting whenever it best serves our relationship," she
said in Brussels, praising the EU's "excellent relations" with Tarasyuk. EU
officials have expressed concern about the political stalemate in Kiev. 
Yushchenko singled out foreign policy as his top priority on taking office
in early 2005, but debilitating rows split the Orange Revolution's advocates
and toppled his first government. 
His allies scored badly in a parliamentary election last year and were
unable after long talks to form a government. The president reluctantly
named Yanukovich as prime minister after securing guarantees that key
policies would remain unchanged. 
But within weeks of taking office, Yanukovich enraged the president by
telling NATO officials that public support was too low in Ukraine to embark
on a fast-track membership plan. 
The prime minister, more sympathetic to Moscow, has challenged Yushchenko's
authority at every turn. Pending legislation may further cut his powers,
leaving him able to propose appointments to a few positions, including the
foreign and defence ministries, subject to parliament's approval. 
More than two years after the revolution, disillusion with its aims is high
and the popularity of the president, widely accused of indecision, has sunk
to single figures. Defence Minister Anatoly Hrytsenko remains his sole major
cabinet ally. 
 
The New York Times 
30 January 2007 

Late Edition - Final 

Medical tests on President Viktor A. Yushchenko in Geneva showed he was in
good health more than two years after he was poisoned with dioxin when he
was running for office, his spokeswoman said. ''The amount of dioxin in his
body has decreased by 80 percent,'' she said. Mr. Yushchenko is still
facially disfigured. No progress has been reported from an inquiry into the
poisoning. 

The Wall Street Journal 

Politics & Economics: Ukraine Pipeline Plan Promises To Diversify EU's Oil
Supply 

By Marc Champion 

26 January 2007 

A4 

DAVOS, Switzerland -- In a move that would help to diversify Europe's energy
supplies, Ukraine's prime minister said he is working to complete a pipeline
to carry Caspian-region oil directly to the European Union. 

Completion of the pipeline would bring an additional 12 million metric tons
of oil a year to the EU from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia, Ukrainian
Premier Viktor Yanukovych said in an interview at the World Economic Forum.
That would help to diversify supplies at a time of mounting concern over EU
dependence on Russian energy. The EU consumed 700 million tons of oil in
2005, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy. 

EU concerns again came to the fore this month when Russia, without warning,
shut down a pipeline that crosses Belarus during a dispute over duties. The
move cut off refineries in Germany, Poland and other Central European
countries. 

The pipeline proposal would appear to be at odds with the perception of Mr.
Yanukovych as a Russian puppet. "I consider myself pro-Ukrainian," not
pro-Russian, he said. 

Currently, the pipeline from Odessa stops in western Ukraine, near the
Polish border. There it connects to the main Russian export lines from
Siberia. Since 2004, it has carried only Russian oil south to Odessa. From
there it is shipped through Turkey's overcrowded Bosporus. 

Mr. Yanukovych said Russia is on board with the plan to complete the
pipeline -- which would enable oil to flow in the other direction. "We
believe Russia will decide quite soon how big their interest will be, in
terms of the amount of oil they put in the pipeline," he said, adding that
Russian oil could be shipped from Novorossiysk on the Black Sea and fed into
the pipeline. 

Two years ago, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko came to the annual
World Economic Forum meeting in Davos as a political star. Just weeks
earlier he had beaten Mr. Yanukovych in a rerun of a poll forced by massive
street protests. 

At the time, Mr. Yanukovych appeared to be hurt badly politically, along
with Russian influence in Ukraine: Russian President Vladimir Putin had
publicly backed Mr. Yanukovych for the job. Mr. Yanukovych allowed Russia to
start sending oil south through the pipeline to Odessa before the election,
a move widely cited at the time as evidence of his dependence on Moscow. 

The pro-Western coalition that elected Mr. Yushchenko soon fell apart.
Economic growth and investment collapsed over fears the new government might
seize back thousands of companies privatized in allegedly rigged
privatizations. Last spring, Mr. Yanukovych's Party of the Regions won
parliamentary elections. In August, he was appointed prime minister. 

This time it is Mr. Yanukovych who has come to Davos. Ukraine's economy has
bounced back: Capital investment rose 16% in the second half of last year,
compared with the same period in 2005. 

According to Mr. Yanukovych, the reality of the Odessa pipeline story wasn't
one of allegiance to Russia over the West. It was about the simple
availability of oil. He noted that the pipeline had stood empty for years
because the links to Poland and Slovakia hadn't been built. 

"The fact is that there wasn't enough oil coming out of the Caspian basin to
fill the Odessa pipeline then," he said. Next year, he added, there will for
the first time be enough surplus oil flowing out of Azerbaijan and
Kazakhstan to make completion of the pipeline commercially viable. How long
it takes to build the Western links and start pumping oil to the EU depends
on Slovakia and Poland, he said, declining to put a date on completion. 

Mr. Yanukovych said he is building a consortium with Ukraine, Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan and Russia to operate the pipeline. Poland in the past has said
it would like to see the pipeline finished and working. 

The Belarus cutoff may have helped to persuade Russia that the project is a
good idea, as it would provide them with an additional route for oil that
circumvents Belarus. "Russia has an interest in securing more ways to move
its oil in this direction too," Mr. Yanukovych said. 

 

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