The Party of Regions, led by Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, warns about a possibility of recalling Yanukovych`s signature from the joint statement by the President, the Prime Minister and the VR Speaker on settlement of the political crisis, according to Itar-Tass.
The party said in its statement issued on Wednesday that a reason for that could be the “continuation of the practice of revising the points of a respective statement on the part of the president” that appeared in response to a statement by Ukrainian Security Council Secretary Ivan Pliushch.
“The statement by the Security Council secretary causes deep concern of the Party of Regions in connection with his flat tone and open legal nihilism,” the Party of Regions said.
“Such tone can be accepted in absolute monarchies of the past century, but not in a European state of the 21st century,” it said.
The Party of Regions stated that the “author of the loud statement about the unequivocal legitimacy of all presidential decrees passed in recent time is at the post of Security Council secretary illegitimately, as his age is above maximally permitted for state employees”.
The Party of Regions is worried about “fact of a revision by the presidential structure of the joint statement by the president, the head of the Verkhovna Rada and the premier, in particular about the point on the obligation of the sides not to allow an interference in the activity of court authorities and law and order agencies”.
This point is not being fulfilled by the presidential side, the statement said.
Thus “chief of the State Security Service Valery Geletei and his subordinates are pressuring judges and in fact have blocked the work of the Constitutional Court; Geletei himself stayed in the office of acting Constitutional Court head Valery Pshenichny for two hours, voicing threats and hindering his work,” the document said.
It said there had been an “attempt to revise the provision of the joint statement by ‘special operations’ that have been carried out with the aim of asserting the decision on legitimacy of the president’s acts on the dismissal of Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun, the resignation of the Constitutional Court judges and re-subordination of the interior troops” to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.
“On its part the Party of Regions is demonstrating full adherence to the points of the joint statement, in particular during the plenary sitting of the Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday,” the statement said.
“Summing up, we consider it necessary to say that in case of continuing the revision of the ‘statement by the troika’ by the president’s team, the Party of Regions is going to insist on recalling by the party’s leader of his signature under the joint statement,” the document said.
The Security Council secretary said on Tuesday that the interior troops “remain under the command of the Ukrainian president, and only a new parliament will bring the provisions of the law on the interior trips in conformity with norms of the Constitution”.
He also said the “presidential decrees have been issued within the framework of his powers and remain effective”.
Pliushch warned against “attempts of a free interpretation of the joint statement by the president, the premier and the parliament speaker on settlement of the political crisis and the conduction of early parliamentary elections”.
He said the “stance of the president remains unaltered” in respect of the appointment of the acting prosecutor-general, the dismissal of the Constitutional Court judges, putting the interior troops under his command, as well as “assessment of the actions of the Interior Ministry’s head during the forceful seizure by police of the Prosecutor General’s Office”.
The Security Council secretary called on the parliamentary coalition “to fulfill all accords signed by the leaders”.
At the same time, First Deputy Interior Minister Mikhail Korniyenko said that the interior troops remained under the command of the Interior Ministry.
