Backgrounder: Gas dispute between Ukraine, Russia

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko speak to media on his arrival to Kazakhstan's capital Astana, January 10, 2006. Yushchenko said he believed Tuesday's vote by parliament to oust his government was unconstitutional. (Photo: Xinhua/Reuters)

    KIEV, Jan. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- The Ukrainian parliament sacked the government on Tuesday over a recently reached gas deal with Russia, complicating the situation in the country less than three months ahead of its parliamentary vote.

    A total of 250 lawmakers of the 450-seat parliament voted for the resolution to dismiss Prime Minister Yury Yekhanurov's government with immediate effect, exceeding the 226 votes needed for the resolution to pass through.

    The lawmakers accused Yekhanurov's government of "betraying national interests" by signing a deal with Russia on gas supplies, which nearly doubles the gas price for Ukraine.

    Russia and Ukraine struck a five-year deal on gas supply on Wednesday. Under the deal, Russia will sell gas for 230 U.S. dollars per 1,000 cubic meters to the Rosukrenergo trading company,which will mix Russian gas with cheaper gas from Central Asia and sell the blend to Ukraine for 95 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters.

    Opposition lawmakers said the current gas price is too high for the country's industries and the deal gives Russia too much leverage over gas imports to Ukraine, which they said endangers the country's energy security.

    Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who was in Kazakhstan's capital Astana for President Nursultan Nazarbayev's inauguration ceremony, called the parliament's dismissal of Yekhanurov's government as "illegal and unconstitutional" and said he did not rule out dissolving the parliament.

    Ukraine's government will stay on until the March parliamentary election despite the parliamentary vote to sack it, Yushchenko said.

    "This cabinet will work until the parliamentary election in Ukraine. I want to underline, they will not be caretakers but will work as prime minister and ministers of the cabinet," Yushchenko said in a statement posted on his official Web site, www.president.gov.ua.

    Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Yushchenko said the president planned to challenge the vote in Ukraine's Constitutional Court.

    However, the court is currently paralyzed as the parliament has blocked Yushchenko's nominees, which makes it fall short of the required number of judges.

    The country's Justice Minister Serhiy Golovaty also believed the dismissal was illegal. "The absurdity of the situation is that neither the president nor parliament will be able to form a new government until a new parliament is elected," he told reporters.

    According to an amendment to Ukraine's constitution in December 2004, the parliament will see an expanded power and the government will be formed by a party or party coalition with a majority in the parliament.

    However, as the amendment came into force as scheduled on Jan. 1, and while the new parliament will not be formed until after the March 26 elections, a political vacuum leaps in.

    Analysts believe that the move was a show of power by the opposition parties ahead of the crucial March 26 parliamentary elections, which are set to be a close fight between President Yushchenko's camp and the opposition parties.

    "People just wanted to play around, and this will have no effect," said Prime Minister Yekhanurov, who took over after Yushchenko sacked his predecessor Yulia Tymoshenko.

    Tymoshenko, a close ally to Yushchenko in Ukraine's Orange Revolution that swept them to power, was believed to be a driving force behind the no-confidence vote.

    The former prime minister will run against Yushchenko's allies in the March elections.

    Some of the opposition leaders who initiated the measure also said it was nothing more than a ploy aimed at paralyzing the government.

    "We know we cannot dissolve the Cabinet," said opposition lawmaker Nestor Shufrych, whose Social Democratic (United) party was one of the initiators to vote out the government.

    Nevertheless, experts say that the move, regardless of its legality, would deal a hard blow to the popularity of Yushchenko and erode his chances of winning the poll. Enditem