Posted on 01/30/2007 7:36:09 PM PST by A. Pole
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Borys Tarasiuk resigned on Tuesday, in another political defeat for the country's pro-Europe President Viktor Yushchenko.
The announcement ended a two-month-old court battle between Yushchenko and the pro-Russia wing of the country's political elite, who wanted the pro-Europe Tarasiuk out of the job.
A constitutional dispute between Yushchenko and the Ukrainian parliament the Verhovna Rada had left Tarasiuk in political limbo, with other senior members of the government making foreign agreements own their own, and guards locking Tarasiuk out of cabinet meetings.
When Tarasiuk refused to give in, parliament severed funding for the Foreign Ministry - a move Tarasiuk called critical in his final decision to quit.
"If it (the severance) had lasted much longer, Ukraine would fail to meet some of its international obligations," Tarasiuk said.
On December 1, Ukraine's parliament ordered Tarasiuk be sacked, saying his pro-Europe politics had harmed relations with Ukraine's northern neighbour Russia.
Yushchenko called the parliament move "unconstitutional", as the Ukrainian constitution gives the president the right to nominate a foreign minister. The document does not clarify whether parliament or president can fire him.
The conflict had dragged on in courts for two months with no clear end in sight, and justices in the constitutional court visibly avoiding a hearing on the case.
Bump
Not at all. Sounds like the parliament decided to act much like our new Congress wishes to.
And that would be bad in both directions, coming from the East and the West.
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