UKRAINE'S president, Viktor Yushchenko, has threatened to dismiss parliament and call early elections after the country's coalition government fell apart in an acrimonious dispute that could intensify divisions between the country's pro-Western and pro-Russian factions.
Addressing the nation on television yesterday, Mr Yushchenko said: "A political and constitutional coup d'etat has started in parliament. I will use my right to dismiss parliament and announce early elections if a new coalition is not formed within
30 days."
His parliamentary allies walked out of the coalition government on Tuesday in protest against new laws, sponsored by supporters of the prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, curbing presidential powers and boosting those of the prime minister. Mr Yushchenko has described the laws as unconstitutional, saying they would "set up a prime-ministerial dictatorship".
In response, Ms Tymoshenko placed the blame firmly at the door of the president. The prime minister told a cabinet meeting: "The president and his office have used every means to ruin the coalition. The coalition split on his own decision." She vowed that the cabinet would continue to operate, despite the walkout.
The row between president and prime minister, which comes just days before a visit by Dick Cheney, the vice president of the United States, is the latest dispute in a fractious relationship that started when the two were swept to power in Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution.
Rarely, if ever, agreeing on policy, relations between the two leaders reached rock-bottom in August after the pro-Georgian Mr Yushchenko accused Ms Tymoshenko of treason after she allegedly sided with Moscow over Russia's incursion into Georgia by using her party to block a parliamentary motion condemning Russia's actions.
The political instability could well exacerbate concerns held by some Ukrainians that the Kremlin might seek to exploit its weakness in a growing East-West tug-of-war over Ukraine's future.
The Kremlin has regarded Mr Yushchenko's intentions of moving the country of 49 million into the Western fold through membership of the European Union and Nato with distaste, and has made clear it sees Ukraine, which has a significant Russian population, well inside Moscow's sphere of influence.
Ukraine also plays a major strategic role in Moscow's affairs. A significant consumer of Russian energy, Ukrainian pipelines also carry Moscow's oil and gas westwards, and its ports host Russia's Black Sea Fleet under lease agreements.
WHAT NEXTTHE US vice-president, Dick Cheney, says his country has a "deep interest" in the security of its allies in the Caucasus.
Mr Cheney made his comments in Azerbaijan, on the first leg of a tour including Georgia and Ukraine, which analysts say is designed to signal that Washington has not turned its back on former Soviet allies following Russia's war with Georgia last month.
"We've met this evening in the shadow of the recent Russian invasion of Georgia," Mr Cheney told reporters as he sat next to Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev.
"President Bush has sent me here with a clear and simple message for the people of Azerbaijan and this entire region: The United States has deep and abiding interests in your wellbeing and security.
"The United States strongly believes that together with the nations of Europe, including Turkey, we must work with Azerbaijan and other countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia on additional routes for energy exports."
The full article contains 565 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
