Ukrainian Opposition Leader Accuses Cabinet of Plans to Privatize Gas Network

Ukrainian opposition leader Yuliya Tymoshenko has described the rise in the price of utilities as a threat to the country’s national security. She said this is a deliberate move by the cabinet aimed at bankrupting the country’s energy branch with its subsequent resale.

Tymoshenko was addressing a news conference in Kiev on 2 February, which was broadcast live by the 5 Kanal television.

“All the recent developments in Ukraine’s fuel and energy complex pose an extreme threat to the country,” Tymoshenko said. “You remember, I was always against RosUkrEnergo [the gas trader currently controlling all gas supplies to Ukraine from Russia and Central Asia countries]. Now the second large project to destroy Ukraine is under way. This is the seizure of our gas transportation system,” she said.

Tymoshenko said that Yanukovych’s cabinet is doing everything to impoverish Ukrainians, to make Ukrainian gas transport companies bankrupt and then to sell Ukraine’s gas transportation system to private owners “who will definitely be not from Ukraine”. In relation to this, she recalled the news conference of the Russian President Vladimir Putin on 1 February, when, according to Tymoshenko, “for the first time on the top level in Russia it was stated that the Ukrainian gas transportation system will become part of some other entities in exchange for granting Ukraine the right to take part in extraction of gas in Russia”.

Tymoshenko said that her faction in parliament has already drafted a number of bills to prevent the Ukrainian national oil and gas company Naftohaz Ukrayiny from bankruptcy and to prohibit the “unfounded rise” in utility rates.

“I think that if the president [Viktor Yushchenko] and his team, parliament, or, at least, its sensible part, summarize all these data, then today we have to urgently call a meeting of the National Security and Defence Council to look at what the new cabinet is doing to the country now,” Tymoshenko said.

She added that her political force will not wait for an official reaction to the cabinet’s actions. Deputies from the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc (YTB) will visit the regions, where they have the majority in local councils, to urge a revision of the local price of utilities. Moreover, the YTB has registered a bill on setting up a temporary investigation commission in parliament to look into the increase in the prices of utilities.

Tymoshenko also said that her faction in parliament will support any nominee proposed by the president to fill the post of the foreign minister after the resignation of Borys Tarasyuk on 30 January. She also said that her faction supports the initiative of the propresidential Our Ukraine faction regarding the voting to dismiss parliament speaker Oleksandr Moroz. She said that Moroz has helped “corrupt clans to take revenge”.

Tymoshenko added that the YTB has prepared a number of inquires to the Constitutional Court to cancel the constitutional reform transforming Ukraine into a parliamentary-presidential republic.

“Our strategic plans remain unchanged. These are early elections to parliament, binding mandate for deputies, including members of parliament, and cancellation of constitutional reform. We support the development and approval of a new constitution,” Tymoshenko said.

Tymoshenko’s news conference lasted for about 40 minutes, no further processing is planned.

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.