UKRAINE: Ukraine's parliament sacked the government yesterday over the controversial costly gas deal with Russia, pushing the country deeper into crisis just two months before a parliamentary election.
President Viktor Yushchenko, whose euphoric rise to power has been marred by a weak economy, bitter feuds and graft scandals, said the vote to ditch his second government in just over three months was unconstitutional.
But his spokeswoman said he had no plans to cut short a trip to Kazakhstan for the inauguration of that country's leader, where today he plans to hold talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
It was anger over Ukraine's agreement last week to pay twice as much for Russian gas that triggered the no-confidence vote, backed by 250 members of the 450-seat parliament.
The gas deal came only after rancorous negotiations led the Kremlin - which makes no secret of its dislike of Mr Yushchenko's pro-West leanings - to cut off supplies for two days to its neighbour.
That, said some analysts, gave a boost to pro-Yushchenko politicians in the runup to what will certainly be a closely fought parliamentary poll on March 26th, at the cost of his pro-Moscow opponents.
"This [latest vote] is an attempt by the political opposition in Ukraine to seize political initiative from President Yushchenko's camp ahead of the March election," said economist Sergei Voloboev.
Mr Yushchenko, in comments published on his official website, www.president.gov.ua, said prime minister Yuri Yekhanurov and his government would stay on until the election.
Mr Yekhanurov pledged to do all he could to prevent any impact on the gas deal with Russia, the battle over which briefly disrupted supplies to major European customers at the start of the year.
The resolution passed by parliament had no word on the fate of the contract, but analysts said they doubted it would affect it for the moment.
A Yushchenko spokeswoman said the president planned to challenge the vote in Ukraine's constitutional court.
However, the court is currently paralysed by not having its full complement of judges because parliament has blocked Mr Yushchenko's nominees.
Bankers said they expected the latest political instability would push down the hryvnia currency in trading today.
Officials said a new government could emerge only after the poll.
"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," justice minister Serhiy Golovaty told reporters after the vote.
In the vote, which required a simple majority, former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko joined forces with opposition parties representing the pro-Moscow administration that was ousted at the end of 2004.