In the last day of summer it was very hot inside the building of Verkhovna Rada (Parliament of Ukraine) and near it. Confrontation started after constitutional amendments were approved in the first reading by the Parliament…Informator.lg.ua tried to find out what could cause that and what possible effects are.

Constitutional Court of Ukraine approved

During negotiation in Minsk Ukraine agreed to changed constitution regarding decentralization and so-called ”special status” till the end of 2015. Western partners who provide economic and political support for Ukraine during the military conflict with Russia are watching this process closely and there is not so much time for local politics left.

In July Verkhovna Rada already discussed the project of constitutional amendments. At that time 288 Deputies voted to send it to Constitutional Court of Ukraine.

On August 3 Constitutional Court sent their conclusion to Verkhovna Rada, it said that constitutional amendments won’t threat “independence and territorial integrity”.

The Court concludes that offered amendments for section 15 of transitional provisions of Constitution of Ukraine in paragraph 18 will not cancel or restrict human rights and freedoms of citizens.

The main idea of amendments

Informator.lg.uа already wrote before that constitutional amendments offered by the President’s Administration are not only about “special order of local authorities in certain areas of Donetsk and Lugansk Regions”. But that became the major point of discussions. After the final approval of constitutional amendments, paragraph 18 will note that special order of local authorities in certain areas of Donetsk and Lugansk Regions will be defined by the separate law.

In the project of constitutional amendments there is no such phrase as “special status” at all, and at the law mentioned in paragraph 18 can be changed any time by 226 votes, this architecture is not the worst for our country.

If “special order of local authorities in certain areas” was part of the Constitution, the country would really lose control over the situation. 300 votes are required to change Constitution and the procedure also needs several readings (approvals) and a there is a lot of bureaucracy.

In case the amendments will be approved as they are now, Ukrainian Parliament will be able to change the law about “special order of local authorities in certain areas” using simple majority, 226 votes.

We should also add that it’s impossible to implement the law “About special order of local authorities in certain areas of Donetsk and Lugansk Regions” mentioned in paragraph 18 of constitutional amendments by Ukrainian side only.

According to Article 10 of this law, it is only possible to implement it after Ukraine gets the state border under control and holds local elections in “certain areas” according to Ukrainian laws with access for international observers and reporters. Such elections must be organized by legitimate local authorities elected in 2010. As we know those who “rule” certain areas now have nothing to do to legitimate authorities and legitimate authorities do not exists on those territories for a long time already.

Confrontation inside Ukrainian Parliament and near it

Despite so obvious things that are easy to understand if you just read the projects of the laws the confrontation began among Ukrainian politicians who started to talk about “betrayal” right after President’s Administration published constitutional amendments.

Representatives of political parties neglecting the logic and common sense started to say that constitutional amendments is a betrayal of National interests of Ukraine and that somebody is trying to “insert” regions with “special status” in the “text” of constitution.

Popularity of that point of view was based on incompetence and ignorance and on attempts to get more political value at any cost. This made representatives of Ukrainian authorities worry as they are interested in final approval of constitutional amendments.

Several political parties (“Svoboda”, “Radical Party of Lyashko” and others) announced peaceful demonstration near the Parliament for August 31 when the voting was scheduled.

It was “hot” inside the Parliament building. During discussion presidium and tribune were blocked. Anyway 265 deputies voted to approve constitutional amendments in the first reading while some deputies were screaming “shame!”

The Block of Petro Poroshenko: 115 yes, 5 no, 3 abstained, 7 didn’t vote, 13 were not present.

“Narodniy Front”: 69 yes, 1 no, 2 didn’t vote, 9 were not present.

“Opposition Block”: 38 yes, 5 were not present.

“Samopomych”: 5 yes, 26 no.

Radical Party of Oleg Lyashko: 21 no.

“Batkivshchyna”: 18 no.

“Vozrozhdenie Party” Group: 11 yes, 2 abstained, 1 didn’t vote, 8 were not present.

“Volya Naroda” Group: 14 yes, 1 no, 3 were not present.

Deputies who are not members of Parliament groups: 13 yes, 15 no, 1 didn’t vote, 14 were not present.

So constitutional amendments were approved in the first reading. The President will need at least 300 votes for final approval of constitutional amendments.

After the voting there were bloody clashes near the Parliament between protesters, National Guard and police. Smoke grenades, batons and flash—bangs were used. The leaders of “Svoboda” who organized the protests can be found in the photos, in those photos they were with batons.

At some point somebody out of a crowd threw grenade in police that wounded some of them.

At 11pm of August 31 there were 131 people in the hospitals who were wounded during the clashes. One servicemen of National Guard of Ukraine died. Next day, on September 1 another serviceman of National Guard of Ukraine died.

Reaction of authorities

At night on August 31 the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko addressed to the nation on TV, he promised to take the situation under his personal control and assured that all those who organized the clashes near Parliament will be punished. The President called that “anti-Ukrainian act” and “stab in the back”

The Prime-Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that those who organized the clashes were “bandits” and he demanded life sentence for the person who threw the grenade. He also said that political powers that organized the clashes are worse than Russian terrorists and bandits who at least don’t hide the fact that they fight against Ukraine.

The head of Ministry of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov blamed everything on “Svoboda” party without even the results of investigation. “I blame Oleg Tyagnibok and his party Svoboda” said Avakov during the briefing in Kiev, he also added that was a crime and not just political positions.

Representatives of that political party blamed Ukrainian authorities and Arsen Avakov in organizing that provocation.

Results

Events of August 31 inside the building of Ukrainian Parliament and outside started to influence political processes in Ukraine.

Representatives of LPR said that those constitutional amendments have nothing to do with Minsk Agreements and they are unacceptable for them.

Russian propaganda media got another occasion to tell about “bloody madness” of “fascist thugs” and about explosions in the streets of Kiev. At the same time the biggest damage on international level was caused not by Russian interpretation of the events, but just the fact that there were bloody clashes near the Parliament on the day when constitutional amendments were approved in the first reading.

Did representatives of “Svoboda” party organized the provocation with the use of grenade? Unlikely. But this doesn’t relieve of responsibility political parties and others who took part in clashes. More likely that event determines inglorious future of “Svoboda” party.

On the other hand, those events showed to authorities that there are still a lot of radical people in Ukrainian society who are ready to action despite the fact that Ukraine as a country is in danger for a year and a half already. Those people, consciously or not, want and try to destabilize the situation inside the country, so the current authorities should be very careful.

Who organized terrorist attack-provocation? Foreign secret service, peanut politicians or a mad guy acting autonomously who is obsessed with the idea that Ukraine was betrayed? We probably will never find the true answer to that question. But on August 31 all of us could see that Ukraine is still in danger and it means that every conscious citizen should be on alert, cautious and think what he’s doing.

Another important thing that should be taken into consideration is that because of the scandal, manipulations and provocative actions of some politicians, the attention of the society is distracted from a really important question: constitutional amendments regarding decentralization that give more power to local authorities, the institute of Regional Administrations gets liquidated, there will be prefects, administration will be reformed and there will be other improvements in updated Constitution…

Aleksey Chernov for Informator.lg.ua