Ukraine - USA - Viktor Yushchenko - Yulia Tymoshenko
Cheney to meet squabbling Ukrainian leaders
Friday 05 September 2008
On the last stop of his trip to the former Soviet republics, US Vice President Dick Cheney is set to meet Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko over Kiev's response to Russian influence in the region.
Friday 05 September 2008
By AFPUS Vice President Dick Cheney was set Friday to meet with Ukraine's squabbling leaders as he continues his tour to bolster US allies in the region following the conflict between Georgia and Russia.
Cheney was to meet with President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whose political feuding has intensified over ties with Russia during Moscow's confrontation with Georgia and the West.
Ukraine has applied to join NATO and the European Union, angering Moscow which sees the country as part of its sphere of influence, but its political leaders are deeply divided.
European officials have suggested Ukraine could be the next flashpoint for tensions between Russia and the West after the war in Georgia last month that has left Russian troops occupying positions deep inside Georgian territory.
Cheney, who has said his visit is intended to bolster US allies in the former Soviet region, will likely push the pro-Western leaders to patch up their crumbling government coalition, analysts said.
Tymoshenko and Yushchenko were the icons of the 2004 pro-Western Orange Revolution and have both been considered Western-leaning politicians despite persistent and sharp disagreements on domestic political issues.
Yushchenko on Wednesday accused his opponents in parliament of a coup attempt and threatened early parliamentary elections after the prime minister's party sided with pro-Russian deputies to pass laws cutting his powers.
Tymoshenko, once a close ally of Yushchenko, in turn accused the president of having "destroyed" the governing coalition by pulling out of an alliance with her party after the approval of the legislation.
Tymoshenko has denied press reports she has tilted towards Moscow and is about to form a new coalition with the pro-Russian opposition, but she but has not spoken out on the Georgia crisis and abstained from a vote to impose restrictions on the movements of Russia's Black Sea fleet, which is based along with the Ukrainian navy in Sevastopol.
Ukrainian analysts said the political crisis could set back Ukraine's attempts to join NATO and the EU, but that Cheney would seek to keep in place the country's increasingly fragile pro-Western leadership.
"Cheney will try to push Ukraine towards preserving the pro-Western coalition," which has not yet been formally disbanded, said Valery Chaly, an analyst at the Razumkov Centre for political and economic research.
Segodnya, a newspaper close to the pro-Russian opposition, said the crisis was "very annoying news" for Washington, which wants "Tymoshenko and Yushchenko working together to bring Ukraine into NATO."
Cheney is to meet the two leaders separately -- the prime minister for one-on-one talks in the morning, followed by lunch with the president.
He is scheduled to visit the Holdomor memorial to Ukraine's famine victims before departing later in the afternoon for Italy.
On Thursday, during a visit to Tbilisi, the vice president accused Russia of an "illegitimate" invasion to redraw the map of Georgia and cast doubt on whether Russia could be trusted as an international partner.
"Russia's actions have cast grave doubt on Russia's intentions and on its reliability as an international partner, not just in Georgia but across this region and indeed across the international system," Cheney said.
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05/09/2008 06:58:13 Alert a moderator
What do you mean divided?
By Kiewit - Ukraine
Are your French polititians kind of united? What if PM and president has different point on internal subject you call it divided? Une sorte calque de la propaganda Russe...
05/09/2008 01:15:03 Alert a moderator
Ukrainians should remember the Georgian murderer Dugashvili
By Kenneth T. Tellis - Canada, Mississauga
The Ukrainians should not ever forget the the famine caused by the Georgian Iusep Dugashvili or Josef Stalin who deliberately cause between 10 - 15 million Ukrainians to die of starvation between 1931-33. When the Russians put the Georgian upstart Mikheil Saakashvili in his place by defeating his forces, it was a time for the Ukrainians to join hands with the Russians by remembering Holdomor.
There is ill will between Russia and the Ukraine because they are both slavic peoples. Let that unity become meaningful and spread that friendship even further. To listen to the diatribes of the U.S. against Russia is abject folly. The U.S. is only attempting to use the Ukraine against Russia for their own ends and not to serve either country. Dick Cheney proved that he was a liar during the illegal invasion of Iraq. So let the Idiot go home ithout having damaged Russo-Ukrainian relations.