PM quits as lawmakers throw out protest bans
Embattled president gives in to most opposition demands
— Ukraine’s president conceded everything to Kyiv’s demonstrators except his resignation Tuesday, dismissing the entire government and abandoning nine hated security laws.
As he struggled to end the occupation of central Kyiv by tens of thousands of protesters, President Viktor Yanukovych gave in to a series of their demands, sacrificing his prime minister and every member of the cabinet.
An emergency session of parliament tried to appease the marchers by repealing nine draconian security laws by 361 votes to two. It was the passage of these measures, banning almost all forms of public protest, which had galvanized the demonstrations against Yanukovych.
Yet 12 days after approving the laws, MPs scrapped them without debate. All were abandoned during a single vote that took less than a minute. “Everything the opposition wanted is in this package,” said Volodymyr Rybak, the speaker.
As recently as Friday, the president had promised only to “amend” and “review” the laws.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a lawmaker who is one of the opposition’s top figures, hailed the parliament’s move. “We have repealed all the laws against which the whole country rose up,” he said.
A few streets away, calm descended on the barricades around Independence Square as parliament bowed to the protesters. The main rampart on Grushevskogo Street, previously the scene of roundthe-clock confrontation betweenmaskeddemonstrators and ranks of police, was unusually quiet. The taunts died away, a police water cannon stood unused and both sides appeared to respect an undeclared truce.
After the parliamentary vote, Yanukovych proceeded to jettison his allies. Mykola Azarov announced his resignation as prime minister “for the sake of the peaceful settlement of the conflict.”
Yanukovych then stated that every other minister had been dismissed.
The departure of Azarov removes one of the officials most disliked by the opposition forces whose protests have turned parts of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, into a barricaded maze.
The opposition had accused Azarov of mismanaging the economy and condoning corruption, and they have ridiculed the Russianspeaker for his poor command of Ukrainian. Animosity toward him grew after the protests started in November when he labelled demonstrators extremists and refused to listen to any of their demands. As head of the cabinet, he was also seen as bearing responsibility for the recent use of force by police.
It was unclear whether the concessionswouldsatisfythe protesters — or whether anything less than Yanukovych’s resignation will end the unrest. Behind the barricades in Independence Square there was no mood of jubilation over the president’s retreat. Instead, people promised to stay until he resigned.
The protests erupted after Yanukovych decided to turn toward Russia for a bailout loan instead of signing a deal with the European Union, but have since morphed into a general plea for more human rights, less corruption and more democracy.