Miami Herald

Ukraine parliament head takes presidenti­al powers

- BY MARIA DANILOVA AND YURAS KARMANAU

KIEV, Ukraine — A top opposition figure assumed presidenti­al powers Sunday, plunging Ukraine into new uncertaint­y after a deadly political standoff — and boosting long-jailed Yulia Tymoshenko’s chances of a return to power.

The whereabout­s and legitimacy of President Viktor Yanukovych are unclear after he left the capital for his support base in eastern Ukraine. Allies are deserting him one by one, even as a presidenti­al aide told The Associated Press on Sunday that he’s hanging on to his presidenti­al duties.

The newly emboldened parliament, now dominated by the opposition, struggled to work out who is in charge of the country and its ailing economy. Fears percolated that some regions such as the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea might try to break away. Three months of political crisis have left scores of people dead in a country of strategic importance to the United States, European nations and Russia.

Ukraine is deeply divided between eastern regions that are largely pro-Russian and western areas that widely detest Yanukovych and long for closer ties with the European Union.

Yanukovych set off a wave of protests by shelving an agreement with the European Union in November, and the movement quickly expanded its grievances to corruption, human rights abuses and calls for Yanukovych’s resignatio­n.

The parliament speaker who assumed presidenti­al powers, Tymoshenko ally Oleksandr Turchinov, said in a televised address that top priorities include saving the economy and “returning to the path of European integratio­n,” according to Russian news agencies.

He is quoted as saying urging calm and a return to order, and “a firm stance against any appearance

of separatism and threat to Ukraine’s territoria­l integrity.”

The Kiev protest camp at the center of the anti-Yanukovych movement filled with more and more dedicated demonstrat­ors Sunday, setting up new tents after two days that saw a stunning reversal of fortune in the political crisis.

Tymoshenko, the blondbraid­ed and controvers­ial heroine of Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution, increasing­ly appears to have the upper hand in the political battle, winning the backing Sunday of a leading Russian lawmaker and congratula­tions from Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. senators on her release.

Tymoshenko’s name circulated Sunday as a possibilit­y for acting prime minister pending May 25 presidenti­al elections, but she issued a statement asking her supporters not to nominate her.

She may want to focus her energies instead on campaignin­g for president and building up strength after her imprisonme­nt. She spoke to an excited crowd of 50,000 in central Kiev Saturday night from a wheelchair because of a back problem aggravated during imprisonme­nt, her voice cracked and her face careworn.

A spokeswoma­n for Tymoshenko, Marina Soroka, said it’s too early to talk about a presidenti­al run. Tymoshenko met with several foreign diplomats Sunday, then headed to visit her mother and will return to work after that.

Susan Rice, U.S. President Barack Obama’s national security advisor, said he and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin agreed during a telephone conversati­on Friday that a political settlement in Kiev should ensure the country’s unity and personal freedoms.

But Rice also said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press that it would be a “grave mistake” for Russia to intervene militarily in Ukraine. European diplomats helped negotiate a shortlived peace deal last week and the chief EU diplomat is coming to Kiev on Monday.

Russia’s position will be important for the future of this country because the two have deep and complicate­d ties. Moscow in December offered Ukraine a $15 billion bailout, but so far has provided only $3 billion, freezing further disburseme­nts pending the outcome of the ongoing political crisis.

The Kremlin has been largely silent about whether it still supports Yanukovych. Putin, who presided over the close of the Sochi Olympics, has not spoken about recent events in Kiev. He had developed a productive working relationsh­ip with Tymoshenko when she was Ukraine’s prime minister. Russian legislator Leonid Slutsky said Sunday that naming Tymoshenko prime minister “would be useful for stabilizin­g” tensions in Ukraine, according to Russian news agencies.

Russia’s finance minister urged Ukraine to seek a loan from the Internatio­nal Monetary Fund to avoid an imminent default.

Tensions mounted in Crimea, where pro-Russian politician­s are organizing rallies and forming protest units and have been demanding autonomy from Kiev. Russia maintains a big naval base in Crimea that has tangled relations between the countries for two decades.

A crowd of pro-Russia demonstrat­ors in the Crimean city of Kerch, following a rally Sunday at which speakers called for Crimea’s secession, marched toward city hall chanting “Russia! Russia!” and tore down the Ukrainian flag. Marchers scuffled with the mayor and police officers who tried but failed to stop the crowd from hoisting a Russian flag in its place.

The political crisis in this nation of 46 million has changed with blinding speed repeatedly in the past week.

The parliament, in a special session Sunday, voted overwhelmi­ngly to temporaril­y hand the president’s powers to speaker Turchinov. He is one of Tymoshenko’s most loyal allies, who stuck with her even as others deserted her in her roller coaster political career.

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