Artem Belousov (UNIAN)
Despite recognizing the Cabinet’s performance as unsatisfactory, the
Parliament failed to dismiss it; Ukraine temporarily banned the transit of
Russian trucks in response to the actions of the Kremlin; and the Russian
Ministry of Finance lodged a suit with the London court against Ukraine for its
failure to pay back the so-called "Yanukovych's debt" - these are the
main economic news of the past week.
The Cabinet of
Ministers managed to avoid dismissal. Despite the President Poroshenko’s call
for a complete reboot of the Government, there were not enough votes in
Parliament to support his initiative.
"Now it
is clear that there is a demand for a full reboot of the Government. At the
moment, the prime minister retains an opportunity to choose the best way to
meet this demand," said Poroshenko, one hour ahead of the government’s
report to parliament, referring to the opinion polls.
The president
said that more than 70% of voters favor the dismissal of the Cabinet headed by
Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
On the same
day, February 16, the parliament recognized unsatisfactory the results of the
government’s work in 2015 with a majority of votes following several hours of
abundant criticism.
According to
the majority of deputies who spoke in Parliament that day, Prime Minister
Yatsenyuk and members of his government have failed to fulfill its task to
rescue Ukraine’s plunging economy, exhausted with the Russian military
aggression in Donbas and the acute shortage of foreign currency earnings due to
falling prices on the markets of raw materials.
Despite the
seeming determination to get rid of Yatsenyuk’s Cabinet, only 194 MPs supported
the presidential party’s motion of no confidence in the government of the
necessary 226 votes.
Nevertheless,
the current composition of the government is still in limbo, while the
authorities continue to call the situation a political crisis. It remains a
mystery how and when the Cabinet will be reformatted. The leader of the Bloc of
Petro Poroshenko faction, Yuriy Lutsenko, said that in the next three weeks,
the prime minister must propose a new composition of the government, otherwise
the Rada will consider a question of no confidence in him personally.
Transit wars
Last week, the
Ukrainian-Russian conflict with the blocking of cargo transit through the
territories of the two countries has raised to a new level. After the Ukrainian
activists announced the indefinite campaign in 10 regions of Ukraine on
preventing the transit passage of the Russian trucks, the Russian Federation on
February 14 stopped the transit movement of the Ukrainian trucks on its
territory in a unilateral move.
In response to
Russia’s unwarranted actions, the Cabinet of Ministers on February 15 took up
mirrored measures. Until receipt of explanations from the Russian Federation
and the resolution of this dispute, the government temporarily suspended the
transit permits issued for trucks with the Russian registration plates, which
entails termination of transit of the Russian trucks through the territory of
Ukraine.
Prime Minister
Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that it is not just the explanations that Ukraine wants.
The country wants the unlawful decision to ban transit of the Ukrainian trucks
lifted.
He also said
that the Ukrainian side was holding consultations on the matter with the EU
member states.
By the way,
just ahead of this, after several days of a mutual blockade of trucks, Ukraine
and Russia made some concessions. On February 18, the “returning home” mode was
introduced when the Russian trucks were allowed to leave Ukraine, convoyed by
the National Police, and the movement of the Ukrainian trucks restarted through
the territory of Russia.
Minister of
Infrastructure of Ukraine Andriy Pivovarsky expressed hope that Russia would
return to the framework of international agreements in the issue of the
settlement of transit of the Ukrainian cargo through its territory.
"Russia
should withdraw transit restrictions for the Ukrainian vehicles, in order to
return to the framework of international agreements on the principles of
reciprocity", - the minister said.
Yanukovych debt
Last week,
Russia lodged with the High Court in London a lawsuit against Ukraine over the
failure to pay back a $3 billion debt taken by ex-president Viktor Yanukovych
from the Kremlin as a bribe for abandoning the path of Ukraine’s European
integration o, which subsequently resulted in massive civilian protests and his
ousting.
The Ministry
of Finance of Ukraine declared its readiness to defend its interests in the
English court.
"The
Ministry of Finance has confirmed that The Law Debenture Trust Corporation PLC,
the creditor’s trustee over eurobonds maturing in December 2015, has formally
started proceedings in the High Court of England," said the Ukrainian
Ministry of Finance.
According to
Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, Ukraine will prove in court that the
"Yanukovych debt" was in fact a bribe.
"Of
course, we will be working to prove that it was actually a bribe, both in its
form and content," he said.
The struggle for
Crimea’s power generating assets
Ukraine’s largest state energy holding Naftogaz on February 18 made another
step to return the assets lost as a result of the annexation of Crimea by
Russia.
The Ukrainian
company sent a written notice to Russia over the investment dispute regarding
the assets seized in the occupied peninsula.
"If the
dispute is not resolved through negotiations, Naftogaz intends to forward it to
arbitration," the company said.
Naftogaz
evaluates its lost energy assets in Crimea at $15.7 billion.
If Russia
ignores the notice of Naftogaz, the following lawsuit will complement a series
of arbitration claims of Ukraine against Russia over the assets in Crimea.
In 2015,
Ukraine's largest oil company Ukrnafta and Privatbank appealed to international
arbitration with claims against the Russian Federation regarding the protection
of their investment in Crimea.
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