New cycle of confrontation brewing between president, premier, says expert

18:14

The developments of December 9, when newly elected Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn announced the creation of a coalition comprising the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko, the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense Bloc, and the Bloc of Lytvyn, "opened a new stage in confrontation between the premier and the president," Director of the Penta Center for Political Studies Andriy Yermolayev has said.

He said this at a roundtable entitled "The creation of a coalition and the election of Verkhovna Rada speaker: tackling the political crisis or continuing it?" in Kyiv on Thursday.

Yermolayev said that a good example of the new confrontation was Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's televised address to the Ukrainian nation on December 10.

"These are remarks given to an opponent, rather than to the head of state, and Tymoshenko is the leader in this dispute, because people support her. I think the OU-PSD have already heard this signal," he said.

"Tuesday showed that the president does not have his party. The president is now in a piquant situation, and, in fact, he has no political force to move ahead. Thus, it is now impossible to consider fresh parliamentary elections," Yermolayev said.