KIEV, October 23. /TASS/. Local elections in Ukraine may give an impetus to the processes of federalization in that country, a Ukrainian political expert said on Friday.
"These elections will actually be a starting point of federalization," Mikhail Pogrebinsky, director of the Kiev Centre for Political and Conflict Resolution Studies, told a news conference, referring to the elections to local self-governments due to be held in Ukraine on October 25.
He said he was sure of that because the election results might strip the central authorities off their former influence in regions. "A country where the central authorities are deprived of resources they used to govern in the regions is bound to launch the process of liberalization," he said. "For instance, if Kiev can give nothing to, say, Mykolaiv, the Mykolaiv elite, which would form a majority in the local legislature, will have to undertake responsibility for ensuring the living standards and for ensuring more or less stable situation."
Another political expert, Iskander Khisamov, voiced a similar position. "The subject of local self-government, moreover, of federalization will surface sooner or later because both decentralization and federalization are not just wishful thinking, since real life is forcing the state towards it," he said, adding that such situation in Ukrainian regions could emerge "when the sunject of real self-government and delegation of various rights comes to the fore."
Earlier, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko repeatedly spoke about inadmissibility of federalization. "Ukraine will not allow it [federalization], and I will put this issue for referendum if need be," he said on June 23.