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Saakashvili: Failed resignation of Ukrainian PM is oligarchic coup

Ukraine’s parliament on February 16 failed to send Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and his government to resignation
Governor of Ukraine’s Odessa region, Mikheil Saakashvili Maxim Nikitin/TASS
Governor of Ukraine’s Odessa region, Mikheil Saakashvili
© Maxim Nikitin/TASS

KIEV, February 20. /TASS/. Governor of Ukraine’s Odessa region, Mikheil Saakashvili, said on Saturday the situation over Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s failed resignation was an oligarchic coup.

"It was a closed-door deal. As a matter of fact, it was a revival of the power of oligarchs in Ukraine," he told the 112 Ukraina television channel. "It is fraught with serious political consequences. The crisis is not over, it is just beginning, regrettably."

Ukraine’s parliament on February 16 failed to send Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and his government to resignation. A no-confidence vote was supported by 194 lawmakers whereas at least 226 votes are needed to pass a resolution. So, the situation in the Ukrainian parliament looks quite paradoxical as several minutes before the no-confidence voting the Rada recognized the government’s work as unsatisfactory.

Following the abortive voting, the Batkivshchina (Fatherland) faction and several lawmakers from the pro-presidential Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction withdrew from the coalition. The Samopomoshch (Self-assistance) followed the lead on the next day leaving the coalition with only 215 votes which are not enough to take majority-vote decisions.

Under the Rada regulations, the current parliament has one month to form a new coalition. If it fails to do that, the president will have the right to dissolve the parliament. The head of state however is not obliged to do it. President Poroshenko has already said he will dissolve the parliament only as a last resort.