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Parliament and its speaker constitute only legitimate power in Ukraine — Putin

The Russian leader noted that this is what a preliminary legal analysis of the current situation suggests

© Alexander Kazakov/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

TASHKENT, May 28. /TASS/. The only legitimate power in Ukraine is Verkhovha Rada (national parliament) and its speaker, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

"The matter is that Ukraine’s statehood is based on the idea of parliamentary and presidential republic, rather than on that of a presidential republic. It means that the country’s representative body holds all basic levers of power. So, this is quite logical that this is what the constitution is built on, and hence, other legal acts stemming from it. So, technically, to my preliminary view, the only legitimate power is parliament and the Rada speaker," Putin told a news conference after visiting Uzbekistan.

He noted that this is what a preliminary legal analysis of the current situation suggests. "We need not to look closer. Some specialists say that there are discrepancies between the constitution, which says that Rada’s mandate can be extended amid martial law, and the law I have just mentioned. As far as I remember this law was passed in 2016 and determines the legal status of martial law," he explained, adding that this law only says that presidential election cannot be held amid martial law but nothing is said there that the president’s office term is extended." "This is the problem," he stressed.

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