Ukrainian parliamentary deputies assembled on Mar. 11 for a session whichhad announced a new ruling coalition to avoid snap elections and tackle a deep economic crisis.
The first task of the new alliance, which speaker Volodymyr Litvyn is expected to announce when the session opens, will be to nominate a new prime minister to replace Yulia Tymoshenko who was ousted in a no-confidence vote last week.
Tymoshenko lost in a Feb. 7 presidential run-off against Viktor Yanukovych and her departure as prime minister marks the end of five years of rule by the leadership which emerged from the 2004 pro-Western "Orange Revolution".
The ex-Soviet republic, battered by the economic downturn, needs a new government to adopt a delayed 2010 budget and restart talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a suspended $16.4 billion bail-out package.
Yanukovych’s Regions Party said a full government line-up might emerge on Thursday, likely headed by Russian-born former finance minister Mykola Azarov who is a close ally of Yanukovych.
The 62-year-old Azarov is seen as a safe pair of hands though no radical reformer. But he would give Yanukovych a reliable ruling partner after the infighting between Tymoshenko and former President Viktor Yushchenko.
Yanukovych’s narrow victory tilted the country of 46 million people — split between a Russian-leaning south and east and a Western-friendly west and centre — back towards Russia after years of fractious ‘Orange’ rule.
