On Aug. 14, the Ukrainian parliament passed an array of major bills, including one that allows sanctions against foreign companies and individuals, and another one that could help upgrade the gas transit network with Western partners.
Yet another key piece of legislation, which was only passed in the first reading, would ban ex-President Viktor Yanukovych-era and other controversial officials from public office.
A law intended to reform the electoral system ahead of the anticipated October parliamentary election failed again to come to a vote.
Ukrainian officials have been under increasing pressure to pass economic sanctions against Russia. Since Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down on July 17, Western countries have expanded their economic sanctions against Russia over its support of rebels in Ukraine’s east. Russia has also been expanding its own sanctions against Ukraine in the form of bans on Ukrainian goods.
“We are aware that sanctions will have consequences for the Ukrainian economy, but the price is nothing compared to the suffering of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians shot by terrorists supported by the Russian Federation,” Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said in a statement on Aug. 12.
The Rada passed the sanctions bill by a vote of 244 in the 450-seat legislature. It will now be sent to President Petro Poroshenko for his approval.
Once the bill is signed, Poroshenko will be able to initiate sanctions via the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), which he controls. The National Bank, the Cabinet and the State Security Service will also be able to suggest options for sanctions. Yatsenyuk has previously said that the government is preparing sanctions against 172 individuals as well as 65 predominantly Russian companies for when the bill is signed into law.
The original draft law on sanctions contained a number of controversial provisions, which would allow the NSDC to block print, television, radio, and Internet media it deemed harmful to national security. But the clause was removed from the final version of the law.
The provision had previously been criticized by international watchdogs Reporters Without Borders, Freedom House and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe for violating free speech guarantees.
Parliament also passed in second reading on Aug 14, a bill that would retain the country’s massive gas transit system as state property, but would offer a 49 percent share of its operating arm to a U.S. or European Union investor. The network, worth an estimated at least $25 billion, is the more valuable asset of the state gas behemoth Naftogaz and slated to be separated from the mother company. With an input capacity of 233 billion cubic meters and an output capacity to Europe of 143 billion cubic meters per year, the gas pipes pumped just 86 billion cubic meters in that direction, earning the state more than $3 billion, and a further 28 billion cubic meters from Russia and Europe to Ukraine.
The Rada also passed a controversial lustration bill in its first reading that would ban officials who supported ousted President Yanukovych, as well as Soviet-era officials, from holding public office.
Outside of the Rada on Aug. 15, hundreds of protesters gathered to support the bill. Protesters held signs stating stating “lustration or revolution” and “now or never” and tires, which were burned during clashes with riot police during the EuroMaidan protests last fall and winter.
Lustration has been a particular priority for the nationalist Svoboda Party, which is expected to face major losses in the coming election and is under pressure to get results it can use to route challengers.
“I want to remind that I have registered first initiative to launch lustration back in 2005. If the voice of Svoboda was heard then, Yanukovych would not be the president, there would be no victims and Ukraine would be a different country,” said Svoboda Party leader Oleh Tiahnybok in a session of parliament on Aug. 12.
Svoboda was the only faction in the Rada to vote unanimously for the bill.
A bill that would reform the election of Rada deputies once again failed to come to a vote during Aug. 14 session. The bill aims to increase transparency by making the selection process for party lists more public, and switching to a full proportional system ahead of the expected parliamentary elections in October.
Kyiv Post staff writer Ian Bateson can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter at @ianbateson.
