Anders Aslund: A pyrrhic victory for Poroshenko
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk (back, R) speaks after attending with the government ministers a no confidence vote at the parliament in Kiev on February 16, 2016. Ukraine's embattled Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk survived a no confidence vote in his government on February 16 that came just hours after the president asked him to stand down. The motion to oust the pro-Western government leader collected only 194 of a required 226 votes in Ukraine's 450-seat parliament.
On February 16, the Ukrainian parliament deemed the performance of its government unsatisfactory with 247 votes, but only 194 parliamentarians voted for a no-confidence measure. The government did not fall as some had expected. Overtly, this strange vote may appear a victory for President Petro Poroshenko, but it seems a Pyrrhic victory that may have broken the ruling coalition in parliament and brought Ukraine closer to early elections.
