World Affairs Journal: Power politics in Ukraine’s parliament

 The correlation of forces in the Ukrainian Parliament, the Rada, may have shifted. Not in terms of votes, of course, as the Regionnaires and their allies still have a majority of deputies.

But in terms of what really matters in the surreal world of Viktor Yanukovych’s Ukraine: fists.

With the election to the Rada of 38 deputies from the right-wing nationalist Svoboda party and of ex-boxer Vitaly Klitschko, head of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform, the Regionnaires have been transformed from a gang of thugs willing and able to spring a pogrom on the opposition to a bunch of mostly overweight and balding bullies who know they’ve more than met their match.

The fisticuffs that broke out [1] during the first two days of the newly elected Rada’s sessions demonstrated the shift in power. The Svobodites are big and strong and young and, unlike the diminutive democrats who would consistently get their butts kicked in the past, took no guff from the Regionnaires. And listen to the very big Klitschko’s veiled threat [2]: “I understand many people’s desire that I join the attack, but I wish to remind them that, for instance, in the United States, a boxer’s fists are compared to a weapon, and a world champion’s fists to a nuclear weapon. And we will not use that weapon. Not yet.” You can be sure that the Regionnaires’ scrappy tough-guy-in-chief, Vladyslav Lukyanov, was listening attentively.

The brawls [3] that erupted did nothing to enhance the Rada’s stature at home or abroad and they’re obviously no way to run a democracy [4], but, in putting the Regionnaires on the defensive, they could have enormous implications for the Ukrainian political system.