You're reading: Tuesday headlines: Opposition shuns Grytsenko; authorities go after driver suspected of AutoMaidan participation

Opposition Batkivshchyna Party members of parliament are boycotting fellow party member and former Defense Minister Anatoliy Grytsenko, accusing him of not being a team player and also with participating in an information war against the Ukrainian opposition, Ukrainska Pravda reports. “The people’s deputies refused to held the meeting in presence of Anatoliy Grytsenko and required him to leave the meeting hall. Not a single deputy voted against this decision,” the Batkivshchyna press service reported on Jan. 13. Read the story here.

 The court took away the driver’s license of an alleged participant in the AutoMaidan car caravan protest to President Viktor Yanukovych’s Mezhyhyria estate on Dec. 29, writes Ukrainska Pravda. However, the driver, Serhii Lukyanchuk, says he didn’t participate in AutoMaidan and was visiting Cherkasy Oblast, far from Kyiv on Dec. 29. Two witnesses confirmed his account in court, yet the court still decided to take away Lukyanchuk’s driver’s license for three months. The lawyer of Lukyanchuk, Taras Guck, says that road police representatives have come twice to Lukyanchuk’s home, talked to his parents, but never explained anything. He also never got any written notifications. Only on Jan. 13 did he receive a subpoena for a court hearing the same day court hearing at 4 p.m. Read the story here.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said that the religion law has to be significantly improved to strengthen freedom of religion. The comments seem designed at countering a letter from Ukraine’s Cultural Ministry to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church on Jan. 13, asking priests to stop prayers in public places and avoid politics, Ukrainska Pravda writes. “The legislation should be softened and all the believers should get the right to pray wherever they want,” presidential press service quoted Yanukovych saying on Jan. 13. Read the story here.

Lawmakers have suggested over 3,000 amendments for the 2014 budget law, reports Kommersant newspaper. According to Kommersant, if all the amendments are accepted, the budget would double. Opposition lawmakers told the newspaper that the final version of the budget law won’t be much different from the current draft. The budget committee plans to discuss and approve the amendments on Jan. 14. Read the story here