The legislative initiative by MP Mykola Rudkovsky, who headed the Socialist Party of Ukraine and who has submitted an application to quit the Party of Regions faction, regarding the settlement of the problem of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, did not agree with the position of the Party of Regions faction, faction leader Oleksandr Yefremov has said.
“Rudkovsky has submitted an inconsistent document… He took a certain decision for himself. He became the head of another political force. He joined us not as a party member, but as a deputy assigned to a single-seat constituency and he worked in our faction for some time,” Yefremov said at a press conference on Monday, when asked whether he studied the bill submitted by Rudkovsky.
Yefremov said that according to the Verkhovna Rada rules of procedure, since a bill with a similar name was registered in parliament by individual lawmaker Serhiy Mischenko in June 2013, the bill by Rudkovsky could not just be registered, because it is not an alternative one.
“It looks more like populism,” he said, adding that, as far as he knows, Rudkovsky has withdrawn his bill.
When asked whether Tymoshenko will manage to travel to Germany for treatment by the time of the Vilnius summit, Yefremov said: “I don’t know train and plane schedules.”
As reported, in June 2013, independent MP Serhiy Mischenko submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a bill to allow convicts to undergo treatment abroad.
“If the government doesn’t know how to resolve the problem with the treatment of [former Prime Minister] Yulia Tymoshenko, then I propose settling it via passing a relevant law,” he said.
On October 18, 2013, the Verkhovna Rada registered a draft law amending the Penitentiary Code and the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine (regarding the legal regulation of the treatment of convicts abroad), which was submitted by Rudkovsky.
The bill disappeared from the parliament’s Web site on October 21, whereas Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Rybak said that Rudkovsky had withdrawn the bill on the legal regulation of the treatment of convicts abroad for finalization, but will return it in the next few days. He also said he had Rudkovsky’s statement on his withdrawal from the Party of Regions faction.
