You're reading: Volodymyr Lytvyn: Ukraine will not return anything to RosUkrEnergo

Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn talks about current events in a Q&A with Yuriy Onyshkiv.

Verkhovna Rada speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn is leader of his eponymous bloc, whose 20 members make up a small share of the ruling coalition aligned with President Viktor Yanukovych. However, Lytvyn has also been called a political chameleon – and worse – for his shifting political alliances. He started the year, after all, as part of ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s coalition. He has a remarkable gift for staying close to whoever is ruling the nation.

Also, during the heat of the 2004 Orange Revolution, Lytvyn supported a change in the Constitution that weakened presidential powers. Now he waffles on whether it’s a good idea to shift back to a strong presidential Constitution, which would mean stripping the 450-member parliament he leads of some of its powers.

In a Sept. 15 interview to the Kyiv Post, Lytvyn said he is against the government returning some $5 billion in natural gas – some 11 billion cubic meters of gas – to RosUkrEnergo, a gas-trading intermediary, despite an arbitration court ruling requiring state-owned Naftogaz monopoly to do so. See full Ukrainian language interview at .

KP: In your opinion, is the return of some $5 billion in natural gas from state-owned Naftogaz to RosUkrEnergo purely a legal matter? Or are politics and corruption at play? Should Ukraine obey the Stockholm arbitration ruling and return the 11 billion cubic meters of gas?

VL: Nobody is going to return anything to anyone, regardless of the fact that there are a lot of people willing to rip Ukraine off. In this case, Ukrainian authorities have to act by the following principle: We do not owe anything to anyone.

KP: There is discussion of changing the Constitution to its 1996 version, giving more power to President Viktor Yanukovych. Are you in favor or opposed?

VL: Today there is no basis to say that tomorrow Ukraine will return to the Constitution that was adopted in 1996. Generally, it is hard for me to imagine this happening. I think that the Constitutional Court of Ukraine will review this matter thoroughly, also taking into consideration the consequences of its final decision.

KP: Do you support a return to the 1996 constitution?

VL: I am an opponent of going back. We have to move forward. Because Ukraine often makes one step forward and, afterwards, two steps back, which does not give us any distinction.


KP: Would a return to the 1996 constitution be a step back?

VL: It can only be done by parliament or the people.

KP: If the court cancels the constitutional change of 2004, will your faction in parliament vote to implement these changes to the Constitution?

VL: If the Constitutional Court decides to draw parliament’s attention to the fact that changes made to the constitution in 2004 were adopted violating procedural rules and will bind the parliament to make necessary corrections, the entire Verkhovna Rada would have to do that.

KP: The international community increasingly sees Ukraine rolling back on democracy and press freedoms. What have you got to say about this?

VL: I understand very well that Ukraine is now being under the monitoring and that has to be taken consideration in Ukraine. Ukraine cannot allow itself to do what the authorities in any other European country can allow themselves. We have to first prove that we fulfilled all commitments before the Council of Europe and there grounds to cancel its monitoring of Ukraine. Therefore, any processes taking place in Ukraine are now being studied thoroughly. Apart from that, in Europe, in civilized world people first listen what the opposition says. However, sometimes it happens so that there is no time to listen to the arguments of the other party.

Kyiv Post staff writer Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at [email protected].