© Photo “Golos stolitsy” (Voice of capital)

Representatives of government bodies in 18 Ukrainian regions characterized the developments in the country as a coup attempt, with the barbaric interference of the West. They said as much at the Ukrainian Forum of Regional Councils in Yalta.

The regional administration heads believe that the 2004 Constitution model the return of which the opposition members are vehemently defending is imperfect and is unable to pull the country out of the crisis. But it is exactly this option that is being welcomed by Western politicians.

As it appears, the US and Europe have already made their choice for Ukrainian citizens and have no plans to wait for the Ukrainians’ finding a solution to the Constitution issue by means of democracy. The opinion of several thousand demonstrators who are trying to put pressure on the government and are resorting to aggression, is being presented by the West as the voice of the Ukrainian people, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. Western politicians and media picture the developments in Ukraine in a primitive key – as confrontation between Washington and Brussels on the one hand and Moscow – on the other. However, as the Russian Foreign Minister stressed in his article posted on the New Europe Internet portal, it is rather doubtful that all efforts to aggravate the situation in the country situated in the very centre of Europe can meet whoever’s interests.

The political situation in Ukraine was discussed at the Ukrainian Forum of Regional Councils in Yalta the day before. The regional administration heads, among other things, made a demand for the decentralization of power and the broadening of the powers of the local government bodies. However, federalization was out of the question, Chairman of the Kharkov Regional Council Sergei Chernov says.

“Society is not yet ready for that, especially now. What is meant here is that the central government should be deprived of powers outside the field of its competence. We have worked out measures to reform government bodies and a concept of territorial government structure. We have drafted a relevant chapter of amendments to be introduced into the Constitution. Regrettably, quite a number of regions did not take part in the forum, but we are holding a dialogue with them non-stop. And as regards the issues of self-government, we have reached unanimity on that score.”

The head of the Kharkov regional state administration Mikhail Dobkin says that to resume the 2004 Constitution is no good because it contains provisions for conflicts between various levels of power. Earlier Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the leader of the Batkivshchyna Party who is actively supporting it now, was strongly opposed to it. One should not forget that the parliamentary- presidential form of government was proposed as an extreme measure was proposed when instability reached its highest point in Ukraine and when the country was disunited. It has proved to be a failure in Ukraine, an expert with the Financial University under the government of the Russian Federation, Yevgeniya Voiko, says.

“A strong prime minister and a weak president is not a workable model. I believe that under the conditions of the current chaos the regional authorities are trying to derive preferences for themselves and to take possession of the power resources. And they have sufficient grounds to believe that they will receive what they want because the local government bodies in Ukraine are playing a far more important role than the central government bodies.”

However, it is rather doubtful that the opposition members will allow regional representatives to remake the Constitution. There is a split of opinions about the Constitution among the opposition members as well. The former Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko, who is now serving her term in prison, is urging her collaborators to give up changing the Constitution and limiting the presidential powers. But the current head of the Batkivshchyna Party Arseniy Yatsenyuk is turning a deaf ear to all her appeals. Thus, if there is no unanimity between collaborators, what can one say about the other opposition members, including Klitschko and the radicals from the Independence Square?