Opinion: Politicians in Ukraine started playing their muscles

Read it in Russian

As the elections to the Ukrainian Supreme Rada are getting closer, all the members of the process start “playing their muscles” and working for attracting maximal attention to themselves. The opinion is expressed by First Deputy Chair of the State Duma Committee for the CIS and Ties with Compatriots Akhmed Bilalov to reporters today, while commenting on the first session of the Ukrainian parliament.

“One should hardly expect that the current Supreme Rada would make any serious or important decisions that would influence life of Ukrainian society,” believes Bilalov. “Most probably, its key task is to remind that the parliament exists, and the prerogative to adopt the budget belongs to the representative branch; the history of parliamentarism in the world started from it. The session, to which the Ukrainian MPs gathered, is also a reminder about fundamentals of division of powers,” the Russian MP said.

Extraordinary parliamentary elections will be held in Ukraine on September 30. The autumn session opened today despite statements made by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who believes that there are no legal grounds for it, and any decision of the Rada will be illegitimate. Ukrainian Supreme Rada Chair Alexander Moroz has promised that the sessions will be held till the election day. He called the budget law for 2008 the key issue.