Ukraine Passes Deal Under Hail of Eggs
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY
MOSCOW — Lawmakers pelted the podium with eggs and catcalls before stalking across the aisle, putting their colleagues in headlocks and engaging in other tactics not exactly covered by Robert’s Rules of Order. Smoke bombs were set off in the chamber. Glue was poured into voting machines. The legislative leader directed the session behind umbrellas held by his aides, to protect him from projectiles.
At issue was whether to ratify an agreement to extend the lease on a Russian naval base on the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine by 25 years. In the end, it was narrowly approved, with 236 votes out of a possible 450, but not before the Parliament appeared to do some damage to its own reputation. The two sides even got into a shoving match and tug-of-war over a giant Ukrainian flag.
Ukrainian politics are contentious, and the Parliament is often rowdy. Even so, Tuesday’s session was exceptional, offering a glimpse of the raw emotions surrounding thecountry’s divisive relations with Russia.
Ukraine, about evenly divided between its Europe-leaning west and its Russian-leaning east, has in recent years become a flashpoint in the struggle between the West and Russia for influence in the countries of the former Soviet Union. And for many Ukrainians, the naval base has been a symbol, for better or worse, of the Russian role in the country.
The base deal was negotiated last week by the new Ukrainian president, Viktor F. Yanukovich, who was elected in February on a pledge to patch relations with Russia that had been severely strained under the previous president, Viktor A. Yushchenko. In return, Russia agreed to the cost of natural gas by 30 percent.
The current lease expires in 2017, and the base’s opponents said Russia should withdraw after that. Moscow has headquartered its Black Sea Fleet there since czarist times. Mr. Yanukovich said the reduction in gas prices would bolster Ukraine’s sagging economy and help it meet its obligations to the International Monetary Fund.
His opponents gathered thousands of protesters in front of the Parliament before the vote on Tuesday. “Ukraine has begun to lose its independence," said Yulia V. Tymoshenko, a former prime minister who lost the presidential race to Mr. Yanukovich.
Besides addressing the lease on the naval base, Mr. Yanukovich took another step on Tuesday toward soothing tensions with Russia by disavowing his predecessor’s stance on the famine in the early 1930’s that killed millions of people in Ukraine.
Mr. Yushchenko, who was a strident critic of Moscow, had labeled the deaths a genocide against the Ukrainian people that was authorized by Stalin in an effort to weaken Ukraine and ensure that it would remain under Soviet authority. Russia has assailed that view, saying that people across the Soviet Union died in the famine, not only those in Ukraine.
In comments on Tuesday in Strasbourg, France, where he was visiting European diplomats, Mr. Yanukovich said he did not believe that the famine was a genocide against the Ukrainian people.
“The famine occurred in Ukraine, in Russia, in Belarus, Kazakhstan — it was a consequence of the Stalinist totalitarian regime,” Mr. Yanukovich said. “But to recognize the famine as a fact of genocide in relation to one or another nation, we consider that incorrect and unfair.”
Once considered a resolute Moscow loyalist, Mr. Yanukovich had enunciated a more nuanced position during the presidential campaign, saying that Ukraine should be nonaligned and act as a bridge between Russia and Europe. But his stance on the famine is likely to further inflame political passions.
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