After days of bloodshed,
Ukraine’s government and the Euromaidan opposition have taken steps
to end fighting and address some of the nation’s underlying
problems. Here are three major decisions they have made so far, and
one caveat about the staying power of these changes:
1. The parliament stopped the troops
Last night, Ukraine’s parliament convened and approved a measure to
“immediately stop use of any weapons and special means against
citizens” as well as “unconditional amnesty for all people detained
or who might face possible persecution in the current unrest.”
This is important for several reasons. First, it immediately
de-escalates violence. The Interior Ministry had earlier this week
allowed riot police and troops to use live rounds against
protesters, and President Viktor Yanukovych was planning on
deploying militarized “anti-terrorist” forces. Each time the
government has used force, more people have
joined Euromaidan, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of
violence.
The decision also has political impact. As the Washington
Post‘s Max Fisher
analyzes, it “symbolically places Yanukovych, especially if he
ignored parliament on this, outside of both the democratic
processes and outside rule of law. He’s stuck now – if he defies
the resolution, he’ll be basically labeling himself as
anti-democratic, which will really badly weaken him
institutionally.”
2. The parliament also limited presidential
power
One of the major issues that first sparked protests is a growing
sense of disenfranchisement among Ukrainian citizens. Yanukovych
has
aggressively consolidated power for years. Shortly after he
took power in 2010, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine amended the
constitution to increase Yanukovych’s authority.
On Tuesday, opposition
lawmakers attempted to
reintroduce amendments from 2004, when a pro-western
administration established a more limited government. The chairman
of the parliament, a member of Yanukovych’s party, blocked this
effort, inflaming new riots.
Today, however, the parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of
these reforms. Professor Mychailo Wynnyckyj of the National
University of Kyiv-Mohyla explains the
power shift:
Ukraine just became a Parliamentary-Presidential republic again.
This means Yanukovych still retains power over the army, and over
foreign affairs (Defense and Foreign Ministers remain Presidential
appointees), but the rest of the executive branch is now
accountable to Parliament. A new formalized coalition majority must
now be created in Parliament which will then appoint a new Prime
Minister and approve all other Ministerial appointments.
3. The president agreed to early elections
While the parliament worked on those changes, Vitali
Klitschko and other Euromaidan representatives met with the
president for negotiations overseen by the European Union.
Yanukovych signed an agreement that pushes forward Ukraine’s next
presidential elections from February 2015 to no later than December
2014.
Klitschko has long advocated that snap
elections are needed to determine if Yanukovych is fit to
rule and allow citizens a peaceful, democratic way to move the
nation forward.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who participated in
the talks,
describes the resolution as a “good compromise for Ukraine”
that “gives peace a chance [and] opens the way for reform and to
Europe.”
4. Caveat: Ukraine is not in the clear yet
Ukraine has faced unpredictable turns several times throughout
this months-long affair. Tuesday’s truce vaporized into the
nation’s deadliest days yet. This precedence makes it hard to say
that Ukraine is on a definite path toward stability or regime
change.
Many members of Euromaidan are adamant that Yanukovych must
resign rather than have the chance to run again. If the
various factions of the opposition do not remain unified and
Yanukovych is reelected, renewed violence is not out of the
question.
The opposition’s successes in parliament aren’t set in stone,
either. As Wynnyckyj writes, “currently their factions do not
formally have enough votes in Parliament to create a coalition. If
[Yanukovych’s party] can be re-instated as a monolithic entity, and
then a deal struck with the Communists and some independents, the
new majority may be just as pro-Yanukovych.”
Read more Reason coverage of Ukraine’s revolution
here.
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