As many as 153 members of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada have endorsed the initiative of Vladlen Nekliudov of the parliamentary faction of the Servant of the People party requesting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky impose sanctions on the enterprises of the Roshen confectionery corporation for “financing the budget of the aggressor state Russian Federation.”
The relevant decision was made at a parliamentary session on Friday.
Roshen, a leading confectionary producer in Ukraine, operates confectionery factories in Kyiv, Mariupol, Kremenchuk, Boryspil, Vinnytsia, Klaipeda (Lithuania), and Bonbonetti Choco in Hungary. The operations of the factory in Lipetsk, Russia, were halted on April 1, 2017.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, Roshen’s end beneficiary is Poroshenko’s son Oleksiy.
In December 2016, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow froze the assets of Roshen’s Lipetsk factory as part of a criminal case of embezzlement from the Russian budget.
The Verkhovna Rada has supported the appointment of Ruslan Stefanchuk, who previously held the post of First Deputy Speaker, to the post of Chairman of the Parliament.
The corresponding decision was supported by 261 MPs at a plenary session on Thursday.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has dismissed Chairman of the Parliament Dmytro Razumkov.
The relevant decision was supported by 284 MPs at the Thursday plenary session.
In particular, some 215 votes in support of this decision were given by the Servant of the People faction, while 20 ones by the Batkivschyna faction, six votes by Holos, the For the Future and Dovira factions gave 19 and 18 votes, respectively, six votes from non-factional MPs […]. The European Solidarity and Opposition Platform – For Life factions did not give a single vote for Razumkov’s resignation.
However, the Opposition Platform – For Life and European Solidarity factions gave 23 and 27 votes, respectively, against such a decision. Seven MPs from the Servant of the People faction, eight MPs from the Holos faction, one MP from the Batkivschyna faction and eight MPs from non-factional ones voted against.
From May to November 2019, Razumkov headed the Servant of the People political party, the first number on the list of which was in the early parliamentary elections in 2019. He held the post of the Ukrainian parliament’s chairman from August 29, 2019.
As reported, on September 30, head of the Servant of the People faction David Arakhamia sent a letter on behalf of the deputy faction to recall Razumkov from the post of chairman.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has suspended Chairman Dmytro Razumkov from conducting plenary sessions of parliament for two plenary sessions.
The relevant decision at the Tuesda meeting was supported by 240 MPs, of which 200 MPs were from the Servant of the People faction. The For the Future and Dovira factions gave 16 and 18 votes in favor, respectively, the Holos faction and the non-factional deputies gave three votes each.
However, ten MPs from Holos, one MP from Dovira, six MPs from Servant of the People, some 18 MPs from Batkivschyna, some 24 MPs from the Opposition Platform – For Life, all 27 MPs from European Solidarity and nine non-factional parliamentarians voted against such a decision.
First deputy head of the Servant of the People faction Oleksandr Korniyenko said during the consideration of this issue that this is due to Razumkov’s refusal to put to the vote of the conciliatory council on Monday proposals on the agenda of the plenary sessions of October 5 to October 8.
“We believe that by such actions, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Dmytro Razumkov, neglected the right of parliamentary factions to submit proposals to the weekly agenda of plenary sessions, which is a gross violation of the rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The deputy faction of Servant of the People, For the Future and Dovira […] make a proposal to remove the Verkhovna Rada chairman from the holding plenary sessions for two plenary days,” Korniyenko said.
Razumkov declared a conflict of interest and instructed First Deputy Chairmna Ruslan Stefanchuk to conduct the plenary session when considering this issue.
“For two years in this room, we worked so that the law was the same for everyone. You can move in two ways: follow the law or according to political expediency. Today I see what is happening in the room. And if there is a desire to follow the second [way] rather than by law, is the right of MPs. I will not convince anyone, everyone in this room is adults, smart people,” Razumkov said.
“If there is a desire to change the Verkhovna Rada chairman, I said that I would not delay this process. As soon as the application was received, we issued signature lists, in the evenings we received an application for the launch of the procedure, immediately, according to the Regulations, it was launched, but I think that not everyone is happy with this. You need to quickly. So, you can do whatever you want in this room,” he said.
Razumkov also said the position does not matter to him: “This is a tool. Even without a position I will be able to implement everything that we promised in 2019.”
The Holos party called the dismissal of Razumkov another violation of the rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada and an attempt to take parliament under the control of the President’s Office.
“The chairman was dismissed from his post while the issue of his resignation was being considered, for two days. This happened with a gross violation of the law. There was no argumentation regarding the chairman’s resignation, as well as all opposition factions. But, unfortunately, we have some colleagues cooperating with the President’s Office, and they gave votes for the dismissal of Razumkov,” leader of Holos Kira Rudyk said.
According to her, despite the fact that Razumkov started his political life as a representative of the pro-government team, the party opposes his resignation, as he follows the rules.
“If the chairman is replaced, the opposition will have half or even three times less opportunities to defend its position not only from the rostrum, but also directly with journalists. Since the so-called law on oligarchs is to be signed soon, which is unconstitutional, this is another reason why they want to replace the chairman so quickly,” Rudyk said.
As reported, Head of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction David Arakhamia sent a letter on behalf of the parliamentary faction recalling the chairman of the parliament. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky called the issue of Razumkov’s tenure as chairman of the Verkhovna Rada “intra-factional.”
The Verkhovna Rada at a session on Thursday supported the resignation of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.
Some 291 MPs voted for the corresponding decision.
As reported, Avakov on Tuesday submitted a letter of resignation from office.
Avakov headed the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine since February 27, 2014. For the first time, he was appointed to a post in the government under Arseniy Yatsenyuk (2014-2016). Later, Avakov was a member of the governments under Volodymyr Groysman (2016-2019), Oleksiy Honcharuk (2019-2020) and Denys Shmyhal (2020-2021).
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has canceled the Crimea free economic area, which was introduced by law in August 2014.
The adoption of relevant bill No. 5502-d on recognizing as invalid the law of Ukraine on the creation of a free economic area “Crimea” and on the specifics of performing economic activities in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine and on amending some legislative acts of Ukraine was supported by 328 MPs.
“Taking into account the circumstances that operated in 2014, the law, in fact, introduced preferential conditions for the continuation of economic activities in the temporarily occupied territory. At the same time, the law regulated the implementation of the rights of Ukrainian citizens who remained to live in the temporarily occupied territory and introduced additional restrictions (in particular, customs), in the tax legislation such citizens were equated to non-residents,” the government said in the explanatory note.
The authors of the bill said that such restrictions have led to discrimination against citizens of Ukraine who have remained to live in the temporarily occupied territory or are registered in this territory.
In particular, the status of non-residents led to restrictions on access to banking services in the territory controlled by Ukraine. International and national human rights organizations have repeatedly stated about the negative consequences of the law for the observance of human rights and freedoms.
In addition, bill No. 5502-d proposes to regulate the procedure for persons entering and leaving the temporarily occupied territory, securing the right to free secondary legal aid for Ukrainian citizens living in the temporarily occupied territory and ensuring the implementation of the right to inheritance for such persons.
The Verkhovna Rada at an extraordinary meeting on Thursday also supported bill No. 5501, which amends the Tax Code regarding the administration of taxes and fees in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, and bill No. 5503 on amendments to the Customs Code in connection with the adoption of the law on the abolition of the Crimea free economic area.
CRIMEA, FREE ECONOMIC AREA, PARLIAMENT, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT
