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Monday, 26 April 2010 09:18 |
KIEV, April 26. Agreement to extend the term of Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, swings back Ukraine to the Soviet Union Times, said the opposition politician, the former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in an interview with Financial Times.
On the twenty-first of April in Kharkov, the presidents of Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement extending the stay of the Black Sea Fleet in Crimea after 2017 for 25 years with the right of further renewal for another five years.
The agreement must be ratified by the parliaments of two countries. Ukrainian opposition sharply criticized the agreement, accusing the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych in the "surrender of national interests."
"This throws the Ukraine twenty years ago in the Soviet Union. Independence is under threat. I do not want our country to come under authoritarianism and controlled democracy. What is at stake - the security of Europe and the entire region," - Financial Times quotes the words of Timoshenko.
According to the leader of BYuT, the new government of Ukraine has endangered the democracy in the country and even its independence by signing an agreement with Russia on the fleet.
According to her, this way Ukraine could be drawn into conflict situations. "We may automatically be sucked into one of the parties to the conflict. In the worst case we lose the Crimea", - Tymoshenko said, adding that a unified opposition front will try to block the agreement signed by Yanukovich.
At the same time, the opposition leader acknowledges that the space for opposition forces is small, as the president concentrated in his hands the control over the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the government.
Therefore, according to Tymoshenko, for Western Allies of Ukraine, in particular, for the United States and the European Union, "it is essential to stop turning a blind eye on how Yanukovych tramples the Constitution of Ukraine and the freedom of speech."
Tymoshenko called on European countries "not to change their highest principles of democracy and freedom for the sake of so-called stability." In her view, "such false hopes will not bring stability." |
