The laws on the special status of the Donbas have been put aside for better times

Due to the fragility of the truce the decision regarding the special status of the Donbas was held off

Photo: Reuters

The laws on amnesty and special status in the Donbas region that were adopted behind closed doors on September 16 have so far not taken effect, though formally all the legal terms for have expired. According to information of Capital, protracting the signing of documents is to the advantage of both VR Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov and President Petro Poroshenko.

Empty voting

The laws on the special status of local self-government in the Donbas region and amnesty of members of illegal armed formations adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on September 16 have to this day not been submitted for signing by President Poroshenko as they were not signed by VR Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov.

“This is an unprecedented case and a clear protraction of the signing of both laws,” leader of the Batkivshchyna faction Serhiy Sobolev told Capital. He said that immediately after the adoption of these laws in parliament a number of members of Batkivshchyna reported violations during the voting process that was held in a closed regime. The parliamentarians submitted to the speaker a draft resolution on annulling the results of voting.

“Turchynov has the right to not put his signature to laws if he registers a violation and send them back for a re-vote. This did not happen and Turchynov simply decided to reinsure himself by instructing the regulatory committee to review the legitimacy of the procedures for passing of these laws,” said Sobolev.

First Deputy Chair of the VR Regulatory Committee Valeriy Karpuntsov (UDAR) said the committee conducted a review and found not violations.

“The laws are on the desk of Turchynov, who must now give his signature of approval,” an interlocutor of the publication noted. However, his colleague in the committee Volodymyr Demydko (Party of Regions) believes that in the case of the laws pertaining to the Donbas region Turchynov himself should be accused of violations that contradict the norms of the regulations of the Verkhovna Rada. “The speaker has five days to sign the law, but he is dragging out this process alluding to the actions of the committee. Be that as it may, the committee in no way has influence over the terms of signing the law as the report was issued on the same date, when the laws were passed,” Demydko explained.

As Capital wrote earlier, people’s deputies approved the laws concerning the Donbas region on September 16 after President Poroshenko made an appearance in the parliament and actively convinced MPs to vote in favor these documents.
The voting was held in a closed regime and the voting board in the session hall only showed the number of votes without a breakdown into factions.

Then Turchynov said that there are two versions of the law on the special status of local self-government in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. In one of them it reads that the borders of the territory controlled by separatists will be determined by the Verkhovna Rada, while in the other version the leader of the SBU Anti-terrorist Center will define these borders. Turchynov assures that the parliament voted in favor of the first version, which he promised to sign.

Who took the pause?

Parliamentarians that responded to the questions of Capital have different opinions of how the situation regarding these laws will develop. In the opinion of Sobolev, Turchynov does not want to sign them as a cessation of hostilities that the documents envisage is not being observed.

“The Minsk agreement, which led to the adoption of these laws, is not being fulfilled. There is no peace in the Donbas region and Turchynov is quite aware of this fact. Precisely for this reason, these do not require the signature of President Porshenko,” said Sobolev, who refused to predict when these laws will take force.

A member of Batkivshchyna, who is close to Turchynov, said on condition of anonymity that the VR speaker simply does not want sign “laws that he considers a capitulation”. But Karpunov presumes that the VR speaker is sidestepping the signing of these laws because he believes they are convenient for the president. “I think the whole matter comes down to the election campaign. Turchynov and his ally Arseniy Yatsenyuk do not want to give the president an instrument necessary for international negotiations and implementation of his peace plan,” Karpunov explained.

Moreover, Demydko is confident that the “party of war” will resist the final adoption of these laws. “A political algorithm of transition to détente in the Donbas region is factored into the law. The laws are not convenient for politicians that are interested in fighting to the last of the Ukrainians,” stressed Demydko, who considers Poroshenko a member of the ‘party of peace”.

A source of Capital in the Presidential Administration assures that the signing of these critical documents is in the hands of Ukraine’s head of state. Poroshenko believes that until the borders of the buffer zones in the regions controlled by separatists are not delineated, it would be wiser to hold off the passing of these laws, said the source.

As a reminder, the presidential law envisages the introduction of a special procedure of self-government in certain counties in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts for three years and holding of local elections in those regions on December 7, 2014.