Which Viktor will prevail?

President Yushchenko again trod on PM Yanukovych's toes when he signed a decree on Friday revoking the appointment of four deputy Internal Affairs Ministers - Fatkhutdinov - deputy head of civic security, Bodnar - head of the main investigative administration, Plekhanov - responsible for personnel and internal security, and V Suslov. They had been appointed just a few days previously by the Cabinet of Ministers. More about this in an Obkom article entitled: "Yushchenko drove out entire Donetsk gang from Ministry Internal Affairs"

The current 'Dzerkalo Tyzhnya' includes a piece entitled: "Yushchenko preparing 'Special Services' for battle with Yanukovych."

"The sharpening internal political struggle for the control over law-enforcement agencies, procuratorship, and special services was the most significant event of the past week," it says. The replacement of almost entire Ministry of Internal Affairs leadership by people connected to Victor Yanukovych reveals both that the Vasyl Tsushko [recently appointed Minister of Internal Affairs] is a mere decorative figurehead, and that it is the intention of the leader of Regiony to place under his tight control another lever of power - the police force.

At the same time the secretariat of the President is busy creating a new state structure which will give him 'manual control' of the Security Service of Ukraine [SBU]. The anti-crisis majority in the VR is attempting to counteract this process - several days ago they refused to satisfy President Yushchenko's request to fire SBU chairman Ihor Drizhchaniy. Disintegration and destruction of Ukrainian special services as the functioning tool of national security has now become a distinct possibility in the near future, it claims.

The reasons for the dismissal of Drizhchaniy were not officially given, but rumor has it that transcripts of telephone intercepts, some including conversations of the president himself were put ont the president's desk by persons wishing to discredit Drizhchaniy, so demonstrating Drizhchaniy was working against the Head of State.

Viktor Yushchenko is also disturbed by the close ties between Drizhchaniy and the Prosecutor General's Office, and by SBU's reports that head of the Presidential Secretariat Viktor Baloha's is meeting with Viktor Medvedchuk [to many Viktors for my liking], and other matters.

The 'DzT' article speculates that the President is attempting to gain firmer control of the SBU to give him 'greater freedom of action' in the even of early parliamentary elections, and in event of a 'power scenario stand-off' between branches of state authority.

The article speculates that the current Prosecutor General Medvedko could be voted out of his job by VR deputies - the Socalist bloc assisting in his ouster, and Svyatoslav Piskun, [good heaven's] the former Attorney General and now a PoR VR deputy, returning to his old job at the Prosecutor General's Office, if the courts decide he was unfairly fired. [I recall reading that before and during the OR Piskun had been a regular visitor to Yuschenko's home in Kyiv]

ps Good 30 minute radio documentary from BBC Radio 4 'The Litvinenko Mystery' here. It starts a couple of minutes into the broadcast..

Update: The four deputy Internal Affairs Ministers are working on, and ignoring the President's 'ukaz'.