Drinking at the last chance saloon

The President's official site states that he will be conducting political consultations with the VR speaker and leaders of the parliamentary fractions on Monday 2nd April. "I want to quite say openly that I am ready to sign an ukaz to dissolve parliament. I don't need convincing of this....the parliamentary coalition is entering a system of operation outside of the norms of the Constitution."

The normally-reliable 'Obozrevatel' site has run a story that Yushchenko has already signed the ukaz, and that PM Yanukovych and VR speaker Moroz are now in Moscow consulting with Putin about announcing the impeachment of the President - but there is nothing of any of this on the Pres's official site. The president's press secretary Olena Hromnytska told 'Oboz' that he signed the document after meeting opposition leader Yuliya Tymoshenko for several hours. He and his family previously had also attended a Palm Sunday birch twig blessing service.

The story claims that the national state television company NTKU has refused to provide the President air-time for a live TV broadcast to the nation. Oboz were informed of this by Iryna Herashchenko, a former Presidential press secretary who is now president of the Unian press agency.

'Oboz' published what it claimed to be draft copy of the ukaz to dismiss the VR several days ago. 'The latest 'Dzerkalo Tyzhnya' confirms that the draft copy is not a fake.

LEvko says that the President has pulled out of making major decisions at the very, very last minute before. Maybe he will produce the signed ukaz out of his drawer on Monday to to prove to Yanuk and Moroz that he is not bluffing..and that this time he really is prepared to 'press the detonator'..

In a TV interview today the co-ordinator of the VR majority coalition Rayisa Bohatyryova made conciliatory statements in response to the President's demands. She said that the ruling coalition is prepared not to accept deputies from other fractions until the Constitutional court makes a final decision on this matter. "If tomorrow, at our joint meeting the president clearly lets us know what he has in mind, then it will be also possible to find some kind of position and a common point of view," she said.