Lull before the storm

'Obozrevatel' today carries this story entitled "Tymoshenko proposes non agression pact to Baloha" which I've loosely paraphrased: [also in Ukrainian here]

On Saturday 3rd May Yulia Tymoshenko met head of President Yushchenko's secretariat, Viktor Baloha. Their informal meeting was called to broker a truce between the KabMin and the Secretariat, which has in recent weeks subjected the PM and her cabinet to non stop criticism and invective. [Tymoshenko has vigorously responded to these too.]

Both sides agreed that their confrontation was not beneficial or effective for either side, but nevertheless the secretariat intends to continue to actively interfere in economic processes initiated by the Tymoshenko government. Neither the details nor the format of their agreement are clear, but the contours of the new political compromise have been revealed to 'Obozrevatel' from sources close to the PM.

Tymoshenko will tone-down her criticism of the President and cancel her plans to take control of the State Property Fund. Joint agreement is to be made on a suitable candidate for the SPF head, and the PM is to end the sackings of unwanted state administration departments and mayors of major cities.

From his side, Baloha confirmed that he will stop seeking to displace the PM, for the time being. The president promised to support the operation of the ruling BYuT/NUNS coalition, and rein in his criticism of the government on the high levels of inflation.

Importantly, both sides agreed on a common approach in the Kyiv mayoral and city council elections, even though they were unable to agree on a joint [BYuT/NUNS] candidate for the post of mayor.

However, 'Oboz' considers the "non aggression pact" is merely a 'lull before the storm', and is useful to both sides exclusively from the point of view of tactics. Most probably, until the end of the summer or the start of autumn, both sides will dampen down the conflict which has raged for the last 4 months, and will be working on their possible political strategies for the future.

Right now a crisis is harmful because of the economic problems facing the country, Both PM and President are afraid to go into attack mode, and consider it better, with an eye to the future, to take up defensive positions.

LEvko considers that the ceasefire should last..oh, at least for a week...