In concession to opposition, Ukraine repeals anti-protest laws; prime minister …
The parliament also passed an amnesty bill Tuesday that would drop criminal liability for protesters who agree to leave the government buildings they have occupied during the demonstrations. Vacating the buildings has been a key government demand.
A leading opposition politician, Arseniy Yatsenyuk of the Fatherland Party, said parliament will consider changes to the Ukrainian constitution at a session scheduled for Tuesday evening.
In a deal presented over the weekend, Yanukovych offered Saturday to make Yatsenyuk prime minister, and another opposition leader, Vitali Klitschko, deputy prime minister. Both men, reluctant to be drawn into collaboration with Yanukovych, demanded further negotiations.
Yanukovych also said he would be willing to cede considerable power to parliament as part of a negotiated deal. Some of his opponents have suggested that he would be content to stay on as a figurehead if that’s the only way to keep his job – and his immunity from prosecution.
A deal with the opposition would mean a stinging defeat to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who strove to keep Ukraine from building closer relations with the West.
Azarov, the prime minister who resigned on Tuesday, was a leading skeptic of Ukraine’s proposed — and long-awaited — trade agreement with Europe. He said that the pact came bristling “with thorns,” and his view seemed to have prevailed in late November, when Yanukovych abruptly walked away from the deal. Azarov comes from the eastern part of Ukraine, whose industries would be most affected if an agreement with the European Union led, as many feared, to stiffer trade barriers with Russia.
In turning away from Europe, Yanukovych sought help for Ukraine’s battered economy from Putin, who responded with a $15 billion aid package.
In Moscow, Russian officials say that aid could now be jeopardized, depending on the changes in the political situation in Ukraine.
The protests in Kyiv started on Nov. 21, almost immediately after Yanukovych abandoned the deal with Europe.
Unlike protesters in Russia in recent years, demonstrators in Kyiv dug in and created a well-barricaded encampment that police have been unable to budge.
After parliament passed the anti-protest laws – on a voice vote less than a minute after they were introduced — clashes with police began to develop on nearby Hrushevsky Street. At least four demonstrators were killed.
New protests broke out almost simultaneously in western Ukraine and, over just a few days, spread even to the eastern, Russian-speaking heartland of Yanukovych’s Party of Regions.