Outside the Beltway

Ukraine’s Government Resigns

Steven L. Taylor · Tuesday, January 28, 2014 · 2 comments

Via the BBC:  Ukraine’s PM Azarov and government resign

Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych has accepted the resignation of the prime minister and his cabinet amid continuing anti-government protests.

Mykola Azarov had offered to step down as prime minister to create "social and political compromise"

[…]

In his resignation statement, Prime Minister Azarov said: "To create additional opportunities for social and political compromise and for a peaceful solution to the conflict, I made a personal decision to ask the president of Ukraine to accept my resignation as prime minister of Ukraine."

Now the question is:  can a new government, in fact, lead to compromise?

Also, parliament repealed the legislation that had been aimed at disrupting the behavior of the protestors (but had the opposite effect):

Parliament – holding an emergency debate on the crisis – voted by 361 to 2 to repeal the protest legislation, which among other measures banned the wearing of helmets by protesters and the blockading of public buildings.

The law had helped fuel the demonstrations which began in Independence Square in the capital, Kiev, after Mr Yanukovych pulled out of a planned trade deal with the EU last November in favour of a $15bn (£9bn) bailout from Russia.

MPs applauded as the result was announced. There was a similar response in Kiev’s Independence Square, which remains the focal point of the demonstrations.