Ukrainian Parliament to consider legality of holding opposition meeting on September 16th

On Tuesday, the 24th of September, the Ukrainian Parliament will consider the legality of holding an opposition meeting in Kiev on the 16th of September, said Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament Vladimir Litvin at a press conference following his meeting with Speaker of the Russian Federation Council /the Russian parliament's upper chamber/ Sergei Mironov.

During the Supreme Rada meeting the Ukrainian parliamentarians will hear reports from the Ukrainian Prosecutor General and the country's Interior Minister, he said.

"We must look into the matter thoroughly without any emotions," Litvin stated.

The Ukrainian Parliament's Chairman said that all the opposition's calls on Leonid Kuchma to resign were hopeless, because they were "in complete circumvention of the Constitution". "If we are democrats, we must act in compliance with the democratic norms and laws," Litvin stressed.

He believes that the Ukrainian opposition's calls on the president to resign "can be looked upon as signs of despair". The Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada's Chairman is convinced that the opposition's action of protest will not influence the country's political life. "Even after this action the sun will rise in the east and set in the west. Ukraine will continue to exist," Litvin said.

The Russian Federation Council's Speaker Sergei Mironov, in his turn, said to journalists that during the meeting with the Ukrainian Supreme Rada's Chairman they had discussed a wide range of issues of inter-parliamentary cooperation and Russian-Ukrainian bilateral relations. "We discussed almost all issues, moreover, Vladimir Litvin briefed me about the political situation in Ukraine and the prospects of the Supreme Rada's work," he stated.