1 July the oppositional Regions Party presented on its website a project of the Ukrainian Constitution with the provisions offered about non-bloc status of the country and about the Russian language as the second official one. It is for foreign political reasons that Yanukovich decided to remember about his campaigning promises. The matter is that last Sunday Yulia Timoshenko returned form Moscow, which was accompanied with rumors that Vladimir Putin promised to support her.      

After the talks were over, the Russian prime minister blotted out suddenly the paragraphs from his address to the press containing criticism towards Ukraine. “He did it with his own hand” shared Timoshenko her joy with the journalists on the plane. They say, she promised to Putin that in case she becomes the President, Ukraine would not enter NATO, would prolong the lease for the Black Sea Fleet and would give a special status for the Russian language in the south-east of the country. 

After that, the Regions Party, who considers itself to be a monopolist of the Kremlin’s sympathies, got nervous. Yanukovich’s supporters remind that Yulia Timoshenko always says what she is wanted to say and never keeps to her promises. They do not conceal the fact their idea about the Constitution has only a purpose of exposing the inconsistency of the Ukrainian Prime Minister. “Now we shall see which way her faction will be voting for the design of the Constitution, and how her obligations to the Russian Federation will be fulfilled” stated a prominent member of Regions Party, Yuri Boiko.  

Such a cynicism caused indignation in the left camp that is consistent in its anti-NATO and pro-Russian rhetoric. “Alternatively they vote for NATO military exercises, then go to have breakfast with Bush, then hide and keep silence when the NATO General Secretary arrives, and now they propose non-participation in blocs. All this makes me be doubtful about sincerity of the declared goals” stated indignantly Leonid Grach, the leader of Crimean communists.  

The experts have no doubts that the proposal of changes to the constitution would not survive even one round of voting in Verkhovnaya Rada. Most likely, it will not be even voted there. As soon as the Regions Party gets an advantageous offer from the President’s secretariat, it will remove its proposals about the Russian language and non-bloc status. Such is the opinion by Vladimir Fesenko, a political scientist.