KIEV, May 25 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's president signed Friday a decree to make the country's Interior Ministry troops directly subordinate to him, removing them from the ministry's jurisdiction.
The move follows yesterday's turmoil in Kiev, when Viktor Yushchenko dismissed the country's top prosecutor, and the interior minister defied the president, sending in riot police to defend the prosecutor as he remained in his office while protestors gathered outside. Police were also ordered to arrest State Guard Department officers at the premises.
Yushchenko said the decree claiming control over interior troops was intended to "prevent real and potential threats to national interests and prevent the use of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry troops in the interests of certain political forces."
The president also instructed the Interior Ministry troops to guard state power bodies' buildings, and ordered the troops' commander, Oleksandr Kikhtenko, to take personal charge of the decree's implementation.
The troops, whose role is to maintain public order, and who are not connected to the army, had been under the control of Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko, a supporter of Yushchenko's long-time arch rival Viktor Yanukovych. A few hours after the presidential decree was announced, Yanukovych issued a statement defying it.
The Supreme Rada, Ukraine's parliament in which the majority opposes the president, said it plans to vote on the constitutionality of Yushchenko's decree.
After the interior minister moved to support Yushchenko's opponent Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun on Thursday, the president branded the minister's order to send in police a criminal act. Parliament also signaled its support for Piskun.
Yushchenko claimed it was illegal for Piskun to be both chief prosecutor and sit in parliament, where he is a member of Yanukovych's Party of Regions. However, the legality issue has been further complicated by the president's dismissal of parliament and firing of several Constitutional Court Judges.
Piskun was first fired by Yushchenko in 2005, but was reinstated a month ago after contesting his dismissal in court. The latest battle between the president and the prosecutor sprang up following a dispute over the Constitutional Court, which Yushchenko branded "illegitimate" when it failed to accept his decrees dissolving parliament and calling new elections. He demanded that Piskun take appropriate measures against the court.
A presidential supporter, National Security Council Secretary Ivan Plyushch, condemned the interior minister's defiant actions as an attempted seizure of a national law enforcement body, while Viktor Shemchuk, appointed by the president as acting prosecutor, said he had launched criminal proceedings.
In a separate development, Yanukovych appointed Oleksandr Kuzmuk, who served as defense minister under ex-President Leonid Kuchma, as deputy prime minister in charge of security and defense. Kuzmuk replaces Volodymyr Radchenko, who had asked the prime minister to be dismissed due to poor health.
