Leaders of four Ukrainian opposition parties are in talks on uniting into one big opposition force intended to counterbalance the existing "leftist" opposition of Yulia Tymoshenko, the Kommersant-Ukraina daily said on Monday.
The Grazhdanskaya Pozitsiya (Civic Position) party led by former defense minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko, the Front Peremen (Front for Change) party represented by its head, former parliament speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the European Party of Ukraine and Ukrainian Republican Party Sobor are members of the Nasha Ukrayina - Narodna Samooborona (Our Ukraine - People's Self-Defense) parliamentary faction, which holds 71 seats in the 450-strong Supreme Rada.
"We are not talking about the creation of an electoral bloc, but about the construction of a united powerful political force on the basis of the four parties," the newspaper quoted a source acquainted with the negotiation process as saying.
A working group involving representatives of the parties was created in late December to draw up the new party's charter, he said.
Anatoliy Matviyenko, the Sobor party head, confirmed that the talks had been taking place, but said the number of parties that could join the new party could change.
"We have intentions of joining into one political force, and they are quite serious," he told Kommersant-Ukraina. "Besides these parties, there are other subjects of talks, but, for example, the Nasha Ukrayina (Our Ukraine) party (led by former president Viktor Yushchenko) is not yet ready to join [us]," Matviyenko said.
The Batkivshchyna party, led by former Ukrainian prime minister Tymoshenko, was not invited to join the talks, he said.
"Batkivshchyna is a leftist political party; let it develop itself. I hope our party will be a center right, national democratic force," he added.
Tymoshenko moved to the opposition after her government was dissolved in March following presidential elections that she narrowly lost to Viktor Yanukovych. She has strongly criticized Yanukovych's government, accusing it of bowing down to Russia and betraying Ukrainian national interests.
KIEV, January 17 (RIA Novosti)
