LB.ua chronicles the latest events in Ukraine in English for foreign readers.
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9:22. Former Ukrainian Interior Minister and head of the public organization 'Ukrainian Third Republic' Yuriy Lutsenko's level of intoxication on the day he took a hit on his head by 'Berkut' riot police was equal to drinking a glass of brandy - the presence of alcohol in the blood was fixed at 0.57
10:24. The opposition deputies are blocking the Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Rybak in his office.
11:09. First Vice-Speaker Igor Kalyetnik opened the session of the Verkhovna Rada. At least 261 lawmakers have registered in the parliament.
11:14. The Verkhovna Rada adopted the state budget for 2014. 249 deputies voted for its approval.
11:20. Once a bill concerning the status of judges has not received the necessary 226 votes, First Vice-Speaker Igor Kalyetnik said that lawmakers' voting cards had been taken away and thus they they have to vote by raising hands.
11:25. Ukrainian nuclear power, which provides half of the electricity production in the country is almost completely under control of the Russian government, wrote the opposition party 'UDAR' lawmaker Sergey Kaplin in his blog on LB.ua.
11:34. First Vice-Speaker Igor Kalyetnik suspended the session of the Verkhovna Rada for 30 minutes.
11:46. The Prosecutor's Office of Kyiv region began criminal proceedings against the Chief of the State Treasury in the Kyiv region Eugene Semenza on suspicion of taking a bribe of 24 thousand UAH (~$2.9 thousand).
12:15. The Verkhovna Rada voted for the bill number 3879, made by deputies from the ruling Party of Regions Vadym Kolesnichenko and Vladimir Oliynyk, which, inter alia, prohibits the columns of more than five vehicles without prior notice to the traffic police, as well as the collection of personal data on judges.
12:19. Parliament session was interrupted again after 15 minutes of work.
12:21. The Verkhovna Rada voted for the bill number 3587, made by individual deputy Lev Mirimsky, which introduces the possibility of criminal proceedings in absentia.
12:30. The ruling Party of Regions lawmakers and the Communist Party during a random voting adopted amendments to the Regulations of the Verkhovna Rada, which simplify the procedure of depriving deputies of power and judging them.
12:38. The Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Rybak announced the completion of the parliamentary session. Rada will continue its work in February.
12:43. The ruling Party of Regions lawmaker Vladimir Malyshev accidentally took a hit on his head from his fellow party members while voting for the state budget for 2014.
12:47. Lawmaker Roman Zabzalyuk was expelled from the opposition faction 'Batkivshchyna'. He repeatedly criticized the head of the faction Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
13:16. The opposition party 'UDAR' leader Vitali Klitschko said the opposition will initiate referendum on distrust to the Verkhovna Rada and President Viktor Yanukovich if the head of state and the speaker sign laws and budget for 2014 adopted today.
13:22. The Verkhovna Rada has created a temporary investigative commission to investigate illegal actions of law enforcement agencies and individual officials, as well as attacks on the rights and freedoms of life and health of Ukrainians during events associated with the mass protests in Ukraine.
'Clownery that occurred today in the hall of the parliament is a criminal offence. This is actually a coup. Neither the head of the parliament nor the president have no right to sign the laws that allegedly had been adopted. Now the street will speak, but you shouldn't doubt that the voice of the street will not be the same as before. The opposition develops a clear answer to these gross actions of the regime, and it'll be announced soon', said the politician.
13:42. The Verkhovna Rada voted for the bill number 3879, made by the Party of Regions lawmakers Vadym Kolesnichenko and Vladimir Oliynyk, which, in particular, introduces criminal liability for defamation.
14:08. The Verkhovna Rada voted for the bill number 3879, offered by the Party of Regions deputies Vadym Kolesnichenko and Vladimir Oliynyk, that introduces criminal liability for extremist activity.
14:36. The Verkhovna Rada introduced in legislation a concept of 'public association, which serves as the foreign agent' for organizations that are financed from abroad.
Among other things, this document provides the exclusion of such organizations of the number of non-profit organizations whose profits are not taxed.
In addition foreign agents will have to submit monthly reports on the personal composition of their governing bodies, as well as information on the amount of funds received from foreign sources, the purposes of their use and their actual activity.
14:40. Pechersky District Court of Kyiv decided to deprive AutoMaidan activist Sergey Poyarkov of his driving license for six months. After the court session Poyarkov said he intends to appeal the decision.
14:49. Leader of the civil initiative 'Third Ukrainian republic' Yuriy Lutsenko said that he had no complaints to ordinary 'Berlut' riot police employees, who participated in a skirmish on the night on January 11, when he took a hit on the head.
15:02. The Verkhovna Rada has introduced criminal liability for blocking government buildings. 235 deputies in favour of the bill number 3879.
15:07. Rada obliged regular subscribers to sign contracts when buying SIM-cards from mobile operators. The controversial bill number 3879 was approved by the parliament today.
"I am concerned about the way in which the parliament today voted for some laws. Standards should be in compliance with the appropriate procedures. Otherwise trust in democratic institutions and legal system is under threat', he said.
15:35. Pechersk district court in Kyiv rejected former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's lawyer Sergei Vlasenko request on removing restrictions on his movement, but allowed him to visit his mother, who lives in the city of Tetiev, Kyiv region.
The draft budget for 2014 was approved on the reduced procedure, without judgement and editing. 249 deputies from the Ruling Party of Regions, the Communist Party and some individual deputies voted in favour of the bill.
This was the only bill to be voted according to the standard regulations. The rest of the bills were approved by raising hands, 'cause Vice Speaker Igor Kaletnik, who moderated the parliamentary session, said the opposition took away the 'regionals' part of voting cards.
Over the next half an hour the deputies adopted the following list of innovations:
- Rada has banned 'illegal collection, storage, use, destruction, dissemination of confidential information about judges, their close relatives or family members, distribution of materials or information that is clearly offensive and demonstrates defiant disregard for judges or justice, pressure, intimidation or interference any form in the activities of judges committed for the purpose of revenge, preventing judges from performing their official duties in order to obtain a miscarriage of justice, or public calls or distributing materials inciting such acts'. Such actions will be punished by a fine or by corrective labor or imprisonment for up to six months, or imprisonment for a term up to two years.
- Bill number 3587 by individual deputy Lev Mirimsky, which introduces the possibility of criminal proceedings in absentia.
- Amendments to some legislative acts of Ukraine regarding liability for administrative offences during football matches.
- Bill number 3879 (by the ruling Party of regions lawmakers Vadim Kolesnichenko and Vladimir Oleynik), which contains several controversial rules: prohibits the columns of more than five vehicles without prior notice to the traffic police; obliges regular subscribers to sign contracts when buying SIM-cards from mobile operators'; criminalization of extremism and libel; criminal liability for blocking governmental buildings; allows blocking access to Ukrainian sites distributing information, the distribution of which is contrary to the law, or the sites used by the news agencies without statutory certificate of state registration of news agencies; simplifies the procedure of depriving deputies of power and judging them, introduces automatic video and photo-fixation of traffic violations; makes changes in the law regarding criminal responsibility for the desecration or destruction of tombs and monuments erected in honor of those who fought against Nazism during the Second World War, soldiers-liberators, members of guerrilla movements, victims of Nazi persecution, criminalizes the denial or justification of crimes of fascism, neo-Nazi propaganda ideology, manufacture and distribution of materials to justify these crimes.
- Amendments to the Law of Ukraine on free legal aid.
- Bill on Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine on the exemption from added tax of the transactions on import of natural gas into the customs territory of Ukraine.
- Creation of a temporary investigative commission to investigate illegal actions of law enforcement agencies and individual officials, as well as attacks on the rights and freedoms of life and health of Ukrainians during events associated with the mass protests in Ukraine.
- Changes to the law 'On elimination of negative impacts and prevention of the prosecution and punishment in connection with the events that took place during the peaceful assemblies'.
18:00. Social activist and journalist Tatiana Chornovol, who was brutally beaten on the night on December 25, was released from hospital.
18:10. Ukraine will become a state where freedom of speech will be officially banned if the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich signs a law on authorship by deputies from the Party of Regions Vadym Kolesnichenko and Vladimir Oleynik adopted by the Parliament on Thursday, said chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Freedom of Expression and Information Nykolai Tomenko.
18:22. Leaders of the opposition factions in the Verkhovna Rada Arseniy Yatsenyuk ('All-Ukrainian Union' Batkivshchyna') and Oleg Tyahnibok from 'All-Ukrainian Union 'Svoboda' have asked the Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Rybak to cancel the results of voting on the bills adopted in the parliament today.
18:30. About 50 AntiMaidan activists are picketing AutoMaidan leader Dmitry Bulatov's house.
19:22. The European Union has canceled the traditional dinner with Russian President Vladimir Putin, that had to take place during the EU-Russia summit in Brussels at the end of January. The EU-Russia summit, which usually lasts for two days, will last just one day this time.
19:55. The investigators say don´t believe that a journalist and co-founder of the Dnepropetrovsk newspaper ('Litsa') 'Faces' Valery Garaguts was performing his professional duty during the protests on Bankova street n Kyiv on December 1. At the same time he is a victim in the case of obstruction of his profession during the same events, when a group of opposition protesters assaulted the Presidential Administration.
19:54. Adoption of the law number 3879 by 'regionals' Vadim Kolesnichenko and Vladimir Oleynik casts doubt on the democratic nature of the Ukrainian state and is paving the way for mass repressions against its citizens, says statement of fund 'Vidrodgennya' ('Renaissance'), which is owned by George Soros.
20:32. Students held a march in Kharkov against provocateurs participating in peaceful protests and against bandits' arbitrariness in the city, and showed a small performance about this provocateurs near the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs.
20:50. Representative of freedom on the media in the OSCE Dunja Mijatovic is concerned that today Ukraine adopted legislative changes, among which there is the return of criminal libel. She says it threatens the freedom of speech in the country.
She also expressed her sincere hope that President Viktor Yanukovich will veto the changes that can be interpreted freely and lead to disproportionate restrictions on freedom of the media and stifle critical voices.
21:14. Sweden Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt called outrageous the way of approving in the Verkhovna Rada of controversial laws of authorship of the ruling Party of Regions lawmakers Vadim Kolesnichenko and Vladimir Oleynik.
21:25. The opposition party 'UDAR' lawmaker Maria Ionova has been taken from the party office by ambulance. She felt ill, felt dizzy and was hospitalized.
21:48. Three opposition factions - 'Batkivshchyna', 'UDAR' and 'Svoboda' will hold a meeting on January 17.
These are Viktor Radchenko, Roman Belenky, Oleg Matyash, Vitaly Blagodarniy, Yegor Previr, Alexander Ostaschenko, Valery Garatsul, Jaroslav Pritulenko, Roman Teslenko, Nikolai Lazarevskiy, Sergey Nuzhnenko, Gennady Tcherevko, Oleg Panas, Yuri Bolotov, Vladislav Zagorovko, Andrei Dzynzdya, Vladimir Kadurg, Alexander Solonenko and Victor Smaliy.
22:37. According to a source in the President Viktor Yanukovich's patronage office, the president signed five laws adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on Thursday, January 16.
The signed laws include the law 'On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine' On the Judicial System and Status of Judges' and procedural laws regarding additional measures to protect the safety of citizens' (authors - the ruling Party of Regions lawmakers Vladimir Oleinik and Vadin Kolesnichenko), Act on amending the regulations of the Verkhovna Rada (on simplification of procedures on the abolition of deputies' immunity), the law 'On administrative responsibility for offences in the field of road safety, recorded in the automatic mode', the law on liability for administrative offences during football matches, and the Law on Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code regarding criminal proceedings in absentia.
23:18. There are up to two thousand Euromaidan activists on Kyiv's Independence Square as of 23:00.
23:40. Te ruling Party of Regions deputy Vladimir Oleynik confirmed that most of the scandalous laws adopted by the Parliament earlier this day had been created as an answer to Euromaidan and AutoMaidan.
Read next: Ukrainian crisis: January 17