Major troublemakers sober up by end of 2008, Speaker Lytvyn says

In times of a crisis, it is crucially important to abide by the law. Bending the Constitution will cause chaos, revolutionary pressures and may eventually result in the balkanization of Ukraine,” the speaker warned. 
The newly-created coalition managed to adopt the 2009 budget in bitter clashes with the opposition. Adopting the budget was important to stop further deepening of the political standoff and to send a signal to Ukrainians that the country was not headed for chaos. Simultaneously, it sends a signal the world that Ukraine is a predictable political player, Lytvyn said.
A positive development, Lytvyn continued, is that the main perpetrators of the crisis in Ukraine have started to come back to sober thinking. As the legislature resumed its work against heavy odds, 41 bills have been adopted in the short period between Dec. 9 and 26, or almost a fourth of all new laws adopted by the Rada since its election in 2007.
To be able to operate effectively, no external pressure must be put on the Rada, says Lytvyn. “The president should not try to put pressure on the VR, especially by using the group of his loyal lawmakers [belonging to Our Ukraine],” Lytvyn stressed.  
The Rada must be credited for adopting some anti-crisis laws, notably, to support the construction , steel-making and agriculture industries.  Much to the delight of Ukrainians, Rada has effectively endorsed some social laws like credit vacations for those who cannot make their payments for credits, the ban to banks to unilaterally raise interest rates for credits and deposits and the ban on price hikes for pharmaceuticals, V. Lytvyn concluded.