"I have not received the resolution for signing," Volodymyr Lytvyn told a news conference following a parliamentary session. The speaker was responding to a question about whether Minister Ivan Plachkov's participation in the signing of the Russia-Ukraine gas agreements would be legal.
On Saturday, Ukraine's national gas company Naftogaz and RosUkrEnergo, a Swiss-based company that transports Central Asian natural gas to Ukraine via Russia, are to sign documents to set up a joint venture in accordance with an agreement reached January 4 that ended the long-standing gas dispute between the two countries.
However, parliament Thursday voted to dismiss Plachkov and passed a vote of no-confidence in Naftogaz Chief Executive Alexei Ivchenko. It voted in favor of sacking the government on January 10 after debating how Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov Cabinet handled a gas price dispute with Russia.
Lytvyn said the vote of no-confidence in Ivchenko was a political assessment, but said parliamentarians did not have the power to remove him. "His dismissal is within the government's competence," he said.
