MOSCOW, Jan 4 Seventy parliamentarians of Ukraine refused to sign an appeal to Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk on the deprivation of parliamentary powers of representatives from the so-called pro-Russian parties, the public movement «Honestly» reports on Wednesday. Earlier, by a court decision, more than 15 parties were banned in Ukraine, including the Opposition Bloc, Socialists, Justice and Development, Ours, Derzhava, Volodymyr Saldo's Bloc, the Socialist Party of Ukraine, the Left Opposition, Shariy's party, «Opposition Platform — For Life».
Seventy people's deputies (of the Rada. — Ed.) refused to put their signatures under an appeal to Ruslan Stefanchuk on the deprivation of powers of deputies elected from banned pro-Russian parties. This is stated in response to a request from the Chestno deputy from the Servant of the People faction Oleg Dundi, who initiated the collection of signatures,» the movement's website reports.
The report says that 96 signatures out of 150 required have been collected so far.
According to the public movement, the Batkivshchyna faction, headed by Yulia Tymoshenko, almost in its entirety refused to put signatures on the initiative to put this issue on the agenda of the next parliamentary session.
Earlier, the Minister of Justice of Ukraine Denys Malyuska said that the activities of the deputies of the banned «Opposition Platform — For Life» (OPPL) will be closely monitored by the authorities, in the future they may be deprived of their mandates. The minister noted that a relevant bill has been developed and will be considered by the parliament.