May 2016: Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko speaks while Ukraine's Radical Party and Poroshenko Bloc Party block the rostrum during appointment of new prosecutor general. (c) Sergei Chuzavkov / AP / Press Association Images. All rights reserved.The debating chamber of the Ukrainian parliament, with its glass dome and Soviet-era frescoes on the ceiling, is Europe’s biggest business club. To become members of this exclusive establishment, many people are prepared to pay up to five million dollars, either in bribes to a party leader or to buy votes in their constituency.
At first glance, the parliamentary deputies’ workplaces are reminiscent of pews in a Catholic church. But this resemblance is deceptive. Each deputy has three different coloured buttons to use when voting, a narrow table and a chair covered in burgundy coloured velvet. These seats may look comfortable, but are, in fact, as hard as a wooden bench: their synthetic foam has disintegrated from years of use and the velvet (also synthetic) is saturated with the sweat of several generations of Ukrainian politicians.
The chamber is incredibly noisy — deputies don’t stay in their seats, they huddle together in groups of two or three, engaged in the latest bit of political horse-trading. Fights break out regularly: at the end of last year, one member of the president’s party pulled prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk from his seat and attempted to forcibly remove him from the rostrum. The PM stood there like a dummy until his party colleagues ran to his aid, and the result was a massive brawl. “There are a lot of morons in parliament,” Yatsenyuk commented shortly afterwards.
