Klitschko Has Removal of His Political Party from Petro Poroshenko Bloc in Mind – Source

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko is considering removing his political party UDAR from Petro Poroshenko Bloc (BPP), as sources from his team report.

"The President doesn’t need Klitschko as a strong politician. In case of early elections, UDAR will run for Parliament separately from BPP," the interlocutor said to Ukrayinska Pravda. According to him, negotiations are ongoing to unite with other political actors, including the parties of Mikheil Saakashvili and Yulia Tymoshenko.

"The union is not for sure, but everyone is free to enter into negotiations," the source goes on, "Klitschko is not totally satisfied about his deal with Poroshenko, as some terms of the union have not been met. To mention a few, the counterparts agreed that the party should be named UDAR BPP, but it never happened," the source informs.

Moreover, at least two interlocutors of Ukrayinska Pravda from the Kyiv Mayor’s team suggest the Presidential Administration is unhappy that Kyiv TV channel airs the Shuster Live talk show. "They keep signaling that the Shuster show has to be taken away [from the channel]," they stress.

In late May, Klitschko tried to resign from the position of BPP head pursuant to the newly-adopted law on public service. Notwithstanding, the subsequent BPP meeting did not consider his resignation.

Source: Roman Kravets, Oleh Shankovskyi, Ukrayinska Pravda