MOSCOW, January 10 (RIA Novosti) - The decision by the Ukrainian parliament, the Supreme Rada, to dismiss Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov over a gas dispute with Russia shows that the authorities are in a state of paralysis, a senior Russian parliamentarian said Tuesday.
Oleg Morozov, the first deputy speaker of the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, said: "This actually signals the paralysis of the authorities, even though Viktor Yushchenko says that nothing has happened from the legal point of view and the government can work in its interim capacity."
Morozov said the Ukrainian government, which will nominally remain in power in an acting capacity, would be unable to work effectively without parliament's support.
The Rada approved a motion to dismiss the Yekhanurov government Tuesday, only five months after it came to power, in response to a January 4 deal that doubled the price Ukraine paid for Russian natural gas.
