The Ukrainian parliament Friday demanded central bank chief Volodymyr Stelmakh be dismissed for corruption and collapse of the Ukrainian currency.
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko supported the motion, accusing Stelmakh of involving in exchange market speculations to seek personal gains.
"The fall in the hryvnia's rate is linked to deliberate, speculative operations planned on Ukraine's currency market and organized with the support of the National Bank (the central bank)and certain commercial banks," Tymoshenko told a news briefing last week.
"I demand that the president of Ukraine put forward urgently a proposal to parliament to dismiss the head of the central bank andto remove the entire executive of the bank," she said.
The parliament decided last week to create an investigation commission to probe into the central bank's activities during the financial crisis.
Stelmakh has denied accusations he was involved in the exchange market speculations, which caused hryvnia's fall to record lows, traded at 9.6 to the U.S. dollar days ago from its September rate of 4.9 to the dollar.
President Viktor Yushchenko expressed full support for Stelmakh,saying the country needed his expertise to overcome the financial crisis.
The president will ignore the unbinding parliament motion to urge Stelmakh's dismissal, observers said.
Ukraine has entered a deep recession as the economy is expectedto shrink up to 10 percent early next year, said Yushchenko.
Tymoshenko has claimed Yushchenko was involved in corruption but the latter denied the allegation.
Yushchenko's top aide earlier this week accused Tymoshenko of seeking to control the National Bank for private earnings. Source:Xinhua
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