KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, has been forced to scrap plans to build a glitzy business centre at a historic tourist site in Kiev after a public outcry in which he was accused of "spitting on the soul" of the capital.
Protests by several hundred people brought a rare dose of bad publicity for the 45-year-old steel and coal tycoon who normally shuns the public limelight but is one of the most influential political players in the ex-Soviet republic.
Several hundred protesters, alerted by the social networking site Facebook, turned out to rally on Wednesday night against plans by the billionaire's System Capital Management (SCM) company to build a multi-storey business centre on "Andriyivsky Descent", a picturesque cobbled street and one of Ukraine's best-known tourist spots.
But the protests came too late to stop bulldozers from destroying at least one 19th century building and wrecking another built 40 years ago in mock 19th century style, cultural officials said.
Chanting "(Put) Akhmetov down a mine shaft !" and "Get Akhmetov out of town", several protesters dumped building material near SCM headquarters to signify their disgust.
"They have come here and brutally turned things into a pig-sty," said Olexander Serhiyenko, a member of a Kiev civic organization.
"They have spat on the soul of Kiev with their 'Andriyivsky Plaza'", he said.
"The ESTA company (a subsidiary of SCM), having examined the opinions of Kiev people, decided back in March to cancel the construction of the business centre," said Akhmetov in a statement issued by his press service.
"Unfortunately, after this decision, there were two bad errors. Firstly, the actions of the company were not coordinated. Secondly, they were not explained to the public," Akhmetov said.
Akhmetov, whose net worth Forbes puts at $16 billion, added:
"I promise that SCM will return the original look to the destroyed facades. We will also help the town restore Andriyivsky Descent."
Akhmetov, whose power base is in the eastern city of Donetsk, made his fortune in steel and coal in the 1990s after a turbulent period in post-Soviet history marked by gangland-style shootings and bombings.
A big soccer enthusiast, he is the owner of Shakhtar Donetsk, one of Ukraine's most successful football clubs, and also has interests in construction, banking, media and property.
According to British media, he bought a penthouse at One Hyde Park in London a year ago for a price of about $220 million.
KING-MAKER
As a financial backer of President Viktor Yanukovich's election campaign in 2009 he is seen as a 'king-maker' in politics, but he is notoriously publicity-shy and rarely meets journalists.
In his power base of Donetsk he is revered as a benefactor and his critics say the protests in Kiev have clearly shaken him.
"They called the Berkut (Ukrainian special forces) to their headquarters as soon as they heard about the protest. They were afraid of a peaceful protest. But without this protest they would have just gone ahead with their plans," said Anna Putova, an archivist at Ukraine's national archives.
"I don't believe a word of his promises. I don't believe him and I don't think anyone in Kiev believes him," she said.
Andriyivsky Descent, a half-mile winding drop down from the administrative centre of Kiev to a riverside quarter, is a top tourist spot in season, with chic restaurants, street-side arts and crafts studios and souvenir stalls.
With Ukraine co-hosting the Euro-2012 soccer championships in June, the street would normally be heaving with traders preparing for a busy season ahead.
But eve-of-Euro reconstruction work to install new drainage and upgrade the quarter's infrastructure has reduced the cobbled street to a sea of building sand, bricks, mud and heavy machinery.
Most traders are sitting things out, hoping city authorities will complete the work by the target day of May 27
Showing posts with label Kiev. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kiev. Show all posts
Sunday, 15 April 2012
Platini Raps Ukrainian "Swindlers" Over Euro Hotel Prices
LVIV, Ukraine -- "Bandits and swindlers" are undermining Ukraine's Euro 2012 preparations by pushing accommodation prices up to exorbitant levels, UEFA president Michel Platini said on Thursday.
Hotels in Kiev, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Lviv, the four Ukrainian host cities, have hiked prices in some cases more than 10-fold.
Talking to reporters during a visit to Lviv, Platini said "bandits and swindlers who want to earn a lot of money" could keep fans away from Ukraine.
"You cannot raise prices from 40 euros ($53) to 100 euros ($132) to 500 euros ($657) from one day to the next," added the president of European soccer's ruling body. "That is just not done."
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich this month ordered his government to investigate price hikes and ensure hotel rates are at an "economically reasonable" level during the championship.
"We will be preparing to the last night and will welcome (guests and participants) the way it should be done," Yanukovich said in a statement on Thursday.
The cheapest Lviv hotel listed on UEFA's championship website as available for the Germany-Portugal match on June 9 charges 195 euros ($256) per night. For the Ukraine-Sweden match on June 11 in Kiev, offers start at 104 euros ($137).
A tent camp set up 35-km away from Kiev plans to charge 30 euros ($40) per night.
Ukraine, tournament co-hosts along with Poland, has invested billions of dollars in Euro preparations and hopes to gain a return in the form of increased tourist traffic.
Hotels in Kiev, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Lviv, the four Ukrainian host cities, have hiked prices in some cases more than 10-fold.
Talking to reporters during a visit to Lviv, Platini said "bandits and swindlers who want to earn a lot of money" could keep fans away from Ukraine.
"You cannot raise prices from 40 euros ($53) to 100 euros ($132) to 500 euros ($657) from one day to the next," added the president of European soccer's ruling body. "That is just not done."
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich this month ordered his government to investigate price hikes and ensure hotel rates are at an "economically reasonable" level during the championship.
"We will be preparing to the last night and will welcome (guests and participants) the way it should be done," Yanukovich said in a statement on Thursday.
The cheapest Lviv hotel listed on UEFA's championship website as available for the Germany-Portugal match on June 9 charges 195 euros ($256) per night. For the Ukraine-Sweden match on June 11 in Kiev, offers start at 104 euros ($137).
A tent camp set up 35-km away from Kiev plans to charge 30 euros ($40) per night.
Ukraine, tournament co-hosts along with Poland, has invested billions of dollars in Euro preparations and hopes to gain a return in the form of increased tourist traffic.
U.S. Calls On Ukraine To Release Tymoshenko Ally
KIEV, Ukraine -- The United States said on Friday the jailing by Ukraine of an ally of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko was a miscarriage of justice and called for the release of Valery Ivashchenko on health grounds.
A Ukrainian court this week found Ivashchenko, who served as acting defence minister in opposition leader Tymoshenko's cabinet in 2009 and 2010, guilty of abusing his powers in privatising a Black Sea ship repair facility.
"With respect to the conviction of former Acting Defense Minister Ivashchenko, we are deeply disappointed in this latest example of selective justice in Ukraine and call for his release, particularly given the state of his health after 18 months in pre-trial detention," the U.S. embassy in Ukraine said in a statement.
Tymoshenko, the fiercest opponent of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, has described her conviction for abuse of office, for which she has been sentenced to seven years in prison, as part of the government's campaign to destroy the opposition.
The United States and the European Union saw it as an example of selective justice and have urged her release.
Ivashchenko has dismissed the charges against him as politically motivated and plans to appeal.
A Ukrainian court this week found Ivashchenko, who served as acting defence minister in opposition leader Tymoshenko's cabinet in 2009 and 2010, guilty of abusing his powers in privatising a Black Sea ship repair facility.
"With respect to the conviction of former Acting Defense Minister Ivashchenko, we are deeply disappointed in this latest example of selective justice in Ukraine and call for his release, particularly given the state of his health after 18 months in pre-trial detention," the U.S. embassy in Ukraine said in a statement.
Tymoshenko, the fiercest opponent of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, has described her conviction for abuse of office, for which she has been sentenced to seven years in prison, as part of the government's campaign to destroy the opposition.
The United States and the European Union saw it as an example of selective justice and have urged her release.
Ivashchenko has dismissed the charges against him as politically motivated and plans to appeal.
People Power In Ukraine
KIEV, Ukraine -- Even as Ukraine drifts towards ever-more authoritarian government, the people’s ability to challenge the authorities was illustrated recently by protests against the demolition of a historic squarter in Kiev.
The Ukrainian authorities continue to test the limits of patience of their own people. A first example is the destruction of ancient buildings in a historic part of Kiev, Andriyivskyy Descent, while another is the change of rules for the parliamentary elections due for October of this year.
In first case we have Andriyivskyy Descent, a short, ancient street in the centre of Kiev where tourists could buy souvenirs and paintings and feel the spirit of traditional Ukrainian culture.
It is now completely under reconstruction with several old buildings destroyed.
Apologies to the tourists Ukraine is expecting for the Euro 2012 Football cup in June: they will not see it.
In a second case, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine has forbidden simultaneous balloting of parliamentary candidates on party lists and in first-past-the-post districts.
It means that the opposition henceforth has even less chances of getting a majority in the new Parliament.
The reactions of two participants in the Ukrainian political process – civil society and the opposition – to the authorities’ actions are demonstrative.
First we have the community of Kiev’s people.
The very day when three ancient buildings at the Andriyivskyi Descent were demolished, protest groups were organised through the internet and people gathered to offices of the builders and organisers of the destruction of that historic part of Kiev.
They brought construction garbage and left it in front of the offices of the self-styled ‘modernisers of the capital’.
The reaction of the authorities was telling.
All TV channels aired speeches of officials who assured that everything would be renewed in a short time frame.
They recognised that the wrecking of historical buildings was a big mistake and said that those guilty would be punished.
The proactive actions of the public frightened the authorities and forced them to start a dialogue and seek compromise.
Or else the bricks could fly through the windows of offices of builders and state and city officials.
Kiev’s civil society has demonstrated its capacity to protect the city and its way of life.
Regarding the second case, when the authorities took away the right of the opposition to double balloting by party lists and majority districts by means of the Constitutional Court, the opposition-minded forces and their leaders became confused and didn’t know what to do.
The opposition has once again shown its own impotence.
A joint strong-willed decision on boycotting parliamentary elections by all opposition forces could become a way out of the situation.
The authorities would be compelled to make concessions in the face of the threat of delegitimisation in the eyes of society and the opposition.
But it seems that the current Ukrainian opposition establishment, unlike civil society, is unfortunately incapable of displaying maturity.
If we look at the future development of Ukraine, considering tendencies predominating now, the following picture emerges:
Viktor Yanukovych’s regime will continue the process of growing authoritarianism of power.
This will be achieved through the conclusion of non-public arrangements on cooperation with a part of the opposition parties and their leaders.
And in case someone won’t be cooperative, the state machinery of pressure in the form of law enforcement bodies, tax and control services will be applied to them.
It will deal a considerable blow to the possibilities of financing any mass oppositional or anti-government activities.
The authorities will definitively monopolise their grip on any big and medium-sized businesses in Ukraine.
There won’t be any foreign investment coming, as political risks will be too high.
At the same time there will be a large-scale backslide in the area of freedom of speech, freedom of opinion, freedom of assembly and free movement.
This will lead to intimidation of the population and strengthen the manipulation of public opinion.
The authorities will be happy to introduce rigid control over the internet.
The authorities hope that the society will degrade to poverty, social apathy and to the basic level of survival.
But without any doubt, radical anti-authority resistance will also amplify and it will be headed by the present public activists and leaders.
This image of Ukraine in the near future has high chances of becoming reality.
In two to three years Ukraine could turn into a classic sample of an authoritarian state on the model of Belarus or the Central Asian post-Soviet regimes.
But this is provided that external players, first of all, Russia and the EU, won’t influence the situation.
And this is highly improbable.
Russia already now is actively developing variants of deepening cooperation with Ukraine.
A latest example is provided by the plans of the Russian Federation to create a new advisory council which would deal with the promotion of Russian interests in the post-Soviet territories.
The European Union is also trying to “not freeze” relations with Kiev.
The only thing which can transform today’s Ukraine into a democratic country which will care about interests of its citizens, and not about officials and big business, is the Ukrainian people, and more precisely, its most active and most conscious representatives.
Those public activists who are now rescuing historical Kiev from destruction, tomorrow will go out to rescue the whole state, and not only its capital.
They won't be deceived by politicians any more, as it was the case in 2004-2005.
External players who would like Ukraine to be democratic and not authoritarian will bet on them.
As long as the majority of Ukrainians don’t realise that they have influence, changes won’t come about.
But look at what public activists did at the Andriyivskyy Descent – they proved that their anger matters.
Let’s not let our hope die! There is enough will for this
The Ukrainian authorities continue to test the limits of patience of their own people. A first example is the destruction of ancient buildings in a historic part of Kiev, Andriyivskyy Descent, while another is the change of rules for the parliamentary elections due for October of this year.
In first case we have Andriyivskyy Descent, a short, ancient street in the centre of Kiev where tourists could buy souvenirs and paintings and feel the spirit of traditional Ukrainian culture.
It is now completely under reconstruction with several old buildings destroyed.
Apologies to the tourists Ukraine is expecting for the Euro 2012 Football cup in June: they will not see it.
In a second case, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine has forbidden simultaneous balloting of parliamentary candidates on party lists and in first-past-the-post districts.
It means that the opposition henceforth has even less chances of getting a majority in the new Parliament.
The reactions of two participants in the Ukrainian political process – civil society and the opposition – to the authorities’ actions are demonstrative.
First we have the community of Kiev’s people.
The very day when three ancient buildings at the Andriyivskyi Descent were demolished, protest groups were organised through the internet and people gathered to offices of the builders and organisers of the destruction of that historic part of Kiev.
They brought construction garbage and left it in front of the offices of the self-styled ‘modernisers of the capital’.
The reaction of the authorities was telling.
All TV channels aired speeches of officials who assured that everything would be renewed in a short time frame.
They recognised that the wrecking of historical buildings was a big mistake and said that those guilty would be punished.
The proactive actions of the public frightened the authorities and forced them to start a dialogue and seek compromise.
Or else the bricks could fly through the windows of offices of builders and state and city officials.
Kiev’s civil society has demonstrated its capacity to protect the city and its way of life.
Regarding the second case, when the authorities took away the right of the opposition to double balloting by party lists and majority districts by means of the Constitutional Court, the opposition-minded forces and their leaders became confused and didn’t know what to do.
The opposition has once again shown its own impotence.
A joint strong-willed decision on boycotting parliamentary elections by all opposition forces could become a way out of the situation.
The authorities would be compelled to make concessions in the face of the threat of delegitimisation in the eyes of society and the opposition.
But it seems that the current Ukrainian opposition establishment, unlike civil society, is unfortunately incapable of displaying maturity.
If we look at the future development of Ukraine, considering tendencies predominating now, the following picture emerges:
Viktor Yanukovych’s regime will continue the process of growing authoritarianism of power.
This will be achieved through the conclusion of non-public arrangements on cooperation with a part of the opposition parties and their leaders.
And in case someone won’t be cooperative, the state machinery of pressure in the form of law enforcement bodies, tax and control services will be applied to them.
It will deal a considerable blow to the possibilities of financing any mass oppositional or anti-government activities.
The authorities will definitively monopolise their grip on any big and medium-sized businesses in Ukraine.
There won’t be any foreign investment coming, as political risks will be too high.
At the same time there will be a large-scale backslide in the area of freedom of speech, freedom of opinion, freedom of assembly and free movement.
This will lead to intimidation of the population and strengthen the manipulation of public opinion.
The authorities will be happy to introduce rigid control over the internet.
The authorities hope that the society will degrade to poverty, social apathy and to the basic level of survival.
But without any doubt, radical anti-authority resistance will also amplify and it will be headed by the present public activists and leaders.
This image of Ukraine in the near future has high chances of becoming reality.
In two to three years Ukraine could turn into a classic sample of an authoritarian state on the model of Belarus or the Central Asian post-Soviet regimes.
But this is provided that external players, first of all, Russia and the EU, won’t influence the situation.
And this is highly improbable.
Russia already now is actively developing variants of deepening cooperation with Ukraine.
A latest example is provided by the plans of the Russian Federation to create a new advisory council which would deal with the promotion of Russian interests in the post-Soviet territories.
The European Union is also trying to “not freeze” relations with Kiev.
The only thing which can transform today’s Ukraine into a democratic country which will care about interests of its citizens, and not about officials and big business, is the Ukrainian people, and more precisely, its most active and most conscious representatives.
Those public activists who are now rescuing historical Kiev from destruction, tomorrow will go out to rescue the whole state, and not only its capital.
They won't be deceived by politicians any more, as it was the case in 2004-2005.
External players who would like Ukraine to be democratic and not authoritarian will bet on them.
As long as the majority of Ukrainians don’t realise that they have influence, changes won’t come about.
But look at what public activists did at the Andriyivskyy Descent – they proved that their anger matters.
Let’s not let our hope die! There is enough will for this
Ukrainian Civil Society - Eleven Wise Men
WARSAW, Poland -- Twenty years ago, the West tried to build civil society in post-Soviet Ukraine.
Now 11 Ukrainian intellectuals have taken the matter into their own hands, through the “1st December” initiative (Pershoho Hrudnya).
Launched in December 2011, its name is a reference to Ukraine's 1991 referendum on independence.
Its members are giants, if faded ones.
One, Ivan Dzyuba, broke Soviet taboos in his essay "Internationalism or Russification?", written in the mid-1960s.
Another, the Geneva-based economist Bohdan Hawrylyshyn, was one of the few people to predict the collapse of the USSR.
A third, Cardinal Lyubomyr Huzar, is a former archbishop of the patriotic Ukrainian Catholic church (although the initiative was endorsed by three Orthodox churches).
Several members are former dissidents who served sentences in Soviet labour camps, an asset in a region where moral currency is often measured in years spent imprisoned by the Communist regime.
The initiative's first round-table event, held in Kiev last Thursday, gathered 70 members of the Ukrainian intelligentsia to discuss relations between state and society.
Their banner, "A Free Person in a Free Country", is a reaction to a society they see as basking in consumerist indifference; or, as Yevgen Sverstyuk , a philosopher, put it, “like a varenyk [dumpling] in butter”.
In pushing for a stronger, more responsible society, and one that is closer to Europe, these grandees turn to abstract themes: human dignity and responsible citizenship.
They hope to drum up interest through a series of local round-table meetings.
The initiative aims to include all Ukrainians, regardless of political affiliation.
The response has been quiet but broadly positive.
Taras Voznyak, editor of the cultural journal Ï, said, “I have understood why there are 11 of them. They are apostles”.
Ukraine's president, Viktor Yanukovich, has expressed an ambiguous interest in the initiative.
The group's members say they hope to connect with younger Ukrainians, despite their average age being well over 70.
But even their most enthusiastic backers wonder what practical steps these philosopher-kings can take to improve life in Ukraine.
Or why it has taken them 20 years to get into gear.
One answer to that may be the chillier atmosphere that has descended in Ukraine since Mr Yanukovich took power in 2010, and the eroding hopes of the generation of Orange revolutionaries that grabbed the world's attention in 2004.
Ukraine's media have begun speculating about parliamentary elections due in October.
If the message of the 1st December group begins to resonate before then, it could become a significant political player.
But some think its influence will be better expressed through a gradual renaissance of civil society, and as an influence for future generations of Ukrainians.
Food for thought, as Ukraine’s Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter this weekend.
Now 11 Ukrainian intellectuals have taken the matter into their own hands, through the “1st December” initiative (Pershoho Hrudnya).
Launched in December 2011, its name is a reference to Ukraine's 1991 referendum on independence.
Its members are giants, if faded ones.
One, Ivan Dzyuba, broke Soviet taboos in his essay "Internationalism or Russification?", written in the mid-1960s.
Another, the Geneva-based economist Bohdan Hawrylyshyn, was one of the few people to predict the collapse of the USSR.
A third, Cardinal Lyubomyr Huzar, is a former archbishop of the patriotic Ukrainian Catholic church (although the initiative was endorsed by three Orthodox churches).
Several members are former dissidents who served sentences in Soviet labour camps, an asset in a region where moral currency is often measured in years spent imprisoned by the Communist regime.
The initiative's first round-table event, held in Kiev last Thursday, gathered 70 members of the Ukrainian intelligentsia to discuss relations between state and society.
Their banner, "A Free Person in a Free Country", is a reaction to a society they see as basking in consumerist indifference; or, as Yevgen Sverstyuk , a philosopher, put it, “like a varenyk [dumpling] in butter”.
In pushing for a stronger, more responsible society, and one that is closer to Europe, these grandees turn to abstract themes: human dignity and responsible citizenship.
They hope to drum up interest through a series of local round-table meetings.
The initiative aims to include all Ukrainians, regardless of political affiliation.
The response has been quiet but broadly positive.
Taras Voznyak, editor of the cultural journal Ï, said, “I have understood why there are 11 of them. They are apostles”.
Ukraine's president, Viktor Yanukovich, has expressed an ambiguous interest in the initiative.
The group's members say they hope to connect with younger Ukrainians, despite their average age being well over 70.
But even their most enthusiastic backers wonder what practical steps these philosopher-kings can take to improve life in Ukraine.
Or why it has taken them 20 years to get into gear.
One answer to that may be the chillier atmosphere that has descended in Ukraine since Mr Yanukovich took power in 2010, and the eroding hopes of the generation of Orange revolutionaries that grabbed the world's attention in 2004.
Ukraine's media have begun speculating about parliamentary elections due in October.
If the message of the 1st December group begins to resonate before then, it could become a significant political player.
But some think its influence will be better expressed through a gradual renaissance of civil society, and as an influence for future generations of Ukrainians.
Food for thought, as Ukraine’s Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter this weekend.
Ukrainian Former Prime Minister Tymoshenko Faces Murder Accusations
KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian prosecutors announced last week that former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (2005; 2007-2010) and former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko (1996-1997) were suspected of commissioning several murders in the 1990s.
This looks like a last-ditch attempt to influence public opinion – both at home, ahead of the October parliamentary election, and in the West, where opposition leader Tymoshenko is regarded as a political prisoner – that she is a monster who deserves to be in jail.
A court in Kiev last October imprisoned Tymoshenko for seven years for exceeding her authority in preparing the controversial January 2009 contracts with Russia’s Gazprom, while Lazarenko, who is Tymoshenko’s former ally, is serving a prison sentence for money-laundering in the US.
First Deputy Prosecutor-General Renat Kuzmin spoke last fall about Tymoshenko’s possible involvement in the 1998 murder of Yevhen Shcherban, who was an influential people’s deputy and businessman from Donetsk.
Kuzmin admitted then that the prosecutors lacked evidence.
It has since become obvious that public opinion and Western policymakers do not trust Ukrainian prosecutors on Tymoshenko, which has been jeopardizing Ukraine’s European integration.
The EU has made it clear that the association and free trade agreement with Ukraine will not be signed if Kiev does not change its attitude to justice in general and Tymoshenko in particular.
What is more, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych himself admitted in Davos this year that Tymoshenko had been indicted under an outdated Soviet law.
The ruling team has apparently decided that it is now time for more serious charges against Tymoshenko to influence Western opinion.
Kuzmin has told FT that he had evidence that companies, which were linked to Tymoshenko and Lazarenko, transferred money to Shcherban’s killers.
Kuzmin also chided the West for defending Tymoshenko:
“What is your view in the West of political persecution? Does this mean that the leader of the opposition cannot be prosecuted even for murder?”.
Simultaneously, Shcherban’s son Ruslan Shcherban, who is a deputy of the Donetsk regional council from the ruling Party of Regions (PRU), wrote a letter to US Ambassador John Tefft saying that European and US politicians should not defend Tymoshenko who, he claimed, had commissioned his father’s killing.
Ruslan Shcherban alleged that he had heard threats from Tymoshenko and Lazarenko whose businesses, he said, competed with his father’s.
He also accused Washington of blocking Kiev’s attempts to establish the truth.
The gas trader United Energy Systems, which Tymoshenko headed in the mid-1990s, was a bitter rival of Shcherban’s businesses on the energy market when Lazarenko was prime minister.
On April 5, Prosecutor-General Viktor Pshonka announced that his team had re-launched the investigation into Shcherban’s murder, which was closed a decade ago.
Also, commenting on old embezzlement cases against Tymoshenko, Pshonka claimed that several of them were closed in January 2005 by his predecessor, Svyatoslav Piskun, because then-President Viktor Yushchenko threatened Piskun with dismissal if he did not close the cases.
In the meantime, the person who confessed to killing Shcherban a decade ago, Vadym Bolotskikh, has been reportedly transferred from a distant prison to Kiev for questioning.
Kuzmin, asked during a talk show why Ruslan Shcherban had not come up with his accusations earlier, said that he was afraid for his life.
What’s more, Kuzmin said that his team suspected Tymoshenko and Lazarenko of also commissioning the murders of another Donetsk businessman, Oleksandr Momot, in 1996, and former central bank governor Vadym Hetman in 1998.
Kuzmin also said that the prosecutors were targeting the deputy chairman of Tymoshenko’s Fatherland party, Oleksandr Turchynov, who de facto heads Fatherland while Tymoshenko is in prison.
He said Turchynov was suspected of illegally awarding an apartment to his spokesman when Turchynov headed the security service in the Yushchenko-Tymoshenko government in 2005.
Another ally of Tymoshenko, former Interior Minister Yury Lutsenko, was sentenced to four years in jail earlier this year for awarding an apartment to his former driver.
Turchynov has dismissed all the new accusations against his boss and himself as a smear campaign and suggested that the prosecutors’ goal was to shock Europe into stopping its defense of Tymoshenko.
He also alleged that those who commissioned Yevhen Shcherban’s murder must be among the PRU ranks as several influential members of the PRU had built their business empires on the ruins of Shcherban’s business.
Meanwhile, another former minister from Tymoshenko’s government has received a prison term.
On April 5, a court in Kiev sentenced former Environment Minister Georgy Filipchuk to three years in jail for exceeding his authority in preparing a ministry contract with a legal company.
Filipchuk was indicted under the same law under which Tymoshenko was indicted last October and which Yanukovych called “outdated.”
Fatherland has claimed that Filipchuk was punished for opposing the US company Vanco’s attempts to “snatch the Black Sea shelf from the state”.
Tymoshenko’s cabinet canceled Vanco’s license to develop the Prikerchenskaya oil field in the Black Sea in April 2008 claiming that it had been awarded the license illegally.
Vanco planned to develop the field in partnership with Donetsk-based tycoon Rinat Akhmetov, who is a senior member of the PRU.
This looks like a last-ditch attempt to influence public opinion – both at home, ahead of the October parliamentary election, and in the West, where opposition leader Tymoshenko is regarded as a political prisoner – that she is a monster who deserves to be in jail.
A court in Kiev last October imprisoned Tymoshenko for seven years for exceeding her authority in preparing the controversial January 2009 contracts with Russia’s Gazprom, while Lazarenko, who is Tymoshenko’s former ally, is serving a prison sentence for money-laundering in the US.
First Deputy Prosecutor-General Renat Kuzmin spoke last fall about Tymoshenko’s possible involvement in the 1998 murder of Yevhen Shcherban, who was an influential people’s deputy and businessman from Donetsk.
Kuzmin admitted then that the prosecutors lacked evidence.
It has since become obvious that public opinion and Western policymakers do not trust Ukrainian prosecutors on Tymoshenko, which has been jeopardizing Ukraine’s European integration.
The EU has made it clear that the association and free trade agreement with Ukraine will not be signed if Kiev does not change its attitude to justice in general and Tymoshenko in particular.
What is more, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych himself admitted in Davos this year that Tymoshenko had been indicted under an outdated Soviet law.
The ruling team has apparently decided that it is now time for more serious charges against Tymoshenko to influence Western opinion.
Kuzmin has told FT that he had evidence that companies, which were linked to Tymoshenko and Lazarenko, transferred money to Shcherban’s killers.
Kuzmin also chided the West for defending Tymoshenko:
“What is your view in the West of political persecution? Does this mean that the leader of the opposition cannot be prosecuted even for murder?”.
Simultaneously, Shcherban’s son Ruslan Shcherban, who is a deputy of the Donetsk regional council from the ruling Party of Regions (PRU), wrote a letter to US Ambassador John Tefft saying that European and US politicians should not defend Tymoshenko who, he claimed, had commissioned his father’s killing.
Ruslan Shcherban alleged that he had heard threats from Tymoshenko and Lazarenko whose businesses, he said, competed with his father’s.
He also accused Washington of blocking Kiev’s attempts to establish the truth.
The gas trader United Energy Systems, which Tymoshenko headed in the mid-1990s, was a bitter rival of Shcherban’s businesses on the energy market when Lazarenko was prime minister.
On April 5, Prosecutor-General Viktor Pshonka announced that his team had re-launched the investigation into Shcherban’s murder, which was closed a decade ago.
Also, commenting on old embezzlement cases against Tymoshenko, Pshonka claimed that several of them were closed in January 2005 by his predecessor, Svyatoslav Piskun, because then-President Viktor Yushchenko threatened Piskun with dismissal if he did not close the cases.
In the meantime, the person who confessed to killing Shcherban a decade ago, Vadym Bolotskikh, has been reportedly transferred from a distant prison to Kiev for questioning.
Kuzmin, asked during a talk show why Ruslan Shcherban had not come up with his accusations earlier, said that he was afraid for his life.
What’s more, Kuzmin said that his team suspected Tymoshenko and Lazarenko of also commissioning the murders of another Donetsk businessman, Oleksandr Momot, in 1996, and former central bank governor Vadym Hetman in 1998.
Kuzmin also said that the prosecutors were targeting the deputy chairman of Tymoshenko’s Fatherland party, Oleksandr Turchynov, who de facto heads Fatherland while Tymoshenko is in prison.
He said Turchynov was suspected of illegally awarding an apartment to his spokesman when Turchynov headed the security service in the Yushchenko-Tymoshenko government in 2005.
Another ally of Tymoshenko, former Interior Minister Yury Lutsenko, was sentenced to four years in jail earlier this year for awarding an apartment to his former driver.
Turchynov has dismissed all the new accusations against his boss and himself as a smear campaign and suggested that the prosecutors’ goal was to shock Europe into stopping its defense of Tymoshenko.
He also alleged that those who commissioned Yevhen Shcherban’s murder must be among the PRU ranks as several influential members of the PRU had built their business empires on the ruins of Shcherban’s business.
Meanwhile, another former minister from Tymoshenko’s government has received a prison term.
On April 5, a court in Kiev sentenced former Environment Minister Georgy Filipchuk to three years in jail for exceeding his authority in preparing a ministry contract with a legal company.
Filipchuk was indicted under the same law under which Tymoshenko was indicted last October and which Yanukovych called “outdated.”
Fatherland has claimed that Filipchuk was punished for opposing the US company Vanco’s attempts to “snatch the Black Sea shelf from the state”.
Tymoshenko’s cabinet canceled Vanco’s license to develop the Prikerchenskaya oil field in the Black Sea in April 2008 claiming that it had been awarded the license illegally.
Vanco planned to develop the field in partnership with Donetsk-based tycoon Rinat Akhmetov, who is a senior member of the PRU.
Saturday, 7 April 2012
Ukraine Shuts Down Forum For Malware Writers
KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian authorities have shut down a long-running forum that was used to trade tips on writing malicious software, a sign the country's law enforcement may be watching hackers more closely.
Administrators for the forum, VX Heavens, wrote that its servers were seized on March 23 for allegedly creating and intending to sell malicious software programs, a violation of Ukraine's criminal code.
The website called the accusation "absurd" but said it couldn't offer services with the pending court case.
VX Heavens might have been easy pickings for Ukraine, which has been noted by computer security experts as being a hotbed of cybercrime.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for security vendor Sophos, wrote that VX Heavens operated for many years, hosting virus-writing tutorials and malicious code samples.
But the site is likely just a small player in an expansive cybercriminal underground.
"The folks using the VX Heavens website were probably not in the same league as the financially-motivated organized criminals computer users are often troubled by today, and mirror rather more the hobbyist malware authors of yesteryear," Cluley wrote.
"Nevertheless, it's clear that the Ukrainian authorities didn't like what they saw and have confiscated the website's servers in their hunt for evidence of criminality," he wrote.
Ukraine has stepped up its computer crime and fraud enforcement efforts in recent years.
Last June its security service, the SBU, said it busted a cybercrime ring that stole some US$72 million using Conficker, a fast-spreading worm that appeared in 2008.
Since October 2009, the FBI has stationed a supervisory special agent at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev to assist with cybercrime investigations that target the U.S.
Administrators for the forum, VX Heavens, wrote that its servers were seized on March 23 for allegedly creating and intending to sell malicious software programs, a violation of Ukraine's criminal code.
The website called the accusation "absurd" but said it couldn't offer services with the pending court case.
VX Heavens might have been easy pickings for Ukraine, which has been noted by computer security experts as being a hotbed of cybercrime.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for security vendor Sophos, wrote that VX Heavens operated for many years, hosting virus-writing tutorials and malicious code samples.
But the site is likely just a small player in an expansive cybercriminal underground.
"The folks using the VX Heavens website were probably not in the same league as the financially-motivated organized criminals computer users are often troubled by today, and mirror rather more the hobbyist malware authors of yesteryear," Cluley wrote.
"Nevertheless, it's clear that the Ukrainian authorities didn't like what they saw and have confiscated the website's servers in their hunt for evidence of criminality," he wrote.
Ukraine has stepped up its computer crime and fraud enforcement efforts in recent years.
Last June its security service, the SBU, said it busted a cybercrime ring that stole some US$72 million using Conficker, a fast-spreading worm that appeared in 2008.
Since October 2009, the FBI has stationed a supervisory special agent at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev to assist with cybercrime investigations that target the U.S.
Freedom House: Ukraine President Yanukovych Eliminates Opposition
KIEV, Ukraine -- The international human rights organization Freedom House says Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych of systematically eliminating any opposition before parliamentary elections scheduled for October 2012.
In 2011, Yanukovych launched a systematic campaign to eliminate any viable opposition to the ruling Party of the Regions ahead of parliamentary elections set for 2012."
"Most importantly, prosecutors brought a series of charges against Tymoshenko, Yanukovych's strongest opponent, in a bid to secure a criminal conviction," stated a Freedom House report, cited by RIA Novosti.
The document reminds readers that in October 2011 Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of authority for signing gas contracts with Russia, a decission the opposition says was politically motivated, although the Ukrainian authorities deny this.
Currently Tymoshenko is serving the sentence in a women's prison of Kharkov.
President of the European People's Party (EPP) Wilfried Martens said on Friday that the EPP demands the immediate implementation of a European Court of Human Rights decision, which called for Yulia Tymoshenko's release.
The report also reads that other political prisoners were placed or remained behind bars in 2011, including nine leaders of protests against the administration's tax policies and 14 or more nationalists involved in the beheading of a Stalin monument.
Freedom House also noted that the attempts to mount street protests against the persecution of Tymoshenko and other former government officials, including former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, were met with a heavy police crackdown.
Lutsenko, an ally of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, was arrested in December 2010.
In late February he was sentenced to four years in prison for illegally employing and giving an apartment and pension to his former driver, as well as of overspending government funds during Police Day celebrations in 2008 and 2009, when he was in office.
In addition international human rights organization Freedom House noted that working conditions for media in Ukraine got worse.
"The constitution guarantees freedoms of speech and expression, and libel is not a criminal offense. Business magnates with varying political interests own and influence many outlets, while local governments often control the local media. Conditions for the media have worsened since Yanukovych's election."
Some 69% of Ukrainians get their news from television and the medium now features fewer alternative points of view, open discussions, and expert opinions, says the report of Freedom House.
In 2011, Yanukovych launched a systematic campaign to eliminate any viable opposition to the ruling Party of the Regions ahead of parliamentary elections set for 2012."
"Most importantly, prosecutors brought a series of charges against Tymoshenko, Yanukovych's strongest opponent, in a bid to secure a criminal conviction," stated a Freedom House report, cited by RIA Novosti.
The document reminds readers that in October 2011 Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of authority for signing gas contracts with Russia, a decission the opposition says was politically motivated, although the Ukrainian authorities deny this.
Currently Tymoshenko is serving the sentence in a women's prison of Kharkov.
President of the European People's Party (EPP) Wilfried Martens said on Friday that the EPP demands the immediate implementation of a European Court of Human Rights decision, which called for Yulia Tymoshenko's release.
The report also reads that other political prisoners were placed or remained behind bars in 2011, including nine leaders of protests against the administration's tax policies and 14 or more nationalists involved in the beheading of a Stalin monument.
Freedom House also noted that the attempts to mount street protests against the persecution of Tymoshenko and other former government officials, including former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, were met with a heavy police crackdown.
Lutsenko, an ally of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, was arrested in December 2010.
In late February he was sentenced to four years in prison for illegally employing and giving an apartment and pension to his former driver, as well as of overspending government funds during Police Day celebrations in 2008 and 2009, when he was in office.
In addition international human rights organization Freedom House noted that working conditions for media in Ukraine got worse.
"The constitution guarantees freedoms of speech and expression, and libel is not a criminal offense. Business magnates with varying political interests own and influence many outlets, while local governments often control the local media. Conditions for the media have worsened since Yanukovych's election."
Some 69% of Ukrainians get their news from television and the medium now features fewer alternative points of view, open discussions, and expert opinions, says the report of Freedom House.
NATO Eyes Deploying AMD In Ukraine
KIEV, Ukraine -- The North-Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is holding talks with Kiev over Ukraine’s possible participation in the alliance's planned missile defense system n Europe.
According to the head of the NATO Liaison Office in Ukraine, Marchin Koziel, the deployment of the system's elements is a priority for the alliance.
He says during the summit in Lisbon, NATO heads agreed on the possibility of involving non-member countries – or “third countries”- in the planned missile shield in Europe.
Thanks to “its ballistics missiles, technologies, know-how, experience or simply the process of European integration,” Ukraine is such a country, he stated speaking at a round table meeting in Kiev, reports the Rosbalt news agency.
The alliance and the leadership of the former Soviet republic are holding informal consultations regarding the issue on both political and technical levels, Koziel said.
After the February meeting between NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Hryschenko, the latter announced Ukraine would participate in the upcoming alliance summit in Chicago.
NATO, for its part, noted that Kiev was interested in cooperation with the organization on the creation of the missile defense system.
Rasmussen also said that NATO will invite Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich to take part in the summit in May.
Ukraine had long been bidding to join the military alliance. However, after Yanukovich replaced his pro-Western predecessor Viktor Yushchenko, the country's policy made a u-turn.
The new leader signed a decree declaring that Ukraine would remain non-aligned to any political-military unions, but would still continue to cooperate with NATO and other blocks based upon common interests.
According to the head of the NATO Liaison Office in Ukraine, Marchin Koziel, the deployment of the system's elements is a priority for the alliance.
He says during the summit in Lisbon, NATO heads agreed on the possibility of involving non-member countries – or “third countries”- in the planned missile shield in Europe.
Thanks to “its ballistics missiles, technologies, know-how, experience or simply the process of European integration,” Ukraine is such a country, he stated speaking at a round table meeting in Kiev, reports the Rosbalt news agency.
The alliance and the leadership of the former Soviet republic are holding informal consultations regarding the issue on both political and technical levels, Koziel said.
After the February meeting between NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Hryschenko, the latter announced Ukraine would participate in the upcoming alliance summit in Chicago.
NATO, for its part, noted that Kiev was interested in cooperation with the organization on the creation of the missile defense system.
Rasmussen also said that NATO will invite Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich to take part in the summit in May.
Ukraine had long been bidding to join the military alliance. However, after Yanukovich replaced his pro-Western predecessor Viktor Yushchenko, the country's policy made a u-turn.
The new leader signed a decree declaring that Ukraine would remain non-aligned to any political-military unions, but would still continue to cooperate with NATO and other blocks based upon common interests.
Ukraine Plans To Offer Ruble Bonds For Debt Payments Without IMF
KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine plans to sell bonds denominated in Russian rubles and doesn’t need to restart a $15.6 billion International Monetary Fund loan to make debt payments, said an adviser to President Viktor Yanukovych.
The former Soviet state wants to raise 98 billion hryvnia ($12 billion) this year, two thirds of which will probably be bought domestically, Iryna Akimova, the first deputy chief of Yanukovych’s staff, said in an interview yesterday.
The Finance Ministry has regularly sold bonds denominated dollars and euros in the domestic market after delaying a $1.5 billion Eurobond offering planned for March.
“The government has already made some successful attempts on the domestic market,” Akimova said in Washington.
“Now they’re working on government bonds denominated in rubles to use in the Russian market and there are rather good perspectives.”
Ukraine, whose IMF program was frozen last March after the government refused to raise domestic natural-gas prices to trim the budget deficit, faces 42.27 billion hryvnia ($5.19 billion) in foreign debt payments in 2012.
To bolster state coffers, it is negotiating with Russia to lower the price it pays for the fuel by a third, which would cut losses at state energy company NAK Naftogaz.
A rally in Ukraine’s dollar-denominated bonds due in 2021 cut yields 20 basis points, or 0.20 percentage point today, to 10.02 percent, compared with 10.49 percent on March 30, which was the highest in more than two months.
The cost of insuring Ukrainian government debt against non- payment for five years using credit-default swaps was 839 basis points yesterday, down from a two-month high of 857 on March 30, according to data provider CMA, which is owned by CME Group Inc. and compiles prices quoted by dealers in the privately negotiated market.
A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.
Household gas prices are “a serious, serious issue” and tariffs “should come closer to the market-oriented level,” Akimova said, predicting some increases toward year-end.
“On what scale, we’ll see.”
Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, which has lost support in opinion polls, faces parliamentary elections in October.
Ukraine is seeking to pay about $250 per thousand cubic meters of Russian gas, compared with $416 last quarter, and wants to boost transit volumes through its pipelines to Europe after its neighbor began rerouting some supplies through the Nord Stream pipeline and via another link across Belarus.
In return, Russia is seeking a stake in Ukraine’s transit pipelines.
It also wants Yanukovych to sign up to a Customs Union it created with Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Ukraine has said joining the union would harm its chances of signing an Association Agreement, including a free-trade pact, with the European Union.
The policies used by Russia are aimed at applying “political pressure” on Ukraine, according to Akimova, who says the country opposes joining the Customs Union.
“Energy issues are always very politicized.”
The economy needs 27 billion cubic meters of gas in 2012, about half the 52 billion it’s contractually obliged to purchase, according to Akimova.
“The current gas agreement is unfair both in terms of price and volumes,” she said.
Ukraine is seeking to roll over a $2 billion loan from Russian lender VTB Group (VTBR) that matures in June, Akimova said, adding that the nation may seek further financing from other Russian banks.
Economic growth in Ukraine will probably slow to 3 percent this year, below a 3.9 percent government forecast, because of weaker global demand for exports such as steel, said Akimova, who’s in charge of economic programs and represents Yanukovych in the Cabinet.
Gross domestic product rose 5.2 percent in 2011.
The former Soviet state wants to raise 98 billion hryvnia ($12 billion) this year, two thirds of which will probably be bought domestically, Iryna Akimova, the first deputy chief of Yanukovych’s staff, said in an interview yesterday.
The Finance Ministry has regularly sold bonds denominated dollars and euros in the domestic market after delaying a $1.5 billion Eurobond offering planned for March.
“The government has already made some successful attempts on the domestic market,” Akimova said in Washington.
“Now they’re working on government bonds denominated in rubles to use in the Russian market and there are rather good perspectives.”
Ukraine, whose IMF program was frozen last March after the government refused to raise domestic natural-gas prices to trim the budget deficit, faces 42.27 billion hryvnia ($5.19 billion) in foreign debt payments in 2012.
To bolster state coffers, it is negotiating with Russia to lower the price it pays for the fuel by a third, which would cut losses at state energy company NAK Naftogaz.
A rally in Ukraine’s dollar-denominated bonds due in 2021 cut yields 20 basis points, or 0.20 percentage point today, to 10.02 percent, compared with 10.49 percent on March 30, which was the highest in more than two months.
The cost of insuring Ukrainian government debt against non- payment for five years using credit-default swaps was 839 basis points yesterday, down from a two-month high of 857 on March 30, according to data provider CMA, which is owned by CME Group Inc. and compiles prices quoted by dealers in the privately negotiated market.
A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.
Household gas prices are “a serious, serious issue” and tariffs “should come closer to the market-oriented level,” Akimova said, predicting some increases toward year-end.
“On what scale, we’ll see.”
Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, which has lost support in opinion polls, faces parliamentary elections in October.
Ukraine is seeking to pay about $250 per thousand cubic meters of Russian gas, compared with $416 last quarter, and wants to boost transit volumes through its pipelines to Europe after its neighbor began rerouting some supplies through the Nord Stream pipeline and via another link across Belarus.
In return, Russia is seeking a stake in Ukraine’s transit pipelines.
It also wants Yanukovych to sign up to a Customs Union it created with Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Ukraine has said joining the union would harm its chances of signing an Association Agreement, including a free-trade pact, with the European Union.
The policies used by Russia are aimed at applying “political pressure” on Ukraine, according to Akimova, who says the country opposes joining the Customs Union.
“Energy issues are always very politicized.”
The economy needs 27 billion cubic meters of gas in 2012, about half the 52 billion it’s contractually obliged to purchase, according to Akimova.
“The current gas agreement is unfair both in terms of price and volumes,” she said.
Ukraine is seeking to roll over a $2 billion loan from Russian lender VTB Group (VTBR) that matures in June, Akimova said, adding that the nation may seek further financing from other Russian banks.
Economic growth in Ukraine will probably slow to 3 percent this year, below a 3.9 percent government forecast, because of weaker global demand for exports such as steel, said Akimova, who’s in charge of economic programs and represents Yanukovych in the Cabinet.
Gross domestic product rose 5.2 percent in 2011.
Tight Security Keeps DSK Speech Civil In Ukraine
KIEV, Ukraine -- Dominique Strauss-Kahn has not had very good luck giving speeches in Europe since his return from New York, but he's finally mastered the security protocols necessary to get through one in Ukraine.
The audience he addressed in Kiev on Wednesday did not protest or hit him with awkward questions, as other European crowds did last month, primarily because the security at his address was strict and the crowd carefully managed.
As Reuters' Olzhas Auyezov reports:
His lecture in Ukraine, organized by local billionaire businessman Viktor Pinchuk's charitable foundation, was carefully arranged in order to avoid embarrassment.
Security was tight to filter out uninvited guests and journalists were not allowed to ask questions, a privilege reserved for local businessmen and politicians as well as students, many of whom were on Pinchuk's fellowships.
That must have been something of a relief to him after last month's address at the Cambridge Union Society, where protests greeted him out front, and a student inside asked him to "explain" the bruises reported by his New York accuser, Nafissatou Diallo.
Strauss-Kahn canceled a second planned speech at the European Parliament later in the month after protests broke out there, too.
A Beijing address Strauss-Kahn gave in December went smoothly enough, but he's had bad luck in Europe until now.
The success of the event must be due to its heavy security and not Ukraine's general acceptance of Strauss-Kahn's persona.
The topless protesters who demonstrated outside his house in October came from a Ukrainian feminist organization called Femen.
The audience he addressed in Kiev on Wednesday did not protest or hit him with awkward questions, as other European crowds did last month, primarily because the security at his address was strict and the crowd carefully managed.
As Reuters' Olzhas Auyezov reports:
His lecture in Ukraine, organized by local billionaire businessman Viktor Pinchuk's charitable foundation, was carefully arranged in order to avoid embarrassment.
Security was tight to filter out uninvited guests and journalists were not allowed to ask questions, a privilege reserved for local businessmen and politicians as well as students, many of whom were on Pinchuk's fellowships.
That must have been something of a relief to him after last month's address at the Cambridge Union Society, where protests greeted him out front, and a student inside asked him to "explain" the bruises reported by his New York accuser, Nafissatou Diallo.
Strauss-Kahn canceled a second planned speech at the European Parliament later in the month after protests broke out there, too.
A Beijing address Strauss-Kahn gave in December went smoothly enough, but he's had bad luck in Europe until now.
The success of the event must be due to its heavy security and not Ukraine's general acceptance of Strauss-Kahn's persona.
The topless protesters who demonstrated outside his house in October came from a Ukrainian feminist organization called Femen.
Ukrainian Diplomats Invite German Doctors To Visit Kharkiv To Settle Problem Of Tymoshenko's Treatment
KIEV, Ukraine -- The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine has asked Germany to assist in organizing a visit to Kharkiv by German doctors who were members of the international commission for the examination of former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko to check whether the hospital in which Tymoshenko is to be treated meets their requirements.
"On April 4, 2012 the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine invited German Ambassador to Ukraine Hans-Jurgen Heimsoeth to a meeting."
"The Ukrainian side passed the German ambassador a request for assistance in organizing a visit to Ukraine by the German doctors who were members of the international medical commission to examine Tymoshenko, so that they could check whether the medical establishment which was selected by the Ukrainian side meets their recommendations," the press secretary of the Foreign Ministry, Oleksandr Dykusarov, said on Wednesday.
According to him, the Embassy of Ukraine in Germany has also sent an invitation from the Ukrainian side to the management and doctors of the Charite Clinic.
"We hope that German doctors can come to Ukraine as soon as possible."
"The quick settlement of this issue will allow the examination and treatment recommended by doctors for Tymoshenko to start at a special establishment outside the Kachanivska prison colony," the diplomat said.
"On April 4, 2012 the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine invited German Ambassador to Ukraine Hans-Jurgen Heimsoeth to a meeting."
"The Ukrainian side passed the German ambassador a request for assistance in organizing a visit to Ukraine by the German doctors who were members of the international medical commission to examine Tymoshenko, so that they could check whether the medical establishment which was selected by the Ukrainian side meets their recommendations," the press secretary of the Foreign Ministry, Oleksandr Dykusarov, said on Wednesday.
According to him, the Embassy of Ukraine in Germany has also sent an invitation from the Ukrainian side to the management and doctors of the Charite Clinic.
"We hope that German doctors can come to Ukraine as soon as possible."
"The quick settlement of this issue will allow the examination and treatment recommended by doctors for Tymoshenko to start at a special establishment outside the Kachanivska prison colony," the diplomat said.
National Bank of Ukraine Invests In IBM's Smarter Computing Approach To IT
KIEV, Ukraine -- IBM announced today that the National Bank of Ukraine has adopted IBM's smarter computing approach to IT to help simplify the management and protection of billions of financial records across Ukraine.
As part of the agreement, IBM will help the financial institution store, back up and process more than 16 terabytes (TB) of information.
As the Ukrainian financial services industry expands, the need for fast, secure and reliable banking is growing ever more critical.
Currently the National Bank of Ukraine is providing financial guidance to more than 176 banks, representing more than 125 million personal and corporate financial accounts.
To address this rapid growth and the increasing need to provide fluid, uninterrupted transaction flow throughout the country's entire banking system, the National Bank of Ukraine decided to start at the heart of the matter, where the data resides – storage.
"We realized that if we wanted to dramatically reduce the potential impact of an IT disaster, while fulfilling international banking regulations, keeping our clients happy and our expenses under control, we had to start innovating at the heart of the process – where the financial data was being stored," said Oleksii Bilash, head of the IT department at the National Bank of Ukraine.
"That is why we opted for a system capable to handle the growing flow of incoming data in a fast, reliable and secure way. The IBM solution outperformed other offerings in four key criteria: performance, fault tolerance, quick recovery and total cost of ownership."
Under the agreement signed let year, IBM and its Business Partner Integrity Vision LLC installed 16 TB of new storage disk space and server virtualization.
A comprehensive storage platform based on two connected IBM System Storage DS8800 systems was established.
IBM System Storage DS8800 capabilities, such as the IBM System Storage Easy Tier technology, help optimize system efficiency by automatically placing data at the most strategic storage level.
For example, more commonly used data is automatically and dynamically placed on solid state drives (SSD) for fast access, while less frequently accessed data is placed on more cost-effective storage systems – all without disruption to applications.
With the new solution in place, performance has improved, costs have lowered, and the bank's window for full backups has decreased twofold.
"IBM relies on the best teams, deep industry insight and first-hand experience in implementing financial solutions and improving IT security and compliance for organizations worldwide," said Penko Dinev, Country General Manager, IBM Ukraine.
"The new storage platform for the National Bank of Ukraine is scalable and can easily accommodate the bank's future needs in terms of data storage or implementing new analytical approaches that will help the bank turn the stored data into financial insight."
The agreement between IBM and The National Bank of Ukraine is the latest in a string of smarter computing adoptions from financial institutions across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the Middle East and Africa, as banks look to improve operational efficiency and benefit from recent advances in enterprise and cloud technologies.
As part of the agreement, IBM will help the financial institution store, back up and process more than 16 terabytes (TB) of information.
As the Ukrainian financial services industry expands, the need for fast, secure and reliable banking is growing ever more critical.
Currently the National Bank of Ukraine is providing financial guidance to more than 176 banks, representing more than 125 million personal and corporate financial accounts.
To address this rapid growth and the increasing need to provide fluid, uninterrupted transaction flow throughout the country's entire banking system, the National Bank of Ukraine decided to start at the heart of the matter, where the data resides – storage.
"We realized that if we wanted to dramatically reduce the potential impact of an IT disaster, while fulfilling international banking regulations, keeping our clients happy and our expenses under control, we had to start innovating at the heart of the process – where the financial data was being stored," said Oleksii Bilash, head of the IT department at the National Bank of Ukraine.
"That is why we opted for a system capable to handle the growing flow of incoming data in a fast, reliable and secure way. The IBM solution outperformed other offerings in four key criteria: performance, fault tolerance, quick recovery and total cost of ownership."
Under the agreement signed let year, IBM and its Business Partner Integrity Vision LLC installed 16 TB of new storage disk space and server virtualization.
A comprehensive storage platform based on two connected IBM System Storage DS8800 systems was established.
IBM System Storage DS8800 capabilities, such as the IBM System Storage Easy Tier technology, help optimize system efficiency by automatically placing data at the most strategic storage level.
For example, more commonly used data is automatically and dynamically placed on solid state drives (SSD) for fast access, while less frequently accessed data is placed on more cost-effective storage systems – all without disruption to applications.
With the new solution in place, performance has improved, costs have lowered, and the bank's window for full backups has decreased twofold.
"IBM relies on the best teams, deep industry insight and first-hand experience in implementing financial solutions and improving IT security and compliance for organizations worldwide," said Penko Dinev, Country General Manager, IBM Ukraine.
"The new storage platform for the National Bank of Ukraine is scalable and can easily accommodate the bank's future needs in terms of data storage or implementing new analytical approaches that will help the bank turn the stored data into financial insight."
The agreement between IBM and The National Bank of Ukraine is the latest in a string of smarter computing adoptions from financial institutions across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the Middle East and Africa, as banks look to improve operational efficiency and benefit from recent advances in enterprise and cloud technologies.
Ukraine Wants To Close Yushchenko Poisoning Case
KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian prosecutors have substantial grounds to close a criminal case on the alleged poisoning of former president Viktor Yushchenko due to lack of evidence, Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka said on Thursday.
“This case has all the circumstances giving us legal reasons to close the investigation,” Pshonka told a news conference in Kiev.
He said the case had not been terminated yet only because Yushchenko had continually refused to give blood tests and offered little cooperation in the official investigation.
“For the sake of history, so that the closing verdict is unbiased, it is desirable that Yushchenko give his blood sample,” Pshonka said.
The suspected dioxin poisoning in September 2004 during the presidential election campaign in Ukraine made Yushchenko seriously ill, and left his face badly disfigured.
The original medical reports by toxicologists from Switzerland, which claimed dioxin levels in Yushchenko’s body 50,000 times above normal, were sharply criticized for lack of supporting, peer-reviewed research.
The blood tests by Ukrainian doctors in November 2005 were mysteriously destroyed.
Yushchenko poisoning theory was officially supported by Ukrainian authorities during his presidency from January 2005 until February 2010.
However, a new team of investigators assigned to the case after Yushchenko lost power to his long-term rival Viktor Yanukovych, alleged that the Yushchenko dioxin poisoning could have been falsified to strengthen his positions during 2004 presidential elections.
Investigators demanded that the ex-president give new blood tests, as traces of dioxin remain in blood forever.
Yushchenko, whose health has improved significantly since 2004, has refused to cooperate and said last year he wanted to "close that chapter" in his life.
“This case has all the circumstances giving us legal reasons to close the investigation,” Pshonka told a news conference in Kiev.
He said the case had not been terminated yet only because Yushchenko had continually refused to give blood tests and offered little cooperation in the official investigation.
“For the sake of history, so that the closing verdict is unbiased, it is desirable that Yushchenko give his blood sample,” Pshonka said.
The suspected dioxin poisoning in September 2004 during the presidential election campaign in Ukraine made Yushchenko seriously ill, and left his face badly disfigured.
The original medical reports by toxicologists from Switzerland, which claimed dioxin levels in Yushchenko’s body 50,000 times above normal, were sharply criticized for lack of supporting, peer-reviewed research.
The blood tests by Ukrainian doctors in November 2005 were mysteriously destroyed.
Yushchenko poisoning theory was officially supported by Ukrainian authorities during his presidency from January 2005 until February 2010.
However, a new team of investigators assigned to the case after Yushchenko lost power to his long-term rival Viktor Yanukovych, alleged that the Yushchenko dioxin poisoning could have been falsified to strengthen his positions during 2004 presidential elections.
Investigators demanded that the ex-president give new blood tests, as traces of dioxin remain in blood forever.
Yushchenko, whose health has improved significantly since 2004, has refused to cooperate and said last year he wanted to "close that chapter" in his life.
Ukraine Full Of Confidence And Anticipation
ZURICH, Switzerland -- "The main aim of the team is to win the EURO 2012." This bold statement was made some ten months again by Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin in an exclusive interview with FIFA.com.
And it does seem that the co-hosts are peaking at just the right time ahead of the tournament which gets under way on 8 June.
The team from the largest country solely in Europe is currently on a six-month unbeaten run, having defeated Bulgaria (3-0), Estonia (2-0) and Austria (2-1) in recent friendlies and earned an impressive 3-3 draw against three-time FIFA World Cup™ winners Germany.
Spearheaded by the country's most-capped player, Anatoliy Tymoschuk of Bayern Munich, Ukraine look as if they fully deserve their place at Europe's top table.
Ukraine's fans have been avidly following their country's improvement via the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.
The most recent table, published in March 2012, saw them jump no fewer than 10 places from 59th to 49th.
This, however, is a long way from Ukraine's best-ever ranking of 11th in February 2007, following on from their exploits at the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
Nevertheless, the current ranking is the source of no little pride for Blokhin and his squad.
"We're a strong team physically and we always show a lot of effort and commitment when we're out on the pitch," said Tymoschuk in an exclusive interview with FIFA.com back in autumn 2011.
"It's the first European Championships for all Ukraine players, meaning that we will have to call on the experience we obtained in the internationals we have played, while the younger players will have to get used to the level required when playing for your country. If we can do that, then we'll be able to show what we're really capable of."
Any euphoria however is being kept under wraps, due in no small part to Ukraine having the second-lowest ranking of the 16 teams at the EURO.
Poland, who are co-hosts of this hotly-anticipated final phase, are the only team lower – down at 75th in fact.
As such, Tymoschuk and his team-mates know they will have to be at their absolute best when they face France, England and Sweden in Group D.
Blokhin is taking this opportunity to qualify his previous lofty goals somewhat.
"Obviously our first objective must be to get out of the group stage," the coach said.
"We'll give it our best shot, but obviously if we don't achieve our first goal, then we won't be able to achieve our main aim either. So we need to take things one step at a time."
The former international star sees his greatest challenge as bringing some stability to the defense.
"I've got fewer worries about the midfield and attack – we've got some very promising players there," he said.
Plenty of pundits think Ukraine's fortunes will live and die with Andriy Shevchenko.
The legendary striker, now 35, has set himself the goal of returning to top form in time for the EURO on his home soil.
A heel injury has set him back in his preparations for the tournament, meaning that the 2004 European Footballer of the Year and former AC Milan and Chelsea star, who is finishing out his career with his home town club of Dynamo KiEv, is facing a race against time to be fully fit.
The real star of the Ukraine squad is the coach, however.
Shevchenko himself recently said that Blokhin's return to the helm of the national team in April 2011 has boosted the squad's confidence, and it is hoped that this will rub off throughout the 45 million inhabitants of the country.
This, after all, is the main way to ensure the beautiful game continues to make progress beyond UEFA EURO 2012.
"It's already become very clear that the European Championships could potentially give the development both of Ukrainian football and the country's infrastructure a real boost," Blokhin told FIFA.com.
"At the same time, hosting EURO 2012 is also a real challenge for the country, since it's the first time that we'll be organising such a major event. This European Championship will be something of a test run to see how capable we are of organising similar events in the future."
"It's no exaggeration to say that the people of Ukraine can't wait for the show to get under way and to have the opportunity to demonstrate some of our legendary hospitality."
And it does seem that the co-hosts are peaking at just the right time ahead of the tournament which gets under way on 8 June.
The team from the largest country solely in Europe is currently on a six-month unbeaten run, having defeated Bulgaria (3-0), Estonia (2-0) and Austria (2-1) in recent friendlies and earned an impressive 3-3 draw against three-time FIFA World Cup™ winners Germany.
Spearheaded by the country's most-capped player, Anatoliy Tymoschuk of Bayern Munich, Ukraine look as if they fully deserve their place at Europe's top table.
Ukraine's fans have been avidly following their country's improvement via the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.
The most recent table, published in March 2012, saw them jump no fewer than 10 places from 59th to 49th.
This, however, is a long way from Ukraine's best-ever ranking of 11th in February 2007, following on from their exploits at the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
Nevertheless, the current ranking is the source of no little pride for Blokhin and his squad.
"We're a strong team physically and we always show a lot of effort and commitment when we're out on the pitch," said Tymoschuk in an exclusive interview with FIFA.com back in autumn 2011.
"It's the first European Championships for all Ukraine players, meaning that we will have to call on the experience we obtained in the internationals we have played, while the younger players will have to get used to the level required when playing for your country. If we can do that, then we'll be able to show what we're really capable of."
Any euphoria however is being kept under wraps, due in no small part to Ukraine having the second-lowest ranking of the 16 teams at the EURO.
Poland, who are co-hosts of this hotly-anticipated final phase, are the only team lower – down at 75th in fact.
As such, Tymoschuk and his team-mates know they will have to be at their absolute best when they face France, England and Sweden in Group D.
Blokhin is taking this opportunity to qualify his previous lofty goals somewhat.
"Obviously our first objective must be to get out of the group stage," the coach said.
"We'll give it our best shot, but obviously if we don't achieve our first goal, then we won't be able to achieve our main aim either. So we need to take things one step at a time."
The former international star sees his greatest challenge as bringing some stability to the defense.
"I've got fewer worries about the midfield and attack – we've got some very promising players there," he said.
Plenty of pundits think Ukraine's fortunes will live and die with Andriy Shevchenko.
The legendary striker, now 35, has set himself the goal of returning to top form in time for the EURO on his home soil.
A heel injury has set him back in his preparations for the tournament, meaning that the 2004 European Footballer of the Year and former AC Milan and Chelsea star, who is finishing out his career with his home town club of Dynamo KiEv, is facing a race against time to be fully fit.
The real star of the Ukraine squad is the coach, however.
Shevchenko himself recently said that Blokhin's return to the helm of the national team in April 2011 has boosted the squad's confidence, and it is hoped that this will rub off throughout the 45 million inhabitants of the country.
This, after all, is the main way to ensure the beautiful game continues to make progress beyond UEFA EURO 2012.
"It's already become very clear that the European Championships could potentially give the development both of Ukrainian football and the country's infrastructure a real boost," Blokhin told FIFA.com.
"At the same time, hosting EURO 2012 is also a real challenge for the country, since it's the first time that we'll be organising such a major event. This European Championship will be something of a test run to see how capable we are of organising similar events in the future."
"It's no exaggeration to say that the people of Ukraine can't wait for the show to get under way and to have the opportunity to demonstrate some of our legendary hospitality."
Euronest Urges Ukraine To Provide Yulia Tymoshenko Medical Care
BAKU, Azerbaijan -- The Euronest Parliamentary Assembly has urged Ukrainian authorities to stop denying jailed Opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko her basic human right to medical care.
The Assembly, which brings together Members of the European Parliament and MPs from the EU's eastern neighbor countries, made the demand in an urgent resolution passed on Wednesday at its meeting in Azerbaijan capital Baku.
The resolution highlights Tymoshenko's fundamental right to health care, rather than political concerns for her as Ukraine's former Prime Minister, Ukraine MP and Euronest Co-Chair Borys Tarasyuk explained before the vote.
The resolution, tabled by Tarasyuk, MEPs, and Moldavian and Ukrainian MPs, was approved by 40 votes to two with 17 abstentions.
The Euronest Parliamentary Assembly called on the Ukrainian authorities to allow Tymoshenko to undergo regular independent toxicology tests in the EU, medical treatment outside the prison system and regular health checks by international medical experts.
It noted that these experts have encountered obstacles when trying to assess her condition.
Euronest members urged the Ukrainian authorities to guarantee the fundamental right to health and well-being of her fellow former Ministers Yuriy Lutsenko and Valeriy Ivashchenko, and also to ensure that they get the medical care that they need, in line with international standards.
MEPs and their counterparts from the EU's eastern neighbor countries also deplored the sentence passed on Tymoshenko and urged the Ukrainian authorities to ensure a fair, transparent and impartial appeal process for her and other former members of her government facing economic offense charges.
The Assembly, which brings together Members of the European Parliament and MPs from the EU's eastern neighbor countries, made the demand in an urgent resolution passed on Wednesday at its meeting in Azerbaijan capital Baku.
The resolution highlights Tymoshenko's fundamental right to health care, rather than political concerns for her as Ukraine's former Prime Minister, Ukraine MP and Euronest Co-Chair Borys Tarasyuk explained before the vote.
The resolution, tabled by Tarasyuk, MEPs, and Moldavian and Ukrainian MPs, was approved by 40 votes to two with 17 abstentions.
The Euronest Parliamentary Assembly called on the Ukrainian authorities to allow Tymoshenko to undergo regular independent toxicology tests in the EU, medical treatment outside the prison system and regular health checks by international medical experts.
It noted that these experts have encountered obstacles when trying to assess her condition.
Euronest members urged the Ukrainian authorities to guarantee the fundamental right to health and well-being of her fellow former Ministers Yuriy Lutsenko and Valeriy Ivashchenko, and also to ensure that they get the medical care that they need, in line with international standards.
MEPs and their counterparts from the EU's eastern neighbor countries also deplored the sentence passed on Tymoshenko and urged the Ukrainian authorities to ensure a fair, transparent and impartial appeal process for her and other former members of her government facing economic offense charges.
Ukraine Jails Ex-Minister And Tymoshenko Ally Filipchuk
KIEV, Ukraine -- A court in Ukraine has jailed former Environment Minister Heorhiy Filipchuk for abuse of office - an ally of ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko, who is also in jail.
Filipchuk was jailed in Kiev for three years over a contract with a law firm, Astapov Lawyers, concerning a Black Sea shelf exploration deal.
His lawyer called the ruling "absurd" and said he would appeal against it.
Tymoshenko, in prison near Kharkiv, complains of acute back pain.
A Polish Euro MP visited her on Thursday.
The meeting at Kachanivska penal colony, in eastern Ukraine, lasted an hour, conservative MEP Pawel Kowal said.
"She told me about problems with her spine that require treatment," he said.
"She told me that she must lie down practically all the time and can only sustain a sitting position for a few minutes," he added.
The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group says it is the first time that an MEP has visited the imprisoned Ukrainian opposition leader, who was a key figure in the pro-Western 2004 Orange Revolution.
On Friday Mr Kowal visited the imprisoned former Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko, another ally of Tymoshenko, Interfax-Ukraine news agency reports.
He was jailed in February for four years, for abuse of office and embezzlement.
On 17 April the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg will hear a complaint from Lutsenko, in which he alleges the Ukrainian authorities violated his rights.
The Filipchuk case dates back to December 2010.
He had been under house arrest for a year before being jailed on Thursday.
Tymoshenko, 50, is a fierce critic of President Viktor Yanukovych.
She was sentenced to seven years in jail last October for abuse of power.
The case has strained relations between Ukraine and the EU.
Her conviction relates to a 10-year gas deal with Russia she signed in 2009, when she was still prime minister.
Prosecutors said Tymoshenko did not have cabinet approval to sign, and the deal was ruinous for the Ukrainian economy.
She denies wrongdoing but lost an appeal against the verdict in December.
She calls it political revenge by President Yanukovych.
Filipchuk was jailed in Kiev for three years over a contract with a law firm, Astapov Lawyers, concerning a Black Sea shelf exploration deal.
His lawyer called the ruling "absurd" and said he would appeal against it.
Tymoshenko, in prison near Kharkiv, complains of acute back pain.
A Polish Euro MP visited her on Thursday.
The meeting at Kachanivska penal colony, in eastern Ukraine, lasted an hour, conservative MEP Pawel Kowal said.
"She told me about problems with her spine that require treatment," he said.
"She told me that she must lie down practically all the time and can only sustain a sitting position for a few minutes," he added.
The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group says it is the first time that an MEP has visited the imprisoned Ukrainian opposition leader, who was a key figure in the pro-Western 2004 Orange Revolution.
On Friday Mr Kowal visited the imprisoned former Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko, another ally of Tymoshenko, Interfax-Ukraine news agency reports.
He was jailed in February for four years, for abuse of office and embezzlement.
On 17 April the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg will hear a complaint from Lutsenko, in which he alleges the Ukrainian authorities violated his rights.
The Filipchuk case dates back to December 2010.
He had been under house arrest for a year before being jailed on Thursday.
Tymoshenko, 50, is a fierce critic of President Viktor Yanukovych.
She was sentenced to seven years in jail last October for abuse of power.
The case has strained relations between Ukraine and the EU.
Her conviction relates to a 10-year gas deal with Russia she signed in 2009, when she was still prime minister.
Prosecutors said Tymoshenko did not have cabinet approval to sign, and the deal was ruinous for the Ukrainian economy.
She denies wrongdoing but lost an appeal against the verdict in December.
She calls it political revenge by President Yanukovych.
Court Reduces Voting Districts For Kiev
KIEV, Ukraine -- A Constitution Court ruling announced on Thursday may reduce the number of election districts in the city of Kiev, de-facto benefiting the ruling Regions Party ahead of the October parliamentary elections.
The Court deemed unconstitutional a part of the election law that allows Ukrainian voters temporarily living overseas to cast their ballots for candidates in Kiev districts.
The Court acted on a petition from 59 Regions Party lawmakers.
The ruling suggests that about 400,000 Ukrainians living overseas that traditionally vote for pro-Western candidates will only be able to vote for parties, but not for individual lawmakers in majority districts.
This may effectively reduce to 13 from 16 the number of lawmakers to be elected from Kiev, and may relocate the three seats to eastern regions where the Regions Party dominates the vote.
Half of the 450-seat Parliament will be elected on a party-list vote and another half will be elected in individual constituencies.
Arseniy Yatseniuk, the leader of the opposition Front of Changes party who is likely to lead Ukraine’s united opposition for the election, accused President Viktor Yanukovych and his Regions Party of breaking a pact on fair elections with opposition.
“The government understands that the Kievites will not support them that’s why they try to get more mandates in regions where it can falsify the elections,” Yatseniuk said.
“The election process has begun and the swindlers from the Regions Party have again decided to change the rules of the game for their benefit.”
“The pact on fair elections is broken by President Yanukovych,” Yatseniuk said.
“Pandora’s Box was opened in Parliament concerning the change of the election law.”
The law, approved in November 2011 by 366 lawmakers, including by 98 opposition deputies, was praised as a compromise between the ruling Regions Party and the opposition groups.
The law eased fears of possible boycott of the election by the opposition groups, a move that would most likely make the elections not legitimate.
Although losing on some issues, the opposition groups managed to push through amendments that make it more difficult for pro-government parties to dominate election commissions that will eventually count ballots.
This is supposed to reduce possible election fraud.
The law also increased the threshold that is required for entering Parliament on party lists to 5% from 3% currently, potentially hurting small parties.
Zhanna Usenko-Chorna, a deputy head of the Central Election Commission who is thought to be loyal to opposition groups, said the latest court ruling violates the constitution by denying the right of the Ukrainian living overseas the right to vote for candidates in individual constituencies.
“The article No. 22 of the constitution guarantees the right for the people to have equal election rights,” Usenko-Chorna told Ukrainian News agency.
“The situation shaped towards restricting this right.”
But Yatseniuk said that the opposition groups will win the elections, and said the judges of the Constitutional Court will be responsible for their latest ruling.
“The united opposition will win the elections anyway, despite all machinations by the Constitutional Court, whose judges will bear responsibility for today’s ruling,” Yatseniuk said.
The Court deemed unconstitutional a part of the election law that allows Ukrainian voters temporarily living overseas to cast their ballots for candidates in Kiev districts.
The Court acted on a petition from 59 Regions Party lawmakers.
The ruling suggests that about 400,000 Ukrainians living overseas that traditionally vote for pro-Western candidates will only be able to vote for parties, but not for individual lawmakers in majority districts.
This may effectively reduce to 13 from 16 the number of lawmakers to be elected from Kiev, and may relocate the three seats to eastern regions where the Regions Party dominates the vote.
Half of the 450-seat Parliament will be elected on a party-list vote and another half will be elected in individual constituencies.
Arseniy Yatseniuk, the leader of the opposition Front of Changes party who is likely to lead Ukraine’s united opposition for the election, accused President Viktor Yanukovych and his Regions Party of breaking a pact on fair elections with opposition.
“The government understands that the Kievites will not support them that’s why they try to get more mandates in regions where it can falsify the elections,” Yatseniuk said.
“The election process has begun and the swindlers from the Regions Party have again decided to change the rules of the game for their benefit.”
“The pact on fair elections is broken by President Yanukovych,” Yatseniuk said.
“Pandora’s Box was opened in Parliament concerning the change of the election law.”
The law, approved in November 2011 by 366 lawmakers, including by 98 opposition deputies, was praised as a compromise between the ruling Regions Party and the opposition groups.
The law eased fears of possible boycott of the election by the opposition groups, a move that would most likely make the elections not legitimate.
Although losing on some issues, the opposition groups managed to push through amendments that make it more difficult for pro-government parties to dominate election commissions that will eventually count ballots.
This is supposed to reduce possible election fraud.
The law also increased the threshold that is required for entering Parliament on party lists to 5% from 3% currently, potentially hurting small parties.
Zhanna Usenko-Chorna, a deputy head of the Central Election Commission who is thought to be loyal to opposition groups, said the latest court ruling violates the constitution by denying the right of the Ukrainian living overseas the right to vote for candidates in individual constituencies.
“The article No. 22 of the constitution guarantees the right for the people to have equal election rights,” Usenko-Chorna told Ukrainian News agency.
“The situation shaped towards restricting this right.”
But Yatseniuk said that the opposition groups will win the elections, and said the judges of the Constitutional Court will be responsible for their latest ruling.
“The united opposition will win the elections anyway, despite all machinations by the Constitutional Court, whose judges will bear responsibility for today’s ruling,” Yatseniuk said.
Saturday, 24 March 2012
Ukrainian Woman's Rape Stirs Public 'Vendetta'
KIEV, Ukraine -- On March 10, a passer-by in the Southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, population 500,000, heard faint moaning from a construction site and alerted a cop.
The policeman climbed through a hole in the fence and found a sight he is likely never to forget: a naked girl somebody had tried to burn alive.
Oksana Makar, 18, was barely hanging on to life: Doctors later estimated that her burns affected 55 percent of her body.
She had also been raped and half-strangled.
Police acted quickly, and three suspects, all local men in their early 20s, were apprehended the next day.
Among them was Maxim Prisyazhnyuk, the adopted son of a local government official.
The police apparently let him go, along with another one of the young men.
But news spread quickly, and in a matter of hours, the entire city, a center of the sagging Ukrainian shipbuilding industry, seemed up in arms.
The suspects were promptly taken into custody again -- now they needed protection from an angry mob.
A local website, Novosti N, leaked a police video of one of the men, Yevgeny Krasnoshchok, giving matter-of-fact testimony on how the three of them took Makar home, got her drunk, took turns with her, and then tried to strangle her and dispose of what they believed was a dead body.
The video was watched 40,000 times on the local site and 300,000 times on YouTube.
On March 15, about 2,000 people -- an enormous crowd by Mykolaiv standards -- gathered in the city's main square, demanding justice for the rapists and threatening to lynch them.
Pickets and rallies were held in the nation's other cities, from Lviv in Western Ukraine to Kharkiv in the east.
On social networks, a drive to collect money for Makar's treatment quickly gathered momentum, producing a hefty sum of 1.5 million hryvnyas ($187,500) in less than a week -- probably the most successful crowd-funding effort in Ukrainian history.
Crimes of this kind aren't exactly rare in Ukraine's depressed industrial areas.
But the rape and attempted murder of Makar became a national issue because of one of the rapists' ties to the ruling elite.
Prisyazhnyuk, apart from being the son of an official, was reported to be a former member of the governing Regions Party's youth wing.
In recent years, Ukraine has watched in dismay as members of the nation's “golden youth” have gotten away with highly public criminal acts.
One of them was Sergei Demishkan, the son of the top official at the national highway agency, who received a suspended five-year sentence for brutally killing a businessman.
Roman Landik, the son of an influential Regions Party legislator, was captured on camera beating up a woman in a restaurant -- and also escaped with a suspended sentence.
The children of local officials, judges and prosecutors -- "mazhory," as they are collectively known -- have walked free after causing fatal car accidents.
Many Ukrainians saw the Mykolaiv situation as a last straw.
Odessa politician Alexey Goncharenko wrote in his blog:
The beasts who let off two of the three rapists and murderers … are the real criminals in this situation as far as I am concerned ...
In the past 20 years the law-enforcement agencies and courts, society's immune system, have found themselves in a sorry state.
They have been afflicted with the viruses of corruption, indifference and impunity.
Ukrainian political commentator Andrei Okara warned of a possible “vendetta against the government” if more cases like that surface.
“Every time the children of officials are declared innocent and the blame is put on the victims,” Okara said.
“This is a powerful detonator of public anger and discontent which can create grounds for a revolutionary situation in Ukraine.”
The public outcry has caused the nation's top officials, including President Viktor Yanukovich, to declare their personal interest in the Makar case.
Ukraine's richest man -- the metals tycoon and Yanukovich supporter Renat Akhmetov -- helped transfer Makar to the Donetsk burn center, a modern medical institution with an international reputation, and paid for a Swiss surgeon to come over to operate on her.
Despite an initial prognosis that gave Makar a 0.5 percent chance of survival, she is still alive.
Her right arm has been amputated and she is not likely to have the use of her legs if she does recover.
In another widely watched video, Makar says she hopes her assailants get raped in jail.
Sympathy for her is still widespread in Ukraine -- but less so since March 19, when "Let Them Speak," a Russian tabloid TV show, interviewed the bartender who saw Makar meet the three men on March 9.
The woman described Makar as a “loose” girl who had frequented the bar, always trying to pick up men and get them to pay for her drinks.
It has also been revealed that Makar's mother had a criminal record.
The tone of many comments in Internet discussions of the case has since changed abruptly.
“I just don't understand why a slut is being made out to be an innocent victim,” a Mykolaiv woman commented on Novosti N recently.
Ukraine is a highly traditional society, and it is not a universally held view that a rape is entirely the rapist's fault.
Many people tend to attach equal blame to the victim.
Makar's alleged character flaws make her a less credible cause celebrate.
There are no more rallies in Makar's support.
Moreover, the authorities who have enjoyed, along with their children, a culture of immunity, may yet turn the situation to their advantage, switching public attention from the crimes of the mazhory to calls for tougher laws.
Or there is another possible outcome.
The Communist faction in parliament has used the Mykolaiv case to advance a bill reintroducing the death sentence, abolished when Ukraine joined the Council of Europe in 1995.
Last year, polls showed 45 percent of the nation backing such a measure, and the case of Makar may just drive that number higher.
If that happens, the ruling Regions Party could easily jump on the bandwagon and push through the legislation.
The policeman climbed through a hole in the fence and found a sight he is likely never to forget: a naked girl somebody had tried to burn alive.
Oksana Makar, 18, was barely hanging on to life: Doctors later estimated that her burns affected 55 percent of her body.
She had also been raped and half-strangled.
Police acted quickly, and three suspects, all local men in their early 20s, were apprehended the next day.
Among them was Maxim Prisyazhnyuk, the adopted son of a local government official.
The police apparently let him go, along with another one of the young men.
But news spread quickly, and in a matter of hours, the entire city, a center of the sagging Ukrainian shipbuilding industry, seemed up in arms.
The suspects were promptly taken into custody again -- now they needed protection from an angry mob.
A local website, Novosti N, leaked a police video of one of the men, Yevgeny Krasnoshchok, giving matter-of-fact testimony on how the three of them took Makar home, got her drunk, took turns with her, and then tried to strangle her and dispose of what they believed was a dead body.
The video was watched 40,000 times on the local site and 300,000 times on YouTube.
On March 15, about 2,000 people -- an enormous crowd by Mykolaiv standards -- gathered in the city's main square, demanding justice for the rapists and threatening to lynch them.
Pickets and rallies were held in the nation's other cities, from Lviv in Western Ukraine to Kharkiv in the east.
On social networks, a drive to collect money for Makar's treatment quickly gathered momentum, producing a hefty sum of 1.5 million hryvnyas ($187,500) in less than a week -- probably the most successful crowd-funding effort in Ukrainian history.
Crimes of this kind aren't exactly rare in Ukraine's depressed industrial areas.
But the rape and attempted murder of Makar became a national issue because of one of the rapists' ties to the ruling elite.
Prisyazhnyuk, apart from being the son of an official, was reported to be a former member of the governing Regions Party's youth wing.
In recent years, Ukraine has watched in dismay as members of the nation's “golden youth” have gotten away with highly public criminal acts.
One of them was Sergei Demishkan, the son of the top official at the national highway agency, who received a suspended five-year sentence for brutally killing a businessman.
Roman Landik, the son of an influential Regions Party legislator, was captured on camera beating up a woman in a restaurant -- and also escaped with a suspended sentence.
The children of local officials, judges and prosecutors -- "mazhory," as they are collectively known -- have walked free after causing fatal car accidents.
Many Ukrainians saw the Mykolaiv situation as a last straw.
Odessa politician Alexey Goncharenko wrote in his blog:
The beasts who let off two of the three rapists and murderers … are the real criminals in this situation as far as I am concerned ...
In the past 20 years the law-enforcement agencies and courts, society's immune system, have found themselves in a sorry state.
They have been afflicted with the viruses of corruption, indifference and impunity.
Ukrainian political commentator Andrei Okara warned of a possible “vendetta against the government” if more cases like that surface.
“Every time the children of officials are declared innocent and the blame is put on the victims,” Okara said.
“This is a powerful detonator of public anger and discontent which can create grounds for a revolutionary situation in Ukraine.”
The public outcry has caused the nation's top officials, including President Viktor Yanukovich, to declare their personal interest in the Makar case.
Ukraine's richest man -- the metals tycoon and Yanukovich supporter Renat Akhmetov -- helped transfer Makar to the Donetsk burn center, a modern medical institution with an international reputation, and paid for a Swiss surgeon to come over to operate on her.
Despite an initial prognosis that gave Makar a 0.5 percent chance of survival, she is still alive.
Her right arm has been amputated and she is not likely to have the use of her legs if she does recover.
In another widely watched video, Makar says she hopes her assailants get raped in jail.
Sympathy for her is still widespread in Ukraine -- but less so since March 19, when "Let Them Speak," a Russian tabloid TV show, interviewed the bartender who saw Makar meet the three men on March 9.
The woman described Makar as a “loose” girl who had frequented the bar, always trying to pick up men and get them to pay for her drinks.
It has also been revealed that Makar's mother had a criminal record.
The tone of many comments in Internet discussions of the case has since changed abruptly.
“I just don't understand why a slut is being made out to be an innocent victim,” a Mykolaiv woman commented on Novosti N recently.
Ukraine is a highly traditional society, and it is not a universally held view that a rape is entirely the rapist's fault.
Many people tend to attach equal blame to the victim.
Makar's alleged character flaws make her a less credible cause celebrate.
There are no more rallies in Makar's support.
Moreover, the authorities who have enjoyed, along with their children, a culture of immunity, may yet turn the situation to their advantage, switching public attention from the crimes of the mazhory to calls for tougher laws.
Or there is another possible outcome.
The Communist faction in parliament has used the Mykolaiv case to advance a bill reintroducing the death sentence, abolished when Ukraine joined the Council of Europe in 1995.
Last year, polls showed 45 percent of the nation backing such a measure, and the case of Makar may just drive that number higher.
If that happens, the ruling Regions Party could easily jump on the bandwagon and push through the legislation.
Ukraine’s Party of Regions Uses Populist Promises, Acquires New Allies To Win Election
KIEV, Ukraine -- Opinion polls show that although the ruling Party of Regions (PRU) remains the most popular party, it may lose the parliamentary election scheduled for October 28 to the combined forces of the opposition.
Economic growth has slowed considerably of late so the ruling party cannot boast of a strong economy ahead of the election.
Neither has the government managed to improve relations with Russia and the European Union, as PRU leader Viktor Yanukovych promised when he was elected president two years ago.
Consequently, there is not much left Yanukovych can do to improve the party’s standing in the seven months remaining before the election.
The PRU has made it clear that it will bet on populism and the elimination of rivals through enrolling them in the PRU.
Yanukovych has already promised handouts to the poorest strata so his economic team is racking its brains to find the $2 billion needed for higher pensions, low mortgage rates and compensations to the depositors of the defunct Soviet state savings bank.
Yanukovych’s economy adviser, Iryna Akimova, conceded recently that his social initiatives might cost even more than that while, for the moment, no more than $1.4 billion can be guaranteed.
She suggested more could be raised from selling mineral extraction licenses and increasing personal income tax rate for the rich to 20 percent from the current 17 percent.
Like in all of its previous election campaigns, the PRU will play the Russian language card.
Speaking in an interview ahead of his visit to Moscow, excerpts from which were published by the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS on March 18, Yanukovych said Ukraine’s bilingual population was in favor of giving an official status to Russian.
Several media outlets interpreted that as Yanukovych’s intention to give Russian the status of an official language on par with Ukrainian.
However, he meant giving Russian the status of a regional language for areas where more than 10 percent of the population regards Russian as their mother tongue.
In order to pass a law on this, Yanukovych will need only a simple majority of votes in the 450-seat unicameral legislature, which is dominated by the PRU.
A state language status for Russian would require two-thirds of the votes in order to change the constitution.
Considerably more than half of Ukrainians speak Russian fluently, around one third prefer Russian in everyday communication, and most newspapers come out in Russian.
Yet, Russian has no official status in Ukraine.
A recent opinion poll by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology has shown that 47 percent of Ukrainians are in favor of giving some status to Russian.
The PRU’s traditional strongholds in eastern and southern Ukraine are Russophone, so the PRU naturally plays the language card in all elections.
However, the PRU hardly does anything to raise the status of Russian once each election campaign is over, as Yanukovych’s bitter rival, Yulia Tymoshenko, sarcastically remarked on her website.
Most recently, the PRU has gotten rid of a potentially strong rival party.
Deputy Prime Minister Serhy Tyhypko disbanded his liberal party Strong Ukraine (SU), called on its members to join the PRU and did so himself at the PRU congress on March 17.
Tyhypko was elected deputy to the party’s chairman, Mykola Azarov, who is also the prime minister.
It has been rumored that Tyhypko, who came in third after Yanukovych and Tymoshenko in the 2010 presidential election with 13 percent of the vote, may eventually replace Azarov in both positions.
Tyhypko himself told journalists at the congress that he would not mind becoming the PRU leader.
Thanks to taking over SU, the PRU may gain additional percentage points in the October parliamentary election.
The popular approval rating of SU, which targeted the nascent middle class, has been hovering around 3-4 percent during the past several months, compared to the PRU’s 14-18 percent.
The PRU will not stop at enrolling Tyhypko and his people.
Two more small parties are expected to merge with the PRU soon said deputy ideology chief, Volodymyr Demydko, on the sidelines of the PRU congress.
He added that the PRU’s strategy was to attract bright personalities who could be small party leaders while not necessarily taking over whole parties.
Emergencies Minister Viktor Baloha, who chairs United Center, a small party that used to be in the camp of former President Viktor Yushchenko, has not ruled out that his party could one day merge with the PRU.
Oleksandr Sin, the mayor of the large industrial town of Zaporizhya, which is one of the PRU’s strongholds, announced most recently that he would join the PRU.
Sin was elected mayor in 2010 as a candidate from Tymoshenko’s Fatherland party.
He left Fatherland only a month after that.
Economic growth has slowed considerably of late so the ruling party cannot boast of a strong economy ahead of the election.
Neither has the government managed to improve relations with Russia and the European Union, as PRU leader Viktor Yanukovych promised when he was elected president two years ago.
Consequently, there is not much left Yanukovych can do to improve the party’s standing in the seven months remaining before the election.
The PRU has made it clear that it will bet on populism and the elimination of rivals through enrolling them in the PRU.
Yanukovych has already promised handouts to the poorest strata so his economic team is racking its brains to find the $2 billion needed for higher pensions, low mortgage rates and compensations to the depositors of the defunct Soviet state savings bank.
Yanukovych’s economy adviser, Iryna Akimova, conceded recently that his social initiatives might cost even more than that while, for the moment, no more than $1.4 billion can be guaranteed.
She suggested more could be raised from selling mineral extraction licenses and increasing personal income tax rate for the rich to 20 percent from the current 17 percent.
Like in all of its previous election campaigns, the PRU will play the Russian language card.
Speaking in an interview ahead of his visit to Moscow, excerpts from which were published by the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS on March 18, Yanukovych said Ukraine’s bilingual population was in favor of giving an official status to Russian.
Several media outlets interpreted that as Yanukovych’s intention to give Russian the status of an official language on par with Ukrainian.
However, he meant giving Russian the status of a regional language for areas where more than 10 percent of the population regards Russian as their mother tongue.
In order to pass a law on this, Yanukovych will need only a simple majority of votes in the 450-seat unicameral legislature, which is dominated by the PRU.
A state language status for Russian would require two-thirds of the votes in order to change the constitution.
Considerably more than half of Ukrainians speak Russian fluently, around one third prefer Russian in everyday communication, and most newspapers come out in Russian.
Yet, Russian has no official status in Ukraine.
A recent opinion poll by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology has shown that 47 percent of Ukrainians are in favor of giving some status to Russian.
The PRU’s traditional strongholds in eastern and southern Ukraine are Russophone, so the PRU naturally plays the language card in all elections.
However, the PRU hardly does anything to raise the status of Russian once each election campaign is over, as Yanukovych’s bitter rival, Yulia Tymoshenko, sarcastically remarked on her website.
Most recently, the PRU has gotten rid of a potentially strong rival party.
Deputy Prime Minister Serhy Tyhypko disbanded his liberal party Strong Ukraine (SU), called on its members to join the PRU and did so himself at the PRU congress on March 17.
Tyhypko was elected deputy to the party’s chairman, Mykola Azarov, who is also the prime minister.
It has been rumored that Tyhypko, who came in third after Yanukovych and Tymoshenko in the 2010 presidential election with 13 percent of the vote, may eventually replace Azarov in both positions.
Tyhypko himself told journalists at the congress that he would not mind becoming the PRU leader.
Thanks to taking over SU, the PRU may gain additional percentage points in the October parliamentary election.
The popular approval rating of SU, which targeted the nascent middle class, has been hovering around 3-4 percent during the past several months, compared to the PRU’s 14-18 percent.
The PRU will not stop at enrolling Tyhypko and his people.
Two more small parties are expected to merge with the PRU soon said deputy ideology chief, Volodymyr Demydko, on the sidelines of the PRU congress.
He added that the PRU’s strategy was to attract bright personalities who could be small party leaders while not necessarily taking over whole parties.
Emergencies Minister Viktor Baloha, who chairs United Center, a small party that used to be in the camp of former President Viktor Yushchenko, has not ruled out that his party could one day merge with the PRU.
Oleksandr Sin, the mayor of the large industrial town of Zaporizhya, which is one of the PRU’s strongholds, announced most recently that he would join the PRU.
Sin was elected mayor in 2010 as a candidate from Tymoshenko’s Fatherland party.
He left Fatherland only a month after that.
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