Yatseniuk: Russia might claim UAH 50 billion in fine for Ukraine's importing less natural gas

Presidential candidate Arsenii Yatseniuk, a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada from the faction of the Our Ukraine - People's Self-Defense Bloc, has said Russia can claim a fine worth UAH 50 billion for Ukraine's importing less natural gas.Ukrainian News learned this from a statement by the press service of Yatseniuk. "The fact of Ukraine's not importing a big volume of natural gas means one thing: Ukraine owes fines to Russia - the sum has grown to nearly UAH 50 billion there. Nobody forgives these sums to anybody for nothing," he said at a press conference in Kirovohrad.According to the presidential candidate, Ukraine will have to sacrifice something with the signing of a new agreement on gas supplies."A new agreement has not appeared. Even if this agreement appears, I understand very well that it will envisage reduction in economic sanctions on the one hand, but consolidation of the political pressure on the other hand," Yatseniuk said.The presidential candidate does not rule out a slight reduction in natural gas price for Ukraine, and the reduction can be used by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in her presidential election campaign."The elections are at hand and there is necessity of showing a sort of a victory. We have taken debt, we have paid to Russians for natural gas imports, and ahead of the elections [she] needs to show that the gas price for Ukraine has been cut, for example, by 5%. And [Tymoshenko will] call this a great victory. And who cares that the price of natural gas for Europe is lower by 20% than the price for Ukraine?" the presidential candidate said.Presidential candidate Yatseniuk professes the lower energy dependency of Ukraine through growth in the share of consumption of its own cheap electricity, reducing losses in the power grids, the reduction in the consumption of energy carriers, and developing alternative energy.As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said on November 14 she would discuss at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Yalta (Crimea) on November 19 the question of optimization of the price of Russian natural gas for Ukraine.She also pledged of absence of fines from Russia for Ukraine's importing less natural gas than provided by the gas contracts between Russia's Gazprom gas monopoly and the Naftohaz Ukrainy national oil and gas company.

Eighteen to run for Ukraine's presidency

Eighteen people will run in Ukraine's presidential election on January 17, 2010. The term when a candidate could reapply for registration if their initial registration application was rejected expired on Nov. 11.The Central Election Commission should decide by Nov. 13 whether to register those whose applications have been accepted.Apart from the 18 candidates, a number of other nominees who also submitted their applications to the Central Election Commission, including former major of the presidential state guard Mykola Melnychenko. But none of them have a chance to be registered as they have not paid the mandatory election deposit of Hr 2.5 million.According to the opinion polls, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the leader of the opposition Party of Regions Victor Yanukovych will be the front runners in the presidential race.Incumbent President Victor Yuschenko will be also running for a second term in office.Other candidates are Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn, former parliamentary speaker and head of the Front for Change party Arseniy Yatseniuk, and former NBU governor Sergiy Tigipko. All three are running for the presidential office for the first time.The Communist Party Leader Petro Symonenko and Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz, Civil Position leader, ex-minister of defense Anatoliy Hrytsenko and MP Inna Bohoslovsta will also contest for the post.Besides, the CEC registered self-nominee Vasyl Protyvsikh, whose surname translates as "Against-everyone," as a candidates for president of Ukraine. Head of the Ivano-Frankivsk Chamber of Commerce Protyvsikh had a different last name - Humeniuk - before Oct. 2, 2009.

Yanukovych would have won if elections were held next Sunday

Party of Regions leader Victor Yanukovych would have gained the largest number of votes in the Ukrainian presidential election if the election were held next Sunday, the Ukrainian Project System said. The agency polled 1, 200 adults by phone on Nov. 4-10, 2009.Some 21.4% of the respondents said they would vote for Yanukovych, 18.1% for Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, 7.8% for Front for Change leader Arseniy Yatseniuk, 6.9% for Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn and 3.8% for Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko.Some 3.2% preferred President Viktor Yuschenko, 2.1% - businessman Sergiy Tigipko, 1.5% - Oleksandr Pabat, and 1.4% - Oleh Tiahnybok.A total of 2.3% said they would prefer another candidate.Some 4.5% said they would not vote; 9.5% would support neither candidate; and 17.2% would still have to make their choice.

Ukrainian speaker says Prime Minister Tymoshenko won’t be dismissed before elections

Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn is sure that Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko will not be dismissed before the presidential elections. "I am rushing to calm everybody down. All this behind-the-scenes talk that the replacement of the Ukrainian prime minister could be brought up will not materialize," Lytvyn said on Inter television channel on Friday evening."Nobody will want to take on such responsibility and add points in favor of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko before the end of the presidential campaign," he said.Even if a proposal to dismiss Tymoshenko is submitted to the parliament by a group of parliamentarians or by President Viktor Yuschenko, Tymoshenko will continue to perform prime ministerial duties, he said.Otherwise, "She would say: my dear fellows, I was keeping everything together as much as I could. However small the pensions and the salaries were, they were paid. Now you are seeing a complete collapse, and those who voted for this decision are responsible for this," he said.The same situation happened in 2006, when Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov was dismissed, Lytvyn said."The ratings of those political groups that voted for Yekhanurov's dismissal dropped. I think the right conclusion was made out of this and nothing of the sort will happen again," he said.

Ukraine grateful to Canada for commitment to provide humanitarian aid to battle influenza epidemic

Ukraine is grateful to Canada for its commitment to provide humanitarian aid to battle influenza epidemic, reads a report made by the press service of the ministry of foreign affairs of Ukraine. In course of a meeting of Petro Poroshenko, the minister of foreign affairs, with Canada's Ambassador in Ukraine, Daniel Caron, on November 13 the parties discussed, among other issues, ways of deepening bilateral relations, mechanisms facilitating development of trade-economic and investment cooperation, such as signing a free trade agreement between Ukraine and Canada.As Ukrainian News earlier reported, President Viktor Yuschenko has appealed to leaders of seven countries and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation leadership to provide humanitarian aid of anti-influenza vaccine.Before this, on November 2, the Ukrainian president turned to leaders of eight countries, President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, and Secretary General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen for help in stemming the epidemic of influenza in Ukraine.The World Health Organisation is ready to help Ukraine receive vaccine against the А(H1N1) influenza.On October 30, the ministry of healthcare declared an epidemic of the A(H1N1) influenza in Ukraine.

Moscow unemployment falls

For the first time this year unemployment in Moscow fell in October, the city's employment service reported on its web site.
In the last week of October, jobless numbers fell by 137, bringing the total October drop to 553 people. "The number of unemployed registered at present is 59,800 people, or 0.9 per cent of the economically active population of the city," the statement said. City authorities have set a goal of not letting unemployment exceed 1 per cent of the economically active population.

Flu fear grips Moscow

Don't panic! That's the official word from above as authorities aim to calm the capital's fear of swine flu. Televised scenes from neighbouring countries such as Ukraine - where entire districts have been locked down under quarantine due to rampant flu outbreaks - have been stoking the flu fear furnace.
The nation's deputy health minister, Veronika Skvortsova, said last week that Russia was better placed than most to withstand the flu onslaught.
"Fears concerning a negative development in the scenario of the pandemic are unfounded," RIA Novosti quoted Skvortsova as saying. "We are hoping for the best, but are preparing for the worst."
As of Monday, Russia had 4,560 confirmed cases of swine flu, 14 of which had been fatal as of Friday. Skvortsova said that approximately 6 per cent of cases were serious, with 25 per cent of these cases requiring respiratory support in hospital.
As part of efforts to combat the bug, authorities brought forward the starting date for a nationwide vaccination campaign from the usual December to November 9. Timofei Peshkov, press secretary for Mikrogen, a company that is manufacturing the vaccine, said that workers in its two plants in Ufa and Irkutsk had been toiling 12 to 16 hours a day, "working their fingers to the bone". Mikrogen said it had already produced several million doses of vaccine.
First in line for the new vaccine are people working in essential services fields such as water and gas works, housing, transport and emergency services.
"In that way we are trying to create a safety screen to block the infection's spread," said Skvortsova. Late November should see health workers vaccinated, followed by pregnant women, the elderly and then children.
Moscow's multiple measures
The capital has not avoided the flu's feverish grasp. The city branch of the State Consumer Department said that incidents of flu and respiratory disease exceeded epidemic levels by 93.5 per cent in Moscow.
"In the period from October 26 to November 1, 2009, there were 166,129 cases of flu and respiratory disease, of which 105,746 were children," said a statement from the department. "Compared to the previous week, this was an increase of 57.2 per cent, which exceeded the level for the same period last year by 2.6 times."
The city's health department said that Moscow was well prepared to battle the epidemic.
"In the Stolichniye Apteki chain of chemists there is a full range of necessary medical preparations with a total value of some 100 million roubles," said a statement from the department. "They have 500,000 medical masks." According to the service, some 350,000 masks have been sold over the last two weeks.
Other measures that have been taken include house calls for pregnant women.
"In particular, the monitoring of registered pregnant women will now take place predominantly at home," read a statement from the health department. The statement said that any pregnant women found to have flu would be treated with doctor's house calls on a daily basis.
Moscow's theatregoers are to be issued with medical masks at the theatres, said First Deputy Mayor Lyudmila Shvetsova. "If a person comes to the theatre there is nowhere he can escape from a sneezing citizen sitting nearby," said Shvetsova, adding that with the masks theatregoers could fence themselves off.
The city's school children have an extra week of time off as the autumn break has been extended by a week to November 15, said the city's sanitary anti-epidemic committee. "The extension of the school holidays by a week is due to the difficult situation with flu and respiratory diseases that exists in the city at present," read a statement by the committee.
Commuter concern
The Moscow metro has a three-stage disinfection system in place to keep the transport system as pathogen-free as possible.
Deputy head of the Kaluzhskaya depot, Dmitry Dremov, said that every wagon is disinfected on a regular basis.
"Once a day we clean and disinfect [them] with the help of chemicals," said Dremov. "Cleaning with steam and ultraviolet light is carried out once a week."
Alexander Kapov, press secretary for Mosgortrans, which runs the city's trams, trolleybuses and buses, said that the vehicles were washed down every day after they returned to their depots.
"Besides this we regularly disinfect the transport in order to fight seasonal diseases," said Kapov.
The deputy health minister said that despite the best efforts of the public transport officials to keep the systems disease-free, to avoid falling ill citizens should still wear masks when using public transport, as "nothing more effective has yet been thought up," said Skvortsova.