Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said Ukraine might be having problems paying for gas, raising new concerns over European supplies.
Mr Putin said the European Union had not yet given Ukraine the money it had promised to help provide stable supplies of Russian gas to Europe.
He also blamed Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko for blocking payment.
In January, many countries were left short of gas because of a payment dispute between Moscow and Kiev.
"It appears we are again having problems with payments for our energy supplies, which is extremely regrettable. The EU has still not provided Ukraine with the money it has promised for that purpose," Mr Putin said.
"European leaders are referring us to the European Commission, while the European Commission leadership are evading discussing the issue with us."
But Mr Putin said that despite the lack of funding from the EU, Ukraine still had plenty of cash to pay its gas bills.
Referring to the country's large gold and foreign currency reserves, he said: "According to the Ukrainian Prime Minister [Yulia Tymoshenko], Yushchenko is obstructing normal co-operation between the central bank and the Ukrainian government and is blocking the transfer of relevant funds."
In August, the EU and international lending institutions agreed a $1.7bn (£1bn at the time) loan deal to help secure European gas supplies.
This was specifically designed to ensure that the disruptions to supplies that occurred earlier in the year were not repeated.
Mr Putin's comments have raised concerns that disruptions may happen again.
Russia provides about a quarter of the gas consumed in the EU and 80% of that is piped through Ukraine.
Saturday 31 October 2009
Dead poets and royal nuns
Just 10 minutes from the centre of town, the leafy Novodevichy Cemetery and Convent form an oasis of peace in modern Moscow. Hidden behind fortified walls are the picturesque tombs of many famous Muscovites, the gold domes of five churches and the royal chambers that became prisons for troublesome princesses in the 17th century.
If you head for the exit nearest the front of the train at Sportivnaya (assuming you are coming from the centre), you can visit the Museum of the Moscow Metro before you leave the station. Through a little door beside the main exit, the collection of metro memorabilia is free and usually open on weekdays between 10 am and 4 pm. Turn right out of the station and simply keep going as near as you can in this direction until you see the arched, brick gates of the Novodevichy Cemetery ahead of you across the road.
This fascinating graveyard is not only chock-a-block with poets, pianists and politicians; it also has a great variety of contrasting sculpture. Near the gate into the older section, the ballerina Galina Ulanova stretches her white marble arm next to the famous clown, Yury Nikulin, whose casual bronze figure sits and smokes near his dog. You can get a full list and map of the notable dead from the kiosk on the way in, but it is also an excellent place simply to wander and admire the evocative memorials.
Raisa Gorbacheva is commemorated by the elegant bronze statue to the left at the first crossroads. Nearby, the huge rippling Russian flag marks the final resting place of Boris Yeltsin. Go through the gate and turn right. Once you have located Nikolai Gogol's bust, about 10 rows along near the wall, you can find Chekhov's white arch two rows further. Stanislavsky's ornate cross, also marked by the Arts' Theatre's seagull logo, is two rows beyond Chekhov and Bulgakov's boulder faces him. At the far end of the plot, three rows along on the far side, the small block-tomb of composer, Dmitry Shostakovich, is decorated with his characteristic musical signature-motif, D-E flat-C-B.
The marble head in a glass box at this end of the cemetery is Stalin's wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva. Returning along the central path, you pass another clown. Vladimir Durov, one of the earliest members of the Durov family of famous animal trainers. His socialist realist-style sculpture with its noble gaze and air of stern purpose is somehow comically at odds with the ruffed clown suit and monkey on his shoulder. At the other end of the cemetery, there is a section behind a wall that tourists often miss. On the way, you pass the flamboyant 19th century opera singer, Fyodor Shaliapin, reclining in white on a marble couch, to the left.
Past the wall and almost at the end on the left, a hand-shaped memorial marks the tomb of puppet master, Sergei Obraztsov. Turning left along the back wall, you pass numerous actors and writers and reach the cosmonaut, Georgy Beregovoi in Section 11. Turn left again through the gate. The black and white blocks on the left are a chequered memorial to Nikita Khruschev, who was denied a place in the Kremlin Wall. Go out of the cemetery and left around the fortified walls to visit the glorious Novodevichy Convent.
From artists and statesmen of the last 200 years, you now travel back in time, through the Moscow baroque style Transfiguration Gate-Church with its typically late-17th century white on red decorations. It used to be possible to wander the grounds free, but these days the guards descend on anyone who looks like a tourist and insist you buy a ticket. This also entitles you to visit the museums, where relics of convent life, icons and other treasures are displayed. The oldest building in the ensemble is the central Smolensky Cathedral, built by Tsar Vasily III in 1524 when the convent was founded to celebrate his victory over the Poles.
Inspired by the tall lines of the Kremlin's Assumption Cathedral, it looks particularly fine framed by bronzed oak leaves in the autumn sun.
Among the many royal nuns who lived here, Peter the Great's half-sister, Regent Sophia, was the most influential. She was responsible for commissioning the distinctive baroque additions to the convent in the 1680s, including the 72-metre bell tower.
Her refuge became a prison when Peter crushed the third rebellion by the "streltsy" guardsmen who supported her in 1698. There are several paintings in the Tretyakov Gallery, depicting these events, including the execution of the streltsy outside the window of her chambers in Novodevichy. Sophia lived here as the nun, Susanna, until her death in 1704.
If you feel like more of a hike, there is a path round the pond below the convent walls. This also gives you the chance to see the convent from the classic picture postcard viewpoint, reflected in the water with its domes and towers ranged picturesquely above the wall. At No. 4 Novodevichy Proyezd, above the pond, with great views over the convent, the "U Pirosmani" Georgian restaurant was one of the first restaurants to open after perestroika. The food is good, but pricey.
Head back through the park opposite the convent gates and cross the road. The funky, tent-like Myata café has disco décor and a constantly changing menu. Go straight along Ulitsa Desyatiletiya Oktyabrya to reach the metro. On the corner with Ulitsa Usacheva, there is another cosy café, which may be an even better option for a quick coffee or sandwich.
If you head for the exit nearest the front of the train at Sportivnaya (assuming you are coming from the centre), you can visit the Museum of the Moscow Metro before you leave the station. Through a little door beside the main exit, the collection of metro memorabilia is free and usually open on weekdays between 10 am and 4 pm. Turn right out of the station and simply keep going as near as you can in this direction until you see the arched, brick gates of the Novodevichy Cemetery ahead of you across the road.
This fascinating graveyard is not only chock-a-block with poets, pianists and politicians; it also has a great variety of contrasting sculpture. Near the gate into the older section, the ballerina Galina Ulanova stretches her white marble arm next to the famous clown, Yury Nikulin, whose casual bronze figure sits and smokes near his dog. You can get a full list and map of the notable dead from the kiosk on the way in, but it is also an excellent place simply to wander and admire the evocative memorials.
Raisa Gorbacheva is commemorated by the elegant bronze statue to the left at the first crossroads. Nearby, the huge rippling Russian flag marks the final resting place of Boris Yeltsin. Go through the gate and turn right. Once you have located Nikolai Gogol's bust, about 10 rows along near the wall, you can find Chekhov's white arch two rows further. Stanislavsky's ornate cross, also marked by the Arts' Theatre's seagull logo, is two rows beyond Chekhov and Bulgakov's boulder faces him. At the far end of the plot, three rows along on the far side, the small block-tomb of composer, Dmitry Shostakovich, is decorated with his characteristic musical signature-motif, D-E flat-C-B.
The marble head in a glass box at this end of the cemetery is Stalin's wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva. Returning along the central path, you pass another clown. Vladimir Durov, one of the earliest members of the Durov family of famous animal trainers. His socialist realist-style sculpture with its noble gaze and air of stern purpose is somehow comically at odds with the ruffed clown suit and monkey on his shoulder. At the other end of the cemetery, there is a section behind a wall that tourists often miss. On the way, you pass the flamboyant 19th century opera singer, Fyodor Shaliapin, reclining in white on a marble couch, to the left.
Past the wall and almost at the end on the left, a hand-shaped memorial marks the tomb of puppet master, Sergei Obraztsov. Turning left along the back wall, you pass numerous actors and writers and reach the cosmonaut, Georgy Beregovoi in Section 11. Turn left again through the gate. The black and white blocks on the left are a chequered memorial to Nikita Khruschev, who was denied a place in the Kremlin Wall. Go out of the cemetery and left around the fortified walls to visit the glorious Novodevichy Convent.
From artists and statesmen of the last 200 years, you now travel back in time, through the Moscow baroque style Transfiguration Gate-Church with its typically late-17th century white on red decorations. It used to be possible to wander the grounds free, but these days the guards descend on anyone who looks like a tourist and insist you buy a ticket. This also entitles you to visit the museums, where relics of convent life, icons and other treasures are displayed. The oldest building in the ensemble is the central Smolensky Cathedral, built by Tsar Vasily III in 1524 when the convent was founded to celebrate his victory over the Poles.
Inspired by the tall lines of the Kremlin's Assumption Cathedral, it looks particularly fine framed by bronzed oak leaves in the autumn sun.
Among the many royal nuns who lived here, Peter the Great's half-sister, Regent Sophia, was the most influential. She was responsible for commissioning the distinctive baroque additions to the convent in the 1680s, including the 72-metre bell tower.
Her refuge became a prison when Peter crushed the third rebellion by the "streltsy" guardsmen who supported her in 1698. There are several paintings in the Tretyakov Gallery, depicting these events, including the execution of the streltsy outside the window of her chambers in Novodevichy. Sophia lived here as the nun, Susanna, until her death in 1704.
If you feel like more of a hike, there is a path round the pond below the convent walls. This also gives you the chance to see the convent from the classic picture postcard viewpoint, reflected in the water with its domes and towers ranged picturesquely above the wall. At No. 4 Novodevichy Proyezd, above the pond, with great views over the convent, the "U Pirosmani" Georgian restaurant was one of the first restaurants to open after perestroika. The food is good, but pricey.
Head back through the park opposite the convent gates and cross the road. The funky, tent-like Myata café has disco décor and a constantly changing menu. Go straight along Ulitsa Desyatiletiya Oktyabrya to reach the metro. On the corner with Ulitsa Usacheva, there is another cosy café, which may be an even better option for a quick coffee or sandwich.
Switching channels
Most Russians don't get their news from newspapers, as polls regularly tell us, so the majority of the country's info-consumers probably missed Kommersant's recent warning that they'd soon be getting less-varied daily dispatches from their medium of choice - television. The respected business daily reported on Oct. 16 that a top-down reorganization of Moscow-based REN TV and Petersburg - Channel 5 (the last two nationally-available privately-owned channels producing their own news broadcasts) meant the stations would be abandoning news gathering next year, allegedly as an economy move, and instead airing news segments produced by RT, the state-funded 24-hour news channel.
If this apparent final centralisation of Russian TV news operations didn't sound ominous enough in itself, the Orwellian euphemism used to describe it by one interested party ("an optimisation of the management structure") and the self-appointment of another as the project's "chief ideologist" surely coloured in the numbered spaces for even casual observers. In a word: yikes.
Granted, in the days following the Kommersant report two prominent REN TV representatives maintained that the reorganisation would not affect news programming. Still and all, it's hard not to see this progression as handwriting on the wall - and not least because it will put the two stations literally within the same walls and under the same roof that RT already enjoys, at the RIA Novosti agency's headquarters on Zubovsky Bulvar.
It makes sense to be concerned about any diminution, actual or potential, of Russia's ever-uncertain prospects for a civil society. But it also makes sense to keep three points in perspective as the REN TV/Channel 5 scenario actually plays out. Americans in particular would be wise to wait for the reorganisational smoke to clear before making judgments, as recent excesses in US news broadcasting have done much to render American television reporting more vulnerable to criticism - and less attractive as a paradigm - than ever before.
First, would the Russian consolidation really represent, as one local observer immediately characterised it, "a return to one of the worst aspects of the Soviet past, in which most people will have access to only one version of news"?
In fact, this "final centralisation" would actually be less final and less centralised than it might appear. Even with TV news sourced solely by state outlets, any Muscovite who doesn't like it can easily turn on various electronic options, including the round-the-clock, Russian-language Euronews TV channel (my own choice for viewing over breakfast) and the editorially independent Ekho Moskvy radio station (where my kitchen radio's dial is set). If those aren't enough, the world's news in the world's own terms is no further from most Russians than a laptop or their local Internet cafe. How many international TV stations are available now through any high-speed cable hook-up - a thousand? Two?
Second, Russian state TV is not - and can't become - Soviet state TV. The latter was a genuine monolith that largely deserved the 1950s joke about its "diversity": Channel 1 was all propaganda, while Channel 2 showed a man telling viewers to turn back to Channel 1. Today's state channels can occasionally diverge in their reporting, as Channel 1 and NTV did last week over Gazprom's controversial Okhta tower in St. Petersburg. Various talk shows and documentaries, moreover, can be quite frank and utterly un-Soviet in their criticism of state institutions and government authorities - and these are not solely the province of the intelligentsia-oriented Kultura channel.
Thirdly, the proximate monopolist alleged in the REN TV/Channel 5 case, RT, is itself a diverse and self-critical institution. (Full disclosure: RT and The Moscow News share a sibling relationship within the RIA Novosti/TV Novosti family. Fuller disclosure: I once appeared as a paid talking head on an RT news analysis programme. Fullest disclosure: I stunk.) Stinking aside, any state channel that would put me on the air live, given what I've written about state TV here over the years, is either commendably diverse and self-critical already or willing to get egg on its face trying.
OK, now let's get cross-cultural for a moment. A reduction in reporting perspectives is an unfortunate development anywhere, of course - or is it? If you've recently returned from (another) visa exile to the United States, as I have, it's hard not to make some comparisons that are fairly unflattering to the post-Cronkite generation of your historic homeland's TV news.
Last week a Pulitzer Prize for Shoddy Reporting should have gone to the myriad national TV broadcasters who fell for and perpetuated two utterly bogus "stories" - of a boy supposedly trapped alone in a balloon somewhere over Colorado (when he was in fact hiding out in the family home on orders from his publicity-hound parents); and of a US Chamber of Commerce announcement that the organisation had suddenly reconsidered its longstanding opposition to measures against global warning - when it had done no such thing. In both cases, the need to get on the air first, or at least fast, with something "truthy", to borrow news satirist Stephen Colbert's wonderful coinage, trumped any impulse the TV reporters and producers might have felt to take a longer look at these suspicious-sounding non-events before promoting them into air-worthy news items.
OK, hoaxes happen everywhere, maybe this was just a bad week. That doesn't account for the giant hoax known as Fox News, a rabidly partisan political concern that has been masquerading as a network news organisation for some years now. If any doubt as to Fox's real status persisted as late as 2008, right-wing crowds at last year's presidential campaign rallies dispelled it with frenzied rhythmic chanting - "Fox News! Fox News! Fox News!" - quite as though the network itself were running for something.
And maybe it is. How else would you decode the work of "commentator" and Republican functionary Sean Hannity, who uses his Fox News slot to organise, publicise and then "analyse" anti-administration rallies? Or the excesses of Fox-friendly Rush Limbaugh, who spent much energy last week airing citations from what he mistakenly took as Barack Obama's "college thesis" - and then "explaining" that his use of hoax-quotes didn't matter, since they certainly reflected what Obama had been thinking [!]. You want to talk Orwellian? Fox's slogan is "Fair and balanced."
Yet even these whoppers are trumped by Foxman Glenn Beck, whose incendiary, screw-loose ranting - over President Obama's "deep-seated hatred for white people", for example, presumably including his own mother - alternately tests the limits of American credulity and US libel laws, all for the entertainment of a large, growing and angrily undiscriminating TV audience. If you can imagine the ultra-nationalist gadfly Vladimir Zhirinovsky suddenly getting perhaps twice the TV exposure of Channel 1's incorrigible crank-commentator Mikhail Leontyev, you can perhaps begin to sense what the phenomenon of Glenn Beck bodes for the future of American newscasting.
Yes, "scary" is the word you're looking for. This self-acknowledged media "rodeo clown," with a history of alcoholism, drug abuse and religious zealotry, makes Zhirinovsky seem articulate and Leontyev positively Socratic. Yikes again.
If there was any good news about the news in recent days, perhaps it was that two prominent US journalism professors produced a timely and possibly eye-opening essay in the Washington Post titled "Finding a new model for news reporting." The piece was condensed from a larger report that warned quite soberingly, if belatedly, that traditional journalism "is now at risk" and that "preserving independent, original, credible reporting, whether or not it is profitable" is of "paramount" importance for the country. And not just that one, of course.
TV news practices in both these societies need serious scrutiny - and soon, before a dearth of independence debilitates one and an unconstrained profusion of it further debases the other. Put otherwise, near-monopoly and near-anarchy should both be averted: if Channel One is a problem, Fox News is not the solution.
If this apparent final centralisation of Russian TV news operations didn't sound ominous enough in itself, the Orwellian euphemism used to describe it by one interested party ("an optimisation of the management structure") and the self-appointment of another as the project's "chief ideologist" surely coloured in the numbered spaces for even casual observers. In a word: yikes.
Granted, in the days following the Kommersant report two prominent REN TV representatives maintained that the reorganisation would not affect news programming. Still and all, it's hard not to see this progression as handwriting on the wall - and not least because it will put the two stations literally within the same walls and under the same roof that RT already enjoys, at the RIA Novosti agency's headquarters on Zubovsky Bulvar.
It makes sense to be concerned about any diminution, actual or potential, of Russia's ever-uncertain prospects for a civil society. But it also makes sense to keep three points in perspective as the REN TV/Channel 5 scenario actually plays out. Americans in particular would be wise to wait for the reorganisational smoke to clear before making judgments, as recent excesses in US news broadcasting have done much to render American television reporting more vulnerable to criticism - and less attractive as a paradigm - than ever before.
First, would the Russian consolidation really represent, as one local observer immediately characterised it, "a return to one of the worst aspects of the Soviet past, in which most people will have access to only one version of news"?
In fact, this "final centralisation" would actually be less final and less centralised than it might appear. Even with TV news sourced solely by state outlets, any Muscovite who doesn't like it can easily turn on various electronic options, including the round-the-clock, Russian-language Euronews TV channel (my own choice for viewing over breakfast) and the editorially independent Ekho Moskvy radio station (where my kitchen radio's dial is set). If those aren't enough, the world's news in the world's own terms is no further from most Russians than a laptop or their local Internet cafe. How many international TV stations are available now through any high-speed cable hook-up - a thousand? Two?
Second, Russian state TV is not - and can't become - Soviet state TV. The latter was a genuine monolith that largely deserved the 1950s joke about its "diversity": Channel 1 was all propaganda, while Channel 2 showed a man telling viewers to turn back to Channel 1. Today's state channels can occasionally diverge in their reporting, as Channel 1 and NTV did last week over Gazprom's controversial Okhta tower in St. Petersburg. Various talk shows and documentaries, moreover, can be quite frank and utterly un-Soviet in their criticism of state institutions and government authorities - and these are not solely the province of the intelligentsia-oriented Kultura channel.
Thirdly, the proximate monopolist alleged in the REN TV/Channel 5 case, RT, is itself a diverse and self-critical institution. (Full disclosure: RT and The Moscow News share a sibling relationship within the RIA Novosti/TV Novosti family. Fuller disclosure: I once appeared as a paid talking head on an RT news analysis programme. Fullest disclosure: I stunk.) Stinking aside, any state channel that would put me on the air live, given what I've written about state TV here over the years, is either commendably diverse and self-critical already or willing to get egg on its face trying.
OK, now let's get cross-cultural for a moment. A reduction in reporting perspectives is an unfortunate development anywhere, of course - or is it? If you've recently returned from (another) visa exile to the United States, as I have, it's hard not to make some comparisons that are fairly unflattering to the post-Cronkite generation of your historic homeland's TV news.
Last week a Pulitzer Prize for Shoddy Reporting should have gone to the myriad national TV broadcasters who fell for and perpetuated two utterly bogus "stories" - of a boy supposedly trapped alone in a balloon somewhere over Colorado (when he was in fact hiding out in the family home on orders from his publicity-hound parents); and of a US Chamber of Commerce announcement that the organisation had suddenly reconsidered its longstanding opposition to measures against global warning - when it had done no such thing. In both cases, the need to get on the air first, or at least fast, with something "truthy", to borrow news satirist Stephen Colbert's wonderful coinage, trumped any impulse the TV reporters and producers might have felt to take a longer look at these suspicious-sounding non-events before promoting them into air-worthy news items.
OK, hoaxes happen everywhere, maybe this was just a bad week. That doesn't account for the giant hoax known as Fox News, a rabidly partisan political concern that has been masquerading as a network news organisation for some years now. If any doubt as to Fox's real status persisted as late as 2008, right-wing crowds at last year's presidential campaign rallies dispelled it with frenzied rhythmic chanting - "Fox News! Fox News! Fox News!" - quite as though the network itself were running for something.
And maybe it is. How else would you decode the work of "commentator" and Republican functionary Sean Hannity, who uses his Fox News slot to organise, publicise and then "analyse" anti-administration rallies? Or the excesses of Fox-friendly Rush Limbaugh, who spent much energy last week airing citations from what he mistakenly took as Barack Obama's "college thesis" - and then "explaining" that his use of hoax-quotes didn't matter, since they certainly reflected what Obama had been thinking [!]. You want to talk Orwellian? Fox's slogan is "Fair and balanced."
Yet even these whoppers are trumped by Foxman Glenn Beck, whose incendiary, screw-loose ranting - over President Obama's "deep-seated hatred for white people", for example, presumably including his own mother - alternately tests the limits of American credulity and US libel laws, all for the entertainment of a large, growing and angrily undiscriminating TV audience. If you can imagine the ultra-nationalist gadfly Vladimir Zhirinovsky suddenly getting perhaps twice the TV exposure of Channel 1's incorrigible crank-commentator Mikhail Leontyev, you can perhaps begin to sense what the phenomenon of Glenn Beck bodes for the future of American newscasting.
Yes, "scary" is the word you're looking for. This self-acknowledged media "rodeo clown," with a history of alcoholism, drug abuse and religious zealotry, makes Zhirinovsky seem articulate and Leontyev positively Socratic. Yikes again.
If there was any good news about the news in recent days, perhaps it was that two prominent US journalism professors produced a timely and possibly eye-opening essay in the Washington Post titled "Finding a new model for news reporting." The piece was condensed from a larger report that warned quite soberingly, if belatedly, that traditional journalism "is now at risk" and that "preserving independent, original, credible reporting, whether or not it is profitable" is of "paramount" importance for the country. And not just that one, of course.
TV news practices in both these societies need serious scrutiny - and soon, before a dearth of independence debilitates one and an unconstrained profusion of it further debases the other. Put otherwise, near-monopoly and near-anarchy should both be averted: if Channel One is a problem, Fox News is not the solution.
Ukraine's Swine Flu Death Toll Rises To 34
KIEV, Ukraine -- The death toll from a swine flu outbreak in Ukraine rose to 34 on Saturday, as the government announced new measures to control the spread of the virusTwo of the victims were infants, Health Minister Vasyl Kniazevych told Channel 5 television.As of Saturday morning, the flu was thought still to be limited in to the country's western provinces, but because of the number of suspected cases, a spread was likely, he said.'The country must prepare for a wider outbreak,' Kniazevych said. 'Its direction of movement is towards central Ukraine.'More than 80,000 people in the swine flu outbreak area were registered with authorities as displaying possible flu symptoms, but because of the similarity of swine flu symptoms to those of common flu, health workers were struggling to estimate the extent of the swine flu's spread, Kniazevych said.'We had a problem with identifying the (swine flu) antibody in flu sufferers,' he said. 'There is a mass of work we have to do.'Panic purchasing of flu remedies, surgical masks, and even citrus fruits took place in most major cities in the former Soviet republic, 1+1 television reported.The swine flu deaths thus far have been limited to the nine western provinces, most along the borders with Slovakia, Poland, and Romania.Shortages of over-the-counter medicines used to treat the common flu were reported as far away as the eastern city Zaporizhia, some 900 kilometres from the epicentre of the outbreak.Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was scheduled to hold an emergency meeting with regional health officials Saturday, to discuss new disease control measures.Invoking a rarely-used law allowing the state to take temporary control of private property, Tymoshenko declared all health-related organizations in the country, including privately-owned health clinics and hospitals, to be 'directly subordinate' to the government, effective immediately.The government would pay particular attention to medical supply retailers, to head off artificial goods shortages and price gouging, she said, in comments reported by the Unian news agency.Retail price spikes of as much as 300 per cent for cold and flu remedies have taken place in recent years in Ukraine, during avian flu outbreaks.Tymoshenko claimed privately-operated chemists in the country were 'absolutely supplied in full volume with all necessary medical supplies,' contradicting spot reports of shortages.Trains operated by the national railroad Ukrzhelesnitsiya were running according to schedule, but staff were ordered to wear surgical masks, and instructed to report passengers who appear to have flu symptoms.Medical personnel aboard 'every passenger train' were available to provide first aid to potential flu sufferers, and would report people treated to the Health Ministry, according to statement on the Ukrzhelesnitsiya website.Traffic in Ukrainian airports and intercity highways meanwhile appeared to be at normal levels despite a call by Tymoshenko for Ukrainians to avoid long-distance travel if possible.Traffic police and airport security personnel have been briefed to screen travellers visually, Tymoshenko said.All schools, kindergartens, and universities were closed for a three-week period on Friday. A ban on massed gatherings - forcing the wholesale cancellation of concerts and political rallies - was also in effect.Ukraine's national security council on Friday approved the equivalent of 55 million dollars in emergency funding, for swine flu control.President Viktor Yushchenko on Friday put the number of deaths from swine flu at 11 and said the country was 'in serious need' of foreign assistance..
Friday 30 October 2009
Regions Party: Yanukovych can return debt to IMF when president
Ukraine will pay off its debts to the International Monetary Fund if Regions Party's leader Viktor Yanukovych becomes the president of Ukraine, representatives of the party have said. "If Yanukovych becomes president, all international obligations would be fulfilled and all debts would be paid off," the deputy head of the Regions Party, Borys Kolesnikov, said at a press conference on Thursday.According to him, additional sources will be found via economic reforms. The economy minister of the opposition government, Iryna Akimova, in turn, said that currently the most important thing is to stop the "absolutely uncontrolled" rise in Ukraine's debts.She said a law banning the government from independently distributing funds from external loans would be adopted if the Regions Party team comes to power.
Russia plans research to support Arctic claim
Russia is planning extensive research to support its claim to a broad swath of energy-rich territory beneath the Arctic Sea, a top official of the nation's icebreaker fleet said Friday. Icebreakers will lead research vessels into the Arctic in a series of missions over the next three years to conduct a detailed geological analysis of the seabed, said Andrei Smirnov, deputy director for operations at state-run Atomflot.Moscow claims a large part of the Arctic seabed as its own, arguing that it is an extension of Russia's continental shelf. In 2007, scientists staked a symbolic claim by dropped a canister containing the Russian flag onto the seabed from a small submarine.The United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway have also been trying to assert jurisdiction over parts of the Arctic, which is believed to contain as much as a quarter of the Earth's undiscovered oil and gas.The dispute has intensified amid growing evidence that global warming is shrinking polar ice, opening up new shipping lanes and new resource development opportunities.Andrei Smirnov of the state-run company Atomflot says Russia is planning icebreaker missions in the Arctic over the next three years to conduct a detailed geological analysis of the seabed.Russia plans to send an atomic-powered icebreaker and a research ship to the Arctic next summer, Smirnov said at a conference. He said similar missions will take place over 2011-2012.Moscow first submitted the claim to Arctic seabed in 2001 to the United Nations, but it was rejected for lack of evidence.Artur Chilingarov, a polar scientist who was recently appointed the Kremlin's point man for Arctic issues and led the flag-planting expedition, said in June that Russia might resubmit the claim in 2013 after collecting more data.At the time, Chilingarov said Russia's fleet of six nuclear-powered icebreakers gives it an edge in polar exploration.
Medvedev blasts Stalin defenders
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has made an outspoken attack on those seeking to rehabilitate former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
Millions of Soviet citizens died under Stalin's rule and Mr Medvedev said it was not possible to justify those who exterminated their own people.
He also warned against efforts to falsify history and defend repression.
Some Russian politicians have recently tried to portray Stalin in a more positive light.
Under President Medvedev's predecessor, current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Stalin was often promoted as an efficient leader who turned the Soviet Union into a superpower.
Mr Medvedev made the unusually critical comments in a videoblog posted on the Kremlin's website. It appeared on the day the country is supposed to honour millions of people killed under Stalin's brutal regime which lasted from the late 1920s until his death in 1953.
Mr Medvedev said it was impossible to imagine the scale of repression under Stalin when whole groups of people were eliminated and even stripped of their right to be buried.
The president said there were now attempts to justify the repression of the past, and he warned against the falsification of history.
All this flies in the face of the current trend to promote Stalin as an effective manager and a leader who transformed the Soviet Union.
Under Mr Putin, the order was given for school history books to be re-written, highlighting Stalin's achievements.
In Moscow there is now even a Stalin-themed cafe and a metro station with one of Stalin's famous slogans on its walls. In northern Russia a historian investigating crimes committed by the former Soviet dictator was recently arrested.
It would appear there is a split within the Russian leadership on this highly sensitive issue.
Millions of Soviet citizens died under Stalin's rule and Mr Medvedev said it was not possible to justify those who exterminated their own people.
He also warned against efforts to falsify history and defend repression.
Some Russian politicians have recently tried to portray Stalin in a more positive light.
Under President Medvedev's predecessor, current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Stalin was often promoted as an efficient leader who turned the Soviet Union into a superpower.
Mr Medvedev made the unusually critical comments in a videoblog posted on the Kremlin's website. It appeared on the day the country is supposed to honour millions of people killed under Stalin's brutal regime which lasted from the late 1920s until his death in 1953.
Mr Medvedev said it was impossible to imagine the scale of repression under Stalin when whole groups of people were eliminated and even stripped of their right to be buried.
The president said there were now attempts to justify the repression of the past, and he warned against the falsification of history.
All this flies in the face of the current trend to promote Stalin as an effective manager and a leader who transformed the Soviet Union.
Under Mr Putin, the order was given for school history books to be re-written, highlighting Stalin's achievements.
In Moscow there is now even a Stalin-themed cafe and a metro station with one of Stalin's famous slogans on its walls. In northern Russia a historian investigating crimes committed by the former Soviet dictator was recently arrested.
It would appear there is a split within the Russian leadership on this highly sensitive issue.
Thursday 29 October 2009
Getting tough on inflation
Russia's inflation could fall to just over 8 per cent, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Sunday, smashing earlier official forecasts of 12 per cent and boosting recovery prospects.
"This year inflation might be 8 per cent and a little more, then it'll move towards 6 [per cent] and then towards 5 [per cent]," Vladimir Putin said at a Russia-Finland forestry summit in St. Petersburg, RIA Novosti reported.
Inflation has already hit 8.1 per cent for the year to date but has slowed down to almost zero in the last three months and analysts see this as positive for Russian markets.
"Prime Minister Putin's bullish view of the inflation trend ... will provide support for the rouble and domestic investor sentiment generally, but the main driver will again be where the US markets and oil trade through the week," Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib, wrote in a note to investors.
Putin's comments assume inflation will remain flat until the end of the year, but this is unlikely as cash is often doled out from the budget in the fourth quarter.
"We also think other factors, such as producer prices, budget spending and monetary emission, are still not adding enough pressure to [the] CPI, hence, these conditions remain favourable for loosening monetary policy as early as October," Renaissance Capital analyst Anton Nikitin wrote in a research note.
Latest estimates from the Central Bank put price rises at a maximum of 10.3 per cent for the year.
The positive economic news capped a good week for the markets, which saw the bourses consolidate gains from earlier in the month while investment came flooding in.
Russian stock funds took in $450 million last week, their highest weekly inflows since US-based research company EPFR started taking records in 2002.
The oil price fluctuated around the $80 a barrel level for most of the week, lending support to the markets, which mostly traded in line with crude. OPEC president Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos said Monday that they will try to balance oil prices at around $75 to $80 a barrel as anything higher would harm prospects of an economic recovery.
"You know that, if necessary, some countries are open to injecting more oil into the market and that will be done," Botelho de Vasconcelos said Sunday, Reuters reported.
The oil price was already trading lower on Monday morning on speculation of an OPEC output hike at the organisation's next meeting in December.
"The price of oil will likely slide this week ...because there is an increasing focus on the very high inventory levels of crude and products and on the comment by the OPEC Secretary General," Weafer wrote.
"This year inflation might be 8 per cent and a little more, then it'll move towards 6 [per cent] and then towards 5 [per cent]," Vladimir Putin said at a Russia-Finland forestry summit in St. Petersburg, RIA Novosti reported.
Inflation has already hit 8.1 per cent for the year to date but has slowed down to almost zero in the last three months and analysts see this as positive for Russian markets.
"Prime Minister Putin's bullish view of the inflation trend ... will provide support for the rouble and domestic investor sentiment generally, but the main driver will again be where the US markets and oil trade through the week," Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib, wrote in a note to investors.
Putin's comments assume inflation will remain flat until the end of the year, but this is unlikely as cash is often doled out from the budget in the fourth quarter.
"We also think other factors, such as producer prices, budget spending and monetary emission, are still not adding enough pressure to [the] CPI, hence, these conditions remain favourable for loosening monetary policy as early as October," Renaissance Capital analyst Anton Nikitin wrote in a research note.
Latest estimates from the Central Bank put price rises at a maximum of 10.3 per cent for the year.
The positive economic news capped a good week for the markets, which saw the bourses consolidate gains from earlier in the month while investment came flooding in.
Russian stock funds took in $450 million last week, their highest weekly inflows since US-based research company EPFR started taking records in 2002.
The oil price fluctuated around the $80 a barrel level for most of the week, lending support to the markets, which mostly traded in line with crude. OPEC president Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos said Monday that they will try to balance oil prices at around $75 to $80 a barrel as anything higher would harm prospects of an economic recovery.
"You know that, if necessary, some countries are open to injecting more oil into the market and that will be done," Botelho de Vasconcelos said Sunday, Reuters reported.
The oil price was already trading lower on Monday morning on speculation of an OPEC output hike at the organisation's next meeting in December.
"The price of oil will likely slide this week ...because there is an increasing focus on the very high inventory levels of crude and products and on the comment by the OPEC Secretary General," Weafer wrote.
Heroin addiction is still shooting up
Russia is the world's biggest target market for heroin distribution, and consumes one-fifth of all heroin produced globally, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime reported last week. Now, every third person killed by the drug is Russian.
More than 90 per cent of the world's heroin comes from Afghanistan, and the drug then floods into Russia across Central Asia's porous borders.
President Dmitry Medvedev has called the drug trade from Afghanistan "a threat to national security". With an estimated 2.5 million Russian addicts, heroin has created a "lost generation" here, Federal Drug Control Service chief Viktor Ivanov said last week. The UN findings prompted discussion of several new anti-narcotics bills in the Moscow City Duma and the Federation Council, but many remain sceptical that they will have any positive impact, or that the bills will even see the light of day.
An estimated 30,000 Russians die from heroin overdoses each year - more deaths than the Soviet Union suffered during its entire military campaign in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Given Russia's demographic crisis, the 80 Russians dying from heroin overdoses per day also has serious implications for the country's economy, since the victims are largely of working age.
A demographic report by the United Nations Development Programme earlier this month argues that by 2025, Russia's population will almost certainly have dropped below 140 million, and could fall to as low as 128 million. Although the report cited alcohol abuse and a low birth rate as major factors, Russia's HIV/AIDS epidemic "due to the high levels of drug addiction" was also cited as a contributing factor.
Russia has often been criticised by European addiction specialists for banning the use of methadone, a heroin substitution drug commonly used in the West to wean addicts off the drug.
Sergei Polyatykin, head of the No to Alcohol and Drugs Programme Fund, said that the lack of methadone treatment was not the biggest problem. "The main point is that too many drug addicts are victimised in Russia. They don't have the means to get treatment and rehabilitate themselves, because state programmes and money are practically non-existent.
So it's very difficult for a person to give up," he said.
The Federation Council proposed that teenage addicts be legally required to follow anti-addiction courses until the age of 18 (up from 16). The rationale is that "doctors and teachers believe that ages 16 to 18 are the most dangerous for developing a dependency on harmful drugs," Federation Council Senator Lyudmila Narusova told Kommersant.
But Polyatykin remains unconvinced. "Up until 18, it's not about treatment, but rather about providing people with a social purpose for a sober way of life, skills, alternative behavioural stereotypes and the ability to live without drugs," he said.
Other, somewhat unambitious anti-narcotics proposals submitted to the City Duma by the capital's police force included making healthy lifestyle advertising at nightclubs mandatory, and introducing regular drug testing for nightclub staff. Increasing public awareness is clearly important, but testing is unfeasible. "Testing staff for drugs would simply be illegal," anti-narcotics campaigner Lev Levinson told Kommersant.
Levinson was sceptical about imposing anti-addiction treatment on older teenagers, pointing out that without their active desire to participate, "treatment would probably make them worse."
Currently, almost nine out of 10 heroin addicts return to drug abuse within a year of leaving rehab.
Reducing heroin addiction, however, also requires reducing supply. Narcotics traffickers are able to take advantage of rampant border corruption. Ivanov recently highlighted the lack of effective border control as a major problem, but also blamed NATO forces for doing "next to nothing" to halt drug production.
The spike in heroin production in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001 has been a major source of tension between Moscow and Washington. While eradicating opium fields deprives Taliban forces of funding for their insurgency, it also drives local farmers toward the Taliban, since it deprives them of their main source of livelihood. In a major policy shift, Washington said in August that it would be targeting Afghan drug lords, rather than poppy eradication. But it remains to be seen whether this will reduce the flow of heroin into Russia.
More than 90 per cent of the world's heroin comes from Afghanistan, and the drug then floods into Russia across Central Asia's porous borders.
President Dmitry Medvedev has called the drug trade from Afghanistan "a threat to national security". With an estimated 2.5 million Russian addicts, heroin has created a "lost generation" here, Federal Drug Control Service chief Viktor Ivanov said last week. The UN findings prompted discussion of several new anti-narcotics bills in the Moscow City Duma and the Federation Council, but many remain sceptical that they will have any positive impact, or that the bills will even see the light of day.
An estimated 30,000 Russians die from heroin overdoses each year - more deaths than the Soviet Union suffered during its entire military campaign in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Given Russia's demographic crisis, the 80 Russians dying from heroin overdoses per day also has serious implications for the country's economy, since the victims are largely of working age.
A demographic report by the United Nations Development Programme earlier this month argues that by 2025, Russia's population will almost certainly have dropped below 140 million, and could fall to as low as 128 million. Although the report cited alcohol abuse and a low birth rate as major factors, Russia's HIV/AIDS epidemic "due to the high levels of drug addiction" was also cited as a contributing factor.
Russia has often been criticised by European addiction specialists for banning the use of methadone, a heroin substitution drug commonly used in the West to wean addicts off the drug.
Sergei Polyatykin, head of the No to Alcohol and Drugs Programme Fund, said that the lack of methadone treatment was not the biggest problem. "The main point is that too many drug addicts are victimised in Russia. They don't have the means to get treatment and rehabilitate themselves, because state programmes and money are practically non-existent.
So it's very difficult for a person to give up," he said.
The Federation Council proposed that teenage addicts be legally required to follow anti-addiction courses until the age of 18 (up from 16). The rationale is that "doctors and teachers believe that ages 16 to 18 are the most dangerous for developing a dependency on harmful drugs," Federation Council Senator Lyudmila Narusova told Kommersant.
But Polyatykin remains unconvinced. "Up until 18, it's not about treatment, but rather about providing people with a social purpose for a sober way of life, skills, alternative behavioural stereotypes and the ability to live without drugs," he said.
Other, somewhat unambitious anti-narcotics proposals submitted to the City Duma by the capital's police force included making healthy lifestyle advertising at nightclubs mandatory, and introducing regular drug testing for nightclub staff. Increasing public awareness is clearly important, but testing is unfeasible. "Testing staff for drugs would simply be illegal," anti-narcotics campaigner Lev Levinson told Kommersant.
Levinson was sceptical about imposing anti-addiction treatment on older teenagers, pointing out that without their active desire to participate, "treatment would probably make them worse."
Currently, almost nine out of 10 heroin addicts return to drug abuse within a year of leaving rehab.
Reducing heroin addiction, however, also requires reducing supply. Narcotics traffickers are able to take advantage of rampant border corruption. Ivanov recently highlighted the lack of effective border control as a major problem, but also blamed NATO forces for doing "next to nothing" to halt drug production.
The spike in heroin production in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001 has been a major source of tension between Moscow and Washington. While eradicating opium fields deprives Taliban forces of funding for their insurgency, it also drives local farmers toward the Taliban, since it deprives them of their main source of livelihood. In a major policy shift, Washington said in August that it would be targeting Afghan drug lords, rather than poppy eradication. But it remains to be seen whether this will reduce the flow of heroin into Russia.
Ukraine Govt Clashes With President On Wage Move
KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian ministers warned President Viktor Yushchenko on Thursday the government cannot afford to raise minimum wages and would go to court if he approves a motion to do this passed by parliament last week.
Yushchenko indicated his support for the bill, local agencies reported, despite calls by the International Monetary Fund for the measures to be vetoed if it is to decide on releasing funds worth $3.8 billion by the end of the year.But analysts say the money, vital to cover the budget gap, have become a political football ahead of a presidential election in which Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former premier Viktor Yanukovich are all expected to run.Yushchenko and Tymoshenko have been embroiled in fierce rivalry for 18 months that has blocked privatisation, delayed policy-making and twice put the IMF programme in jeopardy.As they fought, the former Soviet state has slumped deep into recession -- the IMF expects the economy to contract by up to 15 percent this year after steel exports plunged, the hryvnia currency plummeted and banks struggle to survive."If the president has taken such a decision (to support the bill), then he knows where to get the money for it. Unfortunately the finance ministry has not been informed about that and for now we see no such possibility," Acting Finance Minister Ihor Umansky told journalists on Thursday.Employment Minister Ludmila Denysova said the government would take the issue to the Constitutional Court should Yushchenko sign.The government has said raising the minimum wage by over 20 percent by the end of next year, as the bill foresees, would ost it an extra $10 billion. The IMF's fourth tranche is part of a $16.4 billion bailout programme."These levels (of wages) have obviously been raised because of the political situation, but raised by whom? By the political force that is not part of the majority and parliament accepted such a law," agencies cited Yushchenko as saying late on Wednesday."I agree with parliament," he said.GAMEPLANRBS head of CEEMEA Research Tim Ash said there was a tendency for Yushchenko to block anything which Tymoshenko tried to do."Indeed Yushchenko's game plan would likely be to use the issue to undermine Tymoshenko's position in the run-up to the presidential election," Ash said."Yushchenko's riding to the rescue of public sector employees and pensioners against the prime minister may well play well with the electorate and into the hands of Tymoshenko's opponents," he added.But other analysts have noted Yushchenko may be pressured to veto the bill by his own previous criticism of the IMF's leniency toward the government.Polls show he would not pass the Jan. 17 vote into a second round. Tymoshenko and Yanukovich, whose party initiated the wage bill, are likely to face off in the final February vote.Finance ministry data on the budget showed how necessary the IMF funds are for Ukraine. The budget deficit widened by 47 percent in September alone to 24 billion hryvnias ($3 billion) since the start of the year from 16.4 billion in Jan-Aug.Budget revenues have fallen sharply, yet spending on benefits has been maintained. Ironically, more strain has materialised through the increase in steel production and exports -- this industry receives Value Added Tax (VAT) rebates from the budget.
Yushchenko indicated his support for the bill, local agencies reported, despite calls by the International Monetary Fund for the measures to be vetoed if it is to decide on releasing funds worth $3.8 billion by the end of the year.But analysts say the money, vital to cover the budget gap, have become a political football ahead of a presidential election in which Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former premier Viktor Yanukovich are all expected to run.Yushchenko and Tymoshenko have been embroiled in fierce rivalry for 18 months that has blocked privatisation, delayed policy-making and twice put the IMF programme in jeopardy.As they fought, the former Soviet state has slumped deep into recession -- the IMF expects the economy to contract by up to 15 percent this year after steel exports plunged, the hryvnia currency plummeted and banks struggle to survive."If the president has taken such a decision (to support the bill), then he knows where to get the money for it. Unfortunately the finance ministry has not been informed about that and for now we see no such possibility," Acting Finance Minister Ihor Umansky told journalists on Thursday.Employment Minister Ludmila Denysova said the government would take the issue to the Constitutional Court should Yushchenko sign.The government has said raising the minimum wage by over 20 percent by the end of next year, as the bill foresees, would ost it an extra $10 billion. The IMF's fourth tranche is part of a $16.4 billion bailout programme."These levels (of wages) have obviously been raised because of the political situation, but raised by whom? By the political force that is not part of the majority and parliament accepted such a law," agencies cited Yushchenko as saying late on Wednesday."I agree with parliament," he said.GAMEPLANRBS head of CEEMEA Research Tim Ash said there was a tendency for Yushchenko to block anything which Tymoshenko tried to do."Indeed Yushchenko's game plan would likely be to use the issue to undermine Tymoshenko's position in the run-up to the presidential election," Ash said."Yushchenko's riding to the rescue of public sector employees and pensioners against the prime minister may well play well with the electorate and into the hands of Tymoshenko's opponents," he added.But other analysts have noted Yushchenko may be pressured to veto the bill by his own previous criticism of the IMF's leniency toward the government.Polls show he would not pass the Jan. 17 vote into a second round. Tymoshenko and Yanukovich, whose party initiated the wage bill, are likely to face off in the final February vote.Finance ministry data on the budget showed how necessary the IMF funds are for Ukraine. The budget deficit widened by 47 percent in September alone to 24 billion hryvnias ($3 billion) since the start of the year from 16.4 billion in Jan-Aug.Budget revenues have fallen sharply, yet spending on benefits has been maintained. Ironically, more strain has materialised through the increase in steel production and exports -- this industry receives Value Added Tax (VAT) rebates from the budget.
Ukrainian Economy Suffers Sharp Fall In 2009
KIEV, Ukraine -- Five years after the “Orange Revolution,” which brought Ukrainian politician Viktor Yushchenko to power in January 2005, the Ukrainian economy is in the deepest crisis since the post-Soviet economic and social implosion of the 1990s.
Yushchenko’s bid for office, and his subsequent campaign to overturn the declared electoral victory of the more pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovich, were financed and politically supported by the United States. Washington saw Yushchenko as a means of weakening Russian influence in the country and opening up its markets to transnational companies and global finance capital.Yushchenko had earned his support from Washington during his tenure as the head of the central bank of Ukraine, where he oversaw the privatisation of Ukrainian state assets in the 1990s. While prime minister under President Leonid Kuchma from 1999 to 2001, he also campaigned in favour of economic “liberalisation.”Following his ascendancy to the presidency, Yushchenko was universally praised in the Western corporate media as a reformer who could usher in a new era of prosperity and democracy in the former Soviet republic.Washington’s man in Kiev is today a despised figure whose pursuit of unpopular “free-market” economic policies and a pro-NATO foreign policy has left him with polling figures in the single digits. Having campaigned in 2004 as an anti-corruption candidate, Yushchenko has presided over a regime every bit as corrupt and in thrall to oligarchic business interests as that of Kuchma.Economic and social conditions for Ukrainian workers are worse now than when Yushchenko came to office, and remain lower than what they were under the Soviet Union. The Ukrainian economy only recorded its first year of post-Soviet GDP growth in 2000. Largely driven by strong global demand for the country’s main exports of steel and steel products, the economy grew rapidly over the next six years, recording growth rates of nearly 10 percent in 2003 and more than 7 percent in 2006 and 2007.Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country increased over the past decade, especially after the Orange Revolution, as international big businesses and financial companies sought to buy up industrial facilities and other commercial real estate.The country’s economy was badly hit by the 2008 financial crisis and the ensuing global recession. Ukrainian industrial exports plummeted as global demand fell, while the country’s financial system faced default. The state was saved from bankruptcy by an emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of US$16.5 billion, which has come with demands from the fund that Kiev restructure its economy to cut public spending and further enforce the demands of global capital.The problems of the worldwide recession were particularly deeply expressed in the economies of Ukraine’s neighbors and main trading partners in eastern Europe, Turkey and the former Soviet Union. After a decade of growth brought on by high commodity prices and the movement of western European factories eastwards in order to take advantage of cheaper labour, the region has suffered from a collapse of FDI as well as property and financial bubbles.Traditionally, Ukraine has had a close economic relationship with Russia, with the two former Soviet republics having a high level of economic integration under the USSR, many vestiges of which remain to this day. Russia has been very hard hit by the economic crisis, with revenue from its main exports of oil, gas and minerals plummeting from highs in 2007, while its financial sector was among the worst affected in the world.Compounding these problems, the strained relations between Kiev and Moscow since the US-sponsored Orange Revolution have damaged commerce between the two neighbours, especially in the transit of Russian natural gas across Ukraine en route to the West. In January of this year, Russia’s Gazprom shut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine—and thus to much of the rest of Europe—in a dispute over payments. Gas prices have since gone up, deepening the pain of recession for ordinary Ukrainians.Ukrainian gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 20 percent in the first quarter of 2009, with industrial production falling year-on-year by a third in the same period. The economy suffered another steep fall in the second quarter, with GDP dropping 18 percent. The World Bank expects Ukraine’s GDP to shrink by 15 percent over the whole of 2009.The official unemployment rate is predicted to reach 9 percent by the end of the year, while the real employment problem is far worse, with many people having given up looking for work or been forced to accept part-time jobs.Volodymyr Gryshchenko, chairman of the Federation of Employers, whose members employ about a third of the Ukrainian workforce, stated that the official unemployment rate underestimated the scale of cutbacks: “Employers are trying to find ways to avoid firing workers outright, and so they’re cutting hours or sending workers on unpaid leave.”Inflation stands at more than 16 percent, and the currency, the hryvnia, has sunk badly against the euro and the dollar. Earlier this year, the Ukrainian Central Bank froze savings deposits in the country’s banks to prevent mass withdrawals amid public fears of a banking and/or currency collapse. The move angered millions of working class savers, especially retirees, whose modest savings were locked up in precarious financial institutions to suffer depreciation from rampant inflation.Former Ukrainian finance minister Viktor Pynzenyk stated in July that he believed the economic decline since 2008 had pushed the size of the country’s economy back to its level in 2003. Pynzenyk and several economic commentators, as well as the Ukrainian government and the World Bank, expect the country’s economy to grow by around 1 percent in 2010—if the world demand for Ukraine’s exports improves and the financial sector is not rocked by a new crisis.Even if this modest predicted growth occurs, the scale of Ukraine’s public debts will ensure that whichever candidate wins the presidency in January’s election will form a government of austerity that will force workers to pay for the crisis through cuts in welfare and services. Meanwhile, employers will use mass unemployment to drive down wages in a bid to make them more competitive on the world market.Despite a period of economic growth from 2000 to 2007, some economists have calculated that the standard of living for the average Ukrainian has fallen by 50 percent since the liquidation of the USSR, largely as a result of high inflation rates in the 1990s and again in recent years, combined with cuts in social welfare and a large increase in the number of unemployed and working poor.In 1999, the Ukrainian economy was less than half of its size when it declared independence from the USSR in 1991. The liquidation of the Soviet Union by the Stalinist bureaucrats ushered in a decade of economic chaos and social disaster in Ukraine and across the former Eastern bloc, as the economic “shock therapy” of privatisations, mass lay-offs and welfare cuts destroyed vast swathes of Soviet social and economic infrastructure.All the while, a new ruling elite, largely made up of ex-bureaucrats, looted the economy to amass enormous personal fortunes. Among this nouveau riche in Ukraine are the two leading figures fighting for power in the upcoming presidential election, Yulia Tymoshenko, a former Comsomol (Communist youth organisation) leader whose fortune was made in the privatised gas transit industry in the 1990s, and Viktor Yanukovich, a Soviet-era factory manager who became the main political representative of the eastern Ukrainian oligarchs.The candidates standing in January’s presidential election offer nothing to the working people, unemployed and youth of Ukraine. Yushchenko’s main rivals, Tymoshenko and Yanukovich, despite some populist phrases, are committed to securing the fortunes of their rival political cliques while carrying out the IMF-dictated “reforms” designed to cut taxes and social spending in favor of international finance capital and big business.Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a former parliamentary speaker and foreign minister, who at 35 years old only just qualifies to stand for president, is another presidential candidate. Currently projected to win over 10 percent of the vote, Yatsenyuk was a longstanding Yushchenko acolyte who only formed his own political party in 2008.Considered a political clone of Yushchenko, Yatsenyuk is widely understood to be a sort of political hedge bet for the presidential camp. There is speculation that Yushchenko, faced with the prospect of a humiliatingly low vote in the election, may pull out of the race and back Yatsenyuk or at least agree not to campaign against him. Dmytriy Firtash, the billionaire owner of energy trading company RosUkrEnergo and the principal domestic backer of Yushchenko, has given some support from his television station, Inter, to Yatsenyuk.Faced with the decimation of their living standards, working people in Ukraine will draw conclusions, not only about the phony “Orange Revolution” that saw one clique of oligarchs take over from another, but about the entire post-Soviet experience.
Yushchenko’s bid for office, and his subsequent campaign to overturn the declared electoral victory of the more pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovich, were financed and politically supported by the United States. Washington saw Yushchenko as a means of weakening Russian influence in the country and opening up its markets to transnational companies and global finance capital.Yushchenko had earned his support from Washington during his tenure as the head of the central bank of Ukraine, where he oversaw the privatisation of Ukrainian state assets in the 1990s. While prime minister under President Leonid Kuchma from 1999 to 2001, he also campaigned in favour of economic “liberalisation.”Following his ascendancy to the presidency, Yushchenko was universally praised in the Western corporate media as a reformer who could usher in a new era of prosperity and democracy in the former Soviet republic.Washington’s man in Kiev is today a despised figure whose pursuit of unpopular “free-market” economic policies and a pro-NATO foreign policy has left him with polling figures in the single digits. Having campaigned in 2004 as an anti-corruption candidate, Yushchenko has presided over a regime every bit as corrupt and in thrall to oligarchic business interests as that of Kuchma.Economic and social conditions for Ukrainian workers are worse now than when Yushchenko came to office, and remain lower than what they were under the Soviet Union. The Ukrainian economy only recorded its first year of post-Soviet GDP growth in 2000. Largely driven by strong global demand for the country’s main exports of steel and steel products, the economy grew rapidly over the next six years, recording growth rates of nearly 10 percent in 2003 and more than 7 percent in 2006 and 2007.Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country increased over the past decade, especially after the Orange Revolution, as international big businesses and financial companies sought to buy up industrial facilities and other commercial real estate.The country’s economy was badly hit by the 2008 financial crisis and the ensuing global recession. Ukrainian industrial exports plummeted as global demand fell, while the country’s financial system faced default. The state was saved from bankruptcy by an emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of US$16.5 billion, which has come with demands from the fund that Kiev restructure its economy to cut public spending and further enforce the demands of global capital.The problems of the worldwide recession were particularly deeply expressed in the economies of Ukraine’s neighbors and main trading partners in eastern Europe, Turkey and the former Soviet Union. After a decade of growth brought on by high commodity prices and the movement of western European factories eastwards in order to take advantage of cheaper labour, the region has suffered from a collapse of FDI as well as property and financial bubbles.Traditionally, Ukraine has had a close economic relationship with Russia, with the two former Soviet republics having a high level of economic integration under the USSR, many vestiges of which remain to this day. Russia has been very hard hit by the economic crisis, with revenue from its main exports of oil, gas and minerals plummeting from highs in 2007, while its financial sector was among the worst affected in the world.Compounding these problems, the strained relations between Kiev and Moscow since the US-sponsored Orange Revolution have damaged commerce between the two neighbours, especially in the transit of Russian natural gas across Ukraine en route to the West. In January of this year, Russia’s Gazprom shut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine—and thus to much of the rest of Europe—in a dispute over payments. Gas prices have since gone up, deepening the pain of recession for ordinary Ukrainians.Ukrainian gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 20 percent in the first quarter of 2009, with industrial production falling year-on-year by a third in the same period. The economy suffered another steep fall in the second quarter, with GDP dropping 18 percent. The World Bank expects Ukraine’s GDP to shrink by 15 percent over the whole of 2009.The official unemployment rate is predicted to reach 9 percent by the end of the year, while the real employment problem is far worse, with many people having given up looking for work or been forced to accept part-time jobs.Volodymyr Gryshchenko, chairman of the Federation of Employers, whose members employ about a third of the Ukrainian workforce, stated that the official unemployment rate underestimated the scale of cutbacks: “Employers are trying to find ways to avoid firing workers outright, and so they’re cutting hours or sending workers on unpaid leave.”Inflation stands at more than 16 percent, and the currency, the hryvnia, has sunk badly against the euro and the dollar. Earlier this year, the Ukrainian Central Bank froze savings deposits in the country’s banks to prevent mass withdrawals amid public fears of a banking and/or currency collapse. The move angered millions of working class savers, especially retirees, whose modest savings were locked up in precarious financial institutions to suffer depreciation from rampant inflation.Former Ukrainian finance minister Viktor Pynzenyk stated in July that he believed the economic decline since 2008 had pushed the size of the country’s economy back to its level in 2003. Pynzenyk and several economic commentators, as well as the Ukrainian government and the World Bank, expect the country’s economy to grow by around 1 percent in 2010—if the world demand for Ukraine’s exports improves and the financial sector is not rocked by a new crisis.Even if this modest predicted growth occurs, the scale of Ukraine’s public debts will ensure that whichever candidate wins the presidency in January’s election will form a government of austerity that will force workers to pay for the crisis through cuts in welfare and services. Meanwhile, employers will use mass unemployment to drive down wages in a bid to make them more competitive on the world market.Despite a period of economic growth from 2000 to 2007, some economists have calculated that the standard of living for the average Ukrainian has fallen by 50 percent since the liquidation of the USSR, largely as a result of high inflation rates in the 1990s and again in recent years, combined with cuts in social welfare and a large increase in the number of unemployed and working poor.In 1999, the Ukrainian economy was less than half of its size when it declared independence from the USSR in 1991. The liquidation of the Soviet Union by the Stalinist bureaucrats ushered in a decade of economic chaos and social disaster in Ukraine and across the former Eastern bloc, as the economic “shock therapy” of privatisations, mass lay-offs and welfare cuts destroyed vast swathes of Soviet social and economic infrastructure.All the while, a new ruling elite, largely made up of ex-bureaucrats, looted the economy to amass enormous personal fortunes. Among this nouveau riche in Ukraine are the two leading figures fighting for power in the upcoming presidential election, Yulia Tymoshenko, a former Comsomol (Communist youth organisation) leader whose fortune was made in the privatised gas transit industry in the 1990s, and Viktor Yanukovich, a Soviet-era factory manager who became the main political representative of the eastern Ukrainian oligarchs.The candidates standing in January’s presidential election offer nothing to the working people, unemployed and youth of Ukraine. Yushchenko’s main rivals, Tymoshenko and Yanukovich, despite some populist phrases, are committed to securing the fortunes of their rival political cliques while carrying out the IMF-dictated “reforms” designed to cut taxes and social spending in favor of international finance capital and big business.Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a former parliamentary speaker and foreign minister, who at 35 years old only just qualifies to stand for president, is another presidential candidate. Currently projected to win over 10 percent of the vote, Yatsenyuk was a longstanding Yushchenko acolyte who only formed his own political party in 2008.Considered a political clone of Yushchenko, Yatsenyuk is widely understood to be a sort of political hedge bet for the presidential camp. There is speculation that Yushchenko, faced with the prospect of a humiliatingly low vote in the election, may pull out of the race and back Yatsenyuk or at least agree not to campaign against him. Dmytriy Firtash, the billionaire owner of energy trading company RosUkrEnergo and the principal domestic backer of Yushchenko, has given some support from his television station, Inter, to Yatsenyuk.Faced with the decimation of their living standards, working people in Ukraine will draw conclusions, not only about the phony “Orange Revolution” that saw one clique of oligarchs take over from another, but about the entire post-Soviet experience.
Opposition: Kiev Is Deep In Debt
KIEV, Ukraine -- One of the opposition leaders in the city council Dmytro Andriyevsky warned on Oct. 28 that municipal debts are growing with a catastrophic speed.
“The income part of the budget is short of nearly Hr 6 billion, and the situation is worsening by the day,” said Andriyevsky.He said Kiev has so far failed to collect Hr 1.244 billion in income taxes, Hr 1.07 in planned proceeds from the sale of land and other assets, and what the budget refers to as “other incomes” worth Hr 2.1 billion.“The fantastic budget projects and promises of Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky, as we had warned, turned out to be soap bubbles,” Andriyevsky said. “By today, the city finances are short of every third hryvnia planed for spending.”He said none of the mayor’s novelty ideas for filling the budget, including expensive dinners with city officials businessmen are supposed to pay, the sale of city-owned cars, increases in parking fees and introduction of new fees for various municipal services have brought no income to the budget.As a result, the city’s development projects are under-financed by Hr 875 million, while social expenditures are Hr 677 million short of target, and city medicine is Hr 204 million short. Moreover, the city owes Hr 2 billion to the state.“Budget predictions for the fourth quarter are unfavorable. Kiev, with Chernovetsky’s effort, is flying into a debt pit,” Andriyevsky told Ukrayinska Pravda.
“The income part of the budget is short of nearly Hr 6 billion, and the situation is worsening by the day,” said Andriyevsky.He said Kiev has so far failed to collect Hr 1.244 billion in income taxes, Hr 1.07 in planned proceeds from the sale of land and other assets, and what the budget refers to as “other incomes” worth Hr 2.1 billion.“The fantastic budget projects and promises of Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky, as we had warned, turned out to be soap bubbles,” Andriyevsky said. “By today, the city finances are short of every third hryvnia planed for spending.”He said none of the mayor’s novelty ideas for filling the budget, including expensive dinners with city officials businessmen are supposed to pay, the sale of city-owned cars, increases in parking fees and introduction of new fees for various municipal services have brought no income to the budget.As a result, the city’s development projects are under-financed by Hr 875 million, while social expenditures are Hr 677 million short of target, and city medicine is Hr 204 million short. Moreover, the city owes Hr 2 billion to the state.“Budget predictions for the fourth quarter are unfavorable. Kiev, with Chernovetsky’s effort, is flying into a debt pit,” Andriyevsky told Ukrayinska Pravda.
China, Ukraine Agree To Enhance Cooperation
KIEV, Ukraine -- Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang and Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko agreed to enhance cooperation between the two countries during talks on Monday. Zhang, leading a Chinese delegation, was on an official visit to Ukraine.
During the meeting, Zhang said that, since the two countries established diplomatic ties 17 years ago, China and Ukraine have seen healthy growth in bilateral relations, frequent high-level visits and enhanced mutual political trust.The two sides have offered support on major issues concerning each other's interests and sustained efficient coordination in international and regional affairs, he said.China values its ties with Ukraine and views it as a trusted and reliable partner, Zhang said, adding that it is in the fundamental interests of both sides to cement and enhance mutually benefitial cooperation.China is willing to work with the Ukrainian side to further strengthen mutual political trust and deepen mutually benefitial cooperation to promote the all-round China-Ukraine partnership, hesaid.He also expressed thanks to Ukraine for its support on issues concerning Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang and Falun Gong.Speaking highly of China's fast development, Tymoshenko said her government values its ties with China and is ready to work with China to expand and deepen pragmatic cooperation in various fields.Ukraine and China are complementary to each other and needed to continuously tap their great potential for cooperation, she said.Tymoshenko extended a welcome to Chinese entrepreneurs in the delegation and said she hoped that Chinese enterprises will carry out more cooperation with the Ukrainian side in fields of strategic importance, such as energy, car and plane manufacture, sports and road equipment, and agriculture.Ukraine is the first leg of official visits by Zhang to three European nations. He will also visit Albania and Estonia.
During the meeting, Zhang said that, since the two countries established diplomatic ties 17 years ago, China and Ukraine have seen healthy growth in bilateral relations, frequent high-level visits and enhanced mutual political trust.The two sides have offered support on major issues concerning each other's interests and sustained efficient coordination in international and regional affairs, he said.China values its ties with Ukraine and views it as a trusted and reliable partner, Zhang said, adding that it is in the fundamental interests of both sides to cement and enhance mutually benefitial cooperation.China is willing to work with the Ukrainian side to further strengthen mutual political trust and deepen mutually benefitial cooperation to promote the all-round China-Ukraine partnership, hesaid.He also expressed thanks to Ukraine for its support on issues concerning Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang and Falun Gong.Speaking highly of China's fast development, Tymoshenko said her government values its ties with China and is ready to work with China to expand and deepen pragmatic cooperation in various fields.Ukraine and China are complementary to each other and needed to continuously tap their great potential for cooperation, she said.Tymoshenko extended a welcome to Chinese entrepreneurs in the delegation and said she hoped that Chinese enterprises will carry out more cooperation with the Ukrainian side in fields of strategic importance, such as energy, car and plane manufacture, sports and road equipment, and agriculture.Ukraine is the first leg of official visits by Zhang to three European nations. He will also visit Albania and Estonia.
Ukraine Warns Gazprom Of Potential Gas Payment Problems
KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's national energy company Naftogaz has warned Gazprom of possible difficulties with payment for October natural gas deliveries, a source in the Ukrainian company said on Monday.
Naftogaz CEO Oleh Dubyna said at a meeting with Gazprom head Alexei Miller on Thursday that it was increasingly difficult for the Ukrainian energy company to make gas payments and it could be problematic for it to pay for natural gas supplied in October, the source said.Naftogaz paid for Russian natural gas deliveries in September on time and in full, largely using borrowed funds.According to the source, the Russian side insists that Naftogaz comply with contractual obligations in terms of natural gas purchase volumes and prices.Ukraine is currently negotiating with Gazprom on a reduction in supplies to 33 billion cubic meters a year.Miller has said that under the contract, Ukraine must buy at least 52 billion cubic meters of gas per year, but Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said that "Ukraine has the right to order the volume that it needs."She said the contract provides for 20% fluctuations in the level of consumption, and that "aggressive statements" on mandatory purchase levels should be ignored.Russia, which supplies around one fifth of Europe's gas, briefly shut down supplies via Ukraine's pipeline system at the start of the year during a dispute with Kiev over unpaid debt.The conflict was resolved in January, when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Tymoshenko, agreed deals on deliveries to and gas transit through Ukraine for 2009.
Naftogaz CEO Oleh Dubyna said at a meeting with Gazprom head Alexei Miller on Thursday that it was increasingly difficult for the Ukrainian energy company to make gas payments and it could be problematic for it to pay for natural gas supplied in October, the source said.Naftogaz paid for Russian natural gas deliveries in September on time and in full, largely using borrowed funds.According to the source, the Russian side insists that Naftogaz comply with contractual obligations in terms of natural gas purchase volumes and prices.Ukraine is currently negotiating with Gazprom on a reduction in supplies to 33 billion cubic meters a year.Miller has said that under the contract, Ukraine must buy at least 52 billion cubic meters of gas per year, but Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said that "Ukraine has the right to order the volume that it needs."She said the contract provides for 20% fluctuations in the level of consumption, and that "aggressive statements" on mandatory purchase levels should be ignored.Russia, which supplies around one fifth of Europe's gas, briefly shut down supplies via Ukraine's pipeline system at the start of the year during a dispute with Kiev over unpaid debt.The conflict was resolved in January, when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Tymoshenko, agreed deals on deliveries to and gas transit through Ukraine for 2009.
Police Prevent Attempt To Establish Network Of Muslim Extremist Group In Ukraine
SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine -- Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko has announced police officers last Friday arrested representatives of a terrorist organization who, covering with the ideas of Islamic fundamentalism, planned to establish a network of al-Takf.
He said at a press conference in Simferopol on Monday that the extremists planned to pass death sentences on the leader of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, MP Mustafa Jemilev, and on his supporters, and plotted a number of terrorist attacks in Ukraine.Lutsenko said, according to latest reports, the police had launched an investigation into revealing representatives of extremist terrorist organizations. Three people have been arrested in Crimea so far, and one of them started to cooperate with investigators and provided law enforcers with valuable information, he said.As a result, seven response groups, including police officers and Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) forces, particularly Alfa paramilitary units, conducted a special operation in Crimea on October 23, at the request of Hennadiy Moskal, the deputy interior minister and chief of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s main police office in Crimea, he said.Lutsenko also said that authorized searches had been conducted at the seven places of residence of extremists. TNT blocks with detonators, daggers and a large amount of extremist literature were seized at one address in Simferopol.
He said at a press conference in Simferopol on Monday that the extremists planned to pass death sentences on the leader of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, MP Mustafa Jemilev, and on his supporters, and plotted a number of terrorist attacks in Ukraine.Lutsenko said, according to latest reports, the police had launched an investigation into revealing representatives of extremist terrorist organizations. Three people have been arrested in Crimea so far, and one of them started to cooperate with investigators and provided law enforcers with valuable information, he said.As a result, seven response groups, including police officers and Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) forces, particularly Alfa paramilitary units, conducted a special operation in Crimea on October 23, at the request of Hennadiy Moskal, the deputy interior minister and chief of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s main police office in Crimea, he said.Lutsenko also said that authorized searches had been conducted at the seven places of residence of extremists. TNT blocks with detonators, daggers and a large amount of extremist literature were seized at one address in Simferopol.
Saturday 24 October 2009
Kudrin Offers Rare Rebuke to Luzhkov
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin warned Mayor Yury Luzhkov on Thursday to keep a better eye on his city’s expenses and to focus on building the metro rather than increasing officials’ salaries.
The comments hit a sore point for Luzhkov — the overcrowded subway system — and were a rare rebuke from Kudrin, who typically does not respond to criticism from lower-ranking or regional officials.
Luzhkov, 73, had to fend off speculation in the run-up to the Moscow City Duma elections this month that the federal government is getting ready to replace him. Several prominent city officials have been investigated on suspicion of corruption in recent months.
Kudrin, also a deputy prime minister, has faced constant opposition to his fiscal conservatism since he took over the Finance Ministry in 2000, including from the ruling United Russia party. But his instance on saving windfall oil revenues won him high marks from economists, who said the stash has helped Russia avoid a worse economic downturn.
On Thursday, Kudrin told a State Duma working group that expenses for Moscow officials have risen 24 percent this year, or by 6 billion rubles ($206 million).
The figures, from a Moscow finance department report submitted to Kudrin on Sept. 14, showed a 19 percent rise in salaries, accounting for an additional 2.76 billion rubles in spending, he said.
“I think Yury Mikhailovich should study the results and statistics for Moscow more closely and keep his press service more honestly informed,” Kudrin said. “I could continue with what’s going on with the Moscow budget, there are so many interesting situations.”
City Hall spokesman Sergei Tsoi denounced the comments as false and said they were intended to “incite negative feelings among the capital’s residents regarding the Moscow government.” Management expenses have risen just 3 percent this year, he said.
Luzhkov has long made Kudrin-bashing a staple of his populist politics, most recently over the funding cuts to the metro. “Kudrin will achieve in 2010 what not even the Germans managed to do in 1941 — to halt the works at the metro,” he told a trade union earlier this month.
The comments hit a sore point for Luzhkov — the overcrowded subway system — and were a rare rebuke from Kudrin, who typically does not respond to criticism from lower-ranking or regional officials.
Luzhkov, 73, had to fend off speculation in the run-up to the Moscow City Duma elections this month that the federal government is getting ready to replace him. Several prominent city officials have been investigated on suspicion of corruption in recent months.
Kudrin, also a deputy prime minister, has faced constant opposition to his fiscal conservatism since he took over the Finance Ministry in 2000, including from the ruling United Russia party. But his instance on saving windfall oil revenues won him high marks from economists, who said the stash has helped Russia avoid a worse economic downturn.
On Thursday, Kudrin told a State Duma working group that expenses for Moscow officials have risen 24 percent this year, or by 6 billion rubles ($206 million).
The figures, from a Moscow finance department report submitted to Kudrin on Sept. 14, showed a 19 percent rise in salaries, accounting for an additional 2.76 billion rubles in spending, he said.
“I think Yury Mikhailovich should study the results and statistics for Moscow more closely and keep his press service more honestly informed,” Kudrin said. “I could continue with what’s going on with the Moscow budget, there are so many interesting situations.”
City Hall spokesman Sergei Tsoi denounced the comments as false and said they were intended to “incite negative feelings among the capital’s residents regarding the Moscow government.” Management expenses have risen just 3 percent this year, he said.
Luzhkov has long made Kudrin-bashing a staple of his populist politics, most recently over the funding cuts to the metro. “Kudrin will achieve in 2010 what not even the Germans managed to do in 1941 — to halt the works at the metro,” he told a trade union earlier this month.
Ukraine - People’s Assembly Supports Tymoshenko For President
KIEV, Ukraine -- On October 22, the All-Ukrainian People’s Assembly took place in Kiev with the participation of 1,960 delegates from all oblasts of Ukraine, AR Crimea, and the cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol. They represent 3,720 national, regional and municipal organizations, civic associations, political parties, charitable foundations and artist groups.
The delegates passed a unanimous decision to support Yulia Tymoshenko’s candidacy for president of Ukraine."The All-Ukrainian People’s Assembly agrees that the only person that can lead Ukraine out of the crisis and defend it national interests is Yulia Tymoshenko. And that’s why the Ukrainian public supports Tymoshenko’s nomination for president of Ukraine," said the head of the forum’s coordinating council Serhiy Sobolyev.Tymoshenko thanked the delegates for their support. "The elections will take place and I believe that together we can make Ukraine better…and I have believed this since the moment I came to power," she said."We will build a true civil society if we can establish reliable communication that is not ephemeral and declarative, but that actually works, starting with local government officials up to the Verkhovna Rada," she said.According to Tymoshenko, the first step that needs to be made is for NGOs to delegate their leaders to government posts, starting with local government and up to the parliament. "Starting with local government elections, there need to be open lists that allow anyone to make it onto this list. And I believe this is the answer," Tymoshenko said.She proposed introducing a system of open lists for regional elections that "will work locally even without relevant legislation because today it will be difficult to secure such legislation."Finally, Tymoshenko suggested a new principle for forming the government. She believes that following the presidential elections, a new government should be formed on the basis of public discussions,"Before appointing each minister we need to gather the professional and public organizations working in this field and selected the smartest minister through a vote," she said.Tymoshenko assured that "The first thing we will do after the presidential elections is appoint a new cabinet and I think it will be the most honest appointment ever in Ukraine."
The delegates passed a unanimous decision to support Yulia Tymoshenko’s candidacy for president of Ukraine."The All-Ukrainian People’s Assembly agrees that the only person that can lead Ukraine out of the crisis and defend it national interests is Yulia Tymoshenko. And that’s why the Ukrainian public supports Tymoshenko’s nomination for president of Ukraine," said the head of the forum’s coordinating council Serhiy Sobolyev.Tymoshenko thanked the delegates for their support. "The elections will take place and I believe that together we can make Ukraine better…and I have believed this since the moment I came to power," she said."We will build a true civil society if we can establish reliable communication that is not ephemeral and declarative, but that actually works, starting with local government officials up to the Verkhovna Rada," she said.According to Tymoshenko, the first step that needs to be made is for NGOs to delegate their leaders to government posts, starting with local government and up to the parliament. "Starting with local government elections, there need to be open lists that allow anyone to make it onto this list. And I believe this is the answer," Tymoshenko said.She proposed introducing a system of open lists for regional elections that "will work locally even without relevant legislation because today it will be difficult to secure such legislation."Finally, Tymoshenko suggested a new principle for forming the government. She believes that following the presidential elections, a new government should be formed on the basis of public discussions,"Before appointing each minister we need to gather the professional and public organizations working in this field and selected the smartest minister through a vote," she said.Tymoshenko assured that "The first thing we will do after the presidential elections is appoint a new cabinet and I think it will be the most honest appointment ever in Ukraine."
Friday 23 October 2009
Russian circus bear kills manager
An ice-skating bear with a touring Russian circus has killed a circus manager and seriously injured a trainer in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.
Kyrgyz officials said the bear turned on the manager, 25-year-old Dmitry Potapov, during a rehearsal.
The bear, who had skates on at the time, severely mauled another circus worker who tried to rescue the manager.
Kyrgyz police shot and killed the bear when they arrived on the scene. It is not clear what caused the attack.
The five-year-old bear attacked Mr Potapov, dragging him across the ice and leaving him with fatal injuries.
A 29-year-old circus employee who tried to rescue Mr Potapov was badly injured and is in a critical condition, said Kyrgyz doctor Gulnara Tashibekova.
The director of the circus arena in Bishkek said Russian circus workers dragged the two men away from the bear and closed the arena's exits until the police arrived.
Bears on ice are common in Russian circuses. Some are equipped with helmets and sticks and trained to play hockey.
Kyrgyz officials said the bear turned on the manager, 25-year-old Dmitry Potapov, during a rehearsal.
The bear, who had skates on at the time, severely mauled another circus worker who tried to rescue the manager.
Kyrgyz police shot and killed the bear when they arrived on the scene. It is not clear what caused the attack.
The five-year-old bear attacked Mr Potapov, dragging him across the ice and leaving him with fatal injuries.
A 29-year-old circus employee who tried to rescue Mr Potapov was badly injured and is in a critical condition, said Kyrgyz doctor Gulnara Tashibekova.
The director of the circus arena in Bishkek said Russian circus workers dragged the two men away from the bear and closed the arena's exits until the police arrived.
Bears on ice are common in Russian circuses. Some are equipped with helmets and sticks and trained to play hockey.
Ukraine Opposition Leader Launches Comeback Bid
KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich, ousted in 2005 after mass protests against a rigged presidential poll, launched a comeback bid on Friday with a pledge to end the "chaos" caused by the "Orange revolution" leaders.
Yanukovich, 59, seen as a front-runner for the January 17 election for the presidency, focused on the bitter rivalry that has sprung up between President Viktor Yushchenko and his erstwhile "Orange" ally, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, since the pro-Western leadership took over.Opinion polls suggest Yanukovich and Tymoshenko are likely to face-off in a second round showdown in early February. Yushchenko has low ratings and is expected to drop out in the first round.Victory would be sweet revenge for Yanukovich who was humiliated in 2004 by Yushchenko in what was known as the fight of the two Viktors.The Supreme Court quashed Yanukovich's victory in the rigged 2004 poll after pro-Yushchenko mass protests against electoral fraud. Yushchenko went on to win a re-run ballot in early 2005."Only the unity of power and the people will be the guarantee that Ukraine will be freed from the evil created by the war between the Orange leaders," Yanukovich told a congress of his Party of the Regions where he declared himself candidate for the election."Due to the unprofessional ... Orange authorities, the state of Ukraine has been led into bankruptcy, deep division and compromised in the eyes of the world," he said,."I can take Ukraine out of chaos, lawlessness and economic ruin only with the support of millions of our compatriots," Yanukovich, a former prime minister, declared.Five years of in-fighting between Yushchenko, Tymoshenko and parliament has paralyzed decision-making and frustrated reform in one of Europe's worst performing economies.Yanukovich, who has strongholds in the Russian-speaking east and south and had the backing of the Kremlin when he ran in the rigged 2004 poll, said his foreign policy priority, if elected, would be to renew "a fully-fledged partnership with Russia."Ukraine would also seek to develop a mutually advantageous partnership with the United States, the European Union and key members of the G20, he said.MOSCOW ANGERUnder Yushchenko's pro-Western leadership, relations with Ukraine's former Soviet master Russia have sharply deteriorated.Moscow has been angered by Yushchenko 's push to take his country into NATO and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has publicly attacked him as anti-Russian.The two powers have been involved in disputes over the pricing and supply of Russian natural gas across Ukrainian territory to Europe. The Russian Black Sea fleet based in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol could become a flashpoint.With three months still to go to voting day, the fight for the presidency in Ukraine is squaring up to be a dirty one.When official campaigning opened on October 19, Yanukovich's supporters called for a probe into reports that members of Tymoshenko's BYuT bloc were involved in a sex scandal at a Black Sea children's camp.Tymoshenko loyalists hit back with accusations that Yanukovich was involved in the beating and rape of a woman when a member of a youth gang. His camp have dismissed this accusation as a lie.During his youth, Yanukovich was imprisoned twice for theft and assault. His aides said the charges were struck from the record and no documents are available on the issue.
Yanukovich, 59, seen as a front-runner for the January 17 election for the presidency, focused on the bitter rivalry that has sprung up between President Viktor Yushchenko and his erstwhile "Orange" ally, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, since the pro-Western leadership took over.Opinion polls suggest Yanukovich and Tymoshenko are likely to face-off in a second round showdown in early February. Yushchenko has low ratings and is expected to drop out in the first round.Victory would be sweet revenge for Yanukovich who was humiliated in 2004 by Yushchenko in what was known as the fight of the two Viktors.The Supreme Court quashed Yanukovich's victory in the rigged 2004 poll after pro-Yushchenko mass protests against electoral fraud. Yushchenko went on to win a re-run ballot in early 2005."Only the unity of power and the people will be the guarantee that Ukraine will be freed from the evil created by the war between the Orange leaders," Yanukovich told a congress of his Party of the Regions where he declared himself candidate for the election."Due to the unprofessional ... Orange authorities, the state of Ukraine has been led into bankruptcy, deep division and compromised in the eyes of the world," he said,."I can take Ukraine out of chaos, lawlessness and economic ruin only with the support of millions of our compatriots," Yanukovich, a former prime minister, declared.Five years of in-fighting between Yushchenko, Tymoshenko and parliament has paralyzed decision-making and frustrated reform in one of Europe's worst performing economies.Yanukovich, who has strongholds in the Russian-speaking east and south and had the backing of the Kremlin when he ran in the rigged 2004 poll, said his foreign policy priority, if elected, would be to renew "a fully-fledged partnership with Russia."Ukraine would also seek to develop a mutually advantageous partnership with the United States, the European Union and key members of the G20, he said.MOSCOW ANGERUnder Yushchenko's pro-Western leadership, relations with Ukraine's former Soviet master Russia have sharply deteriorated.Moscow has been angered by Yushchenko 's push to take his country into NATO and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has publicly attacked him as anti-Russian.The two powers have been involved in disputes over the pricing and supply of Russian natural gas across Ukrainian territory to Europe. The Russian Black Sea fleet based in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol could become a flashpoint.With three months still to go to voting day, the fight for the presidency in Ukraine is squaring up to be a dirty one.When official campaigning opened on October 19, Yanukovich's supporters called for a probe into reports that members of Tymoshenko's BYuT bloc were involved in a sex scandal at a Black Sea children's camp.Tymoshenko loyalists hit back with accusations that Yanukovich was involved in the beating and rape of a woman when a member of a youth gang. His camp have dismissed this accusation as a lie.During his youth, Yanukovich was imprisoned twice for theft and assault. His aides said the charges were struck from the record and no documents are available on the issue.
Sailors Ask Ukrainian President To Help Free Crew Of Ariana
MOSCOW, Russia -- Head of the Russian Sailors Trade Union Igor Pavlov has asked Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko to take all of the necessary measures to help free the crew of the Ariana, a Ukrainian vessel seized by Somali pirates on May 2, 2009.
“The ship has run out of water and food, fuel will soon be finished, and there are no medicines. One of two women on board the vessel had a miscarriage in the fifth month of pregnancy and she needs professional medical assistance urgently,” he said in a statement posted on the union’s Web site.Pavlov said that all of the 24 crew members need help as the situation is critical.“Pirates threaten to kill everyone when fuel runs out and the electrical generators stop operating,” he said.“The state should not leave its citizens in trouble. We ask to give sailors a chance to return home safe and sound, as soon as possible, and to take all of the necessary measures to speed up the negotiation process,” Pavlov said.Somali pirates seized the Ariana, a Maltese-flagged ship operated by Greece's Alloceans Shipping Cо. Ltd, in the Gulf of Aden on May 2, 2009. All of the 24 crew members are citizens of Ukraine.
“The ship has run out of water and food, fuel will soon be finished, and there are no medicines. One of two women on board the vessel had a miscarriage in the fifth month of pregnancy and she needs professional medical assistance urgently,” he said in a statement posted on the union’s Web site.Pavlov said that all of the 24 crew members need help as the situation is critical.“Pirates threaten to kill everyone when fuel runs out and the electrical generators stop operating,” he said.“The state should not leave its citizens in trouble. We ask to give sailors a chance to return home safe and sound, as soon as possible, and to take all of the necessary measures to speed up the negotiation process,” Pavlov said.Somali pirates seized the Ariana, a Maltese-flagged ship operated by Greece's Alloceans Shipping Cо. Ltd, in the Gulf of Aden on May 2, 2009. All of the 24 crew members are citizens of Ukraine.
Ukrainian Tycoon Returns To Government As Foreign Minister
KIEV, Ukraine -- On October 9 the Ukrainian parliament appointed the candy and automobile tycoon Petro Poroshenko as the foreign minister. His nomination, submitted by President Viktor Yushchenko, was backed by 240 deputies in the 450-seat body.
All caucuses voted in his favor except the opposition Party of Regions (PRU) and the communists. Poroshenko’s appointment is a compromise between Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. He might improve relations with Russia where he has business interests.European integration and border issues are also among his priorities, while NATO membership and relations with the U.S. are apparently not among them.Poroshenko was a former key ally of Yushchenko, but he has recently drifted towards Tymoshenko. He joined Yushchenko while he was in the opposition in 2002. Very ambitious, he was considered as a potential candidate for prime minister several times, but was outplayed by rival candidates; Tymoshenko in 2005 and PRU leader Viktor Yanukovych in 2006.Poroshenko served as the Secretary of the National Security Council in 2005, but resigned amid accusations of corruption from Tymoshenko's camp, which were never proven. At some point Poroshenko tried to dominate Yushchenko’s party but was demoted to rank and file after Yushchenko purged the party of businessmen, and in 2007 he even failed to secure a seat in parliament.Since 2007 Poroshenko has been chairing the central bank council – not an influential position, since the bank is run by the board and not the council.The appointment of Poroshenko represents the only major personnel choice for several months over which Yushchenko and Tymoshenko have not disagreed. It was suggested in the press that Tymoshenko did not object to Poroshenko’s nomination because she expects his support for her presidential election bid in January 2010 from Kanal 5, an influential television news station owned by Poroshenko.Andry Kozhemyakin, the deputy head of Tymoshenko’s caucus in parliament, expressed the hope that Poroshenko would seek to improve relations with Russia.Poroshenko’s predecessor Volodymyr Ohryzko was fired by parliament in March primarily because relations with Russia had reached their nadir under him. While NATO integration and relations with the U.S. were priorities under Ohryzko, these two directions will not be high on Poroshenko’s agenda.Zerkalo Nedeli noted on October 17 that Poroshenko omitted any mention of NATO in his speech to Ukrainian diplomats on October 13. Also, within hours after his appointment, he rejected the suggestion made by the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Alexander Vershbow that U.S. early warning systems could be stationed in Ukraine. Poroshenko said that this would violate Ukrainian laws.Addressing Ukrainian diplomats, Poroshenko stressed that the Russian direction will be a priority of his foreign policy. Relations with Russia should be “less emotional, more pragmatic and equal,” he said.These relations were emotional under Ohryzko whose very dismissal was prompted by his threat to expel the Russian Ambassador Viktor Chernomyrdin for speaking disparagingly of Yushchenko in a newspaper interview.Improving relations with Russia is also in Poroshenko’s personal interests. Russia is the key market for his Bogdan automotive corporation and Ukrprominvest confectioneries and he also owns a confectionery in Lipetsk. In 2006 Poroshenko announced an ambitious project to build a factory to assemble automobiles in Nizhny Novgorod, but bad relations with Russia apparently affected his plans.As an ally of Yushchenko, whom the Kremlin holds responsible for spoiling bilateral relations, Poroshenko was blacklisted by the Russian authorities and denied entry to Russia in 2007. Recently, the government of Nizhny Novgorod warned Poroshenko that he would lose the land reserved for his factory if construction work did not start soon.However, among his other priorities Poroshenko listed E.U. accession and “the eastern direction,” in particular relations with China, India and the Arab states. Yushchenko instructed him to do everything possible to sign an association agreement with the E.U. at the Ukraine-E.U. summit scheduled for December 4.This task is probably too ambitious and the Ukrainian envoy to the E.U. Andry Veselovsky predicted that the agreement would not be signed this year. The agreement should include a free trade zone clause, which will not be ready for signing because of the disagreements over many issues ranging from visa-free travel to sanitary norms in agriculture. The E.U. is opposed to signing the agreement without a free trade clause.Poroshenko is also expected to make progress in relations with other neighbors such as Belarus, which has failed to ratify a border agreement with Ukraine, and Moldova whose shared border has not been demarcated. Consistent with these priorities, Poroshenko paid his first visits to Moldova, Belarus and Sweden which took over the E.U. rotating presidency in July.He is scheduled to visit Moscow on October 23, where he will likely try to address Russian concerns over U.S. missile defense plans. Poroshenko also plans to visit the United States according to Ukraine’s Ambassador to the U.S. Oleg Shamshur.
All caucuses voted in his favor except the opposition Party of Regions (PRU) and the communists. Poroshenko’s appointment is a compromise between Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. He might improve relations with Russia where he has business interests.European integration and border issues are also among his priorities, while NATO membership and relations with the U.S. are apparently not among them.Poroshenko was a former key ally of Yushchenko, but he has recently drifted towards Tymoshenko. He joined Yushchenko while he was in the opposition in 2002. Very ambitious, he was considered as a potential candidate for prime minister several times, but was outplayed by rival candidates; Tymoshenko in 2005 and PRU leader Viktor Yanukovych in 2006.Poroshenko served as the Secretary of the National Security Council in 2005, but resigned amid accusations of corruption from Tymoshenko's camp, which were never proven. At some point Poroshenko tried to dominate Yushchenko’s party but was demoted to rank and file after Yushchenko purged the party of businessmen, and in 2007 he even failed to secure a seat in parliament.Since 2007 Poroshenko has been chairing the central bank council – not an influential position, since the bank is run by the board and not the council.The appointment of Poroshenko represents the only major personnel choice for several months over which Yushchenko and Tymoshenko have not disagreed. It was suggested in the press that Tymoshenko did not object to Poroshenko’s nomination because she expects his support for her presidential election bid in January 2010 from Kanal 5, an influential television news station owned by Poroshenko.Andry Kozhemyakin, the deputy head of Tymoshenko’s caucus in parliament, expressed the hope that Poroshenko would seek to improve relations with Russia.Poroshenko’s predecessor Volodymyr Ohryzko was fired by parliament in March primarily because relations with Russia had reached their nadir under him. While NATO integration and relations with the U.S. were priorities under Ohryzko, these two directions will not be high on Poroshenko’s agenda.Zerkalo Nedeli noted on October 17 that Poroshenko omitted any mention of NATO in his speech to Ukrainian diplomats on October 13. Also, within hours after his appointment, he rejected the suggestion made by the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Alexander Vershbow that U.S. early warning systems could be stationed in Ukraine. Poroshenko said that this would violate Ukrainian laws.Addressing Ukrainian diplomats, Poroshenko stressed that the Russian direction will be a priority of his foreign policy. Relations with Russia should be “less emotional, more pragmatic and equal,” he said.These relations were emotional under Ohryzko whose very dismissal was prompted by his threat to expel the Russian Ambassador Viktor Chernomyrdin for speaking disparagingly of Yushchenko in a newspaper interview.Improving relations with Russia is also in Poroshenko’s personal interests. Russia is the key market for his Bogdan automotive corporation and Ukrprominvest confectioneries and he also owns a confectionery in Lipetsk. In 2006 Poroshenko announced an ambitious project to build a factory to assemble automobiles in Nizhny Novgorod, but bad relations with Russia apparently affected his plans.As an ally of Yushchenko, whom the Kremlin holds responsible for spoiling bilateral relations, Poroshenko was blacklisted by the Russian authorities and denied entry to Russia in 2007. Recently, the government of Nizhny Novgorod warned Poroshenko that he would lose the land reserved for his factory if construction work did not start soon.However, among his other priorities Poroshenko listed E.U. accession and “the eastern direction,” in particular relations with China, India and the Arab states. Yushchenko instructed him to do everything possible to sign an association agreement with the E.U. at the Ukraine-E.U. summit scheduled for December 4.This task is probably too ambitious and the Ukrainian envoy to the E.U. Andry Veselovsky predicted that the agreement would not be signed this year. The agreement should include a free trade zone clause, which will not be ready for signing because of the disagreements over many issues ranging from visa-free travel to sanitary norms in agriculture. The E.U. is opposed to signing the agreement without a free trade clause.Poroshenko is also expected to make progress in relations with other neighbors such as Belarus, which has failed to ratify a border agreement with Ukraine, and Moldova whose shared border has not been demarcated. Consistent with these priorities, Poroshenko paid his first visits to Moldova, Belarus and Sweden which took over the E.U. rotating presidency in July.He is scheduled to visit Moscow on October 23, where he will likely try to address Russian concerns over U.S. missile defense plans. Poroshenko also plans to visit the United States according to Ukraine’s Ambassador to the U.S. Oleg Shamshur.
Wednesday 21 October 2009
Ukraine Opens Election Campaign, Orange Dream Faded
KIEV, Ukraine -- Whatever happened to Ukraine's Orange Revolution? As the country starts its first presidential election campaign since that popular movement in 2004 broke the grip of the post-Soviet establishment, its leader, President Viktor Yushchenko, stares a painful reality in the face.
Opinion polls point to Viktor Yanukovich, his disgraced Moscow-backed opponent back then, getting easily through a January 17 election to go into a run-off vote.Just as bitter for Yushchenko -- his erstwhile "Orange" ally but now rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, is almost certain to be the other player in the second-round showdown, analysts say.The 55-year-old president has ratings so low that none but his most loyal supporters see a chance of re-election.Most Ukrainians hope the vote, for which official campaigning begins Monday, will end five years of political in-fighting that has paralyzed decision-making and frustrated reform in one of Europe's worst performing economies.It will also decide the extent to which the ex-Soviet state of 47 million will stick to Yushchenko's pro-western blueprint or toe a more compliant line toward its old master, Russia.No matter who triumphs, most analysts expect renewed efforts to improve frosty ties with Russia -- including pushing the pursuit of NATO membership firmly on to the back-burner -- without abandoning the democratic strides Ukraine has made.The two have been involved in disputes over the pricing and supply of Russian natural gas across Ukrainian territory to Europe. The Russian Black Sea fleet based in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol could become a serious source of friction.But both Yanukovich, a former prime minister from the hard school of eastern Ukraine politics, and Tymoshenko will fend off competition from Russian big business and attempts to tug Ukraine back into Moscow's sphere of influence, analysts say."The course for integration into the European Union and NATO will be pushed back for at least five years," said Vadym Karasev, director of the Institute for Global Strategies."The country will be suspended between the post-Soviet world of yesterday and the European one of tomorrow."POLITICAL RATINGSA poll this month put Yanukovich, whose power base is in Russian-speaking regions of the country, in front with 28.7 per cent. Tymoshenko had 19 percent, according to the SOCIS survey.The challenge from former parliament speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk, 35, who had been seen as a rival for Tymoshenko's vote, has leveled off. Support for him was at 8.2 per cent.But these ratings may hold good only for the first round.Tymoshenko, 48, a firebrand who sports a peasant hair-plait, can quickly find the pulse of a crowd as she showed in 2004 with electrifying performances during the Orange street protests.Pro-Tymoshenko advertising in Kiev proclaims: "She works!." Her campaign will focus on her energy and decisiveness.Yanukovich, 59, a towering man who heads the pro-business Party of the Regions, seems sure to champion Russian-language rights, oppose NATO membership and emphasize what he has denounced as the "chaos" of the Yushchenko years, analysts say."Yanukovich will not be a puppet of Moscow, but the degree of influence of Moscow on Yanukovich will be greater than that on Tymoshenko," said political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko.But in a run-off, Yanukovich may find it hard to strike a chord in central Ukraine -- a key battleground -- or make inroads in the Ukrainian-speaking west.On balance, most analysts believe Tymoshenko will outperform the sometimes clumsy Yanukovich in a head-to-head clash in February. But, as steward of the economy, Tymoshenko might still see her ratings take a knock if there is more bad economic news.Ukrainians have seen the national currency, the hryvnia, lose more than a third of its value against the dollar -- hard for the many who purchased big on dollar credit and are now facing rising pay-back terms.A lot too depends on Ukraine's business billionaires, who have no qualms about putting their money behind a candidate -- though they switch sides easily.A turnaround in Yushchenko's fortunes seems unlikely.He ousted Yanukovich in 2004 after a rigged election was quashed by the Supreme Court and he went on to win a re-run.But he has been an indecisive leader. His nationalistic and other policies have won little broad support. His incessant sniping at Tymoshenko has also backfired on him, many say.But others say he has not been given the credit for a significant pro-democracy shift in society during his rule."This is a pluralistic society. There is a free press. The economy is in a mess but Ukraine is the freest country in the Commonwealth of Independent States," said one foreign observer.
Opinion polls point to Viktor Yanukovich, his disgraced Moscow-backed opponent back then, getting easily through a January 17 election to go into a run-off vote.Just as bitter for Yushchenko -- his erstwhile "Orange" ally but now rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, is almost certain to be the other player in the second-round showdown, analysts say.The 55-year-old president has ratings so low that none but his most loyal supporters see a chance of re-election.Most Ukrainians hope the vote, for which official campaigning begins Monday, will end five years of political in-fighting that has paralyzed decision-making and frustrated reform in one of Europe's worst performing economies.It will also decide the extent to which the ex-Soviet state of 47 million will stick to Yushchenko's pro-western blueprint or toe a more compliant line toward its old master, Russia.No matter who triumphs, most analysts expect renewed efforts to improve frosty ties with Russia -- including pushing the pursuit of NATO membership firmly on to the back-burner -- without abandoning the democratic strides Ukraine has made.The two have been involved in disputes over the pricing and supply of Russian natural gas across Ukrainian territory to Europe. The Russian Black Sea fleet based in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol could become a serious source of friction.But both Yanukovich, a former prime minister from the hard school of eastern Ukraine politics, and Tymoshenko will fend off competition from Russian big business and attempts to tug Ukraine back into Moscow's sphere of influence, analysts say."The course for integration into the European Union and NATO will be pushed back for at least five years," said Vadym Karasev, director of the Institute for Global Strategies."The country will be suspended between the post-Soviet world of yesterday and the European one of tomorrow."POLITICAL RATINGSA poll this month put Yanukovich, whose power base is in Russian-speaking regions of the country, in front with 28.7 per cent. Tymoshenko had 19 percent, according to the SOCIS survey.The challenge from former parliament speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk, 35, who had been seen as a rival for Tymoshenko's vote, has leveled off. Support for him was at 8.2 per cent.But these ratings may hold good only for the first round.Tymoshenko, 48, a firebrand who sports a peasant hair-plait, can quickly find the pulse of a crowd as she showed in 2004 with electrifying performances during the Orange street protests.Pro-Tymoshenko advertising in Kiev proclaims: "She works!." Her campaign will focus on her energy and decisiveness.Yanukovich, 59, a towering man who heads the pro-business Party of the Regions, seems sure to champion Russian-language rights, oppose NATO membership and emphasize what he has denounced as the "chaos" of the Yushchenko years, analysts say."Yanukovich will not be a puppet of Moscow, but the degree of influence of Moscow on Yanukovich will be greater than that on Tymoshenko," said political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko.But in a run-off, Yanukovich may find it hard to strike a chord in central Ukraine -- a key battleground -- or make inroads in the Ukrainian-speaking west.On balance, most analysts believe Tymoshenko will outperform the sometimes clumsy Yanukovich in a head-to-head clash in February. But, as steward of the economy, Tymoshenko might still see her ratings take a knock if there is more bad economic news.Ukrainians have seen the national currency, the hryvnia, lose more than a third of its value against the dollar -- hard for the many who purchased big on dollar credit and are now facing rising pay-back terms.A lot too depends on Ukraine's business billionaires, who have no qualms about putting their money behind a candidate -- though they switch sides easily.A turnaround in Yushchenko's fortunes seems unlikely.He ousted Yanukovich in 2004 after a rigged election was quashed by the Supreme Court and he went on to win a re-run.But he has been an indecisive leader. His nationalistic and other policies have won little broad support. His incessant sniping at Tymoshenko has also backfired on him, many say.But others say he has not been given the credit for a significant pro-democracy shift in society during his rule."This is a pluralistic society. There is a free press. The economy is in a mess but Ukraine is the freest country in the Commonwealth of Independent States," said one foreign observer.
Constitutional Court May Rule On Election
KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine’s presidential election campaign is set to begin on Monday, but reports suggest the Constitutional Court is about to rule to demand changes to controversial legislation governing the election.
The launch of the 90-day campaign allows candidates to start registration with the Central Election Commission and to begin nation-wide advertising ahead of the January 17 2010 vote.But the Constitutional Court, asked by President Viktor Yushchenko last month, is about to rule deeming unconstitutional several clauses of the election legislation, Dzerkalo Tyzhnia weekly reported Saturday.“According to preliminary information, five clauses of the legislation will be ruled to be unconstitutional,” the weekly reported, citing a person familiar with deliberations.The ruling, which is supposed to be announced later this week, will put pressure on lawmakers to quickly adopt the changes to the legislation as the presidential campaign is already underway.The changes must be agreed with Yushchenko in order to make sure the election runs smoothly and the new bills do not face a veto from the president, analysts said.The legislation was twice rejected by Yushchenko, but has been eventually signed into law by Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, who later admitted that parts of the legislation will probably be rejected by the court.Yushchenko appealed the legislation on Sept. 14.The legislation gives Tymoshenko and Yanukovych parties – as opposed to public organizations - more power in crucial issues, such as vote counting.The legislation also makes it extremely difficult to vote by Ukrainians living overseas and allows adding new people to voter lists on the day of the vote, which some analysts said may lead to fraud.Analysts said the legislation de-facto favors the strongest parties, such as those run by Tymoshenko and Yanukovych, while putting at a disadvantage other candidates, such as Arseniy Yatseniuk, who does not have a strong party behind him.The Constitutional Court is likely to reject five controversial clauses, including restrictions on voting by Ukrainians living overseas, Dzerkalo Tyzhnia reported.Also, the court is likely to reject restrictions on participation in local election commissions as well as allowing the Central Election Commission and courts review complains on the day of the vote, according to the newspaper.The candidates must be registered by the Central Election Commission before November 9, according to the legislation.The next day after the registration, a candidate may start campaigning and advertising and may continue to do so through the end of January 15, 2010.
The launch of the 90-day campaign allows candidates to start registration with the Central Election Commission and to begin nation-wide advertising ahead of the January 17 2010 vote.But the Constitutional Court, asked by President Viktor Yushchenko last month, is about to rule deeming unconstitutional several clauses of the election legislation, Dzerkalo Tyzhnia weekly reported Saturday.“According to preliminary information, five clauses of the legislation will be ruled to be unconstitutional,” the weekly reported, citing a person familiar with deliberations.The ruling, which is supposed to be announced later this week, will put pressure on lawmakers to quickly adopt the changes to the legislation as the presidential campaign is already underway.The changes must be agreed with Yushchenko in order to make sure the election runs smoothly and the new bills do not face a veto from the president, analysts said.The legislation was twice rejected by Yushchenko, but has been eventually signed into law by Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, who later admitted that parts of the legislation will probably be rejected by the court.Yushchenko appealed the legislation on Sept. 14.The legislation gives Tymoshenko and Yanukovych parties – as opposed to public organizations - more power in crucial issues, such as vote counting.The legislation also makes it extremely difficult to vote by Ukrainians living overseas and allows adding new people to voter lists on the day of the vote, which some analysts said may lead to fraud.Analysts said the legislation de-facto favors the strongest parties, such as those run by Tymoshenko and Yanukovych, while putting at a disadvantage other candidates, such as Arseniy Yatseniuk, who does not have a strong party behind him.The Constitutional Court is likely to reject five controversial clauses, including restrictions on voting by Ukrainians living overseas, Dzerkalo Tyzhnia reported.Also, the court is likely to reject restrictions on participation in local election commissions as well as allowing the Central Election Commission and courts review complains on the day of the vote, according to the newspaper.The candidates must be registered by the Central Election Commission before November 9, according to the legislation.The next day after the registration, a candidate may start campaigning and advertising and may continue to do so through the end of January 15, 2010.
Rising Star In Ukraine Vows Reform
KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's youngest leading presidential hopeful says he flies economy class, vows not to take advice from either Moscow or Washington and promises to fight corruption with "a truncheon in my hands."
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a 35-year-old millionaire banker, is trailing in third place in opinion polls ahead of Ukraine's January 17 presidential contest, which kicked off Monday.But he told The Associated Press in an interview that he believes he can win because the public is fed up with official corruption and a government polarized by infighting."They are taking the country for idiots," he said of the current political leaders.Bristling with energy and sarcastic humor, Yatsenyuk positions himself as a new-generation reformer who will break with Ukraine's Soviet past while building better relations with both Moscow and the West.A recent opinion poll showed Yatsenyuk garnering just 9 percent support, behind former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych who had 30 percent and enjoyed the open support of Moscow when he ran for president five years ago.Prime Minster Yulia Tymoshenko, heroine of the Orange Revolution, the 2004 street protests that ushered in a pro-Western government, was second with 19 percent in the October poll by Research and Branding group.The study surveyed 3,119 people nationwide with a margin of error of 2.2 percent. President Viktor Yushchenko, who is running for a second term, has 3 percent support.But both Washington and Moscow seem to recognize Yatsenyuk as a rising political star.Russia's state-controlled media has given Yatsenyuk extensive coverage. Meanwhile U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met with him, as well as Yanukovych and Tymoshenko, during a July trip to Kiev, in what was seen as an effort to size up potential future presidents of Ukraine."The support that Yatsenyuk has suggests that there are people looking for an alternative," said Alex Brideau, a Ukraine analyst at Eurasia Group, a U.S.-based firm that advises on geopolitical risks.Yatsenyuk portrays himself as more independent than the leading candidates. "I don't need dictation either from Washington, Brussels or the Kremlin," said Yatsenyuk, a former central banker, foreign minister and speaker of parliament. "We don't want to be a middleman, we want to be a player."In a shot at his former mentor, Yushchenko, Yatsenyuk says he will stop "begging" to be invited to join NATO and the European Union. Instead, he would strengthen trade ties with the EU while continuing the current level of cooperation with the Western military alliance.Yatsenyuk also wants good relations with Moscow, proposing cooperation in energy and agriculture.He painted Ukraine as an essential ally and trading partner for Moscow, saying that given the current global financial crisis, Russia needs to maintain its ties with its neighbor or face its economy being dominated by Beijing.If Russia turns down trade cooperation with countries such as Ukraine, "in 10 years they will have everything 'made in China,'" he said.Yatsenyuk has avoided taking sides on bitterly divisive topics, such as the country's painful history under the Soviet Union. Some political analysts therefore see him as an unknown quantity."We don't see a clear political face, we still don't have answers to many questions, his ideology is still unclear," said analyst Oleksiy Haran.A lawyer by training, Yatsenyuk was a first-year college student in the western Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi when he set up a law firm helping transfer state companies into private hands.That eventually landed him a job as a top manager at a leading Kiev bank. He went on to become Ukraine's economic minister, then foreign minister and finally speaker of parliament.He resigned from that post last year to form his own political movement, Front of Change.He promises action in a country long gripped by political paralysis."I will not succeed without a truncheon in my hands," he told voters in western Ukraine on a recent campaign trip. "Unless about a dozen (officials) are put in jail in Ukraine, so that millions would see that violating the law leads to punishment, there will be no order in the state."Yatsenyuk says his campaign contributions come from small businessmen, denying allegations that he has received heavy support from Ukraine's notorious oligarchs.He acknowledged, though, that a foundation he runs promoting the rights of the disabled has been supported by Viktor Pinchuk, a billionaire steel magnate and political power broker.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a 35-year-old millionaire banker, is trailing in third place in opinion polls ahead of Ukraine's January 17 presidential contest, which kicked off Monday.But he told The Associated Press in an interview that he believes he can win because the public is fed up with official corruption and a government polarized by infighting."They are taking the country for idiots," he said of the current political leaders.Bristling with energy and sarcastic humor, Yatsenyuk positions himself as a new-generation reformer who will break with Ukraine's Soviet past while building better relations with both Moscow and the West.A recent opinion poll showed Yatsenyuk garnering just 9 percent support, behind former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych who had 30 percent and enjoyed the open support of Moscow when he ran for president five years ago.Prime Minster Yulia Tymoshenko, heroine of the Orange Revolution, the 2004 street protests that ushered in a pro-Western government, was second with 19 percent in the October poll by Research and Branding group.The study surveyed 3,119 people nationwide with a margin of error of 2.2 percent. President Viktor Yushchenko, who is running for a second term, has 3 percent support.But both Washington and Moscow seem to recognize Yatsenyuk as a rising political star.Russia's state-controlled media has given Yatsenyuk extensive coverage. Meanwhile U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met with him, as well as Yanukovych and Tymoshenko, during a July trip to Kiev, in what was seen as an effort to size up potential future presidents of Ukraine."The support that Yatsenyuk has suggests that there are people looking for an alternative," said Alex Brideau, a Ukraine analyst at Eurasia Group, a U.S.-based firm that advises on geopolitical risks.Yatsenyuk portrays himself as more independent than the leading candidates. "I don't need dictation either from Washington, Brussels or the Kremlin," said Yatsenyuk, a former central banker, foreign minister and speaker of parliament. "We don't want to be a middleman, we want to be a player."In a shot at his former mentor, Yushchenko, Yatsenyuk says he will stop "begging" to be invited to join NATO and the European Union. Instead, he would strengthen trade ties with the EU while continuing the current level of cooperation with the Western military alliance.Yatsenyuk also wants good relations with Moscow, proposing cooperation in energy and agriculture.He painted Ukraine as an essential ally and trading partner for Moscow, saying that given the current global financial crisis, Russia needs to maintain its ties with its neighbor or face its economy being dominated by Beijing.If Russia turns down trade cooperation with countries such as Ukraine, "in 10 years they will have everything 'made in China,'" he said.Yatsenyuk has avoided taking sides on bitterly divisive topics, such as the country's painful history under the Soviet Union. Some political analysts therefore see him as an unknown quantity."We don't see a clear political face, we still don't have answers to many questions, his ideology is still unclear," said analyst Oleksiy Haran.A lawyer by training, Yatsenyuk was a first-year college student in the western Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi when he set up a law firm helping transfer state companies into private hands.That eventually landed him a job as a top manager at a leading Kiev bank. He went on to become Ukraine's economic minister, then foreign minister and finally speaker of parliament.He resigned from that post last year to form his own political movement, Front of Change.He promises action in a country long gripped by political paralysis."I will not succeed without a truncheon in my hands," he told voters in western Ukraine on a recent campaign trip. "Unless about a dozen (officials) are put in jail in Ukraine, so that millions would see that violating the law leads to punishment, there will be no order in the state."Yatsenyuk says his campaign contributions come from small businessmen, denying allegations that he has received heavy support from Ukraine's notorious oligarchs.He acknowledged, though, that a foundation he runs promoting the rights of the disabled has been supported by Viktor Pinchuk, a billionaire steel magnate and political power broker.
The US-Russia-Ukraine Triangle
WASHINGTON, DC -- With the possible exception of Georgia-US-Russia, no US relationship in the former Soviet region is more fraught today than the US-Russia-Ukraine triangle.
At a time when Washington and Moscow have variously committed to a relationship reset, a new operating system, and a rerun of the Clinton-Yeltsin strategic partnership, it is disappointing how little substance has followed rhetoric.Meanwhile, Central and Eastern Europe are still reeling from the US Administration’s abrupt and ill-timed reversal on missile defense deployment, and Team Obama is eager for opportunities to demonstrate its commitment to the new Europe, which received no shortage of love from the Bush Administration.Enter the prospect of US-Ukraine cooperation on missile defense. According to Ukraine’s Ambassador to the US, the two countries have begun working discussions on sharing data from Ukrainian radar for use with a revised US-led missile defense system in Southeastern Europe.The Ukrainians may be overreaching here, trying to manufacture a moment of decision that the US Administration prefers to avoid, however there is no doubt that missile defense cooperation with Central and Eastern Europe remains very much on the table, even after the Bush plan was scrapped last month.And while the Obama Administration insists any radar-interceptor system is still intended primarily to defend against a rogue missile launch by Iran, Moscow has renewed its objection that missile defense based in former Warsaw Pact territory is a threat to its nuclear deterrent, an absolute red line for an ex-superpower whose conventional forces are not up to the task of defending its sprawling borders.All of this makes perfect sense in the context of an increasingly zero sum US-Russian relationship: If the possibility of US-Ukraine missile defense cooperation reassures Kiev (and Warsaw and Prague) that the US is still fully engaged in the region, it should be no surprise that Russia is as upset over this as it was over the Bush Administration’s plans for a Polish and the Czech system–perhaps more so because some of the radars at issue are in Crimea, a Russian majority region of Ukraine where Moscow could exploit ethnic tension to empower a pro-Russian separatist movement.Ironically, during the month between Obama’s cancellation of the original missile defense plan and now, Moscow had refused to acknowledge the importance of the US concession, latching onto the system’s technical shortcomings to dismiss it as destined for failure from the outset.In turn, Congressional hawks have argued that Russia’s offer to cut its deployed nuclear arsenal by about a quarter is hollow, since most of those weapons are unreliable antiques.The bigger picture: If it can’t have close ties with both Russia and the West, Ukraine’s best bet is security through NATO membership, and prosperity through EU membership. Both are threatened by Russia’s plans to build the Nord Stream pipeline, which will cut Ukraine out of the gas trade, and Moscow’s ambition to control a sphere of influence, which will, at a minimum, extend to borderlands with large Russian populations.The Ukrainian Presidential election in January will reshuffle Kiev’s cast of players, but is unlikely to effect a permanent reorientation toward Moscow over Brussels and Washington.For the US, opening a dialogue on potential cooperation with Ukraine signals that the missile defense reversal in September was not the beginning of the end of US engagement in the region.
At a time when Washington and Moscow have variously committed to a relationship reset, a new operating system, and a rerun of the Clinton-Yeltsin strategic partnership, it is disappointing how little substance has followed rhetoric.Meanwhile, Central and Eastern Europe are still reeling from the US Administration’s abrupt and ill-timed reversal on missile defense deployment, and Team Obama is eager for opportunities to demonstrate its commitment to the new Europe, which received no shortage of love from the Bush Administration.Enter the prospect of US-Ukraine cooperation on missile defense. According to Ukraine’s Ambassador to the US, the two countries have begun working discussions on sharing data from Ukrainian radar for use with a revised US-led missile defense system in Southeastern Europe.The Ukrainians may be overreaching here, trying to manufacture a moment of decision that the US Administration prefers to avoid, however there is no doubt that missile defense cooperation with Central and Eastern Europe remains very much on the table, even after the Bush plan was scrapped last month.And while the Obama Administration insists any radar-interceptor system is still intended primarily to defend against a rogue missile launch by Iran, Moscow has renewed its objection that missile defense based in former Warsaw Pact territory is a threat to its nuclear deterrent, an absolute red line for an ex-superpower whose conventional forces are not up to the task of defending its sprawling borders.All of this makes perfect sense in the context of an increasingly zero sum US-Russian relationship: If the possibility of US-Ukraine missile defense cooperation reassures Kiev (and Warsaw and Prague) that the US is still fully engaged in the region, it should be no surprise that Russia is as upset over this as it was over the Bush Administration’s plans for a Polish and the Czech system–perhaps more so because some of the radars at issue are in Crimea, a Russian majority region of Ukraine where Moscow could exploit ethnic tension to empower a pro-Russian separatist movement.Ironically, during the month between Obama’s cancellation of the original missile defense plan and now, Moscow had refused to acknowledge the importance of the US concession, latching onto the system’s technical shortcomings to dismiss it as destined for failure from the outset.In turn, Congressional hawks have argued that Russia’s offer to cut its deployed nuclear arsenal by about a quarter is hollow, since most of those weapons are unreliable antiques.The bigger picture: If it can’t have close ties with both Russia and the West, Ukraine’s best bet is security through NATO membership, and prosperity through EU membership. Both are threatened by Russia’s plans to build the Nord Stream pipeline, which will cut Ukraine out of the gas trade, and Moscow’s ambition to control a sphere of influence, which will, at a minimum, extend to borderlands with large Russian populations.The Ukrainian Presidential election in January will reshuffle Kiev’s cast of players, but is unlikely to effect a permanent reorientation toward Moscow over Brussels and Washington.For the US, opening a dialogue on potential cooperation with Ukraine signals that the missile defense reversal in September was not the beginning of the end of US engagement in the region.
Child Molestation, Rape Claims Mark Ukraine Vote Campaign
KIEV, Ukraine -- Rival political camps in Ukraine have fired the first shots in what seems set to be a dirty fight for the presidency, trading accusations of high-level involvement in a child sex scandal and a years-old rape case.
Supporters of former premier Viktor Yanukovich, front-runner for the Jan. 17 election, called for a probe into reports that members of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's BYuT bloc were involved in a sex scandal at a children's holiday camp.One of the deputies named wrote on his blog last week that he had not been down to Crimea, where the camp is located, in recent years. A second deputy told journalists the same.Tymoshenko loyalists hit back with accusations that Yanukovich, 59, was involved in the beating and rape of a woman when a member of a youth gang.In a debate in parliament on Tuesday, Prosecutor General Oleksander Medvedko confirmed three members of BYuT had been named as perpetrators in a case of depraved actions committed against two children.He said the case had first come to light in April when the mother of the children accused the father of depraved actions while they stayed at the Artek camp — the most famous Black Sea resort for young communists during the Soviet days."As for the involvement of the parliamentarians in these events — this fact became known to the general prosecutors on Oct. 13," Medvedko told parliament."Until then, neither the mother or the children said anything about the involvement of the parliamentarians in the events to police officials."He said the children had picked out the three BYuT members' from photographs — two have been questioned and the third would be on Wednesday. The prosecutors will then decide whether to proceed with a criminal case.Both the Regions Party and BYuT bloc accuse each other of political smears timed for Monday's formal start of campaigning."The 2010 elections will be a fight to the end," said political analyst Oleksey Golobutsky. "If the campaign starts with such harsh information warfare, just imagine what can be expected by the end of the electoral race."Opinion polls show Tymoshenko as the strongest opponent of Yanukovich in the poll and they are expected to face off in a February head-to-head showdown. President Viktor Yushchenko has very low ratings and is expected to drop out in the first round.RAPE CLAIMTymoshenko's supporters have gone on the offensive, taking direct aim at Yanukovich.BYuT deputy Sergiy Sobolev, in a statement on the bloc's website, said accusations that Yanukovich and a gang raped and beat a woman in his home town of Enakieve in the 1970s had been brought to the attention of the prosecutors several years ago.Sobelev, speaking later in parliament, asked the prosecutor general why the case had not been taken up. The Prosecutor General said he was not in office at the time and had no knowledge of the matter.The rape accusation was originally made by Hryhory Omelchenko, the same parliamentarian who last week said three BYuT deputies were involved in the child molestation case, Sobolev said. Serhiy Lyovochkin, deputy head of Yanukovich's Regions party, dismissed the accusation."Today's statement . . . is a lie which the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc is trying to use to divert attention from the violence against children. They have started their campaign in their usual style which does not surprise me."During his youth, Yanukovich was imprisoned twice for theft and assault. His aides said the charges were struck from the record and no documents are available on the issue.The last presidential election led to the "Orange Revolution" of 2004, catapulting Yushchenko to power after he beat Moscow-backed Yanukovich in a re-run of a rigged vote.Apart from mass voting fraud, the run-up to that poll was marked by violence including the murder of a prominent journalist, the suicide of an interior minister and the poisoning of Yushchenko which has left his face badly scarred.
Supporters of former premier Viktor Yanukovich, front-runner for the Jan. 17 election, called for a probe into reports that members of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's BYuT bloc were involved in a sex scandal at a children's holiday camp.One of the deputies named wrote on his blog last week that he had not been down to Crimea, where the camp is located, in recent years. A second deputy told journalists the same.Tymoshenko loyalists hit back with accusations that Yanukovich, 59, was involved in the beating and rape of a woman when a member of a youth gang.In a debate in parliament on Tuesday, Prosecutor General Oleksander Medvedko confirmed three members of BYuT had been named as perpetrators in a case of depraved actions committed against two children.He said the case had first come to light in April when the mother of the children accused the father of depraved actions while they stayed at the Artek camp — the most famous Black Sea resort for young communists during the Soviet days."As for the involvement of the parliamentarians in these events — this fact became known to the general prosecutors on Oct. 13," Medvedko told parliament."Until then, neither the mother or the children said anything about the involvement of the parliamentarians in the events to police officials."He said the children had picked out the three BYuT members' from photographs — two have been questioned and the third would be on Wednesday. The prosecutors will then decide whether to proceed with a criminal case.Both the Regions Party and BYuT bloc accuse each other of political smears timed for Monday's formal start of campaigning."The 2010 elections will be a fight to the end," said political analyst Oleksey Golobutsky. "If the campaign starts with such harsh information warfare, just imagine what can be expected by the end of the electoral race."Opinion polls show Tymoshenko as the strongest opponent of Yanukovich in the poll and they are expected to face off in a February head-to-head showdown. President Viktor Yushchenko has very low ratings and is expected to drop out in the first round.RAPE CLAIMTymoshenko's supporters have gone on the offensive, taking direct aim at Yanukovich.BYuT deputy Sergiy Sobolev, in a statement on the bloc's website, said accusations that Yanukovich and a gang raped and beat a woman in his home town of Enakieve in the 1970s had been brought to the attention of the prosecutors several years ago.Sobelev, speaking later in parliament, asked the prosecutor general why the case had not been taken up. The Prosecutor General said he was not in office at the time and had no knowledge of the matter.The rape accusation was originally made by Hryhory Omelchenko, the same parliamentarian who last week said three BYuT deputies were involved in the child molestation case, Sobolev said. Serhiy Lyovochkin, deputy head of Yanukovich's Regions party, dismissed the accusation."Today's statement . . . is a lie which the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc is trying to use to divert attention from the violence against children. They have started their campaign in their usual style which does not surprise me."During his youth, Yanukovich was imprisoned twice for theft and assault. His aides said the charges were struck from the record and no documents are available on the issue.The last presidential election led to the "Orange Revolution" of 2004, catapulting Yushchenko to power after he beat Moscow-backed Yanukovich in a re-run of a rigged vote.Apart from mass voting fraud, the run-up to that poll was marked by violence including the murder of a prominent journalist, the suicide of an interior minister and the poisoning of Yushchenko which has left his face badly scarred.
Sunday 18 October 2009
Wanted! Bankers Flee Amid Scandal
KIEV, Ukraine -- Embezzlement investigation at Ukraine’s most-troubled bank finally gains momentum, but is it too late? By the time Ukraine’s notoriously slow-footed law enforcers got around to issuing an arrest warrant, former Nadra Bank chairman Igor Gilenko was nowhere to be found – and possibly up to $1 billion was missing.
It took Ukraine’s General Prosecutor Oleksandr Medvedko until Oct. 9 to announce that an arrest warrant on embezzlement charges had been issued against the former Nadra Bank chairman and president. Medvedko also said other former top bank managers are also being sought as accomplices. However, Medvedko didn’t name them. He also would not say how many were involved or what role they are suspected to have played in the fraud.The warning signs of Nadra Bank’s financial collapse came as early as last fall and accusations of wrongdoing came soon after. Nonetheless, despite the bank’s opaque ownership structure and hints of shady dealings, the National Bank of Ukraine lent Nadra Bank Hr 7.2 billion (nearly $1 billion) from October through December 2008.The NBU’s $13 billion bank refinancing program was made possible, in part, by some $11 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund. That, of course, means that Ukraine’s beleaguered taxpayers will ultimately have to cover the cost of whatever money was embezzled.The whole sordid chain of events raises many unanswered questions: Why does the IMF lend money to a nation whose leadership cannot properly manage it? Why did the NBU ignore the red flags and lend Nadra Bank money? Why did it take so long for law enforcers to issue an arrest warrant? Who is in on the alleged scam with Gilenko? Top government or central bank officials? Who truly owned Nadra Bank? How many more fraudulent Nadras or crooked bankers are out there?“We are looking at documents and other records which can be used as evidence,” Medvedko said.Gilenko, a Russian citizen, chaired Nadra Bank from July 1997 until Feb. 10, when the NBU took over and placed the bank under a temporary administrator.Nadra Bank received $214 million in refinancing from the NBU in October to pay foreign creditors, an amount that would eventually rise to roughly $1 billion by December, after billionaire Dmytro Firtash on Nov. 18 guaranteed Hr 4 billion in collateral on bank loans. Firtash expressed interest in buying the ailing bank, but backed out earlier this year and the extent of his current involvement is unclear.“I gave a personal guarantee for Hr 5 billion [for Nadra Bank to receive NBU],” Firtash said on Jan. 17, during an appearance on Inter TV, the nation’s most-watched television channel. “Bank Nadra has four million account holders. If the bank had failed, the country’s entire banking system would have frozen up.”The bank used more than half of the NBU money to buy hard currency at the official lower rate and re-sell it on the commercial exchange at a higher rate. The remainder went to making new loans (Hr 2.1 billion) and paying off creditors (Hr 700 million).Those new loans are viewed with suspicion and are part of the criminal investigation into embezzlement. Two criminal cases were opened in August involving companies which obtained Nadra Bank loans on the basis of inflated collateral.KLO Ltd. received Hr 173 million for the construction of a cottage town in Kyiv’s Makariv district. Collateral for the loan included 36 plots of land on 57 hectares, listed as 10 times more than it was worth, investigators said. A second company, Nait, borrowed Hr 211 million backed by collateral with six to seven times its true worth.Gilenko and Nadra vice president Olena Logoshnyak approved the loans. Both companies, reportedly controlled by businessman and former lawmaker Ihor Yeremeyev, were liquidated by Dnipropetrovsk Economic Court on May 14 without repayment of the loans. Law enforcement is investigating dozens of similar loan schemes at Nadra and other commercial banks.If Gilenko and his accomplices are caught and convicted, they could face up to 12 years in prison. The chances of catching Gilenko are slim. The 43-year- old banker and his former colleagues have not been seen in Ukraine this year.The NBU-appointed administrator of the bank, Valentyna Zhukovska, said on Sept. 29 that Nadra had turned over all documents relating to NBU refinancing to police investigators, prosecutors and the State Security Service. “There is nothing about the bank not known to law-enforcement agencies,” Zhukovska said in June.Nadra Bank was regarded as one of Ukraine’s most successful banks in September 2008. It was the nation’s sixth-largest bank then, with total assets of Hr 26 billion, Hr 10 billion in individual deposits and Hr 6 billion in corporate deposits. The bank, which in 2007 spent $50 million on rebranding, employed 9,000 people with 700 branches nationwide.Bank owners as of Sept. 1, 2008, included Gilenko (33.4 percent), Serhiy Lagur (33.7 percent), Vadim Pyatov (19.6 percent), investment funds (7.8 percent) and bank employees (5.1 percent). Lagur and Pyatov are reportedly proxy owners for Yeremeyev and businessman Vadim Segal, respectively. The Kyiv Post contacted both Yeremeyev and Segal, who refused comment, as did the DF Group. The Kyiv Post was not able to contact Pyatov or Lagur.Ukraine’s Accounting Chamber, the Association of Ukrainian Banks, and an ad hoc parliament investigative committee have all criticized how the NBU injected liquidity into some of the nation’s 170 commercial banks, many tottering from bad loans.As early as Dec. 18, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko had seen enough and started blowing the whistle.“A handful of people under the protection of the president [Victor Yushchenko], the NBU chairman [Volodymyr Stelmakh] and artificial banks are making fortunes worth billions,” Tymoshenko said then. “Nearly one fifth of the [NBU] money was channeled to a bankrupt bank [Nadra].”Yushchenko, Stelmakh and the central bank have denied wrongdoing and accuse Tymoshenko of destabilizing the bank sector by spreading false accusations.Tymoshenko wants to nationalize Nadra Bank by year’s end, but the government is facing a multi-billion dollar price tag to clean up the mess. Nadra has a $2.6 billion loan portfolio, a big chunk of which may be fraudulent and never recovered; it has $1 billion in external debt; and it owes depositors $1 billion. Moreover, the NBU says the bank needs an additional $1 billion.In an unprecedented and bizarre twist to the scandal, Nadra Bank on Oct. 8 published a list of all individuals and corporate entities who allegedly owe the bank money. The bank defended the posting of these debtors on its official website, but customers denounced the move as an illegal invasion of privacy.The list includes thousands of individuals and 286 corporate clients. Individual account holders owe the bank Hr 1.5 billion, while businesses owe Hr 658 million and big corporate clients owe Hr 6.4 billion, according to the list.According to Nadra, the largest group of corporate debtors, some 22 companies, are associated with Segal’s brother, Ilya. Next are 11 companies which the bank linked to Yeremeyev. The list also includes the Lutsk-based Femida-Inter company, which produces and exports juices, canned vegetables and fruits to Western European countries.Femida-Inter deputy director Yuriy Pyrozhkov told the Kyiv Post on Oct. 15 that Nadra Bank has failed to abide by the conditions of its 13 million euro loan agreement, which was to have been paid in tranches. “We received two tranches of the loan. And then nothing,” Pyrozhkov said. “Nadra called on New Year’s Eve and said we could receive the 3rd 300,000 euro tranche in January, but they failed to pay.”Pyrozhkov said Kyiv’s Economic Court ruled that his company has to repay Hr 72 million it received over the next two years. He added that listing his company among Nadra’s debtors on its official website is a violation of banking confidentiality laws. Lyubomyr Drozdovskiy, lawyer at D&U Partners law firm, told the Kyiv Post on Oct. 12 that Nadra Bank has no legal basis for its action.“Making public information about clients is a violation of banking secrecy laws,” Drozdovskiy said. Credit histories can be made public only after receiving the written agreement. I expect individuals and companies appearing on the list will sue Nadra Bank.”Yaroslav Stetsin, a financial expert at Astrum Investment Management, told the Kyiv Post on Oct. 15 that he wasn’t surprised by Nadra Bank’s collapse into disgrace and insolvency despite the nearly $1 billion in NBU assistance.“The problem is that no one at the NBU tracked how Nadra spent the refinancing money,” Stetsin said. “There was no follow-up until it was too late.”
It took Ukraine’s General Prosecutor Oleksandr Medvedko until Oct. 9 to announce that an arrest warrant on embezzlement charges had been issued against the former Nadra Bank chairman and president. Medvedko also said other former top bank managers are also being sought as accomplices. However, Medvedko didn’t name them. He also would not say how many were involved or what role they are suspected to have played in the fraud.The warning signs of Nadra Bank’s financial collapse came as early as last fall and accusations of wrongdoing came soon after. Nonetheless, despite the bank’s opaque ownership structure and hints of shady dealings, the National Bank of Ukraine lent Nadra Bank Hr 7.2 billion (nearly $1 billion) from October through December 2008.The NBU’s $13 billion bank refinancing program was made possible, in part, by some $11 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund. That, of course, means that Ukraine’s beleaguered taxpayers will ultimately have to cover the cost of whatever money was embezzled.The whole sordid chain of events raises many unanswered questions: Why does the IMF lend money to a nation whose leadership cannot properly manage it? Why did the NBU ignore the red flags and lend Nadra Bank money? Why did it take so long for law enforcers to issue an arrest warrant? Who is in on the alleged scam with Gilenko? Top government or central bank officials? Who truly owned Nadra Bank? How many more fraudulent Nadras or crooked bankers are out there?“We are looking at documents and other records which can be used as evidence,” Medvedko said.Gilenko, a Russian citizen, chaired Nadra Bank from July 1997 until Feb. 10, when the NBU took over and placed the bank under a temporary administrator.Nadra Bank received $214 million in refinancing from the NBU in October to pay foreign creditors, an amount that would eventually rise to roughly $1 billion by December, after billionaire Dmytro Firtash on Nov. 18 guaranteed Hr 4 billion in collateral on bank loans. Firtash expressed interest in buying the ailing bank, but backed out earlier this year and the extent of his current involvement is unclear.“I gave a personal guarantee for Hr 5 billion [for Nadra Bank to receive NBU],” Firtash said on Jan. 17, during an appearance on Inter TV, the nation’s most-watched television channel. “Bank Nadra has four million account holders. If the bank had failed, the country’s entire banking system would have frozen up.”The bank used more than half of the NBU money to buy hard currency at the official lower rate and re-sell it on the commercial exchange at a higher rate. The remainder went to making new loans (Hr 2.1 billion) and paying off creditors (Hr 700 million).Those new loans are viewed with suspicion and are part of the criminal investigation into embezzlement. Two criminal cases were opened in August involving companies which obtained Nadra Bank loans on the basis of inflated collateral.KLO Ltd. received Hr 173 million for the construction of a cottage town in Kyiv’s Makariv district. Collateral for the loan included 36 plots of land on 57 hectares, listed as 10 times more than it was worth, investigators said. A second company, Nait, borrowed Hr 211 million backed by collateral with six to seven times its true worth.Gilenko and Nadra vice president Olena Logoshnyak approved the loans. Both companies, reportedly controlled by businessman and former lawmaker Ihor Yeremeyev, were liquidated by Dnipropetrovsk Economic Court on May 14 without repayment of the loans. Law enforcement is investigating dozens of similar loan schemes at Nadra and other commercial banks.If Gilenko and his accomplices are caught and convicted, they could face up to 12 years in prison. The chances of catching Gilenko are slim. The 43-year- old banker and his former colleagues have not been seen in Ukraine this year.The NBU-appointed administrator of the bank, Valentyna Zhukovska, said on Sept. 29 that Nadra had turned over all documents relating to NBU refinancing to police investigators, prosecutors and the State Security Service. “There is nothing about the bank not known to law-enforcement agencies,” Zhukovska said in June.Nadra Bank was regarded as one of Ukraine’s most successful banks in September 2008. It was the nation’s sixth-largest bank then, with total assets of Hr 26 billion, Hr 10 billion in individual deposits and Hr 6 billion in corporate deposits. The bank, which in 2007 spent $50 million on rebranding, employed 9,000 people with 700 branches nationwide.Bank owners as of Sept. 1, 2008, included Gilenko (33.4 percent), Serhiy Lagur (33.7 percent), Vadim Pyatov (19.6 percent), investment funds (7.8 percent) and bank employees (5.1 percent). Lagur and Pyatov are reportedly proxy owners for Yeremeyev and businessman Vadim Segal, respectively. The Kyiv Post contacted both Yeremeyev and Segal, who refused comment, as did the DF Group. The Kyiv Post was not able to contact Pyatov or Lagur.Ukraine’s Accounting Chamber, the Association of Ukrainian Banks, and an ad hoc parliament investigative committee have all criticized how the NBU injected liquidity into some of the nation’s 170 commercial banks, many tottering from bad loans.As early as Dec. 18, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko had seen enough and started blowing the whistle.“A handful of people under the protection of the president [Victor Yushchenko], the NBU chairman [Volodymyr Stelmakh] and artificial banks are making fortunes worth billions,” Tymoshenko said then. “Nearly one fifth of the [NBU] money was channeled to a bankrupt bank [Nadra].”Yushchenko, Stelmakh and the central bank have denied wrongdoing and accuse Tymoshenko of destabilizing the bank sector by spreading false accusations.Tymoshenko wants to nationalize Nadra Bank by year’s end, but the government is facing a multi-billion dollar price tag to clean up the mess. Nadra has a $2.6 billion loan portfolio, a big chunk of which may be fraudulent and never recovered; it has $1 billion in external debt; and it owes depositors $1 billion. Moreover, the NBU says the bank needs an additional $1 billion.In an unprecedented and bizarre twist to the scandal, Nadra Bank on Oct. 8 published a list of all individuals and corporate entities who allegedly owe the bank money. The bank defended the posting of these debtors on its official website, but customers denounced the move as an illegal invasion of privacy.The list includes thousands of individuals and 286 corporate clients. Individual account holders owe the bank Hr 1.5 billion, while businesses owe Hr 658 million and big corporate clients owe Hr 6.4 billion, according to the list.According to Nadra, the largest group of corporate debtors, some 22 companies, are associated with Segal’s brother, Ilya. Next are 11 companies which the bank linked to Yeremeyev. The list also includes the Lutsk-based Femida-Inter company, which produces and exports juices, canned vegetables and fruits to Western European countries.Femida-Inter deputy director Yuriy Pyrozhkov told the Kyiv Post on Oct. 15 that Nadra Bank has failed to abide by the conditions of its 13 million euro loan agreement, which was to have been paid in tranches. “We received two tranches of the loan. And then nothing,” Pyrozhkov said. “Nadra called on New Year’s Eve and said we could receive the 3rd 300,000 euro tranche in January, but they failed to pay.”Pyrozhkov said Kyiv’s Economic Court ruled that his company has to repay Hr 72 million it received over the next two years. He added that listing his company among Nadra’s debtors on its official website is a violation of banking confidentiality laws. Lyubomyr Drozdovskiy, lawyer at D&U Partners law firm, told the Kyiv Post on Oct. 12 that Nadra Bank has no legal basis for its action.“Making public information about clients is a violation of banking secrecy laws,” Drozdovskiy said. Credit histories can be made public only after receiving the written agreement. I expect individuals and companies appearing on the list will sue Nadra Bank.”Yaroslav Stetsin, a financial expert at Astrum Investment Management, told the Kyiv Post on Oct. 15 that he wasn’t surprised by Nadra Bank’s collapse into disgrace and insolvency despite the nearly $1 billion in NBU assistance.“The problem is that no one at the NBU tracked how Nadra spent the refinancing money,” Stetsin said. “There was no follow-up until it was too late.”
Ukraine Pre-Election Update
WASHINGTON, DC -- On October 19, Ukraine’s presidential election campaign will officially begin, in advance of the first round of elections on January 17.
The campaign is set to take place during Ukraine’s worst economic crisis since the mid-1990s, amid an atmosphere of cynicism and increasing apathy. Nevertheless, a recent poll suggests that a majority of Ukrainians plan to vote in the election.The Kyiv-based Research and Branding Group found 60% of those polled said they were likely to vote, while 23% may vote. In 2004, the Central Election Commission recorded an approximate 75% turnout in the first-round of the election. However, given questions raised by monitors about the entire election process in 2004, it is likely that this figure is inflated.The bad news for the current leadership is that they continue to trail in the polls behind nominal opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych. Mr. Yanukovych will forever be known as the man who was named president during the 2004 fraudulent election, but saw his “victory” overturned by massive street protests and the country’s Supreme Court. There is every possibility that he could also become known as Ukraine’s next president.This month’s Research and Branding poll gives Yanukovych 30.2% support, with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko garnering 18.5% and upstart Arseniy Yantsenyuk earning 8.9%. President Viktor Yushchenko barely rates on the chart. The President - blamed for not fulfilling most reforms demanded during the 2004 protests that led to his election – is supported by just 3.1%.The poll shows a slight lengthening of Yanukovych’s lead over Tymoshenko. In an August poll by the same company, Yanukovych was supported by 26% of those asked, while Tymoshenko earned 16.5%. Yatsenyuk at that time could count on 12.5%.Yanukovych appears to have benefited from the continuing economic crisis, a number of unproven corruption charges from opponents against Tymoshenko, and Yanukovych’s loud but financially untenable demands to raise pensions and minimum wages.In response, Tymoshenko, who is known as a highly effective personal campaigner, is pushing her Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko hard, with her most important allies focusing on the election issue. It is possible that she is spurred by the knowledge that her bloc is dangerously close to splintering, held loosely together only by her personal power and prestige.The Russia-tilting ProUA.com recently reported a back-door conversation with a Party of Regions (Yanukovych) deputy, suggesting that if Tymoshenko loses the presidency, they have assurances of the defection of a large number of her current allies.All is not rosy for Yanukovych, however. ProUA also reported that support for him personally – and of more importance, financially – is weak within his own party. He also is an inferior campaigner to Tymoshenko, although he has improved in recent years. And there is trepidation within Yanukovych's Party of Regions over past polling numbers for Tymoshenko that proved to be up to 10 points less than actual results.The biggest loser since August clearly is Arseniy Yatsenyuk, however, whose campaign staff, advertisements and message have been confused and muddled. While it is too soon to count out the former parliamentary speaker, all signs point to a two-horse race heading into the January poll. Should a second round be necessary, a prospect which is almost guaranteed, it will likely take place on or around 21 February.
The campaign is set to take place during Ukraine’s worst economic crisis since the mid-1990s, amid an atmosphere of cynicism and increasing apathy. Nevertheless, a recent poll suggests that a majority of Ukrainians plan to vote in the election.The Kyiv-based Research and Branding Group found 60% of those polled said they were likely to vote, while 23% may vote. In 2004, the Central Election Commission recorded an approximate 75% turnout in the first-round of the election. However, given questions raised by monitors about the entire election process in 2004, it is likely that this figure is inflated.The bad news for the current leadership is that they continue to trail in the polls behind nominal opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych. Mr. Yanukovych will forever be known as the man who was named president during the 2004 fraudulent election, but saw his “victory” overturned by massive street protests and the country’s Supreme Court. There is every possibility that he could also become known as Ukraine’s next president.This month’s Research and Branding poll gives Yanukovych 30.2% support, with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko garnering 18.5% and upstart Arseniy Yantsenyuk earning 8.9%. President Viktor Yushchenko barely rates on the chart. The President - blamed for not fulfilling most reforms demanded during the 2004 protests that led to his election – is supported by just 3.1%.The poll shows a slight lengthening of Yanukovych’s lead over Tymoshenko. In an August poll by the same company, Yanukovych was supported by 26% of those asked, while Tymoshenko earned 16.5%. Yatsenyuk at that time could count on 12.5%.Yanukovych appears to have benefited from the continuing economic crisis, a number of unproven corruption charges from opponents against Tymoshenko, and Yanukovych’s loud but financially untenable demands to raise pensions and minimum wages.In response, Tymoshenko, who is known as a highly effective personal campaigner, is pushing her Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko hard, with her most important allies focusing on the election issue. It is possible that she is spurred by the knowledge that her bloc is dangerously close to splintering, held loosely together only by her personal power and prestige.The Russia-tilting ProUA.com recently reported a back-door conversation with a Party of Regions (Yanukovych) deputy, suggesting that if Tymoshenko loses the presidency, they have assurances of the defection of a large number of her current allies.All is not rosy for Yanukovych, however. ProUA also reported that support for him personally – and of more importance, financially – is weak within his own party. He also is an inferior campaigner to Tymoshenko, although he has improved in recent years. And there is trepidation within Yanukovych's Party of Regions over past polling numbers for Tymoshenko that proved to be up to 10 points less than actual results.The biggest loser since August clearly is Arseniy Yatsenyuk, however, whose campaign staff, advertisements and message have been confused and muddled. While it is too soon to count out the former parliamentary speaker, all signs point to a two-horse race heading into the January poll. Should a second round be necessary, a prospect which is almost guaranteed, it will likely take place on or around 21 February.
Ukraine In Talks With Airbus, Boeing Over Plane Production
NEW YORK, USA -- Ukraine is in talks with Airbus SAS and Boeing Co. about building aircraft in the country, Ukraine’s economy minister Bohdan Danylyshyn said today.
Danylyshyn, speaking in an interview at Ukraine’s Consulate in New York, declined to comment on any of the specifics of the talks or on their progress.Ukraine’s Antonov OKB, Aviaremontnyi Zavod 410 and VAT Motor Sich produce plane and engine parts, though the country must order plane bodies from Russia, he said.Danylyshyn said the government wants a partner so it can handle all phases of airline construction in the nation. It might take as long as four years and $5 billion in investments by a partner such as Airbus or Boeing if they agreed to such a venture, he said.
Danylyshyn, speaking in an interview at Ukraine’s Consulate in New York, declined to comment on any of the specifics of the talks or on their progress.Ukraine’s Antonov OKB, Aviaremontnyi Zavod 410 and VAT Motor Sich produce plane and engine parts, though the country must order plane bodies from Russia, he said.Danylyshyn said the government wants a partner so it can handle all phases of airline construction in the nation. It might take as long as four years and $5 billion in investments by a partner such as Airbus or Boeing if they agreed to such a venture, he said.
Ukraine Sees $3.4 Billion IMF Payment In November
KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine expects the International Monetary Fund to release a $3.4 billion payment under the agency’s $16.4 billion lending program to the country, Economy Minister Bohdan Danylyshyn said.
This will help sustain the economy and, to a certain extent, help cover the budget deficit,” Danylyshyn said today in an interview at Ukraine’s Consulate in New York. “It’s a pretty complicated situation in Ukraine, that’s why we expect (a) budget deficit this year and next.”Ukraine is relying on the IMF loan program to stay afloat after the credit crisis undermined demand for its raw materials, including steel exports. The country has received $10.6 billion in loans to date.The IMF team, led by Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, arrived in Kiev earlier this week to assess whether Ukraine meets the terms of the loans. Ukraine is at “serious risk” of veering off track ahead of the country’s next review in November, Fitch Ratings said in a statement on Oct. 14.“It would be politically right to support the government’s measures aimed at stabilizing the situation,” Danylyshyn said. “That would also be a very good signal for investors.”No Higher TariffsThe government of Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko “abandoned” commitments made at the second review of the country’s program with the IMF, including a failure to increase prices for natural gas paid by households and utilities, Fitch Ratings said the statement.“I think, we have succeeded in trying to explain the situation to the IMF: If we hike the tariffs, people would simply stop paying,” Danylyshyn said. “This issue is not on time. We can get back to it as soon as in July 2010.”Timoshenko said last week there will be no increase in natural gas rates this year.Lower gas prices add to the country’s budget deficit, estimated this year by the IMF at 8.6 percent of gross domestic product, excluding bank restructuring costs. Fitch forecasts the deficit at 8.5 percent of GDP, or 11.1 percent including the deficit of Nak Naftogaz Ukrainy, a supplier of gas.The deficit will shrink to about 3.8 percent next year, Danylyshyn said, adding that this year it may fall to 6 percent.The IMF and Ukraine’s cooperation stalled earlier this year for three months while the government struggled to reach a deficit agreement.Economic Outlook Ukraine’s economy, while recovering from the worst global financial crisis in seven decades, may decline as much as 12 percent this year and grow 3.7 percent next year, Danylyshyn said, adding that the average prices for ferrous metals, Ukraine’s major export, may increase 5 to 8 percent next year.The economy of the former Soviet state contracted at an annual rate of 17.8 percent in the second quarter, after shrinking 20.3 percent in the previous period.Ukraine’s exports may rise 9.5 percent next year, while imports may be 6 percent higher, he said. The hryvnia is expected to trade between 8.2 and 8.5 to the U.S. dollar, Danylyshyn said.The annual inflation rate for consumers may reach 12.5 percent in December, compared with earlier expectations of 9.5 percent, Danylyshyn said. Inflation may fall to 9.7 percent by December 2010, he said.Direct Investment The country expects to get $20 billion in foreign direct investment between next year and 2012 to help it diversify the economy away from exports of raw materials, such as steel and grains, and modernize existing facilities, Danylyshyn said.The government plans to bolster exports by increased trade with Middle East, Asia and Africa, he said. Ukraine expects the U.S. will end import taxes on Ukraine’s metals and chemicals by the second quarter of next year, Danylyshyn said.Ukraine’s trade deficit may narrow to $77 million, compared with $3.76 billion in the first eight months of the year, he said. The country’s trade surplus next year may reach $1.8 billion, he said.
This will help sustain the economy and, to a certain extent, help cover the budget deficit,” Danylyshyn said today in an interview at Ukraine’s Consulate in New York. “It’s a pretty complicated situation in Ukraine, that’s why we expect (a) budget deficit this year and next.”Ukraine is relying on the IMF loan program to stay afloat after the credit crisis undermined demand for its raw materials, including steel exports. The country has received $10.6 billion in loans to date.The IMF team, led by Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, arrived in Kiev earlier this week to assess whether Ukraine meets the terms of the loans. Ukraine is at “serious risk” of veering off track ahead of the country’s next review in November, Fitch Ratings said in a statement on Oct. 14.“It would be politically right to support the government’s measures aimed at stabilizing the situation,” Danylyshyn said. “That would also be a very good signal for investors.”No Higher TariffsThe government of Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko “abandoned” commitments made at the second review of the country’s program with the IMF, including a failure to increase prices for natural gas paid by households and utilities, Fitch Ratings said the statement.“I think, we have succeeded in trying to explain the situation to the IMF: If we hike the tariffs, people would simply stop paying,” Danylyshyn said. “This issue is not on time. We can get back to it as soon as in July 2010.”Timoshenko said last week there will be no increase in natural gas rates this year.Lower gas prices add to the country’s budget deficit, estimated this year by the IMF at 8.6 percent of gross domestic product, excluding bank restructuring costs. Fitch forecasts the deficit at 8.5 percent of GDP, or 11.1 percent including the deficit of Nak Naftogaz Ukrainy, a supplier of gas.The deficit will shrink to about 3.8 percent next year, Danylyshyn said, adding that this year it may fall to 6 percent.The IMF and Ukraine’s cooperation stalled earlier this year for three months while the government struggled to reach a deficit agreement.Economic Outlook Ukraine’s economy, while recovering from the worst global financial crisis in seven decades, may decline as much as 12 percent this year and grow 3.7 percent next year, Danylyshyn said, adding that the average prices for ferrous metals, Ukraine’s major export, may increase 5 to 8 percent next year.The economy of the former Soviet state contracted at an annual rate of 17.8 percent in the second quarter, after shrinking 20.3 percent in the previous period.Ukraine’s exports may rise 9.5 percent next year, while imports may be 6 percent higher, he said. The hryvnia is expected to trade between 8.2 and 8.5 to the U.S. dollar, Danylyshyn said.The annual inflation rate for consumers may reach 12.5 percent in December, compared with earlier expectations of 9.5 percent, Danylyshyn said. Inflation may fall to 9.7 percent by December 2010, he said.Direct Investment The country expects to get $20 billion in foreign direct investment between next year and 2012 to help it diversify the economy away from exports of raw materials, such as steel and grains, and modernize existing facilities, Danylyshyn said.The government plans to bolster exports by increased trade with Middle East, Asia and Africa, he said. Ukraine expects the U.S. will end import taxes on Ukraine’s metals and chemicals by the second quarter of next year, Danylyshyn said.Ukraine’s trade deficit may narrow to $77 million, compared with $3.76 billion in the first eight months of the year, he said. The country’s trade surplus next year may reach $1.8 billion, he said.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)