Khodorkovsky guilty

The Yukos two, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev have been found guilty of theft and money laundering.

"The court has established that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have appropriated property using their staff positions," Judge Danilkin told the courtroom.

Only a handful of reporters were allowed into the courtroom for the verdict and Danilkin then requested even those few to leave and called off the live broadcast while the rest of the verdict was read out.

The sentences for the two men are not yet known, but both could face up to 7 more years in jail for this set of charges. They have already spent 7 years behind bars for tax evasion, their sentences were due to expire next year.

The court dropped some of the charges as the statute of limitations had expired, but did not embellish any further.

They have been convicted for embezzling 218 tons of oil from Yukos and laundering over 3 billion rubles ($97.5 million) in revenues.

Both Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have maintained their innocence throughout. They claim the trials have been part of a political vendetta against them, something the Kremlin denies.

The case has enjoyed a great deal of media attention and Khodorkovsky has been unrelenting in his criticism of the government and its alleged involvement. He said that a state that destroys its best companies and trusts only the bureaucracy and the special services is a sick state, the BBC reported.

Putin said earlier this month in his annual TV Q&A with the public that “a thief belongs in prison,” which Khodorkovsky’s lead lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant said “removed all doubt about who puts pressure on the court,” adding that his comments would be used in an appeal, should Khodorkovsky be found guilty, Bloomberg reported.

The case has attracted onlookers both at home and abroad, “This trial is considered a test of the rule of law in Russia,” Ulrich Brandenburg, German Ambassador to Russia.

And the prison walls could be closing in around the fallen tycoons, as prosecutors could press a third set of charges against the ex-Yukos executives in the near future, defence lawyers say.

Jobs in Moscow

Becoming Ded Moroz – Russia’s incarnation of Father Christmas – is almost a rite of passage for many aspiring actors, but also a fun way of earning enough for some celebratory champagne.

Anatoly Kiselyov, a professional actor and graduate of the Moscow Arts Theatre has been bringing holiday magic to kids since 1975.

“It is not only good financial help for me, but my cup of tea,” he said.

Working at corporate parties is more profitable but I really love going to see kids. When you come to a kid of 2-5 years old you bring a real fairy tale to a kid – older kids are often sceptical about a man who is in it to make money.”

Starting from December 25 prices for Ded Moroz visit – translated literally as Grandfather Frost – rise steeply from 2,000 roubles to 10,000 roubles on New Year’s Eve.

“The busiest time for us is December 31, but the first week of January we are also busy at yolki (New Year’s parties for kids) and home orders,” said Yana, a call-center operator at Stolichnaya Sluzhba Deda Moroza.

The average salary for Ded Moroz is 26,900 roubles ($900), according to joblist.ru, while his granddaughter Snegurochka (or Snow Maiden) earns 7 per cent less. While the differences raises unseasonable debates about gender inequality, employers say that a potential Father Christmas has to look the part.

“For students of theatre schools, working as Ded Moroz is an inevitable step in their career,” said Alexander Popov of Mediana, a recruitment agency for actors. “But if a guy is not tall and has a very young voice we don’t send him as Ded Moroz as more mature actors will be more suitable for this.” He added that they can give actors 10 to 15 orders a day, but the company take a 30 per cent cut of the fees.

Becoming Ded Moroz – Russia’s incarnation of Father Christmas – is almost a rite of passage for many aspiring actors, but also a fun way of earning enough for some celebratory champagne.

Anatoly Kiselyov, a professional actor and graduate of the Moscow Arts Theatre has been bringing holiday magic to kids since 1975.

“It is not only good financial help for me, but my cup of tea,” he told The Moscow News. “Working at corporate parties is more profitable but I really love going to see kids. When you come to a kid of 2-5 years old you bring a real fairy tale to a kid – older kids are often sceptical about a man who is in it to make money.”

Starting from December 25 prices for Ded Moroz visit – translated literally as Grandfather Frost – rise steeply from 2,000 roubles to 10,000 roubles on New Year’s Eve.

“The busiest time for us is December 31, but the first week of January we are also busy at yolki (New Year’s parties for kids) and home orders,” said Yana, a call-center operator at Stolichnaya Sluzhba Deda Moroza.

The average salary for Ded Moroz is 26,900 roubles ($900), according to joblist.ru, while his granddaughter Snegurochka (or Snow Maiden) earns 7 per cent less. While the differences raises unseasonable debates about gender inequality, employers say that a potential Father Christmas has to look the part.

“For students of theatre schools, working as Ded Moroz is an inevitable step in their career,” said Alexander Popov of Mediana, a recruitment agency for actors. “But if a guy is not tall and has a very young voice we don’t send him as Ded Moroz as more mature actors will be more suitable for this.” He added that they can give actors 10 to 15 orders a day, but the company take a 30 per cent cut of the fees.

The end of the crisis has see more festive fellows recruited for corporate parties.

“Compared to last year the number of vacancies has increased by 24 per cent, and by 41 per cent compared to the crisis of the 2008 New Year,” said Timur Iosebashvili, head of the joblist.ru recruitment portal.

One party can bring in 30,000 roubles for just three hours’ work, but require professional event organising and often special stunts.

In a departure from the tradition of squeezing down the chimney, professional climbers come in through windows. “We have professional climbers working as Ded Moroz – they charge 15,000 roubles for a half hour show,” said Yana of Stolichnaya Sluzhba Deda Moroza.

Even for the best behaved kids there have been reports of Ded Moroz failing to appear for New Year.

Some agencies ask for prepayment at the office online or at a pay terminal, and then don’t send an actor before disappearing in January.

“In the Father Frost business a contract should be signed properly to avoid argument and set some obligations for both sides,” said Oleg Frolov, a lawyer from the Consumers Rights Watchdog Organisation.

Employers say that actors playing Ded Moroz have been known to overdo the Christmas brandy, but those that get drunk are sacked.

Ded Moroz has seen a change of appearance in recent years from blue to red, making him look more like Father Christmas. And although Coca-Cola is credited with inventing the “red" Santa Claus image, it existed before its famous ad campaign.

Ukrainian Orphans Arrive In Alabama Hoping For Families, Better Life

BILLINGSLEY, USA -- The chil­dren run around in new paja­mas, learning the English words for butter, cheese and tea, writing on a dry-erase board and some playing "fut­bol."
They are Ukrainian or­phans, ages 6 to 15, and ener­gized on just an hour or two of sleep. But it's a new day in a new country with new hopes, dreams and wishes.

The 10 children -- four boys and six girls -- came to cen­tral Alabama from orphan­ages in the Kiev region of Ukraine. They arrived about 5 a.m. Friday and by 10 a.m. were already learning to say "hello," "dog" and, in 55-degree weather, "hot."

It has taken three years for the trip to become a reality for the Millbrook-based Bridges of Faith Internation­al. The organization, which has done mission work in Ukraine since 1995, spon­sored the trip for the 10 Ukrainian orphans at a total cost of $65,000 -- which paid for travel, legal costs and all documentation.

The money was collected door to door, and from church to church.

"Many of the kids have not seen a functioning family," said the Rev. Tom Benz with Bridges of Faith. "We want them to become Christians, yes, but we need them to find families.

"We are not an adoption agency," Benz stressed. "Our task is to bring kids here and let families meet them. If families are interested, an adoption facilitator takes over the business side."

The children will stay at BridgeStone Prayer and Re­treat Center, a ministry of Bridges of Faith Internation­al, until they fly back to the Ukraine on Jan. 16.

Families interested in meeting the children -- families from Kentucky, Alabama and Cali­fornia have been in contact with Benz -- will have that opportunity.

There is Sasha Bidyak, 12, who, through translator Val­ery Dashevky, said he very much wants to have a mother and father.

"All the children, they do," Bidyak said. "And I do not."

Bidyak has lived in an or­phanage since he was 8 years old, after both his parents died from being "hard drink­ers. Especially my mom, she was a harder drinker."

In Bidyak's room at the Centerpoint building -- the 12-bedroom, four-bath re­treat center (funded solely through Centerpoint Church in Prattville) -- hang his life's belongings: a jacket, hat, backpack and one change of clothes.

Most of the children ar­rived in the United States with only one bag -- whether it was a backpack or a plastic sack. Some didn't have a change of clothes. Toiletry items were donated to them and placed in their rooms.

Around the main living and dining area, packs of Goldfish crackers sit on a ta­ble. One pack is open and al­most full. A bowl holds four green apples. One apple is partially eaten and had been placed back in the bowl. Rai­sin bread sits on a plate.

"Often, kids in Ukrainian orphanages are abandoned," Benz said. "I see in the eyes of these children potential to be wonderful if just given the chance. Every time we are (in Ukraine), I can't cope with the ways their lives would turn out."

That includes the lives of Irina and Olga Przhepolska, ages 10 and 15.

They don't know where their father lives, and their Polish mother died a year ago from kidney problems. The girls don't discuss being adopted, Dashevky said, but even if the group of 10 doesn't talk about it, they know that is why they are in America.

"There's not the same in­terest in adoption in Ukraine," Benz said. "Here, there are people on a waiting list to adopt children. In East­ern Europe, kids are ready and available."

"Here, we give them a great camp experience, teach them English, share Christ and incubate adoption. These kids, especially at school age, the chance for adoption plummets. That's why we bring them here ... we call them the forgotten kids."

What Bridges of Faith wants to do, Benz said, is de­velop a broader sense of sup­port for bringing the orphans to Alabama. While it took three years to get the first group flown over, he wants to do this four to six times each year.

Still, he said one of the most heartbreaking things is when one is packing up and the others tell (Dashevky), "Will you find a family for me?"

"We hope that every single one emphatically experi­ences God and also finds a 'forever home' with a great family," Benz said.

Ukraine's Ex-Interior Minister Detained By Security Police

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's security police detained on Sunday former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko and took him to a pre-trial detention center, his spokeswoman said citing his lawyer.
Yuriy Lutsenko has been taken to a pre-trial detention center of Ukraine's security service," Inna Kisil said. She earlier said Lutsenko was held by around ten Ukraine's security police agents on Sunday.

Lutsenko is accused of embezzling government funds and abusing power. He also faces charges of overpaying his driver and awarding him ranks.

Earlier this week, the former Ukrainian first deputy justice minister in Yulia Tymoshenko's government, Yevgeny Korniychuk, was detained after being questioned over the case involving Ukraine's state gas monopoly Naftogaz.

Criminal cases have also been initiated against several other Tymoshenko government officials.

Tymoshenko herself has been summoned to the Prosecutor General's Office for questioning several times over the past few weeks. Last week, a criminal case was initiated against the opposition leader over abuse of power.

Tymoshenko is believed to have spent government money intended for ecological programs to pay pensions.

Ukraine's Tymoshenko Faces New Charges Over Misuse Of State Funds

KIEV, Ukraine -- New charges related to misuse of government funds may be brought against Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine's former prime minister and current opposition leader, Ukraine's Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka said on Friday.
Tymoshenko already faces trial on accusations of spending money intended for ecological projects to pay pensions.

Besides this, the opposition leader is also suspected in buying 1,000 ambulances at an excessive price, Pshonka told journalists in Kiev.

Tymoshenko has not yet been officially charged in the second case, he added.

Tymoshenko has long been at odds with the current president, Viktor Yanukovych, to whom she narrowly lost February's presidential elections.

Tymoshenko was prime minister under the previous presidency of Viktor Yushchenko, but moved to opposition after her government was dissolved in March following the elections.

Tymoshenko supporters accuse the Yanukovych government of pursuing "pro-Russian" policies and betraying Ukraine's own interests and claim that a "campaign" against their leader is aimed at wiping out opposition.

Restoring The Soviet Union: Putin's Customs Union

MOSCOW, Russia -- The bear is still in the woods and it is waking up from its 20 year hibernation, as a "new" free-trade zone agreement sets itself to restore the Soviet Union.
On December 16, 2010, Reuters reported on what could be described as the resurrection of the former Soviet Union, through the invitation of the Ukraine to join the post-Soviet free-trade zone, or Customs Union, between Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.

According to the report, "Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin encouraged Ukraine on Thursday to join Moscow-driven efforts to integrate the economies of the biggest post-Soviet republics into one trading bloc."

Since the election of Victor Yanukovich, as President of Ukraine, in February 2010, the Ukrainian government has increased its ties with Moscow, having signed the Kharkov Agreements, in April 2010, which extended the Russian Navy's lease to use the Sevastopol naval base until at least 2042.

President Yanukovich also mothballed Ukraine's prior proposal to join NATO, much to the relief and pleasure of Russia. These pro-Kremlin moves should come as no surprise to those aware of Yanukovich's political affiliations.

Although elected as an independent, Yanukovich received the support of Ukraine's Party of Regions, a pro-Russia party aligned with Russia's ruling United Russia Party and the Communist Party of China.

During his run for Prime Minister in 2006, Yanukovich has also received the support and nomination from the Party of Regions, Socialist Party, and the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU), which remains supportive of him.

The CPU recently expressed its public support of President Yanukovich's desire to sign the Customs Union Treaty, stating that "Ukraine must return to the traditional neighbors and allies with whom we share not only a common history, and economics," according to the CPU website (in Russian).

In an attempt to discredit right-wing nationalistic opposition to the Customs Union, the CPU went on to liken it to the European Union, stating:

Take, for example, EU countries, which are already EU delegate its functions: to elect a general president, adopt a common constitution, etc. In this case, the Europeans are not afraid of losing their sovereignty. Therefore, the Communists believe that the Customs Union - a common approach on our way out of economic crisis.

The importance of the Ukraine was best summarized by Soviet General-Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev who, in August 1991, told a Ukrainian journalist: "there can be no Union without Ukraine."

This view has even been accepted by the Communist Party of Bolivia, which stated: "Of all of the Soviet republics, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, was without a doubt, the most important from all points of view."

When asked whether Ukraine and Russia should reunite, Putin replied: "In the last 15 years we have seen the first real steps towards integration and the creation of a new union between our three states: Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus."

This new Customs Union is characterized as one based on free trade and a common currency, much like the old Soviet Union, of which Putin has described its fall as constituting "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century."

In discussing the Customs Union, Putin reiterated his lament of the fall of the Soviet Union saying, "He who doesn't regret the collapse of the Soviet Union has no heart, but he who wants it restored in the original has no brains."

Putin's words are suggestive of resurrecting the Soviet Union not as it exactly was originally, but rather in the establishment of a new larger Soviet Union, built on economic integration and free trade.

The Customs Union agreement, between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, was first approved by the lower chamber of the Russian State Duma on September 24, 2010 and signed by the respected heads of state on December 9, 2010.

According to the 17-document agreement signed between the presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, on December 9, the Customs Union is to go into effect on January 1, 2012.

"Free flow of goods, services and people and the absence of customs checks — all these will be provided by the union. All in all it's a new quality of living," said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev upon signing the agreement.

Although supported by both Ukrainian President Yanukovich and the CPU, it remains to be seen whether Ukraine will heed the advice of Putin and join the Customs Union.

Communist Vietnam has also expressed an interest to join the Customs Union, which fits in perfectly with Putin's vision of establishing a new Soviet Union that is unlike "the original." Such an integrated economic union would rival the European Union.

20 Trillion Roubles for Rearmament

In addition to the economic revival of the Soviet Union, last week also marked what may be seen as the end to Russia's weakened military. According to the Global Times, on December 6, 2010, Putin announced that Russia would be "allocating very serious, significant funds for the re-armament program. I am even scared to pronounce this figure: 20 trillion roubles."

As Putin addressed a crowd of top military brass and reporters, at the Sevmash naval shipyard, located in the northern town of Severodvinsk, by the White Sea, he declared the revitalization of the Russian military: "We need to finally move beyond the years during which the army and the navy were seriously under-financed."

The "honeymoon," if there ever was one, between the West and Russia, appears to have come to a close as Russia expands to economically integrate with Belarus, Kazakhstan, and now inviting Ukraine.

This, coupled with the announcement to drastically refund Russia's armed forces, seems to fit with the theory elaborated by important Soviet KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn in his book New Lies for Old, which asserts that the alleged fall of the Soviet Union was actually a deception to deceive the West. He also predicted that it would re-emerge.

The recent WikiLeaks release of State Department cables that reveal Russian active measures in Tajikistan, its support of Islamic Terrorism, involvement in the Russian and Israeli Mafias, as well as the recently uncovered espionage operation in London are all indicative of the fact that Russia remains at odds with the United States and the West.

The new Customs Union further validates the case that the Kremlin has long since been deceiving the West to believe that it is an ally when in fact its strategic actions suggest otherwise.

Ukraine Investigates Another Tymoshenko Minister

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's prosecutor-general has launched a criminal investigation into former Deputy Justice Minister Yevhen Korniychuk, accusing him of abuse of power while in office, Ukrainian Service reports.

Yuriy Boychenko, a spokesman for the Prosecutor-General's Office,informed that Korniychuk was detained, questioned, and sent to a pretrial detention center on December 22.

He declined to give any further details regarding the case.

Korniychuk's press secretary, Khrystyna Shandrenko, said that currently it was not possible contact Korniychuk.

Meanwhile, parliament deputy Vasyl Onopenko said he believed Korniychuk's arrest to be politically motivated.

Onopenko said that Korniychuk's case might be a part of what he called authorities' attack against current opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and her party members.

Tymoshenko was charged earlier this week with abuse of power during the years she served as prime minister, 2007 to 2010.

Two former members of her government, former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko and former Economy Minister Bohdan Danylyshyn, are also under investigati

France Ski Resort Courchevel To Host Ukraine Magnate's €5 Million Birthday Party

LONDON, England -- Residents of the chic French ski resort of Courchevel, known as the winter playground of the rich and famous, are used to visitors throwing money around.
The town boasts 11 five-star hotels, at least three Michelin-starred restaurants and numerous diamond dealers to attract the well-heeled, including Beyoncé, the Beckhams and a fair few Russian oligarchs. Conspicuous consumption is nothing new.

However, in the middle of a worldwide economic crisis, the Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk may have pushed the boundaries of good taste when it comes to lavish spending.

Reports that the 50th birthday party he is throwing in Courchevel this weekend – featuring five-star food and vintage wines and champagne – is expected to cost €5m ($6.6m) have caused a certain froideur in the ski resort that has nothing to do with the latest snowfall.

Certainly the celebration will not be to everyone's taste. "Five million for a party ... it's indecent," said one skier, who asked to remain anonymous. "It's particularly scandalous because so many people in France are having trouble making ends meet, let alone buying Christmas presents, because of the crisis."

Metal magnate Pinchuk, who also owns a media empire including six television stations and three newspapers, has rented 2,000 sq metres of land where an army of staff is constructing an enormous marquee for tomorrow night's party.

An estimated 300 guests, flying in from all over the world, will be served an haute cuisine buffet prepared by the master of Gallic gastronomy, Alain Ducasse, the French chef with the most Michelin starred restaurants.

They will be entertained by Cirque du Soleil, whose performers are flying in from Canada, followed by a firework display. Amid frenzied rumours over the secret guest list – Pinchuk counts Elton John, Paul McCartney and Bill Clinton as friends – there are reports that Christina Aguilera, in France to promote her new film Burlesque, is also to sing for guests.

Officials at Courchevel's town hall said Pinchuk had rented the area in the multi-level resort at the usual price – €12 ($16) per square metre per day. The owner of a quad bike business that had been using the site was asked to go elsewhere, according to reports.

The resort's mayor, Gilbert Blanc-Tailleur, insisted there was nothing shocking about the party. "If this gentlemen didn't celebrate his birthday in Courchevel, he would no doubt go somewhere else abroad in a Swiss or Austrian ski resort. That would be a pity for our country," he said. "So it's a good thing for France and for our resort where the quality of services is well known and where it will give business to our hotels."

He added that the Courchevel authorities had asked for 150 children to be allowed to see the circus rehearsals.

Adeline Roux, director of Courchevel's tourist office, agreed with the mayor. "It's a private event so there's nothing to say," she said.

Pinchuk, who is married to the daughter of Ukraine's former president Leonid Kuchma, is worth an estimated £1.9bn ($3.0b) and has one of the world's largest private modern art collections. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people.

His press office refused to comment on the party. However a young chambermaid at the ski resort was not impressed. "I slave away all winter for a miserable wage and then when I see how some people can spend millions in a single evening it disgusts me," she told Le Parisien.

"We are on another planet here."

Russia Tells Ukraine: Join Post-Soviet Trade Bloc

MOSCOW, Russia -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin encouraged Ukraine on Thursday to join Moscow-driven efforts to integrate the economies of the biggest post-Soviet republics into one trading bloc.
Ukraine has sought closer ties with Russia since the election of Viktor Yanukovich in February 2010, abandoning the goal of joining NATO and extending Russia's lease of a military base on the Black Sea.

"In the last 15 years we have seen the first real steps towards integration and the creation of a new union between our three states: Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus," Putin said when asked whether Ukraine and Russia should unite again.

"If our Ukrainian colleagues see some sort of benefit in joining these processes, if Ukraine was to join these processes in some form or another, then of course it would be a powerful, important boost," Putin said at his annual question-and-answer session with the Russian people.

Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are already members of a customs union and signed a macroeconomic policy coordination agreement last month, an important part of their drive to create a free trade zone in 2012.

But joining Russia-dominated efforts could hamper a deal with the European Union because the customs union has a common foreign trade policy with tight links to Russia.

Putin, a 58-year-old former KGB spy who watched from a posting in East Germany as the Soviet Union crumbled in 1991, has sought to claw back some of the clout Russia lost when the Soviet empire broke up.

"He who doesn't regret the collapse of the Soviet Union has no heart, but he who wants it restored in the original has no brains," Putin said, repeating one of his most notable comments.

Ukraine’s Opposition Demands Investigation Of Parliament Brawl

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian opposition parties urged the Prosecutor General to investigate a tussle in parliament Thursday that left six people hospitalized.
Lawmakers loyal to President Viktor Yanukovych last night scuffled with deputies who physically blocked the rostrum to protest a criminal probe against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of the opposition.

"We demand the Prosecutor General’s office thoroughly investigate the acts of all of the fight participants," Tymoshenko’s group said today in a statement posted on the website of its allied Our Ukraine party.

The prosecutor’s office summoned Tymoshenko yesterday, accusing her of misusing funds from the 2009 sale of emissions permits to Japan. Ukraine sold 30 million Assigned Amount Unit credits to Japan for 10.40 euros ($13.85) each last year, according to Bloomberg data.

Opposition lawmakers wanted to spend the night in the assembly building in the capital, Kiev, to continue their protest. Members of Yanukovych’s Party of Regions returned to the site at night and started the fight, according to Tymoshenko’s allies.

Mykhaylo Volynets, a supporter of the former premier, sustained a head injury after being hit with a chair and was taken to hospital, deputy Ivan Kyrylenko told lawmakers today.
"Those who fracture the bones and faces of their colleagues should be held legally responsible," said Mykola Martynenko, the head of Our Ukraine’s parliamentary group, in an address to the deputies. He called for the dismissal of Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn.

Yesterday’s fight was the second act of violence in parliament this year. Lawmakers in April clashed over extending a lease for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet on Ukrainian territory in an exchange for lower natural gas price.

The vote then ended with deputies hurling eggs and smoke bombs during a brawl that led to injuries, including a broken nose and a concussion for lawmakers from Our Ukraine.

Yanukovych supporters "were forced to take measures to unblock the parliament and approve laws needed for the country," Oleksandr Yefremov, the ruling party’s parliamentary leader, told lawmakers.

He said the opposition’s aim was to halt work until Dec. 31 to undermine the adoption of the 2011 budget.

Venice Commission Doubts Legitimacy Of Ukraine's Current Constitution, Says Stavniychuk

KIEV, Ukraine -- The European Commission for Democracy through Law (the Venice Commission), has raised a question of the lack of legitimacy of the current Constitution of Ukraine, a member of the Venice Commission, Maryna Stavniychuk, has said.
In an interview with Channel 5, she said that the recommendations approved by the Venice Commission on Friday "raise a question of the lack of legitimacy of the Fundamental Law of Ukraine - the Constitution, which is currently effective, due to the fact that it was enacted by the Constitutional Court's decision and not through a proper parliamentary procedure, as stipulated by the Constitution itself.

According to Stavniychuk, in this connection "the legitimacy of the government agencies is called into question."

Lutsenko Says PGO Trying To Mix Him Up In Yuschenko's Poisoning Case

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's Former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko has said that after the General Prosecutor of Ukraine charged him with embezzlement of budgetary funds, there have been attempts to mix him up in the case on the poisoning of ex-president of Ukraine (2005-2010), Viktor Yuschenko.
"There is more news. Now I they are trying to bind me to a case on Yuschenko's poisoning," Lutsenko said in an interview with the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia (Mirror Weekly) Newspaper published on Saturday.

At the same time, the ex-minister refused to specify in what way this is being done.

"I've signed a nondisclosure agreement. I cannot comment on it. I'm going to testify only after the complainant does a blood test. If he (Yuschenko) ignores the summons, why should they be questioning me?" Lutsenko said.

Ukraine Launches Pension Reform

KIEV, Ukraine -- The pension reform, initiated by President Viktor Yanukovych, was announced today. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine submitted the draft law on pension reform to the Parliament.
The draft law intends to bring the Ukrainian pension system into compliance with European standards, which include creating alternative pension funds, in addition to the only existing government fund, and raising retirement age.

The key development that the pension reform aims to introduce is the three-tier system. This includes so-called mandatory state unfunded, mandatory state funded, and voluntary private pension schemes.

Existing in most of the EU countries, such a system enables an individual to accumulate any size of pension that he or she would want to receive at retirement.

The key elements of the draft law also include raising of the retirement age, cutting down the maximum pension size, and creating savings funds.

The non-governmental funds will be created to operate along with the existing governmental one to secure pensions through insurance companies. Announcing the reform, the Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov said: "Decreasing of the Pension Fund's deficit is not the main goal of the reform.

The deficit itself will be liquidated in three to four years. The reform's main objective is to create an opportunity for people to accumulate a pension that they need or want, based on their revenues. The pension savings funds will become both a guarantee of decent pensions and a source of long-term investments for the country."

According to the Prime Minister, the existing pension system has been very unbalanced, causing a huge gap between different layers of society. While the minimum monthly pension in Ukraine is 723 UAH ($90 USD), some people receive up to 40 thousand UAH ($5,000 USD) per month. Therefore, the draft law, if enacted, will reduce the maximum pension size.

As the Ukrainian population is aging and the Pension Fund's deficit is growing, the draft law foresees gradual increase of the retirement age for women from 55 to 60. It is planned that the process will take 10 years by raising the retirement age by 6 months each year

Ukraine Ex-PM Ordered Not To Leave Kiev: Official

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko was Wednesday placed under investigation for abuse of power and ordered not to leave Kiev, in the gravest legal action yet against the Orange Revolution leader.
"She is under a pledge not to leave town," the spokesman for Ukraine's general prosecutors Yury Boichenko told AFP, saying Tymoshenko was being investigated for abuse of power and duties.

The order represented the most serious legal trouble for Tymoshenko since she was forced out of her post after the victory of the Kremlin-friendly Viktor Yanukovych in presidential elections earlier this year.

Tymoshenko, known for her long braid of golden hair and tight-fitting designer dresses, said earlier that the authorities had opened a criminal probe against her for misspending state money Ukraine received from selling greenhouse emission quotas under the Kyoto Protocol.

"I have just learnt from an investigator that a criminal probe has been started against me personally because ostensibly environmental money during the crisis was spent on pensions," she said.

She added sarcastically the probe had been opened "because I committed a grave crime -- because I paid people pensions when the country was truly in crisis".

She also told reporters she had been questioned by investigators earlier Wednesday but formal charges had not yet been brought against her because she was without her lawyer.

Tymoshenko said she told the investigators that the money in question -- 320 million euros (425 million dollars) -- was not misappropriated and is intact.

Analysts said Yanukovych's government was preparing to tackle new unpopular reforms and wanted to make sure the former premier did not take people into streets to rally against the authorities.

"Taking into consideration that preparations for new unpopular measures are starting they would like to neutralize Tymoshenko ahead of time so that she is more involved with investigators rather than political mobilisation campaigns," said Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Kiev-based Gorshenin Management Institute.

He said that the authorities would want to avoid arresting her as it would play into Tymoshenko's hands and turn her into a political martyr, exactly the goal she is seeking to achieve.

The charge carries a sentence of between seven and 10 years.

Hryhoriy Nemyria, deputy head of Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna party, said in a statement she had planned to go to Brussels where she was to meet European leaders and Yanukovych was "afraid to let Yulia Tymoshenko go abroad".

Tymoshenko -- one of the champions of the Orange Revolution that brought pro-Western leaders to power in 2005 -- is expected to return for more questioning on Monday.

"I will certainly be with my lawyer," she said in comments posted on her official website, adding that the probe into pensions meant that "these authorities want to go far."

In February, Tymoshenko lost a hard-fought presidential election battle to Yanukovych, leading her to step down as prime minister in early March and go into opposition.

Since then she has accused Yanukovych of repeated attempts to silence her and sharply criticised his policies, particularly his efforts to build closer relations with Soviet-era master Russia.

A charismatic politician, Tymoshenko is a veteran of Ukraine's hardball political scene who has experienced run-ins with the law before.

In 2001, she was detained for several weeks on charges of forgery and natural gas smuggling that were later dropped.

Ukraine: Migrants and Asylum Seekers Tortured, Mistreated

KIEV, Ukraine -- Migrants and asylum seekers, including children, risk abusive treatment and arbitrary detention at the hands of Ukrainian border guards and police, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
Some migrants recounted how officials tortured them, including with electric shocks, after they were apprehended trying to cross into the European Union or following their deportation from Slovakia and Hungary.

The 124-page report, "Buffeted in the Borderland: The Treatment of Asylum Seekers and Migrants in Ukraine," is based on interviews with 161 refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers in Ukraine, Slovakia, and Hungary. It shows that although some conditions in migration detention facilities have improved, Ukraine subjects many migrants to inhuman and degrading treatment and has been unable or unwilling to provide effective protection for refugees and asylum seekers.

"EU states are returning people to Ukraine to face abuse," said Bill Frelick, Refugee Program director at Human Rights Watch and a co-author of the report. "Despite a readmission deal and money the EU has poured in, Ukraine apparently isn't up to the task of respecting the migrants' rights and protecting refugees."

The readmission agreement between the EU and Ukraine that came into force on January 1, 2010, provides for the return of third-country nationals who enter the EU from Ukraine. In recent years, the EU has spent millions of Euros to improve Ukraine's migration and asylum system.

But Human Rights Watch noted that neither the agreement nor that funding absolve EU member states of their obligations under the EU charter of fundamental rights to provide access to asylum and not to return people to face torture or ill-treatment or of the EU members' responsibilities toward unaccompanied children.

More than half of the migrants interviewed who had been returned from Slovakia and Hungary said that they were beaten or subjected to ill-treatment in Ukraine. Most had tried to seek asylum in Hungary or Slovakia, but said their claims had been ignored and they were quickly expelled. Both countries also expelled unaccompanied children.

Readmission agreements are a cornerstone of the European Union's so-called externalization strategy for asylum and migration. The core of this strategy is to stop the flow of migrants and asylum seekers into the EU by shifting the burden and responsibility for migrants and refugees to neighboring countries they pass through.

"The EU should suspend its readmission agreement until Ukraine demonstrates its capacity to provide a fair hearing for asylum seekers, to treat migrants humanely, and to guarantee effective protection for refugees and vulnerable individuals," Frelick said.

While Human Rights Watch did not document evidence that would suggest torture of migrants is routine in Ukraine, those interviewed said it does occur. An Iraqi man spoke of his interrogation after his arrest by Ukrainian border guards in late April:

The treatment was savage. They beat us and kicked us and abused us verbally. They also electric shocked me. They shocked me on my ears. I admitted that I wanted to cross the border and that we were smuggled.... I felt my heart was going to stop. I was sitting on a chair. I just admitted everything, but they didn't stop torturing me.

Many migrants who were not tortured nevertheless alleged that they were subjected to beatings, food deprivation, or other inhuman or degrading treatment. All of these abuses take place in a climate of impunity, Human Rights Watch found, with victims fearful of reporting the abuse and perpetrators not held to account.

Although conditions of migrant detention in Ukraine, such as severe overcrowding and unsanitary conditions, appear to have improved since the publication in 2005 of a Human Rights Watch report about Ukraine, "On the Margins: Rights Violations against Migrants and Asylum Seekers at the New Eastern Border of the European Union," serious problems in migration detention remain.

They include ill-treatment, lack of access to the asylum procedure, detention of children, co-mingling of men with unrelated women and of children with adults, corruption, and the arbitrary and disproportionate use of migrant detention in general.

From August 2009 through August 2010, Ukraine was unable to recognize or provide protection to refugees because the asylum system was paralyzed by a political standoff. Although asylum processing has resumed, the system remains dysfunctional, Human Rights Watch said.

Because so many asylum seekers said they had to bribe migration officials to file asylum applications, get an interpreter for the asylum interview, or obtain required documentation, Human Rights Watch called on the authorities to investigate allegations of corruption and ensure appropriate disciplinary or criminal sanctions.

Human Rights Watch found that State Border Guard Service officials frequently fail to submit applications from detained asylum seekers to the Regional Migration Service, which conducts asylum interviews. The number of people released from border guard-controlled temporary holding facilities because their asylum applications had been accepted by the regional migration service fell dramatically, from 1,114 in 2008 to 202 in 2009.

Asylum seekers interviewed by Human Rights Watch complained that the Regional Migration Service's asylum interviews were superficial, that interpreters were often unqualified, and that the interviewers were sometimes harsh and judgmental. An Afghan who appeared to have a plausible claim said that his interviewer told him during the interview, "One hundred percent of you will be rejected."

The asylum system also has major legal gaps. Ukrainian law does not provide for protection of those who flee generalized violence and war or for trafficking victims. Only two Somalis and one unaccompanied child are known to have been granted refugee status, and children are barred from entering asylum procedures altogether in some regions of the country.

Unaccompanied children face particular obstacles to getting needed documentation and access to the asylum procedure because they can only file a claim with a legal representative, and the authorities in some regions refuse to appoint legal representatives for them. Decision-making is slow, and many children become adults before their applications are decided, which works against their claims.

Worse, border guards may detain children for weeks in a jail-like facility euphemistically called a "dormitory." Border guard officials put children's safety at risk by detaining them in this dormitory jointly with unrelated adults, including girls with boys and men, Human Rights Watch found.

"Despite the abysmal treatment these children receive in Ukraine, both Slovakia and Hungary have summarily returned unaccompanied children," said Simone Troller, senior children's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch and a co-author of the report. "In practice, they are returned on the same basis as adults, without considering their vulnerability and lack of protection in Ukraine."

A 17-year-old unaccompanied Afghan boy described his experience in Ukraine after being deported from Slovakia:

We passed the Slovakia border, but we were caught. We asked the police to help us. After one day and one night we were deported....I could not understand the paper I signed.... I'm scared to talk about Ukrainian soldiers at the border. They beat us a lot. They beat us to speak Russian. As soon as they took us they started beating us.... It was nighttime.... We walked to another room. A man in civilian clothes was just beating me. "How did you pass the border?" He took us one at a time. He kicked me and also hit me with a police stick and punched me for an hour, beating me the whole time. At first it was just him, then three or four others in uniform hit.

Despite a six-month limit on migration detention, severely overworked Ukrainian courts are usually not able to review cases in that time frame. In several instances, migrants said they were issued a six-month detention order but were never presented before a judge or given an opportunity to challenge their detention.

Many, including children, reported that border guards threatened to keep them detained for the full six months unless they paid a bribe.

Nothing in Ukrainian law prohibits the authorities from re-arresting migrants shortly after release and detaining them for another six months. Human Rights Watch met a number of migrants who had been detained multiple times. A 23-year-old Pakistani detainee at the Zhuravychi Migrant Accommodation Center said:

They just open the gates and tell you to leave. We are 40 kilometers from Luts'k. When we Pakistanis come out of jail, there are mafia people [waiting outside] with a list. They ask for US$1,500 and if we pay they will help and if not they will tear up our documents and we will go back for another six months of detention.

WikiLeaks Confirms Russian Tanks Aboard Hijacked Ship Were Bound For South Sudan

EDINBURGH, Scotland -- The WikiLeaks whistleblower website has confirmed as true a Sunday Herald investigation that found dozens of Russian-made tanks aboard a ship hijacked by Somali pirates were destined for clandestine delivery to the army of the autonomous Government of South Sudan.
Having taken the Ukrainian ship, the MV Faina, in September 2008, the pirates were shocked to find aboard 33 Russian-made T-72 tanks, 42 anti-aircraft guns and more than 800 tonnes of ammunition.

The Kenyan government quickly condemned the hijacking of the Faina, saying that its destination was the port of Mombasa and that the tanks had been bought for use by the Kenyan Army.

A Sunday Herald investigation found that there were very few good guys in the saga. The tanks, in addition to at least 67 previously shipped, were in fact destined for delivery to the Government of South Sudan, which put it in breach of Sudan’s 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended a 21-year civil war between north and south in which more than 2 million people died.

Classified US State Department cables published by WikiLeaks show not only that the Sunday Herald’s information was right as regards the tanks’ actual destination, but that Washington had encouraged the delivery of weapons to South Sudan even though it was the main guarantor of the peace agreement.

The WikiLeaks revelations about US-approved weapons deliveries come at one of the most delicate times in the history of Sudan.

The nation, Africa’s largest, is on the verge of splitting in two. Black African Southern Sudanese, mainly animists and Christians, are scheduled to vote on January 9 in a referendum for their independence from northern Sudan, which is dominated by Muslim Arabs.

If things go wrong, world governments fear Sudan could once more tip over into civil war.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has described the situation in advance of the historic referendum as “a ticking time bomb”.

The WikiLeaks documents show that an extraordinary row broke out between the United States government and the governments of Kenya and Ukraine following the hijacking of the Faina and the revelation of the secret weapons shipment.

Despite its secret approval of previous weapons deliveries via Kenya to South Sudan, it appears that the Washington administration began to lose its nerve as the affair became public and threatened “sweeping sanctions” against both Kenya and Ukraine, asserting that the tank deliveries were illegal.

The Kenyans were deeply angered and “very confused” by the threats from President Barack Obama’s administration, according to the leaked State Department cables, “since the past transfers had been undertaken in consultation with the United States.”

The American ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, was given the impossible task of reprimanding the Kenyans despite the fact that the weapons deliveries were carried out with the full knowledge of Washington.

The cables said the American flip-flop “led to a commotion on the Ukrainian side”.

In a story worthy of John Le Carré, the Sunday Herald’s investigation, showed that the owner of the Faina – which had at least three previous names and was registered in Belize – is a Ukraine-based Israeli named Vadim Alperin, who has links to Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, and Mossad agents front companies in Kenya.

Alperin and the chief of Ukraine’s foreign intelligence service, Mykola Malomuzh, together met the Faina when it arrived in Mombasa after the United States 5th Fleet surrounded the vessel and the pirates settled for a minimal $2 million ransom, paid in dollar bills and parachuted on to the Faina’s deck from a light aircraft.

The cables indicate that the first US-approved delivery of Russian tanks via Ukraine and Kenya to South Sudan took place in 2007.

Before the Faina was hijacked, at least 67 T-72s had already been delivered to the South Sudan government in Juba.

In the northern city of Khartoum, capital of united Sudan, Ghazi Salah al-Din al-Atabani, one of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s top advisers, chuckled as he told a correspondent from the New York Times: “We knew it [American involvement in the delivery of tanks to the South] – yeah, we knew it.”

The Sunday Herald also revealed that Khartoum had kept quiet about South Sudan’s armaments acquisitions because it was itself in breach of an international arms embargo in relation to the separate conflict in the western province of Darfur, for which President al-Bashir has been indicted for genocide by The Hague-based International Criminal Court.

Given its problems with Darfur and the ICC, it was in the interests of the al-Bashir government to stay silent.

The leaked cables show the United States’ top diplomat in Khartoum, Alberto Fernandez, advising Washington that in the case of any future clandestine tank deliveries to South Sudan it should avoid a repeat hijacking by Somali pirates and “the attention it has drawn.”

The tanks from the Faina remain parked in a Kenyan army barracks near Nairobi.

Vanco Delays Ukraine Arbitration Hearing For A Second Time

MOSCOW, Russia -- Vanco Prykerchenska Ltd., a Black Sea oil exploration partnership, said it will postpone arbitration hearings with the government of Ukraine for a second time as the two sides seek a settlement over a disputed license.
“We are satisfied with the negotiation process,” Jim Bown, company president, said on its website today. “More time was needed to complete all the formalities and clarify all details related to the future amicable agreement.”

The announcement came after the two sides extended an arbitration case due to be held in Stockholm for three months this July. The latest postponement is for a similar time period. Oleksandr Kolodiy, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Fuel and Energy Ministry, declined to comment when reached by phone.

Ukraine’s government, led by then-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, revoked Vanco’s permit to explore for hydrocarbons in the Black Sea in April 2008. The government said the license was issued illegally and that the company wouldn’t have enough money to finance the project. Vanco appealed the decision.

Tymoshenko’s government was ousted in March after Viktor Yanukovych won elections and formed a cabinet under Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.

Vanco Prykerchenska is part-owned by Houston-based explorer Vanco Energy Co. Partners include Shadowlight Investments Ltd., a private investment company owned by Evgeny Novitsky, who is also a director at AFK Sistema.

DTEK, controlled by Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov, also owns a share, as well as Integrum Technologies Ltd., according to the site.

Holiday In Chernobyl: Ukraine To Lift Restrictions On Disaster Site

KIEV. Ukraine -- Ukraine says it will lift restrictions on tourism in the zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 2011, formally opening the scene of the world's worst nuclear accident to visitors.
A limited number of visitors already are allowed into the 30-kilometer (19-mile) exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which exploded and burned in 1986.

The Ukrainian government will present a detailed plan for lifting the remaining restrictions on travel to the area December 21, said Viktor Baloga, the former Soviet republic's emergency situations minister.

Background radiation in the accident zone is still well above normal. But far from being a wasteland, wildlife has rebounded in the exclusion zone and trees are reclaiming the ghost city of Pripyat, said Mary Mycio, author of "Wormwood Forest," a 2005 book on the area.

"It is very moving and interesting and a beautiful monument to technology gone awry," Mycio said.

The April 1986 accident killed 32 plant workers and firefighters directly, and the International Atomic Energy Agency estimates nearly 4,000 more will die of related cancers from the radioactive material released by the disaster.

Currently, guides from the Chernobyl Zone Authority take about 20 to 30 people into the exclusion zone a day during the summers, said Yuri Rozgoni, whose Toronto-based travel agency, Ukrainianweb, books tours to the site.

The tours typically take between five and six hours, not counting the drive to and from the Ukrainian capital Kiev, he said.

While travel is no longer restricted to scientists and researchers, "The only way to enter the zone (now) is with a certified guide on a certified tour group," Rozgoni said. "That's a huge restriction."

Guides monitor radiation levels and "know where the people can go and where the people cannot go," he said.

Mycio said tourists should wear "something that you wouldn't mind leaving behind in case it does get dirty." But most radioactive material has sunk into the soil, and visitors receive a dose comparable to the exposure they would receive on a trans-Atlantic flight.

"The only concern I would have is if too many people come in and it becomes this nuclear Disneyland," Mycio said. "That would take away from a wildlife sanctuary (that has thrived) in the absence of people."

Ukraine ‘Ceases’ Arms Sales To Burma

NORWAY, Oslo -- A leaked 2009 cable from the US embassy in Kiev says that Washington successfully petitioned the Ukrainian government to stop selling arms to the Burmese military.
“[Ukraine] had received the US demarche and was no longer exporting weapons to Burma”, said the 11 September 2009 cable, released on Monday by the whistleblower website, Wikileaks.

The Ukrainians have had a solid arms dealing history with Burma, described in the cable as “deliberate Ukrainian government actions that are contrary to US philosophy on exports”, despite the US being the world’s largest arms dealer.

Ukrainian weapons assistance for the pariah Southeast Asian state includes help for the Myanmar Integrated Air Defence System (MIADS), which has also been aided by Chinese and Russian input.

According to Amnesty International, Kiev signed a $US500 million contract in 2004 to supply some 1000 BTR-3U light-armoured personnel carriers (APC) to Burma, the same year that state-owned UkrSpetsExport set up office in a Rangoon hotel.

The APCs compliment an alleged 2003 deal for a consignment of Soviet T-72 battle tanks, which the cable claims the Ukrainians have stopped selling to southern Sudan “despite US satellite photos to the contrary.”

Benjamin Zawacki, Burma researcher at Amnesty International, told DVB that “there is no way of verifying whether or not the Ukrainians have indeed ceased selling arms…and we certainly have anecdotal evidence that that this hasn’t happened”.

Amnesty also alleges that Ukraine assisted in the construction of a small arms-producing factory in Burma, while the cable expresses concern about Ukrainian “specialty steel” exports to Iran for missile technology.

It reports however that Kiev told the US in 2008 that “Ukrainian exports to Burma were ‘as good as zero’ in part due to previous US warnings, and Ukraine had not signed any new contracts with Burma in the last two and a half years. Current exports were just spare parts. The remaining business was so small that the company involved had recalled all of its workers from Burma”.

Amnesty indicates however that Ukraine is, along with China, Russia, Serbia and Singapore, one of the top five arms dealers to the Burmese junta. But this is by no means an exclusive group, as countries such as Israel, Pakistan and India all add to the list.

“We certainly welcome it if it were true but I greet it with some scepticism,” Zawacki says. “But I would love to see some sort of official statement to that effect.”

Ukraine's Finance Ministry Claims Previous Government Embezzled USD $375 Million

KIEV, Ukraine -- The Minister of Finance of Ukraine Fedir Yaroshenko stated in a press briefing today that the Ministry's investigation of the recently conducted international audit had revealed the embezzlement of 3 billion UAH (USD $375 million) by Yulia Tymoshenko's government.
The Minister also said that the Ministry's auditing report on public spending in 2008-2009 had already been submitted to the General Prosecutor's Office and to the Ukrainian Parliament.

The main violations according to the above mentioned report are the breaches of public procurement procedure for sugar, vaccines, and expensive foreign cars. There were violations even when selling carbon credits to other countries.

The Minister also added that according to an internal audit carried out by the Main Control and Revision Office of Ukraine (MCROU, Public Spending Inspection) released on 22 October 2010, the total amount of Yulia Tymoshenko's government violations in spending of Ukraine's public funds in 2008-2009 reached 53 bln UAH ($6.6 billion USD).

The audit was conducted by three US-based companies, Trout Cacheris PLLC, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer&Feld LLP and Kroll Inc. and was released on October 14. The fees that the Ukrainian government paid to international auditors amounted to USD $2.9 million.

As a result of the audit, the present Ukrainian government filed two lawsuits in the UK and US courts with the aim to recover the funds misspent by Yulia Tymoshenko's government from various companies which had been found involved in the money laundering schemes.

Ukraine's Leadership Launches Vital Reforms

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych and his administration embark on implementing four key reforms, namely, tax, administrative, anti-corruption and pension reforms.
This announcement was made by the President and his key staff members during the last four days following the signing of the tax code, a milestone development in the fundamental tax reform.

In the coming days the President and his team plan to announce the launch of additional three reforms. The draft laws are currently being prepared by the President's administration and relevant Ministries.

The first step in this process was taken last week, when the President signed the Tax Code into law. Adopted after a long public discussion with the representatives of national business, the so-called "Ukraine's tax bible" will come into effect as early as January 2011. The number of taxes will be reduced from 42 to 23. The main tax rates (income tax and VAT) will also be decreased.

Pension reform is another key priority. As the Ukrainian population is aging and the Pension Fund's deficit is growing, the government plans to gradually increase the retirement age for women from 55 to 60. This unpopular measure, also faced by many EU countries, is to be introduced by a new law drafted by the President's administration.

The deficit of the Pension Fund of Ukraine is now 60 billion Ukrainian hryvnias (approximately 7.5 billion USD). The ratio between the working and retired people is also getting dangerous: 17 million working people compared to 15 million retirees.

The anti-corruption provisions are foreseen by the National Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2011-2014. Among others, the package includes such measures as securing control over the financing of the political parties and public control over the public funds expenditure.

Ukraine was obliged to adopt anti-corruption legislation as a condition for entering the GRECO group (The Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption).

The administrative reform, in its turn, is to reduce by more than a third the number of public servants by shutting down one third of the existing Ministries.

Presumably, this reform will be foreseen by the state budget for the next year, which is to be approved by no later than 24 December. A special draft law is also prepared by the President's administration.

Ukraine May Export 4 Million Tons Of Grain By March, UkrAgroConsult Says

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine may export about 4 million metric tons of grain by the end of next March even if the government lengthens caps on outbound shipments, according to UkrAgroConsult.
An extension of the limits until March 31 would still allow traders to ship 1 million tons of grain a month, Liza Malyshko, an analyst at the Kiev-based researcher, said today by phone.

Exporters have made shipments equating to about 11 percent of the current quotas, she said.

The Economy Ministry yesterday proposed extending the caps, scheduled to expire Dec. 31, through 2011’s first quarter. It also suggested adding an extra 1 million tons of corn and 500,000 tons of wheat to the current 2.7 million-ton export quota.

The government imposed the curbs in October after dry weather damaged crops.

Ukraine has exported 5.3 million tons of grain since the current marketing year started on July 1, of which 250,000 to 300,000 tons fell under the quota, according to Malyshko. That leaves about 2.4 million tons to be used, she said.

The current quota comprises 2 million tons of corn, 500,000 tons of wheat and 200,000 tons of barley.

Ukraine’s grain-export potential for the current marketing year is between 14 million and 15 million tons, depending on final stockpile calculations by the national statistics office later this month, Malyshko said.

Export potential in the year may be about 6 million tons for both corn and wheat and about 3.6 million tons for barley, according to UkrAgroConsult. Ukraine has shipped 2.22 million tons of wheat, 2.3 million tons of barley and 440,000 tons of corn so far in the period, Malyshko said.

Ukraine And Poland To Revive Odessa-Brody Pipeline

KIEV, Ukraine -- The Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov and the Marshal of the Polish Senate Bogdan Borusevich discussed the plans of the two countries to revive the use of the Odessa-Brody pipeline.
The high officials also mentioned a possibility of constructing a new leg of the pipeline. Presumably, it will stretch all the way to the Northern Polish city of Gdansk, and thus will make one step forward towards the establishment of a new route to transport the Caspian oil to the EU countries.

During his meeting with Mykola Azarov, Bogdan Borusevich stated that he considers the stretching of the Odessa-Brody pipeline to Gdansk, Poland, being prospective. Borusevich mentioned that realization of the project will become ever more relevant for Poland now that oil transfers through Druzhba pipeline might get reduced.

Druzhba is the world's largest pipeline system carrying oil from European Russia through Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Germany. Marshal also pointed out that Polish investors have purchased oil refinery in Lithuania.

In this respect there is a possibility to build a branch of the Odesa-Brody pipeline to the refinery.

"The Ukrainian side has already built its part of the pipeline, but Poland, unfortunately, has not", Borusevich added. "I was pleased to hear that Azarov's government is interested in the Polish-Ukrainian cooperation on this and other projects in the field of energy security".

On November 23, 2010, the Ukrtransnafta company completed the testing of the Odesa-Brody pipeline in the direction of Druzhba's southern branch. In 2009, a Polish pipeline company Sarmatia made a prediction that the construction of the conduct pipe in question would reach Plotsk and Gdansk before 2012.

The Odesa-Brody pipeline is a crude oil pipeline between the Ukrainian cities of Odesa on the Black Sea, and Brody near the Ukrainian-Polish border.

The usage and the direction of the Odessa-Brody pipeline is viewed to be of considerable geopolitical significance, since it provides a new route to diversify oil supplies to the EU.

The pipeline was originally intended to reach Gdansk in order to transfer oil from the Caspian Sea (mainly from Kazakhstan) to the Polish Baltic Sea port and from there to the rest of Europe.

Ukraine Marks Armed Forces Day

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's Armed Forces require new state policy of its restructuring according to modern challenges and threats in the global security system, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said on Monday.
"Ukraine is ready to create a mobile, professional army equipped with modern weapons and tools," Yanukovych said in an address marking the 19th anniversary of the Army Day.

The president, who is the army's chief, called achieving the European level of social standards for military personnel an important step toward high-professional army

"Modern technology can be entrusted only to highly educated, high-quality trained professionals. The effectiveness of command and control, radical changes in the resource and logistical support - this is our task for the near future," Yanukovych said.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine incorporate the army, air force and navy.

The Defense Ministry said earlier the Ukrainian army will be reduced from 200,000 to 160,000 personnel over the next five years.

Turkey no longer fears Russian military strength

Russia is no longer seen as a threat to Turkey – but debate rages over whether this is a triumph for Moscow’s diplomacy or a humiliating comedown for the nation’s armed forces.

Ankara has removed Russia from its so-called “Red Book” of potentially hostile states, along with neighbours Greece and Armenia and the Middle East trio of Syria, Iran and Iraq. Meanwhile Israel is added to the hit list after the storm over the summer “Freedom Flotilla” which set sail from Turkey but was blocked from landing in Palestine by Israeli forces.

But it’s Russia’s exclusion which has prompted most conversation.

The official view is that Russia’s active role in trying to mediate the on-going conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan makes Moscow a valuable ally in promoting stability in the volatile trans-Caucasus.

The document highlights warmer relations under the guidance of Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan, which involves closer economic ties as well as concluding the Nagorno-Karabakh war.

And strategists in Ankara conclude that “the threat of communism has finally lifted”.

But a more pragmatic stance offers less cause for Russia to celebrate, according to military analyst Andrei Areshev, deputy director of the Strategic Cultural Foundation.

He suggests Turkey is simply no longer all that concerned about the muscle of its giant historic rival on the other side of the Black Sea.

“Among the expert community it has been assumed that Turkey will remove Russia from the list of potential threats after a comparative analysis of the capabilities of the Russian and Turkish armies,” Areshev said.

“Turkey has a strong military, while the combat capability of the Russian army is in a permanent state of reform, which raises questions.”

Whether the latest signals from Turkey represent growing enthusiasm for Moscow’s interests or dwindling respect for Russia’s military could be less significant than what happens next.

Both countries have a shared interest in gas and oil transit to Europe, with Turkey currently signed up to the Nabucco pipeline scheme which enables the EU to access central Asian resources while bypassing Russia.

If Russia can use improved relationships with Ankara to slow that scheme it will boost the prospects of Gazprom’s treasured South Stream project becoming the market leader in gas transit to the Balkans and beyond.

Meanwhile Russian strategists may hope that they can use a less hostile Turkey as a means of easing tensions with NATO in south-eastern Europe.

The western alliance’s efforts to expand in that region have regularly alarmed Russia, which fears “encirclement” by US and European forces on its western borders, particularly if the likes of Ukraine and Georgia join the NATO club.

Origami Trojan Takes Shape In Russia, Ukraine

A new banking trojan, called Origami, is being used to attack bank customers in Russia and Ukraine, according to Joe Stewart, director of malware research at SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit.
The attacks on Russian and Ukrainian bank customers is a switch for bank trojans, which tend to originate in Russia and Ukraine and attack Western targets.

At the DLP Russian 2010 conference in Moscow this week, Stewart explained that there had been an “unspoken rule” among Russian trojan developers not to infect Russian computers. But times are changing.

Stewart said that the Origami trojan currently has limited distribution, but it is a “highly capable credential-stealing trojan”.

The SecureWorks researcher supplied a “heat map” of Origami trojan infections. Most of the infections were centered around the Russian capital of Moscow and the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, but there were also concentrations in eastern Ukraine, as well as Belarus, Lithuania, Moldova, and Germany.

Stewart explained that anti-virus software is only 20% effective against a credential-stealing trojan like Origami. He recommended a “layered defense”, which includes patch management, commercial anti-virus software, network firewall with strict egress policies, web proxy with scanning/blocking capability, network intrusion prevention system (IPS) with malware ruleset, host-based IPS/firewalls, and executable whitelisting.

On the policy side, he recommended more global cooperation against trojans and other cybercrime, including cooperation between law enforcement agencies around the world and between law enforcement and private companies.

Ukraine Defends Arrest Of Belarusian Activists On Drugs Charges

ZHYTOMYR, Ukraine -- Ukrainian authorities have defended the arrests of four well-known Belarusian opposition activists on drug charges
Ihar Koktysh, Tatsyana Koktysh, Vital Tsishchanka, and Artsyom Dubsky were detained in the central Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr on November 3 together with a Ukrainian woman, Iryna Tyutyunnik, at Tyutyunnik's apartment, on suspicion of illegal possession of drugs.

Tyutyunnik phoned the local newspaper "20 Minutes" and told journalists that police entered her apartment, saying they were looking for a wanted criminal.

Instead of checking the identity of her guests, however, they searched the apartment and found a packet of green powder which Tyutyunnik says was planted.

When two correspondents from "20 Minutes" arrived at the apartment, police took away their cameras and tape recorder by force.

But Ukrainian Interior Ministry spokesman Dmytro Andreyev told journalists in Kyiv on November 4 that police had acted on information that people in the apartment were involved in illegal drugs consumption and distribution.

He said police "conducted a search in an apartment in the city of Zhytomyr and found a packet with 10 grams of a substance that resembled marijuana."

Everyone in the apartment at the time of the search was arrested, Andreyev said. He said the search was conducted as a part of an investigation into illegal drug-trafficking in the region.

Ukraine Defends Arrest Of Belarusian Activists On Drugs Charges

ZHYTOMYR, Ukraine -- Ukrainian authorities have defended the arrests of four well-known Belarusian opposition activists on drug charges
Ihar Koktysh, Tatsyana Koktysh, Vital Tsishchanka, and Artsyom Dubsky were detained in the central Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr on November 3 together with a Ukrainian woman, Iryna Tyutyunnik, at Tyutyunnik's apartment, on suspicion of illegal possession of drugs.

Tyutyunnik phoned the local newspaper "20 Minutes" and told journalists that police entered her apartment, saying they were looking for a wanted criminal.

Instead of checking the identity of her guests, however, they searched the apartment and found a packet of green powder which Tyutyunnik says was planted.

When two correspondents from "20 Minutes" arrived at the apartment, police took away their cameras and tape recorder by force.

But Ukrainian Interior Ministry spokesman Dmytro Andreyev told journalists in Kyiv on November 4 that police had acted on information that people in the apartment were involved in illegal drugs consumption and distribution.

He said police "conducted a search in an apartment in the city of Zhytomyr and found a packet with 10 grams of a substance that resembled marijuana."

Everyone in the apartment at the time of the search was arrested, Andreyev said. He said the search was conducted as a part of an investigation into illegal drug-trafficking in the region.

Ukraine Defends Arrest Of Belarusian Activists On Drugs Charges

ZHYTOMYR, Ukraine -- Ukrainian authorities have defended the arrests of four well-known Belarusian opposition activists on drug charges
Ihar Koktysh, Tatsyana Koktysh, Vital Tsishchanka, and Artsyom Dubsky were detained in the central Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr on November 3 together with a Ukrainian woman, Iryna Tyutyunnik, at Tyutyunnik's apartment, on suspicion of illegal possession of drugs.

Tyutyunnik phoned the local newspaper "20 Minutes" and told journalists that police entered her apartment, saying they were looking for a wanted criminal.

Instead of checking the identity of her guests, however, they searched the apartment and found a packet of green powder which Tyutyunnik says was planted.

When two correspondents from "20 Minutes" arrived at the apartment, police took away their cameras and tape recorder by force.

But Ukrainian Interior Ministry spokesman Dmytro Andreyev told journalists in Kyiv on November 4 that police had acted on information that people in the apartment were involved in illegal drugs consumption and distribution.

He said police "conducted a search in an apartment in the city of Zhytomyr and found a packet with 10 grams of a substance that resembled marijuana."

Everyone in the apartment at the time of the search was arrested, Andreyev said. He said the search was conducted as a part of an investigation into illegal drug-trafficking in the region.

Ukraine's Government Vows To Put End To Pirate Soft In State Agencies

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's government is going to install licensed software onto all of the state agencies' computers within the next six months, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Borys Kolesnikov said in time of a meeting with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Friday.
"The first task we have set for the local offices of the corporation is complete legalization of the software used in the state agencies," the website of the Ukrainian government quoted Kolesnikov as saying.

The move will be of advantage not only to Microsoft but also to Ukraine from the perspective of investment and modernization, Ballmer said.

Q&A With Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko

KIEV, Ukraine -- Last week Ukrainians voted in local elections that many considered a test of the country’s commitment to democracy.
It was the first balloting since President Viktor Yanukovych, the Moscow-backed antagonist of the 2004 Orange Revolution, ousted the pro-Western revolution’s leader, then-president Viktor Yushchenko, roughly a year ago.

Yushchenko lost the presidency in the first round, claiming only about 5 percent of the vote.

NEWSWEEK contributor William Schreiber spoke with Yushchenko about the recent elections, his legacy, and Ukraine’s strategic relationship with Russia.

Were last week’s elections fair?

The law allows a one-party monopoly of election commissions. It doesn’t allow the reversal of election results or the recognition of results as invalid. With such laws, can fraud take place? Obviously. But excuse me for revealing our messy kitchen.

Was Yanukovych the better choice for advocates of resetting U.S.-Russian relations?

The politics that have won today in Ukraine are not in anyone’s best interest. These are not even the kind of politics that make Russia more stable. Ukraine can play a greater role in this region only when it achieves European freedoms, democracy, and a clear security policy.

Is Ukraine closer to EU integration today than it was before the Orange Revolution?

It depends on whether European leaders are ready not only to stand up for their values but also to ensure their expansion on the continent. Internally, of course, I’m pessimistic. During recent years the government has carried out economic and social reforms weakly.

You recently took personal responsibility for your loss in 2010. You said a single person lost, not millions of Ukrainians. What did you mean by that?

What happened a year ago [Yanukovych’s election] was not a failure from the point of view of democracy as an ideology. The majority of society didn’t vote for him. The majority of people neither share his system of values nor approve of his policy.

And that is why I can’t claim that society lost — no. Its direction is still democratic and pro-Ukrainian. This was not a failure of values that happened a year ago.

This was a lesson God gave us so that we’ll have better self-realization. So I declared that if someone wants to talk about failure, let it be my personal failure.

Do you have any regrets?

Working with [former prime minister Yulia] Tymoshenko. Her politics destroyed this country’s democratic expectations. Her behavior in government was more befitting a showman, not a prime minister.

Tymoshenko has emerged as leader of the opposition. Is she important for Ukraine today?

[Russia’s] biggest dream is to have a Yanukovych government and Tymoshenko as the main opposition. This is Moscow’s best-case scenario. Their politics are identical. Power and fame—those are the only things these two serve.

Is your political career over?

I’m not interested in who I will be. I was twice elected head of the National Bank. I have been a prime minister and a president. For one person, that’s probably enough. I can tell my kids that I devoted everything to my nation.

What will history books say about the Orange Revolution?

The last five years have brought rights and freedoms to the Ukrainian public: freedom of speech and identity. That can’t be erased. We started to be proud that we are Ukrainians.

Before that we were confused whether we were Russia or a separate country. Our strivings were so universally human, they carried such high standards, that the whole world came to know about us.

The Orange Revolution was the continuation of independence. I think that in time people may see my presidency and the Orange Revolution in this light.

Ukrainian Appeals To Anti-Semitism In Election Win

KIEV, Ukraine -- A surprise showing by an extreme-right nationalist party in the Ukraine's local elections has put the party and its leader - and its anti-Semitic rhetoric - into the national spotlight
Svoboda (Freedom), which until recently had been relegated to Ukraine's political fringe, handily won in three of the country's western-most provinces in Sunday's vote, preliminary tallies show.

Local elections held in the former Soviet republic propelled Svoboda to surprise victories in Ukraine's Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano- Frankivsk regions.

Svoboda, whose campaign program emphasized Ukrainian patriotism and resistance to the Kremlin, captured between 30 and 34 per cent of the popular vote in the three districts, according to a survey by the Research and Branding Group.

By contrast, its closest rivals obtained between 10 and 13 per cent in each local contest.

Svoboda also tripled its popularity in Ukraine's central and northern regions, as compared with the results of the 2010 presidential elections, according to mostly complete official ballot counts.

Oleh Tyahnybok, 41 and a former surgeon, is Svoboda's charismatic leader. His oratory, with its unique mix of erudition, pithy peasant wit and passion, stands out in Ukraine's political arena.

Tyahnybok calls himself a patriot fighting for his country. His opponents call him a racist and neo-Nazi.

'That's baseless lies, Svoboda is for equal rights for all Ukrainians,' an angry Tyahnybok said during a pre-election television talk show. 'Anyone who is for an independent Ukraine is our ally.'

Svoboda's grassroots are in old Galicia, a rugged region formerly belonging to Austria-Hungary and Poland. Unlike the rest of Ukraine, it came under Russian control only after World War II.

Tyahnybok quit medicine in 1996 and entered parliament in 2002 as a member of the Our Ukraine political party, headed by former president Viktor Yushchenko.

Our Ukraine, like Svoboda, supports market reforms and closer relations between Ukraine and Western Europe. But Tyahnybok's rhetoric has stirred up controversy.

Yushchenko expelled Tyahnybok from Our Ukraine in 2005 over a televised Tyahnybok diatribe in which he praised Ukrainian partisans who fought 'Ruskies, the Krauts, Jewishness and other unclean elements.'

He called on the Yushchenko government to strike fear into the 'Russky-Kike mafia' purportedly running Ukraine.

Yushchenko's political star has waned badly since then, and Our Ukraine managed to capture only 2.3 per cent of the national vote in the Sunday vote.

Outside Ukraine's western region, where Svoboda achieved outright victories, the party drew 5.1 per cent of ballots cast nationwide, making it Ukraine's fifth-most popular political party, according to a GfK exit poll.

'A couple of years ago, Tyahnybok's men were regarded as a marginal group...Today, they are a really influential force,' wrote Ukrainian political commentator Konstantin Dymov in an article titled 'The Nazification of Galicia.'

The Svoboda party platform, which criticizes oligarchs and tycoons, makes some commonplace proposals directed at the middle class, along with nationalist criticism of Russia.

The party calls for farm assistance, cracking down on corruption and a foreign policy that puts 'Russia and Ukraine on equal terms...rather than like the Tsar to his slave.'

Tyahnybok's sure feel for his electorate, and its dissatisfaction with Ukraine's Russia-leaning government, was in full evidence on May 27 in Lviv, when thousands of angry demonstrators turned out to hurl catcalls and insults at President Viktor Yanukovych's vehicle convoy.

Tyahanybok fired up the crowd with an angry speech attacking the president and his administration. Later in the day students put on a humorous street play featuring Yanukovych as a bewildered prison convict - a nasty reference to assault and robbery sentences Ukraine's president served in his youth.

One actor, playing the part of a stereotypical Orthodox Jew complete with wire glasses and Yiddish accent, obsequiously promised to rewrite Ukraine's history books: 'That's right your worship, there never were any Ukrainians. And their language - it's not a language, it's just Russian with a Polish accent!'

Alexander Lebedev's Empire Suffers Another Blow With Hotel Raid In Ukraine

MOSCOW, Russia -- Alexander Lebedev, the Russian owner of Britain's Independent and London Evening Standard newspapers, suffered another bruising blow to his business empire today after police carried out a raid on his luxury hotel in Ukraine.
Dozens of tax officers burst into the More resort in Alushta, on Crimea's south-eastern coast, early yesterday. They seized documents and computers. Officials from Ukraine's SBU security service swarmed over the hotel today.

The raid came 48 hours after masked, gun-toting special forces stormed Lebedev's National Reserve Bank in Moscow.

Russian police said the search on Tuesday was connected to a criminal investigation into employees from another bank.

Lebedev today told the Guardian it had been a bad week. But he said he would not bow to forces within Russia's murky power structure who were apparently hellbent on making him flee.

"I'm still here [in Russia]. I live here," Lebedev said. He added that he had spent the past three days trying to "decipher" the blunt "psychological" message sent by the bank raid. "In the worst-case scenario the message is: 'Get out of Russia.'"

Lebedev said that when detectives burst in, he was in the bank's underground swimming pool. "I frankly thought they had come to arrest me," he said, adding: "I decided to keep swimming, thinking I would enjoy the pool for the last time."

Lebedev, a billionaire who co-owns the airline Aeroflot and the Russian opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, said it would be wrong to link the two investigations against him in Russia and Ukraine. Nor would it be correct to blame Russia's prime minister, Vladimir Putin, he said.

Instead, he pointed to Ukraine's president, Viktor Yanukovych, a close ally of the Kremlin. He said Yanukovych had ordered in the tax police after taking offence at an article in this week's Evening Standard.

The story, which appeared with no byline on Tuesday, recalled how during Ukraine's election campaign Yanukovych had hailed the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov as "a great Ukrainian poet". Ukraine's leader had committed a "Dubya-like gaffe", the Standard wrote.

Lebedev said he had nothing to do with the article. "He [Yanukovych] thinks I was preparing the article myself. He thinks a publisher like myself has influence on British newspapers."

It appeared just before Yanukovych was to travel to London, compounding what the president perceived as a deliberate slight, Lebedev said. The tycoon consistently denies exerting any influence on his British newspapers.

He went on: "Yanukovych doesn't know what the world is. He's not very educated. I don't think he really understands what life is in Moscow, Paris or London."

One Ukrainian diplomat today dismissed Lebedev's claims as "ridiculous", adding: "The Standard is hardly the FT, the Guardian or the Wall Street Journal." He said: "Lebedev co-operates with the governments of Ukraine and Russia. He's in Russia's political elite rather than out."

Asked if further attacks on his Russian interests would have a negative impact on his British newspaper titles, Lebedev replied: "I hope not." But he conceded that he was now in a vulnerable position. "The worst-case scenario is somebody decides to crash it [his business]," he said.

Lebedev's seaside complex in Alushta includes a hotel, holiday villas, a pool, a spa and a narrow rocky beach, set among steep cliffs and attractive subtropical gardens of palm trees and pines. The resort is the biggest in Crimea and one of the largest in Europe. It employs 1,500 people.

Today Lebedev said he had invested $100m in the complex, and was one of the region's biggest taxpayers. He added that he would close down the hotel on Monday, plunging locals into unemployment, if the tax authorities continued their campaign.

He also alleged that Yanukovych was trying to seize the Hotel Ukraine in Kiev.

Lebedev is a co-investor with the Ukrainian government in the hotel, and has spent $40m on its renovation. The development has been mired in legal battles.

Lebedev is one of the largest foreign investors in Ukraine, with assets including a bank and an insurance company. He spent ¤10m renovating the country's Chekhov theatre, which hosts an annual Chekhov festival, and has been visited by Sir Tom Stoppard, Kevin Spacey and John Malkovich.

Profile: Viktor Chernomyrdin, Former Russian PM

MOSCOW, Russia -- Viktor Chernomyrdin, who died age 72 on Wednesday, led the Russian government from 1992 to 1998, and was responsible for both the successes and failures of the economic reforms of the time.
He turned the Soviet Gas Ministry into Gazprom, an energy company which has become a powerful lever of Russian foreign policy.

Russians remember Mr Chernomyrdin for his colourful language, which was perhaps not always as correct as a politician's should be, but more often than not it was accurate.

Perhaps the best known of his many notable quotes was used in reference to Russia's financial reforms. He said: "We wanted the best, but it turned out as it always does."

His popularity with Russians was highlighted on Wednesday when his name (written in Cyrillic) was one of the main topics being talked about on the Twitter social networking service. It is one of the rare occasions that a word in the Cyrillic script has made it onto Twitter's list of global trends.

Mr Chernomyrdin's first major political post was as deputy minister responsible for the Soviet gas industry. In 1985 he became minister, and in 1989 he became the head of Gazprom. He remained close to Gazprom in subsequent years.

In 1992, the then Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, appointed Mr Chernomyrdin as prime minister. At the time, Mr Yeltsin had been under pressure from the Communist opposition to replace the free-market liberal prime minister Yegor Gaidar.

However, Mr Chernomyrdin, who had been a member of the Communist Party, did not alter the course of Mr Gaidar's economic reforms.

Mr Chernomyrdin led the government through the first Chechen war. In the summer of 1995, Chechen rebels seized hostages at a hospital in the city of Budennovsk.

Mr Chernomyrdin led the negotiations with the rebel leader, Shamil Basayev, and is remembered for one particular phone call to Mr Basayev, during which he shouted down the telephone: "Shamil Basayev, you must talk louder!"

In 1996, Mr Yeltsin was re-elected president and Mr Chernomyrdin continued in his role as prime minister, and even became acting president for a few hours in September that year when Mr Yeltsin had an operation.
In March 1998, Mr Yeltsin, who was being seen less and less frequently in public, unexpectedly relieved Mr Chernomyrdin of his position.

But in the spring of 1999, Mr Chernomyrdin was in demand again during the Kosovo conflict. He was appointed Mr Yeltsin's special envoy and he mediated between Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and the West.

Diplomats generally agreed that Mr Chernomyrdin played a successful role, by persuading Mr Milosevic to withdraw his troops from Kosovo, a move which ended Nato's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.

In 2001, the then president, Vladimir Putin, appointed Mr Chernomyrdin Russian ambassador to Ukraine. It turned out to be an important role, as 80% of Russian gas exports flow through Ukraine.

There were repeated spats between the two countries over the gas exports. Ukraine's Orange Revolution in 2004, which the Kremlin saw as a threat, also led to a distinct cooling in relations between the neighbours.

In 2009, Mr Chernomyrdin left his post in Ukraine and in the months before he died, he worked as an advisor to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on economic ties with former Soviet countries.

He will be buried at Moscow's famous Novodevichy cemetery, which is the final resting place for many of Russia's best-known and most respected historical figures.

Ukraine Must Stop Harassment Of Trade Union Activist

KIEV, Ukraine -- Amnesty International has urged Ukraine authorities to stop the harassment of a trade union activist who remains in hiding after a court ordered him to undergo a forced psychiatric examination.
A court in Vinnytsya, south west Ukraine on 29 October granted the order for an examination after prosecutors argued that Andrei Bondarenko has an "excessive awareness of his own and others' rights and [an] his uncontrollable readiness to defend these rights in unrealistic ways."

Andrei Bondarenko has no record of mental illness and has already undergone three psychiatric examinations to prove his sanity. The most recent examination took place in October.

The court ruling against Andrei Bondarenko comes in the wake of a number of recent cases in which activists have been assaulted and harassed in the last few months.

"There is a very real concern that Andrei Bondarenko will be subjected to a forced psychiatric examination because of his legitimate trade union and human rights activities," said Heather McGill Amnesty International's expert on Ukraine.

"Any examination should be conducted outside of the Vinnytsya region by an officially recognized psychiatrist to ensure impartiality. Andrei Bondarenko should not be subjected to any treatment until he has exhausted all legal channels."

Andrei Bondarenko has campaigned for the rights of employees in Vinnytsya region since 2006. His work has often exposed the unlawful and irresponsible behaviour of local officials.

In August 2010 he founded an NGO called Movement for a Corruption Free Vinnytsya Region Prosecutor's Office.

Andrei Bondarenko also appears to have angered the authorities with his work in defence of the rights of sugar factory workers. These seasonal workers are employed for only a few months a year after the sugar beet harvest and are frequently not paid.

Many of these factories are officially owned by shadow companies, although in fact the real owners are influential local people many of them high up in the local administration.

Andrei Bondarenko started a campaign of taking the shadow companies to court to demand payment of wages. According to one prosecutor's statement, he started 80 such cases in 2008 alone.

The trade unionist was not present at his trail on Friday and was represented by two civil defenders and a lawyer, who was ordered out of the court by a panel of judges.

The recent harassment of other activists points to a worsening climate for human rights in the Ukraine.

On 15 October, police in Vinnytsya searched the house and office of Dmytro Groysman, the chair of Vinnytsya Human Rights Group, which supports asylum-seekers and campaigns against torture.

Police questioned staff about their work, and confiscated over 300 items, including UNHCR files, computer discs, memory sticks and a laptop.

Andrei Fedosov, the chair of a mental disability rights organization, Uzer, was assaulted by unknown men in May, after receiving threatening phone calls in April.

Police took no action. In July he was detained for a day in relation to a crime allegedly committed 10 years ago when he was 15 years old.

"All these activists appear to have been targeted because of their legitimate work. The Ukrainian authorities must ensure that human rights defenders can carry out their activities unhindered and protect them against any violence, threats and retaliation," said Heather McGill.