Tymoshenko Heads List In Ukraine Polls Campaign

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine on Monday kicked off campaigning for October parliamentary polls with the opposition's list symbolically headed by its leader Yulia Tymoshenko, whose controversial imprisonment bars her from running. The polls, the first major vote since the election of President Viktor Yanukovych in 2010, are expected to be closely followed by the West, where anger is running high over the treatment of Tymoshenko. The outspoken former prime minister was sentenced last October to seven years in prison for abuse of power while in office, in a case taken up months after she lost a close presidential election to Yanukovych in 2010. Many believe her imprisonment to be an attempt by the current president to bar a hugely popular rival from running in the legislative elections which are slated for October 28. In a symbolic move, Ukraine's opposition coalition that also includes former parliament speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk put Tymoshenko at the top of its list even though the fiery politician is legally barred from running. Also on the list is Tymoshenko ally and former interior minister Yuriy Lutsenko, who was sentenced to four years in prison in late February for abuse of office and embezzlement. Yanykovych's ruling Regions Party is expected to announce its list later Monday. Two big sporting stars, boxing champion Vitali Klitschko and footballer Andriy Shevchenko, who announced Saturday he was joining pro-business political party Ukraine Forward!, are also expected to run. According to opinion polls, Klitschko's Democratic Alliance for Reform and the Communists will make it to parliament along with frontrunners the Regions Party and the opposition alliance. Two other parties, nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) and Ukraine Forward!, stand a chance of breaking through the five-percent threshold required to claim seats. For the first time since 2002, voting will be according to the mixed electoral system, with 225 candidates elected on party lists and another 225 in electoral constituencies.

Language Law Will Split Ukraine, Opposition Warns

KIEV, Ukraine -- Opposition politicians walked out of Ukraine's parliament in protest on Monday after warning that a law making Russian the official language in parts of the former Soviet republic would set citizens at each other's throats. President Viktor Yanukovich's Party of the Regions rushed the bill through parliament earlier this month in what opponents saw as an attempt to rally public support in Russian-speaking regions ahead of an October parliamentary election. The move led to street protests in the capital Kiev and brawls in parliament. The chamber went into recess until September, leaving the bill in limbo, but last week parliament said it would reconvene for an extra session on Monday. Arseny Yatseniuk, leader of the opposition Front of Change party, described the bill as a "crime against Ukraine and the Ukrainian state" during the special session on Monday. "We regard this as an anti-constitutional maneuver - it does not exist for us as a law," he said. Ivan Zayats, a deputy of Our Ukraine, another opposition party, said: "This law will set Ukrainians of the left bank against the right, north against south." Opposition lawmakers then left the special sitting in protest, before parliament - dominated by the Party of the Regions - voted against any changes to the bill, which has passed its second and final reading. POWER BASE The way is now clear for parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn to send the bill to Yanukovich for his final signature. Lytvyn won a vote of confidence from parliament on Monday despite having formally resigned over the language row. Yanukovich has not yet expressed his view on the bill, but his popularity would take a hard knock in his eastern Ukraine power base if he failed to sign it into law. About 1,000 opposition protesters attempted to rally near parliament on Monday but were barred from getting close to the main building. While Ukrainian is the only state language, the bill would make Russian an official regional language in predominantly Russian-speaking areas in the industrialized east and southern regions such as Crimea where Russia's Black Sea fleet is based. Opponents of the bill, who regard the Ukrainian language as a touchstone of sovereignty and independence from Russia, say it will mean that knowledge and usage of Ukrainian will die out in those areas. Passions remain high, however, and the law is likely to be a high-profile issue in the October 28 election when Yanukovich's Party of the Regions will have to work hard to maintain its majority after unpopular government policies on pensions, taxation and the cost of home utilities. With former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko still in jail on a charge of abuse of office, Yatseniuk, whose party has united with her Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party, has effectively become head of the opposition.

EU Citizens: Ukraine Deserves To Join The EU

KIEV, Ukraine -- Almost half of the European guests, who visited Ukraine during EURO 2012 football championship, stated that Ukraine deserved to enter the EU in the near future. EU citizens were surveyed by GfK Company as a part of the Soft Power of Ukraine in the EU and Beyond project, commissioned by the Institute of World Policy, USA. The survey results revealed that in general the EU citizens supported Ukraine's European aspirations and thought that Ukraine deserved various components of European integration such as the visa-free regime, reads the study. 52.4 percent of European fans would like to cancel the visa regime between their countries and Ukraine already today, while 4.8 percent did not support the visa-free initiative. According to the survey, 42.56 percent of respondents wanted to see Ukraine become a member of the 27 nations block within the short term, while 30.92 percent believed that Ukraine could join the EU in the medium term under the condition that the political and economic situation in the country improves. Notably, only 2.77 percent of surveyed EU citizens said they did not want to see Ukraine a part of the union. At the same time, 84 percent of Ukraine's guests were happy with the championship taking place in the country. 76.4 percent expressed the desire to visit Ukraine again as tourists. More than a half (57.25 percent) of the Europeans reported that the organization of the major sports event had improved their perception of Ukraine. More than half of the surveyed EU citizens stated that upon visiting Ukraine they sympathize with the country. 37.5 percent of respondents expressed respect for Ukraine, while about one third of the respondents displayed eagerness to support the Eastern European country. Interestingly, 84.64 percent of all the 1,408 surveyed respondents have never been to Ukraine before the championship. The Institute of World Policy launched the EURO Exit Poll through UNITER program on June 11, 2012. In the run of the campaign, football fans from different European countries shared their impressions of Ukraine in the contexts of politics and foreign policy. Europeans staying in Kiev, Kharkiv, Lviv, and Donetsk for the championship (June 8 - July 1, 2012) were questioned at the exits of the stadiums in the Ukrainian host cities.

Ukrainian Contribution To Offshore Schemes

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine is now among the top twenty countries from which capital is flowing out on a catastrophic scale. According to the international non-governmental organization Tax Justice Network, 167 billion dollars have fled Ukraine to offshore zones since the 1990s, i.e., the first days of independence. For comparison’s sake, the 2012 budget of Ukraine is 350 billion hryvnias ($43 billion). In the opinion of other researchers, the high-profile British publications Ukraine Business Insight and Eurasia Insights, the assets of Ukraine’s richest people make up about 85.2 billion dollars today. The British research shows that there are about 30,000 people in Ukraine, who have personal quick assets worth more than 100,000 dollars. Moreover, the number of dollar-possessing millionaires in this country increases by up to six percent, i.e., about 1,500 people, a year. However, the most affluent individuals keep about 60 percent of their assets in offshore zones in spite of tough restrictions and legal obstacles. Impressive, isn’t it? What looks very symptomatic against the backdrop of these statistics is the fact that Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn has signed Law No. 9634 which calls for exempting state-run businesses from the bidding procedures envisaged by the law on public purchases. Has the government been so persistent in cutting public expenditures – closing the “ineffective” rural schools and first-aid stations, increasing the retirement age, and depriving the underprivileged strata of the population of social benefits – in order to share out the saved money “under the blanket”? Experts estimate that Law No. 9634 exempts about 240 billion budgetary hryvnias, i.e., 2/3 of the entire state budget, from bidding procedures. The Anticorruption Center forecasts that, in the current no-publicity conditions, at least 70 billion hryvnias ($8.6 billion) will be spent to “improve” the national statistics on the offshore accounts. This means two Ukrainian budgets of education and six budgets of public health. Lytvyn so skillfully rode out of the language law situation, only to sign a rather controversial law that had been passed quite unlawfully – only 73 MPs were present in the session room, which CCTV footage clearly shows. Why did Lytvyn do so? The opposition also had, in theory, a chance to improve transparency in the distribution of public funds – not only in the session room, incidentally. It was enough to complain to the Constitutional Court about violations in the procedure of voting on Law No. 9634. To do so, they needed to collect 150 signatures. But, as we see, there was not even an attempt to do this. Why? Now we are pinning hopes on the president, but, in all probability, it is also in vain. It would look somewhat strange from the political angle if the guarantor of the Constitution vetoed a law railroaded by the pro-governmental majority. Yet who knows? What if President Yanukovych suddenly chooses to oppose himself to his partners? Moreover, the president and his family are also interested in the public funds being shared out in the conditions of non-transparency. As journalists of the TV program “Our Money” managed to find out, the Yanukovych family received every fifth hryvnia at coal-mining industry tenders last year. “The Yanukovych companies marched in three columns and won tenders worth a total 3.56 billion hryvnias ($0.44 billion),” says the article “Coal Industry Kings” on Ukrainska Pravda’s website. Naturally, there is one more way to realize a scenario to stem the tide of opaqueness in bidding procedures. In the spring of last year parliament passed Law No. 7532, which resembles Law No. 9634, but the president vetoed it under the pressure of international financial institutions (in this case the World Bank and the European Commission were taking the same stand). Yanukovych was forced to make this step because the “creditors” warned: if you sign this law, forget about any kind of technological assistance or loans. But the chance of a presidential veto seems to be very slim today because we can hear no statements from international financial institutions on changes in the bidding law. At first glance, they gave it up as hopeless. But when we turned to some financial institutions for comment, their experts began to persuade us that these changes… have some positive points. They allege that the changes will revitalize the economy because state-run businesses will have more freedom as far as purchases are concerned and will be able to respond quicker to a bid. These experts also advised us to fight “kleptomaniac” bureaucrats in the opaque conditions by means of the system of inner audit. As we have no concrete figures or facts, we can so far be guided by our logic only, but the impression is that some executives of some international organizations that have been working in Ukraine for quite a long time have a personal interest in this. It is only about the price of the question. This price is very “attractive” as long as the bidding law is being changed.

Parliament Speaker Survives No-Confidence Vote

KIEV, Ukraine -- Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn survived a confidence vote on Monday, but pro-government lawmakers said now he would have to sign a controversial language bill or otherwise face criminal prosecution. The bill, which dramatically elevates the use of Russian language in Ukraine, was approved on July 3 and is seen as a centerpiece of the ruling Regions Party’s election campaign ahead of the October 28 parliamentary vote. Lytvyn, who said the bill would split Ukraine and cause political turbulence, has refused to sign it and offered his resignation on July 4. The move triggered a political crisis that could effectively paralyze the work of the legislature for the next three months. But lawmakers, led by the Regions Party, at an emergency session on Monday refused to accept the resignation and instead approved the vote of confidence, allowing Lytvyn to stay as the speaker. The lawmakers also rejected four amendments that could weaken the controversial bill, leaving Lytvyn no other option but to sign it, Oleksandr Yefremov, the leader of the Regions Party in Parliament, said. “Now, the speaker is obliged to sign the bill,” Yefremov said. “If he doesn’t sign it, he would violate the law, and thus would be accountable as an official who had broken the law.” In a country where two main opposition leaders have been sentenced to many years in jail for alleged abuse of office – although many see the sentences as a political vendetta by President Viktor Yanukovych - Yefremov’s comment may be a serious warning to Lytvyn. Lytvyn has to sign the bill so that it can reach the office of the president, while Yanukovych’s signature within the next two weeks is required to put the legislation in effect. Lytvyn has earlier said he would not sign the bill, but he had made no comments on Monday. The bill is fiercely opposed by opposition groups amid fears it would widen the split between Ukrainian regions and weaken the country, increasing Russia’s influence over parts of Ukraine. The bill would almost automatically make the Russian language the second state language in Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Odessa, Mykolayiv, Kherson, Chernihiv and some other Ukrainian regions. Meanwhile, lawmakers also refused to accept resignation of Mykola Tomenko, a deputy speaker of Parliament, who had also submitted his resignation in protest of the controversial bill. Tomenko is a member of the largest opposition Batkivshchyna party. “If he [Tomenko] insists on his resignation, Parliament may get back to this issue in September,” Yefremov said. Parliament, which is currently on a summer recess, got together for the emergency session on Monday, and is now due to resume regular sessions in early September.

Ukraine's Tymoshenko Refuses Video-Link Trial

KHARKIV, Ukraine -- Jailed Ukrainian ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko defied state prosecutors on Tuesday, telling a court that she would refuse to take part in a new trial by video link from her hospital bed. The 51-year-old Tymoshenko is already serving a seven-year sentence for abuse of office but has been moved from prison to a clinic for treatment for a chronic back problem. Her condition has led to several postponements of a new trial on charges of tax evasion and embezzlement going back to the 1990s when she was a prominent businesswoman involved in the gas trading industry, earning the sobriquet "gas princess". When a fresh attempt to resume the trial happened on Tuesday, with Tymoshenko once again absent, state prosecutors proposed she take part in proceedings via a video conferencing link from hospital. But Tymoshenko replied with a statement from her lawyer, refusing to cooperate and suggesting that state prosecutors would seek to exploit any video coverage for their advantage. "We know that you would carry out unpredictable actions. I do not agree to take part in a video link," she said in the statement read out by lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko. The statement said attempts to have her take part in court proceedings by video link were a violation of her rights and showed "an unwillingness to establish the truth of the case." Judge Kostyantyn Sadovsky ordered another postponement of the trial until August 14, saying the break might allow the issue to be clarified. German doctors who have been treating Tymoshenko said on Monday that her physical condition required up to eight more weeks of attention. Prosecutors say Tymoshenko's now-defunct gas trading company caused losses to the state of about $4 million, while she personally evaded paying $85,000 in taxes. She denies the tax evasion and embezzlement charges. Tymoshenko, President Viktor Yanukovich's main political opponent, was jailed last October, convicted of abuse of office when prime minister, relating to a gas deal which she brokered with Russia. The government says the 2009 deal saddled Ukraine with an unfair price for gas imports which has hamstrung the economy. Tymoshenko says she is the victim of a vendetta by Yanukovich who defeated her in a presidential election in February 2010. The European Union has backed her, saying her prosecution smacks of selective justice, and has shelved landmark deals on free trade and political association in response to her conviction. Tymoshenko was a leader of the 2004 Orange Revolution protests that derailed Yanukovich's first bid for the presidency and has since been prime minister twice. Since losing the 2010 election to Yanukovich in a close run-off, Tymoshenko and a number of her opposition allies have faced corruption-related charges which she has dismissed as political vengeance. Even though her imprisonment bars her from running for election, Tymoshenko symbolically heads a candidate list put forward by an opposition coalition for a parliamentary election in October. More than 1,000 supporters and opponents gathered outside the courtroom in the eastern city of Kharkiv. "Keep her in prison! She is a thief!" read posters carried by her detractors. Supporters of Tymoshenko and her Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party wore T-shirts bearing her peasant-braided portrait and chanted "Yulia - Freedom!"

Olympic Fencing: Epee Gold For Ukraine's Shemyakina

Ukrainian fencer Yana Shemyakina won gold in the individual epee Monday, beating reigning Olympic champion Britta Heidemann 9-8 in the final, after a competition marked by a dramatic appeal in the semifinals.
Shemyakina prevailed after an even match, winning in overtime after her German opponent came back from behind in the third period to level the score.

Sun Yujie took the bronze medal for China in the women's individual epee Monday after her South Korean opponent A Lam Shin had delayed proceedings by an hour with a prolonged protest.

Sun prevailed 15-11 in the rescheduled bout, which followed a disputed semifinal defeat to Heidemann after which Lam Shin sat weeping on the piste as her coaches launched an appeal over timekeeping, arguing that the clock had been wrongly reset at the end of the fight, giving the German extra time for a comeback.

Officials upheld the original ruling and Lam Shin was escorted from the arena by officials to a standing ovation from spectators.

After winning gold, Shemyakina said she was "very sorry for the Korean", calling the decision a "once in a lifetime" occurrence.

Fencers are required to remain on the piste for the duration of an appeal.