Yushchenko Threatens To Prompt Elections By Parliament Pullout

ZAGREB, Croatia -- Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko Thursday threatened to end a political standoff with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych by pulling out of parliament with his allies and prompting early elections.

Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko (R) and Croatia's President Stjepan Mesic (L) pose for photographers in Zagreb May 31, 2007.
Yushchenko and Yanukovych had agreed in principle to hold early polls on Sept. 30, but both factions in parliament have been obstructing a string of bills necessary to call elections.

Yushchenko gave the legislature until midnight Thursday to pass the laws.

"If a solution is not reached, my party and [Yulia] Tymoshenko's party will meet and formalize our withdrawal from parliament," Yushchenko said in Zagreb, where he came for a two-day visit.

"Then elections will take place automatically in 60 days," he added.

In Kiev, allies of Yanukovych have already criticized Yushchenko's intentions, saying they were illegal and that he did not have the 151 resignations necessary to dissolve parliament and force elections.

"It is impossible to hold any early elections without the package of bills adopted by the parliament," said lawmaker Taras Chronovil.

Ukraine has been embroiled in a political crisis stemming for constant disputes between the two leaders since Yanukovych's coalition won elections in 2006.

Last week, President Yushchenko fired the country's prosecutor-general and the Interior Ministry sent police to surround the prosecutor's office to prevent his eviction.

The pro-Western Yushchenko then seized control of the ministry's forces and deployed units to the capital, Kiev - but Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko refused to recognize the order.

The moves raised fears that weeks of arguments between Yushchenko and Yanukovych could trigger violence.

Tensions partially eased Sunday after the president and premier agreed to hold early elections.

"Ukraine is carrying out a plan to get out of the political crisis. It is up to parliament to implement the plan," Yushchenko said.

"Elections on Sept. 30 will be key to exiting the crisis and it will help Ukraine emerge stronger," he added.

Lawmakers were to vote Wednesday on the last in a series of bills necessary to call the early elections but the proceedings were interrupted by a bomb threat and mutual recriminations and disorder, with each side accusing the other of trying to sabotage the agreement.

Croatian President Stipe Mesic said that "instability in Ukraine would be damaging not only for Ukraine ... but for Europe as a whole."

Yushchenko later called on the Croatian parliament to declare the Soviet-era forced famine an act of genocide - a move already made by numerous countries, including the United States.

Sparked by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and the collectivization of private farms and agricultural land, the 1932-33 famine killed 10 million Ukrainians.

Those who resisted the campaign were shot or sent to Siberian prison camps.

Source: AP

U.S. Has Lost Interest In Ukraine's Struggle

WASHINGTON, DC -- Amid the foreign policy wreckage of the George W. Bush administration it's easily forgotten that the export of democracy to formerly unfree societies has not always been a failing policy.

President George W. Bush and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko meet in the Oval Office prior to participating in a joint press availability at the White House April 4, 2005.
For a decade after the end of the Cold War, the United States and its European allies worked through NATO and the European Union to convert 10 post-Communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

At the time it wasn't clear that all or even any of them would embrace free elections and free markets.

That they did was due in large part to the abundant tutelage, training, aid and tough love provided by the Western alliance.

Lots of people are pointing to Iraq as an example of what happens when attempts at nation-building go wrong.

But what happens when it isn't tried -- when the West sees a country struggling to find a new political order after decades of repression and simply decides to back off?

In effect, a test of that option is underway far from Iraq, in the biggest country between Western Europe and Russia -- Ukraine.

Three years ago, when the Bush "freedom agenda'' was still gaining momentum, Ukraine was a focal point. U.S. funds poured into nongovernmental organizations that were agitating for a free presidential election.

When a Russian-sponsored candidate tried to steal the election through blatant fraud, the Bush administration strongly backed the popular protest movement, the Orange Revolution, that eventually forced a new vote.

The pro-Western winner of that ballot, Viktor Yushchenko, was for a while a favourite in Washington.

There was even a push to put Ukraine on a fast track for NATO membership.

The change from then to now is one measure of how far a demoralized Bush administration has retreated from its ambitions, and from the world outside the Middle East.

Last week Ukraine was again in political crisis; the protagonists once again were the pro-Western president, Yushchenko, and his pro-Russian rival, Viktor Yanukovych, who is now the prime minister.

Once again crowds gathered in the center of Kiev.

There were struggles for control over government buildings, and each side accused the other of plotting a coup.

The country seemed to teeter between a compromise agreement on new parliamentary elections -- which was announced Sunday -- and an attempt by one side or both to seize power by force.

The Bush administration and its NATO allies, meanwhile, were nearly invisible.

Contact between U.S. officials and the feuding Ukrainians was limited mostly to the U.S. ambassador in Kiev and European affairs officials at the U.S. State Department.

A senior adviser to Yanukovych who came to Washington last week to lobby for more involvement, former foreign minister Konstantyn Gryshenko, found it hard to get a meeting at the National Security Council or the vice-president's office.

"What's needed from the United States, and what has been lacking, is a strong message to all sides that it is in their interest to abide by democratic principles,'' Gryshenko, a former ambassador to Washington, told me. "The message we're getting is that the United States really doesn't care.''

It's not just the lack of phone calls or visits that conveys that disengagement.

As the human rights group Freedom House points out in a new report, the administration's foreign aid budget proposal for next year contains big cuts in democracy funding for Europe and Eurasia.

In Ukraine, the administration would slash funding for civil society organizations -- that is, the groups that led the democratic revolution of 2004 -- to $6.4 million, reflecting a 40 per cent reduction from last year.

In Russia, where pro-democracy and human rights organizations are under enormous pressure from an increasingly autocratic Vladimir Putin, a cut of more than 50 per cent is planned.

The retreat is largely a function of the Bush administration's ever-deeper absorption in the Middle East -- a lot of the democracy funding is being shifted there -- and simple demoralization.

There's a reluctance to do anything that might help Russia's perceived ally, Yanukovych, who believes he would win any free and fair election.

It doesn't help that European governments have lost their willingness to offer more memberships in Western clubs.

Both NATO and the European Union have made it clear that Ukraine won't be admitted anytime soon, regardless of how its politicians behave.

What will happen in the absence of Western influence? Maybe Ukraine will muddle through; most of its leaders seem more interested in the model of democratic Poland than of Putin's Russia.

Maybe Russia, which will never lose interest in its neighbour, will succeed in converting it into a political satellite, as it tried to do in 2004.

Or maybe the chaos in Kiev will deepen, violence will erupt and the country will start to splinter, like Yugoslavia in the 1990s -- or Iraq.

If so, it won't be because the United States tried to impose democracy; but it might be because it didn't.

Source: The Record

Regime Restoration And Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- In his study, “The Problem of Restoration”, Robert Kann concluded that regime restoration is unlikely unless it is done in the lifespan of a political generation by people active in the old regime and able to take effective part in the restored regime.

Leonyd Kuchma (L) and Viktor Yanukovych (R)
This condition was met in Russia where Putin successfully controls a neo-Soviet style resource-based autocracy.

In Ukraine, the neo-Soviet Party of Regions/Communist Bloc lost the 2004 elections despite widespread fraud, bribery and blackmail.

Had Viktor Yushchenko been more resolute at the time, he would have arrested and tried the convicted felon Viktor Yanukovych and all his top associates for what they did.

Consequently, within the year the discredited Kuchma elite had returned from self-imposed exile or retirement.

A man who because of his criminal record could not by law hold any government job became prime minister and by May 2006, the Party of Regions/Communist coalition was able to take power again in what amounted to a coup d’etat.

Within the year, resorting to dubious methods and bribery, this coalition was on the way to creating a majority in parliament.

In the summer of 2007 Yushchenko reacted and called for new elections.

He realized at last that neo-Soviet forces had no intention of compromising with his national democrats.

They were not interested in bringing Ukraine into the English language communications sphere, democratizing the country, or preparing it for entry into the EU.

But because he foolishly failed to exploit his popular support in 2004-05, the old neo-Soviet elite had entrenched itself and the national democratic Orange Coalition still faces the threat of restoration.

The neo-Soviet Regions leaders also understand that if they fail to restore the old regime again, they are unlikely to get a third chance.

Having again taken over the government, the Regions stopped the few changes begun by the Orange national-democratic government and re-established Kuchma’s “blackmail state.”

A state in which officials apply the full force of the law to those who do not do what they are told or don’t pay up on time.

More aware than before of the importance of democratic patina to their activities, Regions’ leaders fired their old Russian campaign advisors and now listen to new American ones like Paul Manafort, who are not known to have supported democratic leaders in the past and are close to the US Republican Party.

Old time Communists, new neo-Soviet capitalists and American neo-conservatives may seem a strange mix, and it is rumoured that one of Manafort’s suggestions that the Regions’ ignore is his advice to join the EU.

In any case, in the neo-liberal global world where politicians in country after country have been selling off the public-sphere to private corporations and lining their pockets with the profits, this ostensibly strange association in Ukraine is not abnormal.

So, no one should be surprised when a majority Regions’ government begins selling off what is left of Ukraine’s public sphere to its biggest supporters.

On May 25, for instance, we learned that Kyiv Region will sell all of the region’s museums.

Those interested in the upcoming Ukrainian election, therefore, should note that Yanukovych’s fraudulent and manipulative electoral practices were similar not only to Putin’s.

US Republicans also used dubious and outright illegal methods to bring George W. Bush into power.

And since they worked in the US, observers must realize that American advisors in Kyiv will want to add some of their inventions to the Regions’ bag of tricks.

Thanks to this kind of “American know-how” the Regions’ now not only pay “political tourists” and ‘rent-a-crowds” but also wear the “right” shoes and sport new hairstyles.

The tricks, sadly, work.

Naive journalists look at this and then run articles in newspapers like the Telegraph and the Observer explaining how Yanukovych has become a “new man.”

Perhaps his Americans have told Yanukovych that time is on his side.

People cannot remain indefinitely mobilized. And, as disinterest and indifference set in they will withdraw from politics, which for most means not voting.

From this perspective, we can understand why for the last two months the Regions ignored presidential decrees. They were delaying.

Convoluted events, accusations and counter accusations can make voters cynical enough not to bother to vote.

Also, perhaps, the intention was to discredit Yushchenko by obliging him to use force, a move they hoped would discredit Ukrainian national independence in moderate world opinion, which has difficulties in accepting the use of force to protect or establish democracy.

All sides compromised by the end of May 2007, but the likelihood of planned Regions’ brinkmanship must not be overlooked.

Robert Kann’s book reminds us that regime restoration is rare but not unprecedented. It also reminds us that the conditions for restoration still exist in Ukraine.

A new Ukrainian election that still includes a restorationist party, therefore, obliges observers to remember that the top and middle-level people in that party responsible for the dirty tricks in 2004, and on a smaller scale in 2006, are still in their offices and will do the same again.

Only this time they will probably do it better, which means observers must watch even closer. Observers must observe behind the scenes, in the provinces, and what goes on at places of work before polling time.

They must not be distracted or confused by smoke, lights, hairstyles and outright lies.

The Party of Regions is a neo-Soviet party and should it come to power in Ukraine only Russia and a small minority will benefit.

While Russian-speakers may be relieved of the need to learn Ukrainian, they might also find themselves relieved of their jobs, pensions, government-funded services, medical care and education.

Source: Kyiv Post

Affluent Parliamentarians Exploit Housing Privileges To Earn Lumps Of Free Cash

KIEV, Ukraine -- For years Ukrainian members of parliament have solved their housing problems at the state’s expense. A parliament member’s right to free housing is guaranteed by law.

Artem Shcherban an afluent businessman and parliament deputy who applied for free housing to be paid by the state
Although public funds are used for this purpose, information about elected officials who receive housing or equivalent compensation is strictly kept secret.

The system of providing housing for parliament deputies has been in place for years. Parliamentarians can either take an apartment from the state or the equivalent in monetary compensation.

They may also use government-owned housing, which they return after their terms in parliament are complete. This latter option is rarely chosen.

Most legislators prefer housing to compensation.

Twenty-one parliamentarians elected in 2006 opted to take money allocated for housing and spend it themselves.

Compensation for these 21 amounted to around Hr 7.6 million, or approximately $1.5 million.

But now Parliament’s Administrative Department plans to spend about $30 million on housing.

The last address where deputies were given apartments was 24 Sribnokilska Street.

Today only a handful of parliamentarians still reside there.

Most of them sold their apartments and moved to the suburbs.

The actual market prices of the properties were much higher than the official prices set by parliament, and the sales of those apartments generated nice profits for certain legislators.

The housing ‘freeloaders’ include business-partners of billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, the brother of President Viktor Yushchenko, Petro, widely regarded as an affluent businessman, and a number of former top governmental officials.

Few have managed to say no to a free apartment.

Learning the names of those deputies that are in queue for free housing was not an easy task.

After Korrespondent on April 21 published the list of parliamentarians who already received housing, Oleksandr Yefremov, head of the Rada committee responsible for doling out the apartments, was upset that information had been leaked and refused to share information that he deemed confidential.

The reasons for the increased secrecy are obvious.

The list of 77 deputies in need of housing, according to the committee’s protocols provided by Deputy Oleh Lyashko of Yulia Tymoshenko’s Byut bloc, includes many successful businessmen from all factions.

The ruling coalition is represented in the commission by Yefremov, former governor of Luhansk Region.

Vitaliy Bort, a representative of the Donbas ‘iron’ lobby and a former commercial director of Yasynuvata machine-building plant, is also on the committee, as is socialist Oleksiy Kunchenko, honorary president of Ukraine’s largest chemical enterprise, Severodonetsk Union Azot.

Opposition members are not far behind their counterparts in the ruling coalition.

Stepan Glus of Byut, and formerly head of Ukraine’s most profitable alcohol producer, Nemiroff, is also a candidate for receiving free housing in Kyiv.

Valeriy Kalchenko of Byut, a former emergencies minister and mayor of Kirovohrad, is also on the list.

The list contains names of individuals whose claims for free housing seem outrageous and serve as a sign of their greed.

For example, documents for a one-room apartment were submitted by Deputy Artem Shcherban (Party of Regions), son of Volodymyr Shcherban, the former governor of Sumy Region.

Artem Shcherban ran the Gefest oil company before winning a seat in parliament.

In 2005 his company operated 70 gas stations and the younger Shcherban was rated to be one of the 10 most successful managers in the domestic petroleum business.

In addition to his own assets, Shcherban also has access to his father’s bank accounts.

Former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko said that Artem withdrew millions of dollars from his father’s accounts in the spring of 2005.

Shcherban can hardly be considered homeless.

According to information obtained by Korrespondent, he often stays at his father’s large mansion located 30 kilometers from Sumy.

By the end of 2005, the younger Shcherban was already an owner of a dacha in Boryspil district of Kyiv Region and a luxurious mansion on the banks of the Dnipro River in Kyiv.

Businessmen are not alone in the lineup for free apartments.

There are famous public personalities as well.

For example, Byut’s Andriy Shevchenko, previously a popular TV journalist, signed up for the housing because he wants his own place of residence, allowing him to leave his wife’s apartment where he now lives.

Shevchenko reluctantly spoke about his plans, which contradict the words of his bloc’s leader, Yulia Tymoshenko, who appealed to deputies to refuse all perks and privileges.

Of 450 parliament members, 227 have already used their privileges to acquire housing at the expense of the state.

The others received housing or compensation when they were elected to parliament in the past, while some are still waiting for their turn in the free housing queue.

Source: Kyiv Post

Ukraine: For Reunited Parliament, Even Two Days Together Is Too Much

KIEV, Ukraine -- The political standoff between Ukraine's president and parliament appears to be subsiding -- but not without problems.

Ukraine Parliament
Ukrainian lawmakers from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and Our Ukraine returned May 19 to the Verkhovna Rada after a nearly two-month hiatus to vote on legislation needed to hold early parliamentary elections.

The lawmakers had avoided the Rada since President Viktor Yushchenko's April 2 decree dissolving parliament.

But a May 27 deal between Yushchenko, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, and parliamentary speaker Oleksandr Moroz paved the way for their return.

The political crisis apparently reached its peak on May 26.

That was when President Yushchenko reportedly summoned to Kyiv some units of the Interior Ministry riot police, after issuing a decree the previous day placing them under his control.

Police troops loyal to Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko then blocked local highways to prevent the Yushchenko-led riot units from entering the capital.

With bloodshed a possible outcome of the standoff, Yushchenko called for urgent talks with not only Prime Minister Yanukovych -- with whom he has met regularly during the troubled past two months -- but also parliamentary speaker Moroz, whom he had publicly ignored since the impasse began.

In the early hours of May 27, Ukrainian television showed Yushchenko shaking hands with Yanukovych and Moroz and announcing that "the crisis is over."

September Polls

The three officials signed a deal setting preterm polls for September 30. This means that Yushchenko will have to issue a third decree on early elections, thus nullifying his April 27 decree that scheduled them for June 24.

According to the May 27 deal, parliament will be legally dissolved after the voluntary resignation of the pro-Yushchenko Our Ukraine and Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (YTB).

The two groups jointly control some 170 seats in the 450-seat Rada; their withdrawal would take parliament below the 300-seat minimum it needs to legally function.

This is different than Yushchenko's two April decrees, which based the disbanding of parliament on accusations the ruling coalition (the Party of Regions, the Socialists, and the Communists) had illegally poached opposition deputies to expand the ruling majority to 300 votes.

The coalition does not want to take the blame for the dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada. Asking the opposition to resign instead seems to be the most significant concession Yushchenko had to make in order to strike a deal on new elections.

It remains to be seen, however, if Our Ukraine and YTB leaders can persuade their lawmakers to give up their parliamentary mandates -- something that is meant to happen as soon as the Verkhovna Rada adopts all the legislation necessary to hold the September 30 snap elections.

On the morning of May 29, Yushchenko suspended his April 26 decree dissolving parliament. The suspension was for two days -- just long enough to give legislators time to vote on early-election legislation.

Promising Steps

Deputies -- including those from the opposition who have steadfastly avoided parliamentary debates during the past two months -- gathered for a session that afternoon.

They made some swift and promising steps toward fulfilling the election deal between Yushchenko, Yanukovych, and Moroz.

First, in a conciliatory move, the Verkhovna Rada rescinded previous resolutions by the ruling coalition lambasting Yushchenko for his dissolution decrees.

Second, lawmakers held fresh votes on the more than 50 bills the Rada had passed during the oppositions' two-month absence.

In the third and most important move of the day, lawmakers adopted a bill on reforming the Central Election Commission.

This was a major concern for politicians on both sides of the conflict.

The bill allows the Verkhovna Rada to change the composition of the election commission following a formal request by the president.

Yushchenko, Yanukovych, and Moroz reportedly agreed that the commission will comprise 15 members. Seven will be proposed by the ruling coalition, seven by the opposition, and one -- most likely, the head of the commission, will be proposed jointly by the president and the prime minister.

It was a constructive day's work -- but one that appeared to exhaust the goodwill and readiness of both sides to continue moving forward.

Opposition lawmakers failed to gather for the morning parliamentary session today, presumably because points of agreement between the coalition and the opposition on any further legislation were in short supply.

This legislation was prepared by the anticrisis working group that Yushchenko and Yanukovych set up in early May in an attempt to defuse the crisis.

The anticrisis group has reportedly coordinated "90 percent" of the legal foundation for the new polls, but has bogged down in arguments over several important issues.

In particular, the sides reportedly disagree on introducing the so-called "imperative mandate" provision into the law on people's deputies.

This would prevent lawmakers from defecting from their caucuses in the Verkhovna Rada, precluding a repeat of the apparent poaching that sparked the crisis two months ago.

There is also no agreement on how to compile a voter registry that could be independent from the voter lists held by regional administrations.

Voter Lists

The May 27 deal stipulates that the Cabinet of Ministers and the Central Election Commission are obliged to produce such a list before the September 30 polls, but lawmakers reportedly differ on ways of identifying eligible Ukrainian voters.

Yanukovych's Party of Regions is afraid that regional governors -- all of whom were appointed by Yushchenko -- may manipulate the voter lists to the party's disadvantage.

Yushchenko's Our Ukraine had similar apprehensions during the 2004 presidential ballot, when the regional governors controlling the voter rolls were allied with Yanukovych.

Another possible stumbling block to reaching a final agreement on the early polls is the fate of Svyatoslav Piskun, whom Yushchenko fired from the post of prosecutor-general last week (May 24).

The ruling coalition wants Piskun reinstated, while Yushchenko, who simultaneously appointed a replacement for him, is not inclined to back off.

For these reasons, it is not clear whether the Verkhovna Rada will manage to settle its disagreements over the September 30 polls today, as expected by Yushchenko.

To make these elections happen, Yushchenko will need to issue a relevant decree no later than August 2. So there are still two months for Ukrainian politicians to solve the current conflict without setting yet another election date.

If Yushchenko succeeds in having early elections in the fall, some in Ukraine will surely see this development as his victory.

But this victory will hardly give him additional political profits.

The problem is that, according to sociological surveys, the future arrangement of forces in the Verkhovna Rada may be very much like the current one.

Indeed, given the fully proportional party-list electoral system in Ukraine, it is very likely that the legislature will be predominantly filled with exactly the same faces as now.

For that reason, one should expect not so much a shift in Ukrainian politics in the fall as a continuation of the current state of affairs.

And the current state of affairs resembles a permanent institutional crisis, rather than the way to the prosperous and democratic Ukraine that Yushchenko promised during his inauguration in January 2005.

Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Ukraine Pulls Back From The Brink

KIEV, Ukraine -- The political peace deal struck in Ukraine in last-minute talks between Viktor Yushchenko, the president, and his bitter rival Viktor Yanukovich, the prime minister, comes as a welcome relief.

(L-R) Speaker of the Parliament Olexander Moroz, President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich answer questions during a press-conference in Kiev.
Their long-running conflict last week reached the point of violence, with officials loyal to Mr Yushchenko occupying the public prosecutor’s office and Mr Yanukovich’s men breaking windows and doors to retake the building.

It seemed only a matter of time before somebody was killed.

However, the agreement to settle the dispute by holding parliamentary elections in late September will not, on its own, resolve Ukraine’s deep-rooted divisions.

The country is doomed to further instability, unless its leaders work much harder at developing a genuine national consensus.

It will be difficult.

When Mr Yushchenko triumphed in the Orange Revolution in 2004 he appeared to have won broad support for a pro-European Union democracy, with an open economy and pragmatic ties with Russia.

But the settlement that ended the Orange Revolution involved transferring power from the presidency to parliament.

When Mr Yanukovich bounced back in the 2006 election, thanks to his Russian-speaking support in the east, Mr Yushchenko was wrong-footed.

Until this year, the conciliatory president was on the defensive, to the despair of his supporters.

But in April he finally put his foot down, and ordered new elections.

Mr Yanukovich resisted, precipitating last week’s confrontation.

The trouble is that elections will do little to change the power balance between the two sides.

Mr Yanukovich will almost certainly return as head of the largest party, followed by the fiery Yulia Tymoshenko, Mr Yushchenko’s erstwhile Orange Revolution ally.

The president may well end up holding the balance of power, and they will be forced to sit down and negotiate.

The outlines of a compromise exist.

Most Ukrainians back closer ties with the EU, but they also have doubts about joining Nato.

Almost all agree Russia will continue to play a big role in Ukraine, above all in energy, although they are divided about the merits of Moscow’s influence.

As a buffer zone, the country cannot afford to tip too far towards Russia or the west.

One thing must be clear, however: all parties must respect the legacy of the Orange Revolution, which has created a more democratic political world.

Any attempt to resolve political conflicts through non-democratic, let alone violent, means would split the country irrevocably

Source: Financial Times

US Welcomes Deal For September Elections In Ukraine

WASHINGTON, DC -- The United States welcomed on Tuesday an agreement reached during the weekend by Ukraine's rival leaders to hold elections on Sept. 30.

Tom Casey - Deputy Spokesman, Bureau of Public Affairs
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych made the agreement as a way out of a standoff that had paralyzed the ex-Soviet republic and threatened to escalate into violence after Yushchenko sent several thousand troops to the capital in defiance of the Cabinet.

"We look forward to fair, transparent and democratic elections and continued progress on Ukraine's ambitious agenda of political and economic reform," said Tom Casey, a U.S. State Department spokesman. "We urge Ukraine's leaders to take advantage of this opportunity to strengthen democratic institutions to the lasting benefit of the people of Ukraine and their goal of a more united, more prosperous nation."

Politics in the country of 47 million has been fraught with disputes between Yushchenko, who wants to lead Ukraine into Western organizations such as NATO and the European Union, and Yanukovych, seen as more friendly to Ukraine's eastern neighbor, Russia.

Source: International Herald Tribune

Crisis Over, But Rule Of Law Undermined In Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- The Ukrainian political crisis triggered by President Viktor Yushchenko’s April 2 decision to disband a hostile parliament appears to be over.

Yushchenko (L) and Yanukovych (R) hold press conference after their meeting.
On May 27, Yushchenko and his opponents, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and parliamentary speaker Oleksandr Moroz, scheduled an early parliamentary election for September 30 and agreed on terms for the campaign.

Yushchenko de facto recognized that his game had not been legally sound. He agreed with his opponents that parliament’s self-dissolution, rather than Yushchenko’s accusations of illegally forming the parliamentary majority, will serve as the legal basis for the early election.

Yushchenko, Yanukovych, and Moroz also agreed that the Constitutional Court (CC) would have no influence on the election process.

This decision followed a difficult week. Fearing that the CC’s verdict on dissolution would not be in his favor, Yushchenko had tried to prevent the CC from delivering it.

On May 21, he filed a lawsuit with a district court in Kyiv demanding that the CC be banned from carrying out any proceedings.

On May 22, the court threw out his case.

Also on May 22, Hryhory Omelchenko from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, which is allied with Yushchenko, accused CC acting chief judge Valery Pshenychny of bribery (earlier, CC judge Syuzanna Stanik was accused of bribery, see EDM, May 22).

Over the next three days, several courts across the country in turn invalidated and upheld Yushchenko’s earlier decrees to sack three CC judges including Pshenychny and Stanik.

On May 23, the CC ruled that the president could not dismiss or appoint chief judges to courts.

The CC was also reportedly close to ruling on Yushchenko’s decree dissolving parliament.

This prompted Yushchenko to act even more resolutely.

On May 23, he addressed the nation on TV, saying, “the Constitutional Court is paralyzed,” and “some judges have been suspected of large-scale corruption.”

This, Yushchenko said, prompted him to instruct the Prosecutor-General’s Office (PGO) to probe CC judges.

Yushchenko’s appeal, however, had no effect on Prosecutor-General Svyatoslav Piskun, who insisted that Stanik and Pshenychny occupied their posts legally.

On May 24 Yushchenko issued a decree dismissing Piskun – ironically just a month after he had reinstated him as prosecutor-general.

Piskun’s dismissal triggered two days of brinkmanship.

Piskun did not recognize his firing, as Yushchenko’s formal explanation had been that Piskun was illegally combining his job with work in parliament.

Piskun insisted that he had renounced his parliamentary seat on time. When policemen from the State Guard Service, loyal to Yushchenko, came to the PGO to ask Piskun to go, he called Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko, a Yanukovych ally, for help.

Tsushko overreacted, instructing riot police to storm the PGO and announcing, “A coup is taking place.” Viktor Shemchuk, whom Yushchenko had appointed as caretaker prosecutor-general, opened a criminal case against Tsushko, suspecting him of organizing a coup.

On May 25, Yushchenko issued a decree re-subordinating the combat force of the Interior Ministry – the Interior Troops – to himself.

On May 26, Tsushko told journalists in Kyiv that he had lost control of the Interior Troops, and that they were moving toward Kyiv on orders from Yushchenko.

The troops, however, did not reach Kyiv, as pro-Yanukovych parliamentarians reportedly promptly moved to stop them on the highways, aided by police units loyal to Tsushko.

Later in the day, Yushchenko admitted that he had ordered 2,000 Interior Troops to arrive in Kyiv, but he said that they were supposed to maintain public order during a soccer match.

In order to prevent further muscle flexing, Yushchenko invited Yanukovych and Moroz for urgent talks. In the early hours of May 27, the threesome announced that a compromise had been reached and shook hands before TV cameras.

The deal provides for holding a parliamentary poll on September 30, rather than in June or July, as Yushchenko had earlier insisted.

Yushchenko agreed that parliament should resume work on May 29-30 in order to prepare a legal foundation for the election.

After that, parliament should disband itself.

For that, Yushchenko’s and Tymoshenko’s parties are expected to give up their seats, so parliament will number less than 300, making it illegitimate.

Yushchenko agreed to the Yanukovych coalition’s demand to update the register of voters – Yanukovych and his allies had complained that they scored less than expected in the 2006 election because of irregularities in the voter rolls.

Yushchenko also announced that the parties had agreed that the CC would not be involved in the process.

Yushchenko said that Ukraine had emerged from the crisis stronger and more democratic.

This is arguable, as one of the foundations of democracy – the rule of law – was seriously undermined.
Courts were helpless, producing contradictory rulings during the two months when the political rivals were issuing legally doubtful orders and decrees.

The CC has been demoralized, and it should not be an easy task to revive popular trust in the court.

Source: Eurasia Daily Monitor

Ukraine Braces For Euro 2012

KIEV, Ukraine -- Winning the right to co-host the Euro 2012 football championship with Poland is providing Ukraine with the impetus to think big in its plans to upgrade and modernize its dilapidated leisure infrastructure.


On the drawing table is an ambitious project to build chains of top- and medium-range hotels for the lucrative sporting event, which market watchers say could net an estimated $3 billion in tourism and construction value.

But Ukraine, still mired in the political fallout of its Orange Revolution, may well find a revolution in the real estate sector no less of a challenge.

In a recent real estate survey, Colliers International classified Kiev's hotel market as "one of the least developed hospitality markets among the capitals of Central and Eastern Europe."

But Victor Korzh, Ukraine's minister of sports and youth and the vice president of the Euro 2012 planning committee, said last month that investors have been lining up to develop the necessary infrastructure for the event.

"There are serious investors ready to invest up to $7.7 billion in the construction of airports, roads, hotels and sporting infrastructure." Korzh said.

Korzh said construction work on hotels and other infrastructure would take place in Euro 2012 host cities of Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Lviv, Kiev and Odessa.

The country will need a lot of outside investment to bring its real estate sector up to West European standards, especially as the government cannot afford to take part in the construction of new hotels, experts said.

"The sources of financing will purely be private, with the state only helping to upgrade some transport infrastructure," said Roman Ponomarenko, vice president of Ukraine's Youth Hostel Association.

There are other obstacles to contend with if Ukraine is to make the most of the opportunity to host one of the world's most high-profile sporting events.

"The main challenge is restricted land space for the development of European-standard hotels," said Natalya Pryaschazhnuk, director of Kiev-based Grand Rating real estate firm.

"Downtown Kiev, usually the preferred spot for real estate developers, is cluttered with office buildings, trading centers and apartments," she said. "There is a shortage of everything in the city centers – shortage of land, good roads and modern infrastructure."

A requirement set out by UEFA, the European football association, obliging host cities to provide four-star and five-star hotels to accommodate participating athletes and referees, could also make this a serious headache for competition organizers.

According to UEFA stipulations, visiting fans must be provided with European-standard accommodation within a 50-kilometer radius of sporting venues.

And foreign investors will need some convincing before sinking their money into realty development outside city centers.

"When you factor in the poor investment climate, there's a big question mark on the success of this enterprise," Pryaschazhnuk said.

Ukraine may need to spend a minimum of around $200 million to construct the hotels required to accommodate participants in the 2012 European championship, industry insiders say.

Recent data indicate that even Kiev, with 13 hotels in the four-star and five-star category and 30 three-star hotels, is still in woefully short supply of accommodation. The situation is replicated in all the other host cities of Euro 2012.

If it is going to host the football championship successfully, Ukraine will have to build 22,000 more rooms in Kiev, 14,000 in Dnipropetrovsk, 17,500 in Donetsk and 12,000 in Lviv, according to Ukraine's Euro 2012 organizing committee.

One way to avoid the pressure of having to meet the financial burden of creating so much hotel space may be to place more emphasis on the construction of low-cost hotels, which would also meet the favor of fans seeking to economize, experts said.

Providing that planning for the competition goes as scheduled, the country will still be left with the problem of how best to utilize its stock of hotel space once the competition is over and trade dries up.

Ukraine is still not an attractive enough tourist destination for most hotels built for the championship to be fully utilized, said Gennady Gregoryan, general director of Kiev-based Victoria Realty. "Most will be a waste, unless of course prices can be reduced to a minimum to attract low-profile tourists," Gregoryan said.

Despite the difficulties that lie ahead, there remains considerable optimism.

Many believe the championship will attract investment, stimulating the country's leisure industry, as well a range of complementary sectors.

Euro 2012 will generate millions of dollars in investment and change the country's real estate landscape, Gregoryan said.

Source: The Moscow Times

Shortchanging Democracy In Ukraine

WASHINGTON, DC -- Amid the wreckage of the Bush administration it's easily forgotten that the export of democracy to formerly unfree societies has not always been a failing policy.

U.S. President George Bush
For a decade after the end of the Cold War, the United States and its European allies worked through NATO and the European Union to convert 10 post-Communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

At the time it wasn't clear that all or even any of them would embrace free elections and free markets.

That they did was due in large part to the abundant tutelage, training, aid and tough love provided by the Western alliance.

Lots of people are pointing to Iraq as an example of what happens when attempts at nation-building go wrong.

But what happens when it isn't tried -- when the West sees a country struggling to find a new political order after decades of repression and simply decides to back off?

In effect, a test of that option is underway far from Iraq, in the biggest country between Western Europe and Russia -- Ukraine.

Three years ago, when the Bush "freedom agenda" was still gaining momentum, Ukraine was a focal point. U.S. funds poured into nongovernmental organizations that were agitating for a free presidential election.

When a Russian-sponsored candidate tried to steal the election through blatant fraud, the Bush administration strongly backed the popular protest movement, the Orange Revolution, that eventually forced a new vote.

The pro-Western winner of that ballot, Viktor Yushchenko, was for a while a favorite in Washington; there was even a push to put Ukraine on a fast track for NATO membership.

The change from then to now is one measure of how far a demoralized administration has retreated from its ambitions, and from the world outside the Middle East.

Last week Ukraine was again in political crisis; the protagonists once again were the pro-Western president, Yushchenko, and his pro-Russian rival, Viktor Yanukovych, who is now the prime minister.

Once again crowds gathered in the center of Kiev.

There were struggles for control over government buildings, and each side accused the other of plotting a coup.

The country seemed to teeter between a compromise agreement on new parliamentary elections -- which was announced yesterday -- and an attempt by one side or both to seize power by force.

The Bush administration and its NATO allies, meanwhile, were nearly invisible.

Contact between U.S. officials and the feuding Ukrainians was limited mostly to the U.S. ambassador in Kiev and European affairs officials at the State Department.

A senior adviser to Yanukovych who came to Washington last week to lobby for more involvement, former foreign minister Konstantyn Gryshenko, found it hard to get a meeting at the National Security Council or the vice president's office.

"What's needed from the United States, and what has been lacking, is a strong message to all sides that it is in their interest to abide by democratic principles," Gryshenko, a former ambassador to Washington, told me. "The message we're getting is that the United States really doesn't care."

It's not just the lack of phone calls or visits that conveys that disengagement.

As the human rights group Freedom House points out in a new report, the administration's foreign aid budget proposal for next year contains big cuts in democracy funding for Europe and Eurasia.

In Ukraine, the administration would slash funding for civil society organizations -- that is, the groups that led the democratic revolution of 2004 -- to $6.4 million, reflecting a 40 percent reduction from last year.

In Russia, where pro-democracy and human rights NGOs are under enormous pressure from an increasingly autocratic Vladimir Putin, a cut of more than 50 percent is planned.

The retreat is largely a function of the administration's ever-deeper absorption in the Middle East -- a lot of the democracy funding is being shifted there -- and simple demoralization.

There's a reluctance to do anything that might help Russia's perceived ally, Yanukovych, who believes he would win any free and fair election.

It doesn't help that European governments have lost their willingness to offer more memberships in Western clubs.

Both NATO and the European Union have made it clear that Ukraine won't be admitted anytime soon, regardless of how its politicians behave.

What will happen in the absence of Western influence?

Maybe Ukraine will muddle through; most of its leaders seem more interested in the model of democratic Poland than of Putin's Russia.

Maybe Russia, which will never lose interest in its neighbor, will succeed in converting it into a political satellite, as it tried to do in 2004.

Or maybe the chaos in Kiev will deepen, violence will erupt and the country will start to splinter, like Yugoslavia in the 1990s -- or Iraq.

If so, it won't be because the United States tried to impose democracy; but it might be because it didn't.

Source: Washington Post

Software Piracy Level Still High

KIEV, Ukraine -- Computer software piracy levels remain high in Ukraine, which is ranked among the top 20 countries with the largest level of illegal software use, according to a study released this month.

Pirated copy of Microsoft Windows VISTA
Illegal software use in Ukraine remained largely flat last year, inching down year-on-year 1 percentage point to 84 percent. But Ukraine’s software piracy rate still stands at double the average level of abuse worldwide, according to the Global Software Piracy Study.

The study was prepared by the International Data Corporation (IDC), a US-based global IT and telecommunications advisor, and the Business Software Alliance, an international watchdog agency for legal software headquartered in Washington, DC.

Ukraine’s bedfellows in the list of countries with the poorest software piracy records include Armenia, Cameroon, Moldova, Pakistan, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Experts said piracy in Ukraine has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues for leading computer software producers such as Microsoft Corporation.

The level of software piracy has gradually decreased, falling from the 91 percent recorded by the study organizers in 2003-2004. Yet experts remain upbeat and expect the problem to decrease in response to government efforts to stamp out illegal software use and voluntary compliance by businesses eager to improve the transparency of their operations.

While only a slight improvement, Ukraine is on the right track, according to Oleksandr Kopych, a software market analyst at IDC.

“According to the study, Ukraine managed to continue the trend of reducing the level of software piracy,” he said.

Yevhen Sozansky, manager for software legalization at the Ukraine offices of Microsoft said piracy levels in Ukraine remain very high, but that society is beginning to adopt Western policies and standards for the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR).

“Respect for intellectual property in Ukraine continues to rise,” he said during a May 16 press conference.

Ukraine has made large strides in IPR in recent years.

In January 2006, the US government issued a special report on Ukraine that noted an improvement in the country’s IPR protection and reinstated the Generalized System of Preferences trade benefits for Ukraine.

Five years earlier, Ukraine had the ill fame of being the largest producer and supplier of pirated laser discs in Europe. In response to the brazen piracy, the Office of the US Trade Representative halted Ukraine’s privileges within the framework of the Generalized System of Preferences and later imposed sanctions worth $75 million on Ukrainian imports.

The sanctions were lifted at the end of August 2005, after Ukraine pushed through changes to its law regulating the licensing of laser discs in the country.

“Since the legislation passed, Ukraine has been actively inspecting plants licensed to manufacture optical discs, conducting raids against businesses involved in commercial distribution of IPR-infringing products, and imposing fines against infringers,” according to the US Trade Representative.

Microsoft has in recent years offered companies and the Ukrainian government, itself a large user of pirated software, large discounts on its licensed software in an effort to encourage compliance.

Source: Kyiv Post

EU Welcomes Agreement Between Ukraine's Political Rivals

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European Union welcomed Sunday's agreement among Ukraine's political leaders to end a crisis that had threatened to spiral into violence.

EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana
«Today I congratulate the leaders of Ukraine, both in government and in the opposition, for their show of commitment to democracy,» said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. «This negotiated compromise makes everyone a winner.»

In a statement, Solana said he looked forward to Ukraine's parliament passing legislation this week to implement the agreement between President Viktor Yushchenko and his rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, which calls for early parliamentary elections to held in September.

Solana expressed hope that the agreement would allow Ukraine to turn to reforms that would draw it closer to the EU.

«Now is the time for everyone in Ukraine to focus on implementing the necessary reforms,» he said «The European Union is very committed to this partnership, the quality of which depends on the quality of Ukraine's democracy and reforms.»

The German government, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, said it would maintain close ties with all sides in Ukraine in an effort to help implement the agreement.

It urged «all involved to help ensure the success of the compromise now achieved by refraining from unilateral measures.»

Ukraine's political standoff has provoked mounting concern in the EU over the stability in a neighbor with 47 million people which is an important transit route for western Europe's oil and gas supplies from Russia and the Caspian region.

The EU in March approved a euro494 million (US$660 million) aid package for Ukraine over the next four years, a significant increase in funding.

However, although the EU has started negotiations on a deeper economic and political partnership with Ukraine, it has rebuffed the former Soviet republic's requests to be considered as a candidate for EU membership.

Source: AP

Ukraine's Political Clans Lay Aside Disputes For Key Game

KIEV, Ukraine -- Football is supposed to be apolitical, but it certainly wasn't in Ukraine on Sunday evening, when the leaders of the former Soviet republic's warring political factions watched the national football cup final together.

Ukraine's Yushenko (L) and Yanukovych (R) make strange political bedfellows.
President Viktor Yushchenko, a supporter of free market reforms and Dynamo Kyiv alike, was in a VIP box next to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich who, besides being Yushchenko's political nemesis is a life-long Donetsk Shakhtar fan.

The two men differ on practically every major issue in Ukrainian politics. Yanukovich, for instance, favours closer relations with Russia, while Yushchenko is adamant about Ukraine joining the European Union.

During Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, Yushchenko defeated Yanukovich in a presidential election, after mass protests cancelled a Yanukovich win due to mass vote-rigging. And even then, football was part of the Ukrainian political game.

At the height of the demonstrations paralysing the Ukrainian capital Kiev, in a driving snowstorm, Dynamo took the field in a Champions' League match AS Roma. Match security was tense, as Dynamo Kyiv's owners are allies of Yanukovich, while the Dynamo fans going to the game were overwhelmingly in favour of Yushchenko.

Gate police forced thousands of ticket holders to remove tonnes of orange tape, ribbon, and banners - the colour of Yushchenko's political party - before being allowed into the stadium. The logic was UEFA-approved: No politics at a Champions' League match.

It didn't work. At fifteen minutes with play at a frigid 0-0, the referee ordered the white game ball replaced by a regulation orange one for better visibility in the heavy snow.

The crowd cheered and Dynamo Kyiv - though the side's players prior to the game were openly split on whether Yanukovich of Yushchenko should be president - eventually defeated the Italians 2-0.

Political passions about football colours were so intense in Ukraine that season that Shakhtar's tycoon owner, metals magnate Rinat Akhmetov, ordered his side to switch to all-black kit, as Shakhtar's traditional orange uniforms were supposedly offensive to Yanukovich and his supporters.

Shakhtar subsequent losing streak convinced Akhmetov the black uniforms were a bad idea, and it was in proper orange kit that Shakhtar defeated Dynamo next season, taking both the cup and the league title.

It is difficult to underestimate the importance of football in Ukrainian politics, where practically all major teams are operated (at a loss) by magnates holding political jobs and often seats in parliament.

Ukraine, set to co-host the 2012 European football championships, is a country where the entire ruling class, no matter their current political leanings, grew up in the waning days of Soviet Ukraine - a time when Ukrainian nationalism was punishable by law, except when cheering Dynamo Kyiv in matches against foreign clubs.

(Or, as veteran Ukrainian fans point out to this day, when the Soviet national side played, as nine or ten of the eleven players on the field were, inevitably, Dynamo members dressed in Soviet red and gold.)

Which brings us to Ukraine's national cup match this Sunday, set against a background of just possibly an end to the year-long constitutional battle between the Yanukovich and Yushchenko, and at the very least a return to base of combat units dispatched to the capital, as the dispute threatened to bubble out of control.

No matter the final score, Yanukovich will win from the game, as television cameras will show him supporting Ukraine's team of the working class and ethnic Russians: Shakhtar. Part of the deal ending the crisis, after all, was to hold parliamentary elections in September, and Yanukovich's party must stand for seats, depending on an base electorate that, by and large, supports Shakhtar.

The game likewise will strengthen Yushchenko's political position, as the same television cameras will display the president to the nation as a normal chap who is happy to take in a match, and at the end of the game Yushchenko and no one else will hand over the trophy.

Ukrainian political analysts, and sports commentators alike were predicting a close match, and no magic resolution of the differences between Ukraine's president and prime minister. Ukraine's off-field battles will continue for years, observers said.

Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Ukraine's Acting Prosecutor Opens Criminal Case Against Interior Minister

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine’s Acting Prosecutor General Viktor Shemchuk said Saturday a criminal case had been instituted against Interior Minister Vassily Tsushko and the investigation has been delegated to the National Security Service.

Interior Minister Vassily Tsushko
Shemchuk said he heard a report on pre-trial investigation of the clashes that occurred Friday inside the building of the Prosecutor General’ s Office between servicemen of two opposing agencies of state power – the police crack unit Berkut and the State Guard Service.

“In the format of that investigation, 50 eyewitnesses have been questioned and video materials confiscated from TV channels have been studied,” Shemchuk said. “A minute-by-minute stopwatch account of the events has been compiled.”

In the meantime, Vassily Tsushko believes that someone is trying to make him a scapegoat of this crisis.

“The goal is clear, and it’s to destabilize the activity of the police that has been ensuring stable observance of law and order for more than 50 days, since the very outbreak of this crisis,” he said.

“A more distant goal is to open struggle for the Interior Ministry,” Tsushko added.

He said in parliament Friday he had never exceeded his occupational powers.

“I told them openly that anyone who dares use force gets his mouth smashed, just like it should be,” Tsushko said. “They did get it yesterday because political banditry is unacceptable.”

Source: ITAR-Tass

Ukraine's Leaders Resolve Crisis

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's feuding president and prime minister agreed early Sunday to hold an early parliamentary election on Sept. 30, diffusing a months-long political crisis that had threatened to escalate into violence.

Special police force officers and supporters of Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych secure the prosecutor's building in Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday early morning, May 26, 2007.
"We found a decision, which is a compromise," President Viktor Yushchenko was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency after emerging from eight hours of tense talks. "Now we can say that the political crisis in Ukraine is over."

Tensions had been growing since April, when Yushchenko ordered the dissolution of parliament , where Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych leads the majority coalition. The president claimed the premier and his supporters were trying to usurp presidential power. Parliament defied the order, calling it unconstitutional

The president summoned thousands of troops to Ukraine's capital Saturday, but forces loyal to the nation's prime minister stopped them outside Kiev.

Analysts said Yushchenko's move was an attempt to pressure Yanukovych to agree on an early date for new parliamentary elections, rather than a sign he was preparing for violent confrontation.

In the hours-long talks, Yushchenko had sought new elections as early as possible, demanding them held first in May, then in June. Yanukovych wanted them no earlier than the fall.

Yushchenko took control earlier in the week of the 32,000 troops who answer to the interior minister, a Yanukovych loyalist. A statement on the presidential Web site said that Yushchenko ordered the troops to Kiev in a move "necessary to guarantee a calm life for the city, to prevent provocations."

The statement did not specify how many troops were sent. Nikolai Mishakin, their deputy commander, said on Ukrainian television that nearly 3,500 were prevented from entering Kiev. He promised his troops would not turn back, but vowed they would not resort to violence since none had firearms.

Yushchenko, however, denied that he had sent additional interior troops to the capital, calling such reports "great stupidity" and "misinformation." Yushchenko said he had only ordered 2,000 troops to Kiev to maintain order during weekend festivities, a move he described as routine.

Kiev residents are celebrating the capital's anniversary this weekend and a major soccer game is planned for Sunday.

Several hundred flag-waving supporters of both leaders held competing rallies in front of the presidential office where Yushchenko and Yanukovych were meeting. A thin line of police separated the two camps of protesters.

Yanukovych said he, Yushchenko and other senior officials and politicians who took part in the negotiations agreed that the country cannot be allowed to slide into violence.

"We will do everything so that this doesn't happen again," Yanukovych said.

Yushchenko came to office in 2005 after the popular uprising known as the Orange Revolution broke out in reaction to Yanukovych being counted as winner of a fraud-plagued presidential ballot. The Supreme Court annulled that vote and Yushchenko won a rerun.

Yushchenko was poisoned with dioxin, which badly scarred his face, in the course of the race, and the mystery of who might have done it, and why, has never been solved.

He has sought to lead Ukraine into the European Union and NATO but his agenda has since been complicated by chronic political turmoil, including fighting among his supporters and the ongoing disputes with Yanukovych, who wants to preserve the country's close ties with Moscow.

Yanukovych staged a remarkable political comeback. In last year's parliamentary elections, his party won the largest share of seats, apparently benefiting from wide voter dissatisfaction with the country's stalled reforms and internecine political sparring.

On Thursday, Yushchenko fired longtime foe Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun , a Yanukovych ally , saying Piskun could not serve as the country's chief prosecutor while acting as a member of parliament.

Security officers were sent to oust Piskun, but riot police loyal to Yanukovych immediately moved to protect him, standing guard outside his office.

"I think these maneuvers with security forces are meant to give the president a chance to maneuver at talks," said Vadim Karasyov, head of the Kiev-based Institute on Global Strategies.

Source: AP

Troop Columns En Route To Ukraine Capital

KIEV, Ukraine -- More than two thousand troops were en route to the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Saturday, as fears of a military intevention rose in the former Soviet republic.

Riot police stand guard at public prosecutor's office
Combat formations containing a total 2,050 soldiers were travelling by lorry from several bases in the country, and could arrive in Kiev as early Saturday evening or during Sunday, said general Oleksander Kikhtenko, Ukraine Interior Ministry troop commander.

All the lorry columns were halted, pending further instructions, he said. Columns were reported idling on the side of the road in rural districts of the Odessa, Poltava, and Zaporizhia provinces.

News of the troop movements came one day after President Viktor Yushchenko threatened to send troops to 'restore order' to the capital Kiev.

The pro-Europe Yushchenko has been locked in a long-running battle with his political nemesis, pro-Russia Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, over the legality of early parliamentary elections called by Yushchenko, and move's by Yanukovich's coalition to dominate parliament.

The conflict came to a head earlier this week when pro-Yanukovich police led by Interior Ministry head broke into the Prosecutor General's office in Kiev, to bring back to his desk a pro-Yanukovich Prosecutor General Yushchenko had sacked.

The troop movements, carried out in broad daylight and easily halted by pro-Yanukovich MPs flagging the columns down, appeared to be a pressure tactic by Yushchenko to force the pro-Yanukovich police to evacuate the Prosecutor General's office, in order to avoid a confrontation with combat troops.

'God forbid that it should come to bloodshed,' Kikhtenko said.

Police in combat armour and wearing maroon berets of the Berkut anti-riot force were visible in and around the Prosecutor General's office building, but aside from a few hundred demonstrators from either side in the conflict the city district was quiet.

Vasyl Tsushko, Ukraine's Interior Minister and leader of the Thursday assault on Prosecutor General's office, took a hard line, telling reporters 'we have sufficient means and people, to hold the building.'

But at the same time Tsushko made clear he preferred to resolve the conflict in courts rather than by shooting, saying 'I am fully prepared to answer before the law for my actions.'

Though theoretically subordinate to Tsushko, combat units within Ukraine's Interior Ministry traditionally take orders directly from the President.

Yushchenko in another overt raising of the stakes on Saturday signed a Presidential decree placing the Berkut police unit directly under Presidential control - placing the Berkut troopers in the difficult situation of defying an order by the commander-in-chief to evacuate the building.

Yushchenko also enjoys the loyalty of most of the army leadership, and that of the secret police the SBU. Yanukovich and his allies for months had claimed openly that Yushchenko was a lame duck President too weak to stand up to them.

A new round of talks between Yushchenko and Yanukovich began shortly after midday.

The European Union has called on both sides in the dispute to gather round the negotiating table.

In a statement issued in Berlin Friday, the EU's German presidency said all efforts should be focused on a peaceful settlement.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk met several foreign ambassadors in Kiev Friday evening.

Yatsenyuk said that he was confident the crisis in Ukraine would be resolved without bloodshed.

Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Ukraine Leaders Meet Amid Crisis

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's president said he took command of 32,000 Interior Ministry troops Friday, and a ministry official rejected the order -- deepening the country's political crisis, as police guarded the office of the fired prosecutor general.

In this image from TV Ukrainian interior ministry police officers break the doors of the top prosecutor's building to let Ukraine's Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun get into the office after he was fired by President Viktor Yushchenko.
The former Soviet republic edged closer toward potential violence as lawmakers and officials allied with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych called President Viktor Yushchenko's order a "putsch," and hundreds of supporters of each of the rival politicians staged competing rallies in Kiev.

Yanukovych and Yushchenko, along with other top political leaders, met late Friday for the first time since the president fired the prosecutor general a day earlier.

The meeting lasted more than three hours and stretched into early Saturday.

Yanukovych left without speaking to reporters and a Yushchenko spokeswoman said the group would resume talks on Saturday.

Tensions between the pair have been building for weeks, and the president's move to take control over the troops, reflecting doubt on the loyalty of servicemen under the ministry's command, suggested rising concern over possible clashes.

Analysts blamed both men for the impasse and warned that international mediators may have to intervene to prevent further disorder or bloodshed.

"If before, people felt apathy and irritation for authorities, now they hate it, now the government has lost all authority," political analyst Kost Bondarenko said. "Now everybody thinks that any sergeant can stage a coup."

In a statement on the presidential Web site, Yushchenko said the order was necessary "to prevent using Interior Ministry troops in the interest of some political forces that cause a threat for Ukraine's national security."

But ministry spokesman Konstantin Stogniy said the order was illegal, and "fulfilling illegal orders is a crime."

Dismissal sends tensions soaring

Yushchenko fired Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun on Thursday, saying he could not serve as a member of parliament and chief prosecutor simultaneously.

Yushchenko ordered state security officers and the head of the national security council, Ivan Plyushch, to Piskun's office to fulfill the order.

The Interior Ministry, which is led by a Yanukovych ally, responded by sending riot police to Piskun's office.

The Interior Ministry has about 32,000 troops and 220,000 regular policemen under its control; Yushchenko's order calls for his taking control only of the troops.

The Interior Ministry troops are led by Gen. Oleksandr Kihtenko, who is seen as a Yushchenko ally. Yushchenko aide Viktor Bondar said the command had confirmed its readiness to follow Yushchenko's order.

The dismissal of Piskun, a member of Yanukovych's party, severely aggravated tensions that have been running high since Yushchenko's April 2 order dissolving parliament and calling early elections.

Yushchenko said parliament's dissolution was necessary because Yanukovych and his coalition were trying to usurp presidential power.

But parliament, where Yanukovych leads the majority coalition, has defied the order, calling it unconstitutional.

Yushchenko came to office in 2005 after the Orange Revolution -- massive protests that broke out after Yanukovych was counted as winner of a fraud-plagued presidential ballot.

The Supreme Court annulled that vote and Yushchenko won a rerun.

But Yushchenko's goal of instituting political and economic reforms in the former Soviet republic have run aground over factional fighting among his supporters.

In last year's parliamentary elections, Yanukovych's party won the largest share of seats, apparently benefiting from wide voter dissatisfaction.

Yushchenko repeatedly has declared his aim of bringing Ukraine closer to the West, including eventual membership in NATO and the European Union.

Chronic political turmoil has hampered those aims and fed criticism of him for actions that are either ineffectual or unilateral.

Source: CNN

Tensions Soar In Ukraine As President Claims Command Of Interior Ministry Troops

KIEV, Ukraine -- President Viktor Yushchenko on Friday claimed command of Ukraine's 32,000 Interior Ministry troops, but a ministry official ejected the order amid a continuing standoff outside the prosecutors general's office that has dramatically escalated the country's political crisis.

Riot police guard Ukraine's public prosecutor's office in Kiev May 25, 2007. Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich placed himself on a direct collision course with Ukraine's president on Friday by denouncing his move to assume direct control of Interior Ministry troops.
Renewed tensions between the president and archrival Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych have been building for weeks, and the president's move to take control over the troops, reflecting doubt on the loyalty of servicemen under the ministry's command, appeared to suggest rising concern over possible clashes.

A statement on the presidential Web site said Yushchenko's order for the troops to come under his command was necessary «to prevent using Interior Ministry troops in the interest of some political forces that cause a threat for Ukraine's national security.

But ministry spokesman Konstantin Stogniy said Yushchenko's order was illegal, and «fulfilling illegal orders is a crime.»

The country's crisis intensified Thursday when Yushchenko fired Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun, saying Piskun, as a member of parliament, could serve simultaneously as chief prosecutor.

The Interior Ministry, which is led by a Yanukovych ally, responded by sending riot police to Piskun's office.

The Interior Ministry has about 32,000 troops and 220,000 regular policemen under its control; Yushchenko's order calls for his taking control only of the troops.

The Interior Ministry troops are led by Gen. Oleksandr Kihtenko, who is seen as a Yushchenko ally. The Interfax news agency cited Yushchenko aide Viktor Bondar as saying that the command had confirmed its readiness to follow Yushchenko's order, but the information could not immediately be confirmed.

The dismissal of Piskun, a member of Yanukovych's party, severely aggravated tensions that have been high since Yushchenko's April 2 order dissolving parliament and calling early elections.

«It is again a violation of the Constitution and making such a decision is unacceptable. ... We need to immediately stop legal nihilism,» Yanukovych said during an urgent meeting of his government.

Yushchenko said parliament's dissolution was necessary because Yanukovych and his coalition were trying to usurp presidential power.

But parliament, where Yanukovych leads the majority coalition, has defied the order, calling it unconstitutional.

Yushchenko's dissolution order led to weeks of argument and competing demonstrations between backers of the president and those of the premier, but no disorder has broken out.

The dispute complicated Thursday's dismissal of Piskun, since it was unclear whether parliament still legally exists.

Piskun on Thursday was initially defiant after Yushchenko announced the dismissal, but then said he would step aside once the order was officialy published in the presidential register - which occurred Friday.

It was not immediately clear, however, whether Piskun had received or acknowledged the order.

Both Yushchenko and Yanukovych had agreed to respect the Constitutional Court's decision on the dissolution order. But the court has been deliberating on the matter for weeks, and the discussions were complicated by Yushchenko's orders to fire several of its judges, including the chief judge.

Yushchenko came to office in 2005 after the bitter Orange Revolution, massive protests that broke out after Yanukovych was counted as winner of a fraud-plagued presidential ballot.

The Supreme Court annulled that vote and Yushchenko won a rerun.

But Yushchenko's goal of instituting political and economic reforms in the ex-Soviet nation have run aground over factional fighting among his supporters.

In last year's parliamentary elections, Yanukovych's party won the largest share of seats, apparently benefiting from wide voter dissatisfaction with the country's stalled reforms and internecine political sparring.

Yushchenko repeatedly has declared his aim of bringing Ukraine closer to the West, including eventual membership in NATO and the European Union.

But the chronic political turmoil has hampered those aims and fed criticism of him for actions that are either ineffectual or unilateral.

The European Union's external affairs commissioner, meanwhile, voiced concern about the ongoing events in Ukraine.

«I call upon all political forces in Ukraine to do their utmost, on the basis of a constructive attitude and in a peaceful and lawful manner, to find a viable political compromise to solve the current political impasse and to refrain from any action which would further exacerbate the situation, especially by involving the security forces,» Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement from Brussels.

Source: AP

Yushchenko Puts Ukrainian Troops Under His Control (Update1)

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko took the country's interior ministry troops under presidential control, a day after the interior minister accused him of fomenting a coup, as a months-long political crisis deepened.

Viktor Yushchenko is taking charge
``The order was signed to prevent possible threats to the nation's interests and ensure that the interior troops, which had been until recently a part of the Interior Ministry, are not used to benefit political forces,'' read a statement posted on Yushchenko's Web site today.

Ukraine's political standoff worsened yesterday when Yushchenko fired Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun a month after hiring him.

Piskun is a member of parliament for the Party of the Regions, headed by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, Yushchenko's bitter rival.

After the dismissal, Interior Minster Vasyl Tsushko called it ``a coup d'etat,'' Interfax reported.

Power in Ukraine has been divided for months between Yushchenko, who became president in 2004 after a peaceful ``Orange Revolution'' and favors joining the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the premier, who seeks closer ties with Russia.

Yushchenko dissolved parliament on April 2 and called early elections, saying Yanukovych was trying to oust him.

Street Protests

Armed troops loyal to both sides scuffled in several public buildings in Kiev yesterday, pictures broadcast on Russian state television channels showed, as crowds of Yushchenko and Yanukovych supporters took to the streets.

The troops which Yushchenko has now brought under his direct control must ``guard and patrol Ukraine's state institutions, particularly the Prosecutor General's office and the Constitutional Court,'' the statement said.

Yushchenko and Yanukovych, 56, are due to meet for talks today, Yushchenko's office said earlier.

``There is a quiet coup d'etat going on,'' Yushchenko told a press conference yesterday, accusing his political opponents of trying to gain power by illegal means.

``There is only one solution to this -- political agreement. People with guns won't help to solve the conflict.''

Yushchenko, 53, and Yanukovych have failed to agree when or whether the early elections should go ahead.

The Constitutional Court has been debating the issue for weeks, with no result.

Trips Canceled

Yushchenko canceled a trip to a summit in the Czech Republic because of the crisis, his press service said. Yanukovych returned to Kiev yesterday, cutting short a meeting of prime ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose grouping of 12 former Soviet republics.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, attending the CIS meeting in Yalta, expressed ``some concern'' over the mounting political crisis, Interfax reported. He urged adherence to the law and to the constitution, the agency said.

Yushchenko and Yanukovych have battled each other for control of the country's future since Yushchenko became president following the Orange Revolution in late 2004 that overturned the results of a fraud-ridden election.

Yanukovych was initially declared the winner of the presidential ballot but a court later ordered a new vote in the wake of widespread voting irregularities, a ballot that was won by Yushchenko.

Yanukovych's party finished first in parliamentary elections in 2006 and later formed a coalition government.

Source: Bloomberg

Ukraine PM's Allies Control Key Building, Plan Rally

KIEV, Ukraine -- Allies of Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich took control of a key building in the capital on Friday and promised a mass rally, deepening a power struggle with the country's pro-Western president.

Special police force officers secure the prosecutor's building as supporters of Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych protest against the dismissal of top prosecutor by the president
Yanukovich and President Viktor Yushchenko, who hold different visions of Ukraine's future, have been unable for weeks to agree on a date for an early parliamentary election nearly two months after the president dissolved parliament.

Tensions boiled over on Thursday when Yushchenko dismissed Ukraine's prosecutor general and accused riot police who rushed to defend him of breaking the law.

Police loyal to the interior minister and prime minister, who is closer to Moscow in outlook, maintained an uneasy standoff through the night with a separate security unit charged with guarding government buildings.

Periodic scuffles broke out and as dawn approached, members of parliament allied with Yanukovich, backed up by riot police, evicted the other unit from the prosecutor general's office. Thousands of the prime minister's supporters gathered outside.

Kiev streets bustled in normal fashion as residents headed to work. Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko said tens of thousands of the prime minister's supporters would mass later in the day.

Yushchenko, who cancelled a trip to a meeting of central European leaders in the Czech Republic, summoned security officials to a night-time meeting, but no statement was issued.

His office said he had offered to hold new talks with Yanukovich on Friday morning.

Television showed riot police, accompanied by Tsushko, clambering over a fence on Thursday and smashing their way into the building to enable sacked prosecutor general Svyatoslav Piskun to enter his office.

"What minister Tsushko has done is a crime. I am saying plainly that this is a simple fact -- the use of force in solving a political conflict," Yushchenko told a news conference.

Yanukovich said Piskun's dismissal was groundless and "could have led to catastrophic consequences.

"Let me assure you, my fellow countrymen, the government will allow no anarchy in Ukraine, it will allow no civil war," he said in a television address.

Piskun, an ally of the prime minister, was dismissed a month after being reinstated by the president.

Both Yushchenko and Yanukovich called this week for quick action to break the deadlock over the election date.

The president, who wants a poll as quickly as possible, said a deal to stage the vote had collapsed at the last minute. The prime minister says no election can be held before October.

Analyst Oleksander Dergachyov said it was vital to restore dialogue to shore up Ukraine's post-Soviet institutions.

"When laws no longer work, political decisions are required. The first step in this direction is to hold an election to parliament," Dergachyov told Radio Era.

"We have to turn this page in our history and set about creating a new political culture."

Source: Reuters

Ukraine Sacking Sparks Protests

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko summoned security ministers yesterday after his dismissal of a top judiciary official spurred angry protests by supporters of his arch-rival, the country’s prime minister.

Riot police stand guard near Ukraine's public prosecutor's office in Kiev May 24, 2007. President Viktor Yushchenko said on Thursday riot police who forced their way into Ukraine's public prosecutor's office had committed a crime and demanded proceedings against whoever issued order to do so.
Ukraine’s interior minister, loyal to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, described the sacking of prosecutor-general Svyatoslav Piskun as an “attempted coup”.

Yushchenko has been locked in a struggle with Yanukovich over the date of a parliamentary election.

Yanukovich called an emergency meeting of his cabinet after abruptly leaving a meeting of prime ministers of former Soviet states in southern Ukraine.

Piskun, an ally of the prime minister, was sacked only a month after being reinstated.

He summoned supporters to his office after being informed of his dismissal, which followed a dispute over the Constitutional Court, and vowed to resist the order.

Dozens of the prime minister’s supporters shouted slogans outside the prosecutor’s office.

On Wednesday, the pro-western president and the prime minister, long at odds over a division of powers, called for quick action to break a deadlock over the date of a parliamentary poll.

Weeks of talks have produced no agreement.

Yushchenko sacked Piskun in 2005 soon after coming to power to show his displeasure over a failure to solve high-profile cases.

He reinstated Piskun after a court ruling.

Source: Business Day

Yushchenko Fires Prosecutor General

KIEV, Ukraine -- President Viktor Yushchenko fired Ukraine's top prosecutor Thursday, but the interior minister sent dozens of police officers to surround the building in defiance of the order, dramatically raising the stakes in political chaos afflicting the country.

Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun
Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun pledged to defy the order, and Yushchenko's longtime rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, cut short a Black Sea trip, returning to Kiev for an urgent meeting with his government.

Dozens of police linked arms and formed a chain around the prosecutor's building in central Kiev in apparent defiance of the dismissal late Thursday.

Dozens of the prime minister's supporters shouted slogans outside the office, while riot police carefully controlled access to the building.

Piskun remained in his office. Yushchenko, meanwhile, convened an emergency meeting of the heads of enforcement bodies, the presidential office said.

The president's web site said Yushchenko was meeting Defense Minister Anatoly Hrytsenko, Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko, the head of the security service and other senior officials.

Ukraine has been mired in political crisis since Yushchenko last month ordered the parliament dissolved -- a move he said was necessary to prevent Yanukovych from usurping power.

Yushchenko has sparred with Piskun for years; Yushchenko dismissed him two years ago, complaining about the slow pace of the investigation of the 2004 dioxin poisoning that disfigured Yushchenko's face.

Piskun appealed the dismissal, and a court in December ordered him reinstated to the job.

Yushchenko last month acceded to that order and reappointed Piskun.

But on Thursday, Yushchenko reversed course and fired Piskun a second time, saying it was illegal for him to be simultaneously prosecutor general and a member of the parliament.

Piskun became a lawmaker last year as a member of Yanukovych's party.

The order will take legal effect Friday, once it is officially published.

Despite the order, its legal basis was uncertain because Yushchenko dissolved the parliament in April, weeks before Yushchenko reappointed Piskun.

Meanwhile, the constitutionality of Yushchenko's order dissolving the parliament is being considered by the Constitutional Court, leaving a doubt whether the old parliament still legally exists.

Under the law, the president needs parliamentary approval to appoint or fire the prosecutor general.

But in his Thursday decree, Yushchenko said his order to restore Piskun lost its validity as Piskun did not resign as a lawmaker.

Yushchenko on Wednesday made a televised address dismissing the Constitutional Court as "illegitimate" and asking Piskun to take appropriate measures.

Source: The Moscow Times

Animal Rights Violations Rampant, Victims Protest Via Civic Activism

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine may be making progress in meeting European political and economic standards, but the country is lagging far behind the civilized world in the humane treatment of animals.

Ukrainians can be cruel to stray animals, as in the case of this murdered dog
In fact violations of international and Ukrainian laws are widespread as local governments choose less expensive ways of dealing with stray dog problems.

The violations have stimulated civic activism among pet owners throughout the country.

In Chernihiv, a woman recently filed a criminal complaint against local authorities for what she says was the deliberate killing of her dog.

Storeowner Olena Stolyarova found the remains of her dog Liza in a pit used by the Municipal Motor Transport Department (KAPD) as a mass animal grave.

There are no animal shelters or dog catchers in Chernihiv, so the city administration has tasked the waste removal service with ridding the city of its stray dog population.

Stolyarova said that she found Liza’s remains in April, two days after the dog disappeared.

The head of Chernihiv’s city housing and communal services department, Vadym Antoshin, explained that a rabies epidemic among strays required quarantine measures and the resulting cull.

“In [Stolyarova’s] case the dog was found in a group of stray and sick dogs without a collar,” Antoshin said.

The photos seen by the Post clearly show the carcass of Stolyarova’s dog with a collar and tags around the neck.

An independent test conducted at a Kyiv laboratory of veterinary medicine several days after the dog’s death showed that Stolyarova’s dog was sterilized and died by lethal injection.

A KAPD employee told the Post they use dithylinum for lethal injections.

Dithylinum is prohibited by international standards for the humane treatment of animals because it is known to cause a slow and painful death. The poison was outlawed in Ukraine last year.

“The ground is full of carcasses. I know I can’t save Liza, but I want to stop this in the future, so I decided to take action,” Stolyarova said.

Police are currently examining the case to determine whether it constitutes a crime.

“I think criminal activity can be established,” said the first deputy head of Chernihiv’s Internal Affairs Administration, Ivan Katerynchuk. He also thinks Stolyarova’s initiative is positive.

“I personally know about a number of similar cases, but the owners of these pets have never gone to the police, and the crimes have remained unpunished,” Katerynchuk added.

Inna Bachurina, a member of a Chernihiv animal protection society also approved of Stolyarova’s activism.

“[KADP] violated international standards on the humane treatment of animals and the laws of Ukraine. KADP is first and foremost a garbage removal service. They are not professional dog catchers,” Bachurina said.

“The law requires for animals to be kept in a shelter for seven days. The animal can only be put to sleep only if it is not sterilized and the owner cannot be identified.”

About 2,000 dogs are caught in Chernihiv annually. According to Antoshin, the local budget allocates Hr 200,000 ($40,000) to finance dog catching for the year.

Bachurina said that this amount is more than enough to pay for the sterilization of the entire city’s stray dog population.

“According to our calculations Hr 100 ($20) is more than enough to sterilize one dog. There is enough money to purchase painless medicine to put a dog to sleep. It has become a sort of business for the city administration: they save money buying cheaper medicines. And of course it is easier and cheaper to kill a dog than to keep it in a shelter the city doesn’t even have,” Bachurina said.

National problem

Dog catching services throughout the country are accused of inhumanely killing the stray dogs rather than sterilizing them and putting them in shelters.

The head of the Kyiv-based animal defense society, SOS, Tamara Tarnavska said she receives dozens of letters from across the country every week about cases similar to Stolyarova’s.

“Most cities don’t even have animal shelters, let alone professional dog catching services. In most cases local communal service structures deal with the problem, but these people have no idea about how animals should be treated. I only know of a handful of shelters in Ukraine with the two in Hostomel and Bilohorodka and the one that SOS operates in Pirogovo (Kyiv suburbs),” she said.

A shelter in Odessa can be described as a relative success story. It was set up with support from Germany after a movie about the port city’s strays was shown at an animal rights conference in Brussels.

Odessa’s strays were rounded up and sterilized, and the practice of shooting dogs has become a thing of the past, Tarnavska said.

According to Tarnavska, about 16,000 dogs are killed annually in Kyiv alone, while across Ukraine the number of killed animals is probably in the millions, she said.

The state budget provides Hr 3.5 million ($700,000) for dealing with stray animals – more than enough to cover sterilization and shelter maintenance, Tarnavska said.

“I lived most of my life in Europe and what is going on in Ukraine simply does not fit any norms. No European country systematically kills its homeless animals – they should be sterilized according to international practice. To murder dogs is not only cruel and inhumane, but also ineffective: it won’t lead to the disappearance of stray dogs, but vice-versa, they will continue to breed. When animals are sterilized, their number gradually reduces and they disappear,” explained Tarnavska.

Problems with stray dogs are encountered in countries such as Sri Lanka, Cyprus, India and Greece and are mostly addressed by foreign initiatives.

“A similar tendency for international support started in Ukraine several years ago, while for the local administration it is just one more way to make money,” Tarnavska said.

Source: Kyiv Post

Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova Choking On Toxic Waste, OSCE Says

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- Toxic waste, water pollution and the legacy of Chernobyl have plunged Ukraine and neighbouring Moldova and Belarus into an environmental crisis, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).


In a report released in Prague this week, the OSCE said contaminated military sites were also a festering problem. “Ukraine has approximately 2.5 millions tonnes of Soviet-era ammunition that requires disposal, including four burial grounds for radioactive waste”, said the report.

The break-up of the Soviet Union had solved some environmental problems, but exacerbated others because of lax regulation and increased exploitation of natural resources, it said.

The application of stricter EU environmental standards in Slovakia and Hungary, Ukraine’s neighbours, has resulted in attempts to export environmental problems across their eastern borders.

The report aimed to help “identify the most dangerous points and to enhance awareness,” Bernard Soy, Coordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities, told AFP.

Up to 10 percent of Ukrainian waste disposal sites belonging to the military require major repairs, the report said, pointing to a series of accidental explosions between 2004 and 2006 at the Novobohdanivka arsenal in the south of the country.

Source: AFP

Ukraine's Winter Of Discontent

NEW YORK, NY -- On November 21, 2004, Ukrainian citizens went to the polls to cast their ballots in a run-off election for a new president, a right they had only enjoyed for eight years since their nation's constitution came into being.

Film maker Andrei Zagdansky
Ukraine has a long history of political upheaval and conflict dating back to the tsars. True to historical form, the 2004 campaign had been both a close one and a dirty one.

Challenger Viktor Yushchenko, a former prime minister and leader of the Our Ukraine Party, had suffered a near fatal dose of dioxin poisoning.

This was not only barbaric it was ironic — Mr. Yuschenko's followers rallied behind bright orange banners, and stateside Dioxin is known as Agent Orange.

His opponent, the incumbent Viktor Yanukovych, was long rumored to have ties to organized crime, and Orange Party loyalists naturally assumed that Mr. Yanukovych's followers had something to do with the chemical assassination attempt.

In Andrei Zagdansky's new documentary "Orange Winter," which opens today at the Pioneer Theater, the events that followed the run-off election were even more bizarre.

"Power, the people, chance or fate, providence — the interplay of these forces is what makes history," the film's narrator says. Mr. Zagdansky shuffles a deck of images and footage showing history being made fast — both in the halls of government and in the street.

And while he misdeals a few of his cards here and there, "Orange Winter" is a candid and exciting nonfiction account of a fascinating contemporary popular struggle.

The election that had forced the run-off had been roundly criticized for favoring the sitting government. It hadn't helped the credibility of Mr. Yanukovych's candidacy that goon squads, believed to be plain-clothes members of his government's "Special Purpose Police Unit," harassed Orange Party campaigners and voters on numerous occasions.

Ukrainian citizens and international election monitors cast a dubious eye on the November 21 vote count as well. Exit polls indicated that Mr. Yushchenko was the winner by a small but legal margin.

So when state-run television declared Mr. Yanukovych the winner, the native population of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev (a city split between Russian and Ukrainian speakers and loyalists) took to the streets.

In Mr. Zagdansky's footage, thousands of protestors pour into Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Kiev's central Independence Square, as the government declares the election over.

But even as TV newsreaders urge the people to go back to work and get on with their lives, a simultaneous onscreen sign language translator, discreetly wearing an orange scarf on her wrist, contradicts the official story.

"I find it very distressing that I've had to translate falsehoods," she tells sign language fluent viewers from her box on the lower right corner of their TV screens. "I won't do that anymore. I don't know if we will see each other again."

Days go by and the mass protest becomes a tent city. Sympathetic retailers put orange sweaters on sale. Sporting goods stores sell out of fishing rods, the most practical hardware with which to hold up and control massive orange banners springing up all over the Maidan. Mr. Zagdansky's camera captures an ad hoc community's growth and life with an eye for both egalitarian gesture and a pretty face.

The homeless get fed. Blond girls smile. An expressionless member of the Special Purpose Police in riot gear works his way down a row of his comrades, brushing the snow off of their body armor and helmets as he goes. Couples make-out and marry. Christmas arrives and orange Christmas trees go up.

Mr. Zagdansky also adds a performance of Mussorgsky's opera " Boris Gudonov" and clips from Aleksandr Dovzhenko's brilliant 1930 Ukraine-set Soviet propaganda film "Earth" to the mix.

Though the music and images are lovely, the metaphoric point they make is a simple one. As the real news events build to their January 2005 conclusion, both opera and film excerpts pale in intensity alongside what actually happened.

Mr. Zagdansky's timeline is occasionally less sure-footed than it could be, and his narrator, the print journalist Matthew Gurewitsch (sounding like a cross between Ben Stein and Mr. Rodgers), fails to sustain a connection with the images he describes and the words he reads.

But "Orange Winter" is nevertheless inspiring, and a viewer's patience with a filmmaker eagerly trying to fit two months that shook Ukraine into 72 minutes will be rewarded.

Source: The New York Sun

Ukraine's Constitutional Court Under Pressure

KIEV, Ukraine -- On May 21, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (CC) closed proceedings related to President Viktor Yushchenko’s April 2 decree to disband parliament.

Constitutional Court of Ukraine
This was a pure formality, as Yushchenko had on April 26 invalidated his own decree by issuing another decree disbanding parliament and rescheduling an early parliamentary election for June 24.

The CC launched proceedings on the April 26 decree on May 14.

No matter in whose favor the CC may deliver its verdict, the opposing side will hardly recognize it. This is because the CC has lost credibility, become incapacitated by political pressure, dismissals, and resignations of its judges, and discredited by allegations of corruption.

In this situation, no legal ruling can solve the political crisis caused by Yushchenko’s decision to disband parliament. The ultimate solution can apparently be only political, reached between Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and Yushchenko.

As early as April 9, parliament issued a statement accusing Yushchenko of “putting unprecedented pressure” on CC judges. The following day, Yushchenko’s representative at the CC, Volodymyr Shapoval, said that any verdict regarding Yushchenko’s April 2 decree would be purely political.

Shapoval made his comments even before the CC officially started looking into Yushchenko’s decree, which happened on April 11.

From the very beginning, both sides to the conflict apparently agreed on one point: the CC would not rule in Yushchenko’s favor. His team and the media backing Yushchenko were convinced that the majority of the CC’s 18 judges sympathized with the Yanukovych camp and were “corrupt.”

Yanukovych’s side has insisted that Yushchenko’s decision to disband parliament had been unconstitutional.

In this situation, the strategy of Yushchenko’s team has been to incapacitate the CC, while Yanukovych’s camp has been at pains to maintain the status quo. On April 16, the Security Service (SBU), which is loyal to Yushchenko, accused CC judge Syuzanna Stanik of corruption, saying that some property had been handed over to her close relative, apparently in return for certain services.

Stanik flatly denied this, and her husband alleged, in an interview to Channel 5 on April 24, that he had been offered a “big sum of money” himself in return for influencing his wife.

On April 18, representatives of Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, allied with Yushchenko, tried to physically prevent CC judges from entering the court, and the judges managed to reach their workplace only thanks to intervention from riot police.

Since then, crowds of Yanukovych supporters have being watching the entrances to the court, which prompted their rivals to accuse them of putting psychological pressure on the judges.

On May 1 Yushchenko issued a decree dismissing Stanik. He also dismissed two other CC judges, Valery Pshenychny and Volodymyr Ivashchenko, “for breaching the oath” of office on April 30 and May 10 respectively. The CC issued a statement on May 10, complaining of pressure.

It expressed concern over the dismissal of the three judges, as well as over a bill registered in parliament -- dominated by Yanukovych supporters -- providing for the dismissal of five CC judges who are perceived to be backing Yushchenko.

On May 15-17 two courts located in Yanukovych’s Donbas stronghold invalidated the dismissals of the three judges by the president. Yushchenko’s secretariat has lodged appeals.

But one of the three, Pshenychny, became acting chief judge of the CC on May 17, when CC Chief Judge Ivan Dombrovsky finally resigned. (He had tendered his resignation for the first time immediately after Yushchenko’s April 2 parliament dissolution decree, complaining of pressure, but not specifying who was pressuring him.)

This angered Yushchenko’s secretariat. Yushchenko’s legal adviser, Ihor Pukshyn, said in a commentary issued on April 17, “The CC does not exist as an institution in Ukraine.” Pukshyn said there was no quorum on the court after the dismissal of three judges.

Furthermore, he said, four CC judges were on sick leave. One of those four, Dmytro Lylak, resigned from the CC on May 21. Ukraine’s mainstream media have interpreted this as the beginning of an exodus of pro-Yushchenko’s judges from the CC.

On May 18, the head of Yushchenko’s secretariat, Viktor Baloha, declared, “After the appointment of Pshenychny as acting chief judge of the CC, no ruling of this court can be legitimate.”

On the same day, Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine party issued a statement urging the Prosecutor-General’s Office to launch criminal proceedings against the judges who had been dismissed by Yushchenko.

Pshenychny complained to journalists on May 21 that state guards, acting on instructions from Yushchenko’s secretariat, had tried to prevent him from entering the CC building.

Also on May 21, Yushchenko turned to a district court in Kyiv suggesting that the CC should be banned from ruling on legal cases. This may be the beginning of the end of the current Ukrainian Constitutional Court.

Source: Eurasia Daily Monitor

Ukraine Leaders Fail Again To Set Poll Date

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko and his rival, the prime minister, failed after fresh negotiations on Monday to set a date for an early parliamentary election to break months of political deadlock.

The never-ending saga continues with Yushchenko's (L) favorite round-table discussions once again accomplishing nothing.
No statement was issued after more than five hours of talks at the president's offices between Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, his opponent from the 2004 "Orange Revolution" who is closer to Moscow in outlook.

Negotiating teams had suggested at the weekend that the two sides would produce an agreement on Monday on legislation to be approved by parliament for the snap poll to proceed.

The two men, long at odds over a division of powers, have met several times since Yushchenko issued two decrees last month to dissolve parliament and call an election to the assembly.

The prime minister initially ignored the decrees and asked the Constitutional Court for an assessment. Both men pledged for a time to abide by any ruling and later agreed to hold a poll -- though they remain divided over when it should take place.

The president's second decree set a date of June 24 and he wants a vote as soon as possible. The prime minister says it is impractical to hold the poll before autumn and most commentators say the most likely date is now in September.

The Constitutional Court began examining the legality of the second decree on Monday, but Yushchenko has made plain he no longer has any intention of recognizing any ruling it may issue.

Another of the court's 18 judges resigned on Monday, four days after its chairman stepped down. The president has dismissed three judges on grounds that they violated their oath.

Yushchenko beat Yanukovich in a rerun of a rigged 2004 presidential election after weeks of rallies and has promoted NATO and European Union membership and liberal economics.

Thousands of the prime minister's supporters gathered in Kiev on Monday, the latest of a series of gatherings meant to recreate the atmosphere of 2004. But rallies have been relatively small and lacking in resolve.

Source: Reuters

U.N. Torture Body Concerned Over Ukraine Prisons

GENEVA, Switzerland -- The U.N. Committee Against Torture on Monday voiced deep concern over reports of ill-treatment of pre-trial suspects in Ukraine and said it provided "insufficient legal safeguards" for detainees.

Torture is common in Ukrainian jails
A panel of independent experts also cited reports that said detainees were not brought quickly enough before a judge, lacked access to lawyers and independent doctors and were deprived of their procedural rights.

"The committee was deeply concerned about allegations of torture and ill-treatment of suspects during detention, as well as reported abuses during the period between apprehension and the formal presentation of a detainee to a judge", their report said.

This meant that Ukraine was "providing insufficient legal safeguards to detainees," it said.

It also referred to reported use of intimidation techniques by the ex-Soviet country's anti-terrorism unit within prisons.

Ukraine's failure to conduct prompt and impartial investigatyion of complaints of ill-treatment also gave cause for concern, it said.

It urged Ukraine to carry out reforms to make its general prosecutor's office more independent.

The U.N. Committee Against Torture investigates compliance with the international treaty banning torture, ratified by 144 countries, including Ukraine.

On Poland, the group said Polish officials had denied reports their country housed covert prisons for Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) terrorism suspects. It urged Warsaw to make public internal findings on the issue.

"The committee urged Poland to share information about the scope, methodology and conclusions of the enquiry into those allegations conducted by the Polish Parliament," it said.

Source: Reuters

Vitali Klitschko Announces Second Run For Kiev Mayor

KIEV, Ukraine -- Former heavyweight WBC Champion of the World Vitali Klitschko has voiced his intention to run for the post of mayor of the Ukrainian capital for the second time, a local newspaper reported Saturday.

Dr. Vitali Klitschko
Klitschko, 35, began campaigning for mayor of Kiev shortly after his retirement in 2005.

He lost the election to businessman Leonid Chernovetsky, but placed second with 26% of the vote.

He was elected as a people's deputy to Kiev City Council, instead.

"I have my personal goals that I am pursuing despite any obstacles," Klitschko said in an interview with the Zerkalo Nedeli (Weekly Mirror) newspaper.

"I want to stay in the Ukrainian politics and become the mayor of Kiev," he said, adding that he would like to have the opportunity to influence the current political situation in the country.

The Ukrainian opposition has been recently calling for early elections of the city mayor and the city administration.

The mayor is elected for the term of five years.

The boxer, who won 35 out of 37 career bouts, announced on January 24, 2007 his comeback to the world of professional sport and will possibly face the winner of Peter v. Maskayev fight this year.

Source: RIA Novosti

Early Elections For Ukraine?

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Yushchenko says parliamentary elections should be held before the October date suggested by his rival, PM Yanukovych.

President Viktor Yushchenko
Speaking at an investment forum in Kiev Friday, Yushchenko urged early elections to end a constitutional crisis that has nearly paralyzed the government.

Ukraine's Constitutional Court is deliberating over the legality of a presidential decree dissolving parliament and setting a May 27 date for new elections. A second decree moved the date to late June.

However, a top aide to President Yushchenko Friday dismissed any court decision as invalid, indicating that the president's office could ignore the court's judgment.

On Thursday, the chief of the Constitutional Court, Ivan Dombrovsky, resigned. The court replaced him with Valery Pshenichny, a judge recently fired by Yushchenko.

The presidential order dissolving parliament threw Ukraine into its deepest political crisis since the mass demonstrations of 2004, dubbed the Orange Revolution that eventually propelled Yushchenko into the presidency.

Source: Press TV

Russia Outmaneuvers Pro-Democracy Activist

MOSCOW, Russia -- Former chess champion Garry Kasparov is finding out what it takes to take on the Kremlin. Last month, he was arrested by Moscow riot police at a pro-democracy march he helped organize and then grilled by Russian security agents on suspicion of seeding extremism.

Russian activist Garry Kasparov speaks to press at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow
Friday, the grandmaster-turned-activist ran into the government's latest gambit.

As he checked in at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport for a morning flight to the Volga River city of Samara to lead another march, a Russian police officer approached. Saying nothing, the officer took Kasparov's passport, his ticket and the passports and tickets of his colleagues, said Kasparov spokeswoman Marina Litvinovich.

Kasparov, his aides and several journalists on the same flight were detained for five hours. Kasparov missed his flight and a second flight leaving for Samara. When it became clear Kasparov and his team would not make it to Samara, police returned the passports.

"It was a joke," said Kasparov. "They took our passports and didn't say anything. When we tried to leave, they said, `You can't leave. You're not detained, but you can't leave.' They acted with such arrogance."

Russian authorities have ramped up pressure on Kasparov and his pro-democracy movement, Other Russia, since the group began organizing marches in some of the country's largest cities.

The movement, made up of a disparate group that includes former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and National Bolshevik Party founder Eduard Limonov, speaks out against what it says are the authoritarian policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The rallies have been modest in size, drawing no more than a couple of thousand demonstrators. Nevertheless, police have responded with massive displays of force. At an April 14 Other Russia rally in Moscow, 9,000 riot police violently dispersed demonstrators, at times clubbing marchers before throwing them into waiting police buses.

The march Kasparov missed Friday went ahead as scheduled in Samara, where Russian President Vladimir Putin is holding a summit with European Union leaders. EU concerns about Russia's track record on human rights and democracy-building were expected to make talks tense, and Kasparov's detention only made matters worse.

"I'm saying very openly I wish that those who this afternoon want to protest and express their opinion will be able to do so," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a joint news conference with Putin. "I'm somewhat concerned that people had difficulties getting here."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied any Kremlin involvement in the detention of Kasparov and his group. "I cannot comment on behalf of the police. The Kremlin was not in Sheremetyevo" airport, said Peskov.

A Moscow airport police spokeswoman declined to comment on the detention of Kasparov and his group.

Russian authorities have tried to portray Kasparov's movement as a fringe group with little appeal to most Russians. Asked about Kasparov's marches, Putin told reporters, "They don't bother me in any way. ... There is no reason for us to be afraid of marginal groups, especially such small groups."

Nevertheless, the measures that Russian authorities have undertaken so far to corral Kasparov underscore the concerns the Kremlin has about grass-roots movements similar to the popular uprisings that toppled authoritarian regimes in Georgia and Ukraine.

"These rallies and demonstrations are an element of the Orange Revolution technology, and the Russian authorities try to protect themselves from those technologies," said Kremlin-connected political analyst Sergei Markov, referring to the demonstrations in Kiev in 2004 that led to the ascent of Ukraine's Western-allied president, Viktor Yushchenko.

Source: Chicago Tribune

Ukraine President Discounts Top Court

KIEV, Ukraine -- Pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko, pressing for a quick parliamentary election, intends to ignore any ruling on his decrees by Ukraine’s highest constitutional authority, a top official said yesterday.

Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko
Yushchenko and his rival from the 2004 “Orange Revolution”, Moscow-friendly Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, have long been at odds over a division of powers.

Yushchenko has issued two decrees to dissolve parliament and call an election to the assembly.

The prime minister initially ignored them and asked the Constitutional Court for an assessment.

Both men pledged for a time to abide by any ruling and agreed to hold a poll – though differences remain over when it should take place.

Presidential chief of staff Viktor Baloga said that Yushchenko would not be bound by any Constitutional Court ruling.

“As the Constitutional Court can shamelessly ignore the laws of Ukraine, it has ruled itself out from the process of settling the political crisis,” Baloga was quoted as saying in a statement from the president’s office.

Constitutional Court chairman Ivan Dombrovsky resigned on Thursday and the court replaced him with another judge – one of three dismissed by the president in the past month.

Commentators have said it is uncertain the court will issue a ruling which might in any case have little bearing on events.

Yushchenko accuses his rivals in a working group tasked with settling details of the election of stalling and has threatened to force a date through the powerful National Security Council.

The president had been due to chair a council meeting yesterday, but it was postponed to allow the group to work further.

The president’s second decree set an election date of June 24 and he wants a vote as soon as possible.

The prime minister says it is impractical to hold the poll before autumn.

Source: Gulf Times

Ukraine’s Communist Judge To Report On Presidential Decree Case

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian Constitutional Court Judge Maria Markush, a former member of parliament from the Communist Party, has been appointed reporting judge in the case opened over the presidential decree of April 26 on the dissolution of parliament and early parliamentary elections, the chief of the Constitutional Court’s press-service, Ivan Avramov, told the media.

Ukrainian Constitutional Court Judge Maria Markush
The official said he had no information confirming the two cases opened over two presidential decrees terminating the powers of parliament – those of April 2 and 26 – had been pooled into one.

Earlier, Constitutional Court Judge Stepan Gavrish, appointed by the president, had predicted the CC ruling regarding the presidential decrees to dissolve parliament should be expected by May 18.

“According to some sources, there are draft resolutions already,” Gavrish said. He claimed that both cases had been merged into one.

At a certain point the CC’s ruling on the first decree was said to be practically ready, but the president dismissed three CC judges, including Suzanna Stanik, thereby slowing down the court’s operation.

Yushchenko twice issued decrees ordering the termination of the existing parliament and calling early elections.

Under the latter decree the polling day was set for June 24.

Currently the presidential secretariat is working on the wording of a third decree, setting a different election date.

In the meantime, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, the leader of the Party of Regions, has suggested waiting for the Constitutional Court to pronounce its verdict.

Source: Itar-Tass

Four Neo-Soviet Forces In Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych’s opinions about the country he rules should not be viewed in isolation by anyone interested in Ukraine or the EU.

Pro-Russia PM Viktor Yanukovych
First and foremost it must be stressed that his neo-Soviet Party of Regions is not a “normal” political party in a “normal” state.

It is a restorationist party that seeks to prevent the democratization of a de facto “post-colonial” state, and to keep it subordinated to its former ruler. Should it succeed the EU would have to face the prospect of an unstable eastern border.

While the party formally supports “Eurointegration” – just as Putin supports the Eurointegration of Russia – it has not explicitly stated that it stands for for “EU membership for Ukraine.”

Yanukovych’s public statements in various EU countries, therefore, cannot be taken seriously until this commitment is clearly stated in his party’s program.

Given this omission there is every reason to believe that as soon as it manages to create a majority by dubious methods in the Verkhovna Rada, it will first incorporate Ukraine into Russia's Single Economic Space and the, and only then, via Russia, “integrate into Europe” – presumably just like Belarus.

Ukraine reemerged on Europe’s political map in 1991 after more than 200 years of direct foreign political rule imposed by military might.

Between 1709 and 1711, 1918 and 1921, and again between 1944 and 1950 Russian armies invaded Ukraine in a series of bloody wars that tied Ukraine to first the Tsarist and then Soviet empires.

Under Russian rule Ukrainians got Russian-style serfdom, Siberian exile, governmental prohibition of publishing and teaching in the native language, terror, and famine-genocide.

When Ukraine emerged as an independent state in 1991 there was no “war of liberation.” Consequently the leaders of the imperial or “old regime” elite were not exiled or executed.

They remained in power until 2004 and have since managed to retain positions of influence to such a degree that they can keep their own out of jail.

Their constituency, meanwhile, is the product of Soviet migration policies that directed Russians into and Ukrainians out of Ukraine.

This immigration and “ethnic dilution,” combined with deportations and millions of unnatural Ukrainian deaths between 1917 and 1947, created large Russian-speaking urban centers in the country’s four easternmost provinces.

Educational and media policies channeled upwardly mobile non-Russian rural migrants into Russian-speaking environments and allowed urban Russians to live, work and satisfy their cultural and spiritual needs without having to use or learn Ukrainian.

Second and third generation urban Russian immigrants and assimilated migrants spoke in Russian, lived in a Russian public sphere and were Moscow-oriented both culturally and intellectually.

After 1991 most of the urban population accepted Ukrainian independence, but few changed their Russian-language use or intellectual-cultural orientation.

Since 1991 an increasing percentage of Russians and Russian speakers view Ukraine as their native country. In 2005, only 6 percent of Ukrainians still considered themselves to be “Soviet citizens.”

The percentage for Russians was 18 percent. While 2 percent of Ukrainians still did not regard Ukraine as their native country, 9 percent of Russians living in Ukraine did not.

This means that a percentage of the population in Ukraine today, of whom most are Russian, support foreign rule over the territory in which they live – much as did once the French in Algeria, the Germans in Bohemia and Poland, the Portuguese in Angola, and the English in Ireland.

This nostalgia for empire on the part of some Russian speakers would be harmless if not for Ukraine’s entrenched neo-Soviet political leaders who exploit it to maintain their by-gone imperial power.

Both would be manageable if leaders in Russia, the former imperial power, were able to resign themselves to the loss of their empire, and like the British, help the new national democratic Orange coalition rather than its imperial era collaborators.

Putin is no DeGaulle, who realized in the end that French settlers had to leave Algeria.

Ukraine’s neo-Soviet leaders are organized into four major groups with varying degrees of support covert and overt from Russia and its government – whose ambassador in Kyiv is not known to have ever made a speech in Ukrainian.

Ukraine’s Communists and the Natalia Vitrenko Bloc openly advocate the abrogation of Ukraine’s independence and its reincorporation into a revamped imperial Russian-dominated USSR.

The Russian Orthodox Church, which claims an estimated 50 percent of Ukraine’s Orthodox, is not only led by a Patriarch in Moscow who sits in Putin’s government, but also is dominated by a chauvinist and anti-Semitic fringe.

This Church does not recognize Ukrainians as a distinct nationality, it publicly supports Ukraine’s Communists, and fielded priests to run in elections.

In June 2003 the Russian patriarch bestowed the “Order of Prince Vladimir” upon the leader of Ukraine’s Communists. No more than 8 percent of Ukraine’s voters back these old communist party leaders.

The more serious threat to Ukrainian independence is posed by the fourth of the major neo-Soviet groups: the Party of Regions.

Although election results suggest approximately one-third of all voters in 2006 supported the Party of Regions, these returns are dubious.

First, they are a product of documented coercion, intimidation and covert operations – albeit smaller in scope and scale than was the case in 2004.

Second, they are based on “machine politics” in Ukraine's eastern provinces where Yanukovych’s party is in control of the local administration and manufacturing, and can offer people fearing poverty and insecurity short-term material incentives in return for votes.

Third, they are based on a lingering Soviet-style “cradle-to-grave” enterprise-paternalism, still stronger in eastern than western Ukraine, that allows managers and owners to politically blackmail their employees – much as “company-town” owners did in 19th century Western Europe and America.

It is difficult to determine how strong the party would be in Ukraine's east, without the dirty tricks, machine politics and neo-feudal intimidation. But the Regions certainly would have less than one-third of the seats in the country's parliament.

The party ostensibly supports Ukrainian independence inasmuch as its leaders regard Ukraine as a territory that they should control as a “blackmail state,” just as they controlled it up to 2004.

Yet, its anti-constitutional advocacy of Russian as a “second language,” for example, shows it wants to keep Ukraine within the Russian-language communications sphere and out of the English-language communications sphere, which now includes the EU.

While the Canadian and Polish ambassadors can learn to speak Ukrainian prior to their appointments well enough to use it publicly, some Party of Regions leaders have the unmitigated gall to speak Russian in parliament.

A number of their leaders, like First Deputy Premier Mykola Azarov, have not managed to learn Ukrainian after 15 years of independence.

But then how many French in Algeria learned Arabic? How many English in Ireland learned Gaelic? How many whites in Africa knew Swahili or Bantu? How many Japanese learned Chinese or Korean? How many Germans in Breslau learned Polish?

Additionally, Regions leaders engage in symbolic colonial-homage-type acts that pander to imperial Russian nostalgia and compromise Ukraine’s status as an independent country.

In November 2005, for example, Viktor Yanukovych publicly presented the speaker of the Russian Duma with a “bulava” – the Cossask symbol of Ukrainian statehood.

The Party of Regions’ leaders learned their politics under the Soviet regime and have failed to learn any other kind.

They ran Leonid Kuchma's “blackmail state” and employ criminal Bolshevik-style electioneering practices.

Not the least of these is advertising in the press soliciting “supporters” to attend their demonstrations. The “protesters” are paid a set rate at the end of every day.

They publicly belittle Ukrainian independence and are in constant contact with Russian extremists like Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Konstantin Zatulin and Yuri Luzhkov.

Foreign observers must ask themselves how a Party of Regions-led “blackmail state” is supposed to fit into the EU?

How can such a Ukraine be “stable” if it is dependent on Russia, a resource-based autocracy, at a time when resource-based autocracies everywhere else in the world are notoriously unstable?

Source: Kyiv Post

Chief Judge Of Ukraine's Constitutional Court Resigns

KIEV, Ukraine -- The chief judge of Ukraine's Constitutional Court resigned Thursday amid deliberations on the constitutionality of President Victor Yushchenko's decree to dissolve parliament and call early elections.

Chief Judge Ivan Dombrovsky
Court spokesman Ivan Avramov said Ivan Dombrovsky asked to resign and the court accepted the request. He did not state the reason for Dombrovsky's request.

The court is deliberating on Yushchenko's April 2 decree to dissolve parliament and call snap elections for May 27.

But the ultimate weight of its decision is not clear because Yushchenko later withdrew the decree and issued another one still dissolving parliament but setting a different date for elections.

After Yushchenko issued the second decree, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who had resisted Yushchenko's orders, agreed to early elections on an unspecified date.

Yushchenko issued the order to dissolve parliament after accusing Yanukovych and his majority coalition of trying to usurp power.

The court appointed Valery Pshenichny to replace Dombrovsky as chief judge.

He is one of three judges that Yushchenko had fired earlier this month, accusing them of violating their oaths.

Pshenichny and another of the fired judges challenged their dismissals in court.

A regional court this week suspended the president's order and restored the judges' jobs, but an appeals court canceled that ruling.

The president's April order on dissolving parliament threw the country into its most serious political conflict since the 2004 Orange Revolution mass demonstrations that helped propel Yushchenko into the presidency.

The demonstrations started after a fraud-plagued presidential election in which Yanukovych was tallied as the winner; the Supreme Court ordered a rerun, which Yushchenko won.

Yanukovych, who was prime minister at the time of the election, returned to the premiership last year after his party got the largest share of votes in parliamentary elections and formed a majority coalition.

Source: International Herald Tribune

Economic Study Ranks Ukraine Low

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine placed 46th in a ranking of the world’s 55 most competitive economies, between the Philippines and Mexico.


The results of the annual World Competitiveness Yearbook ranking were announced on May 10 by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The US led the ranking, closely followed by Singapore and Hong Kong. Improvements were noted by Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, China and Germany. The research found that “a big shake-up” is on the horizon, as emerging markets are becoming emerging powers, according to Professor Stephane Garelli, director of the World Competitiveness Center.

“Economic and business power is shifting to new countries: China, Russia and India have together stacked up more than $1,700 billion ($1.7 trillion) in foreign currency reserves. Local companies from South-East Asia, India, China, Russia and the Gulf countries are buying industrial assets the world over.

“In all likelihood, industrialized nations will find it hard to tolerate such a power shift. They will not accept the loss of some of their ‘business jewels’ to newcomers without a fight. We shall thus face a year of rising protectionist measures. An increase in the number of complaints filed at the WTO (World Trade Organization) for unfair practices can be expected,” Garelli said.

Ukraine is expected to join the WTO late this year, or early next year. The government is currently holding final talks on membership.

In general terms, 40 economies are now increasing or maintaining their competitiveness compared to the US – in other words, “closing the gap.” Fifteen economies are losing ground.

He noted that for the first time ever, no country included in the survey is undergoing recession. Garelli also spoke about the potential of emerging middle classes in Asia and Central Europe.

Ukraine’s rank of 46 was better than Poland’s 52. The rest of the country’s neighbors scored higher, including Hungary, Romania, and the Czech and Slovak republics. Moldova and Belarus were not included in the ranking.

Russia beat Ukraine by three places with a score of 43. Russia leads all countries in terms of compound annual growth in the past 10 years.

Ukraine’s lowest scores came in the inflation, FDI and GDP per capita categories.

Ukraine received high rankings in GDP growth, trade and other macroeconomic indices, which placed the country higher in macroeconomic terms, according to Yuriy Poluneev, president of the Kyiv-based International Management Institute (MIM). He nevertheless cautioned that there are grounds to fear that Ukraine will not be able to maintain the same dynamics of macroeconomic development.

“The biggest problems are the quality of the regulatory environment, institutions and other factors that contribute to comfortable business conditions. In these respects [Ukraine is] at the bottom of the ranking,” he said.

The findings are based on statistics and interviews with business leaders in each country. In Ukraine, 165 interviews were conducted: 67 by the Kyiv-based MIM and 98 by IMD directly. IMD works with 50 partner institutes across the globe.

For the 2007 survey, 55 national economies were graded according to 323 criteria. Two-thirds of the criteria are straight statistics, while one-third is a survey of opinions and perceptions of competitiveness held by business leaders. These were used to evaluate each country according to economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure.

In the survey, the US is ranked first and represents a score of 100. The other countries’ scores are expressed relative to the base score of 100. Fifteen countries scored lower than 50, including Ukraine.

In the 2007 edition of the survey, Ukraine and Lithuania were included for the first time.

The Lausanne-based IMD has been publishing the rankings since 1989 using a database that has been compiled over two decades. Its rankings are often cited by influential business publications, including The Economist, The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Source: Kyiv Post

Yushchenko Replaces Key Security Aide

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko replaced Vitaly Hayduk with Ivan Plyushch in the post of secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC).

Ivan Plyushch
Hayduk -- co-owner of the steel company Industrial Union of Donbas along with Serhy Taruta -- is a businessman from Donetsk Region and a former energy minister.

Plyushch is a seasoned right-of-center politician and a close ally of Yushchenko. He was twice speaker of the Ukrainian parliament -- in 1991-94, when Ukraine HAD just gained independence, and again in 2002-02, at the height of the popular protests against the then-President Leonid Kuchma.

Hayduk’s resignation did not come as a surprise, as he did not support the radical line of behavior in relations with political opponents as currently pursed by Yushchenko.

Ukrayinska pravda -- a well-informed source -- has said that Hayduk wanted to resign as early as January, as he opposed the opposition’s intention to boycott the work of parliament, which Yushchenko eventually backed.

Kommersant-Ukraine said that Hayduk did not support Yushchenko’s April 2 decision to dissolve parliament, either.

Hayduk’s resignation coincided with a chain of events last week that could exacerbate tension between Yushchenko and the ruling coalition after a brief détente following Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych’s approval consent to an early parliamentary election.

On May 10, Yushchenko said that if the coalition insisted that the early election should be held no earlier than October, rather than in the summer, as he wants, he would instruct the NSDC to come up with “certain measures” to make the opponents agree with his conditions. Yushchenko did not specify which measures he meant, and NSDC Secretary Hayduk’s reaction has been unknown to the public.

On May 11, the head of the presidential secretariat’s service for law-enforcement bodies, Valery Heletey, made the sensational announcement that plans were underway to murder leading opposition politicians, including opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko and Yuriy Lutsenko, the leader of People’s Self-Defense bloc and former interior minister.

Heletey also said there was “a scenario for splitting the country being developed” and that “criminals working with certain political forces, radical forces, helped by some spin doctors” were involved.

Yanukovych’s Party of Regions (PRU) condemned Heletey’s statement, saying that it was part of a “smear campaign” against political opponents. The Interior Ministry, which is headed by Vasyl Tsushko, a member of the Socialist Party allied with Yanukovych, dismissed Heletey’s statement as groundless and provocative.

Yanukovych’s coalition urged the Prosecutor-General’s Office to come up with a legal assessment of Heletey’s statement and accused the presidential secretariat of torpedoing the talks between the two rival camps on early elections.

Vasyl Kyselyov, one of PRU’s leaders, has suggested that Hayduk resigned because he “disapproved of the Heletey provocation.” Kyselyov alleged that there had been plans to stage an attempt on the life of an opposition leader, so as to use this as a pretext for introducing the state of emergency with NSDC’s blessing.

Kyselyov praised Hayduk for resigning, and said that he hoped that Plyushch “would not break the law or moral standards.”

Another leading member of the PRU, Volodymyr Syvkovych, commenting on Hayduk’s replacement, said that Plyushch “is a very radical man.” Communist leader Petro Symonenko said that Plyushch’s appointment disrupted the talks on early elections.

And another Communist, deputy parliament speaker Adam Martynyuk, suggested that Yushchenko broke the law by appointing Plyushch, as he had reached the maximum age allowed for state officials, 65.

Plyushch tried to dispel the fears about him in an interview given to Kommersant-Ukraine immediately after his appointment. He said that he opposes the use of force in the current political crisis, and that Yushchenko’s team would make a concession to the opponents regarding the date of early parliamentary elections, postponing it to mid-July.

Plyushch also reminded that he is a convinced proponent of the idea of a broad coalition including Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, and the PRU.

The head of Yushchenko’s secretariat, Viktor Baloha, a “hawk” who is widely believed to have been the main opponent of “dove” Hayduk in Yushchenko’s team, said in a statement on May 14 that Hayduk resigned voluntarily.

Baloha said that Plyushch’s tasks on the new job would include reforming the law-enforcement system, eradicating corruption in courts, and “correcting the energy policy of Ukraine taking into account the global realities.”

Hayduk is known to have been unhappy with the current scheme of buying natural gas from Russian and Turkmenistan, in which the main role is played by RosUkrEnergo, a Swiss-registered joint venture between Russia’s Gazprom and private individuals in Ukraine.

Source: Eurasia Daily Monitor

Ukraine To Ban Mobile Phones In School

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian school students will soon face a ban on using mobile phones in class, the Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday.


Mobile phones belonging to students must be turned off completely during class hours, or risk confiscation by teachers, government officials said.

"We have classes of up to 30 students, and what kind of teaching is possible when a phone rings in a classroom every minute?" said Stanislav Mykolenko, Ukraine Education Minister.

Technically-savvy students using their phones to store data, or to consult with parents on answers needed on tests, have made mobile telephones dangerous to the educational process itself, Mykolenko argued.

"The only solution is to forbid them totally ... students using their phones during class will lose them," he warned.

The ban will go into effect after summer vacation, in September.

More than 5 million Ukrainians aged seven to 17 study in the former Soviet republic's national education system.

At least 80 per cent of those students own and operate a mobile phone, according to industry estimates.

Mobile phone usage in Ukraine has skyrocketed in the last decade.

Ukrainian society has long considered possession of a mobile phone, and using it loudly in public, proof of material success.

Source: Earth Times

Planning For An EU-Ready Ukraine

BERLIN, Germany -- Challenging the European Union's cautious policies toward Ukraine, a group of leading U.S. and European officials have joined forces to prepare Ukraine for eventual membership in both NATO and the EU, despite the continuing political turmoil in the country and enlargement fatigue inside the 27-member bloc.

Zbigniew Brzezinski
The initiative, led by a former U.S. national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and a former German defense minister, Volker Rühe, reflects a growing concern that unless Ukraine is given the prospect of EU and NATO membership, the chances for long-term stability and economic, political and social reforms could remain elusive.

Meeting in Berlin, the U.S.-EU Partnership Committee, as it is called, said that it believed that if the EU reached out to Ukraine, it would achieve two beneficial things: stability for Europe and assurances to Russia.

"The committee urged U.S. and European leaders to remember that an independent, democratic and market-orientated Ukraine will contribute to a more stable and secure Europe," said Brzezinski, counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Such a policy could also show to Russia that European policy toward Ukraine was not intended to alienate Russia.

"We want to advance the cause of a larger Europe and a more cooperative Europe," added Brzezinski, who was speaking at the German Council on Foreign Relations, which hosted the conference. "In that context, a closer and better relationship between Ukraine and Europe that is open would not exclude Russia becoming involved in an open and cooperative enterprise with Europe."

The U.S.-EU Partnership Committee proposed that one concrete area for cooperation between the EU and Ukraine could be the security and reliability of energy supplies. Ukraine is the major transit country for Russian gas exports to Europe.

Russia's state-owned energy giant, Gazprom, cut its deliveries to Ukraine last year, officially because of a dispute over the price of gas. But analysts said it was the Kremlin's response to Ukraine's pro-democratic Orange Revolution. The committee proposed a reform of Ukraine's energy policies, with support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, to reduce corruption, introduce transparency and modernize the energy infrastructure.

The EU, which has become frustrated with the bitter infighting between the pro-Western Ukrainian president, Viktor Yushchenko, and the pro-Russian prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich, is reluctant to hold out any prospect of Ukraine's joining the bloc. Several countries, including Germany, also fear that NATO membership would affect Berlin's close ties to Moscow.

Instead, the EU said it had offered Ukraine and other countries in the region a "neighborhood policy." Under the plan, countries that enact reforms would have greater access to trade with the EU and economic, social and political ties with the bloc would be strengthened. Regardless of the reforms, it would not lead to membership of the EU.

Rühe is unusual in Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party because he supports Ukraine's and Turkey's joining the EU, while Merkel favors a privileged partnership for Turkey, similar to the "neighborhood policy."

"The European neighborhood policy should be enhanced and should not be a substitute for potential EU membership for Ukraine," Rühe said.

Bronislaw Geremek, a former Polish foreign minister and now a member of the European Parliament who is on the U.S.-EU Partnership Committee for Ukraine, warned about "enlargement fatigue" inside the EU. Despite that, he said Ukraine should start preparing for when it will be in a position to negotiate membership, that is, it should introduce the rule of law and implement the EU's standards, regulations and legislation.

Source: International Herald Tribune

GM China Venture Plans Exports To Ukraine

SHANGHAI, China -- General Motors Corp.'s flagship venture in China said on Monday it plans to export 10,000 of its Chevrolet Lova compact cars to Ukraine in its largest export deal to date, to tap the potential of the Eastern European market.

Chevrolet Lova with a sticker price of $8,900-$13,000
Shanghai GM, the Detroit giant's tie-up with top Chinese car maker Shanghai Automotive Co., also makes Buick and Cadillac models in China.

Several Chinese carmakers are pursuing ambitious plans to boost exports, although GM has said its joint ventures would remain focused on the China market.

Sales of the Chevrolet Lova have topped 60,000 since its debut in the world's second-largest auto market in March 2006, the venture said in a statement.

It added that about 70,000 of the 1.4 and 1.6 litre engines designed for the Chevrolet models would be sold to South Korea.

In 2006, GM, which also operates a commercial vehicle venture in south China, sold 876,747 vehicles in China, up 31.8 percent from 2005.

The company's sales this year are expected to grow at least 15 percent, beating an estimated 10 to 15 percent expansion of the market, GM China President Kevin Wale told Reuters in November.

Source: Reuters

Milan Will Do Everything To Bring Shevchenko Back - Ancelotti

MILAN, Italy -- The Ukrainian has had a very forgettable season at Stamford Bridge. The forward himself wants another chance to prove himself, but it remains to be seen if he will get that.

Andriy Shevchenko with Golden Ball
Drogba's sensational form this season has forced Mourinho to find someone who can play just "off" the Ivorian, and if he can nab such a player (read Villa, Eto'o), he might be willing to let Sheva go.

Ancelotti has made his position on the matter very clear.

"Adriano Galliani made our position very clear," he told a press conference. "It remains a difficult operation financially, even if Milan will do everything possible to bring him back.

"He is owned by Chelsea and their intentions are the main factor here."

The Rossoneri have also been linked with Barcelona pair Ronaldinho and Eto'o, as well as Marseille want-away Franck Ribery, and Carlo was happy to throw the bait, keeping his options open.

"Samuel Eto'o, Ronaldinho and Shevchenko are three world-class players who would improve any squad," he said.

"Franck Ribery is also a player I like very much. He is a dynamic figure and had a great World Cup."

Source: Goal.com

Demographic Crisis Not Stemmed By Higher Births

KIEV, Ukraine -- After many years of decline, Ukraine’s birthrate has begun to inch up, growing by about 8 percent year-on-year in 2006, according to a study released by the Institute of Demography and Sociological Research (IDSR) at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.

Ukraine birthrates have been steadily rising in the past several years but not enough to stop the population decline.
But analysts say that the upswing in birthrates is not enough to stop the longstanding slide in Ukraine’s population.

The study, released in late March, shows that birthrates have been steadily rising in the past several years after more than a decade of decline sparked by the economic collapse that followed the breakup of the Soviet Union.

More than seven years of successive and sharp economic growth has raised living standards for many Ukrainians, increasing their ability to build families and spend new income on newborns.

But the overall population of the country continues to shrink.

Since 1993, the population of Ukraine has fallen from 52.2 million to about 46.7 million, largely as a result of a growing death rate and lower life expectancy.

Although the government has introduced incentives intended to increase new births, analysts say that birthrates are not expected to grow much higher due to tight economic conditions for most Ukrainians combined with a general European trend favoring single-child families and women putting career ambitions ahead of having children.

Grim forecasts

According to the State Statistics Committee, Ukraine’s population is shrinking by some 300,000 people annually. Just over 700,000 citizens died last year, while others emigrated out of the country.

The IDSR forecasts that Ukraine’s population will fall to approximately 36 million people by 2050, with the elderly comprising 32.5 percent of this total.

IDSR director Ella Libanova said the average life expectancy in Ukraine is about 10 years below that of European countries. On average, men in Ukraine live to 62 years of age, while 73 is the average lifespan for women.

Thanks to improved medical care and rising living standards, the lifetime expectancy rate in Ukraine is expected to eventually rise to 79.5 years for women and 71.5 years for men.

But the downturn is expected to continue nevertheless. In addition to Ukraine’s aging population (currently, about 20.4 percent is over the age of 60), the country also suffers from a high death rate among its able-bodied population.

Andriy Bychenko, director of sociological services at the Razumkov Center for Economic and Political Research, a Kyiv-based think tank, said the country’s able-bodied male population is dying early due to alcohol abuse and smoking, both of which cause heart disease and cancer-related deaths. These problems are common among lower income segments of the population, he added.

Rising birthrates have compensated a bit.

Ukraine has seen its birthrate rise from nine births per 1,000 people in 2004 and 2005 to a rate of 9.8 in 2006.

The institute expects that birthrates will peak this year and that deaths will fall somewhat, particularly among children and able-bodied males due to improved medical services. However, the country will also see a rise in its aging population.

ISDR analysts say that short-term incentives are not enough to fundamentally change the current situation. A complex program aimed at raising incomes, improving healthcare and reversing massive emigration are required.

Birthrate up, but not enough

Libanova said one contributing factor to the higher birthrate is a government incentive introduced in 2005 that provides families with Hr 8,500 ($1,700) for every newborn.

“Based on the experience of other countries, similar reforms can only lead to short-lived results for some two or three years. But for noticeable and stable results a more complex approach is required. In particular, the cost of raising a child needs to be lowered,” she said.

Analysts at the Razumkov Center do not attribute the increased birthrate solely to the government incentive, explaining that a large percentage of women born in the 1980s are now reaching childbearing age and that many middle-aged women who put births off during the 1990s are now more inclined to become mothers.

A contributing factor to the rising birthrate is the considerable reduction of abortions achieved by national programs on family planning and reproductive health, improvements in reproductive healthcare and safe-sex education among youth.

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the abortion rate in Ukraine fell from 126 abortions per 1,000 live births in 1999 to 50 in 2006 and continues to decrease.

UNFPA Program Officer Oleh Voronenko said two-thirds of Ukrainian families currently have only one child.

Voronenko said that a moderate depopulation due to natural decline is occurring throughout Europe and other developed countries.

However, unlike developed countries that benefit from higher living standards, lower death and higher life-expectancy rates, Ukraine’s depopulation is occurring at a much more rapid pace, intensified by the country’s health problems and lower living standards.

“In most of the developing countries in Asia and Africa we see positive population growth despite very high mortality due to a very high birthrate, which is connected to local family and societal traditions,” Voronenko said.

The trends observed in Ukraine are common to other post-Soviet countries, according to Voronenko.

“Ukraine’s main problem is not the birthrate, which is more or less on par with other European countries, but a high death rate, which has grown considerably over the last 15 years and exceeds the birthrate by almost two times,” Voronenko added.

According to IDSR, 16 out of every 1,000 Ukrainians die each year. In comparison, less than 10 out of 1,000 Europeans die each year.

In Ukraine, the birthrate is 1.2 children per childbearing woman, while in Europe, that figure is 1.4.

Source: Kyiv Post

Serbia's "Prayer" Wins Eurovision Song Contest

HELSINKI, Finland -- Serbia's Marija Serifovic won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, beating competitors from 23 other countries in a three-hour televised mishmash of power ballads, ethnic rhythms, and bubble-gum pop.

Verka Serduchka, Ukraine's drag queen failed to win the 2007 Eurovision song contest, with her/his song 'Dancing Lasha Tumbai'. Serduchka is considered by many as a slap in the face to Ukrainian women and culture.
Serifovic, 22, scored 268 points from telephone voters in 42 countries with her potent but simply staged ballad "Molitva," or "Prayer."

"I honestly think that a new chapter has opened for Serbia and not only in music. I'm proud," Serifovic told a news conference after the contest, broadcast live across Europe to an estimated 100 million viewers.

Serbia spent the 1990s embroiled in Balkan wars and largely isolated internationally under Slobodan Milosevic, and its transition to democracy has been marked by failed elections and political assassinations.

It was Serbia's first solo appearance in the contest, held this year in the Finnish capital Helsinki after monster-masked rockers Lordi secured Finland's first win last year.

The contest is a live showcase for pop music talent selected by each nation in preliminary rounds.

An elegant black-tie event throughout the 1950s, the flagship of the European Broadcasting Union's light entertainment programming is now widely derided in Western Europe for often trite and lightweight performances.

EASTERN INTEREST

But it has drawn increasing interest from viewers in Eastern Europe and thousands of fans and journalists travel to the host country.

Serbian fans were delighted at Serifovic's victory.

"She has a great voice, and it was a great performance. Finally a great song won the ... contest," said Aleksandar Miscevic, a 22-year-old airline steward.

"Serbia had a great song, we really showed Europe what we can do. It was the best song, and she is one of the best singers anywhere," he said.

While most Eurovision winners quickly, and perhaps deservedly, fade back into obscurity, the contest helped launch the careers of ABBA and Celine Dion.

Serifovic's somber performance was in stark contrast to Ukrainian drag queen Verka Serduchka and his bombastic techno-dance tune "Dancing Lasha Tumbai," which finished second with 235 points.

Russian pop trio Serebro finished third with 207 points.

In 2004, Ukraine won and Serbia and Montenegro came second.

Lordi reprised last year's winning song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" pyrotechnic-filled opening number in front of an audience of 10,000 in Helsinki's Hartwall arena.

Nearly 25,000 fans watched the show on giant screens in the city's central square.

All countries in this year's contest avoided the dreaded "nul points." Ireland, which has won seven times, was last with five points.

Britain and France jointly finished in the next spot up from Ireland with 19 points. Eighteen countries were eliminated in semi-finals on Thursday.

Source: Reuters

Ukraine's Communists and Socialists Left Behind By Election Deal

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine’s constitutional crisis seemed resolved on May 4, when Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych agreed to early parliamentary elections.

Ukrainian Communism
But the date of the vote cannot be finalized until a compromise package of legislative and constitutional changes is adopted.

President Viktor Yushchenko has to choose whether to go ahead with the vote on July 1 or July 8, before the summer recess.

Alternatively, he could hold them in September or October, as the pro-Yanukovych Anti-Crisis Coalition (ACC) prefers.

However, the adoption of the necessary legal package is being dragged out by the two left-wing members of the ACC, the Socialists (SPU) and Communists (KPU), who are as much to blame for the crisis as they are for holding up its resolution.

The KPU have been in catastrophic decline since the 2002 parliamentary elections, when they placed second, trailing Our Ukraine. While the KPU obtained 20% of the votes in 2002, by 2006 their support collapsed to only 3.66%, with most KPU voters, especially in the Donbas and Crimea, defecting to Yanukovych’s Party of Regions.

The SPU and KPU fear being shut out of the next parliament and disappearing as a political force. The Socialists’ votes would likely be picked up by the center-left Yuriy Lutsenko and Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT) blocs.

Lutsenko resigned from the SPU when it defected from Yushchenko’s camp to the Party of Regions in July 2006, giving it sufficient votes to create the ACC. The Socialists and Communists fear that the Party of Regions will enter a grand coalition with Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine, rather than them, in the new parliament.

The SPU emerged while the KPU was banned from August 1991 to October 1993 for its support of the hard-line August 1991 Moscow putsch. It later re-established itself as a left-wing force opposed to the centrist-national democratic alliance that ruled Ukraine until 2000-2001, when the controversy over abuse of office surrounding then-President Leonid Kuchma divided them into warring camps.

The center-left SPU and BYuT dominated the anti-Kuchma movement, while Yushchenko and his national-democratic allies supported Kuchma as the head of state and opposed his impeachment. They alternated between giving half-hearted support to the protests and seeking to build a coalition with the moderate wing of the pro-Kuchma centrist camp.

Consequently, on the eve of the 2004 elections SPU leader Oleksandr Moroz, currently speaker of parliament, was one of only two politicians who Ukrainians believed to have high moral standards. The other was Yushchenko.

This image is misleading. Moroz has been tainted by scandal himself. The SPU actually cooperated with the center-left Hromada party in 1998-99 when it was led by former prime minister Pavlo Lazarenko, who fled to the United States in 1999.

A U.S. court later sentenced Lazarenko to nine years in prison on money-laundering charges. In addition, the SPU and KPU, like the left throughout the former USSR, have always opposed the institution of the presidency. In 2003-2004 they cooperated with pro-Kuchma centrists to back constitutional reforms transforming Ukraine from a semi-presidential to a parliamentary republic.

Ukraine’s hastily adopted and flawed constitutional reforms, coupled with the Socialists’ use of illegal methods to railroad these reforms through parliament, are at the heart of Ukraine’s current crisis.

On the eve of Yushchenko’s April 2 decree dissolving parliament, the SPU and KPU boasted that a new constitutional majority would be created by summer. Ukraine would be transformed into a full parliamentary republic, leaving Yushchenko a lame-duck president.

Yushchenko’s fate has been linked with Moroz for at least three years. Moroz won 5.82% of the vote in the first round of the 2004 presidential elections and agreed to back Yushchenko in the runoff with Yanukovych.

However, in return he demanded that Yushchenko support constitutional reforms, which he agreed to do on December 8, 2004. Yushchenko’s condition was that the reforms not come into effect until 2006 rather than immediately after his election, as the centrists and the left wanted.

The left’s eagerness to railroad the reforms through was flawed in five ways.

First, the legislation was not considered over two parliamentary sessions and was approved without a separate vote on each article.

Second, parliament -- then still controlled by Kuchma loyalists -- ignored the Council of Europe’s June 2005 recommendations on constitutional reform. The Venice Commission, the CoE’s legal advisory panel, recommended changes regarding the imperative mandate, inter-institutional relations, human rights, and the constitutional court. These reforms, the Commission believed, would “improve the state of democracy and rule of law in the country.”

Third, the Venice Commission correctly predicted that the hastily adopted constitutional reforms, “might lead to unnecessary political conflicts and thus undermine the necessary strengthening of the rule of law in the country.” It also warned that the reforms would not establish “a balanced and functional system of government.”

Fourth, parliament blocked the work of the Constitutional Court from October 2005 to July 2006 by not supplying its full quota of judges. Then August 2006 the ACC forbade the Constitutional Court from reviewing the constitutional reforms.

Fifth, the ACC refused to join the president’s constitutional commission to implement the improvements that the Venice Commission had proposed. The ACC’s refusal to meet the president’s moderate approach to reforms has pushed Yushchenko toward BYuT’s call for a referendum on the reforms.

Moroz’s moral standing was further dealt a blow by his alliance with the Party of Regions after campaigning in 2006 on an Orange (pro-Yushchenko) coalition platform. The SPU had been in both Orange governments in 2005-2006.

Ukraine’s 2007 crisis is a product of the left’s willingness to use illegal means to railroad through constitutional reforms that would transform Ukraine into a parliamentary republic by abolishing the presidency.

This threat, and the ACC’s unwillingness to compromise or join his constitutional commission, prompted President Yushchenko to issue his decree to dissolve parliament.

Early elections could be the death knell of the political left as a serious force within Ukrainian politics, and the left-wing parties are desperately trying to avoid the inevitable.

Source: Eurasia Daily Monitor

Plot To Kill Ukraine Politicians Alleged

KIEV, Ukraine -- Backers of a political rival have been plotting to assassinate supporters of Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko, a top aide said Friday.

Yulia Tymoshenko (L) and Viktor Baloha (R)
Valery Heletei, head of the Presidential Secretariat's service for law enforcement agencies, told a news conference that papers identified the alleged victims, Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, and Viktor Baloha, head of the Secretariat, by their initials, Interfax reported.

Heletei said the alleged assassination plot was being planned by backers of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.

"It is clear from these schemes who plans to provoke, and not only provoke but execute, murder and in what way," Heletei said, Interfax reported.

Source: UPI

Ukraine President Wants Election Day Set

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's president warned political opponents Thursday his patience was running out on setting a date for early parliamentary elections and threatened to turn the decision over to his national security council.

Viktor Yushchenko says his patience with Yanukovych's foot-dragging is running out.
Ukraine has been mired in a political crisis since President Viktor Yushchenko's April 2 decree dissolving parliament and calling snap elections — a move he said was necessary to prevent Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych from usurping power.

Yanukovych and his majority in parliament ignored the decision, calling it unconstitutional.

Last Friday, Yanukovych caved in to the president's call for the early parliamentary vote. But the two leaders did not agree on a date or the procedure for holding the vote, and instead turned those decisions over to a specially created group made up of their allies.

That group has so far failed to make any decisions, with Yushchenko and his allies supporting a vote in July and Yanukovych's allies preferring October.

On Thursday, Yushchenko summoned the group to his office for a nearly two-hour meeting broadcast live on television in which the president harangued them for the lack of progress and the politicians blamed one another.

"You don't have time to drag out the decision," Yushchenko said. "The working group has been meetings for five days. Five days, colleagues, to decide two key questions: the date of the election and a packet (of laws) that must be adopted to guarantee the election. ... That's not such a difficult task."

If the group does not produce results, Yushchenko said he would "be forced to call an extraordinary session of the National Security Council and make a decision there."

The 15-person Security Council run by Yushchenko largely does the president's bidding.

Source: AP

Ukraine Calls For Help From Abroad As Political Deal Totters

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych on Thursday called on the European Union and Russia to help salvage a fragile power-sharing deal with arch-rival President Viktor Yushchenko.

Ukraine PM is asking Big Brother Putin to help mediate political crisis
He also lashed out at Yushchenko for firing a constitutional court judge, saying the president had put at risk last week's crisis deal to end a month-long political stand-off.

"The order not only contradicts my agreement with the president... on ending the crisis and entering the legal arena, it demonstrates once again that the president is unilaterally ignoring the agreements we reached," Yanukovych said in a statement.

The pro-West president and the pro-Russia prime minister had reached a crisis deal last week to hold early parliamentary elections -- an agreement designed to end a political deadlock between the political foes, who first faced off during the 2004 Orange Revolution.

The prime minister "is calling on the European Union and Russia to act as mediators in resolving Ukraine's political crisis."

Russia's Foreign Ministry quickly responded by saying it was interested in a constitutional solution to the stand-off.

"If the Ukrainian side makes its initiative concrete, the Russian side is ready to consider it," Interfax quoted ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin as saying.

Yushchenko is currently in Barcelona undergoing a knee operation and is expected to return to Ukraine within several days.

Source: EU Business

When Will Snap Elections Be Held In Ukraine?

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has bent to pressure from President Viktor Yushchenko and agreed to an early parliamentary election.

President Viktor Yushchenko (L) and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich - Ukraine's odd couple
This decision has been essentially a compromise between the two main players, as Yanukovych’s junior coalition partners -- the Socialists and the Communists –-- have only grudgingly accepted it.

The main question now is when the election will be held, as Yanukovych and Yushchenko disagree on the timing. Yushchenko insists on July, while Yanukovych prefers October.

It took the two sides a month of difficult talks, and mutual accusations of judicial pressure and disrespect for the constitution, before they finally came to an agreement.

Yushchenko issued two decrees disbanding parliament -- on April 2 and April 26 -- and scheduling a snap election, first on May 27 and then changed to June 24.

The pro-Yanukovych parliamentary majority refused to dissolve and appealed both of Yushchenko’s decrees to the Constitutional Court.

However, the court, paralyzed by accusations of corruption against judges and the subsequent dismissal of two of them by Yushchenko, has failed to deliver any verdict.

On May 4 Yushchenko and Yanukovych broke the news of a compromise that surprised the journalists gathered near Yushchenko’s office. “We came to the conclusion that there is no other way to settle the crisis but to hold a free and fair election,” Yanukovych said.

At a press conference on the same day, Yushchenko said that it would be up to a working group consisting of high-ranking representatives of the rival camps to agree on the legal basis for the election and subsequent steps.

Yushchenko said that once the group has come up with its recommendations, the opposition, which walked out of parliament this past March, would reconvene to pass the necessary laws.

First and foremost, this legislation should include amendments to the state budget, as Yanukovych’s team has argued that an early election cannot be held without parliament authorizing the allocation of funds for it.

Further on the agenda would be amendments to the law on the Cabinet of Ministers (the current one, passed early this year, significantly cuts presidential authority), the ban on parliamentarians changing factions (the migration of a group of deputies to Yanukovych’s camp prompted Yushchenko to call an early election in the first place), and possibly a new constitution. (Yushchenko has been unhappy with the constitutional reform of December 2004, which increased parliament’s influence on the government at the expense of presidential authority.)

Yushchenko said that the snap election would be held 60 days after he signs the necessary decree.

This decree will be signed once parliament has passed all the needed laws. Meanwhile, Yushchenko’s April 26 decree rescheduling the election to June 24 remains in force, although it is null and void de facto.

Yanukovych has apparently found it hard to explain the agreement to his supporters and allies. In a televised address to the nation on May 4, he explained his compromise with Yushchenko by the need to prevent a split in the country.

“They [Yushchenko and the opposition] were ready to split the country,” he said, “to throw the country into a whirlpool of civil disorder.” Meanwhile, rank-and-file Socialist MP Vasyl Volha said that the agreement was “a betrayal of the constitution,” and a disgruntled Socialist leader Oleksandr Moroz, speaking on May 7, suggested that Yanukovych’s Party of Regions (PRU), rather than agreeing to the election, should have simply abandoned its junior coalition partners and formed a coalition with Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine.

The PRU has told the thousands of its supporters who have been paid to come to Kyiv and demonstrate the parliamentary majority’s strength to Yushchenko to pack their things and go home.

The PRU also said that the demand to hold a presidential election simultaneously with the parliamentary one has been dropped. This was apparently part of the agreement with Yushchenko.

Yanukovych, meanwhile, has left Ukraine, officially to treat an old knee injury in Spain.

The working group failed to come up with a package of bills for discussion in parliament by May 8-9, as originally scheduled by Yushchenko and Yanukovych. Yushchenko’s team has accused the Communists and Socialists of torpedoing the work of the group in order to postpone the early election and possibly disrupt a compromise reached with Yanukovych.

The Communists and Socialists argue that they only want to take time to amend the constitution in order to make the election legally possible.

The current constitution, they insist, does not allow the president to call an early election under the prevailing situation.

Yushchenko insists that the early election should be held in the middle of July at the latest. He says the government cannot afford a long period of uncertainty.

Yanukovych, however, says that the election should be called around the middle of October. His forecast looks more realistic, bearing in mind the position of his coalition partners who are reluctant to make more concessions to Yushchenko.

Source: Eurasia Daily Monitor

Ukraine: Gifted With A Second Chance

KIEV, Ukraine -- As the first anniversary of the squandered March parliamentary election in Ukraine was drawing near, the chief political concern of the Orange losers focused on the “aggrandizement” of power by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, to whom their former hero, President Viktor Yushchenko handed the reins of power.

Kiev Orange
By calling pre-term elections, President Yushchenko aims to reverse the trend. By getting the prime minister’s agreement, following a stormy fight, the president has scored a political victory.

Regardless of the outcome – it looks like the elections will take place in late June – the call puts the president in a more favorable political light with Ukraine’s pro-Western Orange population.

He is showing leadership, placing himself firmly in the Orange camp, rallying supporters, reconfirming pro-Western positions, and challenging the Party of Region’s pro-Russian government.

It remains to be seen whether this is enough to help the Orange forces win. Current rankings in the polls are lower than those of the prime minister's party.

Then there’s always the issue of a fair election. However, they have succeeded before by winning with slight majorities both at the presidential elections of 2004 and the parliamentary elections in 2006.

They have proven that the people want Orange power in Ukraine. However, the Orange coalition has yet to demonstrate the know-how required to translate election victories into government and political power.

The snap election offers another second chance. Are they up to it? Sober skeptics point to the legacy of squabbling and the Orange president's two years of inaction.

They worry that these attributes, rather than the electorates' yearning for a pro-Western Ukraine and their distaste for Russian political dominance after nearly a century of it, may translate into an Orange loss.

To get a second chance, the Orange forces must convince Ukrainians that they will do the job right this time. This means providing assurance that an Orange parliament, and president, will abide by the Orange Revolution’s principles – the rule of law, punishment of violators, pro-Ukrainian economic policies ranging from privatization of its industrial capital to control of the energy sector, and a pro-Western foreign policy orientation.

It means ensuring that the 8 percent economic growth coursing through Ukraine trickles down to the furthest reaches of the nation's impoverished majority, its voters.

How, then, to get this second chance? First, they must win the elections. To do so, their election strategists need to bring greater clarity to Ukraine's electorate on the country's key and most divisive internal issues by:

1. Stating simply the reasons for the election call...still much is misunderstood;

2. Convincing eastern Ukraine in particular, the reasons for the Orange coalition being pro-Western;

3. Contrasting the Western quality of life with the fate of millions of Russians despite Russia being a leading energy power and a member of the G-8, and the lack of freedoms;

4. Downplaying East-West geographical differences in Ukraine.

Also, they need to address the divisive pro/anti-Russia scenario by focusing on the benefits of a “Ukraine first” policy. by explaining:

1. Russia’s hungry determination to control Ukraine’s energy, Black Sea and entrance to WTO and NATO for its own interests;

2. The benefits of independence rather than being Russia’s provider of raw materials and labor;

3. Seek international experts to explain the benefits of NATO, pointing out that some 10 years ago, before Russia expressed indignation, Ukraine was solidly for joining.

Now to an important but difficult issue: Get the president to seek the people’s forgiveness for betraying them.

Despite recent advances, his popularity is hovering at 20 percent. Without clearing the air, further past inactions may be a liability during the election campaign.

The good news for the Orange side is that Ukraine's pro-Western voter has no alternative to the Orange parties. However, about half of Ukraine's electorate is uncommitted. A clear majority for the Orange side requires some of these undeclared voters.

Some of them may have been former supporters. A statement of reconciliation would help to bring the disillusioned pro-Western electorate, as well as others, on board.

Next, keep in touch with the voters. The Committee of Voters, Ukraine’s election watchdog, commends the Party of Regions for delivering a solid performance in meeting with constituents.

Other parties get no mention. The Orange coalition has a great deal of explaining to do at the grassroots level. Go to the people and tell them how the Orange will close the gap between the rich and the poor and how the people are the “political elite” in a democracy because they hold power over their elected representatives.

Uppermost, ensure cohesion among the Orange forces that is sustainable beyond the elections by developing, now, a power-sharing approach in parliament. Without it, the downside is grim: perhaps meaning losing the elections to the Party of Regions, which has presented a more cohesive and disciplined front; or losing power after the election, as happened after the parliamentary elections last year.

Start developing a shadow Cabinet now, preparing for a transition. Above all, don’t plan long holidays and absences as was the case after the presidential elections. Remember, you are being elected to get a job done for the people and the country, not to join a self-serving “political elite.”

It is not only the president and the Orange candidates who need a winning strategy. International entities wishing to see Ukraine progress in democracy need more muscle behind the rhetoric.

A fast track into the WTO, exceptional support for entry into the EU and further steps, like the awarding of the Euro 2012 are some steps in that direction. Above all, Western states must stop viewing Ukraine through a Russian optic, be it NATO membership or their use of Russian as the business language in Ukraine.

This is pure cow-towing; a colonial insult. It is crucial for Western states to treat Ukraine as the independent, second largest European nation, on its way to becoming a powerhouse, that it is.

Right now, it is imperative to participate in ensuring a free election. It can be taken as a given that attempts will be made to falsify it. The West’s presence is indispensable – just as it was during the Orange Revolution.

Source: Kyiv Post

Negligence Blamed For Ukraine's Gas Pipeline Explosion

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's top prosecutor says negligence caused Monday's rupture of the natural gas pipeline that supplies Russian gas to Europe.

Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun
Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun said Tuesday that sinking ground led to a break in the pipeline. He said officials should have been able to spot the natural changes and shore up the pipeline.

He said a similar blast occurred in the same location in 2003.

The explosion south of Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, near the village of Luka, tore up about 30 meters of the pipeline and hurled debris.

The blast raises concerns about gas shortages in Europe.

Russia's state monopoly, Gazprom, and Ukraine's transit company, Ukrtransgaz, assured clients that deliveries would continue uninterrupted.

Ukraine is one of the main transit countries for Russian natural gas from Siberia to European consumers.

European leaders have been concerned about stability of gas supplies from Russia since early 2006 when Moscow temporarily cut off deliveries through Ukraine due to a pricing dispute with Kyiv.

Source: Voice of America

Soccer-Ukraine Coach Unlikely To Pick Shevchenko

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine striker Andriy Shevchenko is doubtful for next month's Euro 2008 qualifier against France, national coach Oleg Blokhin was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

Ukraine striker Andriy Shevchenko
Shevchenko is due to have hernia surgery on Tuesday and will also miss the FA Cup final between Chelsea and Manchester United later this month.

"As national coach, I will of course regret Shevchenko's absence but if he needs an operation, we will have to deal with this in appropriate fashion," the Ukrainian soccer federation quoted Blokhin as saying on its Web site.

"Only the player and the doctors are in a position to assess the situation and decide on treatment and recovery."

Ukraine take on France in a Group B fixture in Paris on June 2. Both sides, along with Scotland, have 12 points.

Source: Reuters UK

Canada To Help Ukraine Beef Up Airport And Border Security

OTTAWA, Canada -- Canada will help upgrade security at airports and border crossings in Ukraine to prevent nuclear terrorism, with a gift of five million Canadian dollars (4.5 million US), Foreign Minister Peter MacKay said Monday.

Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay
The contribution was announced after MacKay met with Ukraine's top diplomat Arseniy Yatsenyuk in Ottawa, where the two planned to dine with prominent Canadian-Ukrainians.

"To prevent nuclear terrorism, it is essential to upgrade security systems and address the legacy of risks left in countries of the former Soviet Union. The last opportunity to detect and deter the movement of these materials is often at international borders," MacKay said in a statement.

At a press conference, he thanked Yatsenyuk for Ukraine's military contribution in Afghanistan and his government's democracy-building efforts at home.

Historic ties between the two countries were forged through generations of Ukrainian migration to Canada. More than one million Canadians trace their roots to Ukraine, according to a 2001 census.

On December 2, 1991, Canada became the first western country to recognize Ukraine's independence and following the 2004 Orange Revolution, Canada committed significant resources and sent 1,000 Canadians to serve as observers to help ensure the December 2004 presidential election was free and fair.

In 2006, Canadian exports to Ukraine increased by over 30 percent and for the first time topped 100 million Canadian dollars. Total bilateral trade for 2006 exceeded 300 million.

Canada is also among the 20 largest foreign investors in Ukraine, spending 80 million dollars on energy, construction, and manufacturing projects in recent years.

The latest funds are part of Canadas commitment to the Global Partnership against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, launched by the Group of Eight industrialized nations (G8) in 2002 under Canadas leadership.

The Global Partnership addresses a number of non-proliferation, disarmament, counterterrorism and nuclear security issues, initially in Russia, Ukraine and other countries of the former Soviet Union. Canada has committed almost one billion dollars over 10 years to the partnership.

This project will be implemented through an agreement with the US Department of Energys National Nuclear Security Administration.

Source: AFP

Yanukovych For Simultaneous Parliamentary, Presidential Elections In Autumn

MOSCOW, Russia -- Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych believes that parliamentary and presidential elections should be held simultaneously, but no earlier than the autumn of 2007.

Ukraine's PM Viktor Yanukovych
Yanukovych said in an interview with Vesti-24 television on Sunday that he "definitely" supports the idea of holding simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections.

"But the process of electing presdient is so laid down in the constitution that it cannot be held simultaneously with the parliamentary elections today. It is a thing of the future. President Yushchenko is well aware of this, of course, and other politician understand this, too," he said.

Asked who of the Party of Regions will top the party list and run for president, Yanukovych said, "this question can only be answered in parliament."

"In my opinion, these elections are only possible in the autumn. October would be a realistic date. If this decision is made by the parliament, elections will naturally be held. Now who will top the lists? Everything is clear here.

The political parties have their leaders - highly rated politicians who will naturally be placed at the top of these lists," the prime minister said.

Yanukovych announced that he would meet with Yushchenko "through our mediators with whom we have always dealt - the secretariats of the Cabinet and of the president."

"I will propose that we come back to the format of the talks between working groups and then switch these talks to parliament at the level of factions.

We must be in a legal field, if early elections are discussed - and we are naturally discussing them today. We must prepare appropriate laws, which we can only do in parliament," he said.

"If the issue of elections is raised, elections will have to be financed. And the budget can only be amended by the parliament. This work will take some time," Yanukovych said.

Source: Interfax

Ukraine Opposition Head Tymoshenko Hails Early Poll

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's main opposition leader, former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, said on Saturday a deal to hold a snap parliamentary election proved the ex-Soviet state could solve its problems peacefully and press on with reforms.

Yulia Tymoshenko
But Tymoshenko, the most ardent advocate of a new election, said "orange" groups backing President Viktor Yushchenko would run separately in the coming poll as a tactic to amass more votes.

The pro-Western Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, his arch-rival from the 2004 "Orange Revolution," agreed on Friday after months of rows over sharing powers to hold the new election. No date has yet been set.

A "working group" of experts began drafting details of the election process to be submitted to parliament early next week.

Tymoshenko roused crowds in the peaceful rallies which swept the president to power in 2004 after a deal was struck, with the help of international mediators, to rerun a rigged election. She served as his prime minister before the two fell out for a time.

"Ukraine has again proved to be an example of how to end a crisis strictly through our own political means, without outside interference or pressure," Tymoshenko told a news conference.

"An early election gives Ukraine the chance to proceed along the path of renewal."

Tymoshenko predicted the poll would "significantly change" the make-up of parliament, now dominated by allies of the prime minister, closer to Moscow in outlook. She said surveys proved that liberal groups, like her own bloc, should run separately.

SPLITS

"There is a single goal in doing this," she said. "We must draw large numbers of people towards the democratic position and make them members of a democratic team."

The 2004 revolution united "orange" groups, but Tymoshenko's eight months in office were marked by rows that split her government into rival camps. Divisions prevented the formation of a new "orange" government after last year's parliamentary election, allowing Yanukovich to become prime minister.

The president issued two decrees in April dissolving parliament and calling an election for April 24. Yanukovich had rejected the moves, but agreed in the end on grounds that compromise would spare Ukraine political and economic turmoil.

Yushchenko described the compromise as a "great victory of good over evil" and said respect for parliamentary procedures meant the election could not take place until at least July. The prime minister suggested October was a more realistic date.

Tymoshenko said deputies in her bloc were willing to end their longstanding boycott of parliament to approve the legislation needed for the election and find a compromise date.

A poll this week put Yanukovich's Regions Party in the lead with 37 percent. Tymoshenko's bloc lay second with 21 percent, while the president's Our Ukraine party scored 9 percent and an allied group had four percent, as did the Communist Party.

Source: Washington Post

Tide Shifts In President's Favor In Ukraine Crisis

KIEV, Ukraine -- Once seen as a lame duck, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko now is out-maneuvering the Anti-Crisis coalition (ACC) and the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.

President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko (L), and the Prime Minister of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich (R) talk to media after their talks in Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, May 4, 2007.
During the last week the president has reappointed Syatoslav Piskun as prosecutor, removed the deputy head of the Constitutional Court and a second member of the Court by presidential decree, and appointed a loyalist, Stepan Havrysh, to the Court.

He also issued a decree rescheduling early parliamentary elections from May 27 to June 24.

Piskun and Havrysh had been allies of former president Leonid Kuchma before joining Yushchenko’s steam. Piskun was prosecutor for the first ten months of 2005 and was elected to parliament in 2006 as part of Yanukovych’s Party of Regions.

His defection to Yushchenko and appointment as prosecutor is a defeat for Yanukovych. The defections will be widely seen among Ukraine’s elites as a power shift in Yushchenko’s favor.

Havrysh is a senior representative of the Kharkiv clan, the intellectual center of eastern Ukraine. On the eve of his appointment he had ridiculed the parliamentary resolution in support of simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections as “political hysterics.”

Simultaneous elections would be legally impossible to undertake, he argued, as this would leave a vacuum as to who was running the country.

The defections increase Yushchenko’s ability to negotiate from a position of strength with the Party of Regions and to compete with them in elections in eastern Ukraine.

Yushchenko already has the support of former Kuchma loyalist and pro-Western national security expert Volodymyr Horbulin. Former presidential secretariat head Oleksandr Zinchenko has been reappointed as his adviser.

Similar shifts in Yushchenko’s favor are also emerging in the business sector. Dnipropetrovsk oligarchs Viktor Pinchuk (Interpipe) and Igor Kolomoyskiy (Pryvat), who until 2005 were mortal enemies, have now created a joint venture to manage the Nikopol ferro-alloy plant over which they were in severe dispute in 2005. Both are now pro-Yushchenko loyalists.

The ACC had banked on encouraging divisions to widen between the radical and moderate wings of the Orange camp. But instead, the revived orange coalition, which signed an opposition agreement on February 24, has remained solid.

The ACC had also mistakenly assumed that Yushchenko would retreat from his demand for early elections. His second presidential decree on early elections, which was legally prepared in a more professional manner, has convinced them that this step is also unlikely.

The ACC are concerned about the tough tone Yushchenko took in a speech on April 29, in which he promised to punish anyone who fails to fulfill his second decree. Prosecutor Piskun has pledged to ensure that this decree is implemented.

The ACC, or the two left parties in it (Socialists, Communists), could still call for a boycott of the elections. However, this would open up the possibility of a complete Orange takeover of the new parliament. In Ukraine’s full proportional system any boycott would mean that the parties that took part and crossed the 3% threshold would obtain a larger proportion of the final seat distribution.

A complete Orange takeover of parliament would have two consequences. First, the Orange camp could annul recent constitutional reforms on the division of power and adopt legislation in support of NATO membership. Second, it could lead to greater regional divisions in Ukraine, with eastern Ukrainians feeling excluded from the political process.

The Yushchenko camp clearly hopes that any boycott would only be undertaken by parties on the left end of the political spectrum, which have everything to lose in an early election.

Opinion polls show that the Socialists -- with 1% support -- would be wiped out as a political force and fail to enter parliament for the first time since they were established in 1991. The Communists might still scrape through.

Polls show that the Party of Regions will again come in first with about one-third of the vote. In a proportional system this does not signify that they would automatically create the coalition and government, as they could be still out-flanked by Orange parties.

Yanukovych is likely to personally lose, as he would only be prime minister if the ACC prevailed. The Tymoshenko bloc’s first preference is an Orange coalition, but it is unofficially willing to enter a grand coalition that would create a government of national unity.

The stumbling block would be who would receive the post of prime minister, which neither Yushchenko nor Tymoshenko would return to Yanukovych.

The Tymoshenko bloc is banking on increasing its support to the 30% mark by attracting Socialist voters and increasing its support in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Our Ukraine is likely to improve its support beyond that of 2006 (14%) but will be unlikely to regain its 2002 support of 24%. This is because of three factors.

First, Yushchenko’s ratings have doubled in the last month, putting him for the first time ahead of Tymoshenko in the polls. Yushchenko will use a successful outcome to the crisis to re-launch his bid for a second presidential term in the 2009 elections.

Prior to the crisis all observers had written off his chances of winning a second term.

Second, Our Ukraine is establishing a mega-bloc consisting of itself, the Ukrainian Rightists, and the Yuriy Lutsenko bloc.

Third, Our Ukraine has been reinvigorated as a national democratic party now that it has returned it to its more successful 2002 composition.

The ACC had pinned hopes on international organizations and foreign governments pressuring Yushchenko to back down, but this never happened. International organizations and Western governments remain distrustful of Yanukovych’s authoritarian instincts, blame both sides equally for the crisis, and accept that it is up to Ukrainians to peacefully resolve the crisis.

Only Russia has tried come to “rescue Ukrainian democracy,” by one-sidedly condemning Yushchenko. But on a visit to Washington this week, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk stated that Ukraine was able to resolve its crisis without outside intermediaries.

Despite Moscow’s efforts, the elections seem likely to happen. Central Election Commission chairman Yaroslav Davydovych has publicly stated his readiness to organize the vote.

Minister of Finance Mykola Azarov, a high-ranking Party of Regions loyalist, has agreed to increase the allocation in this year’s budget to finance the elections.

Recent events and a sense of defeatism in the ACC suggest that the tide of events is shifting in Yushchenko’s favor. Early parliamentary elections are likely to take place on June 24, but before the voting booths open both sides are likely to reach some form of political compromise.

Source: Eurasia Daily Monitor

Ukraine To Hold Early Parliamentary Vote

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's president and prime minister reached agreement Friday on holding early parliamentary elections in a bid to end a political standoff between the rival leaders.

President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko(L) and the Prime Minister of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych talk to media after in Kiev. Yushchenko and Yanukovych agreed Friday to hold early parliamentary elections, signalling an end to a bitter power struggle in the ex-Soviet republic.
The agreement is a major victory for President Viktor Yushchenko, whose April 2 decision to dissolve parliament and call early elections was a huge risk and looked in danger of backfiring as the crisis dragged on.

But while Yushchenko won the battle, the real fight for control over the next parliament still looms ahead, and all polls show pro-Western Yushchenko's parliamentary allies trailing Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's Russian-leaning party.

Yushchenko called the agreement "the answer that the nation was waiting for."

"I would not like for what happened today to be understood as the victory of one force over another," he said. "Undoubtedly, common sense ... prevailed."

After emerging from talks with the president, Yanukovych went to speak to thousands of flag-waving supporters gathered on Kiev's Independence Square. "There is no other way to solve this crisis except by holding democratic and fair elections," he said.

The former Soviet republic has been mired in a political crisis since Yushchenko's decree — a move he said was necessary to prevent Yanukovych from usurping power. Yanukovych and his majority in parliament ignored the decision, calling it unconstitutional.

As the standoff dragged on, both sides brought their supporters to the streets for major rallies, and accused each other of acting in bad faith. Yanukovych appealed to the Constitutional Court, but it moved slowly in its deliberations and Yushchenko said the 18-judge panel was not up to the task, firing two of the judges this week.

Yanukovych emerged from the meeting with the president to say a breakthrough had been made. He told thousands of his supporters at an outdoor rally that the two leaders agreed to the creation of a working group that will decide what laws need to be adopted and when the election will take place. Previously, Yushchenko had set the election date for June 24.

The bloc of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and other pro-Western parties welcomed the agreement, as did many of Yanukovych's supporters gathered on Independence Square.

"It is correct because the longer this lasted, the worse it became," said Svetlana Piven, 40, as thousands of Yanukovych supporters rallying on Independence Square began to disperse. "Yanukovych will prove that he was right and the people will support him."

The working group that will propose the election date was given a Monday deadline to present its suggestions on how to proceed, Yushchenko said.

He acknowledged that parliament would have to reconvene to approve changes to election law and this year's budget to release funds for the election, but said he thought that done in one day.

He suggested that could happen Tuesday, saying he would be present to sign the bills into law immediately. After that, Yushchenko said the election would likely take place within 60 days — meaning the vote might come in early July.

Yanukovych had repeatedly said he would not agree to early parliamentary elections unless a presidential vote was held simultaneously, but neither leader mentioned such balloting Friday, suggesting he backed down on the demand.

Analysts said Yushchenko cleared a tough hurdle by winning Yanukovych's agreement, but that hard work for the president was ahead: uniting the still-fractious pro-Western parties.

"Now he has to win the election — that is going to be much, much more difficult than getting Yanukovych to agree to parliamentary elections," said political analyst Ivan Lozowy. "At this point, there is no reason to believe (Yanukovych's) Party of Regions won't repeat their past performance of a year ago or even exceed it."

The tension between Yanukovych and Yushchenko had been building since the Party of Regions won the most votes in March 2006 parliamentary elections and formed a majority coalition, helping Yanukovych return to power.

The two faced off in the disputed 2004 presidential election that Yanukovych won, but there were allegations of massive fraud, and the result was overturned after Yushchenko brought thousands of supporters into the streets in what became known as the Orange Revolution. Yushchenko then won a court-ordered new election.

Yanukovych said the parliamentary election would show which camp has more popular support.

"Those who like elections, who initiated them, will get an answer from you about who today must be in power in Ukraine," he said to applause from supporters.

Source: AP

EU Denies Ukraine A Lighthouse For A Western-Style Democracy

KIEV, Ukraine -- Once again, Ukraine is in the eye of a political hurricane. Faced with a possible constitutional coup that would have eviscerated his powers, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has dissolved the parliament and called for new elections.

Big brother is watching!
His political opponent -- Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich -- is violently opposing that move, fueling a bitter constitutional struggle that ultimately will settle Ukraine's future orientation.

Will Ukraine continue its turn towards the West, as Yushchenko and Orange Revolution ally Yuliya Tymoshenko want, or return to Russia's strategic embrace, as Yanukovich and his allies want?

It was Russia's attempt, only two and a half years ago, to install Yanukovich as President via rampant electoral fraud that touched off the "Orange Revolution."

After months of struggle, Yushchenko rightfully claimed the presidency. But the revolution petered out, former partners were soon at loggerheads, giving Yanukovich and his allies a chance to return to power.

Throughout this difficult period, the EU has failed Ukraine, bluntly declaring that it should not hold any hope of future membership and justifying this stance by citing its internal problems -- the stranded Constitutional Treaty -- and growing public sentiment against further enlargement.

But political leaders in the EU are merely succumbing to ill-informed fears. Rather than informing their populations about the economic and political benefits of the recent enlargements, most are playing on voters' "enlargement fatigue."

This has denied Ukraine the lighthouse that helped guide other post-communist states -- most recently Bulgaria and Romania -- toward Western-style democracy and rule of law. As a result, there is now an obvious risk of a new internal split in the country.

Even current EU members feel abandoned: There is a growing sense in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Hungary that the EU is allowing them to be squeezed by Russia, particularly on energy policy.

Of course, EU membership gives these countries a greater sense of security. But the EU's old members have brought on an enormous sense of disappointment by ignoring its new members' security concerns in favor of preserving their own ties with Russia, particularly in cutting energy deals that they think will assure them of supplies.

Other post-Soviet countries are also experiencing internal pressure to reorient themselves towards Russia and feel abandoned by the EU. Georgia and Moldova both face secessionist-minded, Russian-dominated enclaves that are to a large extent controlled from Moscow -- Abkhasia and South Ossetia in Georgia and Transnistria in Moldova.

Both countries suffer from Russian trade embargoes on their most important export products -- wines and foodstuffs.

Moldova appears set to cave in to Russia's pressure, partly to attract desperately needed inward investment at a time when little aid has come from the West, particularly the EU.

Indeed, like Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia have been left without any clear signals from the EU that they will have the prospect of membership at some point in the future.

Russia is also flexing its muscles over the question of Kosovo's future, raising objections in the UN Security Council to the UN's plan for independence and openly supporting Serbia's quest to maintain its supremacy over Kosovo.

Russia argues that independence for Kosovo may "create a precedent" -- a veiled threat to mobilize its secessionist proxies not only in Georgia and Moldova, but also in Ukraine's Crimea region.

Moreover, Russia is hinting at the many worries within EU countries about potential demands for self-rule, by, for example, the Basques in Spain, the Turks in northern Cyprus, and the large Hungarian minorities in Romania and Slovakia.

All of these countries are now acting with great hesitation in the debate about Kosovo, clearly influenced by Russian warnings about "setting a precedent."

But this argument overlooks the fundamental difference between Kosovo and the situation in all other areas with large national minorities. Whereas Kosovo was part of a federation, the former Republic of Yugoslavia, the EU's other potential trouble spots are all parts of unitary nation states. Thus, independence for Kosovo in no way creates a "precedent."

Of course, Russia knows this. But, by using its energy resources and recovered confidence to fuel instability and discord, it is seeking to expand its sphere of interest -- an outcome that can be averted only by a unanimous and determined EU response.

Unfortunately, instead of reaching out to endangered nations like Ukraine, the EU beacon remains dark and its leaders silent.

Source: Taipie Times

Yushchenko Names Replacement High Court Judge, Sacked Justice Sues

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's swirling constitutional crisis intensified on Thursday, with President Viktor Yushchenko naming a new judge to the supreme court, and the justice that Yushchenko was trying to replace suing the president on the grounds that he was fired illegally.

Newly appointed Constitutional Court Judge Stepan Havrish
Yushchenko, a pro-Europe politician supporting market reforms, named Stepan Havrish, a legal advisor with long experience in Ukrainian jurisprudence, to replace Valery Pshenichny on the bench of the supreme constitutional court.

The high court since mid-April has been considering a dispute between Yushchenko and parliament over whether or not Yushchenko's dissolution of parliament earlier in the month to call new elections was legal.

Yushchenko sacked Pshenichny on Monday, citing alleged procedural and ethics violations by the judge. He sacked a second justice, Susana Stanik, on Tuesday on similar grounds.

Pshenichny challenged the decision on Thursday, filing a brief in a Kiev court arguing Yushchenko lacked grounds to sack him, and requested he be reinstated in the case.

"I expect to be reinstated," he told the Interfax news agency. Both Pshenichny and Stanik took part in court proceedings on Wednesday, despite Yushchenko's having handed them the sack earlier in the week.

Ukrainian constitutional statute is not precise on when a president may sack a supreme court justice. Precedent however would appear to be on Yushchenko's side, as Ukrainian presidents in the past have selected and sacked high court justices without difficulty.

Havrish served as a constitutional court justice during 2005, before being dismissed by former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma.

A replacement for Stanik will be named "in the near future," said Volodymyr Shapoval, a Yushchenko spokesman.

Ukraine's constitutional court has eighteen justices, of whom six are appointed by the president, six by parliament, and six by an independent judicial council. Stanik and Pshenichny were appointed by Yushchenko's predecessor, Kuchma, in 2003 and 2005 respectively.

Viktor Yanukovich, Prime Minister and the leader of the parliament majority opposing Yushchenko, on Thursday repeated calls for talks and even mediation in the dispute, saying "we all must sit down at the table and talk. "

Yanukovich on Tuesday suggested "foreign intervention" to resolve the dispute. Yushchenko on Thursday in an interview on RIA television said "we will show the world how we can resolve our differences peacefully, democratically, and without violence. "

A group of observers from the European Union will visit Ukraine at the end of May, but Brussels thus far is taking a "hands-off" attitude towards the Ukrainian political row, said Adrian Severin, a Ukrainian diplomat.

Yushchenko declared parliament dissolved April 2, arguing members of parliament (MPs) had violated constitutional statute and betrayed their obligations to voters by standing for election and winning seats for one political party, and then switching loyalty to another party once actually inside the legislature.

Ukrainian media for months have catalogued the names of dozens of MPs elected on a reform pro-Yushchenko ticket in March 2006, and then switching to the Yanukovich faction in exchange for bribes, or government preferences to their businesses.

Tacit acceptance that new elections would in fact take place, and that Yushchenko's call for changes in coalition formation law held some substance, was clear from Yanukovich's Thursday statement, the pro-Russia politician saying: "If we in fact have a consensus on holding new elections . we have no choice but to discuss the laws we need to do that, set a time frame, and only afterwards come to a political agreement. "

When the crisis broke one month ago Yanukovich argued Yushchenko's order violated the constitution and was an impeachable offence, that talks with Yushchenko were pointless, and that new elections could not legally take place.

Yushchenko thus far has taken a hard line in the row, in a national televised address on Wednesday saying he has no intention of "compromising on the constitution's principles," and "a presidential order is the law and every one must obey the law. "

Source: Jurnalo

Ukraine Lawmakers Cry Foul As Yushchenko Sacks Judges

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko sacked two judges on the country’s high court, a move attacked by the parliament majority as unconstitutional, according to news reports yesterday.

Viktor Yushchenko
Yushchenko waited until early evening to announce he was firing justice Susana Stanik, for “procedural violations ... and questions of possible serious violations of the law”.

Yushchenko in a statement to media accused Stanik of ignoring evidence and witness interview rules in an ongoing case before the high court, pitting the pro-Europe Yushchenko against the country’s pro-Russia parliament majority.

The dispute has left the former Soviet republic in constitutional crisis since April 2, when Yushchenko ordered parliament dissolved, charging MPs switching their support to parties they had opposed during elections violated the constitution.

Parliament, led by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, has defied the order.

Ukraine’s secret police, the SBU, a spy agency thought to be loyal to Yushchenko, in early April sensationally accused Stanik of accepting up to $12mn in bribes, in exchange for her support for Yanukovich’s side in the parliament dissolution dispute.

Stanik has admitted her mother-in-law recently received as gifts a pair of Kiev apartments and other benefits from the Yanukovich government worth millions, but has repeatedly denied the property transfers could affect judgment in the president-parliament dispute.

Ukraine’s prosecutor-general openly supports Yanukovich, and has refused to open a criminal investigation into the SBU allegations against Stanik.

An executive order published on the presidential website on Monday evening relieved a second judge, Valery Pshenichny, “for extensive violations in procedure ... and violation of his oath”.

Pshenichny was appointed in 2003, and Stanik in 2005, by Yushchenko’s predecessor Leonid Kuchma. Both Pshenichny and Stanik are likely supporters of Yanukovich’s pro-Russia policies, Ukrainska Pravda magazine reported.

By constitutional statute the president appoints six members of the court, parliament another six members and an independent judicial council the last six members. Ten justice votes are necessary for the court to make a decision.

Yanukovich criticised Pshenichny’s sacking in a statement yesterday.

“This step by the president has the goal of stopping work of the constitutional court, the only organ capable of resolving the constitutional basis of relations between the branches of power,” Yanukovich said, in a statement published on his party website.

“We resolutely protest ... this illegal measure by the president ... and call on Ukrainian citizens and world society to bring an end to such actions,” the statement said.

There was no early reaction to Stanik’s sacking, coming as it did in the early evening of a national holiday.

Yushchenko’s April 2 order originally set elections only for parliament on May 27, but in a later order the pro-Europe politician changed the date to June 24. He has refused even to consider presidential elections before the end of his five-year term in 2011.

Long accused of doing little to stand up to an increasingly assertive pro-Russia majority in parliament, Yushchenko since the beginning of April has taken the offensive, using presidential orders and frank threats to challenge Yanukovich’s ruling coalition.

The president’s sackings of two high court judges while considering a critical division-of-power case is without precedent in Ukraine’s 16 years as an independent country.

Source: Gulf Times

Kiev Assures U.S. On Democracy

WASHINGTON, DC -- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk assured U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that his country would adhere to democratic standards in resolving its current political crisis.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (R), walks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk at the State Department in Washington.
President Viktor Yushchenko, meanwhile, dismissed a second Constitutional Court judge in as many days, increasing the likelihood that the court would be unable to make a ruling in the more than four-week crisis.

Yatsenyuk said after talks with Rice on Tuesday that U.S. officials had expressed concern that Ukraine maintain the democratic progress it had made since Yushchenko came to power in 2004. "We have to stick to democratic values, democratic standards -- it's obvious for us," Yatsenyuk said.

Ukraine's latest political stalemate erupted after Yushchenko accused Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych of trying to usurp power by wooing pro-presidential lawmakers over to the majority coalition. Yushchenko signed a decree last month ordering new parliamentary elections for late May. Yanukovych, however, and his majority in the parliament have refused to fulfill the decree, and challenged it before the Constitutional Court.

Unable to get funding for the election from the Yanukovych-controlled government, Yushchenko postponed the election until June 24.

Yatsenyuk said he assured U.S. officials that there was a legal basis for Yushchenko's move to dissolve the parliament. He said the president would seek a deal to end the impasse. "Everyone is interested in compromise, but the president had to act and react and had to protect the constitution," he said. "In 2007, we faced for the first time in our history the dissolution of the parliament. It's called democracy."

In Kiev, Yushchenko's office announced Tuesday that the president had dismissed Judge Syuzanna Stanik for "a violation of [her] oath." Yushchenko had earlier accused Stanik of corruption, citing an allegation that a member of her family had received expensive real estate. She denied the charge, and the Prosecutor General's Office also defended her.

On Monday, Yushchenko fired another judge on the 18-judge panel, accusing him of violating court procedure. Both judges were part of the six-judge quota that Yushchenko can appoint to the bench, but both were appointed by his predecessor, President Leonid Kuchma.

Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun said Wednesday that his office would investigate a complaint from the two judges about their dismissals.

Under Ukrainian law, the court needs a 12-judge quorum to work. Before the court took the case, five of the 18 judges said they believed Yushchenko's decree was constitutional and that they would not participate in the hearings. They later showed up to participate, but if those judges now bow out, the court will not have a quorum.

Many analysts say Yushchenko is protecting himself in expectation that the court's decision will go against him.

Source: The Moscow Times

Russian Language In Retreat In Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- The fidgeting, wide-eyed girls and boys squeezed around a table in Elizaveta Moklyak's kindergarten class are helping lead a cultural and political revolution.

Ukraine flag (L) and Russia flag
With her pointer and colorful posters, Moklyak teaches Ukrainian to Russian-speaking children - ensuring that by the end of the school year, the language of their homeland no longer sounds like a foreign tongue.

Sixteen years after shrugging off Moscow's rule, Ukraine is reclaiming a language that - like scores of other local languages across the former U.S.S.R. - the Soviet leadership once disdained as inferior to Russian.

Today Ukrainian has emerged from second-class status, slipping quietly into the chambers of government and popular culture. This marks more than a cultural change: It could doom any hopes Russia may have of restoring its traditional political influence over this country of 47 million.

Just two years ago, some Russian speaking regions in eastern Ukraine talked of secession, fearing dominance by Ukrainian-speakers in the west. The language debate was one of the most divisive of the 2004 Orange Revolution, which helped oust Ukraine's pro-Moscow leadership.

While competition for political power continues, Ukrainian may already have triumphed in the language war.

``I think there is the sense that Ukraine has passed over the hump on this issue, that there has been a big, but quiet, victory,'' said Ivan Lozowy, a political analyst.

Russian was the lingua franca of the Soviet Union, but its use declined sharply after the Soviet breakup in 1991. Native languages rebounded, and English made inroads among intellectuals and business leaders.

Where Russian speakers in the Soviet republics once enjoyed social and political advantages, many now struggle to keep up in school, to fill out forms in government offices and to compete for jobs.

In Latvia and Estonia, Russian speakers complain of discrimination. That resentment erupted in violence in the past week, when Estonia's Russian-speaking minority protested the removal of a monument honoring Soviet soldiers from downtown Tallinn.

In Georgia and Azerbaijan, many youngsters now see English as a ticket to success.

However, Russian is still firmly entrenched in some former Soviet states, including in Central Asia, where it is widely seen as having brought culture and civilization to the medieval khanates that once ruled the steppes. But even in places where Russian remains strong, nationalists are trying to chip away at its dominance.

Russian President Vladimir Putin appears deeply worried about the erosion of the use of Russian worldwide, and last week called for creation of a national Russian Language Institute.

``Looking after the Russian language and expanding the influence of Russian culture are crucial social and political issues,'' Putin said in his state of the nation address.

In countries like Ukraine, that influence is shrinking.

The nation's Ukrainian-speaking west yearns to be part of Europe; the Russian-speaking east and south is the base of politicians who want to maintain Ukraine's historic ties to Moscow.

Some Russian-speaking Ukrainians, who make up about half the country, say they feel excluded from the Ukrainian-speaking society. In the past year, many regions have tried to enshrine Russian in local laws, and their champion, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, has said he would oppose aggressive ``Ukrainianization.''

But even Yanukovych has brushed up on his Ukrainian and now uses it - not only at official meetings, but at rallies of his Russian-speaking supporters.

Some Russian-speakers feel besieged.

Mykola Levchenko, 27, secretary of the Donetsk city council, said Russian-speakers like himself suffer daily insults and some Ukrainians even question his patriotism. When he buys a Ukrainian-made home appliance, he says, the directions come only in Ukrainian.

``In world society, Russian is a major language, Ukrainian isn't,'' he said. ``Why would we give this up?''

After Ukraine became independent, it declared Ukrainian the sole state language and switched over more than 80 percent of its schools. Nearly all universities now teach in Ukrainian; as a result, parents push children to study Ukrainian early.

``Without this it would be difficult for him in life,'' said Yulia Bondarenko, who speaks Russian at home to her 7-year-old son, Zhenya, but sends him to a Ukrainian-language school.

Ukrainian and Russian both use the Cyrillic alphabet and have the same linguistic roots, and it's not uncommon to hear people slip seamlessly from one to another. Many words are similar - the Russian word for apple is ``yabloko,'' Ukrainian is ``yabluko'' - but differences also are common.

For example, thank you in Russian is ``spasibo;'' in Ukrainian, it's ``dyakuyu.'' And even simple words can be different: in Russian, yes is ``da'' and no is ``nyet;'' in Ukrainian, yes is ``tak'' and no is ``ni.'

Ukrainians in Kiev joke that if a traffic cop pulls them over, they'll curse in Russian, then switch to Ukrainian - which conveys an air of authority - to try to persuade the officer from writing a ticket.

``We have nothing against Russian, we all use it,'' said Yuliya Vladina, a 22-year-old DJ. ``But we have a language - Ukrainian - so why shouldn't we promote that? It's progressive. It's hip.''

Ukrainian's identification with pop culture appears to have been a key factor in its success, particularly among young people.

Many popular bands sing in Ukrainian. ``People are learning the language from our songs,'' said Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, lead singer of Okean Elzy.

Ivan Malkovych, director of a Ukrainian-language publishing house, rushed out a Ukrainian translation of the fifth installment of the Harry Potter series, beating Russian-language publishers. That success, he said, helped attract young readers to other Ukrainian-language titles.

Russian does maintain its dominance in some fields. Most national newspapers publish only in Russian, as do many magazines.

But every year, the demand for Ukrainian publications increases - propelled by readers who began learning the language in kindergarten classes like those taught by Moklyak.

Source: Guardian Unlimited

Yushchenko Dismisses 2nd Const. Court Judge In Two Days

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's president dismissed a second Constitutional Court judge in two days Tuesday for "violating her oath," the presidential press office said.

Judge Susanna Stanyk fired by Yushchenko
The dismissal of Susanna Stanyk came after the sacking of Valeriy Pshenychny, Constitutional Court deputy chairman, on similar grounds Monday, while the court is examining the legality of the president's initial, April 2, order to disband parliament and call early elections, challenged by the legislature.

Ukraine's majority coalition in parliament said earlier Tuesday Pshenychny's dismissal was illegal.

"This step taken by the president is designed to block the work of the Constitutional Court, the only body capable of bringing relationships between the branches of power in line with law," the coalition's largest Party of Regions said in a statement.

The party led by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, Yushchenko's long-time rival, said lawmakers would again refer the case to the Constitutional Court.

On April 26, Yushchenko issued another decree to postpone early elections from May 27 to June 24 over the government's reluctance to allocate funds.

That order was also taken to the Constitutional Court, which has not made a decision yet.

On Monday, the Supreme Rada voted to hold presidential elections along with parliamentary polls. The decision was backed by 234 lawmakers, with 226 votes being required for it to be passed.

The legislature said polls should take place within 90 days after relevant changes were made to the Constitution, but no later than December 9, 2007.

But at least 300 votes are needed to amend the Constitution, whereas only 254 lawmakers are working in the Supreme Rada at the moment after pro-presidential factions quit the disbanded parliament.

Ukraine's current political crisis broke out after Yushchenko first disbanded parliament April 2, accusing Yanukovych of enticing 11 pro-presidential lawmakers to join the majority coalition controlled by his party since he came to power as premier after the March 2006 parliamentary elections.

Source: RIA Novosti

Ukraine Parliament Cries Foul As Yushchenko Sacks High Court Judge

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko sacked a judge on the country's high court, a move attacked by the parliament majority as unconstitutional, according to Tuesday news reports.

Judge Valery Pshenichny
An executive order published on the presidential website Monday evening relieved judge Valery Pshenichny, a justice on the 18-member supreme constitutional court, from his court position "for extensive violations in procedure . and violation of his oath. "

The constitutional court currently is reviewing the legality of Yuschenko's April 2 order dissolving parliament. The legislature, led by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, has continued to meet in defiance of the order.

Legal officials in the Yushchenko administration criticised Pshenichny earlier this month for talking to media about the case.

Political analysts believe the court to be closely balanced between supporters of Yushchenko and Yanukovich. By constitutional statute the President appoints six members of the court, parliament another six members and an independent judicial council the last six members.

Pshenichny was appointed in 2003 by Yushchenko's predecessor Leonid Kuchma and is a likely supporter of Yanukovich's pro-Russia policies, Ukrainska Pravda magazine reported.

"This step by the president has the goal of stopping work of the constitutional court, the only organ capable of resolving the constitutional basis of relations between the branches of power," Yanukovich said, in a statement published on his party web site.

"We resolutely protest . this illegal measure by the president . and call on Ukrainian citizens and world society to bring an end to such actions," the statement said.

Reaction by parliament on Tuesday was slow in coming, in part, because May 1 is a national holiday on Ukraine.

Ukrainan legal authorities were divided on whether the president could sack a high court deputy and appoint another to a particular case. Yushchenko's office was on Tuesday not commenting on possible nominees to replace Pshenichny.

Parliament on Monday muddied the constitutional waters as well, passing a law scheduling parliamentary and Presidential elections for December.

Yushchenko's April 2 order originally set elections only for parliament on May 27, but in a later order the pro-Europe politician changed the date to June 24. He has refused even to consider pPresidential elections before the end of his five-year term in 2011.

Long accused of doing little to stand up to an increasingly assertive pro-Russia majority in parliament, Yushchenko since the beginnning of April has taken the offensive, using presidential order and frank threat to challenge Yanukovich's ruling coalition.

Ukraine's secret police, the SBU, a spy agency thought to be loyal to Yushchenko, in early April sensationally accused constitutional court justice Susana Stanik of accepting up to 12 million dollars in bribes, in exchange for her support to Yanukovich's side in the parliament dissolution dispute.

Stanik, while admitting her mother-in-law recently received as gifts a pair of Kiev apartments and other benefits from the Yanukovich government worth millions, has repeatedly denied the property transfers would have an effect on her fair judgement of the president-parliament dispute.

Mykola Poludeny, a top Yushchenko legal advisor, in a Monday evening interview on the Channel Five television station repeated the allegations against Stanik, telling viewers Yushchenko was preparing to remove her from the court as well.

Stanik, like the sacked Pshenichny, was appointed to the high court by Yushchenko's predecessor.

Source: Jurnalo