A Grandson Returns To Retrieve His Legacy

NEW YORK, NY -- It was the sign above the store that made me stop short, one perfect spring day, during a stroll down East Seventh Street: Surma Books & Music. The goods for sale were ceramic eggs, embroidered blouses, religious icons. A few shelves of books and cassette tapes, mostly in Ukrainian.

Honey for sale at Surma Books & Music.
The sight of it all woke the memory of another sign, another road, another May, 26 years ago.

“Apiarist,” said the sign on that street, in Saddle River, N.J.

The beekeeper was 91 years old, lord and servant to 700,000 bees. They darted into a tangle of raspberry vines. Their wooden hives were set in the yard. The old man worked barehanded; he said the stings prevented rheumatism. He was spry as a fawn.

And his voice, on that spring afternoon in 1983, was fragrant with Ukraine that he left in 1910. After digging coal near Scranton, Pa., he moved to a pocket of the Lower East Side of Manhattan known as Little Ukraine. He opened a shop and stocked it with books and newspapers and things from the old country. Then he kept bees in northern New Jersey.

Schoolchildren — not a wandering reporter — were his steady visitors. A class of fifth graders sat on tree stumps, in the shade of a pine grove, and absorbed lore of the bee: the needless terror of the stings, and the flowers the bees pollinate, their combs thick with honey.

But, the kids wanted to know, wasn’t he scared? “A beekeeper likes to be with the bees,” he said. “When he hears them buzzing around, he thinks it’s a symphony.”

Nearly three decades later, in the shop on Seventh Street, I mention the old beekeeper, Myron Surmach. The man behind the counter nods.

“My grandfather,” he says. “He started this store in 1918.”

The grandson is Markian Surmach, 47, and he is almost as surprised to be standing in the shop, a few doors east of Third Avenue, as I am to encounter another Surmach in 2009.

“I was away for a long time,” he said. “Most of my generation of Ukrainians moved away and assimilated.”

When Myron Surmach moved from shopkeeping to beekeeping in the 1950s, he turned the store over to his son, Myron Jr., who had a fine run as impresario of Ukrainian dances and parties and outfitting the flower children of the 1960s. Peasant blouses were in demand. Janis Joplin and Joan Baez and members of the Mamas and the Papas shopped in Surma Books & Music.

The grandson, Markian Surmach, whose first language was Ukrainian, lived above the store until he was 6. He left Little Ukraine and New York behind in 1991. “You want to define yourself, apart from the mold,” he said. “I chose to run away.” He started a Web-development business in Denver.

Surmach the beekeeper and store founder died in 1991, not quite 99 years old. His son died in 2003, at age 71. Markian has a sister, who was busy raising her children.

“If I didn’t come back, the store was going to close,” he said.

No place stays the same for 15 years, certainly not in Manhattan. With a few exceptions, Ukrainians have long since drained from the Lower East Side. So have the artists living cheaply. “The homogenization of city life is not unique to New York, or this country,” Mr. Surmach said. “It’s all over the world.”

People return to the store around Christmas and Easter, and also after attending services at St. George Ukrainian Church, he says. The older people will glance through the Ukrainian newspapers; younger ones will pick over the crafts, the painted eggs and greetings illustrated with folk scenes by a Surmach aunt.

He wrestles with the future. “I started a business of my own with a clean white slate,” he said. “Here, the book is fully written. I’m just trying to write in the margins. I haven’t given up yet. I’m trying to find meaning.”

Perhaps, he says, he will bring fresh life to the shop with music. He is offered another memory of his grandfather from 1983: for the visiting schoolchildren, the beekeeper played the bandura, a 55-string lute.

“For an old man, this is like family,” Myron Surmach had told the kids. “Everyone, when they get old and lonely, should have a bandura. It is like family because it has all the voices.” He plucked a high note. “These are the children.” Then a richer one: “These are the ladies.”

Hearing of this nearly three decades later, the grandson smiled and pointed to a bandura, hanging on the wall. He stood below an old sign, “Honey Sold Here.” The old bee farm is gone, but Surma Books & Music still stocks honey, fields of clover, tangles of raspberry, remembered in a jar.

Source: The New York Times

Ukraine On The Brink

WASHINGTON, DC -- Russia has always had a knack for overshadowing its neighbors - and this time the West, focused on Moscow, is distracted from a crisis in Ukraine. As U.S. President Barack Obama gears up to "reset" Russia relations, Ukraine is in disarray.

All eyes on the reset button, Washington has failed to notice Russia's meddling in a crisis next door.
The country is teetering between economic collapse, Russian influence, and vague promises of Western support. It will take decisive moves from Washington to help pull Ukraine back from the edge. At the least, Obama should visit ailing Ukraine and prove that good relations with Russia don't meant forgetting the rest of the region.

Economic decline is largely to blame for Ukraine's perilous predicament. The country paid heavily for of its massive corporate foreign debt, failure to push through serious economic reform, and unwillingness to clean up a terribly corrupt energy sector.

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank forecast an 8 to 9 percent drop in GDP this year, and that might be a conservative estimate; the economy has contracted some 30 percent in the first quarter alone. Ukraine's currency, the hryvnya, has fallen 40 percent against the dollar.

Unemployment may reach 10 percent and mass protests are not out of the question -- especially in the troubled east.

Finger-pointing among Ukrainian politicians, already a national sport, will only accelerate as the country gears up for January 2010 elections for president (and possibly early parliamentary elections, too). Many, including Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (who has been feuding with President Viktor Yushchenko since the Orange Revolution brought him to power in 2004) are calling for constitutional reform that would strengthen Ukraine's parliament and weaken the presidency.

Constitutional reform, important though that may be, is a divisive distraction at a horrible time. What would be more helpful is economic reform, as the IMF recommended as part of its $16.4 billion deal last year.

But politicians are desperate for quicker solutions, even ones that may not have Ukraine's long-term interests in mind. Enter Moscow, which has provided loans to the tune of several billion dollars already to Kiev and is interested in buying up more Ukrainian properties and assets.

Russia might not be acting out of mere kindness of heart; a campaign to regain its sphere of influence might be at work.

If so, it's a campaign with strategic implications. Russia's Black Sea fleet is set to operate in Ukraine's port city of Sevastopol until 2017. In its current economic predicament, Ukraine will be in a weaker position in contentious negotiations with Moscow about whether to renew the arrangement.

The same is true as the country rejects Russian nationalist claims that Crimea, internationally recognized as part of Ukraine, really belongs to Russia. Clashes between the two countries over gas delivery to Europe are also likely to continue -- with Russia in a position to apply further pressure on Ukraine, (though Ukraine also needs to pay its bills so that future cutoffs are harder to justify).

Why should the international community be concerned about Ukraine's fragility? In a word: location. The country of more than 46 million people is a strategically placed capitalist (albeit fragile) democracy on the fault line between Russia and the European Union.

Messy and frustrating as Ukrainian politics may be, the country has been both peaceful and democratic since the Orange Revolution in 2004. The media in Ukraine are freer than ever, and the parliament (the Rada) is no rubber stamp for the executive branch -- more than some of Ukraine's neighbors can say.

Ukraine is central to achieving the goal of a Europe that is whole, free, and at peace. It's the right country in the right place. But if the West turns away, gains from the past five years could be lost.

Visible U.S. support for Ukraine is critical as the country struggles through the coming months. Obama should avoid boosting one politician over another prior to any elections. A visit to Kiev on the president's scheduled trip to Moscow in July would help, sending a powerful message that America will not seek to improve relations with Russia at all costs, neighbors included.

On his trip, Obama must make clear that he seeks better relations with Ukraine and other countries in the region even as he improves ties with Moscow. It's a delicate balancing act, but neither policy can succeed without the other.

Source: Foreign Policy

Yushchenko Seeks To Revive His Political Fortunes

WASHINGTON, DC -- The resignation of the Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's chief of staff Viktor Baloga has long been expected. He issued a strongly worded attack on Yushchenko as having failed to implement his 2004 election promises, and therefore had no right to stand for a second term. Moreover, he had lobbied for Yushchenko to support Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych's candidacy.

President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko
Yushchenko did not support Baloga's strategy to disband parliament, since it lacked a coalition majority (only 40 out of 72 Our Ukraine-People's Self Defense (NUNS) deputies joined the coalition). On May 22 in an interview on Inter television, Yushchenko again reiterated that "his faction" (NUNS) was not a member of the coalition.

The constitutional court ruled on May 12 that the presidential elections will be held on January 17, and not in October for which parliament had previously voted. According to the Minister of Justice Mykola Onishchuk, this ruled out the proposal to hold simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections in October. Baloga had attempted to enter parliament in order to secure immunity before the presidential elections.

The situation rapidly deteriorated for Baloga on May 12 when a Kyiv court ruled that the deputy head of the Security Service (SBU) Tyberia Durdynets, could be lawfully arrested and his office and home searched. Durdynets was a close ally of Baloga's from his home region of Trans-Carpathia.

It is widely believed that Durdynets had acted under the former chief of staff's orders when placing Ukrainian politicians and state officials under surveillance -including the deputy head of the prosecutor's office Renat Kuzmin. The prosecutor's office had instructed the SBU and interior ministry to use force if necessary, to bring Durdynets to justice - he has since fled and has been placed on an Interpol wanted list. Another Baloga loyalist, the SBU deputy head Anatoliy Pavlenko, might also be charged for conducting illegal surveillance operations.

Baloga clearly viewed the court order as an indirect attack on himself, and felt betrayed that Yushchenko had not intervened to support "his man," Durdynets. He also warned on local Trans-Carpathian state television on May 17 that if he was the next target, he intended to reveal damaging inside information on Yushchenko.

The Ukrainian political consultant Vasyl Baziv, believes that Baloga possesses substantial kompromat on Yushchenko, and that his resignation will have serious repercussions within Ukrainian politics.

A presidential secretariat insider told EDM that as chief of staff, Baloga had developed a close relationship with the two rival wings within the Party of Regions: the Donetsk old guard led by the "ideologist" Boris Kolesnikov, a close associate of the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, and the "gas lobby" linked to RosUkrEnergo (RUE) co-owner Dmitriy Firtash.

The presidential insider told that since January 2008 "Baloga has been one of the most ardent guardians of RUE interests in its clash with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

In March 2009 an officer from the Main Information Service of the presidential secretariat confirmed that Firtash remained the only oligarch to pay ‘bonuses' to even the minor ranks within the secretariat." The Tymoshenko government also removed RUE from this year's gas contract with Russia.

On May 12 Ukrainska Pravda speculated that the first deputy head of the SBU Valeriy Khoroshkovsky, might become the next target in the campaign against Baloga loyalists and Firtash's allies. Khoroshkovsky dispatched SBU Alpha units to carry out a raid against Naftogaz Ukrainy on March 4, which was widely condemned as using the SBU to lobby his private business interests.

Khoroshkovsky is believed to maintain a close business relationship with Firtash in the largest Ukrainian television channel Inter, which has strongly promoted Arseniy Yatseniuk as an alternative "orange" candidate to Tymoshenko in the upcoming presidential elections.

Baloga felt betrayed by Yushchenko's support for Kyiv governor Vera Ulianchenko's election on May 16 as the head of the People's Union-Our Ukraine (NSNU) - one of nine parties within the NUNS bloc. Ulianchenko replaced Baloga as the chief of staff, indicating that Yushchenko finally decided to support the NSNU as the presidential party of power, rather than Baloga's United Center.

Ulianchenko stressed that there is only one pro-presidential party: NUNS. Baloga has had strained relations with Ulianchenko, and attempted to promote the United Center party, which he controls, as the presidential favorite. NSNS activists had sharp differences with Baloga, since his "unpleasant activities" had damaged the party in his efforts to further the United Center.

Yushchenko remains convinced that he will revive his political fortunes and enter the second round of voting. On May 21 the pro-Yushchenko PR specialist Myron Wasylyk, suggested: "Yushchenko is in the midst of picking a new team to complete his policy agenda for the last months of his first term.

He is looking for a group of political managers who work well together as he begins his most important political journey - reconnecting with the millions of voters who were his electoral base, in the hope of winning re-election in 2010." Yushchenko might be competing against three "orange" candidates - Tymoshenko, Yatseniuk and Anatoliy Grytsenko - within western and central Ukraine in what will be a difficult contest.

In contrast, Yanukovych will enter round two, facing little competition within southeastern Ukraine. Some of Yatseniuk's support might also return to Yushchenko by focusing on his two achievements -democratization and nation-building. He has positioned himself in the nationalist and anti-communist, rather than in the centrist niche.

Playing on Yushchenko as a Ukrainian nation-builder might re-introduce ethnicity into the election campaign and again risk dividing Ukraine, as happened in the 2004 elections. Meanwhile, a split "orange" vote will permit Baloga's favorite -Yanukovych- to win the election.

Source: Eurasia Daily Monitor

Gaining Citizenship, Soldier Completes Journey From Ukraine

OKLAHOMA CITY, USA -- Alla Tarbox always wanted to be a soldier. But in Lugansk, Ukraine, that thought would forever remain a fantasy, as Ukrainian women are barred from military duty.

Oklahoma National Guard Spec. Alla Tarbox takes her oath of citizenship during a ceremony at the U.S. Immigration Services office in Oklahoma City on Thursday.
"I had to wait for the right time and the right country,” said Tarbox, a specialist in the Oklahoma National Guard. "I wanted to be surrounded by people who believe in the same values and live according to the same principles.”

And for Tarbox, the U.S. became that place of hope.

Tarbox, 28, received her citizenship documents Thursday in front of about 30 military personnel and civilians at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office after three years of work with the National Guard.

"We had talked about this for a long time,” Chief Warrant Officer Dan Kendrick said. "I was really proud of her. Everything she did her entire adult life had been focused for this point. She was probably about to explode.”

How it all began

Traveling to the U.S. just before her 25th birthday, Tarbox ventured across the country visiting friends she met as an American Peace Corps volunteer. When she arrived in Oklahoma, she felt attached.

"I settled down and decided this would be my state,” Tarbox said.

And Kendrick said Tarbox has been dedicated to her work ever since.

Because of her ability to assimilate into the culture and show her intelligence and kind demeanor, Tarbox was given responsibility as a property book technician — taking care of $400 million worth of equipment, doing inventory and cataloging.

"It’s because of her attitude and intelligence,” Kendrick said. "She’s the super person.”

Tarbox said her citizenship creates an open road ahead, as she’s ready to begin officer school and hopes to gain clearance to someday work for the U.S. Secret Service. As a citizen, Tarbox could sponsor relatives — her parents and two stepbrothers live in Ukraine — to immigrate to the U.S. if they choose.

Maj. Lindy White, a South Korean native who gained U.S. citizenship in 1988, said she asked Tarbox before the ceremony if she had family members in the country.

"She said she didn’t, but she does,” White said. "She had a great showing of the National Guard family being here. We’re her family.”

Tarbox said she’s excited to potentially deploy overseas — no matter where the destination.

"I’m fully ready,” Tarbox said. "I’m stationed here since I’m in the Guard but I’d go anywhere our mission brings us.”

Source: NewsOK

Ukraine’s Orange Revolution Five Years On

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine will hold presidential elections in January 2010 that are likely to give the country a new president. Viktor Yushchenko, elected in January 2005 on the crest of the Orange Revolution, has only 3-4 percent support making it impossible for him to win a second term. He would therefore follow Ukraine’s first President Leonid Kravchuk who also only served one term in 1991-1994.


The story of how Yushchenko came to power with high domestic and international expectations that he largely failed to fulfill will be a fascinating area for future research by historians, political scientists and sociologists.

This article provides an initial overview of the Yushchenko presidency; first considering whether it was part of a ’second wave’ of democratic breakthroughs from 1996-2004 (the ‘first wave’ being in 1989-1991) and then analyzing three factors that facilitated the Orange Revolution.

A ‘Second Wave’?

Were the democratic breakthroughs and revolutions which occurred between 1996 and 2004 in post-communist states part of a ’second wave’, sweeping Romania (1996), Bulgaria (1997), Slovakia (1998), Croatia and Serbia (1999-2000), Georgia (2003) and finally Ukraine (2004)? This remains an area of debate as the ‘Revolutions’ in Georgia and Ukraine are, in some senses, fundamentally different to the five earlier cases.

Firstly, the offer of EU membership to the first five countries was crucial in bolstering support for the pro-western and pro-democratic opposition, thereby ensuring their victory in elections. In Georgia and Ukraine the EU has never offered membership.

Secondly, Ukraine was unique in experiencing a massive Russian covert and overt intervention in the 2004 elections aimed at preventing the election of the opposition candidate Yushchenko. The EU only intervened reluctantly during the Orange Revolution, at the instigation of new members Poland and Lithuania, to facilitate round-table negotiations between the opposition and authorities.

Three factors behind the Orange Revolution

Scholarly discussions surrounding the phenomenon of democratic revolutions have been overwhelmingly dominated by American political scientists. This has meant that the discussion has focused on the ‘democratic’ nature of these revolutions (e.g. electoral fraud, human rights violations, democratization) to the detriment of two factors that were at work in Ukraine and Georgia: national identity and social populism.

Electoral fraud was undoubtedly crucial in acting as the ‘trigger’ that brought large numbers of Ukrainians on to the streets who were not opposition activists (this differentiated the Orange Revolution from the Ukraine Without Kuchma protests in 2000-2001 where it was mainly activists who took to the streets). But democratisation, human rights and electoral fraud are not sufficient to mobilise millions. zation.

As seen during Mikhail Gorbachev’s rule in the late 1980s, anti-Soviet mobilization only proved to be strong in the USSR and Central-Eastern Europe when nationalism and democratization fused together, such as in Poland, the Baltic states, Western-Central Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia - but not in Russia outside Moscow, russified Belarus or in Central Asia.

In Ukraine, nationalism was boosted by a second factor, anti-elite social populism, which helped to mobilize Ukrainians against the oligarchic regime and authorities and , specifically, candidate, Viktor Yanukovych.

The role of national identity and social populism are missing from the discussion on democratic revolutions . Countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) experienced a very different transition to that experienced in the former Soviet outer empire of Central-Eastern Europe and the Baltic states.

The USSR was a totalitarian state and empire and these two factors led to what I have described elsewhere as a ‘quadruple transition’ consisting of democratization, creation of a market economy, state-institution building and nation-building. The ‘quadruple transition’ resembles post-colonial transitions found elsewhere in the world.

They are more difficult than the dual transitions of democratization and marketization that took place in Latin America and Southern Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, and in Central-Eastern Europe in the 1990s -where there was no need to undertake nation and state building in most countries, and which already exhibited elements of a market economy.

The 2004 Ukrainian presidential elections were not only a contest about the future direction of Ukraine but also a contest over national identity in a regionally divided country. The ‘pro-Europe’ candidate, Yushchenko, won majorities in the west and centre of the country (which are predominantly Ukrainian-speaking) while the ruling regime’s ‘pro-Russian’ candidate, Yanukovych, won majorities in the east and south (which are predominantly Russian-speaking).

The majority of the participants in the Orange Revolution came from Western and Central Ukraine showing the degree to which Ukrainian-speaking national identity and civil society synthesised together. Civic nationalism therefore played a vital role in Ukraine’s Orange Revolution.

The creation of market economies from the fully ‘command-administrative’ economies found throughout the USSR, contrasts to the transition from ‘goulash (semi-market) communism’ to market economies in Central-Eastern Europe. The economic transition in Ukraine, Russia and elsewhere in the CIS produced a small clique of super wealthy oligarchs (many of whom are now in exile in the UK), generated widespread public anger, anti-elite sentiments and a desire for revenge.

The Ukrainian Academy of Sciences conducted a yearly survey between 1994 and 2004, asking which element of society was most influential. They found that a majority of Ukrainians believed it to be ‘organised crime’. With Yanukovych put forward as the ruling regime’s candidate, Ukrainian voters in 2004 believed that this was the final leg in the mafia’s take-over of the country. Yanukovych had two criminal convictions and was high in Ukraine’s most powerful Donetsk clan (perceived to be criminal by many).

Widespread social anger at a decade of economic transition enabled President Vladimir Putin to turn Russians against liberal democracy by equating the chaos and ‘oligarcisation’ of the 1990s with ‘democracy’ itself. Russians applauded his campaign against oligarchs; only the West protested Mikhail Khodorokovsky’s imprisonment.

In Ukraine the democratic opposition channelled social anger against the oligarchs and corrupt ruling elites from the onset of the Kuchmagate crisis in November 2000 (when the president was accused of involvement in the murder of journalist Georgi Gongadze) over the following four years to the Orange Revolution. The main slogan of the Orange Revolution, used repeatedly by Yushchenko at rallies, was not ‘Free Elections!’ but ‘Bandits to Jail!’.

Following his election, President Yushchenko has been a persistent critic of Prime Minister Tymoshenko’s ‘populism’ since her first period in government in 2005,but the criticism is unfair because her two governments have merely sought to implement Yushchenko’s 2004 election programme - itself socially populist.

The Razumkov Ukrainian Centre for Economic and Political Studies think tank developed Yushchenko’s ‘Ten Steps’ election programme (July 2004) and fourteen draft decrees (October-November 2004). The ‘Ten Steps’ and fourteen decrees became the basis for the Tymoshenko government programme approved by parliament in February 2005; the programme’s preamble stated, ‘The government programme is based on, and develops the basis of, the programme of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko’s ‘Ten Steps towards the People’…’

The ‘Ten Steps’ and fourteen draft decrees are replete with social-populist policies. The ‘Ten Steps’ explains that, ‘Social programmes are not a devastation of the budget, but investments in the people, in the country and the nations future’. Yushchenko pledged in Step two that if he is elected, ‘My Action Plan will ensure priority funding of social programmes. The way of finding budgetary money for this purpose is easy: not to steal, not to build luxurious palaces and not to buy expensive automobiles’.

Viktor Yushchenko’s 2004 Election Programme

Ten Steps Towards the People

1. Create 5 million jobs.
2. Ensure priority Funding for Social Programmes.
3. Increase the Budget by Decreasing Taxation.
4. Force the Government to Work for the People and Battle Corruption.
5. Create Safe Living Conditions.
6. Protect Family Values, Respect for Parents and Children’s Rights.
7. Promote Spirituality and Strengthen Moral Values.
8. Promote the Development of the Countryside.
9. Improve Military Capabilities and Respect for the Military.
10. Conduct Foreign Policy that Benefits the Ukrainian People.

14 Draft Decrees

1. Promote Social Defence of Citizens.
2. Take Steps to Ensure the Return of Lost Savings to Citizens.
3. Increase Support for Child Allowance.
4. Establish the Criteria for Analysing the Activities of Heads of Local State Administrations.
5. Reduce the Terms of Military Service
6. Create a System of People’s Control of the Activities of State Authorities.
7. Struggle against Corruption of High Ranking State Officials and Civil Servants in Local Governments.
8. Reduce the Number of Inspections of Businesses and Ease their Registration Process.
9. Withdraw Peacekeeping Troops from the Republic of Iraq.
10. Defend Citizens Rights to Use the Russian Language and other Minority Languages in Ukraine.
11. Ensure the Basis for Good Relations with Russia and Belarus.
12. Ensure the Rights of the Opposition in Ukraine.
13. Adopt First Steps to Ensure Individual Security of Citizens and to Halt Crime.
14. Strengthen Local Government.

Yushchenko’s Record

Yushchenko’s support in 2004 came from a cross-section of Ukrainians and grew out of a large number of expectations. Post-Soviet politicians operate in an inherited political culture where they are unaccountable to voters or the judiciary, whilst other politicians ignore their programmes after being elected themselves. Yushchenko’s fatal mistake was to not appreciate the degree to which Ukrainians were changed by the Orange Revolution and that they would not countenance their president ignoring his programme and societal demands for ‘justice’.

Of the three factors that facilitated the Orange Revolution -democratic rights, national identity and social populism- Yuschenko has successfully addressed two, but failed with one. He has presided over Ukraine’s democratization in the holding of two free elections and the emergence of a plural media.

Ukraine is the only CIS country defined as ‘Free’ by the Freedom House think tank while during the same period Russia has moved in the opposite direction from ‘Partly Free’ to ‘Unfree’. Yushchenko has also energetically devoted himself to national identity questions, such as reviving Ukraine’s historical memory and commemorating the victims of Stalinism and Communism.

The 1933 artificial Ukrainian famine has been raised on an international level. Yushchenko’s nation-building drive has led to poor relations with autocratic Russia where Jozef Stalin is being rehabilitated.

Yushchenko’s record in dealing with social populist demands has been a failure. He is perceived as having sought to undermine Tymoshenko’s two governments at every opportunity. No ‘Bandits’ went to jail, the elites remain above the law, politicians remain unaccountable, the judiciary and prosecutors office is as corrupt as it was in the pre-Orange era and only one re-nationalisation took place (Kryvorizhstal).

The Tymoshenko’s government policy last year of seeking to repay lost Soviet bank deposits (promised in Yushchenko’s second of his fourteen decrees from his 2004 programme) was blocked by the president and denounced as ‘populist’. Ukrainians supported the policy and Tymoshenko’s ratings shot up making her the country’s most popular politician.

Yushchenko’s failure to implement his 2004 programme, and his attempts to undermine governments that sought to do so, have brought four years of political crises and pre-term elections. This failure to implement the social and legal components of his 2004 programme, coupled with his association with four years of political instability, have overshadowed Yushchenko’s two contributions to Ukrainian contemporary history as a democratiser and nation-builder.

Ukrainian politicians need to appreciate the rules of the game in democracies; namely, that voters will punish them in elections if they ignore their election promises.

Source: Taras Kuzio

EU Should Help Ukraine Avoid New Gas Price War: Gazprom

MOSCOW, Russia -- Russian gas giant Gazprom called on the European Union Thursday to help Ukraine with payments for gas supplies to avoid a repeat of the dispute that saw supplies cut in January.

Russian Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller
"For the moment we can still avoid a gas crisis in Ukraine," said Gazprom chief Alexei Miller in a statement. "For that, Europe and Russia have to invest together to prevent it. There is no time to lose."

For several days now, Russia has been warning of the possibility of a repeat of the dispute with Ukraine over payments last winter.

Since the gas for many other European countries passes through Ukraine, when Russia cut supplies in January, it caused severe shortages in eastern EU states for two weeks until the row was resolved.

Russia has said that Ukraine's state gas company Naftogaz does not have the means to buy gas this summer with a view to stocking it in underground reservoirs for the winter.

Last Friday, Russia President Dmitry Medvedev called on the European Union to work with Moscow to help Ukraine meet its payments.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is very close to Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, said Thursday he would back the Russian initiative at the next meeting of European Union leaders in June.

Source: AFP

International Audit Into Ukraine's Central Bank

KIEV, Ukraine -- International auditors will probe actions taken by Ukraine's central bank during the financial crisis after the government accused it of mismanagement and corruption, a central bank official said Wednesday.

Ukraine's central bank
Premier Yulia Tymoshenko has accused bank chief Volodymyr Stelmakh of murky currency procedures that helped cause the Ukrainian currency, the hryvna, to collapse. Stelmakh has denied the accusations.

Vasiliy Pasichnyk of the central bank's regulation and oversight department said Ernst & Young had begun auditing the bank's actions from the past few months.

Stelmakh is an ally of Tymoshenko's bitter rival President Viktor Yushchenko and has struggled to hold onto his position during the crisis.

Source: Forbes

Ukrainian Teenager's Death Blamed On Illegal Vaccine

KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainian prosecutors have ordered a senior health official detained on suspicion of illegally importing millions of doses of a vaccine that they charge caused a teenager's death, officials said Wednesday.


United Nations agencies have concluded that the 17-year-old boy's death in May 2008 was caused by a bacterial infection unrelated to the U.N.-certified vaccine for measles and rubella he had just received.

But his death still led to widespread fears over immunization and caused health officials to terminate a campaign to revaccinate 9 million Ukrainians for measles and rubella.

Dr. Fedir Lapiy, an expert in infectious diseases based in Kiev, has said that the Ukrainian government, plagued by infighting between various political groups, has mismanaged the crisis. Lapiy says that some officials have used the investigation to discredit their political opponents instead of conducting a thorough probe.

Prosecutors have accused former Deputy Health Minister Mykola Prodanchuk of importing the vaccine without properly registering it here, which they say eventually led to the boy's death. They have provided no details on how the vaccine is alleged to have killed the boy.

Yuriy Boychenko, spokesman for the Prosecutor General's office, told The Associated Press Wednesday that a Kiev court issued a search warrant for Prodanchuk after he failed to show up for questioning. Prodanchuk must be detained while a court decides whether he should be held in custody pending the investigation, Boychenko said.

Prodanchuk, who resigned shortly after the teenager's death, has maintained his innocence. His lawyer, Mykola Shupenya, told the AP that he was in a hospital with an unspecified lung condition and could not appear in court.

UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, declined to comment. The World Health Organization reiterated that officials believe the vaccine was not responsible for the boy's death.

Experts say termination of the vaccination campaign and the widespread refusals of vaccination could lead to major disease outbreaks in this France-sized country of 46 million and potentially spread to its European neighbors.

Source: Fox News

Viktor Yushchenko Refuses To Dismiss Defense Minister Yuri Yekhanurov

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said he would not ask the Verkhovna Rada for dismissing Defense Minister Yuri Yekhanurov.

Defense Minister Yuri Yekhanurov chats with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
“No, I will not do that,” the president told a Tuesday press conference in the Zhitomir region.

In his opinion, the related request of Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko aimed “to destabilize the executive authorities and to seize full control.”

“This is nothing but politics,” the president said. “This is the policy aimed to destroy efficient authorities and the pre-election intrigues.”

Yushchenko said he had read a report of the Main Auditing Department concerning the activity of the Defense Ministry and dismissed as unfounded corruption charges against Yekhanurov. “I have ordered the Prosecutor General’s Office to investigate the problem, as corruption claims are being increasingly made by those who are guilty themselves,” he said.

Timoshenko asked the president to dismiss the defense minister on May 25. Main Auditing Department head Nikolai Sivulsky accused the Defense Ministry of inappropriate control over the use of land belonging to the ministry on May 20. He also affirmed violations in the catering of servicemen.

Yekhanurov said that the Defense Ministry did not sell any land during his ministerial office. The corruption accusations “are a comedy,” he said.

Source: ITAR-TASS

Ukraine Accuses Moscow Of Genocide Over 1932 Famine That Killed Millions

KIEV, Ukraine -- Bitter enmity between Ukraine and Russia could be rekindled after the Kiev authorities launched a criminal investigation into a devastating famine that claimed millions of lives, stating it was an act of genocide orchestrated by Moscow.


More than 70 years since the famine struck Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union, the country's prosecution service believes it has enough evidence to begin criminal proceedings.

A statement issued by Ukraine's security service, the SBU, said that through murder, the forcible collectivisation of agriculture, dispossession, deportation and confiscation, the Soviet authorities had "aimed at organising hunger to kill the Ukrainian people as an ethnic group".

It went on: "The Stalinist regime wanted to create living conditions that would result in the total physical elimination of ethnic Ukrainians."

Although estimates of how many people died in what Ukrainians call the Holodomor, which ravaged the nation in 1932 and 1933, conservative estimates have put the death toll at more than seven million.

Ukraine has long maintained that Stalin wanted to wipe out the Ukrainian people, because of their questionable loyalty to the Soviet Union and their stubborn adherence to age-old farming practices that stood in his way of the plan to destroy private agriculture.

In the early 1930s, Stalin launched a brutal campaign of collectivisation and requisition across Ukraine that few historians dispute turned a natural famine into a human tragedy of massive proportions. Eye-witness accounts from the time speak of whole villages being obliterated by starvation and disease, and people resorting to cannibalism to stay alive. Often, the authorities prevented survivors fleeing the famine-stricken regions in fear that if news got out, it would damage the credibility of Stalin's regime and policies.

The Ukrainian government has waged a long campaign in the international arena to have the famine classified as genocide, while some Ukrainian nationalists argue that Russia, as the successor to the Soviet Union, should now be held responsible.

However, the Russian government disputes the genocide claim, pointing out that famine and starvation struck other regions of the Soviet Union at the same time. It also argues that so far no evidence, such as a paper trail, clearly stating that the Kremlin wished to starve Ukraine has ever come to light.

With Ukraine and Russia at odds over links to the West and energy, Kiev's genocide claims have assumed a political dimension. Some in Russia consider Ukraine's willingness to open old wounds as evidence of its determination to antagonise Moscow and seek sympathy in the West.

Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, has charged Ukraine's pro-western president, Viktor Yushchenko with exploiting the famine for "instantaneous political goals", while General Vasily Khristoforov, head of the registration and archives department at Russia's federal security service, dismissed the Holodomor as a "Ukrainian invention".

Ukraine's decision to push ahead with a criminal investigation could fall under the scrutiny of a new Russian commission, appointed by Mr Medvedev last week and charged with guarding against "the falsification of history at the expense of Russian interests".

But opposition to the inquiry also comes from within Ukraine, with some politicians questioning the sense of investigating events of 70-plus years ago.

"From the legal point of view, what the security service is doing is absurd," said Gennady Moskal, a member of parliament. "Who will criminal charges be brought against? Maybe against a cemetery? Who can be brought to justice? If a person was 18 years old in 1933, then how old are they now when criminal proceedings are beginning?"

Source: The Scotsman

Ukraine Discusses Oil Supply With Libya

TRIPOLI, Lybia -- Visiting Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko called on Monday for energy cooperation with Libya saying her country needed to diversify its energy sources to reduce dependence on Russia.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko
"Our independence (toward Russia) would be greater if we were energy-independent and if we diversified our supply sources," Tymoshenko said after talks with Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmoudi.

"So far we we dependent 100 percent on only one source (Russia)," she said.

Tymoshenko suggested that Libya build an oil refinery in the Ukrainian port of Odessa as well as petrol stations in the former Soviet republic "to distribute its (oil) production in Ukraine and Europe."

Tymoshenko, whose remarks were translated into Arabic, also said her country was ready to provide Libya with the means to stock and transport four million tonnes of wheat a year.

She likewise suggested aeronautic cooperation between Ukraine and Libya, and added that 17 accords were ready to be signed at a meeting in her country.

Mahmoudi, meanwhile, said Libya wanted to cooperate with Ukraine in civilian nuclear energy. "Libya has several offers for civilian nuclear cooperation but we prefer to do it with Ukraine," he said.

Source: AFP

Ukraine Says Romania One Of Its Potential Enemies

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian Defence Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov lashed out at Romania and Russia in a television show, accusing both countries of making territorial claims on Ukraine, according to reports published by ‘Romania libera’ and ‘Ziua’ on Saturday.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov.
Yekhanurov, who is close to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, said Romania is a potential enemy of Ukraine, as Bucharest politicians frequently question the legality of the current borders of the Ukrainian state, Similarly, Russia questions the statute of Crimea, he said.

“Sometimes, even the highest leaders of Romania resort to this kind of statements, recently saying that they do not recognize the border with the Republic of Moldova. These kinds of statements are dangerous, Yekhanurov said. His comments referred to President Traian Basescu’s recent statement that the signing of a border treaty with Moldova would be ‘useless’ as it would mean accepting the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact.

The comment has triggered an angry response from Chisinau, but also from Moscow.

Yekhanurov moved on the say that Russia is also a great danger to Ukraine’s territorial integrity. “There are questions about Crimea and you know very well that after the August 2008 conflict in the Caucasus, everybody realized that there is a regional security problem here,” he said.

The minister underlined however that Ukraine must have friendly relationships with all its neighbours, but must be strong enough “so that nobody ever thinks of attacking their neighbours”.

Kiev has repeatedly accused Bucharest of leading a systematically aggressive policy towards its northern neighbour, slamming Romanian plans to grant mass-citizenship to Ukrainians living in Cernauti and Odessa and to ‘brutally’ assimilate the Ukrainian minority in Romania, according to daily ‘Ziua’.

Earlier this month, Yushchenko said he was worried about Romania’s plans to grant passports to Ukrainians and asked that the issue be analysed by the European Commission. Recently, Ukraine’s former Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk accused Romania of being guilty for all bilateral conflicts, starting from Bystroye to the expulsion of two Ukrainian diplomats this year, in the wake of an espionage scandal that also involved Kiev.

The diplomats were expelled after it was revealed that a Romanian non-commissioned officer was selling classified military information to a Bulgarian spy, who was then re-selling the intelligence to a third party, possibly Ukraine.

A military analyst quoted by ‘Romania libera’, Cornel Codita, said that Ukraine’s reaction was triggered by President Basescu’s statements, which generate the perception that Romania is a hostile country because it makes various territorial claims.

A specialist in ex-Soviet area issues, Armand Grosu, was quoted by the newspaper as saying that “Ukraine only notices the fact that Romania is an enemy because there are almost evident territorial claims: because it won’t sign the border treaty with Moldova and because it suggests that Ukrainians and Moldovans could swap territories.”

Grosu said that the Ukrainian defence minister’s statements were also triggered by “Romania’s incoherent policies”, in spite of the fact it has always supported Ukraine’s accession to NATO.

Source: Nine O'Clock

Russia-EU Summit Ends With Differences Over Energy

KHABAROVSK, Russia -- A tense summit meeting between Russia and the European Union has failed to provide assurances Europe will not face another mid-winter gas cutoff. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has also warned that stronger European ties with former Soviet republics should not turn into an anti-Russian coalition.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, left, and EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana seen before a meeting during a Russia-EU Summit in the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk, about 6,100 km (3,800 miles) east of Moscow.
Meeting in the city of Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East, Russian and EU leaders failed to bridge differences that block assurances of reliable gas supplies to Europe. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said his country has no problem supplying the fuel or honoring its delivery commitments to Europe.

He blamed the continent's recent energy disruptions on the inability of Ukraine to pay for its own supplies. About 20 percent of Europe's supply of natural gas comes from Russia through Ukrainian pipelines.

Mr. Medvedev says assurances should be provided by those who pay for the gas, and there is room here for cooperation. The Russian leader notes that if Ukraine has the money, fine, though he expresses doubt that it does.

Russia Prepared to Help Ukraine

He says partners in such circumstances help their partners. President Medvedev said Russia is prepared to help Ukraine, but wants a considerable part of this work to be assumed by the European Union and countries interested in reliable and secure energy cooperation.

Russia is also seeking to replace the so-called Energy Charter Treaty, a 1990's agreement on integration of European and former Soviet energy sectors. Moscow signed, but did not ratify the treaty, which would provide foreign commercial access to Russian pipelines.

The European Union does not want the Charter scrapped, but EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Russia has put forth interesting suggestions.

"We could consider those proposals in the process of revision of the Energy Charter Treaty," he said.

Moscow Suspicious of EU Partnership Program

Moscow is also suspicious of the EU's Eastern Partnership Program with several former Soviet republics. President Medvedev warned in Khabarovsk that the outreach program should not turn into an anti-Russian coalition.

He says what concerns Russia is that in some countries, the European Partnership is seen as a partnership against Russia. The Kremlin leader says he does not have in mind EU leadership nor any of the partners at the table [in Khabarovsk], but rather other countries.

The Partnership Program is designed to enhance Europe's relationship with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

Positive Comments About Summit

Despite tensions at the summit, Czech President Vaclav Klaus said the summit increased mutual trust between the EU and Russia. The Czech Republic holds the EU's rotating presidency.

The venue chosen by Russia, the city of Khabarovsk, is near China, about 8,000 kilometers east of Brussels. President Medvedev made a point on Thursday of noting EU leaders would understand how great Russia is by having to fly so far.

Source: VOA

Putin Warns Outsiders Over Ukraine

MOSCOW – Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned the West on Sunday not to meddle in relations between Russia and Ukraine, according to remarks cited by state-run news agencies.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visits the tomb of Gen. Anton Denikin at a cemetery of Donskoy Monastery in Moscow, Sunday, May 24, 2009.
After laying a wreath at the grave of Anton Denikin, who fought against the Red Army after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and is now cast by the Kremlin as a patriot, Putin urged journalists to read Denikin's diaries, RIA-Novosti and ITAR-Tass reported.

"He has a discussion there about Big Russia and Little Russia — Ukraine," they quoted Putin as saying. "He says that nobody should be permitted to interfere in relations between us, they have always been the business of Russia itself."

Portions of present-day Ukraine were part of pre-Revolutionary Russia and were sometimes called "Little Russia" or "Lesser Russia," while the bulk of the country was known as "Great Russia." Many Ukrainians find the terms offensive and misleading.

Putin's remarks came as the dominant Russian Orthodox Church called for Slavic unity amid celebrations honoring Saints Cyril and Methodius, considered founding fathers of a common Slavic culture.

But the comments could anger Ukrainians and increase their wariness about Moscow's intentions toward the former Soviet republic.

Ukraine has been independent since 1991, when the Russian-dominated Soviet Union collapsed. But Putin's remarks seemed to suggest that Moscow's close historical ties with Ukraine means gives it a measure of influence that other countries cannot claim.

The remarks come amid competition between Russia and the West for influence in Ukraine.

Russian officials have said they are determined to keep Ukraine out of NATO. For some Ukrainians, Russia's war last year against pro-Western Georgia was a chilling suggestion of how far Moscow is willing to go.

Russian nationalists want to regain the Crimean Peninsula, which was made part of Ukrainian Soviet Republic by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in the 1950s. There is tension between Russia and Ukraine over Russia's Black Sea Fleet, which Ukrainian leaders have said they will evict from the Crimean port of Sevastopol when the current lease runs out in 2017.

Denikin, who died in exile in the United States in 1947, was reburied in 2005 in the cemetery Moscow's historic Donskoy Monastery.

Putin's visit to his grave was a reflection of how the prime minister, a longtime KGB officer who was president from 2000-2008, has celebrated individuals and images from both the Soviet era and czarist times in a drive to instill pride in Russians.

Source: AP

Seven Churchgoers Die In Ukraine Road Accident

LVIV, Ukraine -- Seven Ukrainian churchgoers died and seventeen were injured in a Sunday road accident, police officials said. The victims had been en route to worship at the Krehovsky monastery in western Lviv province, said Svetlana Dobrovolska, a police spokeswoman, according to a Channel 5 television report.


The Orthodox Christian pilgrims' minibus collided head on with a lorry in the early morning hours, after the lorry driver fell asleep, according to the report.

It was not clear from initial reports whether the lorry driver was among the injured. Survivors were being treated at local hospitals.

Ukraine's road system is among Europe's most dangerous. Analysts say poor road conditions, corrupt police unwilling to enforce traffic law, and overuse of some road sections are all contributing causes.

Source: DPA

Russia Offers Ukraine 5-Year Advance Payment For Gas Transit

ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- Prime Minister Vladimir Putin proposed on Friday that Russia pay Ukraine five years in advance for natural gas transit, to help Kiev buy gas to fill its underground storage facilities and ensure uninterrupted supplies to Europe.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
The announcement came amid fears of a new disruption in Russia's Europe-bound gas supplies via Ukraine, as the country, suffering a severe recession, needs to buy some 19.5 billion cubic meters at a cost of over $4 billion.

Speaking after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko, Putin said: "We propose advance payment for transit of our gas to European consumers."

He said that supply stability is currently under threat due to "the upcoming elections in Ukraine and the possible reorganization of its gas pipeline network."

The premiers are in Kazakhstan for a meeting of Commonwealth of Independent States heads of government.

Putin said that disputes concerning transit and supplies of natural gas cannot be resolved until the Ukrainian leadership reaches a common position.

"I am asking the peoples of both countries to take note of this. Under such conditions and with such high risks it is unlikely that we will be able to solve our problems under this setup. We need a consolidated position from the Ukrainian leadership."

The gas contracts with Russia are one of a range of issues over which Ukraine's president and prime minister have clashed.

Earlier this week, President Viktor Yushchenko said the contracts signed with Russia at the start of the year are likely to be reviewed in the near future, as Ukraine is unable to meet its obligations under the current terms.

Putin also said that Russia is ready to take part in financing the process of filling Ukraine's underground gas storage facilities.

"Russia is ready to contribute its share... The size of this share should be determined in the course of negotiations," he said.

Russian energy giant Gazprom suspended gas deliveries to Ukraine on January 1 over non-payment and the sides' failure to reach a new gas deal. A week later, Gazprom accused Ukraine of stealing gas intended for EU consumers, and cut off supplies to the European Union via the country, prompting two weeks of gas shortfalls across much of Eastern Europe.

The standoff was resolved after negotiations between premiers Putin and Tymoshenko resulted in the signing of a new gas agreement for 2009-2019 on January 19.

Under the terms of the new gas deal, Ukraine will pay Russia European market prices - set at $450 per 1,000 cu m for the first quarter - with a 20% discount in 2009, while transit fees fixed under a previous agreement remain unchanged. Yushchenko has repeatedly criticized the deal.

Source: RIA Novosti

Yatsenyuk's Three Possible Roads To Ukraine's Presidency

KIEV, Ukraine -- Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a former parliament speaker and foreign minister of Ukraine, turned 35 on May 22, clearing the way for him to run as a candidate in the January 2010 presidential elections. Now it is time for him to begin considering his campaign tactics, and he faces three choices.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk could be the latest hope for the Orange coalition to patch up its differences.
One option is to agree to receive a poisoned chalice from the unpopular President Viktor Yushchenko by being tipped as his successor. This would mean an agreement under which Yushchenko would not run (because, with under 3 percent support, according to recent polls, he has little chance of winning) or, alternatively, he would run but would not campaign against Yatsenyuk.

The Yushchenko camp's near-pathological dislike of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko does not mean that Tymoshenko would not continue to remain prime minister in the event of her not being elected president. Ukraine's constitution does not insist on new parliamentary coalitions or a new government following a presidential election.

By supporting Yatsenyuk and Party of Regions head Viktor Yanukovych, the presidential secretariat might prevent Tymoshenko's election as president, but it would still likely have to continue contending with her as prime minister.

Yushchenko ally and RosUkrEnergo co-owner Dmytro Firtash is providing media access through Ukraine's popular Inter television channel, as is Viktor Pinchuk (who has admitted financing Yatsenyuk) through ICTV, STB, and Novyi Kanal. Ukrainian analysts have long noticed a close association between Firtash and Yatsenyuk , whose popularity is described as a "television project."

In the 2002 elections, Pinchuk supported another TV project -- the Winter Crop Generation party (KOP) -- to take votes away from Yushchenko's Our Ukraine. Another young challenger, former Defense Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko, has seen his support stagnate, in part because of his more limited access to television.

Orange 'Dream Team'

A second option for Yatsenyuk would be -- as deputy parliament speaker and Tymoshenko bloc member Mykola Tomenko has proposed -- to negotiate a deal with Tymoshenko. The aim would be to prevent an inter-Orange conflict between the two leading Orange candidates (Tymoshenko and Yatsenyuk ) that could facilitate Yanukovych's election victory.

Yatsenyuk has ruled out any deals, but this could change if he does not make it into a second round of presidential voting and Tymoshenko seeks an endorsement from him in the second round.

Tomenko points out that Tymoshenko and Yatsenyuk are competing for the same Orange voters in western and central Ukraine, whereas Yanukovych has no powerful electoral competitors in the eastern and southern parts of the country. Communist Party (KPU) leader Piotr Symonenko will never mount a serious challenge to Yanukovych.

Tomenko rightly believes that it would be better for Yatsenyuk and Tymoshenko to negotiate a deal before the election by agreeing to divide the presidency and government between them depending on who enters and wins the second round. They could agree, for example, that if Tymoshenko wins the second round, she would appoint Yatsenyuk prime minister. On the other hand, if Yatsenyuk wins, he would keep Tymoshenko on as prime minister.

Together, Tymoshenko and Yatsenyuk could create an unbeatable "dream team" that could be potentially a powerful coalition in support of the change and reforms that Ukrainians were promised in the Orange Revolution. This dream team could be bolstered by Hryhoriy Nemyria as foreign minister, Anatoliy Hrytsenko as National Security and Defense Council secretary, and a Hrytsenko protege as defense minister.

Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration would be assisted by the fact that this would be the first Ukrainian government that had three English-speakers: Yatsenyuk, Nemyria, and Hrytsenko.

Yatsenyuk's third choice would be to reject Yushchenko's poisoned chalice, refuse to do a deal with Tymoshenko, and instead campaign independently. This path would be the most difficult, as every presidential candidate needs financial and media resources.

This strategy would be unlikely to give Yatsenyuk a good election result that he could then use to negotiate a position for himself. Hrytsenko will be competing with Yatsenyuk for third place in the presidential elections and Yatsenyuk's support has plateaued at 12-14 percent, mostly Our Ukraine voters disillusioned with Yushchenko.

Taking A Stand

In addition to his flat ratings, Yatsenyuk faces four other challenges.

First, as Ukrainian media have increasingly noted, Yatsenyuk has been conspicuous in not stating what he stands for. A former Yushchenko supporter said, "Yushchenko may be an airhead, but at least he has some views, while Yatsenyuk seems to have none." In an election campaign, he will have to state what he stands for.

Secondly, his new Front for Change party has no regional structures, so Yatsenyuk will be reliant on state-administrative resources provided by regional governors. These might be available in some regions, but not everywhere as Tymoshenko's Fatherland and Yanukovych's Party of Regions have the most developed party structures in Ukraine.

Viktor Baloga was a staunch opponent of Tymoshenko (and therefore saw in Yatsenyuk a way to block her election), but his replacement as presidential chief of staff is likely to be less so inclined.

Third, support for nationalism is growing, as Ukrainians are disillusioned with establishment politicians and fearful of the global economic crisis. The populist-nationalist Svoboda swept the March 18 Ternopil elections. Yatsenyuk's ethnic origins could be used by political "technologists" resorting to "black" public relations, or dirty tricks.

Fourth, Yatsenyuk can no longer count on public support by standing above intra-elite squabbling, which has been one of two reasons (the other being the "television project") for his dramatic rise in popularity. An anti-Tymoshenko strategy would be negative, not positive, which would dent his ability to pursue the analogy of a "Ukrainian Obama."

At this point, it is impossible to predict which of the three main candidates will win Ukraine's presidential election. And that is a good thing -- Ukraine is definitely not Russia.

Source: Radio Free Europe

Russia Rejects Ukraine Gas Proposal, Talks Stall

ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- Russia rejected a Ukrainian proposal to defer payment on up to $5 billion in gas storage payments as energy talks on Friday between the prime ministers of the ex-Soviet neighbours ended in stalemate.

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (R) and his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko answer journalists' questions after their meeting in Astana, May 22, 2009.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin dismissed the proposal by his Ukrainian counterpart, Yulia Tymoshenko, for Kiev to buy gas for its storage facilities in exchange for future transit fees that Moscow would pay to deliver gas via Ukraine.

"The volumes are large. The timeframe for what would essentially be a loan is also large," Putin told reporters after the meeting. "We will not work under such conditions and with such big risks."

He added: "Russia is ready to do its part in resolving this question, but only its part."

President Dmitry Medvedev, attending an EU-Russia summit in the far eastern city of Khabarovsk earlier on Friday, challenged European leaders to help Ukraine pay its gas bills and help avert a new gas crisis.

The stalled negotiations also come a day after a Russian government source said Kiev and Moscow were on the verge of another gas crisis, a possible repeat of the dispute that left millions of Europeans without heating in the dead of winter this year.

Tymoshenko told reporters no decision had been reached, but expressed hope that a resolution would be found.

"I believe that we will find a compromise," she said after talks in the Kazakh capital, Astana, which was hosting a meeting of CIS prime ministers.

Russia, which supplies a quarter of Europe's gas, much of it via Ukraine, has twice cut supplies in recent years due to pricing disputes amid icy political relations between Moscow and Kiev.

Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom says it wants to store extra gas in Ukraine during winter to be able to respond more quickly to the needs of its customers in Europe.

How these storage facilities will be filled, and who will pay to fill them, have become the main sticking point in the most recent gas talks between the former Soviet allies.

Putin estimated the required volume of gas to be kept in storage in Ukraine would reach 15 billion cubic metres this year. This is in addition to gas taken out for Ukraine's domestic use.

Source: Kyiv Post

Baloha Leaves With Sharp Attacks On Yushchenko

KIEV, Ukraine -- Victor Baloha, President Victor Yushchenko’s chief of staff for nearly three years until May 19, switched overnight from top presidential confidant to bitter rival. In resigning, Baloha cited his opposition to his former boss’ plan to run for re-election as one of the many reasons for their breakup.

After three years in the job of president’s chief of staff Victor Baloha quits and accuses his ex-boss of “corruption and nepotism.”
In his parting shot, the man long seen as the Presidential Secretariat’s “grey cardinal,” said Yushchenko had “no moral right” to run for re-election. He also accused Ukraine’s leader of “corruption and nepotism,” a hint that political pundits said was meant to broadcast his possible knowledge of compromising material that opponents may want to get their hands on.

“When I informed you of outrageous facts, you pretended not to hear me,” Baloha said in a written statement, slamming Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution hero. “Millions saw in every line of your inauguration speech the hope that with a new president, there would be a new Ukraine. None of those hopes has been realized.”

Yushchenko confirmed that he had accepted Baloha’s resignation on May 19.

Since his appointment in September 2006, Baloha has been seen as wielding enormous power and moving in the shadows at Bankova Street in a similar way to Victor Medvedchuk, the chief of staff of Yushchenko’s predecessor, Leonid Kuchma.

Baloha’s critics have long accused him of corruption and backtracking on the democratic achievements of the Orange Revolution. He denied any wrongdoing.

The relationship between the president and his right-hand man was widely seen as close. In March 2008, Yushchenko memorably scolded supporters who sought Baloha’s ouster, saying: “Baloha is me.” But analysts say that Baloha’s resignation and subsequent swipes at his former boss reflect disagreements over strategy.

“The major reason Baloha left was because of Yushchenko’s refusal to accept his strategy to dissolve parliament and call elections,” said Serhiy Taran, director of the International Democracy Institute. “Yushchenko doesn’t have a political strategy, and he never really had one.”

Frequently demonized by Yushchenko’s opponents, Baloha laid the blame on Yushchenko for relentless conflict with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and a Victor Yanukovych premiership before her. “It wasn’t the initiative of the head of the secretariat to create conflicts with other branches of power,” he said. Baloha also criticized the president for failing to establish political unity and consensus.

“You’ve never been seen as a partner by any authorities or political force. The snap Verkhovna Rada election in 2007 gave a chance to reach a political compromise and stabilize the authorities. You didn’t use the chance. You nominated Tymoshenko for prime minister for the second time after her candidacy was a failure. The country won’t recover soon from the consequences of your decision,” Baloha added.

Analysts said that these comments stem from frustration at Yushchenko’s refusal last year not to go along with Baloha’s attempts to build an alliance in support of the president between the United Center Party, in which he is a key figure, and Yanukovych’s Regions Party.

The future for both men is now unclear. Both are deeply unpopular with former allies and voters, according to polls.

Baloha’s accusations of “corruption and nepotism” underlined the ace that he may hold – kompromat, or compromising materials – on Yushchenko’s administration. At a press conference on May 21, he declined to publicly release what arsenal he may hold. But some political pundits say his knowledge could prove valuable in the upcoming presidential elections, possibly enough to form political alliances.

“I am not a kompromat-releasing machine,” Baloha said. A small group of protestors gathered outside the building where the press conference was being held, holding placards demanding that Baloha be sent to jail.

He added that he didn’t intend to head the staff of any of the presidential candidates, but also didn’t rule out working with any political force in the future, including Tymoshenko’s bloc, the Party of Regions, Our Ukraine or any other party. One of Party of Regions’ influential lawmakers Borys Kolesnykov said his party “will consider” cooperation.

While some political analysts saw his departure as a blow that left the president isolated, Vadym Karasyov, who has advised both Yushchenko and Baloha in recent years, said Baloha’s exit could reinvigorate Yushchenko’s political career.

Yushchenko announced on May 19 that Baloha’s replacement would be the governor of Kyiv oblast and longtime ally and personal friend Vira Ulyanchenko. Widely seen as a bureaucrat with a more conciliatory approach to Baloha, her appointment has been welcomed, even among Yushchenko’s foes.

Kost Bondarenko, director of the Horshenin Institute think tank, suspects that Yushchenko wanted to part with Baloha. “Baloha keeps emphasizing that it was his decision, but Yushchenko wanted a more conciliatory figure with the elections approaching,” he said.

Karasyov agreed, adding that Ulyanchenko will help to build his relations with big business. “It’s not clear that Yanukovych and Tymoshenko can offer a guarantee to big business,” he said, referring to pledges of security or favors influential billionaires might seek in return for supporting presidential candidacies. “But Yushchenko can,” he added.

But with his approval ratings in the low single figures, analysts give him little chance in the presidential elections, set for January 2010. “Nothing can help Yushchenko now,” said Bondarenko.

Source: Kyiv Post

EU Should Lend Ukraine Money: Medvedev

KHABAROVSK, Russia -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged the European Union to lend Ukraine money he said Kiev needed to meet its gas payment obligations.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
The Russian leader said he doubted Ukraine's ability to pay four billion dollars for 19.5 billion cubic metres of gas that Kiev needs to replenish its underground reservoirs in time for winter.

He said a syndicated loan agreement should be reached, with European and Russian participation. The EU, however, should come up with most of the money, Medvedev added.

"We are ready to help the Ukrainian state but would like the European Union, those countries that are interested in reliable security of energy cooperation, to take upon themselves the bulk of this work," he said.

Referring to the financial problems Moscow believes Kiev is suffering, Medvedev said: "We have doubts about Ukraine's ability to pay."

Ukraine, one of the countries hardest hit by the global economic crisis, has asked Moscow for a five-billion dollar loan to help with its gas payments.

But the Russian finance ministry said this week a decision had not yet been made.

In Kiev on Thursday, however, Naftogaz spokesman Valentin Zemliansky denied there was any problems, telling AFP: "We're not anticipating any crisis. The financial situation of the company is stable."

A payment dispute between Russia and Ukraine was at the heart of the gas conflict that shut down supplies to a dozen European customers in January.

On Thursday, a Russian government official told the country's news agencies that Ukraine might find itself "on the brink of a new gas crisis" if it did not sort out its financial difficulties.

In response to a question from a reporter about whether Russia could guarantee there would not be a repeat of the last winter's crisis, a visibly irritated Medvedev said it was not Russia's job to do so.

"The Russian Federation has not given any assurances and will not give any," he said. "What would be the good of that? Let those who pay for gas give assurances."

Source: AFP

Russia 'Close To New Gas Crisis With Ukraine'

MOSCOW, Russia -- Russia and Ukraine may be close to a new gas crisis as Kiev faces difficulties making payments, an official accompanying Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to Kazakhstan was quoted as saying on Thursday.

Staff at the Orlovka gas-compressor station near the Ukraine-Romania border check pipelines.
"If things are that bad in the financial sphere ... We could come to the conclusion that we could be on the brink of a new gas crisis," news agencies quoted the official as saying, referring to Ukraine's poor economic situation.

Putin was expected to meet his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko during a gathering of prime ministers of former Soviet states in Kazakhstan.

Source: AFP

Ambassador Breaks Ground On New U.S. Embassy Just Before Leaving Kiev

KIEV, Ukraine -- In a ceremony attended by journalists, Kiev city officials and diplomats, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor broke ground at a construction site in Kiev where the new U.S. Embassy will be located.

U.S. Ambassador William Taylor (L) breaks ground on what will be his country's new embassy in Kiev.
The event may have been one of Taylor's last public appearances as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. His diplomatic mission in Ukraine is coming to an end. It is still uncertain who will replace him.

Asked at the event who will replace him, Taylor said that a decision had not yet been made.

“However, I know that there is a lot of discussions ongoing right now. There are many candidates who want to come and work here,” he added.

The new, 5-story embassy will be located on Tankova street. It is expected to be built and functional by 2012, employing 400 people.

The consulate and embassy building, currently located in separate sites in Kiev, will be located at the new site. It will also include a food store and bank for personnel, and a gym with showers.

The site will also include quarters for a special forces squad from the Navy Seals, and a basketball court for them. The facility will also include a children’s play ground and tennis and volley ball courts with room for spectators.

Parking for almost 400 cars will be made available.

Source: Kyiv POst

Ukraine May Not Host Euro 2012 Championship Because Of Political Intrigues

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine may not become the hosting country of Euro 2012 Football Championship because of political scandals in the country.


Kiev's Olympic stadium under re=construction.

Two years ago, UEFA awarded the right to host Euro 2012 to Poland and Ukraine. The matches of the Ukrainian part of the championship were originally planned to be held in the cities of Kiev, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk and Lvov. Kharkov and Odessa were named to be backup locations. The final match of the championship was said to take place in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev.

UEFA’s decision was perceived enthusiastically in Ukraine. It is an open secret that holding such events is impossible without the construction of airports, hotels and other objects.

However, Ukraine’s leadership did not move a finger to have the nation prepared for hosting the landmark sports event. Nothing has been built in the country: President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko are too much preoccupied with their struggle for power.

It transpired on May 12 that the matches of the European Football Championship would be held only in Kiev and Donetsk . UEFA said the next day that Kiev had been confirmed as the location for play-offs, quarterfinals and semifinals.

At the same time, the final game of Euro 2012 will take place in Kiev only if the city provides adequate conditions at the stadium, at the airport, as well as at hotels and in the field of transportation.

For the time being, the Ukrainian authorities have only met UEFA’s requirement to dismantle the shopping center near Kiev’s Olympic Stadium. They could not do it for two years because of the arguments within the teams of Yushchenko, Tymoshenko and Kiev Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky, who had their own business interests in the construction of the shopping center.

UEFA’s Executive Committee took Dnepropetrovsk and Odessa off the list of the hosting cities. Donetsk, Lvov and Kharkov will have the honor to host the games only if they take efforts to provide all the necessary conditions for the event.

The final decision will be made on November 30, 2009. If nothing changes for the better, Ukraine will not host Euro 2012. No other country has ever had the right to hold the championship on only one stadium.

Yushchenko, Tymoshenko and Vladimir Litvin (the speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament) wrote a letter to UEFA’s President Michel Platini and said that the government had assigned additional resources to have everything prepared on time.

“We are certain that we will be able to execute all our guarantees particularly about the financial support for the preparations to Euro 2012 tournament. We have taken anti-crisis measures and conducted negotiations with the IMF,” the officials wrote in the letter.

As a matter of fact, the Ukrainian government is trying to re-borrow the funds to re-distribute a certain part to other creditors. UEFA is not interested in that. The Union of European Football Associations will disregard all verbal explanations and pay attention to the work performed instead.

In the meantime, Moody's Investors Service downgraded Ukraine's foreign and local currency government bond ratings to B2 from B1 with a “negative” outlook. The decision was made against the background of the worsening of the macroeconomic situation in Ukraine and the nation’s weak banking system.

Ukraine has a great difficulty in funding the European Football Championship. It goes without saying that there will be neither hotels nor roads built in Dnepropetrovsk and Odessa.

The endless struggle between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko may eventually deprive Ukraine of the celebration of football.

Source: Pravda

Ukraine Celebrates Shakhtar Donetsk Victory In UEFA Cup

KIEV, Ukraine -- Celebrations broke out across Ukraine early Thursday morning in the wake of Donetsk Shakhtar's win in the UEFA Cup tournament. An estimated 5,000 fans took to the streets in the capital of Ukraine's industrial heartland Donetsk to cheer their side's 2-1 victory over Werder Bremen.

Ukrainian fans of Shakhtar Donetsk FC react after the victory of their team in the UEFA Cup final soccer match between Werder Bremen and Shakhtar Donetsk in Donetsk, Ukraine, early morning Thursday, May 21, 2009.
Crowds in Donetsk's central square chanted "Shakhtar is Champion!" as automobiles - many flying flying black-and-orange Shakhtar colours - drove by with horns blaring, Channel 5 television reported.

Smaller spontaneous street parties took place in the Ukrainian capital Kiev and even in the western provincial centre Lviv, a region usually politically opposed to Donetsk.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, on hand in Istanbul to cheer Donetsk on from VIP seating, was among the first officials to praise the first-ever European silverware win by a club based in independent Ukraine.

"You have given joy to millions of your countrymen," Yushchenko said. "Today the entire country will celebrate your victory with you."

The irony of Yushchenko's declaration, made public by his administration, was lost on few Ukrainian football fans, as the Ukrainian President has long talked of his life-long support of Shakhtar's arch-rival Dynamo Kiev.

Ukraine's chronic and frequently vicious political in-fighting seemed forgotten later on Thursday morning, as Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko - Yushchenko's inveterate rival and fiercest critic - joined the president to praise Shakhtar.

"I thank you, boys, for your peerless gameplay, and for a fantastic holiday," she told Kiev reporters. "You have given our nation a true triumph!"

Frequently an opponent of Donetsk's pro-Russia politicians, Tymoshenko said that on game night she was among Shakhtar's most devoted fans.

"My family and I sat together and held hands and cheered, we worried, and at the 97th minute, when the score became 2-1 in our favour, it was so wonderful. I don't know what our neighbours thought, but we shouted, whistled, and sang," Tymoshenko said, according to an Interfax report.

"I hope those who are not football fans will forgive me, but yesterday for two whole hours I was able to forget about the financial crisis, about International Monetatary Fund credits, and about politics. Yesterday football ruled the country," she said.

Ukrainian media echoed Tymoshenko's celebratory tone, with the Inter television calling Shakhtar's victory "A historical event, a great achievement for all Ukraine and all Ukrainians."

But some fans in the former Soviet republic, true to the Ukrainian folk tradition of caution even during the greatest success, early on Thursday were seeing a downside.

"Probably now there will be a wave of offers from major European sides," wrote Volod95 in a comment on a Korrespondent web magazine. "One can only hope our sides can hold their teams together, and that (players) won't fall for big money."

Shakhtar owner Rinat Akhmetov, according to Forbes magazine Ukraine's wealthiest citizen, will pay each Donetsk player a cool half million euros ($650,000) for the UEFA win, Interfax reported.

Source: DPA

Ukraine PM Calls On Defense Min To Resign

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Wednesday called on Defense Minister Yuri Ekhanurov to resign over allegations of corruption, which the minister has vehemently denied.

Ukraine's Defense Minister Yuri Ekhanurov.
Tymoshenko told a cabinet meeting she would write to President Viktor Yushchenko asking him to put a request before parliament for the minister's sacking, the Interfax agency reported.

But Yushchenko rejected any such proposal in a statement issued from Istanbul, Turkey, where he was due to watch Shakhtar Donetsk play Werder Bremen in the UEFA Cup final.

"This is a political move designed to create trouble" in the country, he said, in comments issued by his press service.

Earlier Wednesday, Mykola Syvulsky, the head of the finance ministry's finance inspection department, said there was a case to answer against the defense minister, Interfax reported.

The allegations concerned not just suspicions over the purchase of food for the army at prices up to 40% over the market price, but a property transaction involving 300 hectares of land, he said.

Ekhanurov has denied the accusations against him and called for state prosecutors to investigate.

A former prime minister himself who is close to the president - Tymoshenko's sworn political enemy - he suggested the accusations against him had to do with the presidential race ahead of the 2010 election.

Tymoshenko is considered a leading candidate for the next presidential election, while Yushchenko, who has said he will seek a second term, is currently polling as low as 2%, according to some surveys.

Source: AFP

Shakhtar Prevail In UEFA Cup Finale

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- An extra-time goal from Brazilian midfielder Jadson earned Shakhtar Donetsk a 2-1 victory over Werder Bremen in the UEFA Cup final here on Wednesday to clinch the Ukrainian side's first European title.

Shakhtar Donetsk rejoices after winning final UEFA cup.
Jadson's 15-yard shot slipped through the grasp of Werder goalkeeper Tim Wiese in the 97th minute after the teams had been locked 1-1 at the end of normal time.

The Germans thought they had snatched an equaliser in the last minute of the additional period, only for on-loan Chelsea striker Claudio Pizarro's bundled effort to be ruled out for a foul on Dmytro Chygrynskiy.

Brazilian striker Luiz Adriano had finished coolly to give Shakhtar the lead in the first half, before an error by goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov allowed Werder centre-back Naldo to level.

Shakhtar become the first team from Ukraine to lift a European trophy since the break-up of the Soviet Union, while they will also be the last team to lift the UEFA Cup before its re-launch as the Europa League next season.

Mircea Lucescu's side settled first at the Sukru Saracoglu stadium and spurned the game's first clear opening when Adriano shot wide after being cleverly picked out on the cusp of the Werder area by Jadson.

The Ukrainians, inspired by the inter-play of their five-man Brazilian contingent, then went ahead in the 25th minute when Adriano ran onto a loose pass and delicately lifted the ball over the advancing Wiese.

Werder had overturned deficits against pre-tournament favourites AC Milan and local German rivals Hamburg earlier in the competition, and 10 minutes before half-time they drew level when Naldo's thumping 30-yard free-kick was tamely palmed into the net by Ukraine international Pyatov.

Wiese proved to be made of sterner stuff when he superbly touched away a stinging drive from Mariusz Lewandowski at full-stretch just before the interval.

The German shot-stopper kept out a Jadson free-kick early in the second period as Shakhtar resumed their occupation of the Werder defensive third, the orange-shirted players zipping passes across the pitch with beguiling ease.

Werder missed the promptings of their suspended Brazilian playmaker Diego, but they were inches away from going in front when Pizarro's glanced header was repelled by a sprawling Pyatov.

Wiese pushed away a long-range effort from Darijo Srna as Shakhtar began extra-time on the front foot and moments later they took a decisive lead when Jadson met Srna's centre with a low drive that crept beneath Wiese into the bottom-left corner.

Shakhtar is also the last club to win the competition before it is renamed the Europa League for next season.

Source: AFP

Russia Says No To Ukraine $5 Billion Loan Request

MOSCOW, Russia -- Russia has decided not to lend Ukraine $5 billion, Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin told Reuters on Wednesday.

Russian Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin.
Ukraine asked for the funds in February to help its economy withstand the economic downturn and help pay for Russian gas.

"They proposed to borrow and the decision to offer such a loan was not made ... We analysed the situation and we said no," Pankin said, speaking in English.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, swept to power by the pro-Western "Orange Revolution" mass protests, has strained ties with Russia which fiercely opposes his goal of Ukraine joining the NATO military alliance.

Europe, which depends on Russia for a quarter of its gas, is closely watching turbulent relations between Moscow and Kiev for signs of any future threat to European energy security.

Ukraine received a second IMF loan tranche worth $2.625 billion last week, part of a $16.4 billion loan programme. It had been held up for three months in a dispute over budget policies.

Pankin also said Russia had not made a decision about whether to loan money to Iceland, which asked for funds last autumn.

"About Iceland we didn't take any decision up to now. There are some questions about Iceland's financial situation ... And the second part of the story is that when we started our discussion then it was a different financial situation for us, we expected that our problems would not be so serious," he said.

"The question for us is are we ready to invest our National Wealth Fund in a not very liquid instrument ... I cannot say it is off the table but (it is) still under analysis."

Iceland's economy nearly collapsed last year under the weight of billions of dollars of foreign debts, racked up by its now bankrupt banks, forcing it to take a $10 billion IMF-led rescue package.

Source: Kyiv Post

Exiled By Stalin, Ukraine’s Tatars Still Struggling To Recover

KIEV, Ukraine -- Twenty thousand Crimean Tatars marked the 65th anniversary of their deportation from Crimea in southern Ukraine by marching in Simferopol, the peninsula’s capital, on Monday.

A man cries during an international gathering of Crimean Tatars in Simferopol on May 19. The First World Congress of Crimean Tatars brought together representatives of Crimean Tatar organisations from around the world and was held one day after the 65th anniversary of their people's deportation from the peninsular to distant parts of the Soviet Union.
The march was as much in protest as commemoration, as the Tatars complain that they have not been treated fairly since they started to return to their homeland 20 years ago.

“[Ukraine] has not passed a single law aimed at the restoration of the political, economic, social, and cultural rights of the Crimean Tatar people,” read a resolution by the protesters.

The Crimean Tatars had populated the Crimean peninsula for centuries before Stalin ordered them to be deported in May 1944 on false charges of collaborating with Nazi forces. Of the more than 180,000 who were sent by train to Central Asia, almost half died during the first year.

When they started to return during perestroika in the late 1980s, things were far from easy. Many sold everything they had in order to return to Crimea, and then lived in poor conditions.

Tatars now number around 250,000, or 12 percent of Crimea’s population, but although their situation has improved, a number of problems still remain, the sorest of which is the question of land. By law, Tatars should be able to receive land plots to build on, but the practice is very different.

“Local officials prefer to receive bribes for land than to share it out legally,” says Lilia Budzhurova, a prominent journalist in Crimea. As a result, many Tatars live on land that they simply seize and start building on.

The Tatars are also still struggling to preserve their language and have it taught in schools.

If relations were previously “hostile” between local authorities and the Tatars, they are less so now, says Ms. Budzhurova. “But the authorities and the media blame the Tatars for trying to get more than Slavs.”

Crimea’s population, more than 50 percent of which is ethnically Russian, is well-known for its pro-Russian leanings, which caused concerns last August that the peninsula would be Russia’s next target after South Ossetia.

The Crimean Tatars have been the Ukrainian state’s staunchest supporters in Crimea, and politicians in Kiev were quick to offer kind words on Monday: Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko promised them “a prosperous European future,” and President Viktor Yushchenko has called for an investigation into the repression of Tatars during Soviet times.

But some Tatars accuse the government in Kiev of not doing enough. Last week, one group went on a hunger strike outside a government building in the Ukrainian capital demanding the resolution of their problems.

The central authorities are widely seen as lacking the will – or the power – to influence the situation in Crimea.

“Kiev doesn’t know about the problems, or is completely indifferent to them,” says Budzhurova. “It is more concentrated on events in Kiev.”

Source: Christian Science Monitor

Official Turns On Ukraine Leader

KIEV, Ukraine -- The chief of staff of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has resigned in protest at his decision to run for re-election early next year.

President Yushchenko (L) with ex-chief of staff Viktor Baloha.
Viktor Baloha accused Mr Yushchenko of failing to honour the promises he made when he came to power in 2004 in what became known as the Orange Revolution.

The president was "irretrievably wasting the time" of voters, he said.

Mr Baloha also attacked Mr Yushchenko's rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, saying she too should quit politics.

Ukraine has been in the grip of a paralysing political crisis centred on the rivalry between Mr Yushchenko and Ms Tymoshenko, his former ally.

'No moral right'

In an interview on Tuesday, President Yushchenko said that he had agreed to Mr Baloha's departure because he wanted new staff for his re-election bid.

"This is a timely refresh," he told the newspaper, Delo. "An election campaign is ahead and it is obvious that a part of society would like to see new people, new tactics, new relations."

But Mr Baloha reacted angrily to the comments, saying he was convinced that Mr Yushchenko had "no moral right running for president".

"At least I won't be your companion in this," he said in a statement.

Mr Yushchenko's former chief of staff said had failed to keep the promises he had made before coming to power in January 2005, three months after mass protests at the fraudulent victory of a pro-Moscow candidate, Viktor Yanukovych, in the original election.

"None of the systemic reforms was implemented. Corruption and nepotism in power, double standards in taking state decisions have become usual things. It is a shame to realise that you have done nothing to cleanse power," he said.

"You do not care that your inner circle corrodes power and the state. When I used to inform you about incontrovertible truths, you pretended that you did not hear," he added.

Correspondents say such high-profile accusations highlight the depth of the political crisis in Ukraine.

Source: BBC News

Ukraine's Shakhtar and Germany's Werder Braced For Tilt At Immortality

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- History beckons for the winners of the UEFA Cup final between Germany's Werder Bremen and Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine in Istanbul on Wednesday night.

Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk FC
Both sides are appearing in the competition's final for the first time, with Shakhtar bidding to become the first Ukrainian side to win a European trophy since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Werder are hunting their first major European honour since the 1992 Cup Winners' Cup, while both sides know that whoever wins will enter the record books as the last UEFA Cup champions before the tournament's re-launch as the UEFA Europa League next term.

The German side qualified for the final by beating arch-rivals Hamburg on the away goals rule and they also eliminated their near neighbours in the semi-finals of the German Cup, setting up a meeting with Bayer Leverkusen on May 30.

Despite their cup exploits, though, Thomas Schaap's side, who knocked out pre-tournament favourites AC Milan in the round of 32, have endured an underwhelming league season.

The 2004 German double winners have been the epitome of inconsistency, hitting five goals in victories over Bayern Munich, Hoffenheim, Hertha Berlin and Eintracht Frankfurt but struggling against the league's lesser lights.

A tame 3-1 defeat at home to bottom side Karlsruhe in their penultimate league game on Saturday confirmed a 10th-placed finish prior to a thankless trip to champions-elect Wolfsburg next weekend.

Werder will be without key players for the match in the Sukru Saracoglu stadium, with Juventus-bound playmaker Diego and Portuguese striker Hugo Almeida both suspended and German international defender Per Mertesacker injured.

"We will badly miss Diego in Istanbul, but we have a big enough team to win the cup," said Schaap.

Diego's Brazilian compatriot Naldo is also a doubt for the game, having missed the defeat to Karlsruhe with an adductor muscle injury.

"If I am not completely fit than I will not play," said the 26-year-old centre-back. "But I will fight and give my best to be back.

"It would be unbelievably beautiful and important for us to win the UEFA Cup. Every player on our team can write their names in the history books of this club. And we want to leave our marks."

Shakhtar, last season's Ukrainian champions, go into the game after thrashing Lugansk 3-0 away from home to secure second place in this year's championship behind runaway champions Dynamo Kiev.

A brace from forward Yevgen Seleznov and Brazilian midfielder Willian clinched victory and a place in the third qualifying round of next year's Champions League.

"We were the better side tonight and I believe the score is pretty fair," said Shakhtar coach Mirea Lucescu, who rested a number of first-choice players. "We all will do our best to win the UEFA Cup," he added. "I believe we have enough power and skill to win the trophy. We just need to prove it on the pitch in Istanbul."

Shakhtar are likely to be at almost full-strength on Wednesday night, with only Czech midfielder Tomas Hubschman absent after he picked up a booking during the semi-final triumph over Dynamo.

Lucescu's side have also been boosted by a report from the club doctor that Brazilian attacker Jadson should be able to play after shaking off a knock.

Source: MSN Sports

Protests Against Gambling Restrictions In Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian casino owners and employees on Monday protested a bill that would temporarily ban gambling, saying it would put tens of thousands of people out of work and calling for a gradual approach toward greater state regulation of the industry.

Employees of Ukraine's gaming industry hold aloft their employment books at a demonstation near Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's office, urging him to veto a law banning all gaming establishments, in Kiev May 18. The message in the employment book reads "My government does not need me.
Hundreds of casino workers demonstrated outside President Viktor Yushchenko's office, urging him to veto the bill and chanting "Work! Work!"

The bill, approved Friday by Parliament, would shut all casinos and slot machine-machine parlors nationwide pending passage of separate legislation expected to restrict gambling to a special zone that would be established in one part of the France-sized country. Parliament has not yet considered that legislation.

Lawmakers say the changes would help fight widespread gambling addiction, particularly among younger and older Ukrainians, and would make it easier to collect taxes from casinos.

The bill to halt gambling was rushed through parliament after nine people were killed in a fire in a gambling parlor in the eastern city of Dnipropetrovsk, drawing public attention to the issue. It needs Yushchenko's signature to come into force, but he has labeled it populist and indicated he may send it back to parliament to be reworked.

Ukrainian Casino Association head Anatoliy Nesterenko called on Yushchenko to veto the bill, saying it would put as many as 200,000 people out of work during a severe financial crisis.

"Let's do it step by step - let's not throw people out onto the street," Nesterenko told a news conference.

He said industry leaders were ready for more government regulation, including possibly restricting gambling institutions to special zones, but called for a transition period that would allow already operating slot machines, casinos and their staff to adjust to the change.

Nesterenko said abruptly banning gambling and revoking government licenses would damage the country's investment climate and lead to lawsuits, including from European Union citizens who had invested in casinos in Ukraine.

Other proposals from the gambling industry included allowing casinos to operate only after 9 p.m, banning slot machines in public places such as bus stations and outdoor markets and closing down institutions that are caught catering to underage gamblers.

Source: AP

England May Face Ukraine In 'Substandard' City

LONDON, England -- England may be forced to play next October's World Cup qualifier against Ukraine in a city that has been deemed not good enough to remain on the standby list to host games during Euro 2012.

UEFA's Michel Platini
UEFA has decided only the capital Kiev currently meets the infrastructure criteria required to host a major tournament, and even that is a qualified thumbs-up given it has refused to confirm it is where the Euro 2012 final will be played, as planned.

The Football Association was already aware England would not be playing in Kiev later this year, as the stadium is under construction. An actual venue has yet to be decided but it was claimed Ukraine wanted the match to take place in Dnipropetrovsk.

Knowing the numbers likely to follow England in their penultimate match of the World Cup qualifying campaign, the FA is bound to be alarmed at UEFA's damning verdict. "UEFA considers that due to the current shortcomings with regard to the stadiums, airport infrastructure, regional transport and accommodation, this venue will not meet the tournament requirements," a statement read.

The observations are bound to be greeted with concern at Soho Square if Dnipropetrovsk is confirmed as the venue for the game on 10 October. More than 2,000 England fans would normally be expected to make such a trip, with the FA having no input into the final decision.

Given that UEFA has handed Ukraine a deadline of 30 November to prove Donetsk, Lviv and Kharkiv are capable of hosting the tournament, it may lead the FA to believe they could end up in a much-improved stadium.

However, Ukraine officials have been left in little doubt there is a lot of work ahead if they stand any chance of playing a major role in a tournament they are supposed to be co-hosting with Poland.

"We have seen progress over the last few months but we must remind both countries that there is still a huge amount of work to be undertaken," said UEFA's president, Michel Platini. "There are numerous infrastructure issues that urgently need to be resolved in Ukraine to convince the UEFA executive committee that the host city candidates can be appointed as UEFA Euro 2012 host cities.

"We must respect the decision of the executive committee of 18 April 2007, when it awarded the organisation of the European Football Championship 2012 to Poland and Ukraine. This was again emphasised by the UEFA congress in March 2009, when it stressed the importance that the staging of this world-class event will have to further promote and develop football in the eastern part of Europe."

Source: Guardian UK

Ukrainian Leader Calls For "Cleansing" Of Communist Symbols

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko called for communist statues to be removed and Soviet street names to be changed. It came in a speech on the country's Remembrance Day for the Victims of Political Repression.

Hammer and sickle in the Kiev Arsenalna metro (subway) station.
The president attended a memorial service at the Bykivnia mass grave on the outskirts of Kiev, where up to 150,000 people executed in the Stalinist purges were buried.

"Ukraine must once and for all cleanse itself of the symbols of the regime that massacred millions of innocent people. There can be no justification for this - it is not a part of our history, as some cynical people would say, it is a part of the communist system, and symbols of murder," he said.

He said Ukraine must continue work to rename all towns and villages that still carry communist names, as well as removing statues and monuments, and called on parliament to consider changing the status of nationalists who fought for Ukrainian independence during the Soviet era.

In a veiled rebuke against Russia, which has refused to recognize Ukraine's Stalin-era famine as genocide, Yushchenko said: "Those who deny Holodomor and political repressions, those who justify Stalin, are raising their hand against our sanctity and our people."

The president laid flowers at the memorial to political prisoners, and joined a mourning procession to the Memorial Cross, led by Ukrainian church leaders. At the close of the service, a minute's silence was held.

Source: B92

Despite High-Profile Arrests, Corruption Still Dogs Courts

KIEV, Ukraine -- Bribery is the only way to get a favorable ruling from a judge, lawyers say. Despite several high-profile arrests of judges suspected of taking bribes, people working in Ukraine’s judicial system say the courts are as corrupt as ever.

Lviv appeals court judge Ihor Zvarych was arrested on suspicion of taking a $100,000 bribe.
“Bribes are taken by everybody from chairman of the court to judge assistants,” said a lawyer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he’s a practicing attorney who fears retribution if he is identified. “If one doesn’t take bribes, this person doesn’t work in the court system,” he said. Even when the law was on the side of his client, bribes were required to get the necessary ruling, this lawyer said.

About half of Ukrainians believe that courts are corrupt, according to a 2008 study conducted by the National Institute for Sociological Studies. But still they fared better in the survey than the Verkhovna Rada, the government, road and regular police and medical institutions.

Kateryna Tarasova, head of the Courts Association of Ukraine, whose members include judges, acknowledged the problem. Tarasova blames low salaries of judges. “There is no sufficient financing of the judicial processes. A starting judge makes less than Hr 3,000” monthly, she said.

Attempts to reach Vasyl Onopenko, top justice of Ukraine’s Supreme Court, for comment on this story were unsuccessful. In the past, Onopenko has resisted legal changes to make it easier for politicians to appoint and dismiss judges, saying such steps would undermine judicial independence.

In the last six months, several judges in Ukraine have allegedly been caught red-handed taking bribes, including Lviv appeals court judge Ihor Zvarych. He is accused of accepting a $100,000 bribe. Other notable cases: Mykola Tyshchuk of Kyiv’s Obolon district court allegedly took a $3,000 bribe while Vyacheslav Lyubashevskiy of Lviv’s appeals court is accused of taking a $20,000 payoff.

The number of criminal cases against judges grows yearly. According to the State Security Service, there were 29 criminal cases opened in 2006, 43 cases in 2007 and 52 last year. But few of these get to court because the procedure for lifting the judges’ immunity from prosecution is complicated and involves Verkhovna Rada approval.

Also, prosecutors complain that lawyers refuse to testify against judges. “I never met a lawyer who gave testimony against a particular judge,” said Maksym Yakubovskiy, a prosecutor at the General Prosecutor’s Office who investigates such cases. “They want to live and work in this country.”

Lawyers who asked for anonymity because they work in the court system described to the Kyiv Post how the bribe-taking works: A chairman of the court is in charge of assigning cases to subordinate judges. Sometimes while passing the papers, the chairman surreptitiously whispers the amount he wants to receive from the interested party as payment for the ‘right’ decision. After the money is passed, it is divided between those involved in the decision making process.

Lawyers said most of the bribes are taken and given in property disputes and while determining the term of imprisonment in criminal cases. The sum depends on the level of court, the client’s affluence, and complexity of the case. In a property dispute, for example, bribes can reach 10 percent of the cost of property.

“The minimum bribe to a judge in a property dispute is equivalent to the cost of five up-to-date laptops and appeals court decisions will cost twice more,” the lawyer said. He added, however, that in his five or six years of practice he has only come across several honest judges who told him “to hide the money, or I will be arrested for proposing bribes.”

Tetyana Montian, a Kyiv lawyer unafraid of voicing her criticisms publicly, has written blogs about bribing judges. Montian said the legal system’s corruption is due to imperfections in legislation regulating property disputes. “A court is a service designed to regulate disputes between parties on property issues. But if positions of parties are not legally regulated, this service won’t work,” she said.

Yakubovskiy said vague legislation is not the only reason. He said bribes are accepted because they are offered: “Two-thirds of the time it’s the lawyers who promote corruption in courts.” Yakubovskiy said he knew of several cases in which judges were being pressured into accepting bribes by lawyers who literally stuffed cash into their pockets or briefcases.

Yakubovskiy said this happens because for a lawyer it’s easier to pay for the right decision than make a lot of effort to win a case. But Montian said the main problem is that politicians like the status quo and have little interest in changing it, as “our judges are a tool in the hands of political groupings struggling for influence and power,” she said.

To become a judge, one has to pass a qualifying exam in front of a committee of 13 members. Two of these are appointed by parliament, two by president, one by the human rights ombudsman, one by the Ministry of Justice, and the rest by an assembly of courts.

“They never allow anyone they do not control to become a judge,” one lawyer said.

After gaining approval from the committee, the judge is appointed by the president for a term of five years, and confirmed for life in parliament once that term runs out.

“Political groupings have divided quotas for appointment of judges; they simply determined that a particular political force will have influence on particular judges,” Montian said.

Prosecutor Yakubovskiy said his office has made numerous proposals to the government on how to fight corruption, to no avail.

So far, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s bloc has only proposed introducing an automated system of assigning cases to make their distribution more random, a step that may cut down on shopping around for favorable judges.

Anatoliy Hrytsenko, Our Ukraine faction lawmaker, drafted a bill implementing life imprisonment for corrupt judges. But there is little optimism in these initiatives, even if they are approved.

Source: Kyiv Post

Ukraine Needs To Borrow "Less Than $5B" - Deputy PM

LONDON, England -- Ukraine still needs external funds on top of the $16.4 billion loan it obtained from the International Monetary Fund last year, the country's vice prime minister Hryhoriy Nemyria told Dow Jones Newswires Saturday.

Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister Hryhoriy Nemyria.
Speaking on the sidelines of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's annual meeting, Nemyria said that the sum needed is "below $5 billion" and that talks are under way with a number of possible lenders.

Crisis-stricken Ukraine has been in talks with Russia to borrow $5 billion to finance its budget deficit. Ukraine has also approached other countries for help.

"We are ready to talk with any lenders, as long as there is no political angle in it, as long as there is no political quid pro quo", Nemyria said.

He declined to say at which stage the talks are, or which country or institution is eager to provide funds, but reiterated that Ukraine sees financial help from the European Union, or individual European countries as a possibility. An increase in the IMF loan is also possible, he said.

The IMF May 8 gave Ukraine access to $2.8 billion, the second tranche of the loan.

The next IMF review will focus on making progress on bank restructuring in Ukraine. However, that may prove to be difficult, as Ukraine's government wants the owners of the country's troubled banks to restructure their debt with foreign lenders prior to ceding control to the state.

"If it's not done, the country would face extra debt of between $1.4 billion to $1.5 billion to the banks' lenders," Ukraine's acting finance minister Ihor Umansky said.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Top Ukrainian Official Quits

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's chief of staff, a figure who had long exerted considerable influence over the former Soviet republic's leader, has tendered his resignation, Ukrainian media said.

Viktor Baloha
The authoritative Internet news service Ukrainska Pravda quoted chief of staff Viktor Baloha as saying he had submitted his resignation about a month ago, but gave no reason for the move. He said he was currently on leave.

Yushchenko's office was unavailable for comment.

Television stations also reported Baloha's offer to resign, quoting him as saying it was up to the president to decide on the matter.

State television quoted a source in Yushchenko's office as saying the president had accepted Baloha's resignation and replaced him with a senior civil servant, Ihor Tarasyuk.

Baloha had until recent months wielded great influence in Yushchenko's office, spearheading attacks on Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko - the president's estranged ally from the 2004 "Orange Revolution" that swept pro-Western leaders to power.

He had more recently been less prominent in his public statements.

Since Yushchenko came to power on the back of weeks of "orange" mass rallies against fraud in a presidential election, Ukraine has been almost constantly gripped by infighting among its leaders.

As politicians gear up for the next presidential poll, Yushchenko's popularity has sunk to single figures - far behind opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich, the man he defeated in the rerun of the rigged 2004 contest, and Tymoshenko.

Ukraine's Constitutional Court this week struck down the October 25 date set by parliament for the presidential election and the chanber must now choose a new date - probably early in 2010 as long suggested by many senior politicians.

Source: TV NZ

Prison, Revolution And Reconciliation

KIEV, Ukraine -- It was one of those ghastly days – collapsing into bed at 4am after an official trip, up again too soon for a cabinet meeting on the economic crisis, and then an interview with the Guardian.

Ukraine's PM, Yulia Tymoshenko
When she arrives for our meeting, Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine's prime minister and Europe's second most powerful woman, has not even had time to produce the trademark peasant-style plait that normally hovers on her head like a halo: her hair is combed into a loose bun.

Her officials struggle to remember when they had last seen her in this condition, and pictures taken that morning of her minus plait are already shooting round Kiev's mobile phones.

Tymoshenko first came to international attention during Ukraine's so-called orange revolution in 2004. She and the pro-western presidential candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, stood on the barricades for 13 days with tens of thousands of supporters demanding a re-run of elections.

The supreme court decided there had been fraud and after a new election he became president and she prime minister.

But the two soon fell out, and Yushchenko sacked Tymoshenko in August 2005. Since then their long-running feud has been a major disappointment for the young people who put them in power, and the despair of foreign governments, EU officials, and investors.

Appointed prime minister again after winning parliamentary elections in 2007, Tymoshenko now misses no opportunity to criticise her former ally for "purposely impeding the government's work". She is looking forward to the elections, due in January: "We will definitely run for president and we are bound to win," she says.

She is ahead in the polls, but Ukraine's economic woes have dented her ratings. The recession has hit eastern Europe very hard, and Ukraine and Latvia have suffered most of all. Sales of Ukraine's main export, steel, are down by 40%.

Real wages started to slip in December and by February were down by 13% from the year before. Unemployment is forecast to reach 10% – and this is probably an underestimate.

It has all come as a shock, especially to the country's new middle class. The economy has been booming for five years and hundreds of thousands of them took loans to buy cars and flats in dollars. But Ukraine's currency, has now lost 40% of its value, and families will struggle to repay their inflated debts.

On top of that looms the constant crisis over gas. Ukraine hit the world headlines this January when Russia cut supplies owing to unpaid Ukrainian bills. Ukraine then cut supplies to much of the rest of Europe.

Tymoshenko has made three trips to Moscow to resolve the crisis, the most recent one last week. Now she claims there is no chance of another cut-off "because we achieved a true breakthrough by concluding a contract with Russia for 10 years. We have completely removed any political implications from the gas price and gas transit calculation formulas. Ukraine has become dramatically more independent, both economically and politically."

The woman once regarded in Moscow as an enemy (in Vladimir Putin's early years in power there was an arrest warrant against her) is now seen as the Kremlin favourite. They like her role in balancing Ukrainians' pro-EU aspirations with a keen sense of Russia's interests and the need for co-operation, unlike Yushchenko "who never misses a chance to poke Moscow in the eye", in the words of a European diplomat.

Even if the gas crisis is history, the wider economic crisis is ever present. Deadlock in the Ukrainian parliament meant that Tymoshenko had to use governmental decrees to pass various measures, including steeper taxes on tobacco and alcohol, to curb the ballooning budget deficit.

Thanks to her tough approach, the IMF has agreed to release £1.8bn in a loan aimed at stabilising the economy and restoring confidence. Foreign banks, which own a large share of Ukraine's financial system, agreed to recapitalise. Its government did the same with two big state banks. Analysts now see little risk of a total collapse of the economy, but recovery will be slow.

Was there a chance of street protests, I ask, an economic orange revolution? "In this newly democratic society if people are unhappy with something they have the right to take to the street – we respect this," she says. "We have people protesting in front of government buildings and the government listens. But I would like the government and the people to stand tall. By taking to the streets we cannot eliminate the global economic crisis. We have to work hard."

Sometimes dubbed the "gas princess", Tymoshenko was typical of the first wave of capitalists in the dying months of the Soviet Union. A leader of the young communist league, the Komsomol, she took the route of many other colleagues in starting small businesses by privatising Komsomol assets, in her case in her native Dnipropetrovsk, a steel town in eastern Ukraine. She and her husband (she married at 18) also copied videos in their living room and rented them out or sold them.

Thanks to her new capital plus good contacts, she became managing director of the grandly named Ukrainian Petrol Corporation in 1991, and four years later the president of United Energy Systems (UES), a company which imported Russian gas and sold Ukrainian products in Russia. She became a multimillionaire.

In 1996, she became an MP for the party led by Pavlo Lazarenko whose government had awarded UES its main import licence. He later left Ukraine to escape money-laundering charges, only to be convicted in California.

In 1999 she founded her own party and emerged as a battler against corruption. Her zeal was rewarded with arrest in 2001 by the authoritarian regime of Leonid Kuchma for alleged fraud. She spent six weeks in jail, not knowing if it could be six or 16 years, until a judge ordered her release.

"Prison was a transformational experience. She came out a radical," says Taras Kuzio, the editor of Ukraine Analyst. Now she portrays herself as the first person to fight corruption. "Ukrainians cannot help noticing that our 17 years of independence have not been a period of sustained reform. They are really only beginning now: profound reforms with respect to investment climate, pensions, and energy efficiency as well as efforts to improve the environment," she says.

The constant battles between Yushchenko and the various prime ministers which followed the orange revolution have heightened calls for constitutional reform. The main opposition party led by Viktor Yanukovych, wants to move to a parliamentary system with a largely ceremonial president.

Tymoshenko's party is talking to them about the changes. This itself is a huge shift from 2004 when she and Yanukovych were on opposite sides of the barricades. Ukraine's media is full of speculation that the constitution may be changed so that she remains as prime minister with Yanukovich as a weak president.

One element in a deal with Yanukovych, who is firmly against Nato membership, could be a shift in Tymoshenko's support for joining the alliance. The Kremlin would be delighted. Ukrainian analysts suggest they could agree on a constitutional change saying Ukraine will keep its present "non-bloc status" rather than seeking to enter Nato. Diplomats say she has back-pedalled since demanding a "membership action plan" from NATO last year.

Ukraine can not live "in a security vacuum", Tymoshenko tells me. But she highlights the obstacles to Nato membership – barely 20% support among the Ukrainian public, and division between Europe's Nato members over the wisdom of getting Ukraine in. In the meantime Tymoshenko and her team are focusing on improving ties with the EU.

She admires Margaret Thatcher, as well as Germany's Angela Merkel, the only other women to reach the top in major European countries. But Tymoshenko has appointed few women to her cabinet, and rebukes quotas for women MPs. She is proud of getting into power by her own efforts.

"Whenever you see a successful woman, look out for three men who are going out of their way to try to block her," she says. "I'm really proud of our women. They are not only strong. They are also beautiful."

So, why no plait? "I got home at 4am and didn't have time to produce it. I think women have to change their hairstyle from time to time." Interviewers sometimes ask if its artificial or genuine. What's the answer? "It is real." Giggling, she fiddles at the back of her head, bringing down a Rapunzel-style cascade of blonde hair.

I make my excuses and leave.

Source: Guardian UK

Ukraine's Interior Minister Resigns - Update

KIEV, Ukraine -- The Ukrainian Interior Minister Yury Lutsenko has tendered his resignation following his arrest at a German airport. Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko wanted to keep him since he was a loyal minister, but the opposition Party of Regions (PRU) instead attempted to use the opportunity to politically weaken Tymoshenko.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Yury Lutsenko.
Lutsenko's removal from the government, may allow the PRU to either form a new coalition or persuade Yushchenko to disband parliament and call new elections.

The German police detained Lutsenko and his teenage son at Frankfurt airport on May 4. Lufthansa's flight attendants suspected that both were drunk and consequently did not allow them aboard a flight to South Korea, where he was scheduled to attend a conference. Lutsenko complained that his son who suffers from cancer, was treated rudely by the police -forcing him to intervene.

According to Lutsenko, he had consumed only a small quantity of beer, while his son is teetotal due to his illness. The German tabloid Bild alleged that Lutsenko not only verbally abused the policemen but injured four of them, and that his son was drunk. Lutsenko denied this and said that the police subsequently apologized to him.

Lutsenko has proven to be controversial and the opposition has attempted to oust him several times during his two periods as interior minister since 2005. He was allegedly involved in trying to help a company linked to his family illegally securing a lucrative contract, distributing small arms among his political allies, and obtaining flights for his family at state expense.

In 2008, he assaulted Kyiv Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky. On those occasions he was saved from dismissal, first by Yushchenko and then by Tymoshenko, whose ally he has been for several years.

Lutsenko resigned on this occasion in response to Yushchenko's request and in the absence of any public expression of support from Tymoshenko. On May 12, he submitted a resignation request to parliament. He told a press conference that he was not ashamed, though he could not continue to serve because of "a dirty campaign against myself and my son."

He accused Yushchenko of trying to "destabilize" the interior ministry and threatened to sue Bild (Interfax-Ukraine, May 12). Lutsenko's allies have been trying to convince the public that the incident in Frankfurt had been somehow masterminded by his political rivals, alleging that several articles on the incident in Bild had been written by a Slav, and that Yushchenko's chief aide Viktor Baloha was behind the "smear campaign" that allegedly ensued.

Tymoshenko's parliamentary allies made it clear that they will not vote to approve Lutsenko's dismissal. Tymoshenko is reluctant to part with him for two reasons: it may be difficult to replace him with someone equally loyal, and his small Self-Defense group has been instrumental in sustaining her coalition since June 2008 -when it ceased to control a majority in the 450-seat parliament.

The coalition and the communists (who are not in the coalition but support Tymoshenko) argue that the official position of the German police should first be clarified. The Ukrainian foreign ministry asked the German authorities for an explanation, but has received no official reply.

The PRU's response to the coalition's reluctance to part with Lutsenko has been to block the rostrum in parliament so that the speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, cannot open any sessions of parliament. The PRU has been blocking parliament since the morning of May 12, demanding Lutsenko's dismissal for shaming the country.

Tymoshenko's caucus leader Ivan Kyrylenko suggested that the PRU's real aim is to prevent parliament from gathering until May 17, when Yushchenko can legally disband it for failing to convene for 30 days -since the last session on April 17 (Ukrainska Pravda, May 12). Yushchenko tried to disband the parliament late last year, but Tymoshenko overturned his decree within the courts.

Alternatively, the PRU might try to persuade Tymoshenko to join a new coalition. The PRU hopes that once Lutsenko has been removed Self-Defense may withdraw, leaving Tymoshenko's government seriously weakened. Talks on a possible PRU-Tymoshenko coalition have been conducted intermittently for almost one year.

Yushchenko has made it clear that he will oppose a PRU-Tymoshenko coalition. Yushchenko said in a recent interview that such a coalition would work to "divide this country between two people," meaning Tymoshenko and Yanukovych.

Yushchenko suspects that a PRU-Tymoshenko alliance might amend the constitution in order to elect the president within parliament rather than by universal suffrage. In this case, Yanukovych may become president, while Tymoshenko continued serving as prime minister.

Yushchenko can do little to prevent the emergence of a PRU-Tymoshenko coalition, since he is nearing the end of his term, as well as being weakened institutionally by the constitutional reform of 2004-2006. His allies in parliament however, may support the PRU in any vote on Lutsenko's dismissal, since Yushchenko shares the PRU's belief that Lutsenko must leave the government after the scandal in Germany.

Source: Eurasia Daily Monitor

Ukraine IDs Thousands Of Stalin Victims Buried Near Kiev

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) officials have announced that they have determined the identities of 14,191 people killed by order of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and buried in the Bykivnya forest outside of Kiev.

A memorial to victims of Stalin's regime in the Bykivnya forest near Kiev.
Professor Vasyl Danylenko, of the SBU archives, told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that there are 18 places in Ukraine that were used to execute thousands of people during the Stalin era.

He said Bykivnya was heavily guarded in Soviet times and, though many executions were carried out in Kiev, the dead were buried in mass graves at Bykivnya during the night.

Before World War II, most executions were carried out directly in the forest with the victims lined up before ready-dug graves.

Danylenko said of the other 18 mass burial sites in Ukraine that have been identified, some are being used as parks, some have department stores built on them, or are serving as city cemeteries.

Ukraine will officially commemorate victims of political repression on May 17 when thousands of people will visit Bykivnya to pay their respects.

Many people have erected signs on trees with the names of relatives they believe are buried there.

Source: Radio Free Europe

Ukraine Parliament Moves To Restrict Gambling

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's parliament passed a law Friday temporarily prohibiting gambling until all casinos and slot machines are moved to a government-approved legal gambling area on the Black Sea far away from the capital.

A gambling hall in Kiev.
Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to ratify the bill, arguing that gambling in this economically struggling ex-Soviet republic has reached the scale of an epidemic, especially among Ukrainian youth.

"The gambling addiction has turned into an epidemic," Valery Pysarenko, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's party, told The Associated Press. "Today marks a big victory for all Ukrainians."

The party co-wrote the bill together with the main opposition party. The bill will take effect after it is signed by President Viktor Yushchenko.

Yushchenko has not spoken about the law and his spokeswoman Larisa Mudrak declined to say whether he would back the bill.

Last week, nine people were killed in a fire in a gambling hall in the eastern city of Dnipropetrovsk, drawing public attention to the issue.

Pysarenko said it was also necessary to regulate the gambling industry, because the majority of casinos and gambling halls evade taxes. He said the state budget receives only about 700 million hryvna ($93 million) annually out of an estimated $5 billion of industry turnover.

The law prohibits gambling at the risk of hefty fines and other penalties. Those who are caught gambling could be sentenced to prison, Pysarenko said.

The ban is expected to last several months, until a new law will set up a government-controlled area for gambling. The plan is to relocate all casinos to the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, a popular tourist destination, turning it into a "Ukrainian Las Vegas," according to Pysarenko.

Source: AP

Workers Warn Of More Deadly Disasters

KIEV, Ukraine -- The nation's obsolete infrastructure -- including natural gas, water and sewage pipes -- is a time bomb that could kill at any time. Natural gas workers have gone on strike in Kyiv to warn that more than half of the nation’s natural gas pipelines are in such bad shape that they could explode at any time.

Up to 5,000 gas workers are rallying outside National Commission of Energy Regulation and Cabinet of Ministers demanding wage and tariff increase.
Demanding a cash injection to replace the aging infrastructure, several thousand trade union members from all over the country gathered near the Cabinet of Ministers on May 13 and May 14. They dragged with them samples of outdated pipes that still feed Ukrainian homes with gas.

The risk of everyday living in Ukraine, the workers who should know best said, is high and growing.

“No one is safe,” said Ivan Yarovyi, head of the trade unions of gas companies. “Work is under way to fix the gas transit system which flows gas to Europe. Thinking about European security, we forget about our own people. It’s getting out of control when 60 percent of our pipelines need replacement. They may work for a few more years or surprise us [with a blast] tomorrow.”

The protests were heated up by a gas blast in an apartment complex in the Lviv Oblast town of Socrat earlier this month. It left two people injured and a dozen homeless, adding to the long list of casualties from fires and explosions. The Ministry of Emergency reported 73 deaths from these type of accidents in the first three months of 2009 alone. Another 100 people suffered injuries from breaks of obsolete utility lines over the same period.

Who should modernize these pipes is a tricky question. Lines delivering gas belong to the state by law. But private companies are allowed to lease them out. As a result, entrepreneurs are reluctant to fix infrastructure they don’t own. The national gas company, Naftogaz Ukraine, controls the monopoly but so far has failed to encourage its leaseholders to invest.

Geologists and utility sector workers compare the risk of living in Ukraine to a time bomb.

Central Kyiv, including the so-called Khrushchevka districts built in the 1950s and early 1960s, boasts not only historical facades but pipes old enough for museum displays. With obsolete water heaters and gas pumps, pre-war and some after-war houses are often shaken up by new construction sites in their neighborhood.

Water utilities are another source of alarm.

Before the May 9 Victory Day, Pechersk district -- known as one of the most expensive and posh boroughs in Kyiv -- turned into a miniature Venice when water pipes gave out. Flowing in ankle-high streams of water, plumbers patched leaks in the pipeline to nine houses and the General Prosecutor’s Office.

A few weeks prior to the accident, the municipal water and waste management company Kyivvodokanal warned of a looming disaster. The city’s obsolete water and sewer system is in danger of collapse, Vyacheslav Bind, the head of the company, said in April. “I mean we can patch the pipes or replace bearings, but the equipment we have is in a critical state.”

Experts say that if the notorious sewage collector located on the way to Boryspil airport breaks down, not only Kyiv but dozens of other cities along the Dnipro River will have to be evacuated.

Geologist and member of the National Academy of Architects, Volodymyr Nudelman, said that water system breaks occur every hour in the capital. “Kyiv is the richest city in Ukraine but there are so many danger zones here,” said Nudelman.

The quality of water is also unsafe. “The water is being disinfected with chlorine, which is a very dangerous carcinogenic substance and has been discontinued in developed countries,” Nudelman said.

According to the plan of Kyiv’s development, water was supposed be treated by ozone instead of chlorine by 2010. However, the plan is still only on paper, said Nudelman.

Authorities continue dozing through numerous alarm bells set off by exploding, cracking and hissing pipes.

When gas workers hit the streets a year ago in May to call on government to step in, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko ordered an immediate inspection in the gas sector.

“Ukrainian gas networks are completely destroyed. People get Hr 600-800 in wages and only 65 percent of the required workforce is employed. We are living in a powder keg,” Tymoshenko said, during the meeting with heads of city administrations and gas companies last year. “In a month, I want to see a plan of reconstruction and modernization of gas routes.”

Tired of waiting for this plan, trade unions staged the May 13-14 protest in hopes of being heard again. They suggest doubling gas transport fees up to Hr 16 per month for an average consumer. “A bottle of vodka costs Hr 20,” labor leader Yarovyi said.

Fed up with empty promises, many residents seem more likely to choose a bottle of vodka than to pay extra for leaking taps. Sadly, it may require a higher death toll before government, private businesses and consumers figure out who will pay for their own security.

Source: Kyiv Post

Ukraine Hit By Downgrading

KIEV, Ukraine -- Pressure mounted on Ukraine’s shaky banking system when Moody’s cut the country’s credit rating after two top banks missed payments on debt obligations.

Moody’s said its rating cut reflected the continuing fragility’ of Kiev’s banks.
The ratings agency, which downgraded 19 of Ukraine’s 180-plus banks on Tuesday, said it had assigned a negative outlook, reflecting “the continuing fragility” of Kiev’s economy and its banks.

Kiev bankers called Moody’s downgrade alarmist, insisting a financial meltdown was not on the way. They said the country was in a very difficult situation and that western lenders would help prevent a possible spillover of Kiev’s problems into Europe, whose banks control about 40 per cent of the domestic market.

However, a top western banker said the Moody’s report was a “warning”, taking note that the challenges facing Ukraine were still ahead. “Ukraine is not in a meltdown but in a financial freeze.”

Andriy Kravetz, deputy finance minister, said on Tuesday: “We were shocked by the downgrade by Moody’s after the decision by the IMF to grant Ukraine an additional tranche.”

Moody’s cited capital controls for rationing foreign currency implemented by Kiev’s central bank last month as a “supplementary” worry. “These controls have already contributed to a foreign payments default by one of Ukraine’s banks,” Moody’s said, referring to the Ukrainian subsidiary of Alfa Group, controlled by Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman. Alfa Bank Ukraine blamed the tighter currency rules for its late payment on its $100m Eurobonds, which were redeemed within a given grace period.

Ukraine’s central bank on May 7 said Alfa’s foreign currency holdings exceeded the amount due.

Moody’s said the capital controls “heighten the possibility of default” by Ukrainian corporations and banks, which are struggling this year to pay off or restructure more than $10bn in foreign currency debt. There are fresh signs of trouble brewing at other top Ukrainian banks. Late last month, a bank controlled by Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, fell into technical default on a $10m payment.

It is currently seeking to restructure debts. Stockholm-based Swedbank told Bloomberg on Wednesday that it would seek to sell parts of its Ukrainian and Baltic operations to western lenders in return for fresh capital injections.

The International Monetary Fund on May 8 unfroze a $16.4bn standby credit granted last year. The Fund’s first $4.5bn tranche, granted late last year, helped stabilise Kiev’s banks. An additional $2.8bn will arrive this month, delayed for months because of concerns over Kiev’s financial prudence and political stability.

However, concerns and uncertainty loom. And the majority of Kiev’s banks, many small-pocket banks owned by domestic businessman, have nowhere to turn. Consolidation is coming but some are expected to go bust.

Source: The Financial Times

Ukraine Parliament Could Insist On Early Presidential Election

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's parliament is likely to insist that the presidential election be held in October rather than next January, despite a court ruling against a previous vote, the first deputy justice minister said.


The Constitutional Court declared the Supreme Rada's April 1 decision to hold the election on October 25 as unconstitutional, following an appeal lodged by President Viktor Yushchenko, whose popularity ratings have fallen to single figures amid political instability and a shrinking economy.

However, the court did not set a specific date for the election, as such a decision can only be adopted by parliament.

"If the Constitutional Court cannot determine the date, then members of parliament must vote on it again. I personally have no doubt that they will again vote for the October 25 date," Yevhen Korniychuk said on Wednesday.

In line with the new version of the Constitution that entered into force in 2006, presidential elections are held on the last Sunday of the last month of the president's fifth year in office. This would be January 17, 2010, the date Yushchenko had insisted on.

However, lawmakers decided that as the current head of state took office in 2005, which was prior to the new version of the Constitution taking effect, the old regulations should apply. Under the previous Constitution, elections are held on the last Sunday of October.

Analysts say the decision to call elections for October 25 was dictated by fears that the president could dismiss parliament.

Yushchenko's former "Orange Revolution" ally, current Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, now an arch-rival, is likely to run against him in the polls, whenever they eventually take place.

Source: RIA Novosti

Nazi-Run Camp Where Demjanjuk Allegedly Worked

BERLIN, Germany -- The Sobibor extermination camp, where retired autoworker John Demjanjuk is alleged to have served as a guard, was built by Nazi officers in occupied Poland in 1942 and razed 18 months later.

Sobibor Nazi extermination camp.
In the time it was operational, some 250,000 Jews, Gypsies and political prisoners were murdered in its gas chambers.

The first trains carrying mostly Austrian, Czech and Polish Jews from the nearby Lublin Ghetto began arriving in May 1942. SS officers forced the men, women and children to leave their belongings aboard, undress and report to the what they were told were "washing rooms" — the gas chambers.

After the doors closed, gas from a diesel engine was pumped into the room to suffocate those inside, killing up to 1,300 people at once. Camp inmates removed gold teeth, valuables and cut off hair from the bodies before burning the corpses.

Later, guards also killed those inmates forced to work at the camp, located near Nazi-occupied Poland's eastern border with Ukraine.

Franz Stangl ran the camp for the first six months, overseeing some 30 SS officers as well as Ukrainian guards. Before arriving at Sobibor, Stangl headed a euthanasia center in Austria where Nazis sent physically and mentally disabled people to be killed. He was later put in charge of the Treblinka death camp.

In October 1943, Sobibor prisoners staged an uprising, and hundreds successfully escaped the camp. Days later, SS head Heinrich Himmler ordered guards to tear down the camp and plant the area over with pine trees.

In 1965, a monument to the victims of Sobibor was built on the site of the former camp and the ashes of those killed were gathered together in a symbolic mound-mausoleum.

A museum was built on the site in 1993.

Sobibor, like Auschwitz, was one six extermination camps the Nazis built in occupied Poland, along with Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek and Treblinka.

Source: AP

UEFA Confirms Polish Sites For Euro 2012

BUCHAREST, Romania -- European football's governing body UEFA on Wednesday confirmed four venues in Poland to stage games in the Euro 2012, but only accepted Kiev in co-hosts Ukraine.

The OSK Metalist stadium in Kharkiv, Ukraine, photographed in April, is still under construction.
Three other venues in Ukraine were given until November 30 to provide assurances they were capable of properly hosting games.

As expected the four Polish sites chosen by the UEFA Executive Board were Warsaw, Poznan, Wroclaw and Gdansk. Two Polish reserve cities - Chorzow and Krakow were not retained.

The three venues in Ukraine still to provide guarantees over their suitability are Lviv, Donetsk and Karkov.

UEFA said its review "showed important shortcomings regarding infrastructure in all Ukrainian cities in question.

"Significant work must be undertaken to meet the minimum requirements for an event the size of a final tournament of the UEFA European Championship."

Based on those conclusions UEFA confirmed Kiev as host city for group matches, quarter-final action and a semi-final.

But the three other venues were told they had until November 30 to convince they were up to the mark "with regard to the stadiums, airport infrastructure, regional transport and accommodation.

"Should these conditions not be met by this deadline, the respective venue will not be confirmed for matches at UEFA Euro 2012."

Two other cities in Ukraine - Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa - were told they would not be retained as sites as they had failed to meet the tournament requirements.

Poland and Ukraine were surprisingly named as co-hosts for European football's showcase tournament in April, 2007 but there have been growing organisational concerns, particularly surrounding Ukraine, since then.

UEFA president Michel Platini said that although there had been considerable progress in organisation over the last few months both countries still needed to put in "a huge amount of work."

"There are numerous infrastructure issues that urgently need to be resolved in Ukraine to convince the UEFA Executive Committee that the host city candidates can be appointed as UEFA Euro 2012 host cities," the Frenchman said.

Source: AFP

Swedbank Open For Part-Sale of Ukraine Unit, To Keep Baltic Unit

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Swedbank AB, the largest bank in the Baltic states, may let the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development or another bank take a stake in its unit in Ukraine, spokesman Thomas Backteman said in a telephone interview today.

Swedbank in Kiev, Ukraine
It has no plans to sell parts of its business in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and is not looking for a partnership there, Backteman said, responding to an article in Dagens Industri that said Swedbank plans to sell parts of its units in Ukraine and the Baltic states.

Source: Bloomberg

Intelligence: U.S. Buys Su-27s From Ukraine

WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. has purchased two Su-27 fighters from Ukraine. The two aircraft were bought from an Ukrainian private company by Tac Air, a company that supplies training to American military forces.

Su-27 fighter
They were delivered in a Ukrainian An-124 transport. The Su-27s will be used to help train American pilots to cope with the growing number of Su-27 and Su-30 fighters being sold to air forces the world over. The two Su-27s will also be used to test the effectiveness of new U.S. radars and electronic warfare equipment.

Russia's Sukhoi aircraft company has sold over a billion dollars worth of these aircraft (plus components and technical services for them) a year for the last few years. Sukhoi mainly supplies Su-27/30 jet fighters to India, China, Malaysia, Venezuela and Algeria. The 33 ton Su27 is similar to the U.S. F-15, but costs over a third less.

Developed near the end of the Cold War, the aircraft is one of the best fighters Russia has ever produced. The government helped keep Sukhoi alive during the 1990s, and even supplied money for development of an improved version of the Su-27, which was called the Su-30.

This proved to be an outstanding aircraft, and is the main one Sukhoi produces. There are now several Su-30 variants, and major upgrades. While only about 700 Su-27s were produced (mostly between 1984, when it entered service, and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991), adding Su-30 production and you have over 1,000 aircraft (including license built ones in China and India).

Source: Strategy Page

Minister Resigns Over Drunk Row

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's Interior Minister Yury Lutsenko on Tuesday submitted his resignation to parliament in the wake of a drunken conflict with German airport police.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko speaks during a news conference in Kiev 12 May, 2009.
Lutsenko denied he and a group of colleagues travelling on government business were so intoxicated a week ago at Frankfurt am Main airport law enforcers had to remove them from their plane by force.

Ukraine's parliament must approve the resignation letter, and the President also agree to it before Lutsenko is formally removed from office.

Lutsenko's position in Ukrainian government became increasingly untenable last week after reports by German police and media alleged he and his son threw objects at Lufthansa airline staff, and called security personnel "Nazi pigs", after a pilot refused to take the Ukrainians on board, citing their extreme intoxication.

Blood tests administered by German police on Lutsenko's son Oleksander Lutsenko, also a member of the official Ukrainian delegation, found him to be intoxicated close to three times safe levels.

The senior Lutsenko avoided the mandatory blood test by showing German police a Ukrainian diplomatic passport.

German airport police subsequently manhandled Lutsenko and other members of the Ukrainian delegation from the plane, and the Lufthansa flight departed to South Korea more than an hour late, reports initially published by Bild newspaper said.

The younger Lutsenko was handcuffed during the incident, according to Ukrainska Pravda magazine.

Lutsenko as Ukraine's Interior Minister is the senior police officer in the former Soviet republic. He is a long-time ally of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.

Statements issued by Lutsenko's office since Wednesday accused German media of inventing the incident, and claimed the dispute between the Interior Minister and airport security "was a small misunderstanding ... that was quickly resolved".

However, German and Ukrainian media citing witnesses and accounts by Frankfurt am Main airport police contradicted Lutsenko's version of events.

Lutsenko since his 2004 appointment has headed Yushchenko's anti-corruption programme, at times coming into conflict with politicians and businessmen claiming Lutsenko's crime-fighting campaigns are aimed primarily at Yushchenko's political opponents.

Lutsenko last year fought with Kiev mayor Leonid Chernovetsky during a city hall meeting, after Chernovetsky accused Lutsenko of ordering police to crack down the mayor's business interests.

Lutsenko punched Chernovetsky in the nose, later explaining to reporters he had no other option as his "personal honour had been insulted".

Source: DPA

German Mass Media Accuse Lutsenko Of Shouting Racist Insults At Policemen At Frankfurt Airport

KIEV, Ukraine -- German mass media have brought new accusations against Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko. According to the German weekly Focus, the Ukrainian interior minister shouted racist insults at German police during a drunken incident at Frankfurt airport last week, the Deutsche Welle reported.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko.
During the incident the minister called the police officers "Nazi swine," among other insults, when the prevented him from boarding a flight to Seoul on May 4, Focus reported citing an official police report of the incident.

The German Bild tabloid reported earlier that the police had detained Lutsenko and members of the Interior Ministry's delegation in a state of acute alcoholic intoxication at Frankfurt airport on May 4.

Lutsenko and his 19-year-old son started a scuffle after the captain of the flight to Seoul refused to take the allegedly drunken Ukrainians aboard. Lutsenko and his son reportedly hurled both loud words and a cell phone at a stewardess and airport officers, and then resisted the police, which came to calm them down.

The Ukrainian Interior Ministry, in turn, dismissed reports in foreign media that the Ukrainian officials had behaved improperly at the airport.

Source: Kyiv Post

The E.U. Backtracks On Its Eastern European Partners

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- Initially conceived to forge a new relationship between the European Union and six former Soviet republics, the May 7 summit launching the E.U.'s Eastern Partnerships accord wound up more like the first date from hell.

Participants of an EU-Eastern Partnership Summit at the end of the group photo shoot in Prague.
Instead of feeling the welcoming embrace the program had promised, representatives from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine instead got a European straight-arm designed to keep them at a safe distance.

Indeed, given the manner in which the courtship has begun, some observers now wonder whether any of the parties involved can ever hope to make beautiful music together.

Of course, it probably didn't help the officials who gathered May 7-8 in Prague that extended families on both sides of the match had already seriously meddled with what had been a pretty simple proposal.

An outgrowth of the E.U.'s long-standing European Neighborhood Program (ENP), the Eastern Partnership (EaP) plan called for establishing preferential development, trade, and travel agreements with the six former Soviet republics in exchange for them taking steps to create solid and responsible free market economies and democratic political systems.

In that way, the multi-lateral EaP sought to strike up and reinforce ties with the E.U.'s outlying neighbors even faster than the bilateral ENP agreements had.

But something happened on the way to the EaP's founding summit — namely, the global recession. Many of the countries worst hit by the economic downturn are the same 12 nations that have joined the E.U. since 2004, most from Eastern Europe.

Now not only are those post-Cold War newcomers — who used huge inflows of European development aid to build up U.S.-style economies — most in need of more emergency funding to prop up their credit-dependent markets, but they are also viewed as migrant threats to other E.U. nations already facing escalating unemployment.

Not surprisingly, such factors have fueled a rise in the sentiment among old E.U. nations that recent eastward enlargement was a mistake.

Given that, European leaders who in 2008 had enthusiastically backed proposing the EaP to the six former Soviet republics began scrambling to lower its scope ahead of its May 7 launch in Prague. Just hours before the gathering, for example, German and Dutch officials pushed to change wording in the official document to refer to the six EaP postulates as "partner countries" rather than "European countries".

They similarly struck any language that even remotely hinted at possible E.U. membership for any time in the future, and revised a "long-term goal" previously described as "visa-free travel" by EaP citizens to the E.U. down to more modest "visa liberalization" for certain business people.

Once the document and its objectives had been thoroughly watered down, it was of little wonder that leaders such as France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown all found more productive things to do rather than attend the EaP launch summit.

But they may have had their doubts about EaP even before that. Fabio Liberti, a European affairs and security expert with the Institute of International and Strategic Relations in Paris, notes that the calls to push the E.U.'s influence eastward was devised by certain member states — above all Poland and Sweden — to counterbalance the Mediterranean Union that Sarkozy initiated last year to reach out to Europe's southern neighbors.

Even that, Liberti says, was fueled by France, Italy, Spain and Greece trying to shift the E.U.'s center of gravity back towards the middle of the continent after the fall of the Berlin Wall tipped it east. Such ulterior motives made the EaP ripe for downsizing in the face of growing European resentment over enlargement.

"In the end, it became a non-event, because an initiative that corresponded to the very logic and mission of the European Union itself became undermined by a lot of political factors," says Liberti. "Just as people now tend to view E.U. enlargement as a mistake — rather than examine the errors made in managing it — leaders have gotten shy about the Eastern Partnerships over how it might look, rather than what it will do."

Appearances are not always insignificant, however. Moscow has voiced its hostility to EaP, and said it will defend its influence over the six neighboring nations involved.

And many E.U. leaders — notably the Russia-friendly Sarkozy, Berlusconi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel — want to avoid provoking an increasingly stroppy Kremlin. Indeed, ever since Russia's August 2008 war with Georgia, E.U. officials have become particularly wary of possibly prodding the Kremlin into similar action by appearing to set up camp with the EaP countries in Russia's backyard.

However, Liberti notes that efforts to placate Moscow may only go so far — especially given the energy stakes the EaP involves. He says repeated moves by the Kremlin to choke off gas supplies pumped to Europe via the Ukraine have left many E.U. leaders determined to wean themselves off of their Russian gas dependency.

For that reason, Liberti says, developing and exporting new energy resources for EaP signatories like Azerbaijan remains high a priority, along with building a new pipeline to Europe via central Asia that bypasses Russia completely.

"Europe is in this schizophrenic mode in which we're trying to create partnerships without creating them too much, and trying to undermine Russian influence without challenging Russia," Liberti notes. "At the same time, Germany and Italy sign long-term bilateral gas contracts with Russia that increase their dependency."

In other words, if the six former Soviet republics came away from the Prague summit disappointed and confused, they aren't alone.

Source: Time

Suspected Nazi Guard Demjanjuk Deported To Germany

CLEVELAND, OH -- Deported by the United States, retired autoworker John Demjanjuk was carried in a wheelchair onto a jet that departed Monday evening for Germany, which wants to try him as an accessory to the murders of Jews and others at a Nazi death camp in World War II.

An airplane carrying suspected Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk leaves Burke Lakefront Airport, Monday, May 11, 2009, in Cleveland. Demjanjuk received a notice to surrender three days ago. Demjanjuk is accused of 29,000 counts of accessory to murder at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II.
Demjanjuk, 89, arrived in an ambulance at Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport after spending several hours with U.S. immigration officials at a downtown federal building. Airport commissioner Khalid Bahhur confirmed Demjanjuk was on the plane and that its destination is Germany.

The deportation came four days after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider Demjanjuk's request to block deportation and about 3 1/2 years after he was last ordered deported.

The Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk (pronounced dem-YAHN'-yuk) is wanted on a Munich arrest warrant that accuses him of 29,000 counts of accessory to murder as a guard at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. The legal case spans three decades.

A German Justice Ministry spokesman, Ulrich Staudigl, said the retired autoworker was expected to be in Germany by Tuesday.

Demjanjuk denies Germany's accusations, saying he was held by the Germans as a Soviet prisoner of war and was never a camp guard. Demjanjuk's family fought deportation, arguing he is in poor health and might not survive the trans-Atlantic journey.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, a founder of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, said Demjanjuk deserves to be punished and that this will probably be the last trial of someone accused of Nazi war crimes.

"His work at the Sobibor death camp was to push men, women and children into the gas chamber," Hier said in a statement. "He had no mercy, no pity and no remorse for the families whose lives he was destroying."

The center was established to locate and help bring to justice Nazi war criminals.

The deportation capped a day in which Demjanjuk said goodbye to his family and was visited by two priests at his home in Seven Hills, a Cleveland suburb.

He then slipped quietly into an ambulance parked in his driveway, his family members standing at the edge of the garage and holding up a floral-patterned bedsheet to block the view of reporters and photographers across the street.

Earlier Monday, his son, John Demjanjuk Jr., said an appeal in a U.S. court would go ahead even if his father isn't in the country.

"Given the history of this case and not a shred of evidence that he ever hurt one person let alone murdered anyone anywhere, this is inhuman even if the courts have said it is lawful," Demjanjuk Jr. said.

Also Monday, a Berlin court rejected an appeal aimed at preventing deportation.

Once in Germany, Demjanjuk will be brought before a judge and formally charged. He will also be given the opportunity to make a statement to the court, in keeping with standard procedure, Staudigl said.

Demjanjuk is expected to be held in the medical unit of a Munich prison. The government has said preparations have been made at the facility to ensure he will receive appropriate care.

The case dates to 1977 when the Justice Department moved to revoke Demjanjuk's U.S. citizenship, alleging he hid his past as a Nazi death camp guard.

Demjanjuk had been tried in Israel after accusations surfaced that he was the notorious "Ivan the Terrible" at the Treblinka death camp in Poland. He was found guilty in 1988 of war crimes and crimes against humanity, a conviction overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court.

A U.S. judge revoked his citizenship in 2002 based on U.S. Justice Department evidence showing he concealed his service at Sobibor and other Nazi-run death and forced-labor camps.

An immigration judge ruled in 2005 he could be deported to Germany, Poland or Ukraine. Munich prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for him in March.

Source: AP

Ft. Wayne Mom Has Mother's Day Times 14

FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- Paula Gough had a lot of Mother's Day cards to read this year. She and her husband, Mark, just got back from Latvia with their ninth and tenth adoptive children, three-year-old Eviya and 17-month-old Leeannah.


"We like kids and we have the ability to love and care for them and doors kept opening, so we just followed the open doors," Mark Gough said.

The couple had four biological boys and then adopted their first girl.

"This Mother's Day marks a decade of adoption. It was Mother's Day that we brought Alanna home from Russia 10 years ago today," Paula said.

Paula was adopted as an infant and has always wanted to adopt.

"I had a wonderful life and had always hoped I'd have the blessing of giving birth and adopting," she said.

Alanna, now 10 years old, was the first to be adopted from Russia. Natalee, also 10 years old, was next to be adopted from Ukraine. Then came 8-year-old twins Lareesa and Julienne from Ukraine. They were followed by Carroline, 7, from Russia. Then Vallory, now 16, was adopted from Russia. Next came another set of twins, 4-year-olds Elijah and Evangelynn, from Ukraine. Then two days ago the family brought home Eviya and Leeannah from Latvia.

"It's busy. We don't have time to get bored. It's 35 loads of laundry a week and a lot of hugs and a lot of kisses and a lot of joy too," Paula said.

Alanna said having a large family is awesome.

"I love playing with my little brother Elijah, and Eviya and Natalee always makes me laugh," she said.

And she had a special message for her mom on Mother's Day.

"Thank you Mommy for being a great mom," Alanna said.

The Gough's biological boys are now 34, 32, 25 and 23 years old. They also have four grandkids.

Source: WaneCom

Eurovision 2009 Song Contest Opened In Moscow On Sunday

MOSCOW, Russia -- The Eurovision 2009 song contest officially opened in Moscow on Sunday, the contest's organizers said.


Moscow won the right to host the event for the first time after Russian pop singer Dima Bilan took first place in last year's Eurovision, held in Belgrade, with his song Believe.

The official opening ceremony started at 10:00 p.m. Moscow time (6:00 p.m. GMT) and was broadcast by Russia's TV Channel One.

Representatives of 41 European countries plus Israel will take part in the competition, to be held at the Olimpiisky Sports Complex, built for the 1980 Olympic Games, on May 10-16.

This year Russia will be represented by Ukrainian singer Anastasia Prikhodko.

Over 8,500 police and security officers will be on duty at the Eurovision 2009 Song Contest.

Source: RIA Novosti

Europe Betrays Its Mission In Prague

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- The much-anticipated Prague Summit between the European Union and our eastern partners was a flop. The eastern partnership declaration published last Thursday is not worth the paper it was printed on.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) speaks with Denmark's Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen (C) and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso during the Eastern Partnership Summit in Prague May 7, 2009. The summit aimed for the enhancement of EU ties with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, long shunned in the west, was invited.
The EU has once again taken a bold proposal -- initially designed by Sweden and Poland -- and turned it into seven pages of ramble. It was a sad day for all. The EU is clearly without good ideas and without the bold leadership necessary to do what is needed in the east.

The countries invited to the summit -- Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan -- are all European. Yes, they are also Caucasian, Caspian, and Black Sea nations, but Europeans nonetheless. So why was a membership concept for these countries missing from the document?

Strategic thinking was never a European forte. American think-tankers poke fun at their European counterparts for superbly managing day-to-day affairs but never quite getting the big picture. In Prague we definitely missed the big picture.

The EU is a project in the making, which is why we have an enlargement policy, which has been the single best tool for reuniting the Continent. It has turned Europe into the biggest market in the world, and it has injected dynamism into the European economy. Now, it seems, someone wants to reverse this progress and halt enlargement.

The story of Europe, the dreams of Churchill and Roosevelt and Truman, later embraced and championed by Helmut Kohl, was a united, free and prosperous Europe. When the Berlin Wall fell, tyranny cracked. Millions of oppressed were free to speak, to act and to create.

The splash of creativity that was reborn in the East is still surging and radiating energy across all of Europe. This is what the European dream is all about -- hope. Enlargement is the policy that gives our European brothers and sisters stuck on the margins of Europe the hope to be brave, to continue with reforms and political transformation despite the risks.

Enlargement is not about the political elites, but about the European citizens. It was always about improving the lives of the citizens across Europe. It is easy to dismiss our eastern neighbors on account of their leaders.

Eurocrats with big egos dismiss the prospect that Ukraine, Georgia or Azerbaijan may one day become full members of our EU family. They criticize their leaders and their systems: there's too much corruption, too little political pluralism, and they are too slow at embracing economic change.

This all may be true today, but enlargement is about tomorrow. Having a strategy is having a vision, and the EU has no strategy for the East, which suggests there is no vision of what Europe ought to look like in 2030.

In the powerful film, "The Lives of Others," one is wrenched watching the destruction of the human soul by the Stasi regime in East Germany. Tyranny preys on hope. When hope was gone from the lives of individuals, the state won. The iron fist of the murderous regime became a haven for empty souls.

Europe owes a new draft document to its eastern partners spelling out an integrated approach aimed at creating the Europe of the 21st century: whole, united and free.

We began this project in the 1940s, shortly after the end of World War II. A major breakthrough was achieved in the 1990s with the fall of the Iron Curtain, which then led to the big bang enlargement -- the first of its kind -- in 2003, when 10 central and east European states joined the EU.

Our next job is to finish this story, which means welcoming into Europe Turkey and the Balkan and eastern countries.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

UEFA Observers Satisfied With Ukraine's Euro 2012 Preparations

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's preparations to host Euro 2012 have been given a boost by UEFA observers, who have pronounced themselves satisfied with the country's progress, the UNIAN news agency reported on Saturday.


The verdict, following a mid-April fact-finding trip to Ukraine, was expressed on Friday in a report at the Swiss headquarters of European soccer's governing body.

The meeting was attended by Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Vasyunik and the president of the Ukrainian Football Federation, Hryhory Surkis.

The assessment centered on progress in improving infrastructure in the six Ukrainian cities that could stage games in the finals, which Ukraine is co-hosting with Poland.

The preparation of stadiums, airports, public transport and tourist accommodation were all looked at.

UEFA's executive committee is expected to decide which cities will host matches at a meeting in Romania this month.

The organization's president, Michel Platini, has said the decisions on host cities would be largely based on infrastructure.

Games will be played in Kiev and three other Ukrainian cities, with Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Lvov, Kharkov, and Odessa in the running.

Source: RIA Novosti

Ukraine Imports Only 33% Of Agreed Volume Of Gas

MOSCOW, Russia -- The Moscow Times reported that Ukraine imported just 1 billion cubic meters of Russian gas in April, one-third of the volumes that had been penciled in under a supply contract with Moscow.


According to the report, the supply contract, signed after January's three-week standoff with Russia that led to supply cuts to Europe, provided for Ukrainian purchases of 40 billion cubic meters in 2009, including 10 billion cubic meters in April to June. But energy consumption has fallen sharply as industries slash production and Ukraine plunges into a deep recession.

Ms Yulia Tymoshenko Prime minister of Ukraine who brokered the supply deal, says she will discuss how volumes in the contract can be lowered when she meets Prime Minister Mr Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday.

Ukraine expects to import 33 billion cubic meters this year, compared with about 55 billion cubic meters last year. In the Q1 it imported 2.5 billion cubic meter half of the contracted volumes a fact that may yet spark another dispute between Kiev and Moscow.

Russia's position on the lower volumes is so far unclear. Gazprom chief executive Mr Alexei Miller suggested that the company could fine Ukraine for under buying while other officials have said no sanctions are planned.

Naftogaz also said the price for gas in the Q2 would be USD 270.95 per 1,000 cubic meters a dollar higher than its initial estimates and much lower than the USD 360 it paid in the first three months of 2009.

Last year, Ukraine paid USD 179.50 per thousand cubic meters throughout the year. This year, the price is a 20% discount on European prices and has to be calculated quarterly.

Source: Steel Guru

Committee Of Voters Of Ukraine: Bribery To Be Most Effective Vote-Winner During Upcoming Election Campaigns

KIEV, Ukraine -- Bribery of voters will be the most effective means of securing votes during the upcoming election campaigns, according to the officials from the Committee of Voters of Ukraine.


"Committee of Voters of Ukraine assumes that because of the economic recession and the high level of public disappointment in the political forces, bribery will be widely applied in the upcoming election campaigns," Head of the CVU Oleksandr Chernenko said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.

He added that the technique proved to be effective during early local elections recently held in Ukraine.

Chernenko noted that such a technique was used by the Bloc of Lytvyn and Civil Active of Kyiv during the Kyiv City Council elections, and by the Regions Party during the Ternopil Regional Council elections.

Apart from that, Chernenko said that the courts would be used to affect the election process during the upcoming elections.

He said that the law enforcement bodies might also influence the elections.

According to Chernenko, the law enforcement bodies will not interfere directly, but affect the election process by not responding to procedural violations.

Source: Kyiv Post

UniCredit’s East European Units Receive Aid

BERLIN, Germany -- Europe’s main development bank said Thursday it would pump €432 million into the East European subsidiaries of the Italian bank UniCredit, the largest banking group in the region, to encourage lending. Without more such support, it added, hopes for an economic recovery for the region next year could be in jeopardy.

Thomas Mirow, E.B.R.D. President
The loans are expected to be the first of several as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, or E.B.R.D., holds talks with other Western banks that have established a major presence in the region over the past few years. These could include the Austrian banking group Raiffeisen and Swedbank of Sweden.

The loans are intended not to clean up bank balance sheets but to support the local branches in extending loans to small and midsize companies, which have faced a serious credit crunch since the beginning of the global financial crisis last year. Unless they obtain fresh loans, chances for a sustained recovery, which is expected during the second half of 2010, will be threatened, the bank warned.

“Our underlying outlook assumes continued external engagement, particularly from the Western parents of banks in the region,” said Erik Berglof, chief economist of the E.B.R.D.

The E.B.R.D.’s latest forecasts, released Thursday, showed that the economies of Central and Eastern Europe will contract 5 percent this year. Some countries, particularly Poland, are expected to fare better because of comparatively stable domestic demand, but other countries including Hungary and the Baltic States are already facing double digit declines.

The E.B.R.D. recently extended loans to Banca Comerciala Romana, a Romanian subsidiary of the Austrian bank, Erste Bank. But the agreement with UniCredit is the largest of its kind.

“As the single biggest financial investor and the largest banking group in Central Europe and Eastern Europe, the E.B.R.D. and UniCredit have a common purpose and special responsibility to this region to ensure the continuing flow of lending to the real economies in times of crisis and scarce external funding,” said Thomas Mirow, the E.B.R.D. president.

UniCredit’s chief executive officer, Alessandro Profumo, said in a statement that his bank would use the loans to support the local branches and the local economies.

Most of the €432 million will be earmarked for UniCredit’s subsidiaries in Ukraine and Kazakhstan, with each receiving €100 million. Ukraine’s economy will fall by 10 percent this year compared to 2008, according to the E.B.R.D. Kazakhstan is suffering a serious banking crisis.

UniCredit’s subsidiaries in Hungary, Bulgaria and Croatia will each receive €50 million. The remainder will be distributed to its branches in Serbia, Bosnia and Kyrgyzstan.

The E.B.R.D. has already increased its planned investments in the financial sector by 50 percent, to €3 billion, this year. That amount is distributed among 30 countries, stretching from Poland to Kazakhstan.

Source: The New York Times

EU Launches 'Eastern Partnership'

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- The European Union has launched a plan to forge close political and economic ties with six former Soviet republics in exchange for democratic reforms.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (C) looks at Ukrainian President Viktor Yushenko (L) and Moldovan Foreign Minister Andrei Stratan (R) before an EU-Eastern Partnership Summit in Prague. European Union leaders opened landmark talks Thursday with six former Soviet states, aiming to foster stability and closer ties while reassuring Russia that this was not an EU power play.
The Eastern Partnership Initiative agreed in Prague is intended to bolster stability in the region, but without the prospect of eventual EU membership.

The EU will invest 600m euros (£535m; $804m) in the project up to 2013.

Russia has accused the EU of trying to carve out a new sphere of influence in what Moscow sees as its own backyard.

The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, has repeatedly warned against the creation of new dividing lines in Europe

The EU is following up with another summit on Friday aimed at opening a "southern corridor" for energy supplies, mainly through a long-planned pipeline to bring gas from Central Asia to Central Europe that would bypass Russia.

'Increasing stability'

The Eastern Partnership Initiative was launched in the Czech capital late on Thursday after being signed by representatives of the EU, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

The main goal of the partnership was to "accelerate political association and further economic integration" between the EU and the former Soviet nations, the participants said in a joint statement.

The new initiative will see the EU treat the former Soviet states as a regional bloc and establish free-trade areas with them, as well as offering millions of euros of economic aid, technical expertise and security consultations.

In return, the partnership obliges the six countries to commit to democracy, the rule of law and sound human rights policies.

"The Eastern Partnership will seek to support political and socio-economic reforms of the partner countries, facilitating approximation toward the European Union," the statement said.

Demands for visa-free travel for citizens of the six countries were blocked, however, while the declaration was amended to call them "East European" rather than "European" so as not to encourage applications for EU membership.

The EU leaders were also keen to stress that the initiative was not directed against Russia, saying it could join in certain future projects if it wanted.

"As we said during the summit, this is against nobody. When we increase prosperity, when we increase stability, we're increasing it not only for us but for all the others as well," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

The BBC's Oana Lungescu in Prague says that for Ukraine and Georgia, which see their future in the EU, the summit offered a roadmap to get there.

"This is a step closer to a family," said Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. "There is no way back."

In other developments, diplomats said the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, who met separately on the margins, had made serious progress on resolving their long-standing dispute over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, our correspondent says.

Source: BBC News

IMF Approves Long-Delayed $2.8 Bln Loan To Crisis-Stricken Ukraine Amid Signs Of Stability

MOSCOW, Russia -- The International Monetary Fund on Friday approved a long-delayed $2.8 billion loan for crisis-stricken Ukraine, citing signs of growing political stability and more promising economic policies.

IMF's Ceyla Pazarbasioglu
The impact of the global financial crisis on Ukraine has been compounded by its turbulent political climate, but the IMF said there have been indications of improvement.

"There is stability, which has been achieved in the last few weeks, (and) there is political consensus," Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, the IMF's mission chief in the ex-Soviet republic, said in a conference call with reporters.

The IMF executive board's approval for the transfer of the much-needed second portion of a $16.5 billion loan package came after Ukraine agreed to reforms sought by the fund.

The transfer approved Friday will bring IMF disbursements to Ukraine under the agreement to about US$7.3 billion.

John Lipsky, acting chair of the IMF's executive board, said Ukraine's revised economic program "will restore confidence in the banking system and preserve fiscal sustainability, while protecting the most vulnerable segments of the population."

The redesigned government program is aimed at maintaining a balance between mitigating the current economic downturn and preserving medium-term fiscal sustainability, Lipsky said in a statement.

"From this perspective, the authorities' intention to implement important structural reforms, including pension and tax reforms, by end-2009 is welcome," he said.

The delay in approval of the second tranche had prompted Kiev to turn to Russia for aid.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko recently asked Russia for a $5 billion loan, but little progress has been made in reaching an agreement.

The IMF has estimated Ukraine's economy could contract by up to 8 percent this year, a markdown from the earlier 6-percent contraction forecast, because of the deteriorating global economy. The IMF expects inflation to hit 16.8 percent this year and slow to 10 percent next year.

Ukraine's economic crisis is one of the worst in Europe. Industrial output slumped by 32 percent in January and February compared with a year ago, and output in the construction industry dropped by 57 percent during that period, according to the World Bank.

Source: AP

Ukraine Disputes Alfa-Bank Reason For Missed Payment

KIEV, Ukraine -- ZAO Alfa-Bank’s reason for missing a bond payment this week is “artificial” and may destabilize Ukraine’s currency market, according to the central bank.


Kiev-based Alfa, a unit of Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s Alfa Group, said yesterday it didn’t make a $100 million bond payment due May 4 because of a lack of U.S. dollars supply in the Ukraine interbank market.

“This is an artificial reason to avoid scheduled payments and a dangerous precedent to destabilize Ukraine’s internal currency market,” Natsionalnyi Bank Ukrainy said today in a statement on its Web site.

Natalia Ilnytska, a spokeswoman for Alfa-Bank, said the lender declined to comment on the central bank statement.

The central bank imposed restrictions on foreign-currency trading last month to arrest a 40 percent slump in the hryvnia in the past year.

Policy makers banned trading currencies for future settlement and required banks seeking dollars and other currencies to prove the money is being used to repay loans that were converted into hryvnia when they were originally received.

Alfa-Bank is Ukraine’s ninth-biggest lender by assets as of April 1, according to central bank data.

Source: Bloomberg

Accused Nazi Guard Loses A Bid To Stop Deportation

WASHINGTON, DC -- Accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk on Thursday lost a bid for the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his deportation to Germany, where he faces charges in the deaths of 29,000 Jews.

John Demjanjuk is not an isolated case. German investigators have set their sights on other presumed Nazi war criminals, raising the question of how the law should deal with the aged accessories of the Holocaust.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens rejected a request from the 89-year-old retired Ohio autoworker for a stay of deportation while Demjanjuk pursues his legal appeals.

It was not known what other legal steps Demjanjuk's lawyer might take to try to stop the deportation, the subject of a legal battle battle with the U.S. Justice Department that has lasted decades. His lawyer could ask another Supreme Court justice for a stay.

A Justice Department spokeswoman said the U.S. government will continue to work in cooperation with Germany to carry out the deportation but declined to provide details "on any possible timing of a potential removal."

A U.S. appeals court in Ohio had cleared the way on May 1 for Demjanjuk's deportation, lifting a stay that had halted his removal at the last minute two weeks earlier after U.S. agents had taken him from his suburban Cleveland home in a wheelchair.

Prosecutors in Munich, Germany have issued an arrest warrant to put the Ukraine-born Demjanjuk on trial for assisting in the deaths of 29,000 Jews at the Sobibor extermination camp during World War Two.

The appeals court said the argument that sending Demjanjuk to Germany amounted to torture was unlikely to succeed and lifted the stay that had prevented his deportation.

In seeking a stay of deportation from the Supreme Court, Demjanjuk's lawyer said his client suffered from "a number of physical ailments that present real and immediate risks to his life."

Demjanjuk denies any role in the Holocaust and claims he was drafted into the Russian army in 1941, became a German prisoner of war a year later and served at German prison camps until 1944.

Source: ABC News

Victory Day In Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- History’s arguments over who did what to whom during World War II will probably never end. But as the 64th anniversary of the Allied Victory is celebrated, this weekend, the world would do well to remember that no country suffered more than Ukraine to achieve this awful triumph.

World War II museum in Kiev.
An estimated eight million Ukrainians were killed during the war, civilians and soldiers, and another two million went in exile abroad or were jailed. In all, a quarter of the nation’s people were lost, industries were left in ruins, cities and villages destroyed.

The surrender of Nazi Germany did not liberate Ukrainians from all their oppressors. Ukrainians still had a murderous Josef Stalin to contend with until his death in 1953. They had to wait until 1991 for the tottering Soviet Union to collapse.

Living on the main battleground between Hitler and Stalin, the 20th century’s worst mass murderers, forced awful choices on Ukrainians.

Millions sided with Stalin; a much smaller number went with Hitler. But the dominant emotions of most Ukrainians were probably survival, the desire to be rid of both dictators and a deep longing to build an independent nation.

Anyone who played a role in combat is well into their 80s now. Most of these survivors were low-level soldiers or cannon fodder for the enemy.

While war criminals deserve punishment to this day, Ukraine’s leaders would do well to take a more statesman-like approach to these lingering disputes while pressing for a full accounting of historical events. They should look for ways to strengthen national unity, rather than lead the name-calling bandwagon over who was a “Nazi” or a “Communist” during World War II.

Let us also hope that no nation’s people will have to choose again between a Hitler or a Stalin.

Source: Kyiv Post

Shakhtar Advances To UEFA Cup Final

DONETSK, Ukraine -- Shakhtar Donetsk reached the UEFA Cup final for the first time in club history Thursday, beating old Ukrainian adversary Dynamo Kiev 2-1 in the second leg of the semifinals to advance 3-2 on aggregate. Brazilian midfielder Ilsinho scored the winner with one minute left in regulation.

Shakhtar Donetsk reached their first European final after edging past Ukraine rivals Dynamo Kiev on aggregate in their UEFA Cup last-four tie.
Shakhtar took the lead on Jadson's shot from 13 meters (yards) in the 17th minute after defender Betao failed to control Darijo Srna's cross into the box from the right.

Guinean striker Ismael Bangoura equalized two minutes into the second half, breaking through two defenders to shoot into the lower left corner.

"It was a real and tough cup match of the highest level," Shakhtar's Romanian coach Mircea Lucescu said. "There was enough show and real struggle in the match from the players on both sides."

Bangoura had a chance to give Dynamo an early lead but missed the target from the edge of the box four minutes into the game.

Going into the 137th match between the two teams, Shakhtar had a slim away-goal advantage after a 1-1 first-leg draw in Kiev a week ago.

The home side seized the initiative and Jadson first missed the target in the 11th minute before scoring the opener -- his eighth goal in European competition this season.

Dynamo replied with counterattacks and had Ognjen Vukojevic's goal from Oleksandr Aliyev's free kick disallowed for offside in the 40th.

Artem Milevskiy combined with Aliyev to set up Bangoura's equalizer.

"Two equal teams played in the match," Dynamo coach Yuri Syomin said. "Our counterattacks looked good, but unfortunately we failed to capitalize."

Shakhtar remained in control and Fernandinho forced Stanislav Bogush for a save in the 51th. Bogush dived to block Jadson's shot from close range five minutes later.

Oleksandr Gladkyy, who came on as a substitute in the 70th, came close in the 82nd and had one more chance three minutes later.

Lucescu said he had considered substituting for a tired Isinho, but that he "had a premonition" the Brazilian would decide the match and left him on the field.

Ilsinho picked up a long pass on the right flank and cut into the box past two defenders to fire a right-footed shot into the far corner.

Shakhtar is unbeaten in five consecutive UEFA matches at the Olympic stadium in Donetsk and is the first Ukrainian team to reach a UEFA Cup final.

They beat Tottenham Hotspur, CSKA Moscow and Marseille before staging the first-ever all-Ukrainian semifinal in a European competition.

Dynamo Kiev won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1975 and 1986 during its Soviet heyday.

In the final in Istanbul on May 20, Shakhtar will play the winner of an all-German matchup between Werder Bremen and Hamburg.

Source: USA Today

Nine Killed In Ukraine Gambling-Hall Blast

DNIPROPETROVSK, Ukraine -- Nine people died and 11 were injured Thursday after an explosion and fire ripped through a slot-machine gambling hall in eastern Ukraine, news reports said. The blast occurred shortly after midnight in a casino in the eastern city of Dnipropetrovsk, Channel 5 television said.


The detonation took place inside the casino near its entrance, witnesses said.

Eight people died at the scene, and one more victim died after emergency medical personnel reached him, the report said.

Two of the victims, reportedly female casino employees, died from smoke inhalation. Others lost their lives from burn injuries, Channel 5 television reported.

Casino staff attempted to extinguish the fire after the blast, but smoke and limited equipment prevented them from controlling the blaze.

Firefighters arriving on the scene struggled for one hour to put out the fire.

It remained unclear whether the explosion was caused by a bomb or if it had been an accident, but an initial search of the premises by firefighters found no signs of explosive devices, police said.

Police investigating the scene said the explosion and fire appeared to have begun in a slot machine. Faulty wiring in the machine also could have been a factor in the explosion, officials said.

The five-story building with the casino on its ground floor received moderate damage with the gambling hall suffering water and smoke damage. At least 60 slot machines were destroyed, witnesses said.

Organized crime attacks and accidentally broken gas mains are the primary causes of explosions in Ukrainian buildings. Like in other post-Soviet republics, criminal groups in Ukraine often engage in deadly conflicts over gaining control of the gambling business.

Source: DPA

Lukashenko: Belarus, Ukraine To Implement Agreements At End Of May

GOMEL, Belarus -- Yushchenko arrived in Gomel to meet President Lukashenko. During the meeting, Yushchenko and Lukashenko are expected to discuss Ukraine’s integration into Europe and cooperation between Belarus and the European Union within Eastern Partnership. Its founding summit will take place in Prague on May 7. Yushchenko also intends to discuss with Lukashenko consular and legal issues that should be immediately solved.

Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko (R) and Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko meet in Gomel May 6, 2009.
President Alexander Lukashenko said the prime ministers of Belarus and Ukraine would start implementing the agreements between the two countries at the end of May.

Summing up the results of his talks with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on Wednesday, Lukashenko said: “At the end of May our prime ministers must meet. They should take decisions on economic and humanitarian projects.”

In his words, ahead of the prime ministers’ meeting the Belarussian-Ukrainian commission on trade and economic cooperation should gather for a session.

Lukashenko noted that progress in relations between the heads of government had an impact on the economy and the people’s life. “If the prime ministers implement all tasks the effectiveness will be much more.”

By building relations with Ukraine Belarus believes that Kiev “is our good neighbour”, Lukashenko said.

Yushchenko said the meeting focused on a wide range of issues, as well as regional problems. “The talks centred on measures to overcome the effects of the world crisis,” Yushchenko said.

In his view, both parties will finalise the implementation of all agreements as part of Lukashenko’s visit to Ukraine. “Inter-governmental documents may be signed,” he said.

Yushchenko said special attention had been riveted to humanitarian issues. “We discussed problems of ethnic minorities,” he said. “As a whole Ukraine and Belarus have no serious problems in relations,” Yushchenko added.

Lukashenko said the participation in energy projects jointly with Ukraine was useful for Belarus. “We talked much about energy issues.” “We want all projects to be supported and realised,” he said.

Yushchenko said he showed interest in cooperation in the energy sector and energy transit. He said it was necessary to prepare the feasibility study of a project on Caspian oil supplies to Belarus and Europe.

“Ukraine, Belarus and other partners have chances to realise joint projects in order to meet their interests,” the Ukrainian president said.

Yushchenko said his country and Belarus sought to take part in the Eastern Partnership projects. “We have very close positions. Our countries are interested in concrete projects within Eastern Partnership that may have a positive impact on the economic situation of our countries.”

In his words, “the summit on Eastern Partnership to open in Prague on Thursday will give an opportunity to reach concrete projects.”

According to Lukashenko, the participation in Eastern Partnership meets the interests of the Belarussian people. “We take part in European affairs in order to meet the interests of our people and our economy,” the president pointed out.

Lukashenko and Yushchenko agreed to organise a meeting of the heads of government shortly. “We discussed many projects, including in the energy sector and transit, as well as in the humanitarian field.”

In his words, during the talks, “we agreed to formalise the implementation of the earlier reached agreements. It’s desirable this problem to be solved this month”.

The tete-a-tete talks lasted for four hours. Then other members of the delegations joined the talks.

“Maybe, we had certain problems that should be solved. That is why we invited you to discuss them,” Lukashenko said.

Yushchenko and Lukashenko met to discuss “a package of bilateral issues”, primarily procedural formalities of the state border, trade and economic cooperation, energy and transport interaction.

“I’m very glad to meet you to talk about our contacts in political, economic and other fields. Our states are in decline,” the Ukrainian president said. He showed interest in discussing cooperation in the context of European integration.

Lukashenko stressed the need to discuss the existing problems and continue the talk, which had been begun during their previous meeting in Chernigov in January. “I’m sure that we’ll have a good time from the point of view of state interests,” the Belarussian president said.

The meeting is being held at the remarkable sightseeing site of the city – Rumyantsevs-Paskevichs Palace.

Source: ITAR-TASS

Drunk Ukraine Minister Stopped At Airport - Police

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko was detained by police at Frankfurt airport and prevented from boarding his flight because of drunken and disorderly conduct, police said on Wednesday.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko.
In Kiev, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko ordered an investigation into the incident on Monday involving Lutsenko, one of the leading figures in the 2004 "Orange Revolution" that swept pro-Western leaders to power.

A Frankfurt police spokesman said Lutsenko was prevented from boarding a flight to Seoul, South Korea, after airport officials noticed that he and his 19-year old son, with whom he was travelling, were severely drunk.

When they were stopped, both passengers flew into a rage, shouted and threw their mobile telephones, police said.

Three male and one female police officers were hurt in the altercation, the police spokesman said, describing the incident as an "ugly situation."

Ukraine's interior ministry denied any altercation had taken place at Frankfurt airport but said Lutsenko had missed his flight and departed for Seoul the next day.

Lutsenko, 44, was once a close ally of the president, but in recent months has supported his arch rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Support: Javno

Ukraine's Dynamo, Shakhtar Among World's Top 10 Soccer Clubs

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian football clubs Dynamo Kiev and Shakhtar Donetsk have been included in a list of the world's top ten clubs according to the latest ranking of the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS).

Dynamo (L) and Shakhtar FC logos.
According to the ranking, Dynamo jumped from 10th to 7th position, while Shakhtar progressed from 13th to 10th position.

The table also includes another four Ukrainian clubs. Metalist Kharkiv dropped from 42nd to 48th position, while Vorskla Poltava and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk share 313th position.

Tavria Simferopol jumped from 382nd to 347th position.

England's Manchester United still tops the table, while Spain's Barcelona ranks 2nd.

England's Chelsea jumped from 5th to 3rd position, while Argentina's Boca Juniors dropped from 3rd to 4th position.

England's Arsenal jumped from 8th to 5th position according to the IFFHS ranking.

Source: Xinhua

Ukraine's Road To 2012 Remains Rocky As Cities Face Stadium Scrap

KIEV, Ukraine -- These are a big few days for Ukrainian football. On Thursday, they will find out who will be their first representatives in a European final for 23 years, as Shakhtar Donetsk host Dynamo Kyiv in the second leg of their UEFA Cup semi-final, a 1-1 first-leg draw having seemingly handed Shakhtar the initiative, even if they were second best for much of the game.

A model of new UEFA-standard stadium soon to be completed in the east Ukrainian city Donetsk, one of the expected host cities for Euro 2012. UEFA will announce the list of host cities for Euro 2012 next week and everyone wants to keep hold of their slice of the financial pie.
Then, next Wednesday, UEFA will reveal the confirmed list of host cities for Euro 2012. After all the criticism and all the doubts, this will give a sense of finality.

The criticism and the doubts are justified. Both host countries suffer chronic, almost institutionalised, corruption. Poland have a poor football infrastructure but decent transport; Ukraine has poor transport but good stadiums. Both have work to do on airports and hotels.

But it does seem that this is going to happen. After a UEFA inspection in February, Hrihoriy Surkis, the head of the Football Federation of Ukraine, said he had breathed a sigh of relief. The mood had changed; UEFA, after numerous warnings, was content with the progress it saw. It should be noted, though, that it has given itself until September to change the host entirely.

Still, though, there are question marks. The initial plan was for four cities in each country to host games: Warsaw, Gdansk, Chorzow and Wroclaw in Poland and Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk in Ukraine.

Michel Platini, though, has warned that he will name "between six and eight" cities next Wednesday, and that they might not be evenly distributed between Poland and Ukraine, the implication being that Ukraine could be relieved of some of its hosting responsibility.

And then there is the subplot of the reserve venues. It seems unlikely that either Kharkiv or Odessa could nudge into the frontline of the Ukrainian reckoning, but Krakow certainly could displace one of the Polish front-runners (presumably Chorzow, which is only an hour away and behind schedule).

Given the success of Wisla, the local club, over the past decade, and the excellent tourist infrastructure in the city, it seems bewildering that it was not first choice to begin with – and who, after all, wants to spend three weeks stuck in what is effectively a suburb of the grimly industrial Katowice, when they could be in a thriving town full of historic sites, lively bars and excellent restaurants? Poznan, equally, has a realistic chance of replacing Gdansk.

In Lviv, which for a long time seemed the least likely of the Ukrainian venues, there is quiet confidence. The head of the regional administration, Mykola Kmit, is an impressive figure, largely because he admits the problems and explains his solutions.

That may not sound like much, but after the cloud-cuckoo drivel that has spewed from other administrators connected with the tournament, it is an encouraging novelty.

He, of course, puts the case strongly for Lviv. It was, he points out, where football was first played in Ukraine. It's a compact town. It's the closest potential host to Poland and has good transport links. In 2008, 2.5m tourists visited Lviv: the estimated extra 300,000 or so for the Euros shouldn't place too great an additional strain on the infrastructure (and, frankly, 300,000 sounds high).

When Pope John Paul II visited Lviv, it is estimated there were over a million visitors, and the city coped then. Kmit is thinking only of expansion. "Our target is to have 8 million visitors a year," he said. "Krakow has nine to 10 million a year and Lviv is often compared to Krakow."

Which is all well and good, but Lviv differs from Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk in that the tourist infrastructure there is far less of an issue that the stadium, the building of which suffered a series of false starts.

The Austrian company, Alpine BAU, initially contracted to build it withdrew. "The Austrian company had signed the paperwork for the project development, and there was a clause in the contract that if they liked they could become a developer and an investor in the project, but they were asking too high a price," Kmit explained. "So we will pay them for the work they have done, the design, and we will build it with another company."

That company, Azovinteks, has no specific expertise in stadium construction, which raises obvious concerns, but as Kmit says, they have completed a number of complex engineering projects, particularly in metallurgy.

And, of course, they are a Ukrainian company: the investment in 2012 is being returned to Ukrainians. Whatever else the European Championship in three years is, it is an opportunity for Ukraine – and to a lesser extent Poland – to haul themselves out of the economic crisis.

And the crisis, of course, is, on top of all the other worries, the real problem. A recent BBC report said that no European country was as close to complete economic collapse as Ukraine, and the fact that their government felt the need to apply to the IMF for a $16bn loan – which was turned down – gives some indication of how critical the situation is.

Which, of course, raises the question of just how much of the 1bn Hryvnia (£83m) needed to redevelop the airport or the 180m Hryvnia (£15m) required for the stadium construction it's going to be possible to raise from national and regional government or the private sector within Ukraine.

The positive way to look at the situation, though, is to view the tournament not as a burden, but as a tremendous stimulus. "If something has to be cut, it will not be Euro 2012," says Kmit. "From my point of view this is a great opportunity, because you're spending into development, which should stimulate growth. 2012 will lead to increased tourism, not only to Lviv but to all of the Ukraine."

Certain ambitions have been scaled back because of the financial crisis: there will, for instance, be fewer hotels, and fewer new border crossing points – but then, there are likely to be fewer visitors, so there is in a sense a natural balance.

The road will not be smooth. There are likely to be further crises ahead, and the chances are that 2012 will not be an easy tournament for fans or journalists.

Part of the rationale behind awarding the tournament to Poland and Ukraine was to reach out to eastern Europe. That is even more important now than it was when the decision was taken. Perhaps 2012 will at times feel like an ordeal, but it will at least be for a necessary cause.

Source: Guardian UK

USA (And IE) Number 1 For Botnet Mayhem

FRAMINGHAM, USA -- Research from security vendor Finjan Inc. suggests enterprise IT shops are losing the war against those who would hijack company computers for botnets. Almost half the victims appear to be in the U.S. -- most using Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browswer.

A botnet, originating in Ukraine, generated 1.9 million Trojan horses.
Finjan's Malicious Code Research Center (MCRC) uncovered a network of 1.9 million Trojan horses running on corporate, government and consumer computers around the world during an investigation of command-and-control servers run by botnet herders from Ukraine and elsewhere.

One server, launched in February but later shut down, was hosted in Ukraine and controlled by an online gang of six people who managed to establish a vast Trojan distribution network.

"Hackers keep looking for improved ways to distribute malware and Trojans are winning the race. The sophistication of the crimeware and the staggering amount of infected computers proves these people are raising the bar," Finjan CTO Yuval Ben-Itzhak said. "Corporate and governmental data remain prime targets, especially computers in the U.S. and the U.K. which are under attack, and need to protect themselves."

Based on posts found on various hacking forums, researchers believe 1,000 hijacked computers are being rented out for $100-$200 a day. The bad guys can make $190,000 a day for renting a botnet of 1.9 million infected computers.

The Trojan horse programs are silently dropped on computers when the user visits compromised websites that hide the malware. The giant command-and-control server researchers uncovered includes the IP addresses of infected machines as well as the computers' name inside corporate and government networks that are running the Trojan horse.

Computers in 77 government-owned domains (.gov) from the U.S., U.K., Brazil, Turkey and India have been compromised and are running the Trojan horse. The malware is remotely controlled by hackers who use them to deliver almost any command on the end-user computer as they see fit, including reading e-mails, copying files, recording keystrokes, sending spam, and making screenshots.

Alex Lanstein, senior security researcher at FireEye Inc., a security vendor based in the San Francisco Bay area, said some of the larger botnets out there get no press, because their overlords don't want to make news and let people know their machines are infected. Cimbot, for example, is a piece of malware that has been used to create a botnet that now accounts for about 15 percent of the world's spam, he said.

Among the problems security researchers have encountered when trying to track and shut down botnets is that the newer worms used to build botnets are using strong cryptography to protect the command-and-control centers, said Paul Kocher, president and chief scientist at Cryptography Research.

"It used to be you could track how a botnet was getting its commands and send out fake commands to take it out," he said. "It's getting a lot harder to do that."

The newer botnets are also building their own P2P networks to communicate and have gotten good at snuffing out a machine's security controls.

"We're also watching more sophisticated efforts among botnet-building worms to evade detection," Kocher said. "They're more polymorphic, changing from copy to copy. It makes it more difficult for an antivirus author to craft a signature to block it."

Gunter Ollmann, vice president of research at Atlanta-based security vendor Damballa, Inc., said enterprise IT shops would do well to ramp up efforts to detect the lesser known malware being used to such devastating effect these days. In the last 2 years, he said, IT shops have deployed a broad range of detection and prevention technologies. Each layer of defense has gotten better at fending off certain attacks.

"The more common the threat, the better the protection," he said. "But the bad guys are very much aware of how these defenses work, so they're using more sophisticated, targeted social engineering attacks. Looking at the malware used, a high percentage is IDS and AV proxy aware."

Ollmann and others offer the same advice: Since attackers are so successful at using social engineering tricks -- luring users with fake headlines that play on current events and duping them into clicking on malicious links -- one of the best defenses remains user education.

Show the average user what they're up against every time they go online and they are less likely to be duped into downloading the bot-building code, experts say.

Source: CSO Online

No More Berlin Walls

WARSAW, Poland -- It will be 20 years later this month since President George H.W. Bush delivered his historic call for a "Europe whole and free" in Mainz, West Germany.

Berlin wall construction.
The context in which he spoke was one of optimism and change made possible by Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms. Four days later, Poland held its first competitive, multiparty elections in more than half a century.

By the end of the year the Berlin Wall lay in ruins and a surge of people power had dismantled one-party rule from the Baltics to the Black Sea. The Soviet Union survived for another two years, but its fate had effectively been sealed.

The old Europe of Great Power rivalry, machtpolitik and spheres of influence was to become a thing of the past. There would be no more Yaltas, no more Berlin Walls. The prospect of European Union enlargement helped to sustain former communist countries in the difficult task of political and economic reform.

Ten of them are now full members, contributing to the EU's vitality. More controversially, NATO has also expanded to the east. In countries accustomed to the benefits of security and territorial integrity, this is often dismissed as a second-order issue.

For the countries that have joined NATO more recently, it is anything but. It is an affirmation of their identity as part of the democratic world and the ultimate guarantee of their sovereign independence.

As Madeleine Albright, U.S. secretary of state at the time, told the foreign ministers of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic when their countries joined: "Never again will your fates be tossed around like poker chips on a bargaining table."

Despite these achievements, the process of making Europe "whole and free" is incomplete -- and will remain so as long as there are Europeans denied the opportunity to pursue their chosen path.

That was the tragedy of the Western Balkans for much of the 1990s. Today, the area of greatest concern is Ukraine. This country of 46 million is too large and too important to be left out of our vision of the Continent's future.

Yet the West's approach to Ukraine has been hesitant and confused, while the early momentum of the Orange Revolution seems to have stalled in the face of political and economic crisis.

European leaders lament the political divisions and slow pace of reform often found in Ukraine. Many of these criticisms are justified and need to be addressed by the leaders in Kiev.

But that lack of progress is, to a considerable extent, a reflection of our failure to embrace the country in a way that endorses its ambition to play a full role in European affairs.

There is a reason why reform and accession to the EU and NATO usually go hand in hand. It's because the prospect of membership makes painful decisions electorally acceptable where they would otherwise be impossible.

It isn't realistic to expect European outcomes without a full European commitment.

Our policy toward Ukraine is thus a question of whether we remain faithful to the idea of a Europe whole and free. This raises problems when dealing with a Russian government that regards neighboring countries as part of what Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has described as its area of "privileged interests."

But while sensitive handling is certainly called for, it would be wholly wrong to treat Ukraine as a disposable asset in negotiations between Russia and the West -- a poker chip, as Madeleine Albright put it. Ukraine is an independent European democracy entitled to the same rights and opportunities we claim for ourselves.

It is right for Barack Obama to give Russia the opportunity to set aside recent tensions and make a fresh start in relations with the West, just as it is understandable that German Chancellor Angela Merkel should want Russia to be a reliable partner and energy supplier.

But it is vital that European and American leaders pursue the aim of a better relationship with Moscow in ways that honor the basic values on which the new Europe has been built. Undermining the principle of self-determination for any European country should not be considered a price worth paying for closer ties to Russia.

EU or NATO membership for Ukraine is not on the immediate agenda, so there is no point in turning it into an issue of division today. The real test is whether Ukraine will be given the same opportunities extended to other European countries.

It needs a structured partnership with both organizations and a firm signal that membership is attainable if it meets the conditions. This is not a question of altruism.

The recent energy agreement between the EU and Ukraine, for which President Viktor Yushchenko deserves real credit, is a good example of what Europe stands to gain from encouraging closer integration.

Europe has been transformed since the days of the Cold War, but it is not yet whole and it is not completely free. It cannot be either of those things if 46 million Europeans are denied the right to take part. It is time for Europe and America to embrace Ukraine and renew the promise of 1989.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Ukraine Shows Signs Of Recovery

KIEV, Ukraine -- One of the world’s most depressed economies is showing tentative signs of a recovery. After a 25 per cent annual fall in Ukraine’s gross domestic product, there are indications of a rebound in steel production and good prospects for a bumper harvest this year, according to a senior presidential economic policy aide.

Oleksandr Shlapak
“We certainly have a tendency towards stabilisation under way, with steel exports picking up in recent months,” Oleksandr Shlapak told the Financial Times in an interview. “And, thank God, we are expecting another big harvest after a record last year.”

As one of the world’s leading steel, grain and chemical exporters, Ukraine’s fortunes are heavily dependent on international commodity demand.

Mr Shlapak said industrial production and steel exports – Ukraine’s main sources of hard currency – had risen since February, helped by sharp devaluation of the hryvnia.

It was unclear, however, whether the positive data amounted to a sustainable improvement, or a temporary rebound from an artificially low base, added Mr Shlapak.

Kiev halted gas deliveries to industry to keep domestic heating running after Russia cut off natural gas supplies in January. Industrial output contracted 16 per cent month on month in January as the energy crisis exacerbated the effect of waning demand for steel.

“We are expecting improvements in the coming months, but it’s hard to say if it is sustainable. Much depends on global demand and other world factors,” said Mr Shlapak.

Confidence in Ukraine has also been undermined by the bitter rivalry for power between Viktor Yushchenko, the pro-west president, and Yulia Tymoshenko, prime minister, who has looked to Moscow for support and has sought a $5bn (€3.8bn, £3.4bn) Russian loan.

Mr Yushchenko’s camp says GDP contracted 25 per cent in the first quarter, compared with a year earlier, but Ms Tymoshenko’s government has delayed publication of the figures.

Mr Shlapak accused her of “purposefully concealing” bleak figures for fear that they would further undermine confidence.

Some positive data have, however, been published. Steel exports rose 15.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the last three months of 2008.

A survey by the market research group GfK Ukraine suggests that after months of sharp decline, consumer confidence has been inching upwards since February. “We think that consumer sentiment reached its bottom in February and that the population’s worst fears are probably behind them,” said Maryan Zablotskyy, an analyst at Erste Bank in Ukraine.

Confidence in Ukraine could be further boosted on May 13, when the International Monetary Fund’s board reviews a $16.4bn loan granted to Kiev last autumn.

The first tranche of $4.5bn helped to stabilise Ukraine’s troubled banking sector, but the disbursement of further instalments had been frozen as a result of political bickering and concerns over fiscal prudence.

Citing improvements by Ukraine’s “resilient” economy and government, an IMF mission visiting Kiev last month recommended unlocking the loan.

Last month, the IMF forecast Ukraine’s economy would contract by 8 per cent this year. Mr Shlapak says the fall in GDP could range from 4-15 per cent.

Source: The Financial Times

Sechin Says EU Faces Ukraine Supply Risk

MOSCOW, Russia -- Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin warned the European Union's top energy official on Thursday that gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine could still break down because of limitations in the country's pipeline system.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin.
Ukraine needs to buy 19.5 billion cubic meters of gas in the near future to make sure that flows to Europe remain uninterrupted, Sechin told EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs at the fourth EU-Russia Permanent Partnership Council on Energy.

"If this is not done, the tragedy that we lived through in January will develop catastrophically," Sechin said, Interfax reported. But Ukraine's outdated transit network might be unable to handle the increased volumes, he said.

The comments appeared to hammer home Russian frustration at initially being excluded from an EU-Ukraine agreement on modernizing the country's energy infrastructure.

Russia suspended exports through Ukraine for two weeks in January -- leading to widespread shortages in Europe -- after accusing Kiev of stealing "technical gas," which is used to power transmission stations. Ukraine denied the charge.

"I just want us to realize the existence of risks that continue to influence the gas transit situation," he said.

Piebalgs responded by urging against making a drama out of the problem.

Ukraine usually fills its gas reservoirs in the summer to prepare for winter consumption peaks in Europe.

The country pumped 800 million cubic meters of gas into storage in April, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said Thursday in Kiev. The statement came a day after she returned from Moscow, where she and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin agreed that Gazprom would pay an advance for transit fees to enable Ukraine to pay for the gas.

Ukraine transports 80 percent of Russia's gas sales to Europe.

Sechin said Russia was ready to help Ukraine pay for some of the technical gas and that it was considering state loans to help.

"When we say there's a problem, we also propose a solution. We have even agreed to co-financing," Sechin said.

Sechin also brought up the Energy Charter, restating Russia's disappointment with the treaty, which he said failed to regulate the dispute with Ukraine.

Adopted in 1991 and signed by 49 countries and the EU, the charter sets energy investment, trade and transit rules. Russia signed it in 1994 but never ratified the treaty, and Putin suggested last week that Russia could withdraw its signature. "The Energy Charter treaty has proved nonviable," Sechin said, according to excerpts of his speech on the Cabinet web site.

Piebalgs ruled out a proposal by President Dmitry Medvedev to replace the charter with a new treaty that would provide greater security to producers and include the coal and nuclear power industries under its auspices.

"The Energy Charter treaty will continue to live its life until the countries that established it decide differently," Piebalgs told reporters.

Source: The Moscow Times

Chernobyl Fallout Continues

LONDON, England -- THE charity flights arrive at London's Gatwick Airport twice a week. On board are sick, disadvantaged or dying children from areas affected by the Chernobyl disaster.

Chernobyl children.
More than two decades after the world's worst nuclear accident, thousands of youngsters are still being brought to the UK each year.

Born up to 15 years after the event, they spend a month recuperating with volunteer families from the Chernobyl Children Life Line.

Experts argue in landmark studies that, apart from the small contaminated zone around ground zero, the region today is safe.

But for charity founder Victor Mizzi, who personally greets almost every flight, there is no question that Chernobyl is an ongoing tragedy.

"The situation is just as bad now with cancer and leukemia as it was in 1986," claims Mizzi, who has brought more than 46,000 children from affected areas to Britain.

The mass of support for Mizzi's charity, and others like it, says much about public perception of Chernobyl.

All these years later the memory of the disaster has not dimmed, not even now as the world turns back to nuclear energy as part of efforts to tackle climate change.

It was 23 years ago that an explosion ripped through reactor No.4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, when it was a member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Operators had allowed power levels to drop as part of a safety experiment, disabling key mechanisms that would have shut the plant down if anything went wrong.

The reactor became unstable and exploded, blowing the roof off the building.

In other countries, a reinforced concrete shell around the reactor would have contained the blast.

But in Chernobyl there was no such shell – just one of numerous design flaws identified in the aftermath of the incident.

A toxic cloud spread across Europe, but deposited mostly in neighbouring Belarus, Ukraine and what is now the Russian Federation.

The first the rest of the world knew about the danger was when radioactive fallout was detected in Sweden three days later.

Soviet authorities refused to admit there had been an accident until Swedish diplomats warned that they were about to raise the alarm internationally.

More than 340,000 people were evacuated from the surrounding area over the following years, never to return to their contaminated homes.

Today, the area around Chernobyl remains a wasteland, with habitation banned in a 30km "zone of alienation".

In the abandoned city of Prypiat, once bustling with a population of 50,000, decaying shells of buildings are all that is left.

Purpose-built 2km from Chernobyl as a base for power-plant workers, the city was not evacuated until 36 hours after the explosion.

Like a scene from an apocalyptic Hollywood movie, nature is now taking over in the city in the absence of human life.

Birch trees randomly sprout up in cracks in the concrete. Wild boars roam the streets at night.

Adventure-loving tourists are allowed brief visits to the city, and watch in fear as radiation meters crackle with activity.

Photos from visitors show schoolbooks open mid-way on classroom desks. Clothes are in tatters on washing lines. Dolls and other toys lie on the ground, covered in dust.

Given the magnitude of what occurred at Chernobyl, consensus might have been expected by now on the effects of the disaster.

But division remains on how many people suffered, and whether there is a continuing danger to those living in contaminated areas today.

To try to end the uncertainty, an international team of more than 100 scientists convened under the banner of the Chernobyl Forum in the lead-up to the explosion's 20th anniversary in 2006.

The experts – from seven United Nations organisations, including the World Health Organisation – concluded that 4000 people could eventually die of radiation exposure relating to the Chernobyl accident.

However, while catastrophic, the figure was much less than previously predicted and came in for heavy criticism.

Greenpeace, for one, has estimated more than 90,000 people will die from cancer and that other illnesses will send the toll soaring into the hundreds of thousands.

The Chernobyl Forum report found that as of mid-2005, only 50 deaths could be attributed to the accident.

Most at risk were the 200,000 emergency and recovery workers and reactor staff heavily exposed to radiation on the first day, the report said.

The report went on to play down the risk to the five million people currently living in contaminated areas of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.

Numerous other studies provide a contrasting view, finding a dramatic increase in a range of cancers, birth defects and general ill-health.

As the debate continues about the extent of the health impact on the region, nuclear energy suddenly finds itself gaining popularity again.

New nuclear power plants are being planned across the world as governments search for ways to dramatically reduce carbon emissions and ensure energy security.

Italy closed its last two nuclear power plants in 1986 as a direct result of Chernobyl.

Now there are plans to construct at least four new plants to end the country's reliance on imported oil and gas, with the first to be operational by 2020.

Sweden banned construction of new nuclear power plants after a 1979 meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in the United States.

In February this year, it announced new plants would be built to replace the ageing set that currently provide half of the country's electricity.

In Finland, contractors are working feverishly on the first new nuclear reactor ordered in Western Europe since Chernobyl, although it is several years behind schedule and billions over budget.

In Britain, the Government this month released a list of 11 sites where new nuclear power stations could be built after a dramatic recent U-turn on opposition to the energy source.

Australia's only nuclear reactor, at Lucas Heights, is used for research purposes rather than power generation.

Opponents such as Greenpeace maintain that nuclear power plants, at $10 billion each, are expensive, and that there is no effective solution for dealing with the waste produced.

The tide though, is most definitely going the other way, with one recent news report identifying proposals for 400 new plants across the world to add to the 440 currently operating.

"We recognise Chernobyl was a tragedy and it should never happen again," Tris Denton, from the UK's Nuclear Industry Association, told The Sunday Mail last week.

"The reassurances that we can give are that modern reactors have multilayered safety systems in place to prevent such events happening again. The technology is far more advanced."

Australia is one of the world's major suppliers of uranium, alongside Canada, a key selling point of nuclear power as governments look to ensure energy supplies are not cut off.

It's also a key argument from pro-nuclear groups for why it is only a matter of time before Australia goes down the nuclear path.

Meanwhile, charity worker Mizzi's work goes on.

Surprisingly, he is not among the nuclear energy opponents.

"What is the alternative? Global warming? There are very little alternatives at the moment," he said.

"Probably, if controlled properly, it shouldn't be a danger. In the ex-Soviet Union they were short of money and there weren't controls. It should be a warning."

Source: Courier Mail

Ukraine Says Checking Reports Of Ship Seizure By Somali Pirates

KIEV, Ukraine -- The Ukrainian embassy in Kenya said it is checking media reports that a Ukrainian-crewed ship was seized by pirates on Saturday.


Earlier media reported that Somali pirates had seized a Maltese-flagged cargo vessel owned by British company Seven Seas Maritime Ltd. The Ariana, which was attacked in the Indian Ocean, is reported to be carrying UN equipment.

"The consular service department of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has instructed the Ukrainian embassy in Kenya to check the information [regarding the ship seizure] and get all the details," a press spokesperson said.

Reuters cited a pirate, who called himself Hussein, as saying "We have hijacked a ship carrying industrial equipment including white cars with the UN logo."

A Ukrainian cargo ship was seized by Somali pirates in September 2008. The Faina was only released in February after the pirates received a $3.2 million ransom.

Around 20 warships from the navies of at least a dozen countries are involved in anti-piracy operations off Somalia. According to the United Nations, Somali pirates carried out at least 120 attacks on ships in 2008, resulting in combined ransom payouts of around $150 million.

Source: RIA Novosti

U.S. Court Clears Deportation Of Ukraine-Born Senior Citizen Suspected Of Being Nazi Death Camp Guard

CHICAGO, USA -- A federal appeals court cleared the way on Friday for U.S. authorities to deport accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk to Germany, dropping a stay that halted his removal at the last minute two weeks ago.

John Demjanjuk, second from right, is taken from his home in Seven Hills, Ohio by immigration agents in early April.
"The U.S. Government will continue to seek the removal of Mr. Demjanjuk to Germany," a Justice Department spokeswoman said, and refused to comment further.

But there was no indication when U.S. officials, frustrated in their last attempt, would again move against Demjanjuk.

Prosecutors in Munich, Germany have issued an arrest warrant to put the Ukraine-born Demjanjuk on trial for assisting in the deaths of 29,000 Jews at the Sobibor extermination camp during World War Two.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled that Demjanjuk's argument -- that moving the ailing 89-year-old former U.S. auto worker amounted to torture -- was unlikely to succeed so they vacated the stay preventing his deportation.

The court said U.S. authorities planned to fly him in a jet equipped as an air ambulance with medical personnel standing by, and Germany had shown no intention of torturing him.

Demjanjuk's son, John Jr., responded that the family was considering its options and may appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has refused their appeals in the past. Earlier this week, the family filed suit in Germany to seek to stop the country from accepting Demjanjuk.

On April 14, U.S. agents carried Demjanjuk out of his suburban Cleveland home in a wheelchair and had a government-owned jet ready to take him to Germany but the Cincinnati appeals court intervened.

The family sought to block his deportation with the Arlington, Virginia, Board of Immigration Appeals, saying he suffered from numerous life-threatening ailments and moving him would violate the United Nations' Convention Against Torture. The board refused to reopen the case.

Government prosecutors fired back that the torture claims were ridiculous and they filed medical assessments and even videos that they said showed Demjanjuk walking and in decent health.

NUMEROUS TWISTS

Demjanjuk's case has had numerous twists and turns since he emigrated from Germany in 1951.

He was deported from the United States to Israel and sentenced to death in 1988 as the sadistic guard "Ivan the Terrible" at Treblinka where 870,000 died. Israel's highest court later ruled that he was not "Ivan" of Treblinka.

After spending years in an Israeli prison, he returned to his home near Cleveland in 1993 and his citizenship was restored in 1998. At the time, the appeals court in Cincinnati reprimanded the Justice Department for concealing evidence that would have exonerated him in the Ivan case.

U.S. Justice Department Nazi hunters reopened the case, and a U.S. court convicted him in 2002 of working at three other camps and he was stripped of his citizenship a second time. Then German prosecutors moved to try him.

Demjanjuk has denied any role in the Holocaust. He said he was drafted into the Russian army in 1941, became a German prisoner of war a year later and served at German prison camps until 1944.

Source: Kyiv Post

EU Hesitates Over Potential Ukraine Mission

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- A German-Polish proposal to send an EU-led diplomatic mission to Ukraine is unlikely to go forward before Ukraine's presidential elections, expected in October.

EU mission to Kiev has high-level German support, but faces opposition inside the EU.
Germany and Poland in a joint letter to the Czech EU presidency on 23 April said the EU should try to repair relations between Ukraine's warring President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to help the country bounce out of its economic crisis.

A "possible way to assist the country could be an EU mission to Kiev" the letter said.

The political wrangling in Ukraine has slowed reforms needed for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to release the second slice of an emergency €12.5 billion loan in mid-May.

EU foreign ministers at lunch in Luxembourg on Monday (27 April) threw around ideas including sending EU top diplomat Javier Solana, senior figures from the Czech government, the European Commission, the US state department and the IMF itself.

The mission was to scramble in the next few days or weeks, bringing Mr Yushchenko and Ms Tymoshenko together for one day of intense talks to cover Ukraine-Russia relations as well as financial issues.

Lithuania and Sweden backed the proposals. But the majority of EU states wanted to wait until the political situation in Ukraine becomes clearer following the 25 October vote.

Mr Yushchenko is unlikely to stay in power with approval ratings near four percent. Ms Tymoshenko's popularity is also waning, while Russophone ex-prime minister Viktor Yanukovych and new figures such as 34-year old ex-central banker Arseny Yatsenyuk are on the rise.

"The prevailing mood is maybe we should wait. Maybe we should do something right after the elections instead," a high-level source present at Monday's EU meeting told EUobserver.

Ukraine itself is politely lukewarm toward the German-Polish idea. "We are fully in favour of more active dialogue with the EU. We have not received concrete proposals but any troika mission is more than welcome," a Ukraine diplomat said.

The office of Mr Solana is openly negative. "There is no trip foreseen. We are already in permanent contact with all the leaders there," his spokeswoman, Christina Gallach, told this website.

Ukraine in limbo

The diplomatic initiative is not the only event potentially on hold until the autumn elections.

Swiss-based trading firm RosUkrEnergo has put on ice plans to sue Ukraine's state-owned gas distributor, Naftogaz, over its alleged misappropriation of over €3 billion worth of gas held in Naftogaz storage tanks.

The planned lawsuit would increase the risk of a Naftogaz bankruptcy, putting in danger Naftogaz' 19 January contract with Russia to transit gas to the EU.

An EU-Ukraine agreement of 23 March to Europeanise Ukraine's gas transit network is also unlikely to see major developments before the elections, analysts predict.

Some commentators say the EU-Ukraine agreement could lead to the "unbundling" of Naftogaz in a move that could also impact Russia-Ukraine energy relations.

The unbundling scenario foresees a separate legal entity, UkrTransGas, taking over management of Ukraine's vast pipeline network and the EU gas transit business. Meanwhile, Naftogaz would be left with the unprofitable Ukraine domestic distribution business and mounting debts to its Russian supplier, Gazprom.

If Naftogaz defaulted on its Russian payments, the new model would leave Gazprom unable to take part-ownership of Ukraine's pipelines in lieu of Naftogaz debt.

Constitutional problem

Analyst Olena Prystayko of the EU-Russia Centre in Brussels supported the idea of an EU mission to Ukraine without waiting for the presidential elections, which, according to her, will not guarantee political stabilisation.

Irrespectively of the election results, it is highly unlikely that Ukraine will turn away from its path of European integration, so the EU should not hold back its initiatives until the result comes out, she said.

"The unstable situation in Ukraine is only in part due to a fight between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko as personalities. But we should not forget the institutional aspect - we have not completed constitutional reform." The lack of clear separation of the president and prime minister's powers in the country's constitution could see the future incumbents of the two offices at each other's throats, Ms Prystayko explained.

Source: EU Observer

Ukraine Witnessing Rise of Radicalism

WASHINGTON, DC -- As elections approach in Ukraine, controversial historical and linguistic issues are high on the agenda within a country divided along regional and cultural lines.

Antifa logo
The nationalists including President Viktor Yushchenko, often perceive Moscow's hand behind this, while their opponents complain that the Ukrainian language and right-wing values are being imposed by the authorities. This confrontation rarely results in violence but this year might prove an exception as the impact of the global financial crisis has hit Ukraine especially hard -radicalizing society.

Incidents have thus far included a radical youth fatally stabbed and two bookshops vandalized. This situation may further deteriorate as the government fails to respond to the problem while the Russian media, popular within eastern Ukraine persistently hypes the issue.

On April 17 in Odessa a youth from a radical leftist group calling themselves Antifa (from anti-fascists) stabbed to death Maksym Chayka, a 20-year-old Ukrainian nationalist. While the incident is now the subject of a police investigation, Antifa claims this was done in self-defense.

But nationalists and their opponents have already delivered their own verdicts, judging by the far from neutral newspaper headlines reporting on "a patriot stabbed" or "a neo-Nazi stabbed" depending on the ideological sympathies of individual journalists.

The Russian media hurried to portray Ukrainian nationalists as "blood-thirsty neo-Nazis," similar to their handling of the story of Hitler dolls found on sale in a small Kyiv shop last year, which made the headlines across the world after it had whipped up interest.

Reports about the alleged links between Antifa and the pro-Russian Motherland group -denied by Antifa- prompted Yushchenko to take sides. He instructed the law-enforcement agencies to find links between the Antifa "extremists" and pro-Russian groups. Human rights activist Volodymyr Chemerys, expressed his doubts over the investigation's impartiality because of presidential interference. He openly accused Yushchenko of sympathizing with neo-Nazis.

People's deputy Oleksandr Feldman, who chairs the Association of Ukrainian Ethno-Cultural Associations and the Kharkiv Jewish community, warned Yushchenko in an open letter on April 27 about the "fascistization" of Ukrainian society.

He mentioned the tragic incident in Odessa and reports about anti-Semitic leaflets distributed in the central Ukrainian city of Cherkasy, and recalled that the "neo-Nazis" from the Freedom party won a recent election in Ternopil. Feldman drew analogies with Germany in the 1920's and 1930's, where a crisis that he compared in scale to the current Ukrainian situation, had brought Hitler to power.

Feldman's exaggeration was probably due to the fact that he is a leading member of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's party, which was unexpectedly defeated in the Ternopil election by both Freedom and Yushchenko's United Center.

Tymoshenko views both Yushchenko and Freedom leader Oleg Tyahnybok as her rivals in the upcoming presidential election. All three regard as their stronghold, the nationally minded western Ukraine including Lviv where advertising on matchboxes praise the SS Galichina World War II division -noted by the Russian media and pro-Russian news outlets in Ukraine in early April.

It turned out that the controversial advertisement campaign had been ordered by Freedom. Galichina fighters are respected by many in western Ukraine, where they have been viewed as freedom fighters against Communist Russia.

But they are loathed within eastern Ukraine and Russia as Hitler's collaborators, as well as in neighboring Poland where they reportedly committed atrocities against the resistance. Polish officials reportedly expressed their concern.

The discovery of the controversial matchboxes was exaggerated by Russian TV channels which did not miss the opportunity to vilify western Ukraine in the eyes of Russians and eastern Ukrainians who traditionally prefer Russian to Ukrainian TV for language reasons. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that it did not find any violations in Lviv as the controversial adverts did not carry any SS emblems or slogans.

Freedom did not stop at glorifying the SS. The party urged ethnic Ukrainians to organize themselves for self-defense. Its press service has issued a veiled threat against opponents saying that the party's ruling body decided to take measures to prevent "systematic manifestations of Ukrainophobia" across the country like the killing of Chayka which, according to Freedom, had been inspired from abroad.

Freedom said that it will monitor society for those manifestations. In the same statement Freedom pledged to prevent Ukraine's transformation into a parliamentary republic, which is something that Yushchenko suspects Tymoshenko of planning.

Meanwhile, two bookshops have been the target of recent arson attacks. Their owners said that they had received letters demanding that they stop selling Russian books allegedly detrimental to Ukrainian culture.

No-one has so far claimed responsibility for these attacks. The owners of the shops claimed that other bookshops had been vandalized in Ternopil ahead of the recent election, reportedly also for selling Russian books.

Source: Eurasia Daily Monitor

Ukrainian Purchase Overshadows Economy

KIEV, Ukraine -- A multinational steel corporation owned by Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov acquired West Virginia-based United Coal Co. amid the economic crisis.

Rinat Akhmetov
Though details were not available directly from Metinvest, the Dragon Capital investment bank in Ukraine put the value of the deal at somewhere between $800 million and $1 billion, the Financial Times reports.

Metinvest is ranked among the Top 10 steel exporters in Ukraine, and the deal with United Coal would expand its portfolio in ore pits and coal mines.

Akhmetov is considered the richest man in Ukraine. Several oligarchs have borrowed substantially in the past, putting additional strain on the foreign debt obligations for Ukraine.

The deal shows a growing division in the Ukrainian economy as the wealthy few are able to thrive amid a looming economic crisis.

Despite a bitter relationship over energy deals with Moscow, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin agreed to waive fines on Ukraine for violating terms of a gas contract because of the deep recession.

"Ukraine's economic conditions have seen better times," said Putin.

Source: UPI

Dynamo Kyiv & Shakhtar Donetsk Draw In UEFA Cup Semis

KIEV, Ukraine -- It may have been scrappy and uninspiring for long spells, but the 1-1 draw between Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA Cup semi-final has setup an enticing second leg tie in the south east of Ukraine next week.

Dynamo Kiev's Artem Milevskiy (C), reacts with fellow team members Ayila Yussuf (L), Ognejen Vukojevic (CR), and Ismael Banguora (R), after scoring a goal against Shakhtar Donetsk during their UEFA Cup semifinal first leg soccer match at Lobanovskiy stadium in Kiev, Ukraine, Thursday, April 30, 2009.
The pair know each other well from their domestic clashes and as a result there was little to choose between the sides early on. But Dynamo would gain a real stranglehold on the fixture and would be disappointed only to have an own goal from Dmytro Chygrynskiy to show for their efforts at the break. Although Shakhtar did improve in the second half, their equaliser from Fernandinho still came largely out of the blue as they had previously looked impotent.

A rather bitty start to the game was characterised by niggling fouls and frequent blows on referee Konrad Plautz’s whistle, something that wouldprove a theme throughout. Shakhtar threatened to find some joy down the right flank as Jadson twice gathered the ball with space in the centre of the field and chose to play in Ilson, who was promptly and effectively shut down by Badr El Kaddouri. The Brazilian would barely see any more significant action in the remainder of the fixture.

Kyiv’s dangermen were also on their right. Milevskiy is very much the ‘X-factor’ in the side and was central to Dynamo’s most promising moments. But Shakhtar’s defence, as it was in the Stade Velodrome against Olympique de Marseille in the previous round, was packed, resolute and well organised.

As a result, deadballs provided the best openings for the homesters. Twice free kicks were awarded within shooting distance but on neither occasion was Ukrainian international goalkeeper Andriy Pytov tested by Olexandr Aliyev.

It took 19 minutes for an opening to be created from open play, Milevskiy turning and running through a pack of players before toe-poking wide from the edge of the penalty area.

A similar burst a little further from goal only two minutes later yielded a free kick 25-yards from goal. Again Aliyev eyed the ball up, lasering a powerful drive along the corridor of uncertainty between the defence and the goalkeeper. The irrepressible Milevskiy had enough strength at the back post to force the unfortunate Dmytro Chygrynskiy to inadvertently put through his own net from inside the six-yard box.

Forays into the home box were rare and when they did occur, Dynamo were back in sufficient numbers to cope with the danger. It would take fully 30 minutes for Shakhtar to release a meaningful shot on goal, Fernandinho shuffling inside onto his right foot on the edge of the box but striking down the throat of Stanislav Bogush. The Ukrainian second pick had to be rather more alert moments later to rush from his line and unorthodoxly kick clear of the on-rushing Luiz Adriano.

After a tight opening, the game was starting to stretch a little. Aliyev, breaking forward from midfield, was presented with another shooting chance but, having failed to strike a static ball on target, it was little surprise to see him blaze well off-target from the edge of the box as a pass rolled across his body.

The first half would finish with Shakhtar firmly penned into their own box, particularly in the final five minutes before the break. A pair of Aliyev corners caused some consternation in the visiting rearguard before a firmly-struck effort from Carlos Correa flicked off a white sock clad leg, brushing against the post as it span wide with Pyatov caught flat-footed and helpless.

Changes were made by both sides at half-time. Ismael Bangoura replaced by Tiberiu Ghioane as the hosts reshuffled to playing just one in attack while Shakhtar persisted with their lone striker, albeit with a different spearhead as Willian replaced the ineffective Luiz Adriano.

It seemed initially that Shakhtar’s alteration would make a more profound difference as the visiting side played the first five minutes after the interval with far more bluster than they had ever suggested in the first period. But this surge produced no serious threat, with a Fernandinho free kick well off target their best offering.

Milevskiy remained Dynamo’s most threatening outlet, although his best effort would come from yet another Aliyev free kick. Shakhtar’s marking was simply awful as the diminutive right-sided midfielder hurled himself full length at the centre but lacked just an inch in height to guide his header on target.

By now Dynamo had a fistful of this encounter once again. Had Aliyev’s shooting been sweeter, Kyiv might well have had added a second on the hour mark as a well-constructed move manufactured some space for the midfielder. But his shot was mishit and weak, turned just past the post by Ognjen Vukojevic, who flicked a boot out instinctively in an attempt to divert the ball home.

Shakhtar had their share of the ball but were becoming increasingly frustrated with their inability to break Dynamo down. A crunching tackle by Olexandr Kucher on Milevskiy, which earned the defender a yellow card that will cost him a place in next week’s fixture, appeared a symptom of the visitors’ irritation. But this hammering challenge may just have changed the course of the fixture as Milevskiy was left hobbling, while a flicker of brilliance from the side’s attacking quartet would yield a goal almost from nothing.

There appeared to be little danger as the Dynamo defence set to deal with a routine-looking build-up on their left hand side of the park. Three slick passes between Jadson and Willian released the substitute in the right channel. A low centre across the goalmouth proved inviting enough for Fernandinho, previously quiet all evening, to zip across to the near post and dive with hit boot outstretched to roll the ball into the Kyiv net, leaving the home side briefly silenced for the first time all evening.

The ten minutes that followed the leveller were largely stale, although Shakhtar looked largely content to restrain a Dynamo side that looked distinctly disheartened. Unsurprisingly, it was Milevskiy that inspired the hosts above the average to create their first chance in some considerable time. Holding the ball up excellently with his back to goal in the Shakhtar box, the 24-year-old pivoted superbly before releasing a hugely intelligent dinked pass to Aliyev, eliminating two defenders in the process. Although the lively midfielder shot firmly, Pyatov was in his face and able to make the block.

Although the closing stages were played at a frantic pace, there were to be no serious chances in the closing stages. Dynamo were the side making much of the play, Milevskiy with another neat pirouette inside the box looking to unlock the visiting rearguard, who just managed to scramble away. Aliyev would also have a parting shot but his drive was not caught plum as the first leg of this Ukrainian derby ended all squad.

Source: GoalCom