(US Embassy Kyiv Blog – U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt – usembassykyiv.wordpress.com – February 19, 2016) Two years after the Revolution of Dignity, Ukraine’s leaders – spurred on by an active, engaged, and committed civil society – have pressed forward on difficult political and economic reforms to bring Ukraine closer to its chosen European future. They have done so in the […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Ragozin – February 18, 2016) Two years have passed since a popular uprising in Kiev toppled a Russia-backed regime in Ukraine. The glory of that people power moment has faded, and Western supporters are losing patience with the government as corruption hampers efforts to jump-start the economy. The gross domestic product of the war-plagued country […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Aliaksandr Kudrytski, Volodymyr Verbyany – February 17, 2016) Two years after Ukrainians shed blood on the streets of Kiev to crush a Kremlin-backed kleptocracy, the country of more than 40 million people is back on the brink of failed-state status. The government’s long descent into chaos reached a new nadir this week, when amid reform delays […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Denys Gorbach, Oles Petik – February 15, 2016) Denys Gorbach is a leftist activist and researcher working on the Ukrainian labour movement. Oles Petik is an anarchist volunteering as an editor and translator at a Kyiv-based grassroots publishing cooperative. Strange it may seem, but Ukraine’s far right and Russia’s propaganda machine share a common fantasy: a radical right-wing […]
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Constitutional reform was supposed to put post-Maidan Ukraine on a firmly democratic footing. This process, however, has gone seriously off track. (opendemocracy.net – Mikhail Minakov, Maryna Stavniichuk – February 16, 2016) Mikhail Minakov is Associate Professor at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and President of the Foundation for Good Politics, Kyiv. He is also director of the Krytyka Institute, and editor-in-chief of the […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – February 9, 2016) As the shaky Minsk cease-fire agreement nears its first anniversary, Russia clearly smells blood in Ukraine. Pro-Moscow separatists have increased their attacks in Donbas in recent weeks. Kyiv officials are reporting 71 attacks a day in the vicinity of Donetsk, Horlivka, and Mariupol. Yesterday, Vladimir Putin ordered snap military drills […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Natasha Doff – February 8, 2016) Ukrainian bonds slid, sending the yield on the nation’s shortest-dated restructured debt above 11 percent for the first time, as a political shakeup raised the likelihood for further delays to an international bailout that’s keeping the country afloat. The $1.15 billion of bonds maturing in September 2019 dropped 2.22 cents […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Natasha Doff, Daryna Krasnolutska – February 5, 2016) Ukrainian government bonds plunged as efforts faltered to shore up the ruling coalition after a key reformer quit and accused presidential party members of corruption. Notes issued in November after a $15 billion restructuring are poised for their worst week in the wake of comments from the parliament […]
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KYIV. Feb 3 (Interfax) – The Ukrainian Cabinet of ministers will continue working, and if some parliamentarians disagree with this, they are free to initiate a vote of no confidence in the government, says Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. “We, as a government, will keep doing our job, we will be fulfilling the government action program, we will pursue reform, and […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Volodymyr Verbyany – January 27, 2016) Ukraine’s efforts to stamp out corruption last year brought scant progress, according to Transparency International, which said civil society, journalists and whistle-blowers have been more effective than government officials in combating graft. The former Soviet republic’s score rose “only one additional point” in the 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index, the Berlin-based […]
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(RFE/RL – January 24, 2016) [Graphics and links here rferl.org/fullinfographics/infographics/sliding-support-ukraine/27499595.html] Leadership: Waning Optimism Petro Poroshenko’s approval rating at the end of 2015 fell to just 17% — significantly lower than Viktor Yanukovych’s 28% before he was ousted. According to a January 2016 survey from Gallup, this low rating reflects Ukrainians’ growing dissatisfaction with Poroshenko’s leadership. Economy World Bank data suggests […]
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Writing in Foreign Policy magazine, Adrian Karatnycky considers Georgian-turned-Ukrainian politician Mikheil Saakashvili. Mikheil Saakashvili is back. Having left his native Georgia after voters repudiated his party and his term as president expired, Saakashvili has revived his political fortunes on a much larger playing field — Ukraine. The former Georgian president has taken Ukrainian citizenship and rapidly emerged as one of the […]
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The BBC covers debates in Ukraine over the jettisoning of names recalling Soviet rule, including the effort to rename Kirovohrad as Inhulsk. Since pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in 2014, Ukraine has been removing all public vestiges of Soviet rule, from statues of Lenin to street names honouring other Communist luminaries. A parliamentary committee recently decided that Kirovohrad, which […]
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KYIV. Jan 19 (Interfax) – Ukraine’s Supreme Council of Justice has recommended that 21 judges be dismissed for breaking their oath when issuing court rulings with regard to Euromaidan activists, council head Ihor Benedisyuk told reporters in Kyiv on Tuesday. “Of the 41 conclusions that have already been received by the Supreme Council of Justice [from the provisional specialized commission […]
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Anders Åslund covers unfolding conditions in Ukraine, adding recommendations for steps forward in 2016. … It is quite striking how the mood has changed in a positive direction. The 2016 budget and the modified tax code were adopted on December 24. After two weeks of well-deserved rest, there is a sudden realization that Ukraine accomplished many important economic reforms in […]
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You can ban Ukraine’s communists, but you can’t beat them. (opendemocracy.net – Denys Gorbach – January 8, 2016) Denys Gorbach is a leftist activist and researcher working on the Ukrainian labour movement. On 16 December, Kyiv’s district administrative court approved a claim by Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice. It sought to ban the country’s Communist Party (KPU). Ukrainian society has come […]
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Reuters covers concerns over health care in Ukraine. A reform drive launched by the Western-leaning government installed after a pro-Moscow president, Viktor Yanukovich, was overthrown in a popular uprising last year has become mired in bureaucratic inertia, arguments and allegations of corruption. * * * [A] stalled health bill is one of many examples of the slow progress Ukraine is […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Andrew Mayeda – December 17, 2015) The International Monetary Fund’s executive board ruled that a bond sold by Ukraine to Russia should be considered official sovereign debt, putting pressure on Ukrainian officials to start restructuring talks with their Russian counterparts. Russia bought a $3 billion bond from the government of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – December 15, 2015) Less than a week after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden asked Ukraine’s political leaders to play nice, the quiet war between the teams of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and President Petro Poroshenko has turned publicly and comically violent. The situation is growing increasingly reminiscent of Ukraine’s previous attempt to break […]
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