(US Embassy Ukraine – October 7, 2014) Assistant Secretary Victoria Nuland Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv Thank you Rector Huberski, thank you students. I am so sorry to be late, I am so sorry to keep you waiting. I am so delighted to be here with the future of Ukraine. You know, every […]
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MOSCOW, October 8 (RIA Novosti) – Speaking about the possible removal of sanctions against Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that the matter was for Western states to decide. “Sanctions is the business of our western colleagues, the business of the countries that decided to use this illegal instrument for some reason, possibly just to take their frustration […]
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(Voice of America – Henry Ridgwell – October 7, 2014) As the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank gets underway in Washington, Ukraine wants to adjust the terms of its $17 billion bailout. Kyiv says the country is now at war and needs to build new armed forces. But some analysts say the terms of […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – October 8, 2014) A report by Ukraine’s Alfa Bank argues that Ukraine has failed to gain from unilateral free trade with the European Union over the first six months. Exports have indeed grown but this has little to do with the free trade zone, says the report. In April 2014 the EU unilaterally removed […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 8, 2014) Many Russian regions now have more refugees from Ukraine than they had expected or can handle, and officials suggest that more are likely to arrive as Ukraine’s economy and weather deteriorate. As a result, the situation of these refugees is “becoming critical,” according to experts. In today’s “Novyye izvestiya,” […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Concorde Capital – October 8, 2014) More than 49% of the residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions (collectively known as Donbas) want to remain in the Ukrainian state, compared to 42% who are opposed, according to a poll released on Oct. 7 that was conducted by the Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Fund and the […]
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GENEVA, October 8 (RIA Novosti) – UN observers need access to mass graves discovered near the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, a senior official with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said Wednesday. Gianni Magazzeni, chief of the OHCHR Americas Europe and Central Asia Branch, told reporters that any reported violation of human rights needs […]
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KYIV. Oct 8 (Interfax) – Only 10.7% of polled Ukrainians think the government’s current security and defense policy fully meets national interests. Forty-two per cent of respondents think state policies in this sphere partly meet national interests; 30.9% hold to the opposite opinion, and 16.4% could not answer, according to the findings of a poll conducted by the Razumkov Centre, […]
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KIEV, October 7 (RIA Novosti) – A total of 953 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and 3,627 injured since the Kiev government started a military operation to crack down on independence supporters in the east of the country, Ukraine’s chief military prosecutor said Tuesday. Speaking at a press conference, Anatolii Matios, who also serves as the country’s deputy prosecutor-general, said […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 8, 2014) The Russian Federation is seeking a revision in the international system but lacks the economic strength to be a new pillar, according to Fedor Lyukanov. And as a result, Moscow will seek to make up for that shortcoming by sudden and dramatic foreign policy moves as it has been […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List JRL 2014-#210:: Wednesday 8 October 2014 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: russialist.org/funding.php Ukraine 1. Interfax: Poroshenko Administration: Ukraine to apply for EU membership in […]
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KYIV. Oct 8 (Interfax) – The Reform Strategy 2020 put forward by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko envisages Ukraine’s application for European Union membership in 2020, first deputy head of the Ukrainian Presidential Administration Hennadiy Zubko said. Zubko made the statement at a meeting with Zhytomyr region officials as he was presenting the reform program, the presidential press service said on […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexei Lossan, RBTH – October 6, 2014) Russian gas monopoly Gazprom has proposed to pay for gas transit through Ukraine using debt owed by Ukraine’s national oil and gas company Naftogaz. According to experts, this decision is advantageous for Kiev, since it will speed up the renewal of gas supplies to Ukraine. Gazprom […]
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(Interfax – October 6, 2014) Russian Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev said on 6 October that the search for a compromise with Ukraine over the gas issue needs to continue, with the understanding that the existing debts should be paid while the terms for Ukraine should be sufficiently acceptable to it. “It is necessary to continue a search for compromises, it […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Janek Lasocki – October 6, 2014) Janek Lasocki is Advocacy Coordinator at the European Council on Foreign Relations. For almost a year, Ukraine has refused to leave the international headlines. But little attention has been paid to what has been happening in Kyiv. For almost a year, Ukraine has refused to leave the international headlines. But all media […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – October 7, 2014) Hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled from the conflict in Ukraine’s Donbass region to Russia may never return. Despairing of peace in Donbass, and with unemployment in Russia at a historic low, the population movement may exacerbate Ukraine’s already disastrous demographics. According to United Nations figures, more than 1m […]
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LUHANSK, October 7 (RIA Novosti) – The Ukrainian president’s initiative to change administrative borders of the Luhansk region, which declared itself an independent state in May, is baseless, the head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) said Tuesday. “Poroshenko may dream of anything he wants,” LPR chief Igor Plotnitsky said. On October 6 Petro Poroshenko made a proposal to […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 7 (Interfax) – Prisoner exchanges between the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Kyiv authorities have been suspended for now, DPR POW Committee Chairperson Darya Morozova has told Interfax. “The exchanges have been suspended until the Ukrainian side draws up and presents identification documents of the persons pending exchange in Kharkiv. We reject the practice in which people […]
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DONETSK. Oct 7 (Interfax) – Nineteen civilians have been killed in shelling attacks in Donetsk over the past 24 hours, an Interior Ministry spokesman of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic told Interfax. “According to our sources, 19 civilians have been killed,” he said. He said shells hit the city’s Kuibyshevsky, Kirovsky and Kiyevsky districts. “Regarding the Kuibyshevsky and Kiyevsky districts, […]
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MOSCOW, October 7 (RIA Novosti) – Graham Phillips, a freelance journalist, spoke with Radio VR live from Donetsk, where the second battle for Donetsk Airport has been taking place over the last 10 days, saying that the city and the airport have turned into a massive battlefield despite the truce concluded earlier in September, with the full-scale war bringing enormous […]
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Subject: NEW BOOK – Ukraine Crisis: What it Means for the West Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 From: Andrew Wilson <andrew.wilson@ecfr.eu> My latest book Ukraine Crisis: What it Means for the West has just been published – the first major work on the crisis, its background and broader implications. The main thesis is that a triple crisis is still unfolding: […]
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Subject: Sanctions, Part 2. Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2014 From: Paul Backer <pauljbacker@gmail.com> Part 2. Russian companies’ failures to adopt effective sanctions policies worsen sanctions’ impact. Russian companies failed to address key aspects of sanctions: 1. Large law firm incentives are against giving operationally useful sanctions advice and 2. Nature and enforcement of sanctions differ from traditional law. Transacting with […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Julia Reed in Moscow – October 6, 2014) Et tu, Ukraine? To many Russians, and certainly to most Russian politicians, the issue of Ukraine seems as touchy as the subject of teenagers leaving the nest feels to some parents: what’s wrong with their home? Aren’t they happy with their parents? Why now, at this […]
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MOSCOW, October 6 (RIA Novosti) – The three-party gas protocol of Russia, Ukraine and the European Union is ready and Moscow is currently waiting for Kiev to answer, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Monday. “A draft protocol to be signed by the three sides – Russia, the European Union and Ukraine – has been prepared. Currently, our joint proposal […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Nikolai Holmov, OdessaTalk – October 6, 2014) Tuesday 7th October is Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin’s 62nd birthday. It is now, also to be the date where in all probability, the currently sitting Verkhovna Rada will formally put an end to the legally held non-aligned status of the nation. (At the same session that […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List JRL 2014-#208:: Monday 6 October 2014 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: russialist.org/funding.php Ukraine 1. Zerkalo Nedeli (Kyiv) : About 50 per cent of Ukrainians […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – October 3, 2014) Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko reaffirmed to foreign investors that his goal is for Ukraine to ultimately join the European Union, and for this sweeping reforms are necessary. “This involves a significant number of reforms and solving problems. It’s hardly possible to conduct 62 reforms simultaneously, but we have no choice,” Poroshenko […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Alexandr Litoy – October 2, 2014) Alexandr Litoy is a Moscow-based journalist, specialising in socio-political issues and extremism among the youth. He began his career at Novaya Gazeta, has worked with RBC Holdings and is currently a freelance journalist. The Donbas separatists have been fighting the Ukrainian army with the help of volunteers from all over the world […]
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WASHINGTON, October 3 (RIA Novosti) – US ready to lift some of the sanctions against Russia if the ceasefire agreement reached in Minsk is observed, US Assistant Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland stated. “When the Minsk agreement is fully implemented, we can and will begin to roll back some sanctions. It is in Russia’s hands when that day comes,” Nuland […]
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DONETSK. Oct 3 (Interfax) – There has been a series of explosions in the Donetsk center, an Interfax correspondent said on Thursday. Presumably, it was shells fired by Ukrainian servicemen that exploded. In turn, representatives of Second Republican Channel of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic told Interfax about the Ukrainian army’s bombardment of the channel’s head office. “Several shells have […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Agnes Lovasz, Daryna Krasnolutska – October 2, 2014) The bloody conflict in Ukraine’s east is severing the arteries that connect the nation’s economy. The effects are being felt hundreds of miles from the unrest in industries as different as electricity and food processing. Power plants at the other end of the country are being starved of […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – October 3, 2014) The EU is considering expanding sanctions against Russia if rebels in Eastern Ukraine move to capture Donetsk airport or the port city of Mariupol. Bloomberg cited a source close to the German government on October 2 discussing the option of expanding sanctions against Russia if Donetsk airport or Mariupol were taken. […]
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DONETSK/KYIV. Oct 3 (Interfax) – Armed clashes for control over the Donetsk airport continue, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) told Interfax on Friday morning. “Fighting continues. Several buildings on the premises of the Donetsk airport are currently under our control. But it is too early to say that we are already controlling […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List JRL 2014-#207:: Friday 3 October 2014 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: russialist.org/funding.php Ukraine 1. Moscow Times: Fyodor Lukyanov, Russia Has No Way Back From […]
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(RIA Novosti – Alexander Mercouris, London-based lawyer – LONDON, October 2, 2014) The EU repeatedly boasts of its commitment to the rule of law. In reality, the legal basis of the sanctions it has imposed on Russia is extremely dubious. However, past experience shows that even when the EU’s own courts declare sanctions illegal, the EU, despite its fulsome proclamations, […]
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… 10. Reuters: Merkel tells Putin Moscow has duty to temper separatists in Ukraine.
11. www.foreignpolicy.com: Alec Luhn, Cluster Bombs in Potato Fields and Tripwires on the Cow Path. Cleaning up after five months of war in eastern Ukraine.
12. Interfax: Ukraine rebels’ reports of “mass grave” of 400 a “misunderstanding”, leader says. …
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – October 2, 2014) Ukrainian manufacturing is taking a heavy hit across the country and not just in the war-torn Donbass, as the economic collapse and loss of Russian markets take their toll. Vehicle producers are worst hit, with a number of companies closing their doors and laying off workers. Lviv bus plant announced on […]
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(RIA Novosti – October 1, 2014) Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksey Meshkov has said that the OSCE mission’s reports on the situation in Ukraine have become more objective, the Russian RIA Novosti news agency reported on 1 October. “The mission’s work has become much more balanced, which, on the one hand, has made their reports more objective, but on the […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, October 1, 2014) Russian Investigations Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin has rejected allegations that the committee has exceeded its authority and interfered in Ukraine’s internal affairs by launching a criminal case into the genocide of Russian-speaking citizens in Donbass [area in and around Donetsk Region]. “Specially for those questioning the legality of the Investigations Committee’s investigation: I want […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, October 1, 2014) Sources in the self-proclaimed Donetsk people’s republic [DPR] have specified that the burial site on the outskirts of Makeyevka [a settlement in east Ukraine] only contained the remains of 9 people, while the 400 unidentified bodies the republic’s authorities spoke about earlier came to morgues from different parts of the region. “We were misunderstood […]
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(Interfax – October 2, 2014) Seventy-eight percent of Russian citizens recently interviewed by the Levada Center said they knew about the ceasefire which exists between Kiev and the self-proclaimed Donetsk (DPR) and Lugansk People’s Republics (LPR), and 19 percent said they had only learnt about it from the center’s sociologists, a Levada Center spokesman told Interfax. Sixty-eight percent of the […]
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(Business New Europe – October 2, 2014) Kharkiv authorities have said they will re-erect the central square statue of Vladimir Lenin that was toppled by pro-Ukraine activists. Kharkiv deputy head Ihor Terekhov said that “understanding the illegality of the monument’s toppling, the city authorities have ordered scaffolding to be put in place around the pedestal and in the immediate future […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Tom Balmforth – MOSCOW, October 2, 2014) You can call it the “people’s lustration,” the “Trash-Bucket Challenge,” or mob rule. But by whatever name, Ukrainian activists are increasingly taking the matter of punishing officials from the old regime into their own hands. Impatient with unsigned lustration legislation, activists from groups like the ultranationalist Right Sector have been tossing officials in trash […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 1, 2014) A dangerous but entirely predictable trend is occurring in both Russia and the West: Many who see what Vladimir Putin is doing in Ukraine as a crime are saying he is mad or insane, an approach that simultaneously makes him less responsible for what he has done and leaves […]
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MOSCOW, October 1 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that more than 400 bodies have been discovered in mass graves near the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, in what he described as “horrific” evidence that pointed to a war crime. “This is obviously a war crime. Already more than 400 bodies have been discovered in […]
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Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 From: Paul Backer <contact@skalalaw.com> Subject: Russia sanctions, implementing client sanctions policies Part 1. Russia sanctions, implementing client sanctions policies. Skala Law client update. Sanctions’ impact will worsen through 2015. Failing to understand sanctions’ purpose and enforcement materially and avoidably damages listed and unlisted entities. Lack of a sanctions policy renders entities noncompetitive in tenders and […]
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(RIA Novosti – September 27, 2014) Both sides in Ukraine conflict signed a much-awaited treaty aimed at ending hostilities, which claimed thousands of lives and put the war-torn eastern regions on the brink of humanitarian catastrophe. Twelve-point memorandum, banning military action in Ukraine came as result of grueling negotiations held in Minsk and brokered by Russia and the Organization for […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List JRL 2014-#205 :: Wednesday 1 October 2014 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: russialist.org/funding.php Ukraine 1. Euromaidan PR: Expert: by applying in 2020, Ukraine will become an […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List JRL 2014-#204 :: Tuesday 30 September 2014 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: russialist.org/funding.php 4 Ukraine 1. Reuters: EU keeps Russia sanctions in place, sees ‘encouraging’ […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Oleg Kashin – September 24, 2014) Oleg Kashin is a prominent Russian journalist. His work has appeared in Kommersant, Lenta, Colta and numerous other publications. One of the main elements of collective consciousness in post-Soviet Russia is a belief that this consciousness can be manipulated in the most unlikely ways. The Hollywood film Wag the Dog, a satirical […]
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