MOSCOW/KYIV. May 25 (Interfax) – International observers monitoring the Ukrainian presidential elections, among them Russian, said the violations uncovered were few and not serious. “The most common violation we have noticed is that reports about the number of received ballot papers were not entered on some of the election commission’s reports before the start of the voting. Three observers had […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#116 :: 25 May 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 To subscribe to the JRL email version, email David Johnson at davidjohnson@starpower.net 1. The National Interest: […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#114 :: 23 May 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 To subscribe to the JRL email version, email David Johnson at davidjohnson@starpower.net 1. Wall Street Journal: […]
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(Interfax – May 22, 2014) The Right Sector has been officially reg istered by the Ukrainian Justice Ministry as a political party, its information coordinator Boryslav Bereza said. “The Right Sector Party has officially been registered. Now we are a legitimate political force, which means we can stand for election and get elected at every level,” he wrote on Facebook […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Allison Quinn – May 23, 2014) As fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian troops intensified in eastern Ukraine on Thursday with 11 killed near Donetsk, ordinary citizens were gearing up for Sunday’s presidential election. The race has had a polarizing effect on many residents of Ukraine, with widespread disagreement on whether it will stabilize the […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – May 23, 2014) Ukraine goes to the polls this weekend in a crucial presidential vote that will end the political vacuum that has been the root cause of the turmoil plaguing the country since former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled the country in February. There is little doubt about who will win. Ukrainian oligarch […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Margaret Talev, Jonathan Allen – May 23, 2014) Turmoil in Ukraine has sparked a boomlet of lobbying in Washington, with an almost five-fold increase in the number of companies and organizations weighing in with lawmakers and officials. The subject is so sensitive that the lobbyists even more than usual want to be heard and not seen. […]
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ST. PETERSBURG, May 23 (RIA Novosti) – The situation that has appeared in Ukraine is very important for Russia but is only a technical issue for the United States, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday. “In regard to Ukraine, you know what the problem is. For us it is extremely important, but in America questions on Ukraine were decided on […]
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ST. PETERSBURG. May 23 (Interfax) – Russia will evaluate the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine based on the monitoring conducted by the OSCE mission and using modern technologies, but will not send its monitors due to the absence of safety guarantees, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “It’s very easy in our age of electronic mass media,” Lavrov told reporters […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Marc Champion – May 21, 2014) Marc Champion writes editorials on international affairs. He was previously Istanbul bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal. He was also an editor at the Financial Times and the editor-in-chief of the Moscow Times. He is based in London. Now that the prospect of a hot war in Ukraine has […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Robert Coalson – May 22, 2014) Russia’s aggressive policies in Ukraine since the fall of 2013 have resulted in some remarkable gains for Moscow. Kyiv’s European-integration plans have been derailed. The strategically important Crimean Peninsula has been annexed. And the destabilization caused by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine threatens to continue casting doubt over the legitimacy of the government in […]
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… 18. Reuters: Factbox: Leading candidates in Ukraine’s May 25 presidential race.
19. Interfax-Ukraine: Presidential polls must, will be held in all Ukrainian regions – premier.
20. International New York Times editorial: A Critical Election in Ukraine.
21. Washington 19. Interfax-Ukraine: Presidential polls must, will be held in all Ukrainian regions – premier.Post editorial: Russia’s interference in Ukraine’s national election must carry consequences.
22. Reuters: Russia says Ukraine election may aggravate crisis. ….
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ryan Chilcote, Olga Tanas and Henry Meyer – May 20, 2014) Ukraine should settle a substantial part of its natural-gas debt and set a payment schedule before Russia will start price negotiations amid a dispute that may affect Europe, according to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. “It should be a substantial sum that would clearly indicate their […]
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… 13. AFP: Ukraine’s very survival at stake in presidential vote.
14. The Times (UK): Chocolate King to sweet-talk Ukraine back from brink. (Petro Poroshenko)
15. New York Times: Front-Runner in Ukraine Election May Be Shifting Putin’s Stance.
16. Der Spiegel: Loved and Hated. Can Tymoshenko Still Lead Ukraine? ….
KIEV, May 19 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine’s Communist Party, whose leader has been banned from withdrawing his candidacy for the presidency, will not recognize the results of the upcoming May 25 election, People’s Deputy Alexander Golub said. “We will support neither candidate as we have no choice in Ukraine. Everything happening now is a farce and we acknowledge neither the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – D. Garrison Golubock – May 19, 2014) A day after fighting broke out between pro-Russian separatists and forces loyal to the new Kiev government in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk, both sides in the ongoing standoff upped the stakes and called for new tactics: guerrilla warfare and female battalions, among other things. Pro-Russian separatists […]
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… 15. Wall Street Journal: Andriy Parubiy, Ukraine Needs Immediate U.S. Military Aid. Antitank and antiaircraft weaponry are essential to deterring Putin’s aggression.
16. Reuters: Ukraine crisis will be “game changer” for NATO.
17. The American Conservative: James Carden, The Senate’s Bipartisan Ukraine Mistake.
18. Washington Post: Erik Herron, Is Ukraine ready to vote? …
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Christopher Brennan – May 17, 2014) If Ukraine’s presidential election had gone ahead two weeks earlier than planned, candy company owner Petro Poroshenko would have won in the first round, a recent poll shows. Poroshenko, a parliament member and former trade minister who also owns the Roshen confectionery giant, was the candidate chosen by 33.7 […]
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… 1. AP: Senator Ted Cruz Is Headed To Ukraine.
2. AP: US Envoy: Stop ‘Terror’ in Eastern Ukraine. (Nuland)
3. Reuters: Polish PM says NATO needs larger presence in eastern Europe.
4. Interfax: Interim president speaks about Ukrainian military’s successes in Slavyansk, Kramatorsk. …
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ryan Chilcote, Henry Meyer – May 14, 2014) Russia’s foreign minister softened his tone toward Ukraine, saying his country “can do business” with any elected president and warning that fighting in the country’s east risks undermining a ballot’s legitimacy. “If there is somebody who emerges as a figure with the support of the majority of Ukrainians, […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, May 14, 2014) “Russia is conducting against Ukraine a war of a new type,” one that is so different from military campaigns in the past that it is obvious that Moscow has been preparing for its current actions “for several years,” according to Mihail Koval, who is Ukraine’s acting minister of defense. […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Diana Kulchitskaya – May 15, 2014) Having despoiled Crimea’s harvest, Ukraine’s water war with Russia may take more victims, with two major Crimean chemical plants near closure because of a water shortage, a Crimean official said Wednesday. The Krimsky Titan and Krimsky Sodoviy factories, which are situated in the northern part of Crimea, may soon […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Crisis Group – May 15, 2014) Ukraine needs a government of national unity that reaches out to its own people and tackles the country’s long overdue reforms; both Russia and Western powers should back a vision for the country as a bridge between East and West, not a geopolitical battleground. In its latest report, Ukraine: […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber – May 15, 2014) Despite President Vladimir Putin’s claim earlier this month that the Ukrainian presidential election on May 25 represents a step “in the right direction,” Russian officials have said Russia might not recognize the newly elected government in Kiev. State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin told channel Rossia 24 on Wednesday that […]
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MOSCOW, May 15 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow doubts Kiev will be able to pay for Russian gas supplies even if provided discounts because of the economic crisis in the country, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Thursday. “We do not have any guarantees that even with a price of $100 [per thousand cubic meters] … for example, the Ukrainian side […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Kateryna Choursina, Daria Marchak, Ryan Chilcote – May 15, 2014) Ukraine pushed on with an operation to dislodge separatists less than a day after Russia warned the violence could make it impossible to hold legitimate elections. Troops eliminated two rebel bases in the towns of Slovyansk and nearby Kramatorsk in the former Soviet republic’s east, acting […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Dmitry Ofitserov-Belsky, political analyst, special to RBTH – May 14, 2014) Dmitry Ofitserov-Belsky is an associate professor at the Higher School of Economics. Russia’s lukewarm response to the results of the referendums on political independence in eastern Ukraine and its volte-face on the presidential elections scheduled for May 25 should be seen as […]
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(Interfax – May 14, 2014) The central Ukrainian authorities will not become fully legitimate after the presidential election scheduled for 25 May unless they establish a dialogue with Luhansk and Donetsk regions, the head of the Russian parliament’s upper house committee on international affairs, Mikhail Margelov, told Russian privately-owned news agency Interfax on 14 May. “Without this dialogue, assuming that […]
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(Interfax – May 14, 2014) Approximately 68 percent of Ukrainians consider Russians a friendly people, while 22.8 percent said they do not, according to the findings of a poll conducted by the Razumkov Center said. Sixty-two percent of respondents see Russians as a fraternal nation; 28 percent have disagreed, according to the poll. The view that Russians are a friend […]
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(Interfax – May 15, 2014) A fortified area was destroyed in Slavyansk in the early hours of Thursday, Ukraine’s interim president and Parliament Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov said. “A fortified area in Slavyansk was attacked and destroyed last night,” Turchynov said while opening the session of the Ukrainian parliament on Thursday morning. “A five-kilometer area around the television tower, which broadcasts […]
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… 8. Reuters: EU partly to blame for Ukraine crisis: Merkel’s deputy.
9. New York Times: At Center of Ukraine Talks, Degrees of Decentralizing.
10. AP: Proposed peace plan for Ukraine: What’s in it, who likes it, what’s next.
11. Wall Street Journal: Faced With Rival Road Maps, Ukraine Prefers Its Own. Crisis Solution Must Be Ukraine-Led and Ukraine-Owned, Prime Minister Yatsenyuk Says. …
BRUSSELS, May 14 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine’s state-run Naftogaz has not paid any part of its gas debt to Russia, despite Kiev’s announcement that it is ready to cover the debt at a reduced price, a Gazprom official said Wednesday. “They have not paid even at the old reduced price, the debt remains unpaid,” said Dmitry Khandoga, Head of Gazprom’s […]
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MOSCOW, May 14 (RIA Novosti) – The United Nations is in talks with authorities in Kiev who apparently have been using UN-marked helicopters in a military operation against Ukraine’s restive southeastern territories, according to the RT news channel. “It is the responsibility of troop-contributing countries that provide contingent-owned equipment to peacekeeping missions to remove all logos and signage bearing the […]
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MOSCOW, May 14 (RIA Novosti) – Not holding the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine scheduled for May 25 would be worse for the country than holding them, Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said Wednesday. “It’s difficult for me to imagine that such elections could be completely legitimate. But it is obvious that not holding [presidential] elections would be even […]
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KIEV, May 14 (RIA Novosti) – The Ukrainian parliament will not restart discussions on holding a decentralization referendum alongside presidential elections on May 25, a Ukrainian lawmaker said Wednesday. “I think we won’t return to this issue,” said Andriy Senchenko, a lawmaker from the Batkivshchyna faction. The Ukrainian government proposed a bill last week to hold a nationwide referendum on […]
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MOSCOW, May 14 (RIA Novosti), Rick Rozoff – On May 9 the website of United States European Command, one of six regional unified (land, air, naval and special forces) combatant commands used by the Pentagon to divide up the entire planet, announced the opening ceremony of Exercise Spring Storm in Estonia run by the U.S.’s Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR). […]
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… 21. Levada.ru: Poll shows attitudes hardening in Russia towards West over Ukraine.
22. New York Times editorial: What Mr. Putin Can’t Control.
23. Wall Street Journal editorial: The Battle for Eastern Ukraine. Putin presses his annexation by stages while the West watches. …
(Interfax – Moscow, May 12, 2014) The Russian side is ready to discuss lowering the price of gas for Ukraine if debts are repaid, Russian Deputy Energy Minister Anatoliy Yanovskiy has told journalists. “We want contractual obligations to be met. We say that in order for a compromise to be discussed, debts have to be repaid. Pay the debt, then […]
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(Interfax – May 12, 2014) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has described as “an utter lie” the statement on the Donetsk People’s Republic, which Facebook postings said he allegedly made. “What you have quoted as part of my statement is a direct, utter and brazen lie,” the Russian foreign minister said at a press conference in Moscow on Monday. “I […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack in Lugansk – May 13, 2014) Pro-Russian separatist groups holding power in Lugansk and Donetsk declared independence for these two easternmost Ukrainian regions on May 12, a move they claim was endorsed by the unofficial referenda held the previous day. There is still no clarity on what the separatists plan next, with […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – May 13, 2014) When President Vladimir Putin reminded the public in April that he could use military force to protect Russia’s interests in eastern Ukraine, western policymakers and pundits sounded the alarm about an imminent Russian invasion. But as Putin called on protesters in Donetsk and Luhansk to postpone their separatist referendums last […]
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… 25. Reuters: Ukraine’s security forces struggle to meet rebellion in east.
26. The Independent: Ukraine crisis: Calm before the storm in Donetsk as a divided nation gears up for one final battle. With a proposed referendum still up in the air, the only certainty is more violence.
27. The Guardian: Ukraine: siege mentality pushes south-eastern region to precipice of civil war. In the town of Konstaninovka, an uneasy atmosphere of threats and violence is building ahead of a vote on independence.
28. New York Times: In Odessa, Home-Grown Combatants Keep Pro-Russia Forces in Check. …
(Interfax – May 9, 2014) The Ukrainian leadership is initiating national-unity roundtable discussions, involving all political forces representing all regions, as well as public figures and experts. “We are announcing today our initiative to hold all-Ukrainian national-unity roundtable discussions. We are prepared to join dialogue with all the parties that pursue legitimate political goals and intend to defend them using […]
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It is commonly assumed that the main economic challenge facing Ukraine is its dependence on energy supplies, especially natural gas, imported from Russia. But that is only half the story (opendemocracy.net – Margarita Balmaceda and Peter Rutland – May 8, 2014) Peter Rutland is professor of government at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, USA. Margarita Balmaceda is Professor of Diplomacy and […]
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(RIA Novosti – KIEV, May 8, 2014) Ukraine does not acknowledge the $3.5 billion debt for Russian gas deliveries earlier announced by Russian energy giant Gazprom, acting Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan said Thursday. “We cannot accept the figure mentioned by Gazprom because Gazprom includes in this total some calculations that are based on an economically unsound price offered to […]
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(RIA Novosti – Moscow, May 8, 2014) Ukraine is turning into a Middle East in Europe – a source of constant political instability – the Federation Council Chair Valentina Matviyenko thinks. “This is happening because Kiev stubbornly does not want to enter into a dialogue with residents of the country’s eastern and southern regions, to listen to their demands and […]
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(Interfax – May 8, 2014) Presidential election in Ukraine will be considered legitimate only if the “punitive operation” in the country’s southeast stops, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitriy Peskov told privately-owned news agency Interfax on 8 May. “Election (in Ukraine – Interfax), as President Putin said yesterday, is a move in the right direction, but they may be legitimate […]
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MOSCOW. May 8 (Interfax) – Russia is ready to take its part honestly and consistently to search for compromises regarding foreign assistance measures to resolve the domestic crisis in Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “But our Western partners should fulfill their obligations and ensure the Kyiv authorities stop dealing solely with the attempts to make themselves legitimate and start […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Igor Rozin, RBTH – May 8, 2014) The shocking events of May 2 in the Ukrainian port, in which at least 46 people were killed, continue to be the most discussed topic not only in the Ukrainian, but also the Russian mass media. The background to the incident is now becoming clearer as […]
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… 33. Bloomberg: NATO Is Ready for Russia Tactics, Estonia Minister Says.
34. The National Interest: Sean Kay, Understanding-and Misunderstanding-NATO’s Role in the Ukraine Crisis. Was NATO’s open door policy a mistake?
35. www.huffingtonpost.com: Simon Saradzhyan, Photos of Bearded Armed Men in Ukraine Are No Smoking Gun. …