Justice Or Commemoration? As Maidan Massacre Anniversary Approaches, Both Appear Elusive

Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine

… There is no police cordon to give away the forensic significance of the vacant lot atop Instytutska Street, but investigators believe it may hold important clues to conclusively establish who gunned down dozens of anti-government demonstrators […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “New Ukrainian Opposition Party Names Presidential Runner; A pro-Russian candidate could present a real challenge to Poroshenko, pundits say, if the squabbling opposition parties join forces” – Transitions Online

Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine

“The split between the successors to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions widened this week when the parliamentary Opposition Bloc stripped its co-chairman Yuriy Boyko of membership.  … three days after Boyko threw his hat into next spring’s presidential race …. Earlier this month, Boyko and another Opposition Bloc member, Vadym Rabinovych, announced the formation of an offshoot […]

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NEWSLINK: “Ukraine should create Mossad-type unit to kidnap Yanukovych from Russia – prosecutor” – UNIAN

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

“Law enforcers should do their utmost to make sure the disgraced president is brought to responsibility if the court convicts him, the official said. Prosecutor of the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office, Ruslan Kravchenko, who represents state prosecution in the treason trial of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, has offered to set up a special unit to kidnap the ex-leader from […]

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NEWSLINK: “Who Killed the Kiev Protesters? A 3-D Model Holds the Clues. A team of civilian investigators used cellphone videos, autopsy reports and surveillance footage to reconstruct a virtual crime scene.” – New York Times Magazine/Mattathias Schwartz

Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine

“… Most of the deaths occurred within half an hour along a few hundred feet of streetscape. The scene unfolded before dozens of cameramen, smartphones and security cameras. But these recorded fragments from the day were overshadowed by a fight over what they really showed: The claims of grief-stricken activists, who blamed the Ukrainian paramilitary for shooting the protesters, collided […]

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NEWSWATCH: “Ukraine’s Regime Is Less Stable than It Was Under Yanukovych: A Third Year Comparison [Excerpt]” – PONARS Eurasia/Yuriy Matsiyevsky

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

Yuriy Matsiyevsky is Associate professor at the National University of Ostroh Academy, Ukraine. [Full text: ponarseurasia.org/memo/ukraine-regime-less-stable-than-under-yanukovych-third-year-comparison] (PONARS Policy Memo) Unfinished reforms, growing social discontent, and ongoing war with Russia deeply destabilize Ukraine. Under such strained conditions, what are the chances of Ukraine’s current government, and specifically the presidency of Petro Poroshenko, to survive until the end of their elected terms? […]

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Ukraine Says There’s No Evidence of Illicit Payments to Manafort

Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Volodymyr Verbyany – June 27, 2017) Ukrainian prosecutors said they’d found no proof of illicit payments to U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager from his work for the party of the nation’s ousted leader. Anti-corruption investigators in the ex-Soviet republic said last year that they’d found ledgers showing $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments between […]

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Everyone Seems To Have A Peace Plan For Ukraine

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Christopher Miller – February 23, 2017) KYIV — It seems that peace plans for Ukraine are everywhere these days. Amid a recent surge in violence in eastern Ukraine and yet another failed cease-fire in the nearly 3-year-old conflict are a wave of new proposals to bring peace to the crisis-stricken nation — and from some unexpected […]

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NEWSLINK: “Russian media release text of Yanukovych’s letter to Trump” – Kyiv Post/Euan MacDonald, Olga Rudenko

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

“Editor’s Note: Russian media on Feb. 22 released the text of a letter allegedly sent by the ousted former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to U.S. President Donald Trump. Yanukovych claimed that he had sent letters to Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview published on Feb. 22 by German weekly […]

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NEWSLINK: “Yanukovych Resurfaces; ‘Ukraine Has Become a Wild Country'” – Der Spiegel

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

“Three years after the Maidan insurgency, Viktor Yanukovych has re-emerged to express his views on the Ukraine conflict in a letter addressed to Trump, Putin, Merkel and others. DER SPIEGEL correspondent Christian Neef met with the former president.” [featured image is file photo]

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Yanukovych’s lawyers hurry Kyiv court with organizing his questioning in “Berkut” inquiry

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

KYIV. July 21 (Interfax) – The defense lawyers of Ukraine’s ex-president Viktor Yanukovych will do everything for his questioning, via video link, to be organized as quickly as possible by Kyiv’s Svyatoshinsky Court, which is hearing the case against five former officers of the Interior Ministry’s Berkut special-forces unit, lawyer Vitaly Serdiuk said. “We’ve come a very long way to […]

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NEWSWATCH Reuters: “Russia Grants Ukraine’s Request to Delay Eurobond Case Defense”

International Monetary Fund Logo Over Ukraine Flag

Russia has agreed to allow Ukraine extra time to file its defence with a British court … Russia filed a lawsuit … demanding repayment of the $3 billion Eurobond …. Ukraine insists Russia must accept restructuring terms agreed with other foreign creditors. … Ukraine had until March 19 to file its defence although it was granted an extension until April […]

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Ousted Ukrainian President Yanukovych Planning a Comeback

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com March 1, 2016) Ukraine’s ousted President Viktor Yanukovych – who fled to Russia in February 2014 following months of anti-government protests – intends to return to his former position as leader of Ukraine, Yanukovych’s lawyer Vitaly Serdyuk said, the TASS news agency reported Tuesday. “He intends to return to Ukraine. Yanukovych has never resigned from his […]

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RIA Novosti: Ousted Ukrainian leader wants political comeback – interview to Russian media

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

(RIA Novosti – December 8, 2015) Deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has expressed his wish to return to politics. He said this in an interview with RIA Novosti (part of the state-owned International News Agency Rossiya Segodnya), excerpts from which were published on 8 December. “I want to return to politics. Today… [ellipsis as received] I do everything in my […]

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NEWSLINK New York Times: Judge Rebuffs U.S. in Rejecting Extradition of Ukraine Billionaire

Hand Pulling Cash from Envelope

In a defeat for the United States, an Austrian judge refused Thursday to order the extradition of Dmitri V. Firtash, a Ukrainian billionaire and onetime patron of the country’s ousted president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, siding with defense lawyers who said the American request was politically motivated.

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NEWSLINK BBC: Yanukovych ally Peklushenko in new Ukraine mystery death

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

A former regional governor has been found dead in Ukraine, the latest in a series of deaths involving allies of deposed President Viktor Yanukovych. Oleksandr Peklushenko, former head of Zaporizhzhya, had suffered a gunshot wound to the neck and authorities said initial inquiries pointed to suicide. … http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31855700

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RIA Novosti: Ukraine’s Yanukovych vows to return, urges warring sides to make peace

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

(RIA Novosti – February 21, 2015) The authorities in Kiev will have to stop discriminating against southeast Ukraine and give the region enough autonomy to protect its rights if they want to hold Ukraine together, ousted former President Viktor Yanukovych said on 21 February. He urged the sides to negotiate a peace and said he would like to return to […]

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Oliver Stone Interviews Yanukovych for Documentary on U.S. ‘Coup’ in Ukraine

Oliver Stone

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 31, 2014) Hollywood film producer Oliver Stone has said he wants to make a four-hour documentary telling the “dirty story” of the overthrow of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in what he believes was a “coup” organized with the help of the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency. “A dirty story through and through, but […]

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New parliament, old ways in Ukraine

Verkhovna Rada File Photo

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – December 1, 2014) It should have been a great day in Ukraine’s effort to transform itself into a modern liberal democracy in the EU mould. The freshly elected Ukrainian parliament held its first session on November 27, completing the process of political transition from the kleptocratic autocracy of Viktor […]

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Thirty-nine government heads roll after lustration law takes effect

Maidan Square file photo

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – October 17, 2014) Ukrainian PM Arseny Yatsenyuk has said that 39 top government officials have lost their jobs on the basis of a lustration law that entered into force on October 14, purging officials who served under former president Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in February. “In accordance with the basic norm of the […]

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Business New Europe: Ukraine’s lustration law bans up to a million from holding office, Poroshenko escapes

Verkhovna Rada File Photo

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – October 15, 2014) Ukraine’s new law on lustration came into force on October 15 on being published in government announcer Holos Ukrainy. According to Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who backed the law, it bans up to 1m Ukrainians from holding office. The bill principally targets officials who served during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, […]

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Frustrated Ukrainian Activists Dishing Out ‘Trash-Bucket Justice’

Ukraine Map and Flag

(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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Interfax: Yanukovych on new authorities in Kyiv: bloody fireworks bad start for presidency

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

ROSTOV-ON-DON. May 29 (Interfax) – Viktor Yanukovych has said that he believed the continuation of the violent operation in southeast Ukraine after the presidential election was a bad omen. “This is a very bad sign – to start a presidential path from such a bloody, deadly firework show which causes the ire and curses from mothers who see their children, […]

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Interfax: Ukraine’s deposed president says he “respects” people’s choice in election

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

(Interfax – May 26, 2014) Ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said he respects the choice that the Ukrainian people made in the presidential election on 25 May, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 26 May. “An early presidential election has been held in Ukraine. Irrespective of what per cent of people in which region took part in the […]

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U.S. Assisting Ukraine With ‘Treasure Trove’ of Yanukovych Records

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

(RFE/RL – April 9, 2014) A top U.S. diplomat says the United States is helping Ukraine comb through a “treasure trove” of documents recovered from the government of ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in order to prosecute corrupt officials. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland said Department of Justice officials were helping to “exploit” […]

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Interim Ukraine government in the same hole as Yanukovych

File Photo of Cash, Coins, Line Graph

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – KYIV BLOG – Ben Aris in Moscow – March 24, 2014) The interim Ukrainian government signed off on the long-mooted Association Agreement with the EU at the weekend, setting the impasse with Russia in stone. However, the “Maidan” government baulked at signi ng the economic part of the deal. Is the new administration about […]

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Yanukovych’s indecision doomed Ukrainian people to suffer – Medvedev

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

MOSCOW. March 21 (Interfax) – Viktor Yanukovych’s indecision caused sufferings to Ukrainian people, who were entitled to peacefully protest against the authorities’ arbitrary rule, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said. “The [Ukrainian] authorities’ impotence, President Yanukovych’s personal weakness and indecision doomed the people of Ukraine to great sufferings. The people who took to the streets had the right to peacefully […]

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Mistakes in some arguments given for Russia’s action [re: Ukraine]

Maidan Square file photo

Subject:  Mistakes in some arguments given for Russia’s action Date:     Fri, 14 Mar 2014 From:   Ira Straus IRASTRAUS@aol.com Mistakes in some arguments given for Russia’s action By Ira Straus U.S. Coordinator Committee on Eastern Europe and Russia in NATO A. The imagined NATO threat It is argued that the EU association agreement was a step to NATO membership, and Russia […]

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Ousted Ukrainian President Warns of Civil War – RIA Novosti

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

MOSCOW, March 11 (RIA Novosti) – Ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych warned on Tuesday that “dark forces” are working to foment civil war in the troubled former Soviet nation. During a short address in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, Yanukovych insisted that he not only remains Ukraine’s president, but that he is also still the head of the armed […]

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Interfax: Yanukovych blames Ukraine’s current authorities for Crimea’s separation

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

ROSTOV-ON-DON. March 11 (Interfax) – Ukraine’s president, Viktor Yanukovych, said that the socioeconomic situation will deteriorate in Ukraine under the current government and that he does not bear responsibility for Crimea’s “separation from Ukraine.” “The socioeconomic situation will seriously deteriorate soon, which will deal a direct blow to the people of Ukraine. Those who have usurped power will try to […]

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RIA Novosti: Yanukovych to Speak in Rostov-on-Don – Report

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

MOSCOW, March 10 (RIA Novosti) – Fugitive Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych will make an official statement Tuesday in Rostov-on-Don, sources close to the once powerful leader told RIA Novosti on Monday. It will be the second public appearance by Yanukovych in the southern Russian city since he fled Ukraine for Russia last month as opposition protesters swept to power in […]

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Putin Sees No Political Future for Yanukovych

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Christopher Brennan – March 4, 2014) President Vladimir Putin spoke publicly about the political turmoil in Ukraine on Tuesday for the first time since ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled Kiev amid violence between police and anti-government protesters. Putin echoed comments made by Yanukovych at a news conference in Rostov-on-Don last week, saying that the […]

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Paper trail leads to massive corruption at heart of Ukraine

Maidan Square file photo

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack in Kyiv – February 27, 2014) [Graphics here http://www.bne.eu/storyf5807/Paper_trail_leads_to_massive_ corruption_at_heart_of_Ukraine] With former president Viktor Yanukoych and most of his cronies on the run, the full extent to which they have looted Ukraine is now coming to light as activists and journalists sift through documents abandoned in the haste of flight. Document scraps […]

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Russia still views Yanukovych as legitimate Ukrainian president – Duma deputy

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

SIMFEROPOL. Feb 25 (Interfax) – Russia still considers Viktor Yanukovych the legitimate president of Ukraine, says Leonid Slutsky, the chairman of the Russian State Duma committee for the CIS affairs, Eurasian integration, and links with compatriots. “We still view Viktor Yanukovych as the legitimate president of Ukraine. He did not sign the 2004 constitution; hence, we don’t have the 2004 […]

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Ukraine Ex-Ruling Party Moves to Opposition

Map of Ukraine and Ukrainian Flag

KIEV, February 24 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine’s former ruling Party of Regions, which had until recently held an overwhelming majority of seats in parliament, announced Monday that it will take up the role of the opposition. Faction leader Oleksandr Yefremov said at a meeting of party officials in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, that the erstwhile opposition had enough power […]

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Unless Kremlin Learns Lessons of Ukraine, a Russian Maidan is Inevitable, Nemtsov Says

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, February 23, 2014) Viktor Yanukovich was “100 percent” responsible for the rise of the popular movement that overthrew him, Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov says, and unless the Kremlin learns the lessons from what has taken place in Ukraine, “a Russian Maidan is inevitable” and it will be the fault of no […]

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Ukraine’s Acting President Warns Economy Is in Dire State

File Photo of Cash, Coins, Line Graph

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Daryna Krasnolutska, Kateryna Choursina and Ilya Arkhipov – February 23, 2014) Ukrainian lawmakers gave presidential powers to parliament Speaker Oleh Turchynov, who urged political parties to agree on a new government and warned of the “catastrophic” state of the nation’s economy. The U.S., Europe and the U.K. said they would help with financial aid when a […]

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Interfax: Right Sector does not believe Yanukovych, vows to continue fight against authorities

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

KYIV. Feb 21 (Interfax) – The ultra-radical movement Right Sector has stated it does not trust Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and will continue fighting against the current authorities. To settle the domestic situation we are initiating a return to the 2004 Constitution and announcing an early presidential election, Yanukovych said earlier on Friday. Our movement tends to see Yanukovych’s statement […]

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Interfax: Putin talked to Ukrainian president but not interfering in crisis – spokesman

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

(Interfax -February 19, 2014) Russian President Vladimir Putin talked to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych about the situation in Ukraine on the night of 18-19 February, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitriy Peskov has said. But the information published about this conversation is untrue, he added. Peskov was speaking to journalists on 19 February, as reported by privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax. “As […]

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Poll shows most Russians support Yanukovych in Ukrainian standoff

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – February 12, 2014) 28% support President Viktor Yanukovych in the Ukrainian standoff and only 6% side with the opposition, the Public Opinion Foundation said after having polled 1,000 people in 320 cities and 160 villages on February 1-2. Some 36% denied supporting either of the conflicting sides. A total of 75% of the respondents […]

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RIA Novosti: Ukraine Leader Eying Early Elections Over Use of Force – Lawmaker

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

KIEV, February 4 (RIA Novosti) – Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych says he is prepared to hold early presidential and parliamentary elections in the country if no other solution can be found to the ongoing political crisis, his political ally has said. The country’s government resigned last week, and demonstrators who have occupied the center of Kiev since November are demanding […]

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Kharkiv politicians take high-stakes hard line against protests

Ukraine Map and Flag

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack in Kharkiv – February 4, 2014) Embattled Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s most vocal supporters are currently not from his Donbass homeland, but from the second largest city of Kharkiv. But their combination of provocative sloganeering, abusive rhetoric and apparent thuggishness mean friends like these may do him no favour in the eyes […]

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Yanukovych kills off amnesty bill compromise as oligarch rebellion grows

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – January 30, 2014) Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych visited the Rada for the first time in two years on January 29 to enforce discipline over the Party of Regions and added conditions to an amnesty bill that in effect killed any chance of a compromise with the opposition to end the fighting. The dramatic events […]

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Yanukovych’s “family business” links him to Russia

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

(Business New Europe – bne.ru – January 28, 2014) The pro-Russian leanings of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his associates have triggered a national crisis following November’s shocking decision to back out of signing a deal that would have brought the country closer to the EU. Yet the Kremlin’s hold over Yanukovych may not be restricted to the international power […]

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Economist editor claims Putin told Yanukovych to “dip hands in blood”

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – January 24, 2014) Celebrate Economist editor Edward Lucas made one of his more outrageous claims in a paper written for the Central European Policy Institute, alleging that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not only ultimately responsible for the two shooting deaths in Kyiv this week, but somehow ordered’ Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to kill […]

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Controversial Year for Ukraine: President Yanukovych Makes U-turn to Avoid Default

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 11, Issue 3 – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Oleg Varfolomeyev – January 8, 2014) Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych made a sensational U-turn last year, choosing Russian economic assistance over an association and free-trade deal with the European Union. The decision, which triggered the most massive anti-government protests since 2004, was dictated by a dismal state […]

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Putin Tells Ukraine Leader He Expects Progress in Ties

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer – December 31, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yanukovych, that he’s counting on further strengthening ties. In a New Year’s greeting, Putin thanked Yanukovych for “comradely, businesslike” relations that allowed the two former Soviet neighbors to develop a partnership benefiting “brotherly peoples.” The coming year should provide an opportunity […]

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Ukraine re-examining European integration course, but continues work on it – Yanukovych

Viktor Yanukovych file photo

KYIV. Dec 26 (Interfax) – Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych expects the government and the parliament to work together effectively on the negotiations on the preparations for signing an association agreement with the European Union. “I expect the government and parliamentarians to work together closely on the negotiations and work on this agreement, which should be profitable to Ukraine and be […]

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