It is pointless to debate about who was behind Yatsenyuk’s dismissal – Yushchenko or his alter-ego Baloha: if Yushchenko had not profited from his confidant, he would have long sacrificed him.

The panic will subside, and life will resume its normal course. Wages and salaries will grow slowly, prices will rise rapidly, but we have gotten used to it and will continue to blame the government.

This article does not assess the behavior of major Ukrainian political forces and their leaders as much has been and will be written about that. My point is that these all-versus-all political games obscure important economic problems which tend to aggravate underlying conditions of political instability.

On 2 October 2008, thanks to long preparatory work, negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers, Yuliya Tymoshenko and Vladimir Putin took place after all, and were fairly successful.

A Gallup Poll found a strong majority of Ukrainians (65%) saying their leadership is taking the country in the wrong direction and only about one in six (16%) expressing confidence in their national government.

This week all those involved in the current stage of the permanent Ukrainian political crisis played a kind of make-believe game. Inside Ukraine the President made believe a coup d’etat and in Europe he made believe “a normal democratic process.”

Strangely enough, the long-awaited political event that happened last week came as a bolt from the blue, especially to those who had been working the hardest for it. The scared leaders put up a brave front, trying to make everyone believe that it was all in their plans.

This year the question of Ukraine’s ability to adequately respond to internal and external challenges arose in a new aspect. The events in South Ossetia posed a new question: is Ukraine able to defend itself if confronted with a military threat?

Former president Vladimir Putin decreed 2007 as "The Year of the Russian Language." Gallup Polls reveal increasingly favorable attitudes toward learning the Russian language in several post-Soviet states, most notably in Georgia, Moldova, and Armenia.

Since the collapse of the USSR and the Orange Revolution, Ukraine has passed through three defining moments of statehood.   The most significant of these moments was the establishment of Ukraine as an independent state.

Regrettably enough, Ukraine’s image created by the Russian mass media and Russia’s image as created by the Ukrainian mass media are far from the truth. So what is Russia really like today?

Ukraine, in the wake of its Orange Revolution, has earned the image of a leading post-Soviet country regarding the pace of liberal reform. However, this perception of the country is to a large extent a kind of payment in advance rather than a reflection of actual results.

Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine are neither an ethnic sub-community of the Russian nation nor a part of the “Russian world”.

Interview with Volodymyr Ohryzko, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

"NATO has always taken Russia into account when considering the modalities of enlargement, the timing of it and the likely consequences of it. But it has never granted Russia a veto over this process or a role to play in it," James Sherr. 

YURY YAKIMENKO

A parliamentary majority should be formed in order to elect a new speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. This majority could become a new coalition.

KIRILL GAVRILOV, ELENA KOZIEVSKAYA, ELENA YATSENKO

One of the major resources that the New Independent States inherited from the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union is the Russian language. During several generations the Russian people have put all the huge human and financial resources in its development. What is the current position and what are the prospects of the Russian language in the NIS?

VADIM KARASYOV, MIKHAIL POGREBINSKY, VITALY PORTNIKOV

There is a question about the situation after the elections. But why should it change? If the elections outcome is about the same as in the last elections (the public opinion polls show that), the Party of Regions and Our Ukraine will not have the majority to build a coalition. 

VITALY BALA

Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc and Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko herself have reacted negatively to President Viktor Yushchenko’s decision to dissolve the Verkhovha Rada and to hold early parliamentary elections.

STANISLAV PRITCHIN

On October 8, in his message to the people President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko announced the dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada. His speech was based on the allegation that Yuliya Tymoshenko and her decisions “threaten Ukraine”.

VITALY BALA

The main reason for the breakup of the 'orange' coalition is that President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko does not want to accept Yuliya Tymoshenko's wide popularity in Ukraine.

VADIM KARASYOV, VITALY PORTNIKOV

"Currently there are a few people in Ukraine backing Viktor Yushchenko’s nation building and cultural project, and if the early elections were called  the votes could be distributed, in the main, between the Party of Regions and Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc," Vitaly Portnikov said.

VITALY BALA

When Yuliya Tymoshenko was firstly going to visit Russia as Prime Minister after the last parliamentary elections, I believed that this might be a breakthrough in the Russian-Ukrainian relations.

VADIM KARASYOV

We should not discuss the theology issues and the relations within the Orthodox Church. We should discuss the celebration of the 1,020th anniversary of the acceptance of Christianity by Rus where there was a complicated political intrigue.

VITALY PORTNIKOV

The holding of “Sea Breeze” military exercises and Ukraine’s joining NATO should be regarded as two different processes. Some people want to unite them, but Kyiv has not applied for the NATO membership yet. Ukraine has not received the NATO Membership Action Plan and, apparently, will not recieve it in December.

ALEKSEY MITROFANOV, KONSTANTIN SIMONOV

"I would like to mention three “agents” that can improve the situation with the Russian language in the post-Soviet space. Those include our government, NGOs and Russian companies", Konstantin Simonov.

VLADIMIR ZHARIKHIN

The main result to be drawn from the informal CIS summit is that under the new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Russia's policy in the post-Soviet space will not change drastically.

VALERY CHALIY

It is intolerable that, according to public opinion polls in Russia, Ukraine ranks third among the unfriendly states. In Ukraine Russia ranks first as a friendly one. Probably, this indicates that the information policies in Ukraine and Russia are different.

ANDREY KOKOSHIN, FIRST DEPUTY CHAIRMAN OF THE STATE DUMA COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND HIGH TECHNOLOGIES; FYODOR LUKYANOV, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF "RUSSIA IN GLOBAL AFFAIRS" MAGAZINE

"The change consists in the fact that Russia can no longer influence the domestic policy of its neighbors. When that became clear Russia chose the pragmatic approach," Fyodor Lukyanov.

KONSTANTIN ZATULIN, ALEXANDER KONOVALOV, TATYANA PARKHALINA, OLES DONIY, LEONID KOZHARA, IVAN ZAETS, ANDREW KUCHINS

"Why do the Central and Eastern European countries seek to join NATO? For many of them it is a way to join the EU. Many countries took this as institutionalization of independence from Moscow. For many countries it was a way to return to Europe," Tatyana Parkhalina.

ELENA YATSENKO

According to the official data, provided by a number of international organizations, at present 233 million people on Earth speak Russian, with 164 million having it as their native language and 69 million as their second language.

Now, more than any time since the country gained independence 17 years ago, Ukraine looks destined to come back under Russian hegemony. Ironically, the more the pro-Western administration of President Viktor Yushchenko resists this outcome, the greater the chances of it coming about.

Along with Eastern Europe's other so-called emerging economies, Ukraine has been posting impressive rates of growth over the past several years. Now all that has been undone, and everyone is hoping that the International Monetary Fund will come to Ukraine's rescue.

It looks like there will be no war between Russia and Ukraine. It is clear that this fact will upset many in Moscow and Kyiv, but, unfortunately, there is a need to face realities. The efforts made by militarism heralds, admirers of Ukrainian hetman Ivan Mazepa and defenders of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet proved to be futile.

Ukraine is going to hold its fifth general elections in as many years, but don't expect the upcoming parliamentary vote to stabilize the country's chaotic political arena any time soon. Ever since President Viktor Yushchenko was elected on a pro-Western platform back in 2005, the seats of power in the former Soviet republic have been contested in a no-holds-barred dogfight that is desperate to the point of absurdity. 

It seems that after the conflict with Georgia all we need is to clash with Ukraine. A lot of politicians both in Russia and Ukraine would definitely like it to happen. Caucasian crisis resulted in a new quarrel over Sevastopol, this time provoked by the Ukrainian side.

The typical criticism of the UK’s Foreign Office is the one eloquently expressed in John Le Carre’s The Constant Gardener - that they are pitiless practitioners of real-politik who care more about stability than idealism, and who only really work to protect the interests of British corporations, rather than British values. But on Russia, the Foreign Office seems to have erred on the other side.

By sending troops into Georgia earlier this month, the Kremlin has shown its willingness to use force to check the advance of the West into what it considers Russia's zone of influence. The pretext for the invasion, Georgia's military clampdown on its separatist region of South Ossetia, is irrelevant.

Georgia has resolutely condemned Russia’s actions in Chechnya. Russia has severely criticized NATO actions towards Serbia. Later on the Georgian authorities tried to do the same thing in South Ossetia as the Russian authorities had done in Chechnya. Moscow decided to treat Georgia in the same way as NATO had treated Serbia.

On Friday, July 25, the Russian Foreign Ministry released a statement in which it noted that "events dedicated to the 1,020th anniversary of the acceptance of Christianity by Rus are being held in Kyiv in an atmosphere of disrespect toward the Russian Orthodox Church and the feelings of millions of Orthodox believers in Russia and Ukraine."

Remember the shell game, in which the unsuspecting player is challenged to follow a little ball with his eyes as it rolls from under one shell to the next with lightning speed? When the game operator finally stops, the player is asked to guess which shell the ball lies under in order to win a prize. However, in most cases, the operator has already managed to slip the ball into his own hands, thereby making any guess by the player a losing one.

Last weekend saw the visit of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to Moscow, where she met with Vladimir Putin for the first time since he went from being Russia’s president to heading his country’s government. During the joint press conference both premiers chose their words carefully, demonstrating the sensitivity of current Russian-Ukrainian relations.

If NATO can bring Ukrainians rule of law and a decent living standard, it would already have justified its expansion. But judging by the way other Western reforms have been perverted in Ukraine, one couldn’t be blamed for having serious doubts. Probably with more candidness, Mr. Yushchenko pointed out that Ukraine can join any international organization that it likes.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and his one-time ally Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko have increasingly traded blows over the country’s budget, privatization, energy policy and, most recently, the Kyiv mayoral elections; however, when it comes to foreign policy, the two politicians who rose to power during Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution show unusual and possibly even unintended solidarity.

The crusade to raise the Ukrainian language heads and shoulders above Russian continues apace in Kyiv and other parts of the country, but as with most crusades, it’s not clear what the end goal is. Ukraine’s State Cinema Service recently announced that all films made in Ukraine must be in Ukrainian starting in July. All foreign films shown in Ukraine are already required to be dubbed or subtitled in Ukrainian.

Over the holiday-filled weekend, Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov arrived in the history-filled city of Sevastopol to challenge the history and geopolitical relations of Ukraine and Russia. The official purpose of Mr. Luzhkov's visit was to take part in the celebration of the 225th anniversary of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which fell on Europe Day (May 11) and just after Victory Day (May 9).

Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov led a government delegation to Kyiv on April 25. It was only a one-day visit, and Zubkov is expected to be replaced sometime this month anyway, following the inauguration of the new Russian president.

NATO leaders arrived for their summit in Bucharest last week in an atmosphere of uncertainty bordering on mistrust. Outgoing US president George Bush continued to push for the inclusion of Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance, while European heavyweights Germany and France voiced the opposition of older member states to further eastern expansion.

The issue of whether Ukraine should join NATO has returned to the public agenda, sparking off heated debates between supporters and opponents of the country’s bid. In the past, such polemics have usually meant proponents of Euro-Atlantic unity coming under attack by pro-Russian factions in the run up to an important election or a NATO-sponsored military exercise on home soil.