IRINA KOBRINSKAYA, LEONID VARDOMSKY, DMYTRO BOYARCHUK

"The main question for the next few years is whether the Kharkiv agreements will become a tool of stabilization, development and rapprochement of Ukraine and Russia", Irina Kobrinskaya.

MICHAEL AVERKO

What follows is a long and updated version of a submitted letter, which was edited and run by The Moscow Times (TMT) on March 18. This is stated with the realization of how news organizations are known for shortening letters for space consideration. With this understanding, I have no objection to how TMT edited my letter. At the same time, there is more to be substantively said about the involved topics. 

OLEKSANDR GAVRYLYUK

Both Tymoshenko and Yanukovych are backed by almighty oligarchic clans, whose interests they are supposed to meet. So will the new president be willing and able to break out the preset paradigm and finally initiate the long-awaited reforms, which would inevitably come into conflict with the oligarchic interests?

YURY YAKIMENKO

The narrow gap shows that it will be difficult for Viktor Yanukovych to seize power and that the two presidential candidates should negotiate with each other.

DMITRY VYDRIN

In the January 17 elections Yuliya Tymoshenko made three system mistakes. Firstly, as I have already said, the exit poll with the results in the interests of Yuliya Tymoshenko was made. She cannot use this technology in the second round, as no one would believe “her” sociologists.

YURY YAKIMENKO

Viktor Yanukovych and Yuliya Tymoshenko are the leaders of the presidential election campaign. There continues to be a 10-15% gap between their approval ratings. Serhyi Tigipko ranks third. The gap between his approval rating and that of Yuliya Tymoshenko is 10%.

DMITRY VYDRIN

The presidential election campaign in Ukraine has two main intrigues, if anything extraordinary does not happen in the New Year and Christmas holidays. The first one is a very wide gap between approval ratings of the leaders of the presidential race, Viktor Yanukovych and Yuliya Tymoshenko.

VITALY BALA

For the time being, it is unclear who will rank third. The main fight unfolds between Viktor Yushchenko and Serhyi Tigipko. Viktor Yushchenko can be such an aspirant, as he is Ukraine’s President, while Arseniy Yatsenuk can fail to rank third.

VITALY BALA

Ukraine's issue in the context of Russia-EU relations is not of current importance. As regards the foreign-policy issues, the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia’s independence is of the greatest significance to Moscow now.

YURY YAKIMENKO

According to public opinion polls, conducted in Ukraine, there are three favorites in the presidential race. Viktor Yanukovych, leader of the Party of Regions, ranks first (30%). Yuliya Tymoshenko, Prime Minister, ranks second (20%). Arseny Yatsenyuk, former Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, ranks third (9%).

VITALY BALA

Leader of the opposition Party of Regions Viktor Yanukovych and Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko continue to be the major presidential candidates. In the first round Viktor Yanukovych can rank first. But in the second round he will lose the election to Yuliya Tymoshenko.

VADIM KARASYOV

If Viktor Yushchenko wins the 2010 presidential elections, Ukraine will try to withdraw from the CIS. If another presidential candidate Yuliya Tymoshenko wins the elections, Kyiv will seek to restore the “multivector” policy.

VITALY BALA

Dmitry Medvedev’s address to his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko indicates that Russia is acting towards its neighbors like in the early nineties, when the doctrine on Moscow’s exclusive interests in the former Soviet Union prevailed.

VALERY CHALIY

On August 11, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced his decision to delay the arrival of the new Russian Ambassador in Ukraine. Dmitry Medvedev did it in the address to his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko.

VITALY BALA

Experts are not surprised that the negotiations on creation of Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc and the Party of Regions coalition were broken off. Once again the Ukrainians were deeply disappointed in Viktor Yanukovych, leader of the Party of Regions, who initiated the talks cessation.

VADIM KARASYOV

Why did Viktor Yanukovych choose to break off the negotiations with Yuliya Tymoshenko? The first reason is he has a high approval rating that would allow him to make it into the second round and to win the presidential elections. Now Viktor Yanukovych’s rating is his main capital. With the new political system the rating would cease to be the key resources.

IGOR BURAKOVSKY

At present, in Russia-Ukraine relations the economic issues are of the greatest importance, at least, to Ukraine. The economic crisis has reduced the demand for goods including natural gas, which offers a problem to Ukraine since there is a contracted volume of the Russian gas that should be paid for.

VITALY BALA

Yuliya Tymoshenko’s visit to Moscow on April 29 may raise her rating, especially among the electors from Ukraine’s east and southeast regions who sympathize with Russia and its political leaders, in particular Russian Premier Vladimir Putin.

DMITRY VYDRIN

Only a month ago influential businessmen were choosing between Viktor Yanukovych and Yuliya Tymoshenko to back him or her up at the presidential election. Now they offer their financial, social and media resources to Arseniy Yatsenuk who may make it into the second round of the presidential election leaving Yuliya Tymoshenko behind.

VADIM KARASYOV

The change of Ukrainians’ social and political attitudes is a natural course of things. During the crisis it's a sign of the sound political system, which is developing on the right track.

VALERY CHALIY

Ukraine doesn’t want to be affected by the problems caused by the U.S.-Russia bad relations. This is one of the reasons why Ukraine is to welcome the fact that the issue of cutbacks in the nuclear arsenal can become of importance to the U.S.A. and Russia again.

STANISLAV PRITCHIN

The Russia-Ukraine gas conflict, which took place in January, is of great importance to Ukraine’s politics in 2009. The presidential election will be held at the beginning of 2010, so all the major Ukrainian policy-makers use the conflict and its settlement for the further political struggle.

YULIYA TISHCHENKO

There are several deep-rooted causes for the President-Prime Minister confrontation in Ukraine. The first one is the presidential election is not far off. Yuliya Tymoshenko is one of the main potential presidential candidates and rivals of both Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych.

VITALY BALA

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's criticizing Yuliya Tymoshenko’s gas agreements with Russia at the meeting of the Council of National Security and Defense, which was held on February 10, 2009, indicates that the President’s fight against his political competitors has reached an inadmissible level.

YURY YAKIMENKO

The ruling class has become more consolidated, the positions of President Yushchenko and Prime Minister Tymoshenko have become closer. But the opposition Party of Regions’ reputation can be tainted and the Party can lose the confidence of its voters in the eastern Ukrainian regions.

ALEKSANDR RAHR

Russia-Ukraine gas conflict has led to reinforcement of the EU's activities in the post-Soviet area.

YEVHEN KOPATKO, GRIGORY PEREPELITSA, ANDREY BLINOV

"I believe that Russia has done everything in its power to block Ukraine’s admission to NATO. Moscow regards Ukraine's non-accession to the NATO membership Action Plan as its victory", Grigory Perepelitsa.

DMITRY VYDRIN, VADIM KARASYOV, IGOR BURAKOVSKY

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has elected a new Speaker, Volodymyr Lytvyn. But an amorphous majority is created instead of the new coalition. Moreover, this majority cannot be regarded as the ‘orange’ coalition.

VITALY BALA

The potential Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc and the Party of Regions alliance can be created formally or informally. Regardless of the alliance format, this would be the best scenario because then the presidential campaign would be free of stark confrontations.

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.

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.

VADIM KARASYOV

The winter-spring political season in Ukraine was determined by two peculiarities. Firstly, this is the influence of the 2007 early parliamentary elections on many events in the country in 2008. The second peculiarity is a more complicated and fundamental problem of institutionalization of the Parliament in the context of the constitutional changes.

DMITRY VYDRIN

The fact that two Verkhovna Rada legislators, Igor Rybakov and Yuri Bout, have withdrawn from the democratic coalition casts doubt on its prospects.

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.

YURY YAKIMENKO

I believe that President Yushchenko and Prime Minister Tymoshenko will prolong the truce till the autumn. If there are no political convulsions, no coalition reformating and if the early elections are not held before October-November, one can hope that relative political stability will be maintained in Ukraine for a longer time.

VITALY BALA

I would not exaggerate the importance of the Kyiv mayoral elections in terms of their influence on the political situation in the country as a whole. Though, of course, the elections were of great importance.

DMITRY VYDRIN

It seems that Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko wants to be dismissed. She does not want to resign, she would like to be fired.

VITALY BALA

The President Yushchenko’s wish to push through his version of the constitutional reform played a mean trick on him. The President and his team did not expect that Prime Minister Tymoshenko would offer such resistance.  And Tymoshenko took the initiative.

ALEXEY GOLOBUTSKY

In 2004 it came as a compromise in a sense. But Constitution is not a document for compromise, for it is a state-forming document rather than a political one.

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.

DMITRY VYDRIN, YEVHEN KOPATKO

"The purpose of the visit is to enlist the Ukrainian diaspora’s support in the U.S. presidential election. The diaspora is quite numerous and has always backed the Republicans. But recently the Republicans have become less popular with the American Ukrainians," Dmitry Vydrin.

VITALY BALA

“100 days” implies carte blanche for any government. A government can do almost whatever they like within that period: reshuffle the Cabinet, put forward reforms or pursue their own economic policy. In other words, a government is given a free hand.

YURY YAKIMENKO

As regards the conflict between the President and the Prime Minister, they compete with each other for almost everything. Virtually all of important decisions or steps taken by the Cabinet evoked a reaction from the President’s Secretariat.

VADIM KARASYOV

It seems that the Russian authorities make it clear that as long as Tymoshenko is Prime Minister, Russia doesn’t want to be Ukraine’s partner.

YULIYA TISHCHENKO

The visit of Prime Minister of Ukraine, Yuliya Tymoshenko, to Moscow on February 20-21 was made against a background of deterioration of her relations with President Viktor Yushchenko.

DMITRY VYDRIN

Moscow is afraid of making Yuliya Tymoshenko a counterpart in talks on the gas relations. As a result, Viktor Yushchenko again became the major negotiator with Russia. 

VLADIMIR SAPRYKIN, KONSTANTIN BORODIN, VADIM KARASYOV, VLADIMIR FESENKO, VLADIMIR FEIGIN, VLADIMIR VOLOSHIN

"There is a need to get rid of the mediator RosUkrEnergo, and then to increase the tariff of the Russian gas transit through Ukraine. Third point is the presentation of the White Flow gas pipeline project," Volodymyr Saprykin.

VADIM KARASYOV

The ruling elites consider Ukraine’s joining the WTO to be an important step and a serious foreign-policy victory. The point is that Ukraine is the first of the strong post-Soviet  economies that managed to join the WTO, although the process was not trouble-free. As to such WTO members as Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Georgia, their economies are insignificant and, above all, they have not pretended to play an important role in the WTO.

VITALY BALA

No large-scale information campaign on Ukraine’s joining the WTO was conducted in the country. Therefore, the Ukrainians do not understand very well what is in store for them and which advantages and disadvantages for Ukraine the entry conceals.

VITALY BALA

Tymoshenko’s seeking to remove the RosUkrEnergo company from the the chain of the gas supplies and transit should be considered as an element of her presidential campaign. "Gas relations" with Russia became one of her weak points during her first premiership.

VADIM KARASYOV

The election of Yuliya Tymoshenko as Ukraine’s Prime Minister is the evidence of the fact that parliamentary-electoral mechanism of government formation is being created in Ukraine.

VITALY BALA

From now on Tymoshenko’s appointment as Premier is a matter of principle. I believe that the democratic coalition is sure to have her appointed as Ukraine’s Prime Minister.  

IGOR BURAKOVSKY

The fact that building the Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense and Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc coalition has taken almost two months after the early parliamentary elections indicates difficulties on both sides.

OLEKSANDR PASKHAVER, LIDIA VERKHOVODOVA

By way of overcoming the current political crisis Ukrainian society is developing the basics of democracy, though not in a very elegant or ethical manner. But there is no other way of learning freedom and democracy but to practise them.

VITALY BALA

Viktor Yushchenko profits from the procrastination of the coalition formation. As the coalition is not formed, Viktor Yanukovych's government becomes semi-legitimate. The President is the only authority.

VITALY BALA

In terms of tactics, the "orange" coalition formatoin is ByuT’s victory. But as head of state,  Viktor Yushchenko is a winner, too, because he can strengthen his power through the change of the Law on Cabinet and the constitutional reform.

STANISLAV BELKOVSKY

Under Yuliya Tymoshenko, a kind of the Francoist regime could be formed in Ukraine. It could have positive and negative sides.

VADIM KARASYOV

The parliamentary elections results can be boiled down to three points: Viktor Yushchenko’s victory, Yuliya Tymoshenko’s double victory and Viktor Yanukovych’s defeat. Viktor Yushchenko is the winner because he had initiated the early elections and they took place. The “orange” forces stand a good chance of returning to power.

DMITRY VYDRIN

Yuliya Tymoshenko managed to personify Lesya Ukrainka as well as Evita Peron. So, she deserved her victory. She created a failsafe image that could only be outmatched, but everybody failed to do it.

IGOR POPOV

On the eve of the elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, balance of political forces is about the same as it was when the campaign started. This makes it possible to say that the majority may be formed by the two groups of political forces.

VITALY BALA

The returns of forthcoming parliamentary election in Ukraine will surprise its participants. Firstly, it concerns the Party of Regions. Any efforts to mobilize the voters by accusing the rivals were inefficient. This tactic proved to be counterproductive.

SERGEI GOVORUKHA

Most probably, the coalition formation will come to be “a marriage of convenience”. The most unlikely scenario is Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc and the Party of Regions coalition.

VITALY BALA

On September 4, the Socialist Party of Ukraine, the Party of Regions and the Communist Party of Ukraine took part in the special session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, called by Speaker and leader of the Socialist Party of Ukraine, Oleksandr Moroz.

VADIM KARASYOV

The election campaign has begun in Ukraine not only with President Viktor Yushchenko’s fourth decree on dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada. A series of party conventions has recently taken place in Ukraine.

IGOR BURAKOVSKY

Though some political parties have disapproved the early campaign, all of them are going to take part in the election.

VITALY BALA

On August 2, the parliamentary election campaign officially takes off in Ukraine. The leaders of the election race, the Party of Regions and Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc are losing their voters and getting less popular.

YURY YAKIMENKO

The idea of creating a large “orange” bloc on the eve of the parliamentary elections includes two approaches. The first approach is tactical, it implies joint participation in the elections in order to get the greatest possible number of votes. The second approach is a strategic one.

YULIYA TISHCHENKO

President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko wishes to create a united party on the basis of the Our Ukraine bloc after the early parliamentary elections in Fall 2007, and there may be several reasons for that.

VITALY BALA

Now the Party of Regions is dominated by the group focusing on businessman Rinat Akhmetov’s interests. The group is not interested in the cooperation with the Socialist Party but it is interested in holding the early elections and in constructive cooperation with the other forces.

OLEKSANDR PASKHAVER, LIDIA VERKHOVODOVA

Throughout the contemporary history of Ukraine – starting from its independence in 1991 – privatization was an object of heated public debate. It is quite natural considering that privatization was the main instrument of social order transformation.

ARNAUD DUBIEN

After Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych had declared their agreement in the morning of May 27, Europe felt a sense of relief.

VITALY KULIK

Kyiv has always been interested in keeping Ashgabat at arm’s length. It is not only a matter of the special price of the Turkmen gas for Ukraine and the possibility to buy it avoiding the Russian quotas, but ultimately of the participation in implementation of the Thans-Caspian Gas Pipeline project.     

YURY YAKIMENKO

The parliamentary elections’ data is unlikely to be revised. After having gained additional electoral advantages the parties are seeking to change the conditions of the election campaign.

VADIM KARASYOV

The coalition has reduced the score. The gap between the two opposing parties was bridged. Although, in general President Viktor Yushchenko is the winner. His initiative to hold early elections was accepted.

VITALY BALA

I believe that President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych reached a relative compromise about the early parliamentary elections in Ukraine because they came to realize that saber-rattling and conflict escalation could only lead the country to a deadlock.

VADIM KARASYOV

Several considerations underpin President Viktor Yushchenko’s decision to sign the decree postponing the elections to the Verkhovna Rada from May 27 to June 24.

YURY YAKIMENKO

If the Constitutional Court makes the decision to hold early parliamentary elections, it is important for all the stakeholders to accept it. Otherwise, the President will have to cancel his decree.

IGOR BURAKOVSKY

The early elections may worsen the situation in the regions. It is the regional authorities that are engaged in the elections, so at the local level the conflicts may intensify.

DMITRY VYDRIN

The President decided to play another game to get back some of his powers lost in the past year, satisfy his ambitions and recover the presidential honor. 

STANISLAV BELKOVSKY

Some influential political forces may appear in Ukraine by the next parliamentary elections in 2011. They will not be connected with any region or territory and they will incarnate the ideas and values important to the entire country.

VITALY BALA

If to take into account Yatsenyuk’s considerable experience and young age, he may become one of the most promising young ministers, while the government can get a surprise.

YULIYA TISHCHENKO

I want to stress that the early elections are out of the question. Boycotting the Parliament is a demonstrative step the opposition took to show its political resource and political influence.

ARNAUD DUBIEN

An impression of the recent visits of Viktor Yanukovych to Berlin (February 28, 2007) and Viktor Yushchenko to Brussels (March 8-9, 2007) is that the EU – Ukraine relations are at a complete standstill.

VADIM KARASYOV

The new opposition alliance of the Yulia Tymoshenko's Bloc and pro-presidential Our Ukraine Bloc seem to be a mutually beneficial political marriage.

IGOR BURAKOVSKY

Verkhovna Rada’s overriding the presidential veto means that President Yushchenko loses his actual leverage. We can observe the anti-crisis coalition strengthening its role and significance in the Ukrainian system of power.

VADIM KARASYOV

The visit of the Russian President to Ukraine was a success for both Vladimir Putin and Viktor Yushchenko.

ANDREY MISHIN

The CIS is of great help for the multilateral cooperation with the neighbors. Ukraine’s withdrawal from the CIS would result in the paralysis of the economy, and of the transport infrastructure in the first place.

VITALY BALA

As regards the dismissals of Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko and Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk, they will not worsen the relations between the West and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. On the contrary, the December visit of Yanukovych to the USA was a matter of principle.

VADIM KARASYOV

Yushchenko adheres to the eurointegration policy, while Yanukovych’s policy is “euro-oriented”, which includes intense development of the cooperation with the EU and NATO, but not necessarily joining those organizations.

YURY YAKIMENKO

The coalition may propose the President to nominate his candidates to the vacancies. The nature of the future relations between the President and the government will depend on the President’s reaction to that proposal.

YULIYA TISHCHENKO

There is practically no chance for Our Ukraine Bloc to ouster the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc from its niche of the opposition leader.

VADIM KARASYOV

Our Ukraine is tired of the vague policy pursued by Viktor Yushchenko. When in the opposition, the party can act more independently and self-confidently in the political scene.

IGOR POPOV

Our Ukraine bloc has always cherished ambitions to lead the grand parliamentary coalition and laid down unacceptable conditions at the negotiations with Yuliya Tymoshenko’s Bloc and with the Party of Regions.

YURY YAKIMENKO

Rybachuk’s dismissal can be regarded as the Ukrainian President’s counterattack on the Prime Minister.

IGOR BURAKOVSKY

The main problem impeding formation of the coalition is that the political parties see the agreement’s contents in different ways.

ALEXEY GOLOBUTSKY

The stability of Ukraine’s broad coalition will depend on how successfully the economic reforms will be carried out.  believe that when the first serious problems appear in the country, the coalition will have a rift.

VADIM KARASYOV

I believe that when Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko confirmed Viktor Yanukovych’s nomination to the premiership he showed his unwillingness to dissolve the Verkhovna Rada.

VITALY KULIK

Now Ukraine’s President and his environs seem to be ready to dissolve the Verkhovna Rada.  Viktor Yushchenko is restrained by the fact that he feels his own political weakness.

YULIYA TISHCHENKO

The most important issue of the talks between the main Ukrainian political forces is a candidate for the premiership. This issue is of fundamental importance.

VITALY KULIK

The formation of the Anti-crisis coalition indicated the end of the “orange” and “white and blue” projects of 2004. The discourse has changed.  The chapter on the “orange” history should obviously be closed.

IGOR BURAKOVSKY

Due to the split of the “orange” coalition, Our Ukraine Bloc, a pro-presidential political party, finds itself in a complicated situation. The leaders of Our Ukraine Bloc are feverishly trying to answer the question: where to go next?

EVGENY BYSTRITSKY

As regards electing the Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz as Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, I wouldn’t agree that thus he betrayed the ideals of the “orange revolution”.

VADIM KARASYOV

By blocking the Verkhovna Rada’s activity the Party of Regions is trying to get involved in the law-making process. The tough methods, which are used to achieve this goal, are quite explicable.

VLADIMIR ZHARIKHIN

President Viktor Yushchenko tries to create the system of checks and balances. Such attempts have already been made, and failed. Now this will lead to no good, since balances are initially prone to conflicts. Even if the coalition with the Party of Regions was formed, it would make no difference.

YULIYA TISHCHENKO

The statement made by Yuliya Tymoshenko about forming the “orange” government coalition can be viewed as the denouement of the negotiations between the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc, Our Ukraine bloc and the Socialist Party of Ukraine.

IGOR POPOV

Even if the “orange” coalition is formed, it will not remain stable. The President will, too, be unable to stabilize the coalition.

VADIM KARASYOV

Now president Viktor Yushchenko is not able to make the situation more stable. He doesn't possess resources sufficient enough to control the political process in Ukraine.

SERGEI GOVORUKHA

If the negotiations process is not made public, this does not mean there is not one going on behind the scenes. It is the behind-the-scenes negotiations that will persist between all of the four potential members of the future coalition until they reach an ultimate agreement.

DMITRY VYDRIN

Yuliya Tymoshenko is likely to become prime-minister, with members of her bloc taking 50% of the seats in the Cabinet.

YULIYA TISHCHENKO

Recently GUAM’s ideology has been slightly changed. Pragmatic interests are still major item on the agenda. But they are now complemented by political slogans.

YURY YAKIMENKO

It is very likely that the survivor instinct will ultimately drive the parties into the actual coalition. Consequently, neither the prolonged political crisis, nor especially the pre-schedule elections will happen.

VADIM KARASYOV

Three factors have had an impact on the “orange” forces agreement concerning the protocol for creating a coalition. 

DMITRY VYDRIN

The negotiations in Ukraine are likely to result in forming the “orange” coalition. Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc and the Socialist Party of Ukraine have already come to terms.

YURY YAKIMENKO

Now the coalition of Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc, Our Ukraine Bloc and the Socialist Party of Ukraine is the most likely to be formed.

IGOR BURAKOVSKY

I believe two political coalitions may appear in Ukraine’s parliament. The first one may be formed by Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc, the Socialist Party of Ukraine and Our Ukraine Bloc.

GEORGETA POURCHOT

Election results confirm the expected three-way split in Ukraine’s parliamentary election of March 2006.

VITALY KULIK

ALEKSANDR GUSCHIN

The drastic changes, which happened in Ukraine in 2004, concerned not only the domestic and foreign policy, but also seriously affect Ukraine’s economy.

STANISLAV BELKOVSKY

On March 26 the parliamentary elections will take place in Ukraine. These elections will be symbolic as they are finishing a period that started in late 2000 with the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze.

GEORGETA POURCHOT

There is little speculation about the results of the March 2006 legislative elections in Ukraine in Western circles: Almost everybody agrees that irrespective of political line-up, the results will not reflect a clear popular choice.

ALEKSANDR LEVTSUN

The Orange Revolution and the gas conflict have produced a new perception of Russia and the Ukrainian-Russian relations by Ukrainians. Two thirds (65.0%) of the respondents consider Russia a friendly state and “strategic” or “trade and economic” partner.

DMITRY UDALOV

It might seem that political stability has abandoned Ukraine. Since the Yushchenko victory in 2004, the country has not had a stable government, and political and economic crises have occurred with amazing regularity.

SERGEI GOVORUKHA

Ukrainians express a high degree of willingness for participation in the elections–over 80% of people would come to the polls.

VADIM KARASYOV

The gas conflict of Ukraine and Russia is only a pretext for the dismissal of Yury Yekhanurov’s Cabinet. As a matter of fact, there are other reasons for what has happened. First of all, since January 1, 2006 Ukraine has turned from the presidential-parliamentary republic to the parliamentary-presidential one.

EVGENY KOPATKO, SERGEI GOVORUKHA

The country which is lack of natural gas, cannot be a winner in a “gas war”. For the majority of the political actors in Ukraine Yury Yekhanurov is associated with Our Ukraine bloc, so the Government’s failure in this gas conflict with Gazprom has come as a blow to this political force.

KONSTANTIN SIMONOV

Gazprom will raise its profit at the expense of increase in price, and the state, as the concern’s major shareholder, will get additional gains, on the condition the calculation scheme proposed by the Russian government should actually work.

IGOR BURAKOVSKY

Ukraine’s movement towards the EU, NATO and WTO was proclaimed under presidency of Leonid Kuchma. The last Ukraine-EU summit shows that Ukraine’s foreign policy priorities have not been changed. The summit has become a routine meeting. Nobody is going to review priorities. However, some significant points of the summit are worth mentioning.

VADIM KARASYOV

Ukraine’s “Orange Revolution” was neither socialist, nor social. It aimed first of all at destroying the post-Soviet corruption political system and establishing then a more democratic one. Nowadays, one year later, there can be numbered several achievements of the “Orange Revolution”.

STANISLAV BELKOVSKY

I would like to dwell upon some aspects of the September political crisis in Ukraine and upon the developments after the Orange revolution. It is especially important since the Russian mass media often assess the situation either skin-deep, or in a wrong way.

VADIM KARASYOV

Yuliya Tymoshenko’s government resignation has made a fuss in the Ukrainian society. It is safe to say that nobody sat loose. The public reaction was very emotional.

GEORGETA POURCHOT

The current political crisis in Ukraine is not unexpected and should not be cause for skepticism regarding the future of democracy in Ukraine. The sacking of the Yuliya Tymoshenko government by president Yushchenko, high-level resignations starting with State Secretary Oleksandr Zinchenko’s over the week-end followed by Security and Defense Council head Petro Poroshenko and Vice Prime Minister Mycola Tomenko, widespread allegations of corruption and coalition n-fighting, disagreements over the “right” course for Ukraine’s reforms and increasing popular dissatisfaction with the pace and depth of economic, political and social transformation are all manifestations of the domestic turmoil that accompanies transitions to a democratic environment.

DMITRY VYDRIN

There are several scenarios of developments after Yuliya Tymoshenko’s Cabinet resignation. Now it is difficult to estimate which of them will be implemented.

TATYANA STANOVAYA

On August 27-29, Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, will host a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), where Russia is to present a new cooperation agenda.

IGOR TOMBERG

Ukraine is set to become the first target of a radical change in Russia's gas strategy in the post-Soviet space. Having realized that subsidizing neighbors by providing gas at cut-rate prices does not bring any political dividends and even leads to sizeable economic losses, Russian gas giant Gazprom has declared its intention to raise prices to European levels for CIS countries as well.

TATYANA STANOVAYA

The Ukrainian authorities are in desperate need of success against the current background of domestic strife, economic policy problems, and fist-fights in parliament. Moreover, it needs to appeal to political groups across the board, from the left wing to patriots and from pro-Westerners to the middle-of-the-road.

TATYANA STANOVAYA

Ukraine is planning to raise the question of liquidating the gas consortium, which was established in 2002 with the blessing of the Russian and Ukrainian presidents and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

ANGELA CHARLTON

Ukraine has finally outgrown its decade-long, east-vs.-west identity crisis. Ukrainians are no longer wondering whether to turn to Moscow or Washington for prosperity. They're wondering whether they need the rest of the world at all.

Vitaly KULIK, Director of the Research Center for Civil Society Problems (Kyiv, Ukraine), and Serhij GOVORUKHA, Head of Political Research Department of the Donetsk Center for Information and Analysis have shared their views of the first 100 days of Viktor Yushchenko’s presidency with The Eurasian Home.

TATYANA STANOVAYA

Ukraine is in the grips of a gas crisis caused by Yulia Timoshenko's cabinet. The Ukrainian government is now being forced to take urgent measures to deal with it, whereas the president, Viktor Yushchenko, is trying to correct the mistakes of the executive branch and heal relations with Russian companies. Relations inside the ruling elite are dramatically deteriorating, which means Russian businessmen are becoming politically dependent on the outcome of the battle of government concepts between the two Ukrainian leaders.

ALEX SEMCHANKA

Geopolitical influence is an expensive thing. The Soviet Union realized that well supporting the Communist regimes and movements all over the world including Cuba and North Korea. The current Russian authorities also understood that when they agreed that Ukraine would not pay Russia $40 billion for the gas in return for extension of the lease allowing Russia's Black Sea Fleet to be stationed in the Crimea.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych symbolically selected Brussels as his first foreign visit upon taking the oath of office in what can only be seen as an exercise in public relations. The new government of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov headed straight for Moscow shortly thereafter with the sole intention of cutting a deal.

Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s new president, may very well prove to all his critics and naysayers that he’s no Russian wannabe, but the burly Donbass boss is still a bear – no less power hungry and ferocious than the ones in Moscow.

Viktor Yanukovych, the bad guy in Ukraine’s pro-democracy movement of 2004, has been inaugurated president, but no one is quite sure what kind of changes he will make in the strategically important but chronically unstable country. Yankovych himself may not have a firm idea of his policy objectives – judging by the vague phrasing he chooses in public appearances.

Another colorful Ukrainian election has been held, to the indifference of many voters and the relief of many foreign investors and governments. And while Victor Yanukovych is still trying to uphold his victory against the legal objections being raised by challenger Yulia Tymoshenko, the law itself could be defrauded.

“As a child I knew that I would become president of the state”, said Yuliya Tymoshenko in an interview more than four years ago. Over the past 13 years (since Yuliya Tymoshenko came to politics), she has been steady in her purpose.

It is an established fact that Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has lost his chance to be re-elected. His public support going into the first round on January 17 was dismally low, in what many saw as an indictment of the country’s 2004 Orange Revolution – a pro-Western popular uprising that lifted Yushchenko to power. However, the end of the Yushchenko era may not be as definitive as it seems.

Ukraine first surfaced on the modern world map in the autumn of 2004, during the country’s euphoric Orange Revolution. The streets of Kyiv became a stage of democratic heroism for international television crews. Fear of a real revolution gradually subsided, as the old guard of journalist-killing, all-powerful fat cats seemed to sink into the soiled woodwork of the nation’s dark recent past.

Ukraine is about to elect a new president, but the main contenders are anything but new. In first place in the polls is former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, the villain of the 2004 race, which was decided only after the country’s Orange Revolution.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has always had a special relationship with the European Union, which over the years of his administration has developed into something like his country’s parental advisor. During the Thirteenth EU-Ukraine summit recently held in Kyiv, this parent-child relationship shone through like never before, with EU officials rebuking the embattled Ukrainian leader for failing to implement promises of reform.

Ukraine is paying more money for less gas from Russia than it ever has, but you wouldn’t have thought so judging by the hostile rhetoric that continues to come from Moscow. "If they don't pay for gas supplies for internal consumption in Ukraine, they won't receive it," Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently told reporters in Moscow on November 11.

Ukraine appears to be in the grips of an epidemic, but that hasn’t put a damper on the country’s political buffoonery. Five years ago, during the last presidential election campaign, Ukrainians turned a political revolution into a carnival, and now they are doing the same with a flu outbreak.

The Ukrainian presidential election campaign began on October 19 – just in time for Halloween. And in keeping with the haunting holiday spirit, all the contenders for the nation’s top job are looking spookier than ever. The candidates are not out to frighten voters, though. Instead, they want to scare each other with dirty tricks and outrageous PR, which will surely keep apace until the New Year, when voting is scheduled.

Against the background of social disappointments and political failures that have been taking place in Ukraine during Viktor Yushchenko’s presidency, the freedom of speech is considered to be one of the main achievements of the Orange Revolution. President Yushchenko likes to mention that in his speeches telling Ukrainians about the diffusion of democratic values in the country under his rule.

Almost as soon as Ukraine gained its independence nearly a generation ago, investors and analysts began speaking of the country’s great potential – as the breadbasket of Europe, as a consumer population of 50 million, as a beacon of democracy on the border with Russia, etc. These hopes have still not died, but they are slowly being smothered by a seemingly never ending cycle of disappointments.

Arseny Yatsenyuk has been on Ukraine’s political stage for some time, as the nation’s top banker, top parliamentarian and more than one kind of Cabinet minister. Now, he is running for president, as an alternative to the dynamic trio of President Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and three-time loser Viktor Yanukovych.

Ukrainian politics have been a three-horse race ever since the country’s ethereal Orange Revolution. Some have described this race as democracy – wild and exciting, if not fair or progressive. But with internal divisions, relations with Russia and economic despair worse than ever, most Ukrainians would just like to harness one of these snorting beasts to some vehicle of palpable development, to make him do something useful.

As what promises to be another tumultuous and no doubt vicious Ukrainian presidential election approaches, we are once again reminded of what’s at stake. To some, it’s about the choice between East and West. To others, the elections are part of the growing pains of a fledgling state. As for me, I am reminded of Nestor Makhno, Ukraine’s famous anarchist.

A lot has been written about U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Kyiv. But the man didn’t say anything earth shattering, because there really wasn’t anything earth shattering to say. More importantly, it really wasn’t clear whom he should have been trying to deliver Washington’s message to in Ukraine, as no one has been in charge of the newly independent country for a long time.

Under Ukraine’s last president, Leonid Kuchma, crime and punishment were pretty straight forward affairs. If you were a poor slob caught near the scene of a crime, you would be quickly whisked off to a remand center and possibly tortured along the way. Whether you were guilty or not, you stayed in that remand center with the faint hope of being pardoned or just let out.

When I think about who’s going to be the next Ukrainian president, I don’t wonder about the know-how of the campaign strategists or the ability of the eventual winner. The last presidential election wasn’t about campaign know-how, but rather about vicious tactics and dirty tricks, eventually ending in a back-room compromise that has ever since called into question the know-how and ability of the winner: President Viktor Yushchenko.

Ever since Russia first turned off the tap at the turn of 2006, during the so-called ‘first gas war’, Ukraine has felt its position as the gas line to Europe under pressure. Before that, the fledgling democracy had bought its gas at a fraction of the market value, with corrupt intermediaries making a windfall on the difference in the prices from exports.

In 2004, as the country readied itself to elect a new president, one who would replace the thoroughly disgraced Leonid Kuchma, there was a feeling that most ordinary and well-placed Ukrainians were gradually falling into line behind the then young and reform-minded hopeful, Viktor Yushchenko.

There is an eerie feeling in Eastern Europe. The color revolutions have faded like a well worn tie-dyed t-shirt that once looked bright but always lacked a clear design. The revolutionary dream of former Soviet satellite states to join Western Europe was always vague if for no other reason than Western Europe’s own lack of identity and purpose. Now, the dreamers are awakening to a new, uncertain and ominously familiar day.

Ukrainians are a hospitable nation, and that cannot be denied. To be sure, the people here don’t smile as a matter of civility, and service-industry workers are sometimes blunt to the point of rudeness. But anyone who has been invited to a Ukrainian home can attest to the warmth and attention with which their hosts invariably received them.

It sometimes seems difficult to believe, but it’s been almost five years since Ukraine underwent its Orange Revolution – an event that for many put the country on the world map. For others, however, the heady days of late 2004 were a big show that has ended in even bigger disappointments.

He first rose to national political prominence in 2002, when he was appointed Ukrainian prime minister under President Leonid Kuchma. Analysts immediately foresaw a shift in power toward the country’s so-called Donetsk clan, which Yanukovych represented.

We all know about the rise and fall of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. He was respected as the head of the National Bank, then trusted during his short stint as prime minister, and finally swept into the presidency during the country's Orange Revolution. It seemed like a fairy-tale political career - and indeed it was.

Ukraine is dangerously close to a sovereign default, the analysts are telling us. The currency has already dived to nearly half of its value of last summer, along with traded stocks. Worse yet, many of the nation's banks are expected to fail, taking down with them the hopes and savings of a fledgling consumer society.

One of the causes most often given for the start of World War One is the maze of bilateral treaties that had been signed between the European powers of the day. One country was obliged to declare war against another because it had signed a mutual defense pact to come to its ally’s aid in case of an attack.

It is often the case that wars result in a redrawing of international maps or a reshuffling of a country's political deck. Ukraine's recent gas war with Russia appears to be no exception in as much as it is likely to change the face of Europe's energy map while reshuffling the political elite in Kyiv. Wars, however, not only offer up spoils to the victor; they also spoil a lot of other things for those who are involved or not.

For the Russian economy good and bad events took place at the beginning of the year 2009. The good events are the gas dispute with Ukraine and the Gaza Strip war. Many people have been killed, many buildings have been destroyed, which is good for the Russian economy. The situation in the entire Middle East can be destabilized, and then the oil prices will grow again making the Russian government breathe with relief.

The result of the Russia-Ukraine gas conflict, which broke out by tradition on New Year's Eve, is quite predictable – the Russian gas will be supplied to the European consumers but Gazprom’s reputation has been seriously tarnished. In one of the most severe winters Europe does not receive gas, and though Russia tries to shift the blame onto Ukraine (its state collapse is evident), Moscow is also responsible for the conflict.

The lady in braids has shown the political skill and ruthlessness worthy of Russian czars and Bolshevik commissars. The presidential race is still over a year away, and in a country like Ukraine anything can happen in the interim, but for now Ms. Tymoshenko is firmly in control of the chessboard of power in Kyiv.

For centuries, Ukraine's Cossacks were able to play off the superpowers of their time. Some would argue that the survival of the Ukrainian nation depended on a 'flexible' foreign policy. Unfortunately, the result of this policy was a culture of persistent internal division that eventually led to Russian domination.

A report recently released by U.S. intelligence agencies predicts that American influence on the global stage will diminish over the next 15 years, as the rise of powers such as China, India and other third-world giants creates a more multi-polar planet. So where does Ukraine fit into this scenario?

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.

The buzz over the election of America's first black president, Barack Obama, continues unabated. Fresh faced, eloquent and from a modest background, his 'story' sells well just about everywhere. But being liked so much for doing so little is a little like being king for a day, secretly hoping that the reality of tomorrow never has to come.

The 2008 U.S. presidential-election campaign has been watched with much anticipation, both at home and abroad. There’s a woman vice president on the Republican ticket, and an African-American being fielded by the Democrats for the nation’s top job. Whichever party wins, history will be made.

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.

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. 

In Transcarpathia, near the Ukrainian village of Delovoe, there are three geodetic signs indicating the geographic center of the European subcontinent. The first sign was put up in 1887 under Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. The second one was set up by the members of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The third one was put up in the first years of Ukraine’s independence after the Soviet Union had collapsed.

Since 1991, Ukraine has sat on the fence like a country coquette with her back to her jealous ex-husband Russia, from which the country’s ‘elite’ have nevertheless continued to get rich on cheap gas, while batting her eyes at the glamorous West, which offers lots of nice gifts but never a firm proposal of marriage.

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.

Ukraine has again been challenged by disaster – not another coalmine disaster, which continue to claim lives on a small scale, or a deadly military mishap (thank goodness), or even a gas explosion at one of the country’s innumerable apartment blocs. No, this time it’s flooding in the country’s rural western regions.

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.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has lost a lot since the heady days of his country’s Orange Revolution – executive power (due to constitutional changes), voter support (due to endless infighting) and international prestige (for lack of reform). More recently, his reputation as a martyr for democracy has also come under threat.

If there is one thing that has been hard to change in independent Ukraine, it's the country's image. Maybe that's why Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who has seen his own near demigod image from the 2004 Orange Revolution reduced to that of a mere man desperate to be re-elected, is so keen on successfully hosting the European football championship in 2012.

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.

Ever since Ukraine’s Orange Revolution swept pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko into power, summer has been a time of particular discontent in the country’s political life. The summer of 2005 saw infighting in the Orange camp escalate into Yushchenko’s firing of co-revolutionary Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

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.

There is an old joke in Ukraine: two Ukrainians find a bottle containing a genie who grants them each a wish. The first Ukrainian requests and gets what he wants; the second Ukrainian uses his wish to cancel the wish of his countryman. The joke is that envy to the detriment of one's own interests is part of the Ukrainian national character. Certainly this seems to be the case with the country’s politicians.

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.

Ukraine is a country that continues to integrate into the world community, receiving assistance from other countries along the way. The donors gain, for example, by making Ukraine a better trade partner or preventing an outbreak of an infectious disease among its population. But sometimes the international assistance is not met with open arms - or even outstretched ones with rolled up sleeves.

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.

Not only are Ukraine's colleges and universities as corrupt as most other institutions, they serve as a breeding ground for successive generations of bribe takers, cheats and nepotists; so, why not teach Ukrainian youth right from the start the value of earning rather than buying one's success?

It’s no secret that Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko have not enjoyed good relations for a long time. But ever since the two politicians found themselves neck and neck in the stretch for the presidency, their simmering mutual antipathy has flared up into open hostility.

On May 25, around two million voters in Kyiv will elect a new mayor. It will be an early election, as was the case with the last parliamentary poll in September. But more importantly for the business clans and political blocs taking part, the two month race to control the Ukrainian capital, which started on March 26, will be a dress rehearsal for the presidential elections scheduled for late next year.

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 presidential campaign in America is still a three-way race between Obama, Clinton and McCain. But in Ukraine, where the elections are still two years off, it’s everyone against Yulia Tymoshenko. Appearing before a government meeting on Wednesday, March 26, the fiery female politician said her opponents had already begun attempts to undermine the fragile pro-Western majority in parliament.

On March 26, the campaign for early mayoral elections kicks off in Kyiv. Current mayor Leonid Chernovetsky was elected to office exactly two years to the day in 2006, but his political opponents believe that he's already overstayed his welcome. So on March 18 they put together a parliamentary majority to approve early elections for May 25.

Modern Ukrainian politics were born of the country's 2004 Orange Revolution, in which Western-reformer Viktor Yushchenko defeated the fraud-filled presidential bid of Moscow's favorite, Viktor Yanukovych. But the revolution was conceived in 2000 with the grisly murder of thirty-one-year-old journalist Georgiy Gongadze.

On March 8, Ukraine celebrates International Women’s Day. Days before the official holiday are marked in the capital Kyiv, one can see men rushing to and from with bouquets of flowers bought from the ubiquitous street vendor. Although March 8 is a day off for all Ukrainians, men are under obligation to spoil their wives, mothers, sisters, coworkers and lovers by all means.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has made international recognition of the Holodomor his personal crusade. Good for him. The famine of 1932-1933 claimed some six to eight million Ukrainian lives - as much as a quarter of the population - and it wasn’t a natural catastrophe. Yushchenko wants the Holodomor recognized as genocide, thus putting Ukraine’s tragedy on the same level as the Jewish Holocaust.

Just into his fourth year as president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko is beginning to act a lot like the man he replaced during the country's Orange Revolution. Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma is often remembered for waffling on Western integration, crushing freedom of speech and overseeing a state apparatus steeped in corruption.

Ukraine has been an independent and sovereign nation for over 16 years, its last two elections were called the fairest ever, and earlier this month it was invited to join the World Trade Organization. So when the country’s interior minister decides to strike the mayor of the capital city, some eyebrows are going to be raised.

Once again, Russia has resorted to threats and bullying in an ongoing effort to keep Ukraine subservient. And once again, its weapon of choice is gas. Most colonial divorces have been characterized by the colony cutting off the colonizer from its supply of natural resources. But with Russia, the situation is exactly the opposite - at least that's the way it seems on the surface.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s long running efforts to break the stranglehold on her country’s gas supplies are beginning to pay off – due to assistance from an unlikely ally. Russia, which has been widely accused of using gas sales to put geopolitical pressure on Ukraine and other Western neighbors, now appears to be cleaning up its act.

The Orange Revolution gave Ukraine a new, pro-Western president - if not always an Orange prime minister. But the Prosecutor-General's Office, which decides who gets put in jail, has remained steadily in the hands of Yanukovych's Blue, Donetsk clan since the days of President Leonid Kuchma. Why this is so remains a matter of speculation.

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.

It’s a new year, and Ukraine has a new government headed by a fiery reformer with a penchant for making high-stake gambles. Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is known as the gas queen – more for how she earned her money back in the 1990’s than for how she has tried to clean up her country’s gas sector in more recent years. But clean it up she has tried, against highly formidable of opponents at home and abroad.

The only thing that causes Ukrainians to passionately take sides, cry foul and then throw up their hands in disappointment more than their football is their politics. More than just a game, politics the Ukrainian way is about unquestioning loyalty to one’s team to the point of bending every rule in the book for the sake of a victory chock-full of financial incentives.

Yulia Tymoshenko was approved as Ukrainian prime minister on December 18. This marks the beginning of Ms. Yulia's second stint as head of government. She was nominated both times by pro-Western president Viktor Yushchenko, whom she helped rise to power during the country's 2004 Orange Revolution, and then hold on to authority during this year's power struggle.

There is more than one way for a state leader to abuse his power, and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko is practicing the 'softest' way of all. You can't call him a dictator who imposes his will on his people, as it's not clear what Mr. Yushchenko's will is - beyond the fact that he wants to stay in power, as do all state leaders.

Ukraine has broken another record for disasters - a record it set itself for itself. On November 18, at three o'clock in the morning, a methane blast rocked a coal mine in eastern, Donetsk Region, claiming the lives of at least 89 miners. Prior to the tragedy, a mine in neighboring Luhansk Region had been the site of the country's worst coal industry disaster.

Reports of racism and anti-Semitism in Ukraine climbed to prominence in the nation’s media last month. Whether this had anything to do with the October 14 commemoration of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) is a matter of speculation. On that day, a few people exhibiting Nazi symbols took part in a parade otherwise composed of Ukrainian nationalists.

There's nothing like a national tragedy to build a nation, especially if the details of the tragedy are buried in history, and the blame for it can be put on a regional bully. Ukraine's Holodomor is such a tragedy. Yes, at least three million hapless Ukrainians died of hunger, disease and privation in 1932-1933, and No, they shouldn't be forgotten - by anyone.

The motivation of Ukrainian businessmen with influence if not seats in parliament to keep out foreign competition should not be underestimated. One need only do a quick cost comparison of what consumers are forced to pay in the Ukrainian capital for food, clothing, mobile communications, etc. in order to guess what kind of profits are at risk from a freer market.

Ukraine held general elections on September 30, but power sharing in the country remains to be decided in subsequent voting devoid of public participation and full of backroom intrigue. For a second time in a row, Ukraine has pulled off an internationally accepted demonstration of the people's will, with rank and file citizens putting an end to a crippling stand off between their two highest executive leaders.

With parties heir to Ukraine's Orange Revolution perched to retake full control of the country’s executive, Orange president Viktor Yushchenko is again demonstrating the kind of dubious indecision that cost them the government in the first place. His one-time revolutionary sidekick, opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, was the real winner in the September 30 snap elections, earning enough votes to come back as premier.

The queen of Ukrainian politics, opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, was the unofficial victor in Ukraine’s snap elections on Sunday, with exit polls indicating she will head the next government. But Tymoshenko’s ascension to power will be anything but a sexy saunter, as her enemies are unlikely to allow themselves to be sidelined by a pretty populist.

There was a time when educated Ukrainians didn't read the latest bestseller translated from English, or Dostoyevsky (pardon - Taras Shevchenko). During the middle ages, the literate were versed in what are called the Lives of Saints. The typical plot of these religious works is the struggle of a God-fearing Christian against heathens, nature or sinners. Times and tastes have changed, of course.

When EU leaders visited Kyiv on September 14 for the annual Ukraine-EU Summit, they didn't say a lot that was new. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, their host, also stuck to his usual, pro-Western rhetoric. Nevertheless, taking place just two weeks before Ukraine's fateful, early parliamentary elections, the summit served as a nice sounding board.

If Ukraine wants to maintain its dynamic economic growth, it's going to have to cut red tape and bring down barriers to competition, according to a report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD). The report marks the first-ever assessment of Ukraine by the OECD, a largely Western organization dedicated to free markets and representative democracy.

The hottest topic in Ukrainian politics these days is whether lawmakers should lose their perks. With early elections scheduled for September 30, parliamentary hopefuls need the issue to motivate an otherwise fed up electorate. The tricky part, though, is that all the major blocs are promising the country the same thing - to strip themselves and their colleagues of long-held immunity from prosecution.

Ukraine recently marked 16 years of independence, on August 24^th. In less than a month, on September 30^th, Ukrainians will vote for a new parliament in early elections. One might be tempted to think that a sense of national purpose is foremost in the minds of many Ukrainians and their leaders, but that would mean taking the country too seriously.

According to a recent poll, only just over 50 percent of Ukrainians consider August 24th a real holiday, while around 42 percent think it's just a day off. With that kind of attitude, one wonders whether Soviet apologists who accuse the West of engineering the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Ukrainian independence, were right.

The city of Kyiv is planning to expand its Metropolitan, or system of underground and surface trains, before the year 2012, when Ukraine will host the European football championship together with Poland. What a relief for pedestrians and motorists alike! The estimated cost has been set at 3 billion dollars.

More recently a somewhat different climate has taken hold in the Verkhovna Rada, a defrosting of traditional blocs and possibly another chance at the formation of a grand coalition on the horizon. The politician most immediately to be affected by the thaw is parliamentary speaker Oleksandr Moroz, whose surname translates as ‘frost’.

Ukraine is expected to continue enjoying solid growth in GDP and a healthy inflow of foreign direct investment, as its economy continues to mature. That’s the forecast for the near term. But the country’s long-term economic prospects will depend a lot on how it develops its education system.

The modern Ukrainian state was born from the ashes of Chernobyl, the world’s worst nuclear accident. So, one might think that the young country’s leaders would be a particularly careful lot. Keep thinking. A chemical spill in western Lviv Region was the latest disaster to strike, causing around a thousand people to evacuate their homes, and over 180 to be hospitalized.

To be or not to be a member of NATO – that is the question for Ukrainians, who still aren’t in a position to decide the issue. Public opinion polls conducted in the country continue to show that most Ukrainians are against joining the Western military alliance. But advocates of NATO membership  insist that Ukrainians have not been given an accurate picture of what the alliance is about.

European banking giants continue to buy up an ever larger share of Ukraine’s banking market with the aim of getting in on the country’s lending boom. Is this a good thing? The share of foreign capital in Ukraine’s banking system could go from today’s 32 percent to as much as 45 percent by the end of this year, according to Ukraine’s National Bank (NBU).

On June 28, Ukraine celebrated its Constitution, with every politician and his brother demanding that the much abused document be altered yet again. It was only eleven years ago that lawmakers had worked through the night to reach a compromise on the creation of a supreme law for the newly independent state. Ukraine’s Constitution was hailed as a guarantee of individual rights for all Ukrainian citizens.

The Soviet authorities loved to portray their country to the world as a dictatorship of workers and peasants. In fact, the peasants were at the bottom of the Soviet Union’s socio-economic hierarchy, forced to feed the workers, the army and the party functionaries who controlled their lives.

Perhaps nothing better illustrates Ukrainian authorities’ inability to deal with their country’s most serious problems than their inordinate occupation with monuments. Instead of healing deep national wounds or preventing them from being inflicted again, the authorities often prefer to cover things up with an inexpensive slab of stone, a Band Aid for all occasions.

If you want to punish someone for doing something that isn’t considered wrong by everyone else, it’s very convenient to come up with another justification, even if you have to dig it up from the past. Speaking in Moscow on the eve of the G-8 summit in Germany, Putin said that Russia was through with subsidizing Ukraine and other post-Soviet states with energy resources.

Ukraine has got a new prosecutor-general, who really isn’t new at all, but that shouldn’t surprise anyone who has followed the country’s politics. Top officials are changed like underwear, socks and sheets. The only problem is that the laundry doesn’t get any cleaner as a result.

A truce has been announced in the seemingly never-ending conflict between Ukraine’s pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko and his Moscow-leaning nemesis, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych – but can anyone take it serious?
Only Saturday, the country was again attracting the attention of international leaders and media... 

Since President Leonid Kuchma left the scene two years ago, along with his questionable multi-vector policy, Ukraine has been undergoing a revolution – between the two Viktors, Donetsk and Kyiv, East and West – and it’s still not clear where the country will stop or when.    

A well-known Ukrainian politician said not too long ago that reaching political compromise in his country was a lot like the making of sausages – the average Ukrainian really wouldn’t want to observe the process. Nevertheless, as the standoff between President Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yanukovych heads toward a settlement, the country’s sausage factory has been laid open to public view like never before.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko is finally starting to employ the tactics of his opponents in the government and the majority it controls in parliament. Long accused of indecision and by observers and even his supporters, Yushchenko has now turned to brinkmanship and blitzkrieg appointments in a last-ditch effort to regain control of executive power.

Don’t say the C-word in Kyiv. It tends to get businesspeople uptight. “This is not a crisis” insists Vadim Mironyuk, head of international business at Ukrsibbank, the country’s fourth largest bank. “It’s not even a particularly dramatic situation for most Ukrainians.”

Ever since Yanukovych returned as Ukraine’s prime minister last summer, the country’s privatization drive has started moving in reverse, back to the days of shady state auctions, as under former President Leonid Kuchma. In fact, concerns have recently been raised that Yanukovych’s government may now find it expedient to turn over valuable state assets without even going through the trouble of holding tenders.

The threat of Ukraine veering off the path of democratic development is greater now than ever before, with increasingly authoritarian Russia welcoming the opportunity to recoup lost influence in the region. Yet, unlike during Ukraine’s democratic Orange Revolution over two years ago, Europe and North America appear more reluctant to publicly support the country’s pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko.

The sequel to Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution, when hundreds of thousands of peaceful street protesters forced the authorities in Kyiv to hold honest presidential elections, seems to be attracting almost as much of an international audience as the original. And although, like most sequels, Orange Revolution II lacks the excitement and drama of the original.  

Back in 1989 the USSR First Congress of People's Deputies shifted world perception of many Soviet people including me, giving up for lost just another zealous Young Communist and a would-be disciple of Lenin’s ideas.

For decades, like a spoilt child, Ukraine has relied on unlimited and very cheap gas from Russia. As a result, says Kamen Zahariev, head of the EBRD's Ukraine office, “Ukraine was probably the least energy efficient country in the world”.

The parliamentary elections in Ukraine once more confirm the statements made by political scientists and sociologists, that the electoral sentiments and political preferences of the voters have divided the country. Ukraine’s western regions, which almost unanimously voted for Viktor Yushchenko over a year ago, this time have also voted for the “orange” blocs.

The electoral campaign in Ukraine has come to its homestretch. To predict the results of the election in a foreign country is a mug’s game, especially if this foreign country is Ukraine with its unstable political situation, and its struggles between numerous regional groups of influence and clans.

Evgenia Tymoshenko’s wedding was the major event of the past week in Ukraine, at the same time it was undoubtedly having a strong political flavor. Pictures of the newly-wed couple accompanied by their happy mother-in-law, Yuliya Tymoshenko, were posted in the Internet.

Since being the Head of the National Bank and further on the Prime-Minister, Viktor Yushchenko has positioned himself profitably on the Ukrainian political scene. Well educated, honest, sincere, with no relation to business and at the same time highly professional — he could have exemplified an ideal politician.

First 100 days of Yuliya Tymoshenko’s premiership were crowned with the fuel crisis. After the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, guiding by a suspicion of cartel collusion among oil suppliers, set limit prices for oil products petrol stations were deprived of fuel.

Pessimists believe that Ukraine is on the verge of default.

Ukraine’s next president will inherit a nation in the throes of a spiraling economic crisis still searching for the bottoming out point.

The War once again showed that the Ukrainian leadership had dismally failed to take any steps to improve the country’s enormous energy inefficiency.

Gazprom 'Harms Russian Interests', Ukraine Refuses To Compromise.

According to the president, the real decline in the country's gross domestic product (GDP) began in August. Aggregate production in September saw a decline from 10.9 per cent (August on August 2007) to 5.5 per cent (compared to September 2007).

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.

Barack Obama's election may have prompted celebrations from Chicago to Nairobi. But in Tbilisi, it was disappointment that carried the day, with many Georgians ruefully contemplating what John McCain's defeat would mean for them.

The Ukrainian leadership has once again proven to be helpless. Even the real threat of a catastrophic financial and economic crisis has not consolidated the key political leaders who still follow the principle of collective irresponsibility.

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.

Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovych do deserve a good deal of criticism, but Viktor Yushchenko bears the heaviest brunt of responsibility as the guarantor of the Constitution and the “arbiter of the nation.”

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?

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.

Three months away, a new mark appeared on Ukraine’s policy map. Those who put the mark have declared very clearly and loudly their political and electoral ambitions by intending to consolidate under the United Center Party’s roof as many as possible political forces engaged by the President and his administration.

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.

If Tymoshenko wants to stay in office, she needs to patch up or enlarge the coalition before the parliament’s summer vacation or block the parliament’s work by raising debatable and provocative issues or besieging the rostrum.

Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovych have the highest ratings as potential candidates for the presidency. The only difference is that this past winter Tymoshenko was 1-2 percent ahead of Yanukovych and now their standings are exactly opposite.

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

Yushchenko is not ready to agree to an honorable post of parliamentary president yet. Tymoshenko showed her readiness to prolong his term as president without any elections under the condition of substantial reduction of his authority.

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

The burst of ecological activism that followed Chornobyl lost its momentum after the Soviet Union broke up in 1991. The Soviet successor states quickly became more concerned with economic development than ecology.

If one million “active citizens” get the right to initiate, amend, or abrogate any law and even the Constitution, then the parliament may not only lose its status of the sole legislative body...

"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. 

It is conventionally believed that in the first hundred days a new government enjoys its highest rating of popular trust and ought to use this circumstance for reforms and innovations. In this sense the new Ukrainian leadership has simply wasted its first 100 days.

Last Friday, Yuliya Tymoshenko and Oleh Dubina, were to report to the President of Ukraine on the results of the gas talks with Gazprom.

There is an interesting and very plausible version: it is Viktor Baloha who put parliament out of operation. Allegedly, it was his idea to send the notorious letter to the NATO Secretary General.

By legalizing Gazporom in our market, we won’t have any impulse for re-equipping the power-consuming industries – we will live under the patronage of Gazprom.

Radek Sikorski has visited Kyiv for the first time since the government of Donald Tusk came to power in November.

Viktor Yushchenko is definitely set to change the Constitution and sees a national referendum as the only possible way. He means to have presidential powers increased.

President of the center for economic development on the logic of reform and the choice of means discrediting the noblest goals.

A meeting with Volodymyr Ohryzko, Foreign Minister of Ukraine, opens a series of ZN interviews with the new Cabinet members.

Ukraine's parliament on December 18 confirmed Yulia Tymoshenko as prime minister, returning the controversial pro-Western politician to power three years after the Orange Revolution catapulted her to a short-lived, divisive premiership.

The problem of uncontrollable processes in the Crimean Autonomous Republic confronts not only the representative body named Mejlis...because the unsolved vital problems of Crimean Tartar returnees pose a serious threat to national security.

It is not even the matter of her astounding charisma and the iron will – Yulia Tymoshenko managed to sense the optimal propaganda strategy capable of uniting the both banks of the Dnieper, both parts of Ukraine.

“Viktor Yushchenko always makes the right decision… after he tries all other alternatives”. It is not always true, but it is absolutely true for the process of forming today’s coalition.

It seemed that the talks about gas relations between Russia and Ukraine and between Gazprom and Naftagaz Ukraine were taking their normal course... before November 22.

As anniversaries of the events in Georgia and Ukraine approach, high hopes and great expectations have been replaced with apprehension.

Ukraine should not hesitate to say to its younger brother, Russia, that it should learn Ukrainian political culture.

The euphoria of the Orange Revolution faded away very quickly. The “civil society” issue disappeared from the Ukrainian political agenda even faster.

Ukraine has been shaken not only by numerous post-election events but by serious cataclysms in the energy sphere recently. The President’s meeting with journalists was devoted to exactly this topic.

OUPS has been caught in a dilemma: if it follows the lead of BYT, it will soon become redundant; if it starts fighting with Tymoshenko, it will fall prey to her wrath, “righteous” as usual. OUPS is struggling in search of a third way – struggling within itself and, thus, only hastening the finale.

Those who are more or less familiar with the energy issues in Ukraine consider the ‘breakthrough’ a science fiction novel having nothing to do with reality.

The would-be coalition members do not seem to see eye to eye on the proposed legislative innovations. They do not even tell the same story about the negotiations progress.

The elections are over, and various political forces are busy distributing powers amongst them, although the time is ripe for discussing Ukraine’s post-election economy.

American political technologists have transformed the Kyiv face of the Party of Regions in a truly professional way but couldn’t feel the soul of Ukrainians in the Southeast.

The coalition in the previous parliament was a cartel of ideologically diverse political forces dictated by the major one. In the new parliament, the factor of informal alliances is likely to be very influential and even decisive.

UP found sufficient evidence that the US spin doctors headed by Paul Manafort were Rinat Akhmetov’s agents affecting the work of the Party of Regions (PRU) campaign headquarters and personally Viktor Yanukovych.

The ZN drew up tentative estimates of the promises given by the major candidates in the Ukrainian parliamentary race.

The recent Ukraine-EU summit did not bring any surprises.

It has become a tradition for Ukrainian politicians to make loud statements about strengthening the country’s defense and security capabilities before every election. 

Ukraine is 16 years old. It is the age when young people get their passports, and the President is to hand passports to 16-year-olds born on 24 August.

Justice has to be won. Sixty years ago this simple truth was discovered by Maria Eva Duarte de Peron. It became the slogan of her husband general’s party named “Justicialist”. Yulia Tymoshenko made struggle against injustice her political trademark.

Many were surprised and amazed at President Yushchenko’s unusual and unexpected resolution upholding his right to dissolve the parliament.

“Wow! Same old faces, same old song!” said Ukrainians one year ago, watching Viktor Yanukovych, Nikolai Azarov, and others regaining their seats in Cabinet after the Orange parties failed to form a coalition.

Yuliya Tymoshenko: "Modern Ukrainian policymakers would rather write a Constitution or state’s sovereignty declaration than a personal income declaration. Nevertheless, this gift for Constitution-making is false."

The situation in the judicial system has aggravated since 16 May 2007, when the Constitutional Court passed a ruling deeming unconstitutional the provision of the law which vests the President with the authority to appoint judges to administrative positions in courts.

Yuliya Tymoshenko: "This year Ukrainian politics is so unpredictable that I would like to give an overview of the results of the outgoing period earlier than at the end of the year because current events might be forgotten and loose their importance by winter."

On Tuesday the president made a step which his opponents awaited with sarcasm and his allies with a hope. Mr. Yushchenko issued the third decree to call an early election.

It is obvious that the latent struggle for power in the higher echelons has very little or nothing to do with struggle for the people’s interests.

President Victor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and Speaker Oleksandr Moroz on Sunday morning signed a joint statement to defuse Ukraine's political crisis. 

In public opinion, the “Regions” are sturdily associated with Russia, so they avoid any talks about cooperation with the Americans. In unofficial conversations, both opponents and supporters of the party willingly demonize both individual foreigners and their working methods.

Arrangements between Yushchenko and Yanukovych give some additional time to all the parties to reach any respective agreements before the elections.

The Presidential Secretariat assures the public that the decree has set reasonable timeframes and that the elections can be held properly, especially if Prosecutor General Piskun personally oversees the decree’s enforcement.

UEFA President Michel Platini called Ukraine’s and Poland’s success “a great victory of Eastern Europe,” saying they “won by right”.

The Parliamentary Assembly is concerned by the political developments in Ukraine which have evolved in recent months and culminated in President Victor Yushchenko's decree of 2 April 2007 announcing the early termination of powers of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine.

The nation is awaiting the Constitutional Court judgement. Even those totally unversed in politics are looking forward to the verdict.

When midnight between April 2 and April 3 came, members of Ukrainian parliament voted to disobey the decision of their President. One person was absent from the hall during the voting and this person is Rinat Akhmetov.

President Viktor Yushchenko on April 2 signed a decree to disband the Verkhovna Rada and hold new elections on May 27.

With Yatseniuk’s coming to the foreign ministry a real chance will arise to revitalize the once effective triangle “Foreign Ministry-Presidential Secretariat-National Security and Defense Council” which worked effectively enough in the latter half of the 1990s.

Today’s shuffles of the opposition and the coalition are painfully familiar to Ukrainian citizens as they resemble the year of 2002. Enticing lawmakers, backstage negotiations and neglecting of people’s will is a typical Ukrainian déjà vu.

Western countries hoped that their victory would become the start of an age modeled in their own image. However, ‘a democratic revolution’ turned out an illusion.

This past week Gen. Henry Obering, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, visited Ukraine to give answers to a number of questions that arose in Kyiv amidst the Kremlin’s hysteria.

Viktor Yanukovych ate little but talked much. That was the schedule of the PM’s one-day visit to Berlin where he offered another battle to Viktor Yushchenko for the right to define Ukraine’s foreign policy.

It looks like there will be no preterm parliamentary election in Ukraine and no one will abolish the political reform.

System Capital Management Group owned by Ukrainian top oligarch Rynat Akhmetov declared its intention to take part in privatization of Ukrtelekom.

In order to protect himself, Yushchenko has to seek a partnership with Tymoshenko and her team that will be instrumental in achieving several objectives.

We are convinced that the initiated cooperation between our political forces will revive unity of democratic forces not only in the parliament but in the society in general.

Crimea is a small peninsula on the northern coast of the Black Sea, where the interests of several different countries, organizations and communities overlap.

A few years ago, one journalist said, “Let’s suppose the worst: we win.” He was right: Ukrainian politicians and Ukrainian political projects normally make the best of defeat and make the worst of victory.

As for Kyiv’s support for democracy, we believe that it can only be effective on two conditions. First, Ukraine, before starting to defend democracy in Turkmenistan, should be able to pay for natural gas as much as it costs on the international market.

The gas price of $130 offered by ‘fraternal’ Gazprom and RosUkrEnergo made Yanukovych’s government ‘tighten screws’ in the domestic gas market.