News aggregator

As is widely known, the anticipation of a war is more unnerving than the war itself. The one who plans an attack and the one who braces for defense are both prisoners of conventionalities...

I always keep up with the publications on Ukraine’s relations with the European Union, not in the line of duty but, rather, out of sheer interest. I will remain interested in European integration even when I retire from diplomatic service, as Ukraine’s membership in the EU will ensure high living standards for the people, civil rights and freedoms, personal and national security...

The cloud of crisis that looms over the country has a silver lining: the authorities are not ignoring the people anymore and have to heed industrial managers, bankers, and experts....

The crisis has forced our leaders to pay heed to the national economy. A lot is being said about the crisis but no concerted and systemic response to it has been articulated. Top officials, bound to unite in the face of the crisis, remain, nonetheless, political opponents...

Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense (OUPS) is de facto off the political map. It wasn’t new when on the first day of the last session week, my colleague Volodymyr Stretovych certified the death of our bloc that unifies nine parties attributing the blame for this to the leader of the bloc, Vyacheslav Kyrylenko...

Judging by current news reports, the Euro-2012 project is like a military campaign with several fronts where local- and continental-scale battles aggravate Ukraine’s problems. Western Front At the Western front the situation is more or less stable and clear, at least for the upcoming six months: the fate of Euro-2012 depends on its Ukrainian and Polish organizers...

Against the backdrop of the global financial crisis, little heed was paid to the news released on 5 November by the Association of Ukrainian banks (AUB) about a meeting the AUB Board members and CEOs of the AUB member banks had a day before with NBU Governor Volodymyr Stelmakh and his First Deputy Anatoliy Shapovalov...

Everybody is concerned over the global crisis, and nobody seems to know exactly what to do, since it is the severest economic disruption of the last few decades. The current financial crisis is likely to bring about a decline in production, recession and stagnation...

“Ukraine has made a sure step toward overcoming the consequences of the global financial crisis.” The Verkhovna Rada has adopted (in the first reading) the notorious package of anti-crisis bills...

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...

“Will the elections be held or not?” worry the people. “Yes, yes! The elections will be held! We are here,” answer the politicians arriving to the regions to tend to matters “unrelated to the early elections.” The election campaign has been launched...

If everything goes on like stated in the Agreement on principals of long-term cooperation in gas trade, then it will put an end to the vicious practice of signing gas agreements with Russian gas giant Gazprom on New Year’s Eve...

The “fight of all versus all” has become a main feature of the current situation in Ukrainian politics. This war is accompanied by political PR – PR on fires and floods, crises and elections, hostilities and Ukrainian sailors...

“2010. Russian Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin says Russians do not have to worry about the crisis. They should have worried earlier, and it is too late to worry now.” The Internet is full of jokes like this, whose authors must be people working for companies that are losing clients and thinking of downsizing...

It looks like Ukraine has set a bad example. After the “plane scandal” between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko [when Yushchenko used the plane to Brussels intended for Tymoshenko’s visit ] the President and the Prime Minister of Poland followed suit: Prime Minister Donald Tusk denied President Lech Kaczynski a seat on board his plane bound for Brussels...

Just two issues were discussed at the meeting of the National Security and Defense Council on October 13, where representatives of all branches of the state power were present. The first question regarded urgent measures to facilitate citizens' rights during the early elections for parliamentarians to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine...

Before discussing future implications of the global financial crisis for Ukraine’s economy, let us consider if it has already affected us. The national economic system is integrated into the world economy closely enough to be involved in the global processes...

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...

A preterm parliamentary election has been announced in the country where 34 percent of people have found a political force that fully corresponds with their views and aspirations; 32 percent vote for the party they like but would vote for another if it appeared better; 22 percent see no political force that could represent their interests...

If at the end of summer, it was possible to buy one dollar for 4.7 hryvnia, then on October 8th, the exchange rate surged up to 6.0 hryvnia for one dollar in some exchanges. This shows that hryvnia has lost more than 20% of its value over the past incomplete one and a half months...