Balancing and Complex Interdependence: Ukraine Between
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Why Yulia Tymoshenko Will Remain Imprisoned
Why Yulia Tymoshenko Will Remain Imprisoned Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 8 Issue: 204 November 4, 2011 06:14 PM Age: 49 days By: Taras Kuzio (Source: AP) Western policymakers and Ukrainian experts are perplexed as to why President Viktor Yanukovych agreed to the court quickly sentencing Yulia Tymoshenko on October 11 to a seven year sentence, a three year ban from political life and a fine of 1.5 billion hryvnia ($190 million). The “7+3” charges ban Tymoshenko from the next two presidential and three parliamentary elections. The sentence, refusal to heed the flood of Western criticism and the new charges against Tymoshenko only one day later led the EU to cancel the October 20 visit to Brussels by Yanukovych. The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) has launched two new charges against Tymoshenko related to when she was CEO of United Energy Systems in 1995-1997 and the assassination of Viktor Yushchenko’s protégé Vadym Hetman in 1998. Ten factors explain how and why the Yanukovych administration dug itself into a hole. Feral elites: Ukraine’s elites have little connection to society whose citizens and voters they treat with contempt and do not feel any responsibility toward. Feral elites believe the world is Machiavellian and the ends justify the means. Most Western media coverage used language similar to the Economist (October 11) to describe Yanukovych as “thuggish and vindictive” (The Times, October 14, The New York Times, October 17). National interests: personal and business interests are of greater importance than Ukraine’s national interests. Revenge against Tymoshenko for removing the opaque gas intermediary RosUkrEnergo from the 2009 gas contract with Russia is more important for the feral elites than European integration. -
Testimony: the Russian Economy: More Than Just Energy?
The Russian Economy: More than Just Energy? Anders Åslund, Peterson Institute for International Economics Testimony for the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament April 2009 1 Introduction Russia has enjoyed a decade of high economic growth because of the eventually successful market reforms of the 1990s as well as an oil boom. For the last six years, however, the Russian economy has become increasingly dysfunctional because the authorities have done nothing to impede corruption. The energy sector has been a generator of corrupt revenues, and its renationalization has concentrated these corrupt incomes in the hands of the security police elite. Russia depends on the European Union for most of its exports and imports, but no free trade agreement is even on the horizon. Investments, by contrast, are relatively well secured through international conventions. In global governance, Russia has changed its attitude from being a joiner to becoming a spoiler. The disruption of supplies of Russian gas to Europe in January 2009 displayed all the shortfalls both of the Russian and Ukrainian gas sectors and of EU policy. The European Union needs to play a more active role. It should monitor gas supplies, production, and storage. It should demand the exclusion of corrupt intermediaries in its gas trade. It should demand that Russia and Ukraine conclude a long- term transit and supply agreement. The European Union should form a proper energy policy, with energy conservation, diversification, unbundling, and increased storage. This is a good time to persuade Russia to ratify the Energy Charter. The European Union should also demand that Ukraine undertake a market-oriented and transparent energy-sector reform. -
Natural-Gas Trade Between Russia, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine
Asian Cultures and Modernity Research Reports Editorial Board Birgit N. Schlyter (Editor-in-chief) Merrick Tabor (Associate editor) Mirja Juntunen (Associate editor) Johan Fresk (Assistant) International Advisory Board Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed (Stockholm University, Sweden) Dr. Bayram Balcı (Inst. français d’étude sur l’Asie centrale, Uzbekistan) Dr. Ooi Kee Beng (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore) Datuk Prof. Dr. Shamsul A.B. (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) The Asian Cultures and Modernity Research Group A plethora of state- and nation-building programmes are being developed in present- day Asia, where governments have to consider the regionality of old ethno-cultural identities. While the cohesive power of traditions must be put into use within a particular nation, that same power challenges its national boundaries. To soften this contradiction, economic and/or political regionalism, in contrast to isolationism and globalism, becomes a solution, suggesting new and exciting routes to modernity. In studies conducted by the Asian Cultures and Modernity Research Group at Stockholm University, sociolinguistic and culture-relativistic perspectives are applied with the support of epistemological considerations from the field of political science. Department of Oriental Languages Stockholm University SE-106 91 Stockholm E-mail: [email protected] ISSN 1651-0666 ISBN 978-91-976907-2-0 Asian Cultures and Modernity Research Report No. 15 Natural-Gas Trade between Russia, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine Agreements and Disputes by Michael Fredholm Department of South and Central Asian Studies Stockholm University Editorial Note The author has written extensively on the history, defence and security policies, and energy sector developments of Eurasia. He also heads the business research company Team Ippeki. -
Watch Them: Candidates for Top Jobs in Government | Kyivpost - Ukraine
Watch them: Candidates for top jobs in government | KyivPost - Ukraine... https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/watch-them-candidates-for-to... 2019 Parliamentary Election Watch them: Candidates for top jobs in government Ву Oksana Grytsenko. Published july 26 at 11 :48 am LOI Oleksiy Honcharuk, President Volodymyr Zelensky's deputy chief of staff, speaks during Zelensky's visit to Dnipro, а city 500 kilometers south of Kyiv, on July 12, 2019. Honcharuk is among the candidates for the job of prime minister. Photo Ьу president.gov.ua As Ukraine counted ballots following the July 21 parliamentary elections, President Volodymyr Zelensky and his closest advisors were ВАСКТОТОР А 1 von 8 30.07.2019, 18:03 Watch them: Candidates for top jobs in government | KyivPost - Ukraine... https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/watch-them-candidates-for-to... assessing candidates for the country's top jobs. The recruitment process started about а уеаг ago, when Zelensky still was ап actor оп the Kvartal 95 comedy show. Не hadn't even announced that he was running for president yet. ''Тhеу approached experts, civil society реорІе, journalists," said BalazsJarabik, а nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for lnternational Реасе, who followed the process. "Мапу реорІе refused because nobody took them seriously. Now they regret it." Today, Zelensky is president and he has just won an unprecedented one-party majority in parliament. His Servant of the РеорІе party received 254 out of 424 seats іп the Verkhovna Rada, with 99 percent of the vote counted. То pass laws or approve nominations, they need only 226 votes. -
Freedom on the Net, Ukraine
Ukraine https://freedomhouse.org/country/ukraine/freedom-net/2020 The COVID-19 pandemic saw the authorities prosecute users for spreading rumors online and launch several initiatives aimed at stopping the spread of the disease, including an app that monitors individuals in mandatory isolation, that infringe upon users’ privacy rights. Online journalists continued to face extralegal retaliation for their work. Cyberattacks remain a regular occurrence, affecting government and nongovernment targets alike. C1 1.00-6.00 pts0-6 pts Do the constitution or other laws fail to protect rights such as freedom of expression, access to 3.003 information, and press freedom, including on the internet, and are they enforced by a judiciary that 6.006 lacks independence? The right to free speech is granted to all citizens of Ukraine under Article 34 of the constitution, but the state may restrict this right in the interests of national security or public order, and it is sometimes restricted in practice. Article 15 of the constitution prohibits censorship.132 Ukrainian courts are hampered by corruption and political interference, and public trust in the judiciary remains low.133 Serious crimes against journalists often remain unresolved (see C7). President Zelenskyy’s administration has at times denied reporters access to information (see B5). The IMI recorded 21 COVID-19–related restrictions on the work of journalists from mid-March 2020 until the end of April 2020, including cases in which journalists were prohibited from attending government meetings or prevented from reporting.134 C2 1.00-4.00 pts0-4 pts Are there laws that assign criminal penalties or civil liability for online activities? 2.002 4.004 No dedicated law mandates criminal penalties or civil liability specifically for online activities. -
Ukraine's Foreign Affairs
No. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 12, 2003 5 2002: THE YEAR IN REVIEW came in a letter to the National Remembrance Institute, and Germany, while meeting in St. Petersburg, signed a Ukraine’s foreign affairs: addressed to a conference being held on the matter. statement of understanding and cooperation on the con- Poland and Ukraine also worked to continue to tinued use of Ukraine’s pipeline for transporting Russian strengthen economic ties in 2002. Poland’s recently natural gas to Germany. pluses and minuses elected Prime Minister Leszek Miller made his first visit The document envisaged European participation in a to Kyiv on February 4 to meet with his Ukrainian coun- multinational consortium that would guarantee the gas kraine’s foreign affairs this past year, like a terpart, Anatolii Kinakh, as well as with President supply. The signing came a day after Presidents Kuchma potluck dinner, consisted of good and bad Kuchma. Talks centered on the Odesa-Brody-Gdansk oil and Putin signed a separate declaration of strategic coop- moments. At the top of a very uneven year in for- pipeline. Prime Minister Miller expressed his full sup- eration in the natural gas sector, which would give eign relations was the Kolchuha affair, which increasing- port for the plan and Poland’s intention to find business Russia joint management and developmental influence ly overshadowed other developments as the year wore U partners to complete the pipeline’s Polish section over the Ukrainian tube in return for its agreement to on. However, even with accusations of President Leonid through to the Baltic seaport city of Gdansk. -
Kremlin-Linked Forces in Ukraine's 2019 Elections
Études de l’Ifri Russie.Nei.Reports 25 KREMLIN-LINKED FORCES IN UKRAINE’S 2019 ELECTIONS On the Brink of Revenge? Vladislav INOZEMTSEV February 2019 Russia/NIS Center The Institut français des relations internationales (Ifri) is a research center and a forum for debate on major international political and economic issues. Headed by Thierry de Montbrial since its founding in 1979, Ifri is a non-governmental, non-profit organization. As an independent think tank, Ifri sets its own research agenda, publishing its findings regularly for a global audience. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Ifri brings together political and economic decision-makers, researchers and internationally renowned experts to animate its debate and research activities. The opinions expressed in this text are the responsibility of the author alone. ISBN: 978-2-36567-981-7 © All rights reserved, Ifri, 2019 How to quote this document: Vladislav Inozemtsev, “Kremlin-Linked Forces in Ukraine’s 2019 Elections: On the Brink of Revenge?”, Russie.NEI.Reports, No. 25, Ifri, February 2019. Ifri 27 rue de la Procession 75740 Paris Cedex 15—FRANCE Tel. : +33 (0)1 40 61 60 00—Fax : +33 (0)1 40 61 60 60 Email: [email protected] Website: Ifri.org Author Dr Vladislav Inozemtsev (b. 1968) is a Russian economist and political researcher since 1999, with a PhD in Economics. In 1996 he founded the Moscow-based Center for Post-Industrial Studies and has been its Director ever since. In recent years, he served as Senior or Visiting Fellow with the Institut fur die Wissenschaften vom Menschen in Vienna, with the Polski Instytut Studiów Zaawansowanych in Warsaw, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik in Berlin, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Johns Hopkins University in Washington. -
The Mediaʼs Role
7KH0HGLDV5ROH Sergii Leshchenko Journal of Democracy, Volume 25, Number 3, July 2014, pp. 52-57 (Article) Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: 10.1353/jod.2014.0048 For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jod/summary/v025/25.3.leshchenko.html Access provided by username 'cohenf' (22 Aug 2014 15:19 GMT) The Maidan and Beyond THE MEDIA’S ROLE Sergii Leshchenko Sergii Leshchenko is a leading Ukrainian journalist and press-freedom activist. Since 2000, he has worked for Ukrayinska Pravda, where he specializes in anticorruption investigations and other political report- ing. From October 2013 to February 2014, he was a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy. It all began with a simple Facebook post. On 21 November 2013, after word got out that President Viktor Yanukovych was doing an about-face and scrapping his promise to steer Ukraine toward closer integration with Europe, online journalist Mustafa Nayyem took to his page on the popular social-media site to invite any fellow Ukrainians who shared his unhappiness with the policy reversal to meet in Kyiv’s Independence Square (the Maidan) at 10:30 that night so they could peacefully voice their discontent. A few hundred of Nayyem’s Facebook friends showed up, to be joined within days by several thousand students and members of opposition parties. When the regime launched a brutal paramilitary assault against the Maidan on November 30, the crowds swelled to at least half a million people who came out to condemn the government’s actions. -
Seeking Justice for Pavel Sheremet
July 20, 2017 IN BRIEF One Year Later: Seeking Justice for Pavel Sheremet Concerning Trends for Press Freedom in Ukraine When investigative journalist Pavel Sheremet died in a car explosion in central Kyiv on July 20, 2016, his assassination garnered global media attention. Upon learning the tragic news, then- OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović condemned the murder, saying, “This killing and its circumstances must be swiftly and thoroughly investigated, and the 1 perpetrators brought to justice.” However, one year later, virtually no progress has been made on his case. Furthermore, the An internationally acclaimed journalist, Pavel Sheremet received the International escalating harassment and attacks against jour- Press Freedom Award from the Committee nalists in Ukraine, coupled with a culture of im- to Protect Journalists in 1998, and the punity for perpetrators, is worrisome for OSCE’s Prize for Journalism and Democracy Ukraine’s democratic future. To ensure they in recognition of his human rights reporting meet the aspirations of the Ukrainian people, in the Balkans and Afghanistan in 2002. (Photo credit: Okras) authorities in Kiev must reaffirm their com- mitment to freedom of the press by ensuring the perpetrators of Sheremet’s murder—and left Russia—again as a result of mounting hos- similar cases of killing, assault, and harass- tility from the host regime he criticized—and ment—are brought to justice. moved to Kyiv. At the time of his death, Shemeret had lived in Kyiv for five years with Investigative Journalist and Outspoken Critic Ukrainska Pravda editor-in-chief Olena Prytula. A regular contributor to popular news site Ukrainska Pravda, Sheremet was known for In 2000, Sheremet’s cameraman, Dmitry Zavad- challenging the authorities in his home country sky, disappeared in Minsk after shooting a doc- of Belarus as well as in his adopted homes of umentary about the war in Chechnya. -
Ukraine's Sectoral Integration Into the Eu
UKRAINE’S SECTORAL INTEGRATION INTO THE EU: PRECONDITIONS, PROSPECTS, CHALLENGES The Project “Ukraine’s Sectoral Integration into the EU: Preconditions, Prospects, Challenges” was realized with the support of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in Ukraine KYIV 2020 CONTENT UKRAINE’S SECTORAL INTEGRATION INTO THE EU: PRECONDITIONS, PROSPECTS, CHALLENGES .............................................................................................. 3 1. Integration Into the European Union: Current State, Peculiarities and Challenges ...................................... 4 1.1. European Integration Policy of the Current Government: Nature and Specifics .............................. 4 1.2. External Factors ............................................................................................................................... 8 1.3. Updating the Association Agreement and Prospects of the EU-Ukraine Relations ....................... 10 2. General Preconditions for Intensification of Sectoral Integration in the Economy ......................................15 2.1. New Priorities in EU-Ukraine Economic Cooperation in the Context of Fighting COVID-19, and Prospects of Structural Change of Economy ......................................................................... 15 2.2. Developing Mechanisms that Regulate Mutual Market Access under the Free Trade Area .......... 18 2.3. Mechanisms for Facilitating Sectoral Development and Sectoral Integration (Facilitation Institutions and Financial Instruments) ...................................................................... -
Competing Nationalisms, Euromaidan, and the Russian-Ukrainian Conflict
bs_bs_banner Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism: Vol. 15, No. 1, 2015 Competing Nationalisms, Euromaidan, and the Russian-Ukrainian Conflict Taras Kuzio* Senior Research Associate, Canadian Institute for Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta Senior Research Fellow, Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Toronto Non-Resident Fellow, Center for Transatlantic Relations, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University Introduction Although Ukraine is a regionally diverse country, it had succeeded in peacefully managing inter-ethnic and linguistic tension between competing nationalisms and identities. However, the rise of the openly pro-Russian Party of Regions political machine after the Orange Revolution, whose leader came to power in 2010, and the evolution of Vladimir Putin’s regime from proponent of statist to ethnic national- ism, heightened Ukrainian inter-regional and inter-state conflict. Viktor Yanukovych’s policies provoked popular protests that became the Euromaidan. His unwillingness to compromise and his fear of leaving office led to violence and the breakdown of state structures, opening the way for Russia’s interventions in the Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. This article investigates the sources for the violence during and after the Euromaidan and Russia’s interventions. It argues that domes- tic and foreign factors served to change the dynamics of Russian speakers in Ukraine from one of passivity in the late 1980s through to the 2004 Orange Revolution; low-level mobilization from 2005 to 2013; and high-level -
Ukraine's Security Forces: Bloated, Incompetent and Still Neo-Soviet Taras Kuzio
Eurasia Daily Monitor -- Volume 10, Issue 22 Ukraine’s Security Forces: Bloated, Incompetent and Still Neo-Soviet Taras Kuzio More than 20 years after independence, Ukraine’s security forces are over-manned, incompetent and largely remain neo-Soviet in their operating culture. On January 18, the prosecutor’s office accused former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko of being in league with Pavlo Lazarenko (prime minister in 1996–1997) for the murder of Donetsk oligarch Yevhen Shcherban. Allegedly, she paid $2.329 million from her accounts, while Lazarenko paid another half a million dollars in cash for the murder (http://www.gp.gov.ua/ua/news.html?_m=publications&_t=rec&id=115177&fp=40). When asked why the prosecutor’s office had not initiated these criminal charges when he was in power, former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma replied, “The Prosecutor-General [Mykhaylo] Potebenko, in his reports, said at the time there were no grounds for legal action [against Tymoshenko]. And that is it.” “And against Lazarenko, at that time, there were [grounds for opening a case],” Kuchma added (http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2013/01/24/6982168/). Interviewed on Russian television, Kuchma remains adamant that Tymoshenko had nothing to do with the murder of Shcherban (http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2013/02/3/6982753/). Under Presidents Kuchma and Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine’s moribund security forces and prosecutor’s office were unable to find evidence linking Tymoshenko to the Shcherban murder. The new “information” against Tymoshenko is part of a concerted campaign to remove her forever from Ukrainian politics and “prove” to the West her case is allegedly not political.