Latest Articles about Ukraine
Ukraine’s Energy Mess Threatens to Overshadow Presidential Election
As the Ukrainian government of Yulia Tymoshenko continues to struggle with the impact of the global economic crisis, its troubled energy sector has taken a number of new hits. The state-owned oil and gas monopoly, Naftohaz Ukrayiny, was degraded by Fitch Ratings to “restricted default”... MORE
Yatseniuk’s Presidential Election Campaign Stagnates
On October 1 the central election commission laid out the timetable for Ukraine’s January 17, 2010 presidential elections. However, the candidate who began his campaign first –Arseniy Yatseniuk– might already be in trouble before the registration of candidates begins on October 20. A poll published... MORE
Who is to Blame for Ukraine’s Privatization Scandal?
Nortima, a company linked to the Ukrainian tycoon Ihor Kolomoysky, on September 29 won the privatization tender for Odessa Portside Plant (OPZ), one of Ukraine’s largest chemical factories. Nortima bid over $625 million, more than its rivals: the Russian Sibur and Russian-Ukrainian businessman Konstantin Grigorishin.... MORE
Party of Regions Claims Tymoshenko Attacks Freedom of Speech: Déjà Vu?
The Pechersky district court in Kyiv on September 22 banned "any unfair advertisement" against Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. This prompted Viktor Yanukovych, her main rival in the run-up to the January 17 presidential election, to accuse Tymoshenko of infringing freedom of speech. Ironically, it was... MORE
Who Will Washington Support in the Ukrainian Elections?
The Ukrainian media has started to debate who the United States might support in the upcoming January 17, 2010 presidential elections. This issue is closely related to the question of which "political technologists" the presidential candidates will employ: American or Russian. On August 31 Alyona... MORE
Russia’s New Ukrainian Disinformation Campaign
Disinformation, or the planting of false information to deceive or smear an enemy, is now being regularly used by both government and non-governmental players in Russia and Ukraine in the fierce battles for control of power and assets in these countries. During the January 2009... MORE
Can President Yushchenko Disrupt the Presidential Election?
Ukraine's second most popular presidential candidate, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, suspects that President Viktor Yushchenko -who is running for a second term- of conspiring to disrupt the presidential election scheduled for January 17, 2010. Yushchenko, to whom opinion polls give no more than 2-4 percent... MORE
Time to De-Mothball the Budapest Memorandum for Ukraine
A representative group of Ukraine's cultural elite has alerted Western governments and public opinion to Russia's mounting threats against Ukrainian independence. Alarmed by Moscow's latest moves, the signatories of the appeal are also concerned by the failure of Western governments to respond by using existing... MORE
Ukraine Debates the Russian Threat
The poor state of Ukrainian-Russian relations, as vividly noted in Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's August letter to President Viktor Yushchenko, the expulsion of two Russian spies from Ukraine and Russia's newly adopted law giving its military the right to intervene abroad is intensifying the debate... MORE
Maritime Security Weaknesses in the Black Sea
Russian naval operations in August 2008 highlighted the security deficit in the Black Sea. As a littoral country, Russia misused the territory of another littoral country, Ukraine, as a staging ground for attacking a third littoral country, Georgia, using its Black Sea Fleet based in... MORE