A November 2003 document prepared by Russian "political technologists" working for Viktor Medvedchuk, head of the Presidential Administration, has been leaked to Ukrayinska Pravda (June 25). The report outlines how President Leonid Kuchma could win a third term by discrediting his main opponent as a... MORE

On the eve of the official July 3 launch of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential elections, front-runner Viktor Yushchenko announced three important steps in his campaign strategy. The three-pronged approach will help Yushchenko consolidate a wide-embracing election campaign against his main opponent, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych,... MORE

Tension has again re-surfaced surrounding the autumn 2000 murder and beheading of Ukrainian opposition journalist Heorhiy Gongadze. On June 17, Hryhoriy Omelchenko, head of the parliamentary committee investigating the murder, announced that his commission had reached a unanimous verdict. The commission concluded that Ukrainian President... MORE

In the best traditions of investigative journalism, the opposition Ukrayinska Pravda (June 3 and 11) newspaper has uncovered, for the first time, how Ukrainian oligarchs and their Russian advisers censor the Ukrainian media. Censorship operates through the use of secret instructions (temnyky) sent to television... MORE

On June 14, Ukraine's two largest oligarchic clans undertook what are likely to be one of the first of many insider privatizations before this year's elections in October. Ninety-three percent of shares in Ukraine's largest steel producer Kryvorizhstal were purchased for a staggeringly low sum... MORE

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko was charged with laundering US$114 million on June 4, after a five-year investigation. Lazarenko was only the second foreign leader to be put on trial in the U.S., following Panamanian President Manuel Noriega in 1990. Lazarenko was prime minister... MORE

On June 13, Poland, like the other seven post-Communist states who joined the European Union (EU) in May, will participate for the first time in European Parliament elections. In preparation for the elections, on June 5, the well-known Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper published a list of... MORE

On June 1, Ukrainian Parliament Deputy Speaker Oleksandr Zinchenko complained of collusion between "law enforcement structures and the criminal world" in the April 18 Mukachevo mayoral elections (www.rada.kiev.ua, June 1). Zinchenko specifically targeted "skinheads," who had been reportedly organized as paramilitary groups by the presidential... MORE

The Washington Times (May 25) published a sensational news item entitled “Dirty Bomb Easy to Buy in Ukraine”. The report was itself based on a Sky News report that investigated how relatively easy it would be for terrorists to purchase, transport and detonate a “dirty... MORE

Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych was nominated on April 14 as the candidate of the pro-presidential camp for the October 31 presidential election in Ukraine. The nomination came six days after a parliamentary vote on constitutional changes failed. Opinion polls show Yanukovych to have overtaken Communist... MORE