April 30, 2010

EUobserver / Commission counters Ukraine complaints

Commission counters Ukraine complaints

Today @ 17:44 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Ukraine does not have to choose between Brussels and Moscow and the EU is committed to helping it financially, the European Commission said on Friday (30 April) after Kiev voiced criticism of EU policy.
"We believe positions and statements creating the impression that countries in the region need to choose between Brussels and Moscow are not helpful," Angela Filote, the spokeswoman for enlargement and neighbourhood commissioner Stefan Fuele, said during a regular press briefing in the EU capital.

Commissioner Fuele says Ukraine does not have to choose between Brussels and Moscow (Photo: European Parliament)

euro|topics - Annexed by Russia

euro|topics - Annexed by Russia
Gazeta Wyborcza - Poland | Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Annexed by Russia

For the daily Gazeta Wyborcza, the huge tumult on Tuesday which accompanied the Ukrainian parliament's extension of the lease agreement for the Russian Black Sea fleet marks the beginning of the end: "Ukraine is sinking into conflict and internecine war. In such a state it will be difficult to save the country from its economic woes. It will also be difficult for Ukraine to move closer to the EU, although this is really what all the key political forces on the Dnieper are after. Events have shown that the affirmations of the politicians in Kiev are nothing but empty words. Ukraine can move closer to its neighbour Belarus - according to its own wishes. Economically it is so dependent on Russia that it has even adopted Russian standards. The country is incapable of true sovereignty. It's an open question whether Ukraine wasn't simply annexed by Russia yesterday. Whatever the answer it certainly took one step in that direction."

Moscow's carrot-and-stick policy is shortsighted

Berliner Zeitung - Germany | Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Moscow's carrot-and-stick policy is shortsighted

The controversial military agreement with Ukraine won't bring Russia many advantages, the left-liberal Berliner Zeitung concludes: "One only needs to look at Belarus's president Alexander Lukashenko. He has made it his purpose in life to demonstrate to the world his independence from Moscow each day. ... Russia has tried without success to integrate its neighbouring country through multilateral organisations. However the labours of multilateralism are not an area in which Moscow excels. The ODKB military alliance exists on paper only. ... And so Moscow keeps on trying with bilateral agreements. ... The agreement with Kiev is one such successful deal. But even that is not a sure bet. It's patently obvious that President Viktor Yanukovych wanted to outsmart his country by rushing the deal through the ratification procedure. But this is not the way to form lasting alliances, at least not in a democracy."
» full article (external link, German)

Russia digs deep in battle for Ukraine supremacy

The Daily Star - Politics - Russia digs deep in battle for Ukraine supremacy
By Agence France Presse (AFP)

Thursday, April 29, 2010
Stuart Williams
MOSCOW: It was, admitted Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, an exorbitant sum – $40 billion to keep a Russian naval base in Ukraine until almost the middle of the century.

“But for us, this is not just a question of money,” Putin said.

For Moscow, the bitterly-contested deal with Ukraine to keep the Russian Black Sea Fleet base in Crimea until at least 2042 goes beyond money and to the heart of Moscow’s struggle to regain a historic influence in its neighbor.

Kremlin fills the void left by an indifferent America and inept EU - Times Online

From The Times

April 28, 2010

Kremlin fills the void left by indifferent America and inept EU

Tony Halpin

Fighting Over Moscow's Embrace - NYTimes.com

I.H.T. Op-Ed Contributor - Fighting Over Moscow's Embrace - NYTimes.com

Fighting Over Moscow's Embrace

By FRIEDBERT PFLÜGER

Published: April 29, 2010

KIEV, UKRAINE — On Tuesday, I became a witness to the riots in the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament. Members threw punches, smoke bombs and eggs, from which the speaker had to be protected by three umbrellas.
The fight further underscored the polarization of Ukraine between a western region that regards itself as part of Central Europe and an eastern part that leans toward Russia.
Still, why such passions?

For Yanukovych, A Fleet-Footed Dash To Repair Russia Divide

For Yanukovych, A Fleet-Footed Dash To Repair Russia Divide
RFE/RL

For Yanukovych, A Fleet-Footed Dash To Repair Russia Divide

29.04.2010 16:21 By Gregory Feifer

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych with Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev at the Kremlin in Moscow in early May

Mention the cities Yalta or Potsdam and many will think of the conferences held there by the Allies to establish new spheres of influence in Europe at the end of World War II. For many Ukrainians, another name -- Kharkiv -- has now become associated with a new international deal establishing Moscow's foreign influence.

Last week, the Ukrainian city hosted newly elected President Viktor Yanukovych and his cheerful-looking Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev for the signing of a sweeping agreement reversing two of the most symbolic policies of Ukraine's ousted pro-Western leadership.

Pro-Russian Old Guard, Returns to Run Ukrainian Security Forces

Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 7 Issue: 59

March 29, 2010 09:27 AM Age: 32 days

Category: Eurasia Daily Monitor, Military/Security, Russia, Ukraine

By: Taras Kuzio

President Viktor Yanukovych and Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov are both ignoring the sensitivities of “Orange” Western and Central Ukraine by returning to positions of power individuals from Leonid Kuchma’s second term in office. Moreover, defectors from the Kuchma regime, who had received asylum in Russia out of fear that Viktor Yushchenko would implement the Orange Revolution slogan of “Bandits to Prison!” are in the process of returning to Ukraine (EDM, April 14, May 25, 2005).

Is Russia Google's next weak spot?

Net Effect | FOREIGN POLICY

Is Russia Google's next weak spot?

By Evgeny Morozov Friday, March 26, 2010 - 8:45 AM

Big news from Russia today: RBK Daily, a respected Russian news agency, reports (in Russian) that the Russian government might soon be launching a "national search engine". According to RBK's anonymous sources inside Kremlin, it would aim at satisfying "state-oriented" needs such as "facilitating access to safe information" and "filtering web-sites that feature banned content." It's going to be an ambitious project: the government is prepared to invest $100 million in this new venture, does not want to allow any foreign funding, and intends to build it in cooperation with the private sector.
RBK mentions several interesting players that have either been already consulted or would be asked to join soon : Rostelecom (Russia's state-owned telecommunications giant), ABBYY (one of the leading software firms specializing in document recognition and translation - the company was actually founded in Russia in 1989!), and "Ashmanov and Partners" (an Internet consulting firm led by Igor Ashmanov, a pioneer of the Russian Internet and a former senior executive at Rambler, one of Russia's first search engines).

Europe.view: Redrawing the map | The Economist

Redrawing the map

The European map is outdated and illogical. Here's how it should look

Apr 29th 2010 | From The Economist online

...Into the slots vacated by Poland and Belarus should come the western and central parts of Ukraine. Germany, with the Ukrainian border now only 100km from Berlin, would start having to take the country’s European integration seriously. The Ukrainian shift would allow Russia to move west and south too, thus vacating Siberia for the Chinese, who will take it sooner or later anyway...

Interview: 'The Only Politically Acceptable Explanation Is To Blame Polish Pilots' - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2010

Interview: 'The Only Politically Acceptable Explanation Is To Blame Polish Pilots'

Parliament speaker and acting president, Bronislaw Komorowski

April 28, 2010

Twenty-two candidates are planning to participate in Polish presidential elections following the April 10 plane crash in Russia that killed President Lech Kaczynski and dozens of members of the country's top military, political, and church elite. The candidates include the president's twin brother Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the former prime minister.
As the country reels from anger and shock over the crash, Poles are also facing the possibility of a shift toward warmer relations with Moscow once the country is under new leadership. Evidence of such a thaw could be seen in decision by Moscow to release a batch of previously sealed files related to the 1940 Katyn massacre.
RFE/RL Georgian Service correspondent Nino Gelashvili talked to political expert Przemyslaw Zurawski vel Grajewski of the Natolin European Center in Warsaw and the University of Lodz about the emerging political situation in Poland.

EUobserver / EU gives Ukraine fresh blueprint for reforms

EU gives Ukraine fresh blueprint for reforms

VALENTINA POP

28.04.2010 @ 18:01 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The European Commission has given the Ukrainian government a to-do list of 18 reforms which could trigger extra EU aid, according to a document seen by EUobserver.
"I presented to the Ukrainian side a list of key reforms which Ukraine needs urgently to develop together with possible incentives and responses from the EU," enlargement and neighbourhood policy commissioner Stefan Fuele told MEPs on Wednesday (28 April) following his visit to Kiev last week.

The EU wants to spur concrete reforms in Ukraine's economy and justice system (Photo: European Commission)

The document is a six-paged table outlining concrete measures and possible EU aid in response to them, covering political reforms, macro-financial stability, the business environment, the energy sector, the environment and civil aviation.
The reasoning behind the to-do list

Gas in Exchange for Naval Base: a Boon to Ukraine’s Weak Economy - The Jamestown Foundation

Gas in Exchange for Naval Base: a Boon to Ukraine’s Weak Economy

Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 7 Issue: 82

April 28, 2010 03:58 PM Age: 10 hrs

Category: Eurasia Daily Monitor, Home Page, Ukraine, Russia, Economics, Featured

By: Pavel Korduban

The scene at the Ukrainian Parliament when lawmakers ratified an agreement to extend the lease of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol.

Moscow has agreed to lower the price of gas for Kyiv by one-third in exchange for extending the lease of the Sevastopol base for the Black Sea Fleet (BSF) by 25 years. The Ukrainian parliament ratified the agreement on April 27, despite protests by the opposition.

EUobserver / EU risks losing Ukraine, minister warns

EU risks losing Ukraine, minister warns

ANDREW RETTMAN

Today @ 11:11 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Ukraine's economy will in the coming years integrate more closely with Russia than with the EU unless the union becomes more open, Ukraine's EU affairs minister has said.

Yanukovych (r) prefers to visit Moscow, because the trips get results (Photo: kremlin.ru)

"People in my leadership are extremely pragmatic. If we don't have real deliverables from contacts with the EU and we just see more and more pre-conditions, of course we will have closer business relations with countries such as Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. In practical terms, our markets will become closer to Russia," Ukraine's EU affairs minister Konstantin Yeliseyev told EUobserver in a phone interview on Wednesday (28 April).

The minister noted that the EU did not give Ukraine a roadmap for future visa-free travel as a reward for holding democratic elections in March.

Video: Ukrainian Parliament met 27 April 2010 to ratify a treaty with Russia that extends the latter's navy presence in the Ukraine until 2042

April 27, 2010 — (CNN) -- Lawmakers in Ukraine scuffled with each other, throwing punches and eggs, as parliament met Tuesday (27 April 2010) to ratify a treaty with Russia that extends the latter's navy presence in the Ukraine's Crimean peninsula until 2042.