Yes, an excellent report. Can you suggest where one could find simular reports on the current situaton in Ukraine regarding social and cultural policies of the current government?
There are few such in-depth reports as this one produced that are freely available. The Ukrainian Foreign Minister and I think vice PM gave presentations at Chatham House in London this week, but I have not seen any transcripts. I can recommend the Centre for Eastern Studies site: http://www.osw.waw.pl/en
KyivPost are good, and quick off the mark - frequently posting information as quickly as Ukrainian sites.
One point that Nazar Kholod omits, is that when Tymshenko signed the 2009 gas deal, billions of cu.m. of Dmytro Firtash's gas that was being stored in Ukraine's massive underground storage facilities were handed over to NAftohaz Ukraine because he had been late paying Gazprom. The deal would have bought her breathing space before the 2010 pres. election campaign.
Once she was out of office Firtash clawed all of this gas back - costing the Ukrainian state 5 or more Billion dollars, depending on which gas price you take as the norm. Plenty then for PoR to spend on election campaigns, yachts, Ferraris etc. This from 'Der Spiegel' in English is v. good on this topic. http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,736745,00.html
Yes, an excellent report. Can you suggest where one could find simular reports on the current situaton in Ukraine regarding social and cultural policies of the current government?
ReplyDeleteHi Gordon -
ReplyDeleteThere are few such in-depth reports as this one produced that are freely available. The Ukrainian Foreign Minister and I think vice PM gave presentations at Chatham House in London this week, but I have not seen any transcripts. I can recommend the Centre for Eastern Studies site: http://www.osw.waw.pl/en
KyivPost are good, and quick off the mark - frequently posting information as quickly as Ukrainian sites.
One point that Nazar Kholod omits, is that when Tymshenko signed the 2009 gas deal, billions of cu.m. of Dmytro Firtash's gas that was being stored in Ukraine's massive underground storage facilities were handed over to NAftohaz Ukraine because he had been late paying Gazprom. The deal would have bought her breathing space before the 2010 pres. election campaign.
Once she was out of office Firtash clawed all of this gas back - costing the Ukrainian state 5 or more Billion dollars, depending on which gas price you take as the norm. Plenty then for PoR to spend on election campaigns, yachts, Ferraris etc. This from 'Der Spiegel' in English is v. good on this topic. http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,736745,00.html