Turgenev street in Lviv to be renamed in honor of UPA fighters

Quote: Commenting on the council decision, deputy Roksolana Lemyk said,”We did not intend to target specifically Turgenev Street. We wanted to commemorate UPA heroes by naming in their honor a central street which is frequented by city residents and tourists,” she said.
We have repeatedly declared in the past that the renaming has nothing to do with Turgenev. Anyhow, the Russian writer’s relationship with Lviv is zero: he had never lived here or written about Lviv. Therefore, it made some sense to rename the street. However, the renaming is closely linked to the names of adjacent streets which all carry the names of UPA fighters, Chuprynka, Bandera, Konovalets,” the Lviv deputy argued.

http://zik.com.ua/en/news/2008/04/17/133840

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Statement by Hillary Clinton on Georgia and Ukraine

I deeply regret President Bush's inability to convince our NATO allies to take this action. This is the first time in memory a U.S. President has traveled to a NATO summit and failed to achieve his publicly proclaimed goals.
Now the Russian government has taken advantage of the lack of unity coming out of the Bucharest Summit to further ratchet up the pressure on young democracies on its borders. Moscow's actions this week to strengthen ties with the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia undermine the territorial integrity of the state of Georgia and are clearly designed to destabilize the government of President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Georgia is a small democratic state in a turbulent region. It must not be allowed to be undermined. Two weeks ago President Bush sat with President Putin in Sochi just a few kilometers away from the Georgian border. He prided himself on his close working relationship with Vladimir Putin. President Bush should call on the Russian leadership to immediately rescind these steps.
I also call on President Bush to immediately send a senior representative to Tbilisi to show our support for the government of Georgia. The United States should raise this matter in the United Nations Security Council, in a special 26+1 session of NATO's North Atlantic Council (NAC), and in the NATO-Russia Council. Russia needs to hear a unified message from the United States and our European partners about our shared commitment to Georgia's security and territorial integrity.
These are not the only Russian moves that I have found troubling. Senior Russian officials have engaged in a pressure campaign to prevent Ukraine from seeking deeper ties with NATO. President Putin even raised the prospect of retargeting nuclear missiles against Ukraine.
I am not advocating, nor do I envisage, a return to a new Cold War with Russia, which I believe ought to remain in the G-8, where the United States and its allies can together address our growing list of concerns with Moscow. But the current Administration's mishandling of Russian relations has contributed to Moscow's belief that it can do as it pleases. America and its allies can and must do better.

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100007539&docId=l:778263086&start=2

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State Reserve Chairman Pozhyvanov Accuses Baloha Of Prevention Cabinet From Stabilization Of Prices On Food Markets

Quote: Chairman of the State Material Reserve Committee Mykhailo Pozhyvanov accuses Head of the Presidential Secretariat Viktor Baloha of prevention the Cabinet of Ministers from stabilization of prices on the food markets of Ukraine.
Pozhyvanov disclosed this in a statement, text of which Ukrainian News has.
"Today, market can provide price reduction for major foodstuffs, but we do not see this, as the head of the Secretariat blocks all Cabinet of Ministers actions in this direction," the report reads.
Pozhyvanov considers it obvious that Baloha concentrated on prevention the government from battling the inflation to retain high prices and discredit activity of the Cabinet of Ministers.
He said that on April 17, he was called by Baloha and threatened with possible problems with law enforcement agencies in the case meat interventions from the state reserve are launched.
"It is a pity that today, person, who heads the Presidential Secretariat, uses semi-criminal threats and interferes in the issues he is not authorized to settle," the state reserve chairman said.
He marked that if the Presidential Secretariat head interferes in activity of the state reserve and disrupts implementation of anti-inflation initiatives of the government, he will be responsible for the inflation but not the president.

http://www.ukranews.com/eng/article/118099.html

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Orthodox bishop to run for Regions, not Communists

Quote: The head of the Party of the Regions Kyiv city organization Vasyl Horbal announced the “first five” on his political force’s list for the snap Kyiv city council elections. Horbal will head the list that also incude:2. Dmytri Tabchnyk (neo-Soviet historian, proponent of federalism)3. Inna Bogoslovska (formerly of pro-Kuchma, Pinchuk-backed political projects)4. Vladika Pavel (see below)5. Mikhail Reznikovich (on-again-off-again director of the awkwardly-named Lesia Ukrayinka Russian Language Drama Theater, where Tabachnyk’s wife Tetyana Nazarova works as an actress.)Horbal said that some Communists were the source of earlier rumors that the Orthodox Church hierarch was planning to run for the Marxists-Leninists, According to news.liga.net. In the March 2006 elections, the Regions won 16 of 120 seats in Kyiv city council.Recall that Karl Marx stated that “religion is the opiate of the people” and that Lenin’s Bolsheviks spent 70 years pillaging churches, re-opening them as atheist museums and killing million of clergy and laity.His Eminence Pavel (Lebid) is the Archbishop of Vyshgorod (just outside Kyiv) and the Father Superior at the “Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra,” a.k.a. the Monastery of the Caves, guarded by warrior monks from the Rus Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).

by Steve Bandera

Source: http://kyivscoop.blogspot.com/2008/04/44-orthodox-bishop-to-run-for-regions.html

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Senior Fellow, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity

Quote: Andrei Illarionov is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity. From 2000 to December 2005 he was the chief economic adviser of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Illarionov also served as the president's personal representative (sherpa) in the G-8. He is one of Russia's most forceful and articulate advocates of an open society and democratic capitalism, and has been a long-time friend of the Cato Institute. Illarionov received his Ph.D. from St. Petersburg University in 1987. From 1993 to 1994 Illarionov served as chief economic adviser to the prime minister of the Russian Federation, Viktor Chernomyrdin. He resigned in February 1994 to protest changes in the government's economic policy.


BBC interview video: http://www.cato.org/videohighlights/index.php?highlight_id=22

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MP says ambitions of Yuschenko and Tymoshenko pose danger to democracy and stability in Ukraine

Quote: "The two key players - Yuschenko and Tymoshenko - in their desire to win sole power in Ukraine and win at the next presidential elections, are threatening the parliamentary system in Ukraine, democracy, political stability, while everyone else is a hostage," he said at a round table in Kyiv on Friday.
He said the current coalition at the Verkhovna Rada was not independent, as almost all of the decisions were made for MPs.
He further said the coalition could not influence "the clever but a little bit haughty" Verkhovna Rada Chairman Arseniy Yatseniuk.
"With further advice from [Presidential Secretariat Head] Viktor Baloha of this sort, Yuschenko will never become either the guarantor of the Constitution or the guarantor of the European choice of Ukraine.

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100007539&docId=l:778064688&start=9

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BYuT rating becomes lower, experts say

Quote: This is what Ukrainian sociologist Mykola Churylov said while speaking during a round-table discussion at the Horshenin Institute. He noted that according to the returns of the poll held by the research center "Sotsys" on April2-9 2008, the ByuT rating was only 18,9%.

http://www.nrcu.gov.ua/index.php?id=148&listid=64785

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Medvedko Not Aware Of Tsushko's Location

Quote: Prosecutor-General Oleksandr Medvedko claims that he is not aware of current location of Former Interior Affairs Minister and member of the Socialist Party Vasyl Tsushko.
The Prosecutor-General has announced this to reporters in Donetsk.
"I can only say: Tsushko was abroad, where he was treated. Then he came to Moscow," said Medvedko.
As to him, at the moment of bringing charges against him the ex-minister was in Moscow, where an investigator of the Prosecutor-General's Office met with him.
"I confirm, an investigator of the Prosecutor-General's Office indeed met with him in Moscow," said Medvedko.
Although, he refused to disclose details of the meeting of Tsushko and the investigator.
"I shall not make comments until I speak with this investigator. I haven't seen him after his trip to Moscow," added Medvedko.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Prosecutor-General's Office charged ex-Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko with exceeding his authority as part of the case involving the seizure of the building housing the PGO in May 2007.
According to the PGO, charges against him were brought in Russia.
Later on the Socialist Party press service denied the information that Tsushko is hiding in Russia and told that the ex-minister is undergoing treatment in Germany.

http://www.ukranews.com/eng/article/117991.html

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World Shocked! Ukraine below Poverty Line

Quote: According to official statistics, in spite of economical growth of Ukraine in 2000, 28 percents of population live below poverty line. High inflation rate and models of poverty in Ukraine differ from widely-known models in the world. Poverty exists there under conditions of developed industry, highly skilled man power and rather low level of unemployment. “Poverty is rather new phenomenon in Ukraine. It is caused by re-distribution of resources during great changes in country on the way to the market economy”, said Francis O’Donnell.
According to statistical data, Ukrainian nation lost 4 mn of people during previous 10 years, he emphasized. At the same time state medicine financing increased by 4 times during 4 years and use of medicines increased by 3 times. But the death rate only increased in Ukraine. It is concerned with the high level of corruption. The worst situation is registered in the Ukrainian villages. 40 percents of Ukrainians live there.

http://mignews.com.ua/en/articles/299528.html

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Foreign policy: Determined to flex muscles

Quote: Underlying Russia’s policy is the view, widely shared in the Russian elite, that the west exploited Russia’s weakness in the 1990s to push eastwards with the expansion of Nato and the EU – and Moscow got nothing in return. Mr Putin, in the Russian view, tried to establish a partnership in the early 2000s by offering to work with Nato and co-operate in fighting global terrorism. But he was rebuffed. The US abandoned the anti-ballistic missile treaty, the cornerstone of cold war security agreements, pressed ahead with further Nato expansion, launched a unilateral war in Iraq and interfered deep inside the former Soviet Union by backing popular revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia. Sergei Rogov, the director of the institute of the USA and Canada at the Russian Academy of Sciences, says bluntly: “We are now very close to a new cold war which will not be a repetition of the original cold war since Russia is not a superpower and it will probably never again be a superpower. But it will be a cold war with a very adversarial relationship with an arms race, political zero sum games, economic confrontation and ideological warfare.”
Others are less hawkish. But even among liberal experts there is a sense that Russia should stand up for itself in a way that it did not a few years ago. Andrei Klimov, head of the Duma’s sub-committee on European co-operation, says: “If people want to do with Russia as they wish, it will be a bad mistake.”
Russia has three overriding aims: to be treated with respect by the west; to project its power in the world, particularly through energy policy; and to establish itself as the dominant voice in the former Soviet Union. Andranik Migranyan head of the Kremlin-oriented Russian Public Chamber Commission on Globalisation, National Strategy and Development, says: “Russia is trying to play a more independent role in world politics, especially in energy politics. Will the west accept this or try to push back?”
In practice, Moscow has challenged the US over Iraq, Iran, the Middle East and Kosovo. And it defends the rights of Gazprom, the state-controlled energy giant, and other companies to expand their commercial interests abroad. Arguments over all these issues are likely to continue, despite all the declarations made at Sochi. Russia particularly relishes appearing as the defender of the United Nations and international law in these disputes and portraying the US as a law-breaker, particularly in attacking Iraq and supporting Kosovo’s independence.
However, the main differences between Russia and the west will remain in the former Communist countries. Russia especially resents what it sees as western efforts to prise Ukraine out if its grip. As Sergei Markov, an analyst close to the Kremlin, says: “Ukraine isn’t just another country for us. It’s our red line. Many people ask, ‘is Poland a red line?’ No. The Baltic states? No. Even Georgia? No. But Ukraine, yes. The red line is the pursuit of Nato membership.” Mr Markov denies he is questioning Ukrainian independence.
But, like many Russians, he argues that 1,000 years of history unite Russia and Ukraine.

Full article: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/887f0894-0b6c-11dd-8ccf-0000779fd2ac,s01=1.html

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