The main expert of the Moscow Carnegie Center, L. Shevtzova, gave an interview to the Ukrainian newspaper LIGABusinessInform, in which she related about the perspectives of democratization in Russia. In particular, she mentioned: "Any alternative to Putin can appear only from the society and only through the revolutionary means. The system itself provokes a revolutionary change of power. During the last 12 years, the Putin′s team has cleaned the political scene and political life to such an extent, that it is very difficult to see a personal alternative to Putin. There is no political leader in Russia that could compete with Putin on equal terms. Today′s prime-minister commands all the administrative, financial and power resources...

I wrote in a recent posting for this blog that Europe’s troubles and Russia’s turbulence herald an “unhappy new year” for Viktor Yanukovych and the Regionnaires. Let’s up the ante and ask what the European Union’s meltdown and Russia’s breakdown might mean for Ukraine. Both possibilities may still strike us as unlikely, but, in contrast to the conventional wisdom that ruled over the last decade, they’re no longer unimaginable. Indeed, one can easily imagine the EU’s transformation into a loose economic association without political aspirations or a tight political-economic entity under German leadership. And...

As President Viktor Yanukovych’s regime consolidates its dictatorial hold on the country, intensifies its political repression of the opposition, continues to assault the Ukrainian language and culture while selling out the country’s sovereignty to Moscow, it is time to re-examine our own relations with Ukraine. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress has called upon the government of Canada to use the free trade negotiations with Ukraine as a lever for human rights – as the European Union has done. More recently the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences (UVAN) in Canada has called upon the Canadian Government to “condemn in the strongest words possible the Ukrainian authorities for...

Parliamentary Deputy Hryhorii Omelchenko (independent) has asked President Viktor Yanukovych to instruct the Prosecutor-General's Office to file a criminal case against Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for complicity with former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko during the signing of gas contracts between Ukraine and Russia in early 2009. This is stated in a parliamentary request that Omelchenko sent to the head of state, the text of which Ukrainian News obtained. According to the...

A beautiful tapestry triptych Kyi, Shchek, Khoryv, and Their Sister Lybid made by a unique artist Ivan-Valentyn Zadorozhny was presented at the fifth Biennale of Historical Painting that took place this year. Before this tapestry along with the Old Rus’ idols made in encaustic painting technique (wax painting), a hall decorated in Kyivan Rus’ style also made by Zadorozhny adorned the walls of the hotel Lybid. If you would now go to the hotel you wouldn’t find all of that there. It has been all renovated in a modern style. Fifth all-Ukrainian Biennale of Historical Painting “Ukraine from Trypillian Culture to Present Days in Paintings of Modern Artists” is not as advertised as exhibitions of contemporary art. When Ukrainian contemporary art gained recognition at the public level, everybody forgot nearly right away (though it is not for a fact that they remembered before) about its main founder – school of traditional Ukrainian painting. “Business is business” – this formula is often used to...

The Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies has updated its donor board with ten plates bearing the names of new donors, each of whom has recently contributed more than $25,000 to the institute. The board, arranged by donation amounts, now has 73 plates. It features such major donors as Peter Jacyk, Michael and Daria Kowalsky, and Peter and Doris Kule, who have donated more than one million dollars each. The new donors include Canadians from Alberta, Ontario, and British Columbia, as well as a donor from the United Kingdom. In the past, donations have been received from Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Ukraine, and the United States. “The Ukrainian community is strongly committed to preserving its identity and developing its achievements that motivate people to give,” notes CIUS director Dr. Zenon Kohut. “Historically, this was conditioned by a number of reasons, including...

The good news is that President Viktor Yanukovych has finally gotten around to firing some of the deadbeats in his Cabinet. The bad news is that he’s replaced them with two individuals with absolutely no connection to or roots in Ukraine. The worse news is that they’ve been placed in charge of the “power” agencies, the Ministry of Defense and the Security Service (SBU). And, lest you think you can now take a breath, the worst news is that both guys have a record of violence as long as Yanukovych’s security entourage. It started on February 3rd, when Yanukovych made Igor Kalinin the head of the SBU. Then, on February 8th, he made Dmitri Salamatin minister of defense. Kalinin joined the KGB in 1984, took part in the fighting in Afghanistan from 1986 to 1988, and remained in that...

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to address you this afternoon. To begin, I would like to say how pleased I am of the great work that the many Ukrainian organizations do here in Canada. In my time as a Member of Parliament from Mississauga, I have had the opportunity to work with many of the members of the League of Ukrainian Canadians and your sister organizations such as; the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation, the Ukrainian World Congress, the Ukrainian Catholic Women’s League of Canada, the Canadian Friends of Ukraine, and the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce to name a few. I am also very pleased to share the honour of addressing you today with my caucus colleagues MP Ted Opitz and MP Bernard Trottier. As I am sure you know, both Bernard and Ted have been tireless...

The only potential presidential candidate, Grigory Yavlinsky (who wasn’t admitted to the presidential campaign), addressed the rally, saying politics should get back to morality and that “it’s just the beginning.” Characteristically, an “anti-Oran­ge” rally was staged simultaneously on Poklonnaya Mountain. According to the Interior Ministry, it gathered some 100,000 persons (a number of journa­lists and analysts doubt this statistic), including Moscow residents and people from other parts of Russia. Some media reported that people were forced or paid to attend this rally. Such pro-Putin rallies showed a Ukrainian trace in the events that are taking place in Russia. Ukraine’s experience is obviously being used, even though never publicly admitted. On Bolotnaya Square, rock groups performed and...

*ASSISTANT SECRETARY GORDON: *Hello, everybody. Thanks for coming. Apologies for keeping you waiting. I've just come from a long series of meetings. I saw Mr. Lyovochkin this morning, I saw the Prime Minister, and I saw Deputy Foreign Minister Klimkin. I'm here in Ukraine to talk to counterparts about the wide range of issues that we're working on with this country and also to follow up on the meeting that Secretary Clinton had with President Yanukovych the other day at the Munich Security Conference. I'll just give you a sense of what the Secretary had to say to the President and what I've been saying in my meetings here about this relationship. We want to...