Associated Press (AP), Paris, France, Sat, May 7, 2005

PARIS - Russian President Vladimir Putin said NATO enlargement has
not necessarily improved world security, and warned in a television
interview broadcast Saturday that bringing Ukraine into the alliance could
pose problems.

Ukrainian officials say they want their country to join NATO eventually, but
Putin said Russia would not keep sensitive weapons in Ukraine if the
alliance had a military presence there...

Opponents of the Belarussian president look to George Bush to step up pressure on the regime in a tour of the region this weekend

Nick Paton Walsh in Minsk
Friday May 6, 2005
The Guardian

"Today Ukraine - tomorrow Belarus," cried Igor Guz as he marched with hundreds of protesters in Minsk, the Belarussian capital, on last month's 19th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. It wasn't much of an outburst by the Ukrainian town councillor, but it led to his arrest by riot police. Yesterday he was still in jail and on hunger strike with 12 others, including four of his countrymen.

"They were not the first such arrests in Belarus, and they won't be the last," said Artur Finkevich, 20, the organiser of the protesters, who complained of the state's poor healthcare response to Chernobyl.

The arrests, for an "unsanctioned rally", have sparked furious protests from Kiev and the Ukrainian president, Viktor Yushchenko. It has also fuelled calls for a Belarussian version of the "Orange revolution" that led to the electoral defeat of neighbouring Ukraine's authoritarian government last December...

UCCLA Media Release

For Immediate Release (25 April 2005) - Toronto

Congressman Kurt Weldon has been noted among the company's friends
US-backed multinational said thwarting Russian giant's Turkmen gas deal

REPORT: By Nikolay Raborov
Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Moscow, in Russian 21 Apr 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Sunday, Apr 24, 2005

During all of last week, rumours circulated throughout the Moscow business
community to the effect that the Turkmenistan authorities were conducting
closed negotiations on the dissolution of Turkmenistan's long-term agreement
with Gazprom on deliveries of natural gas to Russia. Cited as the main
lobbyist force was the Ukrainian leadership, which intends to buy Turkmen
gas directly with the aid of its own operator - which, as many believe, may
be the ITERA company. The last visit by Gazprom Director Aleksey Miller to
Asgabat seemed to resolve the problem: Turkmenistan had confirmed its
obligations to Russia, including in regard to the price aspect. However,
questions remained...

UCCLA Media Release

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is a tough cookie

COMMENTARY: Misha Glenny, International Herald Tribune (IHT)
Neuilly Cedex, France, Wednesday, April 20, 2005

If democratic revolutions prospered on aspirations and the feel-
good factor alone, Ukraine would soon be one of the world's leading
nations. But they don't. So it is just as well that Prime Minister Yulia
Tymoshenko is a tough cookie.

Her collaborator, President Viktor Yushchenko, was the dignified leader
of the Orange Revolution...

26.03.2005, [09:45], Foreign relations

“The Moscow Patriarchate consists of that territory which it encompassed to the year 1686.” Archbishop Vsevolod (Majdanski) of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA (UOC USA), a representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, told this to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko at a meeting on 24 March 2005. The archbishop added that Kyiv’s “subjugation” to the Russian Orthodox Church, starting that year and continuing to the present, was not ratified by Constantinople.

According to the press release of the Ukrainian government, during his discussion with Archbishop Vsevolod, Yushchenko stressed that his government will not directly involve itself in ecclesiastical matters. “We stand for the equality of all churches,” the president said...

Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine

KYIV - The Lviv regional council is asking President Viktor Yuschenko and
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to initiate recognition of the Ukrainian
Insurgent Army (UPA) as a World War II warring party. Ukrainian News
learned this from the appeal of the council to Yuschenko and Tymoshenko.

"UPA is the only army in the world that fought during the WWII with two
occupation forces simultaneously...