In case you missed it, President Viktor Yanukovych gave a two-hour interview on Ukraine’s popular ICTV channel in February. You’ll be pleased to learn that Ukraine is in tip-top shape and that things will only get better. And the president’s damned proud of his record. “You know,” he said, “I’m not ashamed to look people in the eye. And before these elections”—meaning the parliamentary elections in October—“I will look people in the eye. I always did that and I will continue doing that.” Personally, I don’t doubt Yanukovych for a minute...

The European Union on Wednesday expressed “extreme disappointment” with the Foreign Ministry’s remarks attacking EU ambassador after he had criticized the government for creating a poor business climate in Ukraine. The sharp exchange underscores rapidly worsening relations between Ukraine and the EU that have started to deteriorate after jailing of key opposition leaders in the country. "We noted with extreme disappointment the comments from the Information Policy Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” Maja Kocijancic, spokesperson for EU High Representative Catherine Ashton, said in a statement...

Having lived and worked in Moscow for three years at the turn of the century, I know the veracity of Winston Churchill's view that the country is "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." The same can be said for the plot to assassinate Prime Minister Vladimir Putin after his highly probable first round victory in the presidential elections on March 4, as reported by pro-government domestic TV channel, Channel One. On the surface, the plot would appear credible enough. According to Channel One, a terrorist group was arrested by Russian and Ukrainian security services in Ukraine's city of Odessa, having arrived there from the UAE via Turkey, on the orders of Chechen rebel leader, Doku Umarov, who...

Role of the FSB security service is put under the spotlight, Helen Womack writes in Moscow. Russians are discovering a documentary film on the internet whose explosive subject has been a taboo in their country for more than a decade. The film itself is not new but the fact that a new generation of Russians - the glasnost generation, as former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev calls them - are downloading, sharing and discussing Assassination of Russia is a significant development. As Vladimir Putin enters the final stretch in the race to become president for a third time, this is probably not a discussion he wants to hear. When the former KGB agent first appeared on the political stage in the late 1990s, the question everyone asked was...

Happy holiday, the International Mother Language Day! Chairman of the State Television and Radio Committee of Ukraine Oleksandr Kurdinovych and Minister of Culture Mykhailo Kulyniak appealed to the general public and the media on February 17 to celebrate and highlight the holiday as an event that “promotes the need to strengthen the state-building function of the Ukrainian language as well as the free development and protection of minority languages.” But the Ukrainian Ministry of Education, Science, Youth, and Sports one, reacted to the holiday in a peculiar way, releasing a “great” news: they were planning to cut the language and history classes in secondary schools soon. Dmytro Tabachnyk made comments for the Segodnya newspaper emphasizing his ministry’s non-involvement with the project (as of yet) and naming “a group of researchers at the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences” as the project’s developers [?! – Ed.], but still, he confirmed that the some history and Ukrainian language classes may be cut to free time for information technology and English. “This is to be done for two reasons. First, to find time for...

Local Ukrainian Canadians came together at the Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian Community Center in Etobicoke, Ontario on Sunday, February 5, 2012 to thank three Members of Parliament from ridings of Etobicoke/Mississauga for their support of Ukraine and to raise funds for a memorial in Ottawa to victims Communism. MPs Bob Dechert (Mississauga Erindale), Ted Opitz (Etobicoke-Centre), and Bernard Trottier (Etobicoke Lakeshore) were honoured guests and featured speakers at a benefit luncheon organized by Etobicoke/Mississauga and Toronto Chapters of the CCSU: League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC), League of Ukrainian Canadian Women (LUCW), Ukrainian Youth Association of Canada (CYM), and the Society of Veterans of UPA. The official program began with over 200 guests standing silently as the...

In December 2011 – January 2012, the author traveled to Ukraine. During the trip she met leaders and MPs representing Ukraine’s main political parties: “Batkivshchyna”, the “Front for Change”, “Our Ukraine” and the Party of Regions. The author also met heads and experts of the lead think-tanks dealing with Ukraine’s home and external policy: the Centre for Political and Legal Reforms, the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting, the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, the International Renaissance Foundation (Soros Foundation in Ukraine), the Laboratory of Legislative Initiatives, New Citizen, Razumkov Centre and Yalta European Strategy (YES). All in all, the author met 15 political figures and experts. This article rests on the conclusions made on the basis of her conversations with interlocutors, as well as own observations and reflections. In this article the author wants to review the key results of the home and foreign policy of Viktor Yanukovych by the end of...

Marta Farion The global community is focused on Ukraine’s policies of centralization of control and the country’s East versus West divisionary tactics. Education is prime territory for this process. The drafts of a law on higher education proposed a year ago and again in December provide a tangible example of conflicting world views. Ukraine’s Ministry of Education, Research and Sports, led by Dmytro Tabachnik, marked the year-end holidays by proposing yet another draft law on higher education to codify control of the nation’s universities. Days later, two additional draft laws intended to integrate Ukraine into the European educational systems were registered in Ukraine’s parliament – one by Arseniy Yatseniuk and Lesya Orobets, members of parliament and...

Chaos broke out after Vitali Klitschko unanimously outpointed Dereck Chisora to retain his WBC heavyweight belt Saturday night when Chisora got into a brawl with former WBA champion David Haye at the post-match news conference. Haye called for a fight between the two British boxers, leading to a heated exchange before Chisora descended to face Haye and they came to blows. Camera equipment went flying and reporters fled before security eventually managed to separate the men and police arrived at the scene. "You've really lost it this time," Chisora told Haye. Klitschko beat Chisora in a bruising encounter in which the Ukrainian claimed to have fought from the fourth round with only his right fist after hurting his left hand. "I think we all heard excuses about a broken toe...

About 100 Ukrainian students have protested an unpopular education reform and called for the resignation of the nation's education minister. The students rallied Monday on Kiev's central square and marched toward the government headquarters, chanting "Glory to Ukraine! and "Revolution!" They protested a government-sponsored bill currently being debated by parliament, which will limit students' self-governance and make education more expensive. They are also protesting plans to decrease the amount of time students spend learning the Ukrainian language and history and...