Western governments need to court the government in Kiev to counter the regional aspirations of the Kremlin, a U.S. policy center recommended. Western allies have criticized the pro-Kremlin government of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych for sending opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to a penal colony on charges she abused her power when she helped broker a deal with Russia's Gazprom. Sally McNamara, a European policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, writes that European leaders should press ahead with engaging Kiev. She says Washington and its European allies need to "emphatically reject" the "neo-imperialist ambitions" of the Kremlin. Since 2009, she notes, Moscow has moved to bring Kiev back into its geopolitical sphere. The Yanukovych government, she adds, isn't keen on falling back into the Russian sphere of influence. "Therefore, the EU must look for ways to counter Russian activism in Ukraine, and in the neighborhood more broadly," she writes...

He was the pioneering journalist who exposed the deaths of 10 million people at the hands of Stalin’s regime. Now, investigative reporter John Sweeney tells Aled Blake he will never give up trying to find the killer of former Western Mail journalist Gareth Jones Gareth Jones publicised one of modern Europe’s worst humanitarian disasters. He uncovered the great famine in Ukraine in the 1930s, which killed millions and has been blamed on the tyranny of Soviet dictator Stalin’s ruthless regime. But Jones’ reports were ridiculed by Pulitzer Prize-winner Walter Duranty, who reported in the New York Times that there was no famine and very few deaths. Jones had defied a state ban to go and see the disaster himself – he was later killed in China and his death remains a mystery. There is speculation that he was killed by Chinese and Soviet secret service agents, while there is another...

Moody's Investors Service says that Ukraine's B2 sovereign bond ratings with a negative outlook incorporate a "low" economic strength assessment based on low per capita GDP, a relatively undiversified economy, and very volatile economic growth. This assessment also reflects subdued post-crisis potential growth against the backdrop of a deteriorating global environment. A lack of structural reforms hinders Ukraine from unlocking the economic potential of its favorable geographic location, educated and low-wage work force and substantial natural resource endowments. As well as its low economic strength...

The following appeared on the Open Democracy website with this introduction: “Negotiations over the Ukraine's European Union association agreement were finalized last month, but ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's continued imprisonment prevented the EU from signing off on a deal. Ex-Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk, who now heads the Committee on European Integration in Ukraine’s parliament, wonders whether the Europeans may have overestimated their leverage in the matter, and whether their approach will turn out to be counterproductive.” On Dec. 19, the 15th European Union-Ukraine Summit officially concluded...

For more than twelve years, the Kremlin’s deputy chief of staff, Vladislav Surkov, was seen both as the architect and the symbol of Russia’s return to authoritarianism. Considered an éminence grise and the chief ideologist of the regime, Surkov was a quiet but decisive presence in all major decisions taken by the Kremlin since Vladimir Putin’s rise to power in the summer of 1999, from the takeover of independent television to the abolition of gubernatorial elections. On Putin’s behalf, Surkov—the author [3] of the term “sovereign democracy”—fine-tuned election results, manipulated Parliament, and dissolved unwanted political parties...

Steven Spielberg's just-released 3D animated feature combining stories in three Tintin books had me clapping with delight as the credits rolled. I won't spill what happens; you can read on without fear of spoilers. The Tintin books began in 1929 as a comic strip under the skillful pen of Belgian artist Georges Remi (1907-1983), aka Hergé -- reverse his initials and say them in French. The strip first appeared on 10 January 1929 in a children's supplement of the conservative Belgian newspaper Le XXe Siècle (The 20th Century). It was an instant hit...

November 18th, 1932: The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine began applying stricter grain collectivization methods in select villages which were considered to be underperforming in grain output. The farmers were required to return any extra grain they previously earned when meeting targets, being forced to part with the grain by state police and Soviet armed forces. November 18th, 2011: Seventy-nine years later, the Ukrainian Students’ Club at the University of Western Ontario held its third annual Holodomor Awareness day in the University Community Centre (UCC). The project was part of an initiative by the 2009 club executive, under the presidency of Illina Frankiv, to educate the UWO student body about the Holodomor. The commemorative exhibit Holodomor: Famine by Genocide from the League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC) was displayed in the main forum of the UCC and drew the attention of many students, professors and tour groups. The executive and club members were able to answer questions such as: “Why have I not heard about this?”, “Who orchestrated such an event?” and “Where can I get more information?”. Those who showed more interest were directed to websites and organizations involved with raising awareness about the Genocide...

Expect 2012 to be a wild ride for Viktor Yanukovych and his merry band of Regionnaires. Indeed, they may even fly off the roller coaster. Consider the following likelihoods. For starters, the world will squeeze the Regionnaires until they turn blue in the face. The European and American economies will remain weak, while Russia’s and China’s will continue to stagnate. Foreign direct investment will dry up, Ukrainian exports will decline, and Ukraine’s industries, especially in the Donbas, will contract. Worse, Russia may be in for a time of troubles. It’s not inconceivable that Vladimir Putin’s fascistoid regime could collapse. And even if it doesn’t, Russian civil society is unlikely to stand still and watch its liberties be whittled away. Since an embattled Putin is likely to play the only card he has left—appeals to Russian greatness and neo-imperial manifest destiny—Viktor and the Regionnaires aren’t going to get any breaks from...

The Ukrainian World Congress has expressed grave concern with the decision of the Kyiv Court of Appeal, the full text of which was read on December 29, 2011. In accordance with this decision, the verdict against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko by the Kyiv Pechersky District Court remains unchanged. The Ukrainian World Congress sees this decision as a continuation of related acts by Ukrainian authorities in this matter, including the unjustified arrest of Ukraine’s opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, court proceedings that did not comply with international standards of...

In the dead of winter, in January 1915, they were transported along the transcontinental railway from Montreal into Quebec’s remote Abitibi region. The first prisoners, 109 men, were eventually joined by hundreds more, including women and children, interned not because they had done anything wrong but simply because of who they were, where they were from. Mostly immigrants from western Ukraine, lured to the Dominion of Canada with promises of freedom and free land, they were branded “enemy aliens” at the outbreak of the First World War because they had arrived in Canada with Austro-Hungarian passports. Offloaded eight kilometres west of...