The Oligarchs Are Becoming Stronger in Ukraine
Despite repeated attempts to undertake reforms aimed at increasing the transparency of the state, Ukraine remains a country in which oligarchs play a key and the negative role. They control a significant part of industry and the most important media. The most recent local elections showed that they are building their own political centres and...
Tortured in God’s Name in Occupied Donbas
If it was bad for dialogue between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill to admit to Russia’s pivotal role in the war in Ukraine, they should have kept off the subject altogether, particularly given the evidence of systematic religious persecution by Russian & Russian-backed militants and the role played by many paramilitary groups under...
OSCE Chief Monitor in Ukraine welcomes extension of Special Monitoring Mission’s mandate
KYIV, 18 February 2016 – The Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine, Ertugrul Apakan, expressed his gratitude to all 57 OSCE participating States for their support for the Mission, following a consensus decision today to extend the SMM’s mandate to 31 March 2017. “The SMM will continue implementing its mandate...
OSCE/ODIHR Director calls on Belarus to introduce moratorium on death penalty
WARSAW, 18 February 2016 – Today, following the sentencing to death in Minsk of both Sergei Khmelevsky this week and Henadz Yakaritski on 5 January 2016, Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), called on Belarus to introduce an immediate moratorium on the death penalty and its complete...
OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine’s mandate extended by one year to 31 March 2017
BERLIN / VIENNA, 18 February 2016 – The mandate of the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) was extended today by the OSCE Permanent Council to 31 March 2017, a move welcomed by the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Secretary General Lamberto Zannier. “We have thereby ensured that...
The Yatsenyuk Chronicles: How Ukraine’s Prime Minister Survived
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has been under pressure to resign, but unexpectedly lived to fight another day after a parliamentary vote of no-confidence against him failed. What lies behind his political survival? | Русский …read more Source: Carnegie Moscow...
Foreign Tourists Flock to Ruble-Weak Russia
The number of foreign visitors is expected to soar in the summer as foreigners take advantage of the weakness of the Russian currency. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
Russia Sues Ukraine for $3bn in Unpaid Loans
The legal move is the latest dispute between the two countries to reach European courts following unsuccessful attempts to agree on debt restructuring. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
The Odessa Project
Mikheil Saakashvili, governor of Odessa, promised to make the region a “showcase of reform.” He has yet to make good on that promise. …read more Source: Carnegie Endowment for International...
Russia should participate in the Minsk Agreements as a party to the conflict
It has been a year since on 12 February 2015, the presidents of Ukraine and Russia Petro Poroshenko and Vladimir Putin together with President of France Francois Hollande and Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel in the so-called Normandy format, in the capital of Belarus, agreed on a set of measures for the conflict resolution and ceasefire in...
