Weekly update from the OSCE Observer Mission at Russian Checkpoints Gukovo and Donetsk based on information as of 10:00 (Moscow time), 25 March 2015
This report is for media and the general public. SUMMARY The Observer Mission (OM) continues to operate 24/7 at both Border Crossing Points (BCPs). The overall cross-border traffic slightly decreased at both BCPs. The number of persons in military-style clothing crossing the border in both directions has decreased over the past reporting week....
Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine based on information received as of 18:00 (Kyiv time), 24 March 2015
This report is for media and the general public. The SMM monitored the implementation of the “Package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements”. The SMM, based on its monitoring – which was restricted by third parties and by security considerations* – observed that fighting continued north of Donetsk airport and in areas in and...
53rd IPRM meeting takes place in Ergneti
On 25 March 2015 the 53rd meeting under the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) took place in Ergneti, co-facilitated by Kęstutis Jankauskas, the Head of the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM), and Ambassador Angelo Gnaedinger, the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-office for the South Caucasus. The meeting took...
Ukraine needs greater support in addressing gender-based violence, says OSCE Senior Gender Adviser in Kyiv
KYIV, 25 March 2015 – There is an urgent need to enhance the capacities of Ukraine to address the issue of gender-based violence adequately, said the OSCE Senior Gender Adviser, Ambassador Miroslava Beham, as she concluded a three-day assessment mission to the country. Accompanied by international expert Rosa Logar, the President of WAVE...
Poroshenko Sacks Feisty Governor, Serbia-Kosovo Talks Hit a Hurdle
Plus, German courts refuse to send Bulgarian convicts home to filthy jails; report alleges Gulnara Karimov made billions by arm-twisting foreign investors. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
The majority of Ukrainians does not expect an economic collapse
Last year, the economy of Ukraine contracted 6.8 percent, according to fresh state figures. The currency, meanwhile, has lost 60 percent of its value against the dollar in the past year, the Global Post website writes. Nevertheless, says Andriy Bychenko, Director of sociological service at the Razumkov Center, many Ukrainians believe...
Holding Putin over a Barrel
Authors Sijbren de Jong, Willem Th. Oosterveld, Willem Auping and Daniel Fiott write that the collapse of the price of oil has masked the fact that Europe’s response to the Ukraine crisis has been vacillating, slow, and toothless. Yet worsening economic conditions in Russia should not tempt Europeans to consider prematurely easing...
Kolomoiskyi should understand that this conflict is about the survival of the state
Igor Kolomoiskyi, governor of the restive Dnipropetrovsk region of east Ukraine and a rough-and-tumble tycoon, was handed political power and the right to establish an army in the wake of last year’s Maidan revolution. Last week, he triggered what some are calling a serious political crisis by using that force to seize the state oil...
Of oligarchs and corruption: Ukraine faces its own demons
While combat continues in Eastern Ukraine, a perhaps more important battle for the soul of Ukraine is playing out in the political corridors and the corporate boardrooms of Kyiv. Since independence, Ukraine has struggled continuously to break the iron triangle of oligarchic rule, corruption, and financial instability that has left Ukraine mired...
Ukraine: The Kingdom of the Oligarchs
Prospects for Ukraine’s long-term success and cohesion will be determined by its ability to pursue far-reaching reforms to modernize the state and to check the power of the oligarchs. …read more Source: Carnegie Endowment for International...
