World Bank Launches Ukrainian Crop Receipt Programme
The IFC, the commercial arm of the World Bank Group, in partnership with the Swiss and Ukrainian governments, is rolling out a new financial instrument – crop receipts – across Ukraine to expand access to finance for small farmers, boosting agricultural productivity and supporting economic growth. Crop receipts are a pre-harvest financial...
Germany’s Critics of Russia Sanctions: What Motivates Them?
Russia / Europe At the end of January, the prime ministers of five regions in what was formerly East Germany demanded a softening or lifting of the European Union’s sanctions against Russia. “Restrictive policies are not working. We need new approaches,” said Reiner Haseloff, prime minister of Saxony-Anhalt (CDU). The head of...
12 Traditional Ukrainian Dishes You Must Try
Source: The Culture Trip The peculiar features of traditional Ukrainian food have been forming over centuries. The neighboring countries, climate conditions, rich soil and hard-working locals have influenced the complexity of the dishes. Ukrainian dishes are generously flavored (with garlic often the main seasoning) and, despite the contradictory...
Open Ukraine! (Video)
Source: Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Ukraine is the largest country in Europe. We have a unique mixture of attractions – the seaside, mountains, kilometers of rivers and lakes, marvelous cities and authentic countryside. Ukraine is beautiful and safe to visit. Every year we host thousands of festivals, sporting events,...
Defending Europe by Arming Ukraine
Overturning its policy of supplying Ukraine with strictly non-lethal military aid, the US will soon supply the Ukrainian military with much-anticipated anti-tank guided missiles. However, will this be enough to turn the tide of the war in the Donbas?Download the article (PDF)Russia’s undeclared war against Ukraine began on 20 February 2014....
Virtuous Decision-Making in War: ‘The good operation’
The new Ministry of Defence pamphlet on joint political-military decision-making merely scratches the surface of what seems to be a peculiarly British issue of poor performance in this area.Download the article (PDF)As was remarked by a participant in a closed-door, off-the-record RUSI seminar on political military decision-making on 11 October...
Central Asia Steps Out of Russia’s Shadow
By Ekaterina Zolotova Say what you will about the Soviets, but they really knew how to put the “union” in the Soviet Union. For all its faults, the union bound its constituent countries together, imparting on them a degree of political and economic uniformity many of them have not known since. One of the only things the countries of Central Asia...
Enemies of the United Nations, from Stalin to Putin
In the aftermath of the Second World War, vast swathes of Europe and Asia lay devastated. Some seventy million people – soldiers and civilians – had died in the conflict. Twenty seven million of the dead had been Soviet citizens, mostly killed in the war against Nazi Germany. American, British, and French policymakers, seeking to build a stable...
Why Election Reform Should Be a Top Priority Now
Election reform in Ukraine is finally gaining some momentum. In December, parliament passed in the first reading draft law #3112-1, which creates an open list proportional election system and makes it easier for small parties to win seats in parliament. In addition, the president’s long-awaited list of candidates for the Central Election...
Closed trial for tortured Ukrainian accused of a ‘Crimea sabotage plot’ that never was
The ‘trial’ has begun of Andriy Zakhtei, one of the four Ukrainians seized by the FSB in Russian-occupied Crimea in August 2016 and accused of involvement in a supposed ‘Ukrainian Crimea saboteur plot’. It appears that the entire ‘trial’ will be held behind closed doors, enabling Russia’s FSB to conceal the lack of a...
