To Protect or Not to Protect, Lutsenko Sorts Out Protests

Minister of Internal Affairs Yuriy Lutsenko: Citizens must realize that there are protests with concrete demands, which the Ministry of Internal Affairs will protect in every way…but with concrete demands to the government, and not just with a notice that we’ll be sitting here eternally so that you can see us.

That’s exactly the approach police took on March 20 when they turned a blind eye to the crackdown on “Out, all!” protesters at Maidan.

They simply watched the protesters’ tents trashed by Shchyt, a group of retired military and security officers who claim opposing anarchy.

So much for the Lutsenko who rallied at Maidan during the Orange Revolution! So much for the “Militsiya z narodom!” (“Police with the people!”) slogan.

According to Lutsenko’s logic, he had no business setting up those tents at Maidan in 2004 — the very tents that catapulted him to his ministerial post.

Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/117316.html
Original source: http://stb.ua

Obama Reaffirms NATO's Open Door Policy

On the eve of NATO’s 60th anniversary, U.S. President Barack Obama made an overture to countries squeezed hard by the reset button.

A quote from REMARKS BY PRESIDENT OBAMA AND NATO SECRETARY GENERAL JAAP DE HOOP SCHEFFER AFTER MEETING:

We've also discussed the role that NATO plays with respect to Russia and how this administration, my administration, is seeking a reset of the relationship with Russia, but in a way that's consistent with NATO membership and consistent with the need to send a clear signal throughout Europe that we are going to continue to abide by the central belief that countries who seek and aspire to join NATO are able to join NATO.

President Obama, however, did not mention any specific steps, such as his presidential campaign view of Ukraine as being ready for a Membership Action Plan (MAP).

Meanwhile, Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko, in Japan, promoted the idea of European collective security, attributing it to Sarkozy and Merkel.

Gee, I thought this whole European collective security counter-concept to NATO was the pet project of Chirac and Schröder.

Granted, neither France nor Germany has been a supporter of NATO expansion. But hasn’t France decided to reunite with the NATO military structure?

Looks like the guys who write talking points/articles for Tymoshenko have been drinking too much French wine.

Sources:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/3/26/92019.htm
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/3/26/92021.htm
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-President-Obama-and-NATO-Secretary-General-Jaap-de-Hoop-Scheffer-After-Meeting/

Food Prices A Mystery for Ministers

When you drive cars like that, do you really care?

Reporter: Please tell us, do you know the current price of a loaf of bread, ten eggs, and a kilogram of meat?

Minister of Transport, Yosyp Vinsky: This question goes to my wife.

Minister of Justice, Mykola Onishchuk: I actually don’t have time to do shopping, so I’d rather not engage in a discussion regarding the prices for these groceries.

Minister of Family Affairs, Yuriy Pavlenko: I’ll tell you everything, definitely. Hahaha!

Minister of Labor, Lyudmyla Denysova: I don’t buy eggs because of the fast. A loaf of bread — well, my daughter buys that. [We make] toasts. I actually don’t eat them because I don’t dine at home at all.

Is that the same daughter you hired out of college to run the price controls board in Sevastopol? What if she doesn't dine at home either?

Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/116491.html
Original source: http://kanalukraina.tv

Tymoshenko, the Mother of All Miners

First, she gets chummy with Zvyahilsky. Then, she sides with the miners.



She talks about them working in extremely unsafe conditions and being low paid. She sponsors bills that look good on paper.

The trouble is, little has changed. Sure, the Party of Regions wants to exploit that.

So, to keep the angry miners from marching on Kyiv, Tymoshenko makes a nice movie.

In other words, she works hard for the money, and the sun always shines on TV.

A-Ha - The Sun Always Shines On TV
Uploaded by zocomoro

Video embedded from:http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/117100.html
Original source: http://5.ua

The Bribe-Harvesting Judge: A Career Kaleidoscope

They finally caught the bastard. But will they jail him? What if he shares some of his harvest with those who harvested him?

Vasyl Onopenko, Chairman of the Committee on Legal Policy: ...to appoint Zvarych Ihor Stepanovych* and Lyubashevsky Vyacheslav Polikarpovych to Lviv Administrative Court of Appeals. There are appropriate letters of nomination, appropriate...uh...qualifications...uh...there are no complaints that would prevent them from being appointed. Therefore, I move that we confirm the nomination. [Officialese form: family name, first name, patryonymic. Onopenko went on to helm the Supreme Court of Ukraine, in a BYuT-friendly role.]

Adam Martynyuk, Vice Speaker: I have no objections either. Therefore, I’m putting this to a vote. Thank you! Approved. [Judges] Zvarych and Kuchma and others are elected judges.

The Hon. Ihor Zvarych, appearing before a judicial review panel: Well, Ukrainians have this habit — just don’t jump to conclusions, I’ll finish my point — to “sow” an offi...a new office when they come — some with kopiykas, some with hryvnias, some with dollars.

President Yushchenko: Still, I’m convinced that it will now take us quite some to find Judge Zvarych. I think bringing him to justice will probably be hard to do physically. But the problem does not lie in Judge Zvarych only. We can talk about the entire system being that way.

That “Chi Mai” theme from Le Professionnel doesn't do Zvarych any justice.

Since Zvarych knows so much about tradition, he should know the story of Judge Sisamnes, as told by Herodotus and later depicted in works of art:

Alas! alas! how are the commons oppressed
By that vile iudge, Sisamnes by name!
I doo not know how it should be redressed!

...

My complaint is, O mighty king, against that iudge you by,
Whose careles deeds, gain to receive, hath made the commons cry.
He, by taking bribes and gifts, the poore he doth oppresse,
Taking releefe from infants yong, widows, and fatherles.

I sentence give, thou ludas iudge. Thou shalt thy deed repent!
...

Receive thy death before mine eyes. Thy blood it shalbe spilt.

—Thomas Preston Cambyses

Sisamnes paid dearly for his misdeeds.


The Judgment of Cambyses by Gerard David


Now that’s the kind of down-to-earth art I’d love to see at PinchukArtCentre and in the Cabinet building, too!


Video embedded from: http://video.oboz.ua/movie.php?aWQ9MjU4MTImdnQ9MA
Original source: http://tsn.ua

Keep Ukraine Out of NATO, Washington Panel Recommends

Now that they made promises, wrote letters, pushed buttons and made more promises, they want to keep Ukraine out of the door.

That’s the foreign policy prescribed by a “high-level bipartisan commission” in Washington. Below are excerpts from the IHT article Panel flags state of U.S.-Russia relations:

The panel was headed by Gary Hart, a former Democratic senator from Colorado, and Chuck Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska. Its members include two former national security advisers, Brent Scowcroft and Robert C. McFarlane; Sam Nunn, a former Georgia senator experienced in Russia issues; and Lee H. Hamilton, a former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The commission report said that the new administration should "accept that neither Ukraine nor Georgia is ready for NATO membership" but that it should also work with NATO allies to find other ways “to demonstrate a commitment to their sovereignty.” The United States, it said, does not now have “a compelling security interest” in NATO membership for either country.

An excerpt from AFP's Obama urged to oppose Georgia, Ukraine NATO bids:

“A special relationship with NATO short of membership could serve the same function as membership, and would be a useful way to ensure that those Ukrainians and Georgians seeking to join NATO do not become discouraged,” it said.

Look who’s here! Sam Nunn! Is that the Democratic “disarmament diplomat” who patronized Ukraine in the ‘90s and happily oversaw our giveaway of the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal?

OK, guys. If you think you can trade friends for favors, then you should know the probable price of your trade.

If you decide to trade us in, then we should reciprocate by pushing our own reset button. We should keep the door open to mutually beneficial trade with Iran.

The day Russia decides to move in, our commitment to the MTCR should be null and void.

Don't be discouraged!

Sources:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/3/17/91450.htm
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/16/america/diplo.php
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090316/pl_afp/usrussiapoliticsdiplomacy_20090316210308

Boy, 12, Dies of Cancer As Bank Wouldn’t Give Money Back

Imagine your son or nephew is dying of cancer, but your bank will not let you withdraw your money to give him a chance.

Welcome to Ukraine!

Oleksiy Holub, 12, had a facial tumor. He lived in Donetsk. To put him in a foreign clinic, his mom started pooling resources immediately. She borrowed from every friend, relative and coworker she could.

Oleksiy's aunt had Hr. 32,000 (approximately $4,000) on deposit at Pryvatbank. She wanted to use her savings to save Oleksiy.

Prvyatbank wouldn’t let her.

They wouldn't let her withdraw the money, citing a freeze on cash withdrawals ordered by the National Bank of Ukraine.

As a result, Oleksiy stayed in a Donetsk hospital, where they pumped him with chemo, which destroyed his already weak immune system. He kept saying, “Mom, I’m so scared.” And then he died. Soon, his grandma died, too.

His aunt is suing Pryvatbank for Hr. 100,000 (approximately $12,000) for infliction of emotional distress. Pryvtbank says the woman failed to properly formulate her petition for cash withdrawal.

If she wins, she plans to donate the money to kids with cancer.

I just wonder if the same story would happen to any of the royal kids. I wonder if Yushchenko, a former governor of the National Bank, would be unable to withdraw money from his bank.

Oh, silly me. Ukrainian politicians keep their money in foreign banks and heal their bodies in foreign clinics. They don't want to end up like Oleksiy.

Ihor Kolomoisky, Ukraine’s third-richest man and Pryvatbank’s co-owner, lives in Switzerland.

Meanwhile, something is killing this country.

Sources:
http://gazeta.ua/index.php?id=284677
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/3/10/91062.htm

Bankers Beg for Customers

They need us. But do we need them?

Serhiy Naumov, chairman of Ukrsibbank: In fact, we’re all in the same boat. We’re doing everything possible to stabilize the hryvnia situation. We’re also asking you to...finally bring the money to the banks, make our economy work.

Bring the money to the banks? Only to have the banks refuse to give the money back when you need it?

Hasn’t the government poured billions of hryvnias into troubled banks without demanding equity stakes from them?

Isn't it true that the banks then used the stimulus money to bet against the hryvnia, with a little help from the National Bank?

Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/116043.html
Original source: http://ictv.ua

Kyiv Mayor to Undergo Psychiatric Exam

Kyiv mayor Leonid “Kosmos” Chernovetsky will undergo a psychiatric evaluation, a temporary commission of the Verkhovna Rada has ruled, in a move long overdue.

The statement was issued by the press office of MP Volodymyr Yavorivsky (BYuT), Ukrayinska Pravda reports.

Meanwhile, UP also reports of attempts at “burying the hatchet” between BYuT and Chernovetsky's team, following Yushchenko’s recent criticism of Chernovetsky's stewardship of Kyiv.

Besides, BYuT has resorted to forum shopping to derail the March 15 local elections in Ternopil oblast, for fear of losing electoral ground to Svoboda.

Amid growing disenchantment with oligarch-packed BYuT and NUNS, many Orange-leaning voters are turning to smaller and more radical parties.

Sources:
http://kiev.pravda.com.ua/news/49ba0e94862cc/
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/3/12/91217.htm

Forbes: Pinchuk Tops Akhmetov As Ukraine's Richest Man

Times are tough.

Viktor Pinchuk, net worth $2.6B, has taken the lead in Ukraine, according to the The World’s Billionaires 2009, beating Rinat Akhmetov, net worth $1.8B.

Compared to last year’s rankings, Ukraine has lost three billionaire slots.

It’s even more of a cold shower if you compare it to the June 2008 rankings by Korrespondent/Dragon Capital.

Sources:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/3/12/91196.htm
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/10/billionaires08_The-Worlds-Billionaires_CountryOfCitizen_25.html

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/10/billionaires-2009-richest-people_The-Worlds-Billionaires_CountryOfCitizen_16.html

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/10/billionaires-2009-richest-people_The-Worlds-Billionaires_CountryOfCitizen_17.html

From Hawk to Dove, or Tymoshenko’s Ghostwritten Adventures

After meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris, Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko “wrote” an article in the The Guardian:

Europe must pull together in this crisis
It is in no country's interest that eastern Europe feels cast adrift. As in the past, we should look to France for leadership.

As if France couldn’t make it on its own, the article promotes the role of Paris in the Paris-Berlin-Moscow axis, with Ukraine trailing somewhere behind, at the back of beyond.

The Prime Minister of Ukraine “mentions” Germany 14 times; France, 11 times; Russia, 10 times; and Ukraine, 3 times.

Moreover, this new article flies in the face of Containing Russia, her May/June 2007 article in Foreign Affairs.

If you compare these two articles, you will see Tymoshenko arguing with herself:

Encouraging economic and political reform -- the West's preferred means of engaging Russia since communism's end -- is of course an important foreign policy tool. But it cannot substitute for a serious effort to counter Russia's long-standing expansionism and its present desire to recapture its great-power status at the expense of its neighbors.

Containing Russia

But keeping Russia at arm's length from Europe has only strengthened the sense of isolation that many Russians feel, tempting them to define the country's interests in ways that are irreconcilable with those of Europe. It has also heightened Russia's desire to construct a special, bilateral Russo-German relationship, heedless of the context of the EU.

Europe must pull together in this crisis

I wonder who paid for these flip-flopping placements and what foreign policy credentials they hoped to achieve.

I also found two videos that I think put Tymoshenko’s multivector foreign policy in motion.







Sources:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/3/10/91024.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/03/credit-crunch-globalrecession/print
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070501faessay86307/yuliya-tymoshenko/containing-russia.html
Videos embedded from:
http://nevsedoma.com.ua/index.php?newsid=49329
http://nevsedoma.com.ua/index.php?newsid=49330

Kosmos Greets Women

On March 8, Ukraine celebrated International Women's Day, the rough equivalent of Mother's Day.

On such days, Western women often talk about rights. By contrast, post-Soviet men always talk about romance.

After calling in sick for weeks and getting his extraterrestrial initiatives killed by President Yushchenko, Kyiv Mayor Leonid “Kosmos” Chernovetsky delivered a short address.

Alas, he spoke Ukrainian, albeit with a comic Russian accent.

Kyiv Mayor Leonid “Kosmos” Chernovetsky: My dear beloved women, no matter how old you are, you’re always wonderful! It is with you that spring comes into the souls of all men on earth. You’re always the symbol of new life. You give us kids, and we, men, give you beautiful flowers. Allow me today, on the 8th of March, to express my words of tender love. And I want my kiss to reach every one of you. Happiness, love, joy and peace to you, my dear women of Kyivites!

He keeps singing.






P.S. I think I found a rare video of his cat.



Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/115749.html
Original source: http://5.ua

Tymonatrix: 'I Will Skin Every Minister Alive' (Updated)

She did it to Ohrzyko. Who’s next?

PM Tymoshenko: March is the deadline I set during which I will skin every minister alive, make no mistake. I don’t care what political powers you came from to the government. I don’t care what difficulties you have in connection with the crisis. The first thing I will do, in case of wage delays, is the entire ministry will go without pay. If that doesn’t help, then a letter will be forwarded to the Verkhovna Rada advising that the minister be dismissed.

Strangely, BYuT voted overwhelmingly Friday to confirm Valentyn Nalyvaichenko as SBU director, despite the Naftogaz standoff.

I wonder what tradeoffs the vote involved and whether it had something to do with Tymoshenko allegedly requesting 4.5 bcm of “technological gas” from the EU.


UPDATE
Enjoy the letters:


Didn't she reassure us that the deal she had signed with Russia would supply Ukraine with enough technological gas to facilitate gas transit to the EU?

Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/115177.html
Original source: http://5.ua
Sources:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/3/6/90915.htm
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/3/6/90907.htm
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/3/17/91497.htm

Ukraine Marks Shevchenko’s 195th Anniversary

Taras Shevchenko, Ukraine’s greatest poet, was born on March 9, 1814.

I went on YouTube and found these videos.






















I also found several translations of Shevchenko's Zapovit (Testament).

More Polit Funnies

Durdom (madhouse) does them all.


Dream a dream


Yulenka: Lethal Lessons
Tagline: She doesn't play with dolls. She plays with people.
Based on a promotional poster for the Russian Stephen King-like horror movie Yulenka


The Yushchenko-Chernovetsky team


Thou shalt have none other gods before me


The New Wave


Yanukovych to run the BYuT campaign office in Donbas


Inspired by Tymoshenko, former president Kravchuk pleads with Yushchenko to step down.


The official exchange rate is Yushchenko's crisis-killer sedative


Dovhy, Chernovetsky, Kilchytska
Checking these three into a mental institution would have been better than firing those four hospital administrators for failure to attend the buckwit rally.


The Handout Hippie


"Dear Ukrainians, we're done with democracy. I hereby declare a state of emergency. You can hide but you can't run."


Firtash's Alfa


The Het-man
In Ukrainian, геть (het) means out.


The Unknown Official


Desperate Housewives
Karpachova, Bohoslovska, Tymoshenko, Herman, Semenyuk-Samsonenko, Bohatyryova


A parody on Larry King's interview with President Yushchenko
Larry King: What happened to the ideals of Maidan?
President Yuschenko: They drowned.


Rada fires Ohryzko, matryoshka hatches


A cobra-shaped Bohoslovska on the Eighth of March (International Women's Day)


Kravchuk & Kuchma
The Return of the Musketeers: We Have What We Have (Kravchuk's maxim)



The Clash of Media Biases: Pro-Yushchenko (Inter) v. Pro-Tymoshenko (Kanal Ukrayina)


Che Yushchenko
2011, somewhere in the Carpathians


BYuT gasmen beating the gas out of Firtash


Because of a tight tour schedule, Chernovetsky couldn't attend Yushchenko's meeting with Kyiv municipal authorities.


Welcome to our new office!
RosUkrEnergo occupies the Naftogaz head office


Ukraine's coat of arms


"Put her hands here and her legs there, and she'll be quick to confess where she hid the Gazprom contract."


She who pays Pootie calls the tune


And we should clean the mess


Yulia the Riveter: "Here's your gas, Mr. President!"


The Expulsion from Paradise

Sources:
http://durdom.in.ua

Translation Gaffe Spices Up Clinton-Lavrov Meeting

Looks like they pushed the wrong button.

It should have been перезагрузка (perezagruzka — Rus. for reset, reload) instead of перегрузка (peregruzka — Rus. for overload, overcharge).

Well, let’s see where they go from here.

Sources:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/03/07/us.russia/index.html?eref=rss_world
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090306/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_russia_usa_reset

Clinton Vows to Keep NATO’s Door Open to Ukraine, Georgia

Speaking at a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said this about Ukraine:

We should continue to open NATO's door to European countries such as Georgia and Ukraine and help them meet NATO standards.

I want to believe you, Hillary! So don’t let any glass ceilings get in that door, OK?

Sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7925944.stm
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=20516

Alfa Storms Naftogaz Office

Now that Putin dumped Firtash and bet on Tymoshenko, Yushchenko apparently can't let go of Firtash.

Here’s an interesting Yushchenko-Firtash v. Tymoshenko-Putin episode, featuring Ukraine’s elite counter-terrorist unit Alfa.

On Wednesday, Alfa stormed the Naftogaz head office in Kyiv to seize Tymoshenko’s gas agreements and to prevent the alleged theft of the so-called “technical gas.”

Background: It was the gas that Firtash had lost to Tymoshenko when he had lost Putin’s support in January. Then-customs chief Valeriy Khoroshkovsky, who has a business relationship with Firtash, refused to finalize the transaction, deeming it illegal. As a result, some 11 bcm of RosUkrEnergo’s gas have changed hands a few times between Naftogaz and Gazprom. Tymoshenko then fired Khoroshkovsky, and Yushchenko appointed him deputy director of the SBU.

Naturally, BYuT MPs came to the rescue of Naftogaz.

Female reporter: Why aren’t you letting MPs in?

MP Serhiy Vlasenko (BYuT): Please let an MP through, dear friend! Keep your hands off me! Please let me though! I’m neither touching you nor the documents, nor am I interfering with the investigation activities. I want to enter the premises of national stock company NAK Naftogaz of Ukraine.

Naftogaz supporters: Let’s go!
Female reporter: They’re gonna squash me!

Naftogaz supporters: An MP is under attack! Calm down! Hands off, bastard! Let go! Let go! Let go! Calm down! I’m an MP! Get your hands off me! Let go! Calm down! Let go! What are you thinking? You think you can...you can get away with this? Is this Firtash’s security service or Ukraine’s security service, huh??? You’ve become the security service of the criminal oligarch Firtash!!! Where’s your honor, officers? Where’s your honor? Take it off and don’t be shy! Take your hood off! Don’t be shy! Take your hood off! You should be defending the Motherland! Let go! Hands off! Take your mask off! Take your mask off! Now! Take your mask off! Do it! Take your mask off!

Alfa officer: He’s on duty. Don’t yell at him.
Naftogaz supporters: You just don’t get it, do you? I’m on duty, too. We’re all on duty here, buddy. Identify yourself, you thug! Identify yourself! Identify yourself!

Alfa officer: Did you see it? He hit me!
Naftogaz supporters: Hit you in your vest?

Alfa officer: What vest? In the legs!
Naftogaz supporters: Cut the circus!

Alfa officer: If a person is an MP, it doesn’t mean they can hit another person.
Naftogaz supporters: Nobody hit you! You’re a provocateur!

Reporter: Why are you letting them go? On what grounds?
Alfa officer: I’m gonna get a certificate of battery.

This footage reminds me of how Yanukovych’s Anticrisis coalition repelled Yushchenko’s and Tymoshenko’s efforts to oust prosecutor general Piskun in May 2007, as part of their campaign for a snap parliamentary election.

It also reminds me of how Yushchenko and his team clashed with members of the Kuchma-Yanukovych regime in the Central Election Commission in October 2004.

Times have changed.

Today, it's Yushchenko and Tymoshenko who are clashing with each other, with special interests on both sides.

On Thursday, Alfa went to Ukrtransgaz, the company that uses “technical gas” to facilitate gas transit to Europe, but failed to seize any documents.

Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/115448.html
Original sources:
http://inter.ua
http://tsn.ua
http://kanalukraina.tv
http://www.1tv.com.ua
http://stb.ua
http://5.ua

Obama: 'Like a Poland or a Czech Republic' (Updated)

I remember presidential candidate Obama saying “the Ukraine” —
with the definite article — which defines my country as a territory, not as a country.

I also remember Obama referring to the Poles and the Czechs as “fledgling democracies.”

But this quote knocked me off my feet:

Russia needs to understand our unflagging commitment to the independence and security of countries like a Poland or a Czech Republic. On the other hand, we have areas of common concern.

Call me a nitpicker, but I had never heard the indefinite article applied to Poland or the Czech Republic in a context like this. Never had I imagined it being applied by a U.S. president, much less by a former chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on European Affairs.

Now, I’m not a native speaker of English and I'm not a stranger to different schools of thought. But I just wonder how countries “like a Canada or an Israel” would feel?

Because I’m a smalltime Ukrainian who lives in a smalltime country that gave up the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal for chicken feed, I view Obama's remarks as a Bittergate.

UPDATE
I just had a light bulb moment!

I do remember a case of Ukraine and Georgia being used as countable nouns — in a geopolitical context, by a senior official/politician!

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Vice Speaker of the Russian State Duma: Your country and economy will collapse. And what will NATO do? Georgia: Immediately there will be war with Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia. That's why NATO will never accept you, Ukraine and Georgia. And then there's a more important scenario. Suppose everything is fine in Ukraine and Georgia. But we here think that it doesn't benefit us. And never will NATO trade Russia for one hundred Ukraines and two hundred Georgias.

I guess perestroika must be about to start in America, just Zhirinovsky expected.


Sources:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101376609&ft=1&f=1004

Kuzhel Wears $40K Watch, Rudkovsky Has Good Time

When she says bribe, she means a discount.

When she wears a $40K Frank Muller watch, what does she mean?


Oleksandra Kuzhel is something of a socialite, except that she runs the State Committee on Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship. Her official monthly salary hardly exceeds a few thousand dollars.



Mykola Rudkovsky no longer runs the Ministry of Transport. He’s unemployed.



Does this ladykiller/ladycarrier look like a man who’s going to jail for misappropriation?



Thank you, dear Tabloid, for yet another update on Yushchenko’s “one law for all!”

Sources:
http://tabloid.pravda.com.ua/brand/49a416ee5c055/
http://tabloid.pravda.com.ua/photos/49ad40fcabff0/
http://tabloid.pravda.com.ua/photos/499d32c45a43f/

Parliament Sacks Ohryzko (Updated)

The Verkhovna Rada Tuesday fired Volodymyr Ohryzko, Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister, who had recently reprimanded Russian ambassador Viktor Chernomyrdin for meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs.

The move gathered 250 votes: 174 from the Party of Regions, 27 from the Communist Party, and 49 from the increasingly pro-Russian BYuT.

“First, let them think and then talk, and not wag their tongues,” Ambassador Chernomyrdin was quoted as saying, reflecting on Ohryzko’s note of protest.

Tymoshenko resented Ohryzko’s direct reporting relationship with President Yushchenko. “As Minister, Ohryzko radically did not suit me. It's a person that is not professional, a person who systemically engaged in provocations against the government.”

To hell with political correctness! It's about time Tymoshenko appointed Сhernomyrdin Ukraine's foreign affairs minister!

Sources:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/3/3/90614.htm
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/3/3/90620.htm
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/3/3/90657.htm
http://www.ukranews.com/eng/article/181238.html
http://gska2.rada.gov.ua/pls/radac_gs09/gol_karta_zal3?g_id=5277

Is Ukraine Next on Obama’s Quid-Pro-Kremlin List?

There appears to be a bargaining process going on between Washington and Moscow, and Ukraine may very well be one of the bargaining chips.

In 1998, Ukraine could have supplied the turbines for the Iranian power plant in Bushehr, but dropped out of the deal after Washington's sticks-and-carrots diplomacy.

Naturally, Russia got Ukraine’s contract and Ukraine got no carrots.

But there’s still a lot of stuff in Ukraine that Iran might be interested in. All it takes to push the reset button is a little war in "Little Russia."

Will Washington take its chances and trade friends for favors?

Is the Obama-Clinton administration listening?

Sources:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/3/3/90584.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/washington/03prexy.html?_r=1

Ukraine Teeters, Yushchenko Twitters

This headline jumped into my mind after I matched this IHT article with the blogosphere’s reaction to Yushchenko’s microblogging debut.

President_UA twitters about “himself” in the third person, copying and pasting from his official website. To me, it further highlights Yushchenko's interest in publicity and his detachment from Ukraine's teetering.

It's about time Tymoshenko set up a Twitter account, too.

Sources:
http://iht.com/articles/2009/03/02/europe/02ukraine.php
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/02/25/ukraine-politics-on-twitter/

Police 'Mistake' Costs Man His Palm

February 22, 2009, approximately 1:00 a.m.
Myrne, Crimea, Ukraine

A SWAT team surrounds what they believe to be the hiding place of a man who used a gun to abduct a 23-year-old woman.

To storm the building, they use an NFDD (noise flash diversionary device).

Dweller Mustafa Khairov, 59, a Crimean Tatar, catches the damn thing and...BOOM!!!...his palm is all over the place.



His son, Eivaz, 25, sustained multiple injuries. He heard the dog barking, went outside to check for burglars, and got overrun by police.

In this Channel 1+1 footage, Mustafa’s wife, Uriye, talks about her husband’s flesh slowly descending on the room — like confetti.

"There's been a mistake," police said.

That’s the way police works in Ukraine, and particularly in Crimea. In fact, Crimean law enforcement appears to be bent on inciting a civil war.

Well, sometimes they do catch the bad guys — if only to let them go.

Recently, they caught two men poaching in the Zone of Alienation, with a moose in their trunk. Guess where the poachers work? They work at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, currently occupied by ombudswoman Nina Karpachova of the Party of Regions.

I wonder if Lutsenko will use such devices to disperse rallies against, say, Chernovetsky’s out-f**cking-rageous satellite dish, air conditioner and bachelor taxes. If so, it will be a palm for a palm and a ball for a ball.

P.S. According to recent polls, 36.5% of Ukrainians will take to the streets if left without incomes. 70% don't trust the government. 18% hate the government.

Some governments have to learn the hard way?

Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/114444.html
Original source: http://tsn.ua