Blue &Yellow: Politics and Economics in Ukraine

Umberto Eco recently talked about lists as "origin of culture",  this is what he said on lists in an interview in Spiegel. 

Umberto Eco: The list is the origin of culture. It's part of the history of art and literature. What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order -- not always, but often. And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists, through catalogs, through collections in museums and through encyclopedias and dictionaries. There is an allure to enumerating how many women Don Giovanni slept with: It was 2,063, at least according to Mozart's librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte. We also have completely practical lists -- the shopping list, the will, the menu -- that are also cultural achievements in their own right.
SPIEGEL: Should the cultured person be understood as a custodian looking to impose order on places where chaos prevails?
Eco: The list doesn't destroy culture; it creates it. Wherever you look in cultural history, you will find lists. In fact, there is a dizzying array: lists of saints, armies and medicinal plants, or of treasures and book titles. Think of the nature collections of the 16th century. My novels, by the way, are full of lists.

Yanukovych would have received 28.5% of the vote if the election had been held on December 20 while Yuschenko would have mustered a mere 3.5%, according to the returns of a December 17-22 survey by political sociology company FOM-Ukraine released at a news conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Monday.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is also running, would have won 14.4% of votes.

From Interfax-Ukraine (emphasis mine), Yanukovych remains front-runner, while Tymoshenko seems to be losing support among voters. A poll from November had her at 25%. Here's the breakdown of the FOM-Ukraine poll. 

"So what did this Orange Revolution give us?," Yanukovych asked in an interview Monday with The Associated Press. "Freedom of speech? That's very good. But what price did the Ukrainian people pay for this? For the development of this democratic principle in our country, the price was too great."

Democracy is "above all the rule of law," which the Orange Revolution has failed to bring, he said.

Since taking power in 2005 on a wave of hope and excitement, the revolution's leaders have disappointed many Ukrainians, fostering nostalgia among some for the stable, if autocratic, rule of an earlier era. 

A follow up to this post, as one can see Yanukovych has been emboldened by his strong showing in the presidential election. His making no attempt to hide his dislike for democracy or democratic principles. However, I disagree with the journalist claim that there is a feeling of nostalgia by the public for the Kuchma era. Its not the public that wants autocratic rule, that's pure nonsense. Its the political losers from the Orange Revolution.

The new government must act within weeks to satisfy International Monetary Fund demands to stick to budget pledges. The absence of political leadership .... delayed payment of part of a $30 billion IMF-led loan. Standard & Poor’s has warned the vacuum may trigger credit-rating downgrades.

No, its not an article about Ukraine. Its a Bloomberg article about Romania. 

• This is the logo for Euro 2012, image from an AFP article.[AFP]
•  An op-ed piece from the NY Times about the presidential election. [NYT]
• Rada leaves for vacation, returns 19th January. [Pravda]
• The IMF isn't budging from its position on Ukraine, its denied Ukraine's request for a $2 billion loan. [FT] 

From The Economist, while I disagree with the description of Ukraine as a "healthy democracy" (their reasoning--no one can predict the winner, but there are only two contenders), yes the next five years will be hard for Ukraine. It didn't just squander goodwill, but also a chance to further reform the economy.  As the excerpt above illustrates, little was done when the economy was going well, why would there be an impetus now to do something? However, the next president will have many issues on their plate including: Black sea fleet, EU, NATO, Russia, and the economy.  Perhaps if the economy continues to deteriorate, the new president will do what Kuchma did and name a technocrat reformer as prime minister, but who hopefully won't run for the presidency in five years. 

Via FT Alphaville, Ukraine is the second riskiest sovereign borrower after Venezuela. 

The 50-year-old former prime minister and national bank chief was sworn in as Ukraine's third president since the collapse of the Soviet Union 13 years ago, capping a bitter but joyous campaign for office and for democracy that erupted in November when the outgoing regime of Leonid Kuchma tried to steal the presidential election. In scenes reminiscent of the popular ferment of 1989 that ended the Kremlin's rule over half of Europe, Yushchenko Sunday addressed more than 100,000 supporters who braved subzero temperatures in Kiev's central square to mark the birth of a new era. "This is a victory of freedom over tyranny, of law over lawlessness," Yushchenko declared.

Well, with Yanukovych ahead in the polls, though many voters are still undecided, its worth looking at the Ukrainska Pravda report on a poll recently conducted on changing the status of Russian language in Ukraine. A plurality, 41.2%, don't think its necessary to change the status of Russian. However,  35.8% of the respondents support making Russian an official state language, while 20.4% support Russian as a regional language in Ukraine. There is a sliver of respondents, 2.6%, who don't favor recognition. 

Mr Nemyria’s warning seems aimed at putting public pressure on the IMF, the US and the European Union at a difficult time in financial markets. Concern about the stability of emerging economies has been aggravated by the turmoil surrounding Dubai, following Dubai World’s surprise decision to seek a debt restructuring.

Update: But then perhaps Greece's economic woes may influence the IMF's decision on Ukraine.

A total of 39.6% of pollees said they already know a politician ‘able to be a good head of state and they will vote only for him’.

In other words approximately 61% of the electorate is still undecided with a month before the presidential election, according to this post from For-UA. Meanwhile 20% plan to vote for the least worse candidate, who can that be? According to the election calendar, January 2nd is when the ban on polling information starts, so we still have a few weeks for the electorate to make up its mind. 

• It doesn't deal with Ukraine, but this article from The Economist does discuss China "filling the power vacuum" in eastern Europe.[The Economist]
• Moody's on the Ukrainian banking system. [Interfax-UA]
• James Marson writes on the winners of the Orange revolution--the bandits. [The Guardian]
• Euro-2012 plans in Ukraine still a mess. [UNIAN]
• Putin not "backing" Tymoshenko for president. [Reuters]

Ukraine’s PFTS Index climbed 108 percent since January, with engineering company Motor Sich JSC rising more than 300 percent, even as political wrangling stalled budget cuts needed to draw the next $3.4 billion tranche of a $16.4 billion IMF loan. Ukraine may not have enough money to pay for Russian gas ahead of winter unless it gets the bailout payment by Dec. 7. Ukrainian bonds fell the most in the world during the past month.

Thanks to her vigorous response to a swine-flu panic she herself manufactured, however, Tymoshenko has been steadily catching up, nearly halving the gap in the polls. Outfoxed, Yanukovich tried to return the parry by ordering more surgical masks, but the damage was already done.

From an NPR article discussing the swine flu panic in Ukraine and how it affected the current presidential race between Tymoshenko and Yanukovych. If this was a political gimmick by the prime minister it didn't dramatically affect the polls, she's still behind Yanukovych. There is also no telling how the panic will affect voter sentiment next month, how kindly will voters look on someone who unnecessarily frightened them? The prime minister is overplaying her hand by continuing to push the panic button, excerpt below from Bloomberg. The prime minister refers to the vetoed bill for funding the swine flu epidemic. 

• Ukraine will be on the top of the agenda for the new EU foreign minister. [Guardian]
• Comparing presidential candidate's programs. [RFE/RL]
• The wealthiest presidential candidate is Serhiy Tihipko, but I think its the gas princess. [For-Ua]
• These videos and translations offer a side commentary to the latest gas crisis/resolution. [Ukrainiana]
• After jump, Ukrainian political satire on youtube. [H/T Taras Kuzio]
  

Gas payments, gas price, and the possibility of another gas shut off  have dominated discussions between  Russia and Ukraine this year, with President Yushchenko using it as means to criticizes the prime minister, Tymoshenko. His open letter to Medvedev is another illustration that this issue will not fade away between the president and prime minister.

In an open letter to the Kremlin leader, text of which was published on his website, Yushchenko said: "Keeping the contracts unchanged ... will create potential threats specifically to the reliability of supplies of gas to Ukraine and its transit to other European states.

"It is obvious that such a development of events is not welcome either for Ukraine or for Russia and the European Union," he said.

If runoff was held between Yanukovych and Tymoshenko, the Regions Party leader would get 41.5% of the vote and the premier, 37.2%, the poll showed.

Should the Font for Change Leader Arseniy Yatseniuk and Tymoshenko be contending in the second round, Tymoshenko would get 36.8%, Yatseniuk 24.2%.In the pair Yanukovych versus Yatseniuk, the former would win with 44% against 23.7%.

Interfax-Ukraine's reveals the results of a new presidential election poll showing that Yanukovych is the front runner against his two major opponents if a runoff is held. However, the last sentence in the article notes that 25% of the respondents have not made a decision on who they will vote for in a runoff. Yanukovych holds a small lead over Tymoshenko in this poll, those 25% undecided could have a major impact on the actual result. Of course, Yanukovych crushes Yatseniuk so those undecided wouldn't have much of an impact unless they all voted for the ex-speaker. According to the election calendar a second round would be held on 7 February 2010, if none of the candidates received 50% of the vote in the first round.

As the presidential election nears, lets reminiscence on the last election. Here is an article from the NY Times concerning  the Ukrainian political situation in 2004 (originally published September 25, 2004).

It was in 1932-33 though that Jones would make his name, walking alone along a railway line visiting villages during a terrible famine that killed millions. He sent moving stories of survivors to British, American and German newspapers but they were rubbished by the Stalin regime – and derided by Moscow-based western journalists, men like the New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty, who wrote: "There is no famine or actual starvation, nor is there likely to be," and dismissed Jones' eyewitness accounts as a "big scare story"

From a Guardian article on Gareth Jones who reported on the Holodomor, a documentary called "The Living" has been  made about him and his work in revealing the man made famine in Ukraine. Unfortunately, no word on whether the documentary will get a wider release and I couldn't find a site for the documentary itself. 

The long-term foreign-currency rating was lowered to B- from B, six levels below investment grade and on a par with Argentina and Lebanon, Fitch said in a statement today. The outlook remains negative, signaling a possible further cut.

Cooperation with the IMF has been suspended twice after Ukraine failed to keep pledges to cut the budget as political leaders jostled ahead of presidential elections in January. The government refused to raise natural gas prices for households and failed to adopt laws to stabilize the financial system. Opposition lawmakers pushed through parliament higher spending on social benefits, including an increase in the minimum wage.

The rest of the article can be found at Bloomberg, as noted  in the article this is not a surprise move by Fitch.  With the country headed for a presidential election the IMF is taking a wait-and-see approach to Ukraine. However, Ukraine's finances will remain shaky as its economy continues to contract and the IMF sits on the sidelines. 

Ukraine's the government response to the flu epidemic is now entangled, like other political issues, in a fight between the prime minister and president. 

On his part, Mykhailo Pasichnyk, the head of Ukraine’s Professional Pharmacists Association, said that the country already has communal drugstores and the state-run Medicines of Ukraine drugstore network. However, their share on the internal market is small. Of course, the state has the right to develop its own system of pharmacies and can do so, but Pasichnyk believes that the main question is to overcome shortages.

• Viktor Baloha predicts a Yanukovych victory in the presidential election in January 2010. [Interfax-Ukraine]
• Anders Aslund looks at the IMF's actions in eastern Europe. [Peterson Institute]
• On two anniversaries in Georgia. [Window on Eurasia]
• I wonder who this guy is working for, Mr. Againstall candidate. [Ukrainiana]
• Gazprom is ready for action it has the power to prevent--another gas dispute. [Bloomberg]

"I want to stress that those who organised these events knew the situation and they've ignored it. The parliament speaker and the leader of the opposition and, most importantly, the prime minister, ignored the facts of the epidemics," Yushchenko said.

"This is completely similar to the May Day rallies in Kiev after the Chernobyl disaster," he said referring to the Soviet cover-up of the 1986 nuclear reactor explosion to Ukrainians who were exposed to radiation for days without knowing of it

The government was also proposed to send at least UAH 500 million to the regions in 2009, while distributing additional funds allocated to the Health Ministry to take measures to prevent the spread of pandemic flu, as well as the epidemic of seasonal flu and acute respiratory infections.

The parliament also proposed that the government cancel a ban on holding mass events in regions in which quarantines were not imposed due to the flu epidemic.

An Interfax-Ukraine story on a Rada resolution passed on Wednesday concerning the swine flu. Much information on the swine flu outbreak in Ukraine, BBC Ukraine has an entire web page devoted to news on it (not sure how long its existed, could predate recent events) . With the flood of information and action by the government there also comes additional accusations that the "hysteria" over the swine flu is being politically manipulated, according to presidential candidate Sergiy Tigipko. This event has shifted attention away from the economy and presidential election for now. If its meant to be a distraction from problems weighing on the Government, its not doing a good job, as the Kyiv Post notes:

1. Ukraine's UFO files now available. [ForUa]
   
2. Robert Amsterdam's blog post on Yulia Tymoshenko. [RA]
   
3. A great animated chart showing the change in life expectancy and income in Ukraine over time. [Gapminder]
   
4. Vice interviews a local from Dzerzhinsk, Russia once the center of the Soviet chemical weapons industry. [Vice]

Winter is upon us, and the last couple of days have seen rumors rumbling about the possibility of another gas interruption - due to payment problems at Ukraine's end.  It is alleged that Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko alerted Vladimir Putin to the fact that President Viktor Yushchenko was impeding 'the normal partnership between the Central Bank, which had the gold reserves at disposal, and the government', thus jeopardizing payment.

Robert Amsterdam's blog post about the possibility of a another gas standoff, which appears unlikely. As the post notes, the gas issue is another arena where the prime minister and president are arguing over. However, the post notes that the rhetoric probably won't turn into action that could trigger a new gas war. The post presents several reasons on why there won't be a new conflict including the fact that Yushchenko will soon be out of job and thus irrelevant. 

"I'm sending to parliament amendments to the budget for 2009 that determine the sources [of financing the rise in social standards this year]. I'm also asking the parliament to return the budget for 2010 for revision," he said.

Yuschenko said that in order to increase social standards in 2009, the government has to find around UAH 1 billion to pay pensions and UAH 300-350 million to pay wages.

President Yushchenko signed the law on social standards into law, even though the IMF was not in favor of the law. And now we wait to see if the IMF actually does something in response to Ukraine's defiance or just gives the next tranche with a stern warning. 

Tymoshenko has moved swiftly to quarantine regions in Ukraine and close down schools in order to prevent the spread of swine flu. The decision by the Tymoshenko government to declare a state of emergency hasn't been without controversy, coming soon after the start of the presidential election. But cases of swine flu have been confirmed by the Health Ministry. So far there have been 14 cases of swine flu (with at least 30 deaths that could be swine flu), meanwhile the WHO is sending a team to Ukraine and the state will spend UAH 500 million to combat the  epidemic. 

1. Its a Timeline, but the lede asks the question I'm asking as well. Is Artek black PR? [Kyiv Post]
   
2. The Economist takes a crack at the concept of ethnic minorities. [The Economist]
3. Political stunt in Ukraine involving dolls. [RFE]
4. Swine flue shuts down schools in Ukraine. [ABS-CBN]
5. Ukraine's credit rating lowered by S&P.[Bloomberg]

 Instead of railing Orange-style against juntas and authoritarianism, Yatsenyuk switched to declaring war on corruption, using hard-man talk of filling the jails and cutting off hands. He also showed himself happy to speak Russian in public, supported the Russian stance over gas transport, and praised Putin as “having saved his country.” “Putin-lite” is also reminiscent of Dmitry Medvedev, who enjoys a high level of approval in Ukraine, has declared war on corruption, is young and has a background in law, like Yatsenyuk.

“The mission is now awaiting endorsement of the agreed policy package, including assurances that the wage and pension law approved by Ukraine’s parliament, which is at odds with the objectives of the authorities’ program, will be vetoed,” the IMF said in an e-mailed statement today.

“The mission found that the economic and financial situation in Ukraine is stabilizing as a result of policies under this program,” the IMF said today. “Preserving these gains will require policy discipline and corrective actions in some areas.”

An excerpt from a Bloomberg article on the next IMF loan installment, with the international organization firmly against the wage and pension bill. The bill has been supported by the Party of Regions, who have blocked other business in the Rada. The IMF position may be providing political cover for Tymsohenko, but the bill itself is a transparent attempt by Regions to curry favor with voters. 

American politicians are pushing through free speech laws to protect US citizens from libel rulings in British courts that have been accused of stifling criticism of oligarchs and dictators. The development follows claims that foreigners flock to the UK to begin hugely expensive defamation cases even though they have little to do with this country.

London has long been regarded as a claimant-friendly place for libel actions because defendants are deemed “guilty” until they have proved their innocence, the opposite of the usual burden of proof in criminal cases. Damages are also typically higher in the UK and the costs so expensive that defendants often feel compelled to settle out of court, even though they may be in the right.

From a Sunday Times piece on  what the author, Robert Watts, calls "libel tourism", the practice of going to Britain to sue individuals or organizations that may not even be based in Britain. Here is the Kyiv Post article about a  lawsuit that it was involved in. So Ukraine may have sex tourism, but now we know that Britain has libel tourism. 

In recent weeks, pro-Kremlin newspapers have been speculating that Crimea might soon be "reunited" with mother Russia, solving the fleet issue. The best-selling Komsomolskaya Pravda even printed a map showing Europe in 2015. The Russian Federation had swallowed Crimea, together with eastern and central Ukraine. Ukraine still existed, but it was a small chunk of territory around the western town of Lviv.

I've already posted on Crimea, but I also know that as the election nears the peninsula may get additional write ups on its links to Russia and possible Russian aggression.The Observer article, where this excerpt comes from, shows one way the Kremlin is trying to create an atmosphere of fear. 

1. Kuchma has some foreign policy advice. [ForUA]
2. Taras Kuzio on the next presidential election. [Taras Kuzio]
3. The Artek case is turning into a political liability for BYuT right as the election officially kicks off, hmm. [Kyiv Post,Interfax-Ukraine]
4. Georgian official talks about Russia, Ukraine, and destabilization. [Window on Eurasia]

Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko has issued a decree on ensuring the constitutional electoral rights of citizens, as well as the transparency and openness of the electoral process during the next election of the head of state on January 17, 2010.

The president of Ukraine preparing for the upcoming presidential election, which is three months away. BBC Ukraine has an article enumerating the steps that will taken as part of the election process. Here it is in English, any mistakes below  are mine since the article is in Ukrainian. 
The BBC article notes that the inauguration date is not fixed, after the results are presented there are 30 days for the president-elect to assume power. Technically speaking, we may not know who will be the next president until late February. Of course there could be lawsuits,  something comes up with Russia or some other incident occurs that derails the election calendar. 

Firstly, that Tymoshenko is now building on her hard-core base of support which will steadily grow during the three month election campaign. This is in contrast to Yatseniuk’s soft-core base of support which is leading to the opposite tendency of a decline in his support. Much of his soft-core support came not from support for Yatseniuk but from disillusionment with establishment politicians.

Secondly, Yatseniuk can no longer believe that his third place position in round one is impregnable. Anatoliy Grytsenko and Serhiy Tyhipko are likely to mount strong challenges to Yatseniuk for the third and fourth place places in round one of the elections while Viktor Yushchenko will take votes from Yatseniuk in Galicia.

1. SBU says no to Don Cossak leader. [RFE]
   
2. I'm not sure if Taraz Kuzio is referring to commentators on his blog (you'll see), but here's his post on Russian and Ukrainian nationlism. [Taras Kuzio]
   
3. Soviet propaganda cum modern political campaigning in Ukraine, Tymoshenko edition. [Ukrainiana]
   
4. Poroshenko, the new foreign minister,  profiled by  Roman Kupchinsky. [Jamestown Blog]

What's the confirmation bias? When you select information that confirms a bias you have. Not an elegant explanation, but you've got the link to learn more.  A bias I've seen in recent reports on Ukraine  is Crimea as the Next Georgia (or more exactly South Ossetia). 

 It seems that any recent article on Crimea has a checklist of issues: Black Sea Fleet, the history of Crimea (the 1954 handover is mandatory), Georgian War and the ethnic make up of the region. The article then discusses provocative moves by Russia and Ukraine's counter moves, if any. Washington Post's recent article on Ukraine and the Crimea follows this familiar pattern (here, here, here,here). 

CHISINAU -- New Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat has told RFE/RL's Moldovan Service that Chisinau might seek "common action" with Kyiv in its efforts to join the European Union.

Moldova and Ukraine are among six former Soviet republics that have been promised closer ties with the 27-member bloc -- including broader EU market access and visa-free travel -- in exchange for economic and democratic reforms in an EU program called the Eastern Partnership. 

Regions has managed to keep the Rada blocked. Now the legislation its championed is moving forward in the Rada. Ukrainska Pravda's article on this legislation (lede, Regions wants to "knock down" Tymoshenko according to OU-PSD) has this from Mikola Matrinenko, the Rada deputy in the article. 

 Тому що логіка Віктора Андрійовича – чим гірше для уряду, тим краще", - вважає депутат

Rough translation: Yushchenko's logic, the worse for the Government, the better. Its his observation, yet succinctly describes the relationship between the prime minister and the president. 

1. Regions shenanigans at the Shuster show upstages Tymoshenko. [Taras Kuzio]
2. Naftogaz debt problems continue, with a credit downgrade. [FT, Kyiv Post]
3. Poland to issue samurai bonds. [FT Alphaville]
4. More on the NBU handling of the bank rescue.[Kyiv Post]

The greatest evil is that voters may be convinced that all candidates are the same. The elections may well go under this slogan. Ukrainians have already lost interest and any hope for positive changes. Therefore, if the turnout is too low on The Day of elections, this may produce tragic results.”

Den survey of three experts on the possibility that "democratic forces" will unify prior to the presidential election. None of them give a clear answer to the question, but I think the wrong question was asked. Granted, Den asked several related questions in the piece, a better question: Will the public rally around a "democratic" candidate, enough to win the election? Or will the scenario sketched above occur.

Yushchenko has nominated his long time financial backer Petro Poroshenko to the post of Foreign Minister, vacant since March. It will be interesting to see if the Rada even votes on his nomination. He would leave his current post as head of the NBU council during an investigation into NBU's recapitalization program. 

This year's nominal GDP in Ukraine will amount to UAH 956.4 billion, according to the materials circulated at a press conference by First Deputy Head of the Presidential Secretariat Oleksandr Shlapak on Wednesday.The secretariat also expects 16.5% inflation and a $2.2 billion deficit in foreign trade in Ukraine.

1. Asking a question we all want to know about the president of Ukraine. [EDM blog]
2. The Economist discusses important historical dates for east Europeans. [The Economist]
3. The Economist on the Perimeter, a Russian device designed to deter itself. [The Economist's Free Exchange]
4. Vice-speaker suggests MPs take a vacation while the Rada remains idle. [Interfax-Ukraine]
5. Moldova's new pro-Western government. [BBC News]
6. Ex-Russian envoy to Ukraine sees something positive from the economic crisis. [RIA]

Ukraine received $400 million from the World Bank  to  help the banking sector recover. However, government assistance to the banking sector hasn't been without controversy. Kyiv Post looks at allegations of fraud in government aid meant to re-capitalize Ukrainian banks. An earlier post discussed the investigation by the Interior Ministry, below an excerpt form the Kyiv Post article. 

Most Ukrainians distrust their banks anyway, so the burgeoning scandal will only reinforce these opinions. The lack of faith undermines Ukraine’s ability to emerge from one of the worst financial crises in its 18 years of independence. If disillusionment rises, more citizens may stop trusting banks altogether with their deposits or stop repaying their loans.

Oleksandr Savchenko, who resigned as deputy head of the central bank on Sept. 11, said the central bank’s recapitalization of commercial banks was done in an unfair and non-transparent way that allowed insiders to profit on currency manipulation and speculation.

Savchenko told Korrespondent magazine in an interview published on Sept. 18 that at least one scheme involved selling dollars to favored banks at the official NBU rate, which is much lower than the commercial rate. Those who benefited, Savchenko said, profited greatly.

"The deliberate poisoning of the candidate for the presidential post took place. There was an attempt on his life using dioxin. A medical examination, as well as the questioning of witnesses, has proved this," Medvedko told journalists on Friday in Kyiv, answering a question of a correspondent of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency. 

The main thrust of the article is that its a wide-spread campaign to smear both Yushchenko and the U.S. prior to the next election. Its interesting that Russia continues to focus their attention on Yushchenko rather than Tymoshenko. Perhaps, its due to the low levels of support for the president, Russia doesn't run a large risk of turning public opinion against it  as happened in 2004.

During the Moldovan election kompromat was released against a Romania embassy official and a former Communist mayoral candidate in two separate cases. Around the same time there was video released in Russia of a British diplomat spending time with prostitutes. Most recently, a video allegedly showing a U.S. diplomat doing the same thing has surfaced. The U.S. doesn't think its authentic.

1. On what else, Yushchenko and the gas agreement. [Bloomberg]
2. Taras Kuzio looks at the "Russian threat" to Ukraine. [EDM]
3. Naftogaz has debt issues. [Kyiv Post]
4. The president warns Russia not to interfere. [Interfax-Ukraine]
5. Russia's limited time frame, and Ukraine's options. [Window on Eurasia]

"Neither the World Bank nor the IMF did the work that had been foreseen ... to shift the government towards reforms," the newspaper quoted Yuschenko as saying.Tymoshenko, in turn, accused Yuschenko of trying to sabotage her presidential bid and her efforts to pull the country out of recession.

Interfax-Ukraine discusses a recent  FT article on Yushchenko. The president  apparently didn't feel that the IMF and World Bank were pushing the government hard enough in implementing reform. (The World Bank just approved a loan to Ukraine.) He may have point, like he had a point on the gas negotiations last year. However, his comments are also just another reminder of the political bickering that's defined their relationship.

EDM (Volume 6, Issue 169) brings up an issue that President Yushchenko brought up as well, the Rada hasn't gotten back to work. Yatsenuik also commented on the Rada's behavior in Interfax-Ukraine.

Since he was the former speaker of the Rada, his observations are relevant, but I question his comments that his never seen this much cynicism. I'm sure that there was plenty of cynicism in politics during the Soviet Union

Meanwhile, EDM looks at the Rada and how the presidential election is affecting its work. The Party of Regions was blocking the podium before the summer recess and it seems that the party has chosen to stick with this strategy. As the article notes, Regions has adopted a populist tone, something that's been noted here, in a cynical attempt to drum up support from voters. Perhaps the stand off shouldn't have been unforeseen considering that the president can longer disband the Rada. The parties can now ignore the president's plea and focus on priority one, the presidential election. Meanwhile, Regions continues to push ahead on populist measures and others are supporting them in hopes of unblocking the Rada.