Blue &Yellow: Politics and Economics in Ukraine

There are indications that the Ukrainian government has agreed to return RosUkrEnergo (RUE) the disputed gas, which the Stockholm court ruled belongs to RUE. According to the ruling, Ukraine has to either accept by September 1, or appeal by September 8. The government apparently chose to return the gas, as there is little chance that an appeal would be upheld. This means that ahead of the peak heating season, Ukraine will be short of 12 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas which is more than 20 percent of its annual consumption. The situation raises questions about the integrity of both the previous and current governments.

From Eurasia Daily Monitor, the long running story continues and RusUkrEnergo appears to be winning.

The good news is that Budapest’s Ferihegy terminal is clean and modern. The bad news is that the rail link—just a five minute walk from Terminal 1—is a disgrace. Dirty, dilapidated, and hard to find, with graffiti everywhere and broken lifts and ticket machines, it looks like something out of a poor eastern block country in the early 1980s.

A burly man accosts me and tries to get me to take a taxi to the city centre. I politely say that I am going by train. The taxi is quicker, he says. And the train is a long way. I’m used to dealing with these people but his persistence annoys me. He starts telling fairy stories: the train is not running today and it's "inconvenient". In a well-run airport the taxi drivers wait outside in an orderly queue, rather than hassling the passengers.

From Eastern Approaches, a short post on how an airport and transport from/to an airport can reveal something about the country your in. With that in mind, Boryspil  airport in Ukraine isn't that bad, its relatively clean and modern. Transport to the airport is okay as long as you take a bus rather than a taxi (they'll gouge you good unless its from a reputable taxi service). However, the domestic airports are a different manner.

Number of registered unemployed persons in Ukraine in July 2010 decreased to 396.8 thousand, representing 1.4% of the population of working age, according to the website of the State Statistics Committee.

This is from the Russian version of Interfax-Ukraine, I couldn't find this article on the Ukrainian or English version of the site. Ukraine has just faced one of its worse economic contractions since the end of the Soviet Union, yet only 1.4% of the labor market is unemployed. The keyword in that except is "registered", how many unregistered unemployed persons are there in Ukraine?

That's Oleg Shinkarenko who was warned  by the SBU to cease his criticism of the the regime or face prosecution. President Yanukovych wanted to meet with bloggers over the event, to calm their fears? An anti-censorship campaign has begun in response to this regime's heavy handed tactics toward its critics, here's quote by the president from the BBC Ukraine link. 

Regarding the court's decision on channel TVi and 5, I as a citizen and as a guarantor of the Constitution have no right to influence the courts.

How many believe this nonsense? Ukrainian courts are susceptible to political influence and he controls the SBU. However, its clear his attempting to distance himself  by pretending that he has no control over process. 

"An additional price increase of 50 percent for households and utilities will be effected in April 2011. Semiannual increases of gas prices paid by households and utility companies will continue until domestic price levels reach import parity. Thereafter, all gas prices will be adjusted as needed to reflect market prices," the document reads.

The next price increase comes next year,but  Ukraine already raised gas prices this month by 50%. The document in the excerpt is a memo to the IMF.