Blue &Yellow: Politics and Economics in Ukraine

"Yulia Tymoshenko, who earlier held the post of Ukraine's prime minister, is accused of illegally issuing the prime minister's order to convert into the national currency the funds received under the Kyoto Protocol, in the amount of EUR 180 million, retaining a commission of UAH 960,309.64 and sending these funds to replenish a single treasury account from which all of the budget's expenditures are financed," the press service reported.
The Prosecutor General's Office noted that these funds should have been accumulated on special currency accounts until the need arose to use them for environmental purposes in accordance with the budgetary legislation.
"Due to the abovementioned criminal actions by Yulia Tymoshenko, nearly UAH 1 million worth of damage was caused to the state budget," the press service said.

 The timing is perfect, its always good to take care of an opponent during the holidays when people are busy on other things. According to the PGO, the prime minister used the funds to cover budget expenditures and  is apparently under house arrest.

The Chornobyl zone and the zone of alienation will be open for tourists from January 2011.
"There is a huge demand, people want to go there, they want to hear, see and find out, which is why we decided to work out such a mechanism that would allow for organized systemic visits to the zone," Oksana Nor, General Director at Chornobyl Interinform, told a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.

All necessary studies have been carried out and measurements taken in the containment area, based on which a number of tourist itineraries have been worked out, she said. The next stage will be signing contracts with travel agencies that will bring tourists to the zone of alienation, she said.

 Wait, so Chernobyl was not open to tourists before this announcement.When I went there it seemed that the site was already open to tourists.

Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko was charged on Monday over alleged misuse of state funds during her tenure as prime minister from 2007 to 2010, Tymoshenko’s spokeswoman said.
Tymoshenko, who narrowly lost the February presidential election to President Viktor Yanukovych, has repeatedly dismissed as politically motivated accusations her government misused money raised by selling carbon emission rights.

No one should be surprised about this, it's been in the works for months. In fact, lets go through the past year and follow Ms Tymoshenko's political decline. First, a post on the Yushchenko-Tymoshenko rivalry, its a 2009 vintage but germane. Their intense feud almost assured a Yanukovych victory, however the terrible economy sealed it. In this post her public persona is attacked, prior to the presidential election. A post on the presidential election first round, Yushchenko is humiliated and Tymshenko comes in second to Yanukovych.

Before the second round, Regions flexed its muscles in the Rada. A sign of things to come in the year. Tymoshenko loses the presidential election. A legal challenge never gets off the ground. Some pundits probably didn't expect Yanukovych to consolidate his power and turn on the opposition as quickly.  Channel 5 gets a taste of the new regime. The political-legal challenges to Tymoshenko. This happened in May, yet no one should have expected Regions to stop. She was correct about political persecutions returning, in this interview. The local elections results showed the political power of Regions and its ability to get the election outcome it wants. The recent brawl was a pathetic way to end the year for Tymoshenko and her party. Yet fitting considering how far she fell politically.

Ukraine is expected to become the second-fastest growing economy among emerging markets in 2011, trailing oil-rich Kazakhstan, according to Dragon Capital investment bank in Kiev. Experts say Ukraine is growing faster than others simply because it was one of the worst affected by the global financial crisis and the growth is fueled mostly by rising prices for metals, its main export.

"The Ukrainian economy is highly exposed to global commodity cycles," said Olena Bilan, chief economist at Dragon Capital, a leading investment company in Ukraine. It "contracted sharply and now is recovering faster than regional peers."

From an AP story, the economy is expected to grow 4.3% next year. However,  it looks like it will be several years before it returns to the pre-crash level. Also as this Interfax-Ukraine article notes, a large part of the economy is still in the shadows. We see why the Ukrainian government is eager to pass a new tax code, it needs to close the budget deficit by finding new sources of revenue. Below is an excerpt from the article quoting Sergiy Tigipko, vice premier.

"Concrete reforms are needed, and [the document] you passed yesterday is a compromise that has to be taken… The adoption of the Tax Code is a large step. We've not taken a whole step forward, but we've moved three quarters [of a step] forward. It's important that the code was endorsed, and in the future we'll propose such reforms," he said.

He said that after the reform is conducted, including during next year, "we'll be able to totally balance the budget."