Blue &Yellow: Politics and Economics in Ukraine

Leader of the Batkivschyna party and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has said that the situation in Ukraine is "explosive."
When asked during an interview with the EuroNews TV channel if the situation in Ukraine is "explosive or revolutionary," Tymoshenko said: "Yes. When people are brought to despair, and there is no other way left apart from the revolution, then the countries can actually explode."

As match tickets go on sale on March 1st, the country is pouring more and more money into getting its much-delayed infrastructure projects finished on time. The urgency has only increased the opacity, says Serhiy Leshchenko of the news website Ukrainska Pravda. Describing the tournament as "a Bermuda triangle into which state funds disappear", he says the authorities are simply "handing out all the contracts to their friends and families' companies".

According to Leshchenko, one firm called Altcom is making as much as 640 million euros from various road and airport projects, as well as the stadium in Lviv. These roads are among the most expensive in the world. It's not clear who ultimately owns Altcom.

Kiev's Olympic stadium re-development could also turn out to be the most expensive ever, with a price tag of 300 million euros widely expected to rise. Much of that work is being undertaken by AK engineering, a firm Leshchenko identifies as being connected with Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister, Borys Kolesnykov. Kolesnykov firmly rejects the allegations, but Leshchenko says the documents he submitted are unconvincing.

From France 24, Ukraine will be busy building for the Euro 2012. While the event and the spending connected to it will contribute to economic growth, the money seems to be going to a small group.

The trade deal with Ukraine, which both sides want to sign later this year, will ease trade barriers and bring the former Soviet state a step closer towards eventual EU membership. The branding issue has been one of the hardest for the Ukrainians to accept, said Mr Teixeira. Government ministers have now accepted that it is the end of the road for shampanskoye, but other Ukrainians are not convinced.
"I haven't heard about this, but I can't imagine anyone is going to stop calling it shampanskoye," said Marina, a cashier at a Kiev supermarket.

From The Independent, a victory for President Yanukovych, if its signed.

The IMF is adopting a tough but correct position. Ukraine’s state budget deficit last year exceeded the 5.5 percent of GDP agreed with the IMF, VAT is not refunded automatically despite Azarov's promises, and the cabinet has not yet submitted a pension reform bill to parliament although it had promised the IMF that it would do so by January. Deputy Prime Minister, Serhy Tyhypko, who is in charge of pension reform, forecast last month that parliament would pass a pension reform bill in March (UNIAN, January 18). The pension reform will be unpopular as it provides, as the IMF insisted, for hiking the retirement age for women from the current 55 to 60 years within the next ten years and for male civil servants from 60 to 62 years.
The cabinet is even more reluctant to increase household gas prices from April 2011, also as promised to the IMF last year, in order to reduce the deficit of the state-owned oil and gas company, Naftohaz Ukrainy. First Deputy Prime Minister, Andry Klyuyev, told a press conference on February 2 that the cabinet was against raising natural gas prices for households in either April or May. Klyuyev said this would be discussed with the IMF (UNIAN, February 2). The previous 50 percent price increase last August was welcomed by the IMF, but it was not enough to cover the difference between the high prices that Naftohaz pays for Russian gas and the low prices for which it is obliged to sell gas at home

A  large excerpt from Eurasia Daily Monitor (no link) volume 8 issue 28,  "Kyiv holds fresh talks with the IMF", " . Inflation slowed down to 8.2%. according to Bloomberg.