PACE Co-Rapporteur Mailis Reps: "The Ukrainian Parliament Could Extend Amnesty to Opposition Leaders”

PACE Monitoring Committee Co-Rapporteurs have once again visited Ukraine where they were finally allowed to see Yuriy Lutsenko and talk to the Prosecutor General. In an interview with The Ukrainian Week, Mailis Reps, Co-Rapporteur of the Monitoring Committee and an Estonian MP, shares her impressions of a meeting with Lutsenko and others and adverse trends she spotted in Kyiv.

Khoroshkovsky in London: Kyiv Can Deal with Moscow

Participating in a London round-table, Deputy Prime Minister Valeriy Khoroshkovsky used his impeccable manners and good command of English to try to present a very positive picture of Ukraine in the world's financial capital

Losing Ground

Despite pressure and money, despite manipulating election legislation and bribing entire social groups with financial injections from the budget, Ukraine’s leadership feels increasingly insecure. The fear of losing power is gradually turning into panic as current officials become increasingly aware that one day they will be held accountable for violating written and unwritten social laws

Election Tango

It looks like the latest local by-election was a platform for testing mechanisms that could be used in the 2012 parliamentary election

The Return of the Prodigal Son, Who Never Left Home

Despite implementing large-scale image-building projects, which were largely directed towards the European audience, Petro Poroshenko has no alternative choices for the nation’s development. He has always been part and parcel of the post-soviet oligarchic system

High Demand, Zero Supply

None of the existing opposition parties really seek demonopolization, separation of business and government, or desovietization

Longing for a Right-Wing Force

Ukraine has an objective demand for a right-centre alternative aiming at liberating and supporting private initiative, radical separation between government and business, and the rapid de-sovietisation of society

GRECO President: “Kivalov Twisted My Words Significantly in His Statements”

If you can't win over an opponent, try to distort what he says. Apparently, Party of Regions member Serhiy Kivalov has been following that motto as he tells Ukrainians in his numerous interviews that the president of GRECO, Marin Mrčela, the Council of Europe’s Group of States Against Corruption, allegedly opposes the decriminalization of Articles 364 and 365 of the Criminal Code under which Yulia Tymoshenko and Yuriy Lutsenko were sentenced.

Elite-less

New appointments in the government are more of a window-dressing than an overhaul of the elite

Concrete Justice

Ukraine is governed by prison rules

The Language of True Diplomacy: the EU Put Political Correctness Aside in Dealing With Kyiv

Europe seems to finally have understood who it is dealing with in Ukraine. The Ukrainian president is taking a lot of abuse for his policies from one European official after another

A New Crimean Front

Crimea is implementing a project likely to neutralise the protest movement of the Crimean Tatars and in the future undermine the influence of the Mejlis

Luca Volontè: “The issue of the CoE’s sanctions against Ukraine arises automatically”

Luca Volontè chairs the European People’s Party, the biggest political group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). In his interview with The Ukrainian Week, Mr. Volontè evaluates the verdict in former minister Lutsenko’s case and suggests possible sanctions against Ukraine if the latter continues to ignore the CoE’s recommendations

Information on Officials: Temporarily Unavailable

The euphoria over the Law “On Access to Public Information” is gradually evaporating

Cadres Are Important

Recent appointments suggest that Yanukovych does not trust the Party of Regions’ “cadre reserve”

Kliuyev Appointed With Eye on Elections

Viktor Yanukovych continues reshuffling personnel after replacing chiefs of power structures

Getting Ready to Give “a Punch in the Face”?

The government is searching for mechanisms to offset the huge loss of popularity over the past two years. It appears that administrative leverage, manipulations and falsifications are going to be applied on a massive scale.

Offsetting Populism

The Constitutional Court is bringing social policy out of the legislative field to be manually managed by the government. This signals preparations for the election

The President's Secret Service

Whose interests will the new SBU Chief protect?

Court on Demand

The Constitutional Court is losing its reputation as an independent arbiter and is turning into yet another component of the presidential hierarchy

Lawyer Oleksiy Bahanets: “Not a Single Witness in Court Said That Yuriy Lutsenko Was Guilty”

Court hearings in the Yuriy Lutsenko case are over. So are lawyers’ debates. Just days ago, Kyiv Pechersk District Court ruled that the verdict would be announced on February 27. Apparently, prosecutors feel they have to rush, possibly to forestall the verdict of the European Court of Human Rights

Investigators On the Rise

Several law enforcement officers who were responsible for producing cases against Yulia Tymoshenko and Yuriy Lutsenko have been promoted. Intriguingly, almost all of them have been moved to Ivano-Frankivsk

Life After Euro 2012

If the Ukrainian government does not change its domestic policies, the country will face international isolation and subjugation to Russia after the 2012 European Football Championship

European Integration For the Sake of Appearance

Ukraine failed to make good on its commitments in its first year in the Energy Community and wants to pass the buck to the EU

The Price of Uncertainty

Ukraine is losing the fight for Azerbaijani gas to the more aggressive Russia and Turkey

Shot In the Foot

The current government is incapable of improving social justice even as it scrambles to imitate efforts to do so ahead of the autumn parliamentary election