How Yanukovych’s lawyers are dragging out the trial

The pitfalls of Yanukovych's $1.5bn case

Director of the International Centre for Asset Recovery at the Basel Institute on Governance about cooperation with the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine in investigating financial crimes of the Yanukovych regime, effective tools to search for stolen assets, and mechanisms of international interaction in financial intelligence

A year after the Revolution of Dignity

Rinat Akhmetov, Vladimir Putin and Viktor Yanukovych continue to weave plots for Eastern Ukraine, making the rebels with black-and-orange ribbons think that they are dying for a New Russia, not for oligarchic interests

There are reasons to believe that officers of the Federal Security Service of Russian Federation (FSB) were involved in the planning and implementation of the so-called antiterrorist operations in Kyiv during the mass protests on Maidan in February, Ukrainian Security Service Chief (SBU) Valentyn Nalyvaichenko said during the press-conference on April, 3rd.

After Viktor Yanukovych fled and Ukraine found itself on the brink of a war, it seemed Ukrainians could be celebrating the victory, but somehow there was no euphoria. Only a mist.

Andrew Wilson is a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and a permanent Reader in Ukrainian Studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), University College London. He shared his views with The Ukrainian Week on the prospects for rapid reform in Ukraine, on the inadequate reaction of the West to the usurpation of power by Viktor Yanukovych and the absence of the rule of law, both under the Orange government and under that of Yanukovych.

Viktor Yanukovych, the ousted president of Ukraine, said on Thursday that he remained the lawful president, and asked Russian authorities to grant his personal safety.

Intrigue is brewing in Ukraine. Both unexpected and predictable. Will Viktor Yanukovych come full circle from the Olympics in Sochi? Will he be able to do this? And will he want to…?

Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer told in the interview to Deutsche Welle that the West should target Ukrainian oligarchs with sanctions.

Arseniy Yatseniuk, the leader of Batkivshchyna, is ready to become premier provided that the Parliament returns the 2004 Constitution and the Cabinet of Ministers is formed by the opposition, he says in an interview for Deutsche Welle

Putin cannot be faulted for skillfully pursuing his interpretation of Russian interests. The blame for the outcome in Ukraine falls squarely on the EU’s leaders, because if Ukraine does lose its independence in one way or another, European security will be at risk – a risk nowhere more keenly felt than in Poland and the Baltic states, Joschka Fischer, german Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor from 1998-2005, says in his article for Project Syndicate.

“The Euro Revolution and the Yanukovych regime’s shameful deal with Putin’s Russia are as momentous conceptually as they are politically, requiring a new way of thinking about what has transpired in Ukraine and how Ukraine may be best understood,” Alexander Motyl, American historian and professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, notes in his blog on The World Affairs Journal.

On December 17, 2013 Yanukovych annulled Ukraine as an independent entity, as a full-fledged participant in international politics, and put all international level decisions that concern Ukraine in the hands of Vladimir Putin, Yulia Tymoshenko says in her statement regarding the events in Moscow on December 17.

The disruption of association with the EU revealed two crucial things. One - Ukraine has proven incapable of acting as an independent state. Two - European and American policies in Eastern Europe failed because rhetoric was the only thing confronting Putin’s pressure.

The latest developments make the prospects of signing the Association Agreement very vague. What can Europe do with Ukraine after 28/11?

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich sounded deadly serious during a passionate speech he gave on his administration’s commitment to fighting corruption on Wednesday, however he forgot to mention the missed opportunity to put words on paper in a memorandum of understanding to fight corruption with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Mark Rachkevych in his article for The Financial Times reports.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was scheduled to meet with Russia’s Vladimir Putin at the meeting of CIS presidents in Minsk on October 24-25. This meeting was scheduled. Instead, Yanukovych met with Putin in Sochi on October 27. The results of this meeting have not been disclosed.

Having made their fortunes in the chaotic and lawless privatisation of the 1990s, they are now looking for the rule of law and property rights which can be provided to them by the EU, The Economist claims.

The “win at any cost” alternative could well be a scenario whereby Viktor Yanukovych will become prime minister with extensive powers, should he lose the 2015 presidential election

In his annual address to the Verkhovna Rada, President Viktor Yanukovych suggested improving the election system by switching to an open list system with preference vote

Ukrainian society trusts only three social institutions – the church, the mass media and the army, finds a survey by the Democratic Initiatives foundation and the Razumkov Centre held on May 17-22.

On June 3, Viktor Yanukovych submitted a proposal to dismiss Head of the Central Election Committee (CEC), Volodymyr Shapoval, early after he reached the retirement age of 65. The President recommended Oleksandr Kopylenko to replace Shapoval as CEC member. According to Kommersant Ukraine, based on its sources, CEC member Mykhailo Okhendovskyi and CEC Secretary Tetiana Lukash are the likeliest candidates to replace Shapoval as CEC Head. Both vote in line with the Party of Regions.

Swedish economist and a senior fellow at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, Andres Aslund believes that the time of financial crisis is the best time for Ukraine to implement economic reforms.

On May 26, Viktor Yanukovych visited Russia and met with Vladimir Putin. No official statements or agreements were disclosed subsequently. Earlier, the media reported that Yanukovych has a meeting with the Customs Union member-state leaders in Astana scheduled for May 28-29 under the framework of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, and the memorandum on Ukraine’s status as an observer in the Customs Union could be signed at the next meeting of EurAsEC member-state leaders.

Trying to win next presidential elections Victor Yanukovych could divide and destroy Ukraine, Alexander Motyl, American historian and professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, notes in his blog on The World Affairs Journal.

Yuriy Lutsenko is going to create a new political project. The question is whether he will make the same mistakes as were made during the launch of People’s Self-Defence and whether the new organization will be constructed to serve the interests of Petro Poroshenko

The Yanukovych regime will continue the tactics of the creeping usurpation of power, trying to avoid decisive battles and unjustified image losses

“Despite winning rare praise from the West for freeing an opponent from jail, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich is likely to resist extra pressure and the lure of trade deals to release his fiercest rival, ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko,” writes Reuters.

Viktor Yanukovych`s chances of inking landmark association and free trade agreements with the EU are as uncertain as the fate of Yulia Tymoshenko, notes The Economist.

Freedom House welcomed the pardon of several former government officials in Ukraine and called on President Viktor Yanukovych to take similar action on Tymoshenko.

In Ukraine political power is a means of enrichment rather than governance while the opposition politicians are an extension of the business groups they claim to fight, writes The Economist.

For Yanukovych, the advantages of good PR do not outweigh the discomfort associated with ruining his ostrich-leather shoes, American historian and professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, writes in his blog on The World Affairs Journal.

While the opposition continues to announce its latest radical initiatives, the Yanukovych regime is strengthening its positions

“The failure of Western governments to achieve their goals in Tymoshenko’s case corroborates a hypothesis about the limits of the EU’s democratic conditionality in relations with authoritarian states,” Serhiy Kudelia, assistant professor of political science at Baylor University, writes in his article for Problems of Post-Communism magazine.

“A return to the presidential system, coupled with a stable and disciplined parliamentary majority, has given President Viktor Yanukovych unprecedented political powers,” write political analysts Sławomir Matuszak and Arkadiusz Sarna in their report From stabilisation to stagnation. Viktor Yanukovych's reforms.

“The president Viktor Yanukovych Family seems to be following the principle of “more for me” in managing the state and economy,” write Jana Kobzova, policy fellow and programme coordinator at the European Council on Foreign Relations and Balazs Jarabik, an associate fellow at FRIDE and the Central European Policy Institute, on their article for ECFR The EU's relationship with Ukraine: fling or partnership?

“Viktor Yanukovych must sense that his own cadres are grumbling and could at some point even be tempted to go against him,” Alexander J. Motyl, American historian and professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, writes in his blog on The World Affairs Journal.

Yanukovych could try to usurp power using the Belarus scenario to offset his plummeting popularity and growing pressure from abroad

Economic initiatives by the so-called “young reformers” confirm that the government is following a Belarusian model adjusted to fit the Family’s interests

In the three years of his presidency, Viktor Yanukovych has failed to meet his election promises. Instead, he has offered Ukraine a slew of large-scale pseudo reforms and virtual national projects

James Sherr claims that Ukraine’s choice today is between national and clan interests rather than Russia and the West

Internet movements are helping Ukrainians to overcome intimidation, disseminate accurate information and coordinate activism, yet they should not be viewed as an alternative to street protests

The new Cabinet of Ministers appointed by President Yanukovych on 24 December 2012, proves that the Family has once more reinforced its position under the guise of Azarov’s reappointment as Premier.

Polish civil and political activist Adam Michnik told The Ukrainian Week about the outlook for democracy in Ukraine.

Yanukovych & Co do not hide the fact that their strategic goal is to retain control over the country. Society is ready to resist this with bottom-up consolidation and initiative

It is impossible to say that Europe gave up on Ukraine - then or now. However, there is no other option for society, but to rid itself of the oppression inflicted by its own elite

The majority of Ukrainians remain part of European civilization. The West should support their resistance to the Russian model of development imposed on the nation by the current government

Nicholas Schmitt, a well-known researcher from the Institute of Federalism at the University of Fribourg, told The Ukrainian Week about Switzerland’s political system.

The President has signed a controversial law on the depository system.

Politics has always been about a watershed between legitimate and illegitimate figures in power

The events of the last week are evidence of the increasing likelihood of personal sanctions being imposed against a closer or wider circle of the representatives of the current government to the existing isolation

The Ukrainian government has tried, and failed miserably, to improve its image in the world through the foreign media

Seven steps Yanukovych has undertaken that increase the Kremlin’s hopes of swallowing up Ukraine

Amendments to the public procurements law are expected to further conceal the scale of the distribution of public funds to business entities close to the government

“He that lives upon hope will die fasting,” Benjamin Franklin said. Finally, Donetsk residents are beginning to grasp this truth. But things are not that simple and promising. Recognising the consequences of a malady does not always mean its underlying causes have been eliminated.

The no-win situation in which Mr. Yanukovych finds himself is becoming ever more apparent, while every new effort to prove that this is not the case, has the opposite effect.

As the confrontation between the Yanukovych Administration and the West intensifies, top foreign statesmen have addressed requests to and made demands of the President and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, but the Ukrainian leaders have simply ignored them

The dream residence of today’s Ukrainian nouveau riche resembles the kind of luxury restaurant craved by generations of soviet and post-soviet mobs

As the Presidential Administration begins to doubt its ability to stay in power after the parliamentary and later presidential elections, the current authorities are under pressure to pursue alternative scenarios, a key one being changes to the constitution

Yuri Vynnychuk talks about grasping the spirit of the time in the writing, passive intellectuals and the rule of the current government as purgatory for Ukraine

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

Instead of keeping their earlier promises, Viktor Yanukovych and his Party of Regions opt for bribing target groups of voters at the expense of Ukrainian taxpayers

We badly need a Hohol of our time who would point out what has been lost by Eastern European politics

A recent reshuffle in the government reveals how much power Bankova Str. has concentrated in its hands

Hosannas sung to the president bring only temporary benefit to the singers, while the object of praise eventually turns into a laughing stock

A personnel policy based on family and geographical connections is degrading public administration

The reshuffling of government ranks stems just as much from the Donbas social background as it does from the personal interests of the Yanukovych family and their inner circle

The West has essentially facilitated Viktor Yanukovych & Co. in coming to power by ignoring their violations of law in the first year of Yanukovych’s presidency. Now the consequences of these errors must be fixed

Steven Pifer: “You have some people in Europe and the US asking if it is time to apply possible restrictions on certain Ukrainian officials”.

The incumbent regime resents dissenters just as the Soviets did. But since it cannot use its predecessor’s method, it resorts to clowning around

Speaking at a session of the Council of Europe, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych promised to do many things: launch public television, pass the new election law only with the approval of the Venice Commission, reform the judicial and investigation systems and even achieve real rule of law.

Western leaders' selective approach to “defending civic rights” plays into the hands of Yanukovych

The USA is aware that it must cooperate with the current Ukrainian government

The Yanukovych Administration’s image in the West is made by Americans, paid for by Ukrainians and watched closely by Russians

Building an NLG terminal in Ukraine could be a move to diversifying gas suppliers—or just a waste of taxpayer money