BRUSSELS/WARSAW — After centuries as Europe’s stomping ground and years as its prickly gadfly, Poland is now poised to lead the continent. Poland, a member since 2004, takes over the European Union’s six-month rotating presidency amid high hopes. “Europe’s foundations are threatened” and strong leadership is needed, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said recently, in [...]
Tag: Ukraine
June 30, 2011
June 30, 2011
Tymoshenko Goes on Trial
Yulia Tymoshenko kissing a supporter outside a Kiev court on Wednesday. KIEV — Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko went on trial on Wednesday on charges of abuse of power in a case that has raised Western concerns over President Viktor Yanukovych’s commitment to democracy and the rule of law. Western reaction is important since Ukraine, a major grain and steel exporter, badly needs outside investment and is [...]
June 29, 2011
Valinor Considers Float in Warsaw
Russian farming company Valinor said Tuesday that it is considering an initial public offering of $200 million to $300 million on the Warsaw Stock Exchange to fund land acquisitions and invest in production. Valinor controls 358,000 hectares of land in the fertile “black earth” regions of Russia and Ukraine. It mostly cultivates cereals and oilseeds, and last year its harvest totaled 1.2 million tons. Bookrunners for the IPO are [...]
June 29, 2011
Due West: Moscow and Minsk start a cold war, while China waits in the wings
Everything you wanted to know about the Belarusian economy but were afraid to ask is now in the open domain. Belenergo, President Alexander Lukashenko’s state electricity monopoly, cannot pay its Russian counterpart about $20 million it owes for electricity supplies. The Belarusians are saying they have the amount of Belarusian rubles needed for payback, but [...]
June 29, 2011
Russia: From empire to great power
To start off, independence brought different things to different republics. The Baltic countries became EU and NATO members and their future is now linked with European and Euro-Atlantic institutions. In Central Asia, the former Soviet republics each have a very different status. Some of them, like Kazakhstan, have managed to score impressive results in economic [...]
June 28, 2011
Kiev hopes details of gas deal with Russia to be revised in July
Kiev hopes that the details of the current deal with Moscow on the Russian natural gas deliveries will be revised and finalized in July, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said. Russia’s natural gas price for Ukraine currently equals $295.6 per 1,000 cu m and is expected to rise to $350 in the third quarter and [...]
June 27, 2011
Tymoshenko Will Go on Trial
Tymoshenko attending a pre-trial hearing in a Kiev court on Saturday. KIEV — Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko must stand trial next Wednesday on a charge of abuse of power, a judge ruled in a pre-trial hearing late Saturday. The charge carries a jail term of at least seven years. Judge Rodion Kyriyev threw out objections by Tymoshenko and her defense that the charge against her [...]
June 26, 2011
Russia Joins EU’s Nuclear Stress Tests
BRUSSELS — Russia and Ukraine are among seven nations that will join an EU nuclear stress test program to examine whether nuclear power plants can withstand accidents and disasters. The 27 EU nations agreed on such a program last month and had called on other countries to join the plan. But the announcement late last week was a first big breakthrough to expand the program. Under the tests, “experts from other countries will [...]
June 26, 2011
Russia: Gay Rights Activists Detained In St. Petersburg
Russian police arrested over a dozen gay rights activists taking part in a Gay Pride rally over the weekend, briefly detaining leading gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev. The group of some 15 people, including activists from Ukraine and Belarus, demonstrated on June 25 in St. Petersburg’s Dekabristov Square. The protest was being held in solidarity [...]
June 26, 2011
Kiev court upholds travel ban for Ukraine’s ex-PM Tymoshenko
A Kiev court has rejected an appeal from Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to cancel her recognizance not to leave the country. The Pechyorskiy court in Kiev has also refused to give another month for Tymoshenko’s lawyers to study case materials and scheduled the trial to start on June 29. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office [...]
June 25, 2011
Main news of June 25
WORLD *Egyptian court extended for 15 days the custody of Ilan Grapel, a US-Israeli citizen suspected of espionage on behalf of Israel, Egyptian news agency MENA said on Saturday *French authorities have prohibited the sale of three types of sprouts from the British seed supplier, Thompson and Morgan, reportedly infected with E. Coli, France’s secretary [...]
June 25, 2011
Mongolian Dependence a Threat
Mongolia’s Sukhbaatar Batbold ULAN BATOR, Mongolia — Mongolia’s growing dependence on neighboring Russia and China for fuel and power poses a major risk to its booming mining sector that investors need to consider, foreign business executives said. Landlocked Mongolia, which hopes to raise some $25 billion over the next five years to build roads, railways and mining towns, imports about 90 percent of its petroleum products from Russia, while [...]
June 24, 2011
Ukraine, NATO to spiff up country from radioactivity
Ukraine and NATO will soon begin a joint ecological project to clean up the territory of Ukraine from radioactive sources from the military leftover from Soviet times, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said. The issue was discussed Thursday in Brussels during a Ukraine-NATO commission’s meeting at the level of ambassadors. The ministry did not specify the [...]
June 24, 2011
Mongolian Dependence on Russian Energy Threatens Investment
Mongolia’s Sukhbaatar Batbold ULAN BATOR, Mongolia — Mongolia’s growing dependence on neighboring Russia and China for fuel and power poses a major risk to its booming mining sector that investors need to consider, foreign business executives said. Landlocked Mongolia, which hopes to raise some $25 billion over the next five years to build roads, railways and mining towns, imports about 90 percent of its petroleum products from Russia, while [...]