Ukraine Today - An Independent Political Review

More and more community leaders are calling for Ukraine's President, Viktor Yushchenko, to resign and for Ukraine to hold early presidential elections in the Summer/Fall. Viktor Yushchenko is facing an avalanche of public opinion as pressure increases with no sign of letting up. Yushchenko has less then 4% public support and the prospect of a drawn out prolonged period of uncertainty is not in Ukraine's best interest. The latest broadside shot comes from Ukraine's first President since Independence, Leonid Kravchuk. Kravchuk, joining a growing chorus of political leaders, has called on incumbent president Viktor Yushchenko to resign and for Ukraine to hold early presidential elections. The sudden resignation of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Secretary Raisa Bohatyriova has signaled a split in Yushchenko's support with some analysts stating that Bohatyriova's resignation marks the start of Yushchenko's presidential election campaig

Ukraine's embattled President, Viktor Yushchenko, would not survive the first round of voting and does not even rate according to a recent public opinion poll conducted by the Sofia Center for Social Studies on February 3-13, 2009 and published in the KyivPost Presidential Candidate Support Candidate Party % Viktor Yanukovych PoR 24.2% Yulia Tymoshenko BYuT 15.3% Arseniy Yatseniuk BAY 11.8% Volodymyr Lytvyn BL 5.2% Petro Symonenko CPU 4.6% Vikor Yushchenko OU 3.0% Other/Undecided/None 35.9% Even more telling is that the President's Party "Our Ukaine" would not win any seats with only five political parties winning representation if fresh Parliamentary elections were held last week. Parliamentary Party Support Party % Party of Regions PoR 25.8% Bloc Yulia Tymoschenko BYuT 15.6 Bloc of Arseniy Yatseniuk BAY 10.4% Communist Party of Ukraine CPU 5.5% Bloc of Lytvyn BL 5.3% Our Ukraine OU 2.7% Other/Undecided/None 34.7% The People's Union Our Ukraine Party w

Ukraine's President, Viktor Yushchenko is increasingly coming under pressure to resign in the midst of an ongoing debilitating feud and conflict between the Office of the President and Ukraine's Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko. Yushchenko continues to undermine the Ukraine's Government with his latest attack aimed at destabilising Ukraine's gas deal that settled a dispute with Russia that left Europe without gas and in the cold There is growing concern that amidst the current global financial crisis the ongoing battle and struggle between the parliament and the Office of the President is having a detrimental effect on Ukraine's economy. According to recent polls support for Victor Yushchenko following his attempts to dismiss Ukraine's parliament and the Tymoshenko government late last year has slumped to less then 4%, the lowest level of support for a head of state in the world. Ukraine is due to hold presidential elections by the end of the year With less the

Below is a copy of the gas Contract signed by Ukraine and Russia (Source Kyiv Post ) Ukrayinska Pravda (www.pravda.com.ua), a Ukrainian news website, has published the full text of the Ukrainian-Russian gas transit deal for the next decade. The agreement was signed in Moscow on Jan. 19. The following is the English-language translation done by the Kyiv unit of British Broadcasting Company (www.bbc.co.uk). The Naftohaz Ukrayiny national joint-stock company (Ukraine), hereinafter referred to as the Contractor, represented by the first deputy head of the board, Ihor Mykolayovych Didenko, acting on the basis of the power of attorney dated 02.01.2009 No 14-346, on the one side, and Gazprom open joint-stock company (Russian Federation), hereinafter referred to as the Customer, represented by the deputy head of the board, Valeriy Aleksandrovich Golubev, acting on the basis of the power of attorney dated 09.11.2007 No 01/0400-510 d, on the other side, have concluded this Contract on the follow