Ukraine Today - An Independent Political Review

KyivPost reports: Ukraine's Constitutional Court has commenced the oral consideration of the President Viktor Yuschenko's appeal against the resolution of the Verkhovna Rada on scheduling the presidential elections for October 25. The reporting judge is Ivan Dombrovskyi. In compliance with the appeal, section 5 article 103 of the Constitution envisions that the presidential elections should be held last Sunday of the last month of the president's fifth year in office, which means that the elections should take place on January 17, 2010. The last Sunday of the last month of the last year? January 17 is not the last Sunday of the month of January or did they cut out a few days to try and shorten Ukraine's bitter cold winter? The last thing Ukraine needs is a prolonged Presidential campaign and an election in the middle of Ukraine's winter. The Constitution of Ukraine [Article 85(7)] allows for the parliament to determine when Presidential elections are held. The Ukr...

The Den has an interesting article that follows on from our previous post. In this article Yuschenko makes specious and telling statements First, he said that there are no legitimate grounds for an early dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada because there is no decision by the Constitutional Court . (The same situation existed in 2007 yet Yuschenko put Ukraine's stability at risk and plunged the country into seven months of political and social crisis) The best was last: after the live broadcast was over the President announced his political “will”: he wants to have an effective democratic European Constitution. This is a lie.Yushchenko has consistently undermined Ukraine's democratic development and opposed Ukraine adopting a European Parliamentary democracy in line with European Standards and other European States.In fact his proposed amendments to Ukraine's Constitution takes a backward step away from European democracy, most notably his desire to revert back to a Soviet Sty...

There has been a lot of speculation around about Victor Yuschenko contesting the next Presidential election scheduled for October 25. Yuschenko according to public opinion polls has less then 3% support and all of the serious analysts are in agreement that if he stood he would lose in the first round and not be re-elected to a second term of office. So it was rather surprising to read in a recent article that Yuschenko intends to nominate for the next presidential election , an election that he is sure to lose along with what little credibility he may have left. The "Western media"(read US Interests) are trying to talk up Arseniy Yatesniuk, the 35 year old pro-Yuschenko banker and Ukraine's former Speaker of the Parliament before Yuschenko had him removed as part of his failed attempt to disband the governing coalition late last year. Yatseniuk, it is claimed, is within 1.5% points of toping Yulia Tymoshenko as the second preferred candidate for the Presid...

Kyiv Post in an article that has barely been covered by the English media has reported that "The Kyiv Okrug Court of Appeals on April 24 passed a ruling saying President Viktor Yushchenko's decree dated May 24, 2007, dismissing Sviatoslav Piskun from the post of the prosecutor general was unlawful" This is the second time the Ukrainian Courts have reviewed and ruled against the President on the question of legality of the president's actions. In May 2007 Victor Yuschenko also illegally dismissed three Constitutional Court Judges in order to prevent the Constitutional Court from ruling against his decrees. Ukraine's constitution provides for the independence of the Courts and prohibits political interference. The Constitutional Court, following Yuschenko's interference in the judicial process, has never ruled on the legality of the President's decrees of April, 2007. As a result of Yushenko's actions, Ukraine suffered seven months of political unrest a...

22 April 2009 By Anders Aslund Published in the Moscow Times A month ago, I wrote a column about Russia's return to sane economic policy, but Ukraine has undertaken an even more impressive turnaround. Few countries have been more misunderstood than Ukraine, which has been particularly hurt by the global financial crisis. In the wake of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, international finance froze throughout the world. Ukraine suffered from an underlying problem -- its high dependence on steel exports, whose prices and demand collapsed in fall 2008. In the first half of 2008, steel accounted for no less than 42 percent of Ukraine's exports. This year all of Ukraine's exports are likely to drop by almost 50 percent, but imports even more, so the current account deficit will become insignificant. Ukraine's Central Bank made one serious policy mistake. It insisted on maintaining a fixed peg of the hryvna to the U.S. dollar. Because of the apparent safety and obvious profitabi...

It is worth highlighting this article which reflects accurately the state of support and lack of leadership provided by Victor Yushchenko, Ukraine's President, who was elected in 2004 following the so called "Orange Revolution". The "Orange Revolution" has tuned sour with Yushchenko betraying the democratic values of those who supported his election to office. The rate of decline in his support has been as dramatic as the conflict and division within Ukraine he has caused, most notably was his dismissal of Ukraine's parliament in 2007 which saw Ukraine paralysed by political conflict and division for seven months. His attempts to fuel the conflict between Russia and Georgia in August 2008. His final act of betrayal when he attacked Yulia Tymoshenko accusing her position in relation to the Russian Georgian copnflict as an act of State Treason. Yushchenko then sought to remove Yulia Tymoshchenko from the office of Prime minister by again seeking to d...

EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR DEMOCRACY THROUGH LAW (VENICE COMMISSION) Draft law on Amending the CONSTITUTION of Ukraine Presented by the President of Ukraine PROPOSED CONSTITUTION OF UKRAINE The Ukrainian people - citizens of Ukraine of all nationalities, expressing the sovereign will of the people, based on the centuries-old history of Ukrainian state-building and on the right to self-determination realized by the Ukrainian nation, all the Ukrainian people, caring for the strengthening of civil harmony and unity of Ukraine, considering themselves as an integral part of the European community, providing for the guarantee of human rights and freedoms and of the worthy conditions of human life, establishment of social justice, striving to develop and strengthen a democratic, social, law-based state, aware of responsibility before God, past, present and future generations, adopts this Constitution – the Fundamental Law of Ukraine. Section I - GENERAL PRINCIPLES Article 1 ...