Ukraine Today - An Independent Political Review

Ukraine's Ombdusman, Nina Karpachova, whilst making a announced visit to Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine's former Prime-minister who is being held in jail, has re ported that Tymnoshenko is gravely ill and needs urgent medical treatment outside of the jail. The assessment of the Ombudsman is contrary to thr infornation provided by jail officals last week. Tymoshenko has been jailed following a complaint made against her by Vikttor Yushchenko back in 2009. Tymoshenko was found guility of having misused and abused her public office in signing an agreement with Russia to supply Ukraine gas. The allegations against Tymoshenko and other members of teh oppsoiton parties are seen to be potitcaly motivated.  Tymoshenko has appelased agsint her convcition and the appral is scheduled to be heard next month. There are calls for Tyshmeochnko to be released or plavced under hoiuyse arrest pending the outcome of her appeal. Earlier on the authorities claimed that Tymoshenko health was sa

By: Taras Kuzio Former President Viktor Yushchenko is an important, but underestimated, aspect of the sentencing of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko to seven years imprisonment and a three-year ban from government work. Our Ukraine honorary chairman Yushchenko’s support for the sentence was in contradiction with the Our Ukraine political party, which condemned it as a return to authoritarianism. Every other opposition political party condemned the sentence. Party of Regions deputy Taras Chornovil said in a recent interview with Radio Svoboda that “Yushchenko was the only well-known public person in Ukraine who supported the sentence.” Yushchenko was the only person who “applauded and said that he supported it and was satisfied with it” In interviews given to the BBC Ukrainian service on Oct. 12 and Der Spiegel on Oct. 18, Yushchenko publicly supported Tymoshenko’s sentence. Speaking on Inter television channel on Oct. 23, Yushchenko stated his opposition to the d

Preliminary Report on the investigations against Yulia Tymoshenko in November 2011. This report has the purpose of describing and analyzing the actual legal situation of Mrs. Tymoshenko as of the beginning of November 2011 and to compare it with the obligations of Ukraine as a party to the European Convention on Human Rights. It has not been the purpose of the monitoring to take side in the question of guilt or innocence; Human Rights are for the guilty as well as for the innocent. Copy of report (pdf)

There are a number of very interesting cables issued by the Kyiv U.S. Embassy and published by Wikileaks . They provide a fascinating insight and review of the period in the lead-up to the 2006 Parliamentary elections and beyond.  From 2005-12-23 to 2010-02-26   (If only Wikileaks published cables from the beginning of 2004) Readers are encouraged to consider denotations to Wikileaks to help them in their quest for open and transparent governance. There was an interesting aside on comments by Olexandr Moroz (SPU) dated Feb 2005 on the Russian gas deal stuck by Yushchenko.   ¶ 2. (C) A clearly unhappy Socialist Party (SPU) leader Oleksandr Moroz blasted the GOU handling of the gas crisis and the resulting deals with Russia, said he was appalled at the GOU decisions taken, and emphasized that Ukraine had other options, even though filing an appeal at the Stockholm Court of Arbitration would have taken too much time in the dead of a cold winter. Moroz expressed particu

Thanks to ForeignNotes for this link Debate starts at 13:00 and finishes at 13:30

Source: Kyivpost The Venice Commission has proposed that Ukraine introduce a proportional electoral system with open regional lists, rather than switch to a mixed electoral system. "If we're talking about the introduction of a mixed system, Ukraine has [already] had a negative experience in applying such a system. A mixed system may lead to abuses [at elections]. Thus, the Venice Commission will propose changing the current system to a proportional one, with open regional lists, rather than switching to a mixed system," Venice Commission Secretary Thomas Markert said at committee hearings on the discussion of bills on parliamentary elections in Kyiv on Monday. He said that the text of the bill tabled in parliament by deputies of the coalition (authored by Oleksandr Yefremov, Ihor Sharov, and other MPs) was different from the text that was drafted by the working group set up by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and that was submitted to