Ukraine Today - An Independent Political Review

UKRAINE AND GEORGIA IN NATO NOT SEEN TO BE IN U.S. INTEREST Former U.S. ambassador to Moscow Jack Matlock said on Tuesday By Susan Cornwell, Reuters, Washington, Tuesday, September 16, 2008 WASHINGTON, D.C. - NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine is not in Washington's or the alliance's interest, former U.S. ambassador to Moscow Jack Matlock said on Tuesday as he and other ex-U.S. envoys decried the poor state of ties with Russia. At a gathering of five former U.S. and Russian ambassadors, Matlock, the last U.S. envoy to the Soviet Union, questioned a central tenet of Bush administration policy: its firm support for the NATO membership bids of both Georgia and Ukraine. Some European countries have doubts about the policy, and some U.S. analysts have blamed it for helping provoke the brief war last month between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Since Russian troops crushed Georgian forces in that conflict, U.S. ties with Moscow have plummeted. ...

Russian armour in South Ossetia: who started the war? In a potentially significant swing of expert Western opinion, a leading British think tank has urged that Nato membership should not be granted to Georgia or Ukraine "The policy of Nato enlargement now would be a strategic error," said Dr John Chipman, Director General of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). "There is no case for accelerating membership for Georgia and Ukraine. There is a strong case for a pause," he said in remarks introducing the IISS's annual review of world affairs, the Strategic Survey. The IISS intervention shows that following the war in Georgia, a debate is growing about whether a confrontational approach to Russia is the best one. The IISS is critical of Georgia's actions during the conflict The IISS is highly critical of Georgian actions - in contrast to the support Georgia has received from the US and some European countries, notably Britain. Naturally, if ...

Ukraine Radio 29-01-2008 18:04 Lytvyn's bloc faction in parliament supports idea of holding referendum on Ukraine's accession to NATO This was stated by the bloc's MP Mykhailo Syrota while on a trip to Donetsk. He noted that in case such a referendum is held his political force will support Ukraine's neutrality. Mr. Syrota also believes that the Party of Regions and the president have the same position on Ukraine's NATO membership, which is confirmed by the party member Rayisa Bohatyriova's joining the president's team as the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.

Reports in the media are speculating that the September parliamentary elections may well end up becoming a referendum on Ukraine reverting to a presidential dictatorship or retaining a system parliamentary democracy. Ukraine's president Viktor Yushchenko wants to regain power the power that he lost when Ukraine opted for a parliamentary democracy as opposed to a presidential system. Yushchenko has claimed that the constitutional changes that were adopted in 2004 were done so in haste. He has conveniently ignored that fact that there was two years discussion on proposed changes to Ukraine's constitution and that the transition from a presidential dictatorship to a parliamentary democracy has seen Ukraine begin to fall in line with all other European states. All of which are parliamentary democracies With just over 10 weeks until the September poll, comments in the media indicate that Yushchenko may call a snap referendum on the question of constitutional reform. The president ha...

US deploys its unipolar defence policy showing contempt of other European Countries and members of NATO The Day has published a very interesting and tell tail interview with US Ambassador to Ukraine, William Taylor. (Copy published below) In what the US claims to be a military installation that is designed to protect both Europe and the US you would think that the US would have consulted and sought the approval of the EU member stats and as a minimum the membership of NATO. It seams that the US has decided to pursue its own agenda and snub the opinion of NATO and the European Union. When asked if the United States was talking to the European Union and other member states the US ambassador replied " I have not heard of conversations with the European Union, primarily because this is not within the competence of the European Union. This question is clearly within the competence of individual member states. When asked about consensus with the members states who are part of NATO and i...

Survey: 73.4% of Ukrainians support the idea of referendum on Ukraine's entry into NATO Read it in Russian Source: Regnum Sept 9-17 2006 the Center for Sociological Studies "Sofia" asked 2,010 people all over Ukraine, in the Crimea, Kiev and Sevastopol (a total of 128 settlements) about their attitude to the prospect of Ukraine's entry into NATO. They in the center have told REGNUM that 47.1% say that Ukraine should integrate with Russia and the CIS, 24.2% that Ukraine should rely on its own resources and should strengthen its independence and 20.5% that Ukraine should integrate into the West. The people have turned out to have a differentiated notion of the "West": when saying "partner for cooperation" most of them mean Europe (the EU), and much fewer – the US. This circumstance explains the difference in their attitudes to the prospects of European and North-Atlantic integration. 55.8% support EU integration, while over 2/3 (68.8%) say that Ukra...

The BBC continues to display an inherent bias in its reporting on Ukraine. Prior to the "Orange revolution I recall reports from the Kyiv office that the then Ukrainian Government were scrambling broadcast of the BBC in order to prevent access to news. What was strange about this report is that I was watching the BBC at the time of these allegations and had been watching the BBC for the preceding three days as I worked from home. I was in Ukraine at the time. Ukraine's President, Viktor Yushchenko, statement that Ukraine's Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovych's belief that public opinion opposed the move was "wrong" certainly must be questioned. Public polling has shown consistently that a majority of Ukrainians do not support or are opposed to Ukraine joining NATO. Ukraine's membership of NATO featured prominently during the march 2006 election campaign with most parties and candidates opposed to Ukraine joining NATO. Even amongst supporters of Our Ukraine ...

Ukrainian Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovych, shafts Ukraine President's NATO ambitions. "NATO Membership is not Ukraine's main stategic priority". Opinion polls show that most Ukrainian's oppose NATO membership with support hovering between 12% to 25%. Viktor Yanukovych told senior officials that his coalition government would continue reforms meant to bring it closer to the rest of Europe. Ukraine Says NATO Membership on Hold By CONSTANT BRAND, Associated Press Writer 9:51 AM PDT, September 14, 2006 Source: LATimes.com BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych told NATO on Thursday that he was putting moves toward membership in the alliance on hold, but he said the former Soviet republic still wanted to join the European Union. "Joining NATO is a matter of time. Currently, there is still no support for this issue in the Ukrainian society," Yanukovych said after talks at NATO headquarters. "The support has decreased over the pa...

Original Story To January 26 (16th day of signature collection), 15 initiative groups of electoral coalition “Ne Tak!” have collected more than 100,000 signatures against Ukraine’s entrance to NATO. On January 25, head of all-Ukrainian movement “Women for future” (part of “Ne Tak!”) Valentina Dovzhenko met with Crimean students and presented the coalition to them, informs a REGNUM correspondent. She explained the meaning of the coalition name — “Ne Tak!” (“Not this way” – contrary to the “TAK!” coalition led by President Yushchenko). She said that lots of things in Ukraine are conducted in the wrong way. She told that only 2 million hectares have been sowed this year, instead of previous 8 million, and that is wrong. Regular pensions have been raised by 12%, but pensions to the ministers in 6.7 or even 8 times, and that is wrong. The GDP rate increase lowered 5 times without any reasons, production capacity lowered 4 times, light industry, mechanical engineering transportation, capital...