Ukraine Today - An Independent Political Review

Ukraine will hold its next presidential elections commencing October 25, 2009. Ukraine parliament has made a strategic move by determining the date for the next Presidential election, five years on from the commencement of the 2004 presidential election with the date for the second round ballot yet to be announced. Viktor Yuschenko, Ukraine's incumbent President, in a desperate attempt to cling on to power and gain an additional three months in office has vowed to challenge the decison of the Parliament in Ukraine's Constitutional Court, the very court that played centre stage in the 2007 Constitutional crisis when Yuschenko dismissed Ukraine's parliament throwing the Country into seven months of political turmoil and civil unrest. It's a question of interpretation, as to what is the term of office of the President may need to be answered by the Constitutional Court. Is the five year Presidential term a full five years down to the day or does it only refer to...

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...

Russia Today exposes some of the word games and geo political sterotypes

Public support for Ukraine's President, Victor Yushchenko, according to recent public opinion polls published by Kyiv Post has dropped to a low 2.9% in the wake of his attempt to destabilize Ukraine's governing coalition and its economy. His rival Viktor Yanukovich, leader of the opposition, leads the polls with 30% support followed by Yulia Tymoshenko on 19%. Had fresh elections been held in December 2008 Yushchenko's political party Our Ukraine would have fallen below the 3% threshold barrier and lost parliamentary representation Yushchenko's rating is now the lowest support shown for a head of state in the world. His position is untenable and has reached the point where he has become a serious liability not an asset. Yushchenko's term of office expires this year with the expectation that presidential elections will be brought forward rather then wait until December when they are due.