With its free press, engaged electorate and thriving civil society, Ukraine is starting to look more and more like a functioning modern European democracy. The weakest link in the chain now appears to be Ukraine’s parliament, where rampant corruption and brutish tactics continue to overshadow the progress being made by the rest of the country More

Last Wednesday the European Union signed a ground-breaking agreement with Ukraine that is expected to give the green light for the country to join the World Trade Organisation, a move that could also pave the way for a comprehensive free trade accord between Kyiv with the EU More

The rising numbers of traffic police dotting Ukraine’s towns and cities has been the subject of heated debate in recent weeks as efforts to clean up the force and reduce accidents on the country’s deadly roads gather pace. Will the new administration be able to score a public victory to bolster the cause of reform, or will the experiment end in stalemate and frustration, as similar attempts did in 2005? More

Ukraine switched to a parliamentary-presidential system in early 2006 following changes to the constitution agreed to at the height of the Orange Revolution. However, after months of political conflict focusing on the constitution, the document is about to come under the microscope once more as part of a reform process that may see the country’s political system changed once more, with power swinging back away from parliament towards the presidency Subscribe

Protests were held in western Ukraine last week over a tough new visa regime introduced by Poland which will make effectively it harder for those living close to the border to continue moving freely between the two countries. The demonstrations come as officials in Kyiv attempt to negotiate a new deal which would ease fears over the new barriers Ukrainians face when travelling in the newly-expanded Schengen zone Subscribe

Last week’s row over the British Council’s operations in regional Russian cities provoked the latest Kremlin outburst against perceived Western arrogance, illustrating yet again both Russia’s historical insecurities and its continued readiness to use foreign enemies as totems in order to galvanise domestic support for the regime Subscribe

Democracies periodically hold elections, but only on occasion do they become special elections which usher in genuine change. Elections associated with a widespread public embrace of the need for change can prove to be revolutionary in their consequences, but only when politicians show the will to follow through on their campaign promises. Yushchenko’s political legacy will now depend on his ability to cooperate with the reform drive of the Tymoshenko government Subscribe

Former Dynamo Kyiv trainer Oleksiy Mikhailichenko was named new national football coach last week, maintaining a stultifying tradition of reliance on Dynamo loyalists who served under Ukraine’s great tactician Valeriy Lobanovskiy. As a result a mere handful of personalities have dominated the top coaching positions in the sport for the past decade, spreading inertia and thwarting the emergence of a new generation of Ukrainian coaching talent Subscribe

Ukraine’s well-documented energy woes are regularly cited as a driving force behind the country’s current rising inflation. An over-reliance on Russian energy supplies is compounded by the unwillingness of politicians to take a leadership role in convincing the social and industrial sectors of their energy profligacy and encourage changes in consumption patterns, which remain largely unchanged since Soviet times Subscribe

Ukraine’s recent economic growth is under threat from dangerously high rates of inflation. Experts agree that this inflationary threat has been growing for a long time and could take years to tackle More

Last Wednesday Ukraine’s new government approved a programme of economic, judicial and political reforms which includes the promise of a corruption-free privatisation programme, something which has been a hobbyhorse for Yulia Tymoshenko since her 2005 premiership and remains a central pillar of her campaign pledge to fight corruption Subscribe

After another year of rollercoaster Ukrainian politics, 2008 began with cautious optimism. The triangle of rapid private consumption, influx of foreign capital and soaring inflation are all key variables which will define Ukraine’s financial stability throughout much of this year, and the banking industry remains dependent on the sustainable balance of these factors Subscribe