This Week
KREMLIN ACID TEST FOR ORANGE UNITY
This month President Yushchenko and Prime Minister Tymoshenko will travel separately to Moscow for energy talks, with Russia threatening more cut-offs and price hikes if Ukraine dares follow through on threats to cut murky middlemen out of the trade and raise transit tariffs. The outcome of the 2009 presidential campaign may hinge on whether Ukraine’s two rival Orange leaders can put aside their energy policy differences and maintain a united front More
PROXY WAR OVER PRIVATISATION CHIEF
Valentyna Semenyuk appeared to be heading out of office last week following a move by the new government to replace her as head of the State Property Fund with a loyalist committed to the ambitious Tymoshenko privatisation programme. However, Semenyuk received a reprieve in the form of a Presidential decree as Viktor Yushchenko moved to reassert his authority over his erstwhile Orange ally as the power struggle between the two entered a new phase More
ITALY’S INTESA SANPAOLO TO BUY PRAVEX BANK FOR EUR 504 MILLION
Intesa Sanpaolo, an Italian banking group, announced last week that it had agreed to pay EUR 504 million for 100% of Pravex Bank, the Ukrainian bank controlled by the family of Kyiv Mayor Leonid Chernovetskiy. The deal is expected to be finalised in the coming months following approval by the Italian and Ukrainian authorities More
UKRAINE’S OUTSTANDING OPIC DEBT: A BARRIER TO FOREIGN INVESTMENT
Amid all the fanfare that has accompanied the signing of a protocol which will bring Ukraine WTO membership, it is worth noting that a disagreement over a relatively small amount of money has made it impossible for Ukraine to enjoy the benefits of an obscure but extremely important agency of the United States government, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) More
News KREMLIN ACID TEST FOR ORANGE UNITYThis month President Yushchenko and Prime Minister Tymoshenko will travel separately to Moscow for energy talks, with Russia threatening more cut-offs and price hikes if Ukraine dares follow through on threats to cut murky middlemen out of the trade and raise transit tariffs. The outcome of the 2009 presidential campaign may hinge on whether Ukraine’s two rival Orange leaders can put aside their energy policy differences and maintain a united front More PROXY WAR OVER PRIVATISATION CHIEFValentyna Semenyuk appeared to be heading out of office last week following a move by the new government to replace her as head of the State Property Fund with a loyalist committed to the ambitious Tymoshenko privatisation programme. However, Semenyuk received a reprieve in the form of a Presidential decree as Viktor Yushchenko moved to reassert his authority over his erstwhile Orange ally as the power struggle between the two entered a new phase More MAKING MOVIES IN UKRAINEUkraine’s film industry all but collapsed after independence but the recent improvement in the political and economic climate has led to a relative boom in the industry over the last few years and Ukraine is now emerging as a unique and inexpensive, place to make movies Subscribe NEW US PRESIDENT, NO SURPRISESWhoever takes George Bush’s place in the White House following the US presidential elections later this year, the odds are that they will continue to build ever-closer relations with Ukraine. Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama have all visited the country and each has shown personal interest in strengthening US-Ukrainian engagement Subscribe TIME FOR BUILDING NOT BUREAUCRACY AS UEFA ISSUES EURO 2012 YELLOW CARDUkraine received a yellow card from UEFA in late January over the slow progress in preparing the country ahead of Euro 2012, with a growing number of rivals lining up to replace Ukraine as host nation. The next six months will be crucial in determining whether Kyiv officials can cut through the bureaucracy, with news of a solution to the Olympic Stadium crisis offering a glimmer of hope in an otherwise depressing situation Subscribe GAS WARS: TYMOSHENKO STRIKES BACKOn 1 February, the National Security and Defence Council adopted a plan to revoke the contracts of gas intermediary companies RosUkrEnergo and UkrGazEnergo. This development marks the beginning of Tymoshenko’s wide-scale plan to overhaul energy relations between Kyiv and Moscow Subscribe RUSSIAN BYPASS PLAN FACES SEVERE REALITY CHECKThe Odessa-Brody pipeline made the news again recently as yet another project to fill it with crude bound for central European refineries was brought forward at Davos. Given new-found political momentum and idling refineries, at first glance it seems like a good idea. But oil is running through the pipeline now and the question remains: “Who could refine it anyway?” Subscribe ITALY’S INTESA SANPAOLO TO BUY PRAVEX BANK FOR EUR 504 MILLIONIntesa Sanpaolo, an Italian banking group, announced last week that it had agreed to pay EUR 504 million for 100% of Pravex Bank, the Ukrainian bank controlled by the family of Kyiv Mayor Leonid Chernovetskiy. The deal is expected to be finalised in the coming months following approval by the Italian and Ukrainian authorities More UKRAINE’S OUTSTANDING OPIC DEBT: A BARRIER TO FOREIGN INVESTMENTAmid all the fanfare that has accompanied the signing of a protocol which will bring Ukraine WTO membership, it is worth noting that a disagreement over a relatively small amount of money has made it impossible for Ukraine to enjoy the benefits of an obscure but extremely important agency of the United States government, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) More |
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