An attempt to end vote buying?

Ever since I have been in Ukraine, and undoubtedly before that, the buying of votes in local, regional and national elections has been the norm. The same can be said for “protesters” at political rallies.  A large proportion are paid to be there to swell the numbers for the on-looking media more often than not. […]

“United Opposition” election manifesto launched

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Well somewhat surprisingly, the “united opposition” parties of Ukraine (which does not include all opposition parties in Ukraine) has launched its manifesto for the forthcoming parliamentary elections in October. I say surprisingly, as generally there is very little said by political parties in Ukraine about proposed policy as politics normally revolves around personality here. Manifesto/policy […]

Ukrainian opposition rally in Kyiv - A flop

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For some months now I have been somewhat encouraged by the Ukrainian opposition political parties when looking at the opinion polls.  Not that they are certain to win the parliamentary elections looking at the polling figures, far from it.  It will be a close run thing as things stand today. What has been encouraging is […]

Should there be limits on free speech? Odessa’s Art TV

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In a democracy or anything claiming to be a democracy, should there be a limit on free speech? In this article, Mykola Tomenko, Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian parliament, and probably the best leader of Ms Tymoshenko’s party it will unfortunately never have, takes a very robust swipe at Art TV for fueling “ethnic hatred” and […]

Yatseniuk speaks in Brussels

Well it is no secret that I consider Ukraine will be stuck in a rut until Yanukovych, Tymoshenko and the other (in)famous political personalities which seeped from the Kuchma government into power are consigned to the history bin of Ukrainian politics. I have said any future worthy of getting even slightly enthusiastic about will come […]

Invitations and refusals - President and opposition

Two days ago saw the conclusion of the latest Council of Europe (PACE) meeting and amongst many statements made about many nations, Ukraine was one. The Council of Europe statement was, as you would expect, critical of Ukraine and also the current situation with Ms Tymoshenko and her past colleagues. Now Ukraine has given assurances behind […]

Something a bit fishy within the (almost) united opposition

There is something a bit fishy going on between Yulia Tymoshenko’s BYuT and Arseniy Yatseniuk’s Front for Change political parties. It is called COD. That would be COD as is Committee to Oppose Dictatorship rather than the fish that swims in the sea. However you will recall this post of mine  from a month ago […]

Batkivshchyna Party almost pennyless?

Now it may or may not be a blow to the Batkivshchyna party to have Ms Tymoshenko in jail, time will tell. After all a martyr at the next elections may be the only thing that makes them more popular than the current government.  In an opinion poll I saw last week Ms Tymoshenko’s party […]