Biometric Passports and ID Cards - Ukraine

Having finally got around to the core issue of Stage 1 relating to the road map on Visa-free travel as per the document from the EU, the RADA has passed the necessary laws for biometric passports and identified the company that will produce them. Just how technically good the new law is remains to be […]

Are the words of the prophets written on the subway walls?

As is well known to all EU citizens (and some other nationalities), they do not need a Visa to enter Ukraine for up to 90 days in a 180 day period.  It has been this was since 2005/6 for most. As is well known to all Ukrainians, the reciprocal approach has not yet been delivered, […]

Poland and Ukraine scrap Long Term Visa fees

Sometime during the autumn, giving time for the bureaucrats to do what bureaucrats do within the nations of Poland and Ukraine, the fees for long term Visas for citizens of both nations visiting the other will be abolished. That agreement was reached between Poland and Ukraine on 13th June, and thus Poland joins Latvia, Lithuania […]

The unpopularity race – Politics in Ukraine

When all major political parties in Ukraine manage to gain 18% or less individually in the straw polls of public opinion regardless of what provocative or pacifying actions they make take in an attempt to either motivate or buy off the voting public, the one clear result opinion polls show is that the Ukrainian public […]

Ukrainian/Russian/Belorussian border demarcation begins

The official land demarcation of the sovereign nations of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus has eventually begun. The first post hammered into the ground at Sinkovsky village in the Ukrainian Oblast of  Chernihiv at the exact spot where Ukraine, Russia and Belarus all meet. And? Well, and having official marked Ukrainian borders with Moldova, and the […]

Eastern European Partnership meeting 29/30 September

Well today over the border in Warsaw the Eastern European Partnership meeting takes place between the EU representatives and the six nations within the EaP. So off have trotted the EU high level representatives, suitably encouraged by Baroness Ashton in her warm up speech.  Quite.  Nothing new in that lot or the agenda. Anyway, I […]

Progress in Moscow when all eyes are on the UN

Over the last week, my email and twitter have been absolutely carpet bombed by press statements and tweets from various  official press centres and the enlightened in equal measure far in excess of the usual information overload. The reason of course was the gathering at the UN.  Everybody who is a political anybody has to […]

Love thy neighbour - Ukraine/Turkey

Turkey is major regional player in this neck of the woods. Not only does it have a massive military capability and by far the strongest navy in he Black Sea region, it is the only Muslim NATO member and an established democracy as far as free and fair elections are concerned. It also happens to […]