"It's easy to scoff at Eurovision. It's gimmicky, kitsch, with substandard singers performing mindless pop. It's a refuge for the never-have-beens and never-will-be's. But the contest actually says a lot about Europe and Europeans, warts and all. For, despite the flag swapping and the bonhomie, and the three-language choruses calling for armies to lay down their guns, the contest has always been petty, provincial, and even mean-spirited. And what could be more European than that? ... Since 2001, New Europe had triumphed with victories from Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Serbia. That has prompted grumblings from some Old Europeans. Veteran broadcaster Terry Wogan, who hosts the Eurovision show every year in Britain, said recently that a new "Iron Curtain" has descended on the contest. "Eurovision was intended to bring us all together but instead it makes it manifestly clear how far apart we all are, " Wogan told Britain's "Daily Telegraph" newspaper this week. He fears that the "eastern stranglehold" might mean Britain (gasp!) will never win the contest again. ... Ultimately, Eurovision is a success because it reveals how different we Europeans think we are, when in reality the opposite is true. The delusion of diversity and the reality of commonality. After all, we're all sitting down watching it together on a Saturday night." (RFE/RL)

Ukraine/Ani Lorak continued to the final round of Eurovision. "we like to think Ukraine has the best shot to take the “Eurovision” crown with Ani Lorak’s catchy pop song borne from club music roots (”Shady Lady”) ." (LA Times)

"Ukraine will comply with all of its commitments envisaged by the protocol on joining the World Trade Organization, President Viktor Yushchenko said in a telephone conversation with WTO Director General Pascal Lamy." (Ukrainian Journal)

 "The Party of Regions will deny support to the WTO bills submitted by the BYUT faction without elaboration and implementation or appropriate measures to adapt Ukraine's agro-industrial complex to WTO conditions, the party MP Viktor Slauta stressed." (NRCU)

With Parliament not functioning, will Ukraine be able to enter into WTO as planned on May 16th? Have all the bills been voted on and passed in Parliament?

"Fitch Ratings revised Ukraine`s outlook to stable from positive, saying the country`s recent strong macroeconomic performance faces growing risks from accelerating inflation and a rising current account deficit, according to Thompson Financial. " (UNIAN)

"Ukraine drifted closer to the bottom of a global competitiveness index for 55 countries this year. According to international mass media, Ukraine`s rating slipped to 54 from 46 last year - beating just Venezuela - according to the index produced by the Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD)." (UNIAN)

"Ukraine's parliament ratified a protocol on joining the World Trade Organisation on Thursday, clearing the final hurdle to membership after more than 14 years of negotiations. A total of 411 members in the 450-seat assembly approved the protocol, signed by President Viktor Yushchenko in February after the WTO said the former Soviet state had met membership conditions. Membership of the WTO takes effect 30 days after ratification." (Reuters)

Update: 5 more laws have to be passed for Ukraine to be able to enter into WTO.

"Addressing the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament in Brussels, Solana said NATO rejected Ukraine's application for a Membership Action Plan during its annual summit this week because the country is not sufficiently mature politically. "Ukraine does not have a political system which is at the level of the aspirations of some [of its] leaders to be part of international organizations," he said. "That has been the response that, in a way, has been given by NATO." Solana said the message sent to Ukraine at the April 2-4 summit in Bucharest was that its leaders must act in a "much more constructive manner within the country." " (bold is mine) (RFE/RL)

"Ukraine’s inflation rate topped 26% in March, propelled by surging food prices and the government’s largesse. Although high food and energy price inflation are global phenomena, Ukraine’s situation is being made worse by budgetary policy. Moreover, the political climate reduces the likelihood of policy changes to meet the inflation challenge. ... Although the government tends to stress that high inflation is the unavoidable outcome of high food and energy prices globally, the authorities are doing their best to delay the impact of import-price inflation. Utility tariffs, for instance, are rising at a high single-digit rate this year. If the full cost of the gas-price hike instituted this year had been passed on, utility price inflation would be well into double digits. Instead, municipal budgets have borne much of the burden--this is a situation that cannot continue indefinitely, particularly as further import price rises are inevitable in 2009. If consumer prices fully reflected the cost of imported energy, inflation would be running even higher. ... As a result, there is no chance of meeting the official inflation target; most likely, price growth will be at or close to double that level." (The Economist)

"The Party of Regions (Regions) should be riding high in Ukrainian polls as opposition parties traditionally have golden opportunities to increase their popularity. Instead, Regions and its leader and former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych have been declining in popularity and are in a crisis. On March 6 Regions lost 6 mayoral elections in eastern Ukraine to local independents and the Yuliya Tymoshenko bloc (BYuT)." (EDM article by Kuzio)

The article reminds me of a broadcast of the show "EpiCenter" where the commentator spoke about the results from local elections and how BYuT was winning in local elections. Though from the way that he reported it, he made it seem as a 'conspiracy' of some sorts. My mom's commentary was "what did they think ByuT was going to do? plant potatoes? they are a political party."

"NATO membership is a not a priority, though, for voters as a whole. Only 0.8 percent of voters in Donetsk (compared with a Ukraine-wide average of 4.4 percent) considered it important, and it was second to last in a list of thirty-four priorities. In Ukraine, as in most countries, foreign affairs is not a high priority for voters, who vote on “bread and butter” issues." (quote from EDM article)

Check out Taras of Ukrainiana's footage from the anti-Nato rally in Kyiv.  

"Double world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko will put his WBO belt on the line when he faces [American] Tony Thompson on July 12 in Hamburg." (Sky News)

"The hryvnia rate fell by 0.5 kopeck in interbank trading on Monday, to 5.0 UAH/USD after falling on Friday. ...  The National Bank of Ukraine did not enter the market.  According to market participants, most of the transactions were concluded at the exchange rate close to 5.0 UAH/USD." (Ukrainian News)

"Let the hryvnia exchange rate appreciate to contain Ukraine`s inflation. Ukraine`s inflation has got out of control. In February, it surged to no less than 22 percent over February 2007, doubling from 11.6 percent in 2006. This inflation crisis is Ukraine`s most urgent economic problem. Unlike in the 1990s, the problem is not the budget, which is close to balance. Instead, the main culprit is the inept exchange rate policy." writes Anders Aslund (UNIAN)

"In March, the consumer prices rose by 3.8%. Ukrainian News learned this from a statement by the State Statistics Committee. In particular, the consumer prices on foods and soft drinks grew by 5.6% in March, the prices of housing and utility services grew by 0.9%, and the health care services grew by 1.6%, the transport tariffs rose by 3.9%. In January-March the inflation rate totaled 9.7%. Compared to March 2007, in March 2008 the inflation rate rose by 26.2%." (Ukrainian News)

"The Ukrainian people sold $129.1 million more in hard currency in March than they bought, while in February they bought $668.2 million more than they sold, according to a statement from the National Bank of Ukraine." (Ukrainian Journal)

"Liquidity measures must be eased for economic growth, NBU says" (Ukrainian Journal)

"Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s group will soon join forces with opposition Regions Party to create a panel in Parliament that would focus on making amendments to the constitution, lawmakers said Monday. The panel, which will be a direct challenge to President Viktor Yushchenko’s own plans for re-writing the constitution, will focus on whether to dramatically increase powers of the prime minister." (Ukrainian Journal)

While "The faction of the Party of Regions at the Verkhovna Rada has elected Anatolii Kinakh as the deputy chairman of the faction for coordination with other parties and NGOs.... Anatolii Kinakh is the leader of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the head of the all-Ukrainian Association of NGOs "People's Majority of Ukraine." The main tasks of faction deputy chairman Kinakh include the realization of public initiatives, accumulation of successful experience of NGOs and political organizations, the consolidation of their influence on the democratic reforms in the society and the organization of civil control over the work of the authorities." (Ukrainian News)

BYuT has yet to announce their candidate for Kyiv Mayor but so far no single candidate from the 'democratic coalition' though some political parties have combined their support for Klitschko.

"As the snap Kyiv mayoral election draws closer, it looks increasingly unlikely that the governing Orange coalition will be able to decide on a single candidate, raising the chances of incumbent Leonid Chernovetskiy of clinging onto office. Meanwhile, the eccentric Kyiv Mayor has continued to focus on attracting voters with promises and one-time payments. The elections of the city mayor and deputies to the Kyiv City Council are scheduled to coincide with the traditional Kyiv Days celebrations on May 25. The registration of candidates started on March 26 and will be closed on April 15. Candidates and their teams will then have just over one month to impress voters and raise their ratings." (Business Ukraine)

"An unseemly squabble within the governing coalition is currently hampering efforts to select a single Orange candidate for the forthcoming Kyiv Mayoral elections []. This lack of co-operation has come as no surprise to anyone who is even vaguely familiar with the goings-on in Ukrainian politics. Rather than representing an ideological split, these divisions within the Orange camp are symptomatic of a well-documented national malaise which seems to prevent Ukraine’s reformist leaders from ever presenting a united front in any but the most desperate of situations. While in opposition, the country’s Orange reformers are always ready to sign pacts and engage in talk of their historic mission, but once in government the appeal of power and the greed of individual politicians appear to take priority over broader national interests and ideological concerns, leaving the voters whose support propelled these self-styled saviours into office feeling cheated by their elected representatives and disillusioned with the democratic process in general." (Business Ukraine) 

"Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) Chairman Arseniy Yatseniuk is hoping that, in the course of two plenary weeks (April 8 - 11 and April 15 - 18), the parliament will adopt and ratify all documents and the protocol required for entry in the World Trade Organization.  President Viktor Yushchenko is proposing ratification of the protocol on Ukraine's accession to the World Trade Organization. Ukraine and the WTO reached membership agreement on February 5." (Ukrinform)

16 miners sustained injuries: "11 got burns, two were wounded, two were poisoned with the gas, and one is undergoing a medical examination." No deaths reported thus far but waiting for results of med. exam and course of treatment results. The explosion took place at "Krasnoarmeiskaya-Zapadnaya coalmine in the Donetsk region in Ukraine at 12.20 on Monday. No fire occurred. 57 miners were working in a close vicinity of the explosion. On the whole, 1560 miners were working in the mine at the time of the explosion. Rescuers continue exploring mineshafts."

"The Russian president spoke about Georgia calmly, but lost his temper on the issue of Ukraine, said a source on the delegation of a NATO member state. Putin told his American colleague that Ukraine was not a proper state but an Eastern European territory, a substantial part of which had been presented to it by Russia. The source said Putin had openly hinted that if Ukraine were admitted to NATO, it would cease to exist as a state. In other words, he threatened to start the procedure for the secession of the Crimea and Ukraine's eastern regions." (RIA Novosti commenting on a story in Kommersant)(Newsru)

And over at Kremlin Inc, Hans reports on the story also in russian press that industrial espionage has been afoot in dealings between Ukraine and Gazprom.   

(деза - deza - abbreviated form of the word meaning disinformation)

"The rustic beauty of Ukraine's famed wooden churches is surpassed only by their capacity for survival. Dotting the countryside from the Carpathian Mountains to Crimea, they have withstood centuries of unforgiving winters. During World War II, Nazi shelling raked the Ukrainian heartland. Under Soviet rule, they became grain silos and warehouses for everything from mattresses to pesticides. Now, in an era when democracy and religion thrive in Ukraine, wooden churches as old as six centuries face ruin at the hands of the unlikeliest of enemies—the priests and parishioners who became their guardians and, unaware of their historical significance, began "improving" them. For Salyuk, president of the non-profit Lviv Foundation for the Preservation of Architectural and Historical Monuments, it's tantamount to blasphemy. Wooden churches are icons of Ukrainian architecture, he and other preservationists say, as synonymous with the country's cultural heritage as painted Easter eggs and borscht ... As crestfallen as Salyuk was when he walked up to Sytykhiv's only church, he's seen worse. Oblivious to their churches' architectural and cultural significance, priests and parishioners in other villages have cocooned the structures in metal plating or, in some cases, burned them down to build brick or stone replacements. ... Indifference toward cultural and historical treasures isn't confined to wooden churches, Dmytrukh says. He has visited homes throughout the Lviv countryside in which wooden icons—religious paintings sometimes hundreds of years old and the focal point of Ukrainian church interiors—are being used as attic doors, shelves or patches to fix holes." (Chicago Tribune) (Transitions Online) (ICOMOS 2001 report) (ukr Wooden Churches in Ukraine lots of photos)

If anyone has an opportunity to visit Ukraine, check out any neighboring wooden churches as they are vanishing. And I wonder if someone could start a tv program in Ukraine like "Cash in the Attic"?

"A U.S. judge ordered a former Ukrainian prime minister on Friday to pay nearly $19.5 million to a Ukrainian businessman who said the politician demanded cash and half ownership of his firm in exchange for favored treatment.

Pavlo Lazarenko, who served as Ukraine's prime minister from 1996 to 1997, was convicted in U.S. federal court in 2004 of using his position to extort millions of dollars from his country and then launder it through California banks. The indictment in the complicated and slow-moving case came down in 2000. During the trial businessman Peter Kiritchenko [a former Soviet trade official who was a Communist Party member] testified that he gave Lazarenko tens of millions of dollars and ownership of half of a company to help expand his firm. "I agreed to give him 50 percent of the profit and 50 percent of the company. I didn't see any other way to develop the company," Kiritchenko testified in 2004. He later asked for a court order for Lazarenko to give back the money, and on Friday U.S. District Judge Martin Jenkins agreed the former prime minister should return it." [add. to story is mine](Reuters)

Now is the true test of Ukraine's leadership and it's commitment to Euro-Atlantic intergration. The deadline has been set, the clock is ticking and there is only six months within which to indicate beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ukraine has been wrongly defined by its critics and detractors. It has been charged that the current politicians in power have been learning on the job. Well, now is the time to exhibit mastery or return back to the 'field'. Ready, set, go.

Registered in Parliament is the legislation put forward by Pres. Yushchenko to ratify WTO. It was submitted April 2nd.

In danger of techincal default and Cabinet Ministers postponed financial plan until next week. According to an adviser (orig. link to story) to the head of Naftohaz, Naftohaz does have the money to pay for the gas and only owes 2 months to RosUkrEnergo (not to RU and not to Gazprom.) He stated that Naftohaz can't pay for the gas because RosUkrEnergo has not given over financial documents and that this 'sabotage' is supported by Moscow.

Yep, talking about Ukraine being granted Membership Action Plan. Bush criticized for being true to himself and pleading for eastern expansion. There were countries in support of Ukraine being granted MAP but imo little hope that France or Germany will reverse their positions, at this point.

Consoling myself by reading the following "Ukrainian Membership in Nato: Benefits, Costs, Misconceptions and Urban Legends" and dreaming of Berlin, next year. And a blast from the past, "Following the 2004 elections, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer stated that “Our overriding goal – to assist Ukraine to realize its Euro-Atlantic aspirations and to promote stability in the region – remains unchanged”." Hmm, funny that he said something similar just a few days ago, and yet here it is four years later and no change in Nato.

Nothing Ukraine seems to be doing recently has warranted praise from its eastern neighbor. Not diversification in its suppliers of nuclear fuel (RIA Novosti, PA Tribune Review), nor honoring 1932-33 famine victims (Guardian, UNIAN, Observer) and most certainly not its Nato aspirations. (UNIAN, UNIAN)

But most distressing for me, is the silence regarding gas negotiations. Is "no news, good news"??? "Naftogaz Ukrainy and Gazprom plan to resume their gas talks in Moscow on April 3. “Our delegation will leave for Moscow tomorrow for further talks,” Naftogaz Ukrainy chief spokesman Valentin Zemlyansky said on Wednesday. He said Naftogaz Ukrainy Board Chairman Oleg Dubina was having consultations with the government to specify the Ukrainian delegation’s position. It was reported earlier that the next round of talks between the two companies had been held in Moscow on March 31 and April 1, but no details were disclosed." (Itar Tass)

And oh yeah, Naftohaz is bankrupt.  (not morally, silly... financially ;)