Inside News on Odessa and Ukraine
It is no secret to those who read this blog that I have on several occasions during this parliamentary election period, been asked to speak with LTOs (long term observers) from several international monitoring organisations with people in Odessa. Whilst large sections of recent blog posts cover much of what has been said, lack of […]
The Venice Commission, when looking at the proposed new law on the Public Prosecutors Office of Ukraine, has in summary, made it clear that whilst the new law goes a long way to improving matters and generally brings Ukraine into EU norms (with the need for some clarifications in the text - although not that […]
Unraveling before it’s begun? The United Opposition has been trying desperately to get UDAR, as of 18th October polling ahead of them, to sign a coalition agreement of opposition forces prior to the elections. It has now officially failed to do so. To be fair to UDAR, there really is no rush to sign coalition […]
No, no, no. UDAR are not about to join the United Opposition. They are very much enjoying the 3rd choice position and have now overtaken the United Opposition in the opinion polls just as I suggested they would. Simply they have much more to lose rather than to gain by joining the United Opposition, as […]
I have had several messages recently asking me why, in my opinion, the United Opposition electioneering strategy is as dire as I have stated it is. Fair point - Despite stating numerous times that it is sadly dismal/dire/ineffective (take your pick I have used all those words and more) I have not really explained in […]
By 289 votes, the RADA passed on its first reading, a bill that criminalises the promotion of homosexuality. I have written about it before in some detail. The accompanying note explaining this law when it was submitted was to combat HIV. Complete tosh of course. As the UN reports document, HIV transmission in Ukraine has […]
Well the Georgian people have spoken and President Saakashvili’s party are now in the minority. I am neither surprised given the grievous and disgusting material to emerge from a Georgian prison, nor sorry status quo in Georgia has been broken. Whilst that may - or may not - prove disastrous for Georgia in the short […]
A very short post today relating to the UDAR/Klitschko rally in Odessa two days ago. Quite simply a lesson for the United Opposition when it came to engagement with the crowd, which was far bigger than that which the Yatseniuk/United Opposition managed to gather (although how much of that is “hero worship” of a Ukrainian […]
There have been some rather presumptuous remarks about the Ukrainian elections by people who should probably know better. Firstly, the ICES observers have already stated that thus far, the Ukrainian election campaigns have been acceptable and generally meet the standards necessary - whilst at the same time stating those in Georgia have already failed to […]