Inside News on Odessa and Ukraine
Yesterday I wrote this stating that it was “interesting” Ukraine was attempting to force transparency in the extraction industries - a place from where the oligarchy wealth comes, amongst others. It is interesting because it attempts to force some transparency into what and how much is extracted, and thus will give indications of what is […]
On 2nd January 2012, I wrote this, stating that the Hryvnia needed to devalue to between UAH 10 or UAH 11 to US$ 1 by mid 2013. Since then I wrote this, on 1st July 2012 stating it would need to devalue to UAH 9 to US$1 by the end of 2012 and this on […]
What do bananas, tanks, Ukraine and Sudan have in common? Actually nothing, but I attempt to make a case that they should have something in common - binding international treaties. Anmesty International have just produced a report in which Ukraine is identified as a sinner for supplying at least 75 T72M1 (and many more T54/55’s) […]
There is a possibility that the Ukrainian budget will not be met already. The reason as always is gas and Russia. It is already acknowledged by the government themselves that the budget is ambitious when it comes to the budget cutting. Now the authorities state that they will cope in 2012 and cite the budget […]
Well with all the noise amongst the chattering classes and political commentators regarding the EU and Ukraine and the stuttering progress towards the DCFTA and AA, very little attention has been given to the signing of the CIS FTA by Ukraine which I mentioned a long time ago (October 2011) in a post relating to […]
It seems to be going horribly wrong for Ukraine regarding gas supplies from Russia. Russia and Turkey have reached agreement over the South Stream pipeline traveling through Turkish waters, a matter that was the only thing preventing its going ahead. With Nord Stream on line already, pumping Russian gas directly to Germany and bypassing Ukraine, […]
On the evening of the EU/Ukraine summit which has been consistently billed with more expectations than were ever possible since events relating to Ms Tymoshenko charged the dynamics of the EU/Ukrainian relationship, I was not in the slightest bit keen to discover the outcome in a timely way. In fact I went out to dinner […]
As many of you dear readers will know, Irina Akimova is a woman I place head and shoulders above every other politician and political advisor in Ukraine from anywhere across the political spectrum. For me, she is the best and most sensible, academically enlightened voice in a position of influence that Ukraine possess. She is […]
Well the death of the Nabucco pipeline seems to have finally arrived as I (and many others) have predicted years ago. It was, of course, doomed to failure from the outset, not because of the idea or reasoning behind it both of which are sound, but because of the parties involved and the geopolitics. Unsurprisingly, […]