Inside News on Odessa and Ukraine
Tempted as I am to speculate on the formation of the new Cabinet of Ministers in the forthcoming new parliament, the current Cabinet resigning en masse yesterday as required by law, thus allowing for a new Cabinet and reshuffle - I won’t - yet. Instead I will ease my way back into writing here with […]
Well, well, well! No - not three holes in the ground filled with water, but rather a sarcastic acknowledgement that Odessa City Hall has finally got around to creating a new website - Invest in Odessa. I deliberately use the word “finally”, as way back in autumn 2007 when I first met Mikhail Freidlin, he was […]
No, no, no. Whilst we are still waiting for an eventual final election count for all constituency seats and then a decision by the opposition whether to accept the elections results or not some 8 days after polling day, that is not what I am referring to - though it would make a cynical tweet […]
Remember, remember the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot - well actually at 10 am today the opposition parties in Ukraine have called for protests over the elections so maybe we’ll have a Ukrainian 5th of November to remember - or maybe not. Anyway, way back in April 2012, Odessa came up with a […]
“Who’s in and who’s out” is a conversation many embassy staff have in embassies around the world from time to time relating to the nations to which they are posted and the political personalities of that nation. It may sound a little childish to play such games, and indeed it may not always turn out […]
Odessa has become, at last, distinctly autumnal. +15, cloudy and wet today to be exact. We don’t get that many wet days to be honest, but what is there to do in a seaside city when the heat of summer has gone and weather such as today casts its dreary cloak? Fortunately, the city is […]
A very brief post today as my itinerary prevents having time to write anything lengthy. Coinciding with the first ever occurrence of the far-right, openly anti- Russia, anti-EU, pro NATO and anti-Semitic Svoboda party winning seats in the RADA, the Jews of Ukraine have voted Ihor Kolomoisky as President of the United Jewish Community of […]
Whilst waiting for the dust to settle from yesterday’s elections, here is an interesting survey from the World Economic Forum relating to “The Gender Gap.” When hovering the mouse over nations, it appears Ukraine seems to do rather well in comparison to EU CEE nations and a few EU Mediterranean nations as well. A bit […]
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 […]
Bloggers against Corruption - That seems fairly straight to the point as far as website titles go. It is the latest civil society platform for bloggers to bring to the attention of others, corruption great and small - be it local, regional or national in Ukraine. The platform has been created by the Institute of […]