· December, 2006

Stories about Ukraine from December, 2006

Russia, Belarus: “Gazilla”

  30 December 2006

There's a distinct sense of deja vu this New Year's Eve: Gazprom, Russia's largest (and state-controlled) company and the world's biggest extractor of natural gas, is in the spotlight again, both locally (due to an ambitious and controversial construction project in St. Petersburg) and internationally (due to a dispute over...

Ukraine: Ruslana Against Human Trafficking

  27 December 2006

The Natashas – “a blog for those interested in fighting the scourge of human trafficking of women and men, girls and boys, especially for purposes of sexual exploitation” – posts a link to an anti-human trafficking video by Ukrainian pop singer and PM Ruslana.

Ukraine, Poland: Traffic Jam

  25 December 2006

Abdymok writes about a neglected story of “a 20 kilometer-long line of cars, buses, and trucks trying to make it back to ukraine before the new year . . . polish border guards with machine guns. eye witnesses say little kids are sick and dying. they say the crossing zone...

Ukraine: Chernobyl Rumors

  20 December 2006

MoldovAnn writes about the most recent Chernobyl scare: “One guy had a chance to check the news on the internet before dinner, and read a report that a wall on the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant had collapsed, releasing a bunch of radioactive dust into the air. The report advised to...

Ukraine: “Return of Frankenstein?”

  20 December 2006

Foreign Notes documents yet another step on Ukraine's path back to the pre-Orange Revolution past: “If the bill is approved it will enable the pre-OR guys in the CEC, including its chairman Serhiy Kivalov [now a PoR VR deputy,] and the other cheats to return.”

Ukraine: Brezhnev's 100th Birthday

  19 December 2006

Carpetblogger marks Leonid Brezhnev's 100th birthday with a Brezhnev joke: “Stalin, Krushchev and Brezhnev were riding on a train. The train comes to a halt in the middle of nowhere. Stalin yells out: ‘kill the engineer!’ Khrushchev calls out: ‘rehabilitate the engineer!’ Brezhnev says: ‘pull down the window shades and...

Ukraine: Cheating Your Gas Meter

  15 December 2006

Foreign Notes writes about the war raging in the Kyiv City Council over the new communal services tariffs – and lists ways to cheat your gas meter and reduce your gas bill: “…connection of a vacuum cleaners to the gas faucet to make the meter go ‘in reverse’, attaching spigots...

Ukraine: Car Stats and Driving

  14 December 2006

Michelle Knisley writes about driving habits of Ukrainian drivers. Petro of Petro's Jotter provides this info in a comment: “Ukrainians are registering 35,000 cars per month […]. 33% of those are in Kyiv and 30 days in an avg month yields, incredibly, 385 cars registered in Kyiv each day. This...

Ukraine: Baby-Trafficking

  14 December 2006

Michelle Knisley writes about yet another horrible case of healthy newborns being stolen from the mothers after delivery in Kharkiv: “In a culture where everything can be bought for a price, it seems as if children are paying the ultimate price.”

Ukraine: WWII

  13 December 2006

Ukraine List posts “four perspectives on World War II (The Great Patriotic War) from Ukraine. One is from a French priest, another is from a film director, yet another is from a cave explorer, and the last is of an amateur archaeologist.”

Ukraine: Waiting For Election?

  13 December 2006

LEvko of Foreign Notes believes that Ukraine's president Victor Yushchenko “is strengthening a team around himself in anticipation of early [parliamentary] re-elections next year.”

Ukraine: Kyiv's Mayor

  11 December 2006

Ukrainiana writes about Kyiv's new mayor: “If true, that would make Chernovetsky and Yanukovych two of a kind. The “Better Living Today” they promised turned out to be a “Big Lying Tease.” Both did a great job of teasing pensioners for personal gain: Yanukovych — with an impermanent pension increment;...