· June, 2007

Stories about Ukraine from June, 2007

Ukraine: A Spanish Embassy Ordeal

In an ideal world, there'd be no need for travelers to waste their time and money obtaining visas: buying a plane ticket and booking a hotel room would suffice. Tanya Kremen, a Ukrainian journalist, studies Spanish but feels that a plane ticket to Latin America costs too much. So she decided to go to Spain. She had a valid visa - unlike the two of her friends who wanted to go along. What follows is the story of their frustrating visit to the Spanish Embassy in Kyiv, posted by Tanya on her blog at Korrespondent.net.

29 June 2007

Ukraine: Kyiv Traffic Jam

Olechko gets stuck in traffic in Kyiv and discusses possible reasons for the jam with her cab driver: “[…] end of year graduation, Rada’s last meeting for the year, end...

28 June 2007

Romania: Economic Relations With Neighbors

Romerican writes about the prospects of Romania's economic relations with its neighbors: “Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Ukraine all represent logical markets for exporting Romanian-made products and Romanian-performed services sold under...

22 June 2007

Ukraine: Kurkov's Novel

Music and Life – Everywhere! writes about “The President's Last Love” by Andrey Kurkov: “unfortunately, of course, surreal in Ukraine is probably real.”

20 June 2007

Ukraine: Want an “A”? Pay $30!

When Ukrainian news site Korrespondent.net reported last week that Kyiv street cleaners would be receiving $400 a month beginning this June, a number of readers confessed that they were earning less working as college lecturers or medical doctors. How some skilled Ukrainians manage to survive on their meager salaries was highlighted five days later, when Korrespondent.net ran a piece about a college lecturer who had told her students they were to pay her to pass their exams. To the readers who have commented on the story, corruption at Ukrainian colleges appears to be a familiar subject: hardly anyone was shocked by the lecturer's crime, but many found it surprising that the woman was charging very little.

17 June 2007

Ukraine: Kyiv Street Cleaners Get a Raise

Kyiv street cleaners - all 6,000 of them - will be getting $400 a month from now on. This raise, city administration officials hope, will help hire 3,500 more people needed to keep the Ukrainian capital tidy. Judging by a discussion that erupted after the Ukrainian news website Korrespondent.net ran an item on this salary increase initiative, Kyiv's laborer corps might soon become overstaffed - and many of the new recruits are likely to be overqualified for the humble yet arduous work of a street cleaner.

11 June 2007

Ukraine: Economy

Orange Ukraine writes about the problems and successes of Ukraine's economy: “Furthermore, as much progress as has been made, some sectors of the economy are still sadly backwards. The prime...

11 June 2007