Ukraine: Tymoshenko's Budget

Foreign Notes reports on the article in a Ukrainian daily that accuses Yulia Tymoshenko of going against her election promises and approving the 2008 budget that includes “a multimillion INCREASE in the money provided for the maintenance of deputies, kabmin ‘big-knobs’, and the President and his secretariat.”

Ukraine: Politics Update

LEvko of Foreign Notes thinks that president Yushchenko – like Margaret Thatcher before him – should get himself a “voice coach.”

Ukraine: House on Anthrax

Ukrainiana writes about a house being built on the mass burial site for victims of a 19th-century anthrax epidemics in Kyiv.

Ukraine: Hotels

Our Man in Gdansk suspects there's a difference between Kyiv hotels and those outside Ukraine's capital.

The Baltics: “Borderlands (V)”

There's something to grieve and much to celebrate when the Baltic states join the Schengen, writes Marginalia.

Belarus, Russia: $1.5-Billion Loan

TOL's Belarus writes about the possible reasons behind Russia's $1.5-billion loan to Belarus.

Ukraine: Yanukovych Privatizes State Residence

Ukrainiana translates a video in which Victor Yanukovych is threatening to sue a journalist for questions on murky privatization deal.

Ukraine: Yulia Tymoshenko and Coal Miners

Yulia Tymoshenko returned as Ukraine's prime minister on Dec. 18. Five days later, she was in Donetsk region, visiting the site of Ukraine's worst coal mining accident, the troubled Zasyadko mine. While there, she declared: "We'll be working on it and will make it so that in our country both young people and children would want to become coal miners." Below is a discussion of Tymoshenko's promise that took place at Korrespondent.net, a Ukrainian news site.

Foreign Notes writes about Raisa Bohatyryova, an ally of Victor Yanukovych and president Yushchenko's appointee for the position of head of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council.

Ukraine, Russia: On Tymoshenko, Yanukovych and Putin

Foreign Notes writes about Yulia Tymoshenko's TV address and Viktor Yanukovych's “shadow opposition government” – as well as Vladimir Putin's misrepresentation of Ukraine's Russophone population in his Time Magazine interview and a subsequent reaction of the head of Donetsk region, who “emphasized that the Russian-speaking population of his oblast, which...

Ukraine: PM Tymoshenko, Pro & Con

Kiev Blogger believes “Tymoshenko as PM is probably the worst thing that could happen to Ukraine at the moment”: “The only positive thing about it (and it's only positive from a very strategic point of view), is that Ukraine really does have real political competition, backed up by the competition...

Ukraine, France: Prank Protest at Charles de Gaulle

Orange Ukraine writes about the brief arrest of two Ukrainian journalists at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris – for what seems like an exhausted transit passengers’ prank.

Ukraine: New Government

Orange Ukraine writes about priorities of Yulia Tymoshenko's cabinet and about the transfer of power from the old government to the new.

Soviet History: The Red Terror

De Rebus Antiquis Et Novis writes about the history of Cheka and the Red Terror.

Soviet History: 1963 Race Rally

De Rebus Antiquis Et Novis writes about a little-known 1963 rally in Moscow's Red Square, when 500 African students rallied against racial discrimination, following the death of a Ghanian fellow student.

Ukraine: PM Tymoshenko

Ukrainiana writes about today's vote for Yulia Tymoshenko as prime minister – a “completely public vote,” notes Orange Ukraine – and lists the new ministers in her cabinet. Foreign Notes explains the new defense minister's reluctance to vote for Tymoshenko – and points out Tymoshenko's “dilemma”: “If she is elected...

Ukraine: Parliamentary Immunity/Impunity

Orange Ukraine reposts a newspaper piece on parliamentary immunity – and impunity.

Ukraine: Yushchenko's “Unfulfilled Election Promise”

Taras Kuzio writes that “Ukraine’s elites continue – as they have since Ukraine became an independent state in 1992 – to regard themselves as above the rule of law.”

Ukraine: God or Demons Against Tymoshenko?

An MP from president Victor Yushchenko's bloc proposes to have the parliament building sanctified, to purge it of the “demonic forces.” An MP from Victor Yanukovych's Party of the Regions claims that God is against Yulia Tymoshenko as Ukraine's prime minister. Ukrainiana posts a video and translates transcript of the...

Ukraine, U.S.: Carol of the Bells

Ukrainian Musical Matters writes about a 1916 Ukrainian song that became a Christmas hit in the United States.

Ukraine: Politics Roundup

Orange Ukraine has a roundup of all things that are wrong with the Ukrainian politics.