15:04
4.4.2014
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka on Friday announced that he is prepared to take Moscow's side in all issues that affect Russia.
"No matter what I do today -- talking to Ukraine, the West, the East, and so on -- when it comes to Russia, I will not take a single step without first receiving the consent of the leadership of the Russian Federation.
Lukashenka also attempted to drown any speculation that Belarus was attempting to use Russia's standoff with Ukraine to its own advantage.
"If Russia needs us to work for it in Ukraine, we'll do it. If Russia needs us to travel to a distant land for its benefit, we'll do it." He added, "It's in the interests of our brother Russia, and in the interests of Belarus, and there's no contradiction in that."
15:36
4.4.2014
Good news for Ukraine's boycotters who still like a tipple: "Forbes" in Ukraine has come up with five suitable substitutes for Russian vodka:
1. French grape vodka -- made from Mouzac Blanc and Ugni Blanc grapes, France's Ciroc vodka boasts a "mild citrusy aroma and a fresh taste." Added bonus: it's gluten-free!
2. Vodka 02 from England -- reminiscent of Willy Wonka's fizzy lifting drinks, O2 is a "sparkling" vodka, carbonated with oxygen. Its creators say the bubbles will make it even more alcoholic.
3. Arkhi Mongolian vodka -- distilled fermented goat milk that really packs a punch. Tasting more like skim milk and served by the teacup, this potable is called "tricky vodka" for a reason.
4. Black vodka -- the sinister-sounding Blavod, distilled in the U.K., gets its color from Black Catechu, an extract from the heartwood of Burmese catechu acacia trees. Obviously.
5. Iceberg vodka -- this Canadian potable is made with pure water harvested from 12,000-year-old ice from Newfoundland's Iceberg Alley. The marketing slogan: "The tip of the iceberg is best served with an olive."
1. French grape vodka -- made from Mouzac Blanc and Ugni Blanc grapes, France's Ciroc vodka boasts a "mild citrusy aroma and a fresh taste." Added bonus: it's gluten-free!
2. Vodka 02 from England -- reminiscent of Willy Wonka's fizzy lifting drinks, O2 is a "sparkling" vodka, carbonated with oxygen. Its creators say the bubbles will make it even more alcoholic.
3. Arkhi Mongolian vodka -- distilled fermented goat milk that really packs a punch. Tasting more like skim milk and served by the teacup, this potable is called "tricky vodka" for a reason.
4. Black vodka -- the sinister-sounding Blavod, distilled in the U.K., gets its color from Black Catechu, an extract from the heartwood of Burmese catechu acacia trees. Obviously.
5. Iceberg vodka -- this Canadian potable is made with pure water harvested from 12,000-year-old ice from Newfoundland's Iceberg Alley. The marketing slogan: "The tip of the iceberg is best served with an olive."
18:10
4.4.2014
From our news desk:
The new U.S. ambassador to the European Union says the Ukraine crisis has given a boost to relations between Washington and Brussels.
Anthony Luzzatto Gardner said Friday that Russia's annexation of Crimea "confirmed" the importance of the role of NATO in the West and helped "to reinforce trans-Atlantic ties.”
He also praised the EU’s response to the Ukraine crisis.
The EU has imposed sanctions against Russian individuals and signed an association agreement with Ukraine, even though the bloc relies on Russian gas imports.
Gardner said the EU appeared to be operating more effectively than 20 years ago, when he said it was more difficult for the bloc to agree on a common view.
The ambassador said the crisis has added impetus to talks on a U.S.-EU free trade pact.
Anthony Luzzatto Gardner said Friday that Russia's annexation of Crimea "confirmed" the importance of the role of NATO in the West and helped "to reinforce trans-Atlantic ties.”
He also praised the EU’s response to the Ukraine crisis.
The EU has imposed sanctions against Russian individuals and signed an association agreement with Ukraine, even though the bloc relies on Russian gas imports.
Gardner said the EU appeared to be operating more effectively than 20 years ago, when he said it was more difficult for the bloc to agree on a common view.
The ambassador said the crisis has added impetus to talks on a U.S.-EU free trade pact.
07:20
5.4.2014
Good morning and welcome to RFE/RL's Live Blog on the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. Here are some recent stories from RFE/RL's News Desk:
Biden, Yatsenyuk Discuss Loans, Energy Security
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk have spoken by phone in the wake of a preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund. In a statement Friday, the White House said Biden “expressed support for finalizing the arrangement as soon as possible.” On Thursday, President Barack Obama signed a bill providing Kyiv with $1 billion in loan guarantees. The IMF promised last month to loan up to $18 billion to cash-strapped Ukraine. The loan hinges on structural reforms that Kyiv has pledged to undertake. It will help prop up Ukraine's struggling economy following three months of antigovernment protests and Russia's annexation of Crimea. In Friday's call, Biden also “emphasized the importance of improving Ukraine’s energy security,” and said he welcomed “preparations for free and fair” presidential elections on May 25.
Moody's Cuts Ukraine's Credit Rating
The rating firm Moody's has lowered Ukraine's credit rating from “Caa2” to “Caa3,” and put the country on a "negative" outlook for further downgrades. Moody's said Friday that three factors drove the downgrade: the “escalation of Ukraine's political crisis” as reflected by the recent regime change in Kyiv and Russia’s annexation of Crimea; Ukraine's strained external liquidity, given the continued decline in foreign-currency reserves, the withdrawal of Russia's financial support, and a rise in gas import prices; Ukraine's eroding fiscal strength. Moody's predicted the debt-to-GDP ratio would rise to 60 percent by the end of 2014, up from 40.5 percent at the end of 2013. Moody's previously downgraded Ukraine's government bond rating in January.
Biden, Yatsenyuk Discuss Loans, Energy Security
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk have spoken by phone in the wake of a preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund. In a statement Friday, the White House said Biden “expressed support for finalizing the arrangement as soon as possible.” On Thursday, President Barack Obama signed a bill providing Kyiv with $1 billion in loan guarantees. The IMF promised last month to loan up to $18 billion to cash-strapped Ukraine. The loan hinges on structural reforms that Kyiv has pledged to undertake. It will help prop up Ukraine's struggling economy following three months of antigovernment protests and Russia's annexation of Crimea. In Friday's call, Biden also “emphasized the importance of improving Ukraine’s energy security,” and said he welcomed “preparations for free and fair” presidential elections on May 25.
Moody's Cuts Ukraine's Credit Rating
The rating firm Moody's has lowered Ukraine's credit rating from “Caa2” to “Caa3,” and put the country on a "negative" outlook for further downgrades. Moody's said Friday that three factors drove the downgrade: the “escalation of Ukraine's political crisis” as reflected by the recent regime change in Kyiv and Russia’s annexation of Crimea; Ukraine's strained external liquidity, given the continued decline in foreign-currency reserves, the withdrawal of Russia's financial support, and a rise in gas import prices; Ukraine's eroding fiscal strength. Moody's predicted the debt-to-GDP ratio would rise to 60 percent by the end of 2014, up from 40.5 percent at the end of 2013. Moody's previously downgraded Ukraine's government bond rating in January.
07:41
5.4.2014
Did the Kremlin just defend Adolf Hitler?
Vladimir Kara-Murza has an interesting blog post up at World Affairs Journal looking at an article in the pro-Kremlin daily "Izvestia" by Andranik Migranyan. In the article, Migranyan, who heads the New York office of Russia's "Institute for Democracy and Cooperation," writes that it is necessary to distinguish between the "good Hitler" and the "bad Hitler."
Here's the money quote from Migranyan's Izvestiya article:
Migranyan's article was an attack on Russian historian Andrei Zubov, who was fired by the Moscow State Institute of International Relations after, in an op-ed in the daily "Vedomosti," comparing Vladimor Putin's annexation of Crimea to Hitler's Anschluss with Austria and annexation of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland and Lithuania’s Klaipeda region in 1938–1939.
Kara-Murza closes out his blog post with this blistering history lesson:
Vladimir Kara-Murza has an interesting blog post up at World Affairs Journal looking at an article in the pro-Kremlin daily "Izvestia" by Andranik Migranyan. In the article, Migranyan, who heads the New York office of Russia's "Institute for Democracy and Cooperation," writes that it is necessary to distinguish between the "good Hitler" and the "bad Hitler."
Here's the money quote from Migranyan's Izvestiya article:
“We should distinguish between Hitler before 1939 and Hitler after 1939, and separate chaff from grain. The fact is that while Hitler was gathering German lands; if he… were known only for uniting, without a single drop of blood, Germany with Austria, Sudetenland with Germany, Memel [the German name for Klaipeda] with Germany, in effect achieving what Bismarck could not; and if Hitler stopped at that, he would be remembered in his country’s history as a politician of the highest order.”
Migranyan's article was an attack on Russian historian Andrei Zubov, who was fired by the Moscow State Institute of International Relations after, in an op-ed in the daily "Vedomosti," comparing Vladimor Putin's annexation of Crimea to Hitler's Anschluss with Austria and annexation of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland and Lithuania’s Klaipeda region in 1938–1939.
Kara-Murza closes out his blog post with this blistering history lesson:
Perhaps someone could remind Andranik Migranyan and his Kremlin overseers of the track record of this “politician of the highest order” and “gatherer of German lands” prior to 1939—including the establishment of concentration camps and the public burning of books; the purges of “non-Aryans” and the creation of the Gestapo; the closure of newspapers and political parties and the establishment of a one-man dictatorship; the Nuremberg racial laws and Kristallnacht. But of course they already know that.
07:45
5.4.2014
The Ukrainian Football Federation says it is holding on to Crimea's teams, the Kyiv Post reports:
The head of Ukraine’s football governing body dispelled rumors that he gave the green light for Crimean soccer clubs to compete in Russia’s soccer league during the March 27 Union of European Football Associations’ (UEFA) congress in Astana, Kazakhstan.
“I didn’t meet with anyone and speak on the topic of where Tavria (Simferopol) and FC Sevastopol should play,” said Anatoliy Konkov, president of the Football Federation of Ukraine. “The FFU will never give any guarantees to clubs that take part in the Ukrainian Premier League. If they want to leave on their own then they won’t play anywhere. Tavria and Sevastopol are Ukrainian (soccer) clubs, therefore they should play in the (Ukrainian) Premier League.”
“I didn’t meet with anyone and speak on the topic of where Tavria (Simferopol) and FC Sevastopol should play,” said Anatoliy Konkov, president of the Football Federation of Ukraine. “The FFU will never give any guarantees to clubs that take part in the Ukrainian Premier League. If they want to leave on their own then they won’t play anywhere. Tavria and Sevastopol are Ukrainian (soccer) clubs, therefore they should play in the (Ukrainian) Premier League.”
07:58
5.4.2014
Via the "Kyiv Post," Westinghopuse and Ukraine close to nuclear fuel deal:
The American Westinghouse Electric Co. is on the brink of inking a deal with Ukraine that would not only extend its contract to supply the country’s nuclear reactors with fuel, but increase the number of reactors to which it supplies fuel as well as the frequency of fuel deliveries here through 2020, according to a company official involved in negotiations.
Michael Kirst, Westinghouse vice president of customer relations and sales in the region, told the Kyiv Post on April 4 that the deal between the company and Ukrainian energy operator Energoatom is in its final stages.
Michael Kirst, Westinghouse vice president of customer relations and sales in the region, told the Kyiv Post on April 4 that the deal between the company and Ukrainian energy operator Energoatom is in its final stages.
08:07
5.4.2014
Will Englund at "The Washington Post" has a thought-provoking piece comparing the precarious position of Ukraine's interim government to the short-lived provisional government of Aleksandr Kerensky that took power in Russia in March 1917 after the fall of the Romanov dynasty:
Englund even sees parallels between the respectinve receptions the Kerensky government and the current Ukrainain authorities received in the West:
The whole piece is well worth a read.
Like Ukraine in 2014, Russia 97 years ago had just thrown off a widely despised autocrat who had played his hand so badly that what should have been a manageable protest turned into a revolution.
And, as in Kiev today, the new authorities in Petrograd, the Russian capital then, scrambled to figure out how to run a country even as enormous pressures closed in.
They failed.
And, as in Kiev today, the new authorities in Petrograd, the Russian capital then, scrambled to figure out how to run a country even as enormous pressures closed in.
They failed.
Englund even sees parallels between the respectinve receptions the Kerensky government and the current Ukrainain authorities received in the West:
The United States, in early 1917 as in 2014, enthusiastically welcomed the new, ostensibly democratic government. It offered assistance. But it discovered, in the end, that there was little it could do to shape the course of events.
The Russian revolution of early 1917 holds a cautionary tale for Ukraine’s interim government — unelected, propelled into power by the sudden collapse of the previous government, and grappling with an empty treasury and acute pressure from all sides — and for its supporters in Washington and Europe. With the noblest of intentions, the leaders in Petrograd, today’s
The Russian revolution of early 1917 holds a cautionary tale for Ukraine’s interim government — unelected, propelled into power by the sudden collapse of the previous government, and grappling with an empty treasury and acute pressure from all sides — and for its supporters in Washington and Europe. With the noblest of intentions, the leaders in Petrograd, today’s
St. Petersburg, were unable to deliver what the people wanted.
The whole piece is well worth a read.
08:36
5.4.2014
Russia demanding that Ukraine pay back discount Moscow gave it on gas over the past four years. Via AFP:
MOSCOW, April 05, 2014 (AFP) - Chairman of Russia's Gazprom Alexei Miller on Saturday said that Ukraine must pay back the full discount it has been granted on Russian gas over the past four years, worth $11.4 billion.
Miller said this week's annulment of the so-called Kharkiv accords, which gave Ukraine cut-price Russian gas until 2017 in exchange for access to the Crimea's port facilities, means that Kiev should pay the sum total of this discount back.
"The sum of the discount granted in the time that the Kharkiv accords were valid was $11.4 billion (8.32 billion euros). That is the sum that the Russian government, the Russian budget did not receive," Miller told Russian television.
The discount was a de-facto advance payment by Moscow for the future lease on Black Sea Fleet's facilities in the Crimean port of Sevastopol -- annexed by Russia with the rest of the peninsula -- and so must be paid back, he added.
"Russia was paying for the Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine... towards prolonging the agreement. That is, Russia was paying an advance. Therefore, the $11.4 billion is a debt that Ukraine has accrued to Russia," he said.
Miller said this week's annulment of the so-called Kharkiv accords, which gave Ukraine cut-price Russian gas until 2017 in exchange for access to the Crimea's port facilities, means that Kiev should pay the sum total of this discount back.
"The sum of the discount granted in the time that the Kharkiv accords were valid was $11.4 billion (8.32 billion euros). That is the sum that the Russian government, the Russian budget did not receive," Miller told Russian television.
The discount was a de-facto advance payment by Moscow for the future lease on Black Sea Fleet's facilities in the Crimean port of Sevastopol -- annexed by Russia with the rest of the peninsula -- and so must be paid back, he added.
"Russia was paying for the Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine... towards prolonging the agreement. That is, Russia was paying an advance. Therefore, the $11.4 billion is a debt that Ukraine has accrued to Russia," he said.
08:46
5.4.2014
The news, from the Sochi Olympics to the annexation of Crimea, told through rap: