The Agonist - USSR (Former) Minus Russia

The US-Russia-Ukraine Triangle

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:10:48 -0700

With the possible exception of Georgia-US-Russia, no US relationship in the former Soviet region is more fraught today than the US-Russia-Ukraine triangle. At a time when Washington and Moscow have variously committed to a relationship reset, a new operating system, and a rerun of the Clinton-Yeltsin strategic partnership, it is disappointing how little substance has followed rhetoric. Meanwhile, Central and Eastern Europe are still reeling from the US Administration’s abrupt and ill-timed reversal on missile defense deployment, and Team Obama is eager for opportunities to demonstrate its commitment to the new Europe, which received no shortage of love from the Bush Administration.

Enter the prospect of US-Ukraine cooperation on missile defense. According to Ukraine’s Ambassador to the US, the two countries have begun working discussions on sharing data from Ukrainian radar for use with a revised US-led missile defense system in Southeastern Europe. The Ukrainians may be overreaching here, trying to manufacture a moment of decision that the US Administration prefers to avoid, however there is no doubt that missile defense cooperation with Central and Eastern Europe remains very much on the table, even after the Bush plan was scrapped last month. And while the Obama Administration insists any radar-interceptor system is still intended primarily to defend against a rogue missile launch by Iran, Moscow has renewed its objection that missile defense based in former Warsaw Pact territory is a threat to its nuclear deterrent, an absolute red line for an ex-superpower whose conventional forces are not up to the task of defending its sprawling borders.

All of this makes perfect sense in the context of an increasingly zero sum US-Russian relationship: If the possibility of US-Ukraine missile defense cooperation reassures Kiev (and Warsaw and Prague) that the US is still fully engaged in the region, it should be no surprise that Russia is as upset over this as it was over the Bush Administration’s plans for a Polish and the Czech system–perhaps more so because some of the radars at issue are in Crimea, a Russian majority region of Ukraine where Moscow could exploit ethnic tension to empower a pro-Russian separatist movement. Ironically, during the month between Obama’s cancellation of the original missile defense plan and now, Moscow had refused to acknowledge the importance of the US concession, latching onto the system’s technical shortcomings to dismiss it as destined for failure from the outset. In turn, Congressional hawks have argued that Russia’s offer to cut its deployed nuclear arsenal by about a quarter is hollow, since most of those weapons are unreliable antiques.

The bigger picture: If it can’t have close ties with both Russia and the West, Ukraine’s best bet is security through NATO membership, and prosperity through EU membership. Both are threatened by Russia’s plans to build the Nord Stream pipeline, which will cut Ukraine out of the gas trade, and Moscow’s ambition to control a sphere of influence, which will, at a minimum, extend to borderlands with large Russian populations. The Ukrainian Presidential election in January will reshuffle Kiev’s cast of players, but is unlikely to effect a permanent reorientation toward Moscow over Brussels and Washington. For the US, opening a dialogue on potential cooperation with Ukraine signals that the missile defense reversal in September was not the beginning of the end of US engagement in the region.

By Matthew Rojansky. To see more articles by Matthew, go to http://blog.psaonline.org/

Independent Experts Blame Georgia for South Ossetia War

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:54:42 -0700

Germany | 21 september

Spiegel Online - (...) The independent commission appointed by the European Union to investigate the war between Georgia and Russia last summer has concluded that Tbilisi is responsible for causing the five-day conflict, SPIEGEL has learned. According to diplomats in Brussels who are familiar with the contents of the secret document, the EU experts also assign part of the responsibility for the war to Russia, however. The report, which stems from an initiative by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his colleagues from the Benelux countries, concludes that Moscow escalated the conflict through its massive deployment of troops.The international commission, which is headed by Heidi Tagliavini, wants to keep its findings under wraps until next week because the Swiss diplomat first wants to present the controversial results to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York (...) The publication of the report is set to spark renewed debate about who is responsible for the war. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has already complained that "some idiots say we started the war." Tbilisi is mainly afraid that the report will reduce the chances of Georgia being allowed to join NATO within the near future. The conflict broke out on Aug. 7, 2008 when Georgia attacked the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Russian forces quickly repelled the Georgian attack and advanced into Georgia. Hundreds of people, including many civilians, are believed to have died during the fighting before a ceasefire was agreed upon on Aug. 12.

Ukraine: When a budget crisis looms, this mayor dons a Speedo

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:55:34 -0700

CSM - Facing a reported $1.2 billion budget deficit, accusations of corruption, and a parliamentary commission investigation, Leonid Chernovetsky, mayor of Kyiv (Kiev), knew he needed to give the performance of his life.

He didn’t disappoint. After jogging and doing 15 chin-ups, he stripped down to a Speedo and swam 15 meters. “I want to demonstrate to the whole world that I am absolutely fit physically and mentally,” he announced.

A millionaire businessman and evangelical Christian, Mr. Chernovetsky has gained a reputation for wacky ideas. With Kyiv facing an economic crisis, Chernovetsky proposed charging fees to enter cemeteries, selling his kisses in a raffle, and selling burial plots for frogs.

Infighting among opposition members has prevented them from mounting a consolidated challenge. After the parliamentary commission ordered him to have a mental-health check, Chernovetsky took a few weeks off on sick leave.

Alarm in Baltic as Kremlin seizes control of Soviet past

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:24:05 -0700

Shaun Walker | Riga | Jan 11

The Independent - In Russia it is not only the future that is unpredictable; often the past is equally in doubt. One minute Leon Trotsky was a hero of the Revolution, the father of the Red Army and a strong contender to succeed Lenin; the next minute he never existed. Until the late 1980s, the 1917 Revolution was the pinnacle of human achievement; suddenly in the 1990s it was seen as an utter failure.

And today again history in the region is turning into an ideological battlefield. When the Red Army poured into the Baltic states at the end of the Second World War, it liberated them from Nazi tyranny – but from the perspective of the subsequent decades of Soviet domination, was it liberation or merely another invasion?

The Russians, of course, have no doubt on the matter: for them it was an heroic national achievement. But for the states which less than two decades ago managed to crawl out from under the Soviet boot, things are not so simple. The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, an imposing black box of a building in the heart of Riga, tells the story of Latvia's time inside the Soviet Union. The Soviet soldiers, glorified as heroes in Moscow, are portrayed as criminals and occupiers, no better than the Germans they defeated.

But now, slamming shut a stable door through which its former subject states long ago bolted, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the creation of a body with the Orwellian title of the Commission to Counteract the Falsification of History to the Detriment of Russian Interests. A linked law is also likely to be passed that will outlaw the "rehabilitation of Nazism" on the territory of former Soviet republics.

Bad News For NATO

Wed, 06 May 2009 05:22:32 -0700

It's just not good for a defensive military alliance when two of its newest members decide not to take part in exercises. Especially when they say the reason is not financial. That would have been an easy excuse.

Of course, the exercises are being held in Georgia, at a time when the Russians are really squeezing Saakashvilli. The near abroad is taking Russia's sphere of influence much more seriously these days. I wonder if the strategic mandarins in DC can read the tea leaves as clearly as the Balts?

Soviet Union is here too

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 03:49:56 -0700

Do you remember when there was an odd sound in telephone in Soviet Union, and a voice apologized that they are changing the tape?

My firewall has logged intrusion attack from a server of my ISP. I complained that their server is trying to break into my computer. They replied that it is not. The attack continues :)

I have been earlier shortly interrogated by a local spy, who was interested in what I think about terrorism.

A new view of a famine that killed millions

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 02:22:57 -0700

Clifford J Levy | Kiev | Mar 16

IHT -

A quarter century ago, a Ukrainian historian named Stanislav Kulchytsky was told by his Soviet overlords to concoct an insidious cover-up. His orders: to depict the famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the early 1930s as unavoidable, like a natural disaster. Absolve the Communist Party of blame. Uphold the legacy of Stalin.

Professor Kulchytsky, though, would not go along.

The other day, as he stood before a new memorial to the victims of the famine, he recalled his decision as one turning point in a movement lasting decades to unearth the truth about that period. And the memorial itself, shaped like a towering candle with a golden eternal flame, seemed to him in some sense a culmination of this effort.

"It is a sign of our respect for the past," Professor Kulchytsky said. "Because everyone was silent about the famine for many years. And when it became possible to talk about it, nothing was said. Three generations on."

The concrete memorial was dedicated last November, the 75th anniversary of the famine, in a park in Kiev, on a hillside overlooking the Dnieper River in the shadow of the onion domes of a revered Orthodox Christian monastery. More than 100 feet tall, the memorial will eventually house a small museum that will offer testimony from survivors, as well as information about the Ukrainian villages that suffered.

In the Soviet Union, the authorities all but banned discussion of the famine, but by the 1980s the United States and other countries were pressing their own inquiries, often at the urging of Ukrainian immigrants.

In response, Communist officials embarked on a propaganda drive to play down the famine and show that the deaths were caused by unforeseen food shortages or drought. Professor Kulchytsky said he had been given the task of gathering research but concluded that the famine had been man-made.

"I became convinced that everything was not as I once thought," he said.

He refused to falsify his findings and instead released them publicly, escaping punishment only because glasnost had begun under the Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

The famine is known in Ukrainian as the Holodomor literally, death or killing by starvation and the campaign to give it recognition has played a significant role in the Ukrainian quest to shape a national identity in the post-Soviet era. It has also further strained relations with the Kremlin, another of the festering disputes left by the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The pro-Western government in Kiev, which came to power after the Orange Revolution of 2004, calls the famine a genocide that Stalin ordered because he wanted to decimate the Ukrainian citizenry and snuff out aspirations for independence from Moscow.

The archives make plain that no other conclusion is possible, said Professor Kulchytsky, who is deputy director of the Institute of Ukrainian History in Kiev.

The Winding Road From Western Europe To Kyrgyzstan

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 07:31:20 -0800

Russian geopolitical moves over the last year have been wide-ranging, ominous, and seemingly unconnected. They are often interpreted as evidence of the resurgence of Great Russian chauvinism, which had been dormant since the decline and fall of communism. Many analysts see Russia as bent on reacquiring its empire, and at least suspect a new Cold War is in the offing. But an alternate, less malevolent interpretation might be considered, especially when Russia’s numerous cooperative measures are taken into account, as they often aren’t. Russia likely has a more limited goal: countering the spread of NATO into Eastern Europe.

In the summer of 2008 Russia sent troops into Georgia, ostensibly to defend minorities there, but also to serve notice that NATO expansion into the region, including Georgia and the Ukraine, will not be tolerated. The lack of resolve with which most NATO countries responded to the invasion made it clear – or should have made it clear – that Eastern Europe cannot rely on NATO to defend it. Die for Tblisi or Kiev? Unlikely. The Georgian invasion and more recent pipeline maneuvers with the Ukraine also made it clear that Western Europe’s energy supplies from Russia and Central Asia depend on at least respectful relations with Russia. The Kremlin is planning to deploy short-range SS-26 missiles in its Kaliningrad enclave to counter the US deployment of its SDI system in Eastern Europe. The Russian navy has participated in their country’s recent moves as well, plying the Caribbean, crossing the Panama Canal, and visiting the old cold war flashpoint of Cuba.

US defense thinkers look uneasily at these actions, but countervailing, cooperative actions and gestures might not be adequately considered in these scenarios, based as they are on worst-case scenarios and a reflexive return to cold war outlooks. Russia and other members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization have offered to train the Afghan National Police, which in the absence of a meaningful Afghan army, is the most effective indigenous fighting force against the Taliban and al Qaeda. Russia prevailed upon Kyrgyzstan to close down the immense Manas air base, which is used to bring in troops and supplies to Afghanistan. However, this action was preceded by measures to help the US/NATO effort in Afghanistan by opening air and land routes over Russia and its client states of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which had been open only to certain NATO countries.

It is clear that Russia has a great deal of control over Western Europe’s energy supplies and NATO’s logistical lines into Afghanistan, all the more so as supply lines from Pakistan are becoming unreliable. Russia has no interest in a second cold war. Its economy is frail and paltry compared to those of many NATO powers, especially after the price of oil dropped seventy-five percent since last summer, hammering Russian GDP and hard currency holdings. Its military remains backward and plagued with discipline troubles. Though wary of NATO’s presence along its expansive southern periphery, Russia does not want the West to leave Afghanistan and open the region to an Islamist empire spreading into former Soviet republics and worsening matters in Chechnya. Indeed, Russia might have more to lose in Afghanistan than does any NATO country.

So what do we make of these actions? The combination of carrots and sticks suggest that Russia is setting the stage for a negotiated settlement of NATO’s presence to its west and southwest, with the possible bonus of deepening the estrangement between Western Europe and the US that has developed over the latter’s unsound and bewildering actions in the world, especially the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the counterproductive use of massive firepower in Afghanistan. The Clinton and Bush administrations have both pursued an aggressive expansion into Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hungary, Rumania, and Bulgaria – with Georgia and the Ukraine in the queue – while Western Europe has uneasily gone along. One might dispute whether this expansion strengthens or weakens the security of NATO members, old and new, but it has undoubtedly caused security concerns – and legitimate ones – in a country that has endured devastating invasions that are incomprehensible to most countries.

Rather than interpreting Russia’s menacing moves as a quest for hegemony, the West should recognize the opportunity implicit in Russia’s cooperative moves and engage the Kremlin in negotiations regarding access to energy resources, logistical and training support in Afghanistan, and more broadly, cooperation on countering Islamism in Central Asia. A neutral Eastern Europe will benefit the region, the continent, and much of the world. No one – not the US, Russia, or Western Europe – can afford another cold war, especially while a global depression is beginning. US defense spending may have contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, but it cannot be repeated in the next decade or so. And the toll it took on the US economy is only now being reckoned.

~ ©2009 Brian M. Downing
Brian M. Downing is the author of several works of political and military history, including The Military Revolution and Political Change and The Paths of Glory: War and Social Change in America from the Great War to Vietnam. He can be reached at brianmdowning@gmail.com.

Back in the USSR

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 06:15:00 -0800

Chris Schuler | The Independent Minds Blogs

KALININGRAD, RUSSIA: It must have been the music in the little Ukrainian retaurant that made my dinner companion wax a little nostalgic. "I love these Ukrainian songs," she said. "I love the Ukrainian language. It's such a shame they had to make that Orange Revolution. They sold themselves to the Americans. These fucking Americans, they try to come between Slavonic peoples and drive them apart. At least it won't happen in Belarus. The President there is strong."

Now I have to say that came as a bit of an eye opener. To anyone in the West who takes an interest in such matters, Viktor Yuschenko, leader of Ukraine's Orange Revolution, is a democratic hero, while Aleksandr Lukaschenko, the President of Belarus, is "the last dictator in Europe". yet my friend is not some glassy-eyed fanatic, but a likeable, well educated middle-aged lady. And her views, if not exactly those of the majority here, scarcely put her on the lunatic fringe either.

Georgia, Ukraine, Germany, Russia and NATO

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 05:47:58 -0800

This is a really interesting article in the Times about Georgia, the Ukraine and NATO. Well reported and worth a read.

The real meat comes at the end of the article. It really is about the Germans and the Americans getting pissed off at each other about NATO membership for both countries. The Germans have dug in their heels and pretty much said, no way. But the Bush Administration, being petulant to the very end, is looking for a back door. Typical.

I don't have much to add, as everyone knows where I stand: having both countries in NATO is a bad idea. I'm glad the Germans are doing their best to prevent it from happening, but it does show that their is a growing rift between the US and Germany. And that I don't like to see. Alas, it's probably a part of an inevitable shift away from American hegemony. It'll still take a few decades to play out, but it's started.

On the Road to Kharkov . . . Dnepropetrovsk . . . Shashlik and beyond . . .

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:01:19 -0800

I arrived in Dnepropetrovsk without a hitch, except my checked bag is still in AMS. My first wife, a Dutch girl, obviously put a hex on me. Seriously, she was great. I have clothes, not much, but I have a coat and some thermals.

So, first stop after my arrival in Dnepropetrovsk's airport is a meeting with a beer. I am not a drunk, but this type of travel requires some assistance. Bad freaking move. My first, I think, on this trip. Across the hall is the rental car place, and they will not rent me a car, because they say me drinking a beer. FM, my mistake. Certainly, my first one, but probably a good one. All the others were out of my control, so I venture outside. This is not the normal gauntlet a traveler would meet coming through the gateway to Borispol in Kiev or any airport in Moscow. Really, there was nothing there. A couple of cabbies, but not the pressing hoard.

Nevertheless, I haggle for a car from Dnepropetrovsk to Kharkov (about 300 km), and I am happy with the price. And off we go. All is good. Boris and I can communicate, and he understands when I want beer and then to stop. Yep, a stop for beer and other things. I find out, at the stop on the side of the road, he needed to stop too.

Oh, we are driving in the slow lane, going fast, and all of a sudden, a car comes in the opposite direction in the fast lane. This happened repeatedly as we neared Khakov. Even though the highway on the other side was open. A little disconcerting when it happened the first two times. WTF. Arrived in Kharkov safely, avoiding a few head on collisions.

Freaked Boris out too, so it was slow moving there for a bit.

On the Road to Kharkov . . . 23 hours late . . .

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 10:22:57 -0800

On a dark and stormy night . . . okay . . . that was later . . .

Okay, so it was really a sunny afternoon - about 1:30 - when I was leaving San Antonio on the 20th with a destination of Kharkov. Then, it started. My dear friend and beloved dog bit my beautiful mother. While I was loading my stuff in her truck, he was having some separation anxiety or something, and she, unwisely, tried to grab him. He chomped her arm pretty good. This is a big dog - a mix of Akita, Siberian Husky, Chow and Wolf. And Blonde to top it off, not that there is anything wrong with that . . . . we all have to go to the circus sometime, and I find that Blonde circus enjoyable. In any event, The Mom went to the doctor and will be fine. The Dog lives too. Not sure where the Cat was at, but I suspect he was killing something in the woods. My little assassins.

But . . . I digress . . . onward to the airport and I was set. Or so I thought. Yes, I kept calling my Mom to check on her and I dressed the wound. I was a bad kid, but I am a good son . . . according to Mom.

Anyway . . . flight to Memphis . . . no problem. Flight to Amsterdam . . . and the dominoes started to fall and fall and fall . . . passenger with a cardiac event required an emergency landing in Gander, New Foundland, Canada. We were on the ground for at least 3 hours. I slept through it, because I find it hard to crash on a flying airplane. Well, I could crash a plane with drugs and vodka.
Not that I would want to do that. Woke up on take off. Restless . . . yawn . . . uneventful.

Arrival in Amsterdam was 3 hours late and I missed my flight to Kiev (missed flight # 1) and likewise missed my connection from Kiev to Kharkov (missed flight # 2). Freaking cues were brutal at AMS because of major weather delays. Slipped into the business class line, and well I was not business class. Re-routed to Vienna, then Kiev with a gig set up for Kharkov. Wi-Fi is cool. Free Wi-Fi in Vienna is even cooler.

2 hours late to Vienna, of course. Pilot circled, tried to land twice, and viola . . . we have touch down on the third try. Racing to the gate . . . . passport control . . . . ugh . . . . flight left 1
minute before I got there. Austrian Air "forgot" to check me through, otherwise they would have waited. FM.

And of course, my accent (what accent?) is charming and alluring (that is what she said at the gate). Her accent was charming and alluring too. Okay . . . So, that is missed flight # 3 within 22 hours of the Dog chomping the Mom. Karma? Hey, I did not bite the Mom.

So, I take my charming and alluring accent, get my voucher for the
hotel (really nice), and go about charming my way to a direct flight
to Kharkov. Oooohhhhh . . . charming and alluring works good. Set up. Hotel. A sojourn to the City Center of Vienna, an unscheduled stop, which was actually a pleasant event.

Beautiful city . . . but not near as beautiful as Inga, Lufthansa stewardess. Drank Oval Vodka and Austrian beer with her . . . . who the hell knew my Vienna diversion would be such a freaking blast. FM! I am truly blessed with my charming and alluring Texas accent. Danka
Inga!

Make note to self about charming and alluring accent. Not to forget my
cute Russian, which is also described as good.

And then . . . well the plot thickens . . . I am standing at the gate to get on the flight to Kharkov, or so I thought, and the gate agent says I need to go to the gate next to it. I am whooped from the whole sojourn, so I do as I am directed . . . I get on the plane, and it is
going to Belgrade. MF!!!!!! Of course, the flight to Kharkov at the
gate I was at first is gone (# 4 missed flight). I later found out
there was a problem on the ticket. FM!!!

I cannot make this shit up. 4 missed flights. So, I got this nifty little kit with some toothpaste, which I really wanted and a XXXL t-shirt. My checked bag is allegedly in Amsterdam . . . still.
Probably a good thing. And I got a flight to Dnepropetrovsk (been there in 2006) and getting a car to go to Kharkov (hoping to get there in 2008). (NB: Typing this on the plane to Dnepropetrovsk).

Everyone has pretty much asked me why am I smiling. WTF. I should be angry? I love life and life loves me. This is so fucking cool.

23 hours after scheduled . . . in Kharkov now. I will have to update this later with respect to the drive from Dnepropetrovsk to Kharkov. Going out into the dark and stormy night . . . serious wind blowing and storm clouds looming on
the horizon . . . geez . . . I hope that is a good thing . . .

Ukraine PM says IMF proposes credit, opposes poll

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 06:02:43 -0700

KIEV | Oct 16

Reuters - The IMF may lend Ukraine a sum ranging from $3-14 billion to shore up its financial system but has made any credit contingent on calling off a snap election, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said on Thursday.

The IMF office in Kiev declined to comment. But the Fund, while setting financial conditions for credits, almost never takes a position on internal political issues in a country with which it negotiates an assistance programme.

Political woes in Ukraine, which faces its third parliamentary poll in as many years, have been compounded by fears that government and banks may not be able to refinance debt as its currency weakens and global lending dries up.

IMF officials arrived on Wednesday to discuss how it could help cushion the impact of the global financial crisis. It has also been approached for aid by Iceland, Hungary and Serbia.

'We have information today that the International Monetary is ready to examine special credits from $3-14 billion to stabilise the financial system,' Tymoshenko told a news conference after a cabinet meeting.

'At the same time, the IMF said it finds it very difficult to talk with Ukraine amid all these proposals for an early election.

'Let me stress that in order to receive this standby credit needed to stabilise the currency and financial system, it is vital to postpone the election. The IMF also said this.'

Ukraine has so far avoided direct blows to its economy from the global financial crisis, but the hryvnia currency fell when investors rushed out of emerging assets and scrambled for dollars. It hit an all-time low last week of 5.9 to the dollar.

The central bank has a difficult balancing act -- letting the hryvnia weaken under the weight of the current account gap would take away one of the few constants in a country gripped by political turbulence since the 2004 'Orange Revolution'.

Propping it up would deplete hard currency reserves which now amount to the equivalent of $37.5 billion.

Authorities are also keen to calm depositors' fears after speculation of a takeover deal led to a run on Ukraine's sixth largest bank, Prominvest.

POLITICAL BATTLES

The central bank's First Deputy Chairman, Anatoly Shapovalov, said the size of the credit from the IMF would depend on Ukraine's quota subscription in the Fund.

'At the moment, we do not need these funds, but who can say how the global crisis will develop tomorrow?' he said.

Another central bank official declining to be identified said Ukraine's quota was the equivalent of $2 billion and that countries can receive 3-5 times their quota -- amounting to a total of $6-10 billion. The rest could come from other international organisations.

Ukraine is used to political turmoil since Yushchenko came to power seeking NATO and European Union membership.

But its economy had been growing at about 7 percent annually. Now, growth is expected to slow substantially -- the IMF says to 2.5 percent next year from 6.4 percent this year.

Tymoshenko, the president's estranged ally, restated her opposition to the Dec. 7 poll, called after Yushchenko blamed her for breaking up the government and dissolved parliament.

Citing the background of the financial crisis, Tymoshenko offered to accept 'any conditions' to persuade the president to call off the election. Her allies have launched court action suspending preparations for the vote.

Analysts in Ukraine saw her comments as yet another political manoeuvre in her standoff with Yushchenko.

'If Tymoshenko secures IMF support, it will be a very strong argument for the political elite, for people in the know,' said Oleksander Dergachyov, an independent political analyst.

'If she doesn't get it, Yushchenko will look the guilty party. Her argument allows her to get the support of business.'

(Additional reporting by Yuri Kulikov and Pavel Polityuk; Writing by Ron Popeski and Sabina Zawadzki)

Yushchenko abolishes court for overturning election decree

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:19:35 -0700

KIEV | October 14

RIA Novosti - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has abolished a Kiev court that had earlier suspended his decree to dissolve parliament and call early parliamentary elections, his press service said.

Yushchenko signed a decree late Monday abolishing the Kiev District Court, replacing it with two administrative courts, after the court ruled in favor of a lawsuit filed by the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc Saturday against the president and the Central Election Commission (CEC) and overturned the presidential decree to dissolve parliament.

The secretariat of President Yushchenko filed an appeal later Saturday against the ruling.

The Kiev Prosecutor's Office has launched a criminal case against the Kiev judge who ruled to suspend the decree on allegations of knowingly passing an unlawful ruling.

The country's pro-Western ruling coalition collapsed on September 3 when the pro-presidential Our Ukraine withdrew from the alliance after Tymoshenko's bloc joined with the opposition Party of Regions, led by Russia-friendly Viktor Yanukovych, to approve legislation substantially cutting presidential powers. Yushchenko called the move a "constitutional coup."

Under the Ukrainian constitution, the president can dissolve parliament and call early elections if no majority coalition is formed within 30 days.

The coalition was officially dissolved on September 16 and, according to the Ukrainian law, elections must take place 60 days after parliament has been dissolved.

Ukrainian PM refuses to release funds for snap elections

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:06:47 -0700

KIEV | October 14

RIA Novosti - Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has refused to allocate some 420 million hryvnias ($80 million) to finance early parliamentary elections, Ukraine's UNIAN news agency reported on Tuesday.

Ukraine's top security body, the National Security and Defense Council, demanded that the government transfer the money to election officials on Monday. However, no cabinet session was held and no money has been transferred.

A top official from Ukraine's Central Election Committee was cited by the agency as saying that the country's top election body "cannot carry out the elections" if the money is not provided.

On Monday, a presidential decree ordered the government to allocate the money for the elections from the country's reserve fund. Tymoshenko has called an emergency cabinet session for Tuesday. The session will start at noon (09:00 GMT).

President Viktor Yushchenko ordered last Thursday the dissolution of parliament and called snap parliamentary polls for December 7. The move followed the collapse of the ruling pro-Western coalition. Yushchenko blamed the collapse of the ruling alliance on his former ally, Tymoshenko, saying that she had put "personal interests over national ones."

However, the presidential decree to dissolve parliament and call early polls was overturned on Saturday by the Kiev District Court, which ruled in favor of a lawsuit filed by the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc against the president and the Central Election Commission.

In response, Yushchenko signed a decree late on Monday abolishing the court, replacing it with two administrative courts.