Month: July 24, 2020 6:20 am

Every country in the world is experiencing its own particular version of the ongoing global health and economic crisis, and Russia faces a particularly complex one, aggravated by outstanding and escalating mismanagement. President Vladimir Putin insists that the COVID-19 pandemic is under control and that the economic contraction is being mitigated; in fact, neither has been contained, while the Kremlin leader’s self-serving political agenda is antagonizing an increasing portion of the population and the elites.

Mr. Putin relies on the habitual combination of information control and targeted repressions for suppressing the discontent; yet, his own sociological research, conducted – rather unconventionally – by the Federal Protection Service (FSO), warns about rising anger (Meduza.io, July 16). Feigning supreme confidence, Mr. Putin refuses to acknowledge the swift erosion of his severely corrupt autocratic regime, but denials only back him into an ever-tighter corner, from which, as previous experiences indicate, he tends to lash out violently – and in an unpredictable direction.

U.S. offers $2 M reward for fugitives

The U.S. Secret Service has announced a $2 million reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of two Ukrainian men accused of hacking into the Securities and Exchange Commission’s data system. Artem Radchenko, 28, and Oleksandr Ieremenko, 28, acquired inside information on publicly traded companies by stealing test versions of quarterly and annual reports filed with the SEC but not yet available to investors, the Secret Service said in a statement on July 22. The two men earned over $4.5 million in illicit profit by both selling the inside information to others and trading on it. Messrs. Radchenko and Ieremenko carried out their scheme for more than a year, the Secret Service said. The reward, which consists of $1 million for helping capture each individual, is an unprecedented step by the Secret Service.

Back on May 27, the Ukrainian government preliminarily approved the text of a memorandum on the prospects for importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States. The document must still be signed by the Ukrainian side and the U.S. company involved, the Lafayette-based Louisiana Natural Gas Exports (LNGE). The agreement reportedly envisages supplies of 5.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas annually, for the period of 20 years (112.ua, June 15). Such volumes, however, will require additional gas infrastructure expansion in the region and, thus, may not happen earlier than in a few years. Another stumbling block is the fact that Ukraine’s Naftohaz appears to be objecting to the U.S.-proposed pricing formula (Interfax, June 10).

WASHINGTON – The United States has threatened to sanction any individual or company helping Russia build a controversial natural gas pipeline to Germany as the Kremlin moves to complete the last kilometers of the nearly $11 billion project.

“Get out now – or risk the consequences,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said July 15 during a press conference in Washington announcing the new sanction guidelines for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

The State Department essentially removed language that excluded the pipeline from the powerful Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which was passed in 2017.

WASHINGTON – The United States has been without a full-fledged ambassador to Ukraine since May 2019, and this past May President Donald Trump nominated Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton (ret.) to be the next U.S. envoy in Kyiv.

Mr. Dayton is a retired lieutenant general of the U.S. Army and currently serves as the director of the George C. Marshall Center in Germany. His 40-year career has included positions within the Defense Intelligence Agency and as defense attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

“The Russian occupation armies have once again violated all moral and humanitarian norms and opened fire on three servicemen that were evacuating the body of a fallen Ukrainian hero who was killed by an IED on July 13 near Zaitseve.

“Receiving a confirmation of a ceasefire, the evacuation group, wearing white helmets and identifying insignia, was a few meters away from the body of the fallen soldier. At this time, the enemy opened fire on the group. The group retreated, but a battlefield medic hurried to help a wounded soldier. At this time, the enemy opened fire with grenade launchers and high-caliber machine guns. As a result, a military medic was killed, and two soldiers were wounded.

KYIV – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in a solemn session of the Verkhovna Rada on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine.

The July 16 event was also attended by the head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak; the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Dmytro Razumkov; former Presidents of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk, Viktor Yushchenko and Petro Poroshenko; Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal; members of the Cabinet of Ministers, national deputies of the first and ninth convocations of the Rada; heads of the judiciary; heads of diplomatic missions of foreign states; heads of missions of international organizations accredited in Ukraine; media representatives and other guests.

The Dutch government is taking Russia to the European Court of Human Rights for its alleged role in the downing of Malaysia Airlines passenger Flight 17 (MH17) over eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said July 10 that the move is designed to support individual cases filed by relatives of some of the victims at the Strasbourg-based court.

“By taking this course of action the government is offering maximum support to these individual cases,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Ukrainian World Congress released the following statement on July 17.

Over the past six years, the Russian Federation has harbored the criminals responsible for the killing of 298 innocent civilians on July 17, 2014, when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down over Ukrainian territory by a Russian-controlled missile system. Despite persistent efforts by the Kremlin to discredit the findings of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) tasked with determining the cause of the disaster, the overwhelming evidence gathered confirms that culpability for this crime lies with the Russian Federation.

Six years after the tragic downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17), Russia continues to deny it was responsible for the murders of 298 innocent people – civilian passengers and crew – on a commercial flight heading over Ukrainian territory from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

As the jet was flying over territory occupied by Russian and Russian-backed forces on July 17, 2014, it was shot down by a Russian Buk missile. That was the conclusion released in 2018 by the Joint Investigative Team (JIT), which also underscored that the Buk had come from Russia, from a military base in Kursk, and that the surface-to-air missile belonged to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade.

Ten years ago, on July 28, 2010, Ukraine marked the commemoration of St. Volodymyr the Great, grand-prince of Kyiv-Rus’, and the baptism of Kyiv-Rus’-Ukraine in 988.

More than 10,000 faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP), as it was called, now absorbed as part of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, held a procession through Kyiv from St. Volodymyr Cathedral to the monument to St. Prince Volodymyr that overlooks the Dnipro River and concluded with a moleben service.

The statement below was released by the Ukrainian World Congress on July 15.

The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) shares the concerns of civil society and the global Ukrainian community about increased systemic pressure on the Ukrainian language as the one state language. In particular, the UWC strongly opposes “Russification” proposals included in the provocative draft law №2362 which bring a potential divide in Ukrainian society.