Ukraine ►Crimean parliament elects news head in unanimous vote On 9 October Crimeas parliament elected Sergei Aksyonov head of the annexed peninsula in a unanimous vote. All 75 MPs supported Aksyonov in the vote. Aksyonov, 41, has served as acting head of Crimea since mid-April, weeks after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine following a referendum denounced as illegitimate by Kyiv, the West, and the United Nations General Assembly. He played a key role in the annexation process that began after Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president sympathetic to Moscow, was toppled by anti-government protests in Kyiv. Ukraine still considers Crimea its territory, occupied by Russia, and says elections held by Russian authorities there are illegal. Aksyonov has made tough comments about Crimean Tatars, who say their minority has faced grave abuses under Russian rule. On 1 October the Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Nils Muiznieks raised the issue of increased harassment and intimidation directed against Crimean Tatar community ever since Russia annexed the peninsula. The “anti-Tatar” campaign has included both legal and extrajudicial measures and has ranged from petty harassment to abduction, torture and killings, activists say. In addition, it has included raids on mosques, criminal cases against Tatar leaders, and the banning of top figures like Mustafa Dzhemilev. ►UN: 331 deaths in Ukraine since 5 September cease-fire On 8 October the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said at least 331 deaths have been reported in eastern Ukraine since the signing of the cease-fire deal between government forces and pro-Russian separatists on 5 September. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said hostilities continue in Donetsk and around the towns of Debaltseve and Schastye. Since the fighting began in mid-April, at least 3,660 people have been killed and 8,756 wounded in eastern Ukraine. Also, nearly 376,000 people from eastern Ukraine have been displaced during more than six months of fighting. Fighting in Donetsk, that has flared up again in the past weeks, has focused mainly around the government-controlled airport, but nearby residential areas have been hit repeatedly by shells. At least 10 people were killed on 1 October as government troops and rebels exchanged artillery fire. In Kiev the military spokesman Andriy Lysenko claimed Ukrainian forces still controlled the airport and were “brilliantly carrying out their duty,” but rebels said they now controlled 90% of the airport. On 2 October a Red Cross worker –38-year old Swiss Laurent DuPasquier – was killed in Donetsk when a shell landed near the group’s office. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)’s director of operations Dominik Stillhart condemned it, saying “indiscriminate shelling of residential areas is unacceptable and violates international humanitarian law.” Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian rebels blame each other for the shelling. ►EU Committee of the Regions to set up task force to help Ukraine’s decentralisation On 8 October the president of the EU Committee of the Regions (CoR) Michel Lebrun and Ukraine’s Deputy PM for Regional Development Volodymyr Hroysman agreed in a meeting to set up a special task force to assist Ukraine in decentralisation reform. The task force will help address such issues as “the excessive centralisation of the system, fiscal dependence on the central government and limited financial resources, low administrative capacity, corruption and insufficient citizen involvement,” a press release said. Hroysman also invited the CoR to participate in monitoring the next local elections in the context of the electoral observation delegation organised by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. ►Kyiv says Yanukovych obtained Russian citizenship On 3 October a Ukrainian official said ousted President Viktor Yanukovych and other former top officials have obtained Russian citizenship. Ukrainian Interior Ministers aide Anton Herashchenko wrote on Facebook that President Vladimir Putin signed a secret decree granting Russian citizenship to Yanukovych, former PM Mykola Azarov, ex-Prosecutor-General Viktor Pshonka, and members of their families. Ukraine has launched criminal investigations against the three former top officials, accusing them of killing unarmed demonstrators. The three fled Ukraine in the wake of antigovernment protests in late-February. Speaking to Ekho Moskvy radio on October 3, Putins press secretary Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on Herashchenkos statement. Officials at Russias Federal Immigration Service also declined to comment. ► Deputy of former President Yanukovich’s party beaten by mob in Odessa On 30 September MP Nestor Shufrich from the Party of the Regions of ousted President Viktor Yanukovich was attacked and beaten by a crowd in Odessa during a political campaign for the October 26 parliamentary election. Shufrich is a fervent critic of Kiev’s military campaign against pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. The crowd of about 20 activists, some of them masked and wearing the armbands of the right-wing nationalist Right Sector, cornered the 47-year-old Shufrich as he tried to enter the main regional municipal building in Odessa to give a statement to the media. He was left bleeding from blows to the face and his shirt was ripped to the waist. Shufrich, a former Minister, was a loyal supporter of the Moscow-backed Yanukovich. It seems that Ukrainian activists are increasingly taking the matter of punishing officials of the old regime into their own hands. ►Ex-journalists fail to stop Khoroshkovsky from running for Parliament On 30 September young journalists-turned-politicians lost a court case as they sought to challenge official registration for an oligarch to run in the parliamentary election. The oligarch in question, former PM Valeriy Khoroshkovsky, has lived in Monaco for the past few years. Under Ukraines law, only Ukrainians who have lived in the country permanently for the past 5 years are allowed to run for parliament. “It is clear the rule of law isn’t working in Ukraine,” said prominent journalist Serhiy Leshchenko, who is running for parliament for the first time. “I am afraid some high ranking Ukrainian officials ordered to register Khoroshkovsky as part of an unofficial agreement with former regionals [Party of Regions members].” Khoroshkovsky is one of Ukraine’s richest men. He made his fortune among others in the metallurgy and media sectors. He was deputy PM between February 2012 and December 2012 under the now ousted President Viktor Yanukovich. The court ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to show that Khoroshkovsky’s election registration documents were not in order. “The [court] decision shows you that to the state and [the presidential] administration an oligarch matters more than journalists,” said the journalists’ lawyer Tatyana Kozachenko. ►Ukraine, Russia and EU strike interim gas deal On 26 September EU, Ukraine, and Russia agreed on an interim solution for natural-gas flows that could prevent energy shortages in both Ukraine and EU countries this winter. Speaking after a trilateral meeting in Berlin, EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said Ukraine must pay $2 billion to Russia by the end of October and another $1.1 billion at the end of the year for outstanding bills. Oettinger, who held talks with Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak and Ukrainian Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Yuriy Prodan, said EU believes “this is an acceptable interim solution to ensure the supply of gas next winter and until spring.” He said both Ukrainian and Russian officials would have to discuss the proposed agreement with their respective governments. Prodan said there was no agreement with Russia yet over the gas price. ►Ukraine presents its strategy towards EU membership On 25 September Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko presented Ukraine’s strategy towards EU membership. He announced that with the comprehensive reform package he intends to implement, Ukraine will be ready to apply for membership in 2020. The reform plan - Strategy 2020 - includes some 60 political, social and economic reforms and programs. Priorities are getting rid of corruption, decentralising power structures which will enable eastern regions to become more autonomous, reforming the tax system and law enforcement and security bodies, trying criminal suspects (connected to the previous regime of Viktor Yanukovych) in absentia and moving towards energy independence. In terms of reducing corruption, Parliament chair Oleksandr Turchynov signed a new law that will foresee in the thorough screening of up to a million public servants, including cabinet Ministers. Public officials linked in any way to either corruption practices in former President Yanukovych’s regime or to pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine will likely be purged. Furthermore, officials unable to explain their sources of income and assets will be banned from public office for 5-10 years. “The doors of the EU are open to us; I am absolutely convinced of this,” Poroshenko said. “Events in Kiev and Brussels gave us a firm hope, a belief, that we will soon get the prospect of EU membership. We have every right to knock on this door.” He further said “we should not just walk, but we should run on the road of not simple but of tectonic changes.” Even though EU refrains from promising Ukraine membership, outgoing Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle in a written statement reiterated Brussels’ support for Ukraine “in its efforts to deliver on the necessary political and economic reforms to achieve the modernization of the country,” adding “It is for Ukraine to make its free and sovereign choices about its ambitions, orientation, and external relations.”
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 08:49:00 +0000
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