Section: News & Summaries

      How to Help Ukraine: An Alternative Vision
      Jan19

      How to Help Ukraine: An Alternative Vision

      Three former US Ambassadors to Ukraine recently wrote an op-ed article in the New York Times (“Investing in Ukraine’s Future,” December 30, 2015) that called for an increase in Western financial assistance to Ukraine and argued that the country is now “teetering on the brink.” I strongly support their willingness to...

      How Ukraine’s Reformers Beat the Pharma Mafia
      Jan19

      How Ukraine’s Reformers Beat the Pharma Mafia

      A little over a month after US Vice President Joe Biden told Ukrainian legislators that graft was eating Ukraine “like a cancer,” an order from Ukraine’s cabinet of ministers struck a decisive blow against pharmaceutical corruption. This order outsources the purchasing of numerous medicines for seriously ill Ukrainians from the...

      Europe presses Ukraine on reforms

      The European Union is anxious for Ukraine authorities to overcome political feuding and implement promised reforms. ||| Brussels – The European Union pressed Ukraine authorities on Monday to overcome political feuding and implement promised reforms as it looks to shore up the country’s democratic and economic credentials. Having so...

      Seven Key Reforms for Ukraine in 2016
      Jan18

      Seven Key Reforms for Ukraine in 2016

      After Orthodox Christmas, I spent a few days in Kyiv. It is quite striking how the mood has changed in a positive direction. The 2016 budget and the modified tax code were adopted on December 24. After two weeks of well-deserved rest, there is a sudden realization that Ukraine accomplished many important economic reforms in 2015. Admittedly, many...

      ISDS Arbitration Upholds Australia’s Plain Packaging Laws
      Jan18

      ISDS Arbitration Upholds Australia’s Plain Packaging Laws

      Tobacco giant Philip Morris has lost a major international legal battle to reverse Australia’s plain packaging laws by using the Australia–Hong Kong Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (IPPA) of 1993. On 17 December 2015, a three-member arbitral tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled that Philip Morris had no...

      Twitter banned hundreds of Ukrainian users because of fake reports made by Russian bots
      Jan17

      Twitter banned hundreds of Ukrainian users because of fake reports made by Russian bots

      On December 29, 2015, Twitter began mass block of its users with active pro Ukrainian position who have thousands of followers. The reason was the mass appeals of Russian bots that used the changes to the rules of Twitter. For several days it was blocked several hundreds of Ukrainian accounts in this social network. Among them, many popular with...

      The Complex History of the Ukrainian Nation: A Review of “The Gates of Europe”
      Jan14

      The Complex History of the Ukrainian Nation: A Review of “The Gates of Europe”

      During a time of war, history becomes a weapon used to justify claims and raise soldiers’ spirits. In this case, successful histories are simple, unequivocal, and confirmed by the experiences of past centuries.The current Kremlin version of history of the relationship between Russia and Ukraine fully meets these criteria. According to...

      Avalanche hits school group, 3 dead

      An avalanche killed at least three people when it swept into skiers on a closed slope in the French Alps, the interior ministry said. ||| Lyon – An avalanche killed at least three people and seriously injured others when it swept into skiers, including a group of schoolchildren, on a closed slope in the French Alps on Wednesday, the...

      New Poll Confirms Growing Mistrust Between Donbas Residents and Kyiv
      Jan13

      New Poll Confirms Growing Mistrust Between Donbas Residents and Kyiv

      Ukrainians elected more than 10,000 mayors and 160,000 city councilmembers in local elections on October 25. It was the third nationwide election since the Euromaidan Revolution. A new International Republican Institute (IRI) poll of the Ukrainian-controlled territories of the Donbas region (i.e., Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts) reveals that only 26...

      Free the Kremlin’s 20 Ukrainian Hostages Now
      Jan13

      Free the Kremlin’s 20 Ukrainian Hostages Now

      Soviet dissident Vasyl Stus—an important Ukrainian poet of the 20th century—never lived to see the fall of the Soviet Union. He died in a prison camp near Perm in 1985.As I read one of Stus’s poems about Siberia, I realized that Gennadiy Afanasyev, a 25-year-old Crimean photographer exiled to the Sytkyvkar penal camp in Russia’s Komi...