Section: News & Summaries

      The mafia of the digital age

      Through the dark world of cybercrime, its tentacles spread everywhere: stock manipulation, money laundering, gambling and more. ||| New York – Through the dark world of cybercrime, its tentacles spread everywhere: stock manipulation, money laundering, gambling and more.Nothing in the annals of corporate hacking compares to the portrait US...

      Key hacker MIA in US case

      A key figure is missing in the court documents outlining the biggest computer attack ever of the US financial system: the actual hacker. ||| Washington – A key figure is missing in the court documents outlining the biggest computer attack ever of the US financial system: the actual hacker. The Israeli mastermind of the crime syndicate with...

      Will Saakashvili’s Defeat in Odesa Be His Ukrainian Waterloo?
      Nov11

      Will Saakashvili’s Defeat in Odesa Be His Ukrainian Waterloo?

      Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov trounced Solidarity Party’s Sasha Borovik by 53-26 percent in Ukraine’s local elections October 25. Observers reported carousel voting, multiple voting lists, exit poll workers agitating for candidates, and a suspiciously slow vote count.The race for Odesa mayor was a proxy war between Oblast Governor...

      A Close (and Surprisingly Positive) Encounter with Odesa’s New Police
      Nov11

      A Close (and Surprisingly Positive) Encounter with Odesa’s New Police

      The reorganization and reform of Ukraine’s catastrophically corrupt police force was the top priority when President Petro Poroshenko appointed Eka Zguladze first deputy Interior Minister of Ukraine. Poroshenko wants to emulate the relative success that Georgia’s Rose Revolution reformers garnered in modernizing their small...

      Failing on the Ukrainian Battlefield, Russia Turns to Terrorism
      Nov11

      Failing on the Ukrainian Battlefield, Russia Turns to Terrorism

      To understand how Russia conducts its foreign policy, simply look at what the Kremlin accuses everyone else of doing. Unlike the Soviet Union, which operated under a coherent ideology, the Russian government under President Vladimir Putin seems to believe that everybody is a cynical power player, and that the West is simply hypocritical about it....

      Judiciary Reforms Take a Major Step Forward in Ukraine
      Nov10

      Judiciary Reforms Take a Major Step Forward in Ukraine

      While Ukraine’s eastern front falls quiet, a different campaign rages in the conference rooms of Kyiv. The administration of President Petro Poroshenko is overhauling the Ukrainian state, amending everything from the constitution to the tax code. The most important reform may be the creation of an independent judiciary. As Anders Åslund...

      Expert Panel Identifies Ways to Defeat Corruption in Ukraine
      Nov10

      Expert Panel Identifies Ways to Defeat Corruption in Ukraine

      A top Citibank executive and one of Ukraine’s most popular rock stars were among five luminaries who offered their suggestions Monday for cleaning up the endemic corruption that has long strangled the Ukrainian economy and kept foreign investors away.The five appeared on a November 9 panel titled “Securing Ukraine’s Future:...

      Ukraine Needs Responsible Public Finances Now
      Nov09

      Ukraine Needs Responsible Public Finances Now

      With increasing surprise, I follow the Ukrainian discussion about public finances. Strangely, some prominent Ukrainians seem to think that taxes and public expenditures have no relationship to one another, arguing that public expenditures should be increased and taxes should be cut. But that is called populism, the disease Ukraine has suffered...

      Justice Sector Is Central Battlefield in Struggle Between Old Ukraine and New Ukraine
      Nov09

      Justice Sector Is Central Battlefield in Struggle Between Old Ukraine and New Ukraine

      Editor’s note: US Ambassador Geoffrey R. Pyatt gave remarks at the “Conference on Legal and Governance Reform,” sponsored by the US-Ukraine Business Council and Kyiv School of Economics on October 30, 2015 in Kyiv. Pyatt’s remarks have been shortened below. The full version is available here.What a difference a year...

      Memorial to Ukrainian Holodomor dedicated in Washington, DC
      Nov08

      Memorial to Ukrainian Holodomor dedicated in Washington, DC

      PHOTO:Memorial to the victims of Holodomor in Washington on the eve of the official opening on November 7 (State Dept./D.A. Peterson) On November 7, 2015 the dedication ceremony of the Ukrainian-Famine Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial commemorating Ukrainians who perished in the Holodomor took place in downtown Washington D.C, US. “Memorial...