Yanukovich's First Year. Counterpoint - Yanukovich’s First Year. Ukraine-Gas. Ukraine Election 2010. Ukrainian State. Ukraine. Foreign Relations. Early warning for future gas wars | Top Russian news and analysi. MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti economic commentator Oleg Mityaev) - On the eve of the November 18 summit between Russia and the European Union in Stockholm, the Russian Energy Ministry prepared and sent to the European Commission a memorandum outlining the creation of an early warning system for energy affairs.
The memorandum calls for joint actions if Russian energy supplies to Europe are suspended, including if the interruption is caused by transit countries. Apart from improving energy dialogue with the EU, this document is designed to prevent Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko from unleashing yet another gas war with Russia. The Russian Energy Ministry has announced its readiness to work with the EU to finish the memorandum by November 18 and sign it at the summit. The agreement will focus on Russia-EU bilateral energy relations. The position of transit countries may be considered only if both the consumers and the exporters agree to do so.
Apparently, Brussels also played a major role. Tick, Tock: Russian Meddling in Ukraine Provokes a Crisis - By A. Few neighbors are closer to one another than Ukraine and Russia. Both countries are East Slavic and Orthodox in makeup, trace their origins to Kievan Rus a thousand years ago, and belonged together as one state for more than three centuries.
Yet cultural affinity does not necessarily breed friendship. To most Russians, Ukraine is simply "Little Russia" -- inconceivable as a separate country. And with the Jan. 17 Ukrainian presidential election, Russia gets another chance to prove its point. While Ukrainians are understandably preoccupied these days with their country's economic meltdown, another crisis that Russia is seemingly determined to press, perhaps as early as 2010, will be over the fate of Crimea, the peninsula extending from southern Ukraine into the Black Sea. Boris Yeltsin, the first president of the post-Soviet Russian Federation, did what he could to fortify Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Along came Vladimir Putin in 2000. Crimea is the wild card.
Kiev, Ukraine: My Kind of Town. Ukraine should join Nord Stream gas project -Yanukovych | Top Ru. Ukraine should invest in the Russia-led Nord Stream gas pipeline project, Viktor Yanukovych, the frontrunner of the recent presidential vote in Ukraine, said on Tuesday. The Nord Stream pipeline is designed to pump gas from Siberia to Europe under the Baltic Sea, bypassing East European transit countries. It is being built jointly by Gazprom, Germany's E.ON Ruhrgas and BASF-Wintershall, and Dutch gas transportation firm Gasunie at an estimated cost of $12 billion. "Ukraine should enter the consortium now involved in the Nord Stream project.
We will make this bid," Yanukovych said in an interview with a regional TV station. The construction of the 1,220-km (760-mile) pipeline is scheduled to begin in April 2010, with the launch of the first leg slated for late 2011. Yanukovych, who is leading in the presidential poll with 35.34% of the vote, said that he would start talks with Russia on a "just price" for Russian gas if elected during the February 7 runoff.
KIEV, January 19 (RIA Novosti) Lozynskyi is detained in Kyiv : Ukraine News by UNIAN. Ukraine's foreign policy: turn to the West, lie to the East | To. The international media are eagerly commenting on a statement made by Viktor Yanukovych during his first visit to Brussels as Ukraine's new president. "Ukraine's relations with NATO will remain unchanged," Yanukovych said on March 1. The discussion is likely to be followed by forecasts of Ukraine's further progress toward NATO membership. Advocates of Ukraine's accession to the European Union are likely to resurge as well, as this prospect has allegedly become more probable since the European Parliament resolution adopted on the day Yanukovych was sworn in.
In fact, Ukraine's new president did not say anything new in Brussels. A drift toward NATO was announced as Ukraine's official strategy by President Leonid Kuchma. True, it was not approved by a national referendum, but by the parliament, which was as usual engaged in an on-going process of creating all sorts of coalitions. Still, there are several facts that cannot be changed.
Russia is the only country that can help Ukraine out. Christopher Granville: Ukraine Is Headed for National Bankruptcy. Communists decided to show their teeth to Party of Regions : Ukr. Yanukovych calls on prosecutor general to bring to account those.
Ukraine Defense.