Published in Financial Times
By: Roman Olearchyk

Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's wealthiest man, has significantly increased his interest in a large electricity generating company through a controversial debt-for-equity transaction that has cast a shadow over Kiev's ability to privatise state assets transparently.

With snap parliamentary elections just weeks away, the deal has taken on political overtones. Opposition parties have cried foul, alleging the sale was fixed in favour of a businessman close to Viktor Yanukovich, Ukraine's premier, and have pledged to challenge it.

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Published in UNIAN

Ukraine’s future form needed to comfort both Russia and the US is a neutral, politically and economically stable and, most importantly, democratic state.
This was stated by Russian and American experts during the round table, UNIAN reports.

“Russia is deeply concerned with Ukraine’s neutrality. I am convinced that Ukraine’s neutral status meets both Russian and Ukrainian interests,” underlines Efficient Policy Fund director Kirill Tanaev.

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Published in Business Ukraine
By: Tammy Lynch

As Ukraine’s parliamentary campaign reaches its half-way point, there are increasing concerns that some may not want a free and fair election

Attempts to reintroduce undemocratic practices, such as the much-abused home voting privileges of 2004, are threatening to derail Ukraine’s fledgling democracy less than three years since the population took to the streets to overturn a rigged presidential election.

In mid-August, several international election monitoring organizations began working in Ukraine in advance of the extraordinary September 30 parliamentary elections. Their timing couldn’t have been better. Even as campaign monitors began to deploy in all regions of the country, the Central Election Commission (CEC) issued a series of rulings that both confounded and concerned election specialists. Domestically, the rulings also galvanised the country’s opposition against what it labeled “political repression” and “subversion of the democratic process.”

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Published in BBC News in western Ukraine
By: Helen Fawkes

* Yulia Tymoshenko on Campaign Trail Video *

Ukraine's opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko has said she believes that the early parliamentary ballot due to be held in September will be rigged. Read More...

Published in Kyiv Post

Recent polls show that four parties and blocs are poised to win seats in parliament, with the Party of Regions leading the way.

According to results released by FOM-Ukraine on Aug. 22, the Donetsk-heavy Regions would have 203 seats in the 450-member parliament, followed by the oppositionist Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (Byut) with 126, the pro-presidential Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense (OUPSD) with 96 and the Communists with 25.

Combined, Byut and OUPSD would just fall short of creating a majority in the next Rada with 222 seats, according to FOM-Ukraine. The pollsters conceded, however, that at this stage of the election game, the “orange” and “blue” forces have equal chances of forming the next government.

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Published in Deutsche Welle

In a DW-WORLD.DE interview, Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko said the current political crisis in Ukraine shows democracy is developing there.

Yulia Tymoshenko heads Ukraine's BYuT political alliance. She was a leader of Ukraine's so-called Orange Revolution in the winter of 2004-2005 and subsequently served as the country's prime minister for seven and a half months, until September 2005.

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Published in Stratfor

Summary:
Russia's attempts to expand its influence to date have had a half-hearted feel. That is about to change, with Ukraine serving as the inflection point.

Analysis:
The Russians have been pushing out in many of directions of late, sending long-range bombers out to poke at NATO states, starting riots in the Baltics, unnerving the Georgians at every opportunity, challenging Arctic boundaries and putting down flags in the Asian rim and Middle East. All of these things capture global attention, but most are really rather symbolic. A flag on the seafloor under the North Pole does not really make a claim, musing about a naval base in Syria is not the same as actually putting one there, and intimidating Georgia is about as hard as barking back at a Chihuahua. Part of determining the gravity of a resurgence is separating signal from noise. Russia is about to get serious about its efforts, and the inflection point will be Ukraine.

Ukraine is the most important piece of territory to long-term Russian strategy. It is the birthplace of the Russian ethnicity, a 1,000-mile buffer between Russia and the West, and home to most of Russia's infrastructure connections to Europe and the Russian Black Sea Fleet's port. It is a chunk of territory that can compromise Russian influence in the Caucasus, and incidentally it is home to over 10 million Russians.

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Published in Inform Newsletter

The Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT) has won a court ruling that orders Ukraine’s Central Election Commission (CEC) to reconsider the registration of 450 BYuT candidates standing for Ukraine’s parliamentary elections slated for 30 September.

The Kyiv court instructed the CEC to reconsider the registration by today and found that BYuT was in compliance with all laws. The CEC has two days to appeal the verdict.

On Friday the CEC made a shock decision to reject the BYuT candidates’ registration, effectively shutting out the Leader of the Opposition and her bloc from the electoral process on the grounds that they had not included their full addresses on the registration forms submitted.

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On Tuesday, August 14, a Ukrainian court ruled that the Central Election Committee (CEC) must, by tomorrow, act to register the major opposition party, Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT), for the September 2007 parliamentary elections. The court found that BYuT was in compliance with all laws and gave the CEC two days to appeal the verdict.

This court ruling came after the CEC refused to register BYuT for a second time on Monday.

Last Friday, the CEC, which is dominated by representatives from Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich’s Party of Regions, first refused to certify Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT) for the upcoming parliamentary elections, to the consternation of Ukrainians and many Western observers and government officials. Supporters of BYuT have begun to set up tents and demonstrate in front of the CEC headquarters.

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DELEGATION TO THE EU-UKRAINE PARLIAMENTARY COOPERATION COMMITTEE

The Chairman

PRESS STATEMENT

by Mr Adrian SEVERIN, MEP

Brussels: As chairman of the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation Committee I have to express concern over the recent decision by the Ukraine Central Election Commission (CEC) not to register members of the certain opposition political parties for the early parliamentary elections scheduled to take place in Ukraine on 30 September 2007.

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Published in The Washington Times
By: David R. Sands

Leaders of Ukraine's largest pro-Western opposition party — with hundreds of its candidates banned from running for parliament — demanded yesterday that the ban be reversed and accused the country's pro-Russian prime minister of trying to provoke a political crisis.

Supporters of the bloc led by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko have appealed to a Kiev court to reverse the election commission's decision Friday night for the Sept. 30 vote.

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Kyiv, Ukraine; The Ukrainian Central Election Commission (CEC), which is responsible for overseeing the electoral process associated with the Ukrainian parliamentary elections scheduled for September 30th, has refused to register the main opposition coalition led by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Early Saturday morning the CEC members who represent Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, along with his communist and socialist allies, refused to give their vote acknowledging the candidacy of all 450 nominees of the opposition coalition of Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT).

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The party founded and led by Ukraine's Opposition Leader Yulia Tymoshenko (The Batkivshchyna Party) has announced that it will become an observer member of Europe's largest party, the European People's Party (EPP). The move highlights former Prime Minister Tymoshenko's commitment to furthering modern European democratic ideals and places Ms. Tymoshenko alongside other EPP leaders to include French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The announcement to join the EPP was made by Ms. Tymoshenko during the convention of the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT) held in Kyiv on Sunday, August 5th, ahead of Ukraine's parliamentary elections on 30 September, 2007. Other member parties within BYuT are expected to join the EPP in the coming weeks.

EPP President Wilfried Martens, who will speak at the convention, said, "We welcome your efforts in building a democratic party with European values and principles, which will bring Ukraine and all her citizens a prosperous and peaceful future for all."

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Published in Financial Times
By: Keith Smith

Ukraine is too important for its energy investment and tax policies to be ignored by the European Union and the US. If the Yanukovych government is serious about closer economic and political ties to the west, it should reverse its current policies and opaque practices, which are discouraging western energy investment.

Ukraine needs to establish a transparent investment regime that encourages, rather than discourages, non-Russian business in all sectors, including in oil and gas exploration, development and production. Only a level playing field for all energy investors and rational tax policies that encourage western companies will lead to Ukraine's integration into the west. The development of a strong Ukrainian democracy and thriving economy is important for stability in central Europe and therefore vital to the security interests of Europe and the US.

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