World News
Ukraine
Peter Filinovich
November 17, 2011
Ukraine is the largest country in Europe with many tourist attractions. Ukraine tourist destinations have a whole range of tourist spots and sites to choose from and those visiting this beautiful country will not be disappointed at all.
Dr. Andreas Umland
September 14, 2011
Ukraine´s citizens have so far prevented the creation of a new dictatorship, as it has happened in Belarus or the Central Asian states. These and other achievements still make Ukraine a special country, in the post-Soviet context. The EU should duly acknowledge this fact, and finally grant Ukraine a membership perspective.
Dr. Andreas Umland
August 20, 2011
Ukraine remains an exceptional country, within the post-Soviet context.
Dr. Andreas Umland
July 01, 2011
Although the EU plays a crucial role for the future of Europe, the stability and development of Europe in the 21st century depend not only on the Union's internal affairs. The Union's relationship to its European Eastern neighbors in the next years, above all to Russia and Ukraine, may be even more ...
Dr. Andreas Umland
May 22, 2011
Western advice concerning the necessity of a democratization is often seen, by Russians, as being irrelevant to their country, if not subversive, in its intention. An EU-promoted re-democratization of Ukraine, in contrast, would be an argument more difficult to reject, by isolationist Russians. If Ukraine demonstrates that an Orthodox Eastern Slavic nation is able to create and sustain a democratic political system, this could trigger a new Russian democratization too. Ukraine could be the EU's instrument to bring Russia back into the European family.
Dr. Andreas Umland
May 15, 2011
Recent political developments in the three Eastern Slavic states, like the repression of opposition figures in Moscow, Minsk and Kyiv, have been frustrating. They illustrate once more that the EU's and, not the least, Germany's policies towards Eastern Europe during the last two decades were a failu...
Dr. Andreas Umland
January 04, 2011
Ukrainian politics has been divided between two camps: the pro-Western democrats (recently represented by the "Orange" parties) and the pro-Russian anti-liberals (recently dominated by the Party of Regions). Now radical nationalists are gaining political strength. Will they manage to get their so-called Freedom party into the national parliament?
Michael Averko
December 17, 2010
Note: with hyperlinks, this article was originally placed this morning at Eurasia Review (http://www.eurasiareview.com). MMA
An August 17, 2009 article in Georgian Daily by Paul Goble ("Ukraine Has Nearly 3,000 Russian-Language Schools, But Russia Has None of Ukrainian-Language Schools") was br...
Dr. Andreas Umland
November 17, 2010
The Union Leadership Needs to Find a Middle Road between More Effective Critique of, and Continuing Cooperation with, Kyiv's New Leadership
Dr. Andreas Umland
October 27, 2010
Two major recent studies of democracy in East-Central Europe and the former Soviet Union have, independently from each other and based on different methodologies, come to largely similar inferences concerning the question: Which political regimes are most conducive to sustainable democratization in post-communist transition states?
Michael Averko
October 13, 2010
Note: with hyperlinks, this article was originally placed this morning at Eurasia Review (http://www.eurasiareview.com). MMA
Peter Hitchens' September 27 Mail Online article "As Ukrainians force Russians to turn their back on their language and change their names, I ask, is this the world's most ...
Dr. Andreas Umland
April 09, 2010
Largely unnoticed in the West, Ukraine´s new President, Viktor Yanukovych, has brought to power an illegitimate government, in March 2010. Though being installed via a seemingly orderly parliamentary procedure, the current Ukrainian cabinet headed by Prime-Minister Mykola Azarov has no proper popular mandate. Worse, according to Ukrainian press reports, Yanukovych´s actions received first hesitant, and later explicit support from official representatives of Western countries and organizations. How did that come about?
Michael Averko
April 01, 2010
Note: with hyperlinks, this article was initially placed this morning at Eurasian Home (http://www.eurasianhome.org). MMA
What follows is a long and updated version of a submitted letter, which was edited and run by The Moscow Times (TMT) on March 18. This is stated with the realization of how n...
Ahmed Hany
February 24, 2010
The Ukraine presidential election that brought Victor Yanukovych the Russian ally to power is an important turning point in the Russian-Western relations. Although the elected president won marginally against the incumbent prime minster Yulia Tymoshenko ( 48.6% and 44.5% respectively), and only abou...
Dr. Andreas Umland
February 07, 2010
Comparative research has amply demonstrated that such a semi-presidential form of government is problematic for societies transitioning to democracy. But the failure to trace Ukraine's problems and the nature of its political crisis to the semi-presidential system has distorted not only Ukrainian attitudes to their young democracy in recent years, but also the opinion of foreign commentators who are not familiar with recent political research. As a result, instead of questioning the suitability of a semi-presidential system for this post-totalitarian state, some have questioned the suitability of democracy for Ukraine -- or even of Ukrainians for democracy.
Dr. Andreas Umland
February 07, 2010
EU membership is one of the few ideas which still unites almost all Ukrainian politicians, at a national level, as indeed it does large sectors of the population in the east and west of the country. Other salient issues like NATO membership, Russian as a second state language, or the interpretation of World War II deeply divide the country. But the goal of EU membership enjoys wide support, not only in western Ukraine, but in the east too (though less so, in the south, one has to admit).
Dr. Andreas Umland
January 15, 2010
Tough a violent escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict remains unlikely, politicians on both sides better start thinking how to react in case it does happen.
Dr. Andreas Umland
December 03, 2009
The pro-Ukrainian Free Democratic Party of Germany is becoming a player in the EU´s foreign affairs
Dr. Andreas Umland
November 19, 2009
It might have been the experience of the Orange Revolution that motivated the Kremlin to abandon, three years later, its earlier dramaturgy of staged political competition by controlled parties, and go, in December 2007, for an almost complete, largely undisguised restoration of an, in essence, singly-party system.
Lea Anna Cooper
November 16, 2009
Reaching critical mass. When will the WHO and the CDC pay attention to anyone other than paying 'special interests?' A Tale of Two Stories: The European BioWar outbreak and the censoring of it by the mainstream news media.
The biggest story on the Planet today is the outbreak of a very serious Advanced Biological War virus in Europe. The second biggest story on the Planet is the suppression of this story for almost two weeks by the corporate owned mainstream news media.
Dr. Andreas Umland
August 21, 2009
As long as Russia and other post-Soviet republics will keep a national mythology that pays little attention to proto-democratic beginnings in their history, they will remain trapped in their authoritarian traditions. Ukraine provides an example of how a country can break with an unusable past, and create a pluralistic polity drawing on appropriate (if, sometimes, idealized) precedents in its national history.
Dr. Andreas Umland
July 01, 2009
After several years of impressive economic growth and encouraging political change, Ukraine has recently entered troubled waters. The democracies west of Ukraine are institutionally consolidated and internationally embedded enough to circumscribe the political repercussions of their so far relativel...
Ivan Eland
May 21, 2009
Of all the countries lining up to get under the United States´ protective shield in the NATO alliance, the Ukraine is the most important for the United States and Russia. During Soviet times, the Ukraine was the breadbasket of the nation and also housed important industries within its borders....
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
February 06, 2009
The Ecoterra 127th Press Release Update sheds more light on the Ukrainian administration´s pressure for a successful termination of the MV FAINA negotiations. Herewith, I publish it integrally.
127th Update 2009-02-02 20h12:29 UTC
Ecoterra Intl. - Stay Calm & Solve it Peaceful & Fast...
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
February 06, 2009
The pressure from the hostages´ families and the deterioration of the global economy, which made an amphibious military intervention in Somalia impossible, contributed to the advance made in the negotiations between the representatives of the pirates and the ship owner who is a political figur...
Dr. Andreas Umland
January 15, 2009
As president Victor Yushchenko's rating plummets further there Is a chance that Kiev's political elite may agree to form a parliamentary republic.
Michael Averko
October 15, 2008
Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili is not quite the puppet as some suggest. Choosing an across the board principle on disputed former Communist bloc territories (whether one agrees with it or not), he has not joined the American led effort to recognize Kosovo's independence. A move that takes in...
Michael Averko
August 11, 2008
With the recent flare up over South Ossetia in mind, a few other global conflicts relate and contrast to Russia's stance on disputed territories and its military operation against Georgia.
Turkey is the only country recognizing the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" (TRNC) as an independent s...
Dr. Andreas Umland
April 20, 2008
Germany´s current stand on Ukraine´s participation NATO's Membership Action Plan is less related to any particular pro-Russianness. Instead, it is driven by a more rational assessment of the implications that a NATO offer for Ukrainian participation in MAP would have. The majority of Ukraine´s population is still against NATO membership. Therefere, a NATO offer now would have had the immediate effect of mobilizing Ukrainian anti-NATO forces, and their utilization of widely spread anti-Western stereotypes - with unknown consequences.
Michael Averko
April 09, 2008
Since the Soviet breakup, Ukraine has been geo-politically spun in two ways. When Ukraine's less Russia friendly side appears to have enhanced its stature, there is an increased yearning to drive Ukraine away from Russia as much as possible. When Ukraine's more Russia friendly grouping seems strengt...
Taras Bereza
March 15, 2007
Those are rather different states existing under one flag, two opposing Ukraine(s), each with own rights, ideology, and, what can be hardly ever changed, mentality, are fighting for independence from each other over recent decade.
Current situation proves that citizens are far remote from the af...
Congressional Desk
March 23, 2006
U.S. Senator Dick Lugar joined President Bush today at the White House signing ceremony of HR 1053, which repeals the 32-year-old trade restrictions against Ukraine and extends permanent normal trade relations to the Eastern European Country of 47 million people. Ukraine had been sanctioned by the ...
