ukraine

Today, in the European Parliament, we got to officially meet the newly elected Ukrainian President Yanukovich for the first time.
 
 

Moscow is so confident that relations with Ukraine will improve after this weekend’s presidential elections that it won’t wait for an expected runoff in three weeks to fill its long-vacant ambassadorship in Kiev. Mikhail Zurabov is expecting to be dispatched to Kiev any day now.
Ties sank to new lows in August when President Dmitry Medvedev announced that he would not send the newly appointed ambassador to Ukraine while President Viktor Yushchenko remained in office; Yushchenko is almost certain to be voted out of office in the election on Sunday.

It was a somewhat tired looking Viktor Yushchenko who was greeted by Jerzy Buzek, the President of the European Parliament, in Brussels this afternoon.
 
Yushchenko is a man who has always been much admired in Brussels, and I remember well the euphoria that surrounded the success of the Orange Revolution in 2004 - I still proudly keep my own orange scarf!
 

Yesterday (7 Sept), Dmitri Medvedev discussed Gazprom's operational priorities in Russia, gas-sector cooperation in the Caspian region, and relations with gas consumers in Belarus and Ukraine with Alexei Miller, Gazprom's chief executive. 
 

 
The following press release was issued a few days ago by NATO:
 
"NATO and Ukraine took their relationship to a higher level by the signing of a “Declaration to Complement the Charter on a Distinctive Partnership between NATO and Ukraine” at NATO Headquarters on 21 August. The document was signed by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and by Ukrainian Ambassador to NATO Ihor Sagach on behalf of the Ukrainian President.

 
In an extraordinary move, President Medvedev has announced that he will not be sending an Ambassador to the Ukraine. In an open letter to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, he has accused his neighbours of attempting to sever economic ties with Russia, of glorifying Nazism, and even complaining a bit too much about the Holomodor, the famine engineered by Stalin that killed millions of Ukrainians in 1932-33.
 

Ukrainian membership of NATO, much discussed and speculated upon until the Russian invasion of Georgia, is now on hold. It would very likely be better for all concerned if it is postponed indefinitely. Former Ukrainian Parliamentary Speaker Arseniy Yatseniuk has clearly stated that his country's membership of NATO is not currently on the agenda. "No one has proposed us to become a NATO member”, he has said, "Ukraine is not ready to join NATO today, moreover, NATO is not ready to accept Ukraine today ".