tagged w/ Ukraine
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The neon lights are no longer flashing; the roulette wheels have spun their last turn. Casinos across Russia closed their doors on Wednesday as a sweeping ban on gambling came into effect, less than a week after a similar ban hit neighboring Ukraine. Lawmakers in both countries say the bans were necessary to bring under control spiraling addiction and a notoriously shady business. But critics say the moves will leave hundreds of thousands out of work and force the industry underground. Until June 25, the River Palace was one of the most popular casinos in Kiev, buzzing with customers trying their luck in rooms awash with the sounds of pinging bells and clicking roulette balls. But now the place is deserted, filled only with an eerie silence. The timing couldn't have been worse for Olha Stupak, who was one of the casino's senior supervisors. With a child about to enter university, car loan repayments to meet and rent to pay, she's going to struggle to get by on her savings and unemployment benefit. "I'm looking for work, but it's difficult because of the crisis," she says, looking round at the empty tables. "I know all about roulette, poker and blackjack. But other jobs require different work experience." The ban — which affects not only casinos, but also slot machines and bookmakers — is set to push up unemployment levels in one of the regions already hardest hit by the economic crisis. In Russia, an estimated 400,000 will be out of work and in Ukraine, "overnight, 200,000 workers have been left without a job," says Hryhoriy Trypulsky, vice president of the Ukrainian Association of Gambling Operators. "The legislation has been rushed through without any thought of the consequences."
Russia had been planning its ban for some time, with parliament passing legislation in 2006 which would restrict gambling to four remote areas from July 1 this year. But Ukrainian lawmakers were slower off the mark, and only sprang into action in May after nine people were killed in a fire at a slot machine hall in Dnipropetrovsk in eastern Ukraine. After the fire brought national attention to an industry that was already widely frowned upon, lawmakers pounced. The legislation they passed places a temporary ban on gambling while plans are drawn up to restrict gambling to special zones, most likely in Crimea on Ukraine's southern Black Sea coast.The neon lights are no longer flashing; the roulette wheels have spun their last turn.... more
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"British art provocateur Damien Hirst will mount the largest exhibition ever of his trademark fish skeletons, skull paintings and dead animals in a major show in Ukraine’s capital.
One of the world’s most famous and commercially successful contemporary artists, Hirst plans a show in Kiev that will feature a retrospective of more than 100 sculptures and installations made since 1990 as well as a collection of oil paintings, most of which have never been exhibited.
The artist says he chose Ukraine as the host of his exhibit because of this ex-Soviet republic’s newly discovered interest in contemporary art.
“I’ve always thought that museums are for dead artists and I kind of was afraid of that,” he told The Associated Press Television News. “But I think because in Ukraine the audience is so new — to contemporary art at least — that makes it exciting, that makes me wanna do it.”""British art provocateur Damien Hirst will mount the largest exhibition ever of... more
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A first half goal from Peter Crouch and an 85th-minute winner from John Terry against Ukraine last night gave England their fifth consecutive win and left them on top of Group Six in the World Cup qualifiers.
It was the two players' goal celebrations that superseded any display of football skills, however. Inspired by a recent Comic Relief sketch in which Gavin And Stacey actor James Corden advises Peter Crouch to abandon the robot move and instead do a "pull-the-rope" mime dance, the number 9 duly obliged.
For his celebration, John Terry teamed up with Wayne Rooney to recreate the captain's last haircut.
"I needed a haircut, but we weren't allowed to leave the hotel," Terry told reporters.
"I asked Wazza and he obliged by giving me a little trim. I'm pleased with it and I might go back next time. He was asking for a tenner for it, but I still owe him."A first half goal from Peter Crouch and an 85th-minute winner from John Terry against... more
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richjm
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3 years ago
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Russia has chosen 21 year old singer, Anastasia Prikhodko (a Ukrainian singer) to represent the host country at this years Eurovision Song Contest, the most voted in Russian TV history.
Anastasia tried to represent her own country Ukraine, but was disqualified for violating regulations. She'll be singing the song "Mama".Russia has chosen 21 year old singer, Anastasia Prikhodko (a Ukrainian singer) to... more
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Olexander Pavlenko, a young computer programmer, is one of tens of thousands of Ukrainians who cannot get their money out of the bank.
He stood in line in Kiev at Nadra Bank and Ukrprombank, two big troubled banks, planning to withdraw more than $10,000 (€7,950, £7,125). But like many others, he was told the cash was not available.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Ukraine pushes for loans to meet shortfall - Feb-08
Editorial Comment: Gas crisis and EU reforms - Jan-11
Ukrainian infighting gives Russia the edge - Jan-02
Ukraine nears Russian gas debt deal - Dec-30
Car import curbs have Russians on streets - Dec-21
Ukraine’s PM tells president to quit - Dec-21
“I stood in line a couple times with other bank clients who were protesting, crying and screaming. But the bank told me: ‘Sorry, we simply don’t have the money now and can’t help you.’”
With about nine banks now under the central bank’s special control, Ukrainians are increasingly worried.
Even those with their money in apparently solid banks, including those controlled by west European banking groups, are concerned because the central bank has banned the early redemption of term deposits, the most popular form of saving in Ukraine.
Altogether, hryvnia bank deposits have dropped 20 per cent since September and those in foreign currency 10 per cent.Olexander Pavlenko, a young computer programmer, is one of tens of thousands of... more
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gooma2
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3 years ago
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The Holocaust has a landscape engraved in the mind's eye: barbed-wire fences, gas chambers, furnaces.
Less known is the "Holocaust by Bullets," in which over 2 million Jews were gunned down in towns and villages across Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Their part in the Nazis' Final Solution has been under-researched, their bodies left unidentified in unmarked mass graves.
"Shoah," French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann's documentary, stands as the 20th century's epic visual record of the Holocaust. Now another Frenchman, a Catholic priest named Patrick Desbois, is filling in a different part of the picture.
Desbois says he has interviewed more than 800 eyewitnesses and pinpointed hundreds of mass graves strewn around dusty fields in the former Soviet Union. The result is a book, "The Holocaust by Bullets," and an exhibition through March 15 at New York's Museum of Jewish Heritage.
Brought to Ukraine by a twist of fate, Desbois has spent seven years trying to document the truth, honor the dead, relieve witnesses of their pain and guilt and prevent future acts of genocide.
Some 1.4 million of Soviet Ukraine's 2.4 million Jews were executed, starved to death or died of disease during the war. Another 550,000-650,000 Soviet Jews were killed in Belarus and up to 140,000 in Russia, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Most of the victims were women, children and the elderly.
Begun after Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the slaughter by bullets was the opening phase of what became the Nazis' Final Solution with its factories of death operating in Auschwitz and other camps, all in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Desbois devotes his 233-page book, published by Palgrave Macmillan in August, to his work in Ukraine, where he says he has uncovered over 800 mass extermination sites, more than two-thirds of them previously unknown.
Since the book was written, he has expanded his search for mass graves into Belarus and plans to look early this year in areas of Russia that were occupied by the Germans.
Sometimes bursting into tears, old men and women from poor Ukrainian villages recount to Desbois how women, children and elders were marched or carted in from neighboring towns to be shot, burned to death or buried alive by German troops, Romanian forces, squads of local Ukrainian collaborators and local ethnic German volunteers.
Even then, it was methodical, Desbois' research shows. First, Germans would arrive in a town or village and gather intelligence on how best to transport the victims to extermination sites, where to execute them and how to dispose of their bodies.
"It was done as systematically as it was done elsewhere," said John Paul Himka, an expert on the Holocaust and Ukraine at the University of Alberta in Canada, who is not connected to Desbois' work. "You can read as they're figuring out best way to do this, the best way to shoot ... it's absolutely systematic, no accident here."
Desbois' interviews and grave-hunting tie in to millions of pages of Soviet archives, heightening their credibility, says Paul Shapiro, of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum who wrote the foreword to Desbois' book.
Father Desbois' work is also having an impact on efforts to preserve Holocaust sites. In December, the 26-nation International Task Force on the Holocaust called on European governments to ensure the protection of locations such as the mass graves Desbois is uncovering, according to Shapiro, who helped draft the resolution.The Holocaust has a landscape engraved in the mind's eye: barbed-wire fences, gas... more
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But we all know how these things go:
"It is not yet clear how much these new rates will actually be, Reuters news agency notes."But we all know how these things go:
"It is not yet clear how much these new... more
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On April 26, 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian city of Pripyat exploded and began spewing radioactive smoke and gas. Firemen discovered that no amount of water could extinguish the blaze. More than 40,000 residents in the immediate area were exposed to fallout 100 times greater than that from the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan. But the most serious nuclear accident in history had only begun.
Based on top-secret government documents that came to light only in the Nineties, during the collapse of the Soviet Union, THE BATTLE OF CHERNOBYL reveals a systematic cover-up of the true scope of the disaster, including the possibility of a secondary explosion of the still-smoldering magma, whose radioactive clouds would have rendered Europe uninhabitable. The government effort to prevent such a catastrophe lasted for more than seven months and sacrificed the lives of thousands of soldiers, miners and other workers.
THE BATTLE OF CHERNOBYL dramatically chronicles the series of harrowing efforts to stop the nuclear chain reaction and prevent a second explosion, to "liquidate" the radioactivity, and to seal off the ruined reactor under a mammoth "sarcophagus." These nerve-racking events are recounted through newly available films, videos and photos taken in and around the plant, computer animation, and interviews with participants and eyewitnesses, many of whom were exposed to radiation, including government and military leaders, scientists, workers, journalists, doctors, and Pripyat refugees.
The consequences of this catastrophe continue today, with thousands of disabled survivors suffering from the "Chernobyl syndrome" of radiation-related illnesses, and the urgent need to replace the hastily-constructed and now crumbling sarcophagus over the still-contaminated reactor. As this remarkable film makes clear, THE BATTLE OF CHERNOBYL is far from over.On April 26, 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian... more
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Russian and Ukrainian authorities say they will meet Saturday in an attempt to find a solution to the stalemate that has cut gas supplies to much of Europe.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and her Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, agreed in a telephone conversation Thursday to hold the talks in Moscow. Ukraine had initially rejected the venue, saying Wednesday the meeting should be held in EU territory.
The European Union says it will send EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and Czech Energy Minister Martin Riman to the talks.Russian and Ukrainian authorities say they will meet Saturday in an attempt to find a... more
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The gas crisis between Moscow, Kiev and the EU may look like chaos. But in reality it is a big game for raw materials and political influence.
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The idea has also resurfaced of the Nabucco pipeline, which would connect Europe with to the Caspian Sea through Turkey and circumventing Russia.But the Nabucco will not succeed without the US, European diplomats say. Unofficial reports suggest Barack Obama is in its favour. That is why Moscow is playing such a tough game - it wants to secure footholds for its energy interests in Europe before Mr Obama is sworn in on 20 January.
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The conflict has united the otherwise conflicted Ukrainian elites. The Russians thought it would be enough to stop supplying gas to the pro-Russian eastern Ukraine for the enthusiasts of an alliance with Moscow to march on Kiev. They miscalculated.
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Billions of dollars, imperial ambitions, geopolitics... yup,. it's a big game!The gas crisis between Moscow, Kiev and the EU may look like chaos. But in reality it... more
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Russia accused the US last night of "orchestrating" Europe's gas crisis as gas deliveries to the EU were halted hours after they resumed, amid venomous exchanges of accusations between Moscow and Kiev.Russia accused the US last night of "orchestrating" Europe's gas crisis... more
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mcamca
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3 years ago
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January 11, 2009
William Engdahl: The geo-politics of provocations between Russia and Ukraine.
Russia cut off the natural gas it sends to Europe through Ukraine on Wednesday when a payment dispute escalated. Russia claims Ukraine siphoned off gas for its own use. Ukraine denies this. Russia stopped all natural gas supplies to Ukraine on 1 January, but kept supplies flowing to Europe through Ukraine's pipelines until Wednesday, when all deliveries were stopped. At least 15 nations - Austria, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey - all reported a halt in Russian gas shipments by Wednesday. Germany and Poland also reported substantial drops in supplies. Author and political economist William Engdahl believes the dispute forms part of a strategy by Ukraine to "gain geopolitical influence with the west."
F William Engdahl is an economist and author and the writer of the best selling book "A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order." Mr Engdhahl has written on issues of energy, politics and economics for more than 30 years, beginning with the first oil shock in the early 1970s. Mr. Engdahl contributes regularly to a number of publications including Asia Times Online, Asia, Inc, Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Foresight magazine; Freitag and ZeitFragen newspapers in Germany and Switzerland respectively. He is based in Germany.
.January 11, 2009
William Engdahl: The geo-politics of provocations between Russia... more
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Hundreds of thousands of homes in Europe remain without heating amid plunging temperatures as a gas row between Russia and Ukraine continues.
More than 15 countries have been hit by the shutdown of Russian supplies.
Serbia and Bosnia-Hercegovina are among the worst hit as many homes rely on heating stations that only run on gas.
The EU said it had reached agreement on an observer mission to monitor gas flows, but it was unclear when supplies would resume.
EU energy spokesman Ferran Tarradellas told the BBC that EU observers would leave for Ukraine on Friday.
But there has been no confirmation of the deal from the Russian side, which had, at the last minute, demanded Russian monitors be included on the team.
See map of affected areaHundreds of thousands of homes in Europe remain without heating amid plunging... more
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Thousands of households in eastern European countries are still without heating as the row surrounding gas supplies continues.
Talks between EU and Russian and Ukrainian officials have failed to offer a solution to the crisis and further talks are said to be cancelled becaus Russia and Ukraine are avoiding direct talks with each other.
Russia has accused Ukraine of not paying bills and stealing gas that passes through its export pipelines. It suspended the supply of gas into the country a week ago.
Europe gets around a quarter of its gas supply from Russia and 80% of that flows through Ukraine. It means tens of thousands have been left without heating when temperatures in central Europe have plummeted to below -10 degrees. The countries affected include Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Serbia, and Austria.
The European Union has been seeking to broker an end to the dispute and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has threatened to send a monitoring team to the Russia - Ukraine border to establish exactly where shortfalls have originated.Thousands of households in eastern European countries are still without heating as the... more
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[Editor's update 0721 GMT]
Russia has reportedly now cut off all natural gas supplies to Europe via the Ukraine, as well as deliveries to both the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Things are so bad in Slovakia they declared a state of emergency yesterday when supplies were halted.
"The main pipeline from the east was closed from midnight. Supplies are at zero for Slovakia and the Czech Republic."
Original article:
Stock up on logs for your fire, Russian gas giants Gazprom have reportedly slashed gas supplies to the Ukraine by over 60%, with no prior warning.
Ukrainian state gas company Naftogaz claims the Russian providers have cut deliveries "to 92 million cubic metres per 24 hours compared to the promised 221 million cubic metres without explanation."
A spokesman for Naftogaz said:
"We do not understand how we will deliver gas to Europe. This means that in a few hours problems with supplies to Europe will begin."
Not an ideal situation given the severe weather warnings that Britain is facing...[Editor's update 0721 GMT]
Russia has reportedly now cut off all natural gas... more
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The impact of Russia's natural gas embargo against Ukraine spread to several Eastern European countries Saturday, as a senior Ukrainian official warned of serious fuel disruptions across the continent in as little as 10 days if Russia refused to resume shipments.
Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary reported drops in the gas they receive from Russia via Ukrainian pipelines but said consumers had not yet been affected because of reserve supplies and extra Russian deliveries through other countries.
The European Union -- which gets a quarter of its gas from Russia, most of it through pipelines that cross Ukraine -- said it planned to call an emergency meeting as soon as Monday to discuss the crisis and urged "an immediate resumption of full gas deliveries" to the E.U. member states.
A similar Russian embargo against Ukraine in 2006 lasted three days, but chances for an early breakthrough this time appeared remote as Russia and Ukraine continued to accuse each other of engaging in energy blackmail and refusing to return to talks to resolve the politically tinged standoff.The impact of Russia's natural gas embargo against Ukraine spread to several... more
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BuddyP
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3 years ago
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By Guy Faulconbridge and James Kilner
KIEV/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ukraine accused Russia on Sunday of deliberately reducing gas flows to customers in Europe as they face freezing winter temperatures.
Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey have reported drops in supplies after Russian state-controlled gas export monopoly Gazprom cut off Ukraine on New Year's Day in a dispute over prices.
Russia has accused Kiev of causing the disruptions by stealing volumes flowing across its territory, but Ukraine hit back by alleging Moscow was cutting flows by more than half through a key export pipeline.
"Naftogaz considers the actions of Gazprom as threatening the energy security of Ukraine and Europe, which could bring unpredictable consequences for the entire gas transit system of Europe," Ukraine's state energy company said in a statement.
"Naftogaz demands that Gazprom immediately renews the balanced supplies of gas to all transit pipelines supplying Russian gas to European consumers."By Guy Faulconbridge and James Kilner
KIEV/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ukraine accused... more
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The United States Thursday said it was "concerned" about Russia's decision to cut off gas supplies to Ukraine and its likely repercussions in Europe, and encouraged both sides to resolve their dispute in a businesslike manner.The United States Thursday said it was "concerned" about Russia's... more
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Do expect gas prices to shoot up as Gazprom has shut off supply to Ukraine after Kiev fails to reach a deal following unpaid debt.
The Russian energy giant has also calculated how much in penalties they own to Ukraine: US$600m. Here is how Russian news channel RT report the story...Do expect gas prices to shoot up as Gazprom has shut off supply to Ukraine after Kiev... more
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27 people are dead after an explosion in an apartment building in Ukraine. The explosion was likely caused by oxygen canisters being stored in the basement.27 people are dead after an explosion in an apartment building in Ukraine. The... more
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