Home Random Page


CATEGORIES:

BiologyChemistryConstructionCultureEcologyEconomyElectronicsFinanceGeographyHistoryInformaticsLawMathematicsMechanicsMedicineOtherPedagogyPhilosophyPhysicsPolicyPsychologySociologySportTourism






Freed Yulia Tymoshenko addresses crowds in Kiev as President Viktor Yanukovych flees in face of popular uprising

Yulia Tymoshenko praises Kiev protesters as revolution forces president from power The Telegraph

Freed Yulia Tymoshenko addresses crowds in Kiev as President Viktor Yanukovych flees in face of popular uprising

 

Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s former prime minister, addressed a vast crowd in Kiev’s Independence Square after leaving prison following the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych by a popular revolution on the streets of the capital.

So frail that she was unable to rise from her wheelchair, the former prime minister told the protesters they had brought down a dictatorship. Her voice carried across the cold night as she addressed the 50,000 strong crowd, many waving the country's blue and yellow flag.

“The heroes of the Maidan [Independence Square] are our saviours and the saviours of Ukraine," she cried. “You are the heroes This is a country of free people, this is your victory,” she said. “No one will escape justice, we have to bring to justice anyone who shot the heroes of Maidan

The United States welcomed the release of Mrs Tymoshenko, 53, and pledged to work with Russia and European and international organizations to support a unified and democratic Ukraine.

Mrs Tymoshenko had walked free from detention to hail the “end of dictatorship” on Saturday, hours after protesters had advanced from their stronghold in the centre of the capital to take control of parliament, the presidency and the cabinet office.

Police melted away and offered no resistance. Mr Yanukovych fled Kiev and sought refuge in his political heartland of eastern Ukraine.

As he made his exit, which is thought to have taken place under cover of darkness on Friday, Ms Tymoshenko, headed for Kiev. She has suffered severe back problems during her 2½ years in prison, forcing her to speak from the wheelchair. She appeared close to exhaustion but made a powerful speech in full voice.

When she arrived in the square, she was greeted by a roar. Mrs Tymoshenko said that police snipers who had “put bullet in the heart of the protesters” had also put a bullet "in the heart of all Ukrainian people". When she added there would be punishment for the snipers, the audience roared approval.

She asked the crowd to stay on the Maidan until all their goals had been achieved.

“Its not politicians or diplomats who made this happen, it’s you the people who stayed here who changed the situation. You are heroes, you are the best of Ukraine.” The former prime minister, who was jailed on trumped up charges of abuse of office in 2011, was released from detention in hospital on the orders of parliament.

As she left hospital, Ms Tymoshenko declared: “Our homeland will, from today on, be able to see the sun and sky as a dictatorship has ended.” She later added: “I am sure that Ukraine will be a member of the European Union in the near future and this will change everything.”

She arrived in the capital in the evening, and was tearfully reunited with her daughter, Eugenia.



Ms Tymoshenko is expected to be a contender for the presidency in a post-revolutionary election fixed for May 25.

The former prime minister’s release ended a transformational day for Ukraine. After a confrontation lasting almost three months – and a week during which at least 70 demonstrators were shot dead in the heart of Kiev – Mr Yanukovych’s resolve appears to have cracked. With his enemies still in control of Independence Square and large areas of the capital, he threw in the towel between 6pm and 11pm on Friday.

Afterwards, the protesters surged forwards and took control of the key arms of government. Demonstrators stood guard outside Mr Yanukovych’s old office yesterday. They acted with the full co-operation of senior security officials.

“We have found words which each side can understand. Life continues – we should work and we should live,” said Col Mykolai Kolodayzhnyi, the deputy head of security for the presidential administration.

The protesters promised to safeguard the buildings under their control and there was no sign of looting nor damage. Parliament, firmly in the protesters’ hands, went into emergency session and voted for Mrs Tymoshenko’s release.

A visibly exhausted Mr Yanukovych appeared on television from an undisclosed location at 2pm. Wearing a black suit and tie, with a candle burning on a table by his side, he said: “I have no intention to leave the country. I am not going to resign; I'm the legitimately elected president.”

Mr Yanukovych claimed to be the victim of a coup d’état masterminded by “bandits” and “Nazis”. He added: “What is going on today is vandalism, banditry. What will I do next? I’ll do everything to protect my country from the split and to stop bloodshed. I don’t know still how I will do it.”

He said he wouldl go to the Russian-speaking south-east of Ukraine, describing this area as “less dangerous”. He accused his fellow Ukrainians of succumbing to a “panic” that “swept normal people at the west, east and in the centre”. Mr Yanukovych also said the proceedings in parliament were “illegal”, adding: “They should hear from me: I won’t sign anything with bandits who terrorise the entire country, the Ukrainian people.”

Within an hour, parliament had delivered its riposte. It voted to remove Mr Yanukovych from office with a majority of 328, and called for a new presidential election.

The heads of the four main security agencies had appeared before parliament earlier, promising not to intervene in the demonstrations.

Many protesters want the deposed president and his allies to be held accountable for the bloodshed in Kiev. On Thursday alone, at least 29 people were shot dead in the capital, making it the bloodiest day in the history of Ukraine as an independent state.

There was no jubilation on Independence Square after Mr Yanukovych fled the capital. Instead, tens of thousands of people mourned for the dead. A stage displayed photographs of 33 people who were killed this week, and coffins were borne through the crowd as people broke down and wept.

Many protesters wanted not only to remove Mr Yanukovych, but to turn Ukraine into a prosperous European democracy. “It’s too early to talk about victory,” said Sergeiy Gavrilov, 36. “We will find out in the future if it’s victory or not because we want a lot of changes in our country.”

Protesters who overran Mr Yanukovych’s country residence, 15 miles outside the capital, found his mansion abandoned. In contrast to the sombre mood on the Maidan, thousands of people toured the grounds in a holiday atmosphere. Protesters played golf with Mr Yanukovych’s clubs and hoisted Ukrainian flags on the masts of a mock galleon that was moored on a river.

Ukraine occupies a crucial strategic position between Russia and the EU. The protests began last November, after Mr Yanukovych rejected an association agreement with the EU in favour of accepting a $15 billion (£9.5  billion) loan from Russia.

The Kremlin believes that the protest movement amounts to a plot by Western governments to retaliate for this decision.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, challenged his Western counterparts yesterday to condemn the “rampages” of the opposition.

 

 

Sochi: was it worth it?

While Vladimir Putin may have hoped for better results after spending more than £30bn on the Winter Olympics, Britain should have no regrets 10:00PM GMT 22 Feb 2014

Today should have been one of the best days of Vladimir Putin’s life. Russia was meant to win gold in the ice hockey, by far the most important sport in the Winter Olympics as far as the host president is concerned.

He plays it for fun with his friends, and numbers among them the star of the team, Alexander Ovechkin, who joked in advance that staging the most expensive Games of all time – winter or summer – was really all about winning this one medal: “The gold only cost $50 billion.”

That was only half a joke. Winning gold in the ice hockey would have been of great symbolic importance to the president in his drive to return Russia to its historic position as a major player on the world stage.

Soviet teams used to dominate the sport, which is why the USA’s surprise victory at the height of the Cold War in 1980 was billed as the Miracle on Ice. But Russia is not going to win the gold in Sochi in 2014. There will be no crowning glory for Mr Putin before today’s closing ceremony. The team crashed out 3-1 to Finland.

The defeat was described by the daily newspaper Sovietsky Sport – once the house sporting journal of the USSR – as “shameful for a world power”. The coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov told the Russian media he knew what was in store for him now. “You’ll eat me and I’ll be gone.”

So without that golden moment, the question has to be asked: was it all worth it? Russia is believed to have spent in excess of £30billion on Sochi 2014. That is as much as all the previous Winter Olympics put together. Has Mr Putin got what he wanted? And closer to home, what about the money Britain has spent on competing? That amounts to £14 million over four years, more than double the cost of last time. Has it been worth it for us?

Such sums are trifling to Mr Putin, of course, but even he has complained about the spiralling bill for hosting the Games. Some of the expenses are perfectly understandable. The venues had to be built from scratch, and many of them are world-class.

The 37,000 troops and police officers on duty have to be paid for, as do the surface-to-air missiles and the “ring of steel” security border that stretches 60 miles along the coast and 25 miles inland. It has done its job, up to now. Terrorist attacks were a major worry before the Games. The threat is still severe. This is Patriot’s Day for Russians, a prime moment for the sort of terrorists who set off suicide bombs in Volgograd in December.

Mr Putin is a former KGB man, of course. If there is one thing he must pride himself on, it is security. So far, then, so good. He is unlikely to mind that the security forces came across as heavy-handed for detaining then beating up two members of the punk protest group Pussy Riot. They were attacked with whips and tear gas by uniformed Cossacks as they stood under the Olympic rings singing Putin Will Teach You To Love The Motherland. The song is not nearly as loyal as it sounds. The regional governor has promised to investigate the behaviour of the Cossacks, but there may not be much pressure on him from the Kremlin. President Putin wants to come across as strong, to put it mildly. This is a man who likes to ride horses topless and pose with a hunting rifle. He is also seeking to return Russia to its place as an ideological force in the world, according to the historian and commentator Owen Matthews, author of Stalin’s Children.

This time, however, he wants it to be as “a champion of conservative values”. Mr Matthews says Russia is seeking support for this project from countries in the Middle East and Africa, but has even found it among members of the religious Right in America.

“Putin’s new mission goes deeper than political opportunism,” writes Mr Matthews in The Spectator. “Like the old Communist International, or Comintern, in its day, Moscow is again building an international ideological alliance.” He points out that Mr Putin promised, in a state-of-the-nation speech in December, that Russia would “defend traditional values that have made up the spiritual and moral foundations of civilisation in every nation for thousands of years”.

The Games gave him the perfect opportunity to state his case by standing up to those who protested about Russia’s treatment of gay people, which is often brutal. Beatings and murders are often ignored by the police. Last year a law was passed banning the passing on of information about homosexuality to anyone under the age of 18. Mr Putin refers to it as “a ban on the propaganda of homosexuality and paedophilia” and routinely conflates the two. Gay workers and athletes would still be welcome in Sochi, the president insisted. “We haven’t banned anything and no one is being grabbed off the street unlike in some countries,” he said, despite reports that this was exactly what vigilantes were doing. “So you will feel quite secure, at ease, but leave kids alone, please.”

Athletes and broadcasters came under pressure to boycott the Games, including the BBC presenter Clare Balding, who is openly gay. But she said: “I think the best way of enlightening societies that are not as open-minded as our own is not to be cowed into submission.”

The issue has not gone away, but it has been pushed into the background – for better or worse – by the sheer spectacle of the Games. Bernie Ecclestone, the chief executive of Formula One, has offered his support to Mr Putin over the last few days, but then he is hoping to hold a race in Sochi.

The Black Sea resort is a favourite of the president, who is said to be building an expensive retreat for himself there. If it was part of his project to surround his holiday home with a dazzling infrastructure, he has succeeded. His journey from the seaside to the mountains 30 miles away will be much easier now £5 billion has been spent on a road and railway linking the beaches of Adler with the ski slopes of Krasnaya Polyana.

The opposition party leader, Boris Nemtsov, has pointed out that this cost more than the Americans were willing to spend to put the Curiosity Rover on Mars. He said the road “might as well have been paved with platinum or caviar”.

Mr Nemtsov was the co-author of a report into the cost of the Winter Olympics that says that up to £19 billion has gone missing in “a monstrous scam”. However, he also says that most of the work has been done by firms owned by the government or run by Mr Putin’s friends. In that case, the corruption seems unlikely to trouble the President much.

The trouble in Ukraine, on the other hand, will be of great concern. Like many Russians, Mr Putin sees Ukraine as integral to his country’s history and its future.

The Ukraine Olympic Association was reportedly denied permission for its athletes to wear black armbands to “mark the deep pain over the loss of fellow countrymen” – although the International Olympic Committee (IOC) says it was the Ukrainians themselves who chose not to go ahead. Some athletes went home early. Others hung a national flag with mourning bands in the Olympic village. A spokesman for the IOC was quoted as saying: “The overall, general idea is that we try to concentrate on the sport.”

The Olympic movement likes to consider itself bigger than politics. However, in this case, there is every reason to believe that the President of the Russian Federation will believe the Games have furthered his political aims nicely. They have been secure, spectacular and a perfect platform on which to strike a pose as a strong man defending his own particular version of traditional Russian values.

Russia has hosted an Olympic event for the first time since the heady days of 1980, and even more successfully. And if his mates have made a few bob along the way, why should he worry? Shame about the ice hockey, though. And as of yesterday, Russia was second in the medal table behind that renowned world superpower Norway. No, don’t laugh. The president would not like it, and you know how he gets.

So, what about Britain? The £14 million provided by the Government and the National Lottery might not pay for a set of traffic lights on Mr Putin’s new super-highway but it is a significant amount in these cash-strapped times. Have we had value for money?

You’d have to say “yes”. The target was to win at least three medals, and so far we have four, with the men’s four-man bobsleigh team providing the last chance if they reach the final today.

This is our biggest medal haul in the Winter Olympics since the first in Chamonix in 1924, when we had the advantage of sending the biggest team. This time, Team GB took fewer people than the BBC – but then all the funding had been spent on the six sports that gave us the best chance of a medal: bobsleigh, curling, figure skating, short track speed skating, skeleton and ski and snowboard events.

Jenny Jones delivered on the second day, hurtling down the mountain, leaping from terrifying slopes and performing miraculous tricks at the same time as soaring through the air, to win bronze in the snowboarding slopestyle.

She was beside herself with joy when she saw the medal positions yelling: “It’s ridiculous! That’s me! From Bristol!” Giggles turned to tears when her parents revealed they had secretly been there to see it.

Her tears were shared by team-mate Aimee Fuller in the BBC commentary box, who had made the mistake of cheering when her rivals fell. There were hundreds of complaints about that and the excitable commentators Ed Leigh and Tim Warwood, who were condemned by some as “hysterical idiots”.

But they were often actually the perfect accompaniment to the glorious madness of snowboarding – laughing, joking and shouting at the sheer joy of the sport. David Coleman could not have bettered the surreal line: “Riding switch is like writing left-handed while wearing a chip hat and being attacked by seagulls.”

Snowboarding made us smile, hide behind our fingers with fear at what might happen then go, “Blimey, did you see that?” You can’t ask for much more from televised sport. Leigh and Warwood were also a useful contrast to the calm, controlled Clare Balding, who once more proved herself to be the best anchor in the business.

Lizzy Yarnold won gold in the skeleton by lying on a carbon-fibre tray called Mervyn and hurtling down a track with her nose only inches from the ice. She’s now heading for a guest appearance on The Archers, and fans have already painted a postbox gold in her home village in Kent. That’s the way we honour our heroes in this country, not with a dacha.

The English, Irish and Welsh fell in love with curling all over again, as we have every four years since the women won gold in 2002. The Scots already love it, they invented the sport and supply the granite for all the stones from the little island of Ailsa Craig.

The British captain, David Murdoch, produced a shot that even an idiot could see was miraculous to beat Norway in the semi-final. Team GB were blown away by a bunch of brash Canadians in the final, but silver was a wonderful result. So was the bronze won by the women after a thrilling match.

In the speed skating, Elise Christie had the worst possible Olympics. She was disqualified three times, two of which decisions looked highly dubious to this totally unbiased, patriotic flag-waving British observer. She was abused by South Korean trolls on Twitter and taken out in her last race by a Chinese rival. Honestly, it would never happen to a Russian.

The bobsleigh team have a chance today, and that’s the last of the six sports we were concentrating on. All those endless reruns of Eddie the Eagle ski-jumping in Calgary in 1988 are a reminder of how far we have come. He broke the British record in coming last, but back then there was no expectation that anyone from this country could ever win anything on ice or snow again.

We now send athletes who routinely finish in the top 10, and the luckiest and most gifted win medals. From the grin of Jenny Jones to the furrowed brow of David Murdoch, the British have boosted national pride and proved a glorious point. And unlike President Putin, we haven’t had to break the bank to do it.

 

Ukraine Bonds Rally as Factions Sign Peace Pact to End Crisis

By Andras Gergely and Alex Nicholson Feb 21, 2014 9:46 PM GMT+0400 Ukrainian bonds jumped the most since Russia’s bailout pledge two months ago as President Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leaders agreed on early presidential elections and lawmakers changed the constitution.

The yield on government bonds maturing in April 2023 dropped 90 basis points, the biggest retreat since Dec. 17, to 10.2 percent by 6:23 p.m. in Kiev. The equities index jumped 3.2 percent, taking its two-day gain to 7.2 percent. Currencies across developing Europe rallied, reversing losses after deadly clashes in Ukraine this week sparked a rout in regional assets.

The European Union-brokered peace deal between the government and opposition envisages snap presidential elections by December and a national unity government within 10 days. Lawmakers backed a return to the 2004 constitution, a step that would curb Yanukovych’s powers. The accord “offers a real chance to end the bloodshed,” U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said. At least 77 protestors and police were killed this week, the most since the standoff began in November. The deal “offers hope that further violence may be avoided,” Alina Slyusarchuk, a London-based economist at Morgan Stanley, wrote in an e-mailed report. A “sharp” depreciation in the currency, pressure on bank deposits and restructuring of external debt are among the risks that remain unless the accord is followed by “prompt implementation of a consistent policy,” according to Morgan Stanley.

Hryvnia’s Plunge

The hryvnia has plunged almost 8 percent versus the dollar this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show, as the central bank scaled back its support. Policy makers may be wasting foreign reserves to defend the currency as “there will be depreciation anyway,” Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in an interview in Hong Kong today.

Ukraine’s political crisis has raised “many questions” about its ability to repay debt, pushing Russia to suspend a bailout and threatening the central bank’s ability to defend the currency, Siluanov said. OAO Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, halted retail lending in Ukraine, as the lender witnessed a run on its automated teller machines in the protest-hit nation, Herman Gref, the chief executive officer, told reporters in Moscow today.

The pact between Ukraine’s government and protestors was brokered in all-night talks in Kiev with three EU foreign ministers. Speaking by phone, Oleksiy Haran, a member of the demonstrators’ Maidan Council, emphasized the constitutional change and new government as “the key victory.” Lawmakers also voted to free jailed ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Even so, opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who heads the former premier’s party, pointed to further tensions.

S&P Cut

Protesters will remain at the Independence Square camp they built in November, according to Yatsenyuk, who said Yanukovych would be given no assurances on his fate. The nationalist Pravy Sektor movement pledged to continue “national revolution” as the peace deal falls short of demands to remove Yanukovych’s regime, according to a statement on social website Vkontakte.

Standard & Poor’s cut Ukraine’s credit rating to CCC, eight levels below investment grade, saying the country risks default without “significantly favorable changes.” Ukraine, which is grappling with a record current-account deficit, has seen its foreign reserves plunge 28 percent in the past year to $17.8 billion at the end of January, the lowest level since 2006.

The country has $17 billion of liabilities coming due, excluding interest, through the end of 2015, including the $1 billion due in June this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The price on notes maturing in four months climbed to 95.63 cents on the dollar from 93.13 cents yesterday.

Forint Gains

Hungary’s forint strengthened 0.4 percent against the euro. Russia’s ruble, which dropped to a record on Feb. 19, climbed 0.5 percent against the central bank’s target dual-currency basket, whileTurkey’s lira jumped 0.8 percent versus the dollar to erase a weekly loss.

“We now believe it is likely that Ukraine will default in the absence of significantly favorable changes in circumstances, which we do not anticipate,” S&P analysts said in a statement today. “The Russian government’s support for Ukraine is tied to the current leadership and its political orientation away from the EU and toward Russia.”

In almost half the instances, yields on government bonds fall when a rating action by Moody’s Investors Service and S&P suggests they should climb, according to data compiled by Bloomberg on 314 upgrades, downgrades and outlook changes going back as far as the 1970s. When S&P downgraded the U.S. government in August 2011, bonds rose and pushed Treasury yields to record lows.

Wealth Fund

The standoff in Ukraine started in November when the president backed out of a free trade deal with the EU, opting instead for closer ties with Russia, which pledged $15 billion of loans and cheaper natural gas in a bailout the following month.

Russia’s sovereign wealth fund invested the first $3 billion of the bailout in Ukrainian two-year notes in December. Ukraine scrapped a planned $2 billion bond sale this week, according to a statement Feb. 20 to the Irish Stock Exchange, where the notes used in the bailout program are listed.

The hryvnia may weaken to 10 per dollar next year with a risk of a “significant” overshoot in the coming months, Anna Zadornova, a London-based economist at UBS AG, wrote in an e-mailed report today. “The longer the political turmoil persists, the higher the risk that the worst-case scenario of a full-blown balance of payments and sovereign debt crisis materializes.”

 

 


Date: 2015-12-24; view: 799


<== previous page | next page ==>
 | Spain: 200 migrants storm enclave border fence
doclecture.net - lectures - 2014-2024 year. Copyright infringement or personal data (0.011 sec.)