G-7 reaffirms support for Ukraine
OTTAWA – The leaders of the Group of Seven (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdon and the United States) met in Italy on May 26-27. In a communiqué issued following the meeting, the leaders stated: “A sustainable solution to the crisis in Ukraine can only be reached with the full implementation by all sides of their commitments under the Minsk agreements. We support the endeavors of the Normandy group and commend the multifaceted commitment of the OSCE in order to de-escalate the crisis. We stress the responsibility of the Russian Federation for the conflict and underline the role it needs to play to restore peace and stability. We reiterate our condemnation of the illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula, reaffirm our policy of non-recognition, and fully support Ukraine’s independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty. We recall that the duration of sanctions is clearly linked to Russia’s complete implementation of its commitments in the Minsk agreements and respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty. Sanctions can be rolled back when Russia meets its commitments. However, we also stand ready to take further restrictive measures in order to increase costs on Russia should its actions so require. We maintain our commitment to assisting Ukraine in implementing its ambitious and yet necessary reform agenda and commend Kiev [sic] for its progress to date. Despite our differences with Russia, we are willing to engage with Russia to address regional crises and common challenges when it is in our interest.” (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
SBU searches Yandex offices
KYIV – The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) says that searches of the Kyiv and Odesa offices of the Russian Internet giant Yandex as part of a treason investigation found that company management had “illegally collected” personal data on local citizens. The May 29 searches came less than two weeks after President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree banning Yandex and several other Russian sites, including the popular social networks VK – formerly VKontakte – and Odnoklassniki. “Law enforcement agents found that the management of the company illegally collected, accumulated, and passed on the personal data of Ukrainian citizens,” the SBU said in a statement on its website. The data included information about users’ “occupation, lifestyle, location, residence, work, leisure, sources and amounts of income, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and accounts in social networks. The information was transmitted to [Russian] security services for planning, organizing and conducting reconnaissance, sabotage and information-subversion operations in the country at the expense of Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and inviolability,” the statement said. Treason is punishable by 12 to 15 years in prison in Ukraine and the confiscation of property. Asya Melkumova, a Yandex spokeswoman, confirmed the searches and told RFE/RL: “We have no information about reasons of today’s SBU action. Our lawyers are on the way to the offices. Yandex is ready to provide all information regarding its operations in Ukraine, according and limited by Ukrainian legal procedures.” According to the Ukrainian IT news site AIN.ua, staff of both offices were ordered by the SBU to leave the premises while the searches were conducted. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists he could not comment, saying, “We do not have complete information yet.” Yandex said it has been developing its services for Ukraine since 2005, providing its Ukrainian users with search engines, maps, navigation, online education, and other services. “We have conducted our business in strict accordance with Ukrainian legislation and have focused on creating high quality local products,” the company said in a statement. “While Ukraine is a small part of our business and the sanctions will not have a material negative impact on our consolidated results, we regret that this new legislation affects our 11 million Ukrainian users who rely on our services every month, and the thousands of Ukrainian organizations that use our technologies and services to grow and develop their businesses.” (Christopher Miller of RFE/RL)
Bombardment injures eight civilians
KYIV – Ukrainian authorities are blaming Russia-backed separatists for a hail of artillery fire that injured at least eight civilians, damaged buildings, and interrupted water supplies in the frontline town of Krasnohorivka over the weekend of May 27-28. The incident underscored a warning the previous week by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which said that the rate of violence in the Ukraine conflict so far this year had more than doubled on a year earlier. Central Krasnohorivka was hit by at least 12 Grad (Hail) rockets and other heavy artillery fired from territory controlled by separatists early on May 28, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. The ministry said as many as 14 buildings were damaged or destroyed, including apartment buildings and residential houses. Donetsk Governor Pavlo Zhebrivskiy posted images on Facebook early on May 28 showing damaged brick buildings and suggesting a hospital and school had been struck. More than 9,940 people have been killed since fighting broke out between central Ukrainian authorities and Russia-backed separatists in April 2014. A shaky cease-fire brokered in Minsk regularly gives way to fighting, and the OSCE said at least 44 civilians had been killed and 175 more injured in the Ukrainian conflict zone between January 1 and May 24, before last weekend’s violence. Moscow and Kyiv have each blamed the other for failing to uphold their end of the two-year-old truce. Deputy foreign ministers from Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia were scheduled to meet in Berlin on May 30 “to review the current situation on the ground with regard to the cease-fire and with regard to all other commitments under the Minsk agreements,” according to a German government spokesman. (RFE/RL)
IMF mission’s statement re Ukraine
OTTAWA – A mission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) visited Kyiv on May 16-26 to begin discussions on the fourth review of the government’s economic program supported under the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility. Upon the conclusion of the visit, the mission lead, Ron van Rooden, stated: “The Ukrainian economy continues to recover, with growth expected to exceed 2 percent in 2017. Fiscal and monetary policies remain on track to meet the 2017 targets. Gross international reserves have increased further to $17.6 billion U.S., and inflation is projected to fall below 10 percent by the end of the year. While the near-term outlook is positive, decisive implementation of structural reforms remains critical to achieve stronger and sustainable growth that Ukraine needs over the medium-term.” He explained: “In this regard, the mission held constructive discussions with the authorities on reforms needed to improve productivity, attract investment and continue to strengthen public finances. As envisaged under the program, discussions focused on the pending pension and land reform and on measures to speed up the privatization process and ensure concrete results in anticorruption efforts. While good progress has been made in building understandings on the key elements of these measures, further technical work is needed in some areas to transform these into draft laws that meet the reform objectives. Securing parliamentary approval of these draft laws will be needed to pave the way for the completion of the fourth review. IMF staff, in cooperation with other international partners, will remain closely engaged with the authorities in the coming weeks to advance the reform agenda.” (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
Tusk calls on G-7 to maintain sanctions
TAORMINA, Italy – Amid new uncertainty over the U.S. position, European Council President Donald Tusk has called on the leaders of the Group of Seven (G-7) countries to maintain sanctions on Russia over its aggression in Ukraine. “Since our last G-7 summit in Japan, we haven’t seen anything that would justify a change in our sanctions policy towards Russia,” Mr. Tusk told reporters in Sicily on May 26 ahead of the group’s summit in the resort of Taormina. “I will appeal to the other G-7 leaders to reconfirm this policy,” Mr. Tusk said, adding that he expects that “the G-7 will demonstrate unity regarding the conflict in Ukraine.” Mr. Tusk spoke a day after a U.S. official, asked whether President Trump plans to extend the U.S. sanctions, indicated that he had not decided. “I think the president is looking at it. Right now, we don’t have a position,” White House economic adviser Gary Cohn told reporters on Air Force One en route to the G-7 summit. He added that Trump had “many options.” Mr. Cohn’s comments differed sharply from those of senior U.S. officials who have said clearly that sanctions would remain in place unless Russia takes steps that would prompt the United States to consider easing them. The U.S. State Department said in March that “Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control of the peninsula to Ukraine.” Also, the State Department said that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov in a meeting on May 10 that “sanctions on Russia will remain in place until Moscow reverses the actions that triggered them.” After talks with Mr. Trump on May 25 in Brussels, Mr. Tusk said he was “not 100 percent sure… that we have a common position, common opinion about Russia. Although when it comes to the conflict in Ukraine it seems that we were on the same line.” (RFE/RL, with reporting by AFP, Reuters and AP)
Outrage over sculptor’s seated ballerina
KYIV – Ukrainians have taken to the Internet to criticize U.S. artist Jeff Koons over his sculpture of a sitting ballerina recently installed in New York, saying it appears remarkably similar to a work by a Ukrainian artist. Mr. Koons has said his 14-meter, inflatable “Seated Ballerina,” now on view at Rockefeller Center, was inspired by a Russian porcelain figurine from the 19th century. But many Ukrainians are calling it a ripoff of “The Ballerina Lenochka,” a porcelain statuette by Ukrainian artist Oksana Zhnikrup, who died in 1993. A spokeswoman for Koons, Lauran Rothstein, told AFP in an e-mail, “We are aware of Oksana Zhnikrup’s work and have a license to use it for Mr. Koons’s work.” But Ukrainians and other critics continued to vent against the neo-pop artist on Twitter and Facebook. “I advise the Ukrainian government to file a case,” Ukrainian artist Oleksandr Roitburd said. “America will be surprised to see that we don’t have just corruption and war, but also art.” MR. Koons has been accused of plagiarism before. In March he was ordered to pay a fine over his “Naked” sculpture, which was deemed a “counterfeit” of a French photograph. (RFE/RL, with reporting by AFP)
Suspended sentence for library director?
MOSCOW – Russian prosecutors are seeking a five-year suspended sentence for the former head of Moscow’s Ukrainian Literature Library, who is accused of extremism and embezzlement in a case that has been denounced by rights activists. Prosecutors made the request during a May 29 hearing at Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court, where the trial of Natalya Sharina is in its final stages. Ms. Sharina was detained in October 2015 and charged with inciting extremism and ethnic hatred because her library’s collection allegedly included books by Ukrainian ultranationalist and author Dmytro Korchynsky, whose works are banned in Russia. Ms. Sharina, who has rejected all the allegations against her as politically motivated, was placed under house arrest. In April 2016, investigators charged her with misallocating library funds, allegedly because she used library funds to pay for her legal defense in another extremism case against her that was dismissed in 2013. A suspended sentence would mean that Ms. Sharina would not be imprisoned. Her lawyer said the authorities had “trumped up” new charges after realizing their initial case against his client was too weak. The respected Russian human rights group Memorial considers Ms. Sharina a political prisoner. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by TASS, Interfax, mskagency.ru and RFE/RL’s Russian Service)
Ukraine creating cyber defense unit
KYIV – Ukraine’s armed forces have announced plans to create a special cyber defense unit, according to Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak. “Such structures have been created subordinate to various units in many countries. In Lithuania they are under the Defense Ministry and responsible for the security of the entire ministry, as well as issue recommendations to other branches. We have a certain system, but the decision on whom it is subordinate to is one the nation’s leaders must take. The work is important and is now being conducted under the aegis of Ukraine’s National Defense and Security Council,” Mr. Poltorak told the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency on May 24. According to the Defense Ministry, “units are being created, a network, software… with the aim of defending Ukraine from cyber attacks.” Minister Poltorak noted: “A NATO advisor is helping us to create such a network in the Defense Ministry. So far, we’ve received advice, but I hope we receive material assistance, as well. As of today, cyber defense is the prerogative of Ukraine’s Security Service, but we will make various contributions on our level. Work on creating a separate unit is already going ahead.” The defense chief earlier said that since the start of the conflict in eastern Ukraine Russia has launched more than 7,000 cyber attacks against Ukraine. (Interfax-Ukraine.)
Some of Lazarenko’s assets to be returned
KYIV – U.S. officials have assured Ukrainian counterparts that if courts rule to confiscate assets belonging to ex-Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, most of them will be returned to Kyiv, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has said. “We cooperate on the Lazarenko case [with the Americans]. We hope that this year, finally, we will complete the case and have assurances from the relative U.S. officials that [Lazarenko’s] assets will be returned,” Mr. Lutsenko said in Kyiv on May 22. As reported in December 2016, the deputy head of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Yevhen Yenin, said Ukraine can count on receiving $280 million illegally transferred abroad by Mr. Lazarenko. “The amount is $280 million. The money is located in several jurisdictions. We are now nearing the finish line, waiting for a court decision in the U.S. on the matter. Next, in a civil case, we will begin talks with those five jurisdictions regarding the return of Lazarenko’s assets,” Mr. Yenin told journalists. He said Antigua, Barbuda Guernsey, Lichtenstein, Lithuania and Switzerland are the five jurisdictions, and added that Ukraine can count on the return of the full amounts and will negotiate about these assets. (Interfax-Ukraine)
Poroshenko speaks with Trudeau
OTTAWA – Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko held a phone conversation with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on May 25. Mr. Poroshenko’s press service reported: “Petro Poroshenko informed on the developments in the Donbas and the ongoing violation of the Minsk agreements by Russia. The president of Ukraine expressed confidence that the leaders of NATO and the G-7 will deliver an appropriate assessment of the given situation, particularly in the issue of continuation of sanctions’ pressure on Moscow. Prime Minister Trudeau assured that the G-7 and NATO coalition are committed to support Ukraine.” The readout of the telephone conversation also noted: “The parties also discussed future intensification of bilateral relations. The leaders praised recent ratification of the Free Trade Agreement by the Canadian Senate that paves the way to its full application in the nearest future. Petro Poroshenko thanked Canada for its stance on the issue of development of defensive cooperation, the evidence of which is continuation of UNIFIER training mission and signature of the agreement on defensive cooperation. Petro Poroshenko noted that the adoption of the EU’s decision as regards visa waivers for Ukrainians provides conditions for intensification of dialogue on visa liberalization between Canada and Ukraine.” (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
Savchenko: Party’s registration bid is ignored
KYIV – Nadiya Savchenko, a former military helicopter navigator who entered politics after returning home following two years in a Russian jail, says Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice is ignoring her request to register her new political movement. Ms. Savchenko spoke at a news conference on May 25, exactly a year after she was released in a prisoner exchange and days after telling Polish news outlet Krytyka Polityczna that she is “ready to take responsibility for the country and run for president” in 2019. Ms. Savchenko had planned to present her new political force, the Sociopolitical Platform of Nadiya Savchenko, but she said that “the Justice Ministry… without providing any comments or explanations, without answering any appeals, requests, phone calls, has not registered the party.” The Justice Ministry did not immediately respond to her claim. Lack of registration would prevent Ms. Savchenko’s political movement from participating in future elections and hurt her chances in a presidential campaign. Ukraine is slated to hold its next presidential and parliamentary elections in 2019. A recent poll by the Kyiv-based Razumkov Center indicated Ms. Savchenko would receive just 1 to 2 percent of the vote if the election were held this month. Ms. Savchenko was elected to the Verkhovna Rada on the ticket of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna party in 2014 but quit the faction in December 2016 after its leadership criticized her for making a secret visit to separatist-controlled territory in the east. She now holds her seat as an independent. (RFE/RL)
Macron: Russian media spread propaganda
PARIS – French President Emmanuel Macron accused Russian state news outlets of spreading “fake news” and “propaganda” against him during May’s presidential election, after holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Versailles Palace outside Paris. The meeting on May 29 was the first between the two men since Mr. Macron’s decisive May 7 victory over right-wing rival Marine Le Pen, a Putin admirer whom the Kremlin and its surrogates appeared to favor, and came amid bilateral ties that remain strained. Speaking at a joint news conference with Mr. Putin, Mr. Macron said RT and Sputnik were “organs of influence and propaganda” and “behaved like structures of the government.” Mr. Macron’s team alleged that Russian hacking and disinformation efforts aimed to derail his campaign. Mr. Putin denied that Moscow meddled in France’s presidential election and said that by meeting Ms. Le Pen in Moscow in March the Kremlin had not tried to influence the vote. Mr. Macron, 39, said the two leaders had a “frank exchange” over their “differences” on a number of issues, including the Ukraine standoff and Russia’s support for President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war. President Macron has said he supports the continuation of Western sanctions targeting Russia over its 2014 seizure of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and backing of armed separatists in eastern Ukraine, whose war with Kyiv’s forces has killed almost 10,000 people. He said last week that he wanted to bring together the “Normandy format,” which groups the leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine and which met first in Normandy, France. On May 29, Mr. Macron said he and Mr. Putin agreed the time was right for a new round of peace talks on Ukraine, adding that the talks should take place “in days or weeks.” Mr. Putin, 64, said sanctions imposed by Western countries on Russia over its activities in Ukraine would not help stabilize the situation in the east of the country, where it borders Russia. (RFE/RL, with reporting by AFP, Reuters and DPA)