Government will "invigorate" Nadra bank and protect its depositors

News / 19 August 2009 | 17:31

The Gov’t continues the Program on nationalization of problem banks and will tackle “invigoration” of Nadra bank. The Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko announced during the session of the Government today, Cabinet’s press office reported.

“Now we have come to Nadra bank so that to include it into the system of protection of the Government, so that the Government could take up the program of invigoration of Nadra bank,” Yulia Tymoshenko emphasized.

The Premier also added the Gov’t in synergy with the Ministry of Internal Affairs were engaged into studying of the situation in Rodovid Bank, Ukrgazbank and Bank Kyiv revealing violations and would institute proceedings against those guilty.

“Our decision concerning nationalization of the three banks was absolutely correct: concerning Rodovid, Ukrgazbank and Bank Kyiv. We have introduced state administration as violations present in these banks were of such scale that they were incompatible with resuming of their activity,” the Prime Minister emphasized. She added the Gov’t would further Anti-Crisis Program on invigoration of banks and deepen cooperation with them.

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Speaker: parliament won’t support Ukraine’s withdrawal from CIS

News / 19 August 2009 | 16:25

Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn has said that Ukraine should use the potential of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), especially amid the economic crisis.

“It seems to me that in recent years, Ukraine has voluntarily started restricting itself in the CIS. I think this is wrong,” he said on the Ekho Moskvy radio on Tuesday, Interfax-Ukraine reported.

Lytvyn said that Ukraine was one of the founders of the CIS, which has not formalized its presence in the commonwealth. He said that the CIS had “turned into a certain structure ensuring a gradual and civilized divorce suit,” and added that both Ukraine and Russia are to blame for this.

“Ukraine could have played a significant role in the CIS. Moreover, the market, as shown by the crisis, is of great importance to Ukraine among post-Soviet republics,” he said.

“I don’t think that Ukraine will pull out of the CIS. The Ukrainian parliament won’t take this decision. Because the question then arises as to what happened in Belovezhskaya Pushcha… This will result in a great … political confusion and great political consequences in the form of unpleasantness,” Lytvyn said.

 

As a reminder, Georgia officially ended its membership of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on Tuesday.

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Experts forecasting new wave of hryvnia’s devaluation

News / 19 August 2009 | 15:10

A new wave of hryvnia’s devaluation is expected in H2/09, say analysts with Astrum Investment Management, according to Ukrinform. 

According to the experts, last week saw a sharp drop in quotations of the national currency.

On Friday, the hryvnia stopped falling down: after achieving a daily minimum at UAH/USD 8.4, the interbank currency market closed with UAH/USD 8.3250-8.3400

The hryvnia firmed up by 0.2% against Thursday losing 3.8% for a week to the US dollar and 4.5% since the beginning of August.

The analysts believe that the further currency movements will be mainly conditioned by the volume of interventions of the National Bank of Ukraine.

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Nemtsov: Russia isn’t up to war with Ukraine

News / 19 August 2009 | 13:00

Russian politician and oppositionist Boris Nemtsov considers that address of the Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev to the Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko is quite strange. He said that in an interview to the ForUm’s correspondent.

“Presidents try not to write open letters. Such open letters are usually written by authors, poets, oppositionists, public figures in order to attract attention to the problems. But president use other instruments. Moreover they do not use video blogs. These are somehow kids toys! I am not against of video blogs. But one thing is Boris Nemtsov – the opposition leader, and the other thing is the President. Therefore I was astonished by the form of Medvedev’s address.,” he said.

Nemtsov explains such behavior of Medvedev as some big PR action, aimed both at Russian and Ukrainian audience.

According to Nemtsov, both presidents should not send letters to each other, but to meet and discuss all problems.

He also said that there would no war between Ukraine and Russia. “Because Putin and Medvedev are very weak, they can’t anything, they even could not settle conflict with Georgia. But Ukraine is a huge country – so they are not up to it,” the politician explained.

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Experts doubt Russian military aggression against Ukraine

News / 19 August 2009 | 12:12

In the wake of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s open letter to Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko and Medvedev’s draft law submitted to the Russian State Duma on the use of the Russian Armed Forces abroad, experts have analyzed the situation and arrived at an opinion that the Russian military aggression against Ukraine is highly unlikely so far.

“All of these measures can be regarded as the diplomatic and physiological pressure. I mean this is not any preparations for the aggression. Rather, this is political pressure ahead of the presidential elections on the incumbent Ukrainian president, first and foremost,” said Mykhailo Samus, the deputy director of the Center for Studies of Army, Conversion and Disarmament.

He said the behavior of Russia concerning Ukraine will become more aggressive closer to 2017, the year when the Russian Black Sea Fleet will have to withdraw from its bases in Crimea.

In the opinion of the expert, a military conflict between Ukraine and Russia is possible if the governments of the two countries fail to achieve stabilization of the relations.

In the opinion of Mykola Sinhurovskyi, the director of military programs of the Alexander Razumkov center for economic and political studies, the military conflict between Ukraine and Russia is possible theoretically. However, the Russian Armed Forces are technically unprepared for this development of the situation.

“In the event of a military conflict in Ukraine, Russia will need much more resources (than in Georgia) and it does not have such resources today,” he said.

He expects Russia to continue fomenting tension with the current Ukrainian government.

Yevhen Shelest, the head of the Center for military policy and security, said in his turn that the threat of the military conflict between the two states is growing.

He believes Ukraine should use not only political methods to prevent the conflict with Russia and to stabilize the bilateral relations, but also to enhance its defensive capacities.

Modernization of the Ukrainian Armed Forces could prevent from Russia’s radical steps, he said.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on August 11 registered at the Russian State Duma [the lower chamber of the Russian parliament] a draft law on the order of use of the Russian Armed Forces abroad.

According to the draft law, grounds for the use of the Russian Armed Forces abroad can be attacks on Russian troops deployed abroad and protection of Russian citizens abroad.

Prior to this, President Dmitry Medvedev in his letter to President Viktor Yuschenko said he has suspended the sending of Russian ambassador to Ukraine.

He also accused Yuschenko of worsening the Ukrainian-Russian relations during the presidency of Viktor Yuschenko.

 

Source: Kyiv Post

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Tymoshenko appealing to IMF for help with drafting budget 2010

News / 19 August 2009 | 12:09

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is appealing to the International Monetary Fund for help with forming draft national budget 2010, she has announced when opening Cabinet of Ministers session, Kyiv Post reported.

She has said she sent corresponding request to the IMF European Department, asking the fund to send its special commission to visit Ukraine on August 31-September 4.

The premier says the only problem that can arouse when shaping the budget is its politicisation.

As a reminder, the Presidential Secretariat in July claimed wrecked the process of drafting the national budget 2010.

As to the President’s Staff, the government failed to pass a decision on forecast of Ukraine’s economic and social development for 2010 that had to be done before May 15.

Furthermore, Cabinet neither passed nor submitted to the Verkhovna Rada draft budget policy guidelines 2010. It was to approve them by May 25 and bring to parliament by May 26.

The President’s Staff predicts UAH 6-10 billion losses for national budget 2010 if based on the vetoed variant of the Budget Code.

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PM expresses condolence in connection with tragedy at Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP

News / 19 August 2009 | 11:25

The Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko has sent a telegram to Head of Government of the Russian Federation Volodymyr Putin in connection with a tragedy at Sayano-Shushenskayahydroelectric power plant, government portal reported.

“On behalf of the Government of Ukraine and from me personally I ask to retell the words of compassion to the families and relatives of the dead in the accident at Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP and wish sooner recovery to all the victims,” the telegram of the Head of Ukraine’s Government reads.

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Ukraine’s GDP shrinks by 18%

News / 19 August 2009 | 11:02

Ukraine’s gross domestic product contracted by 18 per cent in the second quarter, according to preliminary government figures released yesterday, marking the country as one of the world’s most recession-battered economies.

However, economists say other fresh figures suggest that Kiev is beginning to pull out of recession, after a record 20.3 per cent contraction in the first quarter of 2009.

The figures, to be updated on September 30, indicate that industrial production in Ukraine – whose economy is largely driven by steel exports – rose nearly 5 per cent on the month in July. International Monetary Fund forecasts say Ukraine’s GDP will contract by about 14 per cent overall this year.

Roman Olearchyk, Kiev

Financial Times

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