Mitch Potter, Europe Bureau, Toronto Star

Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Sunday, Sep 16, 20007

22. UKRAINE REJECTS RUSSIAN OFFER IN YUSHCHENKO POISONING
Associated Press (AP), Kiev, Ukraine, Wed, September 19, 2007

23. UKRAINE LEADER SEEKS SOLUTION ON SOCCER STADIUM

REUTERS, Kaniv, Ukraine, Wed, September 19, 2007

London, UK, Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Commerzbank is buying a 60 per cent stake in Ukraine's Bank Forum for

$600m, the German group said on Tuesday, the latest in a flurry of

purchases by European banks seeking to gain exposure to the former

Soviet republic's promising banking market.

Under the agreement, Commerzbank has also secured the option to purchase

an additional 25 per cent stake within 36 months. It will finance the deal
through existing resources.

"After an intensive search, we have found an ideal complement for our
network of operational outlets in the booming region of central and eastern
Europe in the form of Bank Forum, the 10th largest bank in Ukraine by total
assets," said Martin Blessing, a member of Commerzbank's managing board.

"This represents another step in our strategy of selective acquisitions to
grow within our target regions. With approximately 12,000 corporate
customers, of which 9,500 are small and medium-sized enterprises, Bank Forum
is already making an important contribution to strengthening our Mittelstand
business. In addition, we plan to expand Bank Forum's retail customer
business considerably in the coming years," Mr Blessing added.

Bank Forum is majority owned by Ukrainian-born Leonid Yurushev and his
family. Mr Yurushev, a Greek national, also has investments in Ukrainian
real e state development projects and assets in industry.

The bank was founded in 1994 and, after rapid expansion, now has assets
totalling the equivalent of Euro1.4bn and a market share of 2.3 per cent. It
plans to increase the number of branches to 400 in the next four years,
whilst doubling its market share.

Commerzbank officials said the Ukrainian banking market had seen strong
growth in recent years, with bank assets rising at an average rate of more
than 50 per cent over the past five years.

Market penetration of banking services in Ukraine remains low, but growth
potential is considered high and foreign banks have tripled their presence
in the market to about 30 per cent in the past three years.

In July, Bank Austria Creditanstalt, the Austrian subsidiary of Italy's
UniCredit, agreed to pay $2.2bn for Kiev-based Ukrsotsbank, one of

Ukraine's top five banks in terms of net assets and branch network size.

Other European banks to enter Ukraine recent years have included Austria's
Raiffeisen and Erste Bank Groups, France's BNP Paribas and CrИdit Agricole,
Hungary's OTP Bank and Sweden's Swedbank.

FOOTNOTE: Holtec International is a member of the U.S.-Ukraine

Business Council (USUBC) in Washington.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[return to index] [Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
========================================================
14. CMS LAWFIRM KICKSTARTS LONDON'S GOLDRUSH TO UKRAINE

Caroline Binham, The Lawyer, London, UK, Monday, 17-Sep-2007

LONDON - CMS Cameron McKenna has launched a series of raids on local
rivals to bolster its new Ukraine office. The raids come as UK firms circle
the former Soviet state looking to take advantage of an underlawyered but
buoyant emerging market.

Camerons will be the first City firm with an on-the-ground presence in Kiev
when it launches there this month, but a number of UK firms have also been
contemplating Ukraine launches.

Clifford Chance managing partner David Childs denied rumours of an imminent
launch, but admitted: "It's on my radar. A number of our clients are doing
an increasing amount of work there."

Camerons is in the midst of a hiring frenzy, taking on more lateral partners
in one week than during the past three years. It signed up seven new
partners last week, the bulk of them for its Ukraine office.

Linklaters' former Central and Eastern Europe managing partner Nick Eastwell
commented: "Ukraine has 48 million people and it's a vast country full of
natural resources. There are signs of real sustainable growth there, so law
firms are naturally looking at it.

"Of the old CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] countries beyond
Russia, it's really the one to have, along with Kazakhstan.

"Personally I think we should [be opening in Kiev], but I don't think we
will be in the near future given everything else we're doing. It's a
question of priorities."

Camerons raided Baker & McKenzie, Chadbourne & Parke, local boutique
Levenets Maciw & Partners and Ukraine's justice ministry for, respectively,
corporate partner Olexander Martinenko, corporate partner Adam Mycyk, name
partners Oleksiy Levenets and Christina Maciw, and corporate partner Daniel
Bilak.

The office will launch with another 13 associates and regional corporate
head Helen Rodwell will relocate for six months, as first reported by The
Lawyer (9 July).

Camerons' hiring spree is also spreading to London, with Reed Smith Richards
Butler head of immigration Caron Pope returning to the firm she trained at
and Dundas & Wilson funds partner Gawain Hughes also moving to the firm,
although Camerons declined to comment on the latter move.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=128588&d=122&h=24&f=46
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[return to index] [Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
========================================================
15. U.S. AMBASSADOR TAYLOR DISCUSSES ELECTORAL RIGHTS
OF CITIZENS UNABLE TO MOVE AROUND UNAIDED

Ukrainian News, Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, September 9, 2007

KYIV - The Central Electoral Commission's Chairman Volodymyr Shapoval and
the United States' Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor have discussed the
electoral rights of citizens who are unable to move around unaided. The
press service of the Central Electoral Commission announced this in a
statement.

According to the statement, Taylor expressed concern about participation of
such citizens in the Ukrainian parliamentary elections. The press service
said that Taylor expressed the opinion that the rights of these citizens are
not clearly protected.

Shapoval said that the Central Electoral Commission has no power to regulate
this issue. The statement says that Taylor intends to issue a public
assessment of this issue in order to draw the attention of the international
community to it.

Moreover, Shapoval and Taylor discussed voting opportunities for citizens
located outside Ukraine and those returning to the country a few days before
the parliamentary elections.

According to Shapoval, it will be sufficiently difficult to reinstate data
about these citizens in election lists if they return to Ukraine three or
fewer days before the voting day.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Central Electoral Commission has
promised the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) that it
will explain procedures for voting at home to election commissions.
Campaigning in the parliamentary elections started on August 2; voting is
scheduled for September 30.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[return to index] [Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
========================================================
16. UKRAINE: MILLIONS OF VOTERS FACE BALLOT WOES

By Stephen Bandera, Kyiv Post Editor
Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Sep 20, 2007

Problems with electoral law can lead to nearly a million Ukrainians losing
the right to vote and have created additional opportunities for
falsification in the Sept. 30 vote for parliamentary seats, analysts said.

The new electoral provisions are designed to prevent the millions of
falsified votes that sparked mass protests in a 2004 presidential contest
dubbed the Orange Revolution. In the second round of the presidential race
in 2004, 2.8 million ballots were rigged, according to the Committee of
Voters of Ukraine.

But the changes may see parties lose - or steal - crucial points in a tight
race between the three front-runners: Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich's
Party of Regions, opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko's Byut bloc, and
Our Ukraine-Peoples' Self-Defense, which is loyal to President Viktor
Yushchenko.

"This is a battle for 300,000 to 400,000 votes that will determine who will
win enough of the few seats required to form the majority in the next
parliament," said elections administration expert and former Member of
Parliament Volodymyr Kovtunets.

Sociologists showed between three and seven parties, including the
Communists crossing the three percent qualifying barrier for seats in
parliament. More than ten percent of voters were undecided in early
September before a publication ban on poll results came into effect last
week.

A million votes represent approximately four percent in the final tally.
With the so-called Orange (BYuT and OUPSD) and Blue coalition (Regions)
forces in a dead heat, the "golden share" of seats will determine who will
make or break a coalition in the next Rada.

Polls show that several political camps have a chance of landing the
kingmaker position, namely OUPSD, the bloc of former parliamentary
speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, and the Communist party.
85 PERCENT SUSPICIOUS
In its weekly election monitoring report, the CVU election watchdog
expressed concern about "the declarations by politicians and sociologists
concerning very high voter turnout in separate regions. According to CVU
estimates, the voter turnout will be between 60 to 70 percent."

Ballot stuffing and multiple voting by certain voters is a concern. "If
voter turnout at separate polling stations will be higher than 85 percent
then the CVU will conduct a factual verification of voters concerning the
reality of their voting."
FALSIFICATION VERSUS DISENFRANCHISEMENT
Certain categories of citizens will not be able to cast their ballots due to
changes in electoral law. These include elderly and disabled people who are
immobile and live in distant villages.

Voters entering the country after Sept. 27 will not be able to cast their
ballot; students and migrant workers who are not at home on Election Day
will not be able to vote.

CVU spokesperson Oleksandr Chernenko said that these measures, together
with mistakes in voter lists, can result in 1.5 million voters losing the
right to vote on Election Day.
VOTING AT HOME
On Sept. 30 at least 102,000 of more than 450,000 polling station
commissioners will leave the premises of their stations to conduct what is
known as mobile-voting or voting-at-home - a major source of alleged
electoral falsification in the 2004 presidential race.

The commissioners will get into a car with mini ballot boxes to collect the
votes of immobile persons who are bound to their homes due to age or
illness.

Mobile-voting - as high as thirty percent at polling stations in Mykolayiv
and Donetsk regions during the fraud-ridden presidential elections in 2004 -
is potentially a major source of falsification, according to Kovtunets.

"The decisions on who votes at home are ultimately made at the polling
station level," Kovtunets explained. "If we see that more than three percent
of total votes at urban polling stations were cast 'at home' that will give
us reason to be suspect."

He said that up to 30 percent of elderly people unable to move from their
homes in the country's distant villages will not be able to vote on Sept. 30
if the mobile voting groups do not visit them.

Kovtunets said that the race for the Rada is so close that false votes can
decide the balance: "You have more than 33,000 polling stations - ten false
'votes-at-home' or ten ballots stuffed in the ballot box at each station -
nobody will detect falsification," Kovtunets said, adding that all parties
are responsible for electoral funny-business to varying degrees.

"CVU observers have found an abnormally high number of voters who want to
vote at home in certain regions. Although these incidents are few, they show
that falsifications are being prepared.

In Kharkiv region the CVU found that the number of Ukrainians requesting
voting at home is between 2 to 3 percent, while in two districts of the
regions that number reaches 10 percent.

"A large number of 'dead souls' were found in the voter lists for the city
of Lozova [in Kharkiv region]," according to the report, "this confirms
information that the city's government is preparing a technology to vote for
these 'voters.'"

In the last elections, more than 1.1 million voters applied to cast their
ballots at home. After voting was done more than 950,000 had voted from
their place of residence - nearly 4 percent of the total final vote tally.
VOTERS RETURNING HOME
The Ministry of Internal Affairs performed a pre-election sweep of homes to
verify residency records. Local police officers randomly checked 890,000
apartments from June to August of this year, the ministry's press service
reported on Sept 17.

Police registered or removed residential records for 402,000 citizens while
69,000 were determined to be living abroad. Nearly 95,000 people were found
to not be living at their registered place of residence. Nearly 26,000 were
charged for breaking administrative law.

The Regions' press service picked up the information from the police
ministry - run by Socialist Vasyl Tsushko - and said that there were 3.32
million Ukrainian passport holders located outside of the country in
mid-August.

The blue party's spin doctors said that 1.16 million of the Ukrainians
abroad (around 35 percent) come from four of the country's westernmost
regions - the heartland of orange electoral support.

The Regions accused the president-appointed heads of regional
administrations of beefing up the voter numbers in the "traditionally-orange
oblasts" of Lviv and Sumy.

"These facts are proof of the purposeful use of the administrative resource
by the president aimed at creating the condition for falsifying voting
results," the statement alerts election observers.

On Sept. 27, the state border service should provide the Central Election
Commission with passport numbers of registered holders who are outside of
the country. These passport holders will be stricken from the voter lists.

"There is a potential problem with voters arriving in Ukraine in the last
week before elections. Up to 400,000 votes could be lost if we consider that
75,000 Ukrainians enter the country on a daily basis," calculated Kovtunets.

The Constitutional Court began hearings on the border-crossing voter
provisions on Sept. 18.
VOTERS NOT AT HOME
One source of multiple voting by a single person in the past has been
eliminated for these elections, namely absentee ballots.

CVU's Chernenko estimated that abuse of the absentee certificates resulted
in a half million votes stolen in 2004. In the March 2006 elections, only
20,000 absentee voting certificates were issued due to stricter controls,
and the certificates have been completely eliminated for these elections.

Kovtunets estimated that nearly half a million voters will be
disenfranchised due to the innovation, including students and domestic
migrant workers. Domestic migration stood at nearly 343,000 persons in the
first seven months of this year, according to the State Statistics Committee.
VOTING ABROAD
More than 420,000 Ukrainians will be eligible to vote at polling stations
outside of the country, the CVU reported on Sept. 17. The NGO said that the
Foreign Ministry has included nearly a half million Ukrainians in the voter
lists for foreign voting stations.

But CVU head Ihor Popov told Deutsche Welle radio that no more than 10
percent of that number will actually cast their ballots on Sept. 3.

Popov said that no political party or bloc is "seriously concerned" about
voter abroad, because of the expected low voter turn out. On Sept 30 polling
stations will be open at 115 polling stations in 79 countries, according to
the CEC.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINK: http://www.kyivpost.com/nation/27396/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mitch Potter, Europe Bureau, Toronto Star

Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Sunday, Sep 16, 20007

KYIV-He came to power with a face freshly ravaged by dioxin and a burning
need to know who, why and how it happened.

Today, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko is still promising answers. But
the fact that the mystery prevails a full three years since the near-fatal
attack stands as arguably the single most symbolic disappointment of his
troubled leadership.

With Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party struggling in the polls barely two weeks
before Sept. 30 parliamentary elections, the president has awakened interest
in the stalled investigation with pointed comments aimed at Russia.

Yushchenko stopped short of explicitly accusing Russian authorities in the
2004 assassination attempt. But his comments implied the dioxin that found
its way into his body originated in Russia, and that the Russian prosecutor
general's office was protecting key Ukrainian suspects by ignoring
extradition requests.

Russia responded rapidly to Yushchenko's comments, which were published
Wednesday in the French newspaper Le Figaro and The Times of London. In

an initial outburst, Viktor Chernomyrdin, the Russian ambassador to Ukraine,
told reporters in Kyiv that he was "really surprised" to hear Yushchenko's
accusations.

"Why should we investigate it?" Chernomyrdin said. "You sort it out
yourselves. You're always looking for someone hindering you."

But the following day, Moscow changed tack, announcing it would participate
in a joint investigation with Ukraine. Simultaneously, Russian media outlets
began publishing the names of the three main suspects in the case: Vladamir
Satsyuk, Taras Zalessky and Alexey Poletukha.

Satsyuk's name has long been associated with the dioxin incident. It was
during a dinner at the former deputy Ukrainian Security Service chief's
country home on Sept. 5, 2004, that Yushchenko first fell ill.

Yushchenko suffered sleeplessness and a severe headache that night and by
the next day new symptoms of pancreatitis and gastrointestinal pain arose.
Soon, he developed a facial rash, a condition later confirmed to indicate
severe dioxin poisoning.

It's too early to say whether the week's developments constitute a turning
point in a riddle that has long vexed Ukrainians. Or whether the resumption
of a long-stalled investigation will mitigate voter disappointment in
Yushchenko, who swept to power during the 2004 pro-democracy non-violent
uprising known as the Orange revolution.

"People just want to see justice done," said Roman Shwed, a Kyiv-based radio
host. "And when Yushchenko was elected, he had the opportunity and the
mandate to unleash the greatest show trial of Ukraine history.

"But he disappointed. And that disappointment was emblematic of all the
other disappointments after the Orange revolution. Yushchenko spoke softly -
but he forgot to carry the big stick."

Theories on why the investigation dragged on so long have helped sow doubts
over Yushchenko's own party, one Western diplomat told the Star.

"Somebody has to go to jail for this and among the president's many mistakes
is that nobody has yet paid the price. He had a country just waiting for
heads to roll.

"But the oligarchic side blocked him. Why? One imagines that they took him
aside and said, `Look, you are alive. You survived. So let it go. Because if
you pursue this to the end, we will expose the corruption in your camp,
too.' "The reality in Ukraine is there are very few leaders around with nothing

to be embarrassed about."

On the streets of Kyiv, not everyone expects answers.

Said one passerby, linguistics student Maxim Hovanchuk, 20: "The answer to
Yushchenko's poisoned face is in the dark. It is not normal for a country
not to get answers. But for now, this is what passes for normal in Ukraine.
In this country, you don't want to reach into the dark for answers. It can
hurt you."

Retiree Mikhail Lazarev, on the other hand, ascribed the President's
disfigurement to "the work of God. His Orange revolution was against the
scriptures and God made him pay for it.

"He entered a church strong as a bull three years ago and he came out with
his face on fire. That is how it happened."

Others forgive Yushchenko for his government's lack of investigative rigour
when it comes to the president's own troubles. But they wonder about the
stalled investigations into other human rights violations in Ukraine, most
notably the unsolved Sept. 16, 2000, murder of investigative journalist
Gyorgy Gongadze.

Gongadze's decapitated body was discovered in a forest near Kyiv and one
month later recordings emerged on which a voice resembling that of
then-president Leonid Kuchma was heard conspiring against the journalist.
The case galvanized Ukraine's political opposition, helping build momentum
toward the Orange revolution.

Yushchenko himself staked claim to the Gongadze file upon taking office,
calling it "a matter of honour for me and my team."

Three former Ukrainian interior ministry officers eventually were arrested
and charged with Gongadze's murder. A trial was launched last year, but the
case has since been frozen, pending psychological evaluation of the
defendants.

Ukraine's handling of the case prompted the European Court of Human Rights
in 2005 to raise serious doubts about the investigation, ruling that
authorities were "more preoccupied with proving the lack of involvement of
high-level state officials than by discovering the truth."

And even as Yushchenko was pointing a finger at Moscow, press freedom
watchdogs were pointing theirs at Yushchenko. The International Federation
of Journalists singled out the Ukrainian president for awarding a state
medal to former prosecutor general Mykhail Potebenko.

Gongadze is known to have appealed to Potebenko in the days prior to his
murder when he realized he was being followed, but the prosecutor ignored
his plea.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LINK: http://www.thestar.com/News/article/257120

REUTERS, Kaniv, Ukraine, Wed, September 19, 2007

KANIV, Ukraine - Ukraine's president says he is pressing Kiev authorities
to solve a row over a building site which threatens to disqualify the city's
main stadium from hosting the final of the 2012 European soccer
championship.

Viktor Yushchenko was speaking after UEFA president Michel Platini said
Kiev's 84,000-seat Olympic stadium could not be used for Euro 2012, to be
held jointly with Poland, unless construction of a nearby shopping centre
was halted.

"I issued new instructions three days ago for Kiev city authorities to take
appropriate decisions on this matter in conjunction with the owners of the
site," Yushchenko told Reuters in an interview late on Tuesday in central
Ukraine.

"I met the owner and he said he was prepared to take a wrecker's ball and
demolish the site if (international soccer officials) confirm that this is a
vital condition for the stadium to function."

The site owner was also prepared, he said, to amend building plans
"including norms on the ground level concerning proper evacuation (of
fans)" -- UEFA's chief concern.

International soccer authorities have long warned that unless the
construction is stopped they will withdraw permission to hold matches

at the stadium.
SPACE LIMITATIONS
Ukraine's Interior Ministry this month, citing crowd control concerns,
limited ticket sales to 41,000 at Ukraine's European 2008 qualifying match
against Italy.

In a letter last week to the head of Ukraine's soccer federation, Platini
said blockage of exits and space limitations meant the stadium "clearly
cannot host matches for Euro 2012. We therefore hope and believe that the
appropriate state bodies in Ukraine will adopt the necessary decisions
immediately."

Yushchenko, who played a key role in Ukraine and Poland winning the right
earlier this year to host Euro 2012, has issued a decree ordering the
dismantling of the building site. Four Ukrainian cities are to host
matches -- Dipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kiev and Lviv.

Ukraine and Poland, both ex-communist countries, face huge logistical tasks
in upgrading transport and communication links and building hotels.

In his comments to Reuters, Yushchenko renewed criticism of the early
organisation. He has already accused the government, led by his arch rival
Viktor Yanukovich, of failing to take preparations seriously.

"Many things that were supposed to have been completed by the organising
committee have not been implemented," he said. "I have sent several letters
warning the organising committee to change its approach towards the
construction timetable."

the Main Department of the Civil Service of Ukraine and has been tasked with
reforming the public administration system, also provided a very positive
assessment of USUF programs.

In fact, he suggested to Rep. Lowey that a new program "focused on the top
300 or so Ukrainian civil servants who will develop the mindset and skills
to become the agents of change in their areas of responsibility" would
"provide maximum benefits."

Clearly, there is much more that the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation can do in the
area of democratic institution-building in Ukraine. The key, of course, is
more funding - not a halt in funding.

Indeed, just last year, the U.S. Senate's Committee on Appropriations
reported: "The committee is aware of the work of the U.S.-Ukraine
Foundation, and commends the foundation for its support of democracy

and the rule of law in Ukraine.

The committee directs USAID to continue to support the foundation's
activities . The committee expects funding levels to exceed those of prior
years." The counterpart committee in the House of Representatives expressed
similar sentiments.

So why has USAID decided to simply refuse funding for USUF? And why

are the wishes of the U.S. Congress being disregarded?

Is Ukraine no longer to be considered a strategic partner of the U.S.? These
are questions that must be answered, questions for which the administration
must be held accountable.

We strongly support the valuable work of the U.S-Ukraine Foundation and we
urge the Congress to demand that its recommendations with regard to aid
programs for Ukraine be followed.

Furthermore, we demand that the Bush administration back up its fine words
regarding U.S.-Ukraine relations and democracy-building in general with the
bucks required.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Ukrainian Weekly, Roma Hadzewycz, Editor-in-chief, Parsippany,

N.J.. The Ukrainian Weekly Archive, www.ukrweekly.com.

Anatoli Murha, Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus (UBC)

Detroit, Michigan, Thursday, September 20, 2007

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