After the Revolution

Throw that blanket back off; the second round of the Russia-Ukraine gas fights ended today.
But there is so much more to this than just a spat over a utility bill.
According to an article in the Financial Times:
[T]he Russians do not regard Ukraine as a serious independent country and the Ukrainians do not regard the Russians as trustworthy […]

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Toss on another blanket; the gas fights are back.
State-owned Russian gas company Gazprom has cut gas supplies to Ukraine in half over the past two days.
Gazprom says Ukraine has not paid $1.5 billion in gas bills.
Ukraine’s gas company, Naftogaz, says Ukraine has made most of the payments but can’t complete the rest because Russia and Ukraine’s intermediary gas trading company has yet […]

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Let me take you on a bit of a side trip to the Republic of Moldova.
From 2004-2006, I taught English in the town of Calarasi, just an hour outside the capital, Chisinau.
There were three secondary schools in my town: two for Romanian speakers and one for Russian speakers. I taught at a Romanian school.
Many of my students told me […]

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While in a Russian-language bookstore on Chicago’s famously international Devon Avenue on Sunday, I met two Ukrainian immigrants, Michael Arov and his mother, Anna Arova.
Michael took a moment to speak with me about his cultural background, Russia and Kosovan independence.
Here is the interview:
http://kathryngrim.com/audio/InterviewArov.mp3
Below is the transcript:

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I give Russia a break, and Putin has to go and threaten to aim nuclear missiles at Ukraine.
Ukraine and Russia may have just reached an agreement about Ukraine’s unpaid gas debt, but that doesn’t make Russian President Vladimir Putin any happier about Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko’s desire to join NATO.
Putin told Yushchenko at their recent meeting that if Ukraine allowed NATO […]

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Focusing in this blog on three countries that simultaneously depend upon and rebel against Mother Russia, I tend to write entries that portray President Vladimir Putin as the bad guy.
Mark MacKinnon, author of “The New Cold War,” wrote an interesting blog entry a few days ago entitled “It’s not always Russia’s fault.”
MacKinnon argues that a new Cold War […]

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The U.S. media tends to break down State of the Union addresses as if they were sporting events.
They count the number of breaks for applause, show replays of important people falling asleep and list most-used words.
Imagine how much fun they’d have if Congress were more like Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, where a fistfight that broke out among lawmakers prompted […]

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 According to a press release from the World Trade Organization, the WTO approved Ukraine for membership this week.
To listen to the English interpretation of the speech Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko gave at the WTO meeting, click here.
Russia is now the world’s last major economy left out of the trade organization. 
As Ukraine has beat Russia to the finish line in […]

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Russian police arrested Semyon Mogilevich, a 61-year old mob boss, on tax evasion charges last week.
Mogilevich is allegedly connected to RosUkrEnergo, a trading company half owned by Russian energy company Gazprom and half controlled by two Ukrainian businessmen.
RosUkrEnergo, an entity with a mashed multisyllabic name straight out of the USSR, was created in 2006 to resolve an energy dispute culminating with Russia’s cutting off Ukraine’s natural gas supply.
Ukrainian Prime […]

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The World Trade Organization announced on its Web site on Jan. 25 that Ukraine, after 14 years of negotiations, has finally put together an agreement that could allow it to become a member of the WTO in August.
The General Council of the WTO will consider the agreement at its Feb. 5 meeting. If Ukraine ratifies the deal by […]

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