Headlines from Crimea, March 27, 2014
Personal/personnel matters
Visa ban: Hope this does not affect my staff who are going to Poland in late May!!
The European Union has banned to issue all kinds of European visas, including Schengen, to the inhabitants of Crimea in embassies and visa centers of the EU countries on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Pressure to register or else – by April 19!
Crimean residents without official registration on the peninsula must leave Russia’s territory during a month, until April 19, a representative of Russia’s Federal Migration Service Victoria Gichko said at a press conference in Sevastopol
[Consider this: Sergei is registered in a city of Crimea, but his wife is registered in a city on the Ukrainian mainland. So, can she change her registration by April 19? What is involved in doing that – unregistering in one town and registering in another? Is it complicated by one country considering the other illegal, and can the person who is expected to register in Crimea do that with a Ukrainian passport? The complications of this order are considerable. We take for granted our mobility in America.]
Collateral damage –some banks are closed in Crimea
I can’t have access to my account. The Crimean branch of Privatbank closed on March 14 and no info when it will resume, what Russian bank will take it over, or if it will transform into a Crimean bank. Its owner, Ukr. oligarch Kolomoiski, committed a very stupid blunder in early Feb.- called Yanukovich a big schizophrenic and Putin a little schizophrenic. After that Putin closed his branch in Moscow [and in Crimea], and now I share the situation of about 450,000 of its Crimean clients.
Will have to wait for nobody knows how long. As a Russian proverb says: sit on the beach and wait for the weather.
Feel helpless as I’ve never been
Selected statements and events from the news of the day
The power of propaganda
62% of Russians believe that the annexation of Crimea to Russia is caused by the threat to Russian-speaking population of the peninsula, evidence the results of a survey hold the Russian analytical centre Levada Center. 88% of respondents support joining of the peninsula to Russia.
Culling the undesirables – those Ukrainians
The Crimean State Council published a list of persons whose stay on the peninsula is undesirable, reported the press service of the State Council.
The list includes 320 Ukrainians, among them: government officials, heads of security agencies, and Ukrainian MPs
Not yet! Prove yourself to the EU community.
The European Union is not yet ready to offer Ukraine the prospect of membership in the Union, Ukraine itself is not ready for this, said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
The on-going drama — This is what Russia warned against
Representatives of the ‘Praviy sector’ (‘Right sector’) civil movement are holding an extraordinary veche on Kyiv’s Independence Square. As of 8:15 p there were about 3 thousand activists on the Maidan who demand the resignation of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. They accuse him of activist Oleksander Muzychko’s (Sashko Bily) death.
Activists of the ‘Right sector’ are storming a building of the Verkhovna Rada. A group of masked men came to the building’s door with bats in their hands
21:54. A rally of the ‘Right sector’ under the Verkhovna Rada has ended.
23:54. The Verkhovna Rada will create a commission to investigate the situation with the death of the coordinator of the ‘Right sector’ civil movement Oleksandr Muzychko (Sashko Bily), individual MP Yuriy Derevyanko state
Selected statements on the economy
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk speaking in Parliament on Thursday, introducing bills to save the economy, said that currently Ukraine is on the verge of bankruptcy.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk predicts that inflation in Ukraine in 2014 will range between 12% and 14% depending on the exchange rate.
Ukrainian government intends to introduce a progressive scale of personal income tax in Ukraine. There’ll be five rates depending on the amount of monthly income, says a crisis bill number 4576.
This law introduces a permanent application of the basic rate of corporate income tax at 18% and VAT at 20%.
parcels from abroad, which cost more than 150 euros will be taxed.
Gas tariffs for the population will increase, but the poor Ukrainians will receive targeted assistance up to 500 hryvnia per month, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk state
Donetsk Governor Sergiy Taruta at a meeting of the board of the regional administration said that an assertion that Donbass feeds all Ukraine (often used by Russians) is a myth, since Donetsk is a subsidized region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has allowed to spend on Crimea pension contributions of Russian citizens in the amount of 243 billion rubles (about $7 billion). This amount has been frozen in a special anti-crisis budget reserve of Russia
Russian troops firmly in control of Ukraine’s gas extraction station in Kherson Oblast’s Arabat Spit
Cost of a driver’s license: Drivers Education, which is required in order to take the driver’s test, cost just a bit more in Russia compared to Ukraine– averages 4000 UAH [$400 – more than a month’s salary for most people in Ukraine]. The training period is for 2.5 months [and is mostly spent on theory] , but may soon be extended to 6 months. … With the increase an increase in the period, expect an increase in tuition fees.
[BTW, many people buy their license for less, or sometimes more, just to save time. GC]
Cost of bribes increases: Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokontsev said last week that, in 2013, the average bribe in Russia had doubled to $4,000. Last year, Transparency International gave Russia 127th place on its Corruption Perception Index, rating it as corrupt as Pakistan, Mali and Madagascar.
[Ukraine was 144 out of 177 – the higher the number, the worse the corruption.]
Articles of note
March 27, 2014, 11:58 p.m.
Vladimir Putin’s reckless and illegal military aggression, coupled with war crimes, are not only terrible for Ukraine, they are threatening to the world. That is why it is so disheartening that the G7 nations, meeting this week, have essentially accepted the Kremlin’s theft of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. The statement this week warns only of deeper economic and diplomatic sanctions from America and the European Union if Russia’s military invades mainland Ukraine.
March 28, 2014, 12:37 a.m.
Russia is mobilizing for war and may be poised for a springtime invasion of Ukraine’s mainland, after stealing Crimea in less than three weeks.
Wall Street Journal: Obama’s uncertain trumpet
March 27, 2014, 8:38 a.m.
Delivering the keynote address of this week’s European tour, President Obama rejected Russia’s invasion of Ukraine point-by-point with lawyerly logic. If the stately Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels on Wednesday had been the Oxford Union debating society, the American would have carried the evening.
Also:
New York Times: Soviet echoes in call for artists to back Crimea policy
March 28, 2014, 12:27 a.m.
MOSCOW — Russia’s Ministry of Culture recently called leading artists and intellectuals to suggest that they endorse a petition hailing President Vladimir V. Putin’s annexation of Crimea, sparking impassioned accusations from the literati that the Kremlin was resurrecting repugnant Soviet methods.
March 27, 2014, 11:51 a.m.
Earlier this month, a few members of the volunteer initiative Logistics Headquarters visited the home of Mykhailo Havryliuk, a Kozak and one of Maidan’s heroes. This man is best known for his amazing courage, and even greater generosity of heart. During the events of Maidan, Mykhailo was subjected to cruel torture and humiliation at the hands of Berkut [former riot police] officers, but withstood his torments with dignity. More than that, Mykhailo actually forgave his torturers. A few weeks ago, when the responsible warrant officer stood trial for his crimes, facing eight years in prison, Mykhailo said he was dropping all charges against the man. “I don’t want the father to be taken away from the kiddies, I withdraw my complaints against him. It’s better to let him raise his children, so that such things are never repeated again,” said the Kozak.
Soviet mentality in Crimea
http://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/op-ed/stamping-out-soviet-mentality-in-crimea-341146.html
For more news of the day, if you have not had enough — see:
http://world.lb.ua/news/2014/03/27/260978_ukrainian_crisis_march_27_live.html