Ukraine crisis. News in brief. Monday 21 March. [Ukrainian sources]

MONDAY

Please scroll down to view news items added during the day

News -
Putin again launches 32 attacks against Ukraine yesterday.
Sadly reading - two Ukrainian soldiers died yesterday. Landmine. Also two injured.
Unsurprisingly, Savchenko - supposedly - found guilty of murdering two journalists - the murders actually happened after she was taken into custody!
Only in the madland that is Putin's Russia. In any other country - except North Korea - the judge would have laughed at the stupidity of the evidence.
But not so in Russia.
Update - confusion. Verdict announced in the Russian press, including TASS. But - apparently the judge hasn't finished his garbage yet.
But the verdict is clearly already known to the Russian reporters - a show trial.
.
Weather -
Looks calmer. Overnight rain. +2 now at 0830. High maybe of 5.

Observation -
From Twitter - "Vladimir Putin" - not the real idiot. This comment is intelligent -
In soviet Russia the future is known, it's the past that changes.

http://en.censor.net.ua/news/380066/no_one_was_hurt_but_we_experienced_reputation_losses_andrii_sadovyi_commented_on_attacks_on_lgbt_community
..."The court's decision to ban mass events on both sides near the Opera House was the right decision. Hostilities and blood on the streets of Lviv are what our enemies want," he believes.
"Thank God no one was hurt. But we experienced significant reputation losses," he said.
====
The anti-Ukraine press, including many western journalists in Moscow have been having a field-day with this story.
But they will never report on any anti-gay action in Russia in a million years.

9:10
http://www.ostro.org/general/politics/news/495308/
The leader of the faction "Block Poroshenko" in the Verkhovna Rada Yuriy Lutsenko is in favor of holding an extraordinary session of parliament March 24 to change the Cabinet. He said this the TV channel "Inter", - the Left Bank.
"I can express a hope that next week, about Thursday (March 24) we may hold an extraordinary meeting at which the vote for a new prime minister, the new government, a new program of action", - he said.
Lutsenko ruled out that Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk can stay for a third term.
According to him, currently holding consultations on the format of the future Cabinet.

9:07
http://ua.112.ua/ato/v-avdiivtsi-pidirvavsia-zil-dvoie-viiskovykh-zahynuly-299450.html
===
Putin using more and more anti-tank missiles - guided - against ATO forces.
This story was posted yesterday by Admin. But photo here at link. Complete destruction.

8:55
http://hubs.ua/authority/bpp-predlagaet-kandidaturu-yares-ko-na-post-prem-era-67373.html
....The faction "Block Poroshenko" in Parliament in favor of the appointment of the Prime Minister of the country's current head the Ministry of Finance Natalia Yaresko - BPP chairman Yuri Lutsenko.
"The first option, which supports our group, society and our Western partners - the format of a technocratic government led by Yaresko", - the MP said the TV channel "Inter".
As he stressed Lutsenko Yaresko can supposedly nonpartisan form a government that will accelerate reforms in the country.
However, the head of the BPP acknowledged that such a proposal does not support the faction of "Self-Help".
Also Lutsenko said that the extraordinary session of parliament on the reformatting of the Cabinet will be held on March 24th....
====
Yaresko has stated several times that she does not want to be PM.
I think this is a clever way for those who are really in power to get rid of her.
She becomes PM. There are yet more difficult decisiions to be made. She will be to blame, and then removed.
And then the old-guard from the Yanukovich days will slowly take over - Tymoshenko, Litvin, Boiko, Akhmetov and the gang.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/20/lgbt-festival-in-ukraine-abandoned-after-far-right-protest
Rightwing groups surrounded hotel in Lviv where about 70 participants in the equality festival had gathered
An LGBT festival in the Ukrainian city of Lviv had to be abandoned when the venue was surrounded by about 200 members of far-right groups shouting “Kill, kill, kill” on Saturday....
====
Shaun Walker, Moscow correspondent for The Guardian.
As I said, pro-Russian "western" journalists based in Moscow are having a field-day on this story.
Walker simply loves writing about "Ukrainian fascists", Nazis, and so on. Remember his story about anti-semitism.
Or his version of the shooting down of MH17 - Kremlin version - for The Guardian Putin lovers.
But how many articles has he written about gay rights in his beloved Moscow? Or anti-semitism in Russia? Nothing. Never. And never will.
His boss at the Guardian, Stalinist Seamus Milne will love this story. He adores Putin. For more, see our sticky, "Journalists reporting on Ukraine".
https://ukraine-english-news.forumotion.com/t1118-journalists-reporting-on-ukraine-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly
Shaun Walker of Russiaprofile = RIA Novosti, and The Guardian.
Incidentally, you could ask the question as to why a Moscow reporter writes about goings on in Lviv, which is far nearer Vienna than Moscow!
And your answer will tell you a lot about "politics" for "journalists" in the Kremlin sphere of things.

http://news.liga.net/news/politics/9654743-boeviki_perekryvayut_dorogi_i_ne_puskayut_nablyudateley_obse.htm
....Gunmen blocked the road and do not let the observers - OSCE
Pro-Russian mercenaries did not allow the Special observers of the OSCE monitoring mission in the military field camp in Chernukhin, which originally contained a penal colony. This information was confirmed today LІGA.net the press service of the OSCE mission....
===
You won't read about this in The Guardian.

14:31
http://espreso.tv/news/2016/03/21/zayavy_lucenka_scho_quotnarodnyy_frontquot_ne_pidtrymuye_quoturyad_tekhnokrativquot_ye_dezinformaciyeyu_syumar
Faction "People's Front" can not have a position on an issue that is not even discussed.
It's Facebook said the MP from the "Popular Front" Victoria Syumar...
===
Suggesting that decisions are being made at "Bankova" - the Presidential Administration - but not at the "Dome" - the Rada.

14:45
http://fakty.ua/214349-v-harkove-s-nozhom-napali-na-dvuh-voennyh-odin-boec-pogib-vtorogo-gospitalizirovali
===
Attackers were detained.

14:47
Moscow broke up a picket in support Savchenko (Ukrinform)
http://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-society/1985965-u-moskvi-rozignali-piket-na-pidtrimku-savcenko.html
===
People getting jailed now for protests. North Korea.
You won't read about this from Shaun Walker (Russiaprofile, RIA Novosti) in The Putin-loving Guardian run by Corbyn Stalinist sidekick, Milne.

http://www.unian.info/politics/1295562-savchenko-found-guilty-of-murder-of-russian-journalists-near-luhansk.html
===
Shaun Walker kangeroo court. She was detained before the alleged event even happened.
No justice or rule of law in Russia. A wild land, out of control, under the watch of paranoid dictator Putin.
And the Russian people sit like docile sheep.

http://www.unian.info/economics/1295770-russias-agriculture-on-the-verge-of-collapse-as-state-support-falters.html
Russian farmers complain about a delay in the payment of state subsidies, which, together with other factors, may lead to the collapse of the sector, according to Russian newspaper Vedomosti....
...as late as in April 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin assured that "agriculture was a priority."
===
Don't believe Putin, Lavrov, or Cherkin. Compulsive liars.

Russia expects to swap Ukrainian pilot and lawmaker Nadia Savchenko for land access to Crimea, SBU adviser Yury Tandit said March 20, according to Nova gazeta.

He was given the offer by a person from Putin’s presidential office who approached him, Tandit said.

“Moscow is willing to exchange Savchenko for a land route to the peninsula now controlled by Ukraine. The man close to the Kremlin told me openly about it,” Tandit said.

“We want a land route to from Rostov to Crimea to move cargo and passengers along,” he said.

“I told him that only in the East a princess can be swapped for half the kingdom. What he proposed was out of the question. The entire world is crying for the release of Savchenko, and we are ready for reasonable compromises,” the SBU official said.

zik.ua

Poroshenko Bloc faction leader Yurii Lutsenko said it is possible that an extraordinary session of the Verkhovna Rada is held next week, during which a candidate for the prime minister position is agreed.

He announced this on his Facebook page, Censor.NET informs.

"After the most recent consultations I shut out possibility that Yatseniuk might stay for his third year as prime minister. I believe that both him and the People's Front faction have realized that the government is almost dysfunctional," Lutsenko said.

According to him, the most recent consultations only cover the format of the future government.

"The first option, supported by our faction, which is also supported by the society and our Western allies, is the format of technocratic government headed by Natalie Jaresko, who can form independent government able to make fast progress with the reforms, and first of all, with eliminating oligarchs and party businessmen from state monopolies," Lutsenko wrote.

However, he noted that this option is not supported by Samopomich faction, which refuses to join any coalition, including those of possible PMs Sadovyi or Jaresko.

"People's Front is also against technocratic government and suggest forming a new party government made of ministers from the Verkhovna Rada factions. Of course, this does not guarantee quick reforms, but the replacement of the prime minister, replacement of the government is a minimum that we in PPB demand.

"Consultations on such government are being held 24/7. I hope that next week, possibly Thursday, we will be able to hold an extraordinary meeting and vote for the new prime minister, new government, new program of the government, and finally end this deep crisis, caused by inactivity of the current government in key sectors of its activities," Lutsenko noted.

censor.net.ua  In Ukrainian/український

Judge Stepanenko of the Donetsk court of the Rostov region of the Russian Federation has started pronouncing the verdict to Ukrainian servicewoman and lawmaker Nadiia Savchenko.

Censor.NET correspondent reports.

Before delivering her verdict, Savchenko asked the court for the floor, but the judges ignored her request.

"Savchenko is guilty of premeditated murder," the judge read out the charges of the prosecution. The sentence was previously scheduled to be delivered within two days - March 21 and March 22.



There are the accused and her lawyers - Nikolai Polozov and Mark Feigin - in the courtroom. Ilya Novikov is absent. The hearing is also attended by Ukrainian lawmakers, president's of Ukraine spokesperson Sviatoslav Tseholko, Consul of Ukraine to Rostov-on-Don. Journalists and cameramen from several TV channels managed to get into the courtroom as well. A sort of press centers were organized in other courtrooms for the rest of the journalists.

It should be reminded that prosecutors seek sanction of 23 years in standard regime penal colony and 100,000 RUB fine for Nadiia Savchenko. She is accused of murder (Part 2 of the Article 105 of the Criminal Code of Russia) of two journalists of the Russia-24 TV channel, attempted murder (Part 3 of the Article 30, Part 2 of the Article 105 of the Criminal Code) of civilians, and illegal crossing of the border (Part 1 of the Article 322 of the Criminal Code). Source: http://en.censor.net.ua/v380139 Source: http://en.censor.net.ua/v380139

censor.net.ua   In Ukrainian/український

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/03/russia-nadiya-savchenko-must-get-a-retrial-after-deeply-politicized-guilty-verdict/
...“It is abhorrent to send Nadiya Savchenko to prison after such a flawed, deeply politicized trial,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Director for Europe and Central Asia.
“The litany of dubious procedures and decisions by the presiding judge over the course of this trial shows a clear contempt for due process and suggests Nadiya never had a hope of proving her innocence....
===
But stupid to call for a fair retrial. There are no fair trials in Russia. It is a fascist state, controlled by a psychotic dictator called Vladimir Putin.

Judge Leonid Stepanenko began reading the verdict on March 21.

He said the panel of judges had established that Savchenko had "deliberately inflicted death on two persons, acting by prior conspiracy, and on the motives of hatred and enmity."

The ruling will not be official until the judge finishes reading it, but Russian state media treated his remarks as a guilty verdict.

Prosecutors want Savchenko, who denies the charges, sent to prison for 23 years.

The case has sparked outrage in Ukraine and elsewhere, with critics accusing the Kremlin of orchestrating a show trial............

rferl.org

I am reading that the BBC and AFP have withdrawn their reports that Savchenko has been found guilty, but by the tone of the verdict thus far - there is no doubt.
see also
Russian court delivers verdict in Ukraine pilot trial
http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-pilot-savchenko-found-guilty-over-journalist-killings-084349249.html;_ylt=AwrBT9vDt.9WZicAZOZXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTByOHZyb21tBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--
... and early reports from Russian new agencies appeared to indicate incorrectly that Savchenko had been handed a definitive guilty verdict....
===
Delaying the inevitable. After all, it is a Putin show-trial.

https://tvrain.ru/news/savchenko_agentstva-405839/
News agencies reported conviction Savchenko to his announcement
[Note - Russian source]
NEWS 11:39, 21 March 6029 0
News agencies reported conviction Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko even before the official announcement, reports on Monday, March 21 correspondent Dozhdya of city court of Donetsk Rostov region, where the verdict is announced.
One of the first reports of the conviction Savchenko appeared on the website of the state news agency RIA Novosti.
In the news it said that the court found her guilty of illegally crossing the Russian border. Also stated in the submission, Savchenko, according to a conviction, "murder committed on preliminary arrangement by group of persons on grounds of hatred and enmity."
On conviction also reported TASS and "Interfax".
===
A farce from beginning to end!!!

Some 159 Ukraine's united territorial communities will receive UAH 1 billion in the current year, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk has said.

He made these comments on air of "10 Minutes with the Prime Minister" program on Sunday night.

Yatseniuk said the money would be allocated for the infrastructure projects, reconstruction of health care and educational institutions, repairs of roads and in schools, as well as improvement of the life quality in the communities.....

interfax.com.ua

16:23
"Self-help" put forward conditions to vote for a new prime minister (Hvilya)
http://hvylya.net/news/exclusive/samopomoshh-vyidvinula-usloviya-dlya-golosovaniya-za-novogo-premera.html
....Oleg Berezyuk noted that the party calls for a new law on elections to the Verkhovna Rada on a pro rata basis with open lists, as well as changes in the composition of the CEC. The third requirement is the election of a new Prosecutor General of Ukraine.

A group from Kyiv and Poltava regions and western Ukraine has gone to Odesa to 'model' the abduction of Yuriy Hrabovsky, a lawyer of indicted Russian citizen Alexander Alexandrov, Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor General - Main Military Prosecutor Anatoliy Matios has said.

"We hope he is alive," the prosecutor said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Monday.

The suspected organizer of the disappearance of Yuriy Hrabovsky, who has been detained in Odessa, simulated his departure from Ukraine, Matios said....

interfax.com.ua

16:27
http://gazeta.ua/articles/economics/_z-ivanofrankivska-turkish-airlines-zapuskayut-rejs-do-stambula/686550
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It looks like they are expecting lots and lots of Ukrainian tourists this summer.
Bear in mnd - Russians no longer going anywhere. Crmea - nobody going there.

16:38
http://ru.slovoidilo.ua/2016/03/21/novost/finansy/zolotovalyutnye-rezervy-ukrainy-dostigli-otmetki-1349-mlrd
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I wonder if Tymoshenko will shortly suggest her daughter becomes head of the National Bank? ))

16:47
http://hvylya.net/news/exclusive/razvedka-rassekretila-lichnost-rossiyskogo-polkovnika-na-donbasse.html
.... Russian Vadim Lipkevich
Before arriving in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine [the Russian] Colonel served as the assistant commander for work with personnel 54 management team (city Belogorsk Amur region) 35 of the army of the Eastern Military District of the Russian Federation armed forces...

https://www.rt.com/news/336400-savchenko-guilty-murder-journalists/#.VvAXtI8f3cI.twitter
Nadezhda Savchenko, a Ukrainian Air Force officer detained in Russia in 2014, is guilty of murdering two Russian journalists near Lugansk, eastern Ukraine, and of illegally crossing the Russian border, a court in the southern Russian town of Donetsk ruled.
"Savchenko committed murder in collusion with a group of persons motivated by hatred and enmity,” the judge's ruling said. The court is due to read its verdict over two days on Monday and Tuesday....
===
Note - this is RT. Russian media. Shaun Walker "journalists". Apparently the real verdict has not yet been announced.
But the "journalists" already know the outcome.

Yury Soloshenko, the 73-year-old Ukrainian pensioner, sentenced to 6 years in Russia on mystery ‘spying’ charges has cancer.  This is the latest blow for the elderly Ukrainian who has not seen his grandchildren since August 2014.  He wrote in a letter just received, but unfortunately not dated, that he was in hospital and that the following week it would be decided whether he is to receive treatment or to be returned to prison conditions.   Ukraine has formally requested Soloshenko’s extradition, together with that of Crimean filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, civic activist Oleksandr Kolchenko and Gennady Afanasyev, all recognized as political prisoners by the renowned Memorial Human Rights Centre.

Soloshenko has a heart condition and is generally in ill health. It was clear both to him and to Zoya Svetova, the human rights activist who visited him in Moscow that the 6-year prison term was a death sentence.  That was doubtless no less plain to Russian President Vladimir Putin when he turned down his application for a pardon last November.

It is worth noting that Svetova has been visiting Russia’s prisons and its many political prisoners for at least a decade.  She wrote in April 2015 that in those years, she had never seen such flagrant violation of Russia’s Constitution as in Soloshenko’s case.   The most cynical abuse of his rights was seen in the situation with his lawyer.  He and his family had asked well-known human rights lawyer Ivan Pavlov to represent him, yet, in total breach of the law, Pavlov was prevented from seeing him.  While all Pavlov’s efforts failed, Soloshenko was himself put under immense pressure to accept a ‘lawyer’ provided by the investigators. It seems clear that this lawyer, Gennady Blokhin encouraged him to ‘confess’, promising that he would be returned to Ukraine.

At a closed trial on Oct 14, the 73-year-old with no access to state secrets or Russian weapons, but also with no access to a proper lawyer, ‘confessed’ to the bizarre spying charges and was sentenced to 6 years maximum security prison.  The reason for a sentence much shorter than that demanded by the prosecution lay solely in Soloshenko’s age.

Blokhin continued to talk about how Soloshenko would be extradited after the court trial, probably to ensure that Soloshenko did not appeal against the conviction..........

To read further go to this link:  khpg.org

A group of three US businessmen from Iowa, currently on a visit to Drohobych, Lviv oblast, say they intend to invest in the economy here, ZIK reports March 21.

The team had numerous meetings with Drohobych officials and businessmen. They say they are attracted by cheap labor.

March 21, the Americans are to visit several agricultural companies. They will meet with Drophobych mayor March 22.

zik.ua

http://www.kyivpost.com/article/opinion/op-ed/martin-nunn-ukrainian-political-mess-underscores-need-for-education-in-democracy-410448.html
[Ok. this is from the Kyivpost, known for its unrivaled adoration of Yulia Tymoshenko's posteria (i.e., a bunch of butt-kissers). But the article is not by a journalist. Not bad.
Obviously I could not normally recommend you reading anything in the Yulia Post. But this article is not typical. ]
A couple of phrases to wet your appetitie -

The oligarchic media feeds society with a deluge of political fantasy, disinformation and lies whilst the public just get ever more frustrated and disillusioned...
The political system is designed to be self-perpetuating with the same old faces, the same worn out ideas and the same populist rhetoric ...
Many of the bills passed are a hotchpotch of vested interest bound up with red tape that serve only the interests of a few. ...

This guy is to the point. Recommended read. Short but sweet. Hope yet for the Yulia Post.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko ordered that Normandy Four talks be initiated regarding Russia's ban on entering its territory against Ukrainian people's deputy Iryna Herashchenko who was travelling to the trial of Nadiia Savchenko.

Censor.NET reports referring to presidential Facebook.

"I've instructed Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Kostiantyn Yeliseiev to meet with the European ambassadors - participants to the Normandy format talks to talk an appropriate response to the non-admission of PACE member, presidential envoy for the peaceful settlement of the conflict in the Donbas Iryna Herashchenko to the Russian Federation. This incident flags a systemic non-compliance with the Minsk agreements," head of state wrote.

censor.net.ua In Ukrainian/український

The Holosiivskyi district court has extended the arrest of Russian military Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Alexander Aleksandrov until May 19 inclusive.

The court announced the decision on Monday, Censor.NET reports citing Ukrainski Novyny.

Read more: Ukrainian Lytvynov to be tried tomorrow in Rostov region. No MPs or consuls will attend

As previously reported, the prosecution asked the court to extend the preventive measure in the form of detention for Russian military Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Alexander Aleksandrov.

censor.net.ua  In Ukrainian/український

The Kremlin wants to ensure the effective recognition of the annexation of the Crimea. Minsk agreement - this is a trap for Ukraine. In addition, Putin is waiting for the arrival of a more loyal to the Russian anti-Western Ukrainian government. This belief is expressed Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev during an Internet conference in the press center of "Commander" , answering questions from readers.

First of all, the Kremlin wants to achieve with respect to Crimea de facto recognition of its annexation. "And that, in general, it happened at the time of the signing of the Minsk agreements, so I do not get tired of repeating that it was a trap," - said the deputy.

According to him, the Kremlin expects that this government will fall, and next will come to Ukraine. Moscow hopes with the new, loyal (in any case, anti-Western) authorities in Kiev to return the country into the orbit of its influence. "Certainly no tanks in Kiev is not going to move, and support for" the DNI-LC "has the character of a purely token cards," - said Ponomarev.

Deputy inclined to evaluate the actions of the Kremlin as successful, the West - as a very selfish and toothless, and in Kiev, as there was no single authority with long-term and effective strategy for reforms or not. And not because the terms of Putin's agents - and because "so you have built a political system."

Recall that Ilya Ponomarev was the only deputy of the State Duma, which voted against the annexation of the Crimea.

The State Duma has deprived the deputy Ilya Ponomarev immunity.

glavcom.ua In Russian/русский

According to the report, the trucks have set off from Noginsk rescue center in Moscow region, which will be part of the 50th "humanitarian" batch to Donbas.

It is reported that the convoy will deliver more than 1,100 tonnes of humanitarian aid. The cargo reportedly includes food: canned food, flour, sugar, cereals, pasta, butter, puree, juice. The column will also deliver the seeds of crops for the spring sowing campaign.............

uatoday.tv

The Tarasovsky district court of the Rostov region will continue the trial of Ukrainian Serhii Lytvynov on Tuesday, March 22.
No consuls and people's deputies will attend the hearing, Lytvynov's lawyer Viktor Parshutkin told Censor.NET correspondent in Donetsk (the Rostov region, Russia).

Consul General of Ukraine in Rostov-on-Don Vitalii Moskalenko told Censor.NET that representatives of the consulate will not be able to attend the trial.

"We are all here [at the trial of Nadiia Savchenko - ed.]. We have no more cars!" Moskalenko said.

Presidential press secretary Sviatoslav Tseholko also confirmed he was not going to attend tomorrow's hearing of Serhii Lytvynov's case. MPs won't go either.

"We were thinking of setting up a kind of duty of deputies, so that all take turns in attending political processes against Ukrainians," Tseholko said.

Read more: Savchenko plans to go on hunger strike: "It will last until end"

Lytvynov's lawyer regrets that Ukrainian representatives will not come.

"Consuls and journalists' presence disciplines judges and a prosecutor. It would be difficult without them. Consuls attended the previous meetings. Journalists came once. Any public representatives were absent," Parshutkin said.

At the moment, the court is hearing evidence by the prosecution.

As previously reported, Serhii Lytvynov, Luhansk region resident, was detained in summer of 2014 in the Rostov region where he arrived to visit a doctor. He was accused of having served in Dnipro-1 battalion, killed at least 30 young men, raped and killed eight young women, killed a 12-year-old girl. On Nov. 25, 2015, the Investigative Committee of Russia was forced to stop the prosecution against Lytvynov for these episodes where he was faced with a capital punishment (life imprisonment). Now he is charged with robbery and carjacking. There is only one victim evidencing against him, who, however, does not attend the hearings.

censor.net.ua  In Ukrainian/український

"Plan Medvedchuk" - the last chance to unite Ukraine, to it should be taken seriously, whatever the chances of success.

About this newspaper writes The Financial Times.

"In Kiev, there are glimmers of hope that the stalled Minsk II still be able to prevent the frozen conflict in the Donbass", - says the publication, and refers the reader to an article that appeared on March 11 in "The Mirror of the Week".

It was after the publication in the press began an active discussion of the so-called Medvedchuk plan for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in the Donbass region, according to which certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions should lead the people who arrange Kiev and Moscow and will replace the current representatives of the rebel Donbass.

The Financial Times calls Medvedchuk "pro-Russian, but antiseparatistkim politician" and believes that "the plan Medvedchuk" should be taken seriously.

"It is not clear what the relationship between these appeared at the end of the week rumors and assumptions. Nevertheless, Medvedchuk to the plan should be taken seriously, whatever its chances of success. The reason for that is the only hope and the last chance to reunite Ukraine and give her the opportunity for development and prosperity, "- said the publication.

At the same time, a decision that "have Medvedchuk plan the future or not," according to the author, "will not take restive Russian minions in the Donbass, and Moscow."

"And it is unclear whether it will show some positive gestures, such as the liberation of arrested former Ukrainian pilots Nadia Savchenko, in order to check the possibilities and opportunities Medvedchuk plan. The ball is now on the Russian side of the field ", - says the publication.

glavcom.ua In Russian/русский

The Federal Criminal Court of Switzerland today, 21 March, resumes hearings on the case of corruption involving staff of the Russian company Gazprom. This Court reported on the official website.

According to "Kommersant" , one of the suspects in the period from 2001 to 2006, occupying the post of representative director ABB in Russia, carried out by employees of Gazprom corruption payments. The second person involved involved in corrupt dealings, first as an employee of ABB in Russia, and later as director of the Alstom Group's representative office in Russia. The other two suspects accused of the fact that they took bribes, being employees of Gazprom.

One of them also participated in the laundering of money obtained as a result of corrupt deals, believe the prosecution. The names of participants in the trial were not disclosed.

The court said that the meeting will last until March 24. The judgment will be made on 1 April.

The newspaper reminds that the Public Chamber of Russia appealed to the Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika to conduct a check on the facts of possible receipt of bribes by former managers of Gazprom.

In autumn 2014 the Zurich newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reported that Switzerland is preparing corruption charges against top managers of Gazprom.

glavcom.ua In Russian/русский

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine made a text of the bill on amendments to some legislative acts of Ukraine on cleaning power with the remarks of the Venice Commission (the European "For Democracy through Law" commission). This is evidenced by the information on the website of the Parliament.

Note that the corresponding bill №2695 in was registered in the Verkhovna Rada is still April 21, 2015.

The proposed changes relate to the scope of the law, positions for which measures are taken to clean power, clean power criteria, the mechanism of inspection, the state body responsible for carrying out inspections.

The document in order to avoid misinterpretation of the rules of the law of the positions, which are subject to measures of cleaning power, details the scope - namely, the law applicable to the officials, officers of public bodies, local authorities, including officials in their devices and the Secretariat, in addition, the law rules do not apply to persons born after January 1, 1996.

It is emphasized that the Venice Commission experts have commented on the body responsible for carrying out activities to clean up power (lustration) in Ukraine.

"It was noted that such a body should be provided with a wide range of powers and have more independence in their activities. In order to bring the power purification process (lustration) in line with international standards, the draft law proposes to establish, on the basis of terms of reference, the central organ of executive power with a special status. The independence of such a body is guaranteed a special status, a special procedure for the appointment of the chairman of the body - the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on the proposal of the Prime Minister of Ukraine as agreed by the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, to whose jurisdiction includes the fight against corruption ", - said in an explanatory note.

In addition, the bill proposes to improve the mechanism of checks, which will save the state budget funds, and reduce the burden on public authorities, including the completion of the declarations to check the time, which will be carried out before January 2017. The document also provides align the provisions of the laws "On cleaning power" and "On Combating Corruption" in the part of the relevant checks.

It is also expected to add provisions requiring candidates for deputies and presidents, to declare the application to them of prohibitions stipulated by the law "On cleaning power" to inform voters.

Earlier, the President of the Venice Commission Gianni Buquicchio said that the Ukrainian law on lustration should be changed.

glavcom.ua In Russian/русский

In the area of ​​anti-tank mine Avdeevka on March 21, three blown war. This is reported by the volunteers of the project "Come back alive."

"The guys are alive, but in critical condition in hospital," - said in a statement.

At the direction of the enemy Avdeevka nightly shelling our positions with mortars caliber prohibited.

Because the good news: the soldiers of the battalion 25, 54 teams knocked out an enemy tank, which attacked them.

Recall, on the eve of the volunteer Ian Zinkevich wrote about the death of two Ukrainian men in Avdeevka area. At the headquarters of ATO confirmed the information.

glavcom.ua In Russian/русский

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