Ukraine

Today, in the European Parliament, we got to officially meet the newly elected Ukrainian President Yanukovich for the first time.

A spokesman for the Russian Prime Minister spoke to his Swedish counterpart Fredrik Reinfeldt by telephone, after “uncovering concerns” that Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko was blocking payments for Russian gas supplies.

Ukraine, already plagued by political instability, gas crises and catastrophic effects of the financial crisis over the past year, has now got to deal an outbreak of swine flu. All this just a week after the launch of election campaigns for the presidency.

The USA and NATO appear to have given up on Ukraine. The Obama administration has decided to abandon the controversial missile-defense system that the Bush administration had planned to build in the Czech Republic and Poland. The infamous air-defense system always rattled Mr. Putin and Mr. Medvedev; now they can sleep well. No defense system in Eastern Europe, no threat to Russia. But can Ukraine sleep so easily now? No.

On August 21st, NATO announced the signing of a “Declaration to Complement the Charter on a Distinctive Partnership between NATO and Ukraine” The document was signed by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and by Ukrainian Ambassador to NATO Ihor Sagach on behalf of the Ukrainian President.