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Opponents of the Belarussian president look to George Bush to step up pressure on the regime in a tour of the region this weekend "Today Ukraine - tomorrow Belarus," cried Igor Guz as he marched with hundreds of protesters in Minsk, the Belarussian capital, on last month's 19th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. It wasn't much of an outburst by the Ukrainian town councillor, but it led to his arrest by riot police. Yesterday he was still in jail and on hunger strike with 12 others, including four of his countrymen. "They were not the first such arrests in...

POLAND: Former Solidarity leader Lech Walesa said yesterday that Ukraine's security forces were poised to crush last year's "orange revolution" until he intervened. Mr Walesa claimed that he convinced Viktor Yanukovich, who had declared victory in recent presidential elections, to revoke an order for the police and military to crack down on tens of thousands of people who had gathered in Kiev's main square to protest against irregularities in the poll. At the time, fears were rife that any violence could spark civil war in Ukraine, where the mostly Russian-speaking east backed Mr Yanukovich, while Kiev and the west hosted...

Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans to purchase Leonid Brezhnev's residence in the Crimea have collapsed. USSR Dacha No.1, "Hlitsyniya," is among the Ukrainian properties excluded from privatization. Nevertheless, Putin attempted to acquire it from Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma as a token of gratitude for supporting Kuchma's designated successor, Viktor Yanukovych, in the 2004 presidential elections. The dacha is an apt symbol for Moscow's apparent need to maintain a presence in Ukraine. Subsequently, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said that Kyiv is considering an alternative residence for Putin. This comment is itself unusual, as world leaders normally do not have official residences...

Hundreds of Belarusian opposition activists and youth-movement activists from Russia and Ukraine held a demonstration in downtown Minsk, Belarus on 26 April, the 19th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, in order to threaten Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. His government has been described as "the last true dictatorship in Europe". Riot police dispersed the demonstration and arrested some young protestors and two journalists. The incident in Minsk, which caused an international crisis, brought Ukraine and Belarus "in the revolution list" face to face. While Ukraine wants Belarus to release those arrested immediately, the Russian opposition harshly criticized the Kremlin. Moscow...

1. CHORNOBYL: A DISASTER THAT HAS BECOME A MORAL CATEGORY "The nuclear lighting of Chornobyl has struck...." For Whom The Bell Tolls ESSAY: By Myroslava Barchuk Welcome to Ukraine magazine Kyiv, Ukraine, Issue Number One, 2004 In 1986 the Ukrainian poet Ivan Drach came up with a stunning metaphor — “the nuclear lightning of Chornobyl has struck right into the genotype of the Ukrainian nation.” Back in 1986, we in Ukraine, could not grasp the full extent of the disastrous consequences of the Chornobyl "nuclear lightning." The Chornobyl disaster was to become a moral category. Like a chain reaction, it...

By Jeffrey Donovan, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Prague, Czech Republic A key ambition of Pope John Paul II, especially in the years just before his death, was to reunite Christianity’s divided churches. As the first Slavic pope, John Paul was concerned above all with the Orthodox -- the Eastern churches that split with Roman Catholicism in 1054. But while progress was made in Catholic-Orthodox relations, the Russian Orthodox Church never allowed Pope John Paul to fulfill his cherished dream of visiting Russia. Today, relations between Catholicism and Russian Orthodoxy remain strained, with Moscow accusing Rome of aggressively proselytizing in...

Potapenko witnesses Ukrainian president's visit to joint session of Congress By Chad Selweski, Macomb Daily Staff Writer, The Macomb Daily Mount Clemens, Michigan, Thursday, April 7, 2005 Borys Potapenko's joy at seeing Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's triumphant greeting Wednesday at a rare joint session of Congress was an emotional experience shared by 200,000 Ukrainian-Americans in metropolitan Detroit. Potapenko had a prime balcony seat in the House chambers as Yushchenko was embraced with a standing ovation, cheers of "Yush-chen-ko" and the waving of orange scarves and hats by members of Congress -- much like the over-whelming response his democratic "Orange Revolution"...

It would probably be an understatement to say that the Kremlin was likely not pleased with the unprecedented number of standing ovations with which American lawmakers welcomed Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to Capitol Hill. For the Russian politicians and strategists who still see the world primarily through the geopolitical lens, the success of Yushchenko's April 4-6 visit to the United States served as yet another confirmation of Moscow's defeat in one of the most decisive battles in the war of "Russian imperial succession." The Kremlin's general attitude toward the new U.S.-Ukrainian rapprochement was best encapsulated in one commentary that bluntly...

By Boris Volodarsky, Wall Street Journal (Europe) Brussels, Belgium, Friday, April 7, 2005, Pg. A.10 Viktor Yushchenko was intentionally poisoned during Ukraine's presidential election campaign last year. By now that fact can hardly be disputed. Yuri Lutsenko, newly appointed Ukrainian interior minister, publicly announced in February that he knew precisely "who brought the poison across the Ukrainian border, which official took it to the scene of the crime, and who personally put it into Yushchenko's food." Officials also suspect that Mr. Yushchenko, now the country's president, imbibed the poison during a Sept. 5 dinner with the then- chairman of Ukraine's...

Security chief Yevhen Chervonenko still worries that he could have done more to prevent the attempted assassination of Ukraine's new President, Viktor Yushchenko. By Jeremy Page, The Times, London, UK, Friday, April 01, 2005 YEVHEN CHERVONENKO'S instincts told him something was wrong as soon as he saw the two black Mercedes-Benz 4WDs waiting in Podil, the old quarter of Kiev. He could tell by the number plates that the cars were from the SBU, Ukrainian state security. Moments later, a senior SBU officer climbed out of one of the 4WDs and told him to call off his team of bodyguards....

<p>Strange suicides and car crashes among foes of the former regime bring calls for investigations.</p> <p>KIEV, Ukraine -­ By all official accounts, Yuri Kravchenko died by his own hand. The former Ukrainian interior minister, scheduled to meet in just a few hours with prosecutors to give testimony in a high-profile case of political murder, aimed a gun at his chin and fired, sending a bullet ripping through his cheek and out his upper jaw. Then he aimed it at his temple and fired again.</p>

OP-ED: Faced with an ever-increasing terrorist threat in the wake of September 11, the United States and its allies had to go to war with Iraq. Back in 2003, a quick and effective strike was needed to foil Saddam Hussein's assertive plans. It would have taken years, if the US and its allies opted at the time to get a UN blessing for the operation. Needless to say, the varying, and often conflicting, interests of major international payers, France, Germany, Russia, China and many more, would have protracted a UN-supported operation for years. Feelings in Ukraine were mixed when the...

Eyewitness notes or the "Russian Maidan" in Kyiv I made a conscious choice to go to Kyiv during the Orange Revolution. This letter contains the musings of an eyewitness from Moscow about what he saw there and about Russian-Ukrainian relations. I was most impressed by the people of Kyiv, above all by their warm, cordial, and tolerant attitude; and how easily strangers (a young couple named Oleksiy and Kseniya) invited me to stay at their place, a single room apartment, after learning that I had come to support their revolution, and where I thought I'd spend a couple of nights,...

KYIV - Ex-President Leonid Kuchma's former bodyguard, Major Mykola Melnychenko, has turned over materials connected with the murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze to Deputy Prime Minister Mykola Tomenko. Melnychenko stated this in an interview with the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza. "Tomenko took the materials," the publication quotes Melnychenko as saying. According to the information of the newspaper, Tomenko and Melnychenko met in Warsaw. Melnychenko also expressed the opinion that former Internal Affairs Minister Yurii Kravchenko could have been seduced to commit suicide by people from Kuchma's inner circle. In Melnychenko's opinion, people from the inner circle of the former president...

President Viktor Yuschenko says that he is satisfied with the course of the investigation into the circumstances of his poisoning and he has expressed confidence in the quick completion of the investigation into this case. The president's press service disclosed this in a statement, citing Yuschenko's interview with Deutche Welle. In Yuschenko's words, the investigation has so far managed to receive many new information, particularly the finding of the chemical formula and characteristics of the poisonous substance. Austrian and Swiss doctors primarily assisted in this. The president disclosed that thanks to the cooperation of medics and criminologists, investigators managed to...

For the Kremlin, Ukraine's Orange Revolution was a serious political defeat. But Russian business sees the end of Leonid Kuchma's authoritarian regime and the election of president Viktor Yushchenko as a big economic opportunity. Kiev's hotels are full of foreign business people, including Poles, Germans, and Americans, investigating opportunities created by Mr Yushchenko's promises to open an economy with huge potential. But the largest contingent is Russian. Two conferences last month drew scores of Russians one hosted by Alfa Group, the Russian conglomerate, which is among the biggest investors in Ukraine, and the other by Renaissance Capital, a Moscow-based investment...

Seems to be the next best thing to "millions" looking for fool. I hope nobody goes for it. This type of emails are not stopping to flood mailboxes: Hello, I am bussines manchant,so i'm just about to open a modern store to one of this country in african which is nigeria and i will want you to be my supplier for this items and i want you to get back to me with the available items in your store so that i can add to that of my new store and i will want to make my mode of payment...

For those who can not be there, or help in any way, let's pray for Terri's miraculous recovery, coming back to life and in this way ending the horrible ordeal for the her, family and all those wishing to preserve sanity. It happened before as we saw in the recent news about woman being in coma for 20 years, who miracuously awakened. Let us all who can pray for Terri's awakening and ask God and Saints for a miracle and end to this horrible ordeal! I am starting with 50 "Our Father..." and "Hail Mary...", please join me!!!! Let's FReep...

Introduction I am very pleased to be with you today. I want to talk about the exciting events of the past three months in Ukraine and the role played by the United States. Against great odds, the Ukrainian people took an historic stand for democracy, and the United States stood by them. I also want to look forward and talk about the challenges that lie before Ukraine and the U.S. as we support the democratic process in that country. One of the most interesting things about the "Orange Revolution"--and I think "revolution" is probably not too strong a word for...

One day after he was inaugurated as Ukraine's third president, Viktor Yushchenko appointed a powerful and radical triumvirate. Yulia Tymoshenko, of the eponymous bloc, was named prime minister; businessman Petro Poroshenko secretary of the National Security Council; and Oleksandr Zinchenko, the head of the Yushchenko election campaign, became state secretary. Zinchenko's position replaces that of head of the presidential administration. Of the three positions, only Tymoshenko's requires parliamentary approval, and parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn expects her to obtain a large majority when she is proposed this coming week. Why Tymoshenko? One reason is that a secret agreement between Yushchenko and...