Corruption is Everywhere > You Better Believe in Ukraine (4 stories); How About the CIA? In Silicon Valley

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Pro-Zelensky MPs getting $20,000 monthly secret payments

– former aide

17 Dec, 2021 08:21

By Layla Guest

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during the Eastern Partnership summit at the European Council Building in Brussels, Belgium. © Sputnik / Alexey Vitvitsky

Lawmakers from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s party are allegedly being slipped thousands of dollars in cash and can be fined for not voting on important laws, the leader’s ex-chief of staff has sensationally claimed.

Speaking in a marathon interview with journalist Dmitry Gordon on Tuesday, Andrey Bogdan said the ‘Servant of the People’ MPs are purportedly handed money each month, in envelopes, as part of an unofficial salary. He named a figure totaling around $20,000. This sum, however, is not paid in Ukraine’s currency, the hryvnia, according to Bogdan.

The ex-chief of staff went on to claim that if lawmakers do not vote in line with the party whip on key issues, then they will face financial penalties, thereby reducing their earnings.

Bogdan was appointed head of the presidential administration after Zelensky won the election in 2019 and served until February 2020. In September last year, he was summoned for questioning by the Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigation after he told Gordon that Kiev’s government, under the president’s current administrative head, Andrey Ermak, had made several promises to Moscow, including dealing with Crimea’s status, re-starting flights between the Eastern European nation and Russia, as well as prisoner exchanges.

Although he did not claim to have seen the promises himself, Bogdan said he had heard rumors of the secret agreement from various diplomats and intelligence officials.

Before his work as the head of the president’s office, Bogdan worked as the lawyer of the influential Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, a long-term supporter of Zelensky, who has since worked to distance himself from the billionaire. Earlier this year, Washington introduced measures against the notorious businessman and his family, including a travel ban, in response to allegations that he was involved “in significant corruption.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that “in his official capacity as a Governor of Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk Oblast from 2014 to 2015, Kolomoisky was involved in corrupt acts that undermined rule of law and the Ukrainian public's faith in their government's democratic institutions and public processes."

Ukraine targets 2nd opposition leader with 'treason' case,

Poroshenko follows Medvedchuk

20 Dec, 2021 19:07 

FILE PHOTO. © Reuters / Valentyn Ogirenko

Ukraine's government has targeted another opposition leader with a treason case, just after his party passed out the ruling Servant of the People in an opinion poll. This time former president Petro Poroshenko is the target.

The case is ostensibly linked to the coal trade between Kiev and the breakaway eastern Ukrainian regions in the Donbass during his time in office. Poroshenko, who heads the European Solidarity grouping, was a vehement opponent of both the unrecognised statelets and Russia. 

Earlier this year, another Ukrainian opposition leader, Viktor Medvedchuk was placed under arrest, allegedly for committing treason in dealings with Crimea. Just like Poroshenko, Medvedchuk's Opposition Platform – For Life had polled ahead of Zelensky's faction before he was prosecuted. 

Medvedchuk has claimed the case against him is clearly politically motivated. 

“The fifth President of Ukraine … was informed about the suspicion of high treason and facilitating the activities of terrorist organizations,” Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigations (DBR) said in a statement on Monday.

Poroshenko left Ukraine on Friday, with his party stating that he was heading for a pre-scheduled visit to Turkey and Poland. Shortly before his departure, the DBR tried to hand him a notice, summoning him for questioning. The ex-president, however, “ignored the representatives of the law enforcement agency and left in an unknown direction,” the DBR said.

The ex-president is suspected of being a part of a conspiracy to purchase coal from the breakaway republics Donetsk and Lugansk, with the estimated worth of goods traded amounting to some 1.5 billion hryvnias (nearly $55 million). The conspiracy allegedly included unspecified “representatives of the top leadership of the Russian Federation,” the DBR claimed.

Since the breakaway republics are regarded as ‘terrorist organizations’ by Kiev, the ex-president is facing charges ranging from terrorism support and financing to high treason. If convicted on such charges, Poroshenko might face up to 15 years behind bars. The notice of suspicion was supplied to the ex-president in accordance with the country’s standing criminal procedure code, the DBR said.

The ex-president has also been summoned for questioning, scheduled for Thursday, his attorney Ilya Novikov revealed on Monday. The lawyer, who published the text of the notice in a Facebook post, has cast doubts on the legality of its delivery procedure.

Novikov alleged that the notice was deliberately delivered while Poroshenko was abroad, so that media outlets “close to the administration” of President Volodymyr Zelensky could claim the ex-leader fled the investigation and aimed to hide from it in other countries.

“A delegation from the prosecutor's office came to the house of Petro Poroshenko, asked the security guard if the fifth president was home (he is at a conference in Warsaw, and it's unlikely they didn't know it) and slipped the notice into an opening in the gate,” Novikov said.

The lawyer accused the prosecutors of “giving in” to pressure from the current Ukrainian administration and acting as part of the alleged smear campaign against his clients. The attorney has not, however, revealed when – or if – Poroshenko will return back home.

Ukraine’s Zelensky continues crackdown on critical media

Kiev has imposed sanctions on three companies that run TV channels

which don't support the current government

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky has continued his crackdown against dissent in the media by imposing a new set of restrictive measures against three companies that own opposition-aligned TV channels, it emerged on Tuesday.

The sanctions take aim at channels UkrLive and First Independent, both of which are believed by the Ukrainian authorities to be owned by Taras Kozak, an MP for the country’s largest opposition party, Opposition Platform – For Life.

The measures also hit the Novosti media holding company, the owner of channels 112 Ukraine, NewsOne, and ZIK. These stations were taken off air in February this year, having been blacklisted by Zelensky. All three channels are also owned by Kozak, who dubbed the move “an act of blatant censorship.” The president explained his decision by suggesting that Kiev was fighting “propaganda,” and linked the channels to Russia.

Kozak is thought by many to be the right-hand man of politician Viktor Medvedchuk, the chairman of the political council of Opposition Platform – For Life. Medvedchuk is considered an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the party has consistently called for closer links with Moscow. Medvedchuk is currently under house arrest, accused of treason and the attempted looting of national resources.

The new sanctions on the holding companies include the blocking of assets, restrictions on trade operations, and the canceling of licenses. In a joint statement published on Tuesday night, UkrLive and First Independent slammed them as “illegal,” and accused the National Security and Defense Council of running a “dictatorship” where there is a “de facto ban on opposition activities.”

“The Ukrainian authorities have once again proved that they see free media as their main enemy and will act by any means to suppress freedom of speech in Ukraine,” the statement said. “We regard today’s events as another attempt by the Ukrainian authorities to suppress any alternative opinion about the situation in Ukraine and to use the repressive machine to fight against independent media.”

In the past year, Zelensky has also placed restrictions on the opposition-leaning websites Strana.ua and Shariy.net.

Almost all news outlets in Ukraine are bankrolled by wealthy individuals such as Kozak. Zelensky himself came to power in 2019 with support from the 1+1 Media Group, owned by Igor Kolomoisky, a billionaire oligarch and former regional governor.

CIA-backed secret experiments conducted on hundreds

of Danish orphans – documentary

A new documentary has accused the US intelligence agency of supporting

experiments on several hundred Scandinavian children

The lobby of the CIA Headquarters Building in Langley, Virginia. © Reuters / Larry Downing

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) allegedly backed secret experiments into schizophrenia on 311 Danish children, many adopted or from orphanages, during the early 1960s, according to a newly released documentary.

Danish Radio’s documentary ‘The Search for Myself’ accuses the US spy agency of supporting the experiments at the Municipal Hospital in Cophenhagen. The studies were reportedly investigating the link between schizophrenia and heredity or the environment.

Per Wennick, who claims to have been a participant in the experiments as a child, alleged that he was placed in a chair, with electrodes strapped to him and forced to listen to loud, shrill noises. The aim of the test was supposedly to find out if a child had psychopathic traits.

“It was very uncomfortable. And it's not just my story, it's the story of many children,” Wennick said, describing his experience.

I think this is a violation of my rights as a citizen in this society. I find it so strange that some people should know more about me than I myself have been aware of.

The project was co-financed by a US health service, receiving support from the Human Ecology Fund, which is operated on behalf of the CIA, according to Wennick and the National Archives.

While the children were not told what the experiments were for, during or after the research, a dissertation was published in 1977 by Danish psychiatrist Find Schulsinger detailing the study.

The Danish Welfare Museum’s Jacob Knage Rasmussen said that this is the first documented time where children under care were used for research purposes in the country.

“I do not know of similar attempts, neither in Denmark nor in Scandinavia. It is appalling information that contradicts the Nuremberg Code of 1947, which after World War II was to set some ethical restrictions for experiments on humans” Rasmussen stated.

Theranos founder convicted of fraud & conspiracy

Elizabeth Holmes, once touted as the Steve Jobs of biotechnology,

could now face a lengthy prison term

FILE PHOTO: Vice President Joe Biden speaks as Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos,

listens during a visit to Theranos manufacturing in Newark, California, on July 23, 2015

©  Anda Chu / MediaNews Group / Bay Area News via Getty Images

The founder and CEO of ‘revolutionary’ blood-testing health technology company Theranos, has been found guilty on four counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud investors, but not patients.

Elizabeth Holmes, 37, was found not guilty on four charges revolving around “wire fraud against Theranos paying patients,” and the jury in California also remained deadlocked on three other charges on Monday. But with a partially guilty verdict she could still face up to 20 years in prison for each count, although some observers believe she is unlikely to receive the maximum sentence.

Theranos was once a $9 billion Silicon Valley wonder that promised to revolutionize blood testing. It was founded by Holmes in 2003, after she dropped out of Stanford University at age 19. The company’s board of directors at some point included former senators, future Defense Secretary James Mattis, as well as former Secretaries of State George Schultz and Henry Kissinger.

Praised as a self-made billionaire and “future Steve Jobs” of biotechnology, Holmes would appear at events alongside former Alibaba CEO Jack Ma, former President Bill Clinton and even then-Vice President Joe Biden, claiming that her company could offer blood tests for 240 diseases using just a few drops from a fingertip pin-prick instead of a needle or syringe.

The entire enterprise collapsed following a 2015 Wall Street Journal report by John Carreyrou, which exposed the fact that the company’s miracle technology did not actually work. This triggered an inquiry by federal agencies that led to indictments against Holmes and former Theranos COO Ramesh Balwani in 2018. Balwani is set to stand his own trial next month.

Since the technology didn't work, how could the jury possibly find her not guilty of defrauding her customers? It would appear that every single one was defrauded.

Ex-president’s assets arrested amid high treason case

Ukrainian court has arrested assets of former president Poroshenko,

now a top opposition figure, who faces charges of ‘high treason’

FILE PHOTO. Former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko speaks in parliament.

© Getty Images / Ukrinform / Hennadii Minchenko

Ukraine’s former president, Petro Poroshenko, has had his assets frozen by a court amid a high treason case over financial dealings with separatists. Poroshenko says he’ll fight to clear his name on his return home from Poland.

Poroshenko’s assets were arrested by a Kiev court on Thursday. They reportedly include a mansion outside Kiev, two apartments, land plots, and shares of several companies held by the former president. 

Poroshenko’s legal team has branded the court decision as a politically-charged persecution by the incumbent government of President Volodymyr Zelensky, and vowed he would appeal the arrest of his assets. Poroshenko was targeted by the criminal case back in December, facing multiple charges ranging from “facilitating the activities of terrorist organizations” to high treason.

The case revolves around an alleged conspiracy to purchase coal from the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The amount of goods traded was estimated to be about 1.5 billion hryvnias (nearly $55 million), according to Ukrainian prosecutors. Apart from Poroshenko, the conspiracy allegedly involved unspecified “representatives of the top leadership of the Russian Federation.”

The Ukrainian judiciary failed to deliver a questioning notice to Poroshenko in December, with the former leader, who currently holds a seat in the country’s parliament, abruptly leaving Ukraine for a “pre-scheduled” trip. The politician was ultimately informed of the charges in absentia, with his opponents accusing him of fleeing the country.

Poroshenko, however, maintains that this is not the case, promising to return to Ukraine later in January. He reiterated his resolve to face the prosecutors in a Facebook post on Thursday.

“On January 17, I, as promised, will return to Kiev to appear in court and have a meeting with the Attorney General, using the right of an MP to get an emergency reception. I am returning not to defend myself from [President Volodymyr] Zelensky, but to protect Ukraine from incompetent leadership and external aggression,” Poroshenko said.

Viktor Medvedchuk, one of the leaders of Opposition Platform — For Life (OPFL), the most popular political party in eastern Ukraine, who’s been labeled as “the Kremlin ally” in the media, was also placed under house arrest last year after being charged with treason. 

In 2021, Zelensky moved to ban several opposition TV channels, similarly accused of spreading a pro-Russian narrative, in what his critics have called a stifling attack on the freedom of press.

Corruption is Everywhere, Especially in Ukraine and Russia

Ex-president Poroshenko investigated in Ukraine over embezzlement, allegedly stealing US aid

FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian ex-president, Petro Poroshenko. ©  Sputnik

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau has opened a probe against former president, Petro Poroshenko, who is suspected of abuse of power, embezzlement “on a grand scale” and allegedly stealing US aid funds.

The case against the ex-president was opened following a complaint by a group of Ukrainian MPs and the nation’s High Anti-Corruption Court demanding the authorities investigate embezzlement and misappropriation of the foreign financial aid at the time of Poroshenko’s term in office, a Ukrainian MP Renat Kuzmin said in a Facebook post.

Kuzmin, a member of the Opposition Platform – For Live party, also published the anti-corruption bureau’s documents, confirming that the case against Poroshenko had been launched. The papers state that the former president and some “unknown people” from his administration are suspected of embezzling “on a grand scale,” subsequent legalization of criminally obtained funds, and abuse of power.

The MP himself said that the investigation would look into the misappropriation of funds provided to Ukraine in the form of international aid, including by the administration of the former US President Barack Obama.

And, no doubt, from Canada which has a large Ukrainian population and has been supporting the country for years.

Poroshenko did not react directly to the accusations against him. Instead, his lawyer told the media that the ex-president plans to file as many as 14 lawsuits seeking moral compensation from Ukraine’s National Bureau of Investigations, the anti-corruption bureau and the police. His lawyer also denounced the investigation against his client as political persecution instigated by the administration of the current president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

The news comes just months after Poroshenko’s ally, Kiev mayor and three-time world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko was also accused of embezzlement and even treason by the anti-corruption bureau.

An oligarch candy-maker, who supported the Maidan coup in 2014, Poroshenko came to power in Ukraine just months after the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovich as the nation was quickly plunging into the abyss of a post-coup crisis. During his presidency, he repeatedly played the nationalist card and used Moscow as a boogeyman to raise support while his achievements in the field of economics and the fight against corruption, which still plagued Ukraine years after the Maidan, were far less impressive.

Eventually, he suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of former comedian Zelensky in the runoff at the presidential elections last year.

This story is courtesy of RT, and as you might have guessed is slanted more than a little. For instance, the nation was already in a crisis largely as a consequence of the spectacular corruption of Viktor Yanukovich. Check out the mansion he built himself before fleeing the country.

Corruption is everywhere in the Ukraine, as it is in Russia and so many other countries. Let's hope and pray that President Zelensky can clean it up without being tempted to jump into the cesspool.

Former Moscow Police officers arrested over framing of

Russian journalist Ivan Golunov

Journalist Ivan Golunov meets media in Moscow © Global Look Press / City News Moskva

By Jonny Tickle

Last summer, his detention on bogus drug charges rocked the world of Russian media, leading to an unprecedented show of journalistic unity.

Now, investigators have detained five ex-police officers who are accused of fabricating the case against Ivan Golunov, a reporter for Riga-based online publication Meduza.

The former members of the Moscow Police's drug trafficking control department are currently being interrogated, according to Svetlana Petrenko, the official representative of Russia's Investigative Committee. The detainees were removed from their posts last July in the immediate fallout from the controversial incident. President Vladimir Putin also dismissed two high-ranking Interior Ministry officials over the case.

Golunov was arrested in June 2019 after police officers claimed to have found the drug mephedrone in his backpack. The reporter claimed the narcotics were planted on him. Five days later, following a national outcry, all charges were dropped.

Earlier this month, Golunov's lawyer Sergey Badamshin revealed that police officially recognized him as a "victim," and on January 20 he was summoned for questioning. Badamshin added that Golunov refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Golunov told newspaper RBK that he was satisfied with the decision to detain the suspects and said he is looking forward to the start of the criminal case. He also explained that he learned about the arrests from media coverage and had no additional information about the identities of the police officers.

Today's detentions were flagged in December, when Putin disclosed during a live press conference that five law enforcement officers were under suspicion.

That's odd. Why were they not 'flagged' in July when they were fired?

The five detainees have been named as former Moscow drug cops Denis Konovalov, Akbar Sergaliev, Roman Feofanov, and Maxim Umetbaev, as well as the former head of the department Igor Lyakhovets.

Anger Over Corruption Puts Ukrainian Comic Ahead in Presidency Race

The greater the corruption - the more desperate the response

Chris Brown · CBC News

Effigies of some of Ukraine's best-known politicians hang under a bridge near Kyiv's Maidan Square recently.

(Corinne Seminoff/CBC)

The effigies of some of Ukraine's most prominent politicians that were hung by the neck recently under Kyiv's Millennium bridge are a stark indication of the ferociousness of the politics here and that public admiration for the victors can be fleeting.

As someone who plays a fictitious president on a TV show — as well as an aspiring presidential candidate in real life —  that reality doesn't appear lost on Volodymyr Zelensky.

In the latest episode of his wildly popular program Servant of the People, Zelensky's character — a teacher who took power on a vow to fight corruption and stand up for the little guy — ends up getting thrown in jail by the powerful forces he opposes.

Fans of his show can take comfort both in knowing that his stay in the fictitious TV jail was a relatively short one and also that in the real world, the 41-year-old comic's political success is no joke.

Ukraine has an interesting cast of contenders running for its upcoming presidential election. None more so than the front-runner, 41-year-old actor/comedian Volodymyr Zelensky. He may have started out as a long shot, but quickly rose to the top on the back of popular discontent with the political class. 2:39

Practically every poll in the final days of the campaign suggests the political novice with zero electoral experience could finish with the most votes in Sunday's national presidential vote.

"I do believe that Zelensky has high chances," said Kostyantyn  Fedorenko, a Kyiv-based political analyst with the Centre for Euro-American Co-operation.

"If his voters come out on election day, he is very likely to become president."

Polls suggest comedian Volodymyr Zelensky, who plays Ukraine's president on TV, is leading the country's

real-life presidential race. (CBC)

Indeed, the first exit polls released after the vote showed Zelensky winning the first round with 30.4 per cent of the vote. Incumbent President Petro Poroshenko, who's running for a second term, was in second place with 17.8 per cent of the vote.

While Zelensky has surrounded himself with a team of political veterans, his campaign has been anything but orthodox.

He has largely let his TV persona communicate to voters about his platform and ideals. He has also shunned large political rallies and granted few interviews. Instead, he has waged his campaign on Instagram, YouTube and through appearances at his own comedy shows, where he mocks and ridicules his competition.

"Why Zelensky?" pondered 41-year-old IT worker Kostiantyn Didkovskyi, when approached by CBC in Kyiv. 

"I can say I don't see any alternative. Our country has reached the limit. It feels like there's no other way," he said in reference to the deeply embedded culture of corruption in Ukraine.   

"I'm sure [his team] will make this victory not for themselves but for the country. He's the only one who thinks about the country, not himself."

Earlier this week, Berlin-based Transparency International, a watchdog group that monitors global corruption, called the situation in Ukraine "grim."  It noted that last year, the head of one of Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies was caught up in a scandal over trying to tip off some of the very people his agency was investigating.

Poroshenko has been hobbled by near-continuous revelations about dodgy procurement and government contracts involving him and his family members.

His longtime rival and two-time former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, who served time in jail on corruption charges, is also running for president.

There's a powerful belief here that Ukraine's economic progress has been hobbled by the country's elite, who enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else.

Political analyst Kostyantyn Fedorenko believes Zelenskiy has high chances of receiving the most votes on Sunday. (CBC)

"It's in the Ukrainian mentality that you enter the political elite and you steal," said Fedorenko, the political analyst.   

He said there have been significant reforms under Poroshenko but many Ukrainians remain unconvinced the changes are meaningful.

"Unfortunately, the anti-corruption institutions that were established with the will of the West are not functioning as well as they should," said Fedorenko. "On the one hand, there have been many high-profile [court] cases about corruption, but on the other it has been impossible to get anyone in prison."

Global significance

Ukraine is geographically and politically at the nexus between Europe and Russia, and its political choices carry a disproportionate significance for its neighbours — and its many Western supporters, including Canada.

"Its critically important," Fedorenko said of NATO's ongoing support for Ukraine militarily and for the other democracy- building activities that NATO members are contributing to.

"Supplies [and support] from Canada and the United States are of critical importance."

More than 100 election monitors from Canada arrived in Ukraine last week, headed by former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy.

Canada's military also recently extended its training mission in the country's west. As part of NATO, Canadian trainers have helped thousands of Ukrainian soldiers upgrade their skills and combat readiness.

A poster of two-time former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko greets passers-by in Maidan Square.

(Pascal Dumont/CBC)

In many ways, this election is a referendum on how far Poroshenko has been able to take Ukraine since the dramatic events of 2014.

The Maidan uprisings saw the overthrow of pro-Russia president Viktor Yanukovych and a dramatic swing away from Russian influence. Russia responded with its annexation of the Crimean peninsula and began fuelling a separatist insurgency in Ukraine's eastern provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk.

Canada is among the many countries that responded with political and economic sanctions against Russia, measures that have gradually been increased over time.

To be clear, Western leaders promised Mikhail Gorbachev when the Iron Curtain came down that NATO would not recruit Russia's neighbours. They lied! NATO has been actively recruiting Ukraine to the point of supporting, if not provoking, the Maidan uprising and the coup against the elected government. That Russia responded by securing Crimea and its naval base at Sevastopol should hardly have been a surprise.

'Do not expect us to give up'

In spite of Poroshenko's troubled tenure, he's been able to point to leadership against Russian aggression as one of his positives. "Mr Putin, do not expect us to give up," he told a fired-up election rally at the campaign's mid-point.

While fighting in eastern Ukraine continues — with 11,000 dead and counting — Poroshenko said he has succeeded in solidifying Ukraine's military position and has made full NATO membership one of his medium-term goals.

Zelensky, on the other hand, has downplayed his lack of experience, and demurred on any suggestion that he's not qualified to take on Russia's president.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko holds a rally in Kyiv. He said he is the only Ukrainian leader who can

stand up to Russia's Vladimir Putin. (CBC)

"I don't need that kind of experience," he said in a brief conversation with Radio-Canada. "I think all I need is to be a decent person and have the professional experience of a [business] manager."

Yikes! Sounds just a tad naive.

Fedorenko, the political analyst, said Zelensky's mostly under-40-year-old supporters don't appear overly worried about his sparse resume.

"Many of Zelensky's voters are protest voters — and kind of similar to Trump voters in that [the U.S. president] represents an anti-establishment alternative for the people."

Big money

For all of Zelensky's pretense about being an ordinary man of the people, critics accuse him of being backed by money from oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who owns the TV station that broadcasts his show.  

Ukrainian social media posts are full of speculation from people who believe Kolomoisky will be exercising the real power behind the scenes if Zelensky wins.

Tymoshenko draws much of her support from older Ukrainians and is dangling a bump in pensions as part of her campaign. Her rivalry with Poroshenko dates back decades and she's accused him of waging a campaign of dirty tricks against her.

Those accusations include that Poroshenko has tried to sabotage her campaign by running a candidate with a similar name as hers so as to create confusion on the official voting paper.

Although a total of 39 candidates will be on the ballot Sunday — a record-breaking number — the final hours of the contest will likely focus on the fight between Poroshenko and Tymoshenko for second place.

If no candidate gets 50 per cent of the vote in Sunday's Ukrainian election, a run-off vote will be held April 21.

(Pascal Dumont/CBC)

If no candidate gets 50 per cent of the vote on Sunday, then the top two finishers will go on to a run-off ballot on April 21. 

For all the smears and accusations, the fact that a post-Soviet state such as Ukraine is even having a competitive election is significant.

Last year, next door in Russia, Putin ran virtually unopposed.

Kiev Proclaims Its Own Orthodox Church, Hails ‘Unification’ After Holding ‘Schismatic’ Council

©  Global Look Press

Ukraine has created an Orthodox church of its own, proclaiming “independence from Moscow.” While the majority of its hierarchs represented schismatic “churches,” Kiev authorities have hailed a supposed “unity” they have achieved.

The so-called “unity council” took place on Saturday in Kiev, with the country’s president Petro Poroshenko and other top officials in attendance. The overwhelming majority of participants represented two non-canonical entities – the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the self-styled ‘Kiev Patriarchy’ and the so-called Ukrainian autocephalous Orthodox Church. The two unrecognized entities have announced voluntary dissolution ahead of the event.

Just two hierarchs from the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchy participated in event, metropolitan bishops Simeon and Aleksandr. The Church as a whole refused to partake in the gathering, denouncing it as schismatic.

Metropolitan bishop Simeon even ran for the post of the head of the new entity, yet lost to ‘metropolitan’ Epiphany, who had been a hierarch within the unrecognized Kiev Patriarchate.

The head of the schismatic entity –self-styled ‘patriarch’ Filaret– has received the lifetime title of ‘Honorary Patriarch’ within the new structure. The title appears to be not without clout, since it’s established in the charter of the new church, which was adopted at the gathering as well.

It was not immediately clear what exact wording the document contains, since it was reportedly being actively negotiated until the last minute. The draft variant, however, which was unveiled earlier this month, made the new church fully subordinate to the Constantinople Patriarchate, regardless of all the talk about “independence.”

Constantinople has already expressed its support for the new religious entity, confirming it will recognize it officially in early January, which likely means the adopted charter suits Patriarch Bartholomew well.

The Russian Orthodox Church had, consequently, cut ties with Constantinople in the biggest split in modern Orthodox history.

The gathering, however, was swiftly denounced by the Russian Orthodox Church, which branded its decisions to be “void.”

“The non-canonical gathering … under general the guidance of a layman and the country’s head, as well as a foreigner, who doesn’t know the local language, has picked a non-canonical ‘bishop’ to become an equally non-canonical ‘primate,’” deputy head of the Moscow Patriarchate, Protoiereus Nikolay Balashov, said, adding that the whole event meant “nothing” to the Church.

A similar opinion was voiced by the Belarusian Orthodox Church – subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate – which ruled out any official contacts with the new Ukrainian entity, calling it “evidently schismatic.”

'We Will Wring the Neck of the Ukrainian Oligarchy,' Vows Deported Saakashvili

Corruption is Everywhere - Definitely in the Ukraine

By Jonathon Gatehouse, CBC News

Mikhail Saakashvili is gone from Ukraine, but he is unwilling to be forgotten.

The former president of Georgia, who became an ally and then a foe of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, gave a fiery press conference in Warsaw, Poland, this morning following his forced deportation from Kiev yesterday.

"Poroshenko believes that he has beaten off the opponent whom he is fearful of the most. He falsified a case against me and threw me out of the country," said the 50-year-old opposition leader.

Ukrainian opposition figure Mikheil Saakashvili arrives for a news conference in Warsaw, Poland, on Tuesday.

(Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

"We will wring the neck of the Ukrainian oligarchy. They will be sent to prison, where they belong. I promise this."

The falling out between Saakashvili and Poroshenko, once university chums and then political admirers who bonded over their mutual mistrust of Russia, is operatic in scale.

Living in exile in the United States after his 2012 electoral defeat, and facing corruption charges at home, Saakashvili accepted his old friend's offer to become governor of Odessa in early 2015.

Saakashvili supporters rally in Kiev on Feb. 4. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

In the months that followed, Ukraine denied Georgia's attempts to extradite Saakashvili and even granted him citizenship.

But relations between the two leaders quickly soured. Saakashvili resigned from his job in late 2016 and started his own anti-corruption political party, the Movement of New Forces.

Last summer, Poroshenko stripped him of his Ukrainian citizenship while he was outside the country. In September Saakashvili stormed back across the border with Poland, carried by a crowd of supporters.

For months, he and members of his party have staged almost daily demonstrations outside of Ukraine's parliament calling for Poroshenko's ouster.

Saakashvili is detained by officers of the Security Service of Ukraine outside his apartment in Kiev on Dec. 5, 2017. (Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

An initial attempt to deport Saakashvili last December was foiled by angry protesters who gathered outside of his Kiev apartment and pulled him from a police van.

But yesterday, Ukrainian authorities had the element of surprise when they descended on the opposition leader while he was eating lunch in a Georgian restaurant. CCTV footage shows helmeted riot police placing a bag over Saakashvili's head and hustling him out of the building.  An hour later, he was aboard a chartered jet on its way to Warsaw.

Saakashvili, who is now technically stateless, having given up his Georgian citizenship in 2015, says the fight is not over.

Ukrainians holding a banner reading 'Poroshenko is not our president' demonstrate in front of President Petro Poroshenko's office in Kiev on Monday.

(Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images)

Addressing Ukraine's "idiots" at today's press conference, he vowed to recover his passport and head back to Kiev.

"I will be almost as efficient in Europe over the next few weeks as I used to be in Ukraine," he said, and then switched into the third person.

"Saakashvili at liberty is more dangerous for Poroshenko than Saakashvili whom they persecuted in Ukraine. We will peacefully oust the oligarchs from power."