29 May 2018
The Kiev mayor (click here) was one of the most dominant fighters of his era, and he says sport gave him skills he uses every day in his new career.
Before he became one of boxing’s most dominant heavyweight champions and even longer before he entered the decidedly more treacherous arena of Ukrainian politics, a teenage Vitali Klitschko led tourists visiting Kiev on excursions through the capital. He was 16 and it was his first paying job.
Thirty years later Klitschko, who was elected mayor of Kiev in 2014, is still making his pitch for the hometown dear to his heart with the enthusiasm of a bright-eyed tour guide. The city was the center of the sporting universe over the past week as it played host to Saturday’s Champions League finalbetween Real Madrid and Liverpool, rolling out the red carpet for tens of thousands of tourists, and Klitschko was front and center throughout, walking the streets and snapping selfies with the visiting hordes when not working to resolve the airport imbroglio that imperiled many ticket-holders’ flights....
March 29, 2017
By Sergil Leschenko
For several months (click here) American journalists have been competing to expose agents of Russian influence inside the new White House....
There are a lot of political parties, People's Front (National conservatism), Self Reliance (Anti-Minsk and Pro NATO), Radical Party (Anti-Minsk, Weighted NATO interest and Right Wing Populism), Fatherland (Anti-Minsk and Pro-NATO, liberal democracy), Svodoba (Anti-Minsk and Pro NATO, Ukrainian nationalism), For LIfe (Pro-Minsk and Anti-NATO, Social democracy), Revival (Developmentalism - a form of economic diversity), Opposition Bloc (Pro-Minsk, Anti-NATO and Russian minority interests), People's Will (Centrism) and Civil Position (Anti-Minsk, Pro-NATO, conservatism) . The strongest candidates should be competing for Ukraine's leadership that protects its sovereignty from Russian propaganda and infiltration.
The candidates should meet to discuss their interests and whom among them will be elected by the Ukraine people. The more political candidates there are the more the electorate will be divided and the easier it is for adverse candidates to rob democracy and freedom from Ukrainians. The candidates with a following should come to an understanding about their party's interests and BRING THEIR ELECTORATE to the Presidential elections endorsing the strongest Pro-Ukraine agenda.
Elections are about POLICIES that work to improve the quality of life of the people, free enterprise and NUMBERS of people that turn out to vote. In the USA, the Democratic Party committed itself to be a 50 state party. The success speaks for itself.
I wish the best to the Ukraine people to elect a President that will maintain their freedom and democracy. The new President should make a commitment to end the war at it's eastern border with strong diplomacy with the backing of NATO allies. The people should believe their country is strong enough to achieve peace. It should be Russia's fault, no different than the assault on vessels in the Sea of Azov or the abandoned Minsk and Minsk II agreements (click here), that diplomacy fails.
Gerrymandering Ukraine? Electoral Consequences of Occupation (click here)
By Paul D'Anieri
East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures, published August 9, 2018
The occupation of Crimea and part of the Donbas will prevent roughly 12 percent of Ukrainian voters from participating in elections. These voters voted disproportionately for candidates and parties that supported closer ties with Russia. This article quantifies the changes to the electorate and projects the likely partisan impact. The changes decisively tip the Ukrainian electorate away from the east and south. Candidates and parties can no longer expect to build a national majority primarily in eastern and southern Ukraine, as Viktor Yanukovych did in 2010 and the Party of Regions did in 2012. Anticipating these effects, Ukraine’s government could seek to prolong these voters’ exclusion, while Russia could actually seek to end the occupation to get them re-included. The implication is that various actors could try to “gerrymander” the entire Ukrainian state, a phenomenon that previously has only been explored at the district level, within states. This raises the broader question of how electoral effects shape the many territorial disputes around the world.
