The Snow Has Melted
The snow has indeed melted and we all anticipate spring's arrival. Easter for the Orthodox world is this Sunday, so we are excited about cracking eggs (we don't hide eggs here), Paskha bread, and wandering around the city in the middle of the night visiting various churches.
As for the news, Ukraine has announced it's intentions to join NATO and now has a definite plan toward that. Meanwhile, today Putin mentioned in a speech that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a great catastrophe. Controversy in Ukraine continues around the murdered journalist Gongadze. His wife is in town now and says she wants to become a member of Parliament. She had been working for Voice of America's Ukrainian service.
There's also a lot of discussion in the air about constitutional reform. Before the revolution, the president was almost a dictator but now supposedly, the Constitution will be changed to reduce the power of the president. It seems the new government is balking against this since they need the power to go after all the thugs from the last ten years. A bunch of high level oligarchs they've called in for questioning over the last two weeks haven't shown up or seem to be leaving the country. And I am certain their swelling off-shore bank accounts are well taken care of. The mess continues!
One surprise for everyone was the National Bank of Ukraine's decision to lower the exchange rate between the hryvna and US dollar to around 5.03. The dollar was already weak, this makes it even have less buying power. The Ukrainian currency still isn't traded on world markets and the government keeps its value artificially maintained. Possibly they are considering let it go to see what will happen. Hopefully I'll still be able to afford Cola Lite after all this over!
As for the news, Ukraine has announced it's intentions to join NATO and now has a definite plan toward that. Meanwhile, today Putin mentioned in a speech that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a great catastrophe. Controversy in Ukraine continues around the murdered journalist Gongadze. His wife is in town now and says she wants to become a member of Parliament. She had been working for Voice of America's Ukrainian service.
There's also a lot of discussion in the air about constitutional reform. Before the revolution, the president was almost a dictator but now supposedly, the Constitution will be changed to reduce the power of the president. It seems the new government is balking against this since they need the power to go after all the thugs from the last ten years. A bunch of high level oligarchs they've called in for questioning over the last two weeks haven't shown up or seem to be leaving the country. And I am certain their swelling off-shore bank accounts are well taken care of. The mess continues!
One surprise for everyone was the National Bank of Ukraine's decision to lower the exchange rate between the hryvna and US dollar to around 5.03. The dollar was already weak, this makes it even have less buying power. The Ukrainian currency still isn't traded on world markets and the government keeps its value artificially maintained. Possibly they are considering let it go to see what will happen. Hopefully I'll still be able to afford Cola Lite after all this over!
posted by Kyivmission at 1:21 AM
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