Ukraine's embattled prime minister resigns...

[Abbazorkzog]

Ukraine's embattled prime minister resigns as corruption scandals shake Europe

Looks like Putin is seizing upon the Panama Papers to manipulate the Kiev government.

His resignation came at a time when the country's president, Petro Poroshenko, is under scrutiny after the Panama Papers suggested that he used an undisclosed offshore company to avoid taxes. Meanwhile, in Russia, one of the key figures named in the Panama Papers deflected accusations that he had helped enrich President Vladimir Putin's inner circle through offshore deals.

And so another coup descends upon Ukraine. I'm nervous about how this next one will turn out. The last one solved some problems, if only temporarily, but it may turn out to be the straw that breaks its back.

“My decision is based on several reasons,” Yatsenyuk said in his weekly television address. “The political crisis in the government has been artificially created, the desire to change one person has blinded politicians and paralyzed their will to bring about real changes in the country."

Putin and the Kremlin are electrocuting politics in Ukraine on high, it may be a matter of days before Ukraine collapses completely or - with a little luck - the government may save its integrity and withstand the efforts by Putin to bring Poroshenko, and thus Ukraine, down along with him. I think it is becoming highly likely that Putin, Poroshenko, and certain elements in the west are collaborating in Russia's interests. This could get interesting.

Revelations undercut trust in Poroshenko

Analysts now say that even if the president was using an offshore company merely to sell his business, Roshen, the secretive way in which he went about it will undermine trust in him, his political party and even in Ukraine itself.

News of Poroshenko’s secret offshore activity may have influenced the result of the Dutch referendum on April 6, where more than 60 percent voted against the EU’s Association Agreement with Ukraine, on a turnout of about 30 percent.
“No matter what the final turnout at the referendum in the Netherlands is, its result is a verdict personally on Petro Poroshenko,” said Mustafa Nayyem, a former investigative journalist and now a lawmaker in the president’s faction in parliament.

 

[Rogue Valley]

Poroshenko has nominated Volodymyr Groysman to replace Yatsenyuk as Prime Minister. Groysman, a former mayor of Vinnytsia (home of Poroshemko's Roshen Confectionary Company) has been the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) since 2014. He is a Poroshenko ally and will certainly broaden Poroshenko's grip on power. It was either this or face snap elections in which the Poroshenko Bloc would lose its majority status in parliament.

The West and IMF will give Groysman only a short honeymoon period to effect reforms. Everyone is tiring of Poroshenko who is turning out to be yet another oligarch-friendly politician who initiates no serious measures to attack corruption. The Dutch referendum and Panama Papers scandal further stain him. I've long said that Poroshenko, Yatsenyuk, Shokin, and Avakov must go. Yats and Shokin are now gone. Removing Poroshenko and Avakov will prove even more difficult.

 

[Abbazorkzog]

And so the Russian game-plan is illuminated,

Ukraine's ex-Prime Minister Yatsenyuk offered job in Russia

Obviously to get intel on Ukraine.

Ukraine, Russia agree some security measures: Germany

Ukraine and Russia agreed on Wednesday to create demilitarized zones and implement other security measures in separatist-held areas of eastern Ukraine, but they remained at odds over how to move toward local elections.

Ukraine bans Russian films in media war

Kiev: Nationalist feelings have surged amid tension with ethnic Russians in Ukraine

The international security organisation OSCE says there are many daily violations of the Minsk ceasefire accord by both sides.

Russian is widely spoken in Ukraine - not just in the east - and millions of Ukrainians have ethnic Russian relatives. There was a shared culture in Soviet times, before 1991, and most Soviet-era films can still be shown in Ukraine.

Hmmmmmmmmm........