U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced sanctions against oligarch and former Ukrainian official Ihor Kolomoisky due to his involvement in major corruption.
“This designation is made under Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2020. In addition to Ihor Kolomoisky, I am publicly designating the following members of Ihor Kolomoisky’s immediate family: his wife, Iryna Kolomoiska, his daughter, Andzelika Kolomoiska, and his son, Israel Zvi Kolomoisky. This action renders Ihor Kolomoisky and each of these members of his immediate family ineligible for entry into the United States,” Blinken said in a statement released by on the website of the U.S. Department of State on Friday.
Blinken said that in his official status as the head of Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine 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, including using his political influence and official power for his personal benefit.
“While this designation is based on acts during his time in office, I also want to express concern about Kolomoisky’s current and ongoing efforts to undermine Ukraine’s democratic processes and institutions, which pose a serious threat to its future,” the secretary of state said.
“This designation reaffirms the U.S. commitment to supporting political, economic, and justice sector reforms that are key to Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic path. The United States continues to stand with all Ukrainians whose work drives reforms forward. The Department will continue to use authorities like this to promote accountability for corrupt actors in this region and globally,” Blinken said.
Aforementioned Section 7031 of the Department of state, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Act gives the Secretary of State the power to deny entry to the United States of foreign government officials and their immediate family members, in respect of whom there is reliable information that they are involved in significant corruption (including related to the extraction of natural resources) or in gross violation of human rights.
An exception may be entry into the United States if it will contribute to the achievement of important goals of the U.S. law enforcement agencies or occurs within the UN Headquarters Agreement.
Oleksiy Arestovych, non-staff advisor to the Head of the President’s Office on strategic communications in the field of national security and defense, announced the planned return of the post of special representative of the State Department of the United States for Ukraine, which was occupied by Kurt Walker in 2017-2019.
“There is strong support, so far informal, from Britain and the United States. The talk is about the fact that there will be a new United States special envoy for Donbas, that is, this post is institutionally returning. There are several statements by the French and German Foreign Ministries that Ukraine is making strong consistent steps on the implementation of agreements, and Russia is not doing this,” Arestovych told reporters after the press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency in Kyiv on Thursday.
He also said that the future administration of United States President-elect Joe Biden is already considering the possibility of introducing tougher sanctions against the Russian Federation. “In the future Biden administration, many people say informally that sanctions will be imposed on Russia, which do not constrain, but cripple, break. Many people say that for every death of our soldier, artillery fire should be opened,” Arestovych said.
In addition, he said that on December 10, a meeting will be held at the level of the heads of EU states, where sanctions against the Russian Federation will be automatically extended. “The point is that they may even be strengthened after this demarche, after Russia once again showed that it is a state that does not fulfill international agreements at the highest level. Putin actually signed these agreements in Paris, and who did not fulfill them? President Zelensky gave a year to fulfill them. Who is to blame? The Russians,” the advisor said.
Arestovych said that Russia accuses France and Germany, the participants of the Normandy format, of playing the role of mediator in an inappropriate way and playing along with Ukraine. “In fact, Russia wants to get out not only from Minsk, but also from the Normandy format now,” he said.
Accrued insurance premiums under Green Card international insurance contracts concluded by the member companies of the Motor (Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine (MTIBU) in January-October 2020 decreased by 29.82% compared to the same period in 2019, to UAH 1.007 billion.
As the MTIBU reported on the website, the number of Green Card agreements concluded during this period fell by 44.99%, to 511,528.
At the same time, the amount of compensations paid on claims increased by 14.79%, to EUR14.3 million, while the number of claims paid by 6.61%, to 5,049.
The MTIBU is the only association of insurers that provide compulsory insurance of civil liability of land vehicle owners for damage caused to third parties.
International relations expert of the Ukrainian Institute of Politics Danylo Bohatyriov has said that the upcoming elections in the United States will be one of the dirtiest in the country’s history.
During the debut program “Expert Kitchen” on the Expert Club YouTube channel, Bogatyriov said that Trump’s chances to be re-elected to a second term are still rather high, although the situation with the coronavirus epidemic and chaos in the healthcare system may have a negative impact on his prospects.
The expert emphasized that despite numerous scandals during Trump’s tenure he managed to fulfill most of his campaign promises, and in the eyes of his voters he is an extremely effective president, who has returned to the United States a portion of industrial facilities, which had been withdrawn from the country earlier. In addition, he created hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
However, the heavy mortality from COVID-19 and the inability of the country’s healthcare system to cope with the number of infected American citizens could be used by Trump’s opponents during the entire election campaign, which could salvage the campaign of his main rival – 77-year-old Joe Biden.
The New York-based law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has paid $11 million or more to avoid a lawsuit by former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who blamed the firm for aiding in her political persecution, The New York Time reported on May 10. “Skadden’s Ukraine work, which has already led to federal investigations and steep fines, centered around a report produced by the firm that [former Ukrainian President] Mr. [Viktor] Yanukovych’s allies used to try to justify his government’s treatment of Ms. Tymoshenko, a leading rival of Mr. Yanukovych. She was imprisoned starting in 2011 on abuse of office charges that the international community widely condemned as politically motivated,” it said.
The New York Times said referring to people familiar with the settlement that Skadden paid $11 million or more to settle the case before a lawsuit was filed.
“Funds from the settlement appear to have been passed through [law firm] Reid Collins to Ms. Tymoshenko and [Tymoshenko’s lawyer] Mr. [Serhiy] Vlasenko. That arrangement appears to be reflected in records filed by Ms. Tymoshenko and Mr. Vlasenko with the Ukrainian government, which show that they each received about $5.5 million from Reid Collins between July and last month,” reads the article.
According to The New York Times, the records do not mention Skadden. In his filings, Vlasenko characterized the money as “foreign income.” Tymoshenko described it in a filing this month as “compensation for the damage caused by the political repression of 2011-2014, which was received in the United States at the stage of precourt settlement.”
A study of the world’s most dangerous countries for women traveling alone reveals the good, the bad and the ugly
There’s hearsay. There are personal anecdotes from other travelers. There are specific worries. Then, there are the hard facts. We’ve gathered data from a variety of trusted international sources to create a “Women’s Danger Index” that will help you find the worst (and safest) countries for solo female travel.
At the end of the article we also have 42 tips on how women can stay safe while traveling alone.
Our Methodology
Ranking the top 50 countries with the most international tourists by a grand total of eight different factors, our “Women’s Danger Index” was compiled using the following data sources:
Gallup World Poll (2018): Percentage of women who feel safe walking alone at night = 2 points
Equal Measures 2030 (2018): Female victims of intentional homicide index = 2 points
UN Women (2016): Lifetime Non-Partner Sexual Violence = 1 point
Georgetown Institute (2017/2018): Lifetime Intimate Partner Violence = 1 point
Georgetown Institute (2017/2018): Legal Discrimination = 1 point
World Economic Forum (2017): Global Gender Gap = 1 point
UN Development Program (2017): Gender Inequity = 1 point
OECD (2018): Attitudes Toward Violence Against Women Survey = 1 point
To measure safety abroad, one cannot look at only data on street safety, rape or violence. It also depends on the general attitude of the culture, minutiae of the legal system, and systematic oppression of local women. These issues can affect everything, from easily getting a taxi alone to having your voice be heard in a conversation to even needing a male escort for your personal safety. A lot on our list, such as attitudes toward partner violence, may not affect solo female travelers directly, but these factors are a good indication of overall attitudes within the culture.
Sadly, not one country received an “A” which indicates we have a long way to go before there is true equality between men and women on Earth. Thankfully, there are many signs that things are improving and there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Please note: We gave both the “percentage of women who feel safe walking alone at night” and the “female victims of intentional homicide index” a double weighting score because they are very good indicators of safety for foreign female travelers and are more likely to be highly accurate since it isn’t “shameful” to admit. Whereas, non-partner and intimate partner sexual violence are obviously strong indicators for rape but the seriously widespread underreporting (to differing degrees per country) makes it hard to justify double weight because it could skew the results more than is fair.
