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Russian Journalist From Siberia Gets Asylum In Ukraine
Russian journalist Dmitry Shipilov from the Kemerovo region in Siberia has received political asylum in Ukraine.
Shipilov placed a photo on January 19 of his refugee document issued by Ukraine's Migration Service with a caption saying "the 10-month process is over at last, thanks to all."
Shipilov, who arrived in Ukraine in February 2014 and asked for political asylum, was sentenced to 11 months of community service in 2012 after he was convicted of insulting Kemerovo Governor Aman Tuleyev, who has governed the region since 1997.
After refusing to perform community service, Shipilov was arrested in 2014 and spent three months in jail.
In 2014, Shipilov was under pressure over an interview he did with Siberian activist Artyom Loskutov, an organizer of a march calling for the "federalization" of Siberia that would mock Russian demands that Ukraine be federalized.
The march was banned by authorities and never took place.
Winter freeze leaves 300 Ukraine towns without power
Kiev, Jan 19, 2016 (AFP) -- Almost 300 Ukrainian towns were left without power on Tuesday while snowdrifts and blizzards trapped hundreds of vehicles and dozens of ambulances across the former Soviet state.
Ukraine's emergency service said most of the outages were recorded on Monday evening and urgent repair works were underway.
It did not disclose how many homes or people were left without power.
But the service said its teams had rescued 322 people from 148 vehicles on Monday in the Black Sea region of Odesa alone.
They also pulled out 42 ambulances and two passenger buses from snowdrifts that have been hitting the eastern region of Kharkiv since the weekend.
The weather forecast centre predicted more clement weather in the days ahead. But night temperatures in the Ukrainian capital Kiev were still expected to plunge to minus 15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Farenheit) into the start of next week.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
From the article: Is Ukraine-Russian Peace Deal Brewing Behind The Scenes? by Timothy Garton Ash:
Something significant might be happening in the Ukraine peace process.
First, we had the appointment of Boris Gryzlov, a real Kremlin heavyweight as Moscow’s representative to peace talks. One read is that the appointment of a serious Kremlin insider to such a role suggests that Russian President Vladimir Putin is now willing to seriously negotiate towards some kind of settlement, which might just be acceptable to Kyiv – rather than the previous policy which seemed to be to demand concessions which were never really deliverable in Kyiv, and which were just meant to destabilize domestic politics in Ukraine, or to undermine the security situation and macro stability and financing with it.
Second, President Petro Poroshenko last week spoke about securing control over Ukraine’s borders again this year – with some suggesting that he would not have made this claim unless he thought there was a reasonable chance of delivering on it.
Third, the U.S. assistant secretary of state, Victory Nuland, had a meeting late last week in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, with Vladislav Surkov, another close adviser to Putin. The session was described as a “brainstorming” session over possible resolutions over the crisis in Ukraine, and generally feedback from both sides was that the discussions were “constructive.” U.S. officials also spoke about the prospect of sanctions on Ukraine over Donbas being relieved if they see Minsk implementation – albeit retaining those over Crimea.
Fourth, French and German envoys to the Ukrainian “Normandy” peace process are due in Kyiv this week for high-level discussions.
Fifth, Russia seems to be holding back from pursuing the nuclear, legal, card over the $3 billion in monies lent to the former Yanukovych regime, due in December, but now in effect in default.
Read more in the Kyiv Post here.