Ukraine's Ex-Economy Minister Sharing Evidence With Anticorruption Investigators
By RFE/RL
Former Ukrainian Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius says he is providing anticorruption investigators evidence of influence peddling involving key government officials and state companies.
Abromavicius made the comments on February 8 ahead of his expected testimony to Ukraine's top antigraft investigation agency and just days after his resignation brought the government to the brink of collapse.
The Lithuanian-born Abromavicius was one of several foreign-born officials brought in by President Petro Poroshenko as part of efforts to clean up endemic government corruption.
But the push to improve transparency and eliminate problems like bribery, kickbacks, and preferential hiring for wealthy insiders has proceeded at a glacial pace, resulting in growing frustration both inside Ukraine and among Western officials and lenders.
In his February 3 resignation letter, Abromavicius singled out Ihor Kononenko, a wealthy tycoon who is a member of Poroshenko's political party, saying he had lobbied to get his people appointed to head state companies and to top government positions.
Kononenko rejected the allegations as "completely absurd."
Abromavicius told reporters in Kyiv that he had collected ample information that he intended to share with the National Anticorruption Bureau.
Russian troops put on high alert as part of massive drills
MOSCOW (AP) -- President Vladimir Putin has scrambled troops across southwestern Russia for large-scale military drills intended to test the troops' readiness amid continuing tensions with the West.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that military units were put on combat alert early Monday, marking the launch of the exercise that involves troops of the Southern Military District.
The district includes troops stationed in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, as well as forces in the North Caucasus and southwestern regions near the border with Ukraine.
Shoigu said the maneuvers will also engage airborne troops and military transport aviation, as well as the navy. He noted that the drills are intended to check the troops' ability to respond to extremist threats and other challenges.
According to Shoigu, who spoke at a meeting with the top military brass, the war games would include redeployment of air force units and bombing runs at shooting ranges.
The exercises are the latest in a series of major drills intended to strengthen the military's readiness. They have continued despite the nation's economic downturn.
Even though a drop in global oil prices has drained the government's coffers and helped drive the economy into recessions, the Kremlin has continued to spend big on the military, funding the purchase of hundreds of new aircraft, tanks and missiles.
Russia has demonstrated its resurgent military might with its air campaign in Syria, which helped President Bashar Assad's military win a series of victories in recent weeks. The military used the Syrian operation to test new types of weapons in actual combat for the first time, including long-range air- and sea-launched cruise missiles.
The air blitz in Syria has badly strained Russia's relations with Turkey, which shot down a Russian warplane at the border with Syria in November. The latest drills could be part of muscle flexing amid the tensions with Ankara.
They also come at a time when a peace deal intended to end fighting between Ukrainian government troops and Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine appears to be in jeopardy amid increasingly frequent clashes in recent weeks.
Vladimir Putin and Nursultan Nazarbaev talked by phone today and Ukraine featured in the conversation, although both men also had other fish to fry (from RFE/RL's news desk):
Nazarbaev, Putin Discuss Ukrainian Crisis, Moscow-Ankara Standoff
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart, Nursultan Nazarbaev, spoke on the phone on February 8.
The Kazakh presidential press service said the talks were focused on the “further implementation of the Minsk agreements" aimed at putting an end to the conflict in eastern Ukraine and "on the deterioration in Russian-Turkish relations."
It quoted Putin as reiterating that the tensions between Moscow and Ankara were caused by the Turkish side and therefore Turkey has to start fence-mending efforts.
The talks between Nazarbaev and Putin came two days after Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoglu met with the Kazakh president in Astana.
Turkey shot down a Russian bomber on the Syrian-Turkish border on November 24, resulting in a breakdown in relations between Moscow and Ankara.
Kazakhstan enjoys close ties with both countries.
With reporting by akorda.kz and Interfax
Here is today's map of the latest situation in the Donbas conflict zone, courtesy of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE):
