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due to an increase in gas tariffs since early November. The statement followed an agreement between Kyiv and its main donor, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a new 14-month stand-by programme of $3.9bn . A 23.5% hike of domestic gas tariffs was a key element of the new deal.
In the nearest future the Russian government will pass sanctions against Ukraine , Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev said as cited by Interfax on October 23. The announcement follows the decree signed by President Vladimir Putin tasking the government to draw a list of sanctions, "in response to Ukraine’s unfriendly actions, related to the introduction of restrictive measures against citizens and legal entities of the Russian Federation," as well as to “protect national interests."
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s initiative to gain autocephaly for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate will lead to Ukraine’s further fragmentation , Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told an Oct. 16 press briefing. “This is one of the additional – but if to speak of the future – then it could be one of the largest strikes against the most painful problem that Ukrainian society faces, namely the consolidation of the Ukrainian people and the consolidation of the foundations of Ukrainian statehood,” she said. “This is a terrible blow whose consequences are not only to be appreciated, but seen. The process has begun. This is not a centripetal, but a centrifugal process. When we hear accusations in Moscow’s address that Russia is engaged in practically Ukraine’s fragmentation and so forth, this is the fragmentation of Ukraine and the hammering of the latest, biggest nail of this whole funeral structure under the Minsk process. The current regime is doing that.”
The Russian government will employ “political-diplomatic measures” if the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate is targeted with political persecution, Russian President Administration Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Oct. 11, the tass.ru news agency said. Russia will defend the interests of Orthodox Christians just as it defends the interests of Russian-language speakers, he said. “Russia’s secular government can’t interfere with interchurch dialogue. It never did that and it won’t be doing that,” he said. In response, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Mariana Betsa tweeted the next day, “We heard similar themes from Russia on ‘defending the Russian-speaking population’ as justification of its aggression against Ukraine.”
A new language bill approved in first reading in the Rada stipulates that all media in Ukraine — print, online, or television — must be in Ukrainian . News sites, newspapers and magazines can be published in other languages only if they also produce Ukrainian versions of the same size and content. In an editorial, the Post appeals to the bill’s sponsors to “make an exemption for the English-language media or soften the language demands made of the media in general.” Otherwise, the KyivPost warns: “We would have to close, or drastically reduce our publication in size.” The Ukraine Business News plans to offer the Morning News in Ukrainian and Russian languages next month.
Over Ukraine’s autumn holiday weekend, new Ukrainian language quotas were phased in at the nation’s TV channels. From 7 am to 10 pm, 75% of all programming on national and regional stations must be in Ukrainian, UNIAN reports. For local TV companies, the quota is 60%. Soviet-era films should be dubbed into Ukrainian.
14 UKRAINE Country Report November 2018 www.intellinews.com