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and separatism. Explaining the crime, spokeswoman Larysa Sarhan said that during the January 29 congress of the Russian-oriented party, Medvedchuk called for creating an autonomous region of Donbas with its own parliament and government, as well as amending the Constitution to preserve that status. Such calls for an autonomous region support Russia’s subversion of Ukrainian statehood, Sarhan said. “In the current case, the declared calls for changes to the border of Ukraine’s territory simultaneously offers aid to the Russian Federation in conducting subversive activity against Ukraine, as well as supports its aggressive activity and separatist sentiments,” she said. The case was opened in response to a claim filed by Andriy Teteruk, a Donbas war veteran and MP with the People’s Front party.
The number of registered voters decreased by only 80,000 since 2014, the CEC estimates, adding that voter registers are renewed every month. They will also be reviewed and updated ten and four days before the March 31 vote, he said. Analysts questioned the official voter tally pointing out that the population has shrunk since the last elections in 2014, as the mortality rate has far outstripped the birth rates. Moreover, at least 5mn Ukrainians are out of the country, working abroad, but still listed in the registrars. According to the official numbers there are only 80,000 fewer eligible Ukrainian voters compared to 2014, which analysts say is not creditable. “So given the large numbers of dead voters and absent voters still on the registers, the dominant political forces (Poroshenko Bloc, Opposition Bloc, Fatherland) have large flexibility in engaging in vote manipulations in those election commissions where they have an advantage in loyal representatives,” Zawada said.
Ukraine’s national gas company Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolev will donate all his salary and other income to three charitable funds this year, Interfax Ukraine reported on January 30. Kobolev salary has become a political issue in the election season as it is far in excess of average incomes in Ukraine.
2.7 Polls & Sociology
Eight out of ten (80%) of Ukrainian citizens believe Ukraine is moving in the “wrong direction ,” according to a poll from the Seetarget company it was reported on January 29. "The absolute majority estimate the direction of the country's movement as negative. Almost 80% choose "rather in the wrong direction" and "definitely in the wrong" answering the question about the country's way, but there are 14% who note the positive movement of the country," the institute’s director Oleksiy Borovsky as cited by Interfax-Ukraine. According to the survey, 43.2% of respondents said Ukraine is definitely moving in the wrong direction, 37.1% of respondents believe that the country is heading "more likely in the wrong direction." At the same time, 2.3% of respondents are confident that Ukraine's direction is unequivocally correct, and 11.9% are convinced that Ukraine is moving 'rather in the right direction."
Consumer confidence of Ukrainians rose in December 2018 to 62 on a 200-point scale, GfK Ukraine reports. Across the board – propensity to consume, job prospects, and changes in personal finances – rose by an average of 3.5 points in December. Similarly, inflation expectations dropped.
21 UKRAINE Country Report March 2019 www.intellinews.com