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Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director, writes in a press statement Tuesday. Lagarde and President Poroshenko spoke on the telephone Monday. Timothy Ash writes from London: “Clever move by Lagarde. The ball is now back in Poroshenko’s court. No IMF money until ACC bill amended, gas prices hiked and budget amended...Emerging Market volatility makes it hard at present for Ukraine to come to market, unless they pay top dollar. So the pressure will be on the Poroshenko Administration to deliver - and hopefully before the looming Copenhagen donor summit at the end of this month. No IMF compliant ACC, no IMF or EU money, and no market access.
A series of attacks on Roma camps outside Kiev, LGBT people, and human rights activists have been on the rise in recent months, says Human Rights Watch. In a joint letter with three other international human rights organization, they said that authorities have not responded adequately to the growing number of violent attacks and threats promoting hate and discrimination in Ukraine by members of violent radical groups. At the March for Equality, organized by the LGBT community, police detained 56 individuals who were attempting to stop the march. However, Ukraine’s Justice Ministry has announced its support for the legalization of same-sex civil partnerships and expects the Cabinet of Ministers to draft a bill and submit it to the Verkhovna Rada for a vote in the fourth quarter of 2019.
The Swedish Court of Appeal has maintained its ruling in place, giving some relief to Russian natural gas major in its ongoing struggle with Ukrainian Naftogaz . Earlier in June the appeal court has put the earlier ruling by Stockholm Arbitrage to award Naftogaz $2.6bn compensation on pause for the duration of an appeal brought by Gazprom. Naftogaz has tried to contest the new decision , but without success. This means that Gazprom has little pressure to repay the $2.6bn award until its appeal is fully reviewed.
The government will start auctioning leases on state-owned land through ProZorro.Sale in August, the online line government procurement platform. “This is the first step to show that land market in Ukraine can be transparent, efficient, of high quality and that these assets can work for the people of Ukraine,” Maxim Nefyodov, first deputy minister of Economic Development and Trade, told reporters Monday. With a free market setting land lease prices, land owners will get a better idea of rent prices.
London’s Commercial Court ordered Gazprom to freeze all its assets in the UK and to provide Naftogaz with a list of assets worth more than $50,000, Ukraine’s state energy company reports. Naftogaz also instructed 17 banks that deal with Gazprom in Britain that they are not to help Russia’s state gas company reduce its assets in Britain. In February, the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce ordered Gazprom to pay Naftogaz $2.6bn. Gazprom responded Tuesday saying that the London court ignores a stay of execution of the judgment won last week by Gazprom in Sweden.
Naftogaz fears that Gazprom is restructuring its Europe assets to duck paying the Stockholm award of $2.6bn plus interest. In a filing to Sweden’s Court of Appeal, Naftogaz says some of Gazprom's subsidiaries
11 UKRAINE Country Report July 2018 www.intellinews.com