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approve the new appointments. However, as the Orange revolts showed in 2004, control of the CEC doesn’t mean that the public will recognize its approved election results.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has overturned a Ukrainian court order that gave investigators access to 17 months worth of phone data belonging to the Ukrainian RFE/RL investigative reporter Natalya Sedletska, the court said in a statement on September 18, reports RFE/RL . The order caused outrage in media circles as Sedletska investigations into corruption in the government has embarrassed senior government officials and was seen as press freedom’s issue. To be effective as an investigative reporter, RFE/RL said in a statement that sources right to anonymity needs to be protected. Sedletska is due to prepare a fuller appeal on the ruling for the ECHR that pledged to consider her petition "as a matter of priority." On August 27, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv approved a request from the Prosecutor-General's Office to allow investigators to review all data from Sedletska's cell phone from July 1, 2016 through November 30, 2017, RFE/RL reports. The ruling stems from a criminal investigation into the alleged disclosure of state secrets to journalists in 2017 by Artem Sytnyk, director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) that has been in the forefront of accusing Ukrainians ruling elite of corruption. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty spokeswoman Joanna Levison said earlier this month that the court's ruling is "inconsistent with Ukraine's own commitments to promote and protect a free press." “Sedletska is the host of Schemes, an award-winning anticorruption television program by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service and Ukrainian Public Television. The Schemes program reported on several investigations involving senior Ukrainian officials, including Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko, during the period in question,” RFE/RL said in a report. On the same day a Ukrainian court reduced the period that prosecutors could access data by half, but has not rescinded the order.
The Ukrainian government has secured "an agreement in principle" with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over the gradual increase of the price of gas to the level of the imported price parity by 2020, CEO of the nations gas monopoly Naftogaz Andriy Kobolev said on September 18.
Ukraine has secured a "significant victory" in the English Court of Appeal court in its fight to annul a $3bn bond debt owed to Russia , Ukrainian Finance Ministry said in a statement published on September 14. The bond was issued by ousted president Viktor Yanukovych and bought by Russia, shortly after Ukraine refused an offer to sign the Association Agreement with the EU and threw its lot in with Russia instead. The decision sparked the Euromaidan protests that ended with a change in government. The new government has maintained the bond was forced on the government and has refused to pay it off. The statement followed an earlier court ruling that Ukraine must pay out on its defaulted $3bn Russian debt . "The decision to reverse summary judgment and permit Ukraine to argue its case before the court of first instance represents a significant victory for Ukraine," the ministry said. The Eurobond was issued in December 2013 by Ukraine on the Irish exchange and bought by Russia as the first part of a $15bn aid package. The other issues were abandoned following Yanukovych’s ouster during the Euromaidan protests a few months later and Ukraine has since defaulted on the bond payments. In March 2017, the High Court of London ruled to reject all Ukraine’s defence arguments. The Russian side demands the immediate repayment of the debt that matured in December 2015. The two-year
12 UKRAINE Country Report October 2018 www.intellinews.com