Ukraine’s parliament might vote for a bill on Thursday to hike excise taxes on beer, alcohol and cigarettes by 30 to 300 percent, writes Kommersant daily. If approved, the law might come into force in August or September. Industry insiders warn that beer prices might go up by 25 percent, while the price of a bottle of vodka - by Hr 10, which will drive much of the production underground and reduce budget revenues.
The construction of a tunnel on Poshtova Ploshcha in Kyiv has been delayed, writes Segodnya daily. The works were supposed to be finished by Constitution Day, June 28. Instead, it will continue at least until Independence Day, August 24, the newspaper writes. The delays are due to a lack of financing and complex geology of the site.
Ukrainian, Russian and Central Asian security services engage in the abduction, disappearance, unlawful transfer and torture of wanted individuals with a regularity that amounts to a region wide renditions programme, Amnesty International said in a report published on July 3.
“Twenty years after the break up of the Soviet Union, old collegiate ties, common institutional cultures and the shared perception across the region of the threat from Islamist extremist groups bind together the successor institutions to the Soviet KGB,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Program Director.
Ukraine is about to get hit by a heat wave that will stay until the end of the summer. Temperatures will reach 40 degrees C, according to a forecast by TSN.ua, increasing the danger of forest fires, especially in the Exclusion Zone, a 30-kilometer abandoned area around Chornobyl.
