Ukraine Abroad
November 26, 2008 at 19:26Klitschkos may soon face Holyfield, Lewis
With Ukraine’s Klitschko brothers holding three of the four major boxing titles in the world, there’s no shortage of competitors spoiling to fight them.
Former U.S. world champion Evander Holyfield is taking on Russia’s Nikolai Valuev on Dec. 20 in Switzerland. Holyfield, 46, is confident of beating Valuev for the World Boxing Association title and becoming the oldest ever heavyweight world champion.
Holyfield then has his sights on unifying all four heavyweight division titles, according to Russia’s RIA Novosti on Nov. 19. The other three titles belong to the Klitschkos. Volodymyr Klitschko, who defends his titles on Dec. 13 against American Hasim Rahman in Germany, currently holds the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Organization titles. His older brother, Vitaliy, holds the World Boxing Council belt.
Agence France Presse, meanwhile, reported on Nov. 20 that Vitaliy Klitschko is hoping to coax out of retirement Britain’s former champ Lennox Lewis for a rematch of their famous June 2003 bout that Lewis won.
Klitschko, 37, won the WBC title against Nigeria’s Samuel Peter in October.
“But after the Ukrainian suffered a technical knock-out at the hands of Lewis in their famous June 2003 fight, Klitschko wants a re-match and there are reports here of a multi-million dollar purse set to be tabled,” the French news agency reported. “Lewis’ 2003 win over Klitschko still troubles the Ukrainian who was ahead on points in their 2003 fight before he suffered a badly cut eye and the fight was handed to the British fighter.”
“I would look forward to this fight,” Klitschko told German tabloid Bild.
Yushchenko won't give up on nation's NATO bid
Continuing what many now regard as a hopeless quest, Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko is still promoting Ukraine’s speedy entry into the NATO military alliance.
In an interview with The Times of London, published Nov. 20, Yushchenko urged NATO to “resist Russian pressure and make an historic offer of membership to his country.” NATO foreign ministers meet in Brussels on Dec. 2-3 to decide whether to put Ukraine on a formal path to membership, but nobody thinks it will happen.
Yushchenko told the newspaper that the expansion of the military alliance was vital to European security after Russia’s war with Georgia, and the only way to secure Ukraine’s independence.
“I am sure that the ball is not in the Ukrainian court,” Yushchenko told The Times. “Ukraine has done everything it had to.”
Actually, many would dispute that assessment. Ukraine is not considered NATO-ready for many reasons: A majority of Ukrainians do not favor joining the alliance. Its military is outdated and the nation lacks political stability.
Moscow is also vehemently opposed to Ukraine joining NATO and many NATO members are reluctant to antagonize the Kremlin. But Yushchenko emphasized Ukraine’s troubled history in The Times interview.
“Since 1918, Ukraine has declared its independence six times and five times it failed,” Yushchenko told the London newspaper. “One of the fundamental reasons for that is that we had no external partners who would recognize our territorial integrity.”
Russia turns up pressure to pay $2.4 billion debt
The threat that started a week of frenzied talks came on Nov. 20, when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev demanded that Ukraine pay $2.4 billion in debt to Russian energy giant Gazprom.
Ukrainian officials, typically, couldn't agree on the amount of the debt nor to whom it was owed: Gazprom or intermediary RosUkrEnergo. By mid-week, however, progress had been reported in negotiations with Moscow.
The Russians have threatened to take Ukraine to international court to force payment. They have also threatened to shut off gas on Jan. 1 without a new contract.
“We have to make a definitive decision and recover this debt from Ukraine,” Medvedev was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying during a meeting in the Kremlin with Alexei Miller, chief executive of state-run Gazprom. Ukraine should pay “of its own free will or by being forced,” Medvedev said.
Victor Pinchuk‘s ties to Clinton scrutinized
In the vetting of Hillary Clinton as potential U.S. Secretary of State for President Barack Obama, Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk’s charitable contributions to her husband, Bill, may hurt her chances.
Pinchuk, believed to be Ukraine’s second richest man with a fortune of several billion dollars, has given millions of dollars to the William J. Clinton Foundation, which has raised $375 million from various donors. The former U.S. president’s foundation sponsors international development, AIDS care and other initiatives.
But as Newsday, a U.S. newspaper reported this month, Bill Clinton’s 2007 speech at Pinchuk’s annual Yalta European Strategy, “created an inadvertent stir when he was embraced by Pinchuk’s father-in-law, former Ukraine President [Leonid Kuchma], whose authoritarian rule has been condemned by the State Department.”
U.S. audience happy to hear Konstantin Lifschitz
The Friends of Chamber Music in Kansas City, Missouri, was happy to have “scored an exclusive engagement by booking pianist Konstantin Lifschitz for his only U.S. performance this year” on Nov. 21, according to The Kansas City Star.
Cynthia Siebert, founder of the Friends of Chamber Music, said she “got aggressive” about recruiting the hard-to-get Lifschitz after she discovered that he had family in Los Angeles. He planned a program that included Bach pieces.
While born in Kharkiv, Lifschitz no longer has connections in Ukraine’s second-largest city. According to his official website: “I was born in December 1976 in Kharkov, which back then was a city where everyone spoke Russian…it is mythological to me because anyone connecting me to this place has left it, including my parents, family and all of their acquaintances, dispersing to different corners of both this world and the next one.”
Girl takes second place in Junior Eurovision 2008
Ukraine's Victoria Petryk took second place in the Junior Eurovision 2008 Song contest finals held in Cyprus on Nov. 22. And Ukraine will host the broadcast bonanza next year.
Bzikibi, a trio of girls in bee costumes from Georgia took first place with their Bzz! song.
Petryk, a nine-year old from Odesa Oblast, sang solo about dancing sailors and albatrosses at the 15-country contest held in Lemesos. Ukraine scored 135 points to Georgia's 154. Lithuania's Egle Jurgaityte took third place with 103 points.
Ukraine got maximum 12-point scores from Malta, Romania and Georgia.
Ukraine, meanwhile, only gave Georgia the maximum 12 points, followed by 10 points to Malta.
IMF: Worst of financial crisis yet to come
Maybe it's a good thing Ukraine was among the first nations to get in line for a $16.5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. The IMF may well go dry soon, leaving international governments unable to make emergency loans if the economic crisis lingers.
And linger is exactly what IMF's chief economist thinks the crisis will do.
“The worst is yet to come,” said Olivier Blanchard, the IMF's chief economist in an interview published Nov. 22 in the Finanz und Wirtschaft newspaper in Zurich, Switzerland.
Blanchard said economic growth would not kick in until 2010.
The IMF has spent 20 percent of its $250 billion fund in the last two weeks, Blanchard said. Meanwhile, massive withdrawals of investments from emerging countries could represent “hundreds of billions of dollars,” Blanchard estimated. “We do not have this money. We never had it.”
Lithuanian president compares Soviets, Nazis
According to the Baltic News Service on Nov. 22, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said Nazi and Soviet crimes should be equally condemned. Adamkus spoke on Nov. 22 in Kyiv to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor.