NATO meets in Portugal
President Viktor Yanukovych declined an invitation to attend the annual NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal, Ukraine’s Ambassador to NATO Igor Dolgov announced on Nov. 16.
Instead, Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko will represent Ukraine at the 28-member military alliance’s gathering.
The entrance of the building where leaders of NATO member countries will gather in a summit on Nov. 19 and Nov. 20 in Lisbon, Portugal. (AP)
More than 40 heads of states and governments will witness a new NATO mission statement unveiled for the next 10 years. Yanukovych’s Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, will attend.
On Nov. 15, NATO’s Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in Brussels that the summit’s key issues will include a new strategic concept, Afghanistan, the upgrade of relations with Russia and NATO’s missile defense.
Ukraine recently said it has no intention of joining NATO, preferring instead to take a “non-aligned” stance militarily, a position seen by Yanukovych as critical to restoring good relations with Russia. But Ukraine still cooperates with NATO.
Russia, which has historically cooperated more extensively with NATO than Ukraine, pledged on Nov. 3 to boost cooperation with NATO in Afghanistan and consider a joint missile defense shield, after a meeting Medvedev and Rasmussen.
Ukraine’s military is currently engaged in eight international peacekeeping missions in seven countries, including NATO operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan, according to the Defense Ministry.
Constitutional Court to rule on dates of next elections
At 9 a.m., the Constitutional Court will announce its ruling on when the next elections will be held for parliament, the presidency, the Crimean parliament, local councils and municipal seats, Interfax-Ukraine reported.
The court ruling comes amid confusion after Ukraine re-adopted the 1996 constitution earlier this year, reverting to strong presidential rule and changing the terms of public office.
Political speculation has accompanied the anticipated court ruling.
Parliamentary elections could take place as early as 2011, since under the 1996 constitution, parliamentarians serve four-year terms.
The last parliamentary election took place in 2007. The Constitutional Court has been considering this case since Nov. 11.
Patriarch Kirill to arrive, with usual controversy
The leader of Russia’s Moscow-based Orthodox Church will on Nov. 20-23 make his fourth visit to Ukraine since his election to the post in February 2009.
Controversy again hovers over Patriarch Kirill’s trip in Ukraine, where many Orthodox followers have chosen to follow a Kyiv Patriarchate.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill releases a dove during a mass prayer service on St. Volodymyr hill in Kyiv on July 27. Patriarch Kirill returns for his fourth visit to Kyiv on Nov. 20. (UNIAN)
The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves) is at the center of the dispute for the visit to mark the 75th birthday of Metropolitan Volodymyr, aligned with Moscow.
Most of the religious buildings located on the Lavra’s compound belong to the Moscow Patriarchate.
However, three museums located on the compound — containing more than 400,000 historical artifacts – are being forced to move out by the end of the month.
According to Lidiya Orel, who works for one of the museums located on the Lavra’s compound, the issue escalated after Kirill was made head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Politicians want to transform the Lavra from a spiritual to a pseudo-ecclesiastical compound by using the vacated museum buildings as cells for monks and hotel rooms for VIP pilgrims.”
– Oleksandr Bryhynets, a Kyiv city council member with the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko.
Kyiv’s city council voted in July to transfer city ownership of the three museums to the national government.
The Cabinet of Ministers then soon made a decision to move the museums out by the end of November.
“Politicians want to transform the Lavra from a spiritual to a pseudo-ecclesiastical compound by using the vacated museum buildings as cells for monks and hotel rooms for VIP pilgrims,” said Oleksandr Bryhynets, a Kyiv city council member with the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko.
The three museums are facing a similar fate to the Historical Museum of Kyiv, which was made to move out of the Klovsky Palace in 2004 to make way for Ukraine’s Supreme Court.
All 250,000 of the museum’s artifacts, some dating to the Stone and Bronze ages, have been kept stored in boxes on the fourth and fifth floor of the House of Ukraine on European Square.
This week, Tymofiy Kokhan, deputy culture and tourism minister, promised not to kick out the museums until another place can be found.
The Moscow Patriarchate of the Orthodox Church, one of the largest religions in Ukraine with millions of followers, has more than 9,000 priests.
