01/11/2016 Ukraine: Daily Highlights -Russian representative at the talks in Minsk Gryzlov arrived to Ukraine2016-01-11-eng-russian-representative-at-talks-in-minsk-gryzlov-arrived-to-ukraine

Russian representative at the talks in Minsk Gryzlov arrived to Ukraine

01.11.2016 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• Russian representative at the talks in Minsk Gryzlov arrived to Ukraine.
• AlfaBank bought UkrSotsBank.
• "Insider" online media will suspend its work.
• The court arrested a member of the Right Sector for the attack on the camp site in the Carpathians.

Key Events in Ukraine

• President Poroshenko announced that the salaries of servicemen will be increased already from January. If necessary, he is ready to announce one more wave of mobilization. The President said that Ukraine will demand from Russia to fulfill all its obligations under the Minsk Agreement with reference to specific dates in 2016.
• The court acquitted the former Debalcevo mayor who participated in separatist activities at the beginning of the "Russian Spring".
• Turkish owners of the Life mobile operator are preparing a new Lifecell brand to enter the market, its logo repeats the logo of the Turkcell parent company.
• According to Ministry of Finance Head Yaresko, the IMF confirmed that the adopted budget is generally consistent with the parameters of the Fund's program of cooperation with Ukraine.
• Russian Alfa-Group bought Ukrsotsbank, which belongs to the category of the major banks. Considering its aggregate capital,  Alfa-Bank becomes the fourth in the country after Privatbank, Oschadbank and Ukreximbank. Five of the ten largest Ukrainian banks are controlled by Russia.
• After a long weekend the official hryvnia rate against the dollar almost did not change: 23.50 ₴/$, 25.59 ₴ / € (+0.34 UAH), 3.09 ₴ / 10 ₽ (-0.13 UAH).

Ukraine at War

• The number of provocative attacks of the militants in the Donbass increased, the clashes were recorded in the Luhansk region, on the outskirts of Donetsk and Horlivka and near Starognativka and Shyrokino. According to official statistics, one Ukrainian soldier was killed, another was wounded.

Ukraine and the World

• Special representative of Russia at the talks in Minsk Gryzlov paid an unexpected visit to Kiev . He had a meeting with former President Kuchma. Ukraerorukh gave his plane a permission to land  at the request of the Foreign Ministry. According to the officials of the Foreign Ministry, Gryzlov arrived within the framework of the Minsk trilateral contact group activities. A spokesman for Kuchma Olifer said that before that he had a meeting with OSCE representative Saydik.
• German Chancellor Merkel is convinced that the open borders are the key to the existence of a single European currency area. To overcome the crisis, she offers to significantly limit the number of refugees accepted and to strengthen the control over the external borders of the European Union.
• German Foreign Minister during talk with Ukrainian Ambassador Melnik said that he is optimistic about obtaining by Ukraine of a visa-free regime with the EU.
• Vice-Chancellor of Germany Gabriel tries to convince the European Commission of the necessity to complete the second stage of the "Nord Stream" pipeline  and claims that Russia is ready to fulfill all the political conditions of the EU and to maintain the transit through Ukraine.
• Russia refused to renew the contract on the supply of electricity to Ukraine, since it was linked to the supply of electricity to the Crimea.
• In Leipzig, the PEGIDA anti-Islamic movement held numerous protest against the migrants.

The Trends

• The unexpected visit of Russian representative at the Minsk talks Gryzlov to Kiev after Putin's statement about the necessity for Ukraine to implement the Minsk Agreement regarding the introduction of the Amendments to the Constitution is regarded by political analysts as an attempt to exert pressure on the Ukrainian authorities to readmission the Donbass under the conditions of Putin. Poroshenko did not want to be personally involved in the negotiations, but authorized them through his representative Kuchma. One possible scenario would be to try to "push" in the Verkhovna Rada the amendments to the Constitution, granting the special status to the occupied territories of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, but the public opinion is strongly opposing to such changes.
• Deputy General Prosecutor Kasko claimed that the Head of the Department did not allow him to visit the official talks in the United States. The trip was fully funded by the American side. The US Embassy expressed an official dissatisfaction with the actions of the General Prosecutor.