Author: Tsikavyk

Президент України Володимир Зеленський порівняв із часами середньовіччя протести, які спалахнули попереднього дня в селищі Нові Санжари на Полтавщині проти прибуття евакуйованих із Китаю до місцевого медичного центру на карантин-спостереження (обсервацію).

«Ми постійно кажемо, що Україна – це Європа. Так от, вчора в деяких епізодах здавалося, що ми – Європа епохи Середньовіччя, на жаль. Давайте не забувати, що ми всі – люди», – заявив Зеленський.

Під час церемонії нагородження переможців конкурсу на здобуття грантів Українського фонду стартапів у Києві він сказав, що світові потрібен стартап, який зробив би людей більш терпимими і навчив взаємоповаги.

«Я справді вірю, що найближчим часом у нас у всіх з’явиться дуже важливий і потрібний нашій країні і всьому світу стартап: той, що навчить деяких громадян людяності, поваги, єдності й того, що є у вас, – критичного мислення», – сказав президент, звертаючись до присутніх.

При цьому Зеленський також заявив, що акції протесту в кількох регіонах країни проти розміщення в місцевих медзакладах українців, евакуйованих із Китаю, мали політичну підтримку.

«Найкращі умови були підготовлені в чотирьох місцях. Одне з них – на Тернопільщині. Ви знаєте, що там було. На жаль, назвати це людськими вчинками я не можу й не хочу підбирати інші слова. На жаль, так буває. Це не тільки через людей. Я думаю, що прості люди до цього не мають стосунку. У деяких містах була політична підтримка цієї псевдоакції», – сказав він.

Президент також висловив упевненість, що незабаром правоохоронці встановлять обставини акцій протесту і їхній можливий спланований характер.

«Я думаю, що ми теж дуже скоро побачимо, що люди як на агітації проти земельної реформи, так і проти того, щоб ми наших громадян бачили в Україні, ті самі», – додав Зеленський.

Попереднього дня, 20 лютого, до України прилетів спецборт із китайського міста Уханю, де зафіксований найбільший спалах нового коронавірусу. У літаку перебували 45 громадян України і 27 іноземців, а також екіпаж і лікарський супровід. За даними української влади, всі здорові. Але евакуйовані впродовж 14 днів будуть на карантині-спостереженні (обсервації) в закритому медичному центрі Національної гвардії в Нових Санжарах. За повідомленнями влади, небезпеки ймовірного потрапляння корона вірусу за межі закритого медцентру навіть у разі його виявлення немає.

Проте в селищі спалахнуло протистояння місцевих мешканців, які намагалися не допустити прибуття евакуйованих, із силовиками, які забезпечували проїзд транспорту з людьми. Внаслідок сутичок кілька автобусів із евакуйованими зазнали ушкоджень: у них побили шибки. За медичною допомогою звернулися 9 поліцейських і одна цивільна особа; 5 правоохоронців перебувають у лікарні. Поліція затримала 24 учасників заворушень, одного з них лишили під вартою. Поліція Полтавської області почала п’ять кримінальних проваджень за фактом заворушень у Нових Санжарах.
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Мережа Правди

Гривня зміцнилася на 5 копійок щодо долара порівняно з курсом напередодні, заявляє Національний банк України.

За даними регулятора, 21 лютого долар коштував 24,47 гривні проти 24,52 20 лютого. У понеділок 24 лютого офіційний курс становитиме 24 гривні 45 копійок.

Довідкове значення курсу НБУ 21 лютого становить 24 гривні 45 копійок, що на 3 копійки сильніше за дані 20 числа.

Читайте також: Держбюджет у січні недоотримав 13,8 мільярда гривень – Мінфін​

Торги на міжбанківському ринку у п’ятницю закрилися на позначці близько 24,44-46 гривні за долар, повідомляє профільне видання «Мінфін».

Як заявив 21 лютого прем’єр-міністр Олексій Гончарук, те, що курс гривні виявився вищим за закладений у бюджеті, стало однією з причин перегляду макроекономічного прогнозу, а відтак – перегляду державного бюджету на 2020 рік.
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The salvage firm that has plucked silverware, china and gold coins from the wreckage of the Titanic now wants to recover the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Machine that transmitted the doomed ship’s increasingly frantic distress calls.
    
Lawyers for the company, R.M.S. Titanic, Inc., called witnesses before a federal judge on Thursday to explain why the company should be allowed to possibly cut into the rapidly deteriorating ship to recover the device before it’s irretrievable.
    
“It’s one of those iconic artifacts, like the signal flares (that the sinking ship launched),” testified David Gallo, an oceanographer who retired from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and is now a paid consultant for the firm.
    
Gallo, who testified in federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, said that salvaging the device would not be “grave robbery” but a way to connect people to the ship’s legacy and honor its passengers.
    
U. S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith, the maritime jurist who presides over Titanic salvage matters, said it was too early for her to make any decisions on the proposal. She said she needed more details and proposed scheduling another hearing sometime in the future.
    
The Titanic was traveling from England to New York when it struck an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on April 14, 1912. The large and luxurious ocean liner sent out distress signals using the relatively new Marconi wireless radio system.
    
The messages were picked up by other ships and onshore receiving stations. They included: “We require immediate assistance”  … “Have struck iceberg and sinking” … “We are putting women off in boats.”
    
The ship sank in less than three hours, with the loss of all but 700 of the 2,208 passengers and crew.
    
An international team led by oceanographer Robert Ballard located the wreckage in 1985 on the North Atlantic seabed, about 400 miles (645 kilometers) off Newfoundland, Canada.
    
RMS Titanic Inc., oversees a collection of thousands of items recovered from the site over the years as the court-recognized salvor, or steward of the artifacts.
    
The company has argued that time is running out to retrieve the telegraph machine. It has been referred to as the voice'' of the Titanic, which also delivered the ship's last words.
    
The device is located in a room on the ship's deck. A gymnasium on the other side of the grand staircase has already collapsed. The roof above the telegraph machine has begun to perforate.
    
“I'm not sure if we go in 2020 that the roof won't be collapsed on everything”  testified Paul Henry Nargeolet, director of the company's underwater research program.
    
The company is already facing resistance from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which represents the public's interest in the wreck site.
    
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Virginia represents NOAA. Its attorneys argued in court documents that the proposed retrieval runs contrary to prior court orders that prohibit the firm from cutting holes or taking items from the wreck.
    
The items that the firm has salvaged came from a debris field outside the ship.
   
 “It seems clear that this is not simply a `one-off' proposal for the Marconi Wireless Telegraph, but a placeholder for future requests to take similar actions in order to recover other artifacts from inside the wreck,'' federal attorney Kent P. Porter wrote.
    
Porter also wrote that the court must consider international agreements involving the wreck as well as archaelogical standards to determine whether the retrieval is justified. He cited the United Kingdom-based Joint Nautical Archaeology Policy Committee, which said the company has failed to adequately justify its proposal.
    
Karen Kamuda, president of the Massachusetts-based Titanic Historical Society, Inc., told The Associated Press in an email that the societyhas been against disturbing the wreck since 1985 because it is a gravesite.”
    
“As usual, its all about money,” she wrote.
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Мережа Правди

The Kremlin was scrambling Friday to reach a stopgap agreement with Ankara to halt fighting in northwest Syria amid growing fears that Russia and Turkey are on the brink of open warfare.  Clashes between the Turks and their Syrian rebel allies with troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in Idlib province have already killed two Turkish soldiers this week and dozens of Syrian government troops.The skirmishes between the Turks and Assad’s forces were triggered when Syrian rebels supported by Turkish artillery stormed a village east of Idlib city on a strategic highway. Turkish media said the Turkish army was directly involved in the ground attack. Kremlin officials say their forces weren’t involved and that their warplanes held off striking Turkish positions.While expressing hope an open conflict between Russia and Turkey can be averted, Kremlin officials warned that Russia would support al-Assad’s forces militarily if the fighting escalates and Turkey increases its military operations.Desperate situation for displaced SyriansThe new developments in Idlib, roiling months of cooperation between Moscow and Ankara on the Syrian conflict, are rapidly raising the stakes in Idlib — as well as adding to the desperation of nearly a million displaced Syrians who have fled in the past few months toward the Turkish border, which remains closed to them.Since the Syria conflict erupted nearly nine years ago, Turkey has taken in more than 3 million Syrian refugees but refuses to accept any more. Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies have carved out a swathe of territory in northwest Syria and are relocating some Syrian refugees there, using land snatched from Kurdish forces.FILE – Civilians flee from Idlib toward the north to find safety inside Syria near the border with Turkey, Feb. 15, 2020.The United Nations has warned of possible catastrophe in Syria’s northwest unless the Assad government shows restraint. Syrian government forces, which for weeks have been advancing in the province, have been shelling areas where displaced Syrians are camped, say U.N. officials.The U.N. deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria, Mark Cutts, told Britain’s Sky News that even by the Syrian war’s brutal standards, the situation is now desperate. If the shelling and airstrikes move any further into the areas where refugees are camped out, “We’re going to see a bloodbath, we’re going to see a massacre on a scale that has never been seen in this entire war,” he said.The Turkish-backed attack on Assad’s forces underscored the seriousness of the threat issued this week by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan warned Turkish troops would go on the offensive in Idlib unless President Assad calls off his offensive on the enclave — the last remaining stronghold of anti-Assad rebel forces and part of an area Ankara has earmarked as a buffer zone and the future home of Syrian refugees currently in Turkey.Russian defense officials condemned the Turkish military action and urged Turkey “to cease support of the actions of terrorists and handing them arms.”Political ramificationsAnalysts say the Turkish leader can ill-afford to see his plans for Idlib dashed, which would amount to a personal and political setback.But conversely a defeat for Assad would wreck Moscow’s efforts in Syria over the past five years, eroding the Kremlin’s growing clout in the region.FILE – Russian troops with military vehicles are seen on patrol outside the town of Darbasiyah in Syria’s northeastern Hasakeh province, on the border with Turkey, Nov. 1, 2019.”It is very hard to tell how far Turkey is willing to go in Idlib,” according to Assaad al-Achi, director of Baytna Syria, a pro-democracy civil society support organization.  “Negotiations with Russia have not stopped, but have failed so far to produce any lasting cessation of hostilities. Therefore, Turkey is in a conundrum. It wants to avoid at all costs a humanitarian disaster on its southwestern border, but at the same time it doesn’t want to ruin its relationship with Russia.” he said in a commentary for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington-based research group.There were reports circulating in the Turkish capital, Ankara, Friday that President Erdogan has been sounding out Washington on whether the U.S. would deploy two Patriot anti-aircraft missile batteries on its southern border in readiness for escalating hostilities.On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump praised his Turkish counterpart, calling him a “tough guy” who doesn’t want to see people killed in great numbers. “We are working together on seeing what can be done. You have a lot of warring going on right now,” he added.Some analysts say Trump is taking a keener interest in Syria and some U.S. officials appear to see the growing conflict in Idlib as an opportunity to pull Erdogan more firmly into the West’s camp. Other U.S. officials say the administration is wary of being drawn in and highlight Trump’s determination to disentangle the U.S. from Middle East conflicts.With the perceived danger the situation could trigger a general standoff between Russia and NATO, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron told Russia’s Vladimir Putin in a phone call Thursday they want to meet him and Turkey’s president to discuss ways to defuse the burgeoning crisis in Syria.FILE – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin are seen during their joint news conference after talks at the Bocharov Ruchei residence in Sochi, Russia, Oct. 22, 2019.Meanwhile, humanitarian organizations are discussing trying to form a “peace team” of former and retired world leaders to try to persuade all warring parties to observe a cease-fire.Western diplomats say both Moscow and Ankara appear at this stage desperate to avoid an open clash. But their conflicting interests are making it harder to shape an interim agreement and that the situation on the ground risks spinning out of anyone’s control. An agreement has eluded negotiators after two rounds of talks in Ankara and Moscow earlier this month. On Friday, more columns of Turkish armor and howitzers crossed into Syria.Russian officials appear to believe that Ankara will blink because, they say, Turkey has much to lose. The last time Moscow and Ankara were drawn into a standoff over Syria was in 2015 when Turkey shot down a Russian warplane. Russia imposed sanctions on Turkish exports and businesses, crippling Turkey’s agriculture and tourism sectors. 
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Мережа Правди

The European Union’s first post-Brexit summit Thursday in Brussels promises to be a contentious one. The subject is money — how to fill a nearly $65 billion budget gap left by Britain’s departure from the bloc. The EU’s 27 remaining members came together during Brexit negotiations, but that may not be the case in this new post-Brexit reality, with the departure of one of the EU’s biggest contributors.  ‘The Brexit gap’“What we call the Brexit gap — that’s estimated to be around 60 billion over seven years. So that leaves a hole of approximately 10 billion every year,“ said Marta Pilati, a policy analyst for the European Policy Center, a Brussels research group.  “One of the most contentious issues is that as a consequence of Brexit, the budget should be smaller,”  Pilati said, “or whether it should be maintained at the same level and thus allow more funding for the 27 member states.”Draft proposals are also getting pushback from richer EU countries, which argue they will shoulder too much of the financial burden. Meanwhile, poorer member states, many from central and eastern Europe, worry they will lose key development funds.  In France, the EU’s biggest agricultural producer, farmers said they were worried about cuts to the bloc’s Common Agricultural Policy, the biggest budget item.  Climate change funding?And some new areas of EU emphasis, including defense, research and innovation, and Europe’s coming “Green Deal” to fight climate change, could face less funding than expected.  “Because of course it’s easier to cut the budget of things that don’t exist yet, rather than cut the budget of programs that have been around for a very long time, and over which member states have very strong interests,” Pilati said.Some observers like Pilati believe this one-day summit may stretch into two days and possibly more, as countries try to resolve their differences.
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Мережа Правди

Across parts of southern England and Wales, families were watching anxiously midweek to see if major rivers break their flood barriers. Heavy rain is forecast for counties that have already been flooded thanks to torrential downpours brought on by two by massive storms in quick succession.A four-day deluge could turn already swollen rivers even more dangerous, forecasters and locals fear. Britain’s Environment Agency’s executive director, John Curtin, said Wednesday:  “We expect further disruptive weather into Wednesday and Thursday, bringing a significant flood risk to the West Midlands, and there are flood warnings in place across much of England.”A man uses a plank of wood to paddle a kayak on flood water after the River Wye burst its banks in Ross-on-Wye, western England, on February 17, 2020, in the aftermath of Storm Dennis.But the unprecedented floods that have hit southern England, and now threatening damage further north, too, are not only wrecking homes and properties, but also the reputation of a government that was only elected into office just two months ago, say analysts.Furious locals hit by extreme floods are slamming  Prime Minister  Boris Johnson  for having failed to visit communities worst affected by the storms. Thousands have been evacuated. Even so, Mr. Johnson and the most senior ministers have not pulled on their waders to get out and about to empathize and console.It is now as common on the drenched frontlines to hear the refrain, “Where’s Boris?” as it is to hear the query, “What’s the forecast?”A man cleans mud from the street in Pontypridd in south Wales, Feb. 16, 2020.In the Welsh town of Pontypridd — where 600 people have been displaced — Robin Williams, 62, asked journalists:  “Where’s Boris? Where’s the help?” Another Pontypridd homeowner, Tracey Waites, 49, told reporters,  “We haven’t seen anyone. There are no politicians down here helping. Where are they?”The local MP, Labour’s Alex Davies-Jones, has dubbed Mr. Johnson  “the Scarlet Pimpernel,” adding,  “You can never find him in an emergency.”For several commentators the absence of the prime minister is even more inexplicable considering this is not the first time Mr. Johnson has been slow off the mark when it comes to natural disasters and even flooding. In December, he was heckled during the election campaign for visiting belatedly storm-wracked communities in the north of England.Regularly ‘updated’
Mr. Johnson  is also facing growing criticism for failing to convene the government’s emergency Cobra committee, a cross-departmental panel normally called to respond to a national crisis or potential one. As historic towns battled unprecedented floodwaters destroying lives and livelihoods, Mr. Johnson remained working at a government mansion in Kent with no plans to visit communities worst-hit by the storm.FILE – Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in London, Dec. 17, 2019.A Downing Street spokesman said Mr. Johnson did not need to visit as he is being “updated” regularly.   And the environment minister, George Eustice, said the government had a  “firm grip” on the situation. But those responses were being scorned Wednesday by locals affected by the floods as well as by a swelling chorus of local  MPs.Fresh off a major general election victory in December — one that is reshaped the electoral map of Britain — Mr. Johnson seemed destined for a long honeymoon period. He was king of all he surveyed and armed with a large parliamentary majority he was able finally to conclude the long-running first phase of Britain’s tumultuous exit from the European Union, securing passage in the House of Commons of a contentious withdrawal agreement, an approval that had evaded his predecessor in Downing Street, Theresa May.Tightening his iron grip on the ruling Conservatives, he is been able without danger to purge his cabinet of potential challengers and to avoid bringing into his government from Conservative ranks other major political figures who might cause him problems.FILE – Government Cabinet Minister Sajid Javid arrives for a meeting at 10 Downing Street in London, Oct. 10, 2017.Last week, his Chancellor of the Exchequer,  Sajid Javid, resigned rather than be reappointed without the right to name his own advisers, a Mr. Johnson precondition for him to continue as Britain’s finance minister. A less secure Prime Minister would have been nervous to lose a heavyweight from his cabinet, one who could all too easily serve as a rallying point for internal party dissent, say analysts.But the government’s handling of this week’s floods appear to have washed out Mr.  Johnson’s honeymoon, bringing it to a premature close.  The criticism is coming not just from his usual detractors in the opposition parties. Johnson-supportive tabloid newspapers the Daily Mail and Sun have been pointing out that the frustration is high even in constituencies that voted for Brexit and backed Mr. Johnson to become Conservative leader.  
   
And a series of other gaffes and mishaps — as well as a likely looming bad-natured clash with the EU over future relations — has left some questioning about the competency of his government and its powers of foresight.No-show at Munich conference
The question of where is Boris was being asked, too, in Munich last week at the annual security conference, which draws top leaders from around the World and secures the attendance of virtually all Europeans heads of government. This year’s conference featured France’s Emmanuel  Macron,  Canada’s Justin  Trudeau, Germany’s Angela Merkel as well as Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey  Lavrov. The U.S. was represented by a high level delegation led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.FILE – Members of the international committee take their seats for a follow-up meeting on Libya, arranged by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, in Munich, Germany, Feb. 16, 2020.None of Britain’s military or intelligence chiefs attended. Nor did Britain’s foreign or defense secretaries. Mr. Johnson had been offered a speaking slot  in the coveted opening session of the conference, but turned it down. Britain only sent a junior foreign affairs minister.At the last minute, Britain’s national security adviser, Mark Sedwill, an un-elected official, was ordered to cut short a family vacation and fly to Munich for the conference’s final session. According to Sky News commentator,  Alistair Bunkall, “a small cheer went up in the media center when he was introduced.” Bunkall reported that a conference organizer told Sedwill, “It’s great you’re here but it would have been even greater if others from your government were present.” Britain’s absence was noticed by others, too.Some of the blame for what commentators and Opposition MPs see as a mishandling of the political response to the floods — as well as the lack of representation at Munich — is being laid at the door of Mr. Johnson’s top strategist, Dominic Cummings, a firebrand populist who was the major tactician for anti-EU campaigners in the 2016 Brexit referendum.Cummings drew fire earlier this week for appointing as a political forecaster in Downing Street a 27-year-old who had a history of racist social-media comments, in which he’d argued black people are less intelligent than whites for genetic reasons. Amid a media firestorm the political forecaster quit. “Cummings has been the most visible face of No 10 in the 10 weeks since the December 2019 general election,” says Anthony Seldon, a contemporary historian and author of biographies on every British prime minister since Margaret Thatcher. “He has adopted a ‘hub and poke’ model. He has tried to centralize power within No 10, over the Treasury, ministers and their advisers,” he wrote in a commentary for The Times.Seldon says part of he problem is that Mr. Johnson’s team has yet to learn that the single-minded qualities needed to get into power are different from those required in government. Once in office, he says, prime ministers “have to be diplomats, cajoling and persuading people, and not alienating them.” 
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Мережа Правди

Спеціальний представник Сполучених Штатів у питаннях Афганістану Залмай Халілзад зустрівся з переобраним президентом Афганістану Ашрафом Гані 19 лютого, щоб обговорити угоду про семиденне скорочення агресії з екстремістським угрупованням «Талібан». Про це йдеться в заяві офісу Гані.

За повідомленням, Халілзад мав «ефективні» зустрічі з лідерами локальних громад щодо того, як уряд Афганістану планує досягнути припинення майже двадцятирічного конфлікту з талібами.

Крім того, Гані поспілкувався телефоном із Верховним представником Європейського союзу із закордонних справ Жозепо Боррелем. Той привітав його з переобранням на посаду президента і «голосив, що пріоритетом тепер буде єдність на підтримку інклюзивного мирного процесу», йдеться в заяві Євросоюзу.

Читайте також: Афганістан: комісія оголосила результати президентських виборів, які відбулися 28 вересня

«Європейський союз готовий підтримати мирний процес, цю можливість не можна прогавити. У довготерміновій перспективі Європейський Союз готовий продовжити надавати підтримку політичним та економічним реформам, щоб посилити верховенство права та захистити фундаментальні права для всіх афганців», – йдеться в заяві.

Прем’єр-міністр країни Абдулла Абдулла на засіданні уряду 17 лютого повідомив, що «Талібан» погодився на семиденне скорочення агресії, яке мало б передувати укладенню мирної угоди зі США. Її можуть підписати вже 29 лютого. Втім, це сталося в один день із нападом талібів на військову базу на півночі Афганістану, внаслідок якого загинули п’ятеро військових.

Таліби продовжують майже щоденні напади на афганських силовиків і військових США, а також урядовців Афганістану, хоча одночасно «Талібан» веде мирні переговори з посланцем США, що мають на меті дійти домовленості про завершення воєнного конфлікту в Афганістані.
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Мережа Правди

Мережа Правди

Мережа Правди

Метеорологічна весна у Києві почалася 10 лютого. Про це 19 лютого повідомили у Центральній геофізичній обсерваторії імені Бориса Срезневського.

За даними метеорологів, у лютому вже встановлено шість температурних рекордів, останній – у вівторок.

«18 лютого у столиці було перевищено на 0,9 градуса температурний рекорд середньодобової температури повітря, який був встановлений у 1950 році. Середньодобова температура становила +5,9 градуса», – мовиться у повідомленні.

При цьому метеорологічна зима у столиці так і не почалася.

Згідно даних Укргідрометцентру, сьогодні вдень у Києві +6 +8 градусів.
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Готель «Дніпро» на Європейській площі в центрі Києва планують продати навесні, повідомив Фонд державного майна України.

Його стартова ціна на аукціоні становитиме 10 мільйонів доларів.

«Для того, щоб його фінальна вартість зросла в рази», директоркою готелю призначена Еліна Сапожнікова, яка має 12 років досвіду відкриття, розвитку та управління готелями міжнародних мереж.

Голова Фонду державного майна Дмитро Сенниченко повідомив, що у 2020 році Україна планує віддати під приватизацію більш ніж 500 державних підприємств.

У 2019 році Україна заробила на приватизації 536,5 мільйона гривень замість запланованих 17,1 мільярда. У 2020 році уряд хоче отримати від приватизації 12 мільярдів гривень.
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When avalanches crash down mountainsides, it is a race against time to find those buried in the snow.  Rescue teams rush to emergency sites.  At that point, they deploy their secret weapon.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports rescue dogs dig deep for disaster relief.
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An international appeals court in the Netherlands has ordered Russia to pay $50 billion in compensation to shareholders of the former oil company, Yukos.It is the latest chapter in a long-running saga that came to define Russia’s political and business climate in the early years of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule.According to the ruling issued by The Hague Court of Appeal, Yukos — the one-time oil giant owned by Russian businessman-turned-Kremlin-foe Mikhail Khodorkovsky — unfairly lost tens of billions of dollars in revenue after Khodorkovsky was jailed and his company seized by the Russian government amid unpaid tax claims in 2004.Tuesday’s ruling in effect reinstated an earlier 2014 court-ordered compensation package that had been overturned during a later appeal that went in Russia’s favor.The court ruled that decision “not correct,” adding “the arbitration order is in force again.”Yukos alumni and allies celebrated the decision. “This is a victory for the rule of law,” Tim Osborne, chief executive of GML, a company that represents Yukos shareholders, said in a statement. “The independent courts of a democracy have shown their integrity and served justice. A brutal kleptocracy has been held to account.”Russia’s Justice Ministry indicated it would appeal the decision, arguing the court ”failed to take into account the illegitimate use by former Yukos shareholders of the Energy Charter Treaty that wasn’t ratified by the Russian Federation.”The ministry also noted that a 2011 European Court for Human Rights review had rejected allegations the case against Yukos was politically motivated.In a message posted on Facebook, Khodorkovsky denied that he had gained financially from the decision, but celebrated its outcome nonetheless.“For it has confirmed not only in procedure but in essence: The seizure of Yukos was not about taxes, but a fight with a political opponent,” he said.New president, ambitious oligarchThe Yukos case played an outsized role in defining what kind of Russia Putin would come to build.On the surface, it was a business dispute. The Kremlin argued that Khodorkovsky and his company owed millions in unpaid taxes. In reality, it was more about politics and power.  Putin, still relatively new to the Kremlin post in the early 2000s, sought to assert himself over powerful business barons — the so-called oligarchs — who had played a big role in government affairs under his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin.Putin’s offer: Stay out of politics and keep your wealth.  While some took the warning seriously, Khodorkovsky, then Russia’s wealthiest man, continued to openly fund Russia’s budding civil society and liberal political parties.  To supporters, Khodorkovsky represented the best of an emerging Russian business culture — a reformed oligarch looking to play by western rules of transparency and fair play.To his detractors, including Putin, he was merely a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  The arrestA turning point was a meeting with Putin and the business elite in 2003, in which Khodorkovsky and the Kremlin leader openly sparred over corruption.Six months later, FSB agents stormed Khodorkovsky’s plane at a Siberian airport. Russia’s wealthiest man was now its most famous prisoner.  An initial trial found him guilty of tax evasion and sentenced him to nine years in prison. A second criminal investigation added money laundering and additional years to Khodorkovsky’s prison term.Amnesty International labeled the former tycoon a prisoner of conscience.Meanwhile, the Kremlin oversaw Yukos’s dismantling, divvying up its prized assets to a new cadre of Kremlin loyalists at bargain prices until the oil giant was bankrupt.Life after prison  Putin freed Khodorkovsky as part of a wider amnesty ahead of the Sochi Games in 2014 — and a promise the businessman would stay out of politics.  Yet Russia, and Putin, have remained the focus of Khodorkovsky’s work after he fled Russia for Europe.He relaunched his NGO, Open Russia, with an eye toward reforming Russian civil society and insuring free and fair elections.  The organization was put on Russia’s “undesirable organizations” list in 2017, and its employees were routinely hounded by police.In a further sign that Khodorkovsky’s activities are perceived as a threat to the Kremlin, Putin proposed a ban on Russians who lived abroad from assuming the presidency, amid a wide-ranging set of reforms to the constitution earlier this year.  The amendment, currently under review by Russian lawmakers, seemed almost tailor-made to Khodorkovsky.And yet, it was another constitutional amendment suggested by Putin — that Russia no longer abide by international court decisions when it felt its state interests were infringed — that seemed to anticipate today’s Hague ruling in favor of compensation.Indeed, while Khodorkovsky acknowledged money to Yukos would likely not be forthcoming, he waxed lyrical on Russia’s future beyond the Putin era. “Russia is my homeland. And my homeland has no secret accounts, does not rob companies, and has no political opponents,” Khodorkovsky said on Twitter. “It has only sons.”Россия мне и не должна. Россия – моя Родина, а Родина тайных счетов не имеет, компании не ворует и политических противников у нее нет. Только сыновья. А вот с Кремлем счеты не закрыты и луж для всех кремлевских приготовлено еще не мало. pic.twitter.com/uzGrq5KZgy— Ходорковский Михаил (@mich261213) February 18, 2020
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У Києві в Михайлівському Золотоверхому соборі відбулась панихида за героями Небесної сотні. Згодом близько 500 осіб пройшли ходою пам’яті центральними вулицями Києва, до Алеї Героїв Небесної Сотні, де вшанувати пам’ять загиблих учасників Революції гідності.
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