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	Petrol rises in price in Ukraine The last working week (from 15 to 19 of October) characterized by continuing of price growth on all kinds of oil products in Ukraine. According to figures of UPECO company the price growth on low-octane sort of petrol made up +6 kopiyok. The biggest rising in price touched the Crimean Region. Here the low-octane was for sale by 4.10-hryvnias litre, Liga reports. The prices more than 4 hryvnias was in the Donetsk Oblast (4.07 hryvnias/ litre) and the Kyiv Oblast (4.01 hryvnias/ litre). The cheapest price for this sort of petrol could be found in the Kharkiv Oblast (3.68 hryvnias/ litre) and the Poltava Oblast (3.79 hryvnias/ litre). At the same time the prices for big wholesale batches of low-octane rose from 4.589 to 4.697 thousand hryvnias for ton. The petrol of A-92 sort changed a little bit, which rose in price by 1 kopiyka, from 4.32 hryvnias./litre to 4.33 hryvnias./litre. The highest price of this sort of petrol was in Crimea (4.73 hryvnias/ litre), and also in the Donetsk and Kyiv Oblasts (4.36 hryvnias/ litre). The cheapest price for A-92 could be found in the Kharkiv Oblast (4.17 hryvnias/ litre) and Poltava Oblast (4.21 hryvnias/ litre). The prices rose from 4.701 to 4.771 thousand hryvnias for ton for the wholesale batches of A-92 petrol. The price growth continues also on popular sort of petrol A-95. In a whole, at the average, the price growth in Ukraine for high-octane made up 3 kopiyky. Moreover, the highest price for high-octane was in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (4.72 hryvnias/ litre) and Kyiv Oblast (4.71 hryvnias/ litre). The high-octane could be bought by (4.58 hryvnias/ litre) in the Kharkiv Oblast and by (4.59 hryvnias/ litre) in the Cherkassy Oblast. The price growth for diesel fuel became slower, having risen from 4.16-hryvnias/ litre to 4.19 hryvnias/ litre. At the same time, the week ago the price growth for diesel fuel made up 8 kopiyok.
	Russia's gas, Ukraine's debts The triumphant statements of Ukraine's premier about the successful resolution of the gas dispute with Russian smacks more of some kind of PR move aimed at consolidating the associative slogan "Yanukovych=cheap gas" than a real solution to the country's most burning issues. In reality, the Ukrainian delegation that recently returned from Moscow failed to achieve the goals it set. Specifically, it did not end up inking a deal on next year's gas supply at a fixed price. Besides, industry experts say that Yanukovych was in no rush to resolve this particular issue. By patting himself on the back for achieving lower prices just before the forming of a political coalition, the current head of the government stands to significantly strengthen his position in the fight for posts in the new Cabinet of Ministers. The statements made by Gasprom representatives concerning outstanding gas debts got Ukraine's politicians all riled up, which is precisely what the Kremlin was counting on. The Russians made it crystal clear that the rise of the "orange" forces to power in Ukraine could be detrimental to "amicable" gas relations between the two countries that were established under the premiership of Yanukovych. Meanwhile, the team of Ukraine's president ostensibly predicted exactly this scenario. Just prior to the recent parliamentary elections President Viktor Yushchenko obliged the government to purchase all the gas pumped into underground gas reservoirs in Ukraine at its current price to guarantee an uninterrupted supply in the event of potential squabbles with Russia over this highly strategic and sensitive issue. If this were to happen, the "orange team" would have a lot of room for maneuver. Fortunately, Gasprom management intercepted this danger signal in a timely manner and with the help of Yanukovych managed to suppress the preventive actions of Yushchenko. In the heat of the conflict, the premier immediately jumped on a plane to Moscow to personally resolve the gas dispute. The Russians have on more than one occasion insisted that all gas disputes are between gas companies of the two sides. Precisely for this reason, the intervention of high-ranking government officials contradicts the principle of depoliticization of relations in the supply of "blue fuel". The talks between Yanukovych and Russian Premier Viktor Zubkov shed light on the essence of the gas conflict. As it turns out, RosUkrEnergo (RUE) bears the main debt burden before Gasprom. In this context, the phrase "Ukrainian debts" is not quite correct seeing as the Ukrainian government does not figure in to the structure of this gas trader. The debts accumulated as result of RUE not paying for gas pumped into Ukraine's underground gas reservoirs. Noteworthy is that up until this point, the trader was transferring payments to Gasprom after the sale of purchased gas to the end user, not "cash on delivery". As a rule, the resources from underground gas reservoirs are sold in the winter months, when demand for gas exceeds extraction volumes. This is precisely how the Russian gas monopolist modified the method of payment for sold gas. As a result, RUE could not pay Gasprom due to insufficient liquid funds. During Yanukovych's visit to Moscow, where the parties agreed that the major part of the debt (US $1.2 bn) would be paid off via the transfer of RosUkrEnergo gas in Ukraine's underground gas reservoirs to the company Gasprom Export. The remaining US $929 mn is to be paid off by November 1 by UkrGasEnergo and Naftogas Ukrainy. Yanukovych was more precise stating that 8 bn cubic meters of gas would be transferred to the Russian parties (this means that Gasprom will pay US $150 per 1 cu. m. for the fuel). Later, Minister of Fuel and Energy Yuriy Boyko reported that Ukrgasenergo will sell half the gas at US $130 per 1,000 cu. m. Gasprom representatives confirmed this information. The last 4 bn cu. m. of gas go for export. Some industry analysts have cast doubt on Boiko's words. Furthermore, they are not ruling out that this winter Gasprom will resell these 4 bn cu. m. of gas to Ukraine at higher prices. Volodymyr Omelchenko, and analyst at the Razumkov Energy Programs Center, says Gasprom will earn a pretty penny from the export of 4 bn cu. m of gas. It is worth noting that Gasprom's operation aiming to strengthen Yanukovych's influence was not as effective as planned as it dealt a personal blow to the premier. His government found itself in a rather precarious position since just a week prior to the parliamentary elections it had reported that 30.5 bn cu. m. of gas had been pumped into the reservoirs, an amount sufficient to fully satisfy the needs of household and industrial consumers this coming winter. In truth, it turns out that the majority of this fuel is beyond Ukraine's control, implying that there are actually no guarantees of a warm and trouble-free winter. Furthermore, while the average citizen truly believed that Yanukovych resolved the country's problems with Moscow, national businessmen that purchase Central Asian gas cannot help but realize that a serious problem exists. In addition to sending out a directive signal to Ukraine, Moscow did not forego the opportunity to use the gas conflict with Ukraine as a hint to Europe of the positive aspects of bilateral cooperation between the EU and Russia, in particular within the framework of the North Stream project. European leaders abstained from criticizing the Kremlin, despite the fact that the actions of Gasprom against Ukraine revived talks in certain EU member countries about the need for diversification of gas supplies. As such, the actions taken by the Russian side in this issue turned out to be quite successful. On the one hand, the Kremlin received an instrument of influence over Ukrainian political processes. On the other, it conducted an operation that will bring in additional profits. Unfortunately, Ukraine received no profit and no influence on its way out of this situation.
	Buy, but not today The money that political parties dumped into the national economy to pay for their election campaigns this year and the constant informational pressure being applied by real estate developers and their experts, who forecast that the exorbitant real estate prices in Kyiv have slightly "warmed up" the stagnating market. In September, the average prices of apartments in the nation's capital rose by 1%. At the same time, renewed price growth is not accompanied by an adequate increase in sales. Representatives of realty companies are complaining that the volume of sales fell by 50% this year. This past summer realtors were forced to offer up to 10%-15% discounts to consumers in order to maintain demand. Furthermore, the significant drop in the rate of growth of apartment prices gives potential buyers a ray of hope that prices will eventually climb down. Due to this ostensible downward trend in prices, many residents that had been planning to buy property in Kyiv have decided to postpone their purchase until better times. From the beginning of autumn realtors in Kyiv launched wide-scale information campaigns aimed at changing consumers' attitudes. Specifically, every week there are comments by real estate experts in the media in which they forecast the next price surge and hint that it would be wise to hold off on buying an apartment. They also point to the active growth in prices on alternative mortgage markets. In particular, the steady rise in prices for cottages and private homes in the suburbs of Kyiv persists. This in turn triggered/spurred a rise in the prices of land and private property closer to the city. The lowering of interest rates on mortgage loans is another factor that maintains the activeness of the mortgage market in Kyiv. This year banks significantly lowered interest rates on loans in hryvnya. Now a person can take out a mortgage loan at 12.5% p.a., which is 2-3.5% less than in the summer. Bankers say that the excess liquidity of Ukraine's financial system is the main reason for such a decrease. The demand for such loans fell significantly this summer, thus making it more profitable for banks to sell their assets at a lower price than to hold onto them and gain absolutely nothing. Whatever the case, the majority of experts believe that price growth on the mortgage market noted in September will not continue. They point to the fact that apartment prices are far too high and that market operators "warmed them up" by skilfully manipulating the moods of consumers. Industry experts also offer more specific arguments substantiating their forecast that prices of homes in Kyiv will decrease in the medium-term future. Specifically, financial columnists note that real estate is becoming less "competitive" as an object for investments, while the share of investment real estate in the structure of purchasing of apartments in Kyiv is extremely high. If to invest US $130,000 in the purchase of an apartment in a non-prestigious district of Kyiv with the aim of renting it out, a profit 10% on investment can only be gained by renting an apartment for US $1,100 per month. In reality, however, such an apartment can only be rented out for US $ 500-700. Meanwhile, investing US $130,000 in deposits or investment certificates that will yield the same 10% in profits would be much wiser and profitable. Besides, investing into real estate is even less lucrative than investments in Ukrainian government bonds. As a result, it is more profitable for people looking to buy a home to invest their money in other financial instruments and simply rent a half decent apartment for the dividends from their investments. In this situation experts advise potential buyers to hold off on purchasing residential property for several years until new construction companies get a foothold on the market. Despite that land for construction has been, as a rule, allotted to companies loyal to the Kyiv city hall, the list of such companies during the tenure of the current mayor Leonid Chernovetskiy has been considerably modified in comparison to that same list when Oleksandr Omelchenko. Naturally, this stimulates competition on the market. In addition, the government promised to lower builders' expenses, which will in turn make apartments more affordable. Meanwhile, the Cabinet of Ministers has long been promising to optimize the scheme of collecting VAT from the construction and assembly of homes. Minister of Regional Development and Construction Volodymyr Yatsuba said: "Today VAT is collected three times during the process of construction. This situation cannot persist." Experts believe that such measures will contribute to a fall in construction costs and in turn a drop in the prices of residential property. Marketing experts draw a parallel between the current situation on the Kyiv real estate market and the recent events on the mobile communications market. Some years ago secret agreements between the two largest national operators of mobile communications allowed them to maintain extremely high prices for mobile communications. However, their desire to conquer a larger share of the market resulted in the violation of agreements and both operators immediately began lowering rates for their services. After new players appeared on the market, this process became even more active. As a result, within two years the prices of mobile communications fell several times. This is another reason why experts advise consumers not to rush into buying an apartment and simply wait and see for better times.
	TOGETHER AGAIN... Scandalous conventions, pushing the president to the back seat of power, low ratings - all this has forced the propresidential bloc to enter into a premature but necessary alliance. On February 24 Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Baloha, acting on behalf of the BYuT and Our Ukraine, signed the long-advertised agreement on joint opposition. The historic event took place in the conference hall of the Verkhovna Rada, to the accompaniment of Vivaldi. Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Baloha were the only ones to take the floor. The head of the Secretariat made a rather radical statement: "This is a conscious and responsible step taken by two democratic forces. It is a struggle against the crawling coup d'detat on the part of the parliamentary majority and the cabinet it formed. There are signs of ruination of Ukrainian statehood. For example, the unconstitutional Law 'On the Cabinet of Ministers,' formation of a republic named for the prime minister, personnel reshuffling, and the struggle against all things Ukrainian. The anticrisis coalition is threatening the existence of Ukraine as a sovereign state. OU and BYuT have united to counteract these actions..." So the number one objective of the allied opposition is to hold early parliamentary elections. In addition, OU and BYuT have agreed to adopt a new wording of the constitution. If the early elections project works and the joint opposition takes over political power, the posts will be divided fifty-fifty and seats will be allocated by alternate choice. Whoever collects more votes during the elections will be the first to make this choice. However, complete unity has not been achieved; BYuT and Our Ukraine will take part in the elections as separate blocs, Yulia Tymoshenko stated on the Inter TV channel Sunday night. The president's position under the circumstances remains to be clarified. Will he support the idea of early elections? At present, the allied opposition makes it clear that they are acting on their own. They even wrote a letter to the head of state, asking to take measures to "return Ukraine to the legal and constitutional course." Meanwhile people in the government camp are betraying a noticeable degree of nervousness. Viktor Yanukovych threatened the president with abolishing nationwide elections. In an interview with the ICTV channel he admitted the possibility of parliament electing the president in 2009. "I can assume that this will largely depend on the stand taken by the president and by opposition," he added. In reality, to carry out this plan Yanukovych will need BYuT votes, which is highly unlikely at the moment. Therefore, this threat sounds rather unconvincing. Raisa Bohatyriova, the Party of Regions' "dove of peace," suggests an emergency meeting with Yushchenko at the Verkhovna Rada. Bohatyriova also wishes to meet with the president to discuss a compromise versions of the laws on the cabinet, VR standing orders, and imperative mandate for the members of local councils. In a word, another political intrigue is unfolding. Its outcome is anyone's guess, but the process promises to be interesting.
	EU and Ukraine launch negotiations on new enhanced trade, political ties BRUSSELS (AP) - The European Union and Ukraine launched negotiations for closer economic and political ties Monday, but the new pact will not offer the country any promise of future membership in the bloc, EU officials said. EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said a final deal would focus on coordinating on issues from improving trade ties to fighting global warming. Energy will also be an important part of the pact, as the 27-nation bloc seeks stable energy supplies from Russia. Ukraine hosts a major pipeline to Western Europe from Russia. "This is a great chance for Ukraine to get closer to the European Union," Ferrero-Waldner told reporters. She said, however, that the so-called enhanced agreement was "not for accession, but gives a great chance to come much closer and to broaden and deepen the relations." Ukraine's deputy foreign minister, Andriy Veselovsky, said his country was ready to "grab this chance" at closer ties with the EU. "The Ukrainian side is ready. We are looking for the way at opening the future, which lies in the integration with the European Union." Kyiv has pushed hard for the EU to offer it future membership prospects as part of the new deal, however only Britain and Poland want to offer a promise of membership. Other EU capitals are keen to slow future expansion plans, amid growing public opposition. Questions have been raised in the EU about whether Ukraine would be leaning more toward Moscow than toward Brussels in the future. Veselovsky said there were "no disagreements, neither between the parts of the government, the presidency nor in the Ukrainian society" about developing closer ties with Europe. Ferrero-Waldner said she expected negotiations on the new ties to last at least a year, and warned that a free trade pact was conditional on Ukraine's successful bid to join the World Trade Organization. The agreement being negotiated between Brussels and Kyiv is part of the EU's new "neighborhood" plan, offering closer economic, free trade and political ties with countries on its borders. The plan excludes any prospect to future membership. Other nations involved in the plan include Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Georgia and Moldova, among others. The new policy offers access to the EU's big internal market in exchange for economic and political reforms, meant to stabilize and secure the EU's southern and eastern frontiers.
	Kravchuk worked out secret program The ex President of Ukraine, one of the leaders of the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine plans to forward a program on regulation of political situation in Ukraine to the President Viktor Yushchenko, the speaker of the VR Olexander Moroz and the PM Viktor Yanukovych. Kravchuk told today at the press conference. "I worked out a program for creation of positive conditions to solve constitutional process and for creation of appropriate political atmosphere in the country, correspondent actions of the branches of power and for their cooperation," he noted. Kravchuk noted that three branches of power reached a deadlock today. "Today without a compromise it is very difficult to proceed constitutional process," he said. At the same time, Kravchuk refused to tell the details of his program, explaining that he will publish it only after he forwards it to the Heads of the State. He just mentioned that the program is of two pages and contains concrete statements. The ex President negatively reacts on possibility of early parliamentary and presidential elections. He criticized the opposition actions called them powerful political forces. He does not understand such situation, taking into consideration that both Yushchenko and Yanukovych called to compromise for regulation of crisis.
	Yanukovych, Mittal, discussed perspectives Prime Minister of Ukraine Victor Yanukovych has discussed investment projects in Kryvy Rih with Arcelor Mittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal and Mittal Steel Kryvy Rih director general Narendra Choderi. According to an UNIAN correspondent, L.Mittal disclosed this to journalists after the meeting today. "The Prime Minister told us about his vision of the country's development, and how we can participate in it", L.Mittal said. According to him, the meeting participants discussed the future plans concerning investment projects in Kryvy Rih. "We plan to hold another meeting with the Prime Minister as soon as these plans are finally developed", he added. At the same time, the Arcelor Mittal CEO noted the company would probably participate in completing the building of Kryvorozhskiy Ore-Mining and Processing Industrial Complex. L.Mittal disclosed he accepted the proposal of Victor Yanukovych to become a member of the Investment Council at the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
	The .UA Domain is 14 Years Old (15:43, Thursday, December 7, 2006) On December 2, 2006, the Ukrainian domain celebrated its 14-th birthday. The Hostmaster Company, which administers the .UA domain, congratulates all the users of the Ukrainian segment of the global network on this anniversary. In light of this event - the 14-th anniversary of the .UA domain - we would like to remind you the main landmarks in the history of the Ukrainian Internet. October-November 1991 - Ukrainian specialists started negotiations with Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) on the delegation of the .UA country code Top Level Domain (.UA ccTLD). December 1992 - Jonathan Postel (IANA) delegated the .UA country code Top Level Domain. A three-level model of domain development was adopted, according to which private domains can be delegated only in public second level domains. At the same time, 27 geographic domains, corresponding to the oblast names of Ukraine, were created. During the 1995-1999 period, the following special purpose public second level domains were delegated: COM.UA, GOV.UA, EDU.UA, ORG.UA, and NET.UA intended for commercial, governmental, educational, non-governmental organizations, and Internet providers correspondingly. February 21, 2001 - Hostmaster Ltd. was established. On September 15, 2001, after the coordination with Internet community, Dmitry Kohmanyuk, Igor Sviridov, and Hostmaster, who jointly administered the .UA ccTLD, brought a new .UA Domain Policy into force. As of the time of this writing, this Policy has been already practiced for five years. Since then, a combined model has been used in Ukraine, according to which both the second and third levels have been used for domain names registration. The previous year was marked by the rapid development of the .UA domain. In February, the first public religious domain DOMINIC.UA was delegated. It was the first time ever that a religious community made an attempt to register a domain name in the territory of Ukraine. In June of this year, the number of domain names registered in the COM.UA domain reached 50 thousand, and in November, their number was as high as 60 thousand. In July 2006, the 200 thousandth third level domain was delegated in the .UA domain. In October 2006, the number of domains in the KIEV.UA domain came to 50 thousand. At the beginning of November, 20 thousand domains were registered in one of the most popular domains - ORG.UA. This domain enjoyed the highest popularity among political parties, non-governmental, and charitable organizations. At the moment, 3,131 owners of trademarks took the opportunity to give information about themselves in the Internet network by registering the corresponding private domain names in the .UA domain. Of them, 19% of trademarks are owned by natural persons and the remaining 81% - by legal entities. 231,018 users gave their preference to geographic and special purpose domains in the .UA domain. Currently, the COM.UA, ORG.UA and NET.UA domains are posting the highest growth rates among other special purpose domains. The list of geographic domains is headed by KIEV.UA, DNEPROPETROVSK.UA, DP.UA, and OD.UA. This year, the number of registered domains is expected to increase by 40% over the previous year. Such a rapid development of the domain system is the evidence of positive development trends of the Internet services market and suggests that the .UA domain will remain the best option for Ukrainian Internet users, who are willing to identify themselves with Ukraine. The Hostmaster Company, which provides .UA domain administration services, and public domain administrators in the .UA domain hope for close and fruitful cooperation on the part of Ukrainian Internet users, while working in their interests. The .UA Domain - 14 years of uninterrupted operation!