Reconstruction
of Chrestyatyk Street (Maidan Square) has begun by people involved in the
Maidan movement. Currently, people are working on a volunteer basis however the
government has assured that there will be funds dedicated to this work.
The Ukrainian government has
announced that it does not accept the natural gas price of $485 per 1,000 cubic
meters, but is ready to buy Russian gas at $268 per 1,000 cubic meters. Ukraine's Minister of Energy and Coal Industry
Yuriy Prodan has said that if no agreement is reached over gas price with
Russia, Ukraine will take the case to the Stockholm arbitration.
The
Ukrainian government is urgently seeking ways to import natural gas from the
West after Moscow almost doubled its discounted gas tariff last week. One
possibility is ‘reverse flows’, in which EU countries (Slovakia?) would send
gas back down pipelines normally used to carry Russian supplies through Ukraine
to the West. However, Alexei Miller, Gazprom's chief executive officer, said
today that this raises ‘several questions’. He hinted at legal action against
Ukraine, but it is not clear what this would be.
The Ukrainian parliament
has also announced that it has authorized access to the military of other
countries on the territory of Ukraine for military exercises in 2014. The bill
will allow foreign Armed Forces to enter the territory of Ukraine to
participate in military exercises in 2014. So far, this includes Polish and US
training.
The Ukrainian government has
also announced the launch of a common project of IT companies. The initiators
of the program hope to stop the outflow of Ukrainian developers abroad and to
improve the work and life conditions of IT specialists in Ukraine. Plans also
include the creation of 100,000 new jobs in the IT sector by 2020. And USD 1bn
will be invested into the expansion and modernization of the educational system
of Ukraine.
In Crimea, the text of the new Crimean constitution is due
to be ready 8 April. It is being drafted by ‘Crimean officials’ and ‘Russian
experts’.
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