Weekly digest – UNIAN readers’ version

Hello, dear readers. UNIAN editorial represented by your humble servant of a chief editor has decided that it’s time for your vision of the top news to be put into spotlight. From now on, I will share with you my observations regarding the news of the past week caught most attention of our audience, and also what important events remained unfairly ignored, despite the efforts of our editors.

The main "hustle" this week, which, however, became boring a bit too fast, regarded a story with the purchase of a luxury apartment (and, as it turned out later, at least two of them) by one of the "icons” of the Maidan and an inflexible anti-corruption fighter Serhiy Leshchenko, who still seems to not have decided whether he is a people's deputy or a journalist. I don’t know, maybe the purchase was all nice and legal after all, but things turned ugly when Leshchenko - who through all these years has been talking about morality and taught society and the journalistic community to pay attention to details and to fight with "minor corruption" for it not to turn into a "major", and now became a target of investigative journalism - labeled the truth-seekers “Poroshenko bots". Both his flashy suspension from the management of his new political project and his appeal to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau with the request to probe his activities seem to be just a copycat move after virtually the same was done by Leshchenko’s own objects of criticism, MP Ihor Kononenko.

It's high time for Serhiy to overcome his immaturity and perhaps listen to the advice of a more experienced parliamentary "fighter with evil" Oleh Lyashko, who offered to recognize the fact that while working at a brothel, one shouldn’t claim to be the only Saint.

Apart from stories with Leshchenko’s apartments, the Ukrainians last week were overly anxious about the fate of the hryvnia, which started a rapid descent to the place where the sun doesn’t ever shine. However, judging by the statements of the National Bank, it’s only the ordinary Ukrainians who are worried. Valeria Gontareva’s managers, as usual, have no reasons to be concerned. Perhaps, it’s for their amazing restraint and composure that they are still held at positions at such a nice institution.

REUTERS

In the meantime, there are some causes for concern among iPhone fans. Apple has launched yet another change of standards in the market, abandoning in its new iPhone 7 models the traditional headphone jacks. I am seriously worried for those who have recently acquired brand new headphones, only to be forced to “suffer” with adapters. Judging by the reaction of UNIAN readers, such innovations have upset them greatly.

REUTERS

But let’s get back to Ukraine, and, more precisely, to the country’s capital. By the end of the week, some representatives of Azov Regiment, more “famous” for their questionable “titushka-style” acts rather than for their combat feats, got into a skirmish with Kyiv’s largest developer Kyivmiskbud in a row over one of the construction sites. The guys even resorted to a siege of the company’s headquarters. Developers did not think long, simply announcing a halt to all construction work across its sites in Kyiv. The whole thing is not over yet, so we’ll see where it goes.

Azov got into a skirmish with Kyivmiskbud / vk.com/batalion.azov

While this news is a matter of concern for many Kyiv residents and guests of the city, willing to buy apartments, the victory of the Ukrainian capital in a controversial and murky enough competition for the right to host Eurovision 2017 should make them happy. Although, frankly, many believed that the city host for Eurovision-2017 was to be any city, but Kyiv. It is time, finally, to show the world other Ukrainian cities as well, because holding such an event would really be a highlight of the year for them.

Against this background, the Ukrainians showed little to no interest in what is happening in a faraway Syria and a dangerously close Transnistria. Too bad, because there have been a lot interesting things going on there lately.

Another strange fuss started around the talks between the Russian Federation and the United States over the future and the present of Syria. Negotiations on this topic at the G20 summit have failed, and Obama has actually put forward an ultimatum before the Russians – either we agree quickly, or we all begin to act on our own. Apparently, the Americans have finally realized that the Kremlin is not going to negotiate about anything and keep fooling them, meanwhile trying to permanently capture the besieged Aleppo with the help of the forces of Assad and his allies. And only then will they begin to talk, with the new position which will not suit the US.

At the same time, the eternal "black hole" of Europe - Transnistria - made an unexpected maneuver on the eve of presidential elections in Transnistria and the elections to the Russian State Duma. Tiraspol began to prepare... for the accession to the Russian Federation. Apparently, Moscow’s unrecognized child, experiencing lack of financial assistance, is trying to speak up for itself. However, the reaction of the Moscow patrons evidenced their complete confusion and unwillingness to do anything with the “USSR reserve” in the territory of Moldova, occupied by Russian "peacekeepers". By the way, Anatolii Baronin inked a thoughtful piece on this issue.

See you next week!

Mykola Kondratenko, chief editor of web projects at UNIAN

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