Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna
Part of14th April 2011
I’ve been blogging about Ukraine for a while now – over 170 entries, plus the web-diary I started in 2009 before the blog went live. It’s been a fascinating time and I hope readers have found the blogs interesting. Blogging is a good way to set out what I think about Ukraine on different issues. […]
12th April 2011
I recently wrote about the centre of Kyiv turning British. So it’s good to find the centre of Oxford turning Ukrainian. The occasion is the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Programme Oxford Model Ukraine Conference “Ukraine’s Domestic and Foreign Affairs: Quo Vadis” (“where are you going”), held in St Anthony’s College and New College, Oxford from 6-8 April. […]
5th April 2011
I’m in the UK this week to speak at the Oxford Model Ukraine Conference “Ukraine’s Domestic and Foreign Affairs: Quo Vadis?” (Quo vadis means “Where are you going?” in Latin.) It will be good to hear the views of the assembled experts, and to contribute my own thoughts – I’m speaking first thing on Thursday […]
4th April 2011
I often ask business and political contacts what they think about the progress of reform in Ukraine. Responses are mixed: some say things are getting better, some that they are getting worse, and others that things are neither better nor worse, but just different. I recently discussed this with a group of eminent economic and […]
1st April 2011
The UK Ministry of Justice has just published excellent guidance about how commercial organisations can comply with the new UK Bribery Act. I strongly recommend this link to anyone doing business in the UK or with UK companies abroad to ensure they are compliant with the new legislation. The guidance is written in plain English […]
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31st March 2011
I’ve been following with interest the debate around the recent closure of a Ukrainian newspaper, the Gazeta po-Kievski. It’s an important issue. The newspaper, which has existed for many years, was closed down on 11 March. One explanation of the closure is that it had been losing money and was uneconomic. Proponents of free speech, […]
30th March 2011
I’ve been in Warsaw this week meeting Polish and British colleagues and having my first good look around the city since I first visited it in 1987. It’s always interesting to compare neighbours, and the comparison between Poland and Ukraine tells us a good bit about both. This is particularly relevant as the negotiations on the proposed […]
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29th March 2011
Can you walk 110 kilometres in 24 hours? That’s the distance from the centre of Kyiv to the edge of the Chernobyl exclusion zone north of Kyiv. With the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster coming up at the end of April, a group of volunteers from the British and French embassies in Kyiv are […]
27th March 2011
How much would it be worth Oxford paying me to watch next year’s boat race against Cambridge? Or how much would Cambridge be prepared to pay to stop me watching? It’s Saturday night in Kyiv and the Oxbridge alumni of the city are gathered at the Golden Gate pub (next to the eponymous 1037 Kyiv […]
22nd March 2011
Imagine a child knocking on a door and being let in by a smiling family or friend. That’s the scene from a moving film presented by the charity Down Syndrome Education International, featuring children from dozens of countries including the UK and Ukraine. I watch the film with a roomful of guests at a World […]