Mediaboss Marketing

One of the 87 students sponsored by the Osun state government to study Medicine at the National University of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Oyeleye Lateefah Abiola, has emerged the best overall in her class for 2017 topping the class with a percentage score of 95.6%.

Miss Abiola, with Matriculation Number 258184358, is set to graduate on June 30, 2017 after the completion of her studies in a graduating class that has a total of 564 students.

A statement from the Bureau of Communication and Strategy in the Office of the Governor, signed by its Director, Semiu Okanlawon, explained that the Deputy Governor of the state, Grace Titi Laoye-Tomori, is expected to lead a delegation from the state to attend the graduation ceremony at the end of the month.

Mr. Okanlawon further explained that Miss Abiola was among other 98 students who secured admission to study Medicine at the state-owned Osun State University, had their study dreams terminated after the National Universities Commission (NUC) scrapped their course owing to the non-availability of a teaching hospital.

This was a source of concern to the Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. This unfortunate development compelled the governor to seek for options to rescue the students from abrupt truncation of their dreams to become medical doctors, he said.

In the course of looking for solutions, the National University of Kharkiv, Ukraine came into focus. By 2012, arrangements were concluded to send the students to Ukraine where they resumed their studies, Mr. Okanlawon stated.

The statement recalled that 98 students who were stranded were originally planned for but 87 of them eventually made it to Ukraine because parents of the other remaining students had secured other options for their children.

The statement quoted Governor Aregbesola as expressing joy and excitement that one of our students Miss Oyeleye Lateefah Abiola emerged overall best in Ukraine University final examinations.

The statement added that the feat recorded by Miss Abiola is one of the several indicators that the Aregbesola government in Osun has created a landmark in the area of education that cannot be overlooked.

The statement recalled that the government, convinced of the sanctity of its decision then, had ignored criticisms from certain quarters which condemned the decision by the state government to send the students to Ukraine.

Originally posted here:
Nigerian student emerges best overall in Ukraine medical school - Premium Times

Updated / Monday, 5 Jun 2017 22:30

Team Ireland arrived in Kharkiv on Monday evening for their final training camp ahead of the opening bell for the European Championships in mid-June.

With the IABA plagued by in-fighting and fallouts,High Performance Director Bernard Dunne is keen for the travelling Irish to let their fighting do the talking as they target medals in Ukraine.

Last Friday,Gerry OMahony, a member of the IABAs divided Board of Directors, has predicted that a dispute between the organisations two warring factions will end up in court.

The IABA board has been divided over the question of who is the rightful chairman of the association, with the incumbent Joe Christle and rival claimant David OBrien both making claims to the title.

It's been a damaging fortnight for the organisation, but Dunne is confident the team can get people talking about the action inside the ring rather than outside it again.

"Weve a good mixture of experience and youths coming through," he said.

"Were going to focus on each individual fight and well just try to perform to the best of our capabilities. Thats the process were going to take out here."

Boxing commences on 16 June at the Lokomotyv Sports Palace.

The competition, the 42nd edition of the Championships since 1925, is the sole qualifier for the World Elite Championships in Hamburg, Germany in August/September.

The top eight boxers (the quarter-finalists) in each weight in Kharkiv qualify for Hamburg.

The flyweights, welterweights and super-heavyweights are in action on day 1 of the championships.

A dispute over selection for Ireland's boxing team for the European Championships was resolved when Dean Gardiner won a split decision victory over Martin Keenan in a controversial super-heavyweight box-off at the National Stadium to stamp his ticket to the Europeans.

IRISH SQUAD

52kgBrendan Irvine (St Pauls)

56kgKurt Walker (Canal)

60kgPatrick Mongan (Olympic)

64kgSean McComb (Holy Trinity)

69kgSteven Donnelly (All Saints)

75kgEmmett Brennan (Glasnevin)

81kgJoe Ward (Moate)

91kgDarren ONeill (Paulstown)

91+kgDean Gardiner (Clonmel)/ Martin Keenan (Rathkeale)

Continue reading here:
Team Ireland land in Ukraine on hunt for glory - RTE.ie

Between mid-2015 and mid-2016, Privatbank, the largest bank in Ukraine, handed out over US$ 1 billion in loans to firms owned by seven top managers and two subordinates of its owner at the time, Ihor Kolomoisky, according to a copy of its 2016 loan book reviewed by a reporter for OCCRP. Subsequently, in December 2016, the bank was nationalized after the government found that it was severely undercapitalized, threatening the countrys financial system.

The headquarters of Privatbank in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Photo: Privatbank)

At least $185 million of the $1 billion in insider loans -- and possibly the entire amount -- was not backed by collateral, a serious violation of banking practices.

To receive the money, the nine recipients created 28 companies in Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city. Almost all were founded in 2015, all except one with equity of just 1,000 Ukrainian hryvnia ($38) each -- a sign that they were paper companies. Privatbank then approved loans to the firms totaling 28 billion hryvnia (over $1 billion).

Ihor Kolomoisky, a Ukrainian oligarch and former owner of Privatbank, Ukraine's largest bank. Seven of his lieutenents and two of their subordinates received loans totaling over $1 billion from Privatbank in 2016. (Photo: HOT NEWS, CC BY-SA 3.0 )Privatbank holds 35 percent of all individual deposits in Ukraine, meaning the savings of ordinary people. It was founded and owned by Kolomoisky, a wealthy Ukrainian businessman, and his partner, Hennadiy Boholiubov. Kolomoisky and Boholiubov are believed to have additional business interests in energy, media, aviation, metallurgy, and agriculture, which place them second and third, respectively, among the top 100 richest Ukrainians in a 2016 ranking by Forbes Ukraine. Each man is estimated to be worth $1.3 billion.

Following his support of the Euromaidan revolution, in March 2014 Kolomoisky was appointed governor of the east-central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk, where Privatbank is headquartered. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko fired Kolomoisky one year later, in March 2015, after a political falling-out over Kolomoiskys influence over Ukrnafta, Ukraines largest and state-owned oil company. Later that year, in October 2015, a close ally of Kolomoisky, Hennadiy Korban, was arrested and charged with heading an organized crime group, taking hostages, and embezzlement, according to Interfax Ukraine.

Viktor Shkindel, the former chief executive officer of the Dnipropetrosk airport, is a recipient of $154.1 million in loans from Ihor Kolomoisky's Privatbank. (Photo: Facebook)On Dec. 19, 2016, Ukraines government nationalized Privatbank after the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) found it insolvent. The alternative would have looked irresponsible, as it would have meant to close our eyes, bury our heads in the sand and wait for the bank to fall, Poroshenko said in a statement, adding that the bank was so undercapitalized that it threatened the entire financial system.

Following the takeover, the NBU announced that as much as 100 percent of Privatbanks loans had gone to its own shareholders, indicating that the owners were enriching themselves while endangering the savings of millions of Ukrainians. Prior to its nationalization, Privatbank had claimed that only 4.71 percent of its loans had been made to insiders and argued that it had been financially stable.

The over $1 billion in loans Privatbank made to Kolomoiskys lieutenants accounted for 13.8 percent of its total portfolio of loans larger than $400,000 as of July 2016.

Viacheslav Plakasov, CEO of Optima 770, is a recipient of $136.8 million in loans from Ihor Kolomoisky's Privatbank. (Photo: Facebook)Privatbank is now under new management appointed by the government. On March 6, the deputy head of the NBU, Kateryna Rozhkova, told OCCRP that the Privatbank shareholders "have undertaken to restructure all related party loans by 1 July." However, records show that a month previously, the new Kharkiv-registered companies had all started liquidation proceedings on the same day and all named the same person as liquidator, indicating coordinated action -- and suggesting a lack of intention to return the loans. Since then, the NBUs governor, Valeriya Gontareva, has resigned, and the central bank is under investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau.

A Privatbank spokesperson confirmed to OCCRP that international auditors had found that three of the Kharkiv borrowers had provided no real collateral for their loans, apart from worthless shares in no-name companies. These three firms hold a total of $185 million in loans, about 18 percent of the total loans to the Kharkiv firms.

Investigations into the other loans are continuing. The coordinated pattern of borrowing suggests that more of the $1 billion in Kharkiv loans likely also lacked collateral.

Ivan Makoviichuk, director of tourism company Skorzonera-Zakarpattya, is a recipient of $154.4 million in loans from Ihor Kolomoisky's Privatbank. (Photo: Facebook)The people who own the Kharkiv firms are mostly top managers in businesses controlled by Kolomoisky. Most are also interlinked on Facebook.

Viktor Shkindel, Ihor Malanchak and Ivan Makoviichuk own the three Kharkiv firms known to hold $185 million in unsecured loans. The three men own five additional Kharkiv-registered companies that also got Privatbank loans; in all, their firms hold a total of $458 million in loans from the bank.

Shkindel is a former chief executive officer of Dnipropetrovsk airport, which is also controlled by Kolomoisky.

Ivan Makoviichuk is director of Skorzonera-Zakarpattya, a tourism company owned by Kolomoisky and Boholiubov.

Serhiy Kazarov, former head of fuel supplier Tsyurupinsky Agropostach, is a recipient of $155.6 million in loans from Ihor Kolomoisky's Privatbank. (Photo: Facebook)Ihor Malanchak is the CEO of Kolumbini, a company affiliated with Kolomoisky, according to the company register.

Besides Shkindel, Malanchak and Makoviichuk, the other owners of the Kharkiv businesses that received Privatbank loans are Viacheslav Plakasov, Volodymyr Golovko, Serhiy Kazarov, Vitaly Nemov, Vadim Andreyuk and Anatoliy Derkach.

Viacheslav Plakasov is the CEO of Optima 770, which is related to Privat Group, an unconsolidated business group with holdings in oil, ferrous metal, and agriculture which is widely attributed to Kolomoisky and Boholiyubov.

Zaporizhzhya-based Volodymyr Golovko is a former top manager in Kolomoiskys refinery business. Serhiy Kazarov is former head of Tsyurupinskiy Agropostach, a fuel supplier which is connected to Privat offshores.

Volodymyr Golovko, Chairman of Zaporizhnaftoprodukt, is a recipient of $141.2 million in loans from Ihor Kolomoisky's Privatbank. (Photo: Facebook)Five of the above-named, who are on Facebook, did not respond when contacted via the social networking website.

Vitaly Nemov, owner of Olymp Oil, which received 715 million hryvnia (about $27 million) in loans, is manager of a gas station for Avias, under Shkindels command. His CV shows him looking for a job as a gas station manager with a monthly salary expectation of 6,000 hryvnia ($226).

Nemov confirmed his ownership of Olymp Oil but denied borrowing $27 million. There is no loan, he said when contacted by phone, and they have already closed the firm, he said about Olymp Oil. He declined to specify who he meant by they, but acknowledged being acquainted with Shkindel.

Vadim Andreyuk, owner of three Kharkiv firms holding 2.7 billion hryvnia (about $115.3 million) in Privatbank loans, is head of the sales department of the state oil firm Ukrnafta in the Khmelnytskyi region, according to an online resume.

Khmelnytskyi-based Anatoliy Derkach, the owner of Avaris, previously worked as a taxi driver, according to filings he made in a state register of entrepreneurs. The Avaris phone number matched the number of a number of firms run by Andreyuk. When an OCCRP reporter phoned Andreyuks office and asked to speak to Derkach, and was put through to him. When asked whether the loan Avaris received had been repaid, Derkach said apparently, but hung up when asked whether Andreyuk was his boss. Privatbank did not confirm this information.

Kolomoisky did not respond to requests for comment and Boholiubov could not be located.

See the article here:
Ukraine's Top Bank Lent Owner's Lieutenants $1 Billion Before Nationalization - OCCRP

On May 9 the Russian newspaper Gazeta.ru published a story claiming that Ukraine is losing out on trade with the European Union as negotiated export quotas are filled quickly and manufacturers have been unable to replace the lost Russian market with new customers. The publication claims that limited export quotas dont allow most businesses to make a profit and the Ukrainian government has failed to convince the EU to increase exports from Ukraine. According to Gazeta.ru, the goods Ukraine exports are not attractive to the EU and Ukrainian exporters have failed to reach any breakthroughs in this situation.

Website screenshot gazeta.ru

Gazeta.ru not only manipulated figures in this latest publication, but also completed ignored the reality on the ground regarding Ukrainian exports to the European Union.

Four days prior to Gazeta.rus fake story Ukraines Agrarian Policy Ministry announced that the European Union had agreed to expand Ukraines agricultural export quotas, a decision that is likely to yield some 200 million dollars in revenue. Ukraine is also continuing negotiations aimed to increase the goods the country exports to the European bloc even further.

Website screenshot ukrstat.gov.ua

Gazeta.ru uses selective data on Ukrainian exports. According to Ukraines Statistics Office in 2017 the countrys exports grew by nearly 33%, , compared to the same period in 2016. Exports to the European Union amount to 39% of Ukraines overall exports and have nearly doubled from last year.

Gazeta.ru also alleges that other sectors of Ukraines economy are suffering and claims that Ukraines Antonov aviation company has not produced any new planes because of problems with the replacement of Russian component parts.

Website screenshot antonov.com

The truth shows a different picture. In December 2016 Ukraine rolled out its new Antonov plane, the AN-132 light multipurpose aircraft. The airplane had its maiden flight last April.

Follow this link:
Fake: Ukraine Loses from Trade with EU - StopFake.org

By Jack Losh By Jack Losh June 5 at 5:00 AM

Carrying plastic bags stuffed with cuddly toys, the rebel leader enters an apartment to greet its new occupants a young family whose former home had supposedly fallen into disrepair. Aleksandr Zakharchenko, who governs the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic in eastern Ukraine, hands over the gifts, plus keys and deeds to the simple apartment. He walks around, nodding in approval at the pristine appliances and furnishings.

While a news crew films the choreographed event, mother of four Elena Korkunova says she had written a letter to Zakharchenko requesting help. Her husband, Alexei, hastily adds: Were very thankful to receive the apartment so quickly. ... Now itll be our family nest.

Ending the piece, a correspondent for the local Pervy Respublikansky channel describes how Zakharchenko personally assessed the apartments layout and quality of renovation ... and wished them health and happiness.

This unsubtle report is not a one-time thing. Ukrainian separatists are taking the media back to a Soviet-era standard as their breakaway statelets recycle old propaganda, resort to stereotypes and resuscitate the cult of Joseph Stalin.

Such broadcasts hold clues about Moscows strategy in Donbass, a volatile region where Ukrainian government troops have been fighting Russian-backed separatists since 2014. State-sanctioned portrayals of militant rebel rulers as responsible civilian officials suggest the Kremlin wants these hard-line proxies to be in charge for some time.

As the forgotten conflict enters its fourth year, this does not bode well for peace.

Russia wants to look as if its a constructive player in negotiations but has not decisively shown which option it wants to take, says Donald Jensen, an expert on Russia and resident fellow at the Johns Hopkins University. Messaging is key, and changes depending on circumstances.

By the 1980s, TV had become a key component of Soviet mass-media culture and today remains the main news source for Russians and Ukrainians. In 2014, when Moscow began installing new governing structures in Ukraines rebel strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk, local media operations were also overhauled.

Eastern Ukraines war-racked landscape of coal mines, factories and steel mills is a Soviet time warp in which communist nostalgia and heavy industry have a bearing on the identity of many. The legacy of the former Soviet Union looms large in the collective subconscious.

So news here is staged to highlight the states wisdom and generosity as it was under Soviet control. Core political messages, reinforcing a narrative favorable to ruling elites, are worked out ahead of transmission.

Novorossiya TV, another separatist outlet, recently aired a documentary about the origins of the war. Replete with Soviet imagery and dogma, it pits the united, hard-working Slavic citizens of Russkiy Mir (Russian World) against degenerate individualism and the imperialist West.

Today, Donbass has become the flash point of the geopolitical dispute between the West and the East, the presenter says. Our city is practically on the front line. We are being murdered so that Russian people ... remain in the chains of consumer society.

Lambasting Western influences, the film splices McDonalds ads with Soviet military parades; footage of Wall Street with productive factory lines. Hackneyed, perhaps, but aimed at harnessing disenchantment in a region once held high by Soviet authorities, now war-damaged and economically stagnant. Although it refers to recent Hollywood movies and is promoted through social media, the message of the film is as old as the hammer and sickle.

Low-budget history programs are a mainstay of these separatist outlets. One presenter, Yakov Dzhugashvili, is Stalins great-grandson. He venerates the late dictator and espouses his duty to expose anti-Stalinist, anti-Soviet lies. Dzhugashvili mentions neither the Great Terror nor the gulags, instead hailing Stalin as an example of those who serve others.

A local history buff hosts another slow-paced show, using model tanks and soldiers to demonstrate the World War II heroics of a unit known as Panfilovs 28 Guardsmen, whose story became a cherished Soviet legend though one that was debunked by the publication of a secret memo in 2015.

These productions are lo-fi and indulge in questionable readings of history. But their message is potent: Your ancestors fought the fascists, you must continue that struggle today. They are, in a sense, weaponizing the past.

Propaganda about fascists is a very effective trope and has had an effect on Russian public opinion, says Kristin Roth-Ey, a lecturer in Russian history at University College London who specializes in Soviet culture and media. This is not mindless atavism they know it works.

Likewise, limited content and frequent reruns echo the Soviet Unions restricted TV schedules. Such repetition creates dominant symbols that help construct or exploit a populations cultural memory, says Kateryna Khinkulova, a specialist on the regions media.

The presentation of Ukraines separatist leaders is far more Soviet than that of Russias president, Vladimir Putin. Luhansks ruler, Igor Plotnitsky, is regularly filmed presiding over his ministerial council, publicly berating them while flanked by his peoples republic flag, with its sun rays, wheat sheaves and red star.

Russian television has its share of Putin scolding his aides, but he also projects a personality with which Russians can more easily associate.

Putin himself is a form of entertainment, a consumable product, Roth-Ey says. Think of pictures showing Putin bare-chested. Making [Leonid] Brezhnev or [Nikita] Khrushchev sex symbols would have been unthinkable in a Soviet context.

The Soviet Union was renowned for its sports parades and elaborate gymnastic displays. Socialist realism promoted heroic images of the human body from the vitality of the Komsomol youth movement to the team spirit of athletes. Though smaller in scale, Donetsk separatists are drawn to similar ideals.

A news report in March featured a gathering of youngsters jogging through the city, urging sobriety and waving separatist and communist flags a time-honored tactic of reinforcing patriotism with physical purity.

Back in vogue, too, is the shock worker an uber-productive laborer of the Soviet Union. War has ravaged eastern Ukraines economy, but separatist-controlled farms and industrial plants regularly trumpet their efficiency and ability to surpass quotas. If local news outlets are to be believed, rebel authorities are providing pensioners with thousands of tons of free coal and farming vast quantities of food even to the extent of producing Donetsk mozzarella.

These stories are designed to boost morale by creating the illusions of self-sufficiency and resurgent industry. In reality, the breakaway east could not function without Moscows support. (Russia has even pledged to supply this region with electricity after Kiev cut off power due to unpaid bills).

Nostalgia for Russias lost era borders on self-caricature. In Donbass, it has become a weird pastiche of historical memory, says Alexander Clarkson, a lecturer in European studies at Kings College London. The Putin media machine picks out bits of Soviet or czarist memory that it finds useful to its agenda at any one moment, then amplifies it using modern media techniques to overwhelm the audience.

Read more:

Ukraine turns a blind eye to ultrarightist militia

War in Ukraine helps smugglers in the black market get richer

Ukrainian rebel leaders divided by bitter purge

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

Originally posted here:
TV in breakaway Ukraine has a distinct Soviet tint to it - Washington Post