Ukraine’s forthcoming elections and gas crisis

Two days before the early parliamentary elections in Ukraine,  what results can be expected and how will they affect gas supply in Europe?

Guests

Chi-Kong Chyong, Director, Energy Policy Forum and ECFR Visiting Fellow

Andrew Wilson, Senior Policy Fellow, ECFR

 

Chaired by

Vessela Tcherneva, Wider Europe Programme Director, ECFR

Ukraine has limped along with a dysfunctional political system since President Yanukovych fled the country in February. The country has a new president Petro Poroshenko, but has reverted to the old constitution which gives more powers to parliament. The elections on 26 October are about nothing less than the future size, shape and strength of the Ukrainian state, and will also open the next phase in the ongoing conflict. Many supporters of the old regime will still make it into parliament, but many new faces too.   As winter approaches, this event will also look at how the current situation in Ukraine will affect gas supply in Europe.

Chi-Kong Chyong is an ECFR Visiting Fellow and the Director of the Energy Policy Forum at the University of Cambridge. Before arriving at Cambridge, he worked as a researcher at the National Academy of Sciences in Ukraine. His most recent publication for ECFR is ‘Why Europe should support reform of the Ukrainian gas market’ (October 2014).

Andrew Wilson is a Senior Policy Fellow at ECFR. He has published widely on the politics and culture of the European neighbourhood, particularly on Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, and on the comparative politics of democratisation in post-Soviet states. His most recent book is ‘Ukraine crisis: What it means for the West’(YaleBooks, October 2014).

Vessela Tcherneva is Wider Europe Programme Director at ECFR and Co-Founder of the Sofia Platform. She has been the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a member of the Political Cabinet of Nickolay Mladenov from 2010 to 2013. Ms. Tcherneva was Director of the Bulgarian office of ECFR and Programme Director of the Centre for Liberal Strategies since 2003.