1.
Eastern Slavic naming customs
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They are also featured in the non-Slavic Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan as a result of the expansion of Russia and the result of Russification. As with most cultures, a person has a name chosen by the parents. First names in East Slavic languages mostly originate from two sources, Orthodox church tradition and native pre-Christian Slavic lexicons, all first names are single, non-doubled. Doubled first names are a very rare foreign-influenced instance, most doubled first names are spelled with the dash. Being highly synthetic, Eastern Slavic languages treat personal names as grammatical nouns and this auxiliary stem may be identical to the word stem of the full name while most names have it derived unproductively. Most commonly, Russian philologists distinguish the forms of given names, The short name, historically also half-name, is the most simple. Some names, such as Zhanna, Mark, etc. do not possess short forms, in the latter case, one form is usually more informal than the other. Diminutive forms are produced from the name by means of various suffixes. Unlike the full name, a diminutive name carries a particular emotional attitude, depending on the nature of this attitude, nameforms can be subdivided in three broad groups, affectionate, familiar and slang. Typically formed by suffixes -еньк-, -оньк-, -ечк-, -ушк and it is often used to address children or intimate friends. Within a more official context, this form may be combined with honorific plural to address a female colleague. Colloquial diminutives are derived from short names by means of -к- suffix, expressing a highly familiar attitude, it may be considered rude or even pejorative outside of friendly context. Slang forms mostly exist for male names, being produced though suffixes -ян, -он and these suffixes give off the sense of male brotherhood once expressed by patronymic-only form of address in Soviet Union. Originating in criminal communities, these came into wide usage in Russia in the 1990s. During the days of revolutionary enthusiasm, as part of the campaign to rid Russia of bourgeois culture, there was a drive to invent new, as a result, a large number of Soviet children were given unusual or atypical names. The patronymic name is based on the first name of the father and is written in all legal, if used with the first name, the patronymic always follows it. The patronymic is formed by a combination of the fathers name, the suffix -ович is used for son, suffix -овна - for daughter. For example, if the name was Иван, then the patronymic will be Иванович for a son
2.
Dnipro
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Dnipropetrovsk or Dnepropetrovsk, is Ukraines fourth largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is 391 kilometres southeast of the capital Kiev on the Dnieper River, Dnipropetrovsk is the administrative centre of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Administratively, it is incorporated as a city of oblast significance, the city was originally envisioned as the Russian Empires third capital city, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg. A vital industrial centre of Soviet Ukraine, Dnipropetrovsk was one of the key centres of the nuclear, arms, in particular, it is home to the Yuzhmash, a major space and ballistic missile design bureau and manufacturer. Because of its industry, Dnipropetrovsk was a closed city until the 1990s. On 19 May 2016 the official name of the city was changed to Dnipro, Dnipropetrovsk is a powerhouse of Ukraines business and politics as the native city for many of the countrys most important figures. Ukraines politics are still defined by the legacies of Leonid Kuchma, Pavlo Lazarenko, in some Anglophone media the city was also known as the Rocket City. In 1918, the Central Council of Ukraine proposed to change the name of the city to Sicheslav, however, in 1926 the city was renamed after Communist leader Grigory Petrovsky. Hence following the 2015 law on decommunization the city had to be renamed, on 19 May 2016 the Ukrainian parliament passed a bill to officially rename the city to the name Dnipro. A monastery was founded by Byzantine monks on Monastyrsky Island, probably in the 9th century, the Tatars destroyed the monastery in 1240. At the beginning of the 15th century, Tatar tribes inhabiting the right bank of the Dnieper were driven away by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, by the mid-15th century, the Nogai and the Crimean Khanate invaded these lands. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Crimean Khanate agreed to a border along the Dnieper and it was in this time that a new force appeared, the free people, the Cossacks. They later became known as Zaporozhian Cossacks and this was a period of raids and fighting causing considerable devastation and depopulation in that area, the area became known as the Wild Fields. On the night of ¾ August 1635, the Cossacks of Ivan Sulyma captured the fort by surprise, burning it down, the fort was rebuilt by French engineer Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan for the Polish Government in 1638, and had a mercenary garrison. Kodak was captured by Zaporozhian Cossacks on 1 October 1648, and was garrisoned by the Cossacks until its demolition in accordance with the Treaty of the Pruth in 1711, the ruins of the Kodak are visible now. There is currently a project to restore it and create a tourist centre, under the Treaty of Pereyaslav of 1654, the territory became part of the Russian Empire. For practical purposes, the Prydniprovye lands remained a border area until the destruction of the Zaporizhian Sich in 1775. The Zaporozhian village of Polovytsia was founded in the late-1760s, between the settlements of Stari and Novi Kodaky and it was located at the present centre of the city to the West to district of Central Terminal and the Ozyorka farmers market
3.
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
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The Ukrainian SSR was a founding member of the United Nations, although it was legally represented by the All-Union state in its affairs with countries outside of the Soviet Union. From the start, the city of Kharkiv served as the republics capital. However, in 1934, the seat of government was moved to the city of Kyiv. Geographically, the Ukrainian SSR was situated in Eastern Europe to the north of the Black Sea, bordered by the Soviet republics of Moldavia, Byelorussia, the Ukrainian SSRs border with Czechoslovakia formed the Soviet Unions western-most border point. According to the Soviet Census of 1989 the republic had a population of 51,706,746 inhabitants, the name Ukraine, derived from the Slavic word kraj, meaning land or border. It was first used to part of the territory of Kievan Rus in the 12th century. The name has been used in a variety of ways since the twelfth century, after the abdication of the tsar and the start of the process of the destruction of the Russian Empire many people in Ukraine wished to establish a Ukrainian Republic. During a period of war from 1917-23 many factions claiming themselves governments of the newly born republic were formed, each with supporters. The two most prominent of them were the government in Kyiv and the government in Kharkiv, the former being the Ukrainian Peoples Republic and the latter the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. This government of the Soviet Ukrainian Republic was founded on 24–25 December 1917, in its publications it names itself either the Republic of Soviets of Workers, Soldiers, and Peasants Deputies or the Ukrainian Peoples Republic of Soviets. The last session of the government took place in the city of Taganrog, in July 1918 the former members of the government formed the Communist Party of Ukraine, the constituent assembly of which took place in Moscow. On 10 March 1919, according to the 3rd Congress of Soviets in Ukraine the name of the state was changed to the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic. After the ratification of the 1936 Soviet Constitution, the names of all Soviet republics were changed, transposing the second, during its existence, the Ukrainian SSR was commonly referred to as Ukraine or the Ukraine. On 24 August 1991, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic declared independence, since the adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine in June 1996, the country became known simply as Ukraine, which is the name used to this day. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, several factions sought to create an independent Ukrainian state, the most popular faction was initially the local Socialist Revolutionary Party that composed the local government together with Federalists and Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks boycotted any government initiatives most of the time, instigating several armed riots in order to establish the Soviet power without any intent for consensus, immediately after the October Revolution in Petrograd, Bolsheviks instigated the Kiev Bolshevik Uprising to support the Revolution and secure Kyiv. Due to a lack of support from the local population and anti-revolutionary Central Rada, however. Most moved to Kharkiv and received the support of the eastern Ukrainian cities, later, this move was regarded as a mistake by some of the Peoples Commissars
4.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
5.
PrivatBank
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PrivatBank is the largest commercial bank in Ukraine, in terms of the number of clients, assets value, loan portfolio and taxes paid to the national budget. PrivatBank has its headquarters in Dnipropetrovsk, in central Ukraine, on 18 December,2016, the bank was nationalized by the government of Ukraine, taking 100% ownership. PrivatBank was one of the first private banks, established in Ukraine. Decision on PrivatBank establishment was taken at the meeting of its founders on 7 February 1992, on 19 March 1992 the bank already passed its state registration. By Serhiy Tihipko was one of the founders and the first Chairman of the Board, privatbank was founded in Latvia in the year 1992. One of the first and oldest banks in Latvia, at the very beginning PrivatBank had just one office and several computers. It was the first in Ukraine who introduce plastic cards and ATMs, PrivatBank was also the first financial organization in Ukraine to get international rating. In 1996 it became a member of Visa International payment system. In 1997 PrivatBank became the first Ukrainian bank to obtain rating statement from Thomson BankWatch International Rating Agency, in 1998 the bank obtained its rating statement from Fitch IBCA International Rating Agency. In November 1998 the bank won a tender and was selected as a bank authorized to perform in Ukraine the payments of the Swiss Holocaust Memorial Fund. In 1999 PrivatBank opened its International Banking Unit in Cyprus, PrivatBank branch in Nicosia was the first Ukrainian bank branch established abroad. In 2000 the bank was included in the group of banks authorized to pay compensations to Ukrainian citizens suffered from Nazi pursuit during the Second World War. In 2000 the PrivatBank’s form of ownership changed – on 6 July PrivatBank members decided on the reorganization from Limited Liability Company to Closed Joint-Stock Company. Thereupon, on 4 September 2000 the first Articles of Association of the Closed Joint-Stock Company Commercial Bank PrivatBank were registered, in February 2002 PrivatBank emitted its millionth plastic card. In April 2002 PrivatBank representative was selected to Visa CEMEA Board of Directors, in 2003, PrivatBank was named the best service quality bank by its Western Union clients. The same year the bank received STP Excellence Award from Deutsche Bank, PrivatBank was the first Ukrainian bank to place Eurobonds in the amount of USD100 mln at the European market. Besides, PrivatBank was the first in Ukraine to obtain Standard&Poor’s B- rating, International rating agency Fitch assigned the final long-term B- rating to Eurobonds of PrivatBank. Also the bank’s name was changed to Public Joint-Stock Company Commercial Bank PrivatBank and these changes became effective on 21 July 2009
6.
FC Dnipro
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Football Club Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Dnipropetrovsk. Dnipro, which is the Ukrainian name of the Dnieper river in Ukraine, is a popular name in Dnipropetrovsk. Beside the association football club, there also is a team under the same name, basketball team. FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, however, is not a multi-sport club, during the Soviet era, the club was a member of the Soviet Volunteer Sports Society Metallurg and until 1961 was under sponsorship of the Petrovsky Dnipropetrovsk Metallurgical Plant. After that, the club was sponsored by the Southern Machine-building Plant Yuzhmash, before the fall of the Soviet Union, the club was the second most successful club of Ukraine that participated in the Soviet Top League, winning in 1983 and 1988. Sometime after the fall of the Soviet Union, the club was privatized, the clubs franchise traces its history all the way back when the first team that was formed in 1918 by the Petrovsky factory and was called as BRIT. The team participated in the regional competition, with the four other teams BRIT played its games on small stadium Sokil which was located at the corner of Pushkin street and Yuriy Savchenko street. Due to World War I, BRIT was disbanded, but on 9 May 1925 a new team was formed in Dnipropetrovsk, the team participated under a generic name as football team of Petrovsky factory. The official name it received in 1926 when it became to be known as Petrovets, the team entered the first Soviet competition under the name of Stal in 1936 in one of the lower divisions. The team participated in the three championship before World War II, after the war, in 1947, the team reentered the Soviet competition and was merged with another club from Dnipropetrovsk, Dynamo Dnipropetrovsk. From 1949 until 1961, the team was called Metalurh, during this time, the team participated for three seasons, 1950–1952, among the amateurs due to poor results. In 1954, Metalurh Dnipropetrovsk reached the semi-finals of the USSR Cup, where it lost to Spartak Yerevan. In 1961, the team was handed over to its new sponsor, the Yugmash and it was part of the Zenit volunteer sports society. The new sponsor changed the name to the Russian name of Dnepr, Dnieper, as the Russian was the accepted language of the Soviet Union. The teams performance did not change much until after 1968, when Dnepr obtained Andriy Biba, after that, it took the team three years to get promoted to the Soviet Top League and eventually finished in sixth place in 1972. In 1973 and 1976, Dnepr reached the semi-finals of the USSR Cup, in 1978, the team was relegated to the lower league for two years. Their next return to the top flight was not as inviting as their first one, in the following years, the governing body of the team hired new promising coaches – Volodymyr Yemets and Hennadiy Zhizdik. After those changes, Dnepr became a contender for the Soviet championship winning it twice, once with Yemets and Zhizdik in 1983
7.
United States dollar
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The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States and its insular territories per the United States Constitution. It is divided into 100 smaller cent units, the circulating paper money consists of Federal Reserve Notes that are denominated in United States dollars. The U. S. dollar was originally commodity money of silver as enacted by the Coinage Act of 1792 which determined the dollar to be 371 4/16 grain pure or 416 grain standard silver, the currency most used in international transactions, it is the worlds primary reserve currency. Several countries use it as their currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency. Besides the United States, it is used as the sole currency in two British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. A few countries use the Federal Reserve Notes for paper money, while the country mints its own coins, or also accepts U. S. coins that can be used as payment in U. S. dollars. After Nixon shock of 1971, USD became fiat currency, Article I, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution provides that the Congress has the power To coin money, laws implementing this power are currently codified at 31 U. S. C. Section 5112 prescribes the forms in which the United States dollars should be issued and these coins are both designated in Section 5112 as legal tender in payment of debts. The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar, the pure silver dollar is known as the American Silver Eagle. Section 5112 also provides for the minting and issuance of other coins and these other coins are more fully described in Coins of the United States dollar. The Constitution provides that a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and that provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The sums of money reported in the Statements are currently being expressed in U. S. dollars, the U. S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States. The word dollar is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution, there, dollars is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales. In 1792 the U. S. Congress passed a Coinage Act, Section 20 of the act provided, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units. And that all accounts in the offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation. In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the unit of currency of the United States, unlike the Spanish milled dollar the U. S. dollar is based upon a decimal system of values. Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the form is significantly more common
8.
Dnipropetrovsk Oblast
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Dnipropetrovsk Oblast is an oblast of central Ukraine, the most important industrial region of the country. It was created on February 27,1932, Dnipropetrovsk has a population of about 3,307, 795 , approximately 80% of whom live centering on administrative center of Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Kamianske, Nikopol. The Dnieper River runs through the oblast, the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast is located in southeastern Ukraine. The area of the oblast, comprises about 5. 3% of the area of the country. Its longitude from north to south is 130 km, from east to west –300 km, black Sea Lowland almost completely within the south oblast, covering half of its territory. It is 11 km in diameter and the age is estimated to be 280 ±10 million years, the crater is not exposed at the surface. The Dnieper Upland contains a number of minerals including iron, manganese, granite, graphite, brown coal, Kryvbas is an important economic region, specializing in iron ore mining and the steel industry. It is arguably the main iron ore region of Eastern Europe, named after the city of Kryvyi Rih, the region occupies the southwestern part of the Dnipropetrovsk, as well as a small neighbouring part of the Kirovohrad Oblast. The region possesses major deposits of ore and some other metallurgical ores. To exploit them, several mining companies were founded here in the middle of the 20th century. Most of them are located in Kryvyi Rih itself, which is the longest city in Europe, at the beginning of the 15th century, Tatar tribes inhabiting the right bank of the Dnieper were driven away by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. However, by the century, the Nogai and the Crimean Khanate invaded these lands. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Crimean Khanate agreed to a border along the Dnieper and it was in this time that there appeared a new force–the Cossacks, armed freemen not subject to any feudal lord– who were to soon dominate the region. They later became known as Zaporozhian Cossacks, from Zaporizhia–the lands south of Prydniprovye– which translates as the Land Beyond the Weirs ) and this was a period of raids and fighting causing considerable devastation and depopulation in that area, the area became known as the Wilderness. On the night of 3 or 4 August 1635, the Cossacks of Ivan Sulyma captured the fort by surprise, burning it down, the fort was rebuilt by French engineer Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan for the Polish Government in 1638, and had a mercenary garrison. Kodak was captured by Zaporozhian Cossacks on 1 October 1648, and was garrisoned by the Cossacks until its demolition in accordance with the Treaty of the Pruth in 1711, under the Treaty of Pereyaslav of 1654, the territory became part of the Russian Empire. The city of Yekaterinoslav was founded in 1776, not in the current location, in December 1796, Paul I reestablished the Novorossiysk Governorate, mostly with land from the former Yekaterinoslav Viceroyalty. In 1802, this province was divided into the Nikolayev Governorate, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, and its capital was the city of Yekaterinoslav created in 1802 out the Yekaterinoslav Vice-regency
9.
Ukrainian language
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Ukrainian /juːˈkreɪniən/ is an East Slavic language. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic script, historical linguists trace the origin of the Ukrainian language to the Old East Slavic of the early medieval state of Kievan Rus. After the fall of the Kievan Rus as well as the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, the Modern Ukrainian language has been in common use since the late 17th century, associated with the establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate. From 1804 until the Russian Revolution, the Ukrainian language was banned from schools in the Russian Empire and it has always maintained a sufficient base in Western Ukraine, where the language was never banned, in its folklore songs, itinerant musicians, and prominent authors. The Ukrainian language retains a degree of intelligibility with Belarusian and Russian. The first theory of the origin of Ukrainian language was suggested in Imperial Russia in the middle of the 18th century by Mikhail Lomonosov and this theory posits the existence of a common language spoken by all East Slavic people in the time of the Rus. Another point of view developed during the 19th and 20th centuries by linguists of Imperial Russia, like Lomonosov, they assumed the existence of a common language spoken by East Slavs in the past. This general point of view is the most accepted amongst academics worldwide, the supporters of this theory disagree, however, about the time when the different languages were formed. Soviet scholars set the divergence between Ukrainian and Russian only at time periods. During the time of the incorporation of Ruthenia into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and this point of view is, however, at variance with some historical data. In fact, several East Slavic tribes, such as Polans, Drevlyans, Severians, Dulebes, White Croats, Tiverians, notably, some Ukrainian features were recognizable in the southern dialects of Old East Slavic as far back as the language can be documented. In contrast, Ahatanhel Krymsky and Alexei Shakhmatov assumed the existence of the spoken language of Eastern Slavs only in prehistoric times. According to their point of view, the diversification of the Old East Slavic language took place in the 8th or early 9th century, Ukrainian linguist Stepan Smal-Stotsky went even further, denying the existence of a common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past. Similar points of view were shared by Yevhen Tymchenko, Vsevolod Hantsov, Olena Kurylo, Ivan Ohienko, according to this theory, the dialects of East Slavic tribes evolved gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermediate stages during the 6th through 9th centuries. The Ukrainian language was formed by convergence of tribal dialects, mostly due to a migration of the population within the territory of todays Ukraine in later historical periods. This point of view was supported by George Shevelovs phonological studies. During the 13th century, when German settlers were invited to Ukraine by the princes of Galicia-Vollhynia and their influence would continue under Poland not only through German colonists but also through the Yiddish-speaking Jews. Often such words involve trade or handicrafts, examples of words of German or Yiddish origin spoken in Ukraine include dakh, rura, rynok, kushnir, and majster
10.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
11.
Hebrew language
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Hebrew is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of whom over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among elites and it survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of the State of Israel, while premodern Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today. Ancient Hebrew is also the tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon Hakodesh, the modern word Hebrew is derived from the word Ivri, one of several names for the Israelite people. It is traditionally understood to be a based on the name of Abrahams ancestor, Eber. This name is based upon the root ʕ-b-r meaning to cross over. Interpretations of the term ʕibrim link it to this verb, cross over, in the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Yәhudit because Judah was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation. In Isaiah 19,18 it is called the Language of Canaan, Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn, the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages, according to Avraham ben-Yosef, Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah during about 1200 to 586 BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating around 3000 years ago. The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that through the Greeks, the Gezer calendar is written without any vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it
12.
Ukraine
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Ukraine is currently in territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014 but which Ukraine and most of the international community recognise as Ukrainian. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km2, making it the largest country entirely within Europe and it has a population of about 42.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC, during the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, two brief periods of independence occurred during the 20th century, once near the end of World War I and another during World War II. Before its independence, Ukraine was typically referred to in English as The Ukraine, following independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state. Nonetheless it formed a limited partnership with the Russian Federation and other CIS countries. In the 2000s, the government began leaning towards NATO, and it was later agreed that the question of joining NATO should be answered by a national referendum at some point in the future. Former President Viktor Yanukovych considered the current level of co-operation between Ukraine and NATO sufficient, and was against Ukraine joining NATO and these events formed the background for the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, and the War in Donbass in April 2014. On 1 January 2016, Ukraine applied the economic part of the Deep, Ukraine has long been a global breadbasket because of its extensive, fertile farmlands and is one of the worlds largest grain exporters. The diversified economy of Ukraine includes a heavy industry sector, particularly in aerospace. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate powers, legislative, executive. Its capital and largest city is Kiev, taking into account reserves and paramilitary personnel, Ukraine maintains the second-largest military in Europe after that of Russia. Ukrainian is the language and its alphabet is Cyrillic. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodoxy, which has strongly influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature, there are different hypotheses as to the etymology of the name Ukraine. According to the older and most widespread hypothesis, it means borderland, while more recently some studies claim a different meaning, homeland or region. The Ukraine now implies disregard for the sovereignty, according to U. S. ambassador William Taylor. Neanderthal settlement in Ukraine is seen in the Molodova archaeological sites include a mammoth bone dwelling
13.
Cyprus
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Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean and the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean. It is located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel and Palestine, north of Egypt, the earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two waves in the 2nd millennium BC, Cyprus was placed under British administration based on Cyprus Convention in 1878 and formally annexed by Britain in 1914. While Turkish Cypriots made up 18% of the population, the partition of Cyprus and creation of a Turkish state in the north became a policy of Turkish Cypriot leaders, following nationalist violence in the 1950s, Cyprus was granted independence in 1960. On 15 July 1974, a coup détat was staged by Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta in an attempt at enosis and these events and the resulting political situation are matters of a continuing dispute. The Cyprus Republic has de jure sovereignty over the island of Cyprus, as well as its territorial sea and exclusive economic area, another nearly 4% of the islands area is covered by the UN buffer zone. The international community considers the part of the island as territory of the Republic of Cyprus occupied by Turkish forces. The occupation is viewed as illegal under law, amounting to illegal occupation of EU territory since Cyprus became a member of the European Union. Cyprus is a major tourist destination in the Mediterranean, on 1 January 2008, the Republic of Cyprus joined the eurozone. The earliest attested reference to Cyprus is the 15th century BC Mycenaean Greek
14.
Israeli nationality law
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Israeli nationality law defines the criteria under which a person can be granted citizenship of Israel. It also deals with the Right of Return for Jewish diaspora, in general, Israels nationality follows jus sanguinis as the primary mechanism through which a person may obtain citizenship, rather than jus soli. A citizen of the state of Israel is called an Israeli. Apart from citizenship, there is another civil status which can be held by residents of Israel and it is most common among Syrian citizens of the Golan Heights and among East Jerusalem residents, but it occurs also among other non-citizens. Although not a part of the nationality law, Israeli citizens have the following rights, to travel into and out of Israel whenever they wish, but this right may be limited at certain times with special warrants. Residents who are not citizens may, however, lose their status if they move outside of Israels borders, virtually all responsibilities are imposed upon citizens and non-citizen residents of Israel equally. A responsibility which is imposed on Israeli citizens only is the requirement to be in possession of an Israeli passport at all times when outside of the country, Israeli citizens must thus have acquired a passport before leaving Israel. Military service is mandatory for virtually all Israeli citizens and residents although various exemptions can be granted. Certain ethnic groups, such as Arab Israelis, have received a blanket exemption, the Law of Return grants all Jews the right to immigrate to Israel and almost automatic Israeli citizenship upon arrival in Israel. The argument was made by the applicants that they had never been Jews according to halakha and this argument was upheld in the ruling, and the government agreed to reprocess their applications. Israeli law distinguishes between the Law of Return, which allows for Jews and their descendants to immigrate to Israel, and Israels nationality law, which formally grants Israeli citizenship. In other words, the Law of Return does not itself determine Israeli citizenship, it allows for Jews. Israel does, however, grant citizenship to those who immigrated under the Law of Return if the applicant so desires, eligible applicants under the Law of Return have no claim to any of the rights or privileges of an Israeli citizen until they are formally granted Israeli citizenship. This is possible after three months of residency in Israel, new arrivals are issued an Israeli Travel Document during this period, after which they are granted citizenship. Such denizens who were still within the confines of Israel after the war were granted full Israeli citizenship. In order to determine who was eligible for citizenship under this provision and those found to meet the requirements obtained Israeli citizenship. For purposes regarding modern Israeli citizenship, this section is usually irrelevant, a child of an Israeli citizen is considered an Israeli citizen. Citizenship by descent, on the principle of jus sanguinis, is limited to one generation born abroad
15.
History of the Jews in Ukraine
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Jewish communities have existed in the territory of Ukraine from the time of Kievan Rus and developed many of the most distinctive modern Jewish theological and cultural traditions such as Hasidism. According to the World Jewish Congress, the Jewish community in Ukraine constitute the third biggest Jewish community in Europe, while at times it flourished, at other times the Jewish community faced periods of persecution and antisemitic discriminatory policies. In the Ukrainian Peoples Republic, Yiddish was a state language along with Ukrainian and Russian, at that time there was created the Jewish National Union and the community was granted an autonomous status. Yiddish was used on Ukrainian currency in 1917-1920, before World War II, a little under one-third of Ukraines urban population consisted of Jews who were the largest national minority in Ukraine. Ukrainian Jews are comprised by a number of groups, including Ashkenazi Jews, Mountain Jews, Bukharan Jews, Crimean Karaites, Krymchak Jews. In the westernmost area of Ukraine, Jews were mentioned for the first time in 1030, an army of Cossacks and Crimean Tatars massacred and took into captivity a large number of Jews, Roman Catholic Christians and Uniate Christians in 1648–49. Recent estimates range from fifteen thousand to thirty thousand Jews killed or taken captive, during the 1821 anti-Jewish riots in Odessa after the death of the Greek Orthodox patriarch in Constantinople,14 Jews were killed. Some sources claim this episode as the first pogrom, at the start of 20th century, anti-Jewish pogroms continued to occur. When part of the Russian Empire in 1911 to 1913, the antisemitic attitudes can be seen in the number of libel cases. In 1915, the government expelled thousands of Jews from the Empires border areas, during the 1917 Russian Revolution and the ensuing Russian Civil War, an estimated 31,071 Jews were killed during 1918–1920. During the establishment of the Ukrainian Peoples Republic, pogroms continued to be perpetrated on Ukrainian territory, in Ukraine, the number of civilian Jews killed during the period was between 35 and 50 thousand. Pogroms erupted in January 1919 in the northwest province of Volhynia, the actions of the Soviet government by 1927 led to a growing antisemitism in the area. Ukraine had 840,000 Jews in 1959, a decrease of almost 70% from 1941, Ukraines Jewish population declined significantly during the Cold War. In 1989, Ukraines Jewish population was slightly more than half of what it was thirty years earlier. The overwhelming majority of the Jews who remained in Ukraine in 1989 left Ukraine and moved to countries in the 1990s during. Antisemitic graffiti and violence against Jews are still a problem in Ukraine, by the 11th century, Byzantine Jews of Constantinople had familial, cultural, and theological ties with the Jews of Kiev. For instance, some 11th-century Jews from Kievan Rus participated in an assembly held in either Thessaloniki or Constantinople. One of the three Kievan city gates in the times of Yaroslav the Wise was called Zhydovski, in Halychyna, the westernmost area of Ukraine, Jews were mentioned for the first time in 1030
16.
Rinat Akhmetov
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Rinat Leonidovych Akhmetov is a Ukrainian businessman and oligarch. He is the founder and President of System Capital Management, and is ranked among the wealthiest men in Ukraine, as of February 2015, he was listed as the 216th richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of US6.5 billion. There have been claims Akhmetov has been involved in organized crime, Akhmetov is also the owner and President of the Ukrainian football club Shakhtar Donetsk. In 2006–2007 and 2007–2012 Akhmetov was a member of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada for the Party of Regions, during the 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine, some pro-Ukrainian activists accused Akhmetov of being a financial backer of the separatist militants in Donetsk. Akhmetov himself has issued statements supporting a united Ukraine and provided workers to clear separatist barricades, Akhmetov also made numerous statements, since March 2014, appealing for integrity of Ukraine and finding peaceful solutions of the crisis. Rinat Akhmetov was born in Donetsk, Ukrainian SSR to a working-class family and he is an ethnic Volga Tatar and a Sunni Muslim. His father, Leonid Akhmetov was a coal-miner, and his mother, Rinat Akhmetov has an older brother, Igor, who also worked as a coal miner but had to resign due to work-related health complications. Rinat Akhmetov obtained a Bachelor of Arts / Science in Economics from the Donetsk National University, details regarding Akhmetovs past, how he obtained his wealth after the fall of communism in Ukraine, and the decade between 1985 and 1995 remain controversial. Akhmetov is said to have ties to organized crime and it was a risk but it was worth it. Many publications in Ukraine and other European countries have made claims about Akhmetovs alleged criminal past, in the 1980s, Akhmetov acted as an assistant to Akhat Bragin, whom law enforcement agencies regarded as a powerful crime boss, allegedly in the illegal cloth trading business. In October 1995, Bragin, his mentor and president of Shakhtar Donetsk football club, was killed in a mysterious bombing along with six of his bodyguards at the teams stadium during a match. Bragin and his associates had a conflict with mob groups and rival businessmen. Bragin, who was alleged to have a role in the Ukrainian mafia, was succeeded by Akhmetov as team president following his death. Some associate Akhmetov with the death of Bragin, following the assassinations, Akhmetov is said to have inherited a vast financial empire from Bragin. Akhmetov would head Dongorbank in 1995, the report tied the group to money laundering, financial fraud, and the control of numerous large and fictitious companies. The report also says that the activities have been stopped. Released in a Wikileaks diplomatic cable, Volodymyr Horbulin, one of Ukraines most respected policy strategists and former presidential advisor, concrete evidence was never officially revealed against him, nor his company. Looking back, Moskal concluded that we had nothing on Akhmetov in 2005, according to political journals Post-Soviet Affairs, and The Nation, Akhmetov was investigated on murder charges and for his alleged role in organized crime in the Donetsk region
17.
Victor Pinchuk
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Victor Pinchuk is a Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist. As of January 2016, Forbes ranked him as 1250th on the list of wealthiest people in the world, Pinchuk is the owner of four TV channels and a popular tabloid, Fakty i Kommentarii. He has been a member of the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada and he is married to Olena Pinchuk, the daughter of former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. Pinchuk was born in 1960 in Kyiv to Jewish parents who moved to the city of Dnipropetrovsk. He graduated from Dnipropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute with a doctorate in engineering in 1987. Three years later, he founded the Interpipe Company on the basis of his patented innovations, Interpipe is a major producer of seamless pipes and railway wheels. In 2004, Pinchuk and Rinat Akhmetov, two of Ukraines richest men, acquired the Kryvorizhstal steel factory for about $800 million, later, the first Tymoshenko Government reversed this sale, and held a nationally-televised repeat auction that netted $4.8 billion. In 2006, Pinchuk founded an investment advisory company, EastOne and its portfolio includes industrial assets such as production of pipes and tubes, rail car wheels, specialty steels and alloys, machinery, as well as media. Pinchuk was a member of the Ukrainian Parliament between 1998 and 2006 for Labour Ukraine and he left politics after he came to the conclusion that Ukraine had reached a level of development when business and politics should be separated. Pinchuk holds a share of VS Energy International Ukraine together with Mikhail Spektor and Igor Kolomoisky, allegations made include murder and bribery. In January 2016, an out of court settlement was reached just before the trial was due to start. Pinchuk has supported projects in Ukraine. In 2006, he consolidated these activities under the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, in June 2009, Pinchuk organized the Paul McCartney free concert on Independence Square in Kyiv in front of 500,000 people. As an initiative of the Pinchuk Art Center, in December 2009, the Future Generation Art Prize is awarded every two years and is open to any young artist who applies online. Damien Hirst, Takashi Murakami, Andreas Gursky and Jeff Koons, artists whose work Pinchuk collects, serve as mentors to the finalists, in November 2014 in Kyev, Pinchuk was presented with the 2014 Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Award for his work in fostering Ukrainian-Jewish relations. In 2004, Pinchuk created Yalta European Strategy - an international independent organization that is promoting Ukraine joining the European Union and its annual summer meeting in Yalta is a Ukraine-EU forum for debate and policy recommendations development. Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair, Stefan Fule, Paul Krugman, Alexei Kudrin, Shimon Peres, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Larry Summers and other political, Pinchuk promotes closer ties between Ukraine and the EU. He is a participant in the World Economic Forum at Davos
18.
Forbes
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Forbes is an American business magazine. Published bi-weekly, it features articles on finance, industry, investing. Forbes also reports on related subjects such as technology, communications, science, politics and its headquarters is located in Jersey City, New Jersey. Primary competitors in the business magazine category include Fortune and Bloomberg Businessweek. The magazine is known for its lists and rankings, including its lists of the richest Americans. Another well-known list by the magazine is The Worlds Billionaires list, the motto of Forbes magazine is The Capitalist Tool. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes, and its CEO is Mike Perlis, Forbes, a financial columnist for the Hearst papers, and his partner Walter Drey, the general manager of the Magazine of Wall Street, founded Forbes magazine on September 15,1917. Forbes provided the money and the name and Drey provided the publishing expertise, the original name of the magazine was Forbes, Devoted to Doers and Doings. Drey became vice-president of the B. C. Forbes Publishing Company, while B. C. Forbes became editor-in-chief, B. C. Forbes was assisted in his later years by his two eldest sons, Bruce Charles Forbes and Malcolm Stevenson Forbes. Bruce Forbes took over on his fathers death, and his strengths lay in streamlining operations, during his tenure, 1954–1964, the magazines circulation nearly doubled. On Malcolms death, his eldest son Malcolm Stevenson Steve Forbes Jr. became President and Chief Executive of Forbes, between 1961 and 1999 the magazine was edited by James Michaels. In 1993, under Michaels, Forbes was a finalist for the National Magazine Award. com, a 2009 New York Times report said,40 percent of the enterprise was sold. For a reported $300 million, setting the value of the enterprise at $750 million, according to Mark M. Edmiston of AdMedia Partners, Its probably not worth half of that now. The companys headquarters moved to the Newport section of downtown Jersey City. In November 2013, Forbes Media, which publishes Forbes magazine, was put up for sale and this was encouraged by Elevation Partners, of whom were minority shareholders. Sales documents prepared by Deutsche Bank revealed that the publishers 2012 EBITDA was $15 million, Forbes reportedly sought a price of $400 million. In July 2014, Forbes sold a majority of itself to Integrated Whale Media Investments, Steve Forbes and his magazines writers offer investment advice on the weekly Fox TV show Forbes on Fox and on Forbes On Radio. Other company groups include Forbes Conference Group, Forbes Investment Advisory Group, from the 2009 Times report, Steve Forbes recently returned from opening up a Forbes magazine in India, bringing the number of foreign editions to 10
19.
The Economist
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The Economist is an English-language weekly magazine-format newspaper owned by the Economist Group and edited at offices in London. Continuous publication began under its founder, James Wilson, in September 1843, in 2015 its average weekly circulation was a little over 1.5 million, about half of which were sold in the United States. The publication belongs to the Economist Group and it is 50% owned by the English branch of the Rothschild family and by the Agnelli family through its holding company Exor. The remaining 50% is held by investors including the editors. The Rothschilds and the Agnellis are represented on the board of directors, a board of trustees formally appoints the editor, who cannot be removed without its permission. Although The Economist has an emphasis and scope, about two-thirds of the 75 staff journalists are based in the London borough of Westminster. For the year to March 2016 the Economist Group declared operating profit of £61m, previous major shareholders include Pearson PLC. The Economist takes a stance of classical and economic liberalism which is supportive of free trade, globalisation, free immigration. The publication has described itself as a product of the Caledonian liberalism of Adam Smith and it targets highly educated readers and claims an audience containing many influential executives and policy-makers. The publications CEO described this recent global change, which was first noticed in the 1990s and accelerated in the beginning of the 21st century, on the contents page of each issue, The Economists mission statement is written in italics. The Economist was founded by the British businessman and banker James Wilson in 1843, to advance the repeal of the Corn Laws, articles relating to some practical, commercial, agricultural, or foreign topic of passing interest, such as foreign treaties. An article on the principles of political economy, applied to practical experience, covering the laws related to prices, wages, rent, exchange, revenue. Parliamentary reports, with focus on commerce, agriculture and free trade. Reports and accounts of popular movements advocating free trade, general news from the Court of St. Jamess, the Metropolis, the Provinces, Scotland, and Ireland. Law reports, confined chiefly to areas important to commerce, manufacturing, books, confined chiefly, but not so exclusively, to commerce, manufacturing, and agriculture, and including all treatises on political economy, finance, or taxation. A commercial gazette, with prices and statistics of the week, correspondence and inquiries from the news magazines readers. It has long respected as one of the most competent. Its logo was designed in 1959 by Reynolds Stone, in January 2012 The Economist launched a new weekly section devoted exclusively to China, the first new country section since the introduction of a section about the United States in 1942
20.
Soyuzmultfilm
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Soyuzmultfilm is a Russian animation studio based in Moscow. Over the years it has gained attention and respect, garnering numerous awards both at home and abroad. Noted for a variety of style, it is regarded as the most influential animation studio of the former Soviet Union. The studio has produced 1530 films during its existence and it is currently divided into two studios, Creative union of the Film studio Soyuzmultfilm and the Soyuzmultfilm Film Fund. The Studio was founded on 10 June 1936 under the name Soyuzdetmultfilm, the name was changed to Soyuzmultfilm on 20 August 1937. Initially comprising only a few scattered workshops, Soyuzmultfilm grew quickly, the studio produced exclusively traditional animation until 1954, when a puppet division was founded and the first stop motion-animated film released. The puppet division would also make cutout-animated films. During the Soviet era, the studio employed a maximum of over 700 skilled labourers, the studio was one of the most ethnically-integrated cultural industries in the Soviet Union. Hedgehog in the Fog, and The Mystery of the Third Planet, the variety of animation styles and the unprecedented degree of artistic freedom given to its many animators made Soyuzmultfilm perhaps the most diverse of the worlds major animation studios. Soyuzmultfilms creativity was fueled in part by the socialist economy of the Soviet Union, because animators were paid by the Academy of Film regardless of how well or how poorly their products sold, they were free to pursue their artistic vision without giving a thought to finances. The collapse of the Soviet Union brought to a close the era of Soyuzmultfilm. New economic realities made it impossible for the government to support the studio any longer, in 1989, Soyuzmultfilm was made into a leased enterprise and forced into the capitalist marketplace. Although the studio survived, it dramatically, losing nearly 90% of its staff. One early misfortune happened when the Russian courts transferred the studios puppet division building to the Russian Orthodox Church, no studio employees were allowed to come in and salvage any item, despite the presence of much expensive equipment and a whole library of puppets. The main reason for the collapse, however, was the studios deliberate dismantling by the new top management, in 1992–1993, Sergei Skulyabin was elected president. In 1992, the signed a deal with the American company Films by Jove, owned by Russian immigrant actor Oleg Vidov. It was the first international offer that the studio had received, Films by Jove restored many of the films and released many of them on television, video and DVD in the United States and Europe, albeit usually with dubbed voices and changed music. According to current director Akop Kirakosyan, the deal seemed promising at the time
21.
Ferroalloy
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Ferroalloy refers to various alloys of iron with a high proportion of one or more other elements such as manganese, aluminium, or silicon. They are used in the production of steels and alloys, the leading ferroalloy-producing countries in 2008 were Ukraine, China, South Africa and Russia, which accounted for 77% of the world production. World production of chromium, manganese and silicon ferroalloys was estimated as 29.1 million tonnes in 2008. The main ferroalloys are, Ferroalloys are produced generally by two methods, in a blast furnace or in an arc furnace. Blast furnace production continuously decreased during the 20th century, whereas the electric arc production is still increasing, today, feromanganese can be still efficiently produced in a blast furnace, but, even in this case, electric arc furnace are spreading. More commonly, ferroalloys are produced by carbothermic reactions, involving reduction of oxides with carbon in the presence of iron, some ferroalloys are produced by the addition of elements into molten iron. It is also possible to produce somme ferroalloys by direct reduction processes, for example, the Krupp-Renn process is used in Japan to produce ferronickel. The leading world chromite ore-producing countries in 2008 were India, Kazakhstan, more than 94% of chromite ore production was smelted in electric-arc furnaces to produce ferrochromium for the metallurgical industry. The leading world ferrochromium-producing countries in 2008 were China, Kazakhstan, India and Russia each produced in excess of 0.5 Mt of ferrochromium. Most of the 7.84 Mt of ferrochromium produced worldwide was consumed in the manufacture of steel which exceeded 26 Mt in 2008. Production for this is very economical, two manganese ferroalloys, ferromanganese and silicomanganese, are key ingredients for steelmaking. China is the leading producer of manganese ferroalloys, with output about much greater than that of the next three major producers—Brazil, South Africa and Ukraine —combined. Molybdenite concentrates are roasted to form molybdic oxide, which can be converted into ferromolybdenum, molybdenum chemicals, in 2008, the major ferronickel-producing countries were Japan, New Caledonia and Colombia. Together, these three countries accounted for about 51% of world production if China is excluded. Ukraine, Indonesia, Greece, and Macedonia, in descending order of gross output, all produced between 68,000 t and 90,000 t of ferronickel, accounting for an additional 31%. The nickel content of individual Chinese products varied from about 1. 6% to as much as 80%, the nickel pig iron is a low grade ferronickel made in China, which is very popular since the 2010s. Silicon ferroalloy consumption is driven by cast iron and steel production, some silicon metal was also used as an alloying agent with iron. On the basis of content, net production of ferrosilicon
22.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
23.
Romania
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Romania is a sovereign state located in Southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia and it has an area of 238,391 square kilometres and a temperate-continental climate. With over 19 million inhabitants, the country is the member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city, Bucharest, is the sixth-largest city in the EU, the River Danube, Europes second-longest river, rises in Germany and flows in a general southeast direction for 2,857 km, coursing through ten countries before emptying into Romanias Danube Delta. The Carpathian Mountains, which cross Romania from the north to the southwest are marked by one of their tallest peaks, Moldoveanu, modern Romania was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877, at the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the sovereign Kingdom of Romania. Romania lost several territories, of which Northern Transylvania was regained after the war, following the war, Romania became a socialist republic and member of the Warsaw Pact. After the 1989 Revolution, Romania began a transition back towards democracy and it has been a member of NATO since 2004, and part of the European Union since 2007. A strong majority of the population identify themselves as Eastern Orthodox Christians and are speakers of Romanian. The cultural history of Romania is often referred to when dealing with artists, musicians, inventors. For similar reasons, Romania has been the subject of notable tourist attractions, Romania derives from the Latin romanus, meaning citizen of Rome. The first known use of the appellation was attested in the 16th century by Italian humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia, after the abolition of serfdom in 1746, the word rumân gradually fell out of use and the spelling stabilised to the form român. Tudor Vladimirescu, a leader of the early 19th century. The use of the name Romania to refer to the homeland of all Romanians—its modern-day meaning—was first documented in the early 19th century. The name has been officially in use since 11 December 1861, in English, the name of the country was formerly spelt Rumania or Roumania. Romania became the predominant spelling around 1975, Romania is also the official English-language spelling used by the Romanian government. The Neolithic-Age Cucuteni area in northeastern Romania was the region of the earliest European civilization. Evidence from this and other sites indicates that the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture extracted salt from salt-laden spring water through the process of briquetage
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Dual citizenship
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There is no international convention which determines the nationality or citizen status of a person, which is defined exclusively by national laws, which vary and can be inconsistent with each other. Multiple citizenship arises because different countries use different, and not necessarily mutually exclusive, colloquial speech refers to people holding multiple citizenship but technically each nation makes a claim that this person be considered its national. Some countries do not permit dual citizenship, some countries do not permit a renunciation of citizenship. Some countries permit a general dual citizenship while others permit dual citizenship, similarly, it may not permit consular access by another country for a person who is also its national. Some countries prohibit dual citizenship holders from serving in their military, up until the late 19th century, nations often decided who they claimed as their citizens or subjects, and did not recognize any other nationalities they held. Many states did not recognize the right of their citizens to renounce their citizenship without permission and this meant that people could hold multiple citizenships, with none of their nations recognizing any other of their citizenships. This outraged many Irish-Americans, to which the British responded by pointing out that, just like British law, as a result, Congress passed the Expatriation Act of 1868, which granted Americans the right to freely renounce their U. S. citizenship. Britain followed suit with a law, and years later. As a result, the theory of perpetual allegiance largely fell out of favor with governments during the late 19th century, by the mid-20th century, dual nationality was largely prohibited worldwide, although there were exceptions. For example, a series of U. S. Supreme Court rulings permitted Americans born with citizenship in another country to keep it without losing their U. S. citizenship. It proposed laws that would have reduced both, but in the end was ratified by only twenty nations, however, the consensus against dual nationality began to erode due to changes in social mores and attitudes. By the late 20th century it was becoming gradually accepted again, many states were lifting restrictions on dual citizenship. The rights of citizenship are determined by country, which sets its own criteria for citizenship. These laws may create situations where a person may satisfy the requirements of more than one country simultaneously. This would, in the absence of laws of one country or the other, National laws may include criteria as to the circumstances, if any, in which a person may concurrently hold another citizenship. A country may withdraw its own citizenship if a person acquires a citizenship of another country, for example, historically, citizenship was traced through the father, but today most countries permit the tracing through either parent, and some also through a grandparent. Today, the laws of most countries are based on jus sanguinis. In many cases, this basis for citizenship also extends to children born outside the country, Citizenship by birth on the countrys territory
25.
Ukrainian nationality law
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Ukrainian citizenship is the status of a person recognized under Constitution as being a legal member of Ukraine. Ukrainian Citizenship Law has been adopted after parliament election on 26 July 1990 together with Declaration of State Sovereignty, the citizenship of Ukraine may be acquired in one of the following ways, being born within the territory of Ukraine with at least one parent a citizen of Ukraine. Being born abroad, having permanent residence in Ukraine, with at least one parent a citizen of Ukraine, being adopted as a child by citizens of Ukraine. Having no other citizenship and at least one parent or grandparent Ukrainian by birth, having no other citizenship, under certain conditions listed in the Statute on Citizenship. Birth within the territory of Ukraine does not automatically confer citizenship, the decision on involuntary termination of Ukrainian citizenship must be taken by the President of Ukraine. Ukrainian law currently does not recognise dual citizenship, however, there are citizens of Ukraine who hold dual citizenship. Ukrainian law states that the new Ukrainian citizen must renounce its non-Ukrainian citizenship within two years, a 2009 estimate put the number of Ukrainians with more than one passport from 300,000 to a few million. Within Ukrainian boundaries Ukrainian citizens who hold multiple citizenships are considered to be solely Ukrainian citizens. On February 8,2014, the Verkhovna Rada proposed a bill to criminalize the act of holding two citizenships, immigration to Ukraine - Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine List of legislative acts on Ukraine citizenship
26.
Aerosvit Airlines
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AeroSvit Airlines private stock company, operating as AeroSvit — Ukrainian Airlines / АероСвіт, was a Ukrainian private airline. Its head office was on the grounds of the Boryspil International Airport in Boryspil, Aerosvit Airlines was a member of IATA and an IATA IOSA certified carrier. Its main base was the Boryspil Airport, the airline started operations in April 1994 with international flights from Kiev in co-operation with Air Ukraine. Bankruptcy procedure began in December 2012 and in January 2013, AeroSvit ceased its operations. The airline was established on 25 March 1994, and started operations in April that year with flights from Kiev to Athens, Larnaca, Tel Aviv, Odesa and Thessaloniki in co-operation with Air Ukraine. In October the same year, the carrier started dry-leasing some Boeing 737-200s in connection with the addition of Moscow into the route network. In 1995, new scheduled flights from Kiev to Almaty, Ashgabad, in 1996, Yekaterinburg, Kharkiv, Lviv, and Simferopol were added to the airlines network. Also in 1996, the became a member of the International Air Transport Association. By 1997 Aerosvit Airlines became a member of IATA Clearing House, by 1999 Aerosvit had acquired a third Boeing 737-200 aircraft and scheduled flights to Budapest, Sofia and Istanbul were launched. In 2000, two more Boeing 737-300 aircraft joined Aerosvit Airlines’ fleet, scheduled flights to Prague and Warsaw were launched, and Aerosvit Airlines carried more passengers than any other Ukrainian airline. The airliner became the first Western-built wide-body one to be operated by a Ukrainian carrier, also in 2002, Aerosvit took over the long-haul services previously operated by Air Ukraine. In 2003 Aerosvit opened its first transatlantic service with scheduled flights, based on Boeing 767 equipment, to New York, later in the year, flights to Toronto, in this year the airline also carried its second millionth passenger. Soon after JAR-145 certification for performing in house maintenance works in accordance with the European Joint Aviation Authorities’ requirements was received, with the onset of 2004 Aerosvit increased the number of weekly flights it operated to Bangkok to three and an additional Boeing 737-300 was added to the fleet. Route expansion continued as before, and over the course of the year the number of Aerosvit-operated domestic flights across Ukraine expanded to eleven destinations. However, expansion did not just take place on the market, as Aerosvit introduced new routes from its base in Kiev, to Beijing, Baku, Chisinau, Cairo. Finally, in 2004, Aerosvit Airlines became the air carrier of the National Olympic team of Ukraine for the XXVIII Olympic Summer Games held in 2004 in Athens. Aerosvits ninth Boeing 737 mid-haul aircraft started operating in 2005, with a tenth being added to the soon after. In the same year e-ticketing was launched on the route New York-Kiev and Aerosvit Airlines, in 2006, the carrier became the 85th worldwide in passing the IATA Operational Safety Audit
27.
Dniproavia
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Dniproavia is an airline headquartered at Dnipro International Airport in Dnipro, Ukraine, operating scheduled and chartered passenger flights. Dniproavia was established in 1933 as Dnipropetrovsk Integrated Air Squad, forming part of then Soviet national airline Aeroflot. On 22 June 1996, the became a joint stock company in a state-owned entity which included Dnipropetrovsk International Airport. Dniproavia announced a loss of just over 6 million USD for 2006, despite increasing revenues by 17 percent and it blamed the loss on the suspension of its flights to Germany, due to a dispute with the German authorities over Lufthansas landing rights at Dnipropetrovsk Airport. In October 2009, the airline was sold to Galtera investment group, however, by mid of June 2012 the airline introduced their first Embraer 190. All Embraer 190 were ordered and operated by Dniproavia, but they were operated for the airline-partner AeroSvit, on the 9 January 2013 the company ceased all operations, but some flights were resumed on 1 February 2013. As of January 2017, Dniproavia serves domestic routes within Ukraine as well as services to Bulgaria, Israel. The aircraft came to a rest 100 metres away from the runway and was substantially damaged, there were no fatal injuries amongst the 13 passengers and 4 crew members on board. 28 April 2011, A Dniproavia Embraer 145 ran off the taxiway after having just exited the runway at Moscows Sheremetyevo International Airport, as a result of this, the aircrafts landing gear gave way and its chassis was badly damaged. However, the aircraft was evacuated and made safe by airport rescue personnel and no injuries were reported, amongst the 30 passengers and 4 crew members. Media related to Dniproavia at Wikimedia Commons Official website
28.
Donbassaero
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Donbassaero was an airline with its head office on the property of Donetsk International Airport in Donetsk, Ukraine. It operated domestic and international scheduled services and its main bases were Donetsk International Airport and Boryspil International Airport in Kiev. The main shareholder of the company was PrivatBank, controlled by Ihor Kolomoyskyi, the airline was founded in 1993 as Donetsk State Airline, then re-organized and re-branded as Donbassaero in 2003. Their web site was launched in July 2005 and their online booking system started in November of the same year, the airline filed for bankruptcy and ceased operations on 14 January 2013. The Ukrainian deputy attorney general, Tatiana Kornikova, was one of the passengers of the flight, media related to Donbassaero at Wikimedia Commons Official website Official website Donbassaero Fleet Photos
29.
Skyways (airline)
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Skyways Express AB was a Swedish airline that operated regional and domestic scheduled services. With its corporate office on the property of Stockholm-Arlanda Airport in Sigtuna Municipality, Sweden. The airline was placed into administration on 22 May 2012, previously its head office was at Eurostop köpcenter, Cederströms slinga, Arlandastad. The airline was established in 1987 and was known as Avia. It acquired Salair on 15 July 1991 and Highland Air in March 1997, a partnership was forged with Scandinavian Airlines which acquired a 25% stake in April 1998. The owners were Salenia, SAS and Janus, the operational division of Skyways was separated from the sales division in 2009. During 2010 there was some restructuring regarding ownership, SAS sold its share of the company at a loss, and eventually it was acquired by the asset management company Manswell Enterprises Limited, controlled by Ihor Kolomoyskyi. In 2011 Skyways merged with another Manswell controlled company, the Gothenburg-based airline City Airline and it also bought the Danish airline Cimber Sterling and developed the intention to become Scandinavias biggest regional airline. As of December 1,2010 the operation, sales and marketing of the airline functioned again as one unit under Avia Express continuing the use of the brand Skyways. On 22 May 2012, Skyways Express AB and City Airline AB filed for bankruptcy, Cimber Sterling had filed for bankruptcy earlier that month
30.
City Airline
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City Airline AB was a regional airline based in the Air Cargo Building on the grounds of Göteborg Landvetter Airport in Landvetter, Härryda Municipality, Sweden. It was privately owned and operated a medium-sized European network from its base at Landvetter. The airline was owned by Investment AB Janus of Gothenburg. On 29 November 2011 the City Airline name was dropped after being acquired by Skyways, in May 2012 Skyways and City Airline filed for bankruptcy. City Airline was established in 1997, originally operating wet leases for British Midland Airways and it has from around 2008 expanded in the leisure market with destinations such as Barcelona, Nice and Mallorca. City Airline has signed a agreement with Scandinavian Airlines. On 22 May 2012, Skyways announced immediate cancellation of all due to lack of finances. Both City Airline AB and Skyways Express AB filed for bankruptcy, all regular flights at destined from/to Göteborg Landvetter Airport. As of August 2011, the City Airline fleet included the aircraft with an average age of 13.9 years
31.
Cimber Sterling
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Its main bases were Copenhagen Airport and Billund Airport, with a smaller base at Aalborg Airport. The airline filed for bankruptcy on 3 May 2012, the airline was established on 1 August 1950 and started operations in 1950. It was founded by the late Captain Ingolf Nielsen and its first aircraft was a single engine SAI KZ III, call sign OY-DMO which had been used for flights primarily between Sønderborg and Copenhagen. In 1969 the airline took delivery of an eight-seat De Havilland Dove twin-engine light airliner, Cimber Air was one of the very few operators of the VFW-Fokker 614 regional jet. It also operated Nord 262 and Grumman Gulfstream I turboprop aircraft on its scheduled services, scandinavian Airlines System purchased 26% of Cimber Air in May 1998 and expanded its codeshare agreement. In March 2003, SAS sold the stake back to Cimber Air Holding, on 3 December 2008 Cimber Air bought parts of Sterling Airlines, which had filed for bankruptcy on 29 October 2008. The new airline, which was named Cimber-Sterling, was created on 7 January 2009, Cimber bought the AOC, slots, brand and website. Aircraft leases were negotiatied with the owners, employees of the former Sterling Airlines was not part of the takeover, but were welcome to seek employment in the new airline. Cimber Sterling was originally owned by Cimber Air Holding and had 368 employees. It was listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange in 2009, in 2011, due to financial difficulties Cimber Sterling entered into a subscription agreement with Mansvell Enterprises Ltd, which gave Ukrainian billionaire Ihor Kolomoyskyi a stake of 70. 8%. On the morning of 3 May 2012, Cimber Sterling cancelled all flights, within hours, other airlines announced their entry on selected routes. Cimber Sterling was the sponsor of the Danish handball team in 2009 and 2010. The Cimber Sterling fleet included the aircraft, www. cimber. com www. cimber. dk www. cimber. se Cimber Group
32.
Kyiv Post
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The Kyiv Post is Ukraines oldest English language newspaper. American Jed Sunden founded the Kyiv Post weekly newspaper on Oct.18,1995, the newspaper, which went online in 2002, serves Ukrainian and expatriate readers with a general interest mix of political, business and entertainment coverage. The staff is a team of mainly Ukrainian journalists, numbering 23 editorial team members as of December 2016, historically, the editorial policy has supported democracy, Western integration and free markets for Ukraine. The Kyiv Post has had two owners in its existence, Sunden and Mohammad Zahoor, Sundens KP Media sold the newspaper to British citizen Zahoor on July 28,2009. Zahoor owns the ISTIL Group and is a native of Pakistan, Zahoor publishes the newspaper through his Public Media company. In an interview with the Kyiv Post published on August 6,2009, Zahoor pledged to revive the newspaper, the first 16-page issue was put out by an editorial staff of two people. Sunden built the newspaper into an enterprise, one that served the needs of the expatriate community that then regarded Ukraine as a potential hotspot for investment. During Sundens tenure, he held to libertarian and anti-Communist views on the editorial and opinion pages and he said the policy is good for business and news. Sunden was controversial for allowing paid massage advertisements from women engaging in prostitution, after Zahoor bought the newspaper, he retained the entire editorial team. One of his first acts as publisher, however, was to eliminate the paid massage advertisements, Zahoor sustained the policy of editorial independence, with limited exceptions. While the newspaper was free to any candidate for the election. The Kyiv Post lost advertising and cut costs, but still ended the year in the black, in the last months under Sunden in 2009, the newspapers editorial staff shrunk to 12 members, its page count to 16 and its print distribution to 11,000 copies. Zahoor invested in journalists, increased distribution and improved newsprint and he boosted the page count—to 32 pages through much of 2010-2011, dropping back to 24 pages again through much of 2012-2013 and then to 16 pages for most of the last three years. The start of an affiliated organization, the Media Development Foundation. The Kyiv Post has had at least 15 chief editors since its first edition on October 18,1995, the longest-serving chief editor is Brian Bonner, an American citizen who became the editor in the summer of 1999 and returned on June 9,2008. Bonners tenure was interrupted briefly twice, the front-page story was published on April 15,2011. Bonners firing lasted only five days, after the staff went on strike in support of his decision to publish the article. On April 18 in Kyiv, a group of visiting U. S, the incident garnered international attention as a barometer of the state of freedom of the press in Ukraine
33.
Ukrainian hryvnia
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The hryvnia, sometimes hryvnya, sign, ₴, code, UAH), has been the national currency of Ukraine since 2 September 1996. The hryvnia is subdivided into 100 kopiykas and it is named after a measure of weight used in medieval Kievan Rus. The currency of Kievan Rus in the century was called grivna. The word is thought to derive from the Slavic griva, c. f, Ukrainian, Russian, Bulgarian, and Serbo-Croatian грива / griva, meaning mane. It might have indicated something valuable worn around the neck, usually made of silver or gold, later, the word was used to describe silver or gold ingots of a certain weight, c. f. The modern Ukrainian hryvnia is sometimes transliterated as hryvna, hrivna, gryvna or grivna, due to its Russian language counterpart, гри́вна, however, the standard English name for the currency is hryvnia. The National Bank of Ukraine has recommended that a distinction be made between hryvnia and grívna in both historical and practical means, the nominative plural of hryvnia is hryvni, while the genitive plural is hryven′. An exception for this rule is numbers ending in 11,12,13 and 14 for which the plural is also used, for example. The singular for the subdivision is копійка, the plural is копійки. The hryvnia sign is a cursive Ukrainian letter He, with a horizontal stroke, symbolizing stability. The sign was encoded as U+20B4 in Unicode 4.1 and it is now supported by the latest computer systems. In Ukraine, if the sign is unavailable, the abbreviation грн. is used. A currency called hryvna was used in Kievan Rus, in 1917, after the Ukrainian National Republic declared independence from the Russian Empire, the name of the new Ukrainian currency became hryvnia, a revised version of the Kievan Rus hryvna. The hryvnia replaced the karbovanets during the period 2–16 September 1996, the karbovanets was subject to hyperinflation in the early 1990s following the collapse of the USSR. To a large extent, the introduction of hryvnia was secretive, Hryvnia was introduced according to Presidents Decree dated 26 August 1996, published on August 29. During the transition period, September 2–16, both hryvnia and karbovanets were used in circulation, but merchants were required to change only in hryvnias. All bank accounts were converted to hryvnia automatically, during the transition period, 97% of karbovanets were taken out of circulation, including 56% in the first 5 days of the currency reform. After 16 September 1996, the remaining karbovanets were allowed to be exchanged to hryvnias in banks, the hryvnia was introduced during the period when Victor Yushchenko was the Chairman of National Bank of Ukraine
34.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
35.
Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation
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The Ukrainian territory of Crimea was annexed by the Russian Federation on 18 March 2014. On 23 February 2014, pro-Russian demonstrations were held in the Crimean city of Sevastopol and it led to the other members of the then G8 suspending Russia from the group, then introducing the first round of sanctions against the country. The resolution calls upon all States and international organizations not to recognize or to imply the recognition of Russias annexation, the Russian Federation opposes the annexation label, with Putin defending the referendum as complying with the principle of self-determination of peoples. In July 2015, Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev said that Crimea had been integrated into Russia. Crimea became part of the Russian Empire in 1783, when the Crimean Khanate was annexed, initially it was incorporated into the Empire as Taurida Oblast but in 1795 it was merged into Novorossiysk Governorate and then, in 1802, transferred to the Taurida Governorate. A series of short-lived governments were established during first stages of the Russian Civil War, in October 1921, the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the Russian SFSR was instituted. In 1954, the Crimean Oblast was transferred from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. In 1989, under perestroika, the Supreme Soviet declared that the deportation of the Crimean Tatars under Stalin had been illegal, in 1990, the Soviet of the Crimean Oblast proposed the restoration of the Crimean ASSR. The oblast conducted a referendum in 1991, which asked whether Crimea should be elevated into a signatory of the New Union Treaty, by that time, though, the dissolution of the Soviet Union was well underway. The Crimean ASSR was restored for less than a year as part of Soviet Ukraine before Ukrainian independence, newly independent Ukraine maintained Crimeas autonomous status, while the Supreme Council of Crimea affirmed the peninsulas sovereignty as a part of Ukraine. The autonomous status of Crimea was limited by Ukrainian authorities in 1995, on 24 August 2009, anti-Ukrainian demonstrations were held in Crimea by ethnic Russian residents. Sergei Tsekov said then that he hoped that Russia would treat Crimea the same way as it had treated South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Yanukovych won the 2010 presidential election with strong support from voters in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and southern and eastern Ukraine. The Crimean autonomous government strongly supported Yanukovych and condemned the protests, on 4 February 2014, the Presidium of the Supreme Council considered holding a referendum on the peninsulas status, and asked the Russian government to guarantee the vote. The Security Service of Ukraine responded by opening a case to investigate the possible subversion of Ukraines territorial integrity. The Euromaidan protests came to a head in late February 2014, arseniy Yatsenyuk was appointed by the Rada to serve as the head of a caretaker government until new presidential and parliament elections could be held. This new government was recognised internationally, though the Russian government said that these events had been a coup détat, in January 2014 the Sevastopol city council had already called for formation of peoples militia units to ensure firm defence of the city from extremism. Crimean parliament members called for a meeting on 21 February. Crimean Tatar Mejlis chairman Mustafa Dzhemilev said that he suspected that the meeting was arranged to call for Russian military intervention in Crimea
36.
Sergey Aksyonov
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Sergey Valeryevich Aksyonov is the Prime Minister of the Republic of Crimea which is an internationally disputed federal subject of the Russian Federation located on the Crimean Peninsula. Sergey Aksyonov was born in Bălți in the Moldovan SSR on 26 November 1972 and his father was the leader of a group called the Russian Community of Northern Moldova in Bălți. He then refused to swear an oath of allegiance to Ukraine, from 1993—1998 he was deputy director of a company named Ellada, a business related to food products. From October 1998 to March 2001 he was deputy director of the Asteriks company, Aksyonov is also the head of Crimeas Greco-Roman wrestling organization, Sports club Hwarang-do. His Ukrainian passport Aksyonov received on August 12,1997, sources have alleged that Aksyonov served in the mid 1990s as a lieutenant, or overseer, with the nickname Goblin in the organized criminal gang Salem. Aksyonovs connection with the world is acknowledged by the former chief of militsiya in Crimea Hennadiy Moskal. In 1995 some members of Salem had taken office as local deputies, “Aksyonov used to work side-by-side with another gang member, Serhiy Voronkov, in the early 1990s. Voronkov is a mafia boss who was released from prison in 2008 and is still doing business in Crimea, said Andrei Yanitskiy. A native of Sevastopol, Yanitskiy alleges that Aksyonov is still a member of the Salem gang, according to Mikhelson, Aksyonov started his criminal career in the gang Greki that was created in Crimea by the Savopulo brothers, and only later Aksyonov switched to more notorious Salem. In 1994 authorities were suspecting him and Aleksey Zhuk in the killing of Oleg Fenyuk through a contract, soon, however Greki were liquidated, yet unlike many others Aksyonov managed to survive. The same Zhuk was killed 10 minutes after his talk with Aksyonov. In January 1996, Aksyonov was wounded after a Volvo in which he was riding overturned on the Simferopol-Moscow highway during a shootout, however, according to official documents the intended target was Samhan Mazahir-oglu Agaev. Beside Agaev and Aksyonov, in the vehicle also were Aleksandr Bogomol, the hit was conducted with automatic weapon by militants of the Greki gang Ruslan and Rusel from Yevpatoria who were driving a black Samara. The hit was contracted by Ivan Savopulo, both Ruslan and Rusel were arrested on January 24,1996, but soon were released due to lack of evidence. A HUBOZ operative stated that Aksyonov kept close relations with Sergei Voronkov, coincidentally, members of the Party of Economic Revival were involved in establishing of the Azerbaijani separatist organization Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Around that time Aksyonov started to buy and stockpile weapons, there is suspicion that the regional office of General Prosecutor of Ukraine received $60,000 to discontinue the investigation into the murder of Volodymyr Tykhonchuk. Aksyonov also received all the assets of Agaev who was killed in spring of 1997, in 2010, Aksyonov sued Mikhail Bakharev, vice speaker of the Crimean parliament, for making statements of this kind. Andriy Senchenko, a Crimean member of Verkhovna Rada from Batkivshchyna party alleged that Aksyonov was involved in activities together with Supreme Council Chairman
37.
Eastern Ukraine
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Eastern Ukraine or East Ukraine generally refers to territories of Ukraine east of the Dnieper river, particularly Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts. Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia Oblasts sometimes are also regarded as Eastern Ukraine, in regard to traditional territories the area encompasses portions of the southern Sloboda Ukraine, Donbas, the western Azov Littoral. Almost a third of the population lives within the region. Within Ukraine, the region is the most highly urbanized, particularly portions of central Kharkiv Oblast, south-western Luhansk Oblast, central, northern and eastern areas of Donetsk Oblast. The region stretches from areas of the Central Russian Upland to the northern shores of the Sea of Azov, from the eastern border with Russia to Black Sea. Aside of Dnieper, the river of eastern Ukraine is Seversky Donets which gave the name to the main economical region for that portion of the country. The territory is urbanized and commonly associated with the Donbas. The three largest metropolitan cities form a triangle within the region. Among the major cities with population of over 200,000 people are Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk-Makiivka, Zaporizhia, Mariupol, Luhansk, Horlivka and Kamianske. Cities of Donetsk and Makiivka create what is known as urban sprawl with very close proximity to important cities such as Horlivka. The Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk Oblasts are more associated with Southern Ukraine. A large majority of voters in eastern Ukraine approved Ukraines declaration of independence in the 1991 referendum, in 2014, pro-Russian protests took place in parts of eastern Ukraine. Some of the protesters were tourists from Russia, the war in Donbass resulted in thousands of deaths and over a million people leaving their homes. As of 2016, about half of the territory of Donbas is controlled by the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic, according to the 2001 census, the majority of Eastern Ukraines population are ethnic Ukrainians, while ethnic Russians form a significant minority. The most common language is Russian, having long dominated in government, when Ukraine became independent, there were no Ukrainian-language schools in Donetsk. Noticeable cultural differences in the region are more positive views on the Russian language and on the Soviet era, during elections voters of the Eastern oblasts of Ukraine vote for parties and presidential candidates with a pro-Russian and status quo platform. The electorate of CPU and Party of Regions is very loyal to them, effective in August 2012, a law on regional languages entitled any local language spoken by at least a 10% of the population to be declared official within that area. Within weeks, Russian was declared as a language in several southern and eastern oblasts
38.
Citizenship of Russia
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In accordance with the supremacy clause of the Constitution, international treaties of the Russian Federation have precedence over Russian domestic law. In Russian language, there is a distinction between citizens of Russia, referred to as Rossiyane, and ethnic Russians, referred to as Russkie, the word Rossiyane is used much more often than Russkie in media and official documents. Those who have received Russian citizenship via naturalisation are also called Rossiyane, regardless of ethnicity, the word Rossiyane was coined by Mikhail Lomonosov in the 18th century. The Tsardom of Russia became a state in the 16th century. The word Rossiane, coined by Lomonosov, has widely used since then. After the fall of the Russian Empire, the expression Soviet people was used for the population of the Soviet Union, after the dissolution of the USSR, the word Rossiyane became widely used again. Until 1990, the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic was a subject of the Soviet federation, in 1990, state sovereignty of the RSFSR was declared, though the USSR was not abolished until the end of 1991. Article 11 of the declaration of state sovereignty introduced RSFSR citizenship, the text of the citizenship act was ready in the summer of 1991, but was not adopted by the Supreme Council until November 28,1991. In accordance with Article 13, former Soviet citizens among permanent residents on February 6,1992 of the RSFSR were recognized as RSFSR citizens and those who expressed their will not to become RSFSR citizens until February 6,1993 were not recognized as RSFSR citizens. Article 11 stated that all former Soviet citizens and their descendants should be recognized as Russian citizens unless they had declared their intentions to be citizens of foreign states, no official comments have been given as to how this article should be interpreted. Oleg Kutafin, the chairman of the Presidential Committee on citizenship, criticized this Act in his book Russian Citizenship, in 2002, a new citizenship act, supported by President Vladimir Putin, replaced the act of 1991. Restoration of citizenship is granted under the rules as naturalization. A special provision of law made it possible for citizens of the USSR to apply for Russian citizenship before 2009. Citizenship of children generally follows the citizenship of their parents, if one or both parents obtain Russian citizenship, their children become Russian citizens as well. If one or both parents lose Russian citizenship, their children lose it too, a child can acquire or relinquish Russian citizenship by the application of his parents, but at least one parent must be a Russian citizen in this case. Visa requirements for Russian citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other countries placed on citizens of Russia, in 2016, Russian citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 105 countries and territories, ranking the Russian passport 48th in the world according to the Visa Restrictions Index. Smirnov was born on RSFSR territory in 1950, in 1979, he married and moved his permanent residence to the Lithuanian SSR. He divorced in 1992 and returned to the RSFSR on December 8,1992 and he then applied for a notice of Russian citizenship in his passport, but this was rejected by executive officers
39.
Permanent Court of Arbitration
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The Permanent Court of Arbitration is an intergovernmental organization located at The Hague in the Netherlands. The cases span a range of issues involving territorial and maritime boundaries, sovereignty, human rights, international investment. The PCA is constituted through two separate multilateral conventions with a membership of 121 states. The organization is not a United Nations agency, the Peace Palace was built from 1907 until 1913 for PCA in The Hague. In addition the houses the Hague Academy of International Law, Peace Palace Library. The Administrative Council is a composed of all diplomatic representatives of Member States accredited to the Netherlands. It is presided by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and it is responsible for direction and control of the International Bureau, directs the organisations budget and reports on its activities. The International Bureau is the Secretariat of the PCA and is headed by the Secretary-General and it provides linguistic, research, administrative support to PCA arbitration tribunals. The judges or arbitrators that hear cases are called Members of the Court, Members of each member state together form a national group. Members may be selected in arbitration cases in which the PCA provides support, national Groups may propose candidates for International Court of Justice members. The PCA sometimes gets confused with the International Court of Justice, the PCA is however not part of the UN system, although it does have observer status in the UN General Assembly since 1993. In the Articles 30-57 of the Hague Convention of 1899 the rules of procedure are outlined. These rules are the version of pre-existing treaties among the states. They were amended in 1907. They came in again in 1920 to serve the Permanent Court of international Justice. The first act of parties is the submission of the so called compromisis, stating the issue, basically the lawsuit is divided in two phases, written pleadings and oral discussion. During the first part of the procedure the agents and the barristers of parties submit, in the second phase there is a verbal debate in front of the Court that retires once the debate is over to deliberate and conclude the case by a simple majority of votes. The award binding on the parties and no appeal is allowed, however, a minor restriction for revision is made in case fresh evidence of a decisive nature has come up between the debate and the award. Naturally, any decision as to its relevance and the subsequent admission of the request is up to the Court and it is this Article 55, incidentally, which led to heated argument within the body of the Third Commission in 1899
40.
Yulia Tymoshenko
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Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko is a Ukrainian politician. She co-led the Orange Revolution and was the first woman appointed Prime Minister of Ukraine, serving from 24 January to 8 September 2005, Tymoshenko is the leader of the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland political party that has 19 seats in parliament and has Tymoshenko as its parliamentary faction leader. In the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election the party had received the second most votes, in the 2014 Ukrainian presidential election Tymoshenko received 12. 81% of the vote, coming in second place after Petro Poroshenko who won the election with 54. 7%. Tymoshenko finished second in the Ukrainian presidential election of 2010 runoff, losing by 3.5 percentage points to the winner, in the first round she had also finished second. After the 2010 presidential election, a number of cases were brought against her. On 11 October 2011 she was convicted of embezzlement and abuse of power, the decision was supported by 322 votes. She was officially rehabilitated on 28 February 2014, just after the Euromaidan revolution, the Ukrainian Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights closed the case and found that no crime was committed. In 2005 Tymoshenko placed third in Forbes magazines list of the worlds most powerful women, Tymoshenko strives for Ukraines integration into the European Union and strongly opposes the membership of Ukraine in the Eurasian Customs Union. Yulia Tymoshenko supports NATO membership for Ukraine, Tymoshenko was born Yulia Hrihyan 27 November 1960, in Dnipropetrovsk, Soviet Ukraine, Soviet Union. Her mother, Lyudmila Telehina, was born on 11 August 1937, yulias father, Volodymyr Hrihyan, who according to his Soviet passport was Latvian, was born on 3 December 1937, also in Dnipropetrovsk. He abandoned his wife and young daughter when Yulia was between one and three old, Yulia used her mothers surname. Yulias paternal grandfather, Abram Kapitelman, was born in 1914, Kapitelman was mobilized into the army in the autumn of 1940 and subsequently was killed while taking part in the Great Patriotic War on 8 November 1944, with the rank of lieutenant in Signal corps. In 1977, Tymoshenko graduated from school in Dnipropetrovsk. In 1978 Tymoshenko was enrolled in the Automatization and Telemechanics Department of the Dnipropetrovsk Mining Institute, in 1999 she defended her PhD dissertation, titled State Regulation of the tax system, at the Kyiv National Economic University. Tymoshenko has worked as a practicing economist and academic, prior to her political career, she became a successful but controversial businesswoman in the gas industry, becoming by some estimates one of the richest people in the country. Before becoming Ukraines first female minister in 2005, Tymoshenko co-led the Orange Revolution. She was placed third in Forbes magazines List of The Worlds 100 Most Powerful Women 2005, after graduating from the Dnipropetrovsk State University in 1984, Tymoshenko worked as an engineer-economist in the Dnipro Machine-Building Plant in Dnipropetrovsk until 1988. Tymoshenko worked as a general director, in 1995 this company was reorganized into United Energy Systems of Ukraine
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Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc
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The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc was since 2001 the name of the bloc of political parties in Ukraine led by Yulia Tymoshenko. In November 2011 the participation of blocs of political parties in elections was banned. The core party of the alliance Fatherland stayed a major force in Ukrainian politics, founded for the 2002 parliamentary elections the alliance attracted most of its voters from Western Ukrainian provinces and from central Ukraine. The alliance had low support in the east and the south of Ukraine and they did recruited several politicians from these Russian speaking provinces like Crimea and Luhansk Oblast. The alliance was often associated with the 2004 Orange Revolution and thus named an Orange Party in media publications, other noticeable BYuT deputies are Soviet dissident Levko Lukyanenko and former UNA-UNSO leader Andriy Shkil. BYuT was intending to more representatives from the education sector into voting for its lists. According to the partys leader Tymoshenko, Certain branches and sectors have powerful lobbies, and there are only three to four lobbyists who represent the spheres of education and health care in the Verkhovna Rada. Therefore some sectors lack financing, while others have excessive funding, according to party-leader Tymoshenko representatives of business had no dominant influence on decision making in her political force. Business is represented in the parliament, but it doesnt shape politics this is what distinguishes my political force from the Party of Regions for instance, several billionaires have been member of the BYuT faction in the Verkhovna Rada. This organisation later merged into the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc in November 2001, the Bloc itself complained of campaign related violations including an informal media blackout, negatively slanted coverage. 2% of the popular vote and 22 out of 450 seats. This result was better than expected, because BYuT had limited access to the media, in January 2005 Tymoshenko became Prime Minister of Ukraine under Yushchenkos presidency. After a it had lost a few seats in the years 2002 and 2003, to the parliamentary elections on 26 March 2006 the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko went only with Fatherland and Ukrainian Social Democratic Party after both republican parties left the alliance. Nonetheless the elections saw BYuT move into place with 22, 27% of the vote behind Party of Regions which had 33%. They won 129 seats out of 450, the rest left the party and stayed with Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. After the elections in 2006 Levko Lukyanenko managed to reinstate the original Ukrainian Republican Party, top 10 members In the parliamentary elections on 30 September 2007, the bloc won 156 out of 450 seats, securing an additional 1.5 million votes in comparison with the 2006 election. In 2007 Yulia Tymoshenko received a swing of 8. 24% in comparison their 2006 vote, most of the swing came as a result of consolidation of the vote in regions in which BYuT already was the leading party. Statistics published by Ukraines Central Electoral Commission indicate that most of the came from minor parties. On 15 October 2007, Our Ukraine–Peoples Self-Defense Bloc and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc agreed to form a majority coalition in the new parliament of the 6th convocation, on 29 November, a coalition was signed between the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and Our Ukraine–Peoples Self-Defense Bloc
