US Removes Piracy Sanctions From Ukraine

An anonymous reader writes The US has restored Ukraine to their preferred trade partner status after requiring the country to crack down on piracy. The United States had also imposed 100-percent import duties on $75 million worth of Ukrainian exports since 2002." From the article: "Concern over high piracy rates prompted the Bush administration to suspend Ukraine from the program in 2001. At that time, Ukraine was the largest producer and exporter of pirated CDs and DVDs in Europe, USTR said."

Comments

Denying Holodomor? How Russian!

[mi]

Contrary to the popular in US belief, the drought and famine in 30's were natural disasters.

My grandmother and her family survived Holodomor, thanks to the occasional $10 or $20, sent by the relatives in Connecticut, who left in tzar's times, with which one could by flour in the "foreign currency only" stores ("Torgsin") -- in the Ukrainian village of Narodichi. You are lying. USSR was exporting grain while its own citizens were dying of hunger. It was not a "natural disaster", but a targeted campaign to genocide the (relatively) rich Ukrainian peasants for being less than anxious to join the proletariat and the poorer Russian peasants (worse climate, worse soil made them poorer).

You call these numbers "natural disaster"? From Robert Conquest's "Harvest of Sorrow", quoted by Wikipedia:

At the height of the famine, while confiscating crops from the starving peasants, the USSR exported 1.70 million tons of grain in 1932 and 1.84 million tons in 1933 (close to a quarter of a ton per each victim in each year). The Soviet authorities also banned travel out of the famine affected areas under the pretext that people travelling for food spread "anti-kolkhoz agitation".

Peasants of the Russian "Povolzhje" (along Volga) were, likely, similarly targeted, although they never had the Diaspora to keep the memory alive. Their lands were also fairly decent and, consequently, they also had something else to lose "besides their chains".

Holodomor deniers are hardly better than Holocaust deniers -- and my family was hit by both of these genocide attempts...

And while you visit Wikipedia, check out Godwin's Law. Calling the newly free Baltic countries "Nazis" was remarkably stupid and offensive. Russia has a lot to atone for, and you are not even trying...

Re:Denying Holodomor? How Russian!

[dunkelfalke]

well, my grandparents also survived it living in ukraine back those days. and no, it wasn't a conspiracy but a bad year and stupid policy. the famine that year was not only in ukraine btw.

and about baltic countries... i actually was born and grown up in one of them (estonia). i visit estonia almost every summer. and yes, there is some truth to those "neonazi" claims.

Re:New relationship because of the elections

[AndreySeven]

You must be joking... Stalin took the 1932 crop away from the Ukrainian people because most of the populace wanted independence from Sovie rule. why don't you get your facts straight... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor