Latest from Christopher Miller in Kyiv:
Influential Tycoon Kolomoyskiy Is Back In Ukraine. And He's Not Keeping A Low Profile
That ends the live blog for today. See you again tomorrow!
Actually one more story for you:
Fresh Russia-Ukraine Talks On New Gas Transit Deal Inconclusive
PM says land market could open up in 2020:
Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk says the government could allow the sale of agricultural land from October 2020, after parliament votes to lift the 18-year moratorium.
"We have consulted with farmers and decided to [open the land market] from October 1 next year," Honcharuk told a group of farmers on September 19.
Amid concerns that the move could lead to a foreign land grab, he said that Ukrainians, especially small farmers, would get preferential treatment.
“We’re creating an affordable loan program that will go into effect starting in 2020,” Honcharuk said, expressing hope that the central bank will continue cutting interest rates to make it easier for Ukrainians to buy land.
Speaking at the same meeting, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said concerns that “Chinese, Arabs, or aliens from outer space will come and take our land by railway wagons is nonsense.”
The absence of a land market has favored big agribusinesses and hurt small-scale farmers who can’t use the land as collateral to borrow money.
They also complain that the prices they get for leasing their land is far below the market rates in the EU.
Ukraine has 43 million hectares of arable land containing one-third of the world’s nutrient-rich black soil or chornozem. About 11 million hectares is state-owned.
The country already is a top world grain producer and exporter.
In a 2017 report, the World Bank estimated that Ukraine could see gross domestic product grow by 1.5 percentage points yearly if the land sale ban is lifted. (AFP and RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Whistle-blower complaint against Trump reportedly involves Ukraine:
By RFE/RL
A reported whistle-blower complaint against President Donald Trump allegedly made by a U.S. intelligence official involves Ukraine, The Washington Post and other U.S. media are reporting.
The Post, citing two former U.S. officials, said late on September 19 that the matter involved a "promise" Trump made during a phone call with a foreign leader that was so alarming that a U.S. intelligence official who had worked at the White House filed a complaint with the inspector-general of the intelligence community.
The New York Times, citing two people familiar with the matter, reported that "at least part of the allegation deals with Ukraine." It added that it was not immediately clear how Ukraine fits into the allegations.
The acting director of national intelligence has so far refused to allow the details of the complaint to be passed on to Congress, as required by law.
Trump responded to initial reports of the complaint with the inspector-general by calling it "fake news."
"Virtually anytime I speak on the phone to a foreign leader, I understand that there may be many people listening from various U.S. agencies, not to mention those from the other country itself. No problem!" Trump wrote on Twitter.
"Knowing all of this, is anybody dumb enough to believe that I would say something inappropriate with a foreign leader while on such a potentially 'heavily populated' call. I would only do what is right anyway, and only do good for the USA!"
Michael Atkinson, the inspector-general, testified behind closed doors to members of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee on September 19 about the whistle-blower's complaint. He repeatedly declined to discuss with members the content of the complaint, saying he was not authorized to do so.
The Post report noted that 2 1/2 weeks before the complaint was filed, the U.S. president spoke with newly elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Democrats in the House of Representatives have already begun to investigate that call to determine whether Trump and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, sought to manipulate the Ukrainian government into helping Trump's 2020 reelection campaign by launching an investigation into potential Democratic rival Joe Biden, whose son did business in Ukraine. (The Washington Post and The New York Times)