Ukrainian Peace Index Went up 28 Positions From 2010

KYIV, Ukraine, May 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) has released its latest annual Global Peace Index Report (GPI). According to the results of the analytical research held in 153 countries, Ukraine has made a major leap by going up 28 positions since last year and showed the second-largest improvement in the region.

The GPI, produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace, is the world's leading measure of global peacefulness. It gauges ongoing domestic and international conflict, safety and security in society and militarization in 153 countries by taking into account 23 separate indicators.

The research findings showed that Iceland is the world's most peaceful nation and Libya tumbled a record 83 spots in rankings. Now, in its fifth year, the GPI also shows that the threat of terrorism increased in 29 countries.

Ukraine has gone from 97th place in 2010 to 69th in this year's report. Russia is way below occupying the 147th position. Ukraine's improvement of the overall score reflects the increased political stability that accompanied Viktor Yanukovych's victory in the presidential election in early 2010, and his success in creating a majority coalition in parliament and installing a loyal government. Relations with Russia also thawed in 2010.

As for political stability, the new President Viktor Yanukovych took office in April 2010 and since then has managed to consolidate powers, which his predecessors were competing for. His government started implementing reforms, among which was the administrative reform which brought significant changes to the executive power structure. As a result, most of the experts noted that the level of political stability had gone up.

Yanukovych swiftly reached a historic deal with Russia's leadership, through the so-called Kharkiv Agreements, resolving a series of controversial issues hedging the development of bilateral relations, such as the presence of Russia's Black Sea fleet in Crimea, and prices on Russian gas exported to Ukraine.