Signs o' the Times

In the half year that we have been here, the world economy has radically changed and as well reported in global media coverage, Ukraine has been a little hit......
How do we feel it? In our daily life, we are spared direct impact, but we can see people around us being hit. The upward feeling that was there when we came (growth, ever-increasing variety of western goods, European perspective, etc.) has gradually changed to a feeling of disorientation.
Imported food is slowly disappearing from the shelves. Dried tomatoes (2 Euros per glass in Austria) cost 12 Euros per glass over here. Shredded cheese has gone. Nuernberger Bratwuerste (only at Auchan) are rarer. The Expat Magazines (Kyiv Post and Kyiv Weekly) that were formerly distributed free of charge are now for sale on news-stands. The concert hall is less full ...... or was it simply because we had chosen strange music for our last concert (Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 and Silvestrov' Symphony No. 5)? The ads along the metro-escalators are becoming less, the people offering their work with a cardboard around their neck are becoming more. People we know can't get their savings out of the bank and revert to massively purchasing tangible values via their credit cards (which boosts consumption at the moment). Expats with children are moving back to their country of origin in the middle of the school year because some investments are stalled or cancelled. But surprisingly, others came in the middle of the school year... so what do we make of this?
Some investements are scaled down to a minimum without total withdrawal. A lot of building sites (there are many here!) have stopped all activities. The house being built across the street from ours stopped all activities, then they hooked a diesel-generator to the tower crane they are using (apparently, their power supply had to be reorganized) and now............... they are attaching insulating panels to the outside walls! Very surprising move that we hadn't expected.
So we can report mixed symptoms to an unclear economical situation.
And people tell us: "this is nothing compared to our situation in the early nineties, so don't worry!"
The poltical situation seems to be clear:
A recent poll shows that 85% of the interviewed see the country going in the wrong direction. 42% are ready to go to the streets for political rallies and that number was only 26% 2 months ago.
The former speaker of parliament Yatsenyuk seems to be the man on the rise (see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arseniy_Yatsenyuk. In recent polls (http://www.rb.com.ua/eng/), he comes in well ahead of the other candidates for the presidential elections due to take place in January 2010.