The leader of the opposition there, Yulia Tymoshenko, is in prison after being (perhaps spuriously) convicted of corruption.
Even when things were rosy, such spuriously accurate figures were of less use than a description of how the main factors affecting a business could change.
This week it blocked oil exports passing via Belarus to Europe, though that spat was soon resolved.The risk is that concerns about security of supply may be used spuriously by those in Europe who oppose the sort of liberalisation encouraged by Ms Kroes.
The date may be spuriously precise, but the danger is there.
All too often the utility just turns up and starts digging, claiming, spuriously, that there is an emergency.The government's response to the public's growing ire has been to give selected local authorities the power to charge utilities which fail to complete their works on time.
Unfortunately for many pupils, some schools steer them away from academic subjects and towards vocational ones, which are spuriously treated as equivalent by organisations that compile school league tables.
As one experienced observer put it: "Surprisingly, it was the US that crashed it".Scaremongering by the powerful National Rifle Association and a letter sent to Barack Obama on July 26th by a bipartisan group of 51 senators, claiming (spuriously) that the treaty could impinge on the constitutional rights of Americans to keep and bear arms, had its effect.
Many technology companies have recently championed reform of the patent system to deal with spuriously awarded patents, licensing extortion and massive lawsuits.
Three authors of a more recent reform petition are under arrest, charged, almost certainly spuriously, with funding terrorism.Meanwhile, many of the kingdom's real problems, including jihadist terrorism, remain unresolved.
He argues that more prosecutions could spark civil war or, slightly less spuriously, that they might undermine hard-won efforts at reconciliation.Critics allege that the government has ulterior motives.
One site draws them: a 13th-century mansion linked, a bit spuriously, to "Romeo and Juliet".
