Daily Insight-IMF news implications for Ukraine; 1Q11 trade deficit figures; UAH state bond, liquidity, auction preview news

Early Sunday morning, news broke of the arrest in New York of IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn for alleged sexual assault committed a day earlier in an upscale midtown hotel. Mr Strauss-Kahn denies the charges, and his lawyer said he would enter a not-guilty plea. At the same time, the news cast a large negative shadow on the IMF head, though indeed, he has had-as Gideon Rachmon from the FT put it-\"a reputation of a womaniser.\" People from the top rank of French politics say that Strauss-Kahn\'s bid for the French presidency in the 2012 elections has been buried by the news. While Strauss-Kahn\'s tenure as IMF head has yet one year to go, there is talk in the press that the IMF may ask him to step down much earlier than his scheduled date of departure from the institution. However, there is a small chance that his reputation could be cleared again, although this time, the situation is much more serious for him than in 2008, when he was only reprimanded by the IMF executive board for a \"serious error of judgment\" in having an affair with a female subordinate. If the IMF\'s Executive Board decides to wait until the final verdict to be made on this case, taking into account the presumption of innocence of Strauss-Kahn, everyday duties of the IMF head will be constrained by the necessity for him to co-operate with the police and investigators for some time.