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Action Ukraine Report

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"ACTION UKRAINE REPORT"
In-Depth Ukrainian News and Analysis
"The Art of Ukrainian History, Culture, Arts, Business, Religion,
Sports, Government, and Politics, in Ukraine and Around the World"

"Little by little, in certain circles, fear is creeping back in Russia.
Although ordinary Russians go about their lives without the sort of
pervasive terror that characterized the Soviet Union, people in parts of
Russian society are increasingly watching what they say and looking over
their shoulders. A week before Putin's almost certain reelection to a second
term, scholars, journalists, reformist politicians, human rights activists
and even business moguls describe an atmosphere of anxiety that has left
them wary of crossing the Kremlin." (article one)

"ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" Year 2004, Number 38
Action Ukraine Coalition (AUC), Washington, D.C.
www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service (ARTUIS)
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net
Washington, D.C., MONDAY, March 8, 2004

INDEX OF ARTICLES

1. RUSSIANS' FEARS OF KREMLIN REEMERGE
Influence of Putin Is Discerned Behind Strong-Arm Tactics
By Peter Baker, Washington Post Foreign Service
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., Sun, Mar 7, 2004; Page A16

2. WEST WATCHES NERVIOUSLY AS RUSSIA FLEXES ITS MUSCLES
Moscow is playing tough in relations with neighbours
Report by Andrew Jack and Stefan Wagstyl
Financial Times, London, UK, Wednesday, March 3, 2004

3. RUSSIA: "VAST LAND BOUND BY TRAGEDY"
Book Review by Arkady Ostrovsky, FT's Moscow
Financial Times, FT.com site; London, UK, Feb 27, 2004
"Black Earth: Russia After the Fall"
by Andrew Meier, HarperCollins, Euro 25, 511 pages

4. LENIN UNDERGOES EXTREME MAKEOVER
Lenin looks better than the day he died, his embalmer brags
By Mark McDonald in Moscow, AP, Monday, March 1, 2004

5. CZECHS CONDEMN UKRAINE FOR CLOSING UKRAINIAN
PRIVATE RADIO, SAY THE STEP WAS POLITICALLY MOTIVATED
CTK news agency, Prague, Czech Republic, in English, 5 Mar 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Mar 05, 2004

6. UKRAINE'S PARLIAMENT VOTES ON PROPOSED ELECTION LAW
"Inside Ukraine Newsletter," Kyiv, Ukraine, March 8, 2004

7. UKRAINIAN OPPOSITION DECRIES NEW PARLIAMENT
ELECTION LAW ON PROPORTIONAL ELECTION SYSTEM
Ukrayinska Pravda web site, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian 5 Mar 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Mar 05, 2004

8.UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT FAILS TO RATIFY WORLD BANK LOAN
TO ISSUE LAND PROPERTY CERTIFICATES AND LAND REGISTRY
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, Ukraine, in Russian, 3 Mar 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Mar 03, 2004

9. DISMISSAL OF THE UKRAINIAN MINISTER OF ENERGY-FUEL
COMPLEX REVEALS CONTINUED CHAOS IN THE ENERGY SECTOR
Inside Ukraine Newsletter, Kyiv, Ukraine, March 8, 2004

10. U.S. TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT AGENCY AWARDS $300,000
GRANT TO THE CITY OF YALTA TO SUPPORT MUNICIPAL
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 2, 2004

11. FACTORY IN UKRAINE GIVES LOCAL JEWS JOBS AS IT
CHURNS OUT SHMURA MATZAH TO SELL ABROAD
By Lev Krichevsky, JTA news service, New York, NY, Feb 29, 2004

12. "UKRAINIAN ART THROUGH AMERICAN EYES" ART EXHIBIT
Art Collection of Grace Kennan Warnecke and Carlos Pascual
The Ukrainian Institute of America (UIA), New York, NY, Feb 2004

13. PRESIDENT KUCHMA SIGNS DECREE TO ADAPT UKRAINE'S
CIVIL SERVICE TO EUROPEAN UNION STANDARDS
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, Ukraine, in Russian, 6 Mar 04
BBC Monitoring, UK, in English, March 7, 2004

14. EU WANTS TO GIVE ITS NEW NEIGHBORS LIKE UKRAINE
FULL MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS EXCEPT IN DECISION-
MAKING INSTITUTIONS, RUSSIA THE KEY
Reuters, Brussels, Belgium, March 3, 2004

15. VITA PAVLYSH OF UKRAINE WINS SHOT PUT AT
WORLD INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS, WAS ALSO CHAMPION IN 1997
Associated Press Worldstream, Budapest, Hungary, Mar 05, 2004
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 38: ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
Politics and Governance, Building a Strong, Democratic Ukraine
http://www.artukraine.com/buildukraine/index.htm
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1. RUSSIANS' FEARS OF KREMLIN REEMERGE
Influence of Putin Is Discerned Behind Strong-Arm Tactics

By Peter Baker, Washington Post Foreign Service
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
Sunday, March 7, 2004; Page A16

MOSCOW -- If she hadn't stopped to fix her hair, she figures, she might be
dead. Yelena Tregubova had just told a taxi driver by phone that she would
be right down. But, she recalled, she paused in front of the mirror before
heading downstairs. A minute later, a small bomb exploded outside her
apartment door, shaking both her building and her peace of mind.

While uninjured, Tregubova, the author of a best-selling book critical of
President Vladimir Putin's Kremlin, took what she saw as an unsubtle hint
and fled the country. "I just realized that until the election, I'm a
walking target," she said by telephone from a country she declined to
identify.

Little by little, in certain circles, fear is creeping back in Russia.
Although ordinary Russians go about their lives without the sort of
pervasive terror that characterized the Soviet Union, people in parts of
Russian society are increasingly watching what they say and looking over
their shoulders. A week before Putin's almost certain reelection to a second
term, scholars, journalists, reformist politicians, human rights activists
and even business moguls describe an atmosphere of anxiety that has left
them wary of crossing the Kremlin.

"There's a broad spectrum of fear, and it's a new thing; it's just appeared
during Putin's time," said Lev Ponomaryov, a Soviet-era dissident who now
leads a human rights group and was arrested for leading an illegal protest
last month. "It would be wrong to say Soviet times have come back already,
because I'm one of the fiercest critics and here I am in Moscow talking to
you. But it's the tendency of these times coming back."

"People have a genetic memory of those years," added Konstantin Remchukov,
a former member of parliament who is close to big-business leaders alarmed
by the recent arrest of Russia's richest man, oil tycoon Mikhail
Khodorkovsky. "They're scared to death," he said.

The return of fear, while limited to certain circles, has accompanied what
critics at home and overseas call a regression in democracy under Putin. As
the former KGB colonel has concentrated more power in his hands during his
four years in office, those who might challenge him have often found
themselves exposed to trouble.

A former parliament speaker running against Putin in the March 14 election
briefly disappeared last month, saying afterward that he was abducted and
drugged. A Russian who took a foreign journalist into Chechnya to report on
the war without government supervision was taken away by authorities and has
not been heard from in weeks. A former federal investigator looking into
allegations of government involvement in a series of apartment bombings in
1999 was arrested just before he was to bring his suspicions to court.

The imprisonment of Khodorkovsky was only one in a series of prosecutions
against executives of his Yukos oil company after the tycoon challenged
Putin's monopoly on power. When the Persian Gulf state of Qatar arrested two
Russian intelligence agents for murdering a Chechen separatist living there,
Russian authorities jailed two Qatari wrestlers passing through the Moscow
airport on their way to a training session.

Tregubova had earned the Kremlin's wrath with her book "Tales of a Kremlin
Digger," which depicted a control-obsessed apparatus around Putin. She is
now working on a second book.

The bomb that blew up outside her apartment had the force of a grenade.
Police said it was meant for neighbors across the hall, but Tregubova said
no one had lived in that apartment for five years.

"Maybe they were trying to demonstrate that they had their hand on my pulse
and to terrify me," she said. "It was obvious they were trying to create
some sort of atmosphere."

Whether or not the Kremlin had any direct involvement with these incidents,
they have sent a message. "Everyone knows if you personally attack Putin and
he gets mad, you're going to get it," said Pavel Felgenhauer, a military
analyst often critical of the president.

Putin has said he will continue moving Russia along the path to democracy,
but he has also expressed a wistfulness for the Soviet Union. He recently
dismissed his human rights ombudsman in Chechnya and appointed a former tax
police chief, Mikhail Fradkov, as prime minister. Fradkov's résumé -- which
has a one-year gap just after he attended school, followed by a stint in the
Soviet Embassy in New Delhi -- has stirred speculation that he, like Putin,
was a KGB agent.

The response among many in Russia, especially Chechens and other ethnic
minorities who feel threatened at home, has been to leave. The number of
Russians seeking asylum in industrialized countries jumped by two-thirds
last year to 33,000, vaulting Russia past every other country in the world,
according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

And other countries increasingly have been offering shelter to high-profile
Russians fleeing prosecution. Britain last year gave asylum to tycoon Boris
Berezovsky, a vocal Putin foe, as well as a partner of his and a senior
Chechen separatist leader. Three of Khodorkovsky's billionaire partners fled
to Israel. And courts in Greece, Denmark and the United States lately have
rebuffed extradition requests from Russia.

Some scholars increasingly shun contacts with foreign counterparts for fear
they will be accused of spying, as several researchers have been during
Putin's presidency. The owner of a movie theater in Moscow abruptly canceled
a Chechen film festival last year two nights before it was to open for fear
of trouble. Many journalists say they try not to air criticism of Putin,
particularly on national television, which has been controlled exclusively
by the Kremlin since it shut down the last independent network last year and
gave the channel to a sports network.

A certain self-censorship has developed. After Khodorkovsky was arrested,
his fellow business moguls offered no public protest for fear of being next.
"Everybody understands they're vulnerable," said Remchukov, who has worked
for a major tycoon. "And feeling vulnerable they behave quietly."

"The situation has gotten worse," said Felgenhauer, who writes a newspaper
column but is rarely invited by television producers to appear on air
anymore. "The rule used to be that they knew they couldn't criticize Putin
and had to be cautious in what they said but they could report a fact as a
fact. Now there are problems even with facts."

Neither of the two state-owned television networks even mentioned the
failure of ballistic missile tests conducted last month right in front of
Putin during a massive military exercise. A third network, NTV, which is
owned by a state-controlled energy company, reported the test failure and
put Felgenhauer on to discuss it, but he said producers pleaded with him not
to say anything to offend Putin.

Felgenhauer said he moderated his comments. "I saw they were so afraid so I
decided I would not make big trouble," he said.

Sergei Ivanov, a Byzantine scholar, said he has noticed the changing tenor
at his academic institute. Two years ago, a Swiss post-graduate student
contacted him and asked to be accredited by the institute so he could do
research in Russian archives and libraries, Ivanov said. A superior at the
institute rejected the request. "He could be a spy," Ivanov recalled his
superior saying.

"Then it looked much more outrageous than it does now," Ivanov said. "Now it
looks normal." In fact, he added, when Federal Security Service (FSB) agents
showed up at the institute a month ago demanding a list of scholars with
foreign contacts, everyone shuddered, even though the agents said they were
merely helping research a Putin speech. "This is characteristic of today."

Even some everyday voters are more circumspect in what they say. Masha
Volkenstein, a pollster who works for democratic reformers, said
participants in her focus groups are more reserved now; after one such
session recently, a voter fretted that the discussion had been videotaped.

"They behave in a different way than they did two or three years ago,"
Volkenstein said. "They understand things are changing, and they are more
cautious than they were before."

Mikhail Delyagin, an economist and former adviser to fired prime minister
Mikhail Kasyanov, wrote in a column in the Moscow Times last week that "many
young Muscovites are planning to go to the polls on March 14 out of fear"
that not showing up could cost them job opportunities.

Mikhail Trepashkin, a lawyer and former FSB investigator, was stopped by
police in his car in October and arrested for having a gun. He insists it
was planted. Trepashkin was supposed to go to court that week to press his
theory that the FSB had a role in a series of apartment bombings in 1999
that the government blamed on Chechens.

His wife, Tatyana, said she had begged him not to get involved. "He realized
that it was dangerous," she recalled. "We talked about it many times, and I
told him again and again I didn't like it." She added, "I guess he actually
dug so deeply that he discovered some truth." (END) (ARTUIS)
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NOTE: If Russian scholars, journalists, reformist politicians, human rights
activists and even business moguls are becoming wary of the Kremlin
then Ukrainian scholars, journalists, reformist politicians, human rights
activists and even business moguls should also be wary, even more so.
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 38: ARTICLE NUMBER TWO
Check Out the News Media for the Latest News >From and About Ukraine
Daily News Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/newsgallery.htm
============================= ============================
2. WEST WATCHES NERVOUSLY AS RUSSIA FLEXES ITS MUSCLES
Moscow is playing tough in relations with neighbours

"New disputes could also emerge, for example, over Ukraine, where Viktor
Yushchenko, a leading candidate to succeed President Leonid Kuchma in
elections this autumn is seen as a threat because he has strong US backing."

Report by Andrew Jack and Stefan Wagstyl
Financial Times, London, UK, Wednesday, March 3, 2004

The nomination of Mikhail Fradkov as Russia's next prime minister will do
little to soften the Kremlin's increasingly assertive foreign policy,
especially in the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Mr Fradkov, a long-serving diplomat whose name was put forward on Monday
by President Vladimir Putin, will bring to the post considerable experience
of international relations. But he will also arrive with a history of close
ties with the security services. While his personal views are not known, he
is a member of the siloviki, the current and former members of the security
services, headed by Mr Putin, who now dominate the Kremlin.

This group has presided over increasing state control in political and
economic affairs. In foreign policy, its members have taken a tougher
approach to Russia's neighbours.

Igor Ivanov, the Russian foreign minister, insists the country has
legitimate interests to protect and is right to challenge US attempts to
increase its influence, for example in Georgia.

In a recent meeting with foreign journalists, Mr Ivanov said: "Our political
scientists are very concerned at how the US has created a circle around
Russia. We have a national strategy and interests in the former Soviet
Union. They reflect historical links that we are developing. They should not
be seen as a re-establishment of Soviet relations . . . The main interest of
Russia is to create around [the country] a security zone."

The country is also concerned about the 20m ethnic Russians living in
surrounding states and about its expanding economic interests, notably
investments by energy companies such as Gazprom, the gas monopoly, and
UES, the electricity giant.

However, the US and the EU are worried about Russia's motives. The European
Commission last month accused Russia of "assertive" behaviour towards
neighbours. A senior American official told the FT there were parallels
between developments in domestic policy and increasing assertiveness towards
former Soviet neighbours.

The arguments date back to the 1990s, when a crisis-torn Russia was forced
to accept the collapse of the Soviet Union and the eastward expansion of
Nato and the European Union. In the past year, led by an effective president
and fuelled by economic recovery, the Kremlin has raised flags on several
fronts.

It began with a dispute last year with Brussels over access to the
Kaliningrad exclave, which will be surrounded by EU territory when Poland
and Lithuania join the union in May. This was followed by a border row with
Ukraine in the Sea of Azov; arguments with Washington over the triumph in
Georgia of Mikheil Saakashvili, the new US-oriented president; and a clumsy
one-sided Russian effort to end the long-standing division of the troubled
state of Moldova.

These disputes have been compounded by Russian attempts to influence the
deployment of Nato forces in the Baltic states, all ex-Soviet republics.
Russia last month threatened to pull out of the Conventional Forces in
Europe treaty, a key east-west accord.

The Kremlin has also raised last-minute objections to the EU's eastward
expansion, complaining of threats to Russia's economic interests. Brussels
wants to extend to its 10 new members the existing partnership and
co-operation agreement (PCA) covering EU-Russia relations. Moscow has
demanded the accord be renegotiated.

Finally, Moscow has demonstrated the political value of its domination of
regional energy supplies by briefly cutting off the main gas pipe to the
west which crosses Belarus. The move was aimed at putting pressure on Minsk
in a payment dispute, but it caused a political storm in Poland.

Some of these rows will settled but others will rumble on. New disputes
could also emerge, for example, over Ukraine, where Viktor Yushchenko, a
leading candidate to succeed President Leonid Kuchma in elections this
autumn is seen as a threat because he has strong US backing.

Mr Putin will almost certainly try to prevent these rows affecting global
relations with the US and leading European states, including France, Germany
and the UK. He knows the west dominates the international community to which
he wants to belong. He also appreciates the US-led anti-terrorism war which
serves Moscow's interests by targetting terrorist threats on Russia's
southern borders.

However, the siloviki and others who want to play tough have plenty of
scope. Mr Fradkov's appointment, which is due to be confirmed later this
week by the Duma, is unlikely to stop them. (END) (ARTUIS)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 38: ARTICLE NUMBER THREE
Major Articles About What is Going on in Ukraine
Current Events Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/events/index.htm
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3. "VAST LAND BOUND BY TRAGEDY"
Arkady Ostrovsky reads of dark acts in post-Stalinist Russia, pieced
together with forensic precision...they are part of a vicious circle of
wretchedness, fear, denial and self-destruction which the book describes.

Book Review by Arkady Ostrovsky, FT's Moscow
Financial Times, FT.com site; London, UK, Feb 27, 2004

"Black Earth: Russia After the Fall"
by Andrew Meier, HarperCollins, Euro 25, 511 pages

Three weeks ago, on February 6 2004, a bomb ripped through a Moscow
underground station killing 40 people. Vladimir Putin, the Russian
president, blamed Chechen terrorists for the attack, and hours later a
nationalist Russian politician and Putin supporter called it an "ethnic"
crime. A few days later, a gang of skinheads in St Petersburg, Russia's most
westernised city, killed a nine-year-old Tajik girl in an apparent racist
attack. Her body had 11 knife wounds and bruises from being beaten with a
chain.

These events are not described in "Black Earth," a book by Andrew Meier who
worked as a Time Magazine correspondent in Moscow between 1996 and
2001 - but they are part of a vicious circle of wretchedness, fear, denial
and self-destruction which the book describes.

Meier's book is not strictly a history or political analysis - although it
does provide both. He is first and foremost a reporter who travels across
Russia, recording its striking features, collecting details and personal
testimonies and trying to piece together a portrait of the country 13 years
after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It is not a flattering portrait. Composed from a hundred small details, it
reveals a nation in limbo, demoralised and haunted by its past, drenched by
a bloody war in Chechnya, faced with alcoholism, Aids and TB - and
uncertain about its future.

It is a thorough journalistic investigation into the state Russia is in
today and it raises core questions which stretch outside the time and
geographic scope of the book. The most burning question of all is posed by
the father of a 20-year-old conscript killed by the Chechens who, in "a
deal" with Russian officers, paid their way through checkpoints: "Can a
country live without a conscience?"

To find out, Meier travels to the four extreme corners of Russia to compose
his portrait: south to Chechnya, north to Norilsk - the site of Stalin's
largest Gulag camps - east to Sakhalin and west to St Petersburg. Divided by
thousands of miles and several time zones, each of these corners of Russia
reveal human tragedies and chilling tales of self-destruction.

His survey of post-Soviet Russia begins in the war-torn republic of
Chechnya. On February 5 2000, two months before Vladimir Putin became
the president of Russia, contract soldiers - "easy to spot because they look
like criminals" - marched into the Chechen village of Aldy. They killed 52
men and eight women, and looted and burned their houses.

In Russian this was called a "zachistka" - a clean-up operation. "To
Chechens 'zachistki' meant state-sponsored terror, pillage, rape and
murder."

Meier collected testimonies from survivors in order to reconstruct minute by
minute, yard by yard, house by house what happened when Russian soldiers
marched into the village. With forensic precision, he separates eye-witness
accounts from hearsay and arrives at a chilling conclusion: what happened in
Aldy was not a zachistka but a massacre, ignored by the world and hushed up
by Russian authorities.

Meier's reporting answers the key questions, when, where, who and how. The
one question he struggles with is why. Why did these soldiers beat and kill
innocent men and women? Why, on the day Putin became president, did a
Russian colonel in another Chechen village hit, rape and kill an 18-year-old
Chechen girl? And what was going on in the head of this colonel when that
very night he celebrated the birth of his own daughter? And, even more
disturbingly, why did people applaud Putin's brutal policy in Chechnya,
which propelled him to the Kremlin and then refuse to hear about its
victims? What kind of country is it?

The subsequent chapters may not provide a full answer, but they give some
idea of what has happened to Russia and its people over the years.

Meier moves north to Norilsk, above the Arctic Circle. But he is also
travelling back in time, winding back the story of Russian suffering.
Norilsk is home to Norilsk Nickel, the word's largest nickel producer, built
on the bones of prisoners from Stalin's Gulag. Today it is controlled by a
Moscow business tycoon.

Meier meets some of the survivors of the Gulag and their children who grew
up playing among the graves of those who perished in the permafrost land -
their bones and skulls still protrude through Norilsk's thin layer of earth.

He is told that in 1953 Soviet troops quelled a revolt in Norilsk by simply
opening fire on the camp and killing at least 100 people. Yet despite all
these atrocities, Stalin's victims continued to believe in the communist
system and in Stalin.

Meier does not link the killings in Norilsk to the atrocities in Chechnya
but they are part of the same tragic chain that binds Russian history.

Stalin was not the first to use forced labour. In 1890 Chekhov travelled to
the island of Sakhalin, infamous for its "katorga" - a system of forced
labour and servitude instituted by Peter the Great. Meier retraces Chekhov's
steps, and finds a place which is rich in oil and gas and poor in every
other aspect of human life, a place where vodka is the only consolation.

Meier ends his journey in St Petersburg, Russia's most beautiful city, yet
the one that has suffered most. The "fairytale", as St Petersburg is
sometimes called, consumed the lives of thousands of those who built it on
the marshes of the Neva river. Its streets still bear the signs of the siege
of Leningrad that lasted 900 days and claimed a million lives.

Back in Moscow, Meier asks an old Jewish woman, who survived both the
ravages of the war and of Stalinism, the difference between Hitler and
Stalin. She answers without a pause: "Hitler killed only his enemies."

Yet despite all the soul-draining descriptions of suffering, Meier's is not
a dark book. It is lightened by his passion for the country and the people
he meets: a doctor who helps the parents of soldiers killed in Chechnya to
identify and bury their children, a woman who entertained the wounded during
the siege of Leningrad, or a historian who dedicated his life to the memoirs
of Stalin's victims.

These are the people who try to break through a vicious circle of
wretchedness. But they face an inhuman task. (END) (ARTUIS)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Arkady Ostrovsky is an Financial Times (FT) correspondent in Moscow
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 38: ARTICLE NUMBER FOUR
Exciting Opportunities in Ukraine for Travel and Tourism
Travel and Tourism Gallery: http://www.ArtUkraine.com/tourgallery.htm
=========================================================
4. LENIN UNDERGOES EXTREME MAKEOVER
Lenin looks better than the day he died, his embalmer brags

By Mark McDonald, Associated Press, Moscow, Russia, March 1, 2004

MOSCOW - Vladimir Lenin has been dead these 80 years, but the founder
of Soviet communism has never looked better. Just ask his curator.

"He looks quite fine, as good as he did 30 years ago," said Yuri
Denisov-Nikolsky, the Russian doctor who just supervised an extensive
makeover of Lenin's corpse. "He looked terrible when he died, but
what you see now is Lenin's face, not someone else's."

Denisov-Nikolsky has been working on Lenin since 1970, and in a rare
interview he pulled back the shroud of secrecy surrounding the body,
its original embalming and its periodic makeovers.

When Lenin died of a stroke and heart attack on Jan. 21, 1924, his
widow said he'd wished to be buried next to his mother in a simple
cemetery plot. But the communist elite had other ideas.

They originally planned to freeze their beloved leader, but his body
began to deteriorate badly as a super-freezer was being built.
Instead, using an untested chemical process, Lenin was embalmed and
his skin carefully treated to preserve a lifelike appearance.

He's entombed in a granite-and-marble mausoleum in Red Square. The
body is sealed in a glass sarcophagus, cooled to 61 degrees, with the
humidity between 80 and 90 percent. Some say Lenin appears to be
sleeping. Others compare him to waxed
fruit.

With the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian government
stopped financing the preservation of the body, Denisov-Nikolsky
said. Private donations pay the meager salaries of his 15-person
staff at a research lab called Medical Biological Technologies. The
physicians and professors on the team, he said, earn $200 a month.

The mausoleum staff also visits Vietnam to check on the body of Ho
Chi Minh, on display in Hanoi. Denisov-Nikolsky was on the Soviet
team that secretly embalmed "Uncle Ho" in a North Vietnamese jungle
cave in 1970.

Denisov-Nikolsky, 71, said he'd never talked or sung to Lenin's
corpse when he'd been alone with it in the mausoleum, and he sees
nothing odd or macabre about his work. But he does remember that his
hands trembled when he first began working on the body.

"Not every expert is allowed to restore such treasured historical
objects, like a Raphael or a Rembrandt. Those who do it, we tremble.
I feel a great responsibility in my hands."

About 1.5 million tourists visited the mausoleum last year, despite
the fact that hours are limited and it's not always easy to find the
entrance. Red Square is often closed for security reasons: There can
be no more tempting target for a suicide bomber in Russia than
Lenin's tomb and its body-under-glass - the Russian equivalent of the
Statue of Liberty or the Washington Monument.

Mausoleum security was improved this winter, Denisov-Nikolsky said,
but the mausoleum and sarcophagus were never built to be bombproof.
(During World War II, fearing a direct hit by the Nazis, Soviet
authorities secretly shipped Lenin - code-named "Object No. 1" - to a
warehouse in central Russia. They put him back on display in March
1945.)

Specially filtered lighting gives Lenin's face a warm glow. Botox,
collagen and modern cosmetics aren't used, Denisov-Nikolsky said,
with a polite harrumph. A mild bleach is employed to combat
occasional fungus stains or mold spots on Lenin's face.

The skin is examined closely each week, using precision, Russian-made
instruments that measure its moisture, color and contour.
Dehydration - and time - are the principal enemies.

Lenin gets an extreme makeover every 18 months or so. The mausoleum
is closed for two months and the body is immersed in a bath of
glycerol and potassium acetate for 30 days. The skin slowly absorbs
the solution, regaining its moisture and pliancy.

With current techniques, the body could last "many decades, even for
100 years," said Ilya Zbarsky, 90, a doctor who worked on the body
from 1934 to 1952. His father, Boris, participated in the original
embalming in 1924.

Lenin's blood, bodily fluids and internal organs were removed as part
of the initial embalming. His eyebrows, moustache and goatee are his
original hair - no molting. And his genitals are intact.

No one seems to know what's happened to Lenin's heart, but Soviet
ideologists were sure that his brain was something special. They
brought in a renowned German scientist to examine it for clues to the
great man's genius, but nothing came of it.

The brain is still kept at a Moscow institute. "But it's not easy to
see it," Zbarsky said. "It's mostly dissected."

A poll last month by the Public Opinion Foundation in Moscow found
that nearly 60 percent of Russians younger than 50 want Lenin to be
removed and buried.

"Only people over 50 more frequently reply that they're against
Lenin's burial," said foundation President Alexander Olson. This age
group views "suggestions that the body be removed as blasphemous."

Others argue that an emerging democracy - even if it's a democracy in
name only - shouldn't maintain monuments to a dictator responsible
for decades of suffering and millions of deaths.

"The body should be removed, yes, and it should cease to be an object
of worship," Zbarsky said. "It should be buried or kept in a
laboratory somewhere."

Lenin himself never wanted any of this. "Do not put up buildings or
monuments in his name," his widow, Nadezhda Krupskaya, said in
the days after his death.

But the communist propaganda machine already had begun turning out
heroic posters, worshipful biographies and everything from massive
statues to miniature busts. Boulevards, hospitals, schools, train
stations, collective farms and the city of St. Petersburg were
renamed in Lenin's honor.

Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and Felix Dzerzhinsky, the head of the
secret police, pushed for the preservation of Lenin's remains. Red
Army soldiers quickly began building a wooden mausoleum, using
dynamite to blast open the winter-hard earth in Red Square.

A special commission decided that freezing would be the best method
of preservation, so a massive freezer was ordered from Germany. But
the appliance took months to build, and as winter turned to spring,
Lenin's body began to deteriorate: His face and hands darkened, body
wrinkles began to appear and his lips were cracking.

The freezing method was abandoned in favor of embalming and an
experimental method of chemical preservation. Bodies had been
embalmed before, of course, but never with the idea of maintaining a
lifelike appearance. A team led by Vladimir Vorobiov, an anatomy
professor from Ukraine, did the work.

"This was an unprecedented task," Zbarsky said. "It would have been
dangerous to fail."

But Vorobiov's experiment worked. A stolid new mausoleum was built
along the Kremlin wall, and the mausoleum scientists received perks
and privileges not available to most Soviet workers. They had nice
apartments, decent food, country cottages and well-equipped labs.

At one point, however, the scientists became perplexed - and
terrified. A mysterious black spot had appeared on Lenin's right
cheek, a bloom of mold that resisted all known treatments. They
didn't want to ponder what would happen to them if they couldn't fix
the problem.

"They might have even killed us," said Zbarsky, who eventually
bleached away the mold himself. "The atmosphere of fear and terror
was there for us scientists, just as it was for everyone in the
society."

Zbarsky and his father were arrested without warning in 1952, during
Stalin's wave of terror, accused of being German spies. Boris Zbarsky
was imprisoned and his son was placed under house arrest.

When Stalin died soon after that, in 1953, he was embalmed by the
Zbarskys' former assistants at the mausoleum.

Stalin shared the Red Square mausoleum with Lenin for eight years,
then he was officially discredited and was quietly taken away and
buried under the Kremlin wall.

In the new mood of anti-Stalinism at that time, according to Ilya
Zbarsky, Muscovites created a new saying: "Don't sleep in a mausoleum
that doesn't belong to you."

The first calls for Lenin to be removed from Red Square came 15 years
ago. Communism was about to collapse and most reformers wanted Lenin
buried along with Marxism-Leninism.

President Boris Yeltsin, saying Red Square "must not resemble a
cemetery," suggested a national referendum in 1997 on the disposition
of the body. But this proposal, along with numerous other demands for
Lenin's eviction, was met with outrage by the Communist Party.

Last month, on the 80th anniversary of Lenin's death, Communist Party
leader Gennady Zyuganov laid a wreath at the mausoleum and
proclaimed, "The bright, clever cause of Lenin lives and thrives."

Zyuganov and the communists were resoundingly beaten in parliamentary
elections in December, and their defeat opened the way for another
possible campaign to remove Lenin. But no new groundswell has
emerged, and President Vladimir Putin, whose re-election seems
assured March 14, has skirted the issue.

One of Putin's closest advisers, Parliament Speaker Boris Gryzlov,
said, "The problem of the removal of Lenin's body should be solved in
due time - probably in 2024, after the 100th anniversary of Lenin's
death." (END) (ARTUIS)
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NOTE: To see two photographs of Lenin's makeover click on:
http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,8833438%255E13780,00.html
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NOTE: A major bronze statue of Lenin, unfortunately, still stands in a very
prominent place in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine. The Ukrainian communist
parties rally's in Kyiv normally start at this statue. One can still find
statues, monuments, paintings, and other remembrances to Lenin in many
places across Ukraine although they do seem to slowly but surely to be
disappearing from the landscape.
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 38: ARTICLE NUMBER FIVE
The Story of Ukraine's Long and Rich Culture
Ukrainian Culture Gallery: http://www.ArtUkraine.com/cultgallery.htm
=========================================================
5. CZECHS CONDEMN UKRAINE FOR CLOSING UKRAINIAN
PRIVATE RADIO, SAY THE STEP WAS POLITICALLY MOTIVATED

CTK news agency, Prague, Czech Republic, in English, 5 Mar 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Mar 05, 2004

Prague, March 5 (CTK) - Whatever the reasons for the closure of the
Ukrainian Radio Kontynent, the step is expedient and politically motivated,
the Czech Foreign Ministry said today.

"We believe that in the election time, Ukrainian authorities will not resort
to the steps which could curb the right of Ukrainians to free access to
information," the Ministry said in a statement.

Beginning on Saturday [28 February], Radio Kontynent provided the broadcasts
of the Ukrainian section of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). On
Wednesday, Ukrainian authorities confiscated its property and also
confiscated the radio station. [passage omitted] (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 38: ARTICLE NUMBER SIX
The Genocidal Famine in Ukraine 1932-1933, HOLODOMOR
Genocide Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/famineart/index.htm
=========================================================
6. UKRAINE'S PARLIAMENT VOTES ON PROPOSED ELECTION LAW

"Inside Ukraine Newsletter," Kyiv, Ukraine, March 8, 2004

KYIV -Last Friday's parliamentary vote on the proposed election
law moved Ukraine closer to all-proportional voting for its parliamentary
membership but also made important changes that are likely to favor
established party candidates over newcomers.

In spite of the fact that Friday is not normally a voting day, the
increasingly anxious majority insisted on voting for an amended version of
the all-proportional election procedure for parliament seats to insure that
there will be time to get final passage prior to the end of this session.

The Rudkovskiy-Klyuchkovskiy bill version was passed with a considerable
margin of 262 votes in favor; only 226 were required since election law
passage does not require a constitutional majority of 300 votes. Viktor
Yushchenko's Our Ukraine faction, the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc and some
deputies elected in majority districts preferred to abstain from voting.

Under the tentatively approved measure, the Verkhovna Rada would continue
to be made up of 450 members elected from 225 districts.

The bill assumes lowering the threshold for parties to gain Rada membership
to 3 percent of the national vote total, instead of the existing 4 percent.
The bill also proposed to provide for refunds of a party's election deposit
only to those who passed the threshold for proportional membership. Another
bill provision provides for much fairer party representation in election
commissions.

In the intense negotiations that are certain to occur before bill is
considered the second time, the proposed election procedure of closed party
lists with a fixed nomination order of suggested party candidates may be
replaced by "a regional modification." This provision assumes that only the
first five nominees in a party list will be fixed whereas all the rest will
depend on the number of votes collected by specific party juniors. The
latter will be different in each specific oblast and district. In theory,
this could strengthen their future accountability to the local electorate.

However, the reality seems to be that such a modification of the purely
proportional system would greatly enhance chances for the incumbents, i.e.
already known regional deputies, to prolong their political lifetime for the
next parliamentary term, 2006 through 2011. (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 38: ARTICLE NUMBER SEVEN
Ukraine's History and the Long Struggle for Independence
Historical Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/histgallery.htm
==========================================================
7. UKRAINIAN OPPOSITION DECRIES NEW PARLIAMENT
ELECTION LAW ON PROPORTIONAL ELECTION SYSTEM

Ukrayinska Pravda web site, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian 5 Mar 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Mar 05, 2004

[The opposition bloc] Our Ukraine did not take part in the vote on the law
on a proportional election system, which was developed by [Socialist Member
of Parliament (MP) Mykola] Rudkovskyy, because it cannot accept the lowering
of a threshold for parties and blocs to make it into to the Supreme Council
[parliament], Our Ukraine leader Viktor Yushchenko said after the vote
today.

The vote on the election law is "a ticket to a coup", Yushchenko said. "At
issue is not political reform but an emperor who will sit in the Cabinet of
Ministers rather than on Bankova [Street, the Ukrainian presidential
administration]," Yushchenko said referring to proposed amendments to the
constitution. "The issue of the threshold is of principal importance,"
Yushchenko said.

He also said that a coalition cabinet consisting of six or eight factions
could not be viable. "We have not had fewer than 12 factions in the Supreme
Council since 1993," Yushchenko said. One can only argue about raising the
threshold, because even with the [current] 4-per-cent threshold some six or
seven political forces could make it into parliament, Yushchenko said.

Yuliya Tymoshenko, the leader of another opposition faction which also did
not take part in the vote, said that she "does not accept bribes" from
organizers of an anti-constitutional mutiny.

"The law on the proportional election which was adopted today is a banal
bribe which was offered to opposition forces to ensure their support for the
anti-constitutional mutiny. It is the same cynical and immoral as offering:
here you are a state dacha, an office car and vacations on the Canaries but
do not criticize [Ukrainian President Leonid] Kuchma," Tymoshenko said.

"I am stating that we have never accepted bribes and will never vote for
laws which are democratic by name but in essence do not leave a stone
standing in people's power," Tymoshenko said.

"The law on the proportional election [system] gives power to the clans. The
independent media is Ukraine's main problem. To turn a blind eye to it means
to be short-sighted, naive and irresponsible. Pretending to be witty and
worrying about election innovations while the independent press is being
destroyed in this country is the same as worrying about the temperature of
tea in a train which is getting off the rails," Tymoshenko said. (END)
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 37: ARTICLE NUMBER EIGHT
The Rich History of Ukrainian Art, Music, Pysanka, Folk-Art
Arts Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/artgallery.htm
=========================================================
8. UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT FAILS TO RATIFY WORLD BANK LOAN
TO ISSUE LAND PROPERTY CERTIFICATES AND LAND REGISTRY

Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, Ukraine, in Russian, 3 Mar 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Mar 03, 2004

Kiev, 3 March: The Ukrainian parliament has failed to ratify the agreement
between Ukraine and the World Bank on a loan to issue of land property
certificates and develop a land registry in Ukraine.

Only 212 MPs supported the accord (226 votes needed). Communist MP
Volodymyr Levchenko said after the voting that he accidentally pushed the
wrong button and supported the ratification.

The agreement envisages that the World Bank lends 195.13m dollars to Ukraine
until 30 June 2012. Ukraine would pay a one-off fee of 1 per cent of the
loan and a fee on obligations worth three-quarters of a per cent of the
original loan sum. It was planned to pay interests on 15 January and 15 July
every year. [Passage omitted: Parliament ratifies accord with Lebanon.]
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 38: ARTICLE NUMBER NINE
The Art of Private Voluntary Organizations in Supporting Ukraine
Support Ukraine Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/uasupport/index.htm
=========================================================
9. DISMISSAL OF THE UKRAINIAN MINISTER OF ENERGY-FUEL
COMPLEX REVEALS CONTINUED CHAOS IN THE ENERGY SECTOR

Inside Ukraine Newsletter, Kyiv, Ukraine, March 8, 2004

KYIV- Mar. 8 - President Leonid Kuchma's March 4 dismissal of
Energy-Fuel Complex Minister Serhiy Yermilov again emphasized the ongoing
chaos in one of Ukraine's most important economic sectors, still
characterized by regional and international infighting over Ukraine's energy
reserves, pipelines and other assets.

Before becoming the latest victim of the never-ending power battles in the
sector, Yermilov had taken a strong stand in opposition to Russian forces
who wanted to use the Odessa-Brody pipeline, originally designed for
transport of Caspian light crude, for reverse-mode transport of Urals heavy
crude to increase Russia's crude sales to the world market.

For this reason many Ukrainian analysts interpreted his dismissal as an
evidence of a victory of pro-Russian forces in the presidential environment.
Yet, it was Yermilov himself who denied such a simplified explanation in an
interview given to the "Mirror of the Week" newspaper a day before his
forced departure.

On one hand, he confirmed that the Russian lobby in the Presidential
Administration had turned out to be better organized and more influential
than the group supporting the Odessa-Brody pipeline for its original
purpose.

On the other hand, Yermilov said he viewed as much more important the fact
that at present immediate business interest of owners of various off-shore
companies, which manage some energy providing structures, and those of
managers of the corresponding national joint-stock companies are able to
prevail over the broader national priorities of Ukraine's state energy
sector.

Yermilov also pointed to numerous examples of mismanagement of state
resources by the leadership of the Naftogaz Ukrainy, the state enterprise
that manages all government energy assets, Naftogaz' open sabotage of
Cabinet of Ministers directives and the arbitrariness in the activities of
private companies in state owned critical elements of the oil and gas supply
network. He also mentioned the necessity of making more transparent
transactions with coal by establishing an open coal market.

Yermilov's gloomy interview again emphasized that Ukraine's own oil, gas and
coal reserves and its extremely valuable transport infrastructure is
subverted to private interests and yields only a fraction of what it should
the state budget. Yermilov's departure statement made it clear that in
Kuchma's Ukraine those interested in immediate gains from control of cash
and goods flows have a final say, whereas long-term strategic goals and
profits that should flow to the state, the rightful owner of the assets, are
ignored. (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 38: ARTICLE NUMBER TEN
Send Us Names to Add to the Distribution List for UKRAINE REPORT
=========================================================
10. U.S. TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT AGENCY AWARDS $300,000
GRANT TO THE CITY OF YALTA TO SUPPORT MUNICIPAL
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 2, 2004

KYIV, UKRAINE - U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA)
awarded a $300,000 grant to the City of Yalta to fund a feasibility study
on the development of a modern municipal solid waste management system
for the city and surrounding area. The grant will be conferred at a signing
ceremony that will be held Thursday, March 4, at 12:30 at the Hotel Oreanda
in Yalta.

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst and Yalta City Mayor Sergey Braiko
will sign the grant agreement on behalf of U.S. and Ukrainian Governments.
Also present at the signing ceremony will be Crimean Prime Minister Sergiy
Kunitsyn, Rada Speaker Borys Deich, Presidential Representative Oleksandr
Didenko, USTDA Regional Director Daniel Stein, the U.S. Department of
Commerce Embassy Kyiv Office, and other officials from Ukrainian state and
Crimean regional governments.

Before the signing ceremony, Ambassador Herbst will call on Prime Minister
Kunitsyn, Rada Speaker Deich, and Presidential Representative Didenko in
Simferopol.

The USTDA-funded study will investigate the best available options to
replace the old dry-tomb landfill with an integrated waste management system
that includes waste minimization, recycling and waste-to-energy conversion.

The study will also explore the best available remediation method to reclaim
the old waste disposal site. The study will be carried out on behalf of the
Yalta City Council by EMCON/OWT Inc. of Mahwah, New Jersey, a
subsidiary of the Shaw Group, Inc., in collaboration with T3MA Group, Inc.,
of Warrenton, Virginia.

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency advances economic development
and U.S. commercial interests in developing and middle-income countries.
The agency funds various forms of technical assistance, feasibility studies,
training, orientation visits and business workshops that support the
development of a modern infrastructure and a fair and open trading
environment.

USTDA's strategic use of foreign assistance funds to support sound
investment policy and decision-making in host countries creates an enabling

environment for trade, investment and sustainable economic development. In
carrying out its mission, USTDA gives emphasis to economic sectors that may
benefit from U.S. exports of goods and services. Since 1992, USTDA has
allocated nearly $10 million to Ukraine, of which almost $9 million were in
grants for feasibility studies. (END) (ARTUIS)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Public Affairs Section, United States Embassy Kyiv
4 Hlybochytska St., Kyiv 04050 Ukraine
(380 44) 490-4026, 490-4090, Fax (380 44) 490-4050
http://usembassy.kiev.ua, info@usembassy.kiev.ua
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 38: ARTICLE NUMBER ELEVEN
Politics and Governance, Building a Strong, Democratic Ukraine
http://www.artukraine.com/buildukraine/index.htm
=========================================================
11. FACTORY IN UKRAINE GIVES LOCAL JEWS JOBS AS IT CHURNS
OUT SHMURA MATZAH TO SELL ABROAD

By Lev Krichevsky, JTA news service, New York, NY, Feb 29, 2004

DNEPROPETROVSK, Ukraine, Feb. 29 (JTA) - It's not easy baking
shmura matzah, but for many in this Ukrainian city, working in the shmura
matzah factory is not such a bad job. Except for the owner and a supervisor
who are Israeli, the other 100 people involved in the production are all
local Jews.

Salaries and energy costs are much lower in Ukraine than in Israel,
which is why the owner decided to start his matzah bakery here rather
than in the Jewish state.

The workers say they are happy - even if some of them do piecework
and have to perform monotonous tasks for eight hours a day.

"Oh, it's easy," says a smiling Sonya, a middle-aged woman who
recently lost her position as a food-store manager prior to taking
the job as a matzah roller. "I like it here a lot."

Maybe the pay has something to do with her feelings: The workers are
paid per piece, and Sonya can make more than $200 a month, triple the
nation's average salary.

Shmura, or guarded, matzah is supervised from the harvest of the
wheat until it is packed for shipment to ensure that the grain or
flour does not come contact with liquid and thereby become chametz -
leavened bread that is forbidden on Passover.

All day long, Sonya stands at a long paper-covered table alongside
three dozen fellow female workers who work their rolling pins to
produce the round matzah - the way all matzah looked until matzah-
baking became mechanized less than a century ago.

The average roller here can roll 15 matzahs during an 18-minute
cycle - before the matzah turns into bread, according to Jewish law.
When a piece of matzah is finished, the woman yells out her number so
a clerk gives her credit in the registry for her work.

The rolled dough is draped on long poles and placed in an oven and
baked for only a few seconds.

But before that, each round piece comes to a young man at the end of
the table uses a roller to poke the matzah with multiple holes so it
will not rise while in the oven.

Gena, the man who operates the tool, said it didn't take him long to
learn the craft. He says he enjoys his job because it allows him to
work elsewhere at nights: He's a disc jockey at a popular
Dnepropetrovsk disco.

Zhenya Gorodnitzky, who only recently has started working at the
bakery, has a more physically challenging task. He kneads lumps of
dough, pressing a lever against a metal table. The kneaders sweat
heavily, and some of the men wear just shorts under their white robes.

Gorodnitzky is a professional butcher. He lived in Israel for nine
years, served in the army and studied at a yeshiva before returning
to Ukraine last year.

Unlike most of the matzah bakeries elsewhere around the world that
operate only for several months prior to Passover, this one stays
open for most of the year. Demand for production is high, but the
workers at this new facility lack the experience to step up output,
bakery managers said.

"This season we started training people in June and baked the first
matzah in August," says Oleg Brekhov, manager at Tiferes Hamatzos,
which is believed to be the largest matzah bakery in the former
Soviet Union. In Israel, he said, "they have entire dynasties, people
who worked with matzah for generations. And to us it's all new."

The baking of shmura matzah involves more costly techniques than most
store-bought matzah. Nowhere inside the bakery can the grain or flour
touch the ground, so the sacks are stacked on special trays. Water
used in the baking process is taken from a 430-foot-deep underground
well. And for those for whom strictly kosher is not good enough, the
bakery recently began making limited amounts of super-kosher matzahs
produced with hand-milled flour.

The matzah, packed in yellow boxes with Hebrew and English writing,
is mostly exported to Israel, Western Europe and the United States,
where it retails at about $10 per pound - twice as much as it is sold
for in Ukraine and several times more expensive than machine-made
matzah.

Not many local Jews can afford the shmura matzah, which costs 10
times as much as the machine-made Israeli matzah available here.

For Ukrainian Jewry, the bakery in Dnepropetrovsk, which is in its
second year of operation, presents a striking contrast with the
Communist past, when only a couple of cities were allowed to operate
matzah bakeries and people often risked their life while baking
underground matzah for the community.

The bakery, started by members of Israel's Chabad-Lubavitch
community, is located among rows of ugly Soviet-era warehouse-type
buildings in the industrial zone on Dnepropetrovsk's outskirts. It is
probably the only place in the former Soviet Union that makes shmura
matzah, which is especially prized among fervently Orthodox Jews.

Two years ago, a rabbi flew here from Israel to select and approve a
wheat field near Dnepropetrovsk, and local yeshiva students look
after it for days before the grain for the matzah is harvested.

"Our Ukrainian grain is of a very high quality," Brekhov says
proudly. During Soviet times, Ukraine was the Soviet Union's largest
wheat producer.

As it turned out, last year's harvest was very poor, leading to a
bread price hike that generated a wave of protest in this former
Soviet republic. But the matzah facility had already opened, so the
management decided to work with grain imported from Israel.

Shmuel Kaminetzky, an Israeli-born Chabad rabbi who has been the
city's chief rabbi for 14 years, says the bakery and other Jewish
traditional businesses that sprung up in his community in recent
years can help solve acute social problems. With the unemployment
rate in this country quite high, the city's Jewish community and its
institutions employ about 1,500 people, mostly Jews. The size of the
local Jewish community is an estimated 5,000 to 20,000.

"There are many more of those who want to work at the bakery, but
we can take only Jews, as only Jews are allowed to work with matzah
dough," says Brekhov, the manager.

This industrial city in eastern Ukraine has witnessed an explosion of
traditional Jewish businesses that cater to the needs of Orthodox
Jews in Israel and elsewhere.

Affordable manpower and the many Chabad emissaries attracted to
Dnepropetrovsk by the charismatic and well-connected Kaminetzky
are increasing employment in Jewish industries.

In addition to shmura matzah production, Dnepropetrovsk now has a
tefillin factory and a plant that exports women's wigs to Orthodox
communities abroad. (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 38: ARTICLE NUMBER TWELVE
Economic News: http://www.artukraine.com/econews/index.htm
=========================================================
12. "UKRAINIAN ART THROUGH AMERICAN EYES" ART EXHIBIT
Art Collection of Grace Kennan Warnecke and Carlos Pascual
on view in New York through April 25, 2004

The Ukrainian Institute of America (UIA), New York, NY, Feb 2004

The Ukrainian Institute of America is pleased to present "Ukrainian Art
through American Eyes", an exhibit featuring art from the collections of
Grace Kennan Warnecke and former US Ambassador to Ukraine, Carlos
Pascual. The exhibition will be on view through April 25, 2004.

The exhibit feature work of 22 painters, ranging by style from realistic,
impressionistic to abstract and naïf. Among others the exhibit features art
of such well-known Ukrainian artists as Tatyana Yablonska (Yablonskaya)
and Mikola Hlushchenko. Paintings from both of the collections were
acquired between 1998 and 2003.

The idea for the present exhibition came from Ms. Warnecke. The first
paintings she purchased in Kyiv were in response to the blank walls of her
apartment and office. "One day I realized that I was building a collection,"
she recalls. After that, the idea of having a show of Ukrainian Art in the
USA for the American viewer became more and more important to her.
When she approached the Ukrainian Institute with the proposition to
organize this show, the institute immediately agreed to host the exhibit.

The Ukrainian Institute of America Inc. is a nonprofit organization whose
primary mission is to showcase and support Ukrainian culture with an
emphasis on visual arts and music. The Institute was founded more than
fifty years ago by William Dzus, a prominent Ukrainian inventor,
industrialist and philanthropist.

"We are thrilled by the opportunity to present this exhibit to the general
public, says, Walter Hoydysh, the director of Ukrainian programs at the
Ukrainian institute as well as the curator of the exhibit. "It is a
wonderful opportunity to showcase Ukrainian paintings that were chosen
by an American collector."

The work on exhibit includes social realism "Night shift at Chernobyl
Nuclear Power Plant", 1973, by Mamsikov, depicting the glory of construction
of the plant that opened in September, 1977, and brought to the world the
worst lesson on nuclear reactor safety. We also see the wonderfully
colored, compositionally elegant still life and landscape paintings by
Mikola Hlushchenko, a legend of Ukrainian art who also became a chief
designer of the USSR exhibits at international expos.

There is a touch of authenticity of Ukrainian spirit in primitive painting
of Anastasia Rak, who after surviving great oppressions of Stalin's Famine
of 1932 -1933 and Nazi labor camps of World War II was able to return
to her native village where she brings optimism to everyday life with her
joyous villagescapes reverse painting on glass. But above all the exhibit
presents a great academic level of art.

A total of 37 works are on view. A fully illustrated catalogue of the
exhibit as well as a well as a full preview on the UIA website
www.ukrainianinstitute.org/grace/html is available.

UIA Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Sunday, 2 to 6 pm; Address, 2 East 70th
Street, New York, NY 10021; Telephone: (212) 288-8660
Fax: (212) 288-2918. (END) (ARTUIS)
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NOTE: The www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service (ARTUIS) is
pleased to have had the opportunity to know and work with Grace Kennan
Warnecke while she lived in Kyiv and was assembling her art collection.
We were able to introduce her to the art of Anastasia Rak. It is super
Grace's collection is now on exhibit in NYC. Morgan Williams, Publisher
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 38: ARTICLE NUMBER THIRTEEN
Collectibles Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/colgallery.htm
=========================================================
13. PRESIDENT KUCHMA SIGNS DECREE TO ADAPT UKRAINE'S
CIVIL SERVICE TO EUROPEAN UNION STANDARDS

Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, Ukraine, in Russian, 6 Mar 04
BBC Monitoring, UK, in English, March 7, 2004

Kiev, 6 March: Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has signed a decree on the
blueprint for adapting civil service in Ukraine to the standards of the
European Union. The aim of the document is to identify ways to improve civil
service in Ukraine to meet the general principles of its functioning in EU
countries, the presidential press service said today.

Kuchma decreed to approve the blueprint for adapting the civil service in
Ukraine to the standards of the European Union and ordered the government to
ensure the blueprint is implemented.

The Cabinet of Ministers has two months to draft its proposals on increasing
the effectiveness of the civil service management system through defining
the authority and status of the main directorate for civil service of
Ukraine, taking into account the experience of EU countries, and creating
regional units of the directorate in Crimea, Kiev, Sevastopol and other
regions.

The government is to conduct further functional study of the executive at
all levels, analyse the existing system of state management and specify
urgent measures to increase its effectiveness and the role of the main
directorate for civil service of Ukraine in this work. (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No.38: ARTICLE NUMBER FOURTEEN
Ukrainian Website: http://www.ArtUkraine.com
=========================================================
14. EU WANTS TO GIVE ITS NEW NEIGHBORS LIKE UKRAINE
FULL MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS EXCEPT IN DECISION-
MAKING INSTITUTIONS, RUSSIA THE KEY

Reuters, Brussels, Belgium, March 3, 2004

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union wants to give its new neighbors
after enlargement all the benefits of membership except a presence in
decision-making institutions, EU Commission President Romano Prodi said on
Wednesday.

"With these countries we intend sharing everything except our institutions,
basing our relations on a community of values and interests,'' he told a
conference.

The executive Commission has been drafting a "new neighborhood'' policy as
a basis for relations with countries the bloc will border after taking in 10
new states on May 1. But so far it has been vague on what form this will
take.

The policy will cover a swathe of Mediterranean countries and former Soviet
states like Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. Prodi said the EU could
not carry on expanding, but aimed to give its neighbors all benefits of
membership other than a role in bodies like the European parliament or the
Commission itself.

"The ultimate, long-term aim is to extend to these countries the four
freedoms on which the Union is based, so giving tangible form to our
commitment not to erect new barriers across Europe.'' The four freedoms are
the free movement of goods, services, people and capital.

If the proposal came to fruition, it would mean a citizen of, say, Russia or
Morocco would have the same rights as a German or a Briton to move to an
EU country without a visa, transfer money there, buy a house and take up a
job. Pressed on the point, Prodi was adamant: "I mean everything but
institutions.''

RUSSIA THE KEY

He was speaking as EU relations with Russia, by far the most economically
and politically important of the EU's neighbors, are strained over
enlargement. Eight of the 10 countries joining in May are former Soviet bloc
states.

Moscow has failed to extend a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA),
covering all aspects of relations with the EU, fearing it will lose out
economically as the PCA would overwrite existing bilateral treaties with
acceding trade partners.

There are also tensions over Chechnya, the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad,
which will be locked inside EU territory after enlargement, Russian troops
in Georgia and Moldova, and the status of Russian speakers in Baltic states
joining the EU.

Russian opposition politician Grigory Yavlinsky told the same conference the
EU had to integrate with all ex-Soviet states in Europe over the next 20 to
30 years to remain economically competitive with North America and South
East Asia.

He added that the Union had to work out a strategy toward Russia, often
deeply suspicious of its eastern expansion. "What do we need? A transparent,
clear, value-based, friendly policy toward Russia, very open, very concrete,
very tough, very clear.'' (END) (ARTUIS)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 38, ARTICLE NUMBER FIFTEEN
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15. VITA PAVLYSH OF UKRAINE WINS SHOT PUT AT
WORLD INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS, WAS ALSO CHAMPION IN 1997

Associated Press Worldstream, Budapest, Hungary, Mar 05, 2004

BUDAPEST, Hungary - Vita Pavlysh of Ukraine won the shot put at the world
indoor championships on Friday, beating Svetlana Krivelyova of Russia and
Cuba's Yumileidi Cumba.

Pavlysh, the 1997 champion, claimed gold with a throw of 20.49 meters,
compared to 19.90 for Krivelyova. Cumba took bronze with 19.31.
Defending champion Irina Korzhanenko of Russia did not compete.

Pavlysh was suspended for two years after she failed at drug test at the
1999 world indoor championships. (END) (ARTUIS)
==========================================================
ARTICLES ARE FOR PERSONAL AND ACADEMIC USE ONLY
==========================================================
NEWS AND INFORMATION WEBSITE ABOUT UKRAINE
LINK: http://www.ArtUkraine.com
==========================================================
New Issue Just Published...Year 2003, Issue 3-4
FOLK ART MAGAZINE: NARODNE MYSTETSTVO
LINK: http://www.artukraine.com/primitive/artmagazine.htm
==========================================================
NEW BOOK: Three Hundred Eleven Personal Interviews, Famine 32-33.
"UKRAINIANS ABOUT FAMINE 1932-1933," Prof. Sokil, Lviv, Ukraine
http://www.artukraine.com/famineart/sokil.htm
==========================================================
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