"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT"
An International Newsletter
In-Depth Ukrainian News, Analysis, and Commentary
"The Art of Ukrainian History, Culture, Arts, Business, Religion,
Sports, Government, and Politics, in Ukraine and Around the World"
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" Year 04, Number 199
The Action Ukraine Coalition (AUC), Washington, D.C.
Ukrainian Federation of America (UFA), Huntingdon Valley, PA
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net (ARTUIS)
Washington, D.C.; Kyiv, Ukraine, TUESDAY, October 26, 2004
-----INDEX OF ARTICLES-----
"Major International News Headlines and Articles"
1. "PUTIN'S UNCHALLENGED IMPERIALISM"
Imperial-minded president intervenes in the strategic country of Ukraine
OP-ED: by Columnist Jackson Diehl
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
Monday, October 25, 2004; Page A19
2. "A LETTER FROM KIEV AFTER THE NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES"
From Oksana Zabuzhko a well-known Ukrainian writer and journalist.
Open Letter from Oksana Zabuzhko
Ukrainian Writer and Journalist
Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, October 24 2004
3. ANOTHER HEAD TO HEAD: A PRESIDENTIAL RACE AGAIN
PITS RUSSIA AGAINST THE WEST
By Frank Brown, Newsweek Moscow Bureau
Newsweek International, New York, NY, November 1, 2004 Issue
4. "FATE OF UKRAINE IS BEING DECIDED FOR FUTURE YEARS"
We cannot, and indeed have no right, to remain silent
AN OPEN LETTER FROM:
Representatives of Ukraine's Creative Intelligentsia
Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, October 24,2004
5. UKRAINE VOTES FOR NEW LEADER UNDER
NERVOUS EYE OF RUSSIA, WEST
Agence France Presse, Kiev, Ukraine, Monday, 25 October 2004
6. UKRAINIAN WRITERS TAKE RIGHT TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES
PUBLICLY ABOUT VALUES THAT ARE UNDER THREAT TODAY
AN OPEN LETTER FROM:
Twelve Apolitical Writers about Choice and the Elections
Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, October 25, 2004
7. U.S. RELATIONS WITH UKRAINE HINGE ON SUNDAY'S
DOWN-AND-DIRTY PRESIDENTIAL VOTE
After a campaign that's been almost laughingly corrupt.
By Matthew Schofield, Knight Ridder Newspapers
Washington Bureau, Washington, D.C., Monday, October 25, 2004
8. ELECTIONS IN UKRAINE: IN SOLIDARITY WITH STUDENTS
AND THE UNIVERSITY OF KYIV MOHYLA ACADEMY
Jaroslav Rozumnyj, Professor, University of Manitoba
UKMA Representative in Canada
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Sunday, 17 October 2004
9. "TENSIONS RISE AS UKRAINE POLL NEARS"
>From Jeremy Page in Moscow
TIMES, London, UK, Tuesday, October 26, 2004
10. "IN THE SPOTLIGHT: VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO"
By Tom Warner in Kiev
Financial Times, London, UK, Monday, October 25, 2004
11. KISSINGER GRILLED ON PRO-GOVERNMENT UKRAINIAN TV
Source: ICTV television, Kiev, in Russian, 24 Oct 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Sun, Oct 24, 2004
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.199: ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
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1. "PUTIN'S UNCHALLENGED IMPERIALISM"
Imperial-minded president intervenes in the strategic country of Ukraine
OP-ED: by Columnist Jackson Diehl
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
Monday, October 25, 2004; Page A19
Imagine that an imperial-minded president resolved to aggressively intervene
in a strategic country with a fragile democracy to ensure the election of a
favored client. To do so, he summoned his nominee and publicly embraced
him; channeled hundreds of millions of dollars to his campaign; arranged for
television stations broadcasting in the target country to openly boost the
favorite and slander his opponent; opened hundreds of polling stations in
his own country so that "expatriates" could vote; and, to top it off,
scheduled a trip to the foreign capital three days before the election to
stump in person.
Even Hamid Karzai or Ayad Allawi would be shamed by such a campaign, if
it were launched by President Bush. What's more, the rest of the world would
loudly condemn American interventionism. Yet Viktor Yanukovych, prime
minister and presidential candidate of Ukraine, has humbly welcomed all this
and more from Russian President Vladimir Putin -- and Western governments
have responded with a studied silence.
What's strange about this is that Ukraine's outgoing president, Leonid
Kuchma, was probably right when he recently boasted that the election of his
replacement on Oct. 31 would rank second only to Iraq's upcoming vote in
geopolitical importance. The contest between Yanukovych and challenger
Viktor Yushchenko will likely determine whether a European country the size
of France, with 50 million citizens, remains an imperfect democracy or
slides toward authoritarian rule. And it may well resolve whether 2004, like
1947-48, is remembered as a year when a Moscow-orchestrated mix of rigged
elections and dirty tricks turned several Eastern European countries into
satellites.
Sound exaggerated? Consider what has been happening in Belarus and Ukraine,
which lie between Russia and the expanded European Union and NATO. Last
week Belarus held a referendum on making strongman Alexander Lukashenko,
who already has agreed to reunite his country with Russia, the equivalent of
president-for-life. An exit poll conducted by the Gallup Organization showed
that the proposition failed. But when Belarusan authorities announced it had
passed with 77 percent of the vote, Russia quickly pronounced the vote free
and fair.
In Kiev, meanwhile, Yanukovych was pronouncing himself touched by the
news that Putin would travel to Kiev this week to appear with him at a
parade celebrating the city's capture by Soviet troops 60 years ago. "I will
forever be grateful," said the burly prime minister, who was publicly kissed
by Putin at his home in Moscow this month.
He should be. According to opposition sources, Russia has supplied half of
the $600 million that Yanukovych is spending on his campaign -- including a
$200 million payment from the Kremlin-controlled energy giant Gazprom.
Russian state television, which is seen by most Ukrainians, has campaigned
unrelentingly for Yanukovych. Pro-Yanukovych billboards have appeared
across Moscow, and expatriate Ukrainians will have the chance to vote at
some 400 polling places in Russia. Russian political advisers have arrived
in Kiev to conduct on-the-spot spin. Russian pop singers are touring the
country and boosting Yanukovych at concerts.
In return, Yanukovych promised Putin at their last meeting that he would end
Ukraine's policy of seeking membership in NATO, promote an open border
and dual citizenship for Russians and Ukrainians, make Russian the country's
second official language, and subordinate Ukraine's bid for membership in
the World Trade Organization to the requirements of forming the "single
economic space," the Putin initiative to create a new union with Ukraine,
Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Yanukovych would also entrench Putin's brand of authoritarian politics in
his country. Already Ukrainian media, like their Russian counterparts, are
delivering orchestrated and one-side support to Yanukovych, while many
opposition media outlets have been closed down. Yushchenko's rallies
have frequently been disrupted by thugs, and the candidate himself fell
mysteriously and gravely ill last month -- the result, he says, of a
poisoning meant to eliminate him.
In spite of all this, Yushchenko continues to hold a single-digit lead in
the polls. That's because the former banker and prime minister is
responsible for many of the free-market reforms that have allowed the
Ukrainian economy to flourish, and because he promises that he will continue
to lead an independent and democratic country toward partnership with the
West. The Bush administration and other Western governments hope for his
success, but privately expect that Yanukovych will win or steal the election
in a mid-November runoff. Putin, they know, will aid and abet that fraud --
and then set about integrating Ukraine into his authoritarian bloc.
No one has challenged the Russian president on his aggressive imperialism --
which probably means that it will grow. -30-
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59942-2004Oct24.html
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.199: ARTICLE NUMBER TWO
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2. "A LETTER FROM KIEV AFTER THE NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES"
From Oksana Zabuzhko a well-known Ukrainian writer and journalist.
Open Letter from Oksana Zabuzhko
Ukrainian Writer and Journalist
Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, October 24 2004
Dear friends,
I'm writing you this from the country, now haunted with the gory prospect
of being forcefully turned, in a week, into one of the most terrible
thugocratic dictatorships that Europe has witnessed since Hitler and
Stalin. You may find this an exaggeration, yet it's not. It's usually so
human, to refuse to believe the worst - until it's too late.
Besides, from my recent conversations with my friends and journalists
from EU, I know how little information can be found in the European
media on the situation in Ukraine - and, as a result, how little under-
standing there is of what is really at stake here this fall.
Last night the first blood was spilled on the Kiev pavement.
The autocratic post-Soviet regime, which since the late 1990s has been
smothering the budding Ukrainian democracy, and is by now wholeheartedly
hated by the vast majority of population (from 67% to 85%, according to
the polls!), has given us its final proof, that there'll be NO - however
heavily falsified - "free elections" on October, 31. There'll be a WAR - an
open war, launched against the people of Ukraine by the handful of
gangsters now at power, whose only goal is to stay at power after the 31st
- at ANY price.
Until last night they've been using the "cold-war" methods (to skip the
case of an attempted poisoning of the oppositional candidate, Victor
Yushchenko, whose chances to win the elections in an honest game are
undeniable).
There's been a disgusting and overwhelming campaign of lies in the media
(most of them, with very few exceptions, controlled by the power), there've
been all the dirty, illegal tricks used (payments, threats, repressions
etc.), as well as cheating with the voting lists (with, say, tens of
thousands of the dead included on them, etc).
Nothing of these, though, proved efficient enough to guarantee next Sunday
the smooth and peaceful victory to the "candidate of the power" - the
present-day Prime Minister (appointed by the president), a former (?)
criminal, back in his youth twice convicted for robbery (no kidding!).
Yesterday, the grand "orange" manifestation (orange being the colour
of the oppositional candidate) of some 150,000-200,000 people filled
the square in front of the Central Election Committee, under the slogan
"For honest and transparent elections". It's been a warm, tranquil sunny
day (do you know how beautiful is Kiev in the fall?), and the 3-million
city was all celebration - of joy, and hope, and solidarity. It's been a
long time since I've seen so many happy, smiling faces in the streets - in
fact, since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Yet then, in 1991, as the past 13 years have proved, our celebration was
definitely premature. With no change of the political elite, with just very
small burgeons of civil society, with - well, why don't I put it plainly -
no REAL revolution, Ukraine, after a while, started sliding back into the
dark shadow of Sovietization.
It's only now, that the dragon of Soviet totalitarianism - in the meantime
considerably shrunken, losing one part of his body after another (Eastern
Europe - the Baltics - then, last fall, Georgia...), all rotten up to the
marrow of his bones (its true - criminal - skeleton now fully exposed!) -
is REALLY agonizing. And the convulsions of the dragon could be terrible
- isn't the case of Russia conspicuous enough?
Vladimir Putin, who has so quickly turned his country back into a
concentration camp, fully browbeaten with the fear of terrorism, now
serves as the major support for the Ukrainian thugs. Small wonder, as
criminals and the KGB officers used to belong together since good old
Gulag times. The whole presidential campaign of our "candidate of the
power", Victor Yanukovich, is a brainchild of Moscow professionals.
Politically and intellectually, Kiev now more and more looks like the city
under Russian occupation.And what exactly have they plotted to ensure
"the succession of power" in Ukraine, has become visible last night.
About 23.00, after the singing "orange" crowd in front of the Central
Election Committee dispersed, and only some 150 people - among
them women, and senior citizens - stayed to wait for the results of the
session (which was held inside) to be announced (on the agenda was an
attempt to falsify some 2 million voices, due to the machinations with the
voting lists!) - the dragon has bared his teeth for the first time.
Some 50 black-leathered men appeared out of the darkness, and attacked
people, who were waiting on the park benches, with clubs and knives.
There was no police around (!), but three of the attackers - when the
parliamentarians and the bodyguards ran out of the building - were caught
and handcuffed. According to their IDs, they all appeared to be disguised
policemen - of the specially trained "killers' detachments".
Yes, there've been rumours circulating before - of some "special
detachments" arriving from all over the country and concentrating around
the city. Of some strange, and highly suspicious maneuvers noted by the
city-dwellers in some areas. Now, next morning after the "night of the long
knives" (as a result of which, 11 peaceful demonstrators were taken to the
hospital, some of them seriously wounded), there's no doubt left: the war
has been announced. The gangsters at power aren't going to leave in any
case. They are going to fight - most probably, after the voting-booths will
be closed.
Could any, however "specially trained", groups of murderers REALLY
work against hundreds of thousands of people? (For people ARE going
to go into the streets on the election night, and Ukrainian internet is now
boiling with the discussions on how and where to meet, how to protect
oneself against the attacks, etc.). Well, maybe they couldn't. And Ukrainian
army will hardly agree to turn its guns against its own people, either. But
on October, 28 - three days before the elections - there'll be a military
parade (!) in Kiev (nothing like this was ever held before on this date!).
And Russian president Vladimir Putin is coming to Kiev - allegedly, to
take part in the parade (?). And to stay in Kiev for 5 (?) days more. Again,
there're rumours - oh, these rumours! - that he'll be bodyguarded by some
bayonets. More precisely - with two divisions being particularly famous
of their operations in the Caucuses...
Maybe Ukraine has only one week left. One last week of the electrifying
autumn of free political discussions in the cafes and clubs, of gatherings,
manifestations, and - well, of hope. For, despite everything, there's an
extremely strong, and growing hope, I even daresay, an upsurging belief,
that the Ukrainian part of the dragon will be killed next Sunday with the
free will of the people.
Today the anchorman on the last Ukrainian free TV channel yet unclosed
(Channel 5) was smiling the same way people were yesterday in the streets.
(For quite a while persecuted, now sued, Channel 5 is under the threat of
being closed tomorrow night - but the anchorman was smiling like a winner.)
Now covering no more than 30% of the country's territory, Channel 5 was
the only one which gave a full report on the events of the last night.
Characteristically, none of the beaten witnesses sounded "victimized" -
they all talked indignantly, but righteously: that is, like people aware
of their rights, and ready to protect them.
It's a totally irrational, yet overwhelming feeling: that "we", the people,
are stronger than "them", the corrupted power. And that it's "them", not
"us", who is scared.
On the night of the elections I'll be in the streets, too. I don't know what
is going to happen there. That is, what forces will be turned against us,
and what will be the final result. Yet, even if the worst happens, and the
Putin's bayonets help to turn my country, for God-knows-how-long, into
a criminal-presided reservation of the degraded Stalinist type, we'll be in
the streets - if only to be able to say, that THIS IS NOT OUR CHOICE.
Knowing how easily (and, more than once, eagerly!) does Western press
buy the "made-in-Russia" political myths on the current Ukrainian situation
(on Ukraine being allegedly "split" into East and West, "pro-Russian" and
"pro-Western", Russian-speaking and Ukrainian-speaking parts, each
of them allegedly delegating its own candidate for the presidency), I
just wanted to let you know how the things look and feel here in the
reality.
By spreading the truth further, you'll make your own contribution into
killing the dragon. For, as we all know from this old guy Orwell (WHO
on earth has ever been so careless to have claimed him outdated?) -
what the dragon needs most badly for its survival, is precisely the fake,
artificially constructed mental picture. And - needless to say that - the
agony of the dragon should by no means be lightheartedly taken as a
local process only...
It's not a farewell letter - it's a letter of hope.
Please keep your fingers for us this week!
With warmest regards,
Oksana Zabuzhko
http://www.zabuzhko.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Oksana Zabuzhko, a major writer of contemporary Ukraine, born in
1960, lives in Kyiv. She is a graduate of the Department of Philosophy
of Kyiv Shevchenko University (1982). After having completed here
her post-graduate studies, she obtained her PhD in philosophy of arts
in 1987. Since then she has worked as an Associate Scholar for the
Institute of Philosophy of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kyiv.
She was a Fulbright Fellow in the United States in 1994 (at Harvard
University and the University of Pittsburgh), and taught Ukrainian culture
and literature as a Writer-in-Residence at Penn State University in 1992.
She also writes for journals and magazines on various literary issues, and
has worked as a columnist for one of the country's major weeklies. She is
Vice-President of the Ukrainian PEN-center, and Distinguished Creative
Writing Professor at Kiev Shevchenko University.
Zabuzhko's works have been widely translated in Central and Eastern
Europe, and have won her many literary awards. Among her international
writer's honors are 1997 Global Commitment Foundation Poetry Prize,
fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation (1998), from the Cultural
Department of the City of Munich (1999), and others. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.199: ARTICLE NUMBER THREE
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3. ANOTHER HEAD TO HEAD: A PRESIDENTIAL RACE AGAIN
PITS RUSSIA AGAINST THE WEST
By Frank Brown, Newsweek Moscow Bureau
Newsweek International, New York, NY, November 1, 2004 Issue
MOSCOW - It's a shadow war reminiscent of cold-war conflicts in Third
World countries. Russia and the United States are going head to head in
Ukraine, the former Soviet republic that holds a pivotal presidential
election on Oct. 31. The two sides' arsenals don't include Kalashnikovs or
Stinger missiles anymore. Rather, dollars from Washington and political
advisers from Moscow are the weapons of choice.
The battlelines could not be starker, nor could the stakes be much higher-
for Ukraine or the region. Of 24 candidates, only two have a chance. One:
Viktor Yanukovych, the current prime minister (and protegé of the retiring
President Leonid Kuchma), who pledges close ties to Moscow. The other:
Viktor Yushchenko, who vows to attack corruption and take the country
further toward democracy. The reform-minded Yushchenko is the darling of
the West. Yanukovych has the support of the country's powerful business
clans and the security forces, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"For Ukraine," says opposition parliamentarian Pyotr Poroshenko, "this is a
crucial test."
It promises to be bruising-and dirty. International watchdog groups accuse
the government of preparing to rig the vote. The state has used tax laws to
harass Yushchenko and his supporters. Opposition campaign events have
been disrupted, and pro-Yanukovych propaganda flows from state-controlled
Ukrainian and Russian television stations. Employing tactics imported by
their Russian political consultants, top government officials deliver daily
instructions-temnyki-to news executives concerning what issues to cover and
how. "The temnyki are our work," boasts Sergei Markov, a Kremlin adviser
to Yanukovych.
More brutal Soviet-style tactics are also coming into play. Earlier this
fall Yushchenko was apparently poisoned. "They were absolutely trying to
kill him," says an aide, who rushed with him to a Vienna hospital. State
courts are now threatening to close the country's last independent TV
station, which supports Yushchenko. Meanwhile, Putin-hugely popular in
Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine-has all but endorsed Yanukovych,
announcing he would come to Kiev just three days before the vote.
Western NGOs are working hard-and spending freely-to ensure the election
is fair. Just last Friday special police raided several of their offices.
"Before today I was reasonably optimistic about the election," says Sam
Coppersmith, a former U.S. congressman working with the U.S.-Ukraine
Foundation.
Given a free choice, most Ukrainians would probably opt for closer ties to
the West. Ukraine contributes 1,600 troops to the U.S.-led occupation in
Iraq. Kuchma has said he would like to see the country join both NATO and
the EU, which it now borders. But the fact that those doors seem closed has
hurt Yushchenko's cause-and strengthened those like Yanukovych who
gravitate toward the East. Russia's interests in Ukraine are apparent.
Sevastopol is home to its Black Sea Fleet; most of its western-bound
natural-gas pipelines pass through Ukraine. Its membership in the Moscow-
led Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose union of former Soviet
republics, lends substance to Russia's lingering dream of empire.
If Yanukovych wins, there will be widespread accusations that he stole the
election, much in the manner of the stage-managed referendum by which
President Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus granted himself the right to run
for another term last week. The results could be bloody. Ukrainian youth
organizations plan to put 50,000 demonstrators on the streets of Kiev on
election night. If that doesn't help produce an honest result, they will
mobilize as many as 2 million protesters, hoping for a repeat of the Rose
Revolution in Georgia last year that overthrew the regime of President
Eduard Shevardnadze. The government says it will forcibly put down unrest.
Whatever happens, Ukraine's election will set a new standard of democracy,
either higher or lower, for post-communist states. "I'm not suggesting that
Mr. Yanukovych is another Milosevic, but if he is beholden to [the security
forces of Russia and Ukraine] for winning this election, it will be a very
bad precedent," says Adrian Karatnycky at Freedom House, an NGO that
will send 1,000 election observers for a likely second round on Nov. 21. The
battle has begun. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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LINK: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6315394/site/newsweek/
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.199: ARTICLE NUMBER FOUR
Your comments about the Report are always welcome
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4. "FATE OF UKRAINE IS BEING DECIDED FOR FUTURE YEARS"
We cannot, and indeed have no right, to remain silent
AN OPEN LETTER FROM:
Representatives of Ukraine's Creative Intelligentsia
Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, October 24, 2004
Dear fellow countrymen,
Most of us have no connection to politics. But today, when the fate of
Ukraine (and the destinies of each one of us!) is being decided for many
years into the future, we cannot, and indeed have no right, to remain
silent.
Not so long ago we were certain that independence for Ukraine would
mean not only the well-being of its citizens but also the burgeoning of
culture and the formation of a society comprised of free and spiritually
wealthy people. Unfortunately, reality has shattered our expectations.
The point is not just that the preponderant majority of Ukrainians still
lives in poverty and lawlessness. Ukrainian literature, film, music
performance, and everything that is loftily termed "culture" have also
turned out to be completely without any rights. In this kind of state, the
authorities do not have a single clue about the significance of culture in
the life of the nation, for Russian pop entirely satisfies their spiritual
quests.
However, the worst thing is that in the last while fear is once again
creeping into people's souls. Today they are often afraid of speaking
freely, in case they lose the very last things in their possessionwork and
a piece of bread. Instead of a cozy European home with its attendant
prosperous life and respect for the law, once again we are being offered
Eurasian spaces with their eternal evils, barbarity, and despotism.
We realize that the road along which the current state leadership has been
leading us is the road to nowhere. That is why we want changes and expect
that the elections on October 31 will bring us these changes. Therefore, we
absolutely reject the candidate proposed by the current government, which
is promising us "continuity of the political course," and hence the
spiraling growth of bureaucratic arbitrariness that goes unpunished and the
progressive spiritual and moral decline of Ukraine.
Recently we acquired another piece of evidence indicating that Viktor
Yanukovych's victory in the elections will be a national catastrophe for
Ukraine. After promising to grant state status to the Russian language, the
government's candidate in fact passed sentence on the Ukrainian language,
which even in the circumstances of official "unilingualism" actually
remains in the backyard, so to speak, squeezed out of the publishing,
media, audio, and video markets in its own state. The Russian producer
has almost complete sway over all these spheres, which are strategically
important for national self-identity. Therefore, it is not difficult to
imagine what Ukraine will look like under conditions of official
"bilingualism."
At risk is a thousand-year-old culture of a great European people, who
struggled for centuries for their liberty, lived through wars and genocidal
famines, mass repressions, and forced deportations. Still they managed to
bestow on humanity Oleksandr Dovzhenko and Les Kurbas, Maksym
Berezovsky and Mykola Lysenko, Solomia Krushelnytska and Ivan Franko,
Taras Shevchenko and Lesia Ukrainka.
Today they want to ultimately divest us of the very underpinnings of a
nation's identityits culture and history, its memory and dignity. Only a
pitiful, semi-colonial Third World dictatorship will remain of Ukraine, a
faceless market-place for cheap labor and cannon fodder for use by the
criminal authorities.
Therefore, today we have no right to give away a single Ukrainian vote to
Yanukovych. Wishing a good, honorable life for ourselves, our children, and
our grandchildren, we should, regardless of our political preferences,
rally around Viktor Yushchenko, who is the only one today who has a chance
to vanquish the candidate of the criminal government.
We believe in Ukraine's democratic European future. However, we can help
to advance this prospect only if we take a conscious stand in the elections
on October 31.
Oksana ZABUZHKO; Oleh SKRYPKA; Maksym STRIKHA
Dmytro PAVLYCHKO; Maria BURMAKA; Sviatoslav VAKARCHUK
Ivan MALKOVYCH (?); Yevhen STANKOVYCH; Maria STEF'IUK (?)
Yuri ILLIENKO; Taras POLATAIKO; Maryna ROMANETS
Yarema POLATAIKO; Oleksa ROMANETS
Etc................This list is ongoing and cumulative.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Translated from the Ukrainian by Marta D. Olynyk
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.199: ARTICLE NUMBER FIVE
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5. UKRAINE VOTES FOR NEW LEADER UNDER
NERVOUS EYE OF RUSSIA, WEST
Agence France Presse, Kiev, Ukraine, Monday, 25 October 2004
KIEV - Ukraine goes to the polls on Sunday to choose a successor to its
outgoing president Leonid Kuchma in a vote to determine the course of this
country wedged between an increasingly authoritarian Russia and an anxious
European Union.
Ukraine is one of the few former Soviet republics that boasts a strong
opposition, ensuring that the battle for power after a decade of Kuchma's
rule has been bitter and fierce.
"This (contest) is between a corrupt regime, ready for anything to keep
power and money, and a strong, organised opposition dreaming of a fight,"
said Olexander Dergachov, a political analyst.
Some two dozen candidates are registered in the poll, but the main contest
is between two Viktors who are running neck in neck in opinion polls -- the
pro-Russia Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, and the Western-leaning
opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko.
In a sign of the high stakes of the vote, Russia has thrown its weight
behind Yanukovich while the United States and the European Union have
both voiced concerns over the election campaign, which has featured police
searches of opposition and poisoning charges.
"This election is crucial because Ukraine has a choice -- either become an
authoritarian regime like Russia or go on its way, halting as it may be,
toward a democratic state," Dergachov said.
The campaign has left this country of 48 million people divided, with the
Ukrainian-speaking west supporting Yushchenko and the Russian-speaking
east backing Yanukovich.
The Ukrainian government has used all levers at its disposal, including the
media and police pressure, to see that Yanukovich inherits Kuchma's post.
This 54-year-old with a sketchy past had ruled ironfisted over the
Russian-speaking Donetsk region before being summoned to head the
government in 2002.
He can count on support of powerful businessmen, many of whom made
fortunes in shady privatisation deals that may be questioned once the
opposition comes to power.
His campaign has focused on the rights of Russian speakers, who make up
more than half of the country's population, and has emphasized closer ties
with Moscow, arguing that adhesion to the EU and NATO would not serve
Kiev's interests.
And Moscow has thrown its support behind Yanukovich as well -- he has
met with President Vladimir Putin in televised appearances and billboards
all over Moscow urge its large Ukrainian diaspora to vote Yanukovich.
Russia would like to have as "partner a regime similar to its own," fearing
that "Ukraine would escape its influence" if Yushchenko were elected, said
Volodymyr Malinkovich, an analyst, recalling a old phrase coined by a former
US national security advisor, "There is no Russian Empire without Ukraine."
The 50-year-old Yushchenko is a former premier and a reformist who today
heads an eclectic parliamentary coalition of nationalists and liberals and
who backs Ukraine joining the EU and "pragmatic" relations with Moscow.
Several weeks ago he was struck with a mysterious illness that has left his
face deeply scarred. He has charged, without providing proof, that the
authorities had tried to poison him.
Yushchenko's popularity has sent alarm bells among the ruling elite that
Ukraine could follow a scenario similar to last year's of Georgia, where a
Soviet-era ruler was peacefully ousted after a disputed election.
The fact that Ukraine's Pora (It is Time) youth opposition movement has
had contact with Serbia's Otpor (Resistance), which had advised Georgian
counterparts and played a crucial role in ousting Slobodan Milosevic, has
only reinforced such fears.
In the weeks leading up to the vote, Pora members have been investigated
on charges of "terrorism" and "illegal formation of an armed group" and
police have searched groups affiliated with it.
Opposition media -- which played a crucial role in Georgia's "rose
revolution" last year -- have also found themselves under pressure in
Ukraine ahead of the election.
Less than two weeks before the vote, a Kiev court of appeals stripped
Channel 5 opposition television of its license in a move that its director
said was aimed at destroying the channel, whose owner is a close Yushchenko
ally. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
=======================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.199: ARTICLE NUMBER SIX
Additional names for the distribution list are always welcome
========================================================
6. UKRAINIAN WRITERS TAKE RIGHT TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES
PUBLICLY ABOUT VALUES THAT ARE UNDER THREAT TODAY
AN OPEN LETTER FROM:
Twelve Apolitical Writers about Choice and the Elections
Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, October 25, 2004
We, the undersigned Ukrainian writers, do not belong to any political
party. We are not involved in any party or ideological confrontations, and
in this sense, we are completely apolitical. Above all, we prize human
individuality, i.e., self-sufficiency and personal freedom. Moreover, since
these very values are under threat today, as never before, we are taking
advantage of our right to express ourselves publicly.
TODAY the Ukrainian (?) "prime minister" Yanukovych consented to the
atypical fusion of the criminal Ukrainian government with Russia's
neo-Chekist regime, and by TOMORROW every last trace of Ukrainian
democracy will have disappeared, just as this has happened with Russian
democracy.
TODAY the Ukrainian (?) "prime minister" Yanukovych is rejecting Ukraine's
European future, and by TOMORROW every Ukrainian city may become a
military base for Russia's armed forces. The only thing left of Ukraine will
be its name, hymn, and national emblem (there is no certainty with regard to
the latter two attributes, if you recall the example of Yanukovych's
historical fatherland, Belarus).
TODAY the Ukrainian (?) "prime minister" Yanukovych is threatening us
with dual citizenship, and by TOMORROW Ukrainians will again be foolishly
sacrificing their lives for the sake of the "great empire." By TOMORROW
armed fighters will be taking Ukrainian schools and hospitals hostage; by
TOMORROW Moscow generals taken out of the deep freeze will be
terrorizing Ukrainian civilians.
TODAY the Ukrainian (?) "prime minister" Yanukovych is handing out to
his nephews and favored cronies the finest plots carved out of national
preserves, palaces and villas, parts of coastlines and reservoirs, forests
and mountains, and by TOMORROW for our survival (or extinction?)
they will allot us something along the lines of a last reservation with a
ruined, depressing landscape.
TODAY the Ukrainian (?) "prime minister" Yanukovych is promising to
grant the language of pop music and Russian criminal slang the absurd status
of "second state language," and by TOMORROW it will ultimately force
out the "first state language," pushing it to the sidelines and margins. By
TOMORROW the language of the semi-literate "Russian professor" and his
pals will unconditionally reign over the entire "guelder rose and
nightingale" territory of Ukraine.
TODAY the Kremlin spin-doctors, those unparalleled cynical managers of
presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych are determining your future and
ours, and by means of the blackest type of PR and primitive anti-Western
rhetoric are, with no difficulty whatsoever, conducting their geo-strategic
experiments with "a country that no one is sorry for." By TOMORROW
Ukraine will be turned into a black hole in the center of Europe, where
presidential candidates are poisoned with impunity, journalists are
murdered, and an entire nation of people is kept in submission, apathy,
and hopelessness.
Yes, we are truly in danger Ukraine and its independence, and the
independence of each one of us. That is why we, the undersigned
Ukrainian writers, are calling on Ukrainian electors to give their votes
on Election Day to Viktor Yushchenko for President of Ukraine.
Yanukovych stands for the irrevocability of a puppet dictatorship.
Yushchenko stands for the irrevocability of democracy.
Yanukovych stands for a corrupt, criminal, and degenerate government.
Yushchenko stands for civic rights and freedoms.
Yanukovych is a Soviet-era man and a criminal, while Yushchenko means
a chance for cultural diversity.
Yanukovych means isolation from Europe and the world. Yushchenko
means the dismantling of borders, understanding.
A vote for Viktor Yushchenko is the European choice, not the Single
Economic Space.
A vote for Viktor Yushchenko is a choice made free individuals, not
frightened zombies.
So if THIS government hates THIS person SO MUCH, then our choice
is the correct one.
Let us choose TODAY, because TOMORROW they may deprive us
of the very chance to vote!
Yuri Andrukhovych; Andrii Bondar;
Oleksandr Boichenko; Ivan Andrusiak;
Natalka Bilotserkivets; Yuri Vynnychuk;
Yuri Izdryk; Oleksandr Irvanets;
Irena Karpa; Vasyl Kozhelianko;
Taras Prokhasko; Mykola Riabchuk
-------------------------------------------------------------
Translated from the Ukrainian by Marta D. Olynyk
http://postup.brama.com/dinamic/i_pub/usual.php?what=31831
e-POSHTA, October 25, 2004, Myroslava Oleksiuk, Editor-In-
Chief, myroslava@rogers.com
========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.199: ARTICLE NUMBER SEVEN
Suggested articles for publication in the Report are always welcome
========================================================
7. U.S. RELATIONS WITH UKRAINE HINGE ON SUNDAY'S
DOWN-AND-DIRTY PRESIDENTIAL VOTE
After a campaign that's been almost laughingly corrupt.
By Matthew Schofield, Knight Ridder Newspapers
Washington Bureau, Washington, D.C., Monday, October 25, 2004
KIEV, Ukraine - When police, citing safety reasons, halted the first bus
of supporters on their way to a rally for a popular opposition presidential
candidate, Oleksiy Kozachenko was annoyed. But when the calls kept
coming that night, the Ukrainian parliament member realized police had
grounded perhaps 10,000 supporters in remote villages, and he was furious.
"This is what passes for open government here," he said. "What followed
was predictable: The national television stations - under orders from The
Power - ignored the rally or reported that it was attended by only a few
people, many of them drunk."
After a campaign that's been almost laughingly corrupt, Ukrainians on
Sunday will vote in what's being called the most important election in the
years since the Soviet Union collapsed and Ukraine gained independence.
Many neutral observers and political opponents say the stakes are high
and that a victory for government-backed candidate Viktor Yanukovych -
referred to in Ukraine as "The Power" - will mean a long step away from
democracy, with the government passing into the hands of a small
collection of super-rich. That would seriously damage relations with the
West, especially the United States.
As parliament member Petro Poroshenko notes, "These days before the
election are the most important in the short history of Ukraine. If the
wrong man wins, and I do not believe he can win a fair election, we're
looking at the end of our democratic era."
U.S. Ambassador John E. Herbst is more diplomatic. He said that if the
votes are counted honestly, the United States will be willing to work with
whoever runs a nation that still has troops in Iraq. He praised business,
political and civil reforms that have taken place in the Ukraine since
independence in 1991. And he said he looks forward to Ukraine becoming
more involved with the West, even the potential of NATO membership.
But, he noted, that's if the votes are counted fairly.
"While most parties in Ukraine pay lip service to the idea of a free and
fair competition, the reality is sadly different," he said recently. "A
variety of obstacles have been placed in the way of the opposition parties.
These have begun to raise doubts about whether the elections can be
considered truly free and fair."
The election campaign has featured allegations of poisoning, attempted
assassination and military intimidation. Yanukovych, the current prime
minister, is accused of heading a machine that has filled voter rolls with
dead souls and has cracked down on any positive press coverage of his
opponents. Still, he trails in the polls, by between 4 and 8 percentage
points, to Viktor Yushchenko, a former prime minister who's widely
regarded as a champion of democratic reforms.
The election is close, and either candidate could win. But hopes that the
election will be fair hang on the presence of more than 3,000 international
election observers and by the implied threat that the international
community might withdraw support if those observers find manipulated
results. Even that may not be enough, many experts believe.
"There is no hope of a fair election here," said Yulia Tyshchenko, the
program head at Ukraine's first independent think tank, the Ukrainian
Center for Independent Political Research. "We still, however, have
illusions for voting day, for the results to reflect the will of the
people."
Ukraine, the third largest republic of the former Soviet Union with 48
million residents on the eastern edge of Europe, has mostly had lightly
contested presidential elections. The same basic ruling block of parties
has controlled the office since 1994, beating Communists, remnants of
the Soviet past.
This time is different. After 10 years, during which Ukraine has transformed
from a poor but well-ordered nation with enormous potential into a nation
where a few people have become enormously rich by buying formerly
state-owned properties and businesses, there's an actual race.
The campaign officially began in July, and it most likely will end after a
runoff vote between Yanukovych and Yushchenko if they, as expected,
emerge from the Halloween ballot as the top two of two dozen candidates
in the race.
Yanukovych is the choice of current President Leonid Kuchma and a friend
of the richest of the nation's 10 most powerful oligarchs. Critics claim he
leans toward Moscow and will take the country toward authoritarianism.
He denies this and says he wishes to maintain friendships with Washington
and Moscow.
"He does not run for office to win," said Stepan Havrysh, the coordinator
of the Ukrainian Parliament majority and a Yanukovych supporter. "He
runs only to expand democratic reforms."
Yushchenko, the prime minister from 1999 to 2001, is also a friend of
several of the nation's super rich. But he's considered a champion of civil
freedoms and democracy. Critics portray him as an American puppet.
Election posters by Yanukovych supporters feature Yushchenko's face on
an Uncle Sam body, asking if people want a war, and his campaign slogan
TAK (YES) above stars-and-stripes-decorated mosquitoes sucking the
life out of Ukraine.
Perhaps the biggest issue in voters' minds is the increase of government
salaries and pensions. Researcher Sergiy Panzer, of the Kiev-based
Laboratory for Legislative Initiatives, said that while the streets are full
of Mercedes-Benzes and designer stores, about 50 percent of Ukrainians
live on less than $60 a month, considered the minimum needed to live here.
The poor include doctors, professors, teachers and others paid by the
government, as well as pensioners.
Recently, Yanukovych increased government wages and pensions for
election season by selling a steelworks. (Critics point out the price was
about half what foreign interests offered and that it was sold to one of his
political allies.) The money, however, is scheduled to run out soon after
elections.
Boris Lozhkin, who publishes dozens of newspapers and magazines in
Ukraine and heads the Newspaper Publishers Association, said he worries
about his country no matter how the election goes. The United States, he
points out, is going through a very difficult, angry and close election. But
the United States has more than 200 years of democratic tradition behind it.
"I do worry that regardless of the outcome, half our people will not accept
the winner," he said. "Democracy is very young here. I hope it is not also
very fragile." -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
--------------------------- ----------------------------------------------
LINK: http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10012822.htm
========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 199: ARTICLE NUMBER EIGHT
Letters to the editor are always welcome
========================================================
8. ELECTIONS IN UKRAINE: IN SOLIDARITY WITH STUDENTS
AND THE UNIVERSITY OF KYIV MOHYLA ACADEMY
Jaroslav Rozumnyj, Professor, University of Manitoba
UKMA Representative in Canada
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Sunday, 17 October 2004
WINNIPEG - On Saturday October 16, 2004, participants of the All-
Ukrainian Students' Rally endorsed a resolution in support of Ukraine's
democratic opposition candidate for president, Victor Yushchenko. The
rally which was attended by approximately 22,000 youths took place next
to the campus of the University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy (UKMA) and
was the target of police provocation and intimidation. On Sunday October
17, the police attempted to conduct a search of the University (See
Ukrains'ka Pravda, October 16 and October 17, 2004).
The Canadian Friends of the University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy fully
support the democratic right of the students to publicly voice their civic
opinions and to support and vote for the presidential candidate of their
convictions and conscience.
At the same time, we condemn the undemocratic and fascist behaviour
of government authorities in their attempt to thwart constitutionally
guaranteed freedom of expression in Ukraine. We condemn the harassment
of students and the militia's illegal searches of academic institutions.
We are in full solidarity with the students in their right to open public
discourse, and support the University's administration in refusing illegal
searches and intrusions at the University which endeavours to educate
patriotic citizens and moral leaders of their country. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.199: ARTICLE NUMBER NINE
========================================================
9. "TENSIONS RISE AS UKRAINE POLL NEARS"
>From Jeremy Page in Moscow
TIMES, London, UK, Tuesday, October 26, 2004
MOSCOW - LEONID KUCHMA, the Ukrainian President, cancelled
a visit to Poland at the last minute and appealed for calm yesterday
because of mounting tension in the week before an election to choose his
successor. The mayor of Kiev has already pledged to ban political rallies
after violent clashes during an opposition rally at the weekend that drew
50,000 supporters.
With less than a week until the election on Sunday, the opposition leader,
Viktor Yushchenko, is neck and neck with the Prime Minister, Viktor
Yanukovych, who has Mr Kuchma's backing. Mudslinging and dirty tricks
that have plagued campaigning are expected to intensify over the next few
days as the two face off in what many see as a geopolitical struggle between
Russia and the West.
Mr Yushchenko, a former prime minister, is a Westleaning reformist who
advocates integration with the EU and Nato and accuses Mr Kuchma and
his team of being in the pocket of Ukrainian oligarchs. Mr Yanukovych has
pledged to maintain strong state control over the economy and to forge even
closer ties with Russia. He accuses his rival for office of wanting to sell
out to the West.
Ukrainian officials declined to say why Mr Kuchma had put off his trip to
Poland. But Dariusz Szymczycha, a Polish minister, told public radio: "The
Ukrainian diplomatic service informed us yesterday that in light of the
tensions that have arisen before the elections and the events that are
happening there, the President decided to remain in the country."
A dozen protesters were injured during Saturday's rally in central Kiev
against electoral fraud when a group of men in civilian clothes attacked
them outside the headquarters of the Central Election Commission.
Opposition officials claimed that some of the attackers had police badges
and at least two had handguns. The attack came after a clash between
opposition and pro-Government members of parliament inside the
commission over the distribution of polling stations for Ukrainians living
abroad.
Mr Kuchma told senior law enforcement officials yesterday that they should
protect the commission but not respond to provocation. "I would like to ask
political forces to calm down and abandon their attempts to destabilise the
situation in the country," he said. Ukrainian officials accuse the
opposition of plotting with the West to engineer a change of power
resembling the "Rose Revolution" that deposed Eduard Shevardnadze in
Georgia last year.
The United States and the European Union say that they just want a free
and fair election, and have raised concerns about the clear bias of state
television channels, which have given blanket coverage to Mr Yanukovych
and virtually no time to his rivals.
Kiev: President Putin will arrive in Ukraine today to appear in an
unprecedented live national question-andanswer address. He will also attend
a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the Soviet Army's liberation of
Kiev from the Nazis. The ceremony, on Thursday, is a week earlier than
usual, prompting claims from opposition officials that the Government has
brought it forward to put on a show of strength three days before voting.
Mr Putin's arrival will be carried live by Ukraine's state television
station and a private network controlled by the head of Ukraine's
presidential administration, Viktor Medvetchuk. The Russian leader is
expected to answer questions mostly sent in advance via e-mail. President
Putin, meanwhile, has made no secret of his preference for Mr Yanukovych,
whom he warmly embraced on a recent visit to Moscow. -30-
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINK: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1328501,00.html
========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.199: ARTICLE NUMBER TEN
========================================================
10. "IN THE SPOTLIGHT: VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO"
By Tom Warner in Kiev
Financial Times, London, UK, Monday, October 25, 2004
KIEV - The face of Viktor Yushchenko, the leading opposition candidate
in presidential elections on Sunday, has a powerful effect. Throughout his
campaign tour of Ukraine cities, supporters have been breaking into sobs
at the sight of their hero's face.
It is not Mr Yushchenko's well-known good looks that are having this effect
but, rather, his lack of them. The candidate fell seriously ill at the
beginning of last month and was taken to a private hospital in Vienna, where
he was treated for acute pancreatitis and a damaged liver, which appears to
have caused his puffy complexion.
Mr Yushchenko is certain he was poisoned, although laboratory tests have
yet to establish a clear cause of his illness.
A Ukrainian doctor who treated the candidate says Mr Yushchenko's badly
eroded stomach and intestine linings, combined with other symptoms such as
paralysed facial nerves, make it likely he ingested a chemical toxin.
Although obviously not fully recovered, Mr Yushchenko is slogging through a
gruelling campaign beset by endless bureaucratic obstacles and constant
worries about his safety.
Last weekend, police launched a nationwide crackdown on Mr Yushchenko's
campaign activists and affiliated groups, claiming they were tipped off that
some activists had bombs.
Police say they found three bombs, while Mr Yushchenko retorts that police
clearly planted the bombs themselves. "The authorities insist on trying to
convince voters that their insistence on standing up for honest elections
could end in tears," Mr Yushchenko says.
Trained as a Soviet agricultural banker, Mr Yushchenko was not taught to
take risks. As chairman of Ukraine's central bank for most of the 1990s and
prime minister in 2000-01, he played a cautious game, hoping he could
eventually win support for his presidential ambitions from Leonid Kuchma,
the president. Mr Yushchenko did not give up until he was sacked. He
joined the opposition in 2001.
But predictions by Mr Kuchma's advisers that the "weak" former central
banker would buckle under pressure have proved to be a huge miscalculation.
Meanwhile, the tough-guy image of Mr Kuchma's preferred candidate,
Viktor Yanukovich, took a heavy blow last month when the 100kg prime
minister fainted during a campaign stop after being hit with a single raw
egg.
The campaign has revived old divisions in Ukraine, with the liberal,
pro-European Mr Yushchenko relying on support mostly in western and
central regions. Mr Yanukovich is supported largely in the predominantly
Russian-speaking east and south.
Polls show that both candidates are likely to win about 35 per cent of the
vote, which would put them into a head-to-head run-off on November 21.
Mr Yushchenko tells his audiences: "Ukrainians aren't divided into east or
west, or into south or north. Ukrainians are divided into bandits and honest
people." -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.199: ARTICLE NUMBER ELEVEN
Additional names for the distribution list are always welcome
========================================================
11. KISSINGER GRILLED ON PRO-GOVERNMENT UKRAINIAN TV
Source: ICTV television, Kiev, in Russian, 24 Oct 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Sun, Oct 24, 2004
KIEV - Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state, appeared in a
combative interview on the pro-government Ukrainian TV channel ICTV,
owned by President Leonid Kuchma's son in law Viktor Pinchuk. The pre-
recorded interview was shown in ICTV's main weekly political talk show
on 24 October, a week before the 31 October presidential election.
The interview did not explicitly focus on the Ukrainian election campaign,
but the presenter, Russian journalist Dmitriy Kiselev, grilled Kissinger on
US domestic and foreign policy. Criticisms of the US and allegations of US
campaigning for opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko - strenuously denied
by US officials - have featured prominently in the Ukrainian pro-government
channels' coverage of the election campaign.
Kissinger rebuffed Kiselev's remarks about the failure to find WMD in Iraq.
"This is a very strange debate because it is not someone's imagination, and
Iraq used WMD against the Kurdish population in the north. Also, they used
WMD in a war against Iran. This is not debatable, this is a fact," Kissinger
said through a Russian interpreter. He denied that the USA used WMD
as an excuse to invade Iraq.
Asked if lies were still an important factor in US politics, Kissinger
replied, "You know, it seems to me that you are conducting a very strange
interview here. It seems to me that your every word hints at some moral
shortcomings of the USA. If people lie in the USA they will lose their
reputation and are not trusted. You are expected not to lie, you are
expected to tell the truth. People make their judgment of you in the same
way as they do in Ukraine, or on the basis of how you keep your word.
Does Ukraine have some other category? We don't."
Following that, Kissinger said that he was an expert on foreign policy, and
asked the presenter to change the subject. Kissinger also answered questions
about the fight against terrorism, media freedom and his childhood.
Allegations of Western or Russian interference into the Ukrainian
presidential elections have featured prominently in the Ukrainian media
during the election campaign. Pro-government channels have often appeared to
question the way the Bush administration came to power, and made critical
remarks about US domestic and foreign policy. The pro-government Inter TV
runs election ads portraying opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko as a US
stooge.
And the Ukrayina TV channel, owned by businessmen close to Prime Minister
Viktor Yanukovych, has been observed running a politically charged promo of
Michael Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. Pro-opposition politicians, for
their part, have accused Russia of openly supporting Yanukovych,
Yushchenko's main rival.
Kissinger paid a two-day visit to Ukraine last week at Viktor Pinchuk's
invitation. His interview lasted for 35 minutes. Audio and video available.
No further processing is planned. -30- [Action Ukraine Monitoring Service]
========================================================
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