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Action Ukraine Report

"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 is being sent to you from Kharkiv,
Ukraine. When we arrived here last night a very large caravan of cars
were driving around the streets of central Kharkiv with the occupants
waving blue and white flags, the colors of the Yanukovych campaign.
We have participated in briefing meetings for a large number of
international election observers. The big news today was a last-
minute decision by Ukraine's Constitutional Court (see articles one
and two below).

THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" Year 04, Number 271
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net
KHARKIV, UKRAINE, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2004

-----INDEX OF ARTICLES-----
"Major International News Headlines and Articles"

1. UKRAINE COURT OVERTURNS PART OF NEW ELECTION LAW
Ruling means disabled voters will not have to trek to the polls
BBC NEWS, Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, December 25, 2004

2. UKRAINE COURT OVERTURNS PART OF ELECTION LAW
By Yuras Karmanau, Associated Press Writer,
AP, Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, December 25, 2004

3. UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT ONE MORE TIME PROLONGED
USE OF "SOVIET" PASSPORTS, NOW UNTIL END OF THE YEAR
Interfax-Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, December 24, 2004

4. YUSHCHENKO STAYS ON COURSE FOR A CLEAR
VICTORY IN PRESIDENTIAL POLL
Nick Paton Walsh in Kiev, Irish Times, Ireland, Fri, Dec 24, 2004

5. A CRUCIAL ELECTION THAT HAS SO FAR DEFIED OUR FEARS
EDITORIAL: The Independent, London, United Kingdom, Fri, Dec 24, 2004

6. UKRAINE HOPES REPEAT POLL WILL END CRISIS
By Tom Warner in Kiev, Financial Times
London, UK, Friday, December 24 2004

7. FOR UKRAINIANS, IT'S 'DEJA VOTE'
The week before Sunday's presidential rerun, Viktor Yushchenko
held a 9-point lead over Viktor Yanukovich.
By Fred Weir, Christian Science Monitor
Boston, MA, Friday, December 24, 2004

8. BUILD ON INTERESTS, IF NOT VALUES: UKRAINE IS THE
TEST CASE FOR WIDER RUSSIAN-WESTERN RELATIONS
EDITORIAL: Financial Times, London, Thu, December 23, 2004

9. "THE PATH TO SAVING A 'CURSED' UKRAINE"
OP-ED: Yuriy Andrukhovych, Kyiv Post
Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, December 23, 2004

10. BITTER DIVISIONS RIFE IN UKRAINE AS VOTING NEARS
Steven Lee Myers, New York Times, NY, NY, Sat, December 25, 2004

11. "MORALLY BEWILDERED"
EDITORIAL: Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Dec 23, 2004

12. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT LEONID KUCHMA CALLS ON RIVAL
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES TO PREVENT SPLIT
UT1 State TV, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1900 gmt 24 Dec 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Fri, December 24, 2004

13. UKRAINE DEFENCE MINISTER KUZMUK RULES OUT
INVOLVEMENT IN ELECTION POLITICS
Interview with Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk
TV 5 Kanal, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1900 gmt 23 Dec 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Fri, Dec 24, 2004

14. MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE CHURCH DOESN'T HIDE ITS BIAS
BACKS YANUKOVYCH, THE PRO-RUSSIAN CANDIDATE
By Alexa Chopivsky - Reporter
NBC News, New York, NY, Dec. 23, 2004
========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 271: ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
========================================================
1. UKRAINE COURT OVERTURNS PART OF NEW ELECTION LAW
Ruling means disabled voters will not have to trek to the polls

BBC NEWS, Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, December 25, 2004

KIEV - A Ukrainian court says a key change to the country's election law
violates the constitution, in a dramatic ruling on the eve of Sunday's
presidential vote. A reform limiting voting from home was passed by
parliament amid the crisis generated by November's disputed poll.

Viktor Yanukovych's backers challenged the law, saying it would discriminate
against the disabled and housebound. He faces Viktor Yushchenko in a run-off
vote for president on Sunday after the first result was annulled due to
fraud.

A package of reforms was brought in by parliament on 8 December as part of a
compromise worked out between the Yushchenko camp and outgoing President
Leonid Kuchma. The measures were designed to resolve the crisis generated by
the disputed presidential election, awarded to Mr Yanukovych, that brought
hundreds of thousands of protesters out on to the streets. But the
Constitutional Court has now annulled the restrictions on home voting.

The BBC's Helen Fawkes in Kiev says the ruling is a blow to the opposition,
which had accused Mr Yanukovych's supporters of stuffing the mobile ballot
boxes for their candidate.
SUSPICIONS
Reports from Kiev indicate that Sunday's vote will go ahead, but that
election officials will have to accept ballots from voters who register to
say they are unable to go to polling stations. Correspondents say the
so-called "home voting" was one of the key areas of contention between
the two sides, with accusations that it was used to perpetrate fraud.

About 12,000 international observers are making final preparations to
monitor the election and try to ensure that any violations are prevented.
Some observers have said that overturning any of the reforms would throw
Sunday's election into doubt - a message echoed by the Yushchenko camp.
But pro-Yanukovych legislators lodged the appeal with the Constitutional
Court, saying limits on home voting could disenfranchise millions.

The use of absentee ballots was highlighted as one of the key areas for
concern by international election monitors who declared the original vote
not fully free or fair. They said a high number of votes were added to voter
lists on election day, almost all for absentee ballots. And while there was
"suspiciously high turnout" in some regions, overcrowding at polling
stations was not a problem in eastern areas, they reported.

Mr Yanukovych, the current prime minister, draws much of his support from
the industrial east of Ukraine, while challenger Mr Yushchenko is favoured
by those in the west of the country. Exit polls indicated that Mr
Yushchenko had won the 22 November vote, but Mr Yanukovych was
declared victorious before the Supreme Court annulled the result and ordered
a re-run. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4124941.stm
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.271: ARTICLE NUMBER TWO
========================================================
2. UKRAINE COURT OVERTURNS PART OF ELECTION LAW

By Yuras Karmanau, Associated Press Writer,
AP, Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, December 25, 2004

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's Constitutional Court ruled on Saturday that
parts of recent legislation restricting the voting rights of home-bound
people violate the country's constitution, clouding the presidential rerun
vote one day before ballots were to be cast. The decision by Ukraine's
highest court won't delay Sunday's vote but creates a headache for the
Central Election Commission, which is required by law to implement the
ruling but has less than 24 hours to do so.

"We will fulfill the decision of the Constitutional Court," said commission
chief Yaroslav Davydovych. "We don't have another alternative. The vote
must be held."

Supporters of opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko pushed
for the restrictions on voting at home, saying they are necessary to prevent
a repeat of the vote fraud that marred the Nov. 21 presidential runoff.

Ukraine's Supreme Court invalidated the results of November's vote,
canceling the victory of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and ordering
Sunday's new ballot.

The Constitutional Court said in its ruling Saturday that the restrictions
allowing only people with certain disabilities to vote at home were
unconstitutional and must be lifted immediately.

The court ruled that those who are unable to get themselves to a polling
station because of a disability or health reason must be allowed to vote at
home. The move could benefit Yanukovych, who pushed for the restrictions
to be lifted, saying they would deprive millions of their right to vote.

The ruling does not affect other newly adopted restrictions on absentee
balloting, which the opposition and Western observers said became a
vehicle for rampant fraud in the November runoff.

Nestor Shufrych, a lawmaker and Yanukovych ally, said the court's ruling
would affect about 3 million people. He said Ukrainians who qualify have
until 8 p.m. Saturday to notify their local election precinct that they want
to vote at home.

However, it appeared unlikely that the cash-strapped Ukrainian government
would be able to solve the major logistical problem of preparing those
people to vote at the last minute. That could become a basis for legal
challenges to the election results. "Of course, if one side or another is
not pleased with the results of the vote, they will appeal on the basis of
the Constitutional Court's decision," Shufrych said.

Yushchenko's spokeswoman, Irina Gerashchenko, insisted the ruling wouldn't
harm the opposition leader's chances. "The decision of the court will not
disrupt the election," she said.

Yushchenko is considered the front-runner, with most poll results showing
with a healthy lead over his rival, who was severely weakened by the court's
annulment of his victory and massive opposition protests. The Constitutional
Court only began considering Yanukovych's appeal of the home-voting
restrictions on Friday, and it was not expected to deliver a ruling so
quickly.

A court official said the ruling would add legitimacy to the result of
Sunday's vote. "No one will ever be able to say that the president was
elected illegitimately and illegally. It would have been a lot worse if we
took the decision after the election," court representative Mykola Selivon
said.

Parliament passed the changes as part of a package deal that included
political reforms initiated by allies of outgoing President Leonid Kuchma.
The court ruling didn't affect other parts of the deal.

However, Yushchenko warned Friday that if his opponents sought to thwart
part of the deal, his backers wouldn't hesitate to challenge the rest of the
package, in particular reforms that weakened presidential power. Tension is
running high in Ukraine ahead of Sunday's vote, amid fears of violence.
Police have pledged to maintain law and order during the rerun.

In a Friday night address to the nation, Kuchma -- who has largely abandoned
Yanukovych, his former protege -- accused both candidates of turning the
campaign bitter. "Both sides succumbed to the temptation to attribute to
oneself only glory and to accuse one's political rival of all sins, both
unintentional and fictitious," Kuchma said. "We must prove to ourselves and
to the world that we are able honestly and without fear elect the person
whom we consider the best despite any pressure." -30-
========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.271: ARTICLE NUMBER THREE
========================================================
3. UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT ONE MORE TIME PROLONGED USE
OF "SOVIET" PASSPORTS, NOW UNTIL END OF THE YEAR

Interfax-Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, December 24, 2004

KIEV - . Interfax-Ukraine - Cabinet of Ministers prolonged term of use of
old variant passports for one more month - till January 1, 2005.

According to the Cabinet of Ministers resolution dated December 24 2004 #
1740 "On changes in Cabinet of Ministers resolution dated October 28 2004
3 1429", duration of use of passports citizens of Ukraine have, issued with
use of Soviet Union passports blanks is extended till January 1, 2005.

Resolution of government was signed by Nikolay Azarov taking the duties of
prime-minister. The similar resolution was made by government on October
28. Then duration of use of "soviet" passports was extended till December 1
current year.

Then in explaination note to the resolution there was defined that this
document has been passed "with the purpose of regulating mechanisms and
use by citizens of Ukraine their voting right".

As agency reported, changing the passports of former Soviet Union (that was
available with special mark "Ukraine" being stamped in the passport) to
Ukrainian passports began in May 1995. Since 1995 Ministry of Internal
Affaires has received from the budget funds for passportization process of
citizens of Ukraine, printing and executing passports, creating the One
State Automated Passport System. According to the resolution of Verhovna
Rada of Ukraine "On program Cabinet of Ministers activity (1996)", issue of
new variants of passports was expected to finish till 1999.

On January 22 2002 Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine made the resolution "On
duration of use of Ukrainian citizens passports, issued with use of Soviet
Union passport blanks". According to this resolution, citizens of Ukraine
were allowed to use former Soviet Union passports till July 1 2002.

In July government prolonged the use of Ukrainian citizens passports, issued
with use of Soviet Union passport blanks for two more months - till
September 1 2002. At the current moment some Ukrainians might have
passports issued in 1974. -30- [Action Ukraine Monitoring Service]
========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 271: ARTICLE NUMBER FOUR
========================================================
4. YUSHCHENKO STAYS ON COURSE FOR A CLEAR
VICTORY IN PRESIDENTIAL POLL

Nick Paton Walsh in Kiev, Irish Times, Ireland, Fri, Dec 24, 2004

KIEV - UKRAINE: Ukraine's opposition leader, Mr Viktor Yushchenko, is on
course for a clear victory in a St Stephen's Day repeat of the run-off vote
for the presidency, according to an opinion poll published ed yesterday.

Mr Yushchenko has increased his lead over the Prime Minister, Mr Viktor
Yanukovich, to 14 per cent, leaving Mr Yanukovich trailing with just 37 per
cent of the vote, a poll by the Social Monitoring centre said.

At 51 per cent, Mr Yushchenko's lead has grown since Monday's television
debate, in which the candidates confronted each other for the first time. A
clear victory would ease Mr Yushchenko's attempts to fend off likely court
challenges from Mr Yanukovich, whose team is already preparing lawsuits over
alleged irregularities.

A pro-opposition analyst, Mr Markian Bylinskyj, said: "The larger the margin
the better. The important thing is his percentage in the [ pro-government]
east of the country, whether he gets more now than the last two rounds now
the [ state] media controls have been lifted." But he added: "The overall
figure will be irrelevant in terms of Yanukovich accepting defeat
gracefully." The polls came as opposition supporters camped out in the
centre of Kiev said they would stay on until the inauguration of Mr
Yushchenko.

Mr Volodymyr Hropa (30), a railway worker from the western town of Lviv
living with his brother in the tent city on Khreshatik Street, said:
"Yushchenko told everyone to go back to work. But we will be here until the
inauguration."

Protesters manning a blockade of the presidential administration said they
would pack up only after Mr Yushchenko's electoral victory had been
announced.

Ukrainian prosecutors said yesterday they hoped to shortly announce the
results of their investigation into the poisoning of Mr Yushchenko earlier
this year. "At present we do not have a prime suspect," a spokesman said.

Mr Oleg Ribachuk, Mr Yushchenko's chief of staff, said there were only 20
laboratories in the world capable of making the rare TCDD poison the
presidential candidate was given on September 5th.

"Each laboratory's poison is individually distinct like a perfume," he
added. He said the probable involvement of Russian intelligence agents in
the poisoning could prove "very embarrassing" in future meetings between the
Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, and Mr Yushchenko. -30-
========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 271: ARTICLE NUMBER FIVE
========================================================
5. A CRUCIAL ELECTION THAT HAS SO FAR DEFIED OUR FEARS

EDITORIAL: The Independent, London, United Kingdom, Fri, Dec 24, 2004

ONLY ONE month ago, with the Ukrainian election deadlocked amid charges
of widespread rigging, it was natural to fear the worst. Hundreds of
thousands of protesters thronged the frozen streets of Kiev, day and night.
There were wild rumours of Russian military intervention, talk of civil war
between eastern and western Ukraine, a threat of secession by the east.
Bragging from Washington and dangerously maladroit diplomacy from
Moscow fuelled fears of a new cold war.

So far, however, Ukraine has confounded Western doom-mongering in
reassuring fashion. Viktor Yushchenko took his complaint of electoral fraud
to Ukraine's highest court, which - to its great credit - found in his
favour.

Both he and his establishment rival, Viktor Yanukovych, accepted the ruling.
The orange-clad protesters went home; the two candidates returned to the
campaign trail. Ukraine's parliament legislated to close the most glaring
loopholes in electoral procedure.

Mr Yushchenko's supporters took in their stride confirmation that their
candidate had been poisoned with dioxin. They, and he, carried on
campaigning. At the start of this week, the two rivals hurled accusations at
each other in a disciplined televised debate, modelled on those held
elsewhere in the world. Finally, with the Americans wisely keeping their
counsel, President Vladimir Putin stated cheerfully that Russia would accept
the result and would be able to work with whichever candidate won. Better
late, it might be said, than never.

Against all odds, Ukraine now seems set fair for the new run-off in two
days' time. The country will be overrun with observers - from the EU, from
the US, from the OSCE, from Russia and from the parties of the two
candidates - and this all to the good. At stake is not only the future of
the 50 million people of Ukraine, but the future of Europe and the whole
climate of East-West relations. The extraordinary developments of the past
month have reflected well on the people of Ukraine and their aspirations. We
hope they go out to vote in force, produce a decisive result and then apply
themselves to nurturing their budding democracy. The situation remains
volatile, but it is infinitely more promising than it looked in November.
========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 271: ARTICLE NUMBER SIX
========================================================
6. UKRAINE HOPES REPEAT POLL WILL END CRISIS

By Tom Warner in Kiev, Financial Times
London, UK, December 24 2004

The Ukrainian political crisis - which has all but paralysed the country
since November 21 - moves into possibly its final act on Sunday as voters
return to the polls for repeat presidential elections. Viktor Yushchenko,
the pro-western opposition leader, is widely expected to win.

A Yushchenko victory would put Ukraine on a path to closer relations with
the European Union but would almost certainly heighten tensions with its
closest neighbour, Russia. However, if it were a convincing win it would
at least, say most observers, end the immediate crisis.

In contrast a narrow victory might leave supporters of Viktor Yanukovich,
the Russian-backed prime minister - concentrated in the east and south of
Ukraine - feeling cheated and talking of breaking away.

If Mr Yushchenko wins it will be his performance in the east and south that
are most closely scrutinised to see how united the country can be.
The poll is being held in dramatically changed conditions from just five
weeks ago, when Mr Yanukovich won aided by widespread ballot-stuffing
and blatant media bias in his favour.

After more than two weeks of mass protests and a Supreme Court ruling
annulling last month's vote, the outgoing president, Leonid Kuchma, agreed
to end the overt support for Mr Yanukovich he had shown before last month's
vote. Most media are observing strict neutrality, including some television
channels owned by politicians in Mr Yanukovich's camp.

"We put Ukraine on a new, elevated place in this world and no one will dare
again to thrust a president upon us. [On Sunday] we will take the final
step," Mr Yushchenko told some 80,000 supporters at a rally on Wednesday.
In Kiev and most of central and western Ukraine, where Mr Yushchenko's
support is strongest, there are abundant billboards and other street
advertisements for Mr Yushchenko and almost none for Mr Yanukovich - the
exact opposite of the situation before last month's election.

However, Mr Yanukovich has put up a tough battle to retain the support in
the east and south, where strong support was crucial to his victory last
month. A former governor of the eastern Donetsk region, he is appealing to
the sizeable minority of Ukrainians who hold anti-western views.

Prior to last month's vote, Mr Yanukovich had taken a more balanced line
and worked hard to build a good image for himself in the west.

Although the new anti-western strategy is not expected to win him the
presidency, Mr Yanukovich could emerge from the election as a powerful
opposition leader.

Last month Mr Yushchenko won all 17 central and western regions while Mr
Yanukovich won all 10 of the more populous areas in the south and east. Mr
Yushchenko hopes to show that he has truly nationwide support by picking up
at least one southern and one eastern region in the repeat vote, which would
also make it easier for him to force through his reform agenda.

The new president will take over a booming economy but one that has recently
struggled with inflation and a currency crisis. The central bank has spent
$2.8bn (Euro‚¬2.1bn, £1.5bn) of its foreign reserves since September
defending the currency, most of it in September-November, when pre-election
government spending led to a run on the currency.

In a compromise gesture, Mr Yushchenko's and Mr Yanukovich's factions in
parliament voted together yesterday to pass the 2005 budget, which boosted
central government spending by more than 30 per cent in line with Mr
Yanukovich's campaign promises.

Mr Yushchenko has promised to correct the budget but without reducing social
spending. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.271: ARTICLE NUMBER SEVEN
Your comments about the Report are always welcome
========================================================
7. FOR UKRAINIANS, IT'S 'DEJA VOTE'
The week before Sunday's presidential rerun, Viktor Yushchenko
held a 9-point lead over Viktor Yanukovich.

By Fred Weir, Christian Science Monitor
Boston, MA, Friday, December 24, 2004

KIEV, UKRAINE ¬ Worries about violence and fraud persist, but many
Ukrainians seem to have embraced the opportunity to go back and correct
mistakes by replaying last month's disputed presidential election.

The outcome of Sunday's polls, in which pro-Western candidate Viktor
Yushchenko and Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich face off
in an unprecedented third round, will measure how deeply Ukrainian political
culture has been altered by a month of street protests, dramatic legal
challenges, and world attention, experts say.

Apparent attempts to install Mr. Yanukovich in the presidency through fraud
- and by allegedly poisoning Mr. Yushchenko - appear to have been thwarted
by the peaceful uprising that became known as the "Orange Revolution,"
after the orange scarves and ribbons worn by Yushchenko supporters.

"It's too early to say whether the Orange Revolution has changed the way
politics are done in Ukraine," says Jessica Alina-Pisano, a Ukraine expert
at Colgate University in New York. "It created a new image of Ukraine in
the world's eyes, and people who participated in the demonstrations report
a new sense of empowerment. But the longer-term effects on the formal
political process will depend on the outcome of Sunday's election."

Two weeks ago, Ukraine's Supreme Court ruled that the previous election
cycle, which saw Yanukovich declared the winner, was tainted by fraud. They
ordered a new vote for Dec. 26. This was followed by sweeping compromises
in the Rada, Ukraine's parliament. The changes overhauled election laws to
make them more tamper-resistant, reduced the constitutional powers of the
presidency, and offered greater self-government to Russian influenced east
Ukraine, which is pro-Yanukovich.

"The Orange Revolution has already settled some problems," says Pavel
Erochkine, a Ukraine expert at the Center for Global Studies, a British
think tank. "Such a regionally divided country should not have an
all-powerful president, who inevitably pushes forward interests of one part
of the country. This is why the recent constitutional reform that will
transfer some of the president's powers to the Rada is good for Ukraine"
in the long-run, he says.

The two candidates have campaigned for Sunday's court-ordered third round
on very different terms than the previous round. In a televised debate
earlier this week, Yushchenko looked and sounded like a president in
waiting, while Yanukovich appeared almost to concede defeat by pleading -
or warning - that it would be a mistake to forget about his stronghold
regions in eastern Ukraine after the election. "You think, Viktor
Andreyevich [Yushchenko], that you will win and become president of
Ukraine," Yanukovich said. "You are making a huge mistake. You will be
president of part of Ukraine."

An opinion survey conducted this week by the Kiev-based Razumkov Center,
an independent polling agency, suggests that Yushchenko is ahead with 48
percent support among Ukraine's 30 million eligible voters, against
Yanukovich's 39 percent.

Yanukovich's top backer in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin, who visited
Ukraine twice during the previous election in thinly veiled campaign
swings, also conceded this week that a Yushchenko victory is looking
inevitable. At a meeting with German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Mr.
Putin said Russia will respect the will of the Ukrainian electorate.
"Leaders come and go, but the people remain," Putin said.

But concerns continue, stoked by rumors that Yanukovich supporters might
reject a Yushchenko victory and flood into Kiev to replay the Orange
Revolution in Yanukovich's trademark blue colors. "There are some alarming
signals in the air," says Yushchenko press secretary Oleg Medvedev. "We are
concerned that Yanukovich's team might try to disavow the election results.
We are not sure that falsification won't be repeated. Little has changed in
the politics of local elites."

At a Wednesday night rally in Kiev, Yushchenko warned thousands of
followers to remain vigilant. "There are some forces preparing to disrupt,
they are preparing brigades to come to Kiev," he said. "We will come to
this square after the vote on Dec. 26 and we will stay until our victory is
celebrated."

The atmosphere in Yanukovich's eastern base seems sullen and angry. "The
mood of people here in Donetsk is tense," says Vasyl Khara, a Rada deputy
and chair of the Donesk trade union federation. "People are scared, and
have had enough of impatient, extremist actions in this so-called orange
revolution. Our people are frightened of nationalists coming to power."

Yushchenko rebuffed calls for power-sharing with Yanukovich after the
election, but otherwise adopted a conciliatory stance. He pledged that no
Russian-language schools will be closed - a touchy issue in the Russified
east - and said his first foreign visit will be to Russia. "As president
Yushchenko will become president of all Ukrainians, [he will] put behind
election politicking and work to soothe hurt feelings," says Myron Wasylyk,
an American-born expert who works with the Yushchenko campaign.

More than 12,000 international observers will be on hand Sunday, or about
one for every three Ukrainian polling stations. Even with the flood of
observers and changes to the electoral laws, Ukrainian experts warn that
the danger of fraud lingers. Trouble could arise from the new rules, which
require equal numbers from both parties on each local election commission.

"People from western Ukraine are going to work in commissions in the east,
and vice versa," says Alexander Chernenko, an expert with the Committee of
Ukrainian Voters, an independent monitoring group. "They are hostile to
each other, some have no experience. A lot of time is wasted sorting out
their relations. There are lots of problems, but no time left." -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 271: ARTICLE NUMBER EIGHT
========================================================
8. BUILD ON INTERESTS, IF NOT VALUES: UKRAINE IS THE
TEST CASE FOR WIDER RUSSIAN-WESTERN RELATIONS

EDITORIAL: Financial Times, London, Thu, December 23, 2004

How Russia and the west react to Sunday's rerun presidential election in
Ukraine - whichever way it goes - will set the tone for their wider
relationship. Both Russia and the west should want at all costs to keep
Ukraine together. Neither should want to exercise any exclusive sway over
it. And each should want it to have good relations with the other.

These maxims will be harder for Russia, which has centuries-old links to
Ukraine, to follow. But President Vladimir Putin now appears to be
adjusting to the likelihood that his favoured candidate, Viktor Yanukovich,
will lose the rerun to Viktor Yushchenko, whom the Russian leader said he
would have no problem working with. After talks with Chancellor Gerhard
Schroder this week, Mr Putin made other conciliatory noises. He said he was
ready to accept a dialogue with Germany and its European Union partners on
Chechnya, and promised to speed up debt repayment to Germany and other
creditor governments.

But the fact that the Russian president chooses to make these concessions
to the German chancellor illustrates a hang-up that mars the Kremlin's
general relations with the EU. For Russian leaders tend to be power snobs.
As the world's biggest country, and nuclear-armed at that, they dislike the
EU's post-modernism that stresses the equality of states. If they are to
have a relationship with the EU, they want it to be a special one. Leaders
of bigger EU states have generally been delighted to reciprocate Russia's
cultivation of them.

Fortunately, Ukraine has been a wake-up call in Europe and in the US -
where Mr Putin's anti-democratic moves and interference along Russia's
borders had seemed to slip below the radar screen of an administration
pre-occupied with the Middle East. For Mr Putin's use as an ally in
Washington's war on terror is undermined if his policies destabilise
Russia's neighbours. This should be especially obvious to Condoleezza Rice,
who next month gets the chance to put her extensive academic study of
Russia into practice as secretary of state.

The west cannot avoid engaging Russia, but for reasons that are also in
Moscow's interest. Europe needs Russia's gas and oil but is so far Russia's
only outlet for its pipelines. The west is helping Russia mop up its atomic
waste and surplus nuclear weapons, but Russia does not want to be an
environmental mess or a nuclear arms bazaar either. The Europeans need
Russian support in their diplomatic efforts to prevent Iran going nuclear,
but Moscow does not want another proliferator on its southern border.

If Mr Putin can see Russia's interest in co-operating with the west in
these areas, he should also realise that the idea of an exclusive Russian
sphere of influence no longer serves Moscow's interests, if it ever did.
Both Russia and the west will benefit if Ukraine prospers through better
relations with east and west. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.271: ARTICLE NUMBER NINE
Suggested articles for publication in the Report are always welcome
=========================================================
9. "THE PATH TO SAVING A 'CURSED' UKRAINE"

OP-ED: Yuriy Andrukhovych, Kyiv Post
Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, December 23, 2004

The drama unfolding today in Ukraine in no way fits any of the political
models prepared in advance in anticipation of it. This is not a collision of
the country’s Ukrainian speakers with Russian-speaking ones. It’s not a
confrontation between the “pro-European” west of our country and a
“pro-Russian” east. What’s more, it’s not the revenge of certain financial
groups or clans on others.

To be fair, I should note that all these conflicts are present in part –
they are, as they say, “in play” – but they do not truly define what is
going on.

First and foremost, the drama unfolding today is a clash between a society
which, in its most considerable, most active, most conscious and most
enlightened part, wants democracy and a lawful society, and a regime that
with all its strength is trying to save an authoritarian, neo-totalitarian
state, so cynically embodied by the successors of the Soviet Communist
regimes (with the exception of the Baltic countries).

Therefore, a question must ultimately be asked: is democracy possible at
all? That is, is the victory of good over evil possible?

Everything else is political gamesmanship: the linguistic and religious
differences; the differences in mentality between east and west in Ukraine;
the “hand of Moscow,” the essence of which was openly formulated by top
Russian officials: Ukraine must either split or face civil war.

BIG LITTLE UKRAINIANS
There was so much disinformation (in a less parliamentarian formulation we
would call it lies), intimidation, physical threats, moral torture and other
dioxins. So much was dumped on Ukrainian society before and during this
election campaign that this whole dramatic experience is worthy of a
separate Homerian epic tens of thousands of pages long, in which there will
be forever fixed each citizen’s actions, each gesture invisible to the world
of countless unnamed Ukrainians, who, similar to the unnamed Hungarians in
1956, the unnamed Czechs of 1968, or the unnamed Poles of 1980 rose up
in defense of their own dignity.

In 2004, a miracle happened in Ukraine: its society, which over an entire
decade seemed to be feeble, passive and disunited, suddenly stood up in a
collective, non-violent and wonderful feat. The feeble Ukrainians turned out
to be significantly stronger than their – and not only their – authorities
thought they were. They opposed the banal geopolitics with their creative
imagery. The orange imagery is a quite dynamic counter to the “zone of
grayness” for which Ukraine’s incompetent and unsympathetic leaders have
striven to drag Ukraine for over a decade. For them it has been about a
tiresome country, deprived of its own face and invisible to the world. They
constructed it to conform to their own gray faces and secret needs. It’s not
meaningless that in his aesthetic confessions President Kuchma admits that
he doesn’t like the color orange, because it’s “not Ukrainian.” In fact,
it’s Kuchma who appeared not to be Ukrainian.

Orange became the color of the breakthrough of all possible blockades.
The color of the human spark.

Sixteen days of active resistance on the Maidan [Independence Square]
demonstrated the people’s victory over all the technologies deployed by
the authorities.

This is also the victory of Europe as a value system. My Polish friend
Andrzej Stasiuk wrote about it in a marvelous essay:

“Great things are happening in the East. Ukraine has risen from its knees.
In those last, cold and snowy days of November the heart of Europe was
beating right there, in Kyiv, on the Square of – appropriately called –
Independence. It’s there in Kyiv that the battle for basic European values
is unfolding, those values which in the West are understood as something
natural, something granted once and for always.” Stasiuk entitled his essay
“Europe, you have become bigger.”

UNDIVIDED EUROPE
Indeed, Europe has become bigger by the sum of the Ukrainian regions where
Viktor Yushchenko won. After Dec. 26 – and I really truly believe this – it
will become bigger by the whole of Ukraine. Those Ukrainians who vote for
Yushchenko are truly voting for freedom, a country of laws and tolerance,
without thinking about the fact that these values are European: it’s enough
for them that these are their values, and for the sake of them they are
ready to stand not only days and nights in the December cold, but to
approach spetsnaz (special forces) armed with loaded weapons bearing
flowers in their hands. It’s in these people that I see what one can
describe as the European future of Ukraine. And that future has already
begun.

But since that important word “future” has resounded, what can we expect
right now? To ask it more simply, what can we expect from you, Europe?

First and foremost, we expect the distinct refutation of what for the entire
decade Kuchma’s propaganda machine has been drilling into us: that no one
is waiting for us in Europe. A refutation of what Mr. Yanukovych built his
entire campaign on: that in Europe no one likes us and neglects us, that we
are alien to Europe. But I am convinced that Kuchma and Yanukovych have
been telling us a lie.

I want to clearly hear from Europe that Kuchma, Yanukovych and their spin
doctors are wrong, that Europe is waiting for us, that it can develop with
us, that Europe can be more complete with Ukraine.

We should make countless steps toward mutual rapprochement, to denounce
that “quarantine line” that divides one Europe from the other.

“My Europe” is the title of Stasiuk’s and my joint “poetographic” book. And
in conclusion allow me one more such metaphor. It comes right away when
you look at geographic maps. The maps all demonstrate one and the same
thing: in Ukraine there is not a single drop of water that does not belong
to the
Atlantic basin. This means that with all its arteries and capillaries it’s
stitched tight to Europe. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yuriy Andrukhovych is a prominent Ukrainian writer and poet. Translated
from Ukrainian by Valentyna Kolesnyk.
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 271: ARTICLE NUMBER TEN
Names for the distribution list always welcome
=========================================================
10. BITTER DIVISIONS RIFE IN UKRAINE AS VOTING NEARS

Steven Lee Myers, New York Times, NY, NY, Sat, December 25, 2004

KIEV, Ukraine, Dec. 24 - More than a month after a disputed presidential
election paralyzed the country and strained international relations, Ukraine
prepared for a new vote on Sunday that has raised hopes that a final,
amicable end to its deeply divisive political crisis is near. Those hopes
may be premature.

Prime Minister Viktor F. Yanukovich, the candidate declared the winner of an
election ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court, has asserted that the
results of Sunday's vote will be illegitimate and vowed to challenge them in
court. His supporters, meanwhile, have threatened to take to the streets in
their own version of the mass protests that brought Kiev and other cities to
a halt in November.

Demonstrations and legal challenges could prolong the dispute still further,
despite a widely held belief here and abroad that victory by his opponent,
Viktor A. Yushchenko, is all but inevitable.

Mr. Yanukovich said in an interview late Wednesday night that new election
laws aimed at limiting absentee ballots and voting at home, which Mr.
Yushchenko's supporters said had been abused to rig November's vote, would
disenfranchise millions of voters, including the elderly and disabled. Four
dozen members of Parliament allied with Mr. Yanukovich have already filed a
legal challenge with the country's Constitutional Court, which deliberated
for a second day on Friday.

"We are going to have new lawsuits," Mr. Yanukovich said, reprising a theme
he has repeated over and over as he barnstorms around the country in what
amounts to his third race against Mr. Yushchenko. "The election will be
considered illegitimate, regardless of who wins."

Since the Supreme Court's decision earlier this month and a subsequent
compromise with President Leonid D. Kuchma and Parliament to overhaul the
country's political system, Mr. Yushchenko appears well positioned to win.
Opinion polls show him leading comfortably heading into Sunday's voting.

Signaling an unease felt by many, though, Mr. Yushchenko has tried to
sustain the energy of those who took part in the mass demonstrations against
the fraudulent results that briefly declared Mr. Yanukovich the country's
next president. "Each citizen must come out, so that the result is totally
convincing, so that there is no temptation to cheat or disrupt the balance,"
he told supporters who massed again on Independence Square in Kiev on
Wednesday.

Mr. Yanukovich, on leave from his job as prime minister, remains defiant
and, he said, confident that he has the support of a majority of Ukrainian
voters, despite the accusations of ballot stuffing, which he insists never
took place in the regions that provided the bulk of his support.

It is a measure of how much the electoral dispute has upended politics here
that Mr. Yanukovich, the man who served under Mr. Kuchma for two years
and was chosen as his favored successor, now campaigns as an angry outsider.

On the campaign trail he has repeatedly criticized his erstwhile patron, as
well as the wealthy oligarchs who remain intricately entwined in Ukraine's
politics. Denied some of the government resources that aided his first two
campaigns and deprived of the overwhelmingly fawning coverage he once
received on national television networks loyal to Mr. Kuchma, Mr. Yanukovich
has begun to sound as Mr. Yushchenko did in the first two rounds of voting.

Mr. Yushchenko, he said, was seizing power in an anti-constitutional putsch,
aided by Mr. Kuchma and the United States. "It is power without limits,
which does not recognize Ukrainian law, the Constitution, human rights," Mr.
Yanukovich said. "It recognizes only force and money."

Regardless of the widespread violations the Supreme Court cited in ordering
a new election, Mr. Yanukovich represents nearly half of Ukraine's voters,
especially those in the predominantly Russian-speaking regions of the south
and east. Even his lowest poll numbers show him supported by more than 40
percent of voters, and the depth of anger among them will be a significant
challenge for Mr. Yushchenko to overcome, should he win.

Mr. Yanukovich's rallies lack the size and fervor of Mr. Yushchenko's, but
the atmosphere of anger and bitterness is palpable. In Poltava, a provincial
capital east of Kiev, a couple of hundred people gathered in the cold on
Wednesday evening outside a television studio where Mr. Yanukovich aired
his grievances.

One after another his supporters climbed a small platform and angrily
denounced the United States, NATO, religions other than Russian Orthodoxy
and the specter of rising prices and foreign expropriation of Ukraine's
farmlands. Most of all, they derided the "orange revolution" that overturned
the election's results and set the stage for a new vote on Sunday.
"Try not to use obscenities," the rally's moderator implored.

"Anyone has the right to express their opinion, but they had no right to
block buildings," said Anna Solovyova, 18, a university student who joined
the rally in support of Mr. Yanukovich in Poltava, referring to the mass
protests that paralyzed Kiev after Nov. 21. She voted for Mr. Yanukovich in
the first round of the election on Oct. 31 and in the November runoff and
said she would vote for him again, because "he represents stability."

Another student, Oleksandr Kalinin, who drove to Poltava as part of Mr.
Yanukovich's campaign, said "psychological pressure" from Mr. Yushchenko,
Europe and the United States had soured many Ukrainians. The "orange
revolution," he said, involved "too much emotion." "Sometimes emotion flows
to aggression," he said.

In Poltava and its surrounding region, a largely rural area famous for being
the birthplace of Gogol and the site of Peter the Great's defeat of Sweden
in 1709, 60 percent of voters supported Mr. Yushchenko in the runoff on Nov.
21. But 34 percent voted for Mr. Yanukovich, making it a battleground for
the third round, in which both candidates are still scrambling for votes in
what remains a competitive race.

The region's governor and the city's mayor are Yanukovich supporters, as is
the general director of the official regional television station, Ltava,
which devoted a full hour to a live interview with Mr. Yanukovich. Mykola I.
Lyapanenko, the station director, expressed disgust at Mr. Yushchenko's
campaign. "Actually it resembles 1937," he said. Stalin's purges were at
their height that year.

Mr. Yanukovich's support among regional leaders - all of them appointed by
Mr. Kuchma - remains a source of concern for Mr. Yushchenko's supporters.
Those leaders still have sway over government resources, television channels
and even state employees, who have reportedly faced pressure to vote for Mr.
Yanukovich.

Anatoly T. Kukoba, deputy director of Mr. Yushchenko's campaign in Poltava,
said the new election laws and a revision of local election commissions
would minimize the possibility of fraud, which he said deprived Mr.
Yushchenko of 10 to 12 percentage points in the last vote. He said he
remained wary about the fairness of the next round. "We only want an honest
struggle," he said.

Mr. Yanukovich, in the interview, portrayed himself as the candidate who
would unify, not divide the country, a picture that is somewhat at odds with
the outpouring of public dissent over the Nov. 21 results, which showed Mr.
Yanukovich winning by 870,000 votes.

He said he had repeatedly sought a compromise with Mr. Yushchenko to amend
the changes curtailing absentee and home voting and to move up the effective
date of constitutional changes, adopted by the Parliament on Dec. 8, to pass
some powers of the new president to the prime minister. Under the agreement
between Mr. Kuchma and Parliament, the changes are not to take effect before
next September at the earliest.

"If before the election Yushchenko does not answer my questions, the
prospect of the election's failure on Dec. 26, of the recognition of this
election as illegitimate, or that the president will not be considered
legitimate, is very high," Mr. Yanukovich said.

His position and statements by some of his supporters have kept tensions
high. Already rumors have spread of plans for demonstrations and
counterdemonstrations, of arms being distributed, of the possibility that
the election could, even now, be somehow scuttled.

In Kiev, the tent city at the core of the mass protests still occupies the
city's main street, Kreshchatik, though the number of protesters has
dwindled significantly. Pavel Ananyev, a 19-year-old from Sumi who recently
finished his army service, has been there since Nov. 21. He expressed hope
that the crisis was nearing an end and that Mr. Yushchenko would become
president, but added a word of caution.

"We will wait until the votes are counted," he said. "Probably we will have
to celebrate New Year's here." -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 271: ARTICLE NUMBER ELEVEN
=========================================================
11. "MORALLY BEWILDERED"

EDITORIAL: Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Dec 23, 2004

The Polish magazine Polityka ran an interview in its Dec. 18 issue with
Polish President Alexander Krasniewski, and it’s fascinating for the light
it sheds on how out to lunch the Ukrainian ruling circle seems to be these
days. They resemble punch-drunk fighters, staggering around in a fog, lost
in their own seamy logic.

Here was Krasniewski talking about his first, Nov. 26 meeting with President
Leonid Kuchma: “It turned out that he had his own pretensions in front of
the world, in front of everybody...The elections were okay, and even if they
weren’t, in America... America was a leitmotiv of the meeting. In America
they also falsify, there too not everything is in order, so what do you want
from Ukraine?”

It’s important to note here the two ways in which President Kuchma lacks
an adult sense of reality. Even the cleanest elections contain low levels of
fraudulence, of course. But it takes someone creepily divorced from
experience to compare U.S. elections with Ukraine’s. To subscribe to such
a comparison puts you beyond the community of the reasonable.

Then, too, there’s Kuchma’s moral dizziness. Other people steal, he’s
saying, so we also should be allowed to. Incidentally, Kuchma’s Russian
enablers also got into this act. Krasniewski amusingly describes Russian
Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov carrying on at the meetings about how rules were
also broken during the U.S. elections this year. U.S. chauvinists should be
overjoyed. These days, the American example shines as an inspiring beacon
even among the Russian governing elite.

Later, the leaders discuss how the looming Supreme Court deliberations
should be carried out. “Someone thought up that the whole process should
be carried out under conditions of openness, and that openness appealed to
people. But Kuchma says, no, let’s write down that we expect an objective
decision.”

In other words, Kuchma was looking for a way out of televising the court
proceedings. Krasniewski responded to him thus: “I said in essence that we
can’t write that down – every deliberation should be objective and fair.”

Good for Krasniewski who, as Kuchma’s staunchest western ally, affirmed
the difference in mentality between the leader of an EU country, and a brass
knuckles politician like Kuchma. Kuchma has had his positive points over
the years, and he deserves credit for deciding not to use force against
opposition protestors over the last month. But if Krasniewski is to be
believed, the aura of moral bewilderment that surrounds him has become
befuddling. He can no longer think straight; he makes a fool out of himself
in front of important world leaders.

We will be happy to watch him and his retainers fade away into retirement.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/editorial/22105/
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 271: ARTICLE NUMBER TWELVE
Letters to the editor are always welcome
=========================================================
12. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT LEONID KUCHMA CALLS ON RIVAL
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES TO PREVENT SPLIT

UT1 State TV, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1900 gmt 24 Dec 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Fri, December 24, 2004

KIEV - Outgoing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has accused the rival
presidential candidates, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and opposition
leader Viktor Yushchenko, of putting their personal interests above those of
Ukraine. In a televised address to the nation ahead of the 26 December
repeat presidential election runoff, Kuchma called for cooperation between
the candidates in order not to split the country. He said it is up to the
voters to decide on Ukraine's future. Kuchma said the authorities have not
used force in the recent upheavals.

The following is the text of Kuchma's address broadcast by the Ukrainian
state-owned television UT1 on 24 December; subheadings have been
inserted editorially:

[Kuchma] Esteemed compatriots! Today I address everyone who is not
indifferent to the destiny of the state and who thinks it their most
important duty to keep our joint home. There is no treacherous foe on its
threshold who could threaten the existence of the Ukrainian people, but
peace has left our land of plenty. What has happened to us then?

There is probably not a single politician who could not but explain his
actions by his love for Ukraine. I do not question the sincerity of the
majority of them. But sometimes it seems that the love for themselves
squeezes patriotic feelings out of some. What is the original feature of
patriotism? I think this is not to do harm to one's own people under any
circumstances. Everyone should proceed from this.

ACCUSES RIVALS OF PURSUING OWN INTERESTS
But both teams [of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leader
Viktor Yushchenko] seem to have forgotten the principle of joint glory and
joint repentance for the 13 years that have passed.

Both sides have been tempted to claim glory only for themselves and accuse
their political rivals of all sins, involuntary and invented. We seem to
have forgotten that society develops stage by stage and that it cannot be
radically changed within a short time span. Mistakes are inevitable on the
path of transformations. The efficiency of public institutions has been
falling, social monitoring has weakened and society has been disorganized to
an extent. In these conditions, distrust in the authorities, even if
groundless, is a normal state of the public opinion and political thought in
any country. This is also inherent in so-called developed democracies, let
alone Ukraine, where alien authorities have been oppressing society for
centuries. This has logically created a healthy instinct of distrust, if not
a conscious rejection, in the state and bureaucrats in particular on the
part of the general public.

So I think it natural that people are becoming aware of the need for
sustained monitoring of the state by civil society. It is for this reason
that I view with understanding everything that has been happening in Ukraine
in the past few weeks. And it is for this reason that the authorities have
made not a single step involving the use force, not even to maintain public
order.

But in times of uncertainty there can always be found hot heads and ice cold
hearts who are prepared to prove to humankind at any cost that they have
appeared in this world not for nothing. It makes no difference for these
contemporary Herostratuses what to set on fire - a book, a temple or their
homeland. But we don't talk about them.

CALLS ON VOTERS TO MAKE CHOICE
Having elected a new president next week, we will actually face a new
choice. A choice of the path Ukraine will take towards the future destiny
its people dream of. Everyone who has embarked on the presidential race has
said - I know how [to do it] and my road is better. But we all are aware
that the progress of humankind entails activities by many generations of
people, grandfathers and fathers, ourselves, our children and grandchildren.
No-one can say that they have been the first. God forbid any of us to be the
last in this irrevocable movement, even if they see an abyss that cannot be
overcome.

You, my dear compatriots, have the key to the right path. This key is
realizing yourselves as citizens who act according to their intellect and
conscience. We should prove to ourselves and the world that we can elect
who we think is the best honestly and without fear, irrespective of any
pressure or anyone who view elections as a favourable opportunity for
gaining a fortune or even fortunes by any possible means.

We should place an unsurmountable barrier in front of attempts by certain
pseudopatriots and friends of the people to force us away from the path of
understanding towards an endless exchange and further animosity.

URGES RIVALS TO COOPERATE
We need to finally realize that the presidential election is just an
episode, albeit an important one, in large-scale joint work on rebuilding
the entire edifice of power. The Ukrainian Supreme Council [parliament] has
made its first step in this area by passing constitutional reform [cutting
presidential powers in favour of the prime minister and parliament] on 8
December. It is utterly important that the presidential candidates too,
regardless of the election result, find enough strength to extend a hand of
cooperation to one another. The Ukrainian people, who cannot be divided in
half, need this civil action. All of us should master our emotions and begin
consistent and balanced progress to a future where there will be a place for
everyone.

What is left for me today is to wish all of us to finally end this
distressful affair - the election of the president. You, my compatriots,
have a final say in this. Make your democratic and free choice, as Ukraine's
future, and the future of our children and grandchildren depend on the civil
consciousness and goodwill of all of you.

I wish you well, peace and accord. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 271: ARTICLE NUMBER THIRTEEN
Letters to the editor are always welcome
=========================================================
13. UKRAINE DEFENCE MINISTER KUZMUK RULES OUT
INVOLVEMENT IN ELECTION POLITICS

Interview with Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk
TV 5 Kanal, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1900 gmt 23 Dec 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Fri, Dec 24, 2004

Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk has ruled out that the army
may be used to resolve any disputes after the re-run of the presidential
election on 26 December. Speaking live in an interview with opposition TV,
he said the law protected servicemen from "criminal" orders, adding
servicemen were free to vote for whomever they liked.

He denied the army ever helped the government candidate, Viktor Yanukovych,
saying that the army rations used by Yanukovych supporters were probably
sold to them as surplus goods. Kuzmuk also strongly denied that any Russian
troops had been brought into Ukraine during the standoff between the govern-
ment and protesters over the disputed election.

The following is an excerpt from Kuzmuk's live interview on Ukrainian
television TV 5 Kanal on 23 December; subheadings inserted editorially:

[Presenter Andriy Shevchenko] We have in the studio someone who may
play a leading role if force is used, Defence Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk.
Good evening.
[Kuzmuk] Good evening.
[Shevchenko] First of all: How likely do you think it is that something like
this will happen?
[Kuzmuk] I consider the situation in the country to be tense. There is a
political crisis. But I cannot imagine the possibility of force being used
to resolve it.
[Shevchenko] The army has been mentioned fairly often in recent weeks. The
main question is what it might do if the situation deteriorates, whose side
it may take. Have you formed your own view of the events that are
occurring - the revolution, the election, the rerun?
[Kuzmuk] I have formed my personal view. There is a fierce and acute
struggle for power. Everything is at stake. Peace in our country and the
life and health of our people are at stake. I would like all participants to
think calmly and ensure that elections proceed smoothly, for the people to
elect a president and for the state to return to its normal life.
[Shevchenko] Who in particular are you addressing?
[Kuzmuk] All politicians involved in the election.
[Shevchenko] Do you see any particular threats, risks?
[Kuzmuk] I see that there is alarm in society. I see that any act of
provocation could lead to serious consequences.
[Shevchenko] How do you see the role of the army?
[Kuzmuk] The army is preparing for the election very seriously. It has a
very serious mission - to calmly come to the polls and cast their votes for
those whom everyone has the right to vote for individually. And nothing
more.
[Shevchenko] If, God forbid, there is any confrontation after the election,
of which there is much talk from each party of late. [Prime Minister] Viktor
Yanukovych himself and very many people from [opposition leader Viktor]
Yushchenko's team talk about that. What will the army do then?
[Kuzmuk] You know, in this country people like this game: to stir up the
situation, to provoke or to set one against another and then to watch it
from a distance and enjoy what will come next. I do not believe in this.
There is the constitution, there are laws and I would like to refer those
servicemen who are talking today about illegal orders to Article 6 of the
armed forces disciplinary statute which was approved in 1999, on the eve of
the last presidential election. It says any commander has the right to issue
orders and any subordinate has the right to follow them, with one exception:
if they are of a criminal nature. Therefore there can be no talk of criminal
orders. There is a constitution. There is a law on Ukraine's defence and the
law on the Ukrainian armed forces which clearly defines the role and place
of the Ukrainian armed forces. And I want to say firmly that they will take
only the place envisaged by our laws.
Army rations used by Yanukovych
[Shevchenko] You said similar things in the last few months. Nevertheless,
the army was drawn into confrontation. There may be a criminal investigation
into reports about army rations which somehow ended up with the Yanukovych
supporters who came to Kiev on the third or fourth day after the 21 November
vote. What can you say about that?
[Kuzmuk] I can say that the army can never be drawn into criminal
score-settling. The very thought is criminal. In am very pleased that the
Prosecutor-General's Office brought criminal proceedings. But I would like
to tell our countrymen that the Prosecutor-General's Office case is not
against the Ministry of Defence, but into facts of how these rations were
used. And I am pleased that the Prosecutor-General's Office will clearly
prove exactly what happened. And this is what happened: the Interior
Ministry sent a letter to the Ministry of Defence asking to use some of our
property including 400,000 rations. We could not provide such an amount.
There are 18,000 rations whose use-by date is expiring in December, January
and February. They were issued [to the Interior Ministry] and the money for
these was received into the accounts of army food stores which in turn
stocked up on more rations for the future. Therefore, I am pleased that the
Prosecutor-General's Office is looking into it.
[Shevchenko] How did the Interior Ministry explain their need for the
rations?
[Kuzmuk] When men [Interior Troops] were brought in - and rightly so - to
protect public peace, serving at the Cabinet of Ministers and other
government institutions, they had to eat something. We tend to divide our
people into first and second class. The first class are those cooking hot
food [for protesters] in Independence Square, and second class - those
eating dry rations.
[Shevchenko] Do I understand it correctly that the Interior Ministry sent
you a formal request and you formally sold the rations?
[Kuzmuk] Absolutely correct.
[Shevchenko] How could these rations end up with the Yanukovych supporters
gathered at the [Kiev] railway station?
[Kuzmuk] We issued 18,000 rations as requested. But hot meals delivery was
organized on the fourth or fifth day already. The rations were surplus. And
since they had been paid for, it was quite lawful to sell them on.
[Shevchenko] So are you presuming the Interior Ministry sold these rations
on?
[Kuzmuk] I am not presuming anything because these issues were dealt with by
the Cabinet of Ministers logistics services. Therefore, any questions need
to be addressed to them. Again, I'd like to say I am ashamed to see this
issue bandied about for so many days. These rations were used by citizens of
Ukraine, not foreigners. If there are many willing to let them be used by
peacekeepers in our land, it is another matter.
[Shevchenko] This is not about healthy eating. This is about transparency.
[Kuzmuk] Those asking for bread must receive it.
[Shevchenko] So was it a gift from the Interior Ministry to Yanukovych
supporters?
[Kuzmuk] No, this was no gift, and the Prosecutor-General's Office will say
so, too.
[Shevchenko] So do you think these were sold to Yanukovych supporters?
[Kuzmuk] I do not think anything.
[Shevchenko] Do you have your own view about what really happened?
[Kuzmuk] I will obey the Prosecutor-General's Service. I know that the state
incurred no losses. Money was paid into the account within three days.
Fourteen days later new rations were prepared, and the Defence Ministry
stocks were replenished. I have no claims against the Interior Ministry.
They are our colleagues, and we will continue to help all military
formations as envisaged by the law.
[Shevchenko] Thank you for this valuable information. We will investigate it
further.
There have been incidents of certain army units pledging allegiance to
Yushchenko. What were your feelings at the time, as defence minister, and
what have you done about it?
Allegiance pledges to Yushchenko
[Kuzmuk] I would like to ask you to stop speculating about loyalty oaths.
The armed forces took one oath, one of loyalty to the people of Ukraine. The
armed forces cannot serve an individual. They may be subordinate to an
individual, that is to the supreme commander in chief. But they can serve
only the people of Ukraine, and no military unit has taken any other oath.
[Shevchenko] What action did you take against those individuals or
servicemen who declared their position in this way, by saying "we will
recognize president Yushchenko and follow his orders"?
[Kuzmuk] Prior to the election, the armed forces were educated to understand
that it was their supreme right to think whatever they will. Nobody was
forced to have any particular opinion. The minister of defence has one
opinion, his subordinates may have a different opinion, and not a single
person could say they have been persecuted.
[Shevchenko] I am not talking about personal opinions, but about concrete
actions. There have been reports that local governments took control of
their local airspace, and there were reports that some military units said
they would only take orders from a president Yushchenko? How does the army
treat these facts?
[Kuzmuk] There can be no such facts in the armed forces. There have been no
such facts. Each is free to think what they want. We have no complaints from
any of the numerous observers that were in this country, either domestic or
foreign. Nobody accused the Ukrainian armed forces of any fraud or of
forcing any action. This is a fact which testifies to the development of
democracy in the Ukrainian armed forces.
ADVICE TO YANUKOVYCH
[Shevchenko] Thank you. Let's move on. You were involved in the election
campaign at one point. You said you supported Yanukovych and contributed to
his campaign. What lessons have you drawn from this episode in the political
life?
[Kuzmuk] I have never made a secret of my personal view, but at the same
time I am not forcing it on anyone. And I derive satisfaction from the fact
that this promotes stability in the Ukrainian armed forces today. I have
been meeting civilians as I toured the forces, and I have been satisfied to
see that people believe in the army and see it as a safeguard of stability.
[Passage omitted: Kuzmuk says neither candidate's campaign has been
successful because the president was not elected. The army needs president
to continue reforms.]
I think the time has not come yet for any deep analysis. The campaign is not
over yet. But I would have advised Viktor Yanukovych to have started his
campaign in the way he is conducting it now.
[Shevchenko] You mean, in opposition to the president?
[Kuzmuk] I mean independently, following one's own mind and not relying on a
not very successful team.
[Passage omitted: Kuzmuk says Yanukovych's premiership disadvantaged his
campaign. Correspondent's report from the arms depot in Novobohdanivka,
Zaporizhzhya Region, which exploded six months ago, suggests security
remains lax. Kuzmuk says Ukraine was used as a dump for all Soviet munitions
and the problem will take a long time to resolve.]
OWN TRANSFORMATION
[Shevchenko] What state is the army in today? You led it at one point, and
then had the opportunity for looking at it from a distance. [Kuzmuk was
sacked as defence minister in 2001 after a stray Ukrainian missile hit a
Russian passenger plane. He was reinstated in October 2004 just before the
first round of presidential elections.]
[Kuzmuk] The army has many problems. Any army has many problems. Ours
has problems that have been piling up for many decades, not just the last
one.
But today I see a desire to move on, to carry out reforms. The army must be
the kind that its own people would love and others, abroad, would respect
and fear.
[Shevchenko] What is the difference between Kuzmuk-1 and Kuzmuk-2?
[Kuzmuk] I have been strongly influenced by my three-year sabbatical. I
understand many things in a different way.
[Shevchenko] Such as?
[Kuzmuk] I have become more democratic, without doubt. I see that myself.
[Shevchenko] Getting back to the current political situation. Did you go to
Independence Square?
[Kuzmuk] Yes, I did.
[Shevchenko] What is your impression?
[Kuzmuk] You know, I was very pleasantly impressed, especially at the start.
[Shevchenko] What about when the two former defence ministers [Yevhen
Marchuk and Kostyantyn Morozov] supported this. Were you tempted to
do the same?
[Kuzmuk] No I was not. I think it would be absolutely inappropriate.
NO RUSSIAN MILITARY INVOLVEMENT
[Shevchenko] There have been reports that the army somehow helped or
covered Russian special-task units that were or were going to be brought
into Ukraine?
[Kuzmuk] Unfortunately there are such allegations, and it is unfortunate
that they are being made even by high-ranking military. Therefore, I asked
the Prosecutor-General's Service - These are not some trivial allegations.
These are allegations of high treason. Imagine the minister of defence and
his subordinates allowing foreign troops into their military units.
Therefore, I have asked the prosecutor-general to check these statements and
make a legal assessment of them. I also asked the Committee for National
Security and Defence, and this issue has been considered for investigating.
[Shevchenko] Are you saying you are not aware of any such facts?
[Kuzmuk] I cannot even talk about being aware. I am responsible for all the
armed forces. There cannot be any such facts. I even asked Mr Yushchenko's
campaign chief, Mr [Oleksandr] Zinchenko and told him, I am opening the
doors to all the armed units, would your campaign staff please check.
[Passage omitted: Kuzmuk refuses to speculate on who the next defence
minister will be.] -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 271: ARTICLE NUMBER FOURTEEN
=========================================================
14. MOSCOW BACKED CHURCH DOESN'T HIDE ITS BIAS
BACKS YANUKOVYCH, THE PRO-RUSSIAN CANDIDATE

By Alexa Chopivsky, Reporter
NBC News, New York, NY, Thu, Dec. 23, 2004

KIEV, Ukraine - Nearly one thousand years ago, Pecherska Lavra,
or "The Monastery of the Caves," dictated the spiritual and cultural
pulse of Kiev, the city widely recognized as the cradle of the East
Slavic world.

Today, the monks who live in this limestone compound, nestled between
naked chestnut trees on a snowy hill overlooking the icy Dnipro River,
are a mile from ground zero of Viktor Yushchenko's Orange Revolution
demonstrations. But these monks openly pray for the victory of
Yushchenko's rival, pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovich.

The two candidates face one another for a third time on Sunday in a
re-match of the November runoff that was declared illegal due to fraud.

Defying Ukrainian law, which forbids the church to favor a political
candidate, Metropolitan Volodymyr Sabodan, head of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate which oversees the Lavra, said
Nov. 9 on the Inter television channel that he only gave his blessing
to Viktor Yanukovich.

"If you are a believer, you are for Yanukovich. To stand for Yanukovich
is to stand for Orthodoxy. We must protect from the demons in the West,"
he said in fluent Russian.

Another member of the clergy, Father Adam, says prayers should be said
for both men. "The church prays for Yanukovich so you have to pray for
God to bless him. He is a believer. For Yushchenko, you pray to bring
him back into the circle of believers."

BORN-AGAIN DEVOTION?
Yushchenko, an Orthodox Christian, has not made religion a central
part of his campaign. Yanukovich, who some speculate displays a
born-again religious devotion to compensate for his criminal
background (he was jailed twice), visited the monastery and received
the Metropolitan's blessing ahead of the first election on Oct. 31.

Before Monday night's televised debate between the two candidates,
Yanukovich returned to the monastery to pray, the Ukrainian daily,
Segodnya, reported, while Yushchenko prepared for the event studying
economics and history briefing materials.

More than half of Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians. When Ukraine
gained independence in 1991, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church splintered
from the Moscow Patriarchate and formed an independent branch under
a new Kiev Patriarch.

But today, Pecherska Lavra, the holiest site in Ukraine, remains
subordinate to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate.
Only Russian is spoken in the monastery. Dozens of books are sold in the
Lavra museum shop; none are written in the Ukrainian language. Prayer
services for Yanukovich are held almost daily. Old women, or
babushkas, visit wearing foot-long icons around their necks and blue
ribbons, Yanukovich's campaign color, pinned to their coats.

The monastery's 70 acres include a museum, a library, golden-domed
chapels, and the famed catacombs, an underground network of narrow
passageways whose walls hold the mummified remains of more than 100
monks and saints. The 120 monks who live at the monastery pray, fast,
paint icons, make candles and honey, and embroider cloth. Women
visitors wear headscarves and long skirts.

The Lavra, dubbed Orthodox Christianity's "mecca," is commonly
considered by Orthodox Christians to be the second most holy place
after Jerusalem. It was Ukraine's Prince Volodymyr who in 988 AD
brought Christianity to Kiev, the then-capital of the Slavic lands
called Kievan-Rus. Legend has it that after investigating Islam and
Christianity, he decided the state would be Christian, in part because
his people would not willingly give up drink. Islam, which insists on
sobriety, just wouldn't work.
BLAST FROM THE PAST?
On the eve of Sunday's vote, the Lavra is a remnant of the Soviet
past, where the church was permitted to exist in an atheistic state in
exchange for subordination to the Moscow Patriarch.

While Ukraine sits precariously on the brink of Westernization and
democracy, the Lavra monks continue to practice Soviet-style
subservience to their religious superiors, especially when it comes to
politics. "You don't have to say any names because God knows who
the believers are," said Brother Vasil. "You pray for the believers."

While the church may determine politics at the Lavra, its influence
beyond the monastery walls is hard to determine. Yushchenko is widely
expected to win Sunday's runoff election, when voters will go to the
polls for the third time in 57 days.

"Political activism in the Lavra is not new," says Andrew Sorokowski,
a U.S.-based expert on religion in the communist world. "In the Soviet
Union, the KGB penetrated all of society, including the church, to the
extent that priests reported on what they heard in confession. There's
no reason to think that this has stopped. Soviet institutions and ways
of doing things are still there. The same people are still there. It's
just hard to document." -30-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Alexa Chopivsky is an NBC assistant producer based in Washington,
D.C. (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6749835/)
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