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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"

YANUKOVYCH DELAYS FILING NEW COURT APPEAL
Giving More Time for Authorities to Clean Out Their Files
More Waiting and Waiting In Kyiv For Yushchenko's Inauguration
Now Thought to be Held Close To January 22nd

"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" - Number 409
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net
FROM: KYIV, UKRAINE, THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2005

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

1. "UKRAINE SHOULD STAY IN IRAQ"
EDITORIAL: By Jed Sunden
Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Jan 13, 2005

2. YANUKOVYCH CAMP WILL FILE NEW COURT APPEAL
Aleksandar Vasovic, AP, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thu, Jan 13, 2005

3. YUSHCHENKO'S BAD SECURITY
EDITORIAL: Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, January 13, 2005

4. UKRAINIAN MPS URGE U.S. POLITICAL SUPPORT, INVESTMENT
UT1 State TV, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1900 gmt 12 Jan 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Wed, January 12, 2005

5. MP RYBACHUK PREDICTS NEW PRIME MINISTER WILL BE
CHOSEN BEFORE EXPECTED INAUGURATION OF YUSHCHENKO
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thu, January 13, 2005

6. PINCHUK READY TO REVISE PRIVATIZATION OF
KRYVORIZHSTAL STEEL MILL UNDER LAW FRAMEWORK
Interfax, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thu, January 13, 2005

7. THE CARPATHIAN DECLARATION
Complete text of The Carpathian Declaration
Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Jan 13, 00:57

8. UKRAINE REPORT-BLUE RIBBON COMMISSION REPORT
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP)
Washington, D.C., Thursday, January 13, 2005

9. UKRAINE MUST REFORM FAST, UN TEAM SAYS: EXPERTS
READY TO HELP YUSHCHENKO STEER OUT OF POST-SOVIET MESS
Ian Traynor, Central Europe Correspondent
The Guardian, London, United Kingdom, Thu, Jan 13, 2005

10. "POROSHENKO FOR PRIME MINISTER"
EDITORIAL: Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Jan 13, 2005

11. STOCKHOLM ARMY MUSEUM TAKES HETMAN BOHDAN
KHMELNYTSKYI FLAG TO KYIV
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Wed, January 12, 2005

12. POLISH, REGIONAL FOREIGN MINISTERS WANT MORE
EU SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE
PAP news agency, Warsaw, in Polish 1512 gmt 12 Jan 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Wed, Jan 12, 2005

13. CIS LEADERS APPREHENSIVE OF RERUN OF GEORGIAN
AND UKRAINIAN SCENARIOS
Russian Information Agency Novosti, Moscow, Russia, Thu, Jan 13, 2005

14.NOTE TO THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT FROM IRA STRAUS
----- Original Message -----
From: IRASTRAUS@aol.com
To: morganw@patriot.net
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2005 10:33 PM
Subject: Re Ukraine Report 405 "Yushchenko's Wrong Move"

15. UKRAINE: RUSSIA'S DAY AFTER
COMMENTARY: By Ira Straus
The Globalist, Washington, D,C., Mon, Jan 03, 2005

16. "A POT-HOLE ROAD TO EUROPE"
ESSAY: By Mykola Riabtschuk
Berliner Zeitung, Berlin, Germany, December 31, 2004

17. "THE MEDIA'S NEW COLD WAR"
By Stephen F. Cohen, The Nation
New York, New York, January 31, 2005
==========================================================
1. "UKRAINE SHOULD STAY IN IRAQ"

EDITORIAL: By Jed Sunden
Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Jan 13, 2005

As the spectacular events of the Orange Revolution slowly become fond
memories, it seems that Viktor Yushchenko - after a lot of fighting - will
finally be inaugurated as Ukraine's third president.

This amazing revolution thrust Ukraine into the world spotlight as never
before. Politicians from all over Europe and America turned their attention
to the events in Kyiv and, if only in spirit, joined the hundreds of
thousands of demonstrators in fighting for a peaceful and just resolution to
the massive fraud that marred the Nov. 21 runoff vote.

Now, as we enter the first days of an optimistic 2005, Ukraine seems poised
to truly "join Europe" and the family of Western nations. That's why it
seems illogical that the first major initiative undertaken by the new
Ukraine is the Communist-led one: to withdraw Ukrainian peacekeeping troops
from Iraq. The move was accompanied by outgoing President Leonid Kuchma's
instructions to the defense and interior ministers to start planning for
withdrawal in the first half of this year.

Oddly, half of Our Ukraine's deputies - including Petro Poroshenko, a strong
candidate to be the next prime minister, and Yushchenko's campaign head
Oleksandr Zinchenko - and six deputies from Yulia Tymoshenko's eponymous
bloc lined up alongside the Communists and Viktor Yanukovych's team in
support of Ukraine's retreat from the world.
ANOTHER STRUGGLING DEMOCRACY
It seems ironic, especially after the support Ukraine received from Europe,
that the leaders of Ukraine's former opposition and soon-to-be-ruling
majority would decide to withdraw support to another developing democracy.

Without a doubt, the war in Iraq was controversial, and Ukraine's
participation was even more confused by Kuchma's attempts to curry favor
with the United States after the Kolchuga missile scandal and Gongadze
crisis. Despite that, in the initial vote on the matter in June 2003, 39
deputies belonging to Our Ukraine, including Yushchenko and Zinchenko
themselves, were among the 273 lawmakers who originally authorized the
deployment of Ukrainian troops to Iraq.

Yes, the current resolution came two days after eight Ukrainian soldiers
died in an explosion at an ammunition dump in Iraq. This horrible event
should be carefully investigated, but it shouldn't affect crucial political
decisions.

This is not the place to debate the justifications for the war, but it must
be stressed that Ukraine's participation was limited to peacekeeping and
assisting in the development of the rule of law and democracy in a region
that desperately needs these things. Ironically, during the Orange
Revolution it was Ukraine and Ukrainians who needed support and
countenance from the West, so that democracy should take root here.

The Communists and others clearly objected to the Ukrainian presence in
Iraq, since it was a U.S.-led initiative. Obviously, many politicians feel
uncomfortable seeing Ukrainian troops so closely aligned with the United
States. On the other hand, when push came to shove in Kyiv after the second
round of elections, I didn't hear a single Ukrainian backing Yushchenko who
suggested that the United Nations get involved here. Instead, everyone
wanted to see more of the hard power of Europe and the United States.

Furthermore, Ukraine has established a peacekeeping tradition over the past
decade, and presently has more than 3,000 peace keepers in 10 countries,
including Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Liberia. It would be a bad snub to
Ukraine's "new" ally, the United States, if its first step is to remove
peacekeepers from Iraq, while leaving thousands of others under U.N.
auspices.

I believe Ukraine, as a recent beneficiary of international assistance, can
and should play an active role in the larger international community in
promoting democracy and freedom in other countries - in the Commonwealth
of Independent States, in Africa, in the Middle East and elsewhere.

I hope Ukrainians, much like Poles, Hungarians and Bulgarians - all active
members of the coalition in Iraq - understand how tenuous democracy and
freedom are, and how important the role of the larger international
community can be.

I also believe that Ukrainians instinctively understand the limits and
failures of the UN in actively promoting freedom in its member countries.
Throughout the Orange Revolution, from the first days of protest to the
roundtable meetings, Ukrainians and Yushchenko actively sought international
assistance and support, calling for allies in Europe and the U.S. No one
hoped that Kofi Annan would arrive in Kyiv. I doubt anyone in Ukraine would
have been satisfied by a UN resolution concerning the second round of the
elections.
NEW CHAPTER IN FOREIGN POLICY?
As Yushchenko assumes the presidency, Ukraine can open a new chapter in
its foreign policy, building strong ties to Europe and the world. Perhaps,
in the long run, Ukraine should retreat from peacekeeping missions in
general, as part of a larger plan to reduce its armed forces. Or perhaps
Ukraine should focus on becoming a beacon of freedom in the CIS and utilize
its peacekeeping capabilities locally, rather than in Africa and the Middle
East.

Whatever the decision is, I hope President-elect Yushchenko will carefully
define Ukraine's foreign policy needs, while not simply following a
Communist-sponsored resolution and blindly indulging in
anti-Americanism. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Jed Sunden is the Kyiv Post's publisher.
==========================================================
2. YANUKOVYCH CAMP SAYS IT WILL FILE NEW COURT APPEAL

Aleksandar Vasovic, AP, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thu, Jan 13, 2005

KYIV, Ukraine -- Representatives of losing Ukrainian presidential
candidate Viktor Yanukovych said Thursday they were readying a new appeal
of the election results, a move they have delayed repeatedly in an apparent
attempt to delay winner Viktor Yushchenko's assumption of office. Yanukovych
campaign manager Taras Chornovyl said the appeal could be submitted to the
Supreme Court on Friday. "The delay is related with technical and formal
issues," Chornovyl said.

Yushchenko, a Western-leaning reformer, was declared winner of the Dec. 26
vote earlier this week, but he cannot be inaugurated without the Supreme
Court's approval of the results. Yanukovych has refused to concede, alleging
that the vote was marred. Chornovyl said the appeal will consist of more
than 600 volumes of documents and some 240 videotapes. "Now we need to
work more with the evidence and lawyers have advised us to improve the text
of the complaint," he said. The high court and the Central Election
Commission already have rejected a number of minor motions.

Yanukovych's allies had warned earlier that his backers could pour into Kyiv
to stage massive protests and announced a possible complaint to an
unspecified European court. On Thursday, a few dozen protesters clad in
Yanukovych's white-blue campaign colours rallied peacefully in Kyiv.

The previous day, hundreds of his backers had attended a protest in his
eastern hometown of Donetsk and set up a small tent camp in the city's main
square, named after Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin. The Dec. 26 election was
a rerun of Nov. 21 fraudulent balloting in which Yanukovych was declared the
winner. The November vote was followed by massive opposition protests
dubbed the Orange Revolution after Yushchenko's campaign colour.
Eventually, the Supreme Court annulled that election.

Yanukovych allies have said earlier that their appeal would focus on an
electoral reform enacted after the Nov. 21 vote that blocked absentee
ballots and home voting - mechanisms that had allegedly been a prime source
of voting abuse. That reform was overturned by the Constitutional Court just
a day before the Dec. 26 election, leaving little time for many elderly and
ailing Ukrainians to make voting arrangements. -30-
==========================================================
3. "YUSHCHENKO'S BAD SECURITY"

EDITORIAL: Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, January 13, 2005

Is Viktor Yushchenko aware that there are people who might like him dead?

We ask because we've become aware that the security arrangements around
the president-elect, the victim of a September poisoning attack, are rather
weak. Consider the experiences of a Post reporter during Yushchenko's
vacation trip early this month to the Carpathian resort of Tisovets in the
company of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.

The two leaders, both of whom have powerful enemies, enjoyed themselves
skiing, attended only by unarmed soldiers and undercover agents barking into
walkie-talkies. There was nothing like the blanket security measures Western
leaders have. Yushchenko and Saakashvili used the same ski lifts and trails
as the public, mixing freely with the crowds. That's admirably democratic,
but it's also somewhat negligent and naive.

Not finding accommodations in Tisovets that night, our American reporter and
his pair of American companions offered two bottles of vodka and Hr 50 to
soldiers guarding Yushchenko and Saakashvili's cottage. They got in return a
bunk in the soldiers' official truck. The two leaders were sleeping 100 feet
away.

After the vodka was consumed, Yushchenko's guards gave our reporter and his
companions a lesson in how their communications equipment worked. That
equipment was being used to replay the leaders' communications
transmissions. In another incident, our reporter paid several soldiers Hr 10
to guard his automobile. Shouldn't they have had more important things to
do?

This speaks highly of Post reporters' resourcefulness, but it doesn't say
much about Yushchenko's security detail. Three unknown foreigners can enter
a critical area and get the guards full of booze for under ten dollars. The
opportunities for disaster don't have to be spelled out.

Such bad protection for a man who's one of eastern Europe's most
controversial leaders is nothing less than outrageous. -30-
==========================================================
4. UKRAINIAN MPS URGE U.S. POLITICAL SUPPORT, INVESTMENT

UT1 State TV, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1900 gmt 12 Jan 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Wed, January 12, 2005

KYIV - [Presenter] Ukrainian and American parliamentarians discussed a new
format of relations between Ukraine and the United States after the
presidential election during a live TV link today. The US ambassador to
Ukraine, John Herbst, hopes that relations between the two countries will
improve, and American investment will flow into this country provided the
new government puts everything in order. [Passage omitted: Link was delayed
due to technical problems.]

[Correspondent] Kiev was interested in Washington's assistance in Ukraine's
accession to the World Trade Organization, granting Ukraine the status of a
market economy and lifting the Jackson-Vanik amendment [for Ukraine].

[Our Ukraine MP Yuriy Pavlenko] Recently one of the reasons for not lifting
the amendment was the requirement to hold a transparent and fair
[presidential] election. Now, on 26 December Ukraine held a transparent and
democratic election, and international observers attested to this. That is
why there are no grounds, moral or political ones, for the United States not
to lift the Jackson-Vanik amendment.

[Correspondent] They also discussed [Ukraine] joining NATO. Ukrainian
parliamentarians said that Ukraine is ready and is waiting for a signal. It
is also awaiting [US] investment.

[MP Bohdan Hubskyy] The participation of American companies in projects that
would ensure Ukraine's economic security would obviously be beneficial. And
I would first of all raise the issue of Odessa-Brody pipeline.

[Correspondent] Capital loves peace and security. Americans reminded us
again that money will flow to Ukraine when corruption is overcome, and
adopted laws stop contradicting one other. Asked about the American reaction
to the withdrawal of the Ukrainian contingent from Iraq, the US ambassador
responded just like an ambassador would.

[Herbst, in Russian] For the time being, this is a hypothetical issue. A
diplomat should not elaborate on such issues.

[Correspondent] John Herbst hinted that an interim government should not
take an important decision like that and Washington is going to talk this
issue over with the new Ukrainian government. The diplomat said the United
States is going to send a solid delegation to the inauguration [of the
president-elect]. He did not specify, however, how solid the delegation
would be. This depends on the inauguration date and the date of the same
event in the USA, which will take place on 20 January. It's better for
Ukraine that the two events do not coincide to allow the exchange of the
officials of the highest rank. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring]
==========================================================
5. MP RYBACHUK PREDICTS NEW PRIME MINISTER WILL BE
CHOSEN BEFORE EXPECTED INAUGURATION OF YUSHCHENKO

Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thu, January 13, 2005

KYIV - Parliamentary deputy Oleh Rybachuk, who heads the office of Our
Ukraine Coalition leader Viktor Yuschenko, expects that the candidacy of the
new prime minister will be agreed before yet to be scheduled inauguration of
Yuschenko. Rybachuk made this statement to the press in Warsaw.

He said Yuschenko HQ expects that the inauguration ceremony will be held
between January 18 and 23. Rybachuk is inclined to think that Yuschenko will
name the prime minister before he is inaugurated.

He added that the headquarters of Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych
may file a complaint with the Supreme Court by January 18 and the court may
consider it within 5 days - that is, by January 23. Rybachuk stressed that
this would be the final action Yanukovych can take and said he is sure his
complaint will receive court response earlier than expected. -30-
==========================================================
6. PINCHUK READY TO REVISE PRIVATIZATION OF
KRYVORIZHSTAL STEEL MILL UNDER LAW FRAMEWORK

Interfax, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thu, January 13, 2005

One of Ukraine's leading businessmen, MP Viktor Pinchuk says he'll
agree to re-privatization of steel mill Kryvorizhstal, if the resale is done
within the law.

Answering journalists' questions in Kyiv on Wednesday concerning the
possible re-privatization of the mill, the lawmaker said "any actions under
the framework of law, even a possible revision of privatization tenders,
will be welcome." "If it's done legally, and is not just a political
decision, I think that is fine," Pinchuk said. Asked if this position also
concerns privatization of Kryvorizhstal, he said, "Certainly."

Pinchuk noted that he as an investor had done everything "in an absolutely
legal and correct way." "If, under the framework of law, we are shown that
we did something not legally or correctly, of course, I will act within the
framework of law, I will be first to strive to correct it. I want to be a
law-abiding citizen of this country," he said.

Speaking about prospects for relations between the new authorities and big
Ukrainian business, the MP said, "Our efforts may be added and may be
subtracted. If someone views the [opposition] victory as a business project
and wants to receive economic dividends, to take away something from
someone, to get even with someone - the reaction of resistance [of business]
will be natural. Our efforts won't be added, but will be subtracted, and it
won't be wise from the point of view of the moment - today we need to
organize all forces and move forward."

Kryvorizhstal is Ukraine's biggest steel producer, with a market share of
20%. The company, which has a full production cycle, has an annual capacity
of over 6 million tonnes of rolled stock, about 7 million tonnes of steel
and over 7.8 million tonnes of cast iron.

Last year the Investment Metallurgical Union, an industrial and financial
consortium, bought 93.02% of Kryvorizhstal shares at a privatization tender
for UAH 4.26 billion (around $800 million). -30-
==========================================================
7. "THE CARPATHIAN DECLARATION"

Complete text of The Carpathian Declaration
Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Jan 13, 00:57
.
“The Orange Revolution opened a new epoch in the history of the European
peoples.

“The people of Ukraine and Georgia showed the entire world that freedom and
democracy, and the will of the people and fair elections, are much stronger
than the government machine, regardless of how strong and rough it can be.
They proved that regimes motivated against the people are not strong enough
to stop the people’s vital sovereign rights.

“Despite the weather, millions of people went into the streets to defend
their inherent right to freedom and their right to elect their own
government. We categorically deny the thesis that peaceful and democratic
revolutions can be artificially orchestrated through supposed political
methods or through external interventions. On the contrary, the revolutions
in Ukraine and Georgia occurred in defiance of political methods and
external intervention.

“We are grateful to democratic countries and organizations for supporting
our citizens’ peaceful struggle for freedom and democracy. We hope such
support from the democratic world will continue. Our countries will continue
down the path to the construction of a united, democratic Europe, and
development of good relations with all neighbors.

“We affirm that the development of democratic civil society institutions
will be the main factors in the development and economic prosperity of our
countries and peoples. We are convinced that a society’s potential can be
unlocked only under conditions of freedom and democracy.

“We affirm that the Ukrainian and Georgian revolutions represent a new
wave in the liberation of Europe. This is a wave that will bring the
complete victory of freedom and democracy on the European continent.”

– Signed Jan. 5, 2005 by Viktor Yushchenko and Mikhail Saakashvili at
Tisovets, Ukraine. [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
==========================================================
8. UKRAINE REPORT-BLUE RIBBON COMMISSION REPORT

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP)
Washington, D.C., Thursday, January 13, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A Blue Ribbon Commission-sponsored by the
United Nations and composed of leading international and Ukrainian experts,
including Carnegie Endowment's Anders Åslund-has released a report with
more than 100 specific policy recommendations to the new President. The
report will be presented to Viktor Yushchenko on the eve of his
inauguration.

The report identifies FIVE key areas for reform:
* FIRST, and most urgent, is political reform. The fundamental problem in
Ukraine, as in other postcommunist countries, is that the state rules its
citizens, rather than serving them. The relationship between state and
citizens must change, the report concludes. To win the confidence of its
citizens, the state machinery must become efficient through real control by
society and law.
* SECOND, social spending in areas such as health care and education
needs to be made more effective to benefit the truly needy, rather than
mainly the well-off, as is now the case.
* THIRD, the tax system and the legal foundations of the financial system
need to be overhauled so that they work to stimulate economic growth.
* FOURTH, a clear line must be drawn between the state and private
enterprise, so that property rights are fully guaranteed.
* FIFTH, integration into the world economy must be facilitated through
early accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and closer
integration with the European Union (EU).

The Blue Ribbon Commission, formed in July 2004, was co-chaired by Anders
Åslund, Director of the Russian & Eurasian Program at the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace in Washington, D.C., and Oleksandr Paskhaver,
President of the Kyiv-based Center of Economic Development. Other commission
members included Iryna Akimova, Dan Bilak, Ihor Burakovsky, Oleksandr
Chalyi, Keith Crane, Marek Dabrowski, Adrian Karatnytcky, Ihor Koliushko,
Oleksandra Kuzhel, Dmytro Leonov, Georges de Menil, Vira Nanivska, Jerzy
Osiatynski, Oleksandr Rohozynsky, Oleksandr Shevtsov, and Ben Slay. UNDP's
office in Ukraine provided the funding for the project, but the Blue Ribbon
Commission enjoyed full freedom in defining recommendations and drafting the
report.

To read the Report in English and Ukrainian, and for more resources on
Ukraine, visit Carnegie Endowment's Russian and Eurasian Program homepage
at www.carnegieendowment.org/russia. -30-
=========================================================
9. UKRAINE MUST REFORM FAST, UN TEAM SAYS: EXPERTS
READY TO HELP YUSHCHENKO STEER OUT OF POST-SOVIET MESS

Ian Traynor, Central Europe Correspondent
The Guardian, London, United Kingdom, Thu, Jan 13, 2005

President-elect Viktor Yushchenko needs to embark swiftly on a
root-and-branch reform of Ukrainian politics, government, and economy if he
is to steer the country away from Soviet-style backwardness and corruption
and towards integration with mainstream Europe, a panel of experts appointed
by the UN says.

He should promptly overhaul the machinery of government, purge the judiciary
and the overweening bureaucracy, rush through new tax laws, complete
privatisation, and reshape the health and education systems.

The 19 members of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Ukraine highlight the scale
of the challenges facing Mr Yushchenko as he seeks to put together a
government and start catching up with the other post-communist countries of
eastern Europe. "The fundamental problem with the government . . . is that
its activities are based on the old Soviet concept of paternalism," their
96-page report says. It describes a decrepit system run on corruption,
cronyism and bureaucratic whim.

Although the power of the state over its citizens remains near-absolute, the
people have turned their backs on the state. The commission was set up last
summer by Kalman Mizsei, a UN assistant secretary general and the European
regional director of the UN development programme. As it was finishing its
work Ukraine erupted in rebellion against the attempt by the regime of the
outgoing president, Leonid Kuchma, to rig the election of his successor.

Mr Mizsei is to meet President Yushchenko today to discuss the proposals
from his team, whose members expect to serve as advisers to the new
president.

They hope that their analysis and recommendations can form a manifesto for
the initial work of his government. "The signals we are getting are very
positive," Mr Mizsei told the Guardian."The real task in Ukraine is to turn
around the relationship between the state and the citizen.

The report says: "Never in its history has Ukraine had as favourable a
position as today." It then outlines the problems being inherited by the new
president, some of the worst in the post-communist world. In the past 10
years Ukraine's gross domestic product halved, the worst performance in the
former Soviet Union, the authors point out. While the general living
standard plummeted, a rapacious class of super-rich oligarchs seized control
of the country's prize assets, a process that amounted to "state capture".

Despite a strong economic growth in recent years, it says, "Ukraine remains
one of the poorest and socially most unfortunate countries in Europe." The
country's existence as an independent state could be jeopardised unless
sustained and rapid economic growth bring better living standards.

The report says that Ukraine is run by an unholy alliance of ruthless
oligarch clans in cahoots with all-powerful bureaucrats. It is a system of
rule that has to be broken by political and administrative reforms and the
creation of a level playing field for business.

If he adopts the proposals Mr Yushchenko will have to divest himself of some
of the powers wielded by his discredited predecessor.
Under Mr Kuchma, the report continues, the president and the presidential
administration intervened "everywhere in the executive without legitimacy,
transparency or accountability".They acted, in short, like the all-powerful
party politburo or central committee of the earlier communist regime.

Mr Yushchenko should create an administration in which the bureaucrats and
civil servants are picked on merit on the basis of entrance exams, rather
than through cronyism or for political reasons, as is the practice. Prime
ministers and cabinets need to be given proper authority to govern and act
strategically.

The current system of government encourages obstruction and collective
cowardice when it comes to taking badly needed decisions. The report also
urges the new leader to push ultimately for membership of the EU, implicitly
criticising Brussels's lack of engagement with Ukraine.

"Unfortunately, the EU has shown little enthusiasm for Ukraine's [EU] quest,
and the Ukrainian government has made negligible progress towards its goal,"
the report says. EU membership is a realistic prospect only in the long
term, it adds. None the less, "the time has come to actively engage the EU
in negotiations, demanding something concrete for each concession".
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
www.un.kiev.ua/en UN in Ukraine. www.guardian.co.uk/ukraine
=========================================================
10. "POROSHENKO FOR PRIME MINISTER"

EDITORIAL: Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Jan 13, 2005

Barring any special shenanigans on his opponents' part, Viktor Yushchenko
should shortly become president. But who will be his prime minister?

"Yulia Tymoshenko," sings the chorus. The idea is obvious, and appealing.
Tymoshenko is, after all, Tymoshenko: the most galvanizing figure the
opposition has, a charismatic firebrand without whom the Orange Revolution
might not have been what it was. Were we choosing only with our hearts, and
not our heads, we'd choose her. The energetic leader could be effective in
ramming through reforms in the short window period the Yushchenko
administration will have, and she'd be strong in consolidating the
administration's power.

Still, our heads tell us she's not the best choice under the circumstances.
She's a divisive figure who might spend a lot of her energy fending off
attacks from enemies who want to get her, which would be bad for Yushchenko
and the country. Her reputation as Ukraine's "gas queen" and crony of
corrupt former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko precedes her with regional
leaders who are looking for ways to take her down a peg. Her husband is
wanted by Interpol, and it's an open question whether she can travel to
Russia without being arrested. We'd rather see her as a deputy prime
minister, in charge of reforming some vitally important sector - like
energy, come to think of it.

As for Oleksandr Moroz, we can't see it. Appointing this warhorse to the
premiership would be to undermine the spirit of rejuvenation that attends
Yushchenko's presidency. The Socialist leader isn't the worst of Ukraine's
political bosses, but he's a compromised man. He's no liberal, being against
land privatization. And his party's association with the newspaper Silski
Visti, which has attracted allegations of anti-Semitism, is regrettable.

In the end, as much as it pains us to pass over Tymoshenko, we endorse
tycoon, parliament deputy, and Our Ukraine financial backer Petro Poroshenko
for prime minister. For one thing, whatever business he's been up to over
the years, he lacks Tymoshenko's compromising past. As a so-called
"oligarch" himself, Poroshenko will be able to influence Ukraine's power
class in a way the combative Tymoshenko could not. His membership in the
Rada's budget committee indicates that he knows how to work within the
system. Poroshenko, who speaks good English, is a compromise figure, a
committed Orange Revolutionary who risked a lot by backing Yushchenko, but
who can do business with the other side in a way Tymoshenko can't. That
might be what Yushchenko and Ukraine need right now.

There is one caveat, however, and it's that Poroshenko has to take some
radical measures to clean up his act fast. If we're truly facing a new era
in Ukrainian politics, then he has to make his financial dealings as
transparent as possible. He has to maintain a strict division between his
government position and his lucrative businesses. He has to become cleaner
than clean - immediately.

Most importantly, he must sell Channel 5, the television channel that during
the Orange Revolution turned from a relatively objective news source into a
fountain of opposition propaganda. Ukraine, on top of everything else, does
not need a Silvio Berlusconi.

If Poroshenko takes these steps, he'll be more effective than Tymoshenko. If
he doesn't, he'll be a millwheel on Yushchenko's leg, and will deserve all
the opposition we can muster. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring]
==========================================================
11. STOCKHOLM ARMY MUSEUM TAKES HETMAN BOHDAN
KHMELNYTSKYI FLAG TO KYIV

Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Wed, January 12, 2005

KYIV - Representatives of the Stockholm Army Museum have brought the
personal flag of Ukrainian Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi to the National
History Museum, Kyiv. The flag was transported in a safe sealed until it was
brought to the museum. The delivery was initiated by the Ukraine 21 Century
Fund of Intellectual Cooperation headed by the United Ukraine Party leader
and Verkhovna Rada deputy Bohdan Hubskyi. Hubskyi said the flag will stay in
Ukraine until March or maybe longer.

Whether the Hetman Khmelnytskyi flag and his club that was delivered earlier
will be used in the ceremony of inauguration of Viktor Yuschenko is now
being decided. "It would be very symbolic to show that the state of Ukraine
has existed for hundreds of years, not only since 1991," Hubskyi said.

The flag was welcomed in Kyiv by parliamentary deputies Borys Oliinyk and
Petro Tolochko, director of the Institute of History Valerii Smolii, Culture
Minister Yurii Bohutskyi and writer Yurii Mushketyk. The welcoming ceremony
was also attended by the director of the Stockholm Army Museum Johan
Engstrom and other representatives. Director of the Polish Military Museum
Jacek Macyszyn was also present.

The flag dates back to 1646 approximately; it was apparently made of flax
and painted white and crimson with natural dyes. Its possession by Hetman
Khmelnytskyi is evident from his abbreviated name and hetman title: Bohdan
Khmelnytskyi, Hetman of His Royal Mercy of the Zaporizhian Army.

The Swedish Army brought the flag to Stockholm as a trophy after the
Polish-Swedish War of 1655-57, the so-called Swedish Deluge. The flag and
other hetman's kleynods (regalia which were insignia of distinction in the
Cossack Army and symbols of power among Polish and Ukrainian hetmans) as
well as personal things of Hetman Khmelnytskyi visited Ukraine as exhibits
in Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv and Chernihiv in 2002.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs has sent out official invitations to the leaders of foreign stations
and international organizations for inauguration of Our Ukraine Coalition
leader Viktor Yuschenko. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring]
==========================================================
12. POLISH, REGIONAL FOREIGN MINISTERS WANT MORE
EU SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE

PAP news agency, Warsaw, in Polish 1512 gmt 12 Jan 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Wed, Jan 12, 2005

WARSAW - Joint support for the process of reforms under way in Ukraine was
one of the subjects of the Wednesday [12 January] meeting in Warsaw of the
foreign ministers of six states cooperating in the framework of regional
partnership.

At a Wednesday press conference, the diplomatic heads of Poland, Austria,
Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia agreed that it was
appropriate to support Ukraine in such matters as, among others, the
development of a market economy or in attaining membership of the World
Trade Organization [WTO].

The ministers also spoke of the EU plan of action for Ukraine. The head of
the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Adam Daniel Rotfeld, said that this
plan did not take account of the change of situation that has come about in
that country. "But, without any doubt, this is the minimum that we expect
that Ukraine will do on its part [sentence as received]. And we will put in
effort for the EU to offer Ukraine something that is significantly more
attractive," Rotfeld stressed. He nonetheless added that there could of
course be no question at this stage of an Ukrainian EU accession plan,
because for such talks to take place specified criteria and conditions must
first be fulfilled by that state. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring]
==========================================================
13. CIS LEADERS APPREHENSIVE OF RERUN OF GEORGIAN
AND UKRAINIAN SCENARIOS

Russian Information Agency Novosti, Moscow, Russia, Thu, Jan 13, 2005

MOSCOW, Russia --- Regime change by means of political
manipulations poses a threat to all CIS nations, particularly Russia, CIS
Executive Committee Chairman Vladimir Rushailo believes. "The techniques
aimed at toppling national authorities are fit to be on the list of
challenges and threats of the 21st century," he told a news conference in
Moscow on Thursday.

Overlooking and failing to react to this threat would be wrong, Rushailo
said. He reminded that US political analyst Zbiegniew Brzezinski believed
that the situation in Ukraine would in the future influence those in
Belarus, Moldova and the Trans-Caucasus nations. "Does this mean that these
countries face the events Kiev has experienced? We are analysing the
developments throughout the CIS and are drawing conclusions," Rushailo said.

During the December 26 rerun of the second round of presidential elections
in Ukraine, CIS monitors for the first time encountered serious pressure,
according to Rushailo. "We witnessed the facts running counter to the law,"
he said. Among other things, CIS monitors recorded meddling in the election
commissions' work. Rushailo said Polish monitors obstructed voting by
standing right near ballot boxes.

"Polish monitors behaved glaringly in many Ukrainian regions during the
election," Rushailo noted. Unauthorised persons were present at polling
stations, campaigning was underway on the election day, polling station
equipment did not meet the electoral standards and there were errors in
voter rolls, specifically, deceased persons had been put on the rolls, the
CIS Executive Committee chairman said. "The more errors, the more
opportunities for rigging the votes in favour of either presidential
candidate," Rushailo stressed. -30-
==========================================================
14. NOTE TO THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT FROM IRA STRAUS

----- Original Message -----
From: IRASTRAUS@aol.com
To: morganw@patriot.net
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2005 10:33 PM
Subject: Re UR 405 Yushchenko's Wrong Move

Thanks for running my recent piece on the mistake of coming too close
publicly to Saakashvili.

There was an error in the article, apparently introduced inadvertently by
some copy editor, which I'd like to correct. It is wrong to say that NATO
partly waived its ethnic and neighborhood reconciliation criteria for
Lithuania. The original text did not say this; the point about the partial
waiver was meant only to refer to Estonia and Latvia. I regret any
consternation it may have caused Lithuanians.

The article you ran is one of a series I am doing at this time on the steps
that need to be taken by all three sides of the West-Ukraine-Russia triangle
at this time, to smooth over ruffled feathers and get on with future
cooperation all three ways. My points about what President-elect Yushchenko
needs to do can be seen in this context. The article below, another part of
the series, indicates some of the things Russia should do on its side.
with my best regards, Ira Straus -30-
==========================================================
15. UKRAINE: RUSSIA'S DAY AFTER

Following the clear victory of Viktor Yushchenko in the Ukrainian
presidential election, Russia now has to adapt to the reality of a
Western-leaning Ukraine. But in the past, Russia has often gone only
halfway in adjusting to new realities. Will this time be different? Ira
Straus explores how Russians will cope with recent events - and
how the West can help the process along.

COMMENTARY: By Ira Straus
The Globalist, Washington, D,C., Mon, Jan 03, 2005

Russia has plenty of legitimate interests in Ukraine. It will need to work
hard to salvage them, after its many mistakes over the last few months.
It could have been worse
First and foremost, Russia can consider itself lucky that President-elect
Yushchenko - despite being viewed as a radical by many Russians - is
in reality a political moderate. He realizes that Ukraine needs to get along
well with Russia.

Nevertheless, Russia's standing in Ukraine has sunk low. Ironically, it is
only with Western help that it can repair its relations with Ukraine in the
way it needs. And that means a way that preserves not just some trade and
correctness in overall relations - but a shared economic and strategic
space.

In recent months, Moscow had constructed an "alternative reality" in its
media and public discourse. In this fantasyland, the people of Ukraine were
trying to elect Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych as president, but an
American conspiracy was keen on overthrowing their government.
Adjusting Russia's collective mind
But now that Mr. Yanukovych has been defeated by a clear margin of two
million votes, Russia has to adjust its collective mind - as well as its
foreign policy - back to the real world.

The cost of outgoing President Leonid Kuchma's fraudulent attempts to steal
the elections is that Mr. Yushchenko's rise to power has taken on a
revolutionary tinge - something Russia wrongly accused him of wanting all
along.
Historic precedent
Another result is that Mr. Yushchenko today is a hero for many Ukrainians -
a development that has happened before in former Soviet states.

In November 2003, the same effect went even farther in Georgia: Attempts by
then-President Eduard Shevardnadze, again with Moscow's support, at stealing
the Georgian elections turned them into a battle of liberation - and Mikhail
Saakashvili ended up getting 96% of the vote as a national hero.

Russia's obvious implication in the attempts to falsify the Ukrainian
elections meanwhile gave the orange revolution an anti-Russian tinge.
No need to interfere
But none of this was necessary. Had Mr. Yushchenko been declared the
election winner the first time around - as he would have been had there not
been massive fraud - the consequences for Russia would have been mild.

Yes, the West's influence in Ukraine would in this case have grown somewhat.
But Russia's influence and reputation would have continued largely
undiminished alongside the West's.
What Russia needs
Instead, Russia is today viewed with suspicion by far more Ukrainians (and
Europeans) than only a few months ago. Its influence in Ukraine and
elsewhere thus is greatly diminished.

Looking forward, Russia now needs the friendship and help of the West to
salvage its long-term interests in Ukraine.

There is a precedent for this from the early 1990s, when the United States
pressured a nationalist Ukraine - freed from the Soviet Union's shackles -
to be more forthcoming in dealing with Russia. The rationale was that
Ukraine and the West would both benefit from good Russian-Ukrainian
relations.

Today, Russia needs this kind of Western help again - and it is once again
in the West's interest to provide it, despite the natural temptation to
punish Russia for its brutish behavior. There are a number of ways in which
Western help will be needed.
Ukraine and NATO
It is now widely assumed that Ukraine will eventually become a member of
NATO, possibly as soon as 2007.

In that context, the West's first step should be to turn the Black Sea port
of Sevastopol into a joint NATO-Russian base. This is probably the only way
to allay one of Russia's greatest fears, which is that it might lose the
base as Ukraine moves into NATO.
Integrating Russia
Another key step would be to coordinate the Russia-EU, Ukraine-EU and
Russia-Ukraine "common space" plans - and to make them mutually compatible.
This is the only way to keep the Russia-Ukraine plan alive while Ukraine
moves toward the EU.

There should also be more of an effort to upgrade the Russia-NATO
relationship at the same time as Ukraine is moving toward NATO membership.
The reason is simple. Russia needs to stay in the same strategic space with
Ukraine, which juts deeply into the Russian heartland, leaving Russians -
many of whom do not trust NATO - with a feeling of insecurity.

Ukraine's eventual move into NATO will create a fork in the road: This move
will either be balanced out by Russia and NATO coming substantially closer.
Or it will result in a major strategic defeat for Russia - and lead to a
serious crisis in Russia-NATO relations.
Who will do the thinking?
Russia will have to be innovative in finding ways to upgrade its practical
cooperation with NATO and the structures of the NATO-Russia Council.

In principle, NATO ought to figure out how to do this as well. But in
practice, Russia will have to do much of NATO's thinking instead - just as
the Eastern Europeans had to after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact.
Out in the cold
Why should Russia make this effort, when thinking Atlanticist-style isn't
something that's likely to come easily to most Russians?

The answer is that if Russia does not come to an arrangement with NATO,
Russia will be left out in the cold once Ukraine joins the alliance. And
Russia would find it very cold without Ukraine.

Russia also needs to undertake a major effort to rebuild its reputation in
the West. This is a condition for getting the Western help it needs on the
other points listed above.

For example, Russia could be a better ally in containing Iran's nuclear
ambitions and do more to help Western goals.
Other ways to help
Or Russia could help along democracy in a near-abroad country, for example,
by working with the West to bring a democratic moderate to power in Belarus.
Doing so could more than make up for its misguided attempts to throttle
democracy in Ukraine and Georgia.

At home, too, Russia's leadership could show a more democratic face, not
least by restoring genuine independence to a national TV channel and other
media outlets. Russia could also stop treating it as "patriotic" to blame
all its problems on the West.
Why it matters
As an immediate step, Russia should throw out the "alternative reality" it
has built up in its mass media, which has become an instrument for leading
the country down the path to one mistake after another.

What is most hopeful is that all of these steps would truly be in Russia's
interest. They would also be in the Western interest, for a whole series of
reasons. And Russia could take them easily enough. But will it?

The Ukrainian election has left Russia at a crossroad. Previous experience
suggests that it will adjust, but half-heartedly - along a line of least
resistance. The above points may be seen as describing the lines along which
it could adjust more speedily - and in alignment with its own long-term
interest. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.theglobalist.com/DBWeb/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=4313
==========================================================
16. "A POT-HOLE ROAD TO EUROPE"

ESSAY: By Mykola Riabtschuk
Berliner Zeitung, Berlin, Germany, December 31, 2004

Zenia Malyk, 45, runs a small tourist company in Kyiv that organizes bus
tours to Europe, mostly to Germany. The business goes poorly. Not all the
tourists come back - some leave the group at the nearest opportunity to
embark on adventurous life of illegal workers. As a result, the Western
consulates get heavily biased against every Ukrainian and, after a tough and
overparticular screening, reject every second visa application. Yet, even
those lucky persons who pass successfully an exhaustive, expensive and
rather humiliating procedure, are to undergo one more ordeal.

"Typically", Zenia says, "our buses have to wait a few hours at the Polish
border and then a few hours more at the German border. The hardest time is
in winter since we can't warm up the buses because it's forbidden to switch
on engines when staying. The record was set on, fortunately, in summer when
our bus had to stay idle at the crossing point for 15 hours. No reasons were
given and no one apologized."

Her colleague from Lviv Vasyl Popovych who runs the Inturtrans company,
confirms that the 4-5-hour delays became the norm. "The German border
guards at Forst", he says, "openly demonstrated their superior attitude
toward Ukrainian citizens, including our company's personnel, they
constantly insulted the passengers, they searched their and the drivers'
baggage several times without any explanation, they ordered them to carry
the baggage from place to place while citizens of other countries crossed
the border without problem. We submitted many complaints to the
German authorities but not a single response was received".

Apparently, all the better off tourists opt for air trips or at least for
train. And the worse off Ukrainians give up their tourist ambitions and stay
at home. The buses go half-empty.

To make up her life and to sustain her slack tourist business until it
becomes more or less profitable, Zenia Malyk runs also with husband a small
cafeteria next to the university. Certainly not a golden mine, the business
however brings some money for daily life, albeit requires both Zenia and her
husband Ivan to work 12 hours daily with no holidays.

"Racketeers", Ivan answers my question, "have not been the major problem.
Usually they observe 'poniatiya', a sort of the criminal 'etiquette'. They
never cut your wool to the very skin. But the authorities have no limits, no
brakes. There are up to 30 controlling bodies that may poison your life
every day. You never know for how long they are satisfied with a bribe and
whether another guy from the same body wouldn't come tomorrow for another
tribute".

The bad things got worse in 2002, when the governor of the Donetsk oblast
Viktor Yanukovych became the prime minister of Ukraine. Many people believe
that Donbas is a mini-totalitarian state within Ukraine ruled by mafia that
merged thoroughly with the local state apparatus. Whether exaggerated or
not, the rumours became rather palpable when "donetskiye" ("Donetskites")
massively flowed to Kyiv and elsewhere to take over numerous government
positions, luxury apartments, and tasty businesses. In popular discourse,
they effectively replaced the "new Russians" and "new Ukrainians", the
ridiculous personages of post-Soviet jokes, infamous for their greed,
stupidity, and boastfulness.

"A car with a Donetsk plate", one of many jokes says, "collided with the
monument to Bohdan Khmelnytsky [a 17th century national hero]. The police
has established that the citizen Khmelnytsky was drunk and therefore will be
prosecuted by court".

"In October, a few weeks before the elections", Ivan recollects, "two tough
guys entered my tiny office at the back side of the cafeteria. They wanted
to buy off my business - at approximately half a price. 'You'd rather accept
it', they told. 'Cause after election you'd get nothing. We'll take your
premises for free'."

"Maybe they bluffed", Ivan says. "But another threat on those days was
absolutely real. I was summoned to the tax administration and forced to pay
taxes for three months in advance. As I know, many businesses had to do the
same. The government probably needed to finance campaign for the prime
minister. And to raise pensions and salaries, at least temporarily, to fool
the people".

Little surprise that Ivan and Zenia became "revolutionaries" as soon as the
orange protests broke up in the Kyiv streets. No, they did not went to the
tents but they established an everyday supply of hot food for the
protesters. Free of charge, of course. And they were certainly not alone.
Even the most luxurous restaurants made their kitchens to serve the folk.
Apparently, they had not been happy with Ukrainian authorities either.

All of them would be greatly surprised to learn that their revolution is
just a struggle between different oligarchic clans, between Russia and the
US, or between different regions, or even between Russophones and
Ukrainophones, as some pundits say. They know what they know - that there
is an ugly, despised, corrupted government on the one side, and people who
strive for a better life, on the other side. They are from different regions
themselves, of different ethnicity and language, but they are unanimous in
their will to have a government from the people and for the people.

They do not expect any miracle from Viktor Yushchenko, any specific help.
They learnt how to help themselves, and the only thing they want from the
new government is to remove the obstacles, and not to impede their
businesses. It is not a «proletarian» but, rather, a «bourgeois»
revolution - against the remnants of Soviet feudalism.

"Basically, I can understand the Germans", says Anton, Zenia's employee. "I
do not blame the German consulate officers, or border guards, or customers,
who treat us sometimes as underdogs. They know we are on the black list, and
they read every second day not about Ukrainian composers or writers, but
about Ukrainian gangsters, and prostitutes, and illegal workers. We don't
elect the German authorities and don't pay them taxes. Why should they treat
us better than our own authorities who do live on our money?"

"The only thing I really regret", Anton smiles bitterly, "is that the
Westerners do not treat our authorities in the same way. They deserve to be
on the blacklist much more than the worst prostitute or any gaestarbeiter.
Because it is them who made this country full of gaestarbeiters and
prostitutes. I would be satisfied if not only me but president Kuchma
himself, in his way to Baden Baden or other resort, spend 15 hours at the
border, in a chilly bus. This is the least he deserves. And I would believe
then in German justice and fairness".

I believe it was just a joke, a desperate kind of a black humor. But, as
Ukrainians say, there is a touch of joke in every joke. -30-
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/feuilleton/408497.html
English version sent to The Action Ukraine Report by the author,
Mykola Riabtschuk, ryabchuk@iatp.kiev.ua.
=========================================================
17. "THE MEDIA'S NEW COLD WAR"

By Stephen F. Cohen, The Nation, New York, NY, Jan 31, 2005

Thirteen years after the end of the Soviet Union, the American press
establishment seemed eager to turn Ukraine's protested presidential
election on November 21 into a new cold war with Russia. Still worse,
its greatest enthusiasts were not the usual Russophobes but influential
opinion-makers and publications reputed to be exemplars of balanced,
moderate, even liberal, outlook.

An essential element of the last, forty-year cold war was manichean,
double-standard thinking on both sides that relentlessly vilified the
other, denied it had any legitimate national interests outside its own
borders and blamed it for every conflict. The result was to maximize
differences, minimize mutual understandings and inspire a nearly
catastrophic nuclear arms race. Consider, then, recent commentary in the
mainstream American press on the US-Russian conflict over Ukraine,
which might not have ended with the victory of the candidate favored by
Washington, Viktor Yushchenko, on December 26.

Its basic premise was that events in Ukraine were, in the alarmist
formulation of Washington Post editorialist Jackson Diehl, "disturbingly
reminiscent of "1947-48" (Dec. 6). His colleague at the Post, Anne
Applebaum, was more Churchillian: "Looking back, we may" see 2004 as the
year when a new iron curtain descended across Europe" (Nov. 24). Not
surprisingly, the sole cause of this fateful possibility of "a renewed cold
war," in the equally foreboding words of New York Times columnist Nicholas
Kristof (Dec. 15), is said to have been "massive and malign Russian
intervention in Ukraine" to help Moscow's favored candidate, Viktor
Yanukovich, as the Post charged repeatedly in a torrent of editorials (Oct.
31, Nov. 23, Nov. 25, Dec. 2).

Considering that Russian President Vladimir Putin had courted the West for
five years, even taking the unprecedented step of publicly endorsing
President George W. Bush's re-election, how was the Kremlin's "remarkably
Cold War" campaign for Yanukovich, as the Post's editorial-page editor Fred
Hiatt denounced it (Dec. 13), to be explained? The possibility that Russia
may have a legitimate security or other national interest in Ukraine, to
which it has been intimately, even familially, related for centuries by
geography, traditions, language, religion, economics and intermarriage, was
flatly ruled out. Indeed, according to an approving report in the Times by
Elisabeth Bumiller (Nov. 30), Washington "Russia specialists say [Putin's]
involvement in Ukraine is his most serious offense yet in American eyes."
(Apparently not in Ukrainian eyes: In a survey done at the end of December
2004, 83 percent of Ukrainians expressed having a "good" opinion of Russia,
and 50 percent even regretted the end of the Soviet Union.)

Nor was it asked if Putin might have been reacting to the well-known (to
the Kremlin, at least) US "involvement" in Ukraine on behalf of Yushchenko.
The indignant complaint that Moscow organized a "mass influx of Russian
celebrities" to promote Yanukovich (Stephen Sestanovich, Post op-ed, Nov.
19), for example, seemed especially disingenuous in light of a State
Department official's boastful testimony to a House committee on December 7
that the US government had sent its own legion of notables to Ukraine. They
included Senators John McCain and Richard Lugar, Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, former President George H.W. Bush, former Secretaries of State
Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright and former NATO commander and
Democratic presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark.

Even leaving aside Putin's retort that an election more democratic than the
protested one in Ukraine can hardly be expected in US-occupied Iraq this
month, there is another, evidently forgotten, American precedent. In a
repeated "news analysis," a Times correspondent (Steven Lee Myers, Nov. 24;
similarly, Dec. 19) assured readers that the Kremlin leader's great offense
was having "stepped on accepted diplomatic protocol by campaigning so
overtly on Mr. Yanukovich's behalf." Perhaps Putin thought his conduct was
accepted protocol based on the Clinton Administration's flagrant
"campaigning" for the re-election of America's "friend," Russian President
Boris Yeltsin, in 1996. That "intervention" included exceedingly
undiplomatic boosterism, a $10 billion IMF loan, US political strategists
dispatched to Moscow to advise Yeltsin's campaign, attempts to pressure a
liberal rival to drop out in his favor and effusive apologies for both his
pro-oligarchical economic policies and his murderous war in Chechnya.

(An important sidebar: Nostalgia for Yeltsin, "who embraced the West," as
Erin Arvedlund reminisced in the Times on December 2, informed much of this
American commentary. Indeed, according to Kristof, "the West has been
suckered by Mr. Putin. He is not a sober version of Boris Yeltsin." Not
noted, and still less explained, is that Yeltsin is probably the most
despised political figure in Russia today and Putin certainly the most
popular by far.)

Instead of considering the role of Russia's national interests and US
behavior, most commentators, especially the Post's, insisted relentlessly
that Putin's conduct in Ukraine was driven by a "crude neoimperialism" and
was "the centerpiece of a concerted and dangerous Russian imperial
strategy" throughout neighboring states once part of the Soviet Union (Post
editorial and Diehl op-ed, Dec. 2, 6; similarly, editorials Nov. 23, Nov.
25, Dec. 21, Dec. 26, Diehl op-ed, Jan. 3). It is here that the press's
double standard abandons all pretense of objectivity: In most of these
former Soviet regions where the Kremlin is accused of "imperial meddling,"
from the Baltics in the West and Georgia in the South to the states of
Central Asia, there are now US and NATO military bases, with more being
planned. They too go unmentioned, along with the essential question, widely
discussed here and abroad, of whether they are part of an ever-expanding
American empire.

Double standards can produce strange onsite reporting. Visiting Moscow,
Applebaum was shocked that even an 18-year-old Russian woman studying at an
American college was "really upset" by the prospect of a pro-US government
in Ukraine. The young woman tried to explain: "If all of these countries
around us join NATOSRussia will be isolated." But Applebaum was unmoved,
traducing the woman's concern as a "belief that Russia has a right to an
empire" (Post, Dec. 15). What kind of reasoning, we may ask, causes an
American journalist to construe a young Russian's worry about her country's
military encirclement as "imperial nostalgia"? (Would the same be said
about US anxieties over the appearance of Russian bases in Canada, Mexico
and elsewhere in Latin America?)

If Washington, unlike Moscow, is not engaged in "imperial meddling" in the
former Soviet territories, why has it been so involved with Ukraine's
politics? The official and standard editorial answer is that US motives are
entirely altruistic: As several editorials and well-funded democracy
activists have assured us, the United States is "seeking not to recruit a
new Western client but to defend the democracy and independence that most
Ukrainians want" (editorial and Michael McFaul op-ed, Post, Nov. 25 and
Dec. 21). That is, the Post continued, "the real struggle in Ukraine is not
about geopolitical orientation; it is about democracy," insisting that to
think otherwise was an "absurdity" (Dec. 2 and 26). In a similar but more
avuncular vein, a Times editorial (Dec. 4) advised Putin "to abandon the
foolish notion that someone is trying to steal 'his' Ukraine," which a
Boston Globe editorial (Dec. 28) dismissed as "Putin's paranoia."

No one in Russia's political class believes such assurances, not even its
rapidly dwindling pro-American faction, and with good reason. In the same
Washington Post editorial pages that have become the vanguard of the
neo-cold war crusade, the columnist Charles Krauthammer revealed a very
different meaning of the Ukrainian conflict: "This is about Russia first,
democracy only second.S The West wants to finish the job begun with the
fall of the Berlin Wall and continue Europe's march to the east.S The great
prize is Ukraine" (Dec. 3).

Krauthammer's unsentimental candor confirms the Kremlin's growing alarm
over the Western bases gathering around Russia like a tightening noose. But
if it needed weightier confirmation, Russia got it from Richard Holbrooke,
erstwhile candidate for Secretary of State in a Democratic administration
and leading spokesman for what passes for foreign-policy thinking in what
remains of that party, speaking now in his bipartisan capacity.

Just back from Kiev, Holbrooke exulted over Ukraine's impending "final
break with Moscow" and urged Washington to "accelerate" its membership in
NATO, which "virtually defines our core zone of security in half the world"
(Post op-ed, Dec. 14). With the kind of experienced diplomacy certain to
reassure Moscow about this further (nonimperial) encroachment, Holbrooke
told Chris Matthews on Hardball (Dec. 13) that a President Yushchenko
should immediately be invited to Washington to "address the joint session
of Congress." Holbrooke wasn't freelancing. The Post's
"not-about-geopolitical-orientation" editorials have been inconsistent or
duplicitous, calling at the same time for NATO to welcome Yushchenko's
Ukraine "with open doors" (Dec. 10; similarly, Oct. 31 and Dec. 26), a
policy still being pushed on its op-ed page in the new year (Steven Pifer,
Jan. 1).

The conflict over Ukraine alone may not be enough to launch a new cold war
against Russia, but the US press indictment of Putin, a leader it once
hailed for his "commitment to building a democracy" (Michael Wines, Times,
July 9, 2000), has been growing rapidly for more than a year. It began in
earnest in October 2003, when the Kremlin jailed Mikhail Khodorkovsky, then
Russia's richest oligarch and owner of its largest oil company, Yukos, on
charges of fraud, embezzlement and tax evasion. Ukraine and Yukos, now
being broken up and returned to state control, are regularly cited together
as prime evidence that Putin, and Russia itself, are hopelessly
authoritarian and without "minimal standards" of democracy, rule of law and
private property (Myers, Times, Dec. 19). The Globe columnist Thomas
Oliphant and Wall Street Journal editorialist Holman Jenkins Jr. were even
more damning. The first anathematized Putin's Kremlin as "Russian thugs
masquerading as a government" (Dec. 21), while the second equated Putin
with Saddam Hussein (Jan. 5), an association implying the need for US
action.

And not merely that. Putin, according to the Times columnist Kristof, is
"guiding RussiaSinto fascism," a line also being promoted by neocon cold
warriors such as former CIA director James Woolsey. Lest readers think they
might have been better off with the Soviet Union, whose leader Mikhail
Gorbachev did more than anyone else to end the last cold war in 1989,
Kristof quickly adds: "Still, a fascist Russia is a much better thing than
a Communist Russia." (Larger questions aside, I think instinctively of the
many Jews who survived fascist death camps in Eastern Europe only because
they were liberated by "Communist" soldiers.) And lest Nation readers think
that only American journalists are capable of such hyperbolic commentary,
the trendy British historian Niall Ferguson, now at Harvard, warned readers
of the Daily Telegraph (Jan. 1) that Putin may be becoming a Hitler, "a
fully fledged Russian führer," and an equal "threat to the rest of the
world."

Most Russians see all of this very differently. Hearing the US charges
against Putin, they wonder why Washington backed the "pro-Western" Yeltsin
so enthusiastically in the 1990s when he destroyed an elected parliament
with tank cannons, organized several elections at least as "fraudulent" as
the invalidated one in Ukraine and arranged the unlawful oligarchical
looting of state property. (Ukrainians, incidentally, might wonder why
their outgoing president, Leonid Kuchma, also being vilified by the
American press, was so grandly feted by the US government in Washington
in 1996 and was even given the now anti-Kuchma Freedom House's
annual Freedom Award.)

Above all, Russians see, behind Washington's proclamations of "strategic
partnership," a triumphalist, winner-take-all policy toward post-Soviet
Russia. Ukraine and other Soviet republics were part of their security; now
Washington is demanding them for "our core zone of security." (Indeed,
Diehl, writing in the Post on January 3, now urges a US policy that would
result in something well beyond mere cold war-promoting a Ukraine-like
"struggle" not only in Belarus, a former Soviet people even more intimately
related to Russia, but "even in Russia" itself.) So too with Yukos oil.
Once it belonged to the Russian state, whose impoverished citizens saw it
as part of the nation's wealth that might be their salvation; but
Khodorkovsky was on the verge of selling his "privatized" controlling stake
to a US oil giant.

It is right to wish democracy well everywhere and, in this connection, easy
to be critical of Putin's policies at home and toward Ukraine. (The extent
to which democracy actually triumphed in Ukraine, as heralded almost
unanimously in the US media, depends on whether the very large and
well-organized pro-Yushchenko crowds in the streets, the "orange
revolution," intimidated the Supreme Court into ruling in his favor and the
Parliament into changing the electoral laws while the electoral process was
still under way.) But the American adage "There are two sides to every
story" never seems to apply even to post-Communist Russia. Was it really
Putin, or only Putin, who "dusted off cold war vocabulary" (Arvedlund,
Times, Dec. 2); resorted to "anachronistic East-West terms" (Post
editorial, Dec. 2); treated Ukraine "like a geo-strategic prize" (Bumiller
quoting a Bush Administration official, Times, Nov. 30); and represented
the "specter of this new iron curtain" (Applebaum, Post, Nov. 24)?

Manichean allegations are an augury of cold war, as is something else.
Among the most odious practices of the forty-year cold war-always in the
name of freedom and democracy-was the casting of doubt on the patriotism of
anyone who challenged its orthodoxies. When the editor of The Nation cited
reports that both Russia and the United States had been deeply involved in
Ukraine's politics, the Post editorialist Applebaum slurred her (my wife, I
confess) as a "freedom-hater" (Post, Dec. 1). A "pro-democracy" missionary,
in an instructive example of undemocratic discourse, lumped "left-wingers
in The Nation" with Putin and the dictator of Belarus (McFaul, Post op-ed,
Dec. 21). And in an editorial comment in The New Yorker (Dec. 20/27), the
"liberal" George Packer revived the practice in its fullest form: "The
Nation [is] once again taking the Russian side of the Cold War."

Which "cold war" do Packer and the others have in mind? Evidently, a new
one already under way-at least in influential American circles. If so, much
is likely to follow, none of it good for democracy in Ukraine, Russia or
anywhere else. [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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