"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT - AUR"
An International Newsletter
The Latest, Up-To-Date
In-Depth Ukrainian News, Analysis, and Commentary
"Ukrainian History, Culture, Arts, Business, Religion,
Sports, Government, and Politics, in Ukraine and Around the World"
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT - AUR" - Number 602
Mr. E. Morgan Williams, Publisher and Editor
KYIV, UKRAINE, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2005
--------INDEX OF ARTICLES--------
"Major International News Headlines and Articles"
1. UKRAINIAN CITY LVIV WANTS TO RECLAIM ITS PAST
Was once as European as the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Became just another battered and tragic city in the Soviet Union.
EUROPA: By Richard Bernstein, International Herald Tribune (IHT)
Neuilly Cedex, France, Thursday, November 17, 2005
2. US GOVERNMENT HAS NO GROUNDS FOR FURTHER
APPLICATION OF JACKSON-VANICK AMENDMENT TOWARD
UKRAINE, AMERICAN EXPERTS BELIEVE
Natalia Klepach, Ukrinform, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Nov 17, 2005
3. UKRAINIAN FINANCE MINISTER VIKTOR PYNZENYK
RAISES WTO ACCESSION ADVANTAGES
One Plus One TV, Kiev, in Ukrainian 2120 gmt 16 Nov 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Thursday, Nov 17, 2005
4. UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT FAILS TO ADOPT WTO-RELATED
BANKING LAW DEALING WITH OFFICES OF FOREIGN BANKS
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian 17 Nov 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Thu, Nov 17, 2005
5. EXPERTS SAY UKRAINE WILL FAIL TO JOIN WTO IN 2005
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thu, November 17, 2005
6. UKRAINE: MOROZ FAVORS ABOLISHMENT OF VAT TAX AS
CAUSE OF NUMEROUS FRAUDULENT OPERATIONS
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thu, November 17, 2005
7. UKRAINE'S GOVERNMENT WANTS TO COVER BUDGET
DEFICITS WITH WINDFALL FROM STEEL MILL SALE
AP Worldstream, Kiev, Ukraine, Wed, Nov 16, 2005
8. CELLULAR OPERATOR ASTELIT FIRST TO OFFERS HIGH
SPEED DATA EXCHANGE ACROSS UKRAINE
By Anna Ivanova-Galatsina, Dow Jones Newswires
Moscow, Russia, Friday, November 18, 2005
9. SWEDEN'S ERICSSON IN $200 MILLION DEAL IN UKRAINE
UPI, Stockholm, Sweden, Wed, November 16, 2005
10. STEELYARD BLUES
London exhibition sponsored by holding company of Ukrainian oligarch
By Maggie Urry, Financial Times, London, UK, November 18 2005
11. GERMAN INVESTORS DOUBTFUL OF REFORMS IN UKRAINE
How bright is the future for the children of Ukraine's Orange Revolution?
By Christiane Hoffmann, Deutsche Welle
Bonn, Germany, Wednesday, November 16, 2005
12. UKRAINE: LITHUANIAN AMBASSADOR STATES CONCERN
FOR SAFETY OF INVESTMENTS MADE BY HANNER COMPANY
Interfax-Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, November 17, 2005
13. UKRAINE JOINS COUNCIL OF EUROPE CONVENTION ON
COMBATING HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian 0954 gmt 17 Nov 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Thu, Nov 17, 2005
14. UKRAINE BANS STATE INSPECTIONS OF MEDIA GROUPS IN
UPCOMING PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Associated Press (AP), Kiev, Ukraine, November 17, 2005
15. WORLD BANK APPROVES $99.4 LOAN TO HELP UKRAINE
MODERNIZE AND IMPROVE SOCIAL ASSISTANCE NETWORK
Associated Press (AP), Washington, D.C., Thu, November 17, 2005
16. REUNIFICATION TALKS BETWEEN TWO UKRAINIAN
ORTHODOX CHURCHES COLLAPSE, OFFICIAL SAY
Mara D. Bellaby, AP Worldstream,Kiev, Ukraine, Thu, Nov 17, 2005
17. POLL: 58 PERCENT OF UKRAINIANS SAY ORANGE
REVOLUTION PROMISES UNFULFILLED
AP Worldstream, Kiev, Ukraine, Thursday, Nov 17, 2005
18. UKRAINE'S REFORM EUPHORIA FALTERS
Many disillusioned 1 year after nation's Orange Revolution
By Mara D. Bellaby, Associated Press
Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, November 18, 2005
19. ZIGGING AND ZAGGING TOWARD DEMOCRACY
OP-ED: By Adrian Karatnycky
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005; Page A21
20. A BLOOD-STAINED PULITZER
New York Times, Walter Duranty's 1932 Pulitzer Prize
INTERVIEW: With Volodymyr Kurylo
By Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine.com
USA, Thursday, November 17, 2005
21. THE GARETH JONES SOCIETY JOINS 'SURRENDER THE
DURANTY PULITZER RALLY IN NEW YORK CITY
Gareth Jones Society, Thursday, November 17, 2005
22. RUSSIA'S PROPOSED CURBS ON NGO'S RAISE U.S. FEARS
By Guy Chazan, Staff Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
New York, NY, Friday, November 18, 2005; Page A15
23. MR. PUTIN'S COUNTERREVOLUTION
EDITORIAL: The Washington Post
Washington, D.C., Thursday, November 17, 2005; A30
========================================================
1. UKRAINIAN CITY LVIV WANTS TO RECLAIM ITS PAST
Was once as European as the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Became just another battered and tragic city in the Soviet Union.
EUROPA: By Richard Bernstein, International Herald Tribune (IHT)
Neuilly Cedex, France, Thursday, November 17, 2005
LVIV - Ukraine Beautiful but poor is a common shorthand description of
this city of 800,000 people in western Ukraine, and it takes only a few
hours here to sense the accuracy of the phrase.
Lviv, which was once as European as the Austro-Hungarian Empire and
wishes to be part of Europe again, is not in Europe, at least not as defined
by the border of the European Union, though it is a mere 70 kilometers
from here.
This is the periphery. Here is where Europe officially ends, even if the end
has an arbitrary, technical quality to it.
The plain fact is that there seems no particular coherence to the reality
that the Polish city of Chelm, just on the other side of the Bug River from
here, is part of Europe, while Lviv is not. Both, after all, were cities in
the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia, Lviv bigger and vastly more
important than Chelm.
Both were part of Poland for something on the order of 500 years, including
at least a few decades of the 20th century, before the Nazis invaded and
then Stalin moved the territory of Ukraine to the West, and Lviv became just
another battered and tragic city in the Soviet Union.
But Lviv also reflects how borders become, as they say in the Middle East,
"facts," and facts are reality, and Lviv's European aspiration takes place
in defiance of some of the most important elements of that reality.
It is a city in a different time zone from the EU, literally and
figuratively, one hour later than Chelm, Krakow and, for that matter Madrid,
a quarter-century or so behind in other measures.
In this sense, there isn't much news to report from Lviv, news in the
conventional meaning of events, changes, upheavals, investments. To visit
here, at least for me, was more to be reminded of the weight of recent
history. Lviv belongs in Europe, and, as the acting mayor of the town,
Zinovyj Siryk, confidently predicted of Ukraine in general, "After Poland,
we are next."
But at the same time, there is so much heavy residue of the basic fact of
Lviv's recent past: that it was ripped in an untimelyway from the European
womb, and many things about it - from the Stalinist Greek temple airport
with its columns and cupola to the generalized dilapidation - are emblems of
that rupture.
"It's a real border, not just a line," Andrij Yurash, a scholar of religion
at the university here said, referring to the nearby border with Poland.
"There's a real difference economically," he continued, and he provided a
striking statistic.
According to Yurash, Lviv's city budget is about one-tenth that of Krakow,
the other big formerly Galician city about 300 kilometers, nearly 200 miles,
to the west of here in Poland.
"It's the heritage of the Soviet period," he said, "because the whole
network of economic relations was destroyed here."
To walk the streets of Lviv, a year after Ukraine's Orange Revolution gave
national expression to the country's preference for the European zone of
civilization over the Russian, produces something akin to a time-capsule
sensation. The airport, with its eerily near empty tarmac, reminded me a bit
of China in the early 1980s, when that country was just emerging from its
Stalinist-Maoist isolation.
The hotel I stayed in, the George, built around the turn of the 20th century
to be the epitome of elegance and modernity, is spacious and grand. You
could almost hear the Belle Époque music and the clinking of glasses when
the Galician capital of Lviv was a major boom town of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire.
Now the place, like Lviv itself, is clean and adequate, but threadbare,
melancholy, eerily empty like the tarmac, practically calling out for an
investor.
"We also think that Lviv was ripped away from Europe," Halyna Tershchuk,
a reporter for Radio Liberty, the U. S.-sponsored radio network, said. "We
would like Kiev to understand that the headquarters of European institutions
have to be in Lviv. It must be a bridge between Europe and Ukraine. We need
branches of banks here, diplomatic missions, trade organizations, hotel
investments."
She said that in places like Poland, foreign investment in newspapers and
broadcasting stations helped create independence in the news media, while
in Ukraine in general, most of the press is too attached to particular
political parties to be seen as genuinely independent.
A local historian, Vasyl Rasevych, gave a demographic dimension to the
rupture with the past. "You have to remember that after World War II, 90
percent of the population of Lviv changed," he said. "The Jews were
eliminated. The Poles went to Poland. And before World War II, 50
percent of the population was Polish, 30 percent was Jewish."
When Stalin grabbed Western Ukraine for the Soviet empire, Red Army
officers helped themselves to the homes and apartments of the city's better-
off people. Factories were moved here with their personnel from farther east
to replenish the depleted population. "Up until the 1960s," Rasevych said,
"Lviv was a Russian-speaking city."
Well, Lviv speaks Ukrainian now, which is an element of revival. I found it
very moving in this city where some 200,000 Jews were annihilated to visit
the kindergarten at Hesed Arje, the recently created Jewish community
center, simply to see Jewish children playing, blissfully ignorant of course
of the inconceivable starkness of the past.
Here and there in Lviv are other signs of renewal: the restoration of one of
the city's many exquisite Italianate buildings, a new coffee shop,
reminiscent of Vienna, even the McDonald's around the corner from the
George Hotel.
Still, there is nothing like the wholesale sandblasting and renewal that
took place in, say, Prague after the communist dictators were thrown out
there.
Lviv hasn't had a Soviet dictator for 15 years and, like the rest of
Ukraine, it got rid of its pro-Russian autocrat, Leonid Kuchma, last year.
Its many churches, including several world- class gems, are emblems of its
European spirit, as is the big statue of the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz
right in the middle of the old city.
If the heavy hand of the Soviet dictatorship hadn't left such a powerful
imprint on Lviv, where Joseph Roth went to university and where Sholom
Aleichem, the originator of "Fiddler on the Roof," wrote some of his
stories, this city would almost automatically belong to the European club.
Maybe, as Acting Mayor Siryk predicted, Ukraine will be next. If that is the
case, for Lviv, history will have been set right. -30-
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LINK: http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/17/news/europa.php
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[return to index] [The Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
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2. US GOVERNMENT HAS NO GROUNDS FOR FURTHER
APPLICATION OF JACKSON-VANICK AMENDMENT TOWARD
UKRAINE, AMERICAN EXPERTS BELIEVE
Natalia Klepach, Ukrinform, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Nov 17, 2005
KYIV - The US Government has no grounds for further application of the
Jackson-Vanick Amendment toward Ukraine, American experts, who
participated in the working sitting "Ukraine - USA Political [Policy]
Dialogue", concluded on Thursday.
According to them, the American Government should step up cooperation
with Ukraine and comprehensively support it in its accession to the WTO.
Over three-day work in Kyiv the working group for economics and business
have drafted a series of recommendations for the Ukrainian Government. The
key reservations concerned absence of an integrated concept of elimination
of drawbacks in the legislative-regulatory sphere.
The American experts proposed to consolidate all economic initiatives in one
committee, led by the Prime Minister. The participants in the dialogue also
proposed Ukraine to make its tax sphere orderly, in particular, to cancel 20
percent [vat] tax on foreign investments [imported production equipment].
As the experts believe, the system of VAT reimbursement has been
destroyed in Ukraine and recommended the Ukrainian Government to pay
a particular attention to granting local power bodies the taxation
authorities.
The experts viewed as important to revise legislation on NGOs, with a
view of allowing them making profits [revenues] on their activities.
The experts positively assessed the new Ukrainian power's efforts in
combating corruption and making their activity more open and transparent.
Such efforts are important for the Ukrainian society and for Ukraine's
relations with its foreign partners. Such a conclusion former US
Ambassador to Ukraine William Miller aired, summing up the activity of
the working group. -30-
=====================================================
NOTE: Your editor serves as a member of the Economics and Business
Task Force of the Ukraine-U.S. Policy Dialogue. I was in Kyiv this week
for the meetings which were held over four days.
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3. UKRAINIAN FINANCE MINISTER VIKTOR PYNZENYK
RAISES WTO ACCESSION ADVANTAGES
One Plus One TV, Kiev, in Ukrainian 2120 gmt 16 Nov 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Thursday, Nov 17, 2005
KIEV - Ukraine's accession to the World Trade Organization will open
foreign markets for the country's export-oriented economy, protect Ukraine
from anti-dumping investigations and add some 2 per cent to GDP annually,
Finance Minister Viktor Pynzenyk said in an interview with the One Plus One
TV channel on 16 November.
"Why is WTO accession important for us? This means access to markets.
Our economy is dependent on exports. We have felt it this year, when, for
instance, metallurgy, the industry which yielded the most part [of income
from exports], had problems with sales," Pynzenyk said.
"We could sell many other products, but countries close their markets.
Another thing is that we have no protection from anti-dumping
investigations. In other words, it is easy to strike back on us by imposing
various additional duties, as our country is not protected. The WTO member
states do enjoy such protection," he said.
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4. UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT FAILS TO ADOPT WTO-RELATED
BANKING LAW DEALING WITH OFFICES OF FOREIGN BANKS
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian 17 Nov 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Thu, Nov 17, 2005
KIEV - The Ukrainian parliament has failed to adopt the second reading of
changes to the law on banks and banking dealing with offices of foreign
banks.
The draft changes would allow offices of foreign banks to be included into
the Ukrainian banking system. The bill was supported by 183 out of 408
MPs registered in the session hall [225 votes required].
The draft law was prepared to regulate the right of foreign banks to open
offices in Ukraine and their work. A note explaining the importance of the
law said that it is an important condition for Ukraine's entry into the WTO.
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5. EXPERTS SAY UKRAINE WILL FAIL TO JOIN WTO IN 2005
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thu, November 17, 2005
KYIV - Experts say that Ukraine will fail to accede to the World Trade
Organization in 2005. "In fact, Ukraine is failing to accede. Maybe it is
not bad, because there should not be any haste in such affairs," said
Vadym Karasiov, head of the Global Strategies Institute.
He noted that the issue was not put on the agenda of the ministerial
conference in Hong Kong, where Ukraine planned to obtain WTO
membership. "The agenda for Hong Kong was actually formed," Karasiov
said.
Kateryna Maliuhina, expert for trade-economic integration and foreign trade
of the International Center for Policy Studies, also says that Ukraine will
be unable to join the WTO this year. She attributed this to the fact that
Verkhovna Rada will be unable to adopt all bills required for entry in the
WTO.
Maliuhina said it can be positively estimated, because the bills submitted
were poorly elaborated and, while refusing to adopt them, the parliament is
stimulating the government to raise their quality.
She also says that the workgroup will have no time to sign the remaining
protocols on mutual access to the markets of goods and services because of
the tough positions of the US and Australia that are seriously bargaining on
the quotas of import and export of farm and metallurgy produce.
According to Deputy Foreign Minister Ihor Dolhov, Ukraine has enough
time to joint the WTO, even if it does not take place at the conference in
Hong Kong.
"I would avoid pessimism on such issues. We still have time and
opportunities not to lose the tempo and join the WTO in the near future.
December and Hong Kong are no deadline. This is just a process. As soon
as we carry out our mission, we will be able to go over to the other one,
namely, formalization of our membership in the World Trade Organization,"
Dolhov said.
Experts disagree on a date of Ukraine's possible entry in the WTO. Karasiov
says that the most optimistic variant is summer 2006, attributing this
viewpoint to the fact that the US and Australia in signing the protocols
will wish to get convinced following the Rada elections of Ukraine's serious
interest in WTO membership and her real chances to enter the organization.
"The most optimistic variant is summer 2006," Karasiov said. According to
Maliuhina's forecast, Ukraine will be able to join the WTO in
January-February 2006 if it manages to prepare all documents.
"If Ukraine is not admitted at the Hong Kong conference, than in
January-February, if all documents are signed, it is sure to accede,"
Maliuhina said.
She explained that the admission of new member-countries to the WTO
can proceed not only during ministerial conferences that are called once in
1-1.5 years, but also at the ministers' committee meetings called once in
two months minimum. Experts agree that Ukraine should join the WTO
earlier than Russia.
"It is vitally important for us to enter before Russia. That is why this
date, December 2005, was set proceeding from the fact that Russia was
expected to join the WTO at the beginning of 2006," she said.
Maliuhina specified that Russia also put off its plans to join the WTO from
the beginning of 2006 to summer-autumn. Karasiov also says that Ukraine
must join the WTO earlier than Russia.
As Ukrainian News reported, Ukraine hoped to join the WTO in December
2005, having got this status at the conference in Hong Kong. Economy
Minister Arsenii Yatseniuk says Ukraine may fail to accede to the WTO
before 2006, as was planned.
Ukraine still has to sign ten protocols on mutual access to the markets of
goods and services with WTO member-countries. -30-
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6. UKRAINE: MOROZ FAVORS ABOLISHMENT OF VAT TAX AS
CAUSE OF NUMEROUS FRAUDULENT OPERATIONS
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thu, November 17, 2005
KYIV - Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz favors abolishment of the
value-added tax as cause of numerous fraudulent financial operations. He
made this statement to the press in Vinnytsia on November 16.
"After elections [to parliament in March 2006], we will use every
opportunity to put an end in the issue of shadow economy, also by way of
changing legislation and, possibly, liquidating the law on VAT," he said.
Moroz added that illegal refunds from the national budget are often
connected with VAT due to high rate of underground economy.
"As long as half of the economy is in the shadow, as long as part of the
budget is plundered through VAT mechanisms, we will be unable to develop
normally. A new parliament must resort to taxation and budget systems
reform," he said.
Moroz added that VAT is typical for a stable economy, but not for a
transition economy.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Economy Minister Arsenii Yatseniuk said
at the beginning of November that the shadow economy in Ukraine tends to
grow this year.
According to him, the shadow economy accounted for 28-29% of the national
economy in the first quarter of 2005, 32% in the first half of the year, and
33% in the first nine months of the year.
President Viktor Yuschenko called on businesspeople in mid-October to leave
the shadow economy and said that the shadow economy accounted for about
45-47% of the national economy and up to 52% in certain sectors such as the
automobile market.
Yuschenko instructed his Secretariat in October to work out proposals on how
to improve VAT administering and gave it a one-month deadline. -30-
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7. UKRAINE'S GOVERNMENT WANTS TO COVER BUDGET
DEFICITS WITH WINDFALL FROM STEEL MILL SALE
AP Worldstream, Kiev, Ukraine, Wed, Nov 16, 2005
Ukraine's government on Wednesday proposed spending 70 percent of the
massive windfall earnings from the privatization of the country's flagship
steel plant to cover growing budget deficits.
The Kryvorizhstal mill was acquired last month by the world's largest steel
producer, Mittal Steel, for 24.2 billion hryvna (US$4.8 billion; A4.02
billion), far exceeding analysts' predictions. The sale was the single
largest foreign investment ever for Ukraine _ equivalent to about 20 percent
of this year's anticipated revenues.
Finance Minister Viktor Pinzenyk said the government wanted to spend nearly
three-quarters of the windfall to cover budget deficits, which come to 7.9
billion hryvna (US$1.6 billion; A1.3 billion) in 2005 and rise to 11.4
billion hryvna (US$2.3 billion; A1.9 billion) next year.
Pinzenyk said the government would use the rest of the windfall to create a
special stabilization fund.
He repeated assurances that the government planned to return 4.3 billion
hryvna (US$860,000; A720,000) to the consortium that bought the mill last
year in an auction widely considered rigged. After becoming president in
January, Viktor Yushchenko annulled the sale to the son-in-law of President
Leonid Kuchma and another tycoon. -30-
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8. CELLULAR OPERATOR ASTELIT FIRST TO OFFERS HIGH
SPEED DATA EXCHANGE ACROSS UKRAINE
By Anna Ivanova-Galatsina, Dow Jones Newswires
Moscow, Russia, Friday, November 18, 2005
MOSCOW -- Ukraine's third-largest cellular operator Astelit said Friday that
it became the first operator to offer high speed data exchange service EDGE
in all 25 regions of the country.
Rolling out EDGE, or Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution, gives
Turkcell-owned (TKC) Astelit a much-needed advantage as it will soon have
to compete with Russia's OAO Vimpel Communications' (VIP).
VimpelCom, Russia's second-largest operator, entered the Ukrainian market
last week by buying Ukrainian Radio Systems, the country's fourth largest
operator and Astelit's arch rival in terms of the number of subscribers.
VimpelCom is used to playing catch up and can be very aggressive in
rolling out network and offering new services. (Company Web site:
http://www.life.com.ua )
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By Anna Ivanova-Galitsina, Dow Jones Newswires; +7 095 974 80 55;
anna.galitsina@dowjones.com
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9. SWEDEN'S ERICSSON IN $200 MILLION DEAL IN UKRAINE
UPI, Stockholm, Sweden, Wed, November 16, 2005
STOCKHOLM - Sweden's LM Ericsson cell phone maker said Wednesday
it was selling $200 million worth of equipment to Russia's VimpelCom for
use in Ukraine.
VimpelCom, which recently bought Ukrainian Radio Systems for $231.1
million, will buy the equipment from Ericsson and, later, purchase another
$300 million of equipment from Ericsson.
That Ericsson will include radio and switching components plus also
installation and rollout services. The resulting network will support GSM,
GPRS and EDGE standards, provide services like MMS and include an
Intellectual Network platform to support the latest version of the PrePaid
system.
For its part Ericsson will pay $52.6 million to buy equipment currently
owned by Ukrainian Radio Systems. VimpelCom operates in Kazakhstan
and Russia, where its Bee Line GSM brand covers approximately 94
percent of Russia's population, or 136 million people, located mostly in
Moscow and St. Petersburg. -30-
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10. STEELYARD BLUES
London exhibition sponsored by holding company of Ukrainian oligarch
By Maggie Urry, Financial Times, London, UK, November 18 2005
LONDON - Having recently bought the huge Kryvorizhstal steel works in
Ukraine for a cool $4.8bn (£2.8bn), Lakshmi Mittal, the London-based steel
magnate, might be interested in some pictures of his latest acquisition.
He could do worse than pop into the Air Gallery, Dover Street, London,
which is next week showing works by Grygoriy Shyshko, a local artist,
who has painted scores of views of the plant and its iron ore mines.
The publicity materials declare that Shyshko, who died in 1994, has made "a
very moving study of the poetry to be found at the heart of ugliness."
The blurb also discloses that the exhibition's sponsor is none other than
SCM, the holding company of Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov.
Akhmetov was the co-owner of Kryvorizhstal until earlier this year when the
plant was taken back into state hands by the new government of President
Viktor Yushchenko.
Akhmetov bought the mill jointly with fellow oligarch Viktor Pinchuk for
just $800m under the corrupt regime of former president Leonid Kuchma.
Akhmetov and Pinchuk are, to put it mildly, still quite sore at the loss of
their bargain. But their loss is Mittal's gain. Should Mittal meet SCM
representatives at next week's show, Mudlark would like to be a fly on the
gallery wall. -30-
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11. GERMAN INVESTORS DOUBTFUL OF REFORMS IN UKRAINE
How bright is the future for the children of Ukraine's Orange Revolution?
By Christiane Hoffmann, Deutsche Welle
Bonn, Germany, Wednesday, November 16, 2005
When thousands took to the streets in Ukraine a year ago, one of the things
they wanted in addition to fair elections was a better economy. But a year
on, many people -- foreign investors included -- are disappointed.
At a factory in Stryj, eastern Ukraine, workers finish cable looms for the
northern German special cable manufacturer Leoni, which supplies German
firms such as Opel and Porsche. Employees say the work is "okay" -- they
receive their wages regularly, even if, at the equivalent of 120 euros
($140) a month, they are quite low.
But it's these excessively low wages that make Ukraine an attractive
destination for foreign investors. In countries such as Poland or Hungary,
the wages are double or triple the amount.
The machines at Leoni are operating in full gear, even if the initial
euphoria surrounding the "Orange Revolution" that promised an end to
Ukraine's shadow economy has dampened.
"From our point of view, the situation now is really frustrating," said
Leoni's Ukrainian director, Werner Geillinger. "The Ukrainian government
cancelled all duty-free zones, because they wanted to cut off the schemes of
the oligarchs, but by doing so, they've punished investors."
EXTENDED WORKBENCH
Auto suppliers use Ukraine like an extended workbench -- importing all the
materials, having cheap labor do the work on them, and then exporting the
finished products to western European carmakers.
In the past, agreements were made with the Ukrainian government to guarantee
exemptions from sales tax and duty. After the new government canceled such
agreements, Leoni was faced with an additional 300,000 euros a month in duty
fees.
The abolition of special economic zones -- which were one of the main causes
of corruption inside Ukraine -- has also added to the burden borne by many
employers. And the discussion about the privatization of former state-owned
companies has led to large-scale uncertainty.
"After the Orange Revolution, there was a lot of demand from German industry
from both suppliers to industry as well as by direct investors," said Karin
Rau, who works as a German industry representative in Ukraine.
"But since April of this year, there's been a stop to that, due to the
passing of several laws that didn't bring about the needed trust, because
companies were neither involved nor informed of the changes."
In addition, Rau said that the dismissal of 18,000 bureaucrats from civil
service meant that the new Ukrainian government lost a great deal of
know-how. These days, a common complaint is incompetence.
POOR MANAGEMENT
Leoni director Geillinger also accuses the new government of bad
management, either because of inactivity or resistance to advice from outsiders.
But that's starting to change, according to Lars Handrich, a consultant from
the German Economic Institute in Ukraine who advises the government on
economic issues.
Overall, he says, Ukraine is better off now than it was a year ago, largely
due to the new open atmosphere in Ukrainian society and more intensive
contact to western Europe.
"It's not all downhill," Handrich said. "The tone of the discussions here
recently has been rather pessimistic in my view. If you look at the economic
statistics, you see that in the past year Ukraine's gross domestic product
gained 12 percent. This year, economic growth will only fall by 2 to 3
percent. It's not a recession, it's just a decrease in the growth rate."
Handrich said the decrease can partly be explained by one-off effects in the
last year of rule under former President Leonid Kuchma, when the state
invested in the construction of two nuclear reactors and a motorway leading
from Kiev to Odessa.
MORE LIBERALIZATION NEEDED
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko The country's increased inflation
rate, he said, is due to increased demand created by higher salaries --
demand that couldn't be met by industry. For that reason, there were
shortages of meat and other groceries. Ukrainian lobbyists blocked imports,
which led to higher prices, Handrich said.
These developments are proof that the market has to be liberalized even
more, and that the government has to continue with its reforms, particularly
in the areas of agriculture and health care, but also when it comes to
battling corruption.
One of President Viktor Yushchenko's most important goals, however, could
soon be achieved -- the granting of market economy status for Ukraine's
economy from the European Commission.
Things also appear to be moving forward in the auto-supply sector.
Discussions with the government about the issue of duties are ongoing and
are due to finish at the end of December. For Geillinger, that's reason to
be hopeful. Ukraine is an attractive country, he says, but it's wasted a
whole year.
"As soon as the Ukrainian government finds a solution, many others will come
here," Geillinger said. "We're already contemplating expanding our factory.
In the meantime, we're planning to build a second factory in Ukraine."
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LINK: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1778707,00.html
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12. UKRAINE: LITHUANIAN AMBASSADOR STATES CONCERN
FOR SAFETY OF INVESTMENTS MADE BY HANNER COMPANY
Interfax-Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, November 17, 2005
KYIV - Lithuania is concerned about the safety of investments made by
Lithuanian company Hanner in the construction of a trade and entertainment
center on the square in front of the Olimpiyskiy Sport Complex in Kyiv,
Lithuanian ambassador to Ukraine Kestutis Masalskis has reported.
"We are monitoring the situation around Hanner," he said at a press
conference in Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday, adding that on Monday, the issue
was discussed by the Ukrainian and Lithuanian Foreign Ministers during their
meeting in Kyiv.
Lithuanian investments in Ukraine will depend on how the problem is solved,
the ambassador said, reminding that by Jan. 1, 2005 Lithuanian legal
entities' investments to Ukraine totaled $32 million.
The Lithuanian company Hanner invested in the construction of trade and
recreation center with an overall area of over 100,000 square meters on the
square in front of the Olimpiyskiy sport complex in Kyiv.
However, when the project development was almost finished and the
construction was to begin, a number of experts said that the complex would
block evacuation routes from the stadium, which could prevent Kyiv from
hosting major matches of the European soccer championship.
A member of the supervisory board of CJSC NEST-Hanner (the Ukrainian
firm implementing the project), Serhiy Riabinin, said the company received all
the necessary permits before construction began, but, nevertheless, it is
ready to invest funds into construction of additional exits from the stadium
and other changes to the city's infrastructure around the trade and
recreation center, if the necessity emerges.
He said the complex would have parking for 1,200 cars, greatly needed in
this district, and a children's playground with an area of 1,300 square
meters. Moreover, the project would create about 3,000 jobs in Kyiv.
According to another supervisory board member, Serhiy Ovchynnikov, about
$30 million has already been invested into this project. The construction of the
trade and recreation center is planned to be finished in 2007. -30-
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13. UKRAINE JOINS COUNCIL OF EUROPE CONVENTION ON
COMBATING HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian 0954 gmt 17 Nov 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Thu, Nov 17, 2005
KIEV - Ukraine has joined the Council of Europe convention on action
against trafficking in human beings of 16 May 2005.
The signing ceremony took place at the Council of Europe's HQ in Strasbourg
today in the framework of the 115th meeting of Council of Europe's Committee
of Ministers, in which the Ukrainian delegation headed by Foreign Minister
Borys Tarasyuk is taking part, Interfax-Ukraine learned from the head of the
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's press service, Vasyl Filipchuk, today.
Filipchuk said that Ukraine's joining the convention was the logical
continuation of the country's cooperation with the other European states in
the area of human rights protection, among which the right to life and
personal security are the most important ones. [Passage omitted: the
convention's provisions detailed.] -30-
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14. UKRAINE BANS STATE INSPECTIONS OF MEDIA GROUPS IN
UPCOMING PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Associated Press (AP), Kiev, Ukraine, November 17, 2005
KIEV - Ukraine's legislature overwhelmingly approved a bill Thursday
prohibiting state authorities from carrying out inspections of media groups
during the upcoming parliamentary election campaign.
Parliament also canceled part of a law that had barred the media from
editorializing about political forces during the campaign and had empowered
the Central Election Commission to close down any media outlet found in
violation.
Under the adopted changes, the ground rules were loosened and only a
court was given the right to shut down media violators.
The original law was adopted in response to last year's bitter presidential
election, during which losing candidate Viktor Yanukovych, backed by
outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, used state media to discredit his
opponent, current President Viktor Yushchenko. Independent media faced
stiff government pressure during the presidential campaign.
Under the new legislation, media outlets not owned by political parties are
barred from devoting more than 20% of their space or air time to party
propaganda.
Mykola Tomenko, a former vice prime minister, praised the changes,
calling them "an important victory for journalists over groundless
restrictions." Ukraine will hold parliamentary elections in March. -30-
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15. WORLD BANK APPROVES $99.4 LOAN TO HELP UKRAINE
MODERNIZE AND IMPROVE SOCIAL ASSISTANCE NETWORK
Associated Press (AP), Washington, D.C., Thu, November 17, 2005
WASHINGTON - The World Bank approved a $99.4 million loan to
help Ukraine modernize and improve the system for distributing welfare
benefits to its citizens.
The three-year project aims to transform the former Soviet republic's
currently unwieldy social assistance network to a more unified and
streamlined structure, the lending institution said Thursday.
"The network of 754 local welfare offices is poorly equipped with
technology and inadequately staffed, making effective means-testing of
benefits almost impossible," the World Bank said in a release.
Among the project's goals are to increase coverage to the poor, make the
administration of benefits more easily accessible to clients and improve
overall program efficiency, the World Bank said
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Power Corrupts and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.
========================================================
16. REUNIFICATION TALKS BETWEEN TWO UKRAINIAN
ORTHODOX CHURCHES COLLAPSE, OFFICIAL SAY
Mara D. Bellaby, AP Worldstream,Kiev, Ukraine, Thu, Nov 17, 2005
KIEV - Talks aimed at reuniting two breakaway Ukrainian Orthodox churches
have collapsed, church officials said Thursday, dealing a serious blow to
efforts to create a single independent Orthodox Christian church in this
ex-Soviet republic.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kiev Patriarchate and the much smaller
Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church began formal reunification talks
in May, in what was seen as a first step toward reuniting this predominantly
Orthodox nation under one church.
The move was also seen as an effort to lessen the dominating influence of
the Russian Orthodox Church. Representatives from both churches, however,
said the talks have collapsed and the blamed each other, saying unacceptable
demands led to the breakdown.
"It wasn't a unification, but annexation," said Deacon Taras Soluk, a
spokesman for the Autocephalous Church, based in the western city of Lviv.
"We support unification but in equal conditions for both of the churches."
Patriarch Filaret, who heads the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kiev
Patriarchate, accused the leaders of the Autocephalous Church of
"inconsistent and non-constructive positions" but he said he believed the
two churches would eventually unite. Asked when, he answered: "Only God
knows this."
He said a key stumbling block was who would lead the united church. The
Autocephalous church had proposed that an entirely new leader be chosen
by casting lots, Filaret said - a demand he would never agree to. "This
wouldn't lead to the strengthening of the Kiev Patriarchate but its
destruction," he said.
He called on members of the Autocephalous Church to ignore their leaders
and move independently to join the Kiev Patriarchate.
And he warned also said that the failure of the churches to unite plays into
the hands of Moscow, which is eager not lose control over Kiev, the
historical birthplace of Russian Orthodoxy. The Autocephalous' Soluk
criticized calls for its church members to defect.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine's Orthodox community split
into three parts, largely due to disagreements over what kind of
relationship to maintain with the larger, Russian Orthodox Church - to be an
equal or a daughter to Moscow.
Ukraine's Moscow Patriarchate, which remains subservient to the Russian
Orthodox Church, is the largest church operating in Ukraine, with some
10,000 parishes.
But the Kiev Patriarchate has more than tripled in size in the past 10 years
to some 4,000 parishes and 41 dioceses. The Autocephalous Church is much
smaller with 5 dioceses and is located primarily in western Ukraine. -30-
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17. POLL: 58 PERCENT OF UKRAINIANS SAY ORANGE
REVOLUTION PROMISES UNFULFILLED
AP Worldstream, Kiev, Ukraine, Thursday, Nov 17, 2005
KIEV - More than half of Ukrainians believe that President Viktor Yushchenko
and his government have failed to live up to the promises of the Orange
Revolution, according to a poll released Thursday.
In the nationwide survey of 1,993 people by Kiev's Razumkov center, 37.5
percent of respondents said Yushchenko's team had fulfilled no promises at
all, and 20.6 percent said the government acted contrary to its slogans from
the Orange Revolution.
Tuesday marks the first anniversary of the mass protests over election fraud
that came to be known as the Orange Revolution and helped usher Yushchenko
into power.
During the protests, Yushchenko and his team pledged to combat corruption,
restore trust in the government, improve living standards and win European
Union membership for this nation of 47 million.
But his popularity has been dented by stalled reforms, a corruption scandal
involving some of his closest aides, infighting in his administration and a
slowing economy. The country has yet to receive any real movement on its EU
membership.
The poll taken between Nov. 3-13 had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3
percentage points.
Of those polled, only 14.3 percent said they support Yushchenko, down from
46.7 percent in February, a month after Yushchenko became Ukraine's third
president since 1991 independence. Nearly 60 percent of Ukrainians believe
the country is on a wrong path, while 18.3 said it was on the right path,
the poll found.
The survey also showed how weak Yushchenko's position is ahead of crucial
parliamentary elections in March. The poll found that Ukrainians would be
more likely to vote for the parties headed by losing presidential candidate
Viktor Yanukovych than Yushchenko's team if parliamentary elections were
held this week. -30-
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18. UKRAINE'S REFORM EUPHORIA FALTERS
Many disillusioned 1 year after nation's Orange Revolution
By Mara D. Bellaby, Associated Press
Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, November 18, 2005
KIEV, Ukraine -- One cold day this fall, Inna Grigoryeva stepped out in her
orange scarf, hoping it would add a bit of cheer to a gray day, and says she
was overwhelmed by the smiles and affectionate looks from passersby.
A year after Ukraine's color-coded Orange Revolution, the excitement and
ideals that brought hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to the capital's
main square are already the stuff of orange-tinged nostalgia. Reality has
taken on a darker hue, muddied by unfulfilled promises and fallible heroes.
"The fairy tale written on Independence Square now calls to mind a murder
mystery. Only the victim isn't a person, but hope," said Andriy Yusov, a
leading member of Pora, the youth group that was one of the driving forces
in the protests.
As Ukraine prepares for Tuesday's anniversary, the revolution's leaders are
divided against one another in a welter of allegations of corruption and
influence-peddling. Those who hoped for a clean break from Russia and
acceptance in the West feel let down, while in the Russian-speaking east of
the country, many feel their country has been hijacked.
The magic may have faded, and the media may speculate that the anniversary
celebrations will be less exuberant than might be expected, but Grigoryeva,
a newspaper journalist, says the reactions to her scarf tell her that orange
is still a potent symbol and that enough unity and goodwill is left to
ensure that come Tuesday, "all of Kiev will be orange."
With opinion polls showing a majority thinks the country is headed in the
wrong direction, there's a natural inclination to fall back on the heady
days of last November.
"For maybe the first time, the whole world learned where Ukraine was--and
not because of Chernobyl or some other catastrophe but because of the
revolution ... it defined us," said Petro Poroshenko, a tycoon whose
television station broke through the government's media blackout to show
the nation of 47 million what was unfolding in Kiev.
The Orange Revolution began hours after the polls closed on the Nov. 21
presidential election. As the Central Election Commission began churning
out fraudulent vote counts in favor of Russia's man, Viktor Yanukovych,
reformist candidate Viktor Yushchenko summoned his own partisans to
Independence Square.
They poured in, pitching hundreds of tents, setting up outdoor kitchens and
vowing to stay until justice prevailed. Disciplined, cheerful, even picking
up their cigarette butts, they demanded freedom and democracy. After 70
years as a Soviet republic, and 15 more feeling the rigors of the free
market, many simply wanted Ukraine to be a normal European country.
"Yu-shchen-ko!" they chanted through the night. Sometimes it was more
rock concert than revolution.
Riot police stood ready. Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma went on
television and called for an end to "this so-called revolution." European
envoys scrambled to mediate. Politicians in the Russian-speaking provinces
talked secession.
Twelve days later, the Supreme Court declared the vote count fraudulent
and ordered the election rerun.
On Dec. 26, Yushchenko won the rerun.
But the goodwill didn't last.
The revolutionaries were a mismatched group of reformers, socialists and
populists united only by their hatred of Kuchma's corrupt regime. They
inherited a nation divided between the pro-Russia east and the nationalist
west.
Initially, the new government plunged into action by increasing pensions and
salaries, sacking 18,000 bureaucrats and summoning former officials for
questioning.
One of the most contentious issues was the murky privatization deals during
the Kuchma era. Yulia Tymoshenko, the Yushchenko ally who had become
prime minister, wanted hundreds of these deals revoked; Yushchenko
resisted.
The Tymoshenko government's heavy hand spooked investors. Ukraine's
economic growth slid below 4 percent.
In September, Yushchenko fired Tymoshenko.
Meanwhile, Ukrainians complain that the revolution has failed to deliver on
promises to improve living standards and restore trust in government, and
that it has been tarnished by corruption allegations and backroom political
deals. -30-
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19. ZIGGING AND ZAGGING TOWARD DEMOCRACY
OP-ED: By Adrian Karatnycky
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005; Page A21
Just a half-year ago a million nonviolent demonstrators in Beirut led a
Cedar Revolution that forced Syria's military withdrawal from their country.
In April mass protests in Kyrgyzstan, dubbed the Tulip Revolution, forced
the country's corrupt president to resign.
After Ukraine's Orange Revolution of November 2004 and Georgia's Rose
Revolution of November 2003, it seemed as though the world was being swept
up in a rising tide of democratic ferment.
This week the picture is more sobering. Though democratic opposition forces
in Azerbaijan have begun massing and are wearing orange colors, they face
long odds as they attempt to overturn a Nov. 6 parliamentary election judged
unfair by international observers.
Moreover, in recent months, civic movements have lost steam, while
authoritarian leaders work to preclude pro-democracy movements (as in
Russia) and tyrants work to suppress them (as in Belarus, Uzbekistan and
Zimbabwe). At the same time, reform momentum appears to have run
aground in places where civic forces triumphed.
In Lebanon, the Syrians may be out, but terrorism persists and the country's
democratic transition is held hostage to an antiquated electoral system that
allocates quotas in the parliament and government to the country's religious
denominations.
In Kyrgyzstan, prominent parliamentarians have been murdered in recent
weeks, and holdovers in parliament from the old regime have successfully
blocked democratic reformers from key government posts.
In Ukraine, rivalries among leaders of the Orange Revolution led President
Viktor Yushchenko to dismiss his prime minister and national security
adviser. Now some erstwhile allies assert that Yushchenko is colluding with
representatives of the old order and glossing over the criminality and
corruption of the recent past.
In Georgia, critics worry that an election won by a margin of some 90
percent has left the country without a real opposition to check incumbent
President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Still, not all is as grim as it might appear. A recent Freedom House study
on how democracy takes root shows that not all anti-authoritarian
revolutions are equal.
Those that succeed in building durable democracy have three common
characteristics: They maintain the discipline of nonviolent civic action;
they are led by cohesive and broadly based civic coalitions; and they force
splits within the ruling elite and its security forces, some of which ally
with the opposition.
If the evidence of the past is a guide to the future, Ukraine and Georgia
have better chances for durable democracy than Lebanon or Kyrgyzstan,
where civic coalitions never cohered or where there was some serious
opposition violence.
Indeed, one year after the Orange Revolution, Ukraine enjoys a vibrant and
diverse political spectrum with three major parties and important minor
parties, most with a real chance to influence the shape of the next
government.
Civic activism is high, with protesters challenging everything from economic
policy to environmental degradation to urban development plans. There is an
emboldened and free press.
Yushchenko may have lost some revolutionary luster and seen a drop in public
support as he moves from revolutionary rhetoric to pragmatic and effective
governing. Still, he is deeply committed to democracy and widely regarded as
personally incorruptible.
In recent weeks he has successfully brought $4 billion into state coffers by
re-privatizing a steelworks bought through an insider deal by relatives and
allies linked to the former regime. And he has renewed his commitment to
solve the case of a murdered journalist and punish the planners of last
year's massive voter fraud.
At the same time, despite a huge mandate and large parliamentary base,
Georgia's Saakashvili was forced to dismiss his foreign minister amid
widespread public and legislative criticism.
What does all this signify? First, we need to recalibrate our expectations
about civic revolutions and the coalitions that make them and to better
understand that their splintering is a welcome sign of political
differentiation, not an indication of lack of cohesion.
We also need to understand that coping with the legacies of the corrupt past
is not simply a matter of revolutionary will. It requires the concurrence of
a legal system that often includes holdovers from the bad old days, a
problem that needs to be resolved quickly lest foreign investors be scared
off by uncertainty over what belongs to whom.
In the past three decades some 70 tyrannies have fallen, and half of them
have ended up as free and open democracies. Just as important: Many of
these successful revolutions first had inchoate and failed trial runs at
coalition-building and nonviolent civic action.
This should give pause to those who say that civic ferment is in decline and
that the color revolutions of the past few years are fading. It also should
give heart to Azeris and to the Zimbabwean, Belarusan and Uzbek democrats
who continue to struggle against autocratic rule.
History has not ended, nor has the democratic wave. It comes in uneven
spurts; it zigs and zags. Yet, in the end, humankind moves forward to
greater freedom. -30-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adrian Karatnycky is counselor and senior scholar at Freedom House and
co-author of its recent study "How Freedom Is Won."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/14/AR2005111401019.html
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20. A BLOOD-STAINED PULITZER
New York Times, Walter Duranty's 1932 Pulitzer Prize
INTERVIEW: With Volodymyr Kurylo
By Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine.com
USA, Thursday, November 17, 2005
Frontpage Interview's guest today is Volodymyr Kurylo, the President of
the United Ukrainian American Organizations of Greater New York. The
organization is about 100 years old and is also the local branch of the
Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.
The group will be gathering in front of The NY Times building, at 229
West 43rd Street between 7th and 8th in Manhattan, tomorrow, on Friday,
November 18th at 12 noon , to demand that Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.,
surrender Walter Duranty's 1932 Pulitzer Prize.
FP: Volodymyr Kurylo, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
Kurylo: Thank you. I welcome the opportunity to be interviewed about an
important issue related to the Ukrainian Famine Genocide of 1932-1933.
FP: Tell us exactly what this protest is about.
Kurylo: We have organized this protest to demand that Arthur Sulzberger,
Jr., publisher of The New York Times, finally "do the right thing" and
surrender Walter Duranty's 1932 Pulitzer. Its the moral thing to do.
After all, the lies that Duranty dispatched and were printed in The New York
Times denied that Stalin was intentionally, with impunity, starving between
7 to 10 million innocent Ukrainian men, women & children to death.
Didn't Duranty & the Times set the standard for "holocaust denial"? I am
honored to announce that our organization has been joined by the Gareth
Jones Society for Truth in Journalism. Mr. Nigel Colley, Gareth Jones great
nephew will speak at our rally.
FP: Tell us about the Ukraine famine.
Kurylo: We should call it the Ukrainian Famine Genocide of 1932-1933.
Ukrainians have known it as the "Holodomor". Stalin needed and wanted to
collectivize agriculture in the fledgling Soviet Union. The USSR was a
third world country and Stalin needed to industrialize it. He did so
rapidly & brutally.
Ukraine has been known as "the breadbasket of Europe" because of its rich
agricultural region and the crops it produced, primarily grains. Wheat was
a valuable commodity to be traded for hard currency. Stalin instituted a
policy of forced collectivization. It was easier to seize more produce from
the independently-minded peasants if they were forced into large
state-controlled farms.
Towards the end of 1931, about 70 percent of Ukrainian peasants had been
coerced into joining the collectives. During this period grain seizures
began to wipe out reserves which had been accumulated from previous
harvests. Even though famine was breaking out, nothing was going to stop
Stalin.
The peasant-producers had to fulfill their obligations to the State before
they could receive their allotment. Quotas were unreasonable and bands of
communist zealots, military units and NKVD secret police were sent in to
enforce the Stalins decrees.
Even seed grain was declared state property and withholding even a few
grains was considered a crime against the state punishable death by death.
Early in 1932, the Soviets continued to increase the grain procurement
quotas for Ukraine. Stalin, Kaganovich, Molotove et.al. were well aware
that extraordinarily high grain quotas would result in grain shortages.
They didn't care that Ukrainian peasants would not be able to feed their
families.
Villages that were emptied by the genocidal famine would be re-populated
with ethnic Russians thereby helping to solve the nationalities issue Stalin
was facing. Stalin also implemented an internal passport system to restrict
peasants from traveling in search of food. In fact, the peasants were the
last group to be issued passports decades after anyone else.
The toll was staggering: estimates range from 7 to 10 million dead. At its
peak, the genocide was claiming 25,000 peasants a day. We haven't touched
upon executions, internal exiling, forced-slave labor etc.
FP: I would recommend Robert Conquest's Harvest of Sorrow on this tragic
topic. Let's move on to Duranty. He covered up this terror famine, yet he
knew all about it. Why do you think?
Kurylo: Yes, Duranty covered up the Ukrainian Famine Genocide of 1932-1933
by denying its very existence. What kind of human being could pen "there is
no famine" and "any report of a famine is today an exaggeration or malignant
propaganda" when the stench of millions of corpses filled the air?
In her memoir "An American Engineer in Stalin's Russia", Zara Witkin
reported a revealing incident. Ralph Barnes, the New York Herald Tribune
reporter, asked how Duranty was going to report the story about the
Stalin-made famine to which Duranty responded: "What are a few million dead
Russians (Ukrainians) in a situation like this? Quite unimportant. This is
just an incident in the sweeping historical changes here. I think the
entire matter is exaggerated."
The Soviets had instituted a policy of strict censorship. Umansky
controlled the correspondents stationed in Moscow. To stray from the party
line was to commit professional suicide. There were courageous and honest
journalists like Malcom Muggeridge and Gareth Jones who wrote the truth at
the expense of their careers in the Moscow press corps.
Duranty lacked the honesty & integrity. Duranty covered the Soviet Union
for The New York Times from 1922 to 1941. That's quite a feat.
FP: Yes indeed. I would add that Duranty intentionally covered up this whole
massacre because he supported it. Just like the despotism he venerated, he
wanted millions to die. Like every believer in earthly utopia, he yearned
for the destruction of this world, since in his political vision, as in the
vision of the Stalins and Maos and Pol Pots, it is only through human blood
that this world can be purified. An earthly paradise can only be built on
the ashes of millions of human corpses.
In my study of the Left and its romance with death cults, I was not very
surprised to learn in Sally J. Taylor's biography of this monstrous
individual, Stalin's Apologist: Walter Duranty: The New York Times Man in
Moscow, that Duranty was an outcast in his own society, that he was
physically repulsive, a drug abuser with a wooden leg, and an engager in
satanic sexual orgies. Take from this what you will.
So, the New York Times printed Duranty's lies and never investigated the
authenticity of his reports. It is clear, naturally, that the Times had the
same ideology to protect as did Duranty at the time. Why do you think the
Times still refuses to surrender Duranty's Pulitzer when it has been proven
that the Forced Famine occurred and that Duranty consciously lied about it?
Kurylo: In 2003, Douglas McCollam wrote the following in CJR (Columbia
Journalism Review):
"Researchers who have investigated Duranty's career have found that certain
editors at The New York Times did have doubts about his coverage of the
Soviet Union, but never acted to recall him. Times editors were aware of
famine reports in other newspapers and even ran editorials and stories
contrary to Duranty's coverage in the Times."
There was no shortage of leftists in New York City in the 1930's. They
eagerly awaited Duranty's reports in The Times and I would imagine,
fantasized about the days when their vision of a Soviet style utopia would
become America's reality.
I was thoroughly disgusted and continue to be when I remember reading a
report in AIM (Accuracy In Media):
"In November of 1933 he [Duranty] stood in the Oval Office of the White
House [with Soviet Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov-Wallach] as President
Roosevelt announced the diplomatic recognition of the USSR - an initiative
he would not have dared had the public known of the horrendous death toll of
Stalin's policies."
By November of 1933 how many million Ukrainians were already decomposing?
Two days after this recognition, 6,000 Ukrainians gathered at Washington
Square to honor the victims of the Ukrainian Famine Genocide and to sound
the alarm regarding the recognition of Stalin's regime.
They marched to attend a rally at an Opera House which existed at 67th &
Lexington. On Nov 19, New York newspapers, including The Times reported
about the repeated attacks of roving bands of "reds" who threw bottles,
brickbats and physically attacked the mourner-marchers. Several policeman
were injured.
Finally, a few sentences from John Berlau's article in "Insight Magazine"
(July 7, 2003) shed light on The Times motivation: "[Ronald] Radosh and
other critics say that while the Times argues it is not returning the prize
because it does not want to 'undo history', the paper in fact is trying to
cover up its own history of helping launch communist regimes that
systematically oppress their people. Times correspondent Herbert Matthews
was instrumental in Fidel Castro's rise to power in Cuba..."
In November of 2003, the Pulitzer Panel announced that it wouldn't revoke
Duranty's 1932 prize. Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. issued a statement which ended
with: "We regret his [Duranty's] lapses and we join the Pulitzer Board in
extending sympathy to those who suffered in the famine."
Lapses? We're talking about 7 to 10 million human beings, not car keys.
And, we're not looking for Arthur Sulzberger's sympathy. We want Duranty's
blood-stained Pulitzer.
FP: I hope you get that blood-stained Pulitzer. I hope your protest in front
of the NY Times building this Friday, November 18 at 12 noon will help
achieve that objective. The NY Times is engaging in nothing less than
complicity in Holocaust Denial. It is a grotesque shame.
Thank you for joining us here today Mr. Kurylo and thank you for your fight
for justice and for the truth -- and for keeping the memory of Stalin's --
and socialism's -- millions of victims alive.
Kurylo: Thank you so much for the opportunity to continue to remember the
victims of the Ukrainian Famine Genocide of 1932-1933. It is just as
important to remember the perpetrators. Why do Stalin, Kaganovich, Molotov,
Khataevych, Veger, Postyshev not "enjoy" the same level of infamy as Hitler,
Eichmann, Himmler, Goebbels etc?
The answer appears to be quite simple. Stalinism/Bolshevism had many
cheerleaders among the legions of American leftists during the 1930's. What
support did Hitler have in this country? Stalin had Duranty to lie for him
and sing the praises of the Soviet heaven-on-earth.
Stalin had The New York Times do his PR work. How many admirers,
disciples, devotees of Stalin are teaching in American Universities today?
It is said that we are doomed to repeat history if we have not learned from
it. In order to learn from it we must have access to the truth. I believe
that if the world had reacted appropriately to Stalin's genocidal policies,
Hitler would not have been emboldened to carry out his "final solution".
Stalin and his henchmen starved, murdered, raped, tortured with impunity.
No wonder Saddam Hussein admired him and modeled his own regime
after his idol - Stalin.
FP: You make many vital points sir. Hitler was inspired by Stalin's
concentration camp system and used it as a guide for his own totalitarian
plans.
Today in our culture the Soviet genocide is not demonized in the way the
Nazi genocide is demonized because racial hatred is seen as a bad thing -
which it is obviously - but class hatred is still legitimized and venerated,
especially in our intellectual leftist circles.
And just as our totalitarian and terrorist enemies had their champions such
as Duranty during the 20th Century, so too the mass despotic killers in this
terror war, from Osama to Zarqawi, have their leftist champions they can
count on in the West (Moore, Sheehan, Hayden etc.).
It is all part of the same cycle: as the hard Left pines for the destruction
of the West and of individual freedom and democracy, it supports the
destruction that our totalitarian enemy wages, dreaming that a new earth
will be built on the Ground Zeros that they perpetrate.
Good luck tomorrow Mr. Kurylo.
Kurylo: Thank you Jamie. -30-
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LINK: http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20217
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21. THE GARETH JONES SOCIETY JOINS 'SURRENDER THE
DURANTY PULITZER RALLY IN NEW YORK CITY
Gareth Jones Society, Thursday, November 17, 2005
The Gareth Jones Society (www.garethjones.org ) will be joining the
United Ukrainian American Organizations (UUAO) of Greater New York
at the "Surrender the Duranty Pulitzer Rally" on Friday, November 18 at
noon at the New York Times Building at 229 West 43rd St between 7th
and 8th Avenues in Manhattan.
The two groups have notified The New York Times publisher Mr.
Sulzberger, Jr. they will accept the Duranty Pulitzer Prize on Friday,
November 18 at noon. Ukrainian Americans believe the Duranty Pulitzer
should be on display at the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory
planned to be built in Kyiv, Ukraine. Having the Duranty Pulitzer on
display will ensure that future generations never forget what the price
of 10 million lives looks like.
UUAO President Volodymyr Kurylo welcomed the Gareth Jones Society's
involvement. Nigel Colley, Gareth Jones' great nephew will represent the
society. Gareth Jones snuck into Ukraine and documented unprecedented
murder after Stalin sealed the borders and stole the "Breadbasket of
Europe" to raise billions to prop up his regime. Ukrainians resisted for
over three years but after being reduced to eating shoe leather and
leaves, the wholesale genocide claimed more than all soldiers killed in
World War I.
Mr. Kurylo noted that "On July 11, 2005, President Victor Yushchenko
issued presidential decree No.1087 that directs the government to create
a Ukrainian Institute of National Memory. Although Ukraine is honoring
the victims of political repression and genocides, or Holodomors, more
work needs to be done to raise public awareness of the tragedies
befallen Ukraine during the struggle to reestablish Ukrainian statehood.
The price of Duranty's Pulitzer was 10 million lives. It should be on
permanent display in Ukraine so that future generations never forget."
Kurlylo added that "Duranty's admitted cover up of this Holodomor
doomed 10 million Ukrainians who fought Stalin's tyranny. I'm sure Mr.
Sulzberger realizes that this depraved Prize is dooming the integrity of
The New York Times. I hope he realizes that by surrendering the Duranty
Pulitzer to Ukraine, he will be correcting a historical injustice."
Gareth Jones was banished by Stalin after publicly refuting Duranty.
Jones was branded a liar by the New York Times and others and was
executed in China a few miles from the Russian border . Duranty went on
to win a Pulitzer in 1933 for his knowingly false stories on conditions
in Ukraine.
Despite public outrage, a recommendation by Columbia Professor Mark von
Hagen, and numerous requests by Dr. Siriol Colley (founder of the Gareth
Jones Society), the Pulitzer Board has twice affirmed this infamous Prize.
Contact the Gareth Jones Society Garethsociety@aol.com or the UUAO at
917/ 861-1574 for additional information. -30-
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22. RUSSIA'S PROPOSED CURBS ON NGO'S RAISE U.S. FEARS
By Guy Chazan, Staff Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
New York, NY, Friday, November 18, 2005; Page A15
MOSCOW -- A Russian proposal to curb foreign nonprofit organizations
threatened to become an international issue after two former U.S. lawmakers
urged President Bush to raise it at a meeting with his Russian counterpart,
Vladimir Putin, in South Korea on Friday.
John Edwards, a former U.S. senator and vice-presidential candidate, and
former congressman Jack Kemp sent a letter to Mr. Bush that urged him to
discuss the draft law with President Putin, saying it would "roll back
pluralism in Russia and curtail contact between our societies."
The U.S. already has expressed concerns about the measure with the Russian
government. A U.S. official said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice raised
the subject Wednesday in a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov in South Korea and said President Bush might do the same when he
meets Mr. Putin.
The Bush administration "has serious concerns over the...broader effect"
the measure could have "over the development of civil society in Russia,"
said the State Department official. "This isn't a good sign."
The bill, backed by the main pro-Kremlin party, would effectively bar
foreign nongovernmental organizations from maintaining representative
offices in Russia. If passed, it would affect the country's entire
international nonprofit sector, ranging from think tanks such as the
Carnegie Moscow Center to civil-liberties groups such as Human Rights
Watch.
"This could be the first step toward closing down all foreign NGOs in
Russia," said Chris Cavanaugh, head of the Moscow office of IREX, an
international nonprofit. "It's a huge step backward for civil society here."
Supporters said the bill was designed to prevent foreign terror
organizations from gaining a foothold in Russia and to stamp out extremism.
"Organizations are being created that preach religious intolerance,
nationalist organizations," Vladimir Pligin, a senior lawmaker and one of
the bill's authors, said in a radio interview. "The state must find a way to
react to that."
But more broadly, the measure reflects growing suspicions within the Russian
elite toward Western charities, who many here have linked to the popular
revolutions in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.
Nikolai Patrushev, head of the Federal Security Service, told the Russian
Parliament in May that foreign secret services were using NGOs as a front to
foment unrest in the former Soviet Union and "weaken Russian influence." In
July, President Putin said Russia wouldn't tolerate foreign funding of NGOs
involved in "political activities."
But the hard line could antagonize Western governments just as Russia
prepares to assume the presidency of the Group of Eight leading nations.
In their letter to Mr. Bush, Messrs. Edwards and Kemp said the draft law
raises "an almost unthinkable prospect -- that the president of Russia might
serve as chairman of the G-8 at the same time that laws come into force in
his country to choke off contacts with global society."
Observers say the bill, which has just been presented to Parliament, could
undergo substantial changes as it wends its way through the legislature and
might even be voted down. But many initiatives of the pro-Kremlin party,
United Russia, tend to sail through the largely rubber-stamp Parliament, and
this measure is backed by four other powerful factions.
"Having brought to heel the courts, the media, the regional elites and
Parliament, the Kremlin has now decided to sort out civil society," said
Oleg Orlov, head of Memorial, Russia's leading human-rights organization.
The bill would force all of Russia's 400,000 noncommercial associations to
reregister with the authorities within a year. Officials will be able to
refuse registration to any group linked to "extremist" activity or money
laundering, vastly expanding their discretionary powers. They will also have
broader powers to investigate NGOs' finances.
Meanwhile, foreign organizations would be required to reregister as
homegrown Russian public associations, rather than as representative offices
or branches -- a near-impossible task for many big international charities
and foundations. Also, foreign citizens would be barred from setting up
nonprofits inside Russia. -30-
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Write to Guy Chazan at guy.chazan@wsj.com
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23. MR. PUTIN'S COUNTERREVOLUTION
EDITORIAL: The Washington Post
Washington, D.C., Thursday, November 17, 2005; A30
UNABLE TO comprehend Ukraine's Orange Revolution, which began a year
ago when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Kiev to
reject a fraudulent presidential election, Russia's ruling coterie invented a
conspiracy theory. Western intelligence agencies, they reasoned, had poured
money into Ukrainian civil society groups that were then used as fronts to
organize the insurrection.
Only someone like President Vladimir Putin, an isolated former KGB agent
with little taste for democracy, could embrace such a preposterous idea. Yet
Mr. Putin's paranoia now is set to become the basis for a far-reaching
crackdown on civil society in Russia. President Bush, who is to meet Mr.
Putin tomorrow in South Korea, cannot ignore this assault on freedom.
Mr. Putin's initiative comes in the form of legislation abruptly introduced
last week in parliament, which he already converted into a rubber stamp. The
new law would require all 450,000 noncommercial associations in Russia to
re-register with the government; force groups that until now have operated
without registration to obtain one; and ban all organizations from using
foreign funding for "political activity."
Chapters of foreign organizations, such as Human Rights Watch or the
Carnegie Moscow Center, would be banned, as would foreign employees
of nongovernmental organizations. In effect, the measure would drive most
foreign NGOs out of Russia, make it impossible for foundations such as
the National Endowment for Democracy to operate and subject all Russian
civic groups to the whims of the secret police, who would be able to deny
registration to any they deemed suspicious.
Russian officials pretend that the purpose of the legislation is to stop
money laundering and other operations by terrorist organizations. But the
real motive was stated publicly last week by one of the sponsors of the
legislation, Alexei Ostrovsky, who told the newspaper Nezavismaya Gazeta
that it "should help the government crack down on politically active NGOs
that receive foreign funding and might use the money to promote an Orange
revolution." Mr. Ostrovsky linked the bill to a meeting Mr. Putin had with
human rights activists in July, in which the president declared that he
would not tolerate foreign funding of NGOs.
In reality, the new law is part of a broader campaign by Mr. Putin to ensure
that the corrupt autocracy he has created survives the next round of Russian
elections for parliament and president in 2007 and 2008. Candidates who
might challenge the regime, such as former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov,
are being threatened with criminal prosecution.
Now Mr. Putin plans to crush any possibility that Russians would respond
to a rigged vote with their own democratic uprising, by eliminating any and
all civic organizations deemed potentially unfriendly, including all those
sponsored by the West. Russian experts say the law could be completed
by Jan. 1, the day Mr. Putin's government is due to take over the
chairmanship of the Group of Eight industrial nations.
Mr. Bush can look forward to toasting the unprecedented accession of a
Russian president to leadership of what was once an exclusive club for
democracies, even as Mr. Putin tears up the charters of the U.S.
foundations, think tanks and human rights groups operating in Moscow.
Is Mr. Bush really prepared to accept such a leader? -30-
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