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Action Ukraine Report

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

"UKRAINE REPORT" Year 2004, Number 22
U.S.-UKRAINE FOUNDATION (USUF)
www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service (ARTUIS)
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net
Kyiv, Ukraine and Washington, D.C., MONDAY, February 9, 2004

INDEX OF ARTICLES

1. "HAVE UKRAINIAN TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS
LEAKED TO AL-QA'IDAH?"
Al-Hayat, London, UK in Arabic 8 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Feb 08, 2004

2. NIGHTMARE OF ORDINARY UKRAINIANS OR
CASE STUDY IN PETTY CORRUPTION
COMMENTARY: By Volodymyr Hrytsutenko, Lviv, Ukraine
Published by the "UKRAINE REPORT" 2004, Number 22
Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, February 9, 2004, Article Two

3. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT KUCHMA ADDRESSES FOREIGN
DIPLOMATS ON CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM
Ukrayinska Pravda web site, Kiev, in Ukrainian 6 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Feb 06, 2004

4. CHANGES IN UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENTARY
FACTIONS FROM 28 NOV 03 to 6 FEB 04
UNIAN and INTERFAX-UKRAINE
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Feb 06, 2004

5. FOLK ART AND CULTURE TOUR OF UKRAINE 2004:
"RETURN TO THE SOURCE"
By E. Morgan Williams, Publisher and Editor
www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service (ARTUIS)
Kyiv, Ukraine and Washington, D.C., February 9, 2004

6. UKRAINE SURPRISED AT AIDS AID SUSPENSION
By Oksana Omelchenko, Den, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian 5 Feb 04, p 1
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Feb 07, 2004

7. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT PLANS TO SET UP PRIVATE
RESEARCH INSTITUTE WHEN HE RETIRES
ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in Russian, 4 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service,UK, in English, Feb 04, 2004

8. REPORTERS OUGHT TO BE REPORTING, NOT MAKING THE NEWS
Including Walter Duranty of the New York Times
OPINION by John V. Fleming,
The Daily Princetonian, Princeton University,
Princeton, New Jersey, Monday, February 2, 2004

9. SOVIET LEGACY LINGERS IN NEW RUSSIA
"The pressure the Ukrainians feel these days from Moscow is very real"
By David R. Sands, The Washington Times
Washington, D.C., Sunday, February 8, 2004

10. UKRAINIAN OPPOSITION LEADER VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO
LOSING BATTLE OVER POLITICAL REFORM
"Is This 24 December, Take Two? by Leonid Amchuk
Ukrayinska Pravda web site, Kiev, in Ukrainian 4 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Feb 06, 2004
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 22: ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
=========================================================
1. "HAVE UKRAINIAN TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS
LEAKED TO AL-QA'IDAH?

Al-Hayat, London, UK in Arabic 8 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Feb 08, 2004

Sources close to the Al-Qa'idah organization revealed yesterday that Usamah
Bin-Ladin's organization acquired tactical nuclear weapons from Ukraine
after Ukrainian scientists visited Kandahar (south of Afghanistan), the
stronghold of the Taleban movement, in 1998 and met senior Al-Qa'idah
leaders.

The sources added that the visit resulted in a deal by which the
organization bought suitcases containing these weapons, which were then
placed in "safe places".

Several reports had talked about the disappearance of more than 70 nuclear
warheads after the former Soviet Union's collapse.

The same sources asserted that the organization "will not use these weapons
in any confrontation with the US forces except in two cases: The first
inside the United States because it knows the extent of the massive damages
that their use in any Arab or Muslim country might cause and the second in
case the organization suffers a crushing blow that leaves it no room for
manoeuvre or survival, such as the use of the nuclear or chemical weapon
against the organization's fighters."

Identical US and Pakistani sources meanwhile asserted yesterday that the two
countries are working strenuously to prevent nuclear technology from
reaching Al-Qa'idah. While observers of this file rule out Al-Qa'idah as one
of the beneficiaries from the leakage of Pakistan's nuclear technology whose
details were revealed recently, they do not however rule out the possibility
of nuclear leakage in view of the difficult economic conditions in the
nuclear central Asian countries. (END) (ARTUIS)
========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 22: ARTICLE NUMBER TWO
Daily News Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/newsgallery.htm
========================================================
2. NIGHTMARE OF ORDINARY UKRAINIANS OR
CASE STUDY IN PETTY CORRUPTION

COMMENTARY: By Volodymyr Hrytsutenko, Lviv, Ukraine
Published by the "UKRAINE REPORT" 2004, Number 22
Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, February 9, 2004

The fact that Ukraine's national soccer team takes 61st place down the UEFA
football association's world ratings list has had no traceable impact on the
lives of its residents. The fact that, according to Transparency
International, Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world
backlashes every day at millions of its nationals.

It seems logical to assume that petty corruption is a by-product of grand
corruption, and that the saying 'a fish becomes to rot at its head' properly
describes its genesis. Even in poverty-ridden Ukraine, where the temptation
to make money easily is so enticing to underpaid and impoverished
Ukrainians, many an official would definitely keep his greed in check if he
knew that his superiors are honest and dedicated civil servants.

Unsurprisingly, knowing about so many millions of bucks that former premier
Pavlo Lazarenko walked away with or seeing posh homes of officials that pale
their wildest dreams, official small-fry hurry to make up for lost time,
squeezing Ukrainians dry of their meagre salaries and savings.

Similar to the rust that immobilizes a machine, widespread petty corruption
has taken a mortal grip on the lives of salary-supported employees, students
and pensioners. Given the downtrodden and servile nature of Ukrainians who
would rather take it down than protest any wrongdoing, many of the victims
of corruption would sooner indulge, in an effort to survive, in the same
corrupt practices than decry deliberately criminal running of the country by
the incumbent regime.

BREEDING GROUNDS OF PETTY CORRUPTION

Petty corruption accompanies Ukrainians along the whole span of their lives,
and its main areas are public housing and utility maintenance companies
[zhecks], hospitals, education, law enforcement, courts, registration
offices, inspections and, finally, cemeteries.

ZHEKS: All those working in public housing maintenance and utility
companies, managers, technicians, propyska (residence) registrars, plumbers,
electricians, etc. thrive on corruption. Sometimes extortion of bribes
borders on blackmail - pay if you want a leaking roof or pipe fixed. Many
senior Ukrainians were driven to take tranquilizer drugs after visits to
zheks. A way-out can be suing zheks in court, but only the bravest will risk
a multi-month and nerve-racking litigation.

HOSPITALS: You have better pay your way in community hospitals, unless you
want to be met with open neglect. In case of a surgery, money changes hands
typically after an operation. Only the most corrupt doctors charge their
patients before. But the emergence of private clinics and commercial wards
in state-subsidized hospitals, where doctors and nurses are better paid,
gradually curbs this kind of malfeasance.

In this context, preserving the existing free but low-funded health care
system generates more corruption and is a clear disservice to the populace.
The government has to chose between the alternative of having stinking and
disgracefully rundown communal hospitals or budgeting more money to treat
the poorest.

EDUCATION: Here, petty corruption takes various forms, with bribes for
giving higher grades at entrance exams enabling applicants to enroll in
universities predominating. Such bribes are typically given to high-ranking
university officials prior to exams. In the course of studies, many
undedicated students, instead of hitting the books, can pay their way
through the university by oiling the palms of their professors. Only rarely
are there honest and non-corrupt academics that can give lazy students a
really rough ride.

Interestingly, students are pretty fair in their anonymous assessments of
professors, giving the demanding ones, not the corrupt, the highest ratings.
Another form of petty corruption is exorbitant fees charged by members of
examination boards for tutoring would-be applicants. It is a thriving
business, with fees ranging from $10 to $30 per lesson, depending on tutor's
position on the examination board and access to exam test papers.

However, with the spread of commercial universities, this kind of corruption
is giving way to a more transparent, although definitely discriminatory as
regards poorer Ukrainians, way of getting education. To level the chances
for the young, the government must implement a system of free-interest
credits accessible to all, possibly, writing them off to grade A students
after graduation.

Numerous registration bodies and gas, electricity, water, fire, sanitary,
tax, land, forest inspections, provide a fertile grazing ground for corrupt
officials. One of the shenanigans used by officials is to create their own
procedures (that in many cases run counter to the law!) - with the sole
purpose of piling up additional roadblocks for customers to extort money.

It took me three weeks of endless waiting lines in tax administration
offices to register as a one-man business. It took me six weeks to cancel my
registration. I even had to visit a police unit that keeps registrar of
company seals and stamps for a clearance, although it was written in black
and white in my patent that I am not a legal entity and cannot bear a stamp
or seal.

ROAD POLICE: Road police are among the champions of corruption, probably,
because their victims are more or less well-heeled Ukrainians and the
deserted road, unlike the crowded office, is a safer place for extorting or
passing a bribe, with rates of pay-offs depending on a car's make and price
as well as gravity of the offense. This is a story I would not have
believed, had it not been told me by my neighbor, a serious businessman, who
is not given to kidding.

He got into a car accident driving his brand-new $18,000 Opel in the
countryside. He was sure he had the right-of-way, but when two days later he
went to the place of the accident with his lawyer, he found the traffic
signs and road markings changed! Needless to say that this swindle must have
required a huge bribe - to make the road police look the other way.

CEMETERY: A 50-dollar payola will buy a better burial place for bereaved
families at the cemetery. A $10 one will speed things up (digging a grave in
winter may take from several hours to several days plus a lot of
nerve-racking - if the bribe has not been paid ). Burials at elite
cemeteries cost a fortune and involve paying-off high-ranking city council
officials.

GENE OF CORRUPTION

A way of life for Ukrainians, corruption has worked its way into our genetic
system. A medical professor, to whom I sold my garage, came to negotiate a
sale, bringing along a bottle of cognac and a box of chocolates, a briber's
kit, with champagne as a variation for women. When I tried to skip the
bribe, he accused me, believe it or not, of defying international etiquette!

My life-long buddy from high-school days, another medical professor of
international renown, for whom I sometimes translate brief letters never
comes to me without the proverbial kit. The procedure of giving, or, to be
more precise, forcing the kit upon me typically takes place in the hall
before he leaves. Many years I put up resistance but my buddy is so pushing
that I am afraid our relationship will be spoiled if I do not accept his
"friendly" gifts. Incidentally, when I go to him for his advice, I never
bring the kit - and he does not mind!

Once I learned about a high-profile corruption case in the United States
when a sheriff was charged (and eventually dismissed from the force) for
replacing the new wheels of an impounded automobile for his son's old
ones.

I bet, many a policeman in Ukraine would laugh after hearing about such a
"trifle" violation of the law. Many here get away with much more flagrant
crimes - because their seniors in government offices escape the rap easily,
even in the face of expository articles in the media.

Corrupt officials readily resort to lies to mislead customers, trying to
confuse things for them in order to extort a larger bribe. When I went to a
local zhek to register my wife and myself at our new address, the official
told me they could not and would not do it as the condo I moved to had not
been registered with a local zhek. Unruffled, I took a sheet of paper, wrote
an application for registration and gave it to the official, asking him to
put down precisely why he couldn't register me, saying I would go to
superior offices. You should have seen his reaction - he refused to put what
he just said in writing and sign. A week later he called to ask me angrily
why I had been taking time with registration.

When I once came to the army registration office, vijskkomat, to get a
transcript of my service file to upscale my pension 25 minutes before
closing time, a disgruntled official told me she had to leave as she had
been summoned by her chief. Later on I saw her put on her coat and leave the
office. Had I paid a 5-hryvnia bribe, she would have been all honey and
smiles, and I would have had the document in my pocket.

Ukrainians have become so much corrupt that bribe-extortion is no longer
perceived as a crime against society. Moreover, many are led to believe by
the regime that it is the only possible way of life. Result: company of
corrupt states down on the Transparency International list.

WAYS-OUT

There is no denying that even the most advanced democracies are susceptible
to corruption, as the lure to make quick money easily finds its culprits
among the weak. Still, the maxim that every man has his price has been
successfully challenged by numerous representatives in democratic and far
from democratic societies.

Like the virus always ready to attack the weak, corruption must be tackled
with reliable cleansing procedures. International practice has worked out
such cleansing kit, with transparency of official procedures, accountability
of officials and decent pay at the backdrop of political will of the
country's rulers, strong civil society, independent judiciary and free press
being the cornerstones of all successful campaigns to fight malfeasance of
government officials.

Unfortunately, Ukraine has a long way to go - at least to qualify for a
state where something is done to curb corruption. Our hypocritical regime,
on the one hand, engages in anti-corruption rhetoric and launches
innumerable anti-corruption committees and campaigns, while doing
everything to preserve the good old murky waters, with the other.

There are many in the present leadership structure in Ukraine who are
trying to corrupt the population to the extreme in an effort to make us
believe that there is no option but to go corrupt and run with the pack. As
law enforcement has become a feeding trough for corrupt officials, small
wonder enrollments in police academies beat once-prestigious applied
sciences or humanities.

The result of such a purposefully malicious practice of running the country
is too obvious - more dishonest and servile Ukrainians, who fear the
authorities, hate anyone richer than themselves and perceive life as the
process of wresting money from their compatriots by ignoble means.

Some leaders in the present administration axed the proposal to raise
ministerial salaries from their alleged mind-blowing monthly average
of UAH380 ($71), a gesture which, in fact, qualifies for nothing but a mere
crowd pleaser: no one, let alone a minister, can live decently on a meager
$70 salary, unless one has alternative revenue. Instead of paying
lip-service to the needs of the have-nots, leaders could do better by
switching to effective ways of running the country to raise meager salaries
and pensions of grassroots Ukrainians. Has anyone ever counted how much
of the public money has been spent on posh limos, offices, dachas, foreign
trips of Ukrainian officials?

The virus of corruption whose existence has been admitted for the umpteenth
time by the country's chief executive when he launched yet another
anti-corruption campaign on Jan. 29, is no longer just a virus. The virus
has led to a full-sized cancer tumor which requires radical (revolutionary)
surgery. It would be stupid to assume that most of those in the present
leadership can do the job: does a dragon kill itself?

There is possibly a more plausible reason behind the administrations new
anti-corruption campaign. Using the pretext of a crusade against malfeasance
and organized crime, they wants to unleash armies of pocket tax inspectors
and police headed this time by the security service on the opposition
politicians and businessmen and journalists who support them.

The first ominous signs of the master plan are already here - snubbing
PACE protests about the unlawful approval of dubious constitutional changes
opening the way for a third term, the proposed censorship of the Internet
and the closure on the opposition Silski Visti newspaper, to name a few.

Beating their breasts at international forums, Ukrainian leaders boast about
the country's exemplary anti-corruption laws, naively suggesting that no one
will ever ask why they do not work. (END) (ARTUIS)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDITOR'S NOTE: Volodymyr Hrytsutenko was born and educated
in Lviv, Ukraine. He obtained a masters degree in English from Lviv
State University in 1969. He has served as a professor, lecturer,
professional translator and interpreter. >From 1989-1995 he was chairman
and professor of the department of foreign languages at the Ukrainian
Academy of Printing. In 1995 he was a lecturer in area studies at Kansas
University in Lawrence, Kansas, USA. He has served as a
translator/interpreter for various Ukrainians news services. He is married
and lives in Lviv, Ukraine.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDITOR'S NOTE: To read an article about President Kuchma's recent
major presentation regarding his new anti-corruption campaign click on:
http://www.artukraine.com/buildukraine/kuchma_crack.htm.
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 22: ARTICLE NUMBER THREE
Travel and Tourism Gallery: http://www.ArtUkraine.com/tourgallery.htm
=========================================================
3. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT KUCHMA ADDRESSES FOREIGN
DIPLOMATS ON CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM

Ukrayinska Pravda web site, Kiev, in Ukrainian 6 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Feb 06, 2004

Constitutional reform is overdue in Ukraine and has nothing to do with the
coming presidential election, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has said in
an address to foreign diplomats in Kiev. The reform was initiated a few
years ago, so there is no reason to believe that it is an attempt to change
the rules ahead of the presidential election in autumn 2004, Kuchma said.

European institutions should not hastily take the side of the opposition in
a row which the reform sparked in parliament, but also consider the opinion
of the pro-presidential parliamentary majority, Kuchma said. He promised a
fair and transparent presidential campaign and invited European observers to
monitor it. Kuchma also reiterated Ukraine's adherence to joining the WTO
and developing ties with Russia and the USA.

The following is an excerpt from Kuchma's address published by the Ukrainian
web site Ukrayinska Pravda on 6 February, sub-headings have been inserted
editorially:

Esteemed doyen! Esteemed heads of diplomatic missions! Ladies and gentlemen.
[Passage omitted: more pleasantries.]

As you know, Ukraine is posting high economic growth. Our achievements
have enabled us to solve a range of domestic issues and take greater
responsibility for peace and stability in the world.

Ukraine has significantly increased its contribution to UN peacekeeping
operations. Ukraine ranks first among European states in terms of the number
of peacekeeping personnel.

Without hesitation, we sent our peacekeeping contingent to ensure peace and
stability in Iraq. I want to stress it: Ukraine would not be able to help
the Iraqis to re-establish their state and social institutions if we fail to
learn to maintain stability in our own home.

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM OVERDUE

In this context, I would like to discuss in detail a complex issue, which,
it seems, the more it is discussed the less it is understood. Even unclear
terms have been made up for this purpose.

Descartes said: Define words properly, and you will rid the world of half a
misunderstanding. I have in mind the issue of political reform.

To begin with, I would like to make it clear: beyond all doubt, the current
political system ensures relative stability in the state in general and in
relations between various branches of power.

The coalition cabinet has for the second year running now been working with
support from a majority in parliament. Even changes in the cabinet are made
on an exclusive coalition basis.

But this is the result of an ad hoc and current agreement which depends only
on the political will of parliamentarians. Parliament's responsibility for
the formation of the cabinet should be clearly fixed by constitutional
means.

With full responsibility, I talked about the need to amend the constitution
right after the presidential election in 1999. This is the reason why the
nationwide referendum was initiated in 2000, whose main outcome should
have been the formation of a coalition cabinet and the president's right to
disband parliament.

Virtually all major parties and blocs took up the slogans of political
reform during the parliamentary campaign two years ago.

Finally, the current stage of the reform began not last December but in
August 2002, or over two years before the presidential election.

So this overdue issue has nothing to do with the coming election.
Parliament's latest move to adopt an appropriate draft bill became an
important, but by no means the first brick laid into the foundation of
constitutional reform.

We can just express regret over the fact that we failed to communicate the
real essence of the planned amendments to the Ukrainian constitution to such
a respected international institution as the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe [PACE]. Meanwhile, PACE rapporteurs did not have
enough time to study this issue thoroughly.

No doubt, the level of democracy in a state is measured by, among others,
the role and place of the opposition in society. So any international
organization, which follows democratic processes, carefully considers the
opinion of the opposition.

But there should be objectivity. One should take into account the opinion of
those who represent the majority and take heed of proposals expressed
during the nationwide discussion of political reform, not to mention the
purely practical aspect of the matter. Almost all issues raised by the PACE
resolution [on the crisis in Ukraine] are not directly related to either
Ukraine's undertakings under the Council of Europe's charter, or its
individual undertakings which our state assumed when joining this
organization.

As regards the problem of a consensus during the implementation of the
political reform, let me say one thing.

If my understanding of representative democracy is correct, decisions should
not necessarily be made by complete consensus. It is a usual requirement
that decisions are passed by a majority of votes. Otherwise we shall have a
medieval Polish parliament in which any member could say I do not allow
this! to block the decision needed by the whole state. Some are offering
this to us.

It is a great pity that the one-sided support from the PACE, in fact, forced
encouraged a part of the opposition to take an intransigent stance and
hastily added fuel to the fire. I want to stress: objectively, there is no
alternative to constitutional reform in Ukraine. It will be brought to a
logical conclusion. This reform takes account of the experience of modern
democracy, which was confirmed by the Venice Commission.

It gave an overall positive assessment of amendments to the constitution, at
the same time expressing a few reservations. These reservations, which are
of not strategic importance, were partially taken into account in the final
variant which the Supreme Council [parliament] supported on 3 February. It
is exclusively up to parliament as to how the reform will be completed.

You know that after I recalled my own draft law from the Constitutional
Court, I refrained from taking part in the discussion of reform in the
Supreme Council. My participation was restricted to a consultation on the
eve of the new session [of parliament].

So I am still convinced that if, as a result of the reform, parliament and
the cabinet which is formed by a coalition of parties receive additional
powers and thus assume greater responsibility, the national political system
will fully comply with European standards.

FREE ELECTION GUARANTEED

The political maturity of Ukrainian society and of the Ukrainian political
elite should be put to the test at the presidential election which will take
place in the autumn of 2004.

During the Ukraine-EU summit in Yalta I personally invited EU observers to
monitor the election and the campaign. I expect observers from the Council
of Europe, the OSCE, the CIS and other international organizations to join
them. Of course, the nature of the campaign will depend, first and foremost,
on the political culture of contenders, but institutions of power will do
everything they can. This regards ensuring equal opportunities for all
candidates, transparency of the electoral process and vote counting.

Let me conclude: there are a lot of objective facts which vividly illustrate
the stable development of Ukrainian society in all areas. My sole wish is to
ensure that support for Ukraine abroad, which is, to a great extent,
influenced by yourselves, could be as objective as possible and rest only on
irrefutable facts. Diplomats and businessman respect the language of facts.
But in this critical election year, adherence to the principle of
impartiality is extremely important. The great Goethe wrote: a mistake is
much easier to find than the truth. The mistake is on the surface, it can be
noticed at once, while the truth lies in the deep and it is not up to
everyone to find it.

FOREIGN POLITICAL PRIORITIES

Dear friends!

Now I would like to talk in brief about our foreign political objectives,
which Ukraine plans to attain this year. From the standpoint of state
interests, the completion of talks on Ukraine's accession to the World
Trade Organization is our No 1 priority.

In the area of European integration, priority attention in the domestic
realm will be paid to bringing all aspects of public life - especially
national laws - into line with European standards. In this dimension, our
objective is to develop an action plan with the European Union.

We are filled with determination to maintain the current high level of
cooperation with our central and eastern European neighbours in the context
of new realities of their accession into the EU.

Our relations with the Russian Federation are filled with events. The Year
of Russia in Ukraine finished successfully. Significant progress has been
made in the trade and economic areas. I hope that our cooperation will
continue developing consistently and steadily without any unexpected
developments in the directions which we, along with President Putin,
outlined during our meeting in Kiev.

I am also confident that this year we will develop specific areas of
cooperation within the Single Economic Space of Ukraine, Russia, Belarus
and Kazakhstan.

Ukraine will continue to pay priority attention to the implementation of the
action plan [of cooperation] with NATO.

Last year was a turning point in Ukraine's relations with the United States
of America. A range of problems were resolved. Real prerequisites exist to
give our relations even greater positive dynamics this year.

We will continue an intensive political dialogue with all other neighbours.
Ukraine will continue the diversification of its political, trade and
economic ties.

More attention will be paid to boosting trade with the Middle East, the
Asia-Pacific region, in particular China, Southeastern Asia, with a range of
Latin American states, especially with Brazil.

This year, Ukraine marks the 10th anniversary since it voluntarily gave up
the world's third largest nuclear arsenal. It is difficult to comprehend the
importance of this historical decision for security on the European
continent and in the whole world. Unfortunately, a number of unresolved
domestic issues remains despite the fact that the international community
undertook to help Ukraine solve them.

>From the UN rostrum and at other authoritative international forums, Ukraine
will continue to support efforts by the international community to prevent
the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. [Passage omitted: closing
pleasantries.] (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 22: ARTICLE NUMBER FOUR
Build Ukraine Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/buildukraine/index.htm
=========================================================
4. CHANGES IN UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENTARY
FACTIONS FROM 28 NOV 03 to 6 FEB 04

UNIAN and INTERFAX-UKRAINE
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Feb 06, 2004

KYIV..........The composition of the Ukrainian parliament did not change
much in the period from 28 November 2003 to 6 February 2004. Four
unaffiliated MPs joined propresidential factions, two quit opposition
factions, one asked his membership in an opposition faction to be suspended
and one joined an opposition faction.

On 12 December, unaffiliated MP Kyrylo Polishchuk joined the progovernment
Regions of Ukraine faction, the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN said.

The centre-right opposition Our Ukraine faction lost two members, while one
MP asked for his membership in the faction to be suspended. On 23 December
2003, MP Serhiy Ratushnyak left Our Ukraine to join Regions of Ukraine,
UNIAN reported.

Another MP, Yuriy Artemenko, quit Our Ukraine on 5 February, UNIAN said
in a separate report.

On the same day, 5 February, Kiev mayor's son and MP Oleksandr Omelchenko
asked for his membership in Our Ukraine to be suspended, UNIAN reported. The
agency quoted him as saying that he did this in protest after banker and MP
Leonid Chernovetskyy was admitted to the faction. Chernovetskyy's "moral and
personal qualities contradict my world-view", Omelchenko said, according to
UNIAN.

Earlier, Chernovetskyy criticized the performance of Kiev Mayor Oleksandr
Omelchenko. Chernovetskyy also demanded Omelchenko's resignation from the
post of head of the Kiev city state administration, as Omelchenko reached
the age of 65, which is the mandatory retirement age for state officials -
see Radio Kontynent, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1105 gmt 6 Feb 04.

Leonid Chernovetskyy joined Our Ukraine on 3 February, the Interfax-Ukraine
agency said. Chernovetskyy, then an unaffiliated MP, decided to join the
opposition faction after a fist-fight with major businessman and influential
MP Hryhoriy Surkis, who is a senior member of the propresidential United
Social Democratic Party.

On the same day, two other unaffiliated MPs, Volodymyr Satsyuk and Hryhoriy
Kaletnik, joined the United Social Democratic Party's faction,
Interfax-Ukraine said in the report. Following this, the propresidential
People's Democratic Party, of which Kaletnik is a member and which has its
own faction in parliament, threatened to expel the MP from its ranks,
Interfax-Ukraine said in a separate report.

On 6 February, unaffiliated MP Oleksandr Karpov joined the propresidential
Democratic Initiatives group, according to UNIAN.

In addition, on 24 December unaffiliated deputy parliamentary speaker
Oleksandr Zinchenko quit the propresidential majority, according to an
Interfax-Ukraine report. The move by Zinchenko followed the majority's
participation in a controversial vote by a show of hands. The vote gave
initial approval to the proposals that the constitution be amended so that
the president could be elected by MPs rather than the people.

As of 6 February, the composition of the Ukrainian parliament was as
follows, according to parliament's official web site:

Our Ukraine - 101, Regions of Ukraine - 67, Communist Party - 59,
Working Ukraine and Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs - 42,
United Social Democratic Party - 38, People's Power - 22,
Socialist Party - 20, Democratic Initiatives - 19,
Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc - 19, Agrarian Party - 16,
People's Democratic Party - 14, People's Choice - 14,
Unaffiliated deputies - 18
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 22: ARTICLE NUMBER FIVE
Ukrainian Culture Gallery: http://www.ArtUkraine.com/cultgallery.htm
=========================================================
5. FOLK ART AND CULTURE TOUR OF UKRAINE 2004:
"RETURN TO THE SOURCE"

By E. Morgan Williams, Publisher and Editor
www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service (ARTUIS)
Kyiv, Ukraine and Washington, D.C., February 9, 2004

Washington, D.C. ...The ninth annual Folk Art and Culture Tour
of Ukraine, "RETURN TO THE SOURCE" will be held August
2-17, 2004. The tour will be hosted, as usual, by the internationally
known Ukrainian-Canadian folk art specialist Orysia Tracz.

The tour will visit and explore Kyiv, Kaniv, Ternopil, Borshchiv,
Khotyn, Kam'ianets'-Podils'kyi, Ivano-Frankivske, Kolomyia, the
Carpathian Mountains (Kosiv, Yaremche, others), and will include
visits to local folk artists and special sites and to Lviv.

Visits to ancestral villages can be arranged. There will be great shopping,
culture, folk art, museums, food, Ukrainian hospitality, and serendipity.
You don't have to have Ukrainian heritage to come along. This tour is
open to all and is highly recommended by the www.ArtUkraine.com
Information Service. This is an exciting and fun experience you will
never forget.

The number of participants is limited. For questions regarding the 2004
tour contact Orysia Tracz at dorohy@hotmail.com.

For an article about the Folk Art and Culture Tour, please click on:
http://pages.prodigy.net/l.hodges/Orysia.htm

For travel information contact Irene Zadravec, Thomas Cook - Regent
Travel, 11 - 850 Keewatin, Winnipeg, MB R2R 0Z5, Canada,
204-988-5100, fax 204-988-5109, Attention: Irene.
kgoorachurn@thomascook.ca. (END) (ARTUIS)
======================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2005, No. 22: ARTICLE NUMBER SIX
Genocide Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/famineart/index.htm
=======================================================
6. UKRAINE SURPRISED AT AIDS AID SUSPENSION

By Oksana Omelchenko, Den, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian 5 Feb 04, p 1
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Feb 07, 2004

The Ukrainian newspaper Den has expressed surprise at the decision by the
UN Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to suspend aid to
Ukraine amid the growing spread of AIDS/HIV in that country. The aid
withdrawal was apparently meant as a "lesson" for the Ukrainian Health
Ministry, which has differences with the fund over purchases of medicines
for antiviral therapy.

However, the daily quoted an anonymous source "close to the Cabinet of
Ministers" as saying that the government could decide to return the already
received grants to the UN agency and finance anti-AIDS programmes from its
own contingency fund.

The following is the text of an article by Oksana Omelchenko, entitled "An
odd decision" and published in the Ukrainian newspaper Den on 5 February;
subheadings inserted editorially:

For several days now Ukraine has been under the spotlight of the medical
world. Probably no-one expected such a sharp "change in temperature" in
relations with the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria (you
will recall that it endorsed Ukraine's request for 92m dollars for a
five-year period to implement its project "Overcoming the HIV/AIDS epidemic
in Ukraine"). Nevertheless, the fund decided to suspend this aid and
reported this exactly a year after the signing in Geneva of the first
agreements on the grant with the Health Ministry.

At that time, the Ukrainian side, through Minister Andriy Pidayev, said that
"it would stick to a policy of close partnership in response to the
development of the epidemic". Moreover, it was very proud of the fact that
it had been granted the honour of being a member of the fund's board.

At the end of January, representatives of the organization's secretariat
arrived in Ukraine to explain that they had "knocked together" 7.5m dollars,
which they had already managed to transfer. The official brief was rather a
sharp one: the objectives it had set would scarcely be achievable if the
programme continued to be carried out through the main recipients who had
been endorsed earlier. The reason - out of the 7.5m dollars which were
transferred, only a little over 740,000 had been spent. And this, the fund
believes, shows that the country will not be able to show it had reached its
objective by April 2005.

On the other hand, the same official statement points out that Ukraine does
still have some chances. "We understand that your countries needs money,"
the director of the fund, Richard Feachem, said, "and therefore it is all a
matter of taking measures to put the programme on the right track". In
addition, he stressed in an interview for the BBC that the suspension of
finance would be a kind of lesson; in future it would put the money to more
effective use.

HEALTH MINISTRY "TAUGHT A LESSON"

Clearly, the lesson was meant for the Health Ministry. Given the fact that
the recipients of the money in Ukraine were the UNDP and the Ukrainian Fund
to Fight HIV Infections, the demands fell upon the main medical department.
Apparently, the process of taking this decision was an extremely
bureaucratic one, but the Global Fund is a financial institution which wants
its funds to be used effectively and to get results.

So far there has been no official comment on this. A Den correspondent was
told that it has its own point of view on the situation. During a meeting
between Deputy Prime Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk and representatives of the
donor organization, the latter stressed that they had no claims against the
country's coordination mechanism. Then suddenly, a few days later, they sent
an official no. One version as to why the "direction of the wind" changed so
sharply was that the two sides "could not get together" over the question of
purchasing preparations for antiviral therapy.

This question, incidentally, is of little importance, or rather quite
costly - some 67 per cent of the funds would be needed to purchase these
substances. The Ukrainian side put out a tender, according to procedures
established earlier by the fund, and informed the donor of the results.
However, the donor said nothing for 80 days. Having failed to get its
consent, the Health Ministry could not take any further steps. Earlier, the
Global Fund had urged that the substances should only be purchased from
UNICEF, but, according to the ministry, this would have set them back
another 1.5m dollars.

UKRAINE MAY OPT FOR SELF-RELIANCE

The main question to arise from all this is how will it affect the HIV
situation in Ukraine. The Global Fund's money was vital. After all, a total
of 14m hryvnyas [2.63m dollars] has been allocated to fight the infection in
the 2004 state budget. True, there is a programme for the period 2004-08
which plans to allocate 202.1m hryvnyas [37.9m dollars].

But taking into account the fact that antiviral therapy alone will cost
approximately 1,000 dollars per person per annum, and it needs several
thousands, the allocated sums, to put it mildly, would seem to be
insufficient. The growth in the sickness rate typifies the situation in the
country even more clearly. Every year, according to official figures alone,
there are an extra 1,000 HIV-infected patients.

However, the Health Ministry can see a way out of the situation. They
maintain they will fulfil their obligations to those who require antiviral
therapy. There are enough medicines for this year, and then Ukraine plans to
produce its own antiviral preparations, which will enable it to reduce the
cost of the therapy threefold.

At this moment, as Den managed to learn from a source close to the cabinet,
a decision on the return of the allocated money to the fund is possible.
Most probably, it will come out of the government's epidemic fund - a "money
box", which is used in the event of emergency epidemics. Moreover, since
Ukraine has the support of the World Bank in the fight against HIV, and with
the situation as it is, the amount allocated in the budget for HIV/AIDS
problems, will probably be increased noticeably in the draft plan for 2005.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDITOR'S NOTE: We are very surprised the author of this story did not
know more about the real reasons the AIDS funds to Ukraine were suspended.
The story covers up most of the critical issues that were involved in the
decision. The real issues can be found in article one published in the
"UKRAINE REPORT" 2004, Number 18 on February 2, 2004.
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 22: ARTICLE NUMBER SEVEN
Historical Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/histgallery.htm
=========================================================
7. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT PLANS TO SET UP PRIVATE
RESEARCH INSTITUTE WHEN HE RETIRES

ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in Russian, 4 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service,UK, in English, Feb 04, 2004

Kiev, 4 February: After serving his term, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma
is going to set up a private research institute for strategic evaluation.
The head of state spoke today at a "round-table" discussion called "The
economy of Ukraine in 2000-03: the establishment of an investment model of
economic growth". "I just cannot loaf around," he said.

The president's press service said that the new institute would be involved
"in the basic scientific generalization of the Ukrainian economic policy
model".

Kuchma is going to set up the institute together with Anatoliy Halchynskyy,
who is currently the director of the National Institute for Strategic
Research. Kuchma's presidential term will expire in October 2004. The
head of state said that he is not going to compete for the highest office in
the state, which he has been occupying for 10 years. (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 22: ARTICLE NUMBER EIGHT
Arts Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/artgallery.htm
=========================================================
8. REPORTERS OUGHT TO BE REPORTING, NOT MAKING THE NEWS
Including Walter Duranty of the New York Times

OPINION by John V. Fleming,
The Daily Princetonian, Princeton University,
Princeton, New Jersey, Monday, February 2, 2004

Newsmakers are again making the news, and the British Left is in a state
of consternation. They had hoped that the report of Lord Hutton, a British
judge who has been conducting an independent inquiry into certain aspects of
the run-up to the Iraqi invasion, would expose Tony Blair as a scoundrel.

But Lord Hutton seems to think that the scoundrels are in the BBC,
which first reported, falsely, that Blair's agent had "sexed up"
uncompelling intelligence concerning the threat of Saddam's "weapons of mass
destruction," and then indignantly and stubbornly defended the unfounded
claim that the government "probably knew" their intelligence was phony. The
chairman of BBC's board of governors did the decent thing and resigned.

Yet it seems a little odd that this should be the front-page story. It
turns out, actually, that there were no "weapons of mass destruction," but
what the hell, we got rid of Saddam Hussein. And there were plenty of -
well, some, a couple - "WMD program related activities." Don't laugh: that
may be enough to reelect George Bush. Surely the demonstrable incompetence
of the intelligence relied upon by Bush and Blair, taken together with their
judgment in relying upon it, should in itself be sufficiently alarming to
the press.

But there is a certain journalistic appetite, apparently independent of
ideological proclivity, that is unsatisfied with reporting mere foolishness,
however flagrant, and insists upon exposing knavery, however nonexistent.
In this instance the BBC - which unctuously denies a cultural and political
bias that most of the rest of us can spot a quarter mile off without field
glasses - has by becoming the news gotten in the way of the news.

In my view the news is not that George Bush with great cleverness
and political adroitness effected a war in Iraq. The news is that the war
came about with not much cleverness at all, though crucially enabled by
the political spinelessness of elected officials who alone have the
constitutional right to declare war.

Both the power of the press and the unscrupulous deployment of that
power are remarkable features of the modern world. Though in academic
mythology, the most villainous thought criminals are the "fascist" Hearst
and his modern heir Murdoch, journalistic malfeasance knows no party.

The NY Times calls the current flap about the BBC "one of the worst
journalistic debacles in the 78-year history of the network." But the Times
has just shamefacedly buried a far worse one of its own.

One of the Pulitzer Prizes awarded in the category of journalism in the
year 1932 went to Walter Duranty of the New York Times "for his series of
dispatches on Russia, especially the working out of the Five Year Plan."

Duranty was already among the best-known foreign correspondents in the
world, and the more or less acknowledged dean of the large group of European
and American journalists stationed in Moscow, at that time among the most
prestigious of foreign postings.

Though now largely forgotten, except by a small group of knowledgeable
people who for the most part despise his memory, he was a modest pioneer in
a mode of journalism increasingly fashionable: the newsman who hovers
between reporting and making the news. He may have been instrumental, and
was certainly at the least incidental, in persuading the Roosevelt
government to give formal recognition to the Soviet Union in 1933.

Lying is relatively easy, but it is easier yet for a reporter to be
dishonest by not saying something. In the years 1932 and 1933 the Soviet
government under Stalin's leadership murdered by intentional starvation
between a million and ten million of its citizens. The exact number cannot
be calculated, but it certainly rivals and possibly eclipses the Nazi
hecatomb. One would never have known that from reading the Times, since
their Pulitzer ace didn't think it news fit to print. Duranty summed up his
attitude toward the systematic "liquidation of the kulaks as a class" in an
aphorism: "You can't make an omelette without cracking eggs."

The omelette was the imaginary economic triumph of the Dictatorship of
the Proletariat. The eggs were the millions of very real peasants who
objected to being returned to serfdom by "socialism." Several of his more
courageous contemporaries did tell the truth about the famine, and even the
truth about Duranty. Since then several scholarly studies of the
"Holomodor," as the staged famine is known, have been published, as also the
excellent biography of Duranty entitled "Stalin's Apologist." But the Times
appears to have been roused to worry about a possible blot in its
journalistic 'scutcheon only as recently as last year, when they
commissioned a special investigator from the journalism faculty at Columbia
to look into all this.

Pulitzer Prizes are not like epaulettes; and it is apparently impossible
to strip ideological poltroons in the manner of disgraced military officers.
Mr. Duranty will keep his prize with him in the grave. But anyone who edits,
writes for or merely reads a newspaper should fully appreciate the
distinction between the news stories and the oped page. Such, at any rate,
is my opinion. (END) (ARTUIS)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
John V. Fleming is the Louis W. Fairchild '24 professor of English.
His column appears on Mondays.
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2004/02/02/opinion/9452.shtml
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 22: ARTICLE NUMBER NINE
Support Ukraine Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/uasupport/index.htm
=========================================================
9. SOVIET LEGACY LINGERS IN NEW RUSSIA
"The pressure the Ukrainians feel these days from Moscow is very real"

By David R. Sands, The Washington Times
Washington, D.C., Sunday, February 8, 2004

The Soviet Union may be dead, but it is not forgotten in Vladimir
Putin's Russia.

Clashes along Russia's vast borders and the December parliamentary
elections, in which strongly nationalist parties were among the big
winners, have raised new concerns that Russia under Mr. Putin has
embraced a sharp-elbowed new approach to the country's "near abroad."

>From Central Asia to the Caucasus to Ukraine and Belarus in Eastern
Europe, assertive military and economic moves by Russia in recent
months have drawn concern in the West.

"Great-power ideology is the absolutely dominant ideology in today's
Russia," political analyst Vitaly Tretyakov wrote in the Rossiiskaya
Gazeta after the State Duma elections in December.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell made U.S. concerns about recent
Russian policy moves explicit in a widely noted Jan. 26 opinion piece
in the Russian newspaper Izvestia, published as he began high-level
talks at the Kremlin.

"We recognize Russia's territorial integrity and its natural interest
in lands that abut it," Mr. Powell wrote. "But we recognize no less
the sovereign integrity of Russia's neighbors and their rights to
peaceful and respectful relations across their borders, as well."

The State Department and the Russian Foreign Ministry traded charges
of interference in the political crisis that ousted longtime Georgian
President Eduard Shevardnadze in November. The Kremlin vowed to
respect Georgia's sovereignty, but then invited leaders of three
Georgia separatist movements to Moscow for high-level talks, and
eased visa restrictions for residents of the breakaway regions.

Across the Black Sea, Ukraine and Russia exchanged harsh words in
October after Russian workmen were found building an unauthorized
causeway across the Kerch Strait linking the Black and Azov seas.
Kiev accused Moscow of a blatant territorial grab on the navigable
parts of the strategic passage, which belong to Ukraine.

"The pressure the Ukrainians feel these days from Moscow is very
real," said a senior State Department official in a recent background
briefing on developments in the former Soviet republic.

Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana said during a Washington
visit last week that Moscow increasingly sees its relations with
restive countries on its borders as a "zero-sum game" in competition
with the United States. In the past year, the Kremlin has used
festering insurgencies in countries such as Moldova, Georgia and
Azerbaijan as opportunities to exert its influence, Mr. Geoana said.

"It's a very recognizable, 19th-century game that is being played,"
he added.

In word and deed, Russian officials have shown an increasing penchant
to use the country's leverage - military, political, economic and
cultural - in pursuit of their interests in the countries formed in
the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Mr. Putin himself has been careful in his public comments on Russia's
foreign-policy assertiveness.

"We cannot apply this principle [of territorial integrity] to
ourselves and deny it to our neighbors," he said during a Dec. 18
telephone call-in show.

But he also has insisted that Russia will keep control of critical
oil and gas pipelines that run through former Soviet territories, and
his aides have much more openly asserted an expansive definition of
Russia's rights over its borders.

In a news briefing last fall, Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov, a close
ally of Mr. Putin's, said explicitly that Russia retains the right to
use military force on the territory of former Soviet republics,
collectively known as the Commonwealth of Independent States. The
defense minister said Russia intends to increase its military
presence in "the near abroad."

"The CIS is a very crucial sphere for our security," Mr. Ivanov said.

"Ten million of our compatriots live there, and we are supplying
energy to them at prices below international levels. We are not going
to renounce the right to use military power there in situations where
all other means have been exhausted," he said.

Mr. Putin's defenders argue that many of Russia's recent moves on its
borders have been defensive, a reaction to American moves along its
periphery.

The U.S.-led war on terrorism, the expansion of NATO, and the war in
Afghanistan have brought U.S. military forces right to Russia's
borders. The Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia will soon
join NATO, U.S. military advisers are in Georgia, and new U.S. bases
and supply depots have been established throughout Central Asia.

Mr. Ivanov, the defense minister, has pointedly warned that Moscow
only accepted the U.S. Central Asian outposts on the condition that
they be temporary and would be abandoned once the Afghan campaign
was over.

Mr. Powell, in a radio interview while in Moscow, denied any U.S.
plan to encircle Russia with American bases.

The Bush administration "may want to put some temporary facilities in
some of the countries that used to be part of the Warsaw Pact," he
said, but these would be "small places" to provide access to troubled
regions such as Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.

A dozen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia itself
retains Cold War-era military outposts in Georgia, Armenia,
Tajikistan, Moldova and Kazakhstan, a radar post in Azerbaijan and a
military missile- and rocket-launching pad in Kazakhstan. Russia has
also stalled on withdrawing troops stationed in Moldova and Georgia,
where Moscow stands accused of aiding pro-Russia separatist
movements.

A new air base, opened Oct. 23 in the Kyrgyzstan town of Kant, is the
first new overseas Russian outpost since the end of the Cold War.
Symbolically, the base is a short drive from a major new U.S.
military base at Manas.

Russia is also pushing to convert a temporary military deployment in
Tajikistan into another permanent base, according to Stephen Blank,
an instructor at the Strategic Studies Institute at the U.S. Army War
College, in a recent analysis.

"Since Russia is not fighting anyone in Central Asia and cannot spare
troops to defend this base's perimeter, it looks more like an attempt
to show the flag and counter the American presence," Mr. Blank noted.

The Kremlin also sees the presence of sizable Russian minorities in
its neighbors as a strategic asset.

In Moldova, Russian forces remain in the country, despite calls for
their withdrawal from both Mr. Powell and the pan-European
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The force in Moldova is widely seen as shielding a breakaway movement
in the former Soviet republic's Transdniester region, a Russian-
speaking enclave. Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin last month
again rejected a Russian-backed peace plan that would require a
referendum on making Russian an official language alongside Romanian
in a new federal government.

Russia under President Putin has also shown a willingness to use the
country's economic power as a way to keep border states in line.

Russian-owned power grids dominate the market in Georgia and other
CIS states, and Moscow has also used discounted energy and arms sales
as an inducement for a number of states on its periphery.

Mr. Putin was the driving force behind the creation of a new economic
bloc formed Sept. 19 with the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan and
Ukraine. The accord, signed in the Ukrainian port of Yalta, calls for
closer economic and trade integration leading to the creation of a
common currency.

The agreement created such controversy in Kiev that Ukrainian
President Leonid Kuchma was forced to include a reservation that any
progress on the economic union would not interfere with Ukraine's
efforts to integrate with the West.

The Duma elections in December, and Mr. Putin's expected overwhelming
victory in the presidential race next month, have increased concerns
that nationalism and power politics are the order of the day in
Russia.

United Russia, a party closely allied to Mr. Putin, won the largest
share in the new legislature, with 223 seats in the 450-member
chamber.

Two other parties - the Liberal Democrats under Vladimir Zhirinovsky
and the new Motherland Party - have a strong nationalist bent and did
surprisingly well. Motherland, which was formed just months before
the election, took 9 percent of the vote and 37 seats, not far behind
the second-place Communists.

Motherland Party leaders, including Dmitry Rogozin, former chairman
of the Duma's international-affairs committee, campaigned on the
slogan: "Russians Must Take Back Russia for Themselves."

Motherland lawmakers say they dream of restoring Russia's empire lost
in the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mr. Rogozin was one of the
loudest voices urging Mr. Putin to take a tough line in the boundary
dispute with Ukraine over the Kerch Strait.

Mr. Rogozin said Russia must act more forcefully to counter the U.S.
encroachment in Russia's traditional sphere of influence.

Writing in the Moscow daily Trud, he observed, "If I only could, I
would create similar problems for [the Americans] in Mexico and
Panama." (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 22: ARTICLE NUMBER TEN
Current Events Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/events/index.htm
=========================================================
10. UKRAINIAN OPPOSITION LEADER VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO
LOSING BATTLE OVER POLITICAL REFORM

"Is This 24 December, Take Two? by Leonid Amchuk
Ukrayinska Pravda web site, Kiev, in Ukrainian 4 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Feb 06, 2004

The leader of the opposition Our Ukraine bloc, Viktor Yushchenko, is losing
ground in his campaign against President Leonid Kuchma's political reform,
an opposition web site has said. Despite succeeding in its effort to keep
the existing system of electing the president by popular vote, the
Yushchenko-led opposition has lost a key ally in the Socialist Party, which
has joined Kuchma's supporters in parliament to endorse the rest of reform
provisions.

Yushchenko is reaping the consequences of his own mistakes in devising the
bloc's strategy, the report said. Instead of rejecting political reform,
Yushchenko should have spearheaded it after the opposition's
anti-presidential rallies had failed. The departure of the Socialists and
Communists from opposition ranks makes Our Ukraine vulnerable, the site
concluded.

The following is the text of the article by Leonid Amchuk, entitled "Is this
24 December, Take Two?" and published by the Ukrainian web site
Ukrayinska Pravda on 4 February; subheadings have been inserted editorially:

On Tuesday [3 February] the authorities again dealt the opposition a
well-aimed blow by hitting several targets concurrently. Moreover, they got
one more ally for political reform in the person of the Socialist Party of
Ukraine [SPU]. Bankova [Street, the presidential administration] knocked the
Socialists out of the opposition "troika" [centre-right opposition bloc Our
Ukraine, the SPU and the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc] like it had previously done
with the Communists. Besides, Tuesday's events illuminated an internal
conflict within the SPU itself.

[Our Ukraine leader Viktor] Yushchenko as the major contender for Kuchma's
current post made a mistake when he publicly reduced all his demands to one:
electing the president by popular vote. Naturally, an intense struggle
ensued in the past one month and a half, little time was left for thinking,
and information had to be communicated to people in a simplified form.
Certainly, he was provoked in the "Naholos" programme [on state TV] when
[pro-presidential political analyst Mykhaylo] Pohrebynskyy asked again if
that was all that troubled Yushchenko.

But when Kuchma gave the majority the go-ahead to drop a clause that
provided for the president to be elected in parliament, Yushchenko had
nothing with which to beat this trump card. His own statements drive him
into a corner. Yushchenko demanded a revote on the illegitimate show of
hands on 24 December. Formally, he was right. But it is impossible to
explain this to the public. Earlier everything seemed simple enough: the
people were being robbed of their right to elect the president. Now this
right has been given back, and nobody cares any more who raised how many
limbs.

Currently, an important and topical theme on "temnyky" [theme-lists or
guidelines for the media reportedly issued by the presidential
administration] is about Yushchenko being an enemy of political reform who
denies his own words. Kuchma has a favourite anecdote on this topic: when a
girl is being proposed to, her potential husband asks her to undress. When,
she does this after hesitation, he refuses to marry her because he does not
like - her eyes. The same is with Yushchenko: he retreats when his main
demand is met. Yushchenko explains this by the fact that the bill of 24
December [on constitutional amendments] passed by a show of hands has not
been revoted.

The problem is that it no longer matters: the parliament's blockade has been
lifted, and the presidential administration has got another ally. In effect,
Yushchenko is now reaping the consequences of his mistakes over the past
year and a half. They range from rejecting political reform when he should
have spearheaded it after the futile "Arise, Ukraine!" campaign [mass street
protests organized by the opposition in 2002] to appointing [Our Ukraine MP
Mykola] Katerynchuk, a less than strong constitutional lawyer, with the
responsibility of representing Our Ukraine's interests when he realized that
reform was inevitable.

Currently, Our Ukraine and the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc have one more argument
to the effect that the political reform is being carried out with formal
violations. A clause regarding the president's election by the Supreme
Council [parliament] contained in the Medvedchuk-Symonenko bill [introduced
by head of presidential administration and United Social Democratic Party
Viktor Medvedchuk and Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko] was revoked
at an emergency session called on 3 February; that is, "on the first Tuesday
of February" when, according to Article 83 of the Constitution, a regular
session was supposed to begin.

This gives grounds to speak that the constitution may have been violated.
But this does not make one feel any better. Certainly, Our Ukraine can
attempt to appeal against the voting on 3 February to the Constitutional
Court. However, then if the Constitutional Court rules it illegal, Article
103 on constitutional amendments will be brought back to the
Medvedchuk-Symonenko bill; that is, the provision about the president's
election in parliament will reappear. This is the very thing which Our
Ukraine, the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc and the SPU fought.

DIVISIONS BETWEEN OUR UKRAINE AND SOCIALISTS

After Tuesday, the troika has shown signs of cracking. Yet their main test,
voting on the constitutional amendments article by article, lies ahead. One
will not be forced to vote for this or that provision if one does not want
to, as a result the constitutional articles will come in conflict with one
another reducing the political reform to the absurd and creating hope that
it would fall away by itself.

However, Our Ukraine is now alienated from the SPU. One camp feels betrayed,
the other camp accuses it of inconsistency. On Tuesday morning Yushchenko
and [SPU leader Oleksandr] Moroz attended a meeting of opposition factions
as political partners. When the leader of Our Ukraine came to the
Socialists' meeting, they had already decided everything and were taking an
internal vote. Yushchenko's request to stop and listen to his arguments was
not heard. Our Ukraine has a reason to suspect it was not by accident that
Moroz was in Truskavets [a resort in Lviv Region] and not in parliament when
the troika was blocking political reform "to the bitter end".

This left him room for manoeuvre. Of course, those who do not accuse Moroz
are also correct. In his thinking the importance of amending the
constitution has long given way to the importance of Kuchma's resignation.

Yet Moroz cannot help realizing that by his actions he risks perpetuating
the power of those against whom he took to the streets in 2000, 2001, 2002
and 2003. But Moroz is certain he will be able to outwit Kuchma's loyalists.

Meanwhile, people within Our Ukraine say Moroz was outwitted by his
entourage in the SPU who had made him play according to Medvedchuk's rules.
As an example, they tell a story about an oil well in Poltava Region which
belonged to Socialist [MP Mykola] Rudkovskyy, then ended up in the hands of
[senior Our Ukraine MP Petro] Poroshenko and eventually returned to
Rudkovskyy with the assistance of [deputy head of the United Social
Democratic Party of Ukraine Nestor] Shufrych.

At the same time, other sources allege that the well has not been owned by
Rudkovskyy for over a year. Therefore, political reform has nothing to do
with this. Shufrych simply took from Poroshenko what Poroshenko failed to
return to Rudkovskyy. At the same time, unlike Our Ukraine's political
coordinator [Poroshenko], the deputy head of the United Social Democratic
Party of Ukraine has squared up with the Socialist. These and other "worms"
have been eating the Socialists from within.

On Tuesday the three Socialists, [Yuriy] Lutsenko, [Ivan] Bokyy and [Mykola]
Karnaukh, did not vote for the motion entered, among others, by Moroz. What
is more, reportedly at least two more members of the SPU, [Vitaliy] Shybko
and [Oleksandr] Baranivskyy, would not have voted for this motion. Yet they
were absent, and their comrades-in-arms voted with their cards. Lutsenko
himself did not talk to journalists on Tuesday.

In his commentary to Ukrayinska Pravda, he merely said: "I could not support
this motion which legitimized voting by a show of two hands on 24 December.
Now what is left for us is to fight the constitutional amendments during the
vote by article." Trust between Our Ukraine and the SPU was brought down to
the level of the 1990s when a criterion for confrontation was affiliation
with the left or the right, not "for" or "against" Kuchma. And this is one
more objective the authorities have sought to achieve.

This makes the situation worse because Yushchenko needs the Socialists more
than they need him. If Yushchenko sabotaged political reform, Moroz would
feel obliged to stand in the presidential elections. Yushchenko himself
realizes that once the political reform is carried out, the value of his
presidency will be reduced at least by half. If the constitutional
amendments are passed, the provision that the newly elected president may
sacks the government will no longer be effective. Thus Yushchenko the
president would have fewer chances to reform the majority according to his
wishes. And, consequently, the chances that Kuchma's current supporters
would nominate him as their prime minister would grow.

The situation is even more complicated by the fact that Tuesday's decision
by no means met the demand of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe to amend the constitution in a constitutional manner. Since the
decision of 24 December was not revoted, in the eyes of the West a renewed
constitution will rest on an illegitimate foundation.

In principle, this plays into Yushchenko's hands: if he wins the
presidential elections, he will have an opportunity to abolish "unlawful
constitutional amendments" by referendum. Yet this is only one of the
scenarios not ruled out by Our Ukraine's leaders. In the mean time, they
have to hold the faction together. The USDPU's threat that Yushchenko will
have 10 traitors is gaining momentum as the second reading of the
constitutional amendments approaches. (END) (ARTUIS)
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