"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"

"The Ukrainian immigrant community's inability to engage Ukraine is
remarkable. It's got to the point where "Diaspora" is often pronounced
in Kyiv with a roll of the eyes. Diasporans are those aggressive people
on Andrivsky Uzviz in embroidered shirts native Ukrainians never wear;
they're to be avoided.

This is a problem, because Ukraine could use the sort of help well-meaning
and relatively wealthy foreigners could provide. Toward improving
Diaspora-native Ukrainian relations, I've compiled a list of points I think
Diasporans might keep in mind as they interrelate with what they consider
their spiritual homeland." [article one]

"UKRAINE REPORT" Year 2004, Number 29
U.S.-UKRAINE FOUNDATION (USUF)
www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service (ARTUIS)
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net
Kyiv, Ukraine and Washington, D.C., Saturday, February 21, 2004

INDEX OF ARTICLES

1. HOW THE DIASPORA CAN BE EFFECTIVE: SOME NOTES
OPINION: By Andrey Slivka, Kyiv Post Chief Editor
Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb 18, 2004

2. UKRAINIAN LEADER LEONID KUCHMA AND GERMAN
LEADER GERHARD SCHROEDER HAIL TIES
Novyy Kanal television, Kiev, in Ukrainian, 20 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Feb 20, 2004

3. ONLY 4% OF UKRAINIANS ARE SURE THE 2004
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION WILL BE FREE AND FAIR
UNIAN news agency, Kiev, in Ukrainian, 20 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Feb 20, 2004

4. GOOD FOR AMBASSADOR HERBST
EDITORIAL, Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb 18, 2004

5.YUSHCHENKO THINKS THERE SHOULD BE A MORATORIUM
ON THE SALE OF UKRAINIAN LAND UNTIL HONEST AND
TRANSPARENT PRIVATIZATION CAN BE ENSURED
"Our Ukraine" Press, www.razom.org.ua
Kyiv, Ukraine, February 18, 2004

6. ATTACKING THE OPPOSITION
Ukraine's State Tax Administration is Once Again Harassing the Opposition
EDITORIAL, Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb 18, 2004

7. UKRAINIAN COMMUNIST PARTY URGES YANUKOVYCH TO
REDUCE FOOD PRICES BY SEPTEMBER
[Symonenko Wants Food Prices Set Artificially Low by the Government]
Ukrainian News, Kyiv, Ukraine, February 20, 2004

8. RADIO LIBERTY HOPES TO STAY ON FM WAVES IN UKRAINE
Will Not Negotiate with Ukrainian Authorities, Try to Find Another Station
UNIAN, Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, February 20, 2004

9. FORMER US SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE ALBRIGHT
EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER UKRAINE'S POLITICAL REFORM
UNIAN news agency, Kiev, in Ukrainian, 20 Feb 04;
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian, 20 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Feb 20, 2004

10. TEN THOUSAND PROTESTERS PICKET TAX BUILDING
AND BLOCK RAILROADS IN WESTERN UKRAINE
"No Tax Terror in Ternopil Region!" "All Against the Tax Administration!"
UNIAN news agency, Kiev, in Ukrainian, 20 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service,UK, in English, Feb 20, 2004

11. RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH HEAD PATRIARCH ALEXY II
TO MEET VATICAN ENVOY IN MOSCOW NEXT MONDAY
AP Online; Moscow, Russia, Feb 20, 2004
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 29: ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
=========================================================
1. HOW THE DIASPORA CAN BE EFFECTIVE: SOME NOTES

OPINION: By Andrey Slivka, Kyiv Post Chief Editor
Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb 18, 2004

On the U.S.-based Ukrainian Diaspora Web site Brama.com. I found posted
the following letter, which crystallized a range of Diaspora attitudes about
Ukraine. It was about Kyiv and its mayor, Oleksandr Omelchenko, and read:

"Omelchenko is no sweetie hero - the Diaspora should not forget that the
mayor is one of those Kuchmists who tremendously abused his public office
during the last mayoral elections...

"The curbs of the 'European' downtown Kyiv are full of parked cars... The
'European' and 'national' Maidan Nezalezhnosti subpassage is full of
drinking, smoking, and drug-using youth...

"Tens of homeless people are begging inside the Maidan subpassage - flower
merchants kick strangers as they pass by. Stray dogs are hovering around.
Clouds of tobacco smoke fill anyone's dress with a harsh smell. This is the
true 'revived,' 'modern,' and 'European' Omelchenko's Khreschatyk!

"The police (sorry, militia!) could clear the place with little effort, but
they are busy collecting illegal cash fees..."

Most of that isn't true, of course. Downtown's sidewalks aren't overwhelmed
by parked cars. Nor is the Maidan subpassage a pit of hooliganism. Kids
smoke and drink there, but no one's "ravaging" or "aggressive." As a jogger,
I've had my disagreements with Kyiv's stray dogs, but they're an ancient
local issue that my native Ukrainian acquaintances hardly notice. There are
no more beggars in Kyiv than in any capital. And I've never heard of anyone
being kicked by a flower vendor.

Yet the seething letter expresses the Diaspora's disappointment with
contemporary Ukrainian reality. In 1991 the walls came down, and what the
Diaspora - of which I'm a member - saw wasn't all good. Ukraine should have
been full of smiling peasants in native dress and with copies of Shevchenko
under their arms, all of them ready to break out into nationalist anthems
and rustic dance.

More, they should have been full of gratitude to their Diasporan brethren,
who, they ought to have known, had kept Ukrainian identity alive during
the Soviet era. Instead, while they've had their successes since 1991,
native Ukrainians have had to deal with a lot of messes and troubles.

In other words, by ex-Soviet standards, they're typical. They get by, and
their kids smoke and drink beer. But "typical" was not what the Diaspora had
been taught to expect in the Ukrainian weekend schools of the East Village,
of New Jersey, of suburban Philadelphia and Edmonton, and elsewhere.

The Ukrainian immigrant community's inability to engage Ukraine is
remarkable. It's got to the point where "Diaspora" is often pronounced in
Kyiv with a roll of the eyes. Diasporans are those aggressive people on
Andrivsky Uzviz in embroidered shirts native Ukrainians never wear; they're
to be avoided.

This is a problem, because Ukraine could use the sort of help well-meaning
and relatively wealthy foreigners could provide. Toward improving
Diaspora-native Ukrainian relations, I've compiled a list of points I think
Diasporans might keep in mind as they interrelate with what they consider
their spiritual homeland.

1. We're not Ukrainian. Not really. What we are are Americans, or Canadians,
or Aussies, of Ukrainian descent. Or, more accurately, of Galician descent,
meaning we're from a region that's not typical of Ukraine. Many of us are
technically from Poland. We speak a heavily Polonized, antique Galician
variant of Ukrainian. When I tell them my ancestral history, some native
Ukrainians innocently respond: "Oh, so you're Polish."

Also, we didn't stay in the USSR and suffer. We spent the Soviet years in
the West. The point is that we're both cultural outsiders and lacking the
moral authority required to dictate terms to Ukrainians. Humility is called
for.

2. Russian is an indigenous language of Ukraine. Ukrainians have a variety
of nuanced attitudes toward Russian, but pure resentment isn't one of them.
The language issue will not play here.

3. Ukrainians haven't declined in character since the 1940s. This goes back
to the Diasporan view of pre-Soviet Galicia as a rustic Eden. Contemporary
Ukrainians, it's thought, lack the mettle the old Diaspora generations had.
They don't like to work, the idea goes. This is a very false perception.

4. The Famine and the Russians. There's nothing to be gained from the
tenacious Diaspora conviction that the Famine was an expression of a Russian
desire to exterminate the Ukrainian people, Nazi-style. It's not even true.

The Famine was an act of Stalinist savagery. Russians view Ukrainians as
their bumpkin country cousins, who have no business trying to rule
themselves. No one wants to exterminate their bumpkin country cousins.

Native Ukrainians won't listen to someone tell them that Russians view them
like the Nazis viewed the Jews (or the Ukrainians). They don't see that; it
insults their view of the world.

5. Kuchma isn't Satan. He's your typical post-Soviet strongman, situated
somewhere on the continuum between Russia's Putin and Belarus' Lukashenko.
Actually, he might be better than Putin. Diasporans should try not to be
more outraged by him than actual Ukrainians are.

Conversely, Viktor Yushchenko isn't perfect. On the fringes of Our Ukraine
you'll find enough louche figures, flirting with unpleasant rightist
politics, to give a responsible person pause.

6. Symbolic politics are no longer important. They were in the Breschnev
era. They're not anymore. Ukraine is now a real country. It needs less new
Shevchenko monuments and more specialists in insurance, biotechnology,
finance, television production, etc.

The Diaspora still specializes in symbolic gestures. Sending to Kyiv youth
dance troupes from Connecticut isn't much use now. Besides, it can be
misunderstood here as act of condescension: "This is how you Ukrainians are
supposed to dance." Kids from Connecticut, if they want to help, should
specialize in HIV science in college. And learn Russian.

7. Diaspora issues are not important. Last summer, Kyiv witnessed a
contretemps when the World Congress of Ukrainians, a Diaspora group, was
cheated by the Presidential Administration. The latter, at the last minute,
reneged on a deal to lease the Ukraine House to the WCU for the group's
annual meeting. It was a dirty trick on the PA's part, obviously designed to
harass an organization sympathetic to the opposition.

The PA's treatment of the WCU has become a minor Diaspora cause celebre.
There have been demands that PA head Viktor Medvedchuk resign over the
incident. But in fact, of the 1,000 reasons Medvedchuk should resign,
swindling the Diaspora is the 1,001st. Given what's going on in Ukraine
right now, it's relatively unimportant. Again, humility is called for.

8. Think small. We should forget demanding meetings with President Kuchma
or Medvedchuk, or holding summits with Yushchenko. (In the latter case we
might be doing him more harm than good, since even anti-Kuchma Ukrainians
don't like the idea of a politician being steered by foreign nationals.)

Instead, we should pay attention to Ukrainian life as it's lived on the
ground. Is there a school library in Donetsk that lacks books? Then buy the
books, even if they're in Russian. Is someone suffering from multiple
sclerosis in Lviv who would benefit from western treatment? Provide it for
them. Does a youth hockey program in Chernivtsi lack equipment? Donate
it. Is there a chair in, say, French literature at Shevchenko University?
Establish it.

True, the Diaspora has done this sort of thing before. Witness all the fine
Chornobyl relief work it's done. But then, Chornobyl relief is inherently
political: "Let's help fix the disaster those Russians made." The point is
to help out, to build civil society, in all the quiet, gentle, humble ways.

9. Be a good guest. This is what all the above comes down to. We're in
someone else's house here. We're far, far from home. Let's try not to talk
too loud, or offend the hosts, or tear the curtains. Otherwise, we do more
harm than good. (slivka@kyivpost.com) (END) (ARTUIS)
========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 29: ARTICLE NUMBER TWO
Daily News Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/newsgallery.htm
========================================================
2. UKRAINIAN LEADER LEONID KUCHMA AND GERMAN
LEADER GERHARD SCHROEDER HAIL TIES

Novyy Kanal television, Kiev, in Ukrainian, 20 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Feb 20, 2004

KIEV - [Presenter] Berlin will assist Ukraine in every way in obtaining
market-economy status as soon as possible, German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder has said. Also today, Berlin agreed to give Ukraine 14m euros to
develop rural areas. These are results yielded by the fifth Ukrainian-German
consultations. Oleksiy Vysotskyy reports about the Ukrainian delegation's
visit to Berlin.

[Correspondent] The consultations which lasted for half a day were preceded
by a private meeting between the Ukrainian and German leaders. Apart from an
agreement on financial support for Ukrainian rural areas and farmers, Berlin
also agreed to help Ukraine with money and advice in retraining
professionals, above all, managers.

In general, Chancellor Schroeder has said that Germany will facilitate in
every way the growth of Ukraine's ratings in the world arena.

[Schroeder, in German, overlaid with Ukrainian translation throughout] As
soon as proper conditions are created, Germany will assist Ukraine in
promptly obtaining market economy status. Ukraine is a very important and
promising market for Germany. It is very gratifying that throughout the last
year our economic ties were improving significantly and quickly.

[Kuchma] We are grateful to the German side for supporting our Euroatlantic
aspirations. Today, there are practically no misunderstandings on any of the
problems we have discussed.

[Correspondent] Commenting on EU expansion, Schroeder said he did not
think it would cause a decline in commodity turnover between Ukraine and
the EU. Speaking about constitution reform in Ukraine [which the Ukrainian
opposition and some Western experts have alleged to be aimed at prolonging
the current authorities' stay in power], he stressed that this was only
Ukraine's business.

Leonid Kuchma assured his German counterpart that he would not take part in
the presidential election [planned for October 2004]. At the same time, he
is not going to look for a successor to take over the presidency.

[Kuchma] I am not a tsar, the way they were in the Russian Empire. And I am
not handing over my authority to anybody. There will be an election, and let
everybody contend who wishes to do so.

[Correspondent] At the end of the visit, Kuchma handed over two albums of
17th-century engravings to Schroeder. They used to belong to the Dresden
Gallery, but were taken to Ukraine during World War II.

[Schroeder] These are not only wonderful engravings which are of great
cultural value, this is a great and beautiful gesture by Ukraine. I will
pass these albums on to Dresden without any ado. (END) (ARTUIS)
========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 29: ARTICLE NUMBER THREE
Build Ukraine Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/buildukraine/index.htm
========================================================
3. ONLY 4% OF UKRAINIANS ARE SURE THE 2004
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION WILL BE FREE AND FAIR

UNIAN news agency, Kiev, in Ukrainian, 20 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Feb 20, 2004

Kiev, 20 February: Only 4.4 per cent of Ukrainians are sure that the 2004
presidential election will be free and fair.

This has been shown by an opinion poll conducted by the Democratic
Initiatives foundation and Sotsis, a centre for social and political
studies.

Some 25.8 per cent of those polled think there will be occasional
violations, but they will not significantly affect the general outcome of
the election; 35.3 per cent said the results will be distorted; 24.9 per
cent believe that the election outcome will be totally rigged; 9.6 per cent
could not answer the question.

Compared with the 2002 parliamentary election, Ukrainians have become
much more sure of the importance of their vote. Some 49 per cent are sure
that their vote or refusal to vote will affect Ukraine's future (in the
run-up to the 2002 elections, only 36 per cent said so). However, 42.8
per cent said that their vote in the presidential election will not affect
Ukraine's future in any way; 7.8 per cent could not answer the question.

A vast majority of Ukrainians - 89.8 per cent - believe that public
organizations should oversee how elections are held and ballots are counted;
5 per cent think this kind of control is not necessary; 5.2 per cent could
not answer the question. [Passage omitted: Ukrainians polled on how
important the presidential election is.]

The poll was conducted on 1-8 February 2004, covering the basic social and
demographic groups of adult Ukrainians in all the regions. A total of 1,200
respondents were polled, the margin of error is not more than 3 per cent.
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 29: ARTICLE NUMBER FOUR
Travel and Tourism Gallery: http://www.ArtUkraine.com/tourgallery.htm
=========================================================
4. GOOD FOR AMBASSADOR HERBST

EDITORIAL, Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb 18, 2004

What's good about diplomats is also what can be frustrating about them:
they're diplomatic. Restraint isn't so admirable when you're a Western
country's ambassador to Ukraine, a country that needs all the nagging
the west can give it.

John Herbst, who last autumn became the U.S. ambassador to Kyiv, has
so far been very diplomatic, especially in comparison with his outspoken
predecessor, Carlos Pascual. As the political situation here has
deteriorated, we've been looking to Herbst to see what positive role the
representative of the U.S., that 900-pound gorilla of international
diplomacy, would play.

In response to certain notable events - October's rigged demonstrations
against Our Ukraine in Donetsk, for example, or late December's
machinations regarding changing the constitution - we thought Herbst
spoke quietly and with reserve, when he should have yelled with passion.

Now, in response to the Tax Administration's persecution of Our
Ukraine-affiliated businessmen Petro Poroshenko and Yevhen Chervonenko
(see the preceding editorial), he's done the latter. It reassured us to hear
Herbst come out full of energy and insist that the Tax Administration should
not be used for political reasons, roundly criticizing the government.

That he pointedly made these comments in Lviv, where Serhy Medvedchuk
used to preside over a politically driven city tax administration, was
better still. These are the sorts of things a western ambassador should be
saying right now.

Herbst shouldn't express himself like that all the time. That would be
counterproductive. But sometimes he's going to have to, so we're glad to
see he can do it. (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 29: ARTICLE NUMBER FIVE
Ukrainian Culture Gallery: http://www.ArtUkraine.com/cultgallery.htm
=========================================================
5. YUSHCHENKO THINKS THERE SHOULD BE A MORATORIUM
ON THE SALE OF UKRAINIAN LAND UNTIL HONEST AND
TRANSPARENT PRIVATIZATION CAN BE ENSURED

"Our Ukraine" Press, www.razom.org.ua
Kyiv, Ukraine, February 18, 2004

KYIV...... Victor Yushchenko reported in an interview that "Our Ukraine"
would fight for implementing a moratorium on the privatization of land
because the government nowadays is not ready to ensure transparent and
honest privatization on the land market. He also reminded about the mistakes
of voucher privatization.

Yushchenko thinks that if privatization is undertaken under the current
unclear conditions, planters will appear in Ukraine in the nearest future.
"Personification of land, i.e. providing official acts to rural citizens,
needs to be completed before any privatization is to be undertaken. Only
51 percent of such acts have been distributed over the past three years.

A system for registering real estate, the so-called government cadastre has
not been established yet either: it is still under review and appears rather
fragmentary. Furthermore, there is still no established system of
institutions to serve the land market," stressed Yushchenko.

"Privatization either must be honest or it must not be carried out at all,"
thinks Yushchenko. He is skeptical of government promises to develop a state
land register within a year. "Nowadays, the government is incapable of
ensuring honest privatization on the land market. It is impossible to by buy
a hectare of marsh near Kyiv for a few thousand dollars today while the same
money buys half a village in Sumy region. Such disparity proves the
underdevelopment of land market," noted the leader of "Our Ukraine."

"A moratorium on land privatization is the only way to prevent manipulation
and theft today. This issue needs to be raised again when Ukraine has an
honest and responsible government. The actions of the current government -
whether dealing with pension reform or with the state budget - provide only
negative influence on the well-being of the people," declared Victor
Yushchenko. (END) (ARTUIS)
=======================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2005, No. 29: ARTICLE NUMBER SIX
Genocide Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/famineart/index.htm
=========================================================
6. ATTACKING THE OPPOSITION
Ukraine's State Tax Administration is Once Again Harassing the Opposition

EDITORIAL, Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb 18, 2004

Any observer of Ukrainian politics should have seen coming the latest
offensive in the government's election-year war to destroy the opposition.
The government isn't doing anything as colorfully dirty as hiring rowdies to
break up Our Ukraine meetings, as it was alleged to have done last October
in Donetsk. But they are siccing the State Tax Administration on Petro
Poroshenko, the Rada deputy and wealthy businessman who is reputed to be
among Our Ukraine's most important money sources.

The STA is also once again harassing an old target of theirs, Our
Ukraine-affiliated mogul Yevhen Chervonenko.

The politically motivated use of the tax authorities is an old story in
Ukraine. Many who do business here can expect visits from tax inspectors,
who launch extortionate inspections hoping they'll find some infraction on
which to base demands. But even against that backdrop, the Poroshenko case
is remarkable.

Poroshenko is an important new target for the government. Attacking him
isn't just another day-to-day STA affair. It signifies that the intensity of
the
political warfare in this country has reached something like Defcon 4. This
is serious. Poroshenko is a big fish. He more or less controls the social
and business life of Vinnytsia and the surrounding region.

He has ties with the Ukrprominvest concern, Mrija bank, sugar and bread
factories and automobile plants, and is alleged to be a shareholder in the
NBM and Express-Inform TV channels. As Ukraine's so-called "chocolate
baron," he is said to have ties with the Roshen corporation, which controls
30 percent of the country's confectionery market.

He's also godfather to one of Viktor Yushchenko's children.

The latest action against Chervonenko, another Our Ukraine financial pillar,
was initiated on Feb. 13. On that day, the STA started an overall check-up
of the Orlan, a concern he controls.

In going after such men, the government is trying to wipe out Our Ukraine at
its financial source. What's amazing is the shamelessness of the government'
s move. To analogize, it's as if the U.S. Internal Revenue Service decided
to audit, out of all the people in the country, Theresa Heinz Kerry, the
billionairess wife of likely Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry;
and that the order to do so came from the White House. Such an investigation
would look compromising for the Bush Administration; they wouldn't get away

with it. But it's on precisely such a level that the Ukrainian government is
acting. We wonder what they have planned next.

Happily, Poroshenko is an aggressive political player himself, as witnessed
by his response to the allegations. Not only has he denied them, but he's
claiming he'll sue the STA deputy head Yury Hryb. He points out that the
Roshen corporation is a huge generator of taxes, and employs 30 thousand
Ukrainians. The STA, he has insisted, is "waging war with the people, not
with Poroshenko." He's strenuously fighting back.

As for Chervonenko, he's an old hand at dealing with such abuse, having
fended off STA attacks last year.

It bears repeating: things are at a crucial point in Ukraine. This is,
without a doubt, the most important year in the country's independent
history, and those in power know it. They're fighting not only for office,
but also to exist - to stay out of jail, or to avoid exile in whatever Third
World dictatorship sells shelter to compromised post-Soviet strongmen and
tycoons. They'll use any means they have.

We think Our Ukraine will benefit from the aura of martyrdom it will assume
in the eyes of Ukrainians. But the thought of what those means might prove
to be as the election year develops sometimes gives us pause. (END)
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 29: ARTICLE NUMBER SEVEN
Historical Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/histgallery.htm
=========================================================
7. UKRAINIAN COMMUNIST PARTY URGES YANUKOVYCH TO
REDUCE FOOD PRICES BY SEPTEMBER
[Symonenko Wants Food Prices Set Artificially Low by the Government]

Ukrainian News, Kyiv, Ukraine, February 20, 2004

The Communist Party is urging Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych to reduce
the prices for the main food products to the level of April-May 2003 by
September.

This is mentioned in an open letter addressed to Yanukovych from the leader
of the Communist Party, Petro Symonenko

"By September 2004 to reduce the prices for flour, bread, meat, oil and
sugar to the level of April-May 2003," it is mentioned in the letter.

The Communist Party also demands to establish state control over prices for
commodities of first necessity and to compensate losses from the increment
of prices to the most unprotected layers of the population.

As Ukrainian News has reported, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to
strengthen state regulation of the formation of prices by creating an
inter-sectoral commission, which will control the formation of prices in
industries, agro-industrial complex and the housing and communal industry.

In late June 2003, a food crisis arose, and the Cabinet of Ministers decided
in late July to control import of grain, as well as to check the lawfulness
of privatization of enterprises of the system of bakery products, and also
it gave the right to local authorities to establish prices for grain and the
basic food products.

According to the information of the Economy Ministry, prices for flour in
2003 grew by 36.1%, whereas for bread it went up by 33.8%, and for
bakery goods - by 75.2%. (END) (ARTUIS)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDITOR: All of this is terrible news for the Ukrainian farmer and for those
involved in the development of a private, market driven Ukrainian food
system. The government of Ukraine already manipulates the prices of
food products much more than it should and subsidizes those in the
cities through low food prices which are paid for by taking money
our ot the pockets of already poor Ukrainian farmers and villages.

The decision to strengthen the state regulatoin of the formation of prices
by creating an inter-sectoral commission which will control the formation
of prices in industries, agro-industrial complex and the housing and
communal industry is also terrible news and a major step backwards
towards a typical Soviet type centrally planned, controlled and central
government manipulated economic system.

If the government of Ukraine chooses to subsidize food prices for those
in the cities they should do it from general tax revenues and not from the
backs of poor farmers. This is wrong and very counterproductive.

Why are there millions of poor people in Ukraine living in very poor
villages which are located on top of some of the best farmland in the world?
The article above explains why.

The Czarist system ripped off the Ukrainian farm, the Communist system
ripped off the Ukrainian farm and Ukraine continues to support structures
and programs which keep the Ukrainian farmer poor, under financed, and
with low productivity. This has gone on far too long. When will Ukraine
quit killing the goose that could lay the golden egg?
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 29: ARTICLE NUMBER EIGHT
Arts Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/artgallery.htm
=========================================================
8. RADIO LIBERTY HOPES TO STAY ON FM WAVES IN UKRAINE
Will Not Negotiate with Ukrainian Authorities, Try to Find Another Station

UNIAN, Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, February 20, 2004

KYIV - Radio Liberty leadership will not negotiate with representatives of
Ukrainian authorities about renewal of broadcasting of its Ukrainian service
in FM-diapason. President of RFE/RL corporation Thomas Dine has said it
at a press conference in UNIAN today.

In his words, the reason of Radio Liberty exclusion from the air of Dovira
radio is not commercial, but political. He has said that during the five
years they worked at Dovira, the Presidential Administration showed it was
not interested in the unbiased information, broadcast by Radio Liberty.

In the words of Oleksander Narodetsky, director of the RL Ukrainian
Service, all this time Dovira received threats.

T. Dine has emphasized that till the replacement of the Dovira leadership,
it collaborated with Liberty openly and frankly, both parties fulfilled
their obligations in line with the contract. At the same time, he has
expressed
a hope that till August of 2004, when Radio Liberty will celebrate its 50th
anniversary, its programs will be renewed in Ukraine on FM waves.

According to the president of the corporation, at present time they are
negotiating with other Ukrainian radio stations the opportunities of
broadcasting at FM and AM waves. According to the data of a poll,
conduced in December of 2003, the rating of Radio Liberty programs in
Ukraine soared by 30% compared with the last year, and it is listened by
8% of country's adult population every day. (END) (ARTUIS)
========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 29: ARTICLE NUMBER NINE
Support Ukraine Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/uasupport/index.htm
=========================================================
9. FORMER US SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE ALBRIGHT
EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER UKRAINE'S POLITICAL REFORM

UNIAN news agency, Kiev, in Ukrainian, 20 Feb 04;
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian, 20 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Feb 20, 2004

KIEV - Visiting Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has
expressed concern over Ukraine's political reform which is being implemented
ahead of the presidential election this year, the UNIAN news agency reported
on 20 February.

Albright told the Ukrainian parliamentary speaker , Volodymyr Lytvyn, in
Kiev that the international community is concerned about how democracy is
evolving in Ukraine.

The primary concern is whether the political reform, which is aimed at
redistributing powers between the president, the cabinet and parliament,
will be implemented by constitutional means and whether the coming
presidential elections will be fair and transparent, the agency quoted
Albright as saying.

In addition, Albright described "as a big mistake" the stopping of Radio
Liberty's rebroadcasting on the FM band in Ukraine, the Interfax-Ukraine
news agency reported on the same day. "Media freedom plays a very
important role in strengthening all elements of democracy," Albright said.

Private Ukrainian FM Radio Dovira terminated a rebroadcasting contract with
Radio Liberty on 17 February. (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 29: ARTICLE NUMBER TEN
Current Events Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/events/index.htm
=========================================================
10. TEN THOUSAND PROTESTERS PICKET TAX BUILDING
AND BLOCK RAILROADS IN WESTERN UKRAINE
"No Tax Terror in Ternopil Region!" "All Against the Tax Administration!"

UNIAN news agency, Kiev, in Ukrainian, 20 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service,UK, in English, Feb 20, 2004

Ten thousand protesters have picketed a tax administration building and
blocked railway traffic in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil. The rally
demanded an end to alleged "tax repression" against businesses associated
with MPs from the Our Ukraine opposition bloc.

The following is the text of report by Ukrainian news agency UNIAN:

Kiev, 20 February: The building of the Ternopil regional state tax
administration was picketed at the initiative of the regional branch of the
Our Ukraine [opposition] bloc at 1000 [0800 gmt] today.

The press service of the Ukrainian People's Party [which is party to Our
Ukraine] reported that around 10,000-strong rally demanded that "fabricated
criminal cases" against [Ternopil] city council officials and businesses
associated with People's Party members and [Our Ukraine] MPs Yaroslav
Dzhodzhyk and Oleh Humenyuk be closed and that a team of tax officers, who
were dispatched to Ternopil from Kiev and whom Our Ukraine representatives
described as a "repression squad", be recalled.

The rally carried slogans "No tax terror in Ternopil Region!" and "All
against the tax administration!" [Our Ukraine] MPs Serhiy Oleksiyuk, Oleh
Tyahnybok, Yaroslav Kendzyor, Dzhodzhyk and Ivan Stoyko attended the rally.

As the demands of the protesters were not met, they moved to the Ternopil
railway station and blocked railways. The Ternopil branch of the People's
Party reported by phone that as of 1145 [0945 gmt] the protesters delayed
the departure of two trains - Lviv-Simferopol and Belgrade-Budapest-Moscow.
It was announced that it was the warning protest which would last until 1300
[1100 gmt].

On 18 February, a session of the Ternopil city council attended by Dzhodzhyk
and Humenyuk adopted an appeal to Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, the
head of the Ukrainian Supreme Council [parliament, Volodymyr Lytvyn], the
State Tax Administration and the Prosecutor-General's Office, citing
unlawful actions against businesses associated with Our Ukraine MPs, the
People's Party press service said. Tax officers launched criminal
proceedings against Ternopil city council officials, managers of the
Ternopilkhlibprom and Tekhnotern companies, the press service added.
========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 29: ARTICLE NUMBER ELEVEN
========================================================
11. RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH HEAD PATRIARCH
ALEXY II TO MEET VATICAN ENVOY IN MOSCOW NEXT MONDAY

AP Online; Moscow, Russia, Feb 20, 2004

MOSCOW - Patriarch Alexy II, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church,
will meet next week with a Vatican envoy who is in Russia seeking to improve
relations between the denominations, the Orthodox Church confirmed Friday.

Alexy's meeting with Cardinal Walter Kasper is scheduled for Monday, said
Ioann Lapidus, an official at the Moscow patriarchate.

The meeting will be closed to the media, but a communique will be issued on
the Orthodox Church's Web site afterward, Lapidus said.

Kasper, the head of the Roman Catholic Church's Pontifical Council for
Promoting Christian Unity, is the highest Vatican official to visit Russia
in four years.

Relations between the churches have been tense in recent years, focusing on
Russian Orthodox allegations that the Roman Catholic church is poaching for
converts among people who traditionally would have been Orthodox adherents.

The Russian Orthodox Church is trying to rebuild its flock after decades of
heavy restrictions imposed on the church under the officially atheistic
Soviet regime.

On Thursday, Kasper met with Metropolitan Kirill, head of the Russian
Orthodox Church's external relations department. ITAR-Tass reported that the
talks centered on Vatican intentions to create a Greco-Catholic patriarchate
in eastern Ukraine, a move opposed by the leaders of all Orthodox churches.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
EDITOR: Patriarch Alexy II, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church,
has made it very clear on many occasions through his words and deeds
that he does not believe in the basic democratic principles of freedom of
religion and the separation of church and state.
========================================================
ARTICLES ARE FOR PERSONAL AND ACADEMIC USE ONLY
========================================================
NEW BOOK: Three Hundred Eleven Personal Interviews, Famine 32-33.
"UKRAINIANS ABOUT FAMINE 1932-1933," Prof. Sokil, Lviv, Ukraine
http://www.artukraine.com/famineart/sokil.htm
========================================================
WEBSITE FOR NEWS AND INFORMATION ABOUT UKRAINE
LINK: http://www.ArtUkraine.com
========================================================
New Issue Just Published...Year 2003, Issue 3-4
FOLK ART MAGAZINE: NARODNE MYSTETSTVO
LINK: http://www.artukraine.com/primitive/artmagazine.htm
========================================================
INFORMATION ABOUT "UKRAINE REPORT" 2004
The "UKRAINE REPORT" 2004, is an in-depth news and analysis newsletter,
produced by the www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service (ARTUIS) with
production offices in Kyiv, Ukraine and Washington, D.C.. The report is
distributed worldwide free of charge using the e-mail address:
ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net. Please make sure this e-mail address is
cleared for your SPAM filter. Letters to the editor are always welcome.
For further information contact Morgan Williams: morganw@patriot.net.

"UKRAINE REPORT" 2004 SPONSORS:
.
1. UKRAINE-U.S. BUSINESS COUNCIL, Kempton Jenkins,
President, Washington, D.C.
2. UKRAINIAN FEDERATION OF AMERICA, (UFA),
Dr. Zenia Chernyk, President, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
3. U.S.-UKRAINE FOUNDATION, (USUF), Nadia Komarnyckyj
McConnell, President; John A. Kun, VP/COO; Markian Bilynskyj,
VP, Dir. of Field Operations, Kyiv, Ukraine and Washington, D.C.
website: http://www.usukraine.org .
4. UKRAINIAN AMERICAN COORDINATING COUNCIL,
(UACC), Ihor Gawdiak, President, Washington, D.C.
5. ACTION UKRAINE COALITION, (AUC),Washington, D.C.
6. KIEV-ATLANTIC UKRAINE, David and Tamara Sweere,
Founders and Managers; Kyiv, Ukraine
7. VOLIA SOFTWARE, Software to Fit Your Business, Source your
IT work in Ukraine. Contact: Yuriy Sivitsky, Vice President, Marketing,
Kyiv, Ukraine, yuriy.sivitsky@softline.kiev.ua; Volia Software website
http://www.volia-software.com/.
8. POTENTIAL, the launching of a new business journal for Ukraine.
http://www.usukraine.org/potential.shtml#about
9. INDIVIDUAL, CORPORATE and FOUNDATION READERS
OF "UKRAINE REPORT-2004" who financially support the publication.
Additional financial support is needed to maintain and expand the
program to include the translation and distribution of important articles
in Ukrainian.

PUBLISHER AND EDITOR
E. Morgan Williams, Senior Advisor, Government Relations and
Foundation Development, U.S.-UKRAINE FOUNDATION (USUF)
Publisher and Editor: "UKRAINE REPORT" 2004
www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service (ARTUIS).
http://www.ArtUkraine.com News and Information Website,
P.O. Box 2607, Washington, D.C. 20013
Tel: 202 437 4707, morganw@patriot.net
Office In Kyiv: 380 44 212 5586, Mobile in Kyiv: 380 50 689 2874
======================================================
TO SUBSCRIBE (FREE)
If you know of one or more persons you think would like to be added to
the distribution list for "UKRAINE REPORT" 2004 please send us the
relevant contact information. We welcome additional names. To subscribe
please send a subscription request e-mail to Morgan Williams,
morganw@patriot.net. Past issues of the "UKRAINE REPORT"-2003
(125 reports) and UR 2004 will be sent upon request.
TO UNSUBSCRIBE
UNSUBSCRIBE: If you do not wish to receive future editions of the
"UKRAINE REPORT"-2004, up to three times per week, please be sure
and notify us by return e-mail to morganw@patriot.net.
=======================================================