US-Ukraine Business Council

"ACTION 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"

"According to the 53-count indictment filed by U.S. prosecutors here,
[San Francisco] Lazarenko used his political clout to set up an
international underground network of bank accounts to launder profits
made through clandestine schemes involving natural gas, agribusiness,
housing and other businesses in Ukraine.

Authorities and experts aren't sure where all his [Former Ukrainian
Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko] money went. A former economic adviser
to Ukraine, Anders Aslund, estimated Lazarenko siphoned off as much as
$1 billion.

'He was the leader of a culture of pervasive corruption,' said Aslund, now
a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment [for International Peace] in Washington,
D.C. 'I never encountered anyone who was as crudely corrupt as Lazarenko.'"
[article seven]

"ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" Year 2004, Number 42
Action Ukraine Coalition (AUC), Washington, D.C.
www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service (ARTUIS)
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net
Washington, D.C., WEDNESDAY, March 17, 2004

INDEX OF ARTICLES

1. PRESIDENT KUCHMA TELLS LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES
TO GO EASY ON MEDIA DURING UKRAINE'S PRESIDENTIAL
ELECTION CAMPAIGN
AP Online; Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, Mar 16, 2004

2. UKRAINE: PRESIDENT ORDERS STOP TO MEDIA RAIDS
AHEAD OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Radio Netherlands web site, Hilversum, in English. 16 Mar 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK; Tuesday, Mar 16, 2004

3. UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT SUSPENDS MEDIA INSPECTIONS
AHEAD OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian, 16 Mar 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Mar 16, 2004

4. YANUKOVYCH GOVERNMENT GETS LUKEWARM VOTE
OF CONFIDENCE FROM UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT
Inside Ukraine Newsletter, Kyiv, Ukraine, Wed, March 17 2004

5. FOREIGN MINISTRY SAYS UKRAINE DOES NOT PLAN TO
WITHDRAW PEACEKEEPING TROOPS FROM IRAQ
UNIAN news agency, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian, 6 Mar 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Mar 16, 2004

6. JURY HEARS OPENING STATEMENTS IN FORMER UKRAINIAN
PRIME MINISTER LAZARENKO'S CORRUPTION TRIAL
David Kravets, AP Legal Affairs Writer
San Francisco, CA, Tuesday, March 16, 2004

7. FORMER UKRAINIAN LEADER ACCUSED OF MONEY
LAUNDERING, LOOTING, FRAUD, EXTORTION
By David Kravets, AP Legal Affairs Writer
San Francisco, CA, Sunday, March 14, 2004

8. SECOND TOP-LEVEL OSCE DELEGATION IN A MONTH
HIGHLIGHT'S CONCERNS ABOUT DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINE
AP Worldstream, Kiev, Ukraine, Monday, Mar 15, 2004

9. UKRAINIAN BAND ROCKING THE FORMER SOVIET WORLD
AND BEYOND, Five-piece guitar-playing band Okean Elzy [Elsa's Ocean]
from Lviv, the heart of nationalism in western Ukraine
By Elizabeth Piper, Reuters, Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, March 14, 2004

10 "THE UNKNOWN MALEVYCH"
Internationally Renowned Artist: On his 125th birth anniversary
By Olena Papeta, Art Researcher, The Day Weekly Digest in English
Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 9, 2004

11. ARMENIAN PAPER CONDEMNS BRITISH ENVOY FOR
DENYING 1915 ARMENIAN GENOCIDE SAYING HER
REMARKS WERE FALSE AND OFFENSIVE
Report by Harut Sassounian
"One should not keep silent in this case."
Azg, Yerevan, Armenia, in Armenian 10 Mar 04 p 5
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Mar 11, 2004

12. BOB SCHAFFER TO RUN FOR U.S. SENATOR FROM COLORADO
Has Ukrainian Heritage and Supported Ukraine While A Congressman
By E. Morgan Williams, Editor, "Action Ukraine Report"
Washington, D.C., Monday, March 15, 2004

13.PRESIDENT PUTIN'S IMITATION OF A TSAR IS DOOMED TO FAILURE
By Anders Aslund, The Sunday Telegraph, London, UK, Sun, Mar 14, 2004

14. GONGADZE CASE STILL SENSITIVE SUBJECT IN UKRAINE
Inside Ukraine Newsletter, Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, March 15, 2004
==========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 42: ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
Politics and Governance, Building a Strong, Democratic Ukraine
http://www.artukraine.com/buildukraine/index.htm
==========================================================
1. PRESIDENT KUCHMA TELLS LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES
TO GO EASY ON MEDIA DURING UKRAINE'S PRESIDENTIAL
ELECTION CAMPAIGN

AP Online; Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, Mar 16, 2004

KIEV - Amid increasing accusations of a persistent crackdown on press
freedoms, President Leonid Kuchma has told law enforcement authorities to go
easy on the media in the run-up to Ukraine's October presidential election,
his office said Tuesday.

In an apparent response to a growing chorus of rebukes from western
governments, journalists and media watchdog groups, Kuchma prohibited the
General Prosecutor's Office, the Interior and Emergency Situations
Ministries and tax authorities from conducting what are often invasive
investigations into media companies during the election campaign.

The order came a week after thousands of Ukrainians protested in the capital
Kiev, accusing Kuchma's administration of suppressing independent media
ahead of the election.

Accusions mounted this month after two private affiliates of U.S.-funded
Radio Liberty were pulled off the air. Authorities have also closed an
independent newspaper and threatened to shut down an opposition TV station.

Ukraine's media environment has been tense since the unsolved 2000 death of
Heorhiy Gongadze, an Internet journalist who crusaded against high-level
corruption. Opposition groups allege Kuchma was involved in Gongadze's
killing, a claim Kuchma denies.

First elected president of the former Soviet republic in 1994, Kuchma has
won approval from the former Constitutional Court to seek a third term in
the October election, but has said he won't run. (am/sbg) (END)(ARTUIS)
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 42: ARTICLE NUMBER TWO
Politics and Governance, Building a Strong, Democratic Ukraine
http://www.artukraine.com/buildukraine/index.htm
=========================================================
2. UKRAINE: PRESIDENT ORDERS STOP TO MEDIA RAIDS
AHEAD OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Radio Netherlands web site, Hilversum, in English. 16 Mar 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK; Mar 16, 2004

KIEV - Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has ordered tax, police and
security services to suspend raids on the media amid allegations he would
stifle the press ahead of a presidential election in October.

Western rights groups and Ukraine's opposition have criticised what they say
is a worsening crackdown on media freedoms ahead of the poll, citing
suspicious deaths, closures of radio stations and other confrontations with
authority.

Kuchma has denied impinging on the press, saying most media are privately
owned and free from state control. Kuchma's announcement comes after the
death in a car crash of a radio station manager as he was on his way to
talks about rebroadcasting US-funded Radio Liberty.

Serhiy Sholokh, head of Radio Kontynent, has fled the country after police
seized his station's transmitter. He has said he came under pressure as soon

as Radio Kontynent started rebroadcasting Radio Liberty. (END)(ARTUIS)
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 42: ARTICLE NUMBER THREE
Check Out the News Media for the Latest News From and About Ukraine
Daily News Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/newsgallery.htm
=========================================================
3. UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT SUSPENDS MEDIA INSPECTIONS
AHEAD OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, Ukraine, in Russian, 16 Mar 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Mar 16, 2004

KIEV - The Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday [16 March] supported a resolution
establishing a moratorium on checks of media outlets during the
[presidential] election campaign.

The resolution on ensuring unimpeded media activity in the run-up to the
2004 elections, which was introduced by Mykola Tomenko, the head of
parliament's Freedom of Speech and Information Committee and a member of the
[opposition] Our Ukraine faction, and Socialist Party faction member Ivan
Bokiy, was voted for by 294 out of the 438 deputies registered as present.

The resolution proposes that the government take steps to halt checks of
media outlets by executive services and state establishments during the
presidential election campaign starting from 1 January 2004. The document
also recommends that the State Tax Administration cancel its planned checks
of media outlets during this period.

President Leonid Kuchma had earlier [on 15 March] called for a moratorium on
checks of media outlets during the election campaign. Kuchma decided to do
so after he received an appeal from representatives of the Association of
Network TV and Radio Broadcasters of Ukraine. The president's instruction to
establish the moratorium was sent to the Prosecutor-General's Office, the
Interior Ministry, the State Tax Administration and the Emergencies
Ministry. The presidential election will be held in October 2004.
(END)(ARTUIS)
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 42: ARTICLE NUMBER FOUR
Major Articles About What is Going on in Ukraine
Current Events Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/events/index.htm
=========================================================
4. YANUKOVYCH GOVERNMENT GETS LUKEWARM VOTE
OF CONFIDENCE FROM UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT

Inside Ukraine Newsletter, Kyiv, Ukraine, March 17 2004

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday voted to approve both the Yanukovych
government report of its program fulfillment for 2003 and its projected
program for 2004. The vote was expected to assure that the government would
be on a firm footing for the next year. The vote may also be the first of a
series of events that could lead to Yanukovych maintaining his current
position rather than running for president and giving way, allowing Rada
Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn to run for the position.

Prior to Tuesday's vote, the parliament heard Yanukovych's account on
fulfillment of governmental tasks in 2003 and the program proposed by the
Cabinet of Ministers for the current year. He pointed with pride to such
accomplishments as achievement of a GDP growth rate of 9.3 percent; 15.8
percent growth of the industrial production, complete execution of the state
budget-2003 with an almost 3 percent surplus in collected revenues, and
exclusion of Ukraine from the FATF black list of money-laundering countries.

Yanukovych also promised to raise the minimum wage to Hr 237 by September
1 and increase salaries of budget employees by 15% by the end of the year.

The report was presented one month ahead of the deadline date determined
after last year's approval of the CabMin program. However, while 335
deputies supported continuation of the Yanukovych government last year, this
year's approval showed only a narrow margin of 13 over the 226 minimum vote
requirement.

Yushchenko's Our Ukraine, the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc, the Communists and
Socialists either simply cast no ballot or an official abstaining vote on
Tuesday except one vote later said to be in error. An opposition attempt to
label the government's activities as "Unsatisfactory" met with a paltry 109
votes in favor of the measure.

Approval of the government reports is likely to give the Yanukovych
government at least one year more of life. Of course, President Kuchma still
has powers to sack the government but observers think that is highly
unlikely that this would occur on the eve of the oncoming presidential
election.

[UNIAN reported that the sole Our Ukraine MP who voted in favor
later said that he voted accidentally and would try to get his vote
rescinded.] (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 42: ARTICLE NUMBER FIVE
Exciting Opportunities in Ukraine for Travel and Tourism
Travel and Tourism Gallery: http://www.ArtUkraine.com/tourgallery.htm
=========================================================
5. FOREIGN MINISTRY SAYS UKRAINE DOES NOT PLAN TO
WITHDRAW PEACEKEEPING TROOPS FROM IRAQ

UNIAN news agency, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian, 6 Mar 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Mar 16, 2004

KIEV - Speaking at a briefing today, the head of the Ukrainian Foreign
Ministry's press service, Markiyan Lubkivskyy, said that at the present time
Ukraine does not intend to withdraw its peacekeeping contingent from Iraq or
to reduce its numbers.

He said that "at the present time, the question of withdrawal of the
Ukrainian contingent from Iraq or the reduction of its numbers is not on the
agenda". He said that the work of the Ukrainian contingent is regarded as a
success not only by the Ukrainian side but by its coalition partners,
especially by the US. He stressed that the withdrawal of the contingent from
Iraqi territory could, to some extent, lead to the destabilization of the
situation in Wasit Province [where Ukrainian peacekeepers are stationed] and
obstruct the attainment of stability in Iraq.

Lubkivskyy said that "we are aware of those challenges and those dangers
which our peacekeepers face in Iraq". Answering a question from journalists
about the provision of security guarantees to Ukraine by members of the
anti-terrorist coalition, Lubkivskyy said that "as an active participant and
member of the international community we should be prepared and take into
account all the risks which exist in the world today, especially the
carrying out of terrorist acts".

[Ukraine contributed some 1,600 troops who operate alongside a Polish
contingent in one of the three sectors.] (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 42: ARTICLE NUMBER SIX
The Story of Ukraine's Long and Rich Culture
Ukrainian Culture Gallery: http://www.ArtUkraine.com/cultgallery.htm
=========================================================
6. JURY HEARS OPENING STATEMENTS IN FORMER UKRAINIAN
PRIME MINISTER LAZARENKO'S CORRUPTION TRIAL

David Kravets, AP Legal Affairs Writer
San Francisco, CA, Tuesday, March 16, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO -- A United States prosecutor painted former
Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko as a politician out to "further
his own interests" and "to line his own pockets."

Lazarenko, 51, stands accused in federal court on suspicion of
laundering at least $114 million of an illegally obtained fortune
through banks in the United States. Prosecutor Martha Boersch told a
12-member jury during her opening statement Monday that
Lazarenko "was using his official power to force people to pay a
percentage of their profits they were making."

According to the 53-count indictment filed by U.S. prosecutors,
Lazarenko used his political clout to set up an international
underground network of bank accounts to launder profits made through
clandestine schemes involving natural gas, agribusiness, housing and
other businesses in Ukraine.

Counsel for Lazarenko, Doron Weinberg, told jurors his client was the
victim of overzealous prosecutors in the United States who were
perhaps doing the dirty work for Lazarenko's opponents back home,
including President Leonid Kuchma, who is up for re-election in
October.

Weinberg said Lazarenko's millions were made legitimately and that he
put them in overseas bank accounts so they would not be confiscated
by Kuchma, once Lazarenko's ally who became his nemesis after
Lazarenko began making a bid for the presidency in 1999.

"He moved money in order to protect it from the Kuchma regime,"
Weinberg said.

Lazarenko was released from jail on $86 million bail last year and
remains under 24-hour surveillance.

Jurors listened intently and some took notes as a trial began
featuring extortion, fraud, bribery, graft and even assassination
attempts to the backdrop of millions of dollars of bank accounts
hidden throughout the world.

Testimony begins Wednesday, and the trial that is expected to last
several months. Dozens of witnesses are expected to testify in
several languages that will be translated into English for the jury
and Russian for Lazarenko. Lazarenko is accused of violating United
States law by using the country as a repository for allegedly ill-
gotten money from Ukraine, and prosecutors must prove he violated
Ukrainian law to earn his fortune.

Lazarenko, the first former head of government to be tried in the
United States since Manuel Noriega of Panama, contends he neither
siphoned funds from his government nor accepted bribes from big
business in exchange for government contracts and favors.

Lazarenko claims he earned the fortune legitimately, in a burgeoning
and nearly lawless free-market economy left to fend for itself after
the Soviet Union's collapse. He also says that he planned to use the
money in a campaign to unseat Kuchma, the man who anointed him as
prime minister in 1996 and then fired him a year later.

After Lazarenko was appointed by Kuchma to be Ukraine's top energy
official in 1995, he awarded natural gas contracts to the United
Energy System of Ukraine, and in turn the company funneled more than
$120 million into Lazarenko's accounts, according to the indictment.
Weinberg said Lazarenko was paid by the company, but as political
donation in a bid to unseat Kuchma.

Lazarenko, 51, fled to the United States in 1999, in the midst of his
country's presidential election campaign, and sought asylum, claiming
there had been three failed attempts to assassinate him.

The case is United States v. Lazarenko, 00-0248. (END)(ARTUIS)
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 42: ARTICLE NUMBER SEVEN
The Genocidal Famine in Ukraine 1932-1933, HOLODOMOR
Genocide Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/famineart/index.htm
=========================================================
7. FORMER UKRAINIAN LEADER ACCUSED OF MONEY
LAUNDERING, LOOTING, FRAUD, EXTORTION

By David Kravets, AP Legal Affairs Writer
San Francisco, CA, Sunday, March 14, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO -- Extortion, fraud, bribery, graft, assassination
attempts and illicit overseas bank accounts holding hundreds of
millions of dollars. Sound like a plot from the latest Hollywood legal
thriller?

This real life drama unfolds here Monday when Pavlo Lazarenko, the
former prime minister of Ukraine, stands trial in federal court on
suspicion of laundering at least $114 million of an illegally
obtained fortune through banks in the United States.

Lazarenko claims he earned the fortune legitimately, in a burgeoning
and nearly lawless free-market economy left to fend for itself after
the Soviet Union's collapse. He also says that he planned to use the
money in a campaign to unseat Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, the
man who anointed him as prime minister in 1996 and then fired him a
year later.

According to the 53-count indictment filed by U.S. prosecutors here,
Lazarenko used his political clout to set up an international
underground network of bank accounts to launder profits made through
clandestine schemes involving natural gas, agribusiness, housing and
other businesses in Ukraine.

Authorities and experts aren't sure where all his money went. A
former economic adviser to Ukraine, Anders Aslund, estimated
Lazarenko siphoned off as much as $1 billion.

"He was the leader of a culture of pervasive corruption," said
Aslund, now a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington,
D.C. "I never encountered anyone who was as crudely corrupt as
Lazarenko."

The U.S. government is trying Lazarenko to make the point that
criminals should not consider the United States to be a safe
repository for dirty money. "We bring cases where there is sufficient
evidence when a crime is committed," Justice Department spokesman
Matt Jacobs said.

Ukrainian experts, however, suggest there is a political side to the
prosecution. "Lazarenko represents the type of prime minister that the
United States would not want to see in Ukraine," said John Hewko, a
former Kiev-based legal adviser to the Ukrainian government and now
an international law attorney based in Washington, D.C.

"The U.S. wants to see a pro-western Democratic government in place
and Lazarenko doesn't represent that and Kuchma, at the time, was
painted as the western darling," Hewko added.

"Lazarenko, as a government official in Ukraine, would engage in
various acts of extortion and fraud, and would receive funds that had
been stolen, converted and taken by fraud, and would transfer the
proceeds of this activity into bank accounts in Switzerland, Antigua,
Poland, the United States and elsewhere," according to the indictment.

Martha Boersch, the lead prosecutor, told U.S. District Judge Martin
Jenkins during a pretrial hearing here days ago that
Lazarenko "exercised his official authority in the form of people
giving him money."

Boersch and other federal prosecutors involved in the case declined
comment, but their case is outlined in a mountain of court documents
for a trial that is expected to last several months.

During the trial, Lazarenko, who usually comes to court in dark
business suits, will wear earphones during the trial, listening to
testimony translated by a pool of Russian-language interpreters.
Jurors, on the other hand, will watch tapes on a large projection
screen of English translations of the testimony of dozens of
Ukrainian officials and business executives who were questioned in
Ukraine.

Now 51, Lazarenko fled to the United States in 1999, in the midst of
his country's presidential election campaign, and sought asylum,
claiming there had been three failed attempts to assassinate him.

At the time, he carried a Panamanian passport and the Kuchma regime
was accusing him of embezzlement. The United States, caught in the
middle, jailed him.

Lazarenko, however, maintains Kuchma falsely accused him to eliminate
a political rival who was running for president.

He was released last year on $86 million bail and placed under 24-
hour surveillance.

The money laundering charges were brought in San Francisco because
some of the millions were allegedly transferred to bank accounts
here. In addition, the government says he used ill-gotten funds to
purchase a $6.7 million mansion where actor Eddie Murphy once lived
in Novato, a suburb just north of here.

If convicted, Lazarenko could face 20 years in prison or more.
The judge in the case has ruled that to prove the crime of money
laundering in the United States, prosecutors must demonstrate to
jurors that Lazarenko violated Ukrainian laws and obtained the money
illegally.

"We frankly don't think he committed any crimes in the Ukraine," said
one of Lazarenko's attorneys, Doron Weinberg in an interview. "In the
post-Soviet confederation, there was a time in which individuals
would have the opportunity to amass a significant amount of wealth."

Experts suggest prosecutors have an uphill battle. "The legislation in
Ukraine was incomplete, unclear and subject to a lot of interpretation,"
said Hewko.

Adding to the political intrigue, Kuchma himself has come under fire
at home and in the United States for allegedly authorizing the $100
million sale of sophisticated radar to Saddam Hussein. Kuchma has
also cracked down on the independent media ahead of October's
presidential elections.

A Kuchma bodyguard made a clandestine tape recording in which Kuchma
was heard discussing selling the radar to Hussein. Kuchma said the
tape, disclosed in 2000, was fabricated. But the United States said
the tape was authentic.

Those allegations soured U.S.-Ukrainian relations, but they've warmed
again since Ukraine dispatched 1,650 soldiers to patrol Iraq after
the United States toppled Hussein last year.

Lazarenko also was accused in 2002 by the Kuchma regime of ordering
the killings of two prominent politicians in 1996 and 1998. And while
locked up in the United States awaiting trial, a Swiss court
convicted Lazarenko in 2000 of money laundering in that country and
handed him an 18-month suspended sentence.

The case is United States v. Lazarenko, 00-0248. (END)(ARTUIS)
.=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 42: ARTICLE NUMBER EIGHT
Ukraine's History and the Long Struggle for Independence
Historical Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/histgallery.htm
==========================================================
8. SECOND TOP-LEVEL OSCE DELEGATION IN A MONTH
HIGHLIGHT'S CONCERNS ABOUT DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINE

AP Worldstream, Kiev, Ukraine, Mar 15, 2004

KIEV - Europe's top security organization on Monday sent its second
high-level delegation to Ukraine in a month to discuss the October
presidential vote, highlighting concerns about mounting media crackdowns and
proposed election law changes.

Tone Tinsgaard, vice-president of the Copenhagen-based Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, told The
Associated Press that the OSCE was disturbed by authorities' tinkering with
Ukraine's seven-year old constitution and their treatment of media in the
run-up to campaigning to replace two-term President Leonid Kuchma.

Suspicions of an official campaign to muzzle the media in this former Soviet
republic spread quickly this month after the second private affiliate of
U.S.-funded Radio Liberty was pulled off the air in weeks. The move came
after authorities closed an independent newspaper and threatened to shut
down an opposition TV station.

Thousands of Ukrainians protested in the capital last week, accusing
Kuchma's administration of suppressing independent media ahead of the fall
vote.

OSCE Secretary General Jan Kubis raised concerns earlier this month that
recent events contradicted Ukraine's goal of deeper integration with Europe.
Ukraine's government has agreed to allow OSCE observers monitor the vote to
ensure it meets international standards.

Opposition groups claim they have sufficient support to win a clean vote.
They accuse Kuchma of endemic corruption, press suppression, and
vote-rigging that have smothered democracy in the country of 48 million.
(tv/mb) (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 42: ARTICLE NUMBER NINE
The Rich History of Ukrainian Art, Music, Pysanka, Folk-Art
Arts Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/artgallery.htm
=========================================================
9. UKRAINIAN BAND ROCKING THE FORMER SOVIET WORLD
AND BEYOND
Five-piece guitar-playing band Okean Elzy [Elsa's Ocean] from Lviv,
the heart of nationalism in western Ukraine

By Elizabeth Piper, Reuters, Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, March 14, 2004

KIEV (Reuters) - The rock music fans are glued to their seats, frightened
to move due to the presence of the khaki-clad women patrolling the aisles.

Graying men, women in a fur coats holding young children and hundreds
of young girls obediently adhere to the strict no-dancing,
no-drinking, no-enjoyment policy.

But by the first of many encores, the fans are up and partying in the
aisles, standing on seats to cheer and scream at their idol, Slava
Vakarchuk of rock group Okean Elzy [Elsa's Ocean], who struts
cross the stage.

The tubular lights at Kiev's "Palace of Ukraine" shudder as the
audience join in the songs which, for once, portray former Soviet
Ukraine in a favourable light -- a world away from perceptions that it is
a home of disasters.

"We want to make people all over the world know more about Ukraine,"
said Vakarchuk, lead singer of the group, a five-piece guitar-playing
band from Lviv, the heartland of nationalism in western Ukraine.

"Like now the situation is, all of the people over the world know
about Ukraine only through sport, and some people know about Chernobyl
and all of that stuff. We are sick and tired of that and we want to
present some culture and some spirit."

During the almost three-hour concert, the spirit is there -- much to
the annoyance of the khaki-clad women more used to disciplining
comrades at Communist Party congresses.

All tight trousers and flowing, pink scarves, Vakarchuk is Ukraine's
number one pop idol. Girls queue up to hand him flowers, chocolates
and teddy bears. Even Ukraine's main opposition leader heads
backstage to give him a hug.

CORRUPTION, POVERTY, DISENCHANTMENT

Bordering both Russia and three prospective EU members to the west,
Ukraine has long been a borderland, fending off invading armies
and fighting to establish an identity.

About half of the country speaks Russian, not Ukrainian, discouraged
but not crushed under communism. The nationalist west has little in
common with the Russian-speaking east.

The capital tries to tie the two halves together, but with a territory the
size of France, it is not always easy.

Scandal-tainted President Leonid Kuchma stands accused of corruption,
poverty is widespread, apartment buildings lie in disrepair and
after a poor wheat crop, bread prices are rising.

Many Ukrainians feel the chance of a better, democratic future after
the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 was wasted.

Okean Elzy {Elsa's Ocean] has given back at least some pride.

Songs like "I am going home" have been used for advertisements for
locally produced chocolates, others like "Pussycat" and "911" have
become regular features on Ukraine's equivalent of MTV.

The group, which formed 10 years ago and cornered the Ukrainian
market selling platinum albums despite pirating, wants to persuade the
West it has what it takes to conquer new markets -- eastern and then
western Europe and the United States.

And they are willing to give it a go in English.

"We started to think about it approximately a year ago and what we
have done now is to have tried to translate some of our old Ukrainian
songs into English and hopefully we will write some new songs and I
will try to make the lyrics in English," said Vakarchuk, 28.

"And I think the next stage for us is to sign some agreement with
major labels, some of them are interested in us and we are interested
in some of them...we want to present our music for people in eastern
Europe first...and then also in the West."

In Soviet times, the group grew up listening to a diet of the
Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Queen, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.
Dreams of fame in the Western world are high.

"Our language has taken us to the top of the Ukrainian industry so
when we try to translate our texts and it sounds a little funny at
first but you have to get used to it, and we hope the music will help do
that," said keyboard player Dima Shurov.

"We were raised on English music, we listened to all kinds of English
groups when we were kids and they were all the same groups for us.
Wouldn't it be great to get popular in the West and then go back to
the Ukrainian language. Can you imagine?"

But first they will tour their homeland this year, regaling Ukrainian
audiences at a range of auditoriums.

"It was a tough audience at the beginning," said guitarist Pavlo
Gudymov after the Kiev concert. (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 42: ARTICLE NUMBER TEN
The Rich History of Ukrainian Art, Music, Pysanka, Folk-Art
Arts Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/artgallery.htm
=========================================================
10. "THE UNKNOWN MALEVYCH"
Internationally Renowned Artist: On his 125th Birth Anniversary

By Olena Papeta, Art Researcher, The Day Weekly Digest in English
Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 9, 2004

I am not sure that if I asked any ordinary Ukrainians on the street what
associations the name Kazymyr Malevych and the word combination Black Square
call up, the vast majority of them would smile happily and give an
exhaustive answer, "Kazymyr Severynovych Malevych was a Kyiv-born
internationally renowned artist, and The Black Square is a world-famous work
of his." But let us assume that the answer is approximately of this kind and
take advantage of the artist's coming 125th birth anniversary to add a few
touches to the portrait drawn by the imaginary rank-and-file Ukrainian.

It would be a good idea to start with a sensation. The point is that the
whole cultural world marked Malevych's 125th anniversary last year. This
year it is being done for the second time because the Central State
Historical Archives of Ukraine hold the Roman Catholic Parish Church's
Record of Those Born in 1879 (i.e., a year later than was previously
considered) with an entry that "a son was born to Severyn and Liudvika
Malevych (Sewerin and Ludwika Malewicz), a gentry couple from Zhytomyr
district, Volyn province, on February 11(23), 1879, and baptized Kazymyr
(Kazimierz) at Kyiv's Roman Catholic parish church.

In witness thereof were Boleslaw Malewicz and Maria Orzechowska."
Incidentally, the future globally acclaimed avant-garde artist and founder
of suprematism was born and spent the first years of his life precisely in
the house of his aunt and godmother Maria Orzechowska at 13 Kostiolna (now
Bozhenko) Street. The building itself has not survived: this place is now
occupied by the Y. O. Paton Institute of Electrical Welding.

Let us return then to the life story of the artist himself. Kazymyr was the
first of seven children in the family of Polish nobles Sewerin and Ljudwika
Malewicz. The Kyiv Roman Catholic Cathedral keeps a 1878 record about the
couple's wedding ceremony. In addition, the Zhytomyr Oblast Archives have a
truly unique document: the genealogical book of the Malewicz noble clan with
the coat-of-arms and many documents related to the history of this quite old
dynasty.

The first entry in the record book notes privileges bestowed on an ancestor
of Malevych by Polish King Sigismund III. The archival documents never
mention that there were artists in the Malewicz clan, the overwhelming
majority of men were military or clerical, as was the custom among the petty
szlachta. At the turn of the eighteenth century, his great-grandfather Ivan
served as artillery captain, while his cousins Ivan and Vasyl were parish
priest and cathedral canon respectively.

In the early nineteenth century, the Malewiczes' list of professions
included warrant officer, sub-deacon, dean, collegium registrar, junior
doctor at Sevastopol's military hospital, and titular councilor. Against the
backdrop of this variety of occupations of his relatives, Kazymyr's father
Severyn occupied rather a modest position of sugar mill employee.

Malevych recalled in his Autobiography, "The circumstances of my childhood
life were as follows: my father worked at sugar beet-processing mills that
were usually built deep in the hinterland, far away from cities big and
small. There were vast sugar beet plantations. These plantations required a
large predominantly peasant workforce. While the peasants, grown-ups and
children alike, worked on the plantation all through the summer and fall, I,
the future artist, feasted my eyes on the fields and 'colored' workers who
were weeding or digging up the beets.

"The platoons of colorfully-dressed girls stepped in single file across the
field. It was a war. The troops in multicolored dresses fought the weeds,
preventing the beets from being smothered by harmful plants. I liked
watching those fields in the morning, when the sun was still low and the
warbling skylarks soared... There seemed to be no end to the sugar beet
plantations which merged with the distant skyline, come down on small grain
fields, or climb the hills, embracing villages with their green hands..."
Kazymyr Malevych said the colored memories of his childhood were sort of
negatives that lingered in his mind in order to find expression later in the
deep and juicy colors of his paintings.

As the artist reminisced, he was first conscious of a desire to paint when
he traveled with his father to Kyiv, "Father took me to Kyiv. The first
thing I did was go to see hills on the banks of the Dnipro. Then I began
window-shopping and saw a canvas with a scrumptious picture of a girl
sitting on a bench and peeling potatoes. The potatoes and peelings looked so
natural that this made a lasting impression on me, as did nature itself...
So, to be able to stay in Kyiv, where, as I learned later, there were such
'great' artists as Pymonenko (Malevych's future mentor - Ed.) and Murashko,
I first went to no greater a town than Konotop, Chernihiv province, in which
I began to strenuously and carefully paint landscapes with a stork and cows
in the background. Only then did the family see there was a black sheep in
it." This in fact sealed the destiny of the future leader of the world
avant-garde.

Malevych's creative life was always connected with Kyiv and Ukraine. When he
attended a Kyiv painting school in 1896, he was presumably taught by
Pymonenko, a rural-theme painter. The theme of the countryside and farming
remained high on the list of Malevych's creative priorities. After studying
in Moscow (1904-1905) in the period of "secession," symbolism, cubism and
dynamic futurism, Malevych finally introduced suprematism ("the painted
model of a cosmos based on the coordinated movement of geometrically perfect
figures"), a new trend that had a great effect on the development of art in
the twentieth century. The artist's objectless compositions were also used
in Ukrainian applied folk art: lady masters from the village Verbivka, Kyiv
oblast, led by artist N. Davydova embroidered blankets and pillows according
to Malevych's suprematist sketches.

Living in Russia, Malevych made several attempts to move to Kyiv. He first
tried to do so in the early 1920s, when he worked at the art educational
institutions of Moscow, Vitebsk, and Petrograd. It was at that time that the
artist founded and headed the well-known art group UNOVIS ("champions of new
art") in Vitebsk.

In 1926 Russia began to malign him as a "mystic and formalist." He was even
jailed for some time on the grounds that he allegedly spied for Germany
where he had held a personal exhibition. Fleeing from persecution, Kazymyr
Malevych came to Kyiv, where there was a more lenient attitude toward
avant-garde artists. In 1928-1930 he was professor at the Kyiv Artistic
Institute, where he worked side by side with Bohomazov and Palmov. At the
same time the artist published a series of articles on the theory of
avant-garde in the journals Nova Generatsiya (Kharkiv) and Almanakh-avanhard
(Kyiv).

Very soon, however, when the wave of repressions also reached Kyiv, Malevych
was fired from the institute. That was the beginning of the terrible
1930s... Under the influence of collectivization and the Holodomor, the
so-called "second rural cycle" of the master's canvases portrayed the tragic
figures of peasants foreboding the coming historical cataclysms.

Yet, in fact, there were inconveniences in the relationship between Malevych
and his native Kyiv and the institute colleagues. It is known from Malevych'
s letters to artist Lev Kramarenko that in 1930 the Kyiv Picture Gallery
managed by Kumpan offered to stage an exhibition of Malevych's works,
following which the artist could not either get back or receive money for
his pictures for several years.

The letter says (to add bitter irony and humor, Malevych wrote this in
farcical Russian- Ukrainian pidgin), "Dear Comrade Kramarenko, I'm fed up
with being Ukrainian! It is a nation that has lost every shred of
conscience, tactfulness, etc. What have you all and Coupon (i.e., Kumpan -
Author) done to my exhibition? It took me three years to get back my
pictures with the aid of our trade union. But this is not the end of it. The
damned Coupon still holds back three pictures, and I can do nothing to make
the Coupon's bunch send them to me. He has pocketed and is going to keep
them until the end of the world." The next letter contains a scathing
appraisal of Comrade Taran, a Kyiv Artistic Institute professor and a friend
of Malevych's and Kramarenko's, "...and Taran, a true Ukrainian
rags-to-riches lout, has not even answered my letter."

An outstanding name is quite an ample reason to be proud of a country's
cultural achievements. Ukraine is now gradually gleaning its cultural
heritage and shows the world the true worth of its assets. Restoring the
good name of Kazymyr Malevych should be a step on this path.

NOTE: To read several additional stories about Kazymyr Malevych
click on the following link and scroll down the left side to the M's for
Malevych: http://www.artukraine.com/artgallery.htm
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 42: ARTICLE NUMBER ELEVEN
Send Us Names to Add to the Distribution List for UKRAINE REPORT
=========================================================
11. ARMENIAN PAPER CONDEMNS BRITISH ENVOY FOR
DENYING 1915 ARMENIAN GENOCIDE SAYING HER
REMARKS WERE FALSE AND OFFENSIVE

Report by Harut Sassounian
"One should not keep silent in this case."
Azg, Yerevan, Armenia, in Armenian 10 Mar 04 p 5
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Mar 11, 2004

The British ambassador's recent remarks on the 1915 Armenian genocide are
false and offensive, says an article reprinted by the Armenian newspaper Azg
from California Courier. The paper interviewed Ambassador Thorda Abbott-Watt
who said that "the British government had condemned the massacres as an
atrocity at the time, and still did, but the evidence was not sufficiently
unequivocal that what took place could be categorized as genocide under the
1948 United Nations Convention on Genocide".

At the same time, the paper criticized the Armenian government for not
reacting to the ambassador's statement. It urged Armenian organizations to
condemn the British government's position and stage demonstrations outside
the embassy.

The following is a text of Harut Sassounian report by Armenian newspaper Azg
on 10 March headlined "One should not keep silent in this case". Subheadings
have been inserted editorially:

On 20 January, during an interview to the Regnum agency in connection with
the first anniversary of her diplomatic posting in Armenia, the British
ambassador to Armenia made a false and offensive statement on the Armenian
genocide.

Ambassador Thorda Abbott-Watt was reported by Azg newspaper as saying:
"Great Britain accepts that the events of 1915 were mass killings (of the
Armenian population), the responsible for which are the Turks. I see no
problem calling it brutality. It shouldn't have taken place even in the
course of war. But, I do not think that recognizing the events as genocide
would be of much use."

BRITISH ENVOY'S COMMENT

Before writing this column, I sent an e-mail to the British ambassador to
confirm that she was accurately quoted. She responded by saying: "On the
events of 1915, I said words to the effect quoted, but the translation has
come out slightly clumsily. What I said was that I understood the strength
of feeling in Armenia about what happened and that I knew that this was an
issue which still touched people very deeply nearly ninety years on. The
British government had condemned the massacres as an atrocity at the time,
and still did.

But the evidence was not sufficiently unequivocal that what took place could
be categorized as genocide under the 1948 United Nations Convention on
Genocide and that while the debate continued among historians and lawyers,
we believed that there was a role for us in encouraging countries in the
region to look to the future and to work actively for better relations and a
lessening of tension."

In my response to her, I pointed out that I had no quarrel with her
personally, since as ambassador, she was merely expressing the position of
her government.

Nevertheless, I inquired if she could explain why the British government
would take the highly offensive and incorrect position that the Armenian
genocide did not fit the UN definition of genocide. I told her that I was
quite familiar with the UN definition, as I had spent 10 years lobbying at
the UN for the acceptance of the Armenian genocide.

In 1985, the UN Subcommission on the Prevention of Discrimination and
Protection of Minorities finally recognized the Armenian genocide as a
genocide, and included it as such in its report on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

I found it absurd that the British government would question the
compatibility of the Armenian genocide with the UN definition, since the
UN itself had taken the position that the Armenian Genocide perfectly fit
its definition of genocide!

It is quite upsetting that any ambassador sitting in Yerevan would have the
audacity to dispute that what happened to the Armenians in 1915 was
genocide!

NO ARMENIAN REACTION SO FAR

It is even more upsetting that in the past six weeks, not a single Armenian
government official, nor the representative of any political organization,
indeed not a single Armenian has bothered to respond to the ambassador's
insulting words on the Armenian genocide!

By now, there should have been dozens of statements issued by various
Armenian entities, both in Armenia and the diaspora, condemning both the
British ambassador and her government. There should have been daily
demonstrations in front of the British embassy in Yerevan.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry should have delivered a diplomatic note of
protest to the ambassador and put her on notice that the Armenian government
would not tolerate such offensive statements. In a recent interview she gave
to a journalist in Armenia, Ambassador Abott-Watt said: "I like a good
khorovads [kebab].

By the time I leave Armenia, I hope I'll be able to make good khorovads." If
the Armenians would react strongly to her deeply injurious statement on the
genocide, before she returns to London, she may also learn that distorting
the facts of the Armenian genocide is highly offensive to Armenians and a
sin against all victims of crimes against humanity. By their silence,
Armenians are simply encouraging the British and others to continue
questioning the facts of the Armenian genocide.

Imagine what would have happened if some ambassador would have been
foolish enough to give a press conference in the middle of Tel Aviv, saying
that the Holocaust was simply "an atrocity" or "a brutality" and did not fit
the UN definition of genocide!

That ambassador would have been kicked out of Israel within 24 hours.
Armenians not only should raise their voices in protest against the British

ambassador, more importantly, they should urge Armenian government
officials and political organizations not to remain silent in the face of
such denials! (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 42: ARTICLE NUMBER TWELVE
Politics and Governance, Building a Strong, Democratic Ukraine
http://www.artukraine.com/buildukraine/index.htm
=========================================================
12. BOB SCHAFFER TO RUN FOR U.S. SENATOR FROM COLORADO
Has Ukrainian Heritage and Supported Ukraine While A Congressman

By E. Morgan Williams, Editor, "Action Ukraine Report"
Washington, D.C., Monday, March 15, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Former three-term Colorado Congressman Bob
Schaffer on Friday announced that he will run for an open Colorado seat in
the U.S. Senate. Should Schaffer win, he would replace the retiring
Republican Senator from Colorado, Ben Nighthorse Campbell, the only
Native American in the Congress.

The return of Bob Schaffer to the U.S. Congress could be good news for the
U.S. friends of Ukraine and for Ukraine itself. Schaffer, with grandparents
who were born in Ukraine, served actively as co-chairman of the
Congressional Ukrainian Caucus, made frequent trips to Ukraine during his
service in the House of Representatives, including being a member of the
U.S. delegation monitoring the parliamentary and local elections in Ukraine
on March 31, 2002.

Schaffer supported issues important to the development of democracy, civil
society, rule of law and a market-driven economic system in Ukraine while
serving as a Congressman.

The former Congressman made a special trip to Washington from Colorado
on Tuesday, February 17 of this year to participate as a panelist in a
special roundtable on the problems and critical choices facing Ukraine in
2004 and how the U.S. and the Ukrainian American diaspora should respond
to them.

The recent event was co-sponsored by Archbishop Stefan Soroka, metropolitan
of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the U.S., and the three founding member-
organizations of the Action Ukraine Coalition: the Ukrainian American
Coordinating Council, the Ukrainian Federation of America and the U.S.-
Ukraine Foundation.

Schaffer was elected to the House of Representatives in November of 1996
and served three terms, until January of 2003, stepping down as one of the
few Congressman to ever actually fulfill a self-imposed term limit pledge.
Schaffer made his three term limit pledge to the voters in his congressional
district in Colorado during his first campaign in 1996.

Schaffer, in the fall of 2002, published a book entitled, "U.S.-Ukraine
Agenda for Freedom..Principles for Rada-Congress Cooperation." He also
had indicated a willingness to serve as the United States Ambassador to
Ukraine at the end of his service in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In the introduction to the book Congressman Schaffer wrote: "This document
is my proposal for further expansion of U.S.-Ukraine parliamentary
cooperation. It is the product of my many years of involvement in
U.S.-Ukraine issues. In reaching out to several leading expert on Ukraine,
I hope to emphasize ways to improve the quality of life for the Ukrainian
people. Some of the initiatives suggested herein are new, some are already
under way, and others need additional support for greater results."

"I've filed and I have an organization that I've put together, an
exploratory team and a team that is getting larger. I see nothing that
discourages me," Schaffer told the Associated Press in Denver on Friday.
==========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 42: ARTICLE NUMBER THIRTEEN
Please Send Us Names to Add to the Distribution List for UKRAINE REPORT
==========================================================
13. PRESIDENT PUTIN'S IMITATION OF A TSAR IS DOOMED TO FAILURE

By Anders Aslund, The Sunday Telegraph, London, UK, Sun, Mar 14, 2004

[Anders Aslund is Director of the Russian and Eurasian Program at the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, DC.]

'If it is better than in 1913 it is already good," the late Soviet comedian
Arkadi Raikin used to say. To generations of Russians, nothing was as good
as their last peaceful year with the Tsar. Now this dream of nostalgia
appears to be coming true. President Vladimir Putin has systematically
abolished all checks and balances, and today's "elections" are really more
of a coronation.

Fortunately, this does not look like a Soviet restoration or fascism,
because the authoritarianism is still mild and ideology is all but absent.
Putin's system appears to be modelled on late Tsarism. The Tsar follows any
whim without bothering with consultation. The bureaucracy is given a free
hand, and the secret police is perceived as the jewel in the crown.
Corruption is not only accepted but favoured.

The reinforced and pervasively corrupt bureaucracy is spreading its
deadening hand over society and economy. The military is constantly paraded
and celebrated on television, but it remains useless. Competing secret
police corps are rapidly becoming the most powerful and corrupt parts of
the state.

Putin apologists, such as the television journalist Mikhail Leontiev, speak
of the "minimal necessary repression", as if they are afraid of the Russian
nation falling apart, but that is not a real threat. This revival of a
long-dead system which was never viable is a monstrosity of nostalgia, and
it is unlikely to be successful.

Corruption is the main cause of popular discontent with every incumbent
government in East-Central Europe, and the situation is worse in Russia.
The secret policemen from St Petersburg, Putin's power base, are extremely
hungry and seem determined to steal as much as possible as soon as they can.

Although the Russians have not yet realised it, they will soon understand
that Putin's close associates are the driving forces of corruption in
Russia. When that happens, Mr Putin and his secret police will no longer be
able to trade on the fact that they are "fighting corruption".

No modern society can function after a systematic elimination of all its
checks and balances. It is likely that the flood of new legislation that
will ensue will be as inconsistent as that which was introduced in the
early 1990s - some of it liberal and some anti-liberal. There are no means
available to coordinate or scrutinise this legislation properly. Nor can
Putin possibly make sensible decisions after he has abolished the existing
mechanisms of consultation and advice and concentrated so much of the
decision making in himself. This will have both economic and political
consequences.

The state-dominated media is swiftly losing its authority. The two state
channels, ORT and Russia, are now perfectly Soviet. Putin's United Russia
party has hardly any official spokesmen, so Putin has to make all
statements himself. He is quickly becoming over-exposed in a way
reminiscent of Gorbachev. His enigmatic quality is inevitably depleted.

During his first term, Putin ably balanced the power of the oligarchs
against the rise of the KGB men, presenting himself as the President of all
Russians. Now, he has made clear that he is the President of the siloviki
(the men in uniform), alienating everybody else.

You cannot hope for much if you enter the 21st century professing that your
creed is the Tsar, the state and the Russian Orthodox Church. While these
values may appeal briefly to some nostalgics, they are hopelessly obsolete.

I found that sculptures of four men dominated the souvenir stalls on the
Arbat: Lenin, Stalin, Dzherzhinsky (the founder of the Soviet secret
police) and Putin! But Russia is not driven by any extreme nationalism. On
the contrary, ideology is absent. This is staturing rather than extremism.

The people around Putin are predominantly grey men, in their 50s, from the
old foreign intelligence service. They represent the lost Brezhnev
generation, speaking foreign languages and sounding modern, but in fact
were thoroughly corrupted by the old Soviet system. When change came, they
were bypassed by the idealistic, open-minded and liberal generation of
young reformers. Putin's decision to choose the grey men, the most cynical,
disillusioned and unambitious generation going nowhere, is a retrograde
step.

The greatest source of Putin's support is the high economic growth of 7 per
cent a year and it is difficult to see any macroeconomic problem on the
horizon. However, his greedy secret policemen do not accept any
limitations, and least of all on the private property of others. They seem
intent on stealing one big enterprise after another.

If they do, neither investment nor stock markets are likely to continue,
and this will be reflected in the growth rate. It is amazing to hear the
West's investment bankers and fund managers praising Putin for introducing
law and order. Russia suffers from having investment analysts with a vested
interest replacing disinterested academic observers.

There are other problems as well. In Chechnya, Putin is at a dead end and
his corrupt secret police are helpless in the face of terrorism. As a
clearly authoritarian state, Russia cannot expect the respect it enjoyed
when it seemed to be building democracy. The gulf between Russia and Europe
is likely to widen further. The regional disparity is great and the
bureaucratised system lacks the mechanism to moderate it.

When I had lunch recently with one of the leaders of the pro-Putin party,
United Russia, I asked him about the Duma elections. He replied that he had
talked with the President, who was "concerned". That is how Russian
officials now talk - they let their worries be reflected in the President.
He suggested to me that that the new Duma was like a bird with too big a
bottom, a decrepit Left wing and no Right wing. "Such a bird," he said,
"cannot fly." The same can be said about Putin's fantastic new Tsarism.

The big question is not whether Putin's system can survive - it cannot -
but whether the hard nationalist trend will be continued as Yegor Gaidar,
the former prime minister, thinks or whether Putin's restoration of Tsarism
is a brief nightmare which will be followed by a new liberalisation. (END)
==========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 42: ARTICLE NUMBER FOURTEEN
Major Articles About What is Going on in Ukraine
Current Events Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/events/index.htm
==========================================================
14. GONGADZE CASE STILL SENSITIVE SUBJECT IN UKRAINE

Inside Ukraine Newsletter, Kyiv, Ukraine, March 15, 2004

KYIV, Ukraine ----- Sunday night's presentation on a popular national
television news program, Television 1+1's Epicenter, seems to confirm that
the murder of Internet journalist Heorhy Gongadze remains a very sensitive
topic for some of Ukraine's top politicians. The material presented by the
usually pro-Kuchma program host, Vyacheslav Pikhovshek, appeared to be
designed to shift responsibility for Gongadze's murder to a person or
persons outside Ukraine.

In making his points on the subject, Pikhovshek presented a series of tape
recordings of conversations between a Ukrainian journalist named Solovyev
and his Russian counterpart, one Mischa, allegedly discussing lucrative
proposals from the exiled Russian tycoon, Boris Berezovksky. The whole story
pointed to a conspiracy that was allegedly planned by Berezovsky to
compromise both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President
Leonid Kuchma.

Allegedly, the strange visit of Ivan Rybkin to Kyiv, while he was still a
candidate for president of the Russian Federation, was aimed at the murder
of Rybkin or some other person that would then be used to place both Putin
or Kuchma under suspicion. In the increasingly unbelievable scenario
presented by Pikhovshek, there was a hint that someone, allegedly
Berezovsky, was behind the Gongadze assassination and the cassette scandal
in Ukraine.

Pikhovshek said, "The power had no reason to kill Gongadze. Georgiy was
assassinated to substantiate the [Melnychenko] recordings and expose
Kuchma." Pikhovshek went further, saying, "Apparently Berezovsky decided to
help the West in exposing Kuchma wrongdoings."

Prosecutor General Oleksandr Vasylyev is reported to be very interested in
acquiring Gongadze's severed head in order to write a final chapter to the
affair.

Informed observers suggest that the continued high level of interest in the
Gongadze case is proof of the continued sensitivity of some high level
Ukrainian politicians to the murder case that seems to never go away. (END)
==========================================================
ARTICLES ARE FOR PERSONAL AND ACADEMIC USE ONLY
==========================================================
NEWS AND INFORMATION WEBSITE 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
=========================================================
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
=========================================================
INFORMATION ABOUT "ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" 2004
The "ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" 2004, is an in-depth news and analysis
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Publisher and Editor: "ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" 2004
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