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Action Ukraine Report

"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT"
An International Newsletter
In-Depth Ukrainian News, Analysis, and Commentary

"The Art of Ukrainian History, Culture, Arts, Business, Religion,
Sports, Government, and Politics, in Ukraine and Around the World"

YANA KLOCHKOVA SWIMS INTO OLYMPIC HISTORY
Ukraine's medley queen clinches historic 'double double'

ATHENS - Ukrainian medley queen Yana Klochkova swam into Olympic
history on Tuesday when she became the first woman to win the same two
swimming events at successive Games.

Klochkova, one of the greats of swimming and the world's best all-round
female swimmer for the past five years, added the 200 metres individual
medley gold on Tuesday to the gold she had already won in the 400
medley, matching the feat she achieved in Sydney four years ago.

"I will dedicate this to my entire family, to my grandmother who has
always supported me and to Ukraine, my country and my supporters."

"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" Year 04, Number 142
The Action Ukraine Coalition (AUC), Washington, D.C.
Ukrainian Federation of America (UFA), Huntingdon Valley, PA
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net (ARTUIS)
Washington, D.C.; Kyiv, Ukraine, WEDNESDAY, August 18, 2004

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

1. YANA KLOCHKOVA SWIMS INTO OLYMPIC HISTORY
Ukraine's medley queen clinches historic 'double double'
REUTERS, Athens, Greece, Wednesday, August 18, 2004

2. GREECE'S ILIADIS BECOMES YOUNGEST JUDO CHAMP
European Junior Champion Roman Gontyuk of Ukraine Wins Silver Medal
REUTERS, Athens, Georgia, Tuesday, August 17, 2004

3. "UKRAINIAN ATHLETES HEAD FOR ATHENS OLYMPICS"
By Alexandra Matoshko, Kyiv Post Staff Writer
Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Aug 12, 2004

4. AUTHORITIES PRESSURE UKRAINIAN CABLE OPERATORS
NOT TO BROADCAST TELEVISION KANAL FIVE
[Authorities use extreme pressure, intimidation, fear, law
suits, arrests, tax and other inspections to shut down TV Kanal Five]
TV 5 Kanal, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian, 17 Aug 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Tuesday, Aug 17, 2004

5. UKRAINIAN JOURNALIST BEATEN IN LATEST ATTACK
AP Worldstream, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug 17, 2004

6. IMF OFFICIAL SAYS UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO
ENSURE TRANSPARENT AND COMPETITIVE SALE OF PROPERTY
MP says damages due to low prices could be around UAH 13-15 billion
INTERFAX, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, August 17, 2004

7. "HOW TO CONTINUE THE FAST PACE OF ECONOMIC
GROWTH IN UKRAINE"
ANALYSIS: Lorenzo Figiuoli, IMF Senior Resident
Representative in Ukraine; Bohdan Lissovolik, IMF Economist
Zerkalo Nedeli On The WEB, Mirror-Weekly
Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, 14 - 20 August, 2004

8.UKRAINIAN PRIME MINISTER EXPECTS ECONOMIC GROWTH
COULD BE MAINTAINED BY LEGALIZING SHADOW INCOMES
UNIAN news agency, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian, 17 Aug 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Tuesday, Aug 17, 2004

9. "MOSCOW MATTERS IN FORMER SOVIET UNION"
Kremlin exerts influence over Soviet republics to keep West at bay
By Mark MacKinnon, in Moscow; Globe and Mail
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Tuesday, August 17, 2004

10. "COMMUNISM STILL HAUNTS EAST EUROPE"
ANALYSIS By Robin Shepherd
United Press International (UPI), Bratislava, Slovakia, Tues, Aug 17, 2004

11.UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN DIGEST
OF DEVELOPMENTS FOR WEEK OF AUGUST 9-15, 2004
BBC Monitoring research in English 15 Aug 04
BBC Monitoring Service, United Kingdom, Sun, Aug 15, 2004

12. MOSCOW RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH WANTS CLOSER
TIES WITH RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OUTSIDE RUSSIA
ITAR-TASS, Moscow, Russia, Tues, August 17, 2004

13. "STALIN'S JEWISH ENCLAVE IN SIBERIA STAGES A REVIVAL"
Soviet leader Stalin persuaded tens of thousands of poor Jews from
Ukraine and Belarus to move to Birobidjan as farmers in 1934
By Julius Strauss in Birobidjan
Electronic Telegraph, London, UK, Tues, August 17, 2004
=======================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.142 ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
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1. YANA KLOCHKOVA SWIMS INTO OLYMPIC HISTORY
Ukraine's medley queen clinches historic 'double double'

REUTERS, Athens, Greece, Wednesday, August 18, 2004

ATHENS - Ukrainian medley queen Yana Klochkova swam into Olympic
history on Tuesday when she became the first woman to win the same two
swimming events at successive Games.

Klochkova, one of the greats of swimming, added the 200 metres individual
medley gold on Tuesday to the gold she had already won in the 400 medley,
matching the feat she achieved in Sydney four years ago.

She was watched by another Ukrainian national hero, former pole-vaulter
and now International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Serhiy Bubka
who also presented her with her medal and olive wreath.

"When you do it once that is very important," 22-year-old Klochkova said.
"I won in Sydney but when you win twice and make history, that stays in the
record books for ever. That is the best thing for me."

Only Russian Alexander Popov and Hungarian Tamas Darnyi have matched
Klochkova's feat in Olympic swimming. Popov won both the 50 and 100
freestyle golds in 1992 and 1996 and Darnyi completed 200 and 400
individual medley doubles in 1988 and 1992.

"I will dedicate this to my entire family, to my grandmother who has always
supported me and to Ukraine, my country and my supporters. "I was
extremely pleased that Bubka was watching me and presented me with the
award. He is a hero in my country."

Klochkova said she needed a break after her latest achievement and hinted
she might quit swimming. "I need to have a break and a rest. Sydney was
four years ago but it seems like only yesterday. Athens seemed to be in the
future, now it has happened.

"I need to rest. I have been under psychological pressure. I myself am my
toughest opponent. "It's been very difficult. I have lived half my life in
the pool. So now I need to look forward to something else, maybe out of
the pool."

A world championship silver medallist in 1998 at the age of 15, she suffered
a rare defeat at the hands of American Maggie Bowen in the 200 medley at
the 2001 world championships but won the 400 medley and 400 freestyle.
Two years later she completed the 200-400 medley double at the Barcelona
world championships.

She has now won four Olympic and four world championship titles. She has
also won 10 individual European golds -- a record she shares with Popov --
including medley doubles at the last four editions of the championships.
=======================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.142: ARTICLE NUMBER TWO
The Action Ukraine Coalition, "Working to Secure Ukraine's Future"
=======================================================
2. GREECE'S ILIADIS BECOMES YOUNGEST JUDO CHAMP
European Junior Champion Roman Gontyuk of Ukraine Wins Silver Medal

REUTERS, Athens, Georgia, Tuesday, August 17, 2004

ATHENS - Ilias Iliadis won a second gold medal for host country Greece
on Tuesday and became the youngest men's Olympic judo champion.

The remarkable 17-year-old stormed to Olympic gold, blitzing double
European junior champion Roman Gontyuk of Ukraine in the final as hoards
of ecstatic Greeks raised the roof of the Ano Liossia Olympic Hall.

"My age does not matter," the Georgian-born champion said as his father
Nikos translated into pidgin-Greek. "When someone has an objective, they
have to fight to achieve this objective. When you have the gold medal in
your sight you have to fight for it."

Sitting in the news conference after his victory and wearing his olive
wreath, Iliadis, who won the European title in May, looked like a Greek
god. He started competing internationally a year ago at under 73kg but
stepped up to under 81kg this year and became virtually unbeatable.

With a whiff of youthful arrogance he added: "It did not tire me today -
judo is a sport for men and if you are a man you don't get tired." That was
not the case for his opponents who seemed exhausted and surprised they
were surpassed by someone so young.

Silver-medallist Roman Gontyuk, 20, said he was happy with his medal and
paid tribute to his conqueror. He said: "It is a pleasure to win this medal
as I did not expect it to happen. He (Iliadis) is a great champion and I am
very happy with my medal."

Dmitri Nossov fought through the pain barrier to win bronze with a powerful
pick-up technique to defeat Mehman Azizov of Azerbaijan. Brazil's Flavio
Canto beat Robert Krawczyk of Poland to win the other bronze medal and
said he hoped it would help him get more support for the social project he
runs in a slum in his home city of Rio de Janeiro. (END) (ARTUIS)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.142: ARTICLE NUMBER THREE
A leading news source for thousands around the world
=======================================================
3. "UKRAINIAN ATHLETES HEAD FOR ATHENS OLYMPICS"

By Alexandra Matoshko, Kyiv Post Staff Writer
Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Aug 12, 2004

KYIV - Hopes are high that Ukrainians could bring home the gold from the
28th Summer Olympiad, set to take place in Athens, Greece from Aug.
13-30. On Aug. 10 Ukraine's National Olympic team was given a festive
send-off on Maidan Nezalezhnosti before their departure for the games.

Traffic around the city center was blocked off for the official pep rally,
which included the public launch of Ukraine's Olympic anthem "Ukrayina
Vpered!" (Ukraine Onward!) by a host of pop stars that included Natalia
Mogilevskaya, Andriy Kuzmenko of Skryabin, Sashko Polozhynsky of
Tartak and Fagot of TNMK.

Kyiv Mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko promised in a speech to give an apart-
ment in Kyiv to each Ukrainian athlete who wins a medal at the Olympics.
Ukraine will be represented in Athens by 243 athletes taking part in 19 of
28 events.

By comparison, 234 Ukrainian athletes competed at the 2000 Summer
Olympics in Sydney. On the whole the Ukrainian delegation will total 411
people, including 147 coaches, physicians, and masseurs, 18 members of
Ukraine's national team headquarters, 10 referees and two reserve athletes.

Olympic fever has been burning in Ukraine since the arrival of the Olympic
torch in Kyiv on July 5 - for the first time ever. The Olympic torch is
customarily only carried in cities where the Olympics have already taken
place, or are slated to take place. However, Kyiv was the venue for the
soccer competition during the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Greek officials who
accompanied the torch in Kyiv were quoted as saying that with the exception
of Beijing never did so many people come out to greet the flame.

OVERCOMING 'FAILURE'
The hopes for Ukrainian Olympic gold are high despite the country's
"failure" in Sydney in 2000. Those games, which were largely considered
unsuccessful for Ukraine, produced 23 medals, including three gold, 10
silver and 10 bronze, placing the country 21st among all competing
countries.

The head of Ukraine's Olympic sports department, Nina Umanets, said that
"Ukraine's failure at the Sydney Olympics is explained by a lack of
financing...It's impossible to win something based on pure optimism. Low
financing also resulted in other failures of Ukrainian teams in
international competitions in 2001-2002." But despite the letdown at the
Sydney Olympics, those games brought some notable victories and introduced
some new sports stars to Ukraine.

The most successful Ukrainian medalist at the Sydney Games was Kyiv-based
swimmer Yana Klochkova, who won two gold medals in the women's 200m
and 400m individual medley and a silver in the 800m freestyle. She was
subsequently named Ukraine's athlete of the year for 2000.

Shooter Mykola Milchev won Ukraine's other gold in Sydney in skeet shooting
by setting a new world record with a score of 150.

Swimmer Denys Sylantyev won a silver medal in the 200m butterfly, as did
gymnast Oksana Tsyhuliova in gymnastics for the trampoline. Other silver
medal triumphs were in men's all-around gymnastics and Greco-Roman
wrestling. Bronze medals winners in women's synchronized diving, triple
jump, sailing, men's boxing and long jump rounded out the games in Sydney.

The financing for these games was much improved, and Umanets says Ukraine
can expect significantly better results in Athens. "Ukrainians should expect
to win 23 to 25 medals, five to six of them gold," Umanets said. Sports in
which Ukrainians expect to medal include track and field, weightlifting,
swimming, fencing, cycling and wrestling, she said.

WHOM TO WATCH
Umanets also listed the athletes most likely to succeed during competition.
Female weightlifter Natalya Skakun and wrestler Irini Merlini-Melnyk should
be kept an eye on. So should Zhanna Block in track and field, who won the
2001 World Championships in the 100 meter dash, swimmer Oleh Lisogor,
and, naturally, Ukraine's goldfish, Klochkova. Rhythmic gymnast Anna
Bessonova is also expected to medal in Athens.

Sydney Olympic silver-medal swimmer Denis Sylantyev will carry the
Ukrainian flag during the opening ceremonies in Athens on Aug. 13. Ukraine's
place in the opening ceremonies will also change. In a change from previous
years, Ukraine won't be bringing up the rear, but marching in the middle of
the pack. The parade order is traditionally determined by the alphabet, and
"Ukraine" reads in Greek as "Oykraina."

The majority of Ukrainian athletes left for Athens on Aug. 12. That same
day, the heads of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee as well as 42 Ukrainian
journalists joined the Ukrainian delegation. A 200-person delegation of
honored guests, including Ukrainian authorities from the central and local
level, the Presidential Administration and the Rada is also expected to
attend. The most prominent attendee will be Prime Minister Viktor
Yanukovych, who also heads the Ukrainian Olympic Committee.

Yanukovych plans to visit various competitions in which Ukraine should
medal, as well as some in which Ukraine is not projected to, a spokesperson
said Aug. 11. The spokesperson also stressed that his Olympic visit is
neither a vacation nor part of his election campaign. (END)(ARTUIS)
LINK: http://www.kyivpost.com/nation/nation_general/21467/
=======================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.142: ARTICLE NUMBER FOUR
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4. AUTHORITIES PRESSURE UKRAINIAN CABLE OPERATORS
NOT TO BROADCAST TELEVISION KANAL FIVE
[Authorities use extreme pressure, intimidation, fear, threaten law
suits, tax and other inspections to shut down Kanal Five]

TV 5 Kanal, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian, 17 Aug 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Tuesday, Aug 17, 2004

KIEV - Strange things are happening in those regions of the country where
viewers have the opportunity to watch 5 Kanal. It is not now possible to
watch 5 Kanal news in Donetsk or Dnipropetrovsk. Since the weekend it has
not been possible to watch 5 Kanal in [Dnipropetrovsk Region city]
Dniprodzerzhynsk, even if you want to.

In conversation with 5 Kanal managers, the owner of the Dniprodzerzhynsk
company (?Avtor TV) acknowledged that the decision to take 5 Kanal off the
air was taken under pressure from the authorities.

This is the first such admission from the companies that have had problems
broadcasting 5 Kanal. The channel's management is planning to appeal to the
National Council for TV and Radio Broadcasting to clarify the situation over
Avtor TV's violation of the contract on airtime.

We have just been informed that in Uzhhorod, in Transcarpathian Region, the
(?Teveyan) cable network has switched off 5 Kanal. This occurred after 5
Kanal was removed from another Uzhhorod cable network Kram [see
UNIAN news agency, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1008 gmt 14 Aug 04]. (END)
=======================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 142: ARTICLE NUMBER FIVE
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=======================================================
5. UKRAINIAN JOURNALIST BEATEN IN LATEST ATTACK

AP Worldstream, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug 17, 2004

KIEV - An assailant beat a newspaper reporter in southern Ukraine
Tuesday in the latest in a series of attacks against the journalists in this
former Soviet republic, news reports said. An unidentified man attacked
Dmytro Shkuropat, a correspondent for the daily Iskra (Spark) in the
city of Zaporizhia, 570 kilometers (350 miles) south of the capital Kiev,
the Interfax news agency reported.

Shkuropat said the attack could have been connected with his work,
because he has investigated regional criminal activity and suspicions of
involvement by local authorities, according to Interfax. The assailant beat
Shkuropat and took a bag containing records of an interview, the report
said, but it was unclear whom he had interviewed. Shkuropat, who was
not hospitalized, reported the attack to the police, who said they are
investigating.

Concerns about journalists' safety soared in Ukraine after the killing of an
anti-corruption journalist whose headless body was found outside Kiev in
2000. Opposition groups accused President Leonid Kuchma of
involvement, which he denied.

Western governments, human rights groups and media watchdogs have
accused Kuchma and the authorities of cracking down on independent
media, particularly ahead of this October's presidential election. (am/sbg)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.142: ARTICLE NUMBER SIX
Ukrainian Information Website: http://www.ArtUkraine.com
=======================================================
6. IMF OFFICIAL SAYS UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO
ENSURE TRANSPARENT AND COMPETITIVE SALE OF PROPERTY
MP says damages due to low prices could be around UAH 13-15 billion

Interfax, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, August 17, 2004

KYIV - Ukraine's government needs to ensure transparency and competitive-
ness when privatizing state property, Lorenzo Figiuoli, the IMF Senior
Resident Representative in Ukraine, said in an interview with the weekly
newspaper Zerkalo Nedeli (Mirror Weekly) published on August 14.

Privatizations should reflect genuine competition, rather than provide
"presents" for buyers with connections. If the government is unable to
ensure tenders at a really competitive basis within the rather simple
framework of a privatization auction, it could hardly be entrusted with
more complicated functions of regulation, according to Mr. Figiuoli.

The IMF Senior Resident Representative in Ukraine says that the
organization of transparent, competitive auctions should be the key task
of the State Property Fund.

As was reported, Petro Poroshenko, the VR budget committee head,
estimates aggregate damages from privatization in 2004 due to the lowering
the price of the facilities offered could be around UAH 13-15 billion (over
2.6 billion dollars US)

In particular, he claims that losses from privatization of Kryvorizhstal
topped UAH 4 billion, that of the Kryvy Rih iron ore mill were UAH 0.7-1
billion, while losses from privatization of Ukrtelecom could amount to UAH
4-6 billion, losses for Odesa port-side plant could be UAH 0.8-1 billion,
for Ukrrudprom's enterprises UAH 1.5 billion, and for Ukrtatnafta UAH
1.5 billion. (END) (ARTUIS)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.141: ARTICLE NUMBER SEVEN
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7. "HOW TO CONTINUE THE FAST PACE OF ECONOMIC
GROWTH IN UKRAINE"

ANALYSIS: Lorenzo Figiuoli, IMF Senior Resident
Representative in Ukraine; Bohdan Lissovolik, IM Economist
Zerkalo Nedeli On The WEB, Mirror-Weekly
Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, 14 - 20 August, 2004

The advantages of a market economy are becoming more and more obvious
in the context of several years of economic growth in Ukraine. At the same,
there is serious concern about the slow pace of improvement in the living
standards of many workers, pensioners, the rural population and other
vulnerable groups. This concern has a strong impact on the political
process; it will increase as the presidential election approaches and will
not diminish after it. In this context, politicians will have to solve two
major tasks: find ways (a) to maximize economic growth rates and (b)
improve the living standards of the most vulnerable groups of the
population.

What is the best way to achieve this twofold goal? We do not have ready
answers to these questions; however, we would like to share some of the
recommendations provided by the science of economics and discuss how
relevant they could be to Ukraine.

THE GROWTH DILEMMA
For the last several years, Ukraine’s economy has been characterized by fast
economic growth rates, a small budget deficit, a low inflation rate and an
improving balance of payment situation. Such a combination of factors can be
defined as a “macroeconomic beneficial circle”.

"-----------------------------------------------------"
NOTE: To read the read of this article on economic growth click on:
http://www.mirror-weekly.com/ie/razdel/507/2020/
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.142: ARTICLE NUMBER EIGHT
Ukrainian Information Website: http://www.ArtUkraine.com
=======================================================
8. UKRAINIAN PRIME MINISTER EXPECTS ECONOMIC GROWTH
COULD BE MAINTAINED BY LEGALIZING SHADOW INCOMES

UNIAN news agency, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian, 17 Aug 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Tuesday, Aug 17, 2004

KIEV - Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said that the process
of legalizing shadow incomes in Ukraine is expected to take five years.
Yanukovych's press service quoted him as telling representatives of the
Greek company Nesa Energy Holding (UK) Plc in Greece today that
"economic growth is forcing us to look for new solutions. I see the
potential of legalizing shadow capital. This process is expected to take
five years," Yanukovych is quoted as saying.

The press service said that Yanukovych is convinced that the current pace
of economic growth in Ukraine could be maintained by legalizing shadow
capital. The press service also said that Yanukovych believes that the
process of legalizing provides for liberalizing the taxation system, taxes
for individuals and legal entities.

"We believe that time has come to implement an amnesty for the shadow
incomes of citizens," the press service quoted Yanukovych.

UNIAN reported earlier that the Supreme Council [parliament] heard two
draft laws on legalizing shadow incomes but failed to adopt any of them.
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma sent to parliament his own draft law
"On legalizing the incomes of individuals from which no taxes and duties
(compulsory payments) have been deducted to budgets or state special funds".
=======================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.142: ARTICLE NUMBER NINE
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9. "MOSCOW MATTERS IN FORMER SOVIET UNION"
Kremlin exerts influence over Soviet republics to keep West at bay

"Of course, the Kremlin is working to support Yanukovich," said
Vyacheslav Nikonov, director of the Fond Politika think tank and an
adviser to Mr. Putin's United Russia party. "It's in Russia's interest not
to have anti-Russian presidents in neighbouring countries."

By Mark MacKinnon, in Moscow, Globe and Mail
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Tuesday, August 17, 2004

MOSCOW -- Lyudmila Grigorievna was just thinking about doing the
laundry when the lights went out in her tiny village in southern Moldova
last week.

The power outage in Cosnita was only a minor inconvenience at first. The
21-year-old student, who asked that her family name not be used, had to
do her washing by hand. She didn't worry too much about it, since the
electricity has a habit of cutting out from time to time.

The next morning though, the lights were still out, and life in Cosnita had
ground to a halt. The sweet popcorn factory that employs many residents
was shut down, meaning no work and no pay for much of the town that
day.

Power had been cut not only to Cosnita, but to 120,000 residents across
the tiny former Soviet republic. It was an attention-grabbing move by the
pro-Russian junta that controls the enclave of Transdniestr in the east of
the country to reinforce its point in a tit-for-tat battle over the use of
the Cyrillic alphabet in schools. The lights stayed off for five days
before a Spanish firm connected Cosnita to a different electricity grid.

As power was being restored in Cosnita, another pro-Russian mini-state
was kicking up a fuss in Georgia, another corner of what was once the
Soviet Union. Throughout Monday and Tuesday night of last week, rebel
soldiers in South Ossetia engaged in a fierce artillery duel with federal
troops that left three Georgian peacekeepers dead and dozens of civilians
injured.

In Georgia, as in Moldova, the net effect was to remind the central
governments in Tbilisi and Kishinev that, although the Soviet Union fell
13 years ago, they still have to worry about what Moscow thinks.

Many observers say Lyudmila and her family were pawns, not simply in
a struggle between separatists in Transdniestr and Moldova's central
government, but in a grander Cold-War-style game between Russia and
the West that is taking place across the former Soviet Union as Russian
President Vladimir Putin pursues a more assertive strategy in what he calls
the country's "near abroad."

As a group, the former Soviet republics loosely grouped into the
Commonwealth of Independent States are poor, unstable and not particularly
desirable allies. But with the expansion of the European Union and North
Atlantic Treaty Organization and no serious suggestion that Russia could
join either any time soon, they're all the Kremlin has left, and are being
jealously guarded.

"Russia's last line of defence is the CIS," said Viktor Kremenyuk, deputy
director of the Moscow-based USA-Canada Institute. He said it also plays
well at home when Russia acts the part of big dog around its former empire.
"There's a surge of nationalism in the country, a nationalism that rides
very close to imperialism. It gives people pride to hear that we're
rebuilding something like the Soviet Union."

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, Mr. Putin was the
first leader to call U.S. President George W. Bush and offer support.
Shortly thereafter, U.S. military bases were established in places once
thought forever inaccessible to U.S. troops -- former Soviet republics such
as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Georgia.

The "war on terror," for the moment, had superseded old suspicions and
rivalries. There was unprecedented goodwill between the Kremlin and the
White House.

That situation is no more. Irritated by the continuing presence of the
Central Asian bases two years after the serious fighting in Afghanistan is
done and rattled by what many Russians view as a U.S.-sponsored
revolution in Georgia last year, Moscow's foreign policy has taken a harsher
edge that often clashes with U.S. interests in the region.

The next struggle is already taking shape around the looming presidential
election in Ukraine, a country that is seen as being of unmatched strategic
importance to Russia, but one tempted by the idea that it could one day
join the EU and NATO.

With Western-leaning Viktor Yushchenko leading in polls and receiving
substantial U.S. support, several political operatives with Kremlin ties
have been dispatched to Kiev to promote the chances of the main pro-
Russia candidate, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich. The vote is Oct. 31.

"Of course, the Kremlin is working to support Yanukovich," said
Vyacheslav Nikonov, director of the Fond Politika think tank and an
adviser to Mr. Putin's United Russia party. "It's in Russia's interest not
to have anti-Russian presidents in neighbouring countries."

Ukraine is just the most important of many battles for influence being
waged across the former Soviet Union. Late last year, Russia built an air
base in Kyrgyzstan, just 50 kilometres from the U.S. base. Since the
accession of the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to NATO
this year, there has been expulsions of "spies" by both sides.

Meanwhile, Russia continues to ignore international calls to withdraw its
"peacekeepers" from Georgia and Moldova,.

"Putin perceives that Russian weakness in the post-Soviet space will result
in others trying to fill that vacuum," a Moscow-based Western diplomat
said. "Russia and the U.S. keep saying that everyone's getting along, but
underlying that is a real rivalry." (END) (ARTUIS)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.142: ARTICLE NUMBER TEN
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10. "COMMUNISM STILL HAUNTS EAST EUROPE"

ANALYSIS By Robin Shepherd
United Press International (UPI), Bratislava, Slovakia, Tues, Aug 17, 2004

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia -- Is the transition from communism over? To
some analysts of the eight central and east European countries that joined
the European Union on May 1, and which are all now members of NATO,
that question could easily be answered with an incredulous, sardonic
counter-question: Fifteen years after the fall of communism, 15 years which
have seen the privatization of entire economies, democratic election after
democratic election, full integration in Western political and security
structures and there are still people around who think it is appropriate to
ask whether the transition is over?

As a matter of fact there are such people, and I am one of them. But first,
let's go back a few years to get some perspective.

In the early 1990s, as political analysts struggled to find an appropriate
model for understanding what was happening in the aftermath of
anti-communist revolutions that almost none of them had predicted, there
were two outstanding favorites. The first described a process of
"nomenklatura takeover". Although the form of economic and political
decision making had changed, the old communist elites and their allies had
deftly managed to jump off the communist ship and onto the capitalist ship
just at the moment the two passed each other in the murky dawn of the
post-Soviet era. In all post-communist countries, there are examples to
back up such a case, not least in Russia itself where a former KGB
operative called Vladimir Putin is, at this very moment, aggressively
backtracking on the democratic reforms of the 1990s.

In the end, though, "nomenklatura takeover" was too personality based to
have lasting explanatory value. Even if some of the new captains of
industrial and political life had decidedly old world faces, they were
still operating in radically different circumstances from the communist
years. "Nomenklatura takeover"could tell you who the new elites were. It
was less helpful in telling you what they would be doing. Enter the second
and more enduring model for explaining post-communism: "transition."

In its most optimistic formulation, transition foresaw a rapid escape from
the totalitarian past into the sunnier world of market economics and
pluralist democracy. It was clear where they were coming from and even
clearer where they were going.

More sober advocates of the transition model did, of course, realize that
matters were not going to be as simple as that. Transition as a model for
change mutated into "multiple transition" where the sheer scale of what so
many countries were undertaking was recognized with alarming clarity.

Successful transition would entail radical reform of the economy, the
political system and, for the three federations of the former communist
world, the national question as well. It would require a war on two or
three fronts, waged simultaneously. For some countries it was a war they
would not win. For others it was war, not transition, they would be
engaged in.

But the unhappy tale of bloodshed, dictatorship and economic corruption
that can be told with conviction from the Balkans in the southwest, through
Chechnya in the Caucuses to the clan-based dictatorships of central Asia is
not the whole story.

Back here in central Europe, matters have clearly been very different. At
least in this part of the former communist world, the transition has been
completed successfully. Hasn't it?

In fact, the reality is not quite so clear-cut. Obviously, no one could
doubt the countries of central and eastern Europe have made huge strides
since the end of communism. Compared with basket cases like Belarus and
Turkmenistan, the Czech Republic and Poland look as though they are on
different planets.

The transition in central and eastern Europe has certainly been successful.
But this does not mean it is complete. Consider, for starters, the
following observations about the adult populations of the region: every
single adult who was born here was born under communism, the vast
majority of adults knew nothing else until they were in their 20s or 30s,
and a clear majority of all adults in the region have spent most of their
adult and all of their childhood lives under communism.

The demographic breakdown on its own would therefore suggest caution
to those ready to proclaim an end to the transition process. The legacy of
attitudes and impressions from the communist era may well continue to
feed through, in a variety of ways, for many years to come.

In more concrete terms, absolute economic performance will not match
Western standards for decades. One study by the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development predicted it would take, on average, 20
to 30 years for income per capita across central and eastern Europe even
to reach 75 percent of the level enjoyed by the old, 15-member European
Union.

Foreign investors in the region, while acknowledging big improvements,
still complain about the difficulties of establishing a viable supply chain
for their operations. The banking system is still far from offering its
clients, domestic or corporate, the kind of services taken for granted in
the West. Getting a mortgage, for example, in most countries still requires
a 60 percent down payment. Compare that with the 95 to 100 percent
mortgages routinely offered out in countries such as Britain, and you get a
clear sense of just how different life expectations can be for ordinary
people in the former communist countries of the east of Europe.

Economic hardships flowing from the communist legacy continue, naturally,
to have an impact on the political system. Populists in Poland, Slovakia,
Hungary and the Czech Republic (where the unreformed Communist Party
holds second place in the polls) continue to play hard on the despair of
those who either couldn't or wouldn't do what was necessary to take
advantage of the new opportunities. In the Baltic states, Russian minorities
"imported" from the Soviet era remain deeply disaffected.

The hard fact remains that in terms of politics, economics and nationhood,
communism still casts its shadow across the region. Perhaps it can be
summarized like this: What is normal about central and eastern Europe is
now more or less the same as what is normal about western Europe. But
what is abnormal, in many respects, remains explicable only in terms of the
communist past. The transition from communism has been a huge success
here. No question about it. (END) (ARTUIS)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robin Shepherd is an adjunct fellow of the Center for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS), Washington, D.C. His column appears weekly.
=======================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 142 ARTICLE NUMBER ELEVEN
=======================================================
11. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN DIGEST
OF DEVELOPMENTS FOR WEEK OF AUGUST 9-15, 2004

BBC Monitoring research in English 15 Aug 04
BBC Monitoring Service, United Kingdom, Sun, Aug 15, 2004

The following is a digest of Ukrainian presidential election campaign
developments on 9-15 August ahead of the 31 October election:

(1) Yushchenko calls for interior minister's resignation over road incident:
Opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko has called for Interior
Minister Mykola Bilokon's resignation over the incident on a road in Kherson
Region on 12 August, which he described as a direct attempt on his life. He
was speaking to 5 Kanal TV on 15 August. (5 Kanal 15 Aug 04)
(2) Yushchenko aide described incident as attack: Our Ukraine MP Yevhen
Chervonenko, who was travelling in Yushchenko's motorcade in Kherson
Region, said a Kamaz lorry made four attempts to drive them off the road.
He was speaking to 5 Kanal TV on 15 August. (5 Kanal 15 Aug 04)
(3) Yushchenko incident driver interviewed: The Ukrainian Inter TV channel
has broadcast parts of an interview with the lorry driver who was allegedly
beaten by members of Yushchenko's campaign team on the road in Kherson
Region, southern Ukraine, on 12 August. The driver, Leonid Averin, gives his
account of what happened, and says that he will not be voting for
Yushchenko. Inter TV is associated with presidential administration chief
Viktor Medvedchuk.( Inter TV on 14 Aug 04)
(4) Yushchenko sees road incident as threat to his life: Yushchenko
described the Kherson incident as a direct threat to his life. Speaking in
Mykolayiv Region on 14 August during a campaign tour of southern Ukraine,
Yushchenko compared the incident to the death of veteran dissident and
political leader, Vyacheslav Chornovil, who was killed when his car collided
with a Kamaz lorry in March 1999. (5 Kanal 14 Aug 04)
(5) Yushchenko condemns campaign against ally: Yushchenko said that a
criminal case against a company previously owned by Our Ukraine Davyd
Zhvaniya MP is an attempt by the authorities to intimidate the opposition.
He told reporters that the case was being reopened after having been closed
four years ago: "This is meant to show that every MP who will have something
to do with a negative vote on political reform [transferring powers from the
president to parliament and the prime minister that the authorities have
tried to carry out before the October presidential election] or who will be
campaigning for the opposition forces can expect about the same scenario."
(UNIAN 14 Aug 04)
(6) Yushchenko calls for prosecutions over police "spying": Yushchenko has
called for the prosecution of Interior Ministry officials who ordered him to
be put under surveillance. Yushchenko's supporters detained a number of
individuals carrying police identification who they said were spying on them
on a mountain in Crimea on 10 August. Yushchenko also ridiculed Crimean
police's statement on 11 August that the police operation was intended to
protect him against "radicals". (5 Kanal 11 Aug 04)
(7) Yushchenko still ahead in polls: The Ukrainian Sociological Service firm
said that in its latest poll sample of 1,600 citizens Yushchenko would
receive nearly 40 per cent and Yanukovych nearly 30 per cent. Communists
leader Petro Symonenko would receive 13 per cent and Socialist leader
Oleksandr Moroz would receive eight. Of the other candidates, only far-left
Progressive Socialist leader Nataliya Vitrenko, Industrialists and
Entrepreneurs' Union leader and former prime minister Anatoliy Kinakh and
Kiev mayor and Unity party leader Oleksandr Omelchenko would receive
more than one per cent. (5 Kanal 10 Aug 04)

(8) Pro-opposition TV off air in part of western city: The Kram cable-TV
operator stopped broadcasting 5 Kanal in the residential district of the
western city of Uzhhorod where 30,000 out of the population of 120,000 live,
citing "unresolved business issues between Kram and 5 Kanal." The cable-TV
operator Falstap stopped broadcasting 5 Kanal in Dnipropetrovsk citing
technical reasons from 3-7 August. On 6 August, more than 50,000 opposition
supporters had picketed the Dnipropetrovsk regional administration building
protesting at the disappearance of 5 Kanal. In June, the Donbasstelemerezha
and Ukrtelemerezha cable operators stopped broadcasting 5 Kanal in Donetsk
and the Donetsk Region cities of Artemivsk, Selidove, Dymytrove and
Yenakiyeve. (UNIAN 14 Aug 04)

(9) Socialist leader Moroz's visit to Dnipropetrovsk disrupted: The campaign
visit to Dnipropetrovsk in eastern Ukraine of Socialist presidential
candidate Oleksandr Moroz was disrupted on 12 August when people dressed
in camouflage blocked his motorcade. He was due to address workers at the
Shynnyk tyre factory, but the square in front of the factory's recreational
centre was blocked by tractors to prevent people from rallying. A compressor
was present, allegedly to drown out any speakers. The people in camouflage
knocked down the aide of Mykola Rudkovskyy MP, Leonid Senchenko,
leaving him with a bleeding nose. The police appeared and the rally then
went ahead. (5 Kanal 12 Aug 04)
(10) Opposition unhappy with regional electoral commission seats: The
representatives of Viktor Yushchenko and Oleksandr Moroz at the Central
Electoral Commission are not happy with the distribution of leadership
posts in territorial electoral commissions as allocated on 11 August.
Moroz's authorized representative Yosyp Vynskyy said proportionality
was observed but the CEC was "absolutely biased" in distributing the
leadership posts among the regions and that Moroz's campaign staff
might recall their commission members. Yushchenko's representative
Yuriy Klyuchkovskyy said his team had no leadership posts in Crimea,
where there are 10 constituencies, one in Donetsk Region, where there
are 23, and one in Zaporizhzhya, where there are nine. CEC Secretary
Valentyna Zavalevska said a special computer programme allocated the
posts according to "education and working experience". (Interfax-Ukraine
11 Aug 04)
(11) Our Ukraine suspects arson behind fire at regional office: Our Ukraine
has said a fire at Yushchenko's campaign office in the town of
Novoukrayinka, Kirovohrad Region, was arson. The building and computer
equipment were damaged, but the people were not hurt. Local police were
quick to rule out arson. (5 Kanal 11 Aug 04)
(12) Journalists complain of pressure by Yushchenko's team: The
editor-in-chief of the Melitopol newspaper Forum, Oleksandr Borovyy, told
reporters he and his colleagues had received threats from Yushchenko
supporters. He said Yevhen Chervonenko MP attacked journalists from the
local media because the MP did not like their filming an anti-Yushchenko
banner at a Yushchenko rally. Vitaliy Karyaka, a cameraman of the Aleks
TV company based in Zaporizhzhya, said he was filming when an man, who
he was later told was Chervonenko, hit him in the back. The state-owned
UT1 TV report said Chervonenko also attacked Volodymyr Noskov, a
journalist of the Socialist Party's Zerkalo Zaporozhya newspaper.
(UT1 10 Aug 04)
(13) Yanukovych against official pressure on voters: Yanukovych is against
the use of administrative pressure during the election campaign. When asked
to comment on 10 August on the statement by the Committee of Voters of
Ukraine civic organization that the most widespread violations during the
election campaign so far had been those committed while collecting
signatures in support of Yanukovych's candidacy, he said "I am not
pressurizing anyone, I shall not do it and I shall ask others not to do me
an ill service." (Korrespondent.net web site 10 Aug 04)
(14) Candidates said to trade election commission quotas: Lightweight
presidential candidates are unofficially selling their quotas on the
electoral commissions to campaign heavyweights, according to the Committee
of Voters of Ukraine watchdog. The law gives each candidate only two seats
in each district commission overseeing the elections and counting the votes,
but some will have many more seats than that, the Committee said. (UNIAN 9
Aug 04)
(15) Watchdog registers administrative pressure in campaign: The Committee
of Voters of Ukraine watchdog has accused state officials of illegally
campaigning in favour of Yanukovych and hampering the election campaign of
opposition candidates. It described media coverage of the campaign as
"marked by biased and prejudice". (Interfax-Ukraine 9 Aug 04)
(16) Opposition demands Premier Yanukovych's resignation: Viktor
Yushchenko's campaign headquarters has demanded the resignation of Prime
Minister Viktor Yanukovych on the grounds that he cannot run the government
and stand for president. Mykola Tomenko MP said "If he wants to be the prime
minister he should write a request [to the Central Electoral Commission] and
end his career as a presidential candidate." Yanukovych's representative at
the Central Electoral Commission, Stepan Havrysh, attributed this to what
he cited as Yanukovych's growing popularity in opinion polls. He said
Yanukovych was not using his office to promote himself as presidential
candidate. (5 Kanal 12 Aug 04)
(17) Yushchenko warns against launch of reactor: Viktor Yushchenko said the
launch of the second reactor at the Khmelnytskyy nuclear power plant was a
political stunt by the government. "The pomp with which the second reactor
at the Khmelnytskyy plant was launched was aimed at one thing - at a
political parade but not at an honest answer to the future of the Ukrainian
energy sector and nuclear safety," he told reporters in Kherson Region,
southern Ukraine. President Leonid Kuchma launched the reactor on 8 August
and thanked the Yanukovych government for making it happen. The reactor has
been switched off three times for safety reasons since its launch. (UNIAN 12
Aug 04)
(18) Election to cost taxpayers 73.6m dollars: The presidential election
campaign in Ukraine will cost 391.046m hryvnyas (73.6m dollars), according
to the Central Electoral Commission. (Interfax-Ukraine 11 Aug 04)
(19) Speaker Lytvyn denies president to step down early: Parliament speaker
Volodymyr Lytvyn has denied rumours that President Leonid Kuchma is planning
to step down and hand over power to Yanukovych on Independence Day, 24
August, ahead of the 31 October elections. "I believe this is nothing more
than a rumour. I repeat - this is a rumour, and nothing more," Lytvyn told
reporters in Sevastopol on 11 August. There has been speculations in some
pro-opposition media that Kuchma is planning to step down early in order to
boost Yanukovych's election campaign. (UNIAN 11 Aug 04)
(20) Socialist leader cautious on Communist offer of premiership: Oleksandr
Moroz said Communist leader and presidential candidate Petro Symonenko's
idea to offer Moroz prime minister's post if Symonenko wins the election is
a sign of respect for the Socialist Party. "However, I am sure my colleagues
will understand, that I consider any talks about the division of posts
before the presidential election to be premature and rather presumptuous,"
Moroz said. He said that he and Symonenko saw constitutional reform to
strengthen parliament as the priority, and that he was hopeful other
opposition parties would cooperate with this. The reform proposed by
President Leonid Kuchma and backed by the Communists and the Socialists
aims to transfer most presidential powers to parliament. The centre-right
opposition sees it as an attempt to cripple the opposition if Yushchenko
should win the presidential election. (Ukrayinska Pravda web site 11
Aug 04)
(21) Authorities said to use Moroz against opposition: The authorities are
using Moroz to torpedo the Yushchenko, Volodymyr Tsvil, a former Ukrainian
consul in Munich, now living in Germany, has said. In an interview with a
Ukrainian web site, Tsvil, who helped President Leonid Kuchma's former
bodyguard and whistle-blower in the "tape scandal", Mykola Melnychenko,
to emigrate to the West, said he had now broken with Melnychenko and
promised interesting revelations in a book he had written on the "tape
scandal".
He accused Moroz of wanting at first to use the tapes against Kuchma,
especially to get to the truth over the murder of journalist Heorhiy
Gongadze, but of subsequently backtracking after doing a deal with the
presidential camp.
Tsvil denied that he was trying to whitewash Kuchma. He sidestepped a
question about who organized the tape scandal, but commented that both
Russia and America had made use of the tapes for their own purposes.
(Glavred web site 13 Aug 04)
(22) Regional tycoon backs Yanukovych: In a rare interview, Kharkiv tycoon
Henadiy Kernes has denied that he has ties with reputed oligarch Oleksandr
Yaroslavskyy and that he helped Stepan Havrysh, the current leader of the
parliamentary majority, in the last parliamentary elections. Kernes said he
would support Yanukovych's presidential election bid. He regards his work
as a Kharkiv city councillor as being public rather than political and sees
it as a means of "self-expression". Buying various media outlets was, Kernes
maintained, the only way of getting his point of view across to the public.
At various points in the interview, he dissociated himself from various
figures with a chequered past or present and said he did not regard himself
as an oligarch. (Glavred web site 11 Aug 04)
(23) Yanukovych pledges wage rise before polls: Yanukovych ordered his
government to prepare to raise pensions and the minimum wage in September.
"Every region of Ukraine should be checked once again. If some of them
don't have enough funds, extra funding should be allocated to them," he
said. (Inter TV 10 Aug)
(24) Yushchenko would withdraw troops from Iraq: Yushchenko said he
would return the Ukrainian contingent from Iraq if he were elected
president.
Speaking to voters in Crimea on 10 August, he said the current government
sees the troops in Iraq as an indulgence to the United States for tolerating
antidemocratic actions in Ukraine itself. "We do not want the renewal of
democracy in Iraq at the cost of stifling democracy in Ukraine," Yushchenko
said. (5 Kanal 10 Aug 04)
(25) Yushchenko blasts authorities for Crimean ethnic problems: Yushchenko
has said that the conflict over the unauthorized seizure of land by Crimean
Tatars is being fuelled artificially, as the authorities have never
seriously sought a compromise to the problem of Crimean Tatar repatriates
and the current Slavonic population of Crimea. Yushchenko was commenting
on the repatriates' settlement problems during his campaign visit to the
village of Krasnohvardiyske in Crimea. (Interfax-Ukraine 8 Aug 04)
(26) Court confirms Brodskyy as candidate: The Supreme Court turned down
an appeal by the Party of Regions to annul Yabluko party leader Mykhaylo
Brodskyy's registration as presidential candidate on 12 August. The Party of
Regions had said Brodskyy's manifesto "has the signs of provisions
infringing human rights and freedoms". The Party of Regions is led by
Yanukovych. Brodskyy said he would campaign against Yanukovych and
would back opposition frontrunner Viktor Yushchenko if he himself fails to
make it into the second round. (Interfax-Ukraine 12 Aug 04)
(27) Minor candidate to push for Dniester recognition: Dmytro Korchynskyy,
a minor candidate and controversial journalist, has said he will push for
Ukrainian recognition of Moldova's breakaway Dniester region. He said this
on a visit to Dniester region. (Dniester Olvia-press web site 11 Aug 04)
(28) Minor candidate's proxy beaten up: Oleksandr Furt, a proxy of
presidential candidate and leader of the Public Control party Vasyl Volha,
was brutally beaten up by unknown attackers in Kirovohrad on 6 August.
While Furt was unconscious, the attackers seized from him lists of
signatures collected in Volha's support, an issue of the newspaper Public
Control, a mobile phone and some money. Public Control issued a statement
saying that the party views the incident as an "act of political terror and
another impudent attempt to intimidate activists". (UNIAN 9 Aug 04)(END)
=======================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 142 ARTICLE NUMBER TWELVE
The Action Ukraine Coalition, "Working to Secure Ukraine's Future"
=======================================================
12. MOSCOW RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH WANTS CLOSER
TIES WITH RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OUTSIDE RUSSIA

ITAR-TASS, Moscow, Russia, Tues, August 17, 2004

MOSCOW -- The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, which
convened in Moscow on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Patriarch of
Moscow and all Russia Alexy II, approved of progress at negotiations
between commissions of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian
Orthodox Church Outside Russia.

The Holy Synod accepted the commissions' proposal to encourage
contacts between representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church and
the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.

The Holy Synod recommended archpriests of the Moscow Patriarchate,
who are on mission abroad, "to have regular conferences with
representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and
discuss issues of mutual interest." The flock and clerics are recommended "
joint pilgrimages, congresses and publishing activities."

The Holy Synod thinks it necessary to stop lawsuits and settle all
conflicts between the Churches. According to Itar-Tass information,
there are several lawsuits concerning the right to temples, buildings and
land lots in Israel and Europe.

The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia became independent in
the 1920s. Now the Holy Synod has made another important step in the
reunification. The assembly of bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church
due in early October may take even more far-reaching measures. (END)
=======================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 142 ARTICLE NUMBER THIRTEEN
=======================================================
13. STALIN'S JEWISH ENCLAVE IN SIBERIA STAGES A REVIVAL
Soviet leader persuaded tens of thousands of poor Jews from
Ukraine and Belarus to Birobidjan as farmers in 1934

By Julius Strauss in Birobidjan, Russia
Electronic Telegraph, London, UK, Tues, August 17, 2004

BIROBIDJAN, Russia - It was surely one of Stalin's unlikeliest projects:
the creation of a Jewish homeland on the far eastern marches of Siberia in
an uninhabited land of forest, swamps and wild animals.

In 1934 the Soviet leader declared the area the Jewish Autonomous Region
of Birobidjan and persuaded tens of thousands of poor Jews from Ukraine
and Belarus to move there as farmers. Over the decades, ravaged by
disease, the Great Terror and emigration to Israel, the Jewish community
of Birobidjan almost disappeared.

Ten years ago barely a few thousand Jews were left. Most had forgotten
their native Yiddish and were reluctant to profess their religion.

Now, just as it seemed that the Stalinist attempt to create a socialist
Israel in the wilderness would fade into history, local Jews have effected
a remarkable revival, fuelled by a thriving economy, money from foreign
Jewish groups and a return from Israel of disillusioned migrants.

"Fifteen years ago Jewish life here was disappearing," said Valery
Guryevich, the deputy head of the Jewish Autonomous Republic of
Birobidjan. "This year for the first time we have more Jews coming back
from Israel than leaving."

Isa Promushkin, 68, and his wife, Tsila, 65, are among 300 emigres who
have returned this year. They left with their sons, Roman, 42, and Misha,
40, five years ago but became disillusioned with the Israeli jobs market,
the lack of security and the gap between their Yiddish cultural roots and
Hebrew-dominated Israel.

Mr Promushkin said: "There we lived in a one-room flat. Here we had a
three-room flat. In Israel people just sit on benches all day. They don't
know what it is to pick berries and mushrooms. And the climate is better
here."

The number of Jews in Birobidjan is now growing, albeit slowly, for the
first time in half a century. The trend is mirrored by a marked Jewish
cultural revival. In Lenin Street the finishing touches are being put to a
new synagogue in time for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the
region next month.

A Jewish cultural centre opened four years ago and has a growing library
of in Yiddish and Hebrew books. Courses in those languages attract
dozens of young Jews and even a few Russians. Jewish newspapers
are sold.

"For the first time since the 1940s a Jew can fulfil his cultural and
religious needs in Birobidjan," said Lev Toitman, the 79-year-old
community leader who served as a Red Army sniper in the war.

The idea of a Jewish homeland was inspired partly by communist dogma -
which dictated that each nation should have its homeland within the
greater Soviet home - and partly by fears that China might try to overrun
the uninhabited area.

Thousands of Jewish farmers answered the Communist Party's call to
settle and about 1,000 foreign Jews, some American, joined them.

For most, the dream soon turned sour. The settlers were forced to live in
primitive wooden barracks. Many died of disease in the swamps. The
foreign Jews who survived left or were swept away by purges.

After the war Birobidjan enjoyed a brief renaissance as fresh immigrants
arrived, some of them survivors of the Nazi camps. The Jewish population
rose to 45,000. But with the rise of anti-semitism in the 1940s
institutions were closed and community leaders were taken to the gulags.

By 2002 Jews represented less than five per cent of the local population.
But now the community is optimistic.

Nadezhda Yakolevna, 55, a librarian at the cultural centre, said: "I see
how many children come to our Sunday school and clubs. They sing Yiddish
songs. There's a Yiddish radio programme.

"Of course it's a revival. My son came back from Israel. He said in Russia
there is a future, it's a great country with a lot of resources." (END)
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future is very much appreciated. (END) (ARTUIS)
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"POWER TENDS TO CORRUPT,
ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY"
An observation that a person's sense of morality lessens as his or
her power increases. The statement was made by Lord Acton, British
historian of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
True then, true today, true always.
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THE ACTION UKRAINE COALITION
"Working to Secure Ukraine's Future"
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