"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"
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" Year 04, Number 193
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, MONDAY, October 18, 2004
-----INDEX OF ARTICLES-----
"Major International News Headlines and Articles"
1. MOSCOW BETS ON YANUKOVYCH IN UKRAINE'S
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
By Maria Danilova, AP Worldstream, Moscow, Russia, Fri, Oct 15, 2004
2. YANUKOVYCH BILLBOARDS DOT MOSCOW
Ukrainian Prime Minister and Presidential Candidate Viktor Yanukovych
By Francesca Mereu and Anatoly Medetsky, Staff Writers
Moscow, Russia, Monday, October 18, 2004
3. RUSSIA'S UNION OF RIGHT FORCES BACKS VIKTOR
YUSHCHENKO FOR PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE
UNIAN news agency, Kiev, in Ukrainian, 14 Oct 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Fri, Oct 15, 2004
4. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN QUOTES OCT 11-17
Source: Quotes package from BBC Monitoring, in English 17 Oct 04
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Sun, Oct 17, 2004
5.YUSHCHENKO PROMISES 5 M NEW JOBS AT STUDENT RALLY
Source: ICTV television, Kiev, in Ukrainian, 16 Oct 04
Provider: BBC Monitoring, in English, Sat, October 16, 2004
6. UKRAINE PRESIDENT'S AIDE REJECTS TOUGH U.S.
STATEMENT ON PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Source: TV 5 Kanal, Kiev, in Ukrainian, 15 Oct 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Fri, October 15, 2004
7. DANUBE CANAL IGNITES ROMANIA-UKRAINE
BORDER DISPUTE
FEATURE By Dina Kyriakidou, Reuters, Romania, Sun, Oct 17, 2004
8. UKRAINE'S INDEPENDENT TV CHANNEL 5 ALARMED
AT RUMOURS OF LICENSE LOSS
Donetsk TV company NTN involved someway
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian, 15 Oct 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Fri, Oct 15, 2004
9. EXTERNAL INTELLIGENCE SERVICES SET UP IN UKRAINE
Oleh Synyanskiyy appointed to run new service
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian, 15 Oct 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Fri, Oct 15, 2004
10. US STEEL EYES EASTERN EUROPE
New CEO said US Steel was looking at Croatia, Ukraine, Romania
and Bulgaria as potential places for acquisitions of steel producers.
By Peter Marsh in London
Financial Times, London, Thursday, October 14, 2004
11. UKRAINIAN PM AND CABINET OF MINISTERS CHANGES
COUNCIL OF ENTREPRENEURS: "WHO'S IN AND WHO'S OUT"
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian, 15 Oct 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Friday, Oct 15, 2004
12. "UKRAINE'S SINISTER ATMOSPHERE ALIVE
IN DAYS BEFORE ELECTION"
Op/Ed by Georgie Anne Geyer, Yahoo! News, Fri, Oct 15, 2004
13. "EYE ON EURASIA: BETTING ON EAST UKRAINE"
By Paul Goble, United Press International, Tartu, Estonia, Sep 27, 2004
14. DEAR VIRSKY TROUPE: MOST AWESOME SHOW, KUDOS
"We were overwhelmed with your outstanding performance"
Letter-To-The Editor, The Action Ukraine Report
>From Jim and Sue Schlough, Whitewater, Wisconsin
Feedback: Dear Virsky Ukrainian National Dance Troupe
Tuesday, October 5, 2004
========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.193: ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
========================================================
1. MOSCOW BETS ON YANUKOVYCH IN UKRAINE'S
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
By Maria Danilova, AP Worldstream, Moscow, Russia, Fri, Oct 15, 2004
MOSCOW - With presidential elections approaching in Ukraine, which
sprawls between Russia and NATO countries, the Kremlin has all but
officially endorsed the candidacy of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych
in an apparent attempt to prevent his Western-oriented challenger from
taking power.
Russian praise of Yanukovych could be strongly influential in a country
with millions of ethnic Russians who are suspicious of the West. "There
are no doubts that Russian officials are staking on Yanukovych, and quite
firmly," said Igor Bunin, head of the Center for Political Technologies.
While refraining from pledging official support to any of the candidates in
the Oct. 31 Ukrainian election, Russian President Vladimir Putin has given
strong indications he wants to see Yanukovych win. Putin has repeatedly
praised Yanukovych as a reliable partner, invited him to his recent birthday
celebration and sent senior Kremlin officials to a meeting between
Yanukovych and ethnic Ukrainians living in Russia. Billboards with
Yanukovych's portrait can be seen around Moscow, saying he enjoys
support from the Ukrainian Diaspora in Russia.
Moscow's stakes are high in the election. Ukraine's Black Sea port of
Sevastopol is home to the Russian navy's southern fleet and the country
is a buffer between Russia and eastward-expanding NATO. Ukraine has
a massive ethnic Russian population - 17 percent - and close to half the
nation's people say they feel more comfortable speaking Russian than
Ukrainian.
Although people in the country's western half tend to see Ukraine's future
linked to the West, the eastern half's population leans more toward Russia.
Sergei Markov, an analyst with close ties to the Kremlin, said Moscow
was not staking on Yanukovych solely because of his merits, but rather to
prevent a victory by his rival Viktor Yushchenko, whom it views as a
"threat to Russia's state interests."
"Moscow will act very resolutely because it perceives the Yushchenko
project as the desire of external forces to impose a president on Ukraine
who is hostile to Russia," Markov said. If Yushchenko is elected, Russia
may have to terminate its military and technical cooperation with Ukraine -
at the cost of US$10-15 billion (Yuro 8-12 billion) - out of fears of
leaking military secrets to "several American circles" which it believes
will be controlling Yushchenko, Markov said.
Moscow also fears that Yushchenko will be hostile to Russian business,
and that he will try to force out the Russian fleet. Building a new navy
base would cost Russia from US$20 to 30 billion (YURO 16.4-24.6
billion), Markov said.
Moscow has taken several steps aimed at boosting Yanukovych's support
at home and abroad. It abolished VAT payments into the Russian budget on
oil and gas exports to several ex-Soviet republics including Ukraine, which
should bring prices down. It has also sent prominent Kremlin spin doctors
to Ukraine, while Russian state-controlled television channels - which are
widely watched in Ukraine - praise Yanukovych in their reports.
Meanwhile, Russian military prosecutors have charged a key Yushchenko
ally, former Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, with
involvement in a mid-1990s corruption scandal involving Russian Defense
Ministry officials. Ukrainian opposition figures say the move was aimed at
discrediting Yushchenko's political bloc.
Some analysts say Moscow's support for Yanukovych is rooted in Russia's
ingrained suspicions. "Ninety percent of our foreign policy is shaped by
anti-Western complexes and this is one of its manifestations," said Andrei
Piontkovsky of the independent Center for Strategic Studies. But experts
remain skeptical about the Kremlin's fears, noting that Yushchenko has
made statements supporting ties with Russia as Ukraine's key trade partner.
They also say that Yushchenko, who advocates an open and transparent
economy with clear rules of the game, is more likely to let Russian
businesses participate in privatization tenders in Ukraine than Yanukovych,
who defends the interests of the well-connected Ukrainian business elite.
By supporting Yanukovych, Russia is also defending its increasingly
authoritarian political system, said Dmitry Furman of Europe Institute of
the Russian Academy of Sciences. "If a country that is very close to us, a
brother country, installs a system where people really vote freely, with
time it will affect Russia's consciousness, ... this will start
destabilizing our non-alternative system of power," Furman said. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.193: ARTICLE NUMBER TWO
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2. "YANUKOVYCH BILLBOARDS DOT MOSCOW"
Ukrainian Prime Minister and Presidential Candidate
By Francesca Mereu and Anatoly Medetsky, Staff Writers
Moscow, Russia, Monday, October 18, 2004
MOSCOW - Dozens of billboards and banners backing Ukrainian Prime
Minister Viktor Yanukovych are lining the streets of Moscow ahead of
Ukraine's presidential election on Oct. 31. The billboards, which ostensibly
aim to get out the Ukrainian expatriate vote, appear to be a show of Kremlin
support for Yanukovych, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma's chosen
successor.
"Ukrainians in Russia Choose Viktor Yanukovych for President," says one
billboard, which depicts a smiling Yanukovych. "Ukrainians in Russia Are for
Viktor Yanukovych," reads another, showing a serious Yanukovych against a
backdrop of wheat fields.
It is unclear who paid for the billboards, although former Kremlin political
consultant Sergei Markov said they were probably sponsored by Russia-
based Ukrainian organizations.Their goal, Markov said, is "to underline that
Russia backs Yanukovych."
Igor Mintusov, chairman of political consulting agency Nikkolo M, agreed,
saying, "The presidential administration is just telling people that it
supports Yanukovych."
The billboards "are not intended to attract voters," he said. That's just as
well because there are only 4,000 eligible voters in Moscow and the Moscow
region, according to Anatoly Bezgrebelny, head of the elections commission
at the Ukrainian Embassy.
Ukrainian election officials in Kiev and Moscow were unable Friday to give
a total for the number of eligible voters in Russia. Moreover, there are no
accurate figures on how many Ukrainian citizens live in Russia, with
estimates ranging from 1.5 million to 7 million.
Alexei Tolpygo, an analyst with the Kiev Center for Political and Conflict
Studies, said the numbers are useless because few Ukrainian expatriates
will vote anyway.
"People are afraid the police might check their documents when they leave
polling stations," he said, referring to the fact that many Ukrainians work
in Russia illegally. "On the other hand, people are not very interested in
voting. They are passive," he said Friday by telephone from Kiev.
Tolpygo said that 100,000 votes from Russia would be a great achievement --
but just a drop in the bucket compared to the number of potential votes in
Ukraine, which has 38 million eligible voters in a population of 48 million.
Bezgrebelny said last week that voters in Moscow and the Moscow region
will be able to vote at the embassy, Newsinfo.ru reported.
Three other polling stations will open at the Ukrainian consulates in St.
Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don and Tyumen. Tyumen Consul General Nikolai
Shevchuk said 3,126 Ukrainians were registered to vote in the area, which
includes the Urals, Siberia and the Far North. Many of them work for oil
and gas companies in the Far North, and they have asked that three polling
stations open closer to their work, he said. Kiev is considering the
request. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service -Kyiv]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PHOTO: A billboard along Leningradskoye Shosse in Moscow reading,
"Ukrainians in Russia Choose Viktor Yanukovych for President."
Vladimir Filonov / MT
LINK: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/10/18/004.html
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.193: ARTICLE NUMBER THREE
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3. RUSSIA'S UNION OF RIGHT FORCES BACKS VIKTOR
YUSHCHENKO FOR PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE
UNIAN news agency, Kiev, in Ukrainian, 14 Oct 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Fri, Oct 15, 2004
KIEV - Russia's Union of Right Forces has supported [the Ukrainian
opposition presidential candidate] Viktor Yushchenko. The federal political
council of the Union of Right Forces discussed the situation in Ukraine in
the run-up to the presidential election and decided that Russia as never
before needs a democratic, stable and strong Ukraine, the press service
of [Yushchenko's] Our Ukraine bloc said.
"We are confident that official Russia's attitude to the election in the
neighbouring sovereign state should be sober, balanced and based on
respect for the choice of the Ukrainian people and non-interference in
Ukraine's domestic affairs. This is the only stand which is becoming a
super power," the statement said.
The authors of the document expressed serious concern over the one-sided
and biased stance of a range of Russian media outlets and their patrons in
the authorities who persistently misinform the Russian public opinion about
the actual campaign developments in Ukraine, effectively acting in the
interests of certain politicians in the neighbouring states rather than in
the interests of Russia.
The actions of "the Russian 'fans' of a Ukrainian presidential hopeful,
[Ukrainian Prime Minister] Viktor Yanukovych, are bordering on indecency.
They have turned the Kremlin into a subsidiary of the campaign
headquarters," the statement said.
"Russia should not risk suffering foreign political damage as a result of
its clumsy political investments in a candidate with a criminal background,"
the statement said.
The Union of Right Forces said that "being champions of rightist ideas, we
understand the choice which Ukraine is facing. This is the choice between
the system of clans and oligarchs and that country's chance to start moving
towards the social market economy of the European standard.
We do not conceal our sympathies as a political party. Moreover, we believe
that increased claims and powers of anti-reformist forces in Russia directly
depend on a victory or defeat of democracy in Ukraine," the statement said.
The statement said that the point of the Russian authorities that Viktor
Yanukovych is the only possible guarantor of boosting cooperation between
the two states does not withstand criticism.
"We recall that it was Viktor Yushchenko who as the prime minister broke
up the tradition of falling bilateral trade, which had lasted for years. It
was Yushchenko who in the course of a year ensured a 25-per-cent rise
in trade with Russia. Yushchenko put an end to the thefts of Russian gas
from gas pipelines. It was prime minister Yushchenko whose tenure saw
hundreds of million of dollars of Russian investments in Ukraine.
We are confident that after becoming the president of Ukraine, he will
continue the same pragmatic policy which he pursued when he was the
prime minister who treated Russia as a strategic partner," the statement
said. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service - Kyiv]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.193: ARTICLE NUMBER FOUR
Your comments about the Report are always welcome
========================================================
4. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN IN QUOTES OCT 11-17
Source: Quotes package from BBC Monitoring, in English 17 Oct 04
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Oct 17, 2004
Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko returned to active campaigning after
more than a month's absence due to illness. His opponents say he lied when
he said the government tried to poison him. Officials bristled at Western
exhortations to ensure a fair election, and President Kuchma spoke against
trying to push through constitutional reform before the election. The
following is a selection of quotes by presidential candidates and other
Ukrainian public figures in the period 11-17 October:
YUSHCHENKO'S "POISONING"
I do not trust the prosecutor-general, because he is a man who can bury
things without a trace. And I do not want this case to be buried without a
trace. I will say my word when the time comes.
[Yushchenko, 5 Kanal TV, 13 October]
The investigation does not possess any information whatsoever that would
give grounds to assume that deliberate actions were taken against
Yushchenko to damage his health.
[Prosecutor-General's Office, Interfax-Ukraine news agency, 13 October]
It is clear that the political version of Viktor Yushchenko's grave illness
is a big lie. [Journalist Dmitriy Kiselev, ICTV TV, 10 October]
The Ukrainian public needs to know about the health [of presidential
candidates] - whether they will be able to run the state.
[Regions of Ukraine MP Valeriy Konovalyuk, UNIAN news agency, 15 Oct]
We are more concerned over the fact that the condition of the patient is not
improving but deteriorating judging from everything. Drawing any conclusions
is just impossible because we have not seen him, have not met him and have
no results of his tests. Any medical facility, and any specialists that the
presidential candidate Yushchenko names [will be at his disposal] to give
qualified medical aid.
[Deputy Health Minister Oleksandr Orda, ICTV TV, 16 October]
Neither the KGB of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, nor the Security
Service of Ukraine have ever had such [biological weapons] laboratories or
facilities. Some people are simply pursuing their political goals and
forgetting about the country's and the nation's goals. They are ignoring the
interests of the state.
[Ihor Drizhchanyy, deputy head of the SBU, 5 Kanal TV, 11 October]
FAIR ELECTIONS
The government is betting on the use of force to win the election.
[Yushchenko, Korrespondent.net web site, 16 October]
These people - Kuchma, [presidential administration head Viktor]
Medvedchuk - aren't even aware any more how far they are out of the
political mainstream. In order to make such plans work you need to be able
to rely on somebody. But they don't have any such people. Every official is
taking care of his own skin. Nobody is going to do their bidding.
Yushchenko ally Yuliya Tymoshenko rules out the possibility that the
election will be disrupted, Ukrayinska Pravda web site, 11 October
All the techniques that are being used - excuse me, they are beyond the
pale of human decency. When Ukraine is being trampled underfoot and
into the dirt in front of the rest of the world, this is even worse.
[President Leonid Kuchma, ICTV TV, 15 October]
In Ukraine, everything is being done to hold free and transparent
presidential elections. That is required by the constitution and Ukraine's
commitments to the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe. Certain political forces are trying to turn the work
of observers into an instrument for putting pressure on voters. They are
trying to turn them into a higher authority that is more competent than the
Central Electoral Commission. I am sure that you will agree with me that
this is inadmissible. [Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych reassures foreign
diplomats, Novyy Kanal TV, 15 October]
The leadership of the state has repeatedly said that it has been doing its
utmost for the Ukrainian presidential election to take place strictly in
line with the Ukrainian legislation and international standards. Any
attempts to exert unilateral influence on the election process in Ukraine,
wherever these attempts come from and whatever political reasons are
given to justify them, by no means help the creation of normal conditions
for the election processes. [Presidential administration deputy head
Vasyl Baziv on the US State Department's criticism of the conduct
of the election, 5 Kanal TV, 14 October]
If you look at how the media present all these stormy events, the trend
becomes even easier to understand. Society is now being tested as to its
reaction. Its behaviour in the event of an unorthodox scenario is being
probed. How will people respond: get indignant or turn indifferently away?
To make them turn away, one must sink their moral condition below zero
and sow despair and hopelessness.
[Parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, Silski Visti newspaper, 8 October]
THREATS TO PEACE
If the vote goes in Yushchenko's favour, they will support Yushchenko and
stage unruly celebrations, which could deteriorate into disturbances. If the
vote goes otherwise, they could stage riots and possibly even attack the
Central Electoral Commission. [Yanukovych ally Valeriy Pustovoytenko
on plans by an opposition youth organization to hold a rally outside the
CEC on election night, 5 Kanal TV, 13 October]
I have been deported, but nobody explained why I was not allowed to enter
Ukraine. I have been here many times before. After a night behind bars in
the Boryspil airport, together with criminals and drug traffickers - and I
stress that this has been the first arrest in my life - I will be deported
to Budapest by plane. [Freedom House representative Aleksandar
Maric, 5 Kanal TV, 13 October]
The actions taken were in accordance with legislation and in the interests
of national security. [Baziv comments on Maric's deportation, Ukrayinska
Pravda web site, 15 October]
Yanukovych and his team are trying to put into the public spotlight topics
that undermine the existing balanced policy on languages and religion, which
could lead to unpredictable consequences and a rapid deterioration of
relations between language and religious communities.
[Yushchenko's campaign chief Oleksandr Zinchenko, Interfax-Ukraine
news agency, 13 October]
The presidential administration is responsible for the present situation in
Ukraine. After the collapse of several preliminary reform schemes, the
administration proposed new scenarios for annulling the results of the
presidential election because of falsifications on a massive scale. The
danger of such actions is that Ukrainian statehood is young, and
artificially setting some elites against others on ethnic and regional
grounds may cause it to explode. [Russian political scientist Vladislav
Belkovskiy, Holos Ukrayiny newspaper, 14 October]
POLITICAL REFORM
The Constitutional Court has switched on the green light in front of MPs,
and they should understand that hesitating at the traffic lights is holding
up Ukraine's historical development... Ukraine is pregnant with reform
and it needs to make sure the birth is not overdue.
[Presidential administration deputy head Vasyl Baziv, Interfax-Ukraine
news agency, 15 October]
My opinion is that I would not do this before the election. There is no
need to break a lance over this issue or speculate on it. If the winner
understands what to expect in the future, then he will put [the reforms]
to the vote at the very first parliamentary sitting after the election, and
I am sure they will get at least 400 votes.
[Kuchma, UNIAN news agency, 15 October]
The sort of reform that aims to keep the authorities in power won't work.
Democratic reform will work and this will be one of my first acts as
president. [Yushchenko, Interfax-Ukraine news agency, 17 October]
PENSION INCREASES AND PRICE RISES
Those who have raised the prices in the consumer market, they have
done this deliberately. They have done this, as it were, for two reasons.
First, to stuff their own pockets and second, today we already have infor-
mation that, as it were, some political forces are taking advantage of this.
[Yanukovych, ICTV TV, 14 October]
Don't rise to the bait in the form of rise in pensions, wages and stipends
30 days before the election. All this is called cheese, it's cheese in a
mousetrap, and the mousetrap is 31 October.
[Yushchenko, 5 Kanal TV, 13 October]
The absence of clear, well thought-out and professional moves in economic
policy will inevitably result in only one thing. The people will be cheated
and the last kopeck will be extracted from the pockets of the poorest once
again. [Petro Poroshenko, 5 Kanal TV, 14 October]
CAMPAIGN TALK
The election is not a competition between two Viktors. It is a competition
between tow moralities and two systems.
[Yushchenko, UNIAN news agency, 17 October]
I applaud everyone who has today begun to get up off their knees even by a
centimetre, or two or three. These are our people. I'm sure that 47m people
will always be more than a few thousand bandits. And to conclude, I would
like to say - remember this - that the jailbirds will never decide the fate
of this country. The fate of this country will be decided by you, honest
people. [Yushchenko, 5 Kanal TV, 10 October] -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.193: ARTICLE NUMBER FIVE
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5. YUSHCHENKO PROMISES 5 M NEW JOBS AT STUDENT RALLY
Source: ICTV television, Kiev, in Ukrainian, 16 Oct 04
Provider: BBC Monitoring, in English, Sat, October 16, 2004
[Presenter] Thousands of students from all Ukrainian regions are holding an
all-Ukrainian rally under the slogan "Freedom can't be stopped". No clashes
or acts of provocation has been observed. The political part has already
finished. A concert is currently continuing at Kontraktova Square.
[Correspondent] An all-Ukrainian student rally to support [opposition]
presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko has marched along Kiev streets.
Students from Ukraine's western and eastern regions first marched
separately. The symbolic merger of the two columns occurred near
Bessarabska Square.
Then they marched to Kontraktova Square. The police did not hamper
their movement. The organizers say they have gathered 30,000 student.
Others say there are 10,000 students. Tetyana Bezkaravayna, a student
from Uman, has come to Kiev with friends. She says it was hard to get
to the capital.
But, guided by the idea, she managed to get to Kontraktova Square. She
is sure the young people will behave themselves and there will be no clashes
or acts of provocation.
[Bezkaravayna] Many students and friends have come with me. Even those
who are not students. There will be no clashes. Everything will be peaceful
and all right because young people are just like other people - everything
will be peaceful and all right.
[Correspondent] Presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko spoke to the
students in person. He called on the young people to fill polling stations
on 31 October and promised to increase stipends and provide low-interest
loans to young families if he is elected president.
[Yushchenko] Do you want to work? I promise you will have a worthy and
well paid job in Ukraine. We will create 5m jobs as we did in 2000 and in
2001, when 470,000 and then 720,000 jobs were created in a country said
to be in a deep economic depression.
[Correspondent] No political statement are pronounced at Kontraktova
Square now. Singer Mariya Burmaka and the VV, Okean Elzy and Tartak
bands are taking part in the concert. The young people are having a rest.
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.193: ARTICLE NUMBER SIX
Additional names for the distribution list are always welcome
========================================================
6. UKRAINE PRESIDENT'S AIDE REJECTS TOUGH U.S. STATEMENT
ON PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Source: TV 5 Kanal, Kiev, in Ukrainian, 15 Oct 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Fri, October 15, 2004
KIEV - [Presenter] The US State Department, which means the foreign
ministry of this country, has made public another statement about the
situation in Ukraine. The US State Department writes that it is deeply
dissatisfied that the [Ukrainian presidential] election campaign has not
been in line with international standards to date, meaning dispersing
opposition meetings, using government resources and hushing up
independent media.
Washington will have to reconsider its relations with those involved in
cheating and manipulation, the US State Department said. This statement
is one of the toughest that the USA has made public since the beginning
of the election campaign [in Ukraine]. The USA actually hints that personal
sanctions will be applied against those who will be involved in manipulation
in the election.
US State Department spokesman Richard Baucher said firmly that the
presence of Ukrainian peacekeepers in Iraq does not free the Ukrainian
leadership from the responsibility for ensuring democracy and human rights.
The Ukrainian presidential administration reacted to the tough US statement
today. This was done by the deputy head of this organization, Vasyl Baziv.
[Baziv] The leadership of the state has repeatedly said that it has been
doing its utmost for the Ukrainian presidential election to take place
strictly in line with the Ukrainian legislation and international standards.
Any attempts to exert unilateral influence on the election process in
Ukraine, wherever these attempts would come from and whatever political
reasons would be given to justify them, by no means help the creation of
normal conditions for the election processes. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.193: ARTICLE NUMBER SEVEN
Suggested articles for publication in the Report are always welcome
========================================================
7. DANUBE CANAL IGNITES ROMANIA-UKRAINE
BORDER DISPUTE
FEATURE By Dina Kyriakidou, Reuters, Romania, Sun, Oct 17, 2004
PERIPRAVA, Romania - A big Ukrainian dredging barge noisily churns
mud from the bottom of the Danube river under the watchful eye of armed
Romanian frontier guards on patrol boats stationed nearby. The European
Union, Washington and environmentalists have slammed Ukraine's work on
a 165-km (100-mile) shipping canal in the sensitive Danube delta and the
project has also ignited a potentially explosive border stand-off.
Ukraine dismisses criticism of the project, launched with the dredging of
the 3.1-km (two-mile) Bystroye canal to the Black Sea, saying the work
upgrades facilities operating since the 1950s and bluntly telling Romania to
mind its own business. In the canal, buoys directing traffic away from the
barges clearing the delta's Chilia branch, are seen as frontier markings by
fishermen who say they no longer use traditional fishing grounds for fear of
attack by the Ukrainian army.
"These buoys are keeping us out of our fishing areas," said Vasile Stefan,
52, a fisherman in impoverished Periprava, the last Romanian community on
Chilia, the northernmost branch of the Danube before it pours into the Black
Sea.
Sharing a beer at the village drinking hole, his friend, Ioan Ilie, 54,
added: "They brought two, three tanks along the banks to intimidate us. This
is their border with NATO and they are a big nuclear power." Ukraine rid
itself of its last Soviet-era nuclear weapons in the early 1990s and
Romanian officials would not confirm tanks were seen along the border.
DIPLOMATIC ROW
Romania has complained to NATO, the European Union and other inter-
national bodies about its neighbour's moves along the river and said it took
legal steps to settle the dispute for good. "From our side, it was an
illegal action to put these markings in the river," said Romania's Foreign
Ministry spokesman Catalin Ionita. "Border authorities from both sides
have agreedto set up a committee to resolve this."
Ukraine last week accused a Romanian coast guard vessel of threatening
behaviour towards a boat carrying German tourists. Diplomats on both
sides exchanged truculent statements.
Post-communist ties between the neighbours are bedevilled by mistrust.
Romania challenges Ukraine over mineral rights by a Black Sea outcrop,
focus of a major row in the 1990s. Now tension is on the rise on environ-
mental grounds as well. Bucharest says Kiev is threatening the ecologically
important Danube delta, a UNESCO world heritage site since 1991, which
rests mainly in Romanian territory.
Despite protests, Ukraine enlarged the Bystroye canal in its own section of
the delta but is also digging along the Chilia branch up to its port of Reni
upriver, Romanian officials say. They say the river must be made 100
metres (yards) wide and at least eight metres deep to serve as a major
shipping avenue.
"The dredging, the noise, the traffic will surely disturb wildlife," said
Danube Delta Governor Virgil Munteanu in the Romanian town of Tulcea.
"Ukraine has not provided sufficient information to assess the real
environmental impact."
WILDLIFE OASIS
At least three dredging barges were seen operating between the
poverty-stricken villages of Chilia Veche and Periprava. These clusters of
thatched-roof cottages, criss-crossed by dirt roads, are accessible only by
boat and survive on fishing. For Periprava's 300 residents, the dredging is
not only scaring fishermen away.
They fear that the water level will drop so much it will no longer be able
to sustain life. "If the Ukrainians keep this up, this area will turn into
the Sahara desert," said Ilie. "If they keep it up, 80 percent of this
village will die of starvation."
Europe's second largest river crosses 10 countries before flowing into the
Black Sea. The vast delta is one of the world's major wetlands -- home to
280 bird species, including 70 percent of the world's white pelicans and
half the pygmy cormorants. Apart from the international shipping traffic
along its middle, Sulina canal, the delta is a peaceful wildlife oasis.
Herons, ibises and egrets fly gracefully above the reed-filled banks while
the strictly protected sturgeon is among scores of fish species found in its
waters.
Environmentalists say the effects of the dredging may be not immediately
visible but will certainly be destructive. The dynamics of the water flow
will change, altering levels and leaving some bird colonies exposed to
predators. "We may not see dead birds now but we will see dead birds in
about 10 years," said WWF European Water Policy officer Sergey Moroz.
"And we have evidence of one bird colony abandoned at a sand island at
the mouth of Bystroye."
Ukraine says the project gives it important access to the Black Sea and
will create jobs in a desperately poor region. "We have done everything
to protect the environment and we will continue to do so," said Deputy
Foreign Minister Oleksander Motsik.
Not so, according to the European Union and the United States. A European
Commission committee of experts visited the area this month and again asked
for a proper impact report before any work on the project continues.
(Additional reporting by Olena Horodetska in Kiev) -30-
LINK: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L121339.htm
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 193: ARTICLE NUMBER EIGHT
Letters to the editor are always welcome
========================================================
8. UKRAINE'S INDEPENDENT TV CHANNEL 5 ALARMED
AT RUMOURS OF LICENSE LOSS
Donetsk TV company NTN involved someway
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian, 15 Oct 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Fri, Oct 15, 2004
KIEV - [Opposition-leaning TV channel] 5 Kanal is alarmed at reports
that it may lose its license to broadcast in Kiev, 5 Kanal president
Vladislav Lyasovskyy said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine on 15
October.
"A number of internet publications have reported that the Kiev economic
court yesterday made a ruling concerning the license issued to Ekspres-
Inform (5 Kanal) by the National Council for TV and Radio Broadcasting.
However, we have no official confirmation of this information," he said.
"5 Kanal will view any attempts to restrict its broadcasting as political
pressure," Lyasovskyy said.
[The Ukrayinska Pravda web site reported on 15 October rumours that
an unidentified court had cancelled 5 Kanal's license to broadcast in Kiev.
The suit was brought by TV company TV-Tabachuk, which was not
allowed to take part in the competition for the frequency several years ago.
Ukrayinska Pravda could not obtain official confirmation of these rumours.
Meanwhile, 5 Kanal's management said they were not present at the hearing
that allegedly took place on 14 October. TV-Tabachuk has reportedly sold
its frequency to the Donetsk TV company NTN, which plans to start
broadcasting on 1 November.] -30- [The Action Ukraine Report]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.193: ARTICLE NUMBER NINE
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9. EXTERNAL INTELLIGENCE SERVICES SET UP IN UKRAINE
Oleh Synyanskiyy appointed to run new service
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian, 15 Oct 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Fri, Oct 15, 2004
KIEV - The External Intelligence Service has been set up in Ukraine. In
accordance with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma's decree dated 14
October, the new structure was created in order to further improve
intelligence as a tool for forging the state's policy and safeguarding
national interests. The decree was published on the official site of the
Supreme Council [parliament].
By another decree, the president appointed Oleh Synyanskyy as head of the
External Intelligence Service. The External Intelligence Service was set up
as a special state agency on the basis of the intelligence department and
regional intelligence units of the Security Service of Ukraine [SBU].
The External Intelligence Service is to carry out intelligence activity in
the political, economic, military-technical, scientific, hi-tech,
information and environmental areas, take part in combating international
organized crime and terrorism, ensure the safety of Ukrainian organizations
and nationals abroad and execute and coordinate intelligence programmes.
The External Intelligence Service is the legal successor of the SBU
intelligence department in terms of its commitments, rights and duties.
[Passage omitted: The government is instructed to provide logistics to the
new service.]
Prior to his latest appointment, Synyanskyy, born in 1970, worked at the
Ukrainian presidential administration. He graduated from the military
foreign languages institute in Moscow. He is fluent in English, Arabic and
Hebrew. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.193: ARTICLE NUMBER TEN
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10. US STEEL EYES EASTERN EUROPE
New CEO said US Steel was looking at Croatia, Ukraine, Romania
and Bulgaria as potential places for acquisitions of steel producers.
By Peter Marsh in London, Financial Times, London, Thu, Oct 14, 2004
US Steel is looking to extend its presence in eastern Europe through
acquisitions of steel mills and mines to provide raw materials. John Surma,
the company's new chief executive, said: "If we saw a good deal, we'd
go for it."
Giving his first public comments since taking over the top job at the US's
biggest steelmaker two weeks ago, Mr Surma said the company was keen
to build on its acquisitions in recent years of steel mills in Slovakia and
Serbia. As a result, it is the only significant US steel producer with a
presence in Europe.
"We are proven consolidators," said Mr Surma. "We know how to do it."
His comments underline the upbeat mood of the international steel industry,
which is strongly profitable this year on the back of a big rise in prices
sparked by rapacious demand in China.
He said US Steel was looking at Croatia, Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria
as potential places for acquisitions of steel producers.
It was also examining buying European mines for either iron ore or coking
coal - key raw materials for steelmaking that have been in short supply -
to lessen its dependence on outside vendors.
Prices of raw materials for steelmaking have risen strongly, putting
pressure on steel producers who buy these commodities, as opposed to
getting them from their own businesses.
In the US, US Steel controls its iron ore supplies through ownership of
iron ore mines in Minnesota. But it buys iron ore for its east European
plants from outside groups, based mainly in Russia and Ukraine.
This year US Steel is expected to make 22.5m tonnes of steel, making it
the world's sixth-largest producer. Of the US company's total output, 15m
tonnes will come from plants in the US and the rest from its two factories
in Europe.
US Steel has expanded in the US through the takeover last year of National
Steel, another large steel producer. Helped by this deal and the 2000
acquisition of its Slovakian unit, which makes 5m tonnes of steel a year,
the Pittsburgh-based company has more than doubled its annual steel
output from 10m tonnes six years ago.
Mr Surma said the company might also seek extra opportunities to expand
in North America. It was possible it could increase its US output by 5m-
6m tonnes annually, through deals to buy the assets of other smaller steel
producers.
Last year US Steel bid for Rouge Industries, a mid-sized US steelmaker
but lost out to Severstal of Russia.
Mr Surma said US Steel might also be keen to take a stake in Erdemir,
a state-controlled steel company in Turkey that could be partly privatised.
Luxembourg-based Arcelor, the world's biggest steel producer, is also
interested in such a move.
He said he was not interested in expanding purely to boost tonnage but
only where the company saw the opportunity to boost earnings. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.193: ARTICLE NUMBER ELEVEN
Additional names for the distribution list are always welcome
========================================================
11. UKRAINIAN PM AND CABINET OF MINISTERS CHANGES
COUNCIL OF ENTREPRENEURS: "WHO'S IN AND WHO'S OUT"
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian, 15 Oct 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Friday, Oct 15, 2004
KIEV - The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers has included 10 new members
into the Council of Eentrepreneurs under the Cabinet of Ministers and
removed eight members of the Council.
In accordance with resolution No 1350 of 14 October, the following
businessmen have been included into the Council:
[1] Rinat Akhmetov, the president of the Shakhtar Donetsk football club [the
richest man in Ukraine according to the recent wealth rating published by
the Polish Wprost weekly, owns the SCM holding company based in Donetsk];
[2] Petro Peretyatko, president of the Baltic Beverages Holding in Ukraine
and president of the Slavutych beer company (he is also deputy chairman of
the company's board);
[3] Ihor Bondarenko, director-general of the Ukrpidshypnyk [Ukrainian
bearing] company;
[4] Oleksandr Horodetskyy, president of the TNK-Ukraine limited company;
[5] Hryhoriy Hurtovskyy, director-general of the Aerosvit airlines;
[6] Vitaliy Dzhurynskyy, chairman of the supervisory council at the
Ukrainian Trade and Industrial Corporation closed joint-stock company;
[7] Andriy Zayika - director of the affiliated company HCM-Ukraine company;
[8] Pavlo Kylymets, board chairman of the Olymp closed joint-stock company
[owner of famous vodka brand],
[9] Borys Lozhkyn, president of the Ukrainian Media Holding closed
joint-stock company; and
[10] Oleksandr Yaroslavskyy, honorary president of the Ukrsybbank bank.
The following businessmen have been removed from the Council:
[1] Serhiy Moskvyn, director-general of the Ukrainian Investment Society
stocks management company;
[2] Vadym Hryb, director general of the Tekt company;
[3] Ihor Voronov, chairman of the supervisory council at the Credo-Classic
closed joint-stock company;
[4] Oleksandr Derkach, board chairman of the Aval bank;
[5] Pavlo Porvan, board chairman of the Medfarkom limited company;
[6] Oleksandr Suhonyako, president of the Association of Ukrainian Banks;
[7] Yevhen Sukhin, chairman of the supervisory board at the
Enerhotransinvest Corporation; and
[8] Artem Taranenko, vice-president of the Ukrainian Union of Industrialists
and Entrepreneurs.
The Council of Entrepreneurs currently has 28 members (earlier it had 26
members). -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service}
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.193: ARTICLE NUMBER TWELVE
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12. "UKRAINE'S SINISTER ATMOSPHERE ALIVE
IN DAYS BEFORE ELECTION"
Op/Ed by Georgie Anne Geyer, Yahoo! News, Fri, Oct 15, 2004
KIEV, Ukraine -- This beautiful but worn city in the vast plains of Ukraine
could be glorious if it had a little money and a lot of care. It has once-
elegant, old buildings, winding streets and flowering trees.
What one does not expect in this rather shabby upper bourgeois setting is
the strange, sinister undercurrent that not only has characterized Ukraine
since its independence from the Soviet Union after its breakup in 1991 --
but that particularly has characterized the important election campaign
being waged here.
Just over a month ago, for instance, the pro-European candidate, Viktor
Yuschenko, who promises to draw Ukraine closer to the European Union,
suddenly became deathly ill, as if a severe virus or a stroke had hit him.
But when he was rushed to a special clinic in Vienna because his campaign
did not feel Ukrainian medical care could be totally dependable politically,
doctors there feared he had been "poisoned," not by a chemical agent, but
perhaps by a biological or bacteriological agent.
"The doctors in Vienna said this was an unprecedented case," Medvedev
Oleg Oleksandrovich, a leading adviser to Yuschenko, told me. "They
couldn't find anything like this in their files. If he had not been flown
in, he would have died -- if he had gotten to Vienna 24 hours later, he
would have died."
And non-party people of impeccable credentials back up the poisoning story.
"It was not just a trick," Konstantin Vondarenko, a leading social scientist
and director of the Institute of National Strategy, said over lunch here.
"He was very sick and the case is being investigated by Ukrainian and
Austrian intelligence services. There was no chemical poisoning, but it
could have been other types."
Oddly enough, Yuschenko, a generally healthy man who is challenging the
old Soviet holdover political regime, had met just the day before with the
"special services," or intelligence of the government. The theme of the
meeting was how those services should be divorced from politics.
But it is not only the Yuschenko case -- he was so smitten that he was able
to return to campaigning only last week -- that makes Ukraine sometimes feel
like a cross between Shakespeare and Stalin.
There is constant talk of a "third force" outside of candidates Yuschenko
and Viktor Yanukovych, the "pro-Eurasian" or pro-Russian politician chosen
to carry on the 10-year hard-line rule of President Leonid Kuchma. This
ethereal force seems to be an always shifting melange of oligarchic and
criminal elements and conspiracies designed to keep the country on edge
(which it certainly has accomplished).
One intention may be to perpetuate the general assumption that President
Kuchma could make a last-ditch attempt before the Oct. 31 elections to grab
another term, something he made provision for by constitutional means last
spring.
In fact, the campaign is full of so many tricks -- there are only these two
truly potential winners, but there are an additional 25 candidates, at least
half of them put up only to discredit Yuschenko -- that one can hardly keep
up with them.
Even at this late date, with Yuschenko barely having recovered and both
sides hedging their bets between each one's fealty to East or West in order
to fool observers, many analysts expect some last-minute tricks by one or
both sides.
Everyone remembers all too well the case of the journalist who suddenly
disappeared five years ago. Never solved, the case has only a headless body
still in the morgue -- and a mountain of questions as to the why, what, how,
when and where of Georgi Gonzaga.
Why Ukraine? Even in Moscow itself, still the metropole of the confused
post-Soviet world, there are not such obvious and grossly sinister doings.
This country of 49 million, geopolitically crucial in its setting and in its
potential, seems a pocket of Soviet memories and habits, somehow left
behind and ruled by criminal elements with little adherence to any laws.
Why so sinister? "Because," explained an American diplomat, "things are in
play. On the one hand, you have people in power with the old ideas. On the
other, people with new ideas."
"Sinister" can sometimes be translated as movement toward better things. It
can be seen as the grappling of new forces with old. Supposing, of course,
that everybody survives. -30- [The Action Ukraine Monitoring Service]
========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.193: ARTICLE NUMBER THIRTEEN
Checks to support The Action Ukraine Report are always welcome
========================================================
13. "EYE ON EURASIA: BETTING ON EAST UKRAINE"
By Paul Goble, United Press International, Tartu, Estonia, Sep 27, 2004
Tartu, Estonia, Sep. 27 (UPI) -- A Russian nationalist Web site in
Moscow has outlined a plan to create an Eastern Ukrainian national
identity as part of a broader effort to prevent pro-Western opposition
leader Viktor Yushchenko from winning the Ukrainian presidency and
thus turning Ukraine into an anti-Russian beachhead.
That plan is unlikely either to be entirely accepted by the Russian
government or to be successful before the election even if it were tried.
But the ideas contained in it may point to a potentially significant shift
in the way some in Moscow view Ukraine and especially the ethnic
Russians living there.
The Russian nationalist Web site, APN.ru, carried an article on Tuesday
titled "Nationalism of the Eastern Rite," outlining the site's views of what
is going on in Ukraine and what Moscow must do to counter it.
This article suggests that APN and its supporters believe that the United
States and especially the American Democratic Party have given so much
assistance to Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko that he now
appears heading for victory in the upcoming presidential poll.
Yushchenko's victory, the article continues, would threaten Russian
interests by bringing to office a pro-Western leader, who just like
President Mikhail Saakashvili in Georgia but with a greater impact, would
oppose Moscow's efforts to organize the former Soviet space and give the
West yet another triumph over Russia.
But it is not only the aid that the West is pouring in that makes it likely
Yushchenko will win, APN says. It is even more the fact that Yushchenko
has been able to exploit Ukrainian identity which the site says that
"western Ukraine controls." Yushchenko's ability to do that has deprived
his opponent, incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, of the ability
to mobilize the population and to gain the support for the economic growth
that he, Yanukovich, has overseen.
To deal with that situation, APN argues that it is necessary to create a
counterweight to western Ukrainian nationalism. And because Yanukovich
has failed to do that, Russia must "create in Ukraine its own version of
nationalism, one friendly to Moscow."
How could that be done? APN argues that "in eastern Ukraine, a new
political nation has already been formed, which only needs a push in order
to become conscious of itself." That nation wants an alliance with Russia,
and its creation as a new kind of Ukrainian identity will "seize from the
hands of Yushchenko (his current) monopoly on Ukrainian identity."
APN proposes calling this new identity "the young Ukrainians" -- or
"nationalism of the Eastern Rite." And the site suggests that Moscow has
the ability to create it by playing the hostility of eastern Ukrainians
against the western Ukrainians who have dominated much of the
Ukrainian national movement for the last generation.
"If the slogan of the 'westerners' is 'Ukraine is not Russia,'" APN
suggests, "the slogan of 'the young Ukrainians' is that Ukraine is not
Galicia!" Such a slogan, the site continues, will give Yanukovich the
chance to portray Yushchenko as a foreign agent, something who will
work for and at the direction of outside powers.
The site concludes with a set of slogans it suggests Moscow and its ally
Yanukovich should use. Among them are "Ukraine is an independent state
not controlled from outside." "Ukraine is not Galicia. The true Ukrainians
are the Ukrainians of the East. 'Westerners' are too much under the
influence of Poland." And "In Ukraine, there are two political nations --
the Ukrainians and the 'Westerners.'"
This article provides the latest measure of just how frightened some in
Moscow are by the prospects of a Yushchenko victory, how disturbed they
are by the failure of Yanukovich to be more effective, and how willing they
are to recommend pulling out all the stops to try to stop him. Such concerns
are clearly more widespread in the Russian political elite than many in the
West may suspect.
But more important, it points to some potentially significant shifts in
future Russian policy toward Ukraine and across the former Soviet space
more generally.
In the past, Moscow has long sought to use ethnic Russian "compatriots" in
the former Soviet republics to advance its interests. Sometimes that policy
has worked, but more often it has backfired by allowing nationalist groups
in these countries to point to such efforts as yet another reflection of
"the heavy hand of Moscow."
Such a reaction has been especially true in Ukraine, and so at least some
Russian nationalists in Moscow, interested in defending or advancing what
they see as Moscow's power position in Ukraine, are recommending a new
and more sophisticated approach, one more likely to appeal to supporters
of Russia in that country and less likely to mobilize their opponents.
In the run up to the Ukrainian elections, such a policy is unlikely to bear
fruit: National identities cannot be ordered up or changed so quickly.
Consequently, those in Moscow frightened by the possibility of a Yush-
chenko victory may turn to more active measures.
But as a longer-term strategy of recognizing the Russian community in
Ukraine as part of a new Ukrainian nation, the ideas contained in this APN
may matter a great deal more both in Ukraine and across the post-Soviet
space. (Paul Goble teaches at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in
Estonia.) -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service - Kyiv]
========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.193: ARTICLE NUMBER FOURTEEN
Checks to support The Action Ukraine Report are always welcome
========================================================
14. DEAR VIRSKY TROUPE: MOST AWESOME SHOW, KUDOS
"We were overwhelmed with your outstanding performance"
Letter-To-The Editor, The Action Ukraine Report
>From Jim and Sue Schlough, Whitewater, Wisconsin
Feedback: Dear Virsky Ukrainian National Dance Troupe
Tuesday, October 5, 2004
We were overwhelmed with your outstanding performance last evening
at Young Auditorium, Whitewater,Wisconsin. Without a doubt, it was the
most awesome show we've seen here, there, or even on Broadway, for
that matter. The quality of all aspects of the show, costumes, orchestra,
dancers, on and on, was sheer perfection. Come again soon.
Now for the suggestion: Has your troupe ever considered doing a season
of your show in Branson, Missouri? Yours would be perfect for one of
those large, always near capacity theaters and you could plant yourselves
for a few months and not use any of your wonderful energy traveling/
touring. Let the people come to you!
One of the reasons we like to go down to Branson for a week at least
once a year is for quality shows such as yours. I can't tell you where to
begin in this possibility, but someone among you should be able to have
your people talk to their people. When and if you do ever go, we'll be
there.
We would also like to hear if this possibility even comes to fruition.
Again, yours was a remarkable theater experience.
Sincerely, Jim and Sue Schlough, Whitewater, Wisconsin -30-
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOOTNOTE: The only published version of the entire Virsky schedule
has been developed by www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service
(ARTUIS) for The Action Ukraine Report and can been seen at the
following link: http://www.ArtUkraine.com in the News-Current Events
Gallery. Check the schedule and do not miss this world famous, world-
class Virsky Ukrainian National Dance Company.
Virsky, in the next few days, will be performing at;
October 18, Monday, Virsky Concert, Knoxville, Tennessee
University of Tennessee, Clarence Brown Theatre, 8:00 p.m.
October 19, Tuesday, Virsky Concert, Portsmouth, Ohio.
Vern Riffe Center for the Arts, 8 p.m.
October 20, Wednesday, Day Off
October 21, Thursday, Virsky Concert, Indianapolis, Indiana,
Master-class sessions in Urbana during the day
Pike Performing Arts Center, 6701 Zionsville Road, 8 p.m.
October 22, Friday, Virsky Concert, Urbana, Illinois
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, College of Fine and
Applied Arts, Krannert Center, Foellinger Great Hall, 7:30 p.m.
October 23, Saturday, Virsky Concert, Benton Harbor, Michigan,
Mendel Center Mainstage, Lake Michigan College, 8 p.m.
October 24 Sunday, Two Virsky Concerts, Clinton Township, Michigan
Macomb Center for Performing Arts, 44575 Garfield Rd. 3 p.m. & 7 p.m.
October 25, Monday, Virsky Concert, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Hummingbird Centre for the Performing Arts, 1 Front Street East, 7:30 p.m.
October 26, Tuesday, Virsky Concert, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Hamilton Place Theatre, 50 Main S.W., Hamilton, Ontario, 7:30 p.m.
========================================================
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PUBLISHER AND EDITOR
Mr. E. Morgan Williams, Executive Director, Ukrainian Federation of America
(UFA); Coordinator, The Action Ukraine Coalition (AUC);
Senior Advisor, Government Relations, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation (USUF);
Advisor, Ukraine-U.S. Business Council, Washington, D.C.;
Publisher and Editor, www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service (ARTUIS),
P.O. Box 2607, Washington, D.C. 20013,
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(UACC), Ihor Gawdiak, President, Washington, D.C., New York, NY
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President, Washington, D.C.
3. KIEV-ATLANTIC GROUP, David and Tamara Sweere, Daniel
Sweere, Kyiv and Myronivka, Ukraine, 380 44 295 7275 in Kyiv.
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Minnesota Chapter, Natalia Yarr, Chairperson
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