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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"

YUSHCHENKO DIOXIN LEVEL 6,000 TIMES ABOVE NORMAL

"New tests show the level of dioxin in the blood of Ukrainian presidential
candidate Victor Yushchenko was more than 6,000 times higher than normal,
according to the expert analysing the samples.

The concentration, about 100,000 units per gram of blood fat, is the second
highest ever recorded in human history, said Abraham Brouwer, professor of
environmental toxicology at the Free University in Amsterdam, where blood
samples taken last weekend in Vienna were sent for analysis." [article one]

"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" Year 04, Number 260
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, December 15, 2004

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

1. UKRAINE OPPOSITION LEADER YUSHCHENKO HAD DIOXIN
LEVELS 6,000 TIMES ABOVE NORMAL: TESTS
Emma Ross, AP Medical Writer
Associated Press, London, UK, Wed., Dec 15, 2004

2. UKRAINE PARLIAMENT WANTS CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
OF FORMER ELECTION BOSS SERGEI KIVALOV
MosNews, Moscow, Russia, Wed, December 15, 2004

3. ORDER IN UKRAINIAN CAPITAL KIEV TO BE GUARDED BY
170,000 POLICE ON PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION DAY
Era, Kiev, in Ukrainian, Wed, 15 Dec 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Wed, Dec 15, 2004

4. VIKTOR YANUKOVYCH SAYS HIS SUPPORTERS READY
TO COME TO KYIV TO PREVENT COUP D'ETAT
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian, 15 Dec 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Wednesday, Dec 15, 2004

5. UKRAINIAN TOWN BASKING IN THE 'ORANGE' AFTERGLOW
Westernized Lviv Supplied People and Spirit to the Protest in Kiev
By Daniel Williams, Washington Post Foreign Service
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, December 15, 2004; Page A23

6. YUSHCHENKO VISITS KIEV SYNAGOGUE AS RE-VOTE NEARS
By Vladimir Matveyev, Jewish Telegraphic Agency
The Canadian Jewish News, North York, Ontario, Canada
Thursday, December 16, 2004

7. VICTOR YUSHCHENKO IS THE ONLY REAL CANDIDATE
FOR TIME MAGAZINE'S 'PERSON OF THE YEAR'
OP- ED: By Peter Borisow, President, Hollywood Trident Foundation
Los Angeles, California, Tue, December 14, 2004

8. ROMANIA'S SLOW-BURN REVOLUTION SENDS SIGNAL
ACROSS EUROPE'S HINTERLAND
WORLD BRIEFING: By Simon Tisdall
The Guardian, London, United Kingdom, Wed, Dec 15, 2004

9. "ROMANIA: RIGHT FIRST TIME"
EDITORIAL: The Guardian, London, UK, Wed, Dec 15, 2004

10. "WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT...THE ROMANIAN ELECTION"
Toby Manhire, The Guardian, London, UK, Wed, Dec 15, 2004

11. "ORANGE AID"
REVIEW & OUTLOOK, The Wall Street Journal
New York, NY, Wednesday, December 15, 2004

12. "THE POISON PUZZLE"
By Nicholas D. Kristof, Op-Ed columnist
The New York Times, New York, NY, Wed December 15, 2004

13. POISON'S USE AS POLITICAL TOOL:
UKRAINE IS NOT EXCEPTIONAL
By Scott Shane, The New York Times, NY, NY, Wed, Dec 15, 2004

14. "RUSSIA'S LAST STAND"
By Anne Applebaum, Columnist, The Washington Post
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, December 15, 2004; Page A33

15. FIGHT OVER PIPELINES BEHIND UKRAINIAN STANDOFF
Vecherniy Bishkek, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in Russian 9 Dec 04 p 7
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Tue, Dec 14, 2004

16. REWRITING THE TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY
Bronislaw Geremek, Former Solidarity adviser, Polish foreign minister
The Guardian, London, United Kingdom, Wed, Dec 15, 2004

17. "FROM 'TENT CITY' TO NATO"
By Richard Holbrooke, Columnist, The Washington Post
Washington, D.C., Tuesday, Dec 14, 2004, Page A27
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 260: ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
========================================================
1. UKRAINE OPPOSITION LEADER YUSHCHENKO HAD DIOXIN
LEVELS 6,000 TIMES ABOVE NORMAL: TESTS

Emma Ross, AP Medical Writer
Associated Press, London, UK, Wed., Dec 15, 2004

LONDON - New tests show the level of dioxin in the blood of Ukrainian
presidential candidate Victor Yushchenko was more than 6,000 times higher
than normal, according to the expert analysing the samples.

The concentration, about 100,000 units per gram of blood fat, is the second
highest ever recorded in human history, said Abraham Brouwer, professor of
environmental toxicology at the Free University in Amsterdam, where blood
samples taken last weekend in Vienna were sent for analysis.

A normal level of dioxin is between 15 and 45 units. Almost everyone has
some level of dioxins because the toxic chemical is widespread in the
environment - mainly from its industrial usages - and accumulates in the
food chain.

In the case of Yushchenko, Brouwer's team has narrowed the search from
more than 400 dioxins to about 29 and is confident they will identify the
poison by week's end. That, in turn, could provide clues for the
investigation into who may have been responsible.

"From a (chemical) fingerprint, at least you can deduce what kind of sources
might have been involved," Brouwer told The Associated Press. "The labs
will . . . try to find out whether it matches any of the batches of dioxins
that are around, so that maybe you can trace it back to where it was ordered
or where it came from."

Experts say Yushchenko, whose face has been pockmarked and disfigured, has
probably experienced the worst effects already and should gradually recover,
with no impairment to his working ability. Yushchenko, who faces
Kremlin-backed Viktor Yanukovych in a repeat runoff on Dec. 26, first fell
ill in September. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.260: ARTICLE NUMBER TWO
========================================================
2. UKRAINE PARLIAMENT WANTS CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
OF FORMER ELECTION BOSS SERGEI KIVALOV

MosNews, Moscow, Russia, Wed, December 15, 2004

MOSCOW - The Ukrainian parliament has sent an inquiry to the prosecutor
general seeking a criminal probe against the former chairman of the Central
Elections Commission, Sergei Kivalov, Russia's RIA-Novosti news agency
reports.

Kivalov chaired the Central Elections Commission during the first and the
second round of presidential elections. He was not included in the
commission in the course of a regular staff rotation that took place after
the runoff.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich was initially declared the winner
of the Nov. 21 run-off poll, during which he was backed by outgoing
president Leonid Kuchma and Russian president Vladimir Putin. However, the
Ukrainian Supreme Court annulled the result on grounds of mass fraud after
thousands of supporters of opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko rallied in
the capital Kiev and across the country and paralyzed the work of the
authorities. A repeat of the second round of elections is scheduled for Dec.
26. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.260: ARTICLE NUMBER THREE
========================================================
3. ORDER IN UKRAINIAN CAPITAL KIEV TO BE GUARDED BY
170,000 POLICE ON PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION DAY

Era, Kiev, in Ukrainian, Wed, 15 Dec 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Wed, Dec 15, 2004

KIEV - Around 170,000 policemen and interior troops will be involved in
maintaining public order during the repeat presidential election runoff [on
26 December], the head of the Interior Ministry's public security
department, Oleksandr Savchenko, has said. The police have the right to
use everything, including firearms, in case of public disturbances, he
added.

No decision to station military machinery, notably near the Central
Electoral Commission, has been taken yet, as the commission's members
advised against that, Interfax-Ukraine has said. Savchenko also said that
interior troops reinforcements would be brought to Kiev from the regions.

Non-governmental organizations informed the law-enforcement agencies
about planned mass arrivals in Kiev [presumably of supporters of
presidential candidate and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych] from Donetsk
Region. The Kiev city administration has been informed about this too,
Savchenko said, adding that if the information were confirmed, police
patrols
in Kiev would be reinforced. -30- [Action Ukraine Monitoring Service]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 260: ARTICLE NUMBER FOUR
========================================================
4. VIKTOR YANUKOVYCH SAYS HIS SUPPORTERS READY
TO COME TO KYIV TO PREVENT COUP D'ETAT

Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian, 15 Dec 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Wednesday, Dec 15, 2004

MYKOLAYIV - Presidential candidate [and Prime Minister] Viktor
Yanukovych has said that volunteers are being organized around Ukraine
to come to Kiev in order to "prevent a coup d'etat in this country".
Yanukovych was addressing faculty staff and students at the Mykolayiv
state university today.

"Now it is impossible to stop the people's movement to defend their rights
and constitutional order. In many regions, volunteers are signing up [to go
to Kiev]. I was in Sevastopol yesterday, 35,000 signed up there! These
people intend to go to Kiev after the vote on 26 [December]," the candidate
said.

Yanukovych added that "organizations are being organized" in Kiev under
various names, and that there are about 300 of those. "All of them are
volunteer organizations, who do not want to allow a coup d'etat in this
country," Yanukovych stressed.

"The organization which was in charge of the so-called seizure of power and
created the 'orange revolution' - it had been in preparation for more than
one year," Yanukovych said. "There were deliberate preparations for this
affair," Yanukovych said. He explained that "numerous NGOs funded by US
grants have been operating in Ukraine for many years". He said the recent
events in Ukraine were "the seizure of power involving foreign intervention,
an unlawful and anticonstitutional coup".

Yanukovych also said that people who voted for him were being persecuted
in western and some other regions of Ukraine. "Ballot paper stubs are being
confiscated to find out who voted for me. The lists are put up in villages,
and then the people are persecuted. Many people are leaving western
Ukraine, abandoning their homes," Yanukovych said. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.260: ARTICLE NUMBER FIVE
Please send us names for the free distribution list
=======================================================
5. UKRAINIAN TOWN BASKING IN THE 'ORANGE' AFTERGLOW
Westernized Lviv Supplied People and Spirit to the Protest in Kiev

By Daniel Williams, Washington Post Foreign Service
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, December 15, 2004; Page A23

LVIV, Ukraine -- Students here sent e-mails to friends, prodding them to
get to Kiev. Workers traveled back and forth from the Ukrainian capital in
shifts. Factory owners were lenient with absences. Entire families sometimes
went together. For 15 days, this town near the border with Poland was
consumed by what has come to be known as the "Orange Revolution," the
movement in distant Kiev that rose up against election fraud in the
presidential runoff Nov. 21. It was hard to walk a few feet in Kiev without
running into someone from Lviv.

Now that the Supreme Court has thrown out the election results and
ordered a new vote on Dec. 26, Lviv is luxuriating in the afterglow of
victory. But for residents, the issue was more than just getting their
preferred candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, into the presidency instead of
Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, his electoral rival.

Rather, their role in the protests validated Lviv's perceptions of itself as
a town closely allied with the democracies of the European Union. Many
people here wanted to overturn not just an election, but also an impression.

"When I traveled around and talked to Europeans, they used to say that
Ukraine doesn't really want democracy and is not really part of Europe,"
said Stepan Chop, a political science student who went to Kiev for the
rallies. "Now, no one can say that. We're no different from the Poles, or
the Hungarians, or the others who stood up. We think the world has heard."

Lviv prides itself in being a kind of storehouse of Ukraine's Western
culture. It has an opera house modeled on one in Vienna, and it is full of
marble from Italy and Poland and Renaissance-style frescoes and Venetian
mirrors. The city's medieval walls, with their pointy watchtowers, resemble
the sort found all over central Europe. There are few czarist-era buildings,
with their typical Russian pastel greens or pink walls and white trim.

Townsfolk talk about a Lviv liberal tradition dating from a period under the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. "Our history is Western and we are Western,
Western, Western," Chop said. Such attitudes contrast sharply with feelings
in the far eastern part of the country, in the south and around the Crimean
Peninsula. In those places, attachment to Russia is a cornerstone of
identity. Language is Russian, cultural references are Russian and there is
a feeling that Ukraine's relations with Russia should be tight. The divide
gives Ukraine a Janus complex: Half the country faces west and half east.

Which direction will triumph depends partly on whether Yushchenko wins on
Dec. 26 -- he is considered the overwhelming favorite -- and whether and
how he fulfills his promise to shepherd Ukraine toward membership in the
European Union. Yanukovych favors political and economic orientation
toward Russia.

For most in Lviv, only 40 miles from Poland, joining the E.U. is an
imperative. Attitudes heard in conversations over two days last week were
remarkably uniform, whether expressed by students, workers or civic
activists.

In the runoff, Lviv went overwhelmingly for Yushchenko. After Yanukovych was
declared the winner, the Lviv City Council was one of four city governments
that recognized Yushchenko as president. For Chop and his friends, going to
Kiev was an individual, impromptu decision. Once in the capital, they found
the core organizers at protest headquarters set up inside the former Lenin
Museum. A deputy city councilman from Lviv who was also a veteran dissident
and political activist ran it.

Chop slept on the apartment floor of an acquaintance and then later in a
public building commandeered by protesters. "My soul said I had to do this,"
Chop said. "Maybe this can spread to other places in the old Soviet Union.
Maybe even Russia itself."

Nazar Voyko was working for the Ukrainian Voters Committee, a
nongovernmental organization that trained poll watchers and monitored the
elections, when the demonstrations broke out. The entire regional office of
the organization moved to Kiev. His job was to hand out water to
demonstrators. "There was a lot of adrenaline running. I was sad when it
was over. I think we became a real country," he said.

Across town at the Iskra light bulb factory, the workers union had backed
Yushchenko, and when demonstrations began, 150 members traveled to Kiev.
They provided security guards around the perimeter of an impromptu tent city
set up by demonstrators. In all, 400 of Iskra's 2,000 workers rotated in and
out of Kiev.

"Frankly, some of us wanted to storm government buildings," said Mykhailo
Datsiuk, the union chief. "Patience had run out. It was a great achievement
to get new elections through legal means."

Myron Kostiv, the Iskra board chairman, made no secret of his preference in
the election and said it never crossed his mind that the workers ought to
stand aside. "We've had a state for more than 10 years, and it has not been
successful," he said. "It is important that the rule of law is implemented.
It is important for people and for business."

Management arranged with workers to keep the plant running -- it operates on
a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week schedule -- and give time off for employees who
traveled to Kiev. "Many Ukrainians from our area have been working abroad
and they have seen life in Europe. They return to Ukraine and see that
nothing has changed," he said.

His plant is trying to compete with manufacturers in Poland, Hungary and
other E.U. nations. Iskra also produces parts for products made by major
E.U. bulb producers, Kostiv said. He looks forward to E.U. membership.
"It would be a bold move for Yushchenko to begin negotiating right away. I
remember the situation that existed in neighboring countries in Soviet
times. They are doing much better than us now. But we can reach their level
in a few years," he predicted.

The E.U. already influences Ukraine with programs designed to address
economic, environmental, social and legal issues along the border with E.U.
member states, said Oksana Muzychuk. She directs a private organization
that promotes E.U.-Ukrainian interchange and is also Lviv's regional liaison
officer for the International Renaissance Foundation, which dispenses funds
to private organizations on behalf of philanthropist billionaire George
Soros.

Muzychuk attributed the city's activist attitude to the growth of about 200
private groups in Lviv covering issues as diverse as aid to the disabled and
the training of election monitors. "To some extent, yes, there is
interference in Ukraine from abroad," she said. "We are also close to
Poland, and we can go see for ourselves how things work."

The positive impression of Poland, which entered the E.U. on May 1, is a
break with history for Lviv. The Poles periodically invaded and occupied
this region of Ukraine. Poland, like Russia, was an object of loathing by
Ukrainian nationalists. That appears to have passed almost without notice.
President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland was the lead foreign mediator
during the recent standoff between Yushchenko and Yanukovych, who was
backed by the outgoing president, Leonid Kuchma, and by Russia.

"Suddenly, Poland is our best friend," Yaroslav Isayevych, a leading Ukraine
historian, said with a laugh. "It seems we are convinced that Poland has no
more imperialist ambitions." Russia, however, is another matter. Isayevych
recently returned from a seminar with Russian historians in Moscow where he
was trying to wean his colleagues from the notion that Russia and Ukraine
are eternally intertwined in the name of pan-Slavic brotherhood. "Still, one
was with me alone in an elevator and asked me why I was in Moscow and not
in Kiev defending democracy. So things can change," he said. "We'll be very
good friends with Russia once we don't have to be afraid of Russia."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64739-2004Dec14.html
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.260: ARTICLE NUMBER SIX
Your comments about the Report are always welcome
========================================================
6. YUSHCHENKO VISITS KIEV SYNAGOGUE AS RE-VOTE NEARS

By Vladimir Matveyev, Jewish Telegraphic Agency
The Canadian Jewish News, North York, Ontario, Canada
Thursday, December 16, 2004

KIEV - In the run-up to Ukraine's presidential re-vote, opposition candidate
Viktor Yuschenko is taking steps to dispel fears among some Jews stemming
from his political ties with Ukrainian nationalist groups. On Dec. 9,
Yuschenko made a public appearance in Kiev's Central Synagogue to light
Chanukah candles.

Some 400 Jews packed the shul, known here as the Brodsky Synagogue,
welcoming Yuschenko and his wife Katerina, along with two of the couple's
five children with an ovation.

In an interview with JTA that evening, Yuschenko - who has been suffering
from a mystery ailment that reports now indicate was the result of a
deliberate poisoning - said that should he win the upcoming election, slated
for Dec. 26, he will make relations with Israel a priority. "Under my
presidency, the relations between Ukraine and the State of Israel will take
a turn for the better," Yuschenko told JTA. Yuschenko's shul visit marked
the rare appearance of a top Ukrainian political leader at a synagogue
ceremony.

Some leaders of Ukraine's Jewish community, who had previously preferred
not to publicize their political preferences during the election standoff
that followed the contested Nov. 21 presidential runoff, praised Yuschenko
for his public show of support to the community. "This visit demonstrated
Yuschenko's human and political position and his respect toward the Jewish
community," said Eduard Dolinsky, executive director of the umbrella United
Jewish Community of Ukraine.

Yuschenko is widely expected to win in the re-vote later this month in which
he is slated to again face Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, who is
supported by the central authorities in this nation of 48 million. The
results of the Nov. 21 runoff - in which Yuschenko finished second to
Yanukovich - were invalidated by Ukraine's Supreme Court earlier this
month due to allegations of widespread electoral fraud.

Jews were among thousands of Ukrainians who flocked to Kiev's central
square in the aftermath of the Nov. 21 runoff to protest what they believed
were tainted election results. Many Jewish voters had said they supported
Yanukovich because they feared the anti-Semitism associated with some
nationalist groups that are members of Yuschenko's coalition.

Yuschenko's Chanukah appearance is likely to allay some of these concerns
and could influence the Jewish vote in the upcoming election, some Jewish
experts believe. "Some Jews have apprehensions about Yuschenko's entourage,
but his visit dispelled much of the fears," said Mikhail Frenkel, a veteran
Jewish journalist in Kiev and head of the Association of Jewish Media in
Ukraine.

Jews who greeted Yuschenko in the shul last week were not shy about whom
they supported. Many wore orange ribbons and scarves - orange being the
symbol of Yuschenko's campaign - in addition to badges reading, "Yes,
Yuschenko!" For his part, Yuschenko sported a kippah, which Jewish officials
said was a first among top Ukrainian political leaders.

The Jewish community of Kiev said it sent Chanukah invitations to both
presidential contenders, but only Yuschenko responded. Community leaders
said they did not know if Yanukovich intended to visit the synagogue during
the holiday.

In his short address at the synagogue, Yuschenko said that Chanukah
"demonstrates that nothing can prevent people from moving to freedom."
He also spoke highly of the Jewish people and Israel. "This was the great
Jewish people who saved Jewish traditions, culture and revived the Jewish
state,' he said.

He noted similarities between Israel and his own country's movement for
independence - a movement that many here believe has taken a step forward
with the pro-opposition protests dubbed the "Orange Revolution." "Many
pages of the history of Ukraine and the State of Israel are very similar,"
Yuschenko said.

Yuschenko and his family were treated to some traditional Chanukah
specialties at the shul, including latkes and jelly donuts, and his wife
conversed with Yael Azman, the wife of the shul's rabbi, Moshe Reuven
Azman, throughout most of the visit. "We should respect the diversity of
our world with different voices," Yuschenko told the synagogue audience,
adding that as president he will "always support different nationalities
living in Ukraine."

Responding to a question from JTA about the prospects of the restitution
of former Jewish communal property - one of the most pressing issues for
Ukraine's Jewish community - Yuschenko said he will be guided by justice
in dealing with the issue. "Justice should be the dominant question in the
issue of restitution of Jewish property," he said. "The property must be
returned to the owner.'' -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring]
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LINK: http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=5135
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.260: ARTICLE NUMBER SEVEN
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7. VICTOR YUSHCHENKO IS THE ONLY REAL CANDIDATE
FOR TIME MAGAZINE'S 'PERSON OF THE YEAR'

OP- ED: By Peter Borisow, President, Hollywood Trident Foundation
Los Angeles, California, Tue, December 14, 2004

Yushchenko's Orange Revolution will have as great an impact on World
History as did the French Revolution, only without blood. Orange is now
to the rights of people to live in a civil society free from tyranny by
their own government as Green is to the environment. Orange is how a
mature society stages a revolution.

The impact of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine is already seen in Rumania,
where another local tyrant was opposed by a pro-democracy candidate. That
election was also contested and the Electoral Commission ruled in favor of
the pro-democracy candidate. This would never have happened if Kyiv had
not set the example. And, last Sunday there was a large pro-democracy
demonstration in front of the Kremlin - on what may some day be renamed
Orange Square -- much to Putin's nightmare.

The Orange Revolution will spread world wide as more and more people
lose their fear of tyrants and stand together for a decent life in a civil
society. "Together We Are Many . We Will Not Be Put Down!!" That's
the theme song of the virus of democracy - it will spread like wildfire
throughout Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Russia and Asia.

Yuschenko has proven the basic decency of human beings, that they can
collaborate without violence to attain life with dignity, human rights and
the basic human freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Yuschenko has proven that people can stop being victims, that they can
take control of their fate. And he did it all not just without violence but
with demonstrations that called on and proved the very best qualities
we have as human beings.

With half a million people demonstrating every day and every night for 12
days, there was not just no violence but also no crime - no alcohol, no
petty theft - just massive donations of free food, free warm clothes, free
shelter and genuine consideration and kindness. People living in Kyiv
would go down to Independence Square, bring home six or ten strangers,
feed them, let them wash up, rest up and then take them back.

The Twelve Days in Kyiv were the Woodstock of Democracy, only the
payoff was not a free concert, it's freedom for 50 million people and
counting. Yuschenko has given birth to the Freedom and Democracy
Generation. Not only is no one ever going to take away their freedom,
but this generation will carry freedom and democracy, like a breath of
fresh air, around the world for at least the next century.

The rebirth of Ukraine after 350 years of subjugation is already setting the
tone for the 21st Century. The man who inspired it and made it all possible
is Victor Yuschenko. No one deserves more to be Time Magazine's Person
of the Year!

Please send your comments to Time Magazine nominating Victor Yuschenko
for Person of the Year, e-mail: letters@time.com, fax 212-522-8949
(New York). -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.260: ARTICLE NUMBER EIGHT
Your comments about the Report are always welcome
=========================================================
8. ROMANIA'S SLOW-BURN REVOLUTION SENDS SIGNAL
ACROSS EUROPE'S HINTERLAND

WORLD BRIEFING: By Simon Tisdall
The Guardian, London, United Kingdom, Wed, Dec 15, 2004

Eastern Europe hailed a new Prince of Orange yesterday after Traian Basescu
came from behind in the runoff election to be president of Romania. Like
Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko, the mayor of Bucharest and self-styled scourge
of corrupt apparatchiks chose orange for his campaign colours.

Unlike Mr Yushchenko, his victory is undisputed by his rival, the prime
minister, Adrian Nastase.And no one tried to poison him. When east European
jitters about a resurgent Russia are on the rise, this former ship's captain
became the fresh, unmarked face of a future anchored more firmly in the
west.

Many Romanians see Mr Basescu's success as the long-awaited climax to a
slow- burn revolution which began at Christmas 1989 when the detested
pro-Soviet regime of Nicolae Ceausescu was toppled by a coup. Ceausescu
was put up against a wall and shot. But communist era habits died harder.
The old elite relabelled themselves Social Democrats (PSD) and became
the government party for most of the past 15 years.

But as in Ukraine, which in theory gained its independence in 1991, a
corrupt culture of party barons and millionaire oligarchs continued to
dominate many aspects of Romanian life. "The former communists still
controlled all the levers of power - the TV and media, industry and the
economy, the security forces and the secret police," one analyst said
yesterday. "The regional tsars under Ceausescu just switched sides."

But according to Jonathan Eyal, an expert on eastern Europe at the Royal
United Services Institute, time had long been running out for the ancien
regime headed by the outgoing president and former communist Ion Iliescu.
While Mr Basescu galvanised his urban supporters, conservative rural backers
of the government were less committed. "There was a whiff of mothballs about
the government. Romanians were saying, can we please put it in the bin?" Dr
Eyal said.

Despite successfully negotiating Romania's entry to Nato and the EU, which
it is expected to join in 2007, the PSD was too closely associated with the
bad old days and gained little domestic credit for its efforts. Another
major factor was the fury at the official corruption in a country where the
black market accounts for an estimated 40% of all economic activity.

Mr Basescu promised to crack down on graft, denouncing his rivals as
villains and gangsters. "This is a dirty system that destroys political
opponents . . . but I tell them now: 'Boys, you cannot destroy me!'" he said
at the beginning of the campaign. Successful efforts to prevent the multiple
voting fraud detected by OSCE monitors during the first round a fortnight
ago contributed to Mr Basescu's breakthrough. "They fiddled the first
round," an expert on eastern Europe said. "People were determined not
to let them do it again."

What might be termed the "Ukraine effect" seems to have played a significant
part in mobilising Romania's emerging urban middle and professional classes.
"The cackhanded way [the Russian president, Vladimir] Putin tried to
encourage the Ukraine result was influential," Dr Eyal said.

But meddling by Moscow in Romania would have been counter-productive.
"I have yet to meet the one Romanian who considers Russia a friend or ally.
Hatred of Russia is in Romanian blood," he said. For that reason, among
others, Romania has been quick to build on its Nato membership. It is
offering cut-price military base facilities to the US in Constanta, on the
Black Sea.

Last October the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, went looking for
bargains. Such developments may only deepen Russia's post-Ukraine sense
of geopolitical encirclement, or even isolation.

In terms of EU membership, Romania - like neighbouring Bulgaria - is a
laggard compared with Poland and other former Soviet satellites. Even the
three Baltic republics got in ahead of Bucharest, which still faces tough
negotiations on the mandatory structural and judicial reforms. While
admitting that there will be problems, Mr Basescu vows "to march in full
force towards EU integration".

All the same, Romania's evolving realignment, in the context of Ukraine and
Mr Putin's more assertive policies in Russia's "near abroad", could now
encourage others in Europe's hinterlands to follow in their turn. Croatia's
hope of EU membership has been bedevilled by its failure to extradite
alleged war criminals from the 1990s Balkan wars.

Serbia, where anti-western sentiment still runs strong in the wake of Nato's
1999 Kosovo campaign, is even further behind. But both seem destined to join
the EU eventually. Moldova, on Romania's north-eastern flank, remains fixed
in Moscow's sphere - Russian troops are still based in the separatist
Transdniestria region - but some analysts think an internal movement to
reunite with Romania, defeated in a 1994 plebiscite, will now be revived. If
Ukraine shifts decisively westwards, so too may Moldova.

At present eastern Europe's most hopeless case is Belarus, a virtual
dictatorship bought and paid for by Moscow. As one EU foreign minister
noted caustically: "Only Belarussians can decide their future. The problem
is, nobody asks them." If the future is orange, as Mr Basescu's victory
suggests, Belarus may be the last to know. Leader comment, page 25
========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.260: ARTICLE NUMBER NINE
Your comments about the Report are always welcome
========================================================
9. "ROMANIA: RIGHT FIRST TIME"

EDITORIAL: The Guardian, London, UK, Wed, Dec 15, 2004

He once commanded the biggest ship in the Romanian fleet. Now the
53-year-old Traian Basescu, the surprise winner of Romania's presidential
election, has to steer the whole country into Europe. Unlike Ukraine,
Romania got the choice between a democrat and a prime minister whose regime
was tainted with corruption right the first time. Mr Basescu is a popular
figure. As mayor of Bucharest, a city plagued by stray dogs, he ordered a
roundup of all the beasts. When challenged by animal rights activist
Brigitte Bardot, he retorted that he was elected by the people of Bucharest,
not its dogs. He is also one of few Romanians prepared to speak up for gay
rights and single-sex marriages.

Mr Basescu only entered the race after his party's candidate, Theodor
Stolojan, withdrew under threats to disclose his alleged involvement in a
financial scam when he was prime minister. When Mr Basescu himself became
the target of fraud allegations over the privatisation of the commercial
fleet, his reaction was to resign from parliament, surrendering his immunity
from prosecution to allow investigators to do their work. So when the new
Romanian president says that he is thick-skinned, he means it. He will need
every part of his epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous layers to weather the
storms of Romanian politics as his country heads for entry into the EU in
2007.

The significance of the election may not just be that a straight-talking, if
populist, street fighter won, but that Adrian Nastase,the product of a party
machine which has dominated Romanian politics since the fall of Nicolae
Ceausescu, lost. The ruling Social Democrats will not give up without a
fight, and yesterday there began a second gargantuan battle to form a
government that would exclude them. The outgoing president, Ion Iliescu, who
has just seen his prime minister Mr Nastase narrowly lose, suggested a
coalition between the Social Democrats and the Justice and Truth Alliance,
Mr Basescu's party. This would, of course, stifle any attempt to fight
corruption. But the rebuff the ruling elite have suffered may loosen their
historic grip on power. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.260: ARTICLE NUMBER TEN
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10. "WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT...THE ROMANIAN ELECTION"

Toby Manhire, The Guardian, London, UK, Wed, Dec 15, 2004

"Against all odds, Traian Basescu managed to win a spectacular victory in
the tightest presidential contest in Romania's history," said the Romanian
paper Ziua yesterday, after the opposition leader and former Bucharest
mayor was confirmed as the unexpected victor of Sunday's run-off vote.

Mr Basescu's win, and the defeat of Adrian Nastase - the prime minister,
who had been supported by the outgoing president, Ion Iliescu - amounted
to "Romania saving herself from shipwreck", said Traian Ungureanu in
Evenimentul Zilei . November's first round was "rigged", he said, but the
boldness of Mr Basescu, and the determination of the electorate, meant "we
have managed to save ourselves." The new president had "defeated on his
own a legion of bad habits and an epoch of liars".

"The main asset of Mr Basescu was the spirit of a 'vigilante' and his
determined and firm anti-corruption [stance]," agreed Mircea Dutu in the
English-language Romanian daily Nine O'Clock . Yet that spirit might prove a
weakness, warned Ziua: "The main danger is that Mr Basescu relies too much
on political talent, spontaneity and intuition. He could . . . cost Romania
a lot."

In Britain, the Independent detected "more than a few echoes of Ukraine" in
Romania. "As in Kiev," the first round "was dogged by allegations of fraud,
prompting street protests and international concern. In another parallel . .
. the election exposed deep divisions between the urban middle classes and
rural voters wary of reforms."

The comparisons ought not to be overstated, cautioned the Daily Telegraph .
In Ukraine, "the contest is between a candidate who would build ties with
the west and one who would seek closer links with Russia. In Romania, both
[candidates were] agreed on preparing Romania for accession to the EU in
2007."

Many noted the challenges the new president faced. With no party commanding
a parliamentary majority, said the Romanian Azi , "the formation of a new
government will be a very difficult process." In Nine O'Clock, Dutu was
uncertain whether Mr Basescu could find "any viable formula of compromise",
and would not be surprised to see Romania "advance speedily towards early
[parliamentary] elections". -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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newspapers. An annual subscription - 260 issues - costs pounds 14.95.
www.guardian.co.uk/thewrap
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.260: ARTICLE NUMBER ELEVEN
Suggested articles for publication in the Report are always welcome
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11. "ORANGE AID"

REVIEW & OUTLOOK, The Wall Street Journal
New York, NY, Wednesday, December 15, 2004

It's been a good month for orange in Eastern Europe, heretofore a decidedly
un-orange kind of place. First, the Ukraine Supreme Court granted
orange-beribboned opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko a rerun of the
fraud-marred presidential runoff. Now his Orange Revolution has spread to
Romania, where Traian Basescu claimed the presidency in a stunning upset
over Prime Minister Adrian Nastase. Mr. Basescu showed up for a victory
rally wearing -- what else? -- an orange parka.

There are other, non-chromatic similarities between the two events. Both
countries were prisoners of communism, and in a decade-plus of independence
from that curse each has been governed mostly by an establishment drawn from
the old guard and widely accused of corruption.

But more notable is the difference in how the apparent losing parties
handled defeat. Though the official tally in Ukraine 's runoff showed Prime
Minister Viktor Yanukovych had won, that result was quickly discredited by
reports of rampant fraud. Mr. Yushchenko refused to concede, sending
thousands of protesters into Kiev's streets and going before the supreme
court. In Romania, such tactics weren't needed; Mr. Nastase stepped aside
soon after runoff results showed Mr. Basescu winning 51% of the vote.

Romania has grown up a great deal since Friday, when journalist Radu Calin
Cristea on these pages described his homeland as "a democracy in puberty."
Having shown that the essence of democracy is the willingness of the ruling
party to lose an election, as we describe in greater detail above, Romanian
democracy seems to be crossing the threshold into adulthood.

That doesn't mean all will be peachy keen from now on. The new Romania,
if you date its birth from the end of the hateful Ceausescu dictatorship, is
still a teenager. While some adolescent problems remain, Mr. Basescu offers
hope.

First and foremost is his vow to rid the government of corruption in state
institutions, businesses and the courts, a legacy of the Social Democrats'
rule. The European Union agreed last week to conclude accession talks with
Romania but only after setting strict monitoring rules.

The president-elect also faces high inflation (14.1% in 2003) and poverty
(which oppresses one-third of all Romanians) that have persisted despite
steady economic growth since 2000. Central to his platform is creating a
flat tax of 16% for both corporations and individuals. This proposal is
expected to stimulate growth in two ways: By lowering the tax burden, and by
discouraging widespread tax evasion. (Romania's black and gray economies
have been estimated at around 40% over the last five years.)

The only previous center-right government in the new Romania (from
1996-2000) failed to achieve these tasks. But Mr. Basescu's best asset may
be his indifference to conventional wisdom.

A sailor and ship captain into his 30s, the salty-talking Mr. Basescu served
as transport minister before becoming Bucharest's mayor in a 2000 electoral
surprise. He won favor with residents but angered animal-rights activists by
rounding up thousands of stray dogs. He irked the church by supporting gay
rights and admitting that he frequented prostitutes as a young seaman.

Colorful he may be, but he seems relatively free of guile. Maybe that's what
Romanians wanted after a series of politicians who were too agile by far.
The Orange Revolution marches on. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 260: ARTICLE NUMBER TWELVE
Names for the distribution list always welcome
=======================================================
12. "THE POISON PUZZLE"

By Nicholas D. Kristof, Op-Ed columnist
The New York Times, New York, NY, Wed December 15, 2004

RIGA, Latvia ­ In these long winter nights, a headless horseman is roaming
Russia's "near abroad," threatening independent countries and raising fears
of a renewed cold war.

This specter is Vladimir Putin. Let's hope he finds his head soon.

In traveling around Eastern Europe lately, I kept hearing from people who
told me what a menace Mr. Putin was becoming, and they're right. There
are plenty of examples of Mr. Putin's bullying neighboring countries, from
Georgia and Estonia to this lovely little Baltic nation, Latvia, but the
most egregious example was Mr. Putin's recent plotting to install a
pro-Russian stooge in Ukraine.

If the pro-reform candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, does not die in a "car
accident" before the new Ukrainian election on Dec. 26 (vehicle accidents
are a preferred method for disposing of Ukrainian democrats), we may find
out who poisoned him with dioxin.

On the night before he showed his first symptoms, Mr. Yushchenko dined with
the head of the S.B.U., Ukraine's secret service. Hmm. The director himself
has seemed to be a reformer, so was the large nonreformist wing of the
S.B.U. up to its old tricks? Maybe. And did Russian agents, who have close
ties with that nonreformist wing of the S.B.U., offer their expertise in
toxins?

There's no evidence that Russia was involved in the poisoning, or even that
he was poisoned at that dinner. But Russia managed to insert itself into
every other aspect of the campaign, so it's a possibility that Ukrainians
are murmuring about.

It's clear that Russia doesn't blanch at murder. Two Russian secret agents
assassinated a former president of Chechnya (whom Moscow considered
a terrorist) in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar in February by blowing up
his car as he left a mosque. "The Russian leadership issued an order to
assassinate the former Chechen leader," the Qatari judge said after
examining all the evidence and convicting the two men.

The bottom line is that the West has been suckered by Mr. Putin. He is
not a sober version of Boris Yeltsin. Rather, he's a Russified Pinochet or
Franco. And he is not guiding Russia toward free-market democracy, but
into fascism.

In effect, Mr. Putin has steered Russia from a dictatorship of the left to
a dictatorship of the right (Chinese leaders have done much the same
thing). Mussolini, Franco, Pinochet, Park Chung Hee and Putin all emerged
in societies suffering from economic and political chaos. All consolidated
power in part because they established order and made the trains - or
planes - run on time.

That's why Mr. Putin still has 70 percent approval ratings in Russia: he
has done well economically, presiding over growth rates of 5 to 10 percent.
Polls by the Pew Research Center suggest that Russia is fertile soil for
such a Putinocracy: Russians say, by a margin of 70 to 21, that a strong
leader can solve their problems better than a democratic form of government.

Still, a fascist Russia is a much better thing than a Communist Russia.
Communism was a failed economic system, while Franco's Spain, General
Pinochet's Chile and the others generated solid economic growth, a middle
class and international contacts - ultimately laying the groundwork for
democracy. Eventually we'll see pro-democracy demonstrations in Moscow
like those in Kiev.

We need to engage Russia and encourage economic development to nurture
that political evolution - and reduce the risk that Russia, embittered and
humiliated, will spiral into the kind of conspiratorial xenophobia found in
parts of the Arab world. And, frankly, we need to engage Russia for our own
purposes - such as fighting nuclear proliferation. But we also must stay on
the right side of history.

So we need to speak out much more forcefully against brutality in Chechnya,
the continued Russian military interference in Georgia and Moldova, the
suppression of the news media in Russia, and lately the pillaging of
companies that don't bow deeply enough to Mr. Putin.

It was good to see that Colin Powell didn't let Mr. Putin push us around
over Ukraine. We need to stop letting him bully us on other issues - and
help him find his head again. If the Baltic citizens and those brave
Ukrainians can stand up to Mr. Putin, so can we. -30-
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Nicholas D. Kristof is an Op-Ed columnist for The Times
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 260: ARTICLE NUMBER THIRTEEN
Names for the distribution list always welcome
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13. POISON'S USE AS POLITICAL TOOL:
UKRAINE IS NOT EXCEPTIONAL

By Scott Shane, The New York Times, NY, NY, Wed, Dec 15, 2004

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 - With speculation running rampant in Ukraine
over who was behind the mysterious dioxin poisoning of the presidential
candidate Viktor A. Yushchenko, the use of poisons as a sinister tool of
statecraft has again entered the public arena in a former Soviet republic.
Some former officers of the Russian security services argue that it never
left.

On several occasions in the past decade, the successor agencies to the
K.G.B. in Russia and other countries once in the Soviet sphere have come
under suspicion of giving drugs or poisons to prominent critics. And while
the authorities have repeatedly denied ordering such actions, the former
intelligence officials say they find many of the allegations credible.

"The view inside our agency was that poison is just a weapon, like a
pistol," said Alexander V. Litvinenko, who served in the K.G.B. and its
Russian successor, the Federal Security Service, from 1988 to 1999 and
now lives in London. "It's not seen that way in the West, but it was just
viewed as an ordinary tool."

Mr. Litvinenko said a secret K.G.B. laboratory in Moscow, still operated
by the Federal Security Service, which is known by its Russian initials
F.S.B., specializes in the study of poisons.

In analyzing Mr. Yushchenko's case, Oleg D. Kalugin, a former K.G.B.
general who now lives outside Washington, said it appeared to be "certainly
an attempt to remove him from the political scene."

Mr. Kalugin speaks from unusually direct experience. In 1978, he passed
along orders directing Soviet agents to supply the Bulgarian secret service
with a spring-loaded umbrella that was later used to deliver a dose of the
poison ricin, killing the Bulgarian dissident Georgi I. Markov in London.

Mr. Litvinenko and Mr. Kalugin both said they believed that Mr. Yushchenko
had been poisoned with the involvement of the Ukrainian security service,
which has maintained close relations with the F.S.B., and they suspect that
Russian security services may even have been involved. Mr. Yushchenko fell
ill after having a meal on Sept. 5 with the head of Ukraine's security
service, Gen. Ihor P. Smeshko.

Russian and Ukrainian authorities have vehemently denied being involved.
In Washington, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy, Yevgeny Khorishko,
said, "There is no evidence to support such claims."

In making their cases, Mr. Litvinenko and Mr. Kalugin describe cases in
recent years in which Russian authorities have come under suspicion of
drugging or poisoning people.

A Russian banker, Ivan Kivelidi, and his secretary, who died in 1995 after
using a telephone apparently dosed with poison. In 2002, a Saudi militant
known as Khattab who fought with Chechen rebels against Russian forces
died after opening a poisoned letter. And a former speaker of the Russian
Parliament, Ivan Rybkin, who disappeared for several days in February
during his race against President Vladimir V. Putin, later accused the
F.S.B. of drugging him.

On Sept. 1, in an incident that received widespread media attention in
Russia and Britain, Anna Politkovskaya, a prominent Russian journalist with
the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, lost consciousness after drinking tea aboard a
flight to Beslan, in the Caucasus, where militants had seized a school. She
later said she thought F.S.B. agents on the plane had poisoned the tea.
When she regained consciousness in the hospital, she wrote in The Guardian,
a nurse whispered to her, "My dear, they tried to poison you."

There are other theories about who was behind Mr. Yushchenko's illness, of
course. Milton Leitenberg, an expert on Russian biological weapons at the
University of Maryland, said that although "intelligence agencies are the
first possibility," Mr. Yushchenko might have been poisoned by a political
enemy or a criminal group.

On Saturday, doctors in Vienna confirmed that Mr. Yushchenko had ingested
dioxin, producing a severely disfiguring skin condition. The level of
dioxin in his blood was more than 1,000 times normal, the doctors said. In
response, Ukraine's prosecutor general, Svyatoslav Piskun, announced that a
criminal investigation into the poisoning was being reopened.

Western experts say the dioxin findings all but prove that Mr. Yushchenko
was deliberately poisoned. Dioxin is the name for a class of chemicals
produced as a byproduct of the burning of refuse, the manufacture of
pesticides and other industrial processes.

Alastair Hay, professor of environmental toxicology at the University of
Leeds, said dioxin was an unlikely choice for assassination, but if the
attacker's motive was to drive Mr. Yushchenko from the race, dioxin might
make sense. "It's fat-soluble, so you would want to put it in a fatty
medium such as a soup," Dr. Hay said.

Vil S. Mirzayanov, a onetime dissident Russian scientist who lives in New
Jersey, said a secret unit inside a Moscow chemical institute studied
dioxin for many years while developing defoliants for the military.

He said he had never heard of dioxin being studied as a weapon in the
former Soviet Union, but Dr. Paul M. Wax, vice president of the American
College of Medical Toxicology, said that at a 2002 conference in Volgograd,
Russian scientists told him such research had been conducted.

There have been similar cases around the world in the past few decades. The
South African authorities were accused of using clothing impregnated with
organophosphates to try to poison antiapartheid activists. In 1997, Israeli
agents in Jordan injected a poison into a Hamas leader, Khaled Meshal,
later delivering an antidote under international pressure to save his life.

In the 1950's and 60's, a secret United States Army program, working with
the Central Intelligence Agency, developed weapons designed to use toxins
to kill and leave no trace. C.I.A. plots to poison Patrice Lumumba, the
prime minister of Congo, and Fidel Castro of Cuba failed, but were later
exposed by Congressional investigators. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 260: ARTICLE NUMBER FOURTEEN
Letters to the editor are always welcome
=========================================================
14. "RUSSIA'S LAST STAND"

By Anne Applebaum, Columnist, The Washington Post
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, December 15, 2004; Page A33

MOSCOW -- She had just turned 18. She was a freshman at a small American
college. In flawless English, she explained that she was home for Christmas,
visiting her family in Moscow. We spoke about how much her city had changed
in the past decade, about the new shops, about how many Muscovites now
travel abroad. Then, because we were stuck in Moscow traffic and had run out
of small talk, I asked her what she thought about recent events in Ukraine.

"We're really upset about it," she said. At first I thought she meant that
she and her family were upset because the Russian government had helped the
Ukrainian government try to steal the election. But in fact, they were upset
because they thought Ukraine might leave Russia's sphere of influence. "If
all of these countries around us join NATO and the European Union, Russia
will be isolated," she said. "We must prevent that from happening."

These were casual comments, and they came from someone who was in no
way a typical Russian. But that was precisely the oddness of it: A young
woman, educated in the West, felt affronted because Russia's neighbors want
to join Western institutions. And compared with the views of some others,
who are not educated in the West, hers are relatively mild. A few days
later, at a seminar for high school teachers on "civic education," I was
angrily asked why the U.S. government funds Chechen terrorism and why
the American government wants to destroy Russia. Certainly not everyone
in Moscow labors under the belief, which my companion in the car also
expressed, that Russia will never -- can never -- join any Western
institutions, or that Russia must make a "last stand" against Western
encroachment, or that Russia must, at all costs, defend the last redoubt of
its empire. Last weekend, at a somewhat ramshackle congress of Russian
democratic and human rights activists, I listened to a handful of them argue
passionately about the nature of Russian xenophobia and how to stop it.

Nevertheless, the belief that Russia has a right to an empire, and that
Russia will be "isolated" without a buffer zone of compliant neighbors,
remains widespread, and not by accident. At least in part, this belief --
which is growing -- is the result of decisions made by the current Russian
administration. Russian television, which is state-controlled, pays
continuous homage to the KGB and the army. The Russian president has
revived the Soviet national anthem and talks tough about Chechnya and
Ukraine. All of this is accepted as natural.

But there is nothing inevitable about the current wave of Russian imperial
nostalgia, no reason why it has to be this way. National symbols can and do
change over time. German national identity nowadays has far more to do with
economic achievement than with Prussian military virtues; British identity,
whatever it is, has little to do with empire. Last week in Stockholm I
watched Swedish television's reverent broadcast of the Nobel Prize award
ceremony -- a deeply archaic event, complete with royalty, the national
anthem, gentlemen in white ties and ladies in ball gowns -- and realized
that awards for scientific genius, even when presented to foreigners, can
become a vital source of national identity. Yet only a century ago, Sweden
had colonies, too.

Indeed, as the case of the United States well demonstrates, any country's
history contains possible sources of national pride and possible sources of
embarrassment. Americans do identify with their country's military prowess
but are not proud of the damage their Army did to Vietnamese villages.
Americans brag about their traditions of civil liberties but are embarrassed
by the Japanese internment camps during World War II. However much distaste
you may have for some of the excesses of American nationalism or some of the
ugly things that have happened in American history, imagine what the United
States would be like if those preferences were reversed. And in Russia, they
are in effect reversed. Instead of promoting pride in the bravery of Soviet
human rights activists, or recalling the pre-revolutionary tradition of
Russian liberalism, President Vladimir Putin continues to identify himself
as a "chekist," using Lenin's word for the secret police.

As a result of these very deliberate decisions, Russia is now almost the
only Eastern European country that does not perceive NATO and the European
Union as forces for stability and prosperity, and the first that does not
welcome the prospect of having longer borders with countries that are
members. When Germany was reunited and the borders of "Western" Europe
moved closer, Poles were delighted. When the Poles started negotiating with
the European Union, the Baltic states agitated to be let in, too. In large
part, the demonstrators on the streets of Kiev are motivated by their desire
to join these same Western clubs. Only Russians, trapped in their belief
that Western civilization poses a threat to their own, persist in believing
otherwise. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A130-2004Dec14.html
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 260: ARTICLE NUMBER FIFTEEN
Letters to the editor are always welcome
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15. FIGHT OVER PIPELINES BEHIND UKRAINIAN STANDOFF

Vecherniy Bishkek, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in Russian 9 Dec 04 p 7
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Tue, Dec 14, 2004

Text of report by Daniyar Karimov entitled: "One story. Different aims",
published by Kyrgyz newspaper Vecherniy Bishkek on 9 December;
subheadings as published:

The beginning of the "orange distemper" rests in the fight for oil
resources. Western analysts predict poverty for Ukraine under
Yushchenko. They link the political confrontation in this Slavic country
with the activity of the "fuel tycoons".
OIL ARTERY
The situation around the outcome of the presidential election is still yet
to be settled. Supporters of so-called "opposition" candidate Yushchenko
have blocked state buildings and they are categorically refusing to
recognize any outcome of the elections but the one bringing victory to the
leader of the "orange ones". The extent of protracted protest marches is
making even sceptical Europeans think about who is behind them. Western
analysts and researchers say the recent events in Georgia and the current
situation in Ukraine are links of one chain. And the main aim of these
upheavals is the establishment of control over pipelines that deliver oil
and natural gas to countries of the north Atlantic alliance [NATO].
Oil is frequently named as the real cause of local conflicts in Eurasia.

According to modern historians, the "black gold" caused the war in the
Persian Gulf which led to Saddam Husayn leaving his presidential palace.
According to some information, the abundance of hydrocarbons makes
Kazakhstan and the Fergana Valley very interesting. The same applies to
Ukraine - oil and gas pipelines go to Europe via its territory.
The flood of emotion in the press can be explained by the indignation of
western taxpayers who do not agree to finance "velvet revolutions" abroad
at a cost of damage to their economies. Quite an understandable motive.
And the indignation can also be admitted to be quite just.
WHO ORDERED YUSHCHENKO?
The world press has been seeking an answer to this question for several
weeks now. Most fantastical versions are being voiced. Special services and
politicians overseas appear among those who benefit from Yushchenko.
There are also other versions that link foreign political scientists with
the events in Ukraine. An attempt to draw parallels between the events in
October 1917, the French revolution and the current events in Kiev has been
an unexpected revelation. The techniques are strikingly similar. Although,
as analysts say, the aims are different. If in the cases of France and
tsarist Russia it was all about the usurpation of power, then now the issue
is the control over the people's choice. Yushchenko is following a scenario
rewritten by history several times. And maybe he is being pushed to take
this beaten path.

In general, it is too early to say the Ukrainian conflict is over. And maybe
the new election will not be the end of the political confrontation which
ordinary electors are being artificially involved in. This huge complicated
intrigue is growing as a snowball\ý [ellipsis as published]. It is giving
rise to a quite understandable (see above editorial office) euphoria among
bribed supporters of "people's will", because they are never concerned about
"tomorrow". -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 260: ARTICLE NUMBER SIXTEEN
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16. REWRITING THE TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY

Prof Bronislaw Geremek, Former Solidarity adviser, Polish foreign minister
The Guardian, London, United Kingdom, Wed, Dec 15, 2004

A number of recent articles in British newspapers have presented the
"orange" revolution in Ukraine as an element of some sort of American bid
for world domination. Instead of an authentic revolution we have a
stage-managed coup, designed to weaken Russia and gain access to new
markets. Politics is reduced to an interplay between world powers, and
history to a story of corruption. This ignores one essential element: the
Ukrainian people.

Mark Almond (The price of people power, December 7) rewrites the history
of the last quarter century in central Europe to more forcibly elucidate the
horrors awaiting Ukraine if it chooses the pro-European path of its western
neighbours.

What actually happened in central Europe? Our societies rejected communist
dictatorships and embarked on the project of building democratic systems of
freedom and the rule of law. The breakthrough in 1989 followed efforts of
those who refused the yoke of oppression - members of Poland's Solidarity,
of Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia, and Hungarian dissidents.

Almond sees that "springtime of nations" quite differently. He paints a
grotesque picture of US-funded dissidents acquiring personal fortunes while
putting their nations in economic slavery. I was often accused by the
communist regime of being a mercenary and an American spy. I am staggered
to encounter similar accusations today.

I am equally astounded by what Almond writes about Adam Michnik: "His
Agora media empire grew out of the underground publishing world of
Solidarity, funded by the CIA in the 1980s. His newspapers now back the
war in Iraq, despite its huge unpopularity among Poles."

Almond fails to mention that Michnik spent six years as a political
prisoner. He also omits to note that Michnik is not the owner of Agora, and
that when the company gave shares to its founders and employees, Michnik
refused to take any. And that the Iraq war is the subject of fierce debate
in Gazeta Wyborcza.

Fortunately, neither the opinions of western commentators nor any designs of
US politicians will determine Ukraine's future. It will be decided by the
Ukrainians. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 260: ARTICLE NUMBER SEVENTEEN
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17. "FROM 'TENT CITY' TO NATO"

By Richard Holbrooke, Columnist, The Washington Post
Washington, D.C., Tuesday, Dec 14, 2004, Page A27

KYIV, Ukraine -- The world still knows this city as Kiev, its name in
Russian, but let this dateline and this column call the capital of Ukraine
by its rightful name.

That name, always used by Ukrainians, reflects the historic events unfolding
here. The "completion of our revolution," "the most important days in a
thousand years," "our final break with Moscow" -- all these are phrases one
hears here repeatedly. They are heard not only from the young demonstrators
who will continue to occupy parts of central Kyiv until their candidate,
Viktor Yushchenko, has won the presidential election rerun scheduled for
Dec. 26, but also from political leaders in this bitterly contested
struggle.

There is little doubt that Yushchenko will soon be president. Any attempt by
the government to declare his opponent, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych,
the winner would result in overwhelming demonstrations, national paralysis
and, possibly, civil war. But that catastrophic outcome is far less likely
than was once feared.

Leading political figures and even military officers are defecting daily to
Yushchenko, and Yanukovych's strongest supporter, Russian President Vladimir
Putin, has been isolated and humiliated. Even President Leonid Kuchma, who
ruled with nearly total power for the past 10 years, implicitly acknowledges
the inevitability of Yushchenko as he sits in a modest suburban villa, miles
from his offices in central Kyiv, which, he says angrily, are "hard to use"
at the moment. Nothing symbolizes more clearly the rapid flow of power out
of the government's hands.

Yushchenko needs the young, idealistic demonstrators -- their tents brought
in by the army, their electricity and heating supplied by Kyiv's mayor, who
has deserted the government that appointed him -- to prevent another
fraudulent election. The crowds will swell to record numbers if necessary,
right after the voting, and stay until he becomes president.

But what then? Is this simply a struggle for power between the two Viktors?
Or is it the beginning of a deep, thoroughgoing democratic transformation?
And, even more important, is this the moment when Ukraine, after living
almost entirely within "the Russian space" for a thousand years, turns
toward the West and seeks membership in NATO and then the European
Union?

Make no mistake about it: 2004 has been Putin's "annus horribilis," the year
in which he "lost" Georgia and Ukraine to anti-Russian popular revolutions,
the year of Yukos and the school massacre at Beslan, a year in which, while
remaining popular at home, he lost credibility throughout the rest of the
world. His objective in Ukraine -- to help the candidate preferred in
Moscow -- was entirely rational, but his personal behavior has been
puzzling, petulant and self-demeaning. He must now either look for a way to
back down quickly and learn to live with Yushchenko or -- if he tries to
stir up separatism in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine or punish Ukraine
economically -- risk destroying his relations with much of the West.

Ironically, Putin's heavy-handedness, so reminiscent of the Soviet era, is
likely to have an effect opposite to its intent -- and to accelerate
Ukraine's quest for NATO and E.U. membership. As one of Yushchenko's
closest advisers put it, "After what Putin has already done, how can we
afford to risk floating between East and West?"

Because of the complexity of integrating the economies, and the concerns
the European Union has over the speed at which it is growing, full E.U.
membership is probably a decade away. Putin can live with that. But NATO
is a more serious matter, even if the alliance is a long way past its
anti-Soviet origins.

Russia will, of course, object, as it did to the earlier rounds of NATO
enlargement -- especially to Poland. But not one of the fears and
predictions of disaster that came from many learned commentators and wise
men in the United States turned out to be true after Poland, Hungary and the
Czech Republic entered NATO in 1999. Ditto more recently when the Baltic
states and seven more Central European countries joined. So why not Ukraine?

>From the U.S. point of view, it makes sense. NATO virtually defines our
>core
zone of security in half the world, and danger lurks to the south and east.
Ukraine, as part of the greatest peacetime military alliance in history (it
already has 1,600 troops in Iraq), gives added comfort and stability to the
eastern tier of NATO nations.

But there will be hesitation in some capitals, especially Berlin. It will
require strong sponsorship by Washington, assisted vigorously by Warsaw --
and speed is important. President Bush will have to recognize that he has
gotten little for his four-year affair with Putin, and that we cannot let
Ukraine's security be determined in Moscow.

Yushchenko (and his Ukrainian American wife) will seek an official
invitation to Washington soon after he takes power. Once there, he should
be told that the United States will lead the effort for a road map that
would formally begin at the December 2005 NATO ministerial meeting
and end, if all goes well, about two years later.

All this must be done so that Moscow does not view another NATO
enlargement as a zero-sum game for Russia. Ukraine must find other ways
to create a constructive relationship with its giant neighbor; an
omni-directional foreign and economic policy is the only way for it to go.

The path of NATO enlargement, so thorny and mysterious when we embarked
on it in 1994-95, is now well understood. It has paid off handsomely for
U.S. and European security and for its new members -- and it has not
destroyed relations with Moscow. It may seem a long way from the "tent city"
in Kyiv to NATO, but because of those idealistic young demonstrators, the
trip has begun. The logic of the situation is turning the once-unthinkable
into the inexorable. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The writer, a former ambassador U.S. to the United Nations, is
beginning a monthly column for The Post.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62350-2004Dec13.html
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