"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"
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2005 FROM KYIV, UKRAINE
Friday, December 31, 2004
Rally On Independence Square Tonight With Yushchenko and Saakashvilli
Check Out The Following Two Photographs With Music:
1. ORANGE REVOLUTION RALLY, INDEPENDENCE SQUARE
Kateryna Yushchenko, Yulia Tymoshenko; Viktor Yushchenko,
Ruslana, Klitschko Brothers
Wednesday, December 22, 2005, Kyiv, Ukraine
[photograph with music, turn on sound]
CLICK ON THIS LINK: http://artukraine.com/newyear5.htm
2. ORANGE REVOLUTION RALLY, INDEPENDENCE SQUARE
Tuesday, December 28, 2004, Kyiv, Ukraine
[photograph with music, turn on sound]
CLICK ON THIS LINK: http://artukraine.com/newyear4.htm
THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" Year 04, Number 276
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net
FROM: KYIV, UKRAINE, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2004
NOTE: This is Action Ukraine Report number 276 and the final one
for the year 2004. We wish to give special thanks to those who have
supported us financially during 2004. This is still time to send a check
for Year 2004. EDITOR
-----INDEX OF ARTICLES-----
"Major International News Headlines and Articles"
1. GREETINGS FROM VICTOR YUSHCHENKO TO THE PEOPLE
OF UKRAINE ON NEW YEAR AND CHRISTMAS
Our Ukraine Website, Kyiv, Ukraine
Thursday, December 30, 2004
2. GEORGIAN PRESIDENT TO MEET WITH UKRAINE'S YUSHCHENKO
AP, Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, December 31, 2004
3. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION NEARS RESOLUTION
AFTER FINAL LEGAL RULING
By Tom Warner in Kiev, Financial Times, London, UK, Dec 31 2004
4. LYTVYN CONGRATULATES YUSHCHENKO ON HIS VICTORY
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thu, December 30, 2004
5. SPEAKER LYTVYN AND U.S. AMBASSADOR HERBST
DISCUSS DECEMBER 26 REVOTE
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thu, December 30, 2004
6. VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO READY TO MAKE PUBLIC AGREEMENT
WITH JOURNALISTS ABOUT FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thu, December 30, 2004
7. YUSHCHENKO CALLING ON PGO TO INVESTIGATE
ACTIVITIES OF YANUKOVYCH'S CABINET OF MINISTERS
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Fri, December 31, 2004
8. PM OF CANADA CONGRATULATES WINNER OF UKRAINE'S
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO
Maple Leaf News, Vol., 35, Canadian Embassy in Ukraine
Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, December 31, 2004
9. "DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINE"
EDITORIAL: The Providence Journal
Providence, Rhode Island, Wednesday, December 29, 2004
10. "IN UKRAINE: 'HABITS OF THE HEART'"
COMMENTARY - David A. Mittell Jr.
The Providence Journal, Providence, Rhode Island
Thursday, December 30, 2004
11. "THE WIDER CHALLENGE IN UKRAINE"
OP-ED: by Martin Wolf, Financial Times
London, UK, Tuesday, December 28 2004
12. LETTER TO MARTIN WOLF OF THE FINANCIAL TIMES
LETTER to Martin Wolf of the FT from John Banach, Canada
Letter also sent to The Action Ukraine Report
Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, December 31, 2004
13. EXPORTING THE UKRAINE MIRACLE
Max Boot, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles, California, Thu, December 30, 2004
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 276: ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
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1. GREETINGS FROM VICTOR YUSHCHENKO TO THE PEOPLE
OF UKRAINE ON NEW YEAR AND CHRISTMAS
Our Ukraine Website, Kyiv, Ukraine
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Dear friends and countrymen!
These are the last days of the old year. New-year and Christmas holidays
are at hand. Engaged in the pleasant cares we prepare holiday surprises and
gifts for our close ones and send greetings, filled with warmth and
kindness, to our relatives and friends.
Nevertheless, while preparing for the holidays every one of us will pause to
look at what is being left behind. We remember the sweet taste of victories
and bitter of defeats; we look through our experiences to keep everything
that might be useful in the new year and to leave behind all the hardships
and worries. The New-year holidays give us optimism and belief that we can
change life for the better and that we will be happy in our native land.
The year that is passing was the year of choice. Our choice has changed us
and changed Ukraine. We have made a big step towards prosperity and
democracy. We are ready to build our own destiny and the destiny of our
country. We believe in Ukraine.
I wish to all of us to be the first and the best; I wish success to every
one of us and to our country. I pin my hopes on that and will work
diligently to achieve it with the entire Ukrainian people.
I wish you to spend Christmas holidays in your family circle. I hope these
days will bring peace, warmth, and desire to help those who need our help
and support.
>From the depth of my heart I congratulate all the Ukrainians on the New
Year and Christmas!
Happiness to you, my dear, and God bless! Christ is born! Glorify him!
Victor Yushchenko
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.276: ARTICLE NUMBER TWO
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2. GEORGIAN PRESIDENT TO MEET WITH UKRAINE'S YUSHCHENKO
AP, Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, December 31, 2004
KIEV (AP)--Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, a staunch supporter of
Ukraine 's so-called Orange Revolution, was scheduled to travel to Kiev on
Friday to lend his support to Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine 's opposition
leader and the winner of the weekend presidential election.
Yushchenko and outgoing President Leonid Kuchma were scheduled to
meet separately with Saakashvili, who has displayed his support for the
opposition leader by regularly wearing an orange tie - Yushchenko's
campaign color.
Saakashvili, Yushchenko and Kiev Mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko were
expected to appear shortly before midnight Friday at Kiev's main New Year's
celebration on Independence Square, the epicenter of opposition protests.
The Georgian leader came to power after a bloodless revolution last year
that Yushchenko's supporters have seen as inspiration for their own.
Ahead of the trip, Saakashvili said he wanted "to shake hands with
victorious Ukrainians."
Election officials on Thursday rejected Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's
appeal of the presidential revote results, saying the prime minister had not
proved there were mass violations. Yanukovych's campaign team vowed to
take its appeal to the Supreme Court. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.276: ARTICLE NUMBER THREE
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3. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION NEARS RESOLUTION
AFTER FINAL LEGAL RULING
By Tom Warner in Kiev, Financial Times, London, UK, Dec 31 2004
KIEV - Final confirmation of Viktor Yushchenko as Ukraine's new president
appeared all but assured yesterday as the Supreme Court rejected the last of
four separate legal challenges by his opponent. The rulings left Viktor
Yanukovich, the embattled prime minister, with virtually no hope of
overturning Mr Yushchenko's victory in Sunday's repeat elections.
The central election commission announced a provisional result this week
based on a count that gave Mr Yushchenko 52 per cent of the votes to Mr
Yanukovich's 44 per cent. Meanwhile the commission said it had uncovered
evidence that some 3,700 telegrams sent to it, purporting to be from
citizens who were not allowed to vote, had been largely forged.
The commission said it had tried to contact the senders of a sample of 48
telegrams. It found that 16 had, in fact, voted, six denied sending any
telegram and 13 could not be found. Mykola Melnyk, a deputy chairman of
the commission, said the prosecutor-general had been asked to investigate
its findings of forgery.
Although it remained unclear how long the commission would take to finish
reviewing hundreds of other complaints from Mr Yanukovich's camp,
commission members made clear yesterday that they were unimpressed so far.
Even Taras Chornovil, Mr Yanukovich's campaign manager, has said that the
commission was certain to reject the rest of his complaints. His
representative to the commission, however, suggested it was showing undue
haste in processing them. The first of four challenges filed with the
Supreme Court, the final arbiter in the dispute, was rejected on Wednesday.
But Mr Yanukovich could appeal to the court again once the election result
is finalised.
Mr Yushchenko wants to be inaugurated on about January 14 on Kiev's
Independence Square, the main site of the Orange Revolution demonstrations.
He has invited supporters to a New Year's eve victory party on the square
tonight. Western leaders continued to congratulate Mr Yushchenko despite
a request by the foreign ministry that they wait until Mr Yanukovich's
complaints had been heard. -30- [Action Ukraine Monitoring Service]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 276: ARTICLE NUMBER FOUR
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4. LYTVYN CONGRATULATES YUSHCHENKO ON HIS VICTORY
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thu, December 30, 2004
KYIV - Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Lytvyn has congratulated
Our Ukraine bloc leader Viktor Yuschenko with victory on presidential
election. Yuschenko's press service informed Ukrainian News about this with
reference to Lytvyn's greetings.
Rada's chairman expressed confidence that the power of new quality, honest
and transparent in its decisions and actions, part and parcel of the people,
will start forming in Ukraine.
"This will correspond to aspirations, hopes and expectations of millions of
Ukrainians, who want to see their motherland as a democratic constitutional
state with powerful and vibrant economy, high spiritual values and
morality," Lytvyn wrote in the congratulating letter.
Besides that, he wished Yuschenko energy, goal-oriented significant
achievements in solution of tasks and search for answers for the present
requirements and challenges of the future.
"May the will of countrymen expressed in their conscious choice, and
people's support give you power on this glorious and hard way," the press
service quoted Lytvyn as saying. As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the
leaders of Romania, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, and Georgia also
congratulated Yuschenko. -30- [Action Ukraine Monitoring Service]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 276: ARTICLE NUMBER FIVE
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5. SPEAKER LYTVYN AND U.S. AMBASSADOR HERBST
DISCUSS DECEMBER 26 REVOTE
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thu, December 30, 2004
KYIV - Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn and US Ambassador to
Ukraine John Herbst have held a discussion devoted to the December 26
rerun of the second round of the Ukrainian presidential elections. Lytvyn's
spokesperson Ihor Storozhuk announced the results of their meeting to
journalists.
During the meeting Herbst said that the revote was in line with democratic
norms. The officials also addressed the formation of the new Ukrainian
government and the role of the Verkhovna Rada in this process, as well as
topical socio-economic problems. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 276: ARTICLE NUMBER SIX
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6. VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO READY TO MAKE PUBLIC AGREEMENT
WITH JOURNALISTS ABOUT FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thu, December 30, 2004
KYIV - Presidential candidate, Our Ukraine bloc leader Viktor Yuschenko
is ready to make a public agreement with journalists on bilateral
commitments
and non-interference into their professional activity.
This was disclosed on Yuschenko's official website with reference to his
interview to journalists of TV Channel 5 on the air of this company.
"This is very rational. This is a public evidence of a circle of bilateral
commitments. This will give a fresh breath to overcome crisis," Yuschenko
said. Yuschenko highlighted importance of the freedom of speech for
strengthening Ukraine's positions in the world community.
"If there is no fair journalism in Ukraine, we won't win international
competitions in the broadest meaning of these words," Yuschenko said.
Yuschenko also made a statement that the press helps politicians to improve.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, international journalism organizations,
as well as Miklos Haraszti, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media,
expressed concerns about violation of freedom of mass media and interference
to professional activity of journalists in Ukraine. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.276: ARTICLE NUMBER SEVEN
Your comments about the Report are always welcome
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7. YUSHCHENKO CALLING ON PGO TO INVESTIGATE
ACTIVITIES OF YANUKOVYCH'S CABINET OF MINISTERS
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Fri, December 31, 2004
KYIV - The Our Ukraine coalition's leader and presidential candidate Viktor
Yuschenko is calling on the Prosecutor-General's Office (PGO) to investigate
the activities of the Cabinet of Ministers under Prime Minister Viktor
Yanukovych, who is also a candidate in the presidential elections.
Yuschenko's press service disclosed this to Ukrainian News, citing an
address he made to journalists.
Yuschenko expressed the belief that the PGO should take measures to
prevent illegal actions by the illegitimate government of Yanukovych in
its final days and to investigate the reports of the government's abuse of
budget funds.
At the same time, Yuschenko said that he receives daily complaints from
citizens that Yanukovych's government is engaging in illegal activities
instead of acting professionally during the current transition period.
According to Yuschenko, these complaints involve mutual settlements on the
energy market, refund of value-added tax to enterprises having close links
to people within President Leonid Kuchma's circle, distribution of licenses
to such enterprises, and creation of fictitious joint enterprises for the
purpose of performing dubious financial operations. Yuschenko warned the
Cabinet of Ministers against improper use of budget resources and against
violations.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Yanukovych said on Wednesday that
he did not intend to resign from the post of prime minister as a matter of
principle.
The press service of the Cabinet of Ministers announced on Tuesday that
Yanukovych had returned from his election leave and resumed his prime
ministerial duties.
Yanukovych went on leave from December 6 to 26 to enable him to focus
on his presidential election campaign. First Deputy Prime Minister/Finance
Minister Mykola Azarov acted as the prime minister while Yanukovych was
on leave. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 276: ARTICLE NUMBER EIGHT
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8. PM OF CANADA CONGRATULATES WINNER OF UKRAINE'S
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO
Maple Leaf News, Vol., 35, Canadian Embassy in Ukraine
Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, December 31, 2004
OTTAWA - December 30, 2004 - Prime Minister Paul Martin today
congratulated Viktor Yushchenko on his victory in the Ukrainian
presidential election.
With the disposal of all outstanding appeals by the Supreme Court of
Ukraine, the way appears paved for the Central Electoral Commission to
announce the final results.
"Today, Canadians are united and confident about the future of a democratic
Ukraine. Our two countries share the same objectives of peace, democracy
and the rule of law. Canada has a vibrant Ukrainian-Canadian community that
has helped shape Canada's history and personality. I look forward to
collaborating with Mr. Yushchenko and his government to further strengthen
Canada-Ukraine relations," said Prime Minister Martin.
"Canadians are proud to have played a meaningful role in the democratic
elections in Ukraine," said the Prime Minister. "The Government of Canada is
eager to work with the new government to continue strengthening Ukraine's
governance institutions."
Canada sent its largest election observer delegation ever to the Ukrainian
presidential runoff vote, drawing from volunteers who were selected from
more than 4,000 applications received by CANADEM, a Canadian
non-governmental organization specializing in the selection and provision of
election observers worldwide. -30- [Action Ukraine Monitoring[
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LINK: http://www.pm.gc.ca/
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.276: ARTICLE NUMBER NINE
Suggested articles for publication in the Report are always welcome
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9. "DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINE"
EDITORIAL: The Providence Journal
Providence, Rhode Island, Wednesday, December 29, 2004
In Ukraine it is all but official: With 99.7 percent of the precincts
having reported, Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition candidate for president,
has beaten Viktor Yanukovich, the government's candidate, by 52.1 to 44.1
percent. "The Ukrainian people have won," Mr. Yushchenko declared. "We
have been independent [of the former Soviet Union] for 14 years, but we
were not free. . . . Now we are facing an independent and free Ukraine."
As of this writing, Mr. Yanukovich has not conceded. But he has looked
defeated ever since the country's supreme court nullified his apparent Nov.
21 victory as the product of massive fraud. The main statistical difference
between that vote and last Sunday's was that Mr. Yanukovich's support in
his eastern strongholds was vastly reduced -- tending to confirm
accusations of ballot-box stuffing on Nov. 21.
In his defiance, Mr. Yanukovich seems to be trying to establish himself as
the recognized opposition to President-elect Yushchenko in the lead-up to
the parliamentary elections of 2006. He can be expected to criticize the
new administration at every chance -- as is the wont of opposition
partisans in democratic countries. But with an evident 8-percentage-point
loss, and a 77-percent voter turnout (which Americans must envy!), he may
go through the motions of challenging the outcome in court, yet he is not
expected to challenge the results in the street -- or, more ominously, with
a military that neither he nor departing President Leonid Kuchma can assume
they control.
The Ukrainian story may be the most important political story of 2004. In
an act of will, this long-oppressed people -- ruled at different times by
Austrians, Germans, Lithuanians, Poles, Russians, Swedes, Turks and Soviets
-- threw off their final oppressor: their home-grown greedy, oligarchic
ex-communist thugs. They did so in nonviolent protests by millions -- who
never knew whether the authorities would murderously crack down on them.
President-elect Yushchenko, an intellectual former banker whose political
bona fides had been in doubt, kept the rhetorical pressure on the
Kuchma-Yanukovich government. And when, early in the street protests,
he declared that his supporters would never use violence, he put the
government in a position in which its use of violence would have ruined its
cause.
Ukraine thus joins the family of free nations. In a year when, in the
Mideast and elsewhere, the advance of democracy has not had much success,
this is a truly wonderful story. -30- [Action Ukraine Monitoring Service]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 276: ARTICLE NUMBER TEN
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10. "IN UKRAINE: 'HABITS OF THE HEART'"
COMMENTARY - David A. Mittell Jr.
The Providence Journal, Providence, Rhode Island
Thursday, December 30, 2004
BOSTON - AN INSIGHT into the great events in Ukraine over the last five
weeks may be gleaned from an incident in the long life of François Marie
Arouet, known to history as the philosopher Voltaire. In 1725, he became
embroiled with a minor aristocrat in the sort of quarrel of words at which
he excelled. It caused him to be sent, in the winter of 1726, to the
Bastille, the notorious Paris prison that would become the the French
Revolution's first target, in 1789.
Freed after several weeks, Voltaire went to England, which he found in
the spring of her existence: a nation increasingly governed by a House of
Commons, where religious dissenters were tolerated, iconoclastic
pamphleteers such as himself unmolested, and the people largely free to
mind their own business. Yet this was 50 years before the American
Declaration of Independence and 106 years before the first great British
Reform Act, in 1832.
We tend to think of those events - as well as the ending of slavery in the
United States, in 1865, and female suffrage in both countries, in the early
20th Century -- as sudden developments. "Tip over patriarchy," as the
feminist bumper sticker puts it -- as if the advance of liberty were a
matter of overturning an outdated cabriolet and dumping its aristocratic
passengers onto the ground.
In point of fact, the development of free institutions in Britain, and the
countries descended from her, took centuries of perhaps unintended
preparation, before the spasms history celebrates. In 1726, England still
hanged pickpockets and imprisoned debtors. But the astute Voltaire smelled
liberty in the air. It was already thriving, as the American poet James
Greenleaf Whittier would put it, as "a habit of the heart."
Put another way, civil society had been advancing, and the spasms we build
monuments to were the moments when political institutions were compelled to
catch up. That is exactly what I think has happened in Ukraine. I have had
the privilege of reporting from Ukraine during nine trips there -- one
during the Soviet period, and eight since 2000.
On the first trip -- a product of détente -- I went on a cultural exchange
with a group of Boston-area high-school hockey players who were to compete
against Soviet boys their age. While our team won its first game, the
second game was a 16-1 loss to members of the Soviet national team. Our
boys loved it. By and by we figured out that our two KGB minders were there
to mind each other as much as us. Each privately expressed a fear of the
other, who was assumed to be a loyal communist.
In Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, Russian was the universal language. When we
heard Ukrainian being very softly spoken by two people on a bus, our
attempt to converse was met with turgid stares. But after we had gotten off
the bus and walked a ways, we discovered we had been pursued: With tears
in their eyes the bus riders explained that it wasn't safe to be overheard
speaking Ukrainian in Kiev. Yet they were. They were speaking the Ukrainian
language, albeit in whispers, on a public bus, in defiance of the dangers,
at a time (1973) when there was no hope that their persecution would end in
their lifetimes.
At one game I had my introduction to Soviet Jewry. During the first period
of the game I noticed a man staring at me. Just another KGB operative, I
figured. But when the period ended the man followed me toward the locker
room, grabbing at my sleeve with his thumb and forefinger. "I am a joodge,"
he said in very poor English.
"That's very nice," I replied in small talk. "We have judges in the U.S.A."
But when he used the word Hebrew, I knew what he meant. He asked if I
could help him get a Hebrew-Russian dictionary. I would write to him, but
never heard if he received my letter or only a knock on the door.
These acts (including the KGB agents' confessions of their respective
treacherous thoughts) gave insights into how Ukrainian civil society was
surviving in small habits of the heart. By the time I returned in 2000,
nine years after independence, the cultural habits of centuries had
returned, seemingly intact. Families that had been divided by years of
Siberian or Karelian exile, or by emigration to the West, were reunited --
held together in most cases, it seems to me, by the strength of their
women.
Religion, which the Soviets had done their utmost to suppress, returned
with a flowering of observance in several restored Christian, Jewish and
Muslim confessions. Concomitantly, there has been a flowering of start-up
private institutions, such as hospitals, universities, newspapers and
advocacy groups. All of this has transpired under the noses of the now
famously discredited post-independence oligarchs, who have been running
the government for their own enrichment.
Ukrainians have been living like free Englishmen for only 14 years, though
much longer in their hearts. It did not surprise me a bit that they were
ready for their democratic "spasm" when the oligarchs overreached. I'll be
there again next week. It is a privilege to tell their story. -30-
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David A. Mittell Jr. is a member of The Journal's editorial board.
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 276: ARTICLE NUMBER ELEVEN
Names for the distribution list always welcome
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11. "THE WIDER CHALLENGE IN UKRAINE"
OP-ED: by Martin Wolf, Financial Times
London, UK, Tuesday, December 28 2004
We must salute the courage of the people of Ukraine. They have ejected their
corrupt masters from power, challenged western indifference and rebuffed the
Kremlin's imperial ambitions. They have opened up opportunities for
themselves, for the west and even for Russia.
Fifteen years ago a wave of revolutions swept across central and eastern
Europe. Two years later, the Soviet Union disintegrated. Earlier this year,
we saw one long-delayed consequence of the end of the Soviet empire: the
enlargement of the European Union. Now we celebrate another: Ukraine's
"Orange Revolution". Ukraine has followed Georgia in a popular revolt
against the corrupt post-Soviet fusion of the machinery of the former
communist state with business.
What has now been born in Ukraine is a civil society. Its arrival may come
to be viewed as the beginning of the fourth wave of European democratisation
since the end of the second world war. The first came with the overthrow of
fascism and the implanting of democracy in western Germany and Italy. The
second came, a few decades later, in Greece, Portugal and Spain. The third
came with the fall of Soviet power in central and eastern Europe. The fourth
is now at hand.
This is part of a worldwide movement. According to a research project at
Maryland University, as recently as 1985 the proportion of humanity living
under democratic regimes was only 38 per cent. By 2000, it had risen to 57
per cent. Yet, as Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek International has noted, many
democracies are "illiberal".* Democracy may impose the tyranny of the
majority or sanction the arbitrary exactions of manipulative elites or
populist thugs. A liberal democracy is different: it rests on secure
property rights, the independence of the judiciary and freedom of
information. It creates a government accountable to the citizenry at large.
The "democracies" that emerged in the post-Soviet Commonwealth of
Independent States fell in the "illiberal" category. Russia has been the
most depressing, because the most important, example. It has, as I argued in
a column published a little over a year ago ("Putin's clampdown could put
prosperity at risk", November 5 2003), been riven by the clash between
arbitrary power and illegitimate wealth. With the destruction of Yukos, the
oil group, arbitrary power has, as expected, won.
The power of the Russian state has always rested on the secret police, from
the Oprichniki of Ivan the Terrible to today's FSB. The secret police has
been the active agent of an arbitrary state whose power rests on fear.
Vladimir Putin, a former officer of the KGB, is part of that tradition.
Elections do not constrain his power. They merely make it more legitimate.
No wonder Freedom House, the US-based monitoring organisation, recently
labelled Russia as "not free".
Ukraine seemed to be on the same path. Mr Putin was convinced of it. A
corrupt alliance of power and business appeared securely in control. The
ruling elite had chosen a safe candidate (albeit one with a criminal record)
in Viktor Yanukovich. To its horror, it found itself in an election against
an effective opposition. Yet even that, it was assumed, would be a small
problem. Could ballot boxes not be stuffed? Yes, they could. Then something
unexpected happened. The people withdrew their consent. The regime faced a
choice between slaughter and surrender. It chose the latter. Leonid Kuchma,
the outgoing president, did what Mikhail Gorbachev had done in Germany in
1989: he refused to kill.
The rest is not yet history. The peaceful revolution in Ukraine is
encouraging: it could bring the benefits of liberal democracy to the second
most important successor state in the former Soviet empire; it could bring
huge gains to the west; and it could even transform Russia itself. But none
of this is guaranteed.
The immediate challenge is in Ukraine. With the authority given him by his
emphatic victory, Viktor Yushchenko has an opportunity to create a
law-governed, property-owning democracy. His government must dare to
separate the machinery of the state from the machinations of private wealth.
Ukraine's people have declared their desire to live in a normal European
country. The opportunity this affords to the west is to spread its zone of
stability and prosperity eastwards and help Ukraine put limits upon Russian
revanchism. Negotiations on EU membership must be conceded if requested.
Membership of Nato raises more difficult questions because of its
potentially destabilising impact on relations with Russia.
Russia's masters must also make their choices. The election of Mr Yushchenko
is a rebuke not just to their machinations but also to their aspirations. If
Ukraine is independent, they must abandon hope for resurrection of their
empire. If Ukraine now embraces liberal democracy, they may find it hard to
deny it to their own people.
Steeped in myths of western hostility, Russia's leaders may well seek
revenge. They will certainly object to Ukraine's incorporation into western
institutions. So be it. They can be given no veto. It is their own
behaviour, not western conspiracies, that has brought them this defeat. They
lost in Ukraine because their country offered not the hand of friendship,
but the fist of domination. Russia's rulers need to accept that their
country's long hostility to the west has been a gigantic failure. Russia
will have no imperial future. What it can be, instead, is a valued ally of
the west.
The people of Ukraine have secured the hope of freedom and democracy.
But they have also laid down challenges to their neighbours. The west must
embrace its new friends. Russia must make peace not just with its neighbour
but also with its destiny. Mr Putin has made no secret of his regret for the
vanished Soviet Union. Russia could instead choose a destiny of prosperity
and freedom. It should start by recognising the short-sighted folly of its
intervention in Ukraine. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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* Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and
Abroad (New York and London: Norton, 2003)
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E-mail for Martin Wolf: martin.wolf@ft.com
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 276: ARTICLE NUMBER TWELVE
Letters to the editor are always welcome
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12. LETTER TO MARTIN WOLF OF THE FINANCIAL TIMES
LETTER to Martin Wolf of the FT from John Banach, Canada
Letter also sent to The Action Ukraine Report
The Action Ukraine Report
Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, December 31, 2004
Dear Mr. Martin Wolf!
Your article on "The wider challenge in Ukraine" is the best one to come out
of the Financial Times on Ukraine in the past fifteen years. Keep it up.
Based on ten years of working in Ukraine, I have added my perspectives
on the current events.
Today a universal historical drama is taking place in Ukraine. It is a stand
between a people, which want democracy, prosperity, and a nation of
equality under the law and an authoritarian, neo-totalitarian form of
government.
Stalin's Soviet totalitarianism ruthlessly destroyed the remnants of
individual freedom and failed to establish individual prosperity. Under
Stalin's deliberate famine, the "harvest of sorrow," some 9 million
Ukrainian Christians, 2 million Ukrainian Jews and 1 million Ukrainian
Muslim Tartars died.
The people of the Orange revolution are sending a message to the politicians
that rule their land, "we the people are not sons and daughters of the
bondwoman and we will not live in bondage. We came from the womb of the
free woman. Our heritage is dominion over our land from the day of our
birth. Some of us have forgotten that we were created under the law of
liberty."
The political battle in Ukraine is between "those that want change" and
"those that see no possibilities in change."
Parts of Eastern and Southern Ukraine have accepted dependence on
mother Russia. By this action they act like there is no possibility of
change.
They believe that only a close dependency on Russia will guarantee them
economic prosperity. They prefer the iron rule of a managed economy
within a totalitarian system of government.
The Western, Central and small pockets of Southern Ukraine are risk takers
that favour democracy and being independent. During the past fourteen years
they have seen an elite group accumulate considerable wealth through
corruption, extortion and political privileges at the expense of the people.
Those with economic power in Ukraine number less than one thousand people.
They control all the large businesses, banks and have immunity from
prosecution. Prior to the outcome of today's elections, these insiders
developed myriad ways to get what wanted out of the Kuchma government.
The majority of Ukrainians want democratic change that also provides
democracy in their economic lives. They are looking for a more robust
democracy within a coherent strategy to level economic and political
inequalities.
History has shown again and again, that a strong democracy has the
following characteristics:
· High Voter participation that elects representatives from all
regions of a country;
· Parliament based on effective and efficient procedures, which
debate and pass laws that not only manage the business of government
but also provide for transparent accountability for measuring results of
government strategies and tactics;
· Central Bank that benefits the nation and not just private banks.
· A qualified and well paid Tax bureaucracy;
· President/Prime Minister and a Cabinet that is qualified in
managing the government. It is a well known fact that real power to
determine the future of democratic societies rests in the hands of a
remarkably small number of people - government ministers, civil servants,
and to some extent members of parliament or other legislative assembly;
· Independent Judicial System with well paid Judges that sustain due
process of law for all citizens;
· National debt - developed within the frame work of responsible
government borrowing that encourages financial innovation in the private
sector.
The people of Ukraine owe it to themselves and the peace of the world to
get involved and take on the responsibilities that real democracy will put
on them. A strong democracy depends on greater equality and on the notion
of active citizenship and engagement. This is the very thing the elite
class,
power brokers, journalists, spin-doctors, and opinion-managers who serve
the elite class find messy and threatening.
In Ukraine there is an excitement involved with people feeling their own
power and gaining confidence in their own capacities for self-rule. To build
a strong democracy based on a "popular sovereignty" is more than a figment
of the imagination. It is the potential beginning of good government,
stability and sustainability. Democracy is an on going process that belongs
to the people. It is a job of every citizen to keep his/her mouth open. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 276: ARTICLE NUMBER THIRTEEN
Letters to the editor are always welcome
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13. NOT A GOOD WAY TO START A DEMOCRACY: SERIOUS
QUESTIONS MUST BE ASKED ABOUT US INFLUENCE IN UKRAINE
OP-ED: By Jonathan Steele, The Guardian
London, United Kingdom, Friday, Dec 31, 2004
The core of democracy is tolerance of other people's views. Whether it is
Rosa Luxemburg's call for respecting the "freedom of people who think
differently" or Winston Churchill's pride in British parliamentary debate,
left and right agree on this principle.
Alas, it is not much on display in Kiev. Egged on by their favourite, Viktor
Yushchenko, crowds have been blocking the main government building and
doing all they can to humiliate his rival, prime minister Viktor Yanukovich.
Their man won the presidential election, but where is the respect for
constitutional procedures they claim to support?
In a minuscule way, I felt the same intolerance when I criticised the street
protests in these columns a month ago. The flood of ferocious emails, mainly
from Yushchenko fans, exceeded the response to anything I had written
before.
Although my article said Yushchenko would probably be a better president
than Yanukovich and urged the EU to open its doors to Ukraine immediately
(views that most of the Kiev protesters held), it caused outrage. I had
dared to suggest that Yanukovich's voters were as genuine as Yushchenko's,
and that Yushchenko's backers included oligarchs who had enriched themselves
at the state's expense. Above all, it drew attention to the degree of
funding by the US and other western governments for the campaign.
The more polite emailers made the point that the vast crowds in Kiev's
streets were fed up with corruption and electoral cheating, and foreign
funding was irrelevant. Others claimed I had been bribed. Many were
viciously anti-Russian (anti-Russianism is as unpleasant as anti-Americanism
in my book). But the overwhelming reaction was a crude tone of "If you're
not with us, you're against us". It tolerated no criticism, nuance or scope
for reasoned disagreement. In short, no democracy.
In spite of the anger it provoked, the article had benefits. It seemed to
prompt a more balanced and less romantic tone in some foreign reporting. A
few people went to listen to the hopes and fears of people in Donetsk and
other non-Yushchenko areas. After all, assuming last Sunday's vote was free,
44% voted for Yanukovich - not exactly a trivial minority that can be swept
aside by the political Darwinists who dismiss their opponents as
"post-Soviet hold-outs and nostalgics" who will soon die off.
Best of all, the piece was followed by a belated discussion of the role of
foreign governments in elections. The way the US has exploited and financed
"people's power", first in the Philippines in 1986, to a lesser extent in
eastern Europe in 1989, and strongly in Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine since
1999, came under the spotlight.
As with "humanitarian interventionism", which was much debated in the 90s,
"electoral interventionism" needs to be thrashed out. Why is so much of it
selective? Why do western governments (for they are the prime interferers)
that claim to be fostering democracy take only one side, rather than being
above the fray? Why are only certain countries picked? Georgia, but not
Azerbaijan. Serbia, but not Croatia. Zimbabwe, but not Egypt.
Of course, it is a travesty to suggest, as some commentators do, that
critics of this interventionism support dictators, despise their courageous
opponents, or are ideological cynics. The issue is how foreign power is used
and with what motives. More constructively, we ought to discuss
alternatives.
Calling for transparency and for "spies to keep out", as Timothy Garton Ash
did in these pages recently, is not enough. The whole idea that foreign
governments, with or without their intelligence agencies, should be involved
so directly in choosing targets has to be questioned.
The major role should go to the United Nations. For all its flaws, including
the fact that it is often manipulated by the big powers itself, the UN is
the only international institution with credible impartiality. Can it be
empowered to work through a genuinely representative management board to
foster electoral practice around the world? Will the west give money, but
not insist on control?
The Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral
Assistance also has a reputation for fairness. It needs better funding. The
Council for Europe could do more. There are many options, but the key point
is this: democracy is too important to be left to individual governments
with special agendas. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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E-mail for Jonathan Steete: j.steele@guardian.co.uk
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 276: ARTICLE NUMBER FOURTEEN
Letters to the editor are always welcome
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14. EXPORTING THE UKRAINE MIRACLE
Max Boot, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles, California, Thu, December 30, 2004
One of the most inspiring events of 2004 happened on the last weekend of the
year: the election of pro-Western democrat Viktor Yushchenko, who had to
overcome everything from poisoning to voter fraud in order to claim the
presidency of Ukraine. The triumph of the Orange Revolution should dispel
the quaint notion still prevalent in many Western universities and foreign
ministries that democracy is a luxury good suitable only for rich countries
with a tradition of liberalism stretching back centuries.
Ukraine fits no one's criteria of a promising democracy: Its per capita
income of $5,400 a year is lower than Algeria's or Turkmenistan's; it has a
history of despotism and corruption and a short history of independence. The
only less-likely democracy is Afghanistan. Yet Ukraine, like Afghanistan,
held free elections this year. Apparently no one bothered to tell the people
of these countries that they weren't ready for freedom.
These revolutions reveal the hollowness of the cliche that "democracy can't
be imposed by outsiders." True, but outsiders can help committed democrats
overcome internal obstacles. Sometimes, when dealing with an entrenched
dictatorship, this requires military intervention of the kind that occurred
in Iraq and Afghanistan. More brittle regimes can be brought down by their
own people, but even they often need a little external shove.
In Ukraine, the U.S. government spent $58 million on democracy promotion in
the last two years. European states and various nongovernmental
organizations, such as George Soros' International Renaissance Foundation,
contributed millions more. These donations raised the ire of anti-democrats
like Vladimir Putin and Pat Buchanan, who conveniently overlooked the far
more generous support given to Yushchenko's opponent, Viktor Yanukovich,
by Moscow and Kiev.
There was nothing nefarious about the U.S. intervention in Ukraine, which
was designed to promote democracy, not any particular candidate. A quick
glance at its website shows that the National Endowment for Democracy handed
out grants such as $399,968 for trade union education, $50,000 to conduct
monthly public opinion surveys, $32,000 to train secondary school teachers
and $50,000 to maintain a website that analyzes Ukrainian media. Pretty
innocuous stuff, but it can have a powerful effect in a closed society. For
instance, the American Bar Assn. spent $400,000 to train Ukrainian judges in
election law.
Among those who attended its seminars were five judges of the Ukrainian
Supreme Court who voted to overturn the fraudulent results of the Nov. 21
balloting and to hold the revote that led to Yushchenko's triumph. NATO has
also spent a good deal of money to train Ukrainian officers over the last
decade as part of its Partnership for Peace initiative. This Western
education, which includes instruction in human rights, was one reason why
the Ukrainian military refused to move against pro-democracy demonstrators.
Notwithstanding the Dec. 26 election, the Orange Revolution is hardly
complete. The West should offer expedited NATO and European Union
membership to consolidate democracy in Ukraine.
In the meantime, we need to apply elsewhere the lessons of Ukraine, which
are also the lessons of Georgia, Serbia, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan,
South Africa, Poland, Lithuania and other countries where despotic regimes
have been toppled since the original "people power" revolution swept the
Philippines in 1986. An obvious candidate for a similar transformation is
Iran. Even as Iranian students have repeatedly taken to the streets to
protest against their oppressors, and Iranian exiles in Los Angeles have
beamed TV and radio programming into their homeland, the U.S. government
has largely stood on the sidelines. In 2003, the National Endowment for
Democracy supported 23 programs in Ukraine worth $1.9 million. In Iran
there were only two pitiful programs worth $55,000.
This disparity, which also exists for other pro-democracy groups, is
perverse because the Iranian regime poses a far bigger threat to the West
than Ukraine ever did. (The Ukrainians actually sent troops to join the
coalition in Iraq, while the Iranians are trying to sabotage our efforts
there.) It's hard to think of a higher priority than the overthrow of the
mullahs, who are determined to add nuclear weapons to their arsenal of
terror.
If we're serious about liberating Iran - and that's a big "if" because
regime change is not official Bush policy - we'll need to rethink the
current sanctions regime, which hasn't done anything to dislodge the
mullahocracy. The Committee on the Present Danger, a hawkish advocacy
group, suggests keeping some sanctions while reestablishing diplomatic ties
and lowering barriers for cultural exchanges. The resulting access could be
used to help the forces of freedom in Iran.
Democracy in Iran? Sounds improbable, doesn't it? But so, until just a few
weeks ago, did democracy in Ukraine. -30-
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