"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 BIRTHDAY TO PRESIDENT VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO!
51 Years Old Today, Family Says No Expensive Gifts Please
Money saved should be given to museums, hospitals, children's homes
"This will be the best gift for the president." [article one]
PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH AT NATO IN BRUSSELS
"...So the discussions were fruitful. The Ukraine -- the meeting with
President Yushchenko was, I thought, historic. I thought it was really
interesting, to be sitting next to a person -- the Secretary General put me
right next to President Yushchenko -- who had just led a revolution, a
peaceful revolution, based upon the same values that we hold dear. And
it was a remarkable moment, I thought." [article three]
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" - Number 434
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net
Washington, D.C. and Kyiv, Ukraine, WEDNESDAY, February 23, 2005
ERROR: The Action Ukraine Report, published on Monday,
February 21st was numbered 432. It should have been number 433.
-----INDEX OF ARTICLES-----
"Major International News Headlines and Articles"
1. NO EXPENSIVE GIFTS FOR YUSHCHENKO ON HIS BIRTHDAY
Money saved should be given to museums, hospitals, children's homes
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, February 21, 2005
2. YUSHCHENKO THANKS GEORGE BUSH FOR SUPPORTING
DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINE
Bush compares Yushchenko figuratively with George Washington.
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tues, February 22, 2005
3. PRESIDENT BUSH AND SECRETARY GENERAL DE HOOP
SCHEFFER DISCUSS NATO MEETING
Bush: The meeting with President Yushchenko was, I thought, historic.
Joseph Luns Press Theatre, NATO Headquarters,
Belgium, Brussels, February 22, 2005 (Ukraine excerpts):
4. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT SAYS NATO INTEGRATION
NOT AIMED AGAINST RUSSIA
TV 5 Kanal, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1005 gmt 22 Feb 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Tue, February 22, 2005
5. UKRAINE PRES JOINS NATO LEADERS, PUSH FOR CLOSER TIES
Associated Press, Brussels, Belgium, Tue, February 22, 2005 .
6. UKRAINE, EU NEGOTIATE COOPERATION PLAN
BEFORE NATO SUMMIT
Associated Press, Brussels, Belgium, Monday, February 21, 2005
7. EU "OPTIMISTIC" ON UKRAINE REACHING MKT ECONOMY STATUS
Dow Jones Newswires, Brussels, Belgium, Mon, February 21, 2005
8. YUSHCHENKO AND BRITISH PRIME MINISTER BLAIR
DISCUSS UKRAINE'S BID FOR MEMBERSHIP IN EUROPEAN UNION
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, February 22, 2005
9. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT, CANADIAN PM DISCUSS INVESTMENT
UNIAN news agency, Kiev, in Ukrainian 0716 gmt 22 Feb 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Tue, February 22, 2005
10. GEORGIA: BUSH SPEECH EMPHASIS ON GEORGIA AND
UKRAINE WELCOMED
Kavkasia-Press news agency, Tbilisi, in Georgian 1434 gmt 22 Feb 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Tue, February 22, 2005
11. PUTIN INVITES YUSHCHENKO TO CELEBRATE 60TH ANNIV
OF VICTORY IN GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR ON MAY 9 IN MOSCOW
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, February 21, 2005
12. PM TYMOSHENKO TO HEAD ORGANIZING COMMITTEE TO
COMMEMORATE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR VICTORY IN 1945
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, February 22, 2005
13. UKRAINE TO BE EUROPEAN UNION COMPATIBLE
Energy companies to transport oil and gas to Europe
Interview with Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for
European Integration Oleh Rybachuk on February 16.
By Kostis Geropoulos, Senior Staff Writer
New Europe, Athens Greece, Mon, February 21, 2005
14. GEORGE BUSH FREEDOM DOCTRINE MEETS HARD-LINE
RUSSIAN STANCE THIS WEEK
OP/ED: By Georgie Ann Geyer
YAHOO.COM., USA, Tuesday, February 22, 2005
15. UKRAINIAN PRIME MINISTER SAYS JUDICIARY IN
UKRAINE SHOULD BE INDEPENDENT
UT1, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1300 gmt 18 Feb 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Feb 18, 2005
16. U.S. ASKED TO OPEN GENERAL CONSULATE IN LVIV
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Sun, February 20, 2005
17. YUSHCHENKO PLANS TO CREATE DEPARTMENT FOR WORKING
WITH UKRAINIAN DIASPORA IN CABINET OF MINISTERS
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Sat, February 19, 2005
18. REVELATIONS OF ANNA HERMAN, FORMER PRESS SECRETARY
OF EX-PRIME MINISTER VICTOR YANUKOVYCH
ForUm, Ukrainian Internet Newspaper
Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, 19 February 2005
19. IN RUSSIA, A POP CULTURE COUP FOR THE KGB
By Peter Finn, Washington Post Foreign Service
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005; Page C01
=========================================================
1. NO EXPENSIVE GIFTS FOR YUSHCHENKO ON HIS BIRTHDAY
Money saved should be given to museums, hospitals, children's homes
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, February 21, 2005
KYIV - The family of President Viktor Yuschenko is asking people not to
make him expensive gifts for his [51st] birthday on February 23. Yuschenko's
press secretary Iryna Heraschenko reported this to journalists. ''During the
time of Yuschenko's presidency there will be no loud receptions, magnificent
celebrations on birthdays, no car cavalcades, luxurious bouquets and
super-expensive gifts," she said.
At the same time, Yuschenko's family will be glad to receive congratulations
in form of post-cards, telegrams and greeting messages on the personal web
site.
According to Heraschenko, jewelry and other valuable gifts will be
considered as failure to understand the changes that are underway in the
country and in the authority and as failure to feel the new political
culture. She stressed that this request concerns not only this year, but
also all other years of Yuschenko's presidency.
She said that the president's birthday is not the state holiday. "Viktor
Yuschenko's birthday is a great holiday for his family, friends, and close
relatives," Heraschenko said. The press secretary said that Yuschenko and
his wife Kateryna Chumachenko will be glad if the money saved on the gifts
will be channeled to support museums, hospitals, children's homes, other
social and humanitarian goals. "This will be the best gift for the
president," Heraschenko said. -30- [Action Ukraine Monitoring Service]
==========================================================
2. YUSHCHENKO THANKS GEORGE BUSH FOR SUPPORTING
DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINE
Bush compares Yushchenko figuratively with George Washington.
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tues, February 22, 2005
KYIV - Ukraine's President Viktor Yuschenko has thanked US President
George W. Bush for supporting democracy in Ukraine. The Ukrainian
president's press service disclosed this to Ukrainian News, citing a meeting
of Yuschenko and Bush in Brussels (Belgium), on the eve of the Ukraine-
NATO Commission's meeting.
"Viktor Yuschenko also thanked Americans for supporting the democratic
processes in Ukraine," it is mentioned in the statement.
For his part, Bush stated support for the democratic processes in Ukraine.
"George Bush figuratively compared Viktor Yuschenko in terms of the scale
of the tasks and the role, which he should play in Ukraine, with George
Washington," the press service discloses.
Yuschenko, for his part, gave assurances that the new Ukrainian authorities
will remain true to the democratic changes in Ukraine. The presidents
exchanged invitations to visit their countries. While discussing bilateral
relations, the parties noted their strategic nature. -30-
==========================================================
3. PRESIDENT BUSH AND SECRETARY GENERAL DE HOOP
SCHEFFER DISCUSS NATO MEETING
Bush: The meeting with President Yushchenko was, I thought, historic.
Joseph Luns Press Theatre, NATO Headquarters,
Belgium, Brussels, February 22, 2005 (Ukraine excerpts):
NATO Sec Gen Jaap de Hoop SCHEFFER:
"...Of course, let me come back to Ukraine this morning. There is strong
support, strong support, first of all, for NATO's bottom line, which is NATO
has an open door for those European democracies who fulfill the obligations,
strong support for giving President Yushchenko, in his challenging endeavor
to bring Ukraine closer to Euro-Atlantic integration, to support him in that
respect. .."
U.S. President George BUSH:
"...So the discussions were fruitful. The Ukraine -- the meeting with
President Yushchenko was, I thought, historic. I thought it was really
interesting, to be sitting next to a person -- the Secretary General put me
right next to President Yushchenko -- who had just led a revolution, a
peaceful revolution, based upon the same values that we hold dear. And
it was a remarkable moment, I thought.
And we -- at least in my intervention, and other interventions, we welcomed
President Yushchenko, and reminded him that NATO is a performance-based
organization, and that the door is open, but it's up to President Yushchenko
and his government and the people of Ukraine to adapt the institutions of a
democratic state. And NATO wants to help, and we pledged help. I pledged
my own government's help to a fund that will help get rid of Madpads --
MANPADS, and certain different types of weapons. In other words, the
country has got work to do, but we want to help them achieve that work. It
was a remarkable moment. I appreciate you inviting him, Jaap, to come. .."
==========================================================
4. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT YUSHCHENKO SAYS NATO INTEGRATION
NOT AIMED AGAINST RUSSIA
TV 5 Kanal, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1005 gmt 22 Feb 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Tue, February 22, 2005
KIEV - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has told a news conference
in Brussels that he sees his country integrated in the EU and NATO. He
added that Ukraine was ready to join a NATO membership action plan to
raise relations with the alliance to a new level. Yushchenko confirmed his
country's strategic partnership with Russia, noting that Ukraine's
Euro-Atlantic integration was not aimed against Russia or any other state.
Answering a question of a troop pull-out from Iraq, Yushchenko said Ukraine
would withdraw its peacekeepers, but only after consultations with its
allies and not "as a demarche". The following is an excerpt from a live
relay of the news conference carried by the Ukrainian television TV 5 Kanal
on 22 February:
[Yushchenko] This was exactly the situation which we had at the summit.
Dear friends. First and foremost, I would like to share my impressions which
accompanied me during the meeting of the Ukraine-NATO commission. This
was my first meeting in this special format with the heads of state and
governments of NATO member states.
I am grateful for the atmosphere which was present at this meeting. This was
a business-like atmosphere, it was an atmosphere in which friends tried to
understand those processes which are taking place in Ukraine. My people, my
country received numerous compliments for that which took place in Ukraine
in recent times. And that is why, Mr Secretary-General [of NATO, Jaap de
Hoop Scheffer], I am grateful to you for this and for your clear
chairmanship of today's meeting and I would also like to express my vision
of those conclusions from today's meeting, which can create great prospects
for our relations.
The first point. In my view, the main conclusion of today's meeting was
confirmation of the strategic nature of relations between Ukraine and NATO
and their importance in the security and stability of the Euro-Atlantic
alliance. I heard this evaluation from virtually every head of state who
addressed the meeting. For us it is extremely important that Ukraine once
again confirmed the unchangeableness of its final goal, that of
Euro-Atlantic integration.
Dear friends, I am convinced that the people who stood on the squares and
streets of Kiev were led by the desire to see Ukraine a European country.
Not a neighbour of Europe, my country, which is located in the centre of
Europe. We want to see Ukraine integrated in the European Union and the
NATO bloc. And this was discussed at great length at today's meeting.
During today's meeting a review, perhaps a small one, was carried out of
the current state of relations between Ukraine and NATO.
The leaders of NATO member states gave a high evaluation of the practical
contribution being made by Ukraine in safeguarding Euro-Atlantic security.
The next point, at the same time I confirmed that Ukraine is ready to deepen
and widen cooperation with NATO and by initiating specific new projects
which would become an achievement of our Euro-Atlantic ideas.
I would like to express special thanks to our partners for initiating a new
project on the destruction of surplus weapons, rifles and small arms, left
in Ukraine.
Talking about the prospects for the development of relations between
Ukraine and NATO, we have agreed on the need to raise them to a
qualitatively higher level.
Ukraine has clearly expressed its stance on its readiness to join the NATO
membership action plan. At the same time, this does not mean that our
country will not make use of those means for closer ties with the alliance
which exist in the instruments of cooperation which we have at present.
And, in particular, those found in the Ukraine-NATO action plan.
And, finally. During the discussions we touched upon the prospects for the
formation of our relations between Ukraine and Russia in the conditions of
implementation of our state policy on Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration. I
would to clearly underline that Russia is our strategic partner and
Ukraine's policies on NATO is not in any way, in any way, aimed against
the interests of other countries, including Russia. These are the main
things that I wanted to tell you. Thank you.
[Moderator, in English] We are short of time -
[Questioner, in English] National news agency of Ukraine. Let me ask a
question in Ukrainian please. [switches to Ukrainian] Dear Mr President, you
said the pull-out of Ukrainian troop from Iraq is a priority for the
Ukrainian government. Meanwhile, an Iraq settlement is a priority both for
the alliance [NATO] and the EU, which Ukraine aspires to join. Can we talk
of Ukraine's new participation in Iraqi settlement efforts, and what could
be the forms of the process?
[Yushchenko] We proceed from the belief that our troops' stay in Iraq is
in line with Ukraine's national interests. Considering a number of
circumstances, eight months ago my political force [Our Ukraine bloc]
expressed a stance in favour of pulling our contingent out of Iraq.
It was based on three key points. POINT ONE: Ukrainian society forming
a negative public opinion on our military presence in Iraq. I would say that
was the first thing that my political colleagues and I responded to.
POINT TWO: Iraq has got its first national government. This substantially
changes the partners' behaviour - if only to ask the national government
what prospective uses they see for the Ukrainian military contingent in the
context of settling the conflict.
THIRD, the [UN] Security Council has formulated a political stance on a
settlement to the conflict. All these three circumstances, in our view,
compel Ukraine to review its stance in the new context.
Summing up, I would like to say that we favour withdrawing the Ukrainian
military contingent from Iraq. The second point is that this withdrawal will
be conducted within the framework of close consultations with our partners
and allies. This will not be a demarche. This will be an operation
comfortable to all participants in efforts to settle this conflict,
including the Iraqi national government, which we hope will be formed soon.
And the main thing. We do not rule out the possibility of part of our
military contingent being used for work related to military-technical
cooperation, training military instructors, training local police units or
any other use of the resources at the disposal of Ukrainian peacekeepers
and the Ukrainian state. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
==========================================================
5. UKRAINE PRES JOINS NATO LEADERS TO PUSH FOR CLOSER TIES
Associated Press, Brussels, Belgium, Tue, February 22, 2005 .
BRUSSELS - Ukraine 's President Viktor Yushchenko joins NATO leaders
Tuesday to explain his country's ambitions to move closer to the western
alliance.
Yushchenko is the only non-allied leader invited to the summit, a sign of
support for his administration which came to power after pro-democracy
demonstrations forced a repeat presidential election in December.
"As the government of President Yushchenko pursues vital reforms, Ukraine
should be welcomed by the Europe Atlantic family," U.S. President George W.
Bush said Monday in Brussels. However, although NATO and the European
Union are offering closer ties, they are wary of Yushchenko's calls for
Ukrainian membership in the two organizations -not least for fear of
upsetting Russia.
Despite NATO ambitions, Yushchenko assured Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov in Kiev on Monday that "no one should ever question the strategic
relations between Ukraine and Russia." Tuesday's talks will likely focus on
plans in improve military and political cooperation through NATO's
"partnership for peace" outreach program of which Ukraine is a member.
Over the weekend, NATO announced a 12-year program to help the former
Soviet republic destroy millions of surplus weapons, in what the alliance
called the largest demilitarization effort in the world. A NATO statement
said the program would eliminate 133,000 tons of munitions and 1.5 million
small arms and light weapons. That includes shoulder-fired anti-aircraft
missiles, which are seen as a particular threat to aircraft if they fall
into the hands of terrorists.
Talks at NATO could also touch on the situation in Moldova, where
pro-Russian separatists run a breakaway statelet in the Trans-Dniester
region which borders Ukraine .Western nations are hoping the new Ukrainian
authorities will help push for a solution to the problem, partly because
they say Trans-Dniester has become a haven for international crime rings.
In another sign of Ukraine 's drive to deepen ties with the west, the
country signed an "action plan" with the European Union in Brussels on
Monday to increase political and economic cooperation. The three-year plan
aims to bring Ukrainian laws more into line with EU norms and is seen by the
Ukrainians as a step toward eventual EU membership. Yushchenko has said
he would like to start pre-accession talks with the bloc in 2007.
Under the plan, the EU pledged to support Ukraine 's bid to join the World
Trade Organization, increase cooperation in areas ranging from transport,
energy, to security and foreign policy and work to ease visa restrictions on
Ukrainians seeking to work, study or visit the EU. -30-
==========================================================
6. UKRAINE, EU NEGOTIATE COOPERATION PLAN
BEFORE NATO SUMMIT
Associated Press, Brussels, Belgium, Monday, February 21, 2005
BRUSSELS (AP)--Ukraine pursued its drive to build closer ties with Western
institutions Monday, negotiating a cooperation plan with the European Union
on the eve of President Viktor Yushchenko's summit meeting with North
Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders. NATO meanwhile announced over the
weekend a 12-year program to help the former Soviet republic destroy
millions of surplus weapons in what the alliance called the largest
demilitarization effort in the world.
A NATO statement said the program would eliminate 133,000 tons of
munitions and 1.5 million small arms and light weapons. "Much of this
material is stored in the open, posing a major security threat to local
civilian population and infrastructure," the alliance said. "Safe
destruction of these stocks also eliminates potential proliferation risk."
Yushchenko is the only non-alliance leader invited Tuesday to a NATO
summit - the first since U.S. President George W. Bush was re-elected.
Yushchenko's presence is a clear sign of support for the leader who swept
to power after pro-democracy demonstrations forced a repeat election in
December.
Although NATO and the E.U. are offering closer ties with Yushchenko's
pro-Western administration, they are wary of his calls for Ukrainian
membership of the two organizations - not least for fear of upsetting
Russia.
Talks between Ukrainian officials and E.U. foreign ministers Monday are
expected to conclude an "action plan" to strengthen cooperation in foreign
policy and security, offer E.U. backing for Ukraine 's bid to join the World
Trade Organization and start up talks on opening trade markets and easing
visa regulations for Ukrainians seeking travel to the 25-nation E.U.
NATO is seeking to help Ukraine modernize the bloated military it inherited
from Soviet times. The EUR25 million disarmament project announced on
Saturday will be led by the U.S., in an opening four year-phase, with
backing from the U.K. and Norway.
Aside from munitions and small arms, it will also focus on the eradication
of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles and other so-called "man-portable
air defense systems" which are seen as a particular threat to aircraft if
they fall into the hands of terrorists. -30-
==========================================================
7. EU "OPTIMISTIC" ON UKRAINE REACHING MKT ECONOMY STATUS
Dow Jones Newswires, Brussels, Belgium, Mon, February 21, 2005
BRUSSELS -- The European Union Commission Monday said Ukraine is
taking necessary steps to be recognized as a market economy, a label that
will ease the country's exports. "We're pretty optimistic" of the Ukraine 's
progress, E.U. spokeswoman Claude Veron-Reville said. The E.U. has
knitted closer ties with Ukraine in recent months, though it has stopped
short so far of offering the country full membership in the bloc.
Last month European foreign ministers unveiled plans to cooperate with the
Ukraine on trade, immigration and security. Since then, the two sides have
been in talks to prepare a free-trade agreement and market openings for
Ukraine steel and textiles.
Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko is in Brussels this week. He will meet
U.S. President George W. Bush and European heads of state at a North
Atlantic Treaty Organization summit on Tuesday. Europe will recognize the
Ukraine as a market economy once the state loosens its control of Ukrainian
companies and reforms its bankruptcy laws, Veron-Reville said. The E.U.
recently handed the Ukraine a wishlist of reforms.
The market economy label is a prized commodity. Among other benefits, it
allows countries to provide their own evidence when they are accused of
price-fixing on the international export market. As world trade opens up,
such accusations are becoming a favorite way of erecting alternative trade
barriers. The E.U. last year rejected China's attempts to secure such
status, despite intense lobbying from Beijing.
Europe will also continue to press for Ukraine to be admitted to the World
Trade Organization."We would like that to happen some time during this
year," Veron-Reville said.
Yushchenko has called on Brussels to commit to launching talks by 2007 on
Ukrainian entry to the E.U. Although new members Poland, Lithuania and
Estonia have backed Ukraine 's aspirations, diplomats say others have little
appetite at the moment for further expansion. Many want first to see the
country reform its economy and administration, and tackle corruption.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck, Dow Jones Newswires;
+32-2-741-1487; juliane.vonreppert@dowjones.com
==========================================================
8. YUSHCHENKO AND BRITISH PRIME MINISTER BLAIR
DISCUSS UKRAINE'S BID FOR MEMBERSHIP IN EUROPEAN UNION
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, February 22, 2005
KYIV - President Viktor Yuschenko and Great Britain's Prime Minister Tony
Blair have discussed Ukraine's bid for membership of the European Union.
The Presidential press service disclosed this to Ukrainian News, citing a
meeting between Yuschenko and Blair in Brussels (Belgium).
"Ukraine's European integration is an axiom just like the need for good
neighborly relations with Russia," the press service quoted Yuschenko as
saying. According to Yuschenko, the European Union is also interested in
positive Ukrainian-Russian relations. Yuschenko said that Ukraine needs
support for its bid for membership of the World Trade Organization and
securing the full market economy status from the European Union.
Blair stated Great Britain's support for the democratic changes in Ukraine
and promised further support for it. Yuschenko and Blair also discussed the
proposal to ease visa regimes, particularly for students. Yuschenko said
Ukraine was prepared to liberalize its visa regime for European Union
residents. Yuschenko invited Blair to pay a visit to Ukraine. -30-
==========================================================
9. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT, CANADIAN PM DISCUSS INVESTMENT
UNIAN news agency, Kiev, in Ukrainian 0716 gmt 22 Feb 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Tue, February 22, 2005
KIEV - During today's meeting between Ukrainian President Viktor
Yushchenko and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, Martin said that
Canada is ready to generate significant investment into the Ukrainian
economy subject to the prior creation of a favourable [investment] climate.
UNIAN learnt from the press service of the president of Ukraine that Viktor
Yushchenko stressed that for his team "the most important issue is getting
back the trust of investors". The president reminded that a big investment
forum will take place in Ukraine at the beginning of June, "a mini Davos, at
which we will be happy to see all potential Western investors".
The conversation, which lasted about 30 minutes, took place before the
meeting of the Ukraine-NATO commission. The secretary of the National
Security and Defence Council, Petro Poroshenko, the Ukrainian deputy prime
minister for European integration, Oleh Rybachuk, and Ukrainian Foreign
Minister Borys Tarasyuk were are also at the plenary session from the
Ukrainian side. The sides discussed bilateral ties and Ukraine's
Euro-Atlantic integration.
Viktor Yushchenko noted the positive atmosphere in joint understanding of
integration into the EU, but stressed that "many stereotypes exist about
NATO in Ukrainian society". Yushchenko underlined the need for open, joint
discussion of Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration. Yushchenko and Martin
invited each other to visit their respective countries. -30-
==========================================================
10. GEORGIA: BUSH SPEECH EMPHASIS ON GEORGIA AND
UKRAINE WELCOMED
Kavkasia-Press news agency, Tbilisi, in Georgian 1434 gmt 22 Feb 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Tue, February 22, 2005
TBILISI - "A separate mention of Georgia and Ukraine in the context of
cooperation with NATO and the European Union creates an entirely new
political and geopolitical reality for Georgia," Georgian President Mikheil
Saakashvili's spokeswoman Alana Gagloeva said today when commenting
on US President George Bush's 21 February speech to a group of European
leaders.
According to Gagloeva, it was the first time George Bush openly said that
the Euroatlantic structures would welcome Georgia's and Ukraine's
integration in the [North Atlantic] alliance. Also for the first time in his
presidency, George Bush made very serious critical remarks about a lack
of democracy in Russia, Gagloeva said.
It is important that Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko attended a NATO
summit just like the Georgian president did after the Rose Revolution, Alana
Gagloeva noted. "It is notable that the Ukrainian revolution happened
exactly one year after the Georgian Rose Revolution, and the meeting between
Bush and Yushchenko was also held one year after Bush-Saakashvili meeting.
It is worth noting that for the first time since the end of the Cold War,
America openly criticized Russia's policy," Gagloeva said.
She added that a few days ago President Saakashvili spoke on the phone with
both Yushchenko and Bush and they brought their positions into accord. "We
expect that the issue of Georgia will occupy an important place during the
Bush-Putin summit the day after tomorrow," Gagloeva said. -30-
==========================================================
11. PUTIN INVITES YUSHCHENKO TO CELEBRATE 60TH ANNIV
OF VICTORY IN GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR ON MAY 9 IN MOSCOW
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, February 21, 2005
KYIV - President of Russia Vladimir Putin invited President Viktor Yuschenko
to take part in the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of victory in the
Great Patriotic War that will be held on May 9 in Moscow. This was disclosed
in the statement of Yuschenko's press service, the text of which Ukrainian
News obtained.
Russian Minister of Foreign affairs Sergey Lavrov gave this invitation to
Yuschenko during their meeting in Kyiv. As Ukrainian News earlier reported,
Yuschenko visited Moscow in the end of January. Putin plans to visit Ukraine
with a visit in the end of March. -30- [Action Ukraine Monitoring Service]
==========================================================
12. PM TYMOSHENKO TO HEAD ORGANIZING COMMITTEE TO
COMMEMORATE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR VICTORY IN 1945
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, February 22, 2005
KYIV - President Viktor Yuschenko has appointed Prime Minister Yulia
Tymoshenko as the head of the organizing committee for commemorating
the sixtieth anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War instead
of former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych. Yuschenko's press service
announced this in a statement, a text of which Ukrainian News obtained.
The relevant presidential decree amends a presidential decree of March
26, 2003.
The new decree also directs the organizing committee and its divisions in
the regions as well as in Kyiv, Sevastopol, and the Crimea to review the
plan of measures aimed at commemorating the event and direct them toward
improving the social welfare of veterans. Yuschenko also directed them to
make provisions for television and radio programs as well as newspaper
articles aimed at promoting mutual understanding and reconciliation among
the participants in the war of 1941-1945.
The organizing committee and the similar committee in Kyiv are to hold
national commemorative events in Kyiv. As Ukrainian News earlier reported,
Russia's President Vladimir Putin has invited Yuschenko to participate in
events commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the victory in the Great
Patriotic War in Moscow on May 9. -30-
==========================================================
13. UKRAINE TO BE EUROPEAN UNION COMPATIBLE
Energy companies to transport oil and gas to Europe
The European Union needs to be ready to take action after Ukraine fulfils a
three-year reform programme in 2007, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for
European Integration Oleh Rybachuk told New Europe on February 16.
By Kostis Geropoulos, Senior Staff Writer
New Europe, Athens Greece, Mon, February 21, 2005
The Ukrainian government on February 12 approved a programme, known
as the Ukraine-EU Action Plan, which is part of the EU Neighbourhood
Policy. The Action Plan, which was announced early this month by Ukrainian
President Viktor Yushchenko, is expected to be signed in Brussels on
February 21, during a meeting of the Ukraine-EU Cooperation Council.
"We understand that Brussels is not psychologically prepared (for further
enlargement) and nobody knows what Europe will look like in a couple of
years. Therefore, we are talking about one thing: Brussels must be
psychologically prepared that this three-year Action Plan will be covered by
Ukraine and Brussels should know what is next," Rybachuk said, who will be
heading the Ukrainian delegation to Brussels. "What we will never agree to
is this neighbourhood for ever. This is not our slogan," he said
telephonically from Kiev.
He said that Ukraine decided to continue with the Action Plan that was
negotiated by the previous government so it wouldn't lose precious time and
will use the cooperation council meeting this week to introduce the new
government and its strategy to Brussels.
The deputy premier noted, however, that next year the government would be
making a strong argument by showing how much was achieved in Ukraine. "I
will be very much anticipating the next meeting of Ukraine-EU and I believe
people in Brussels should start thinking how to behave at the next meeting,"
he said.
"At this point, I find encouraging that all the answers to your questions
are in Kiev not in Brussels. We have prepared our own national Ukrainian
integration strategy. Using policy experience, advice from other countries,
experience of ex-high ranking functionaries of EU, we have been preparing
the last two years for the fact that we would be coming to power, we would
be having political will and we would be choosing this pro-European course,"
Rybachuk said.
"Now that we have all that, we have prepared a strategy and the final target
of our own action plan is to be completely EU-compatible. But this will take
years for us," he admitted.
While countries like Poland, the Baltics and the Nordics have voiced support
for Ukraine's vocation to enter the EU, other countries like Britain and
France have been wary of Kiev's accession plans. But Rybachuk shrugged
them off saying Ukraine enjoys favourable public opinion. He noted that
Yushchenko will address the pro-Ukraine European Parliament on
February 22.
"I like the words of Mr. (European Commission President Jose Manuel) Barroso
who said that Ukraine's future is clearly in Europe. That means we are
talking about the process. We've made a gentleman's agreement with Brussels.
We're not saying that we are going to make it tomorrow into Europe and
Brussels is not saying that we are never going to make it. So the compromise
is there," he said laughing.
"Let us stop the war of statements. Let us prove that we are capable of
delivering what we are planning and what we are declaring," he added. A
foreign minister-level meeting of the EU Council late last month approved 10
proposed additions to the Action Plan. A 1999 feasibility study for an
EU-Ukraine free trade zone is to be revised, and the plan would bring such a
revision forward. The European Commission plans to put its proposals on a
free trade zone before the EU Council only after Ukraine has joined the
World Trade Organisation, officials told New Europe.
Rybachuk said Ukraine hopes to join the WTO by the end of the year. He said
that a market economy status and a free trade zone are also on the cards but
he prefers the latter. He said he was expected to discuss these issues with
European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood
Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner in Kiev on February 17.
The deputy premier noted that Ukraine plans to update legislature and carry
on with reforms. He admitted, however, that he doesn't know how rapidly
Ukraine can implement those changes.
The plan would also record the EU's readiness for simpler visa rules and
would entitle Ukraine to up to 50 percent of a total of 500 million Euro
that the European Investment Bank (EIB) is to allocate for Ukraine, Russia,
Belarus and Moldova.
ENERGY TALKS
One of the measures proposed by the European Commission is preparations for
a high-level dialogue on energy. The new Ukrainian government has recently
re-addressed its participation in a consortium to supply Russian gas to
Europe. And plans to extend the Odessa-Brody oil pipeline to Poland have
also returned to the forefront. Both projects had stalled in the past.
"They have stopped because they were used as a part of a political campaign.
They were too politicised and I would say even corrupted," he said. "That
was clearly not the way for the country to attract investments," he added.
Rybachuk said Yushchenko has discussed these projects not only with Polish
President Alexander Kwasniewski and US Vice President Dick Cheney but
with other leaders including Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"Diplomatically we have launched that initiative and we have some strong
signals of interest. Consultations are moving forward," he said.
"We believe that Ukraine has a huge competitive advantage by being right in
the centre of all traditional routes from Arab countries, the Caspian, and
Russia into Europe," the Ukrainian deputy premier added.
He reminded that when Yushchenko was prime minister he financed 60 per-
cent of the Odessa-Brody pipeline. He said Ukraine is seeking a consortium
consisting of suppliers, transit oil companies and buyers, in this case
European countries.
Rybachuk said in the past the major problem was that there was no oil to be
pumped through from the Caspian via Odessa into Europe. Currently, part of
the Odessa-Brody pipeline is used in reverse to carry Russian oil.
"Now the political situation has changed both in the Caucasus and Ukraine
and therefore we are looking much more optimistically at the prospective of
this pipeline to be used as it was originally meant from Odessa to Brody-
Gdansk and then to Europe," the deputy premier said. Russia has pushed
for the reverse use of the pipeline. Moscow has also lobbied for Kiev's
increased participation in the Common Economic Space. But Rybachuk said
Ukraine would participate in the CES only insofar as it wouldn't contradict
with its plans of joining the EU.
"The new government is very predictable in this case. We have been always
saying that we are very much in favour of having free trade zone with the
Russians but our strategy is joining EU. Therefore, anything which
contradicts that strategy meaning deeper integration than trade zone is
unacceptable for us. That was clearly stated by all of us even before
elections. You can't integrate into different customs unions at the same
time. You can have a free trade zone there is no problem. But talking about
deeper integration (with CES) is out of the question." -30-
==========================================================
14. GEORGE BUSH FREEDOM DOCTRINE MEETS HARD-LINE
RUSSIAN STANCE THIS WEEK
OP/ED: By Georgie Ann Geyer
YAHOO.COM., USA, Tuesday, February 22, 2005
WASHINGTON -- When George W. Bush met Vladimir Putin for the first time four
years ago, the American president looked into the KGB man's slick eyes and
saw the "soul" of a leader for whom he felt a real affinity. It was a new
world out there, and the two men would work together. As George W. again
meets Vladimir, this time in Slovakia, what will he see in those eyes?
Deception? Danger? Duplicity? Or simply a romance that is over and that, in
effect, probably never existed?
This time, President Bush set up a challenge for Putin beforehand. "The U.S.
and all European countries should place democratic reform at the heart of
their dialogue with Russia," he said in Brussels on Monday. "We must always
remind Russia that our alliance stands for a free press, a vital opposition,
the sharing of power and the rule of law."
He did not emphasize the fact that, after the Soviet Union collapsed
formally in December 1991, the United States had already worked doggedly
on many levels to democratize the eternally recalcitrant Mother Russia. Way
before Iraq and axes of evil and George W.'s endless talk about spreading
freedom through democracy across the globe, Russia was the target.
American economists helped devise the program by which shares in the big
state enterprises were passed out to workers. That idealistic fraud resulted
in a few ruthless men, "oligarchs" they call them now, buying up Russia. IMF
rules about finances became the rules of the day. American political
counselors and electoral specialists were everywhere during the '90s, with
President Boris Yeltsin's often inebriated enthusiasm. Russia was made a
member of the G8, even though it did not qualify. But it only led to the
hard-line authoritarian security regime of Vladimir Putin.
"President Clinton was deeply involved on all levels with the
democratization of Russia," Russian scholar Nikolai Zlobin, of the Center
for Defense Information in Washington, expounded at a meeting at the
American Enterprise Institute just before the Bush trip. "Well, it's failed.
The Putin regime is concerned for Russia's place in the world; it emphasizes
Russia's exclusiveness, which is very different from the Yeltsin years;
Russia does not see itself as a country that can be integrated, but as a
country that integrates others."
Many analysts think that Putin is scarred by losses to democratic forces in
both Georgia and Ukraine over the last year. But when Zlobin met with the
Russian president for several hours recently at his dacha, he found Putin to
be "very impressive. He felt secure in his ability to run the country. He
has a clear picture of what he wants; everything is in the right place in
his head."
In short, Putin is ruling a country where growth, almost all of it
oil-based, is tapering off, where demonstrations have taken over the streets
denouncing his laws abolishing many welfare payments, where the trails of
oligarchs like Mikhail Khodorkovsky have kept billions of dollars of foreign
investment away, where there is virtually no free media, and where
"stability" is held in far higher stead than democracy.
Michael McFaul, senior fellow of the Hoover Institution, says these changes
in Russia constitute "the biggest rollback of democracy in the world in
years." Indeed, Freedom House recently lowered Russia to a "not free"
status for the first time since 1989.
"This is where the rubber hits the road on President Bush's freedom
doctrine," McFaul says. "It's one thing to say it here, but to say it
doesn't mean to actually DO it there." Russian specialist Leon Aron adds,
"This is the most somber meeting since the end of the Cold War."
And in the background lies the fear among serious observers that President
Putin's Kremlin is not only clamping down on its people, but that it is also
reaching out in his "near abroad" (the former Soviet states) to go as far as
the assassination of leaders it does not care for. There is no question that
three attempts on former Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze came
directly from Moscow; the new Western-oriented Ukrainian President Viktor
Yushchenko has told some journalists he knows where his attempted poisoning
came from and indicated it was Moscow; and the tragic and mysterious death
of Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania last week in Tbilisi was
immediately grasped by some analysts as another example of that "New
Russia," which everybody was so excited about during the '90s, behaving like
the "Old Russia."
When George W. Bush looks into Vladimir Putin's eyes this time, he will find
a man who, despite all, has not given up on the lure of Russian historical
grandeur and who now barely glances at the West, either for help or
understanding. He will also find a leader whose country tried democracy and
backed out of it -- and that, surely, was not part of the White House's
dream of democratizing the world. -30-
==========================================================
15. UKRAINIAN PRIME MINISTER SAYS JUDICIARY IN
UKRAINE SHOULD BE INDEPENDENT
UT1, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1300 gmt 18 Feb 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Feb 18, 2005
KIEV - [Presenter] The judiciary in Ukraine should be independent - this is
the new cabinet's second most important objective after filling the budget,
Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko said after a joint meeting of the Supreme
Court presidium, the council of judges and the board of State Court
Administration.
She said that many people in Ukraine want to be in control of the judicial
system. She said that she saw draft decrees on the appointments of judges,
beginning from the district and city courts, which had to be agreed at the
National Security and Defence Council. Judges welcomed Tymoshenko's
proposal to elect judges directly at meetings of boards of district,
regional or city courts.
[Tymoshenko] The judiciary holds in its hands everything. Simply, you cannot
make use of this. If your dependence, your actual administrative dependence
is removed, it is you who can work miracles to clear the country of
everything which is hampering people's lives. The fate of the authorities is
in your hands and it must be so. When the authorities are absolutely
protected from yourselves and when they have their own system of
deeply-rooted immunity, there will be nothing decent and normal in society.
So objective No 1 is to set you free. -30-
==========================================================
16.UNITED STATES ASKED TO OPEN GENERAL CONSULATE IN LVIV
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Sun, February 20, 2005
KYIV - The Lviv regional branch organization of the Ukrainian Republican
Party, otherwise known as Sobor, is appealing to the United States to open a
general consulate in this city. Rostyslav Novozhenets, the leader of the
regional party organization, disclosed this to Ukrainian News with reference
to a letter that was addressed to US Ambassador in Ukraine John Herbst.
URP "Sobor" also sent a copy of the letter to Foreign Minister Borys
Tarasiuk. "The majority of visas to the US are opened particularly for
residents of Western Ukraine," Novozhenets said. He said that mutual
relations with the West will now become the priority for the new government.
In Novozhenets' words, the US General Consulate in Lviv might also serve
as a counterbalance for the Russian General Consulate in Lviv. There are
presently 3 general consulates in Lviv: Poland, Russia and the Czech
Republic. Lviv has a population of 0.8 million people. -30-
==========================================================
17. YUSHCHENKO PLANS TO CREATE DEPARTMENT FOR WORKING
WITH UKRAINIAN DIASPORA IN CABINET OF MINISTERS
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Sat, February 19, 2005
KYIV - President Viktor Yuschenko plans to create a department for working
with the Ukrainian Diaspora within the Cabinet of Ministers. Yuschenko made
the statement at a news conference in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. "The
issue of creating a department, which would deal exclusively with the
problems of the Ukrainian Diaspora in the government, is presently being
reviewed," Yuschenko said.
He considers that such a body will be the only center for interacting with
the Diaspora. Yuschenko formulated the task of this department, which is to
inform Ukrainian abroad about everything that is happening in Ukraine,
including about Ukrainian business. "If the Ukrainian Diaspora had known
about those economic processes that are occurring in Ukraine, then they
would have been to a large extent direct or indirect participant," Yuschenko
said.
The president said that there is an objective to formulate a special
national program for cooperation with the Diaspora, and to put in financing
for its projects in the budget, which would mainly be of a humanitarian
character. As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Verkhovna Rada once
again defined the legal status of foreign Ukrainians in March 2004. Rada
first defined the legal status of foreign Ukrainians in late November 2003.
President Leonid Kuchma vetoed this law.
The law defines the legal status of Ukrainians living abroad, and the order
for receiving this status. According to the law, a foreign Ukrainian is an
individual, who considers himself a Ukrainian and is a citizen of another
state or does not have citizenship at all, but is of Ukrainian ethnical
origin. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
==========================================================
18.REVELATIONS OF ANNA HERMAN, FORMER PRESS SECRETARY
OF EX-PRIME MINISTER VICTOR YANUKOVYCH
ForUm, Ukrainian Internet Newspaper
Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, 19 February 2005
KIEV - Former press secretary of ex-Prime Minister Victor Yanukovich shared
her experience of "going into power" with journalist of "Kiev Newspaper".
However, guidance of newspaper forbade printing this interview. ForUm gives
a full text of Anna Herman revelations.
[Q] - Madam Ann, how do you estimate your experience of collaboration with
Victor Yanukovich?
- Those eight months were not simple in my life. But, remembering that time,
when I accepted this shocking for many and, maybe, for me decision, I can
say: today I would do the same. I met a lot of remarkable people during this
difficult period. People from Donbass.
You know, Ukraine becomes black and white and more aggressive. People's
propositions are unambiguous and categorical. It seems that colours ceased
to exist. There is no enough goodwill. The radical moods increase. It makes
me feel suspicious.
- It is a typical phenomenon for all revolutions.
- Possibly. But it was not my revolution. I have made another choice. I
wanted to look straight into power's eyes, to be dipped in this power, to
understand its psychology. And it was my conscious choice.
[Q] - And what are your impressions?
- You know, once in childhood my younger sister had a doll, beautiful and
soft. I wondered how its heart looked. Once I closed my sister in a room,
took scissors and cut a doll. There was a mass of sawdust.
The impressions from power appeared more difficult. Power has a lot of
different hearts - hot, cold and stony.
[Q] - Do your present impressions about Yanukovich differ from those which
you followed, making decision to co-operate with him?
- Yes. Making decision, I followed only intuition and gust to cross
threshold of power. Personality of Yanukovich intrigued me. I like strong
natures and respect people which, as the saying goes «was nobody, and did
all by himself ». I did not make a mistake in my main estimations.
[Q] - What changed in him?
- He became more liberated and he deeper experienced a human meanness.
It is a very pragmatic man. He is able to restrain emotions and ambitions. I
like his behaviour in present situation. Yes, he lost. More to say, he was
lost,
was thrown very cruelly. Those, who pretended to support Yanukovich, planned
him as card for achievement of their aims. He should have pretended weak and
obedient. He showed his strength very early. And they began to destroy him
cruelly. This process proceeds now.
[Q] - What is your consideration about motion and results of hustings of
Yanukovich?
- Yanukovich won in elections which took place in Ukraine. Further events
are difficult to name elections. It was a revolution in the issue of which
Victor Yushchenko came to power. And the main complication for Yanukovich
was struggle not with Yushchenko, but with the third person which did not
abandon hopes to be rescuer of nation.
[Q] - Do you mean Kuchma?
- I said what I said. Here is a small example of that, how Yanukovich was
harmed during hustings. We arrived to Sumy in summer, just when students'
agitations began there, tents stood... Yanukovich was offered very tense,
exhausting program. Only around midnight (without dinner and rest) he was
brought to a university. Children went out with the learned by heart texts,
told, how they would do everything, to shut out the contagion of
nationalism.
And I listened to this and thought why there is nobody with different
meaning?
[Q] - Did you talk about it with the candidate?
- I did not always manage to say Victor Feodorovich what I thought. In Sumy,
I said to the organizers of visit: let's go to tents, to students which have
other points of view, let's listen to them... But Yanukovich was assured
that there were no students, but provocateurs from Lvov only. I was said not
to meddle. There were some people wishing Yanukovich good luck, but the
majority did everything to expose him
For example, when we arrived in any city, police surrounded that place,
where Yanukovich was supposed to meet with people. They simply kept people
out, even his supporters. Only 'necessary' people were allowed.
[Q] - Who exposed Yanikovich in hustings?
- Puppeteers which led Tigipko. These are my conclusions. Do you remember
a story about the first billboard? Yanukovich asked them not to do it.
Except
for harm, to him personally these billboards gave nothing. If there were
possibility to put billboard with Yushchenko portrait - then it is another
matter. But someone needed to 'set' people against Yanukovich. They say, he
has everything from power, but Yushchenko gets nothing.
[Q] - Tigipko is guilty?
- Tigipko executed somebody's will. Then Yanukovich ordered to take
billboards off, but his "supporters" came and said: Why? Let it be.
[Q] - So, Yanukovich did not even manage own hustings?
- Yanukovich worked as premier and did not visit 'Zorianij' before the first
round. He was occupied with pension and salary. These were two absolutely
different bodies: he and his staff.
[Q] - Why did not he take everything into his hands?
- With his authority and will-power he forced the power to count on him. But
you know, what it means when nobody wants you. ... They only pretended
support, there was a completely another scenario. Probably, it was most
correct from his side to give up the connections with power in July and
after it take part in elections. But in this case he would be destroyed
immediately.
[Q] - Did something change in staff work, after Taras Chernovol headed it?
- Staff work became more open. Yanukovich trusted Chornovol. But to do
something for two weeks is impossible.
[Q] - How do you estimate the prospects of new opposition? Will Yanukovich
succeed to mobilize his 13 millions? In fact Party of regions is not dying
to be an opposition.
- Yanukovich has a huge intuition. He is able to play "big games". And it
seems to me that he already found the way. I know for sure, that he will not
do a single step in opposition for the sake of opposition. If he sees that
words and matters of new people in power carry harm, he will contest against
them pretty sharply. If he sees that their actions are good for the country
and people, he will support these people.
Now everything depends on Yanukovich's behavior.
[Q] - Do not you feel in this situation 'one against all' ?
- Against whom? I was never against. I was always for... For Yanukovich. But
I did nothing bad to Yushchenko and especially to Timoshenko, whom I liked.
But with Donetsk people it was more interesting. And I do not regret about
my choice. I managed to know true Donetsk character: they are very
open-hearted, sincere and good people. -30-
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINK: http://eng.for-ua.com/analytics/?id=14
==========================================================
19. IN RUSSIA, A POP CULTURE COUP FOR THE KGB
By Peter Finn, Washington Post Foreign Service
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005; Page C01
MOSCOW -- The intrepid Russian spy, saving the Motherland if not the
world, has come in from the cold.
Not since his heyday in the 1960s and '70s, when espionage novels and movies
grabbed the imagination of a teenaged Vladimir Putin, has the Russian secret
agent enjoyed such a celebrated place in popular culture. Blockbuster
movies, TV series, best-selling novels and even theme restaurants are
restoring luster to the FSB, the Russian intelligence service, and its
predecessor, the KGB, as the country mines the contemporary fight against
terrorism and the Soviet past in a search for incorruptible heroes.
For critics here, the reemergence of the heroic agent is a reflection of the
Kremlin's desire to cultivate greater patriotism, one that is loyal to the
strong, centralized and secretive state that is at the heart of President
Putin's ambitions for Russia.
"The common ideology for many writers and filmmakers now is that the
only clean institutions we inherited from the Soviet Union were the special
services, and without them life in the country would be completely
degraded," says Natalia Ivanova, deputy editor of Znamya, a literary
journal. "There is a correlation between who comes to power and what kind
of heroes are preferred by mass culture." Putin climbed to the upper ranks
of the KGB before going into politics.
Through much of the 1990s, Hollywood films and TV series and Latin
American soap operas dominated the movies and state television here.
The vast majority of homegrown production was crime sagas.
"But a new trend has appeared in the last year," says Daniil Dondurei,
editor in chief of Cinema Art magazine, "and it's clearly connected with an
attempt on the part of the authorities to form patriotic consciousness in
the country, particularly with regard to the 60th anniversary of victory in
the Second World War."
On Sunday the Russian Defense Ministry plans to launch what it calls a
channel of "patriotic TV." It will show war documentaries and feature films
to create "effective informational and ideological influences to ensure the
social activities of Russian citizens," Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov wrote
in a letter quoted by the financial newspaper Kommersant. Last month,
Ivanov, complaining about the mass media, said the "moronization of the
people must be stopped."
"When Putin came to power, the idea came with him that the KGB is the real
power in society and the guarantor of stability and safety," says Victor
Shenderovich, a political satirist and the creator of a scathing puppet show
who left NTV after the channel was taken over by Gazprom Media, an arm of
the state-controlled gas company. "It's amazing, really, but everyone is now
trying to create legends or fairy tales about the security services. "
Dramatic series such as "The Red Capella," "Saboteur" and "KGB in a Dinner
Jacket" lionize the exploits of the intelligence services in the fight
against Nazi Germany and then in the Cold War. At the same time, such
popular fictional heroes from the Soviet era as Maj. Pronin, a James Bond
knockoff and counterintelligence officer, have been resurrected. Five Pronin
novels have been reissued in the last year and have sold extremely well,
according to Mikhail Kotomin, fiction editor at Ad Marginem Press, a
Moscow publishing house.
"The KGB represents the myth of a powerful past, and it's a real trend to
turn to history to find heroes," says Kotomin, who has recently published a
series of other spy novels from Soviet days that he says are also selling
well.
Dondurei, the Cinema Art editor, notes that the Russian film industry
continues to produce movies that show the security services in a bad light.
"This is not North Korea; there is pluralism," he says, pointing to films or
series such as "A Driver for Vera" and "Children of the Arbat." "We still
have KGB monsters on film. We cannot say we have censorship."
It was some of the Soviet-era material that is now back in vogue,
particularly a book and later a movie called "The Shield and the Sword,"
that first attracted Putin to the KGB. He presented himself as a potential
recruit when he was in the ninth grade in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg,
according to "First Person," a book-length series of conversations with the
president that was published in 2000.
"My notion of the KGB came from romantic spy stories," Putin said, referring
in particular to "The Shield and the Sword," in which a Soviet agent
infiltrates Nazi Germany. "Books and spy movies . . . took hold of my
imagination. What amazed me most of all was how one man's effort could
achieve what whole armies could not."
"The Shield and the Sword" is also the name of a theme restaurant in Moscow,
a kind of Planet KGB, where the memorabilia includes a signed letter by
dictator Joseph Stalin and portraits of his henchmen, including Lavrenti
Beria, a murderer, torturer and serial rapist who was executed after
Stalin's death in 1953.
The waitresses wear the green shirts and white blouses with shoulder boards
of the Soviet functionary, and the chef worked at the Kremlin when Leonid
Brezhnev was in power. The dining room is dominated by a copy of a famous
statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of another Soviet-era security agency,
the NKVD.
Beria's grandson dines here from time to time, and the family of former KGB
head and Communist Party General Secretary Yuri Andropov, whose bust is
in the lobby, celebrated the 90th anniversary of his birth at the
restaurant, according to the owner, Konstantin Piskaryov, whose grandfather
was an NKVD colonel. Most of the customers, he says, are in the current
security services and "they enjoy it here."
Asked about displaying images of such bloodstained figures as Beria,
Piskaryov replies: "My attitude is no matter what kind of people they were,
they are a part of our history. Time and history will prove who did the best
for our country."
Also getting glory treatment are the country's current security services,
through such TV series as "National Security Agent," "Liquidator" and "The
Motherland Is Waiting." Even a popular early-1990s song, "Accountant," about
a woman who pines for such a husband, has had its lyrics updated to reflect
the new mood. That new version's title is "Operational Agent."
Attitudes toward the old enemy, the United States, are ambivalent in the
shows and novels. Russia and America are allied in some, but in others a
nefarious United States seeks to encircle and weaken Russia. In "White
Legion" by Ilya Ryasnoi, a best-selling novel with a contemporary setting,
Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms are cast as a CIA plot and the chaotic
post-Communist society is saved from complete ruin by a secret network
of former KGB officers.
"Much of this literature is anti-liberal," the editor Ivanova says. "I don't
think these writers receive some kind of order from the Kremlin. They are
catching their wishes; they feel the turn of the times. But the trend puts
one on guard. I want to live in a free country, without the idea that the
control of the special services is essential to stability or that we need to
revive an empire."
"Personal Number," a new movie with a $7 million budget, huge for Russia,
dramatizes many of the Kremlin's domestic and foreign policy concerns,
drawing from recent events, such as the seizure of a Moscow theater by
Chechen rebels in 2002.
In its narrative, an exiled tycoon works with Chechen and Arab terrorists,
including an Osama bin Laden-type figure, to seize a circus in Moscow. The
film dwells on the faces of the child hostages, eliciting ripples of dread
from audiences here.
In the end, the Arabs betray the Chechens; the tycoon who had hoped to
topple the government returns to London, where a number of Putin's enemies
have ended up. The bin Laden figure finds refuge in the Pankisi Gorge in
Georgia, which Russia has long claimed is a sanctuary for terrorists. An FSB
officer, in the mold of Bruce Willis in "Die Hard," saves the day, foiling a
plot to use a plane to detonate a radioactive bomb over Rome.
"The movie gives people the confidence they are being protected," says
Sergei Gribkov, the producer of the film. "It gives the country the
opportunity to show its power to resist. And it helps the security services
with motivation." The FSB and the government provided warplanes, attack
helicopters and armored personnel carriers to help with verisimilitude.
"We not only wanted to create a positive image of the FSB, we want people
to understand that the most serious issue of our time, one discussed by the
U.S. president, is the issue of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of
terrorists," Gribkov says. "It is the task of any state to help with this
kind of movie." -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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Sweere, Kyiv and Myronivka, Ukraine, 380 44 295 7275 in Kyiv.
4. ODUM- Association of American Youth of Ukrainian Descent,
Minnesota Chapter, Natalia Yarr, Chairperson.
5. ACTION UKRAINE COALITION: Washington, D.C.,
A. UKRAINIAN FEDERATION OF AMERICA (UFA),
Zenia Chernyk, Chairperson; Vera M. Andryczyk, President;
Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania.
B. UKRAINIAN AMERICAN COORDINATING COUNCIL,
(UACC), Ihor Gawdiak, President, Washington, D.C., New York, NY
C. U.S.-UKRAINE FOUNDATION (USUF), Nadia Komarnyckyj
McConnell, President, Washington, D.C., Kyiv, Ukraine.
6. UKRAINE-U.S. BUSINESS COUNCIL, Washington, D.C.
7. ESTRON CORPORATION, Grain Export Terminal Facility &
Oilseed Crushing Plant, Ilvichevsk, Ukraine
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"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" is an in-depth news and
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the www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service and The Action Ukraine
Report Monitoring Service The report is distributed around the world
FREE of charge using the e-mail address: ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net.
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PUBLISHER AND EDITOR
Mr. E. Morgan Williams, Director, Government Affairs
Washington Office, SigmaBleyzer Investment Banking Group
P.O. Box 2607, Washington, D.C. 20013, Tel: 202 437 4707
morganw@patriot.net, www.SigmaBleyzer.com
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Senior Advisor; Ukrainian Federation of America (UFA)
Coordinator, Action Ukraine Coalition (AUC)
Senior Advisor, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation (USUF)
Advisor, Ukraine-U.S. Business Council, Washington, D.C.
Publisher, Ukraine Information Website, www.ArtUkraine.com
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