"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT"
An International Newsletter
In-Depth Ukrainian News, Analysis, and Commentary
"The Art of Ukrainian History, Culture, Arts, Business, Religion,
Sports, Government, and Politics, in Ukraine and Around the World"
THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT IS BACK!
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" - Number 437
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net
Washington, D.C. and Kyiv, Ukraine, WEDNESDAY, March 9, 2005
NOTE: The laptop computer I have been using finally could not handle
the volume of work anymore. All of the data, including a very large address
book, had to be moved to a new laptop. This process has taken several
days and all of the issues are not yet resolved. Because of this procedure
The Action Ukraine Report has not been published since Friday, February
25 when number 436 was distributed.
I have received a very large number of e-mails from readers wanting
to know what has happened, stating they miss receiving the Report and
asking if their name had been deleted from the distribution list and if so
they wanted back on the list, or asking if we had stopped publishing, or
were taking a well deserved vacation.
The Action Ukraine Report will be published as in the past just as soon as
possible. Thanks so much for your understanding and strong support for
this publication. Morgan Williams, Publisher and Editor.
-----INDEX OF ARTICLES-----
"Major International News Headlines and Articles"
1. BUSINESS WANTS BETTER UKRAINE LEGAL FRAMEWORK
Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), Berlin, Germany, Tue, 8 March 2005
2. EUROPE'S AID TO KIEV TAKES A NEW TURN
By Katrin Bennhold and Graham Bowley
International Herald Tribune, Europe, Thursday, March 3, 2005
3. A SHORTAGE OF CAPITAL AND CONFIDENCE
Ukraine's banking system not ready for WTO
By Natalia Huzenko, The Day
The Day Weekly Digest In English, #7
Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, 1 March 2005
4. RUSSIANS SQUEEZING MOST OUT OF ORANGE REVOLUTION
By Stefan Wagstyl and Tom Warner
Financial Times, London, UK, Thursday, March 3, 2005
5. UKRAINE PRESSES FOR ENTERING EU IN 10 YEARS
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, China, Wed, March 9, 2005
6. LOCAL FIRM CAUGHT IN WORLDWIDE WEB OF BAD PRESS
By Annys Shin, Washington Post Staff Writer
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.,
Monday, March 7, 2005; Page E01
7. UKRAINE PRESIDENT TO RECEIVE KENNEDY COURAGE AWARD
By Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press Writer
AP, Washington, D.C., Tue, March 8, 2005
8. YUSHCHENKO EXPRESSES SATISFACTION WITH PROGRESS OF
INVESTIGATION INTO CIRCUMSTANCES OF HIS POISONING
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, March 8, 2005
9. DOCTOR SAYS UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT'S FACE MAY START
HEALING SOON
One Plus One TV, Kiev, in Ukrainian, 8 Mar 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Tue, March 8, 2005
10. GONGADZE SUSPECTS OFFICIALLY CHARGED WITH MURDER
UT1, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1700 gmt 8 Mar 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, In English, Tue, March 8, 2005
11. MELNYCHENKO TURNS OVER MATERIALS CONNECTED WITH
GONGADZE'S MURDER TO TOMENKO
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, March 8, 2005
12. NOT SO JOLLY
Observer, Financial Times, London, UK, Wed, March 9 2005
13. EUROVISION HOSTS (UKRAINE) IN POLITICAL ROW
BBC NEWS, UK, Tuesday, 8 March, 2005
14. HISTORY DIVIDES THE BALTS
Observer: Financial Times, London, UK, Wed, March 9, 2005
15. THE UKRAINIAN REVOLUTION
Eyewitness notes or the "Russian Maidan" in Kyiv
By Eduard Glezin, Moscow
The Day Weekly Digest in English
Kyiv, Ukraine, #7, Tuesday, 1 March 2005
16. YUSHCHENKO'S VISIT TO WASHINGTON, D.C. IN EARLY APRIL
ACTION ALERT, The Action Ukraine Coalition
Ihor Gawdiak, Chairman, Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, March 8, 2005
17. THE LONG RETURN
The discovery of another poem by Olena Teliha
By Nadiya Tysiachna, The Day
The Day Weekly Digest in English, #7
Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, 1 March 2005
18. IVANO-FRANKIVSK REGION URGES RESIDENTS NOT TO BUY
FIRST SPRINGTIME WILD FLOWERS WHICH ARE RARE
AND ON THE VERGE OF EXTINCTION FOR GIFTS
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, March 8, 2005
================================================================
1. BUSINESS WANTS BETTER UKRAINE LEGAL FRAMEWORK
Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), Berlin, Germany, Tue, 8 March 2005
BERLIN - German business leaders called for better legal protection for
investment in Ukraine ahead of talks with Ukrainian President Viktor
Yushchenko who arrived in Germany on Tuesday for high level talks. "German
business sees good chances... for closer economic cooperation on the
condition that the legal framework is improved and there is more
transparency and predictability in decision-making," said a statement by the
influential business lobby, the Committee on Eastern European Economic
Relations.
Business leaders were due to meet with Yushchenko Tuesday evening following
his formal welcome by Germany's mainly ceremonial President Horst Koehler
and talks with Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. Fischer is under pressure
in Germany for having liberalised visa policies for Ukraine which apparently
led to many illegal workers entering Germany and the European Union.
Germany is only the seventh biggest investor in Ukraine with about EUR 500
million of direct German investment concentrated in the automotive,
construction, energy and agriculture sectors, said the statement. The total
volume of German-Ukrainian trade last year was worth EUR four billion, the
statement said. Political talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on
Wednesday are expected to be dominated by Yushchenko's calls for EU
membership for his country.
In an interview with the newspaper Die Welt, Yushchenko predicted Ukraine
will be an EU member well before 2016. The Ukrainian leader is also due to
address the parliament in Berlin on Wednesday.
A senior member of Germany's opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
rejected admission of Ukraine to the 25-nation E.U. "Full membership for
Ukraine in the EU is unreachable in the foreseeable future given current,
enormous shortfalls in its economic development," said Matthias Wissmann,
the CDU chairman of the German parliament's European Affairs Committee.
Wissmann said the EU should not make the same "mistake" with Ukraine that
it has made with Turkey. EU leaders last year agreed to begin accession
negotiations with Ankara - a move opposed by many German conservatives.
Instead of full membership, Wissmann called for Ukraine to be given what he
termed "a privileged partnership" with the EU which would include free trade
and expanded economic and security ties. -30-
================================================================
2. EUROPE'S AID TO KIEV TAKES A NEW TURN
By Katrin Bennhold and Graham Bowley
International Herald Tribune, Europe, Thursday, March 3, 2005
PARIS - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is planning a
raft of new investments in Ukraine to underpin the country's democratic
transformation under President Viktor Yushchenko. In an interview Wednesday,
Jean Lemierre, the bank's president, said that the newly elected Ukrainian
leader had one year to carry out tough changes ahead of parliamentary
elections next March. "It's very important to convey a message of economic
change in Ukraine for domestic Ukrainians and foreign investors," Lemierre
said during a trip to France.
.
The EBRD, which is the biggest investor in Ukraine, is working with Kiev on
privatizing the country's telecommunications monopoly, Ukrtelecom, and parts
of its banking sector. "These sectors have to go private quickly," said
Lemierre, who discussed the plans with Yushchenko over dinner two weeks ago.
.
In a month, the bank will also unveil a series of new loans for small
businesses and infrastructure projects in eastern Ukraine, where many voted
against Yushchenko in presidential elections in December. Lemierre said that
two or three loans worth between $40 million to $50 million would be
provided to local government agencies for projects such as improving
drinking water.
.
The EBRD chief also said that Yushchenko had a limited window of opportunity
to deliver on promises to reverse some earlier privatizations that the
government believes were sold cheaply to cronies of the previous regime. But
he warned that foreign investors would be put off if the process was too
broad and open-ended. "There are some cases that may have been based on
practices that were not very transparent and fair," Lemierre said. "There
can be good reasons to reopen debates."
.
Foreign and local investors were rattled last month after Prime Minister
Yulia Tymoshenko suggested that thousands of cases of privatizations could
be reopened. But Yushchenko and other officials later said the number would
be closer to a couple of dozen, and that they hoped to conclude the process
this year.
.
Throughout the process, one important challenge will be to keep the economy
growing, Lemierre said. After several years of contracting, gross domestic
product started expanding again five years ago and grew 12.5 percent last
year, a badly needed increase in a country where unemployment remains near
9 percent.
.
Lemierre said that Ukraine could be the catalyst for a broader democratic
revolution in the region. "Last year was an important year: In the beginning
of the year was Georgia and in the end was Ukraine," he said. "We may be at
the beginning of some changes from that point of view on the region.
Kyrgyzstan is the next test."
.
But while he was optimistic about developments in some former Soviet states,
Lemierre struck a gloomier tone on Russia. "The message one and a half years
ago would have been that Russia is quite on track," Lemierre said. "In a few
months the picture has changed."
.
Citing the renationalization of the oil giant Yukos, Russia's aggressive
intervention on behalf of Yushchenko's opponent, Viktor Yanukovitch, in last
year's presidential race and its controversial handling of security at home,
Lemierre said that attracting new investment has become much more difficult.
"The Yukos case has not discouraged investors to invest, but has made them
very sensitive to the risk," Lemierre said. "Russia has to attract many more
investors, not only in volumes but in quality."
.
He also said that the European Union had to work harder to define its
relations with Russia, given close energy, trade and investment links.
Almost half of Russia's exports go to the EU, while the bloc depends on
Russia for about a third of its gas imports. "I see a need for a much more
structured and developed relationship with Russia than I see today,"
Lemierre said.
.
The EBRD is the single largest investor in Russia outside the gas and oil
sectors, with a total of Euro 1.2 billion, or $1.57 billion, last year. -30-
================================================================
3. A SHORTAGE OF CAPITAL AND CONFIDENCE
Ukraine's banking system not ready for WTO
By Natalia Huzenko, The Day
The Day Weekly Digest In English, #7
Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, 1 March 2005
"All indicators suggest that we have no right to stimulate exports, all the
more so as our constitutional duty and daily business is to ensure the
stability of the national currency," National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) governor
Volodymyr Stelmakh told a news conference late last week. According to him,
all rumors about the Ukrainian economy becoming less competitive in
connection with such a decision are absolutely unfounded.
However, it is not yet known how strong the Ukrainian currency will get, as
this limit will be determined only after the government finally approves the
2005 budget and its economic development program. The NBU's monetary
policy will primarily depend on the inflation rate and the country's
domestic capacities for effectively stimulating inflation.
The country's chief banker has called Ukraine's future WTO accession a major
challenge for undercapitalized Ukrainian banks. Moreover, the social
standards proposed by the new government also require the banking system to
contribute heavily to the state budget. Stelmakh doubts that the banking
system will be able to shoulder such a burden, first, because of the high
costs involved and profits that are not enough to maintain an adequate pace
of capital growth, and, second, because of the low level of public
confidence, as citizens are reluctant to deposit their savings in banks.
In this connection, Stelmakh has proposed making banks highly transparent by
requiring them to publish their balance sheets with good and bad performance
indicators several times a month, so that people would be able to select a
truly reliable bank and regain confidence in the banking system in general.
As it usually happens, foreign investors will have to compensate for the
lack of confidence in Ukraine. The NBU chairman places high hopes on
investments, especially considering that Ukraine has launched the Year of
Open Doors to Foreign Investments.
Stelmakh is not overly enthusiastic about the current state of the banking
system, laying the blame for this on the previous team. He expressed
surprise that the operations of the National Bank were not used to the
fullest extent. He cited figures suggesting that the instability of the
monetary system has significantly increased in the past two years (from
2.29% in 2002 to 6.28% in 2004). The new team has a chance to undo all the
harm, since Stelmakh plans to work with the people who stood by him during
his first stint as NBU governor in 2000-2002.
He believes in working with reliable people. It is therefore possible that
there may be more dismissals than just those of Yatseniuk and Shlapak. Asked
about what provoked former President Leonid Kuchma's statement about a
banking system crisis in November 2004, Stelmakh said that the NBU
management had provided inaccurate information.
According to Stelmakh, the volume of private deposits, which shrank in the
final months of 2004, has now exceeded the pre-revolutionary level.
Commenting on the goal of bringing down loan rates, which is part of the new
government's program, Stelmakh said that everything depends on deposit
rates. Aside from being an impediment to numerous projects, high rates are
also a burden to the economy.
If the government develops and parliament passes a realistic and balanced
budget and measures to offset the budget deficit, if the economy is brought
into the open and the judicial functions as it should, we will then be able
to speak about a 5% deposit rate and loan rates that will be reduced
accordingly. -30- (The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINK: http://www.day.kiev.ua/133206
================================================================
4. RUSSIANS SQUEEZING MOST OUT OF ORANGE REVOLUTION
By Stefan Wagstyl and Tom Warner
Financial Times, London, UK, Thursday, March 3, 2005
For the Kremlin, Ukraine's Orange Revolution was a serious political defeat.
But Russian business sees the end of Leonid Kuchma's authoritarian regime
and the election of president Viktor Yushchenko as a big economic
opportunity. Kiev's hotels are full of foreign business people, including
Poles, Germans, and Americans, investigating opportunities created by Mr
Yushchenko's promises to open an economy with huge potential. But the
largest contingent is Russian.
Two conferences last month drew scores of Russians one hosted by Alfa Group,
the Russian conglomerate, which is among the biggest investors in Ukraine,
and the other by Renaissance Capital, a Moscow-based investment bank. "We
are very much interested in Ukraine," says Peter Aven, president of Alfa
Bank, an Alfa subsidiary. "Everybody is very optimistic about Ukraine."
At first sight, this enthusiasm might seem odd, given that the Kremlin
originally backed Mr Yushchenko's rival for the presidency the former prime
minister, Viktor Yanukovich. Mr Yanukovich, Mr Kuchma's favoured successor,
was seen as the pro-Russian candidate, while Mr Yushchenko offered the
prospect of closer ties with the west.
But, as far as Russian business was concerned, a Yanukovich victory would
not have been an unalloyed blessing. The former prime minister is linked to
Ukraine's business oligarchs who tried to restrict competition from
foreigners, including Russians.
Their success was highlighted last year in the controversial privatisation
of Krivorizhstal, the country's top steel mill, which was sold for $800m to
Viktor Pinchuk, Mr Kuchma's son-in-law, and Rinat Akhmetov, a steel baron
allied to Mr Yanukovich. Foreign bidders, including Russia's Severstal,
offered more money but were disqualified. A victory by Mr Yanukovich might
have encouraged more such domestic-only deals. However a victory by Mr
Yushchenko also presents Russian companies with serious challenges.
Groups that developed ties with the Kuchma regime must now survive without
them. They include members of the Russian Club, Russian business people who
backed Mr Yanukovich and who can now expect no favours from Mr Yushchenko.
Alfa Group was also close to Mr Kuchma. Together with Ukraine's Ukrsibbank,
it bought control of Storm, a privately owned company controlled by Yuri
Tumanov, Mr Kuchma's brother-in-law, which owned 43.5 per cent of Kyivstar,
Ukraine's second largest mobile phone network.
Mr Yushchenko's planned review of privatisations is also causing uncertainty
among investors from Russia as well as the west. For example, his government
is threatening to re-nationalise a 30 per cent stake in the huge Mykolayiv
alumina plant controlled by RusAl, the Russian metals group, on the grounds
that investment commitments were not fulfilled. Such talk, say Russian
business people, damages Ukraine's hopes of attracting new investment.
But despite those concerns, Russian investors remain focused on the
country's huge economic potential. Ukraine lags behind other ex-Communist
states in economic development. Whole industries including chemicals, metals
and agriculture are in need of modernisation. Other sectors, such as banking
and retailing, are ripe for expansion. Russian companies are also attracted
by Mr Yushchenko's aim of integrating Ukraine with the European Union. If he
achieves that, this country of nearly 50m people might follow central
European states into the EU.
For Russian companies, operating in the uncertain Russian political
environment, investing in an EU-oriented Ukraine would offer a way of
diversifying while remaining on familiar turf. Russian business people
accept that Mr Yushchenko could favour western groups to encourage ties
with the west. He might, for example, overlook Russian investors in future
flagship privatisations such as Ukrtelecom, the state telecoms group.
But despite the Kremlin's support for Mr Yanukovich, there is no general
anti-Russian sentiment in Ukraine, except in a few nationalist pockets in
western Ukraine. If Mr Yushchenko fulfils his pledge to create a liberalised
economy, say the Russians, Russian companies will have important competitive
advantages. They include historic, social and trade links, with Russia last
year accounting for 18 per cent of Ukraine's exports and 41 per cent of
imports, including oil and gas supplies. Russian companies are convinced
that they can build on this base even if there is more competition from the
west than there was in the past. -30-
================================================================
5. UKRAINE PRESSES FOR ENTERING EU IN 10 YEARS
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, China, Wed, March 9, 2005
BERLIN - March 8 Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on Tuesday started
his two-day visit to Germany by expressing the confidence that his country
can be a EU member within the coming 10 years. The European Union
membership for Ukraine will be achieved "certainly before the year 2016,"
said Yushchenko in an interview with the Mainz-based Allgemeine Zeitung
to be published Wednesday.
The Ukrainian president stressed that his country with 48 million people was
of interest for EU not just due to economic considerations but also due to
its strategic role. Ukraine's eagerness to join EU will be the main topic
when Yushchenko meets German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Wednesday.
He is also scheduled to address the Bundestag (German parliament) on
Wednesday.
However, Yushchenko's call for EU membership to Ukraine has already met cold
response from German politicians. Gert Weisskirchen, the foreign policy
spokesman of the ruling SPD party in the Bundestag, said that Ukraine should
first be satisfied to get associate status from EU, similar to what Turkey
has held for decades.
Matthias Wissmann, a politician from the opposition CDU party and also
chairman of the Bundestag's European Affairs Committee, said that a "full EU
membership is unreachable in the foreseeable future given current, enormous
shortfalls" in Ukraine's economic development. -30-
================================================================
6. LOCAL FIRM CAUGHT IN WORLDWIDE WEB OF BAD PRESS
By Annys Shin, Washington Post Staff Writer
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.,
Monday, March 7, 2005; Page E01
In early February, Scott Johnson, a partner in a small communications firm
called Rock Creek Creative, issued a news release touting the company's role
in the Orange Revolution -- the public protests that led to the election of
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko in December.
Johnson said he hoped the release would lead to "a nice local technology
story" about the Bethesda company in one of the local newspapers, perhaps
focusing on how a Web site the company designed had become the "virtual
freedom plaza for the democracy movement" in the former Soviet state.
The release did catch the attention of news editors. Just not in Bethesda.
Within hours, a Russian government news agency seized on Rock Creek's
release as proof that the United States had meddled in the Ukrainian
presidential election. Hate e-mail trickled into the nine-person firm.
Russian newspapers speculated about the firm's prior work for such groups as
NATO and the CIA.
Yushchenko was quizzed about the company by the BBC, and Rock Creek's
local client -- the nonprofit that had hired the firm to develop the Web
site in the first place -- disavowed the company's statements. For a PR
company, it was a PR disaster.
"People [in Ukraine] were talking about it immediately. . .The commentary
in the Ukrainian media was 'What the hell are they talking about?' " said
Taras Kuzio, a Ukrainian scholar who teaches at George Washington
University.
At a time when public relations firms have been under fire for obscuring
their affiliations, the incident with Rock Creek stands as a cautionary tale
of saying too much at the wrong time, particularly in an era of instant
global communication. "The policy is do the work and don't talk about it,"
said Robert Chlopak, a partner with Washington crisis management firm
Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter and Associates. "There is no such thing as a
local audience anymore."
The company apparently knew the sensitivities involved when it was hired in
2003 by the Global Fairness Initiative, a Washington nonprofit affiliated
with former president Bill Clinton, to develop a Web site and strategy for a
February 2004 conference in Kiev called "Ukraine in Europe and the World."
The company, which says it has led branding campaigns for such U.S. agencies
as the CIA and for NATO and the French aerospace company Thales S.A., was
paid $15,000 for its work.
In its news release last month, the company said that in taking on the
contract, it realized the challenge was to create a site that was not only
secure from hackers "but that would also not be seen as a vehicle for any
U.S.-driven political message." "Which," the company added, "it was not." At
least not until the company's news release was distributed Feb. 8 over the
PR Newswire, a publicly accessible Internet service.
"US supporters of 'Orange Revolution' coming out of shadow," read the
headline one day later on ITAR-Tass, the Russian news agency. The Tass story
said the company provided "propaganda support" for the 2004 conference and
made much of the fact that Rock Creek had done work for the CIA and NATO.
Rock Creek once helped develop marketing material for the CIA's venture
capital arm, In-Q-Tel, according to Johnson. It also created an 18-language
summit agenda for the NATO 2002 Prague Summit Host Committee.
But in the Tass story, the affiliations took on a more sinister light. The
article said it had interviewed one of the company's employees, who told
them that money was "transferred . . . through several intermediary
organizations, so that no one would suspect . . . the improper interference
in the political process."
In response to the Tass story, Rock Creek issued a "clarification."
"By designing the official Web site and contributing to the communications
strategy for the conference, Rock Creek helped raise the profile of
Ukraine's issues internationally. . . . It was one of many contributions to
an atmosphere of change in Ukraine," the statement said. It went on to note
that "Mr. Yushchenko deserves full credit for building a political platform
that the majority of Ukrainians supported in the election."
In a phone interview, Johnson called the Tass story "a complete
fabrication." "My customer is not the U.S. government, nor has my client
been paid by the government," he said. Rock Creek "did what we said
we did," he said. "I stand by what's in the [Feb. 8] release."
But officials with the Global Fairness Initiative, the nonprofit that hired
Rock Creek to help with the Kiev conference, took issue with several of the
company's claims.
Steven Bennett, the group's executive director, said the conference had
nothing to do with the election. Instead, it featured former U.S. secretary
of state Madeleine Albright, Yushchenko and his future opponent for the
presidency, former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych, talking about Ukraine's
relationship with Western Europe.
He dismissed the notion that the Web site had become a "virtual freedom
plaza" as "ridiculous."
"Until the release, there was very slow traffic to the site," Bennett said.
Just before the conference, a Czech firm took over the Web site, and Rock
Creek had nothing to do with it thereafter, Bennett said.
"It was the most successful press release ever released, as measured by the
amount of interest -- perverse interest," he said. "What that press release
did was fan a lot of flames especially in eastern Ukraine and in Russia
where people believe the U.S. was involved in the election. . . . From our
perspective, this has been a catastrophe."
Public relations experts said Rock Creek ran afoul of one of the most basic
principles of the trade. "Rule number one: You shouldn't embarrass your
client," said Helio Fred Garcia, a professor of management and
communications at New York University who runs a crisis communications
firm. "Even when you deserve credit, you should not crow about it without
your client's permission."
But the incident also demonstrates another maxim of the public relations
business: Any publicity is good publicity. Johnson said that since the
controversy, he has been approached by companies that do business in the
Ukraine about working for them. He said he turned down the offers because
Rock Creek did not want to be seen as profiting from an incident that
embarrassed the Yushchenko regime.
For the time being, Johnson said he does not plan on issuing more news
releases. "We don't need to market ourselves," he said. "We have plenty of
work." -30- (The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service)
================================================================
7. UKRAINE PRESIDENT TO RECEIVE KENNEDY COURAGE AWARD
By Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press Writer
AP, Washington, D.C., Tue, March 8, 2005
WASHINGTON- Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko, who survived an
assassination attempt last year and battled through three elections in three
months, will receive this year's John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.
Yushchenko was told of the award Monday in a call from Caroline Kennedy,
president of the JFK Library Foundation and the late president's daughter.
"Viktor Yushchenko has inspired citizens of the world with his extraordinary
courage," Kennedy said in a statement released Tuesday. "His commitment to
freedom and the democratic process is a powerful example of how one person
can truly make a difference. Viktor Yushchenko is a true profile in courage
who my father would have greatly admired."
The pro-Western leader was sworn in on Jan. 2, after a string of bitterly
contested elections, weeks of mass demonstrations, court battles and a
grisly detour to Vienna, where he was treated for a near-lethal dioxin
poisoning that disfigured his face.
"Viktor Yushchenko amazed, awed and changed the world through one of the
all-time great examples of political courage," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy,
D-Mass. "He eminently deserves this award, and I only wish my brother could
be with us at the library to honor him personally too."
A former central bank director, Yushchenko trailed in preliminary election
returns, but the final results put him narrowly ahead of the 22-person
field, including the Kremlin-backed prime minister Viktor Yanukovych.
Yanukovych won the subsequent runoff, but both elections were deemed
fraudulent by international observers, and Yushchenko eventually won a third
vote convincingly.
Yushchenko will be presented with the award later this spring at the
Boston-based library by Caroline and Sen. Kennedy. The Profile in Courage
Award is named for President Kennedy's 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, and
it is presented annually to public servants who have withstood strong
opposition to follow what they believe is the right course. Past recipients
include former President Gerald Ford, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and United
Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. -30-
================================================================
8. YUSHCHENKO EXPRESSES SATISFACTION WITH PROGRESS OF
INVESTIGATION INTO CIRCUMSTANCES OF HIS POISONING
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, March 8, 2005
President Viktor Yuschenko says that he is satisfied with the course of the
investigation into the circumstances of his poisoning and he has expressed
confidence in the quick completion of the investigation into this case. The
president's press service disclosed this in a statement, citing Yuschenko's
interview with Deutche Welle.
In Yuschenko's words, the investigation has so far managed to receive many
new information, particularly the finding of the chemical formula and
characteristics of the poisonous substance.
Austrian and Swiss doctors primarily assisted in this. The president
disclosed that thanks to the cooperation of medics and criminologists,
investigators managed to establish the approximate time and circumstances
of his poisoning.
"Work has been conducted with respect to finding the sources, including on
the territory of Ukraine. I know that the prosecutor general is personally
controlling the case. He stated himself that this case is his honor," the
president said. Yuschenko also expressed confidence that the criminals will
not be able to escape justice. "I am calm and convince that this case will
be resolved. There are certain people that are on the run with respect to
this case. But nobody will run anywhere," the president said.
Commenting on the state of his own health, Yuschenko pointed out that he is
returning to himself a good shape. "I am gathering the physical shape, which
will permit me to stand on a skid. We will certainly go on Horvela in the
summer," the president said. He invited everybody to climb 2,061 meters of
Horvela Mountain, Ukraine's highest point, together with his team.
As Ukrainian News reported previously, the director of Austria's
Rudolfinerhaus clinic, Michael Zimpfer, said that Yuschenko was deliberately
poisoned with dioxins. The Prosecutor General's Office reopened the criminal
case it had launched into alleged poisoning of Yuschenko, after closing the
case on October 22.
Volodymyr Sivkovych, chairman of the interim commission investigating the
circumstances surrounding the poisoning of Yuschenko, recently said that the
commission intended to include in its own investigation the Rudolfinerhaus
clinic's materials alleging that Yuschenko was deliberately poisoned. The ad
hoc parliamentary commission investigating the circumstances surrounding
Yuschenko's poisoning said in November 2004 that it was unable to confirm
the claims that an attempt was made on the life of Yuschenko. -30-
================================================================
9. DOCTOR SAYS UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT'S FACE MAY START
HEALING SOON
One Plus One TV, Kiev, in Ukrainian, 8 Mar 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Tue, March 8, 2005
KYIV - [Presenter] The poisoning of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko
by dioxin has been confirmed not only by a laboratory in Amsterdam, but also
a research centre in Munster, Germany. According to Yushchenko's Austrian
doctor, Mykola Korpan, these two are independent laboratories that were
licensed by the World Health Organization to research dioxin based poison
substances.
[Correspondent] Yushchenko's psychological and somatic health is good. The
Austrian doctors say so. They came to this conclusion not long ago after
having conducted a medical examination of the patient. Yushchenko's doctor,
Mykola Korpan, knows how the disease can be overcome, but refuses to say
when the president of Ukraine will recover completely.
The damaged face is just the tip of the poisoning iceberg, which harmed
Viktor Yushchenko's health. Korpan believes the skin on the Ukrainian
president's face has been damaged at the deepest level, therefore, no-one
can say when exactly it will recover.
[Korpan] Instead of those "five to seven years" they [medics] have
mathematically calculated the time [of recovery] that can shrink to several
months. As a professional, I think, and so do dermatology experts, that
exactly in several months the skin on Viktor Andriyovych's [Yushchenko] face
will look normal with a few marks remaining for a while.
[Passage omitted: background of Yushchenko's poisoning during the
presidential campaign last year.] -30-
================================================================
10. GONGADZE SUSPECTS OFFICIALLY CHARGED WITH MURDER
UT1, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1700 gmt 8 Mar 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, In English, Tue, March 8, 2005
KYIV - [Ukrainian President] Viktor Yushchenko has told a news conference in
Berlin that the Prosecutor-General's Office in Ukraine has officially
charged the suspects in the journalist Heorhiy Gongadze case with murder.
The head of the state stressed that he is satisfied with the dynamics of the
investigation. Asked about the persecution of the former president, Leonid
Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko said that the law is equal for everyone.
Let me recall that Ukraine's Prosecutor-General Svyatoslav Piskun said
earlier that the individuals directly involved in the murder have been
detained. According to him, investigators already know the name of the
person who gave the order to eliminate the journalist. [According to
Ukrayinska Pravda web site, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1 Mar 05, the chief
prosecutor said two colonels had been arrested over the murder.]
================================================================
11. MELNYCHENKO TURNS OVER MATERIALS CONNECTED WITH
GONGADZE'S MURDER TO TOMENKO
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, March 8, 2005
KYIV - Ex-President Leonid Kuchma's former bodyguard, Major Mykola
Melnychenko, has turned over materials connected with the murder of
journalist Georgy Gongadze to Deputy Prime Minister Mykola Tomenko.
Melnychenko stated this in an interview with the Polish daily Gazeta
Wyborcza. "Tomenko took the materials," the publication quotes Melnychenko
as saying. According to the information of the newspaper, Tomenko and
Melnychenko met in Warsaw.
Melnychenko also expressed the opinion that former Internal Affairs Minister
Yurii Kravchenko could have been seduced to commit suicide by people from
Kuchma's inner circle. In Melnychenko's opinion, people from the inner
circle of the former president are manipulating President Viktor Yuschenko.
Melnychenko observed that the Security Service of Ukraine proposed last week
Wednesday to arrest Kravchenko, but the Prosecutor's General Office refused
to do this, and he was found dead on Friday. Melnychenko also expressed the
opinion that the PGO is making Yuschenko vulnerable in the Gongadze case.
"Yuschenko believed the prosecutor's office, and announced the solving of
the case on the basis of its reports... This is a big mistake," Kuchma's
former bodyguard said. Melnychenko also did not rule out that Yuschenko gave
security guarantees to Kuchma. "Everyone seriously need to examine the
possibility that Yuschenko gave Kuchma security guarantees," he said.
"I am not saying that Yuschenko is involved in Kravchenko's death, but the
suicide of the former ministers plays into the hand of Kuchma's people,"
Melnychenko added.
Following the news of Kravchenko's death, Kuchma returned to Ukraine on
Saturday, March 5, having interrupted his vacation in Karlovy Vary (Czech
Republic). As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Kravchenko was found dead on
Friday morning, March 4, with two shots to the head at his cottage house
outside Kyiv several hours before he was due to appear at the GPO for
interrogation into the Gongadze case. According to preliminary version, the
former minister committed suicide. Kravchenko stated in his suicide note
that he is not guilty of anything, describing himself as a victim of the
intrigues of Kuchma and his associates.
The PGO closed the criminal case in relations to Melnychenko that was
launched in September 2004 and it is asking him to travel to Ukraine and
bring along the originals of his recordings.
Gongadze disappeared in September 2000, and two months later his corpse
was found in the woods outside of Kyiv. Following Gongadze's disappearance,
a political scandal broke out in Ukraine, which was centered on the
possibility of the involvement to this murder of then President Kuchma, the
then head of the Administration of the President, current Verkhovna Rada
Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, as well as former head of the Security Service of
Ukraine, current Verkhovna Rada deputy Leonid Derkach and Kravchenko.
================================================================
12. NOT SO JOLLY
Observer, Financial Times, London, UK, Wed, March 9 2005
Ukraine's opposition, furious after a vote they claim was rigged in the
pro-government candidate's favour, are protesting and demanding a rerun.
Sounds familiar, only this time it's much more serious than politics.
Ukrainians overflowed with pride when leather-clad rocker Ruslana won the
Eurovision song contest last year. In May the crown will be contested in
Kiev, giving Ukraine its biggest television audience since the Orange
Revolution.
Pop diva Ani Lorak had been expected to represent Ukraine. She was polished,
cute, perky and her producer had connections with top politicians. Then the
revolution came, Viktor Yushchenko became president and his government took
over the contest. Green Jolly, a pair of amateur hip-hoppers with a hugely
popular hit based on revolutionary chants, won a televised final with the
public voting by phone and text message.
Lorak's producer says her fans couldn't get through. The youth wing of the
Social Democrats, newly in opposition, has held street protests in Lorak's
support. Meanwhile, Green Jolly are busy writing new lyrics in English.
Observer understands that lines such as "Yushchenko, yes! Yushchenko, yes!
That's our president, yes, yes!" will be dropped. After all, one wouldn't
want Eurovision to get interesting. -30-
================================================================
13. EUROVISION HOSTS (UKRAINE) IN POLITICAL ROW
BBC NEWS, UK, Tuesday, 8 March, 2005
The Eurovision Song Contest entry for Ukraine, the hosts of this year's
show, is being rewritten after a political row over the choice of song. The
anthem of the country's "orange revolution" by the group Greenjolly won a
national vote after being allowed in as a last-minute wildcard entry. But it
is "too political", Eurovision organisers have ruled.
Greenjolly have until Thursday to submit new lyrics for the song Razom Nas
Bagato! (Together We Are Many!) Organisers will then decide whether the new
version is suitable to take part in the event held in the country's capital,
Kiev, in May. The group Greenjolly will represent the country on their home
turf.
The current song became the theme for mass protests at the end of 2004,
leading to Viktor Yushchenko's victory in a re-run of a disputed
presidential election. It includes the lyrics: "No to falsifications... No
to lies. Yushchenko - yes! Yushchenko - yes! This is our president - yes,
yes!" But Eurovision executive supervisor Svante Stockselius said: "It was a
political song so we cannot allow this since this is a non-political
contest.
"It's allowed to compete if they change the lyrics, or at least part of the
lyrics, and they agreed to do so. "They will provide us with the new text on
Thursday and next Monday is the deadline for the delivery of the songs that
will compete."
'LATE' WILDCARD
The changes they made were "up to them", he said. "They will just give us
their new text and then it's up to us to approve it." If the changes are not
approved, they must put forward a different song to be accepted by the
deadline of 21 March, he said. He added that bringing wildcards into the
national race was "not a new idea", but had been done "at quite a late
stage" on this occasion. Ukraine won the right to host this year's
competition after their singer Ruslana triumphed at the 2004 contest in
Istanbul, Turkey.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4329307.stm
================================================================
14. HISTORY DIVIDES THE BALTS
Observer: Financial Times, London, UK, Wed, March 9, 2005
The Baltic states have so far stuck together to add steel to the European
Union's dealings with a growling Russian bear since joining the bloc in
May - and convince US president George W. Bush to put the squeeze on his
soulmate Vladimir Putin. But it could all unravel over the commemoration of
the 60th anniversary of the end of the second world war on May 9.
Putin is throwing a big bash in Moscow and invited leaders from across
Europe to take part. This week the presidents of Estonia and Lithuania
announced they would not be going - while their counterpart in Latvia had
already accepted.
The people of all three countries resent bitterly the fact that when the war
ended they did not regain their independence but were incorporated in the
Soviet Union. They had to wait until 1991 when the Soviet empire collapsed.
Many Balts are glad to celebrate the defeat of Nazi Germany but do not want
to commemorate Russia's triumph at the same time. Especially after Putin
last month tried to justify the 1939 Nazi-Soviet pact that paved the way for
occupation.
Estonian president Arnold Ruutel said in a radio broadcast this week that he
could best do his duty by remaining with his people. Lithuanian leader
Valdas Adamkus said that he had decided to "stay home with the Lithuanian
nation". Both are annoyed with Latvia's Vaira Vike-Freiberga, who said she
would go in spite of plans for all three Baltic leaders to make a joint
response to the Russian invitation. -30-
================================================================
15. THE UKRAINIAN REVOLUTION
Eyewitness notes or the "Russian Maidan" in Kyiv
By Eduard Glezin, Moscow
The Day Weekly Digest in English
Kyiv, Ukraine, #7, Tuesday, 1 March 2005
I made a conscious choice to go to Kyiv during the Orange Revolution. This
letter contains the musings of an eyewitness from Moscow about what he saw
there and about Russian-Ukrainian relations.
I was most impressed by the people of Kyiv, above all by their warm,
cordial, and tolerant attitude; and how easily strangers (a young couple
named Oleksiy and Kseniya) invited me to stay at their place, a single room
apartment, after learning that I had come to support their revolution, and
where I thought I'd spend a couple of nights, which turned out to be a
couple of weeks. They adamantly refused to take any money, even though my
stay was obviously a burden on their modest family budget. Moreover, every
day would begin with Oleksiy taking me on a sightseeing tour to see the most
memorable sites of Kyiv.
The absolute majority of Ukrainians, on seeing a Russian flag with an orange
ribbon, would greet me with warm smiles. Many would come over, saying, "May
I shake your courageous hand?" or "Thanks for joining us, we are very glad
to see you among us." Strolling on the Maidan with some of the locals, I'd
be greeted with cheers and shouts "Good job, Russia!" People would
constantly ask me what people in Russia thought about what was happening in
Ukraine and said they were sorry to watch President Putin's awkward
behavior, immediately adding that Ukraine would remain Russia's good
neighbor; they would also ask me to tell the truth about the Orange
Revolution in Russia. And they would insist that I take a sandwich or a
doughnut, have a cup of tea or maybe some vodka. People would invite me to
their homes for a hot meal, to take a shower, and stay for the night. I
would be interviewed several times a day, mostly by Ukrainian media.
Many Russians would also approach me after spotting my Russian flag. Here is
a far from complete Maidan geography: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad,
Tver, Yaroslavl, Nizhni Novgorod, Irkutsk, Rostov-on-Don, Adygei, Sakhalin,
Nefteyugansk, Tambov, Syktyvkar, and Sochi. The Maidan cheered the Russians
who gave speeches: Nemtsov, Dorenko, Piontkovsky, Shevchuk, and others.
Their speeches were punctuated by shouts from the huge crowd chanting "Well
done!" and "Ukraine and Russia!" All told, hard as Comrade Putin, and Co.,
tried to make events take a different course, they failed to make Russia
look like an enemy of Ukraine and to sow the seeds of discord between these
truly brotherly peoples.
After spending two weeks in revolutionary Kyiv and returning to Moscow, I
found myself being lectured on what had allegedly "actually" taken place in
the Ukrainian capital. I was told that no popular revolution had occurred,
simply that America wanted Ukraine as its fifty-first state, so Ukraine
would be fenced off from Russia with a palisade and a deep moat teeming with
crocodiles. With that goal in mind, the United States had bought ex-Prime
Minister Viktor Yushchenko lock, stock and barrel, paying a reasonable price
(his wife is a US citizen, meaning that she is a CIA agent, of course!), and
the same for his team.
In order to push through their presidential candidate, the agents of
imperialism had Kyiv and a dozen other large Ukrainian cities infiltrated by
and packed with young fascist UNA-UNSO activists, who used bludgeons to herd
the unfortunate Ukrainians to the main city squares and force them to chant
"Yushchenko!" in front of the television cameras. Most interestingly, all
this nonsense was forced on me with what looked like sincere conviction,
that this was the truth, that no other explanation was possible.
Most people in Russia simply couldn't believe what they were seeing: those
downtrodden backwater khokhly [derogatory appellation for Ukrainians -
Transl.] suddenly transformed into courageous and freedom-loving people with
a keen sense of national dignity! Was it really possible that Ukraine was
begetting a truly civil society capable of not only making an independent
and conscious choice, but also defending it?
The Ukrainian nation's manifest refusal to submit to the Kremlin meant an
end, once and for all, to any further attempts to revive the Russian empire,
in whatever modern format. Here everything happened the way it does in a
joint stock company. Whereas Russia may have a controlling interest in the
former Soviet territory, Ukraine holds the blocking one, meaning that any
important corporate decisions must be made with Ukraine's prior knowledge
and consent. But this situation can only benefit Russia. Take the postwar
experiences of Germany and Japan: they show that an effective turning point
in a former mother country is possible only after that country abandons all
imperial ambitions.
Indeed, the United States has proved to be more attractive to most of the
post-Soviet and post-socialist countries than Russia. This is only natural,
considering that America is better off and guarantees more civil rights and
freedoms than Russia - and not just Russia! It's like a girl in search of a
suitable man to marry, who prefers a well-dressed and well-mannered one to a
hobo. Russia has absolutely nothing with which it can counterpoise America
ideologically.
If the United States is a bulwark of freedom and democracy, with an
increasing number of countries rallying under the Stars and Stripes (recall
the number of democratic states in the early twentieth century), then all
the Russian leadership's attempts to place the greatest number of peoples
under its control, exploiting ideologies like protecting them first against
the "infidels" (e.g., the slogan: "Moscow - the Third Rome!"), then against
capitalist oppression (e.g., Communist International) have invariably
failed. Today Russia remains a bulwark of isolationism, which is not
attractive to its neighbors, to put it mildly.
But not everything in the world that is being done to install democratic
rule in one country or another is being done on express instructions from
the US or its direct support. Likewise, it may be stated with the utmost
certainty that Ukraine has a sufficient number of wealthy individuals who
want to secure a free and prosperous future for themselves and their
children.
The worst possible option would be if Vladimir Putin refused to forgive
Ukraine's "treachery" and proceeded to strangle it with economic sanctions,
considering that he is well equipped to do just that. In that case, however,
Russia would finally lose its Ukrainian brother. Let us hope that common
sense and healthy pragmatism will prevail over political ambitions, and that
both countries will continue to cooperate on a mutually advantageous basis.
As for Ukraine, no one actually idolizes Viktor Yushchenko; everybody
understands that he is backed by forces that are pursuing their own
interests. However, the main force backing him is the possibility of a
civilized European future. If he makes serious mistakes or heads in the
wrong direction, I am sure that the kind of civil society being formed in
Ukraine will put the new administration in its place. After all, the
Ukrainian people with their active joint efforts have shown other nations,
primarily the members of the CIS, an excellent example of a bloodless
national-liberation struggle.
Glory to Ukraine and Ukrainians!
A DIFFERENT OPINION
It has become obvious to the whole world that the United States brutally
intervened in the Ukrainian presidential campaign. The Orange Revolution,
carried out by Viktor Yushchenko and his team after the second round, is an
example of an excellent scenario financed by the US. The then President
Leonid Kuchma, aware of the dangerous situation that had developed in
Ukraine, preferred to sit back and observe. His cold-blooded attitude
allowed the Orange coup to happen, leaving this country in a state of chaos
and lawlessness.
Many people, blinded by big money, abandoned their common sense. There is
no denying the fact that some of our students, pensioners, even coal miners
(mostly young people) traveled to Kyiv to earn good money and buy clothes
for their families. Yes, we lost because we didn't want a civil war in
Ukraine. But deep in our hearts we have forever preserved our dignity,
conscience, and culture.
Inna AFANASYEVA, Donetsk
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINK: http://www.day.kiev.ua/133226
================================================================
16. YUSHCHENKO'S VISIT TO WASHINGTON, D.C. IN EARLY APRIL
ACTION ALERT, The Action Ukraine Coalition
Ihor Gawdiak, Chair, Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, March 8, 2005
PLEASE IMMEDIATELY CONTACT, by phone or fax, MEMBERS OF
THE U.S. HOUSE AND SENATE to urge that:
1) Members appeal to Speaker Dennis Hastert to invite President Victor
Yushchenko to address a formal, joint session of Congress during his visit
in early April, as a signal of the legislature’s support of his courageous
achievement in saving Ukraine and creating a role model of opposition to
totalitarian rule, and
2) House Members reinstate the Administration’s original $60 million in
the Fiscal 05 Supplemental Appropriations bill for foreign assistance to
Ukraine to fulfill President Bush’s commitment to supporting freedom in
this vital area of the globe.
If you don’t know your state’s federal House and Senate members’ telephone
numbers and faxes (regular mail and emails take too long), call
202-225-3121 or online visit http://www.house.gov and http://www.senate.gov\
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Submitted by Action Ukraine Coalition. Further info: (410) 884-9025
================================================================
17. THE LONG RETURN
The discovery of another poem by Olena Teliha
By Nadiya Tysiachna, The Day
The Day Weekly Digest in English, #7
Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, 1 March 2005
Sixty-three years ago, on February 21, the Gestapo shot Olena TELIHA, a
noted Ukrainian poet and civic activist, together with other members of the
Ukrainian underground, in Babyn Yar [Babiy Yar] ravine in Kyiv. Recently a
memorial rally took place on the site of this tragedy.
Olena Teliha's name is gradually returning to Ukraine. This is primarily
explained by the fact that she lived most of her life far from her homeland.
She was born in Illinsky, a town near Moscow, in the family of the Ukrainian
hydrologist Ivan Shovheniv. Eventually, the family moved to Moscow and then
to St. Petersburg. When the national-liberation struggle began in Ukraine
(1917-18), they settled in Kyiv. Her father became a member of cabinet of
the Ukrainian National Republic, with whose members he would later immigrate
to Czechoslovakia. There Olena befriended the poets and writers of the
so-called Prague school, among them Yevhen Malaniuk, Oleh Olzhych, Natalka
Livytska-Kholodna, and Halyna Mazurenko.
In 1941, as a member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Teliha
returned to Kyiv where she headed the city's Ukrainian Writers' Union. She
was executed there at the age of 35. From time on, throughout the Soviet
period, her name was not only taboo at the official level, but her very name
was eradicated from Ukrainian culture. After the Second World War NKVD
agents brought most of the Ukrainian imigre files from Czechoslovakia, while
some files ended up in Moscow and Leningrad archives. Some valuable
materials still remain abroad: in Russia, Western Europe, and North America.
Kyiv-based periodicals first began publishing information about her in 1989,
and Ukrainian archives became accessible to the public in the early 1990s.
The Day asked Kateryna KRYVORUCHKO, a researcher who has been studying
Olena Teliha's life and creative work for some 15 years, to comment on the
latest discoveries.
"In the last couple of years I visited places where the Shovheniv-Teliha
family lived in different periods. I have unearthed local archives and
interviewed eyewitnesses (some of them remembered Olena well). I discovered
some interesting facts that shed light on several periods in the poet's
life, which were previously unknown. Until recently, scholars knew next to
nothing about her childhood. In 2002-03 I located the buildings in Moscow
and St. Petersburg where Ivan Shovheniv and his family had lived. The one in
the Russian capital was a luxurious apartment building dating from the
nineteenth century and located at 15 Lukovy pereulok, in the most
prestigious downtown area.
In St. Petersburg they lived at 2 Klinsky prospekt and at 4 Vereteysky St.,"
says Kateryna Kryvoruchko, explaining that the family rented apartments and
had never had a private home, although Ivan Shovheniv was a renowned
scientist and generally considered a man of means. Olena's mother, Yuliana
Kachkovska, whose name until recently was unknown to researchers, came from
a respectable and devout family in Podillia and was a graduate of the
prestigious Beztuzhev courses for ladies. Olena's parents wanted their
children to be well educated and made sure they were taught French, German,
and Russian. Their sons and one daughter had private tutors. "Olena's style
and taste were apparently cultivated since childhood. She was being groomed
to become a lady, well educated, with a good grasp of literature.
Later I wondered for a long time how that aristocratic woman managed to
endure life in the remote Polish village of Zelazna Zadowa, where she moved
from Warsaw in late spring 1931 and remained there until 1933. Olena
Teliha's husband Mykhailo was a land-surveyor, who had been sent there to
drain the marshes. And then it dawned on me that Olena was an aristocrat
of intellect rather than real estate."
In the Kyiv Photographic Archive Kateryna Kryvoruchko accidentally came upon
a faded picture marked "Mykhailo Teliha" and an inscription on the reverse
side: "I spent three summers with Stanislaw Prusik's family in Zelazna
Zadowa." Soon afterward she set off in search of that village in Warsaw
province. The house is now inhabited by the owner's son. He had heard about
the former tenants from his father's stories, but his sister still
remembered them, for she was around 11 or 12 years old at the time.
According to Kateryna Kryvoruchko, Mrs. Sofia, now an elderly woman, fondly
remembers Olena Teliha: she was an avid reader and asked local laborers, who
often traveled to the neighboring town, to bring her new books from the
local library in exchange for the ones she had read and was now sending back
through them.
She remembers Olena sitting on a bench watching her (Sofia's) mother start
the fire in the stove, and gazing at the flames. In fact, fire is Teliha's
element, judging by her verse. Later it transpired that her poems "Summer,"
"The Turning Point," "A Sunny Day," "The Everlasting," etc., were composed
in Zelazna Zadowa. According to an eyewitness account, Mykhailo Teliha
bought a camera in 1932. This explains why the largest number of pictures
dates from the mid- and late 1930s. The only articles in the house from
those times are a wooden crucifix and a porcelain figurine of the Virgin
Mary.
Then came the sensational discovery of another poem by Olena Teliha: "I
Drained That Goblet Thousands of Times." Altogether that makes 40 poems
written by Olena Teliha, the last one dated 1939. Kateryna Kryvoruchko has
reason to believe that this latest one was also written in late 1939 or
early 1940. "I Drained That Goblet Thousands Of Times" is a symbolic poem
written in response to the allegation that the poet led on the theoretician
of Ukrainian nationalism, Dmytro Dontsov. It is true that Olena Teliha was
an extraordinarily feminine woman, imposing and slender.
It is small wonder that men, among them the journalist Oleh
Shtul-Zhdanovych, the writer Ulas Samchuk, and Yuri Stefanyk, the son of the
famous Ukrainian novelist, were in love with her. The newly discovered poem
contains a response to Olena's ill-wishers: she and the unnamed man (most
likely Dontsov) are friends, comrades in arms, and nothing more. The
researcher discovered this poem in an archive in North America, along with
some 300 photos and some of the married couple's personal effects: Olena's
husband's notebooks and insignia, and both of their student documents. The
new discoveries and other materials will be included in Kateryna
Kryvoruchko's book Olena Teliha, which will appear in print at the end of
this year. -30- (The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINK: http://www.day.kiev.ua/133221
================================================================
18. IVANO-FRANKIVSK REGION URGES RESIDENTS NOT TO BUY
FIRST SPRINGTIME WILD FLOWERS WHICH ARE RARE
AND ON THE VERGE OF EXTINCTION FOR GIFTS
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, March 8, 2005
The Department for Environment and Natural Resources of the State
Administration in the Ivano-Frankivsk region is urging residents of the
region not to buy the first springtime wild flowers, which are rare and on
the verge of extinction, for gifts. The head of the department, Halyna
Masliak, stated this in a broadcast of the regional radio on March 8. "Do
not make a gift of flowers that were gifted to us by God, which were the
first to blossom in the wild," she said.
The head of the department noted that the operation called "First
flower-2005" is being conducted in the region jointly with law enforcement
agencies and the Department of Forestry from March 1 to May 20. "For the
first time in this year we will concentrate core attention not on the
vendors of snowdrops, but on protection of the places where these rare
flowers are growing - on the forest fringes, woodland areas, close by the
forest tracks," Masliak said.
She disclosed that such flowers as the snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis), spring
snowflake, checkered lily, crocus, bear's onion (Allium ursinum) grow only
in the Carpathians and Crimea regions.
"They have already disappeared completely from the eastern, central and
northern regions of Ukraine as a result of their unreflective snatching,"
Masliak said. The head of the Environmental and Natural Resources Department
noted that 161 types of floras in Ukraine have been put into the Red List of
European Plants, which are under threat of extinction on a global scale.
She emphasized that in accordance with the Cabinet of Ministers' Degree of
March 16, 1999, there is a compensation of UAH 9.00 for one snowdrop that is
snatched.
"And if the vendor has a bunch of 10 flowers, and in the bowl there are 20
bunches, they he alone has inflicted damage to nature in the amount of UAH
2,000. And there are hundreds of such people in the cities, villages and at
the markets," Masliak noted.
Besides, she also disclosed that in line with article 83-1 (violation of the
plant protection law) and article 90 (violation of the guidelines concerning
the protection of animals and plant types that have been put in the Red Book
of Ukraine) of the Code of Administrative Legal Violations, a fine of UAH 51
to UAH 119 is to be levied on vendors, and UAH 85.00 to UAH 136.00 on
officials.
"That is why if all of us will as a matter of principle not buy the first
spring-time flowers, if we recognize that irreparable damage is being
inflicted on nature, that we will soon be able to see snowdrops only in
drawings, and out children will never be able to see them in the wild at
all, then let us pass by the vendor with spring flowers and there will not
be a demand for its sale," Masliak urged.
According to the information of the Ivano-Frankivsk regional state
administration, there are 120 types of plants in the region that have been
put in the Red Book of Ukraine, as well as 438 conservation areas and plants
covering a total area of 186,500 hectares, and the percentage of such
conservation areas is 13.4%, which is one of the highest in Ukraine.
The territory of the Ivano-Frankivsk region covers an area of 13,900 square
kilometers, which comprises 2.3% of Ukraine's territory. -30-
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1. THE BLEYZER FOUNDATION, Dr. Edilberto Segura, Chairman;
Victor Gekker, Executive Director, Kyiv, Ukraine; Washington, D.C.,
http://www.bleyzerfoundation.com.
2. BAHRIANY FOUNDATION, INC., Dr. Anatol Lysyj, Chairman,
Minneapolis, Minnesota,
3. KIEV-ATLANTIC GROUP, David and Tamara Sweere, Daniel
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.
http://www.USUkraine.org
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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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)
Publisher, Ukraine Information Website, www.ArtUkraine.com
Interim Secretary-Treasurer, Ukraine-U.S. Business Council
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