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Action Ukraine Report

"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT"
An International Newsletter
In-Depth Ukrainian News, Analysis, and Commentary

"The Art of Ukrainian History, Culture, Arts, Business, Religion,
Sports, Government, and Politics, in Ukraine and Around the World"

"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" - Number 459
E. Morgan Williams, Publisher and Editor
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net
Washington, D.C. and Kyiv, Ukraine, SUNDAY, April 10, 2005

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

1. THE KGB'S POISON FACTORY
By Boris Volodarsky, Wall Street Journal (Europe)
Brussels, Belgium, Friday, April 8, 2005. pg. A.10

2. MOSCOW WARILY EYES YUSHCHENKO'S HERO'S
WELCOME IN WASHINGTON
By Igor Torbakov, Eurasia Daily Monitor
The Jamestown Foundation
Washington, D.C., Friday, April 8, 2005

3. UNITED STATES MUST CONTINUE TO STAND WITH UKRAINE
Statement of Congressman Sander Levin (D-MI)
U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, April 6, 2004

4. YUSHCHENKO THRILLS AREA UKRAINIANS
Potapenko witnesses Ukrainian president's visit to joint session of Congress
By Chad Selweski, Macomb Daily Staff Writer, The Macomb Daily
Mount Clemens, Michigan, Thursday, April 7, 2005

5. UKRAINE'S U.S.-BORN FIRST LADY SHARES HUSBAND'S TRIUMPH
Diplomatic Dispatches Column: by Nora Boustany
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
Friday, April 8, 2005; Page A22

6. PRESIDENT YUSHCHENKO, HIS SPOUSE HOLD PRIVATE
MEETING IN VATICAN WITH U.S. EX-PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON
Ukrinform, Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 8, 2005

7. A LOVELY DAY FOR A STROLL: BILL CLINTON IN HIS ELEMENT
Clinton has midnight dinner with the Yushchenko's in Rome
By David E. Sanger, The New York Times
New York, New York, Friday, April 8, 2005

8. UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH HOLDS "FIRST EVER"
CEREMONY TO PRAY FOR POPE
TV 5 Kanal, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1400 gmt 8 Apr 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Friday, April 8, 2005

9. POPE'S DREAM OF UNITING CHRISTIANITY GOES UNFULFILLED
By Jeffrey Donovan, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)
Prague, Czech Republic, Friday, April 8, 2005

10. MISSILES SOLD TO CHINA AND IRAN
By Bill Gertz, The Washington Times
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, April 6, 2005

11. ANOTHER RUSSIAN REVOLUTION?
Youth Movement Adopts Spirit of Uprisings Nearby
By Peter Finn, Washington Post Foreign Service
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
Saturday, April 9, 2005; Page A17

12. ST. PETERSBURG CONCERT CALLED OFF AMID 'ORANGE' TALK
By Sergey Chernov, Staff Writer, Moscow Times
Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, April 5, 2005. Page 3.

13. NEW HISTORICAL MAGAZINE LAUNCHED IN UKRAINE
"Holocaust: Contemporary Research. Studies in Ukraine and the World"
Dr. Anatoly Podolsky, Director
Ukrainian Centre for Holocaust Studies
Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 8, 2005

14. HOW STALIN SAVED DEMOCRATIC RUSSIA
And to remind our neighbors, including Ukraine and the Baltic states,
that they have Stalin to thank for increasing the size of their countries.
OP-ED, By Alexei Pankin, Opinion Page Editor at Izvestia
Moscow Times, Moscow, Russia, Tue, April 5, 2005. Page 10.

15. LESYA UKRAINKA NATIONAL ACADEMIC THEATRE COMPANY
A Strange, Unusual & Costly Advertisement
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
FROM: Hobart Earle, Zasluzhny Artist Ukrainy
Music Director and Principal Conductor
Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra
Published by THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT
Washington, D.C. , Monday, April 11, 2005

16. LESYA UKRAINKA NATIONAL ACADEMIC THEATRE COMPANY
A Strange, Unusual & Costly Advertisement
THREE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Concerning The Washington Post Advertisement for the
Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Theatre Company
Published by THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT
Washington, D.C., Monday, April 11, 2005

17. UKRAINIANS IN RUSSIA APPEAL FOR BETTER TREATMENT
RBK TV, Moscow, in Russian 1400 gmt 9 Apr 05
BBC Monitoring, UK, in English, Saturday, April 9, 2005

18. IF YOU CAN'T BEAT 'EM, JOIN 'EM
Izvestiya Urges Russian 'Pragmatism' Faced with US-Ukrainian Relationship
EDITORIAL: Izvestia, Moscow, Russia, Friday, April 8, 2005

19. TWO NEW ISSUES OF JOURNAL OF UKRAINIAN STUDIES
Marko Stech, m.stech@utoronto.ca
Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Wed, April 06, 2005

20. PHOTOGRAPHS OF YUSHCHENKO'S VISIT TO WASHINGTON, D.C.
THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT
Washington, D.C., Sunday, April 10, 2005
=============================================================
1. THE KGB'S POISON FACTORY

By Boris Volodarsky, Wall Street Journal (Europe)
Brussels, Belgium, Friday, April 7, 2005, Pg. A.10

Viktor Yushchenko was intentionally poisoned during Ukraine's
presidential election campaign last year. By now that fact can hardly be
disputed. Yuri Lutsenko, newly appointed Ukrainian interior minister,
publicly announced in February that he knew precisely "who brought the
poison across the Ukrainian border, which official took it to the scene of
the crime, and who personally put it into Yushchenko's food." Officials also
suspect that Mr. Yushchenko, now the country's president, imbibed the
poison during a Sept. 5 dinner with the then- chairman of Ukraine's
security services, Igor Smeshko, and his deputy Vladimir Satsyuk.

A team of American doctors that secretly flew to Vienna to assist
Austrian colleagues in treating Mr. Yushchenko found a substance in his
blood -- a highly toxic dioxin of the type 2,3,7,8-TCDD
(Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin) that a Russian laboratory had successfully
experimented with a few years earlier. The question now left unanswered
is: Who produced this poison and authorized its use?

Former Soviet spies and intelligence historians like myself, listening
to the debate and taking note of the victim, the timing and the early
confusion surrounding Mr. Yushchenko's symptoms, can speculate about
the source with some authority. Even before the news that the poisonous
compound had been found, we had already noticed uncanny similarities
to the past work of the "Kamera," or as KGB veterans might remember it,
"Laboratory No. 12".

This highly innovative research institution began life in 1921 in a
secluded corner of Lenin's Cheka, the first name of the Soviet KGB that
today's Russians know as the FSB, which handles domestic security, and
the SVR, the old First Chief Directorate of the KGB, responsible for foreign
intelligence and "special operations." Kamera -- Russian for chamber -- is
the name that it bore under Stalin. But like its parent organization it has
been renamed and even "abolished" in occasional fits of reform.

In 1934, when it was located at No. 11 Varsonofyevsky Lane just meters away
from the main KGB building, Kamera actively developed deadly poisons and
gases. According to Alexander Kouzminov, a former SVR bio-spy handler
who published "Biological Espionage" in New Zealand in February, it is it is
now the main consumer and supplier of Department 12 of Directorate S of
the SVR which handles biological warfare. Russian President Vladimir Putin
is a former FSB chief and junior SVR officer.

Whatever its official name, Kamera's products -- poisonous biological
and chemical agents -- have been constantly refined over the years as
advancing science opens new possibilities and as Kremlin leaders have new
requirements. They are highly specialized, tailored for each recipient to
cause the desired effect -- usually death or incapacity -- in specific ways.

But one thing in their design is constant. They must make the victim's death
or illness appear natural or at least produce symptoms that will baffle
doctors and forensic investigators. To this end the Kamera developed its
defining specialty: combining known poisons into original and untraceable
forms.

The Kamera met the demanding standards of Joseph Stalin. He granted
its chief a medical doctorate and the Stalin Prize for his research. Today
this division presumably no longer enjoys access to its Stalin- era test
facility. Grigory M. Mairanovsky, a colonel in the Medical Corps, and State
Security Lieutenant Colonel Okunev, under the orders of the lab's overseer
and Beria's chief executioner General Vasili Blokhin, would try out the
Kamera's products on condemned prisoners before shooting them, unless
poison saved them from the bullet.

President Yushchenko's case produced just the kind of confusing
symptoms that would characterize a poison produced by the Kamera. It took
weeks to pinpoint the cause of the Ukrainian democratic leader's ailments,
which started with severe stomach and back pain and later chloracne on his
face. But on Oct. 31, after the first round of the elections, Christopher
Holstege, an expert in chemical terrorism and treatment of poison victims at
the University of Virginia, identified dioxin as the most likely substance
in Mr. Yushchenko's blood. A laboratory in the Netherlands confirmed this
diagnosis in December.

From the very beginning it was clear that dioxin alone would not cause
these precise symptoms. Two other dioxin-intoxication cases studied by
experts at Vienna University's medical school showed that this poison by
itself wouldn't act so quickly or lead to Mr. Yushchenko's reported
ailments. Now it appears that he was hit not by one known chemical agent
but by a sophisticated compound. As I learned from his physician, Nikolai
Korpan, whoever came up with his poison had produced a veritable bio-bomb,
combining 2,3,7,8-TCDD with Alpha- Fetoprotein, a protein that helps the
dioxin move around the body. Before this case, dioxin was considered an
inappropriate poison because it can't be dissolved in water, took effect
only 10 to 13 days after contact and wasn't fatal. But when mixed with the
fetal protein, dioxin appears to be soluble and much more toxic, and acts
almost immediately. Such creative combination is usually the claw mark of
the Kamera.

I'm reminded of the 1955 attempt on Nikolay Khokhlov, a defector from
the KGB. He drank a cup of coffee at a public reception in Germany in
1957 and fell ill. In his blood the doctors found traces of thallium, a
metallic substance commonly used as rat poison. But the appropriate treat-
ment had little effect and it was not until weeks later when Khokhlov was
close to death that imaginative doctors at a U.S. Army hospital in Frankfurt
found the hitherto undreamed-of answer. The thallium had been subjected
to atomic radiation so that the metal would slowly disintegrate in the
system, giving symptoms as common as gastritis as a patient slowly died
of radiation poisoning. By that time, the thallium would have disintegrated
and left no trace even for an autopsy.

Countless others -- literally countless, for who can count poison
victims when no poison is detected? -- suffered this fate. I have identified
more than a dozen examples through the years. The Chechen rebel leader
Khattab was poisoned by the FSB in March 2004. A KGB agent poisoned
the food of the Afghan leader Hafizullah Amin in December 1979. Trotsky's
secretary Wolfgang Salus died mysteriously in 1957. The anti-Soviet emigre
writer Lev Rebet was thought to have died from a heart attack in October
1957 until the KGB assassin defected four years later and told how he had
sprayed a Kamera mist containing poisonous gas from a crushed cyanide
ampoule into Rebet's face as he passed him on a stairway.

The Kamera also provided ricin in tiny, specially tooled pellets to be
injected undetected, with hardly the pain of an insect's sting, causing
death without trace. Lent to the Bulgarians, this poison pellet killed the
anti-Communist emigre radio journalist Georgi Markov in 1978 in London.
His cause of death and the means of its delivery were discovered only long
afterward, and by chance. Oleg Kalugin, former KGB general who now lives
in the U.S. and who was in charge of this operation from the Soviet side,
described it in "Spy Master," published in 1994.

The nature of the poisons themselves sometimes determined the delivery
system: the ricin pellet in a sharp-tipped umbrella, the spray vented from a
tube hidden in a rolled newspaper, a poison- carrying bullet (designed for
Russian emigre Georgy Okolovich in 1955) shot from a very short range
pistol concealed in a cigarette packet. The Kamera leaves to other parts
of the Russian services the task of getting its poison to the victim, like
putting the powder into Khokhlov's coffee cup.

If the Kamera is somehow behind Mr. Yushchenko's problems, it did its
work with great skill. Some 20 specialists, from dermatologists to
neurologists, were unable to make an exact diagnosis in his case. "It is an
atypical case," said Dr. Korpan, "One seldom observes complex acute
disease combined with neurological signs."

Russian intelligence veterans will also recognize, as I do, the
characteristic campaign of Soviet-style "active measures" to confuse the
issue. Officials in the government of Leonid Kuchma said that the candidate
ate some bad sushi, or maybe caught a virus, or even disfigured himself on
purpose to win electoral points. And they accuse the doctors and
laboratories of "medically falsified diagnoses." Former KGB Colonel Viktor
Cherkashin, who handled the two notorious American traitors Robert Hanssen
and Aldrich Ames, was recently quoted as saying, "I have my doubts about
whether Yushchenko was poisoned at all. It looks more like a dermatological
problem."

Without knowing all the details, it's hard not to agree with Dr. Korpan at
the Rudolfinerhaus hospital in Vienna that Mr. Yushchenko was poisoned with
the aim to disfigure, weaken and end his threat to the now deposed pro-
Kremlin Ukrainian government. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Volodarsky, a former Soviet GRU (military intelligence) officer
who lives in London and Vienna, is currently co-writing, with Oleg
Gordievsky, a book about Soviet espionage in Europe.
=============================================================
2. MOSCOW WARILY EYES YUSHCHENKO'S HERO'S
WELCOME IN WASHINGTON

By Igor Torbakov, Eurasia Daily Monitor
The Jamestown Foundation
Washington, D.C., Friday, April 8, 2005

It would probably be an understatement to say that the Kremlin was likely
not pleased with the unprecedented number of standing ovations with which
American lawmakers welcomed Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to
Capitol Hill. For the Russian politicians and strategists who still see the
world primarily through the geopolitical lens, the success of Yushchenko's
April 4-6 visit to the United States served as yet another confirmation of
Moscow's defeat in one of the most decisive battles in the war of "Russian
imperial succession."

The Kremlin's general attitude toward the new U.S.-Ukrainian rapprochement
was best encapsulated in one commentary that bluntly stated that the
Ukrainian leader's visit to America just laid bare Kyiv's ultimate
strategic goal, which is "membership in the European Union and NATO."

Russian reaction to American enthusiasm about the Orange Revolution
and its leader indeed appears to be a mixture of jealousy and irritation.
According to Sergei Oznobishchev, director of the Institute for Strategic
Assessments, "In the United States there's a certain euphoria connected
with the figure of Yushchenko, with the aura of his democratic revolution
and with the fact that a huge wedge was driven into the remainder of the
Soviet Empire, as a result of which a large chunk is now drifting towards
the West." That's why, the Russian expert contends, Washington is inclined
today to "take desirable for real," while ignoring some "dubitable aspects"
of Ukraine's current political and economic situation like, for example,
the "ongoing campaign of deprivatization."

The bulk of Russian foreign policy experts are convinced that America is
interested in the weakening of Russia's influence in the post-Soviet lands.
Some of them are warning that Kyiv has already demonstrated its readiness
to play the role of an informal leader -- and not only within the GUUAM
group, comprising Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Moldova.
Some Moscow analysts cite the Yushchenko government's initiative to
mediate in Kyrgyz political crisis as an example of Kyiv's new geostrategic
assertiveness.

Remarkably, while in the United States, Yushchenko made it perfectly clear
that he considers that the GUUAM regional bloc, which -- as he specifically
chose to stress -- "was born in Washington in the late 1990s," has good
prospects. Yushchenko's press service reported that he said this during his
speech to students and faculty at Georgetown University. "GUUAM should find
its second wind," Yushchenko proclaimed. Furthermore, he said that Ukraine
was ready to take on the responsibility of a regional leader that would
have a positive influence on democratic development in other countries.

It was undoubtedly such statements that prompted one Russian commentator
to argue, "The Yushchenko team's immediate objective is to turn Ukraine into
a regional power -- such as Brazil in South America or India in Asia." If
Yushchenko succeeds in his strategic aspirations, the commentary continues,
America's geopolitical goals will be achieved as well, since the "White
House seeks to create a powerful counterbalance to Russia in the territory
of the Commonwealth of Independent States."

It is no wonder that one of the key issues discussed by the Russian
analytic community is what Moscow can actually do to prevent further
erosion of its influence in the western part of the CIS in general and in
Ukraine in particular. The spectrum of opinion appears rather broad. The
noted geopolitician Alexander Dugin, for example, suggests, "inciting
mutiny in the southeastern part of Ukraine" because Russia simply lacks
other levers.

Others, by contrast, urge their colleagues not to worry yet. Igor Leshukov,
director of the St. Petersburg-based Institute of Foreign Relations, warns
against exaggerating the significance of the promises U.S. President George
W. Bush gave Yushchenko. These promises, he notes, are conditional and
linked with the fulfillment of concrete obligations taken by the Ukrainian
government. "First, Ukraine will have to do its homework, and only after
that it will be possible to talk about the realization of what had been
promised [to Kyiv]" (see EDM, April 7).

According to still another school of thought, Russia will probably not
achieve much even if it tries to use the political or economic leverage
that it has. "The experience shows that we are simply incapable of
preventing any one [from doing what one really wants]. If Ukraine joins
NATO, we'll have to swallow it," argues Oleg Bogomolov, a veteran political
analyst and former director of the Institute of International Economic and
Political Studies.

Some Ukrainian political scientists agree with Bogomolov's analysis. "I
don't see any instruments or tools that Russia could or would like to use
to exert pressure," says Alexander Paskhaver, director of the Kyiv-based
Center for Economic Development. True, Paskhaver continues, the Ukrainian
and Russian economic systems are closely interconnected. But precisely
because of this any pressure or economic blackmail will likely hurt Russia
itself. "Such a development of events appears quite fantastic," the
Ukrainian scholar argues. -30- [Action Ukraine Monitoring Service]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(UNIAN, April 5, Novye izvestiya, Vremya novostei, Kommersant,
Vedomosti, Izvestiya, April 7)
=============================================================
3. THE UNITED STATES MUST CONTINUE TO STAND WITH UKRAINE

Statement of Congressman Sander Levin (D-MI)
U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, April 6th, 2004

Mr. Speaker, today in this chamber we heard a compelling voice for the power
of freedom and democracy in President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine. Just
a few months ago, the Ukrainian people stood up for genuine liberty in their
country by peacefully demanding free and fair elections in what has become
known as the Orange Revolution.

I am proud that the United States stood with the hundreds of thousands of
Ukrainians that demonstrated for democracy in the streets of Kiev. I will
never forget last November 24th, when I joined nearly 1,500
Ukrainian-Americans from around the country at a demonstration in support
of fair elections outside Ukraine's Embassy in Washington.

The Orange Revolution marked an important milestone in the history of
Ukraine. President Yuschenko today addressed forcefully both the lessons
of the past and fervent hopes for the future. Now that this peaceful
revolution has been dramatically launched, we must stand with the people of
Ukraine as they work to strengthen their democratic institutions and to make
their country more prosperous. The US should do more, not less, to help
build a democratic and prosperous society in Ukraine.

In particular, we must end trade restrictions that were enacted for a
different Ukraine at a different time. To achieve this result, I introduced
H.R. 1170, a bill to extend permanent normal trade relations to Ukraine.
The US must work promptly for the admission of Ukraine to the WTO.

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate President Yushchenko on his election and the
Ukrainian people for their determination to decide the future of their
country. I urge the House of Representatives to make sure that the United
States continues to stand with Ukraine as a friend and ally. -30-
=============================================================
4. YUSHCHENKO THRILLS AREA UKRAINIANS
Potapenko witnesses Ukrainian president's visit to joint session of Congress

By Chad Selweski, Macomb Daily Staff Writer, The Macomb Daily
Mount Clemens, Michigan, Thursday, April 7, 2005

Borys Potapenko's joy at seeing Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's
triumphant greeting Wednesday at a rare joint session of Congress was an
emotional experience shared by 200,000 Ukrainian-Americans in metropolitan
Detroit.

Potapenko had a prime balcony seat in the House chambers as Yushchenko
was embraced with a standing ovation, cheers of "Yush-chen-ko" and the
waving of orange scarves and hats by members of Congress -- much like the
over-whelming response his democratic "Orange Revolution" received from
a half million demonstrators in Kiev last fall.

Potapenko, the longtime executive director of the Ukrainian Cultural Center
in Warren, said it was "almost surreal" to see the president of a former
Soviet satellite addressing the most honored of American forums, a joint
House-Senate session.

"This was truly an historic moment, something I'll be able to share with my
son and his children, but something I can also take back to our community
in Warren and Sterling Heights and Troy," he said. "This ... is the absolute
fulfillment of all our efforts over the last 50 years."

Yushcenko urged Congress to eliminate Cold War-era U.S. restrictions that
limit the Ukrainian economy's ability to blossom under its new government.

"We do not want any more walls in Europe, and I am certain that neither do
you," he said, speaking through an interpreter. "The time has come to make
real steps toward each other."

During his jubilant visit to the United States that took him to Chicago and
Boston, Yushchenko received the red-carpet treatment at a White House visit,
where President Bush promised a "new era" in Ukrainian-American relations.
This new partnership could pave the way for a new trade relationship and
Ukrainian entry into the World Trade Organization, the European Union and
NATO.

Yushchenko, the populist politician, overcame near-fatal dioxin poisoning
last fall -- an apparent assassination attempt by his Russian-backed
opposition -- and eventually won office over the Kremlin-backed candidate.
A massive popular uprising claiming election fraud resulted in wall-to-wall
demonstrators camped out in Kiev, which forced a second vote.

During his U.S. visit, Yushchenko was honored with this year's John F.
Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, presented annually to public servants
who have made courageous decisions of conscience.

An emotional, nostalgic Potapenko recalled in Washington on Wednesday
the "very, very lonely road" that Ukrainian-Americans have walked for
decades, trying to convince Washington their homeland was a "captive
nation" yearning to breathe free.

When Yushchenko's election seemed denied by fraud last fall, the local
Ukrainian-American community sprang into action.

They held rallies, collected 1,000 petition signatures, raised $106,000 to
aid the Kiev demonstrators, organized 17 bus trips to Chicago to cast
absentee ballots in the Ukrainian presidential election and bused the
faithful to Washington for pro-Yushchenko demonstrations.

The Ukrainian president's well-received speech on Capitol Hill is expected
to turn the tide, said lawmakers who have been struggling to pass
pro-Ukrainian legislation.

U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, a Royal Oak Democrat who represents most
of Macomb, said his bill calling for improved trade relations has new
momentum. "President Yuschenko today addressed forcefully both the
lessons of the past and fervent hopes for the future," Levin said.

U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, the Harrison Township Republican who served
as Potapenko's host in Washington, said Yushchenko's speech was a
precursor to a "flurry of legislation" that will offer U.S backing for
Ukrainian entry into the WTO, EU and NATO. Miller is especially
confident a bill she co-sponsored with Levin, ending Soviet-era trade
restrictions, will pass quickly after Yushchenko listed it among his
nation's top priorities. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/040705/loc_ukraine001.shtml
=============================================================
5. UKRAINE'S U.S.-BORN FIRST LADY SHARES HUSBAND'S TRIUMPH

Diplomatic Dispatches Column: by Nora Boustany
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
Friday, April 8, 2005; Page A22

Wearing a suit adorned with a bright orange brooch, the color of the
Ukrainian revolution, first lady Kateryna Chumachenko Yushchenko said
Wednesday the protests that erupted in Kiev last fall could have turned into
a bloodbath.

Thousands of orange-clad demonstrators had filled Independence Square
in the capital and cut off access to the parliament building, protesting a
round of presidential voting marred by allegations of fraud. But soldiers
standing guard refused to move against them or let police pass through,
the first lady said, reliving the intense moments that eventually led to the
election of her husband, Viktor Yushchenko.

"The Orange Revolution . . . changed not only the history of my country,
but, I believe, the history of mankind as well," she said.

Here at the climax of a three-day U.S. victory tour with her husband,
Yushchenko told 150 guests at a luncheon in Washington that she was
committed to humanitarian work and to the social transformation of Ukraine.
The event was organized by Melanne Verveer, chairman of the board of the
Vital Voices Global Partnership, a group that promotes women in leadership
roles.

The first lady asked her American audience for cooperation on several
projects, including efforts to combat cancer and HIV/AIDS and an initiative
to stop sexual trafficking involving Ukrainian women and children. Traveling
with the first lady was Vitaly Klitchko, a world boxing champion who has
participated in anti-HIV campaigns and worked to improve the care of
homeless children and orphans in Ukraine.

Yushchenko, 43, was born in the United States to Ukrainian emigres who
had been forced to serve as slave laborers in Germany during World War
II. After a childhood in Chicago, she graduated from Georgetown University
and received an MBA from the University of Chicago.

In 1993, while working in Kiev as an adviser to the USAID-funded Bank
Training Program, she accompanied a group of Ukrainian bankers on a visit
to the United States. Viktor Yushchenko, then the head of Ukraine's national
bank, was among the visitors. An initially prickly encounter blossomed into
a romance, and they married in 1998.

In Washington this week, the Yushchenkos visited the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum and lit two candles in the Hall of Remembrance. One
candle was in memory of those killed at Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp
in Poland. Museum officials said that Viktor Yushchenko told them three
years ago that his father had been an Auschwitz survivor.

The Yushchenkos lit a second candle in memory of the Ukrainians executed
at Babi Yar, the ravine near Kiev where the Nazis slaughtered 100,000
civilians, including more than 30,000 Jews, according to Arthur Berger, a
museum official.

In presenting the 2005 Profile in Courage award to the Ukrainian president
Tuesday, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) spoke of Yushchenko's
"unparalleled courage."

"Nothing -- not even a vicious attempt to poison him -- could break his
spirit and prevent him from speaking out against corruption and for a
democracy grounded firmly in the rule of law," Kennedy said, referring to
the apparently deliberate dioxin poisoning of Yushchenko last year. -30-
=============================================================
6. PRESIDENT YUSHCHENKO, HIS SPOUSE HOLD PRIVATE
MEETING IN VATICAN WITH U.S. EX-PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON

Ukrinform, Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 8, 2005

KYIV President Viktor Yushchenko and his spouse Kateryna held a
private meeting in the Vatican on Friday with ex-President Bill Clinton.
The meeting dealt with the challenge of TB and AIDS and America's
aid to Ukraine in implementing the latter's programs for combating
these deadly diseases.

According to the presidential press service, Bill Clinton reassured his
interlocutors that his Fund for fighting HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria is ready
to cooperate with and render aid to Ukraine in combating these diseases.
=============================================================
7. A LOVELY DAY FOR A STROLL: BILL CLINTON IN HIS ELEMENT
Clinton has midnight dinner with the Yushchenko's in Rome

By David E. Sanger, The New York Times
New York, New York, Friday, April 8, 2005

ROME, April 7 - Flying into Rome as a guest passenger on what used
to be his airplane, Air Force One, Bill Clinton had this to say about Pope
John Paul II, even in death, "The man knows how to build a crowd."

At lunchtime on Thursday, at the foot of the famed Spanish steps about
two miles from St. Peter's Basilica, Mr. Clinton proved that he still knows
a bit about that art, too.

Clearly unwilling to spend a beautiful day in Rome cooped up in his hotel,
he went for a midday stroll, stopping in at a few of the luxury shops on the
narrow, cobblestone streets off the square, known for its fountain and
familiar to film buffs as the backdrop for a scene in "Roman Holiday."

While Romans were unlikely to catch a glimpse of President Bush - he
moved only in motorcades and appeared only at a few official events - Mr.
Clinton was clearly reveling in the fact that shoppers, tourists having
lunch at outdoor cafes and Italian business people walking to meetings
all stopped to greet him.

"Isn't this a great city?" he said. Along the streets, people starting
yelling "Bill, Bill, Bill," and a few shouted "U.S.A.!" One shopkeeper raced
out with a photograph of Mr. Clinton on a past visit.

Between handshakes and waves, the former president, looking thin, said
that he was feeling good after two operations on his heart, but that he
tired easily and planned to go back to his hotel for a rest - a change from
the way he used to tour cities. He reminisced about his long walking tours
of the backstreets of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, during
the last long foreign trip of his presidency. "You go around the world and
you see a lot of affection for Americans," he said.

There was certainly a lot of affection for Mr. Clinton, who consistently got
better press here during his presidency than Mr. Bush does. But Mr. Clinton
has gone out of his way to demonstrate a new closeness to Mr. Bush, who
invited him to come on the official delegation to the pope's funeral and
asked him to sit in on the morning intelligence briefing on Wednesday. Mr.
Clinton said he thought Mr. Bush seemed more relaxed now that he had
won re-election.

Mr. Clinton has appeared greatly relaxed, too, sharing with reporters aboard
Air Force One his view of the pope as a politician. The report from
journalists on the plane said he recalled John Paul's visit to Newark and
how "he came into the back of the cathedral and shook hands all the way
down the aisles and had nuns standing on the pews, screaming."

He said he told Catholic leaders at the time that he would have hated to run
against the pope. "You have no ideas how good a politician he is," he said.

During the war in Bosnia, he said, the pope called him one day to ask what
it would take to put forces in to stop the conflict. "He said, 'The 20th
century began with a war in Sarajevo, and you can't let it end with a war in
Sarajevo,' " Mr. Clinton recalled.

On Thursday, by the time Mr. Clinton made it out of the back streets and
into the open square, a mob of hundreds developed. Mr. Clinton's nervous
Italian bodyguards put him in a Mercedes and sped him away.

But Thursday night he was back in his old form. After the dinner with the
Italian leader, he went out to a second dinner with President Viktor A.
Yuschenko of Ukraine and stayed at an Italian restaurant with him until
after midnight. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
=============================================================
8. UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH HOLDS "FIRST EVER" CEREMONY
TO PRAY FOR POPE

TV 5 Kanal, Kiev, in Ukrainian, 1400 gmt, Friday, 8 Apr 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Friday, April 8, 2005

KIEV - [Presenter] For the first time in the history of the Orthodox church
the Pope was prayed for in an Orthodox cathedral. A requiem service was
held at the Volodymyr Cathedral in Kiev, which belongs to the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church Kiev Patriarchate.

Patriarch Filaret personally carried out the service. A lot of people came
to the Volodymyr cathedral to honour the Pope and pray for him. [It is
against the Orthodox tradition to pray for people of other religions.]

[Filaret] It is probably the first time in the history of the Orthodox
church when people pray for the spirit of a deceased pope in Ukraine.
Prayers for Pope John Paul II today were the manifestation of Christian
love which is inherent in every Christian. -30-
=============================================================
9. POPE'S DREAM OF UNITING CHRISTIANITY GOES UNFULFILLED

By Jeffrey Donovan, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)
Prague, Czech Republic, Friday, April 8, 2005

A key ambition of Pope John Paul II, especially in the years just before his
death, was to reunite Christianity’s divided churches. As the first Slavic
pope, John Paul was concerned above all with the Orthodox -- the Eastern
churches that split with Roman Catholicism in 1054. But while progress was
made in Catholic-Orthodox relations, the Russian Orthodox Church never
allowed Pope John Paul to fulfill his cherished dream of visiting Russia.

Today, relations between Catholicism and Russian Orthodoxy remain
strained, with Moscow accusing Rome of aggressively proselytizing in
Russia and other traditionally Orthodox countries. As the pope is laid to
rest, some are questioning whether his hopes for uniting Christianity will
be buried with him.

PRAGUE - “The problem, Holy Father, is you.” Those words were reportedly
uttered to Pope John Paul II by a Greek Orthodox leader in Rome in 1982.
They refer to the Orthodox rejection of the Roman Catholic claim of papal
authority and infallibility. Unlike any pope before him, John Paul, the
first Slavic pope, worked tirelessly to reunite Catholicism with the
Orthodox churches bordering his native Poland.

But papal authority, or “Rome’s primacy” -- as well as politics and
identity, particularly in Russia and Ukraine -- continues to divide the main
branches of Christianity nearly 1,000 years after their “Great Schism.”
“The primacy of Rome is undoubtedly [a key problem],” says Monsignor
Romano Scalfi, an Italian priest who for half a century has worked to
bridge the Catholic-Orthodox divide.

“However, the pope said he was willing to negotiate on the modalities in
which the primate is exercised. Not much is said against the primacy [of
Rome], and that’s because the Orthodox Church already acknowledges a
certain ‘inter paris’ [among equals] primacy. After all, before the Schism
in 1054, the primacy of the pope was more or less recognized, even in
the East.”

The pope made getting back to that pre-Schism state a goal in his 1995
encyclical “Ut unum sint” ("On Christian Unity”). But even amid cooperation
with some Orthodox leaders, such as Patriarch Bartholomew of
Constantinople, the pope met continuously with suspicion and distrust
among the Eastern churches.

The leader of Russia's Orthodox Church -- Patriarch Aleksii -- repeatedly
refused to meet the pope or allow him to visit Russia. Aleksii did not
attend today's funeral, instead sending three representatives led by
Metropolitan Kirill, head of external relations for the Moscow Patriarchate.

Bartholomew, after visiting with pope at the Vatican in June 2004, said in
a statement that despite ecumenical progress, “papal primacy remains a
particular concern” for Orthodoxy.

The situations in Ukraine and Russia -- where the Catholic-Orthodox divide
also carries great political significance -- drive that point home. In
Ukraine, some 5 million so-called Greek Catholics or “Uniates” follow
Orthodox rites yet pledge their allegiance to the pope. Orthodox leaders
fear that through the Uniates, Rome has a model for making the Orthodox
churches obedient to the Vatican.

In a historic visit to western Ukraine or Galicia in 2001, the pope made an
emotional appeal to Uniates, long associated with the drive for a Ukraine
independent of Moscow. And he mentioned Cardinal Slipyj, a historic leader
of the Uniates who spent 17 years in a Soviet gulag. "This Galician soil,
which in the course of history saw the development of the Ukrainian Greek
Catholic Church, in the words of the unforgettable Cardinal Josyf Slipyj,
was covered by a mountain of corpses and rivers of blood," Pope John
Paul said.

But rather than improve relations with the Orthodox, the pope’s Ukrainian
trip seemed only to deepen their fears of a Catholic invasion. Those fears
would seem to encompass the political sphere, as well.

Last year, the Russian Orthodox Church strongly favored pro-Moscow
candidate Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine’s disputed presidential elections
won by Western-leaning Viktor Yushchenko, who had strong backing
from Ukrainian Catholics and Uniates.

In Belarus -- which, like Russia, this pope never visited -- President
Alyaksandr Lukashenka has strongly backed the Russian Orthodox
Church’s stake as the country’s main religion. There have also been
attacks on Catholic and Uniate churches there. Lukashenka even
campaigned alongside Orthodox leaders before his reelection in 2001.

In Russia, Aleksii has accused the Vatican of seeking to exploit the
Orthodox Church’s devastation under communism to win converts to
Catholicism.

Yet statistics suggest the number of Catholics in Russia -- about 600,000
out of a population of 150 million -- has fallen in recent years. Meanwhile,
converts to Protestant religions are soaring, while a recent poll said that
only 1 percent of Russians attend Orthodox services.

Italian priest Scalfi, the founder of a Milan-based magazine on Orthodoxy
called “La Nuova Europa,” says he doesn’t understand why Catholics are
treated so harshly in Russia while Orthodox leaders seem to turn a blind
eye to the spread of Protestantism. “For us, what’s hard to explain is the
nonchalance, as it were, of the Russian Orthodox Church toward
Protestantism, which is expanding like no one could have predicted,"
Scalfi said. "That is, more than 9,000 communities. Since the Orthodox
Church has just 11,000 parishes, you can imagine [what will happen] if
this [trend] continues.”

In a recent book called “You Are Peter,” Orthodox theologian Olivier
Clement of France argues that Catholicism and Orthodoxy can reunite e
ven by accepting a form of primacy for the Roman pontiff. Clement says
this would result in a “creative tension” between the two Christian branches
that would not give Rome absolute authority.

But concerns over politics and identity seem as much a part of the question
as do issues of religious authority. Orthodoxy has long been closely aligned
with political authority -- in Moscow and elsewhere. Early last year in
Moscow, Patriarch Aleksii himself called for greater unity of Orthodox
countries to fend off challenges to their traditions.

“The challenges of time naturally push nations and states -- [through]
culture, world outlook, and spiritual position -- to unite," Aleksii said.
"Integration trends are on the way in Europe. Muslim states seek to
consolidate their [position] on the world stage. Is it possible, under such
conditions, for countries with age-old Orthodox traditions and culture to
remain disconnected [and] on the sidelines.”

John Paul II’s opening to the East was unlike that of any other pope.
He visited many Orthodox countries, including Greece, Bulgaria,
Romania, Georgia, and Ukraine. The pope dreamed of unity. But
what he achieved was a dialogue that has only just begun. -30-
[The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOOTNOTE: The churches structures mentioned in the article above
should first strongly support and practice the democratic concepts of
complete "freedom of religion" and the "separation of church and state."
Then they should just get on with their religious work. Mergers that
create huge monopolistic structures are not good for religion or
business. History has shown that power corrupts, especially in the
church, and of course also in the state and in business. (EDITOR)
=============================================================
10. MISSILES SOLD TO CHINA AND IRAN

By Bill Gertz, The Washington Times
Washington, D.C., Wed, April 6, 2005

Members of Ukraine's intelligence service and two Russians took part in
an elaborate plan to sell 20 long-range cruise missiles to China and Iran,
according to a Ukrainian government official.

Details of the transfer are outlined in a letter from Hrihory Omelchenko,
deputy chairman of the Ukrainian parliamentary committee on organized
crime and corruption, to the country's new president, Viktor Yushchenko.

The Jan. 28 letter states that an investigation into the transfer of the
Kh-55 air-launched cruise missiles is being thwarted by former officials
of the government of former President Leonid Kuchma.

"These cruise missiles were hidden on military depots of the Ukrainian
Defense Ministry under the control of [the Defense Ministry] and under
documentation signed by senior officials of the ministry, saying they were
in fact designated as destroyed," stated the letter, which was first
reported on by the Associated Press in February.

Mr. Yushchenko, who will address a joint session of the U.S. Congress today,
promised to investigate the sales. Ukraine's prosecutor-general last month
said missiles were smuggled out of the country, which has led to
indictments.

According to the letter, the Kh-55 missile deal began in 2000, when the two
Russians connected to a foreign trade company known as Progress provided
a false contract for the Russian state arms-export company Rosvoorouzhenie
to buy 20 cruise missiles. One of the Russians gave the false contract to
the Ukrainian export company UkrSpetzExport.

Six missiles were sent by aircraft to China in April 2000 with the help of
the two Russians and a reserve officer of the Ukrainian intelligence service
who headed the Ukrazviazakaz company in Kiev. The Russians were paid
$600,000 to transport the missiles through several front companies,
including firms in the United States, Cyprus and Hungary.

The Iranian side of the missile deal took place from May to June 2001, when
six Kh-55 missiles were sent by aircraft to Iran. Mr. Omelchenko did not say
in the letter where the remaining eight missiles were sent. The Iranians
paid $49.5 million for the missiles and the shipment was disguised using
forged documents that identified the shipments as oil-pipeline material.

Three persons involved in the missile deal died in automobile accidents,
according to the letter. One of the Russians involved in the deal, O.H.
Orlov, is being detained in the Czech Republic and the second Russian,
E.V. Shelenko, is being sought, the letter said. -30-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050405-115803-7960r.htm
=============================================================
11. ANOTHER RUSSIAN REVOLUTION?
Youth Movement Adopts Spirit of Uprisings Nearby

By Peter Finn, Washington Post Foreign Service
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
Saturday, April 9, 2005; Page A17

MOSCOW, April 8 -- Suddenly in Russia, everybody's talking about a
revolution. In a country with a popular president, a growing economy and a
fragmented and weak opposition, Russia does not seem ripe for the kind of
revolt that toppled governments in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan over the
past 17 months. But as Lenin once said, "a revolution is a miracle," and the
Kremlin and its political opponents seem bewitched by the possibility of
one.

"There is an Orange spirit in Russia," said Andrei Sidelnikov, the young
head of the new Russian youth group Pora! (It's Time!), which took its name
from the young activists at the heart of the street protests late last year
that ultimately brought Viktor Yushchenko to power in Ukraine. "We are
living through a new era of street politics. Our young people are becoming
more and more active. . . . They might explode when they can't take it any
longer."

Sidelnikov's assessment, delivered at a Moscow news conference this week,
would have seemed ludicrous a few months ago. But following the Orange
Revolution in Ukraine, the government of President Vladimir Putin was
unexpectedly shaken by thousands of retirees who took to the streets to
protest cuts in their benefits. They were joined by the youth wings of
opposition political parties.

The government quickly backed down and the challenge dissipated, but the
fear or expectation of radical change has lingered. "If we do not manage to
consolidate the elites, Russia may disappear as one state," Dmitri Medvedev,
the Kremlin chief of staff, said this week in a rare interview with the
Russian magazine Ekspert. "The breakup of the Soviet Union will look like
child's play compared to a government collapse in modern Russia."

This spring fever has largely centered on the potential of the country's
young people, who until now have been noticeable only for their political
apathy. Both the Kremlin and the opposition have been creating youth groups
to either foment or forestall unrest. In recent months, besides Pora!,
groups with names such as Defense and Walking Without Putin have been
formed to fight what they describe as an emerging dictatorship. Pro-
establishment forces have formed organizations called Nashi and Eurasian
Youth Union, the latter promising to "stand as human shields in the face
of the Orange bulldozer."

The deputy head of Putin's administration, Vladislav Surkov, met last month
with some of the country's leading rock musicians, ostensibly to discuss the
state of the industry. But the meeting spurred speculation that the Kremlin
wanted to cultivate the loyalty of the music industry, which played a
critical role in sustaining the crowds on Independence Square in Kiev, the
Ukrainian capital.

Surkov, one of the Kremlin's gray eminences and himself a onetime lyricist
for the group Agata Kristi, discussed the state of Russian rock, from CD
pirating to the dominance of happy-clappy pop on state television, according
to reports here and interviews with music insiders who later spoke with some
of the participants. The musicians agreed not to discuss the meeting with
reporters, and the Kremlin has declined to comment.

"It was a very dull meeting," said Alexander Kushnir, a music writer and
promoter who has worked with some of the invited musicians and
communicated with them about it afterward. "At the start of the meeting,
Surkov said he was not trying to put them under Putin's banner. For the
Kremlin, it was like a sputnik over enemy terrain to take some photographs
and help them do some analysis."

The same week, another government official met with a select group of
movie, media and theater luminaries to discuss youth culture.

"The Kremlin became concerned, even a little hysterical, after the events in
Ukraine," said Alexander Tarasov, co-director of the New Sociology and
Practical Politics Center in Moscow, where he studies youth movements.
"They were afraid they didn't have any plan in case such events happen
in Russia."

Surkov is also believed to be behind the creation of the new youth
organization Nashi, or Ours, which will have a founding congress in Moscow
this month. Members of the group, which emerged shortly after Walking
Without Putin appeared early this year, say they plan to create a new elite
to govern Russia while preventing any attempt to overthrow the existing
order.

"In my opinion, everything that happened in Ukraine shook Russia," Ivan
Mostovich, 25, Nashi's press secretary, said in an interview. "Young people
began to discuss and think about Russia's direction. The main goals of our
movement are modernization, democracy and patriotism."

But Tarasov and young activists such as Sidelnikov say they believe Nashi
will contain a vanguard of hooligans who are prepared to engage in street
clashes with other youth organizations.

"To withstand young radical organizations like Pora!, besides police force,
you need youth groups who are just as radical but pro-government," Tarasov
said. "Nashi has a clear goal. They know they must fight against those who
are going to change the political regime formed under Putin.

Their ideology is that everyone who is against the regime are enemies of
the Motherland -- they must be fought against using force." Nashi
organizers insist they are nonviolent, but some of their rhetoric seems
in conflict with such assurances.

"It is necessary to make short work of traitors," Vasily Yakemenko, one of
the founders of Nashi, said in an interview with the newspaper Kommersant
after the formation of Walking Without Putin. -30-
=============================================================
12. ST. PETERSBURG CONCERT CALLED OFF AMID 'ORANGE' TALK

By Sergey Chernov, Staff Writer, Moscow Times
Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, April 5, 2005. Page 3.

ST. PETERSBURG -- A rock concert called "Pitersky Maidan," or
"Petersburg Square," featuring top Russian and Ukrainian bands has
been called off under political pressure, its promoter said. One band,
however, suggested that the fuss might be part of a publicity stunt.

The concert was to be held Sunday and feature Ukrainian bands Vopli
Vidoplyasova, Okean Elzi, Lyuk and Tanok na Maidanye Kongo as well as
Russian bands Chizh & Co., Va-Bank, Nogu Svelo, Tequilajazzz, Butch and
Markscheider Kunst, among others.

But promoter Dream Scanner announced last Tuesday that the event had
been cancelled after scores of advertising posters were vandalized. A
photograph attached to its statement showed a poster covered with the
words "Beat the Orange Plague" in white paint. The term "Orange Plague"
was used by opponents of Ukraine's recent Orange Revolution.

Later Tuesday, most concert posters on St. Petersburg streets were
covered with white paper.

The concert's name had raised eyebrows from the start. "Maidan" is
Ukrainian for "square" and has taken on a political connotation in Russian
after the huge protests on Kiev's Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence
Square) during the Orange Revolution.

"Of course, the first thing that I asked was, 'What does this have to do
with the Orange Revolution?'" Tequilajazzz musician Yevgeny Fyodorov
said, recalling when his band was asked to play in the concert.

Fyodorov said he was told that the concert had nothing to do with the
Orange Revolution, but he said he now wondered whether the event was
a publicity ploy. "When all the fuss broke out, it led me and my friends to
consider two versions of the story," he said. "First, this concert might
have been organized in order to be canceled under the pretext of being
banned. Or the concert was not planned at all -- [they wanted] to print
posters and then say, 'We're sorry, it was banned.'"

Dream Scanner is owned by director Andrei Nekrasov, who is perhaps best
known for "Nedoveriye," or "Disbelief," the Boris Berezovsky-financed
documentary film that questions the official account that Chechen rebels
carried out the 1999 apartment bombings.

The Dream Scanner statement said that despite the use of the word
"maidan," the concert was not "aimed at conducting a political action."

However, the concert's official web site said the event was dedicated to
the 100th anniversary of the First Russian Revolution, and Nekrasov is
quoted on the site as saying, "Early spring. Time of change. Thaw. We
need a new thaw."

The concert's producer, Olga Konskaya, said she and a local journalist,
Nikolai Peshkov, whom she described as the concert's press officer, had
received threatening phone calls. "There emerged a danger that our
concert would be turned into an arena of political provocation," she said by
telephone from Germany.

She said Nekrasov had wanted to film the concert for a new documentary
titled "Ekho Maidana," which she described as a look at the "place of rock
music in sociopolitical life on post-Soviet territory."

Peshkov said he had helped place ads in the press on behalf of the
promoter but denied acting as press officer for the event. He denied
receiving any threatening calls.

Two weeks ago, Dream Scanner said in a statement that the concert was
under threat after its main sponsor withdrew "under political pressure
from the power structures."

Konskaya refused to identify the sponsor and insisted that the withdrawal
was not the main reason that the concert had been cancelled.

Whatever the reason for the cancellation, the Kremlin has shown concern
about a possible revolution. Presidential deputy head Vladislav Surkov met
secretly with top rock musicians -- including Zemfira, Akvarium's Boris
Grebenshchikov and Leningrad's Sergei Shnurov -- last month to seek
assurances that they would not support a revolution. -30-
=============================================================
13. NEW HISTORICAL MAGAZINE LAUNCHED IN UKRAINE
"Holocaust: Contemporary Research. Studies in Ukraine and the World"

Dr. Anatoly Podolsky, Director
Ukrainian Centre for Holocaust Studies
Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 8, 2005

KYIV - On April 5th, 2005 in the conference-hall of the Institute for
Political and Ethnic Studies of National Academy of Science of Ukraine
he presentation of the first volume of the scientific magazine of Ukrainian
Centre for Holocaust Studies "Holocaust: Contemporary Research.
Studies in Ukraine and the World" (issued in March 2005 by "Sfera"
publishing house) took place.

This magazine is a completely new scientific-research publication on the
issues of the history of Ukrainian Jewry in times of Nazi occupation, and at
the same time the successor of the scientific-pedagogic Bulletin of the
Centre by the same name, which had been published during 2002-2003.

The edition focuses on the problems of Holocaust history on Ukrainian lands,
historical fates of Ukrainian Jewry in totalitarian epoch of the XX century.

The magazine comprises historical research and investigations on important
aspects of the topic, namely: collaboration with the Nazi regime in times of
Holocaust; saving of Jews by non-Jews; scope of Ukrainian-Jewish
relationship of the previous century and its most tragic and complex peaks
during the extreme - World War Two and Hitler occupation; Jewish
Resistance to Holocaust, its heroic armed, spiritual and moral aspects;
social and cultural life of Ukrainian Jews in the extreme period of their
history.

History of Holocaust in Ukraine is not only a part of Ukrainian history of
the period, but an indispensable part of the history of European Jewry.
Therefore, research and other data dedicated to the issues of the
Catastrophe and the fate of Jewish communities of different European
countries will also find its place on the magazine pages.

The concerned edition will, undoubtedly, contain reflections, philosophical,
psychological, sociological and political sciences researches, since it is
these texts that give one a possibility to understand and realise the tragic
fate of a human being in the sinister and ominous XX century.

Another aspect of the research was made by comparative analyses of
Holocaust and tragedies of other peoples, comparison of totalitarian
regimes and their influence on man's destiny.

Special attention of the editors will be given to historiography studies.
The goal of this chapter is involvement of young historians into the world
of modern Ukrainian and foreign literature on Holocaust issues.

In general, the scientific magazine of Ukrainian Centre for Holocaust
Studies "Holocaust: Contemporary Research. Studies in Ukraine and the
World" is aimed at destruction of stereotypes and myths existing towards
these tragic events not only in the society, but also in the humanitarian
science as such. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Anatoly Podolsky, Director, Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies
8 Kutuzova str., office 107, 01011, Kyiv, Ukraine
tel/fax: +38 044 285-90-30, e-mail: uhcenter@binet.com.ua
Web: www.holocaust.kiev.ua
=============================================================
14. HOW STALIN SAVED DEMOCRATIC RUSSIA
And to remind our neighbors, including Ukraine and the Baltic states,
that they have Stalin to thank for increasing the size of their countries.

OP-ED, By Alexei Pankin, Opinion Page Editor at Izvestia
Moscow Times, Moscow, Russia, April 5, 2005. Page 10

As the 60th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany draws nearer,
it becomes increasingly obvious that the peoples and countries that
once made up the Soviet Union have not yet come to terms with their past.

When President Vladimir Putin recently described the Molotov-Ribbentrop
Pact as a measure designed to beef up Soviet national security, the Baltic
states issued a barrage of official protests. Recent marches by SS
veterans in Riga, on the other hand, aroused a storm of indignation in
Russia. According to press reports, at the request of local veterans the
polar city of Mirny plans to restore a monument to Stalin in time for
Victory Day.

A monument to Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill is planned for the
grounds of the Livadia Palace, where the Yalta Conference was held in
February 1945. Another such monument may go up in Volgograd, where
there has long been talk of restoring the city's previous name, Stalingrad.

Can we really refuse the elderly men who helped to win the war what may
well be their last request? And did the three chief Allied leaders not in
fact make history in Crimea? Yet when any normal person hears all these
reports, alarm bells go off in his head. Don't they all indicate a
"creeping rehabilitation" of Stalinism?

Our recent history is so emotionally charged that we cannot escape the
sway of stereotypes. We have difficulty considering our past from a
nontrivial perspective.

The traditional view of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact -- which Putin shares,
as it turns out -- holds that it shifted the Soviet border further west,
creating an invaluable buffer zone in the lead-up to an inevitable war.
From this point of view, the Yalta agreement and the acquisition of
satellites in Europe expanded this buffer zone and further enhanced
Soviet national security.

But in creating the so-called socialist bloc -- the Warsaw Pact -- the
Soviet Union basically acquired allies that it generously subsidized but
that nevertheless loathed and feared it. When the bonds of friendship
began to weaken under Mikhail Gorbachev, the satellites bolted without so
much as a "thank you" for all the benefits they had received. Such
"enhancement of national security" under Stalin looks more like a betrayal
of national interests.

Stalin was obsessed with expanding the empire. But by annexing the Baltic
states and western Ukraine in 1939, he introduced the disease that finally
killed the Soviet Union. The independence movements that sprang up in
the Baltic states during perestroika inspired nationalists in other
republics.

And western Ukraine was the driving force in the republic's secession,
which sealed the fate of the Soviet Union. Traditionally Russian Crimea,
where they now want to erect a monument to Stalin, became part of a
foreign country.

How is Russia supposed to react to all this? If we consider ourselves the
heirs of the Soviet and Russian empires, it follows that we ought to curse
Stalin and his imperial ambitions for bleeding the country dry and leaving
it to die. And if that's the case, how can we talk about putting up
monuments to the man? World War II vets would be the first to destroy
the remains of Stalin's legacy. By finally and unequivocally condemning
Stalinist imperialism, we would make peace with all of its victims.

If we consider Russia a new, democratic state that has broken with its
imperial and totalitarian past, however, we actually owe a debt of
historical gratitude to Stalin for helping Russia get rid of colonies that
it didn't really need. In this case, we have every reason if not to
encourage, then at least not to hinder the erection of new monuments to
Stalin. And to remind our neighbors, including Ukraine and the Baltic
states, that they have Stalin to thank for increasing the size of their
countries. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
=============================================================
15. LESYA UKRAINKA NATIONAL ACADEMIC THEATRE COMPANY
A Strange, Unusual & Costly Advertisement

LETTER TO THE EDITOR
FROM: Hobart Earle, Zasluzhny Artist Ukrainy
Music Director and Principal Conductor
Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra
Published by THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT
Washington, D.C. , Monday, April 11, 2005

Dear Mr. E. Morgan Williams,

As an avid reader (whenever my time permits!) of your daily "Action
Ukraine Report", I'd like to take this opportunity to address the issue you
raise about Monday's advertisement in the Washington Post.

Indeed, it is a strange, unusual and costly advertisement. Personally, I
have no idea who is behind this. However, the advertisement offers a
worthwhile reminder of the fact that repression of artists and performing
arts organizations has existed constantly not only in Ukraine but throughout
the entire former USSR during the 1990s and continues to thrive today,
well into the 21st century.

As a U.S. citizen who first conducted symphony orchestra concerts in
Ukraine before independence and who has spent a significant part of
the past 14 years of his life leading one of Ukraine's prominent symphony
orchestras, I regret to say that I have seen and witnessed far more than
my fair share of such persecution and repression.

Most recently, during the 'Orange' revolution, when members of the Odessa
Philharmonic Orchestra wore elegant orange handkerchiefs in the breast
pockets of their tuxedos during a concert in Odessa on November 30,
2004, it took only two days for us to receive an official letter from the
local cultural bureaucrats threatening us -- in writing -- to have the
orchestra's contract with the hall revoked if we did not immediately refrain
from engaging in "political games".

Such action would have effectively put us -- the only performing arts
organization with 'National' status in the entire country outside of Kyiv --
on the street. Tactics of this sort are quite normal, albeit repugnant, and
we have seen this kind of behavior (and worse) for years, as I fear the
actors at Lesya Ukrainka Theater have, too.

In today's fast-paced world, where more and more emphasis gets placed
on materialistic issues and matters of spiritual value fall by the wayside
far too often, whoever placed this expensive ad -- regardless of whatever
their political motives were -- has done great benefit to the performing
arts in Ukraine by reminding everyone who reads the ad that the arts need
to be supported and nourished, not manipulated and squeezed.

I have no doubt that President Yushchenko and his administration (some of
whom are indeed devoted fans of the performing arts) will see to it that the
arts in Ukraine -- one of the brightest and most important elements of life
here -- are supported and nourished.

In my personal, albeit subjective opinion, this mysterious ad can only help
achieve such a result, even if intended to embarrass the President during
his trip to the U.S.

Sincerely yours,

Hobart Earle, Zasluzhny Artist Ukrainy
Music Director and Principal Conductor
Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra
www.odessaphilharmonic.org, maestro@odessaphilharmonic.org
=============================================================
16. LESYA UKRAINKA NATIONAL ACADEMIC THEATRE COMPANY
A Strange, Unusual & Costly Advertisement

THREE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Concerning The Washington Post Advertisement for the
Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Theatre Company
Published by THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT
Washington, D.C., Monday, April 11, 2005

1. Letter from Petro Matula:

Hi Morgan,

In addition to your important question - who paid for the ad, it would
also be interesting to know why in Ukrainian they called their theatre
"Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Theatre of Russian Drama" and in
English they skipped "Russian Drama" and limited the name only to
"Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Theatre Company"?

Best regards, Petro Matula (matula@att.net)

2. Letter from Ostap Skrypnyk:

I saw a report on the dispute between the theatre company and the
Min. of Culture on the internet Ukrainian TV program
UTR: http://www.utr.kiev.ua/index.us.html. As much as I could
gather, the company’s director is being replaced or having certain
responsibilities taken away. The company collective claims this is
because they came out in support of Yanukovych during the election.

Ostap Skrypnyk (ostap@skrypnyk.ucc.ca)

3. Letter from Lidia Wolansky:

Dear Morgan,

This "open letter" in the Post is typical of the tactics of the losers
in this past election. They plead innocence and accuse
Yushchenko of persecuting them over any and every time they are
challenged in a court of law. Hey, just because the theater has never
been investigated before doesn't mean there was no reason to do so.

Nor does it mean they are being persecuted. Lesya Ukrainka Theater
of Russian Drama (its real name in Ukrainian, incidentally, and a
bitterly ironic name since Lesia Ukrainka was a total Ukrainian
patriot!), it seems to me, has always had a very hefty public budget,
although it has also had a very widely publicized programs where all
the wealthy Nouveau Ukrainians showed up to full houses. I suspect
the investigation is about this, although (oddly enough) the letter
makes no mention of what they are being accused of.

This is typical of people who don't really have a leg to stand on but
want to throw mud at their accusers. What has an investigation to do
with democratic reforms? The entire letter is a complete non-sequitur,
full of statements that have no connection to the issue and do not
follow logically after one another.

....Incidentally, the Post should be able to say clearly what the ad cost,
although they may not want to because of discounting policies. Maybe
the ad was done as some kind of favor.

Maybe someone convinced them to give them a good deal because
it was for the arts in Ukraine or something. Who knows? The book
price of an ad is rarely the real price that the ad sells for.

In the end, this kind of silliness is unlikely to make much of a
difference to anyone. It certainly did not get any airtime in any of
the press on Yushchenko's trip that I have read so far.

Ciao!, Lidia Wolanskyj (lidia@in.ua)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOOTNOTE: A reliable source in the news media who is also
checking on this advertisement called The Washington Post
and was told that a normal ad of this size costs $46,998. The
Post said they could not disclose the name of their customer
who placed the ad or who paid for the ad.

The news media source also checked in Kyiv with the authors
of the letter who say they had no idea who paid for the ad and
they did not even know it was coming. The authors say the letter
was posted on their web-site and anyone could take it from there.
[EDITOR]
=============================================================
17. UKRAINIANS IN RUSSIA APPEAL FOR BETTER TREATMENT

RBK TV, Moscow, in Russian 1400 gmt 9 Apr 05
BBC Monitoring, UK, in English, Saturday, April 9, 2005

[Presenter] Ukrainians living in Russia want to receive the same kind of
support as Russians in Ukraine. Delegates at the fourth Congress of
Ukrainians in Russia intend to appeal to [Russian] President [Vladimir]
Putin with a request to allocate more money for the development of
Ukrainian culture and to support ethnic organizations. Darya Avramenko
reports.

[Correspondent] At the opening of the congress "Be glorious, our free
Fatherland!" [the Russian national anthem] smoothly flows into a rendition
of "She lives on, our Ukraine" [the Ukrainian national anthem]. While the
Ukrainians listen to the first anthem in a tolerant silence, at the start
of the second the hall bursts into song. Russian Ukrainians remember,
revere and value their original homeland, even more than their second.

Ruslana's success in the Eurovision Song Contest, the Orange victory [in
the Ukrainian presidential election] and even the visit of the late Pope
[John Paul II] to Ukraine are events that are recalled as a source of
individual pride.

From the rostrum, in the Ukrainian language, they speak differently about
Russia. There are 10m alcoholics, 10 [presumably million] drug addicts,
four [presumably million] homeless people and 2m neglected children.

The Ukrainians want President [Viktor] Yushchenko to contact President
Putin with a request to set up a fund in Russia to support the Ukrainian
minority.

[Natalya Litvinenko-Orlova, captioned as representative of Ukrainian
community] We don't want it to be some kind of charitable fund that might
or might not give something as it pleases. We want it to be a powerful fund
within the Culture Ministry. I want to be able to say what I need money
for, receive it and then hold an event.

[Correspondent] Participants in the congress say that Ukrainian schools and
libraries need to be opened in Russia and ethnic media outlets need to be
set up. The Ukrainians would like access to Ukrainian radio and TV
programmes because they feel that the Russian media often distorts the
real situation in the country and takes a clearly anti-Ukrainian position.
This does not strengthen friendship between the two peoples, delegates
say. It just pushes Ukrainians in Russia to commit foolish acts.

[Aleksandr Karabut, captioned as representative of Ukrainian community]
Some fighting has arisen, perhaps because of unpleasant mutual relations,
so some people have begun to hide their identity. They call themselves
Greeks, as I said, Poles or even Jews.

[Correspondent] The example of brotherly love that they cite is the
attitude to Russians in Ukraine. All 2.5m Russian Ukrainians would like the
same attention to be paid to them. The congress's participants preferred to
discuss these problems in the Ukrainian language, although they decided to
write their appeal to the Russian president in Russian. -30-
=============================================================
18. IF YOU CAN'T BEAT 'EM, JOIN 'EM
Izvestiya Urges Russian 'Pragmatism' Faced with US-Ukrainian Relationship

EDITORIAL: Izvestia, Moscow, Russia, Friday, April 8, 2005

Summing up his visit to the United States and assessing the accords that
had been reached, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said that they have
"absolutely specific content." Indeed, he is leaving America with specific
results of an entirely pragmatic nature. George Bush backed the idea of
Ukraine's joining NATO and the WTO and promised to put to Congress the
question of abolishing restrictions on Ukrainian goods in the US market,
relax visa arrangements, and so on. And he concluded by actually describing
the new ally -- in the manner of the ancient Romans -- as a "friend of the
American state."

The obvious geopolitical alliance (the United States has always regarded
Ukraine as a potential and now real outpost on the territory of the former
USSR) has been supplemented by an economic alliance. The "abstract"
values of Atlantic civilization have been translated into the language of
specific accords and converted into future billions in foreign investments
in the economy of the future member of NATO and the EU.

All this is very different from the model of relations established between
Russia and the United States. What we have on our credit side is a
diplomatic friendship between the two presidents and the fact that G.
Bush Jr likes the Russian head of state's "eyes." And geopolitical,
strategic, military, and other balance sheets based either on an abstract
friendship between the leaders of two superpowers or on mutual distrust.

Of course, there are far more obstacles to the development of Russian-
US relations than there are to the development of relations with Ukraine.
Russia is a nuclear power with residual great-power complexes, which
is not prepared to fit fully into the Euroatlantic system and pursues its
own policy, as befits a great state.

But if you look at it from the viewpoint of pragmatic economic interests,
Ukraine achieved more in the space of one visit than Russia has achieved
over many years of shaping relations with America. There is a difference of
approach. The Ukrainian leadership sees America as its ally and says that
it sees Western values as its own, which ultimately is economically
advantageous. The Russian leadership, though, views America through Cold
War stereotypes, as a dangerous rival and potential opponent -- an enemy
with perfidious plans. Accordingly, Russia's and Ukraine's vectors of
political will are different.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, goes the old saying. So Russia, if it
wants a beneficial relationship with the United States, should actively and
"aggressively" support the Russian diaspora in America and arrange
contacts with pro-Russian US politicians, instead of setting up perimeter
defenses.

Pragmatism is more important than ideological foreign policy doctrines.
It provides benefits and ultimately helps tackle, among other things,
geopolitical differences that were seemingly irreconcilable. -30-
===============================================================
19. TWO NEW ISSUES OF JOURNAL OF UKRAINIAN STUDIES

Marko Stech, m.stech@utoronto.ca
Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Wed, April 06, 2005

TORONTO - The Journal of Ukrainian Studies (Journal) is a semi-annual
refereed scholarly publication containing essays, articles, book reviews
and other scholarly research in Ukrainian studies and occasional trans-
lations and guides to research.

Published by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies since 1976,
the Journal is a world leading English-language scholarly periodical in
Ukrainian studies.

ANNOUNCING TWO NEW ISSUES

(1) VOLUME 28, NO. 1 contains the articles:
Vadim Kukushkin, Ukrainian Immigration from the Russian Empire to
Canada: A Reappraisal
George M. Farion, Korosten: Mykola Shchors's Last Battle
Iryna Pavlenko, Ideolohichnyi nastup na ukrainskyi natsionalno-vyzvolnyi
rukh v Zakhidnii Ukraini u 1944-1945 rr.: Istorychnyi kontekst, perebih,
kharakter
Andrii Danylenko, An Uneven Contest between Ethnographism and
Europeanism
James R. Payton, Jr., The Influence of the Reformation on the History
of Ukraine

2) VOLUME 28, NO. 2 is a special issue on Ukrainians in Canada
Guest Editor: Andrij Makuch:
Orest T. Martynowych, "All That Jazz!" The Avramenko Phenomenon in
Canada, 1925-1929
Andriy Nahachewsky, Avramenko and the Paradigm of National Culture
Uliana Holowach-Amiot, The Canadian Ukrainian Youth Association: Its
Origins and Early Years
Myroslaw Tataryn, Father Nicholas Shumsky and the Struggle for a
Ukrainian Catholic Identity
Myron Momryk, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the
Surveillance of the Ukrainian Community in Canada
Lisa Grekul, (Re)reading the Female Ethnic Subject: Vera Lysenko's
Yellow Boots
PRICE AND ORDERING INFORMATION
Price of both issues for individuals: $28.00 (tax and mailing not included)
2-year subscriptions ($52) and 3-year subscriptions ($72) also available.
-- online, at http://www.utoronto.ca/cius/webfiles/jus.htm
-- by telephone, at (780) 492-2972 between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm MST.
-- by FAX, at (780) 492-4967.
-- by mail: CIUS Press, 450 Athabasca Hall, University of Alberta,
Edmonton, T6G 2E8
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CIUS Press is the largest publisher of English-language material about
Ukraine. It is the publishing arm of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian
Studies at the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto. The
emergence of Ukraine as an independent state has focused general and
scholarly interest on Ukrainian studies, and CIUS Press is meeting that
interest and need with a sizeable offering of new, forthcoming, and
already published books.
===============================================================
20. PHOTOGRAPHS OF YUSHCHENKO'S VISIT TO WASHINGTON, D.C.

THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT
Washington, D.C., Sunday, April 10, 2005

WASHINGTON - During Viktor Yushchenko's visit to Washington, D.C.
freelance photographer Richard Krauze took hundreds of photographs
at the various events and has posted the photos online. The photos can
be viewed by going directly to www.printroom.com/pro/richardkrauze or
by going through his website at www.richardkrauze.com.

In addition to the event photos, Krauze captured numerous people meeting
President Yushchenko, Kateryna Yushchenko, and Vladimir Klitchko.

Krauze was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine. Upon completion of
his service Krauze worked with the U.S. Embassy and Ambassador Carlos
Pascual to organize a photo exhibition in Ukraine. The exhibition traveled
around for nearly two years and was very well received.

On the U.S. Embassy website, Pascual writes, " His photos capture the
beauty and diversity of Ukraine and its people, as well as the spirit of
cooperation and understanding that Peace Corps embodies."

The Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, D.C. is very interested in hosting
a similar exhibition in the upcoming months. Krauze is currently organizing
and preparing the exhibition that will open sometime later this year. The
Action Ukraine Report and www.ArtUkraine.com has been working with
Richard Krauze regarding the exhibition. Financial sponsors are needed
now for the exhibition. Your support would be most appreciated. -30-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact: Rich Krauze, rskrauze@yahoo.com
=============================================================
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Senior Advisor; Ukrainian Federation of America (UFA)
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Interim Secretary-Treasurer, Ukraine-U.S. Business Council
Publisher, Ukraine Information Website, www.ArtUkraine.com
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