[Ohio UZO News] Ukraine: today's NYT, WSJ, FT, JF; WoE (2); NYT

[Deychak, Orest]

The New York Times

www.nytimes.com

Moscow Casts Ukraine Leader as Adversary 

By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ 

12 August 2009

Late Edition - Final

11

 

MOSCOW -- The Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, assailed his
Ukrainian counterpart on Tuesday, blaming him for anti-Russian policies
that he said had brought relations between the countries to
''unprecedented lows.''

In a letter to Ukraine's president, Viktor A. Yushchenko, posted on the
Kremlin Web site on Tuesday, Mr. Medvedev announced that Russia would
not send its new ambassador to Ukraine as planned, ''given the
anti-Russian course of the Ukrainian leadership.''

Ukraine's acting foreign minister, Volodymyr Khandogiy, said at a news
conference in Kiev that the Foreign Ministry was disappointed by Mr.
Medvedev's decision to put off the arrival of Russia's ambassador, the
Interfax news agency reported.

Relations between Russia and Ukraine have ranged from turbulent to
openly antagonistic since Mr. Yushchenko took power in 2005 after a
bloodless uprising known as the Orange Revolution, ousting a political
clan backed by Moscow and largely seen as corrupt.

In his letter, Mr. Medvedev said relations between Russia and Ukraine
had reached their lowest levels since the Soviet Union collapsed. He
lashed out at Mr. Yushchenko's pro-Western policies, especially his
efforts to seek NATO membership, which Russia views as a national
security threat.

On a visit to Ukraine last month, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
said the United States would continue to support Ukraine's NATO bid,
once again highlighting the issue, which is unpopular with many
Ukrainians.

Mr. Medvedev expressed anger at Mr. Yushchenko's suggestion that
Russia's Black Sea Fleet would be evicted from the Ukrainian port city
of Sevastopol when its lease expired in 2017. He also dismissed as a
''nationalistic interpretation'' Mr. Yushchenko's insistence that a
famine that ravaged Ukraine and other parts of the Soviet Union in the
early 1930s was genocide against the Ukrainian people by Soviet
authorities.

Mr. Medvedev's most pointed criticism on Tuesday was in response to Mr.
Yushchenko's unequivocal support for the Georgian president, Mikheil
Saakashvili, during Georgia's brief war with Russia last August over
South Ossetia, a separatist Georgian region.

''Kiev has adopted an openly anti-Russian position regarding the
Saakashvili regime's military attack on South Ossetia,'' Mr. Medvedev
wrote in his Web posting. ''Ukrainian weapons killed peaceful citizens
and Russian peacekeepers.''

Ukraine has never denied selling weapons to Georgia, claiming such sales
complied with international law. The United States and Israel, among
other countries, also have incensed Russian authorities by selling
weapons to Georgia, and last month Mr. Medvedev said Russia would impose
sanctions on any company still doing so.

Mr. Yushchenko has complained that the Kremlin has sought to limit
Ukrainian sovereignty, in part by imposing costly economic blockades in
response to perceived slights. In recent years, Moscow has placed
embargoes on Ukrainian products like milk and meat. Moscow has also
occasionally shut off the flow of natural gas through Ukraine,
restricting energy supplies to Western Europe, which receives about 80
percent of its Russian gas through Ukraine.

Mr. Medvedev's remarks seemed to indicate that the Kremlin would no
longer be willing to work with Mr. Yushchenko, who is seeking
re-election in a presidential vote in January. ''Russia hopes that a new
political leadership in Ukraine will be prepared to establish relations
between our countries that in practice will address the real aspirations
of our people and the interests of strengthening European security,''
Mr. Medvedev said.

In Ukraine's last presidential elections, which touched off the Orange
Revolution, Moscow was criticized for its open support of Mr.
Yushchenko's main challenger, Viktor F. Yanukovich.

At that time, Mr. Yushchenko was a political hero in Ukraine, his face
scarred by an unsolved poisoning attempt, for which he blamed Russia.
Now his ratings are in the single digits, and Mr. Yanukovich is favored
to win the election.

In a statement posted on his party's Web site on Tuesday, Mr. Yanukovich
said normal relations between the current administration in Ukraine and
Russia were impossible. ''The first thing we will do upon taking power
will be to revive normal, neighborly, equal and mutually beneficial
relations with our strategic partner, Russia,'' he said. 

 

 

The Wall Street Journal

http:online.wsj.com

World News: Russia's Medvedev Hits Ukraine President's Pro-West Stance 

By James Marson 

12 August 2009

A9

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev launched a stinging attack on the
pro-Western policies of his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yushchenko,
urging the next president to adopt a more Moscow-friendly course.

Mr. Medvedev's letter to the Ukrainian president, which was published on
the Kremlin Web site, was widely seen in Kiev as an intervention in
campaigning for the elections on Jan. 17.

It is a policy that backfired for Moscow in Ukraine's last presidential
elections in 2004, when the Kremlin gave overt support to pro-Russian
candidate Viktor Yanukovych, whose initial victory was overturned after
mass protests -- known as the Orange Revolution -- against vote rigging.

Relations since then have deteriorated as Mr. Yushchenko has taken a
pro-Western course, infuriating Moscow with his attempts to bring
Ukraine into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European
Union, and his open support for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili
during the Russia-Georgia war in South Ossetia last year.

In the letter, Mr. Medvedev blamed Mr. Yushchenko for the worsening
relations, which have seen recent tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions. He
wrote that Kiev's "anti-Russian course" meant he would postpone sending
Russia's new ambassador until there are "real developments in
Russian-Ukrainian relations."

He also accused the Ukrainian leader of threatening Europe's energy
security. Twice in recent years gas supplies to Europe have been
disrupted by spats between the two countries, leading to accusations
that Moscow uses gas as a political weapon. Mr. Medvedev called for
tighter relations between two countries that are "not just neighbors,
but brotherly nations."

He wrote that "in Russia we hope that the new political leadership of
Ukraine will be prepared to build relations between our countries that
will in practice correspond to the genuine hopes of our nations, and the
interests of European security."

Mr. Yushchenko gave no response to the letter, although the acting
foreign minister said he was "disappointed" at the decision to delay the
arrival of Russia's ambassador.

Analysts said Mr. Medvedev's intervention recalled attempts to sway
voters in 2004. Moscow maintains widespread influence in its neighbor,
where 17% of the population is ethnic Russian and a sizable minority
considers Russian its first language.

Mr. Yushchenko has tried to fan Ukrainian national consciousness with
such endeavors as promoting its language and historical figures who
fought for independence. But Mr. Yushchenko's popularity has plummeted
as Ukrainians blame him for failing to push through promised reforms and
tackle endemic corruption. 

Financial Times

www.ft.com

Medvedev attacks Ukraine leadership

By Catherine Belton in Moscow and Roman Olearchyk in Kiev 

Published: August 12 2009 

Dmitry Medvedev launched a Kremlin drive to bring Ukraine into its fold
yesterday as he waded into the country's presidential elections with a
call for a new leader to break with the "anti-Russian" policies of the
incumbent and to cooperate with Moscow.

In an open letter to Viktor Yushchenko, neighbouring Ukraine's
pro-western president, the Russian president refused to renew diplomatic
ties by saying he was postponing the dispatch of a new ambassador to
Kiev until there was a change in relations.

Mr Medvedev criticised Mr Yushchenko for pursuing anti-Russian policies
that include arming Georgia in its war against Russia last year and
pursuing Ukraine's entry into Nato while "ignoring the opinion of your
country's citizens". In his strongest attack yet against Mr Yushchenko,
Mr Medvedev accused him of putting gas supplies to Europe at risk and
departing "from the principles of friendship and partnership with
Russia".

"We have the impression that Kiev consistently seeks to break
traditional economic ties with Russia, first and foremost in the energy
sector," said Mr Medvedev. "Russia hopes a new Ukrainian leadership will
be ready to build ties between our countries, ties that will indeed
answer the true hopes of our peoples in the interests of strengthening
European security."

The Russian leader's letter appears to mark the start of a Kremlin push
to reassert influence over Ukraine. It also appears to be an attempt to
draw a line under the pro-western presidency of Mr Yushchenko ahead of
elections in January 2010, which he is predicted to lose.

Russia blames Mr Yushchenko for two gas disputes that left millions of
Europeans without fuel and led to European Union accusations that Russia
was using gas as a political weapon.

The letter, coming a year after Russia went to war with Georgia over the
breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, signals a fresh bid
by Moscow to maintain influence over its neighbours.

"It is a message to any new leader that we will deal with you only when
you accept our demands - and the demands are made very clear: do not
enter Nato and accept Russia's energy rules," said Lilia Shevtsova, a
senior analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Centre.

Vadym Karasyov, a political adviser to Ukraine's president, said the
decision to withhold a new ambassador could be seen as a temporary
"break in diplomatic relations" and a warning to Kiev's next president
"that Russia has a veto on Ukraine's foreign policy".

"They are saying essentially that Ukraine only has the right to exist as
an independent state if it plays by Russia's rules," said Mr Karasyov.
"Their aim is to change Ukraine's foreign policy, reversing it 180
degrees to a pro-Russian stance."

Jamestown Foundation

Dmitri Medvedev's Disinformation Blog

Roman Kupchinsky

August 12, 2009

http://jamestownfoundation.blogspot.com/

Window on Eurasia: Eight Reasons Why Some Russians are More than Ready
to Acquire Ukrainian Citizenship

 

Paul Goble

 

            Vienna, August 8 - Patriarch Kirill's suggestion that he is
ready to acquire dual citizenship in Ukraine has prompted activists of
the Russian National-Democratic Movement (RNDM), a nationalist but not
statist group, to conduct a survey in regions of the Russian Federation
bordering Ukraine on whether they would like to take Ukrainian
citizenship.

            While many writers have discussed whether Ukrainian citizens
might like to take Russian citizenship, this is one of the very few
efforts to determine how Russian citizens might feel about moving in the
opposite direction.  And while the number of people polled is too small
to be reliable, the reasons the activists suggested they might have for
doing so are intriguing.

            According to RNDM, there are eight reasons "why [ethnic]
Russian people might express a desire to receive Ukrainian citizenship.
First, the movement says, the population of Ukraine is far more
uniformly Slavic than that of the Russian Federation, thus allowing
"ethnic Russians to feel comfortable
(www.anvictory.org/index.php?name=pages&op=view&id=420). 

            While in the Russian Federation, "peaceful and unarmed
Slavic indigenous residents" are frequently attacked by "armed bands"
from the Caucasus, thus creating what might be called "an inter-ethnic
war," "in Ukraine, there has been only one case of such an attack, the
RNDM activists say.

            Second, in Ukraine but not in the Russian Federation,
religious organizations can register "freely."  Many religious groups,
including Old Believers, find it difficult if not impossible to conduct
their affairs in Russia, but the same people, RNDM activists say, would
have absolutely no problem if they were in Ukraine.

            Third, the Ukrainian government unlike the Russian one is
not against the titular nationality.  No senior Ukrainian official, the
activists say, would permit himself to suggest that "Ukraine is not for
Ukrainians," while nearly all senior Russian Federation officials are
appalled by any suggestion that "Russia is for the Russians."

            Moreover, the RNDM activists note, Ukraine lacks an article
in its criminal code like paragraph 282 under the terms of which Russian
Federation officials routinely seek to suppress those of their opponents
who Moscow portrays as "extremist" or interested in "exacerbating"
relations among ethnic and religious groups.

            Fourth, the site continues, "conditions of service in the
[Ukrainian] army are much more tolerable" than those in the Russian
military. In Ukraine, RNDM says, there are "practically no cases of
suicide or deaths of those in uniform." 

            Fifth, "the conductions for conducting a business [in
Ukraine] are more civilized" than they are in Russia. In Russia, the
RNDM says, "it is impossible to conduct a legal business" because
businessmen must pay off "bandit structures which consist to a large
extent of the workers of the MVD, the FSB and the senior officials of
the Russian government."

            Sixth, the level of crime is much lower in Ukraine than it
is in Russia. Seventh, medical care is "much more accessible."  And
eighth, according to the RNDM activists, Ukrainian men currently longer,
an average of 62 years, compared to their Russian counterparts who now
die on average at 59.

            The article on the ANVictory.ru website reporting these
conclusions also features a discussion of ethnic Ukrainians in Russia, a
group Moscow says numbers fewer than three million but one that may be
three times as large not only in the regions adjoining Ukraine itself
but also in the Far East, a region Ukrainians call the "Zeleniy klin" or
"Green Triangle."

            After providing a brief history of how these Ukrainian
communities arose on the territory of what is now the Russian
Federation, the site points out Russian officials have done everything
they can to force the Ukrainians to give up their language and national
identity and become Russians ethnically as well as politically.

            At present, it suggests, Ukrainian has been reduced to the
status of "rare languages" by Russian state policy. "There are only a
few Ukrainian language schools in the Russian Federation now (in Moscow,
Belgorod oblast and Krasnodar kray) and only a single library of
Ukrainian literature in Moscow."

            The staff of that library, ANVictory.ru continues, has been
subject to persecution not only for "propagandizing Ukrainian language
and culture" but also "for several letters [they have written] to the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and the President
of Ukraine.

            Moreover, as Ukrainian scholars have pointed out, Russian
textbooks present a highly distorted image of the history of Ukraine,
one far more problematic than the distortions in Russian history by
Ukrainians and others that Russian scholars, commentators, and
propagandists routinely complain about.

            As a result, many ethnic Ukrainians in the Russian
Federation also have an interest in taking Ukrainian citizenship in
order to be in a position to return to their homeland, a trend very
different than most analysts have assumed and yet another way in which
Patriarch Kirill's recent remarks are likely to have unintended
consequences in Russia.

 

Window on Eurasia: Is the Russian Patriarch Being Clever or Too Clever
By Half?

 

Paul Goble

 

            Vienna, August 7 - Patriarch Kirill's statement that he is
ready to accept dual citizenship in Ukraine because he is a patriarch of
more than the Russian Federation, despite the anger it generated among
many Ukrainians, may have been the cleverest move of his visit or a
misstep that will cost him and the Russian Orthodox Church support from
key constituencies at home.

            In the course of his 10-day visit to Ukraine, Kirill
repeatedly stressed the commonality of the two Slavic peoples who
descend from Kievan Rus' and said that as a churchman with
responsibilities for Russian Orthodox believers in both countries, he
would willingly accept becoming a Ukrainian citizen while of course
retaining his Russian citizenship.

            Because such an arrangement would violate Ukrainian law and
because his proposal suggested that the Moscow prelate was interested in
the restoration of some kind of common state for Russians, Ukrainians
and Belarusians, Kirill's comments infuriated many Ukrainians and raised
questions back home about his intentions.

            On his return, Kirill was received by President Dmitry
Medvedev. The patriarch told the president that his visit to Ukraine was
"worth all the scandals" it had provoked not only about Ukrainian
Orthodox leaders interested in autocephaly but also among Ukrainian
officials who suspicious of the Russian churchman's plans
(www.aif.ru/society/article/28584).

            Kirill said that "the political tension between the two
governments which has increased in recent times, has not been able to
undercut the truth in Russia among ordinary Ukrainians."  And he said
that Russians and Ukrainians must always "feel themselves comfortable in
the common spiritual space" of which they are a part.

            Medvedev responded that must be so even if they are
"citizens of different states" because "despite everything else, they
are sons and daughters of the Russian Orthodox Church." And he insisted
that these special "fraternal feelings ... must be preserved regardless
of who is in power and independent of the political requirements of any
particular moment."

            But perhaps most important and certainly in the minds of
some most ominously, the Russian president said that "the pastoral visit
of the Patriarch [to Ukraine] can become the basis for 'a number of
practical conclusions," although, as "Argumenty i fakty" reported in its
coverage of this meeting, Medvedev did not explain what those might be. 

            Some Russians were enthusiastic about the Patriarch's visit
to Ukraine and even his proposal that he take Ukrainian citizenship
while retaining his Russian citizenship. Sergey Chernyakhovsky, a member
of the Moscow Academy of Political Science, was among them
(www.za-nauku.ru//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1953&Itemid=
33).

            On the one hand, he said, Kirill and the Russian government
are acting in Ukraine "on different levels," something that works to the
advantage of both.  The patriarch "appealed to that Ukraine which is
again a confrontation with Russia," with which he did not have to speak
as the Russian government does about gas supplies.

            And on the other, Chernyakhovsky said, Kirill's citizenship
proposal could have an even greater set of consequences.  "If all the
citizens of the republics adopted the citizenship of the others and
became citizens of 15 states, then," the Moscow analyst suggested, "what
would result would be the reunification of a new USSR."

            But if some Russians, especially those with imperialist
aspirations, liked Kirill's idea about dual citizenship, other Russians
clearly are concerned about what the patriarch's proposal says about his
attitude toward the Russian nation. And one church analyst has warned
that such people could turn against him and thus undermine the influence
of the Church in Moscow. 

            In an interview posted on the Portal-Credo.ru site, Father
Gleb Yakunin, a longtime liberal activist within Orthodoxy and the head
of the Freedom of Conscience Committee, said that Kirill's remarks about
citizenship could represent "a very risky move"
(www.portal-credo.ru/site/?act=authority&id=1233).

            It is obvious, Yakunin said, that by suggesting he is ready
to take Ukrainian citizenship in order "to show that he so loves Ukraine
and so sincerely wants to be accepted as a genuine Patriarch in
Ukraine." But in making this statement, which has already sparked
opposition in Kyiv, Kirill has created problems for himself and his
Church in the Russian Federation itself.

            First, Russia's "ultra-nationalists" are certainly
infuriated by any suggestion that Kirill "loves Ukraine more than
Russia" and who wants to make Kyiv rather than Moscow "the 'Third Rome,'
a completely new idea which for them is completely unacceptable and
against which they will speak out.

            Second, Kirill has often spoken of the need to restore what
he calls "'Orthodox civilization,'" and many are certain to view his
proposal to become a citizen of Ukraine as a prelude to his becoming a
citizen of Belarus and thus giving him a standing above all the Slavs
greater than the Russian president or the Russian prime minister.

            Such a move, Father Gleb said, could open the way for Kirill
to act "in the style of Lukashenka" and thus to have the kind of
independence that neither Medvedev nor Vladimir Putin would be happy
about.  After all, if they attempt to "take the Church under complete
control" in Russia, Kirill is giving himself an out: he could simply
move to Ukraine.

            And third, there is another and even more dangerous
consequence of the Patriarch's proposal, Yakunin pointed out, one that
Kirill himself probably has not considered.  Perhaps a third of the
Orthodox clergy in Russia are ethnically Ukrainian even though they
current have Russian Federation citizenship.

            If they decided to follow Kirill's example and take
Ukrainian citizenship, they too would have a way out should Moscow try
to impose greater control over the Russian Orthodox Church: they too
could leave.  Consequently, Father Gleb concluded, "the situation is
quite complicated with regard to games at dual citizenship."

 

The New York Times

Kirill's Visit Exposes Dangers in Moscow-Kiev Ties

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/world/europe/07iht-orthodox.html?_r=1&
scp=10&sq=Ukraine&st=cse

 

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