[Ohio UZO News] Ukraine: FT; EDM (2); KP op-ed

[Deychak, Orest]

Financial Times

www.ft.com

Ukraine claims progress in murder probe

By Roman Olearchyk in Kiev 

Published: July 29 2009 

Ukrainian officials have made their second breakthrough in days in a
murder case that has haunted the country for nearly a decade and played
a role in fomenting the political unrest that led to the Orange
Revolution in 2004.

A week after arresting a main suspect in connection with the murder of
journalist Georgy Gongadze, prosecutors yesterday said they had
uncovered fragments of what is believed to be the victim's skull in a
region outside the capital Kiev.

More tests are needed to confirm that the fragments come from the skull
of Gongadze, whose headless body was discovered in 2000.

Leonid Kuchma, president at the time of the murder, became entangled in
the case with the release shortly after the murder of a recording of a
voice that sounded like Mr Kuchma's calling for Gongadze to be done away
with.

A spokesman for Mr Kuchma reiterated that the former president played no
role in the death, saying he "has repeatedly said that he is interested
more than anyone else in this case being solved".

The killing of the journalist, who had been highly critical of Mr
Kuchma, shocked Ukrainians and helped fuel opposition, culminating in
the Orange Revolution that brought Viktor Yushchenko to power.

However, the investigation dragged on until the detention last week of
Oleksiy Pukach, a former police general for whom police had been looking
for six years. He is being charged with committing the murder, allegedly
on the orders of superiors.

Officials have said he is co-operating with the investigation. The case
is likely to play a role in the forthcoming presidential election
scheduled for January.

One candidate, Volodymyr Lytvyn, the speaker of parliament, served as Mr
Kuchma's chief of staff and a voice said to resemble his can also be
heard on the recordings. Mr Lytvyn has denied involvement in any
wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, Mr Yushchenko pledged early on in his presidency that solving
the case was a matter of honour for him, but the failure to achieve
progress in the Gongadze case and other high-profile crimes drew
criticism from human rights advocates.

Last year, a court sentenced three junior police officers for
involvement in the murder.

Valentyna Telychenko, lawyer for Myroslava Gongadze, the victim's widow,
said: "I am convinced there are plans to push this case fast ahead of
the elections, to establish Mr Pukach's guilt, and present success."

She added: "Mr Pukach may say . . which immediate superior gave him
orders, but it's not certain he can or will reveal those at the top who
issued the orders."

Eurasia Daily Monitor 

http://www.jamestown.org/programs/edm/
<http://www.jamestown.org/programs/edm/> 

July 28, 2009

Ukraine-U.S. Relations: New Prospects in the Wake of Biden's Visit

U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden held out prospects for a revitalized and
expanded relationship with Ukraine during his July 20-22 visit to Kyiv
(and Georgia on the next leg). A prompt follow-up to President Barack
Obama's July 6-7 Moscow visit, the vice-president's trip was designed to
demonstrate U.S. intentions to revert to strategic engagement in
Europe's East.

Biden's two public speeches in Ukraine offered strong reassurances that
Washington would not sacrifice Ukraine's (or any other countries')
interests while seeking Moscow's support for U.S. interests in other
theaters. Biden ruled out such "trade-offs." The United States shall not
"recognize" any spheres of influence; its "resetting" of relations with
Russia will not involve concessions at the expense of Ukraine - or of
U.S. relations with Ukraine and other countries neighboring Russia; no
country [i.e., Russia] is entitled to interfering with other countries'
policies, relationships, and choice of alliances; the United States is
committed to supporting an independent and democratic Ukraine as an
"integral part of Europe" as well as Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration
"if you choose that" (Joe Biden speech at Ukraine House and news
conference in Kyiv, White House press releases, July 21, 22).

The practical value of such reassurances will partly depend on
developing an active U.S. policy toward Ukraine and its European
orientation and, on the other hand, developing Ukraine's institutional
capacity to partner with the United States strategically for such a
policy. On the American side, Biden's message conveyed a willingness to
overcome the "Ukraine-fatigue" that had afflicted U.S. and (even more
so) European policies toward a dysfunctional post-Orange Ukraine. The
U.S. vice-president visited a country that does not have ministers of
foreign affairs, defense, finance, and transport -and since 2005 it has
experienced a crisis in its political and legal institutions.

With Ukraine scheduled to hold a presidential election in January 2010,
Biden's Kyiv agenda included talks in Kyiv with presidential hopefuls
Viktor Yanukovych and Arseniy Yatseniuk (leaders of the Party of Regions
and Front for Change, respectively) in addition to his meetings with the
weakened President Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister and presidential
hopeful Yulia Tymoshenko, and Parliamentary Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn
(potential compromise figure) (Interfax-Ukraine, UNIAN, July 21 - 23).

Biden's visit laid some of the groundwork for re-launching
U.S.-Ukrainian strategic partnership relations under the Obama
administration and pending Ukraine's presidential election. The agenda's
salient issues will include activating the U.S.-Ukraine Strategic
Partnership Commission. Biden and Yushchenko agreed that the commission
will hold its inaugural meeting in the fall in Washington. The
commission is meant to operationalize the U.S.-Ukraine Charter of
Strategic Partnership, signed by the outgoing Bush administration in
December 2008. The commission's inaugural meeting will probably be
largely symbolic. Due to elections and transitions in both countries one
after the other, the charter's activation will probably be delayed into
mid-2010 (assuming a willing Ukrainian president and government after
the January 2010 elections there). Meanwhile, the inaugural meeting's
agenda in the fall will include the issues of Ukraine's security in the
region, energy policy, and the rule of law in the country.

Re-launched partnership with Ukraine will also aim at improving
Ukraine's energy security. Biden discussed with Tymoshenko and
Yushchenko the implementation of recently signed agreements on nuclear
energy with the Westinghouse and Holtec companies. The agreements aim to
provide nuclear fuel for Ukrainian nuclear power plants and launch
nuclear fuel production in Ukraine, so as to reduce the country's
now-total dependence on Russian nuclear fuel. Regarding natural gas
transit, the United States does not plan to participate in financing the
upgrade of Ukraine's pipeline system. Washington expects the European
Union and international lending institutions to address this task, in
conjunction with Ukrainian actions to introduce transparency,
efficiency, and realistic internal prices in the energy sector. In his
public speeches in Kyiv, Biden urged such actions in outspoken terms,
also linking the issue of energy security with that of national security
for Ukraine. This coming fall will see the first fully-fledged meeting
of the U.S.-Ukraine working group on energy security.

Finally, there must be adequate financing for anti-crisis programs. The
International Monetary Fund (IMF) has disbursed the first two tranches
of a $16.4 billion anti-crisis package that the United States supported.
Disbursement of the remainder, however, is conditional on a decision by
the Ukrainian government to raise internal prices for natural gas prices
for domestic consumers through at least partial elimination of state
subsidies. More realistic prices could also save Naftohaz Ukrainy from
the constant threat of bankruptcy and possible takeover of its pipelines
by Gazprom. A price hike by Yulia Tymoshenko's government ahead of the
January 2010 presidential election could, however, predetermine
Tymoshenko's defeat and the victory of her rival Viktor Yanukovych.
Meanwhile, the Tymoshenko government agreed during Biden's visit to
settle the claims of the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation
(OPIC) in the country. This move will enable OPIC to resume its
activities in providing risk-protection for U.S. small and medium-sized
entrepreneurs investing in Ukraine (Interfax-Ukraine, UNIAN, July 21 -
23). 

--Vladimir Socor 

 

July 27, 2009

Vice-President Biden's Mission to Kyiv

The visit by U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden to Kyiv on July 21-22 was a
strenuous test of his diplomatic skills. He needed to avoid the
political land mines separating Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko
and his nemesis, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko as well as present a
neutral face to Viktor Yanukovych, the head of the Party of Regions,
presently the most popular politician in Ukraine. In addition, he also
met with Arseniy Yatseniuk, the young former speaker of the parliament
who has announced his bid to become president in January 2010.

The meeting with Yatseniuk was the last on Biden's agenda, leaving
enough time for a more substantive review of issues and a chance for the
American Vice-President to formulate an opinion about the young,
upcoming politician. These meetings however, were only one facet of his
delicate task - Moscow was analyzing every word Biden uttered in Kyiv to
see how they corresponded to what U.S. President Obama told his Russian
counterpart Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during his
recent visit to Russia.

Biden's trip was widely proclaimed as a mission of reassurance to
Ukraine; that the U.S. would stand by its past commitments to that vital
country while going forward with "resetting" U.S.-Russian relations. The
problem is that many in Ukraine do not believe or care much for U.S.
protection and would prefer to bask in the Kremlin's care.

Biden's message lost some of its credibility when on July 21, Jaap de
Hoop Scheffer, the Secretary-General of NATO, stated that neither
Ukraine nor Georgia are ready to join NATO and that this is unlikely to
change soon, citing the complicated political situation in the two
states (www.mosnews.com, July 21).

William Taylor, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine was frank when he stated
during a televised interview: "We will not select favorites (in the
upcoming elections) and will not attempt to influence the outcome - this
is a choice for Ukrainians and they have shown that they are able to do
so...I am convinced that the American government will cooperate with the
winner" (RFE/RL, July 18).

Prior to Biden's visit, the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. Oleh
Samshur told Ukrayinska Pravda that Yushchenko would ask Biden for the
U.S. to provide legally binding assurances that Washington would protect
Ukrainian independence. Such assurances are unlikely to be offered
anytime in the near future, if ever. Samshur most likely had in mind
legalizing the 1994 Budapest agreement between Moscow, London and
Washington to guarantee Ukrainian independence (www.pravda.com.ua, July
18).

The text of the agreement stated in part:

"The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, reaffirm their commitment
to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the CSCE Final Act, to
respect the Independence and Sovereignty and the existing borders of
Ukraine."

The Russian media reported that Biden's visit to Kyiv was to bid
farewell to Yushchenko in anticipation that he will lose the January
presidential elections and to evaluate his potential successor
(Kommersant, July 27).

Ukrainian media reports about the Biden-Yushchenko meeting stressed that
the U.S. Vice-President rejected all Russian claims to have a "sphere of
influence" on any country and that each country has the right to
determine the type of relations it deems necessary.

Biden, in no uncertain terms, also told the Ukrainian leadership that
the U.S. was exasperated by the lack of transparency in the country. He
lectured the speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, Volodymyr Lytvyn, on
the need to improve, among other things, the court system and insure
greater transparency in the law making process. The Vice-President
called on the Ukrainian parliament to begin an honest dialogue which was
needed in order "in order to avoid any interference by foreign
middlemen" (www.pravda.com.ua, July 22).

And while Lytvyn agreed with his high level American visitor (their
meeting lasted twice its planned length) many observers in Ukraine have
little, if any confidence in Lytvyn's ability - or sincerity - to
implement changes. Lytvyn is still under suspicion in many Ukrainian
circles as a key co-conspirator in the murder of Georgiy Gongadze, an
internet journalist critical of official corruption in Ukraine.

Mykola Pysarchuk, a political commentator for the UNIAN press agency,
predicted that there will be no rapid breakthrough in U.S.-Russian
relations and that should Obama visit Kyiv after the January 2010
presidential elections for talks with the newly elected president of
Ukraine, he will discover that any hopes for an improvement in
U.S.-Russian relations, at the expense of Ukraine would prove to be
illusionary (UNIAN, July 20).

--Roman Kupchinsky

 

Kyiv Post 

http://www.kyivpost.com/

 

Ukraine's suffering still overlooked by world

 

Alexander Motyl

23 July 2009 

 

How can this blindness be explained?

Nazi Germany's greatest war crime is the Holocaust, of course, but the
genocides against Ukrainians and Belarusians constitute a close second.
And yet, while the Holocaust is common knowledge, few know much about
the extermination of Ukrainians and Belarusians - and Germans may know
about this least of all. The tragedy of these peoples' suffering in the
war has been compounded by the world's almost complete ignorance and
indifference.

That lamentable condition may be about to change, if only among
professional historians. In a ground-breaking article that was published
in the July 16 issue of The New York Review of Books, Yale University
historian Timothy Snyder describes in excruciating detail just how Nazi
policy was directed at exterminating first the Jews and then the Slavs.
Since Belarus and Ukraine were occupied for almost four years, they
suffered enormous population losses.

According to Snyder: "Half of the population of Soviet Belarus was
either killed or forcibly displaced during World War II: nothing of the
kind can be said of any other European country. ... The peoples of
Ukraine and Belarus, Jews above all but not only, suffered the most,
since these lands were both part of the Soviet Union during the terrible
1930s and subject to the worst of the German repressions in the 1940s.
If Europe was, as Mark Mazower put it, a dark continent, Ukraine and
Belarus were the heart of darkness."

The devastation that affected both countries is even greater when one
considers their experiences in the Stalinist 1930s and in World War I.
Ukraine lost at least 3 million people in the genocidal famine of 1933.
Both countries also served as the main killing fields of the Eastern
Front during World War I (1914-18), the Civil War in Russia (1918-21)
and the Polish-Russian War (1919-21).

According to a recent study of the Moscow-based Institute of Demography,
Ukraine suffered close to 15 million "excess deaths" between 1914 and
1948:

1.3 million during World War I.

2.3 million during the Civil War, the Polish-Soviet War, and the famine
of the early 1920s.

4 million during the genocidal famine of 1933.

300,000 during the Great Terror and the repressions in Western Ukraine

6.5 million during World War II.

400,000 during the post-war famine and the destruction of the Ukrainian
nationalist movement.

Ukraine and Belarus experienced nearly 40 consecutive years of
relentless death and destruction, starting in 1914 and ending with
Stalin's death in 1953. Although Soviet Russia bears a great deal of
responsibility for the killing, the lion's share falls on Germany.

And yet Germany, which so assiduously remembers its crimes during the
Holocaust, has still to build one monument to the millions of
Belarusians and Ukrainians its armies killed in the 20th century.

How can this blindness be explained?

Partly, it's a function of ignorance. The German media devote almost no
coverage to Belarus and Ukraine. It is also partly because Germans just
don't "see" these countries.

Nobel Prize winner Heinrich Boll's 1949 novel "The Train Was Punctual"
provides a good example of this cultural mindset. The novel describes a
young German soldier's return to the front in southern Ukraine. As he
travels eastward from his furlough, he traces his route on a map and
"visits" various cities, towns and villages in Ukraine. He speaks of
Poles and Jews and Russians in great detail, but he doesn't mention
Ukrainians once, even though they formed the vast majority of the
country and were the people whose farms he and his comrades probably
plundered on a daily basis. Imagine a trip through the American South
without a single reference to the black population.

But why don't Germans "see" people who are so manifestly there? To some
degree it's because the "Untermenschen have remained Untermenschen" -
economically underdeveloped peoples with silly cultural practices who
either can't get their political act together (Ukraine) or are proud to
be Europe's only dictatorship (Belarus).

The more important explanation is that German elites have traditionally
viewed their neighbors to its east through the prism of great-power
politics. Russia is big and strong and therefore demands respect. Its
ruler may be a dictator, and its policies may be neo-imperialist, but
these matters are easily overlooked. Former German Chancellor Gerard
Schroeder still managed to describe former President Vladimir Putin as a
"true democrat" at precisely the time that Putin was doing all he could
to crush Ukraine's Orange Revolution. Poland may be prone to polnische
Wirtschaft (the derisive term for Poles' inability to do things
efficiently), but they're right next door and have to be dealt with.

But Belarus and Ukraine? They're just places with pipelines that carry
Russian gas to German homes and factories.

 Alexander J. Motyl is professor of political science at Rutgers
University-Newark in New Jersey and can be reached at
ajmotyl at hotmail.com <mailto:ajmotyl at hotmail.com> . The article first
appeared in the Moscow Times and is reprinted with the author's
permission.

 

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