[Ohio UZO News] Ukraine: AP; FT; CSM; WoE

[Deychak, Orest]

Associated Press

 

Ukraine's Yushchenko dismisses chief of staff 

By MARIA DANILOVA 

Associated Press Writer

19 May 2009

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko dismissed his influential chief of staff Tuesday, pushing out his right-hand man in a bitter breakup likely to further tarnish the embattled leader's image.

A decree on the presidential Web site gave no reason for the dismissal of Viktor Baloha. Yushchenko said in an interview published Tuesday that he wanted new staff as he seeks re-election in a vote to be held by next January.

Baloha fired back quickly, saying Yushchenko had "no moral right" to seek another term.

A former governor from Yushchenko's support base in western Ukraine, Baloha, 45, joined his staff in 2006 and has become one of the most powerful men in the country.

Baloha has been accused of corruption and backtracking on the democratic achievements of the 2004 Orange Revolution, the street protests that propelled Yushchenko to power. Many blame him for letting Yushchenko's approval ratings plummet to below 5 percent.

"This is a timely reloading," Yushchenko told the newspaper Delo. "An election campaign is ahead and it is obvious that a part of society would like to see new people, new tactics, new relations."

Baloha sharply criticized his former boss.

"I am convinced that you have no moral right running for president," Baloha said in a statement Tuesday. "At least I won't be your companion in this."

Baloha also accused Yushchenko of nepotism and ruinous policies. He called on both the president and his political rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, to resign.

Analysts said that Baloha's messy departure was a sign of paralysis in Yushchenko's camp and underscored that his re-election is unlikely.

"The ship is going down, we are just seeing the final traces of the ship going under water," said political analyst Ivan Lozowy.

An opinion survey conducted by the Razumkov Center in March showed that only 3.5 percent of respondents would vote for Yushchenko. Opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych and Tymoshenko are expected to be top contenders in the race, with 17.1 and 15.7 percent support respectively, according to the survey. Another contender is Arseniy Yatstenyuk, a reformist former parliament speaker who has 11.8 percent support. The study polled 2,012 respondents across Ukraine and had a margin of error 2.3 percentage points. 

Financial Times

Ukraine considers gambling ban to aid crisis-hit families

By Roman Olearchyk in Kiev 

Published: May 19 2009 

Gamblers in Ukraine, where cities are littered with casinos and slot machine halls, may soon have to go abroad to place their bets, as the authorities consider a ban on gambling to safeguard families hit hard by the economic crisis.

A crowd of more than 2,000 protesters representing gambling operators and their 200,000-plus employees gathered outside Ukraine's presidential office on Monday, to put pressure on President Viktor Yushchenko to veto a controversial law parliament adopted on Friday. But if he approves the legislation, it would immediately shut all of the country's casinos, slot machines, internet gambling and betting establishments.

The plans are backed by Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister, who has hailed the legislation as vital social welfare, saying that more than 100,000 gaming salons are "demoralising Ukraine's youth and sucking the last savings from families" which are depressed and already squeezed by economic recession.

A light regulatory environment has allowed rapid growth in Ukraine's gaming business, which ranges from garish city-centre casinos to dingy slot machine halls. Venues are popular with a mix of tourists, affluent businessmen and cash-strapped gambling addicts.

Officials have long debated tightening Ukraine's lax gaming laws, following a legal overhaul in Russia in 2007 that imposed restrictions and pushed some operators to expand in Ukraine.

But the recession, which could see Ukraine's gross domestic product fall 10 per cent this year, has given the idea new impetus. The authorities have also been stung into action by a fire earlier this month in a slot machine hall, in which nine people died.

The proposed laws could yet fall victim to the long-running YushchenkoTymoshenko rivalry. The president said this weekend that he favoured removing gambling from residential neighbourhoods, but hinted he might veto Ms Tymoshenko's "populist" and poorly drafted law.

Ms Tymoshenko said Ukraine could copy Russia's plans for limiting gambling venues in non-residential zones. But plans have not yet been revealed and gambling operators are wondering how they will shut down on such short notice if the law takes effect.

"We do need better regulation, but this is not the way to do it. In one moment, more than 200,000 people could loose their jobs," said Grigory Trypulsky, vice- president of the Ukrainian Association of Gambling Operators.

He added that Ukraine's gaming business posted a turnover of more than $1bn (€740m, £654m) last year, paying several hundred million dollars in taxes.

Christian Science Monitor

from the May 15, 2009 edition

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0515/p06s01-woeu.html

Ukraine's economic straits raise worries about radicalism

Gains by a far-right party in regional polls and the murder of a Ukrainian nationalist have caused concern. But many caution that radicals hold limited appeal at the national level. 

By James Marson | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

 

Kyiv, Ukraine

As the economic crisis in Ukraine continues to bite hard, one parliamentary deputy last month drew a chilling comparison in an open letter to the country's president, Viktor Yushchenko. 

"[Many people] are worried by the historical analogy between the rise of a neofascist mood in Ukraine during the economic crisis and events in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s," wrote Oleksandr Feldman. 

While political analysts say that the comparison with the chaos that preceded Hitler's rise to power is exaggerated, there are concerns that the strained economic and political conditions in Ukraine are leading to a rise in radicalism. A far-right party won a regional election in March, and last month saw the murder of a Ukrainian nationalist by an "anti-fascist" group. And with the presidential election set for January, the worry is that the contenders are likely to stoke tensions for political gain. 

"There is a certain radicalization of society that reflects disillusionment with the political elite, which in the past few years has put its own interests ahead of the state's," says Volodymyr Fesenko, director of the Penta Center for Applied Political Studies in Kyiv (Kiev). 

With Ukraine's economy in meltdown – gross domestic product fell by an estimated 25 percent in the first three months of the year – a recent poll by the Research & Branding Group in Kyiv showed that 90 percent view the political situation in the country as "unstable." 

Ukrainians have grown increasingly frustrated with the squabbling between former Orange Revolution allies President Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. They are also disillusioned by the inability of politicians to clamp down on entrenched corruption or find an effective way to combat the economic downturn. 

This disillusionment is pushing some Ukrainians to look for new faces, including those on the far right. 

On Mar. 15, the election of a new regional assembly in Ternopil in western Ukraine saw a victory for the previously marginal Freedom party, which garnered 50 of 120 seats. Polls show that the party has also seen an increase in popularity across the more nationally minded west of the country. 

The party's leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, is infamous for a speech he gave in 2004, where he made anti-Semitic and Russophobic remarks, and said, "It is time that Ukraine is returned to Ukrainians." 

"We are not against national minorities," Mr. Tyahnybok says. "We simply want to defend the rights of the national majority, to look after the rights of Ukrainians in their own country." 

Tyahnybok calls for a lustration process to purge the authorities of remnants of Soviet power, proportional representation in the government according to nationality, and strengthening of the president's powers. 

"The success of Freedom is a concern," says Mr. Fesenko, of the Penta Center, but adds that it is primarily a regional party that is not popular at the national level. "Its success is less because of its nationalism and more because voters are looking for something new." 

Nazis and Soviets still dueling

One major barrier to a party such as Freedom achieving nationwide success is Ukraine's cultural differences, which run along historical and geographical lines: A Soviet, pro-Russian identity predominates in the east, while the west traditionally supports a more independent, nationally minded view. 

The presidential elections in January are likely to serve as a trigger for politicians to exploit this split. "Politicians will try to increase tensions and radicalize opinion," says Serhiy Taran, director of the International Institute for Democracy in Kyiv. 

Last month in Lviv, in western Ukraine, Freedom had posters put up across town with the insignia of the Halychyna division, an SS division (formally known as the Ukrainian 14th Waffen SS Galizien Division) that fought against Soviet troops alongside Nazi Germany during World War II. 

"They defended Ukraine," the posters read. 

This is a particularly sensitive topic in a country that suffered huge losses during war, and where the victory of the Soviet Red Army is still celebrated on May 9 as a major national holiday. 

Tyahnybok, on the other hand, calls the Soviet Union "a period of occupation," which caused much suffering in Ukraine. 

All of that is grist for the mill for the Russian media, which is popular in the east of the country and uses every opportunity to decry "fascism" in Ukraine. The last presidential election campaign in 2004 was marked by attempts, encouraged by Russian political consultants, to portray President Yushchenko as an extreme nationalist. 

Risk of a split?

Simmering tensions burst into the open on April 17, when 21-year-old nationalist Maksym Chaika was stabbed to death in the southern city of Odessa by a member of the radical leftist group Antifa. Accusations have since been flying back and forth, with one side claiming that the victim was an extremist, and the other charging that Antifa is connected to pro-Russian political forces. 

Yushchenko himself got involved by demanding an investigation into links between Antifa and foreign anti-Ukrainian organizations. 

"There is a threat of disintegration," says Mr. Taran, "but it's not a strong possibility. People don't identify clearly with east or west – they cross barriers and their identities are flexible. This is a powerful, peace-preserving mechanism, and makes it hard for parties to mobilize people on an ethnic basis." 

Indeed, while the crisis has seen improved ratings for Freedom, it has also led to a significant rise in popularity for another new face, former parliamentary speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who is seen as a moderate liberal. "Most of society is not keen on radical ideas," says Fesenko. "They continue to support politicians with civilized standards and proposals." 

Window on Eurasia: Ukraine’s Muslims are Part of ‘Muslim European Community’

 

Paul Goble

 

            Baku, May 15 -- “Ukraine is a European country and the Muslims of Ukraine are part of the Muslim European community,” according to the head of the Federation of Islamic Organizations of Europe (FIOE) – yet another way in which the people of Ukraine are underscoring their attachment to Europe rather than Eurasia.

 

            During a visit to the Islamic Cultural Center in Kyiv last week, Shakib Benmakhlyuf, FIOE president, not only stressed the Europeanness of Ukraine and of Ukraine’s Muslims but “positively assessed” both the speed of Islamic rebirth there and “the public activity” of Islamic community there (www.islam.in.ua/3/ukr/full_news/2801/visibletype/1/index.html). 

 

            In response, Mufti Said Ismagilov, the head of the Muslim Spiritual Directorate (MSD) of Ukraine, said his community would like to expand its cooperation with FIOE and that he and the Muslims of Ukraine believe that the recent adoption of the Charter of Muslims of Europe can promote more active ties among European countries.

 

            Convinced that religious attachments can underlie cultural and political ones, the Russian government and the Moscow Patriarchate have devoted a great deal of effort to block the formation of a single autocephalous Orthodox Church in Ukraine and its absorption of the more than 12,000 Orthodox parishes there now subordinate to Moscow.

 

            Indeed, Patriarch Kirill has made the maintenance of his patriarchate’s control of those churches in Ukraine a centerpiece of his policy, not only for the entirely selfish reason that the departure of these parishes would leave his Russian Orthodox Church much reduced in size and influence but also because of the contribution his church makes to Moscow’s political goals.

            But both because of the relatively small size of the Muslim community in Ukraine and because there is no single MSD in the Russian Federation to which Muslims in Ukraine have subordinated themselves, no one in Moscow appears to have devoted much attention to the question of Russian influence over Muslims.

 

            That may now change, because the integration of the Muslims of Ukraine into European institutions would lessen the influence of Muslims from other parts of the former Soviet Union but also serve as a precedent Kyiv may be quick to invoke in its effort to establish a single national Orthodox church.

 

            This latest development in Kyiv may lead to a new round of calls not by Muslims but by Russian officials for the creation of a single MSD for the Russian Federation with pretentions to unite Muslim communities in Ukraine and other post-Soviet states, especially those where Muslims are minorities.

 

            At the same time, however, any move in that direction would likely generate a reaction not only within the Russian Muslim community, many of whose members have never been entirely comfortable with the entire MSD system, which has no religious basis for existing, but also among Muslims in the other former Soviet countries.

 

            Recent polls in Western Europe, however, have shown that Muslims there tend to be more patriotic than other citizens, and given the Islamic injunction for the faithful to support the country in which they live, efforts by Moscow to subordinate the Islamic communities of the other former Soviet republics could generate an unintended backlash. 

 

            Moreover, this assertion of the Europeanness of Ukrainian Islam may prompt Moscow officials to try to divide the Muslims of Ukraine and the other countries by playing on existing tensions between Muslim migrants from Central Asia and the South Caucasus and historically indigenous Muslim communities like the Crimean Tatars.

 

            And finally because of the welcome Ukraine’s Muslims gave to FIOE and its assertion of the European nature of their Islam, it is entirely possible that FIOE and other Euro-Islamic groups will seek to reach out to Muslims in the former Soviet West even more than they have up to now, setting the stage for a somewhat unexpected form of the clash of civilizations.

 

 

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