[Ohio UZO News] CORRECTION Ukraine: HC; VOA; NYT; CSM

[Deychak, Orest]

The written statement that will be available on the Commission's webpage
is from Ukraine's Ambassador to the United States, and NOT the US
Ambassador to Ukraine.  Sorry for any confusion.

 

From: Deychak, Orest 
Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 11:08 AM
To: Deychak, Orest
Subject: Ukraine: HC; VOA; NYT; CSM

 


Helsinki Commission


 

Commission Supports Continued Reform in Ukraine

 

WASHINGTON-In the first Congressional hearing on Ukraine in the wake of
President Viktor Yanukovych's February election, U.S. Helsinki
Commission Chairman Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD) and Co-Chairman
Congressman Alcee Hastings (D-FL) spoke in favor of continued democratic
reforms in Ukraine. 

 

"President Yanukovych will need to accelerate economic and political
reforms, tackle systemic corruption and overcome the rule of law
deficit, including building up an underdeveloped judiciary to strengthen
its independence," Chairman Cardin said. "Such reforms will reduce
Ukraine's vulnerability to outside pressures and bring it closer to its
stated goals of European integration."

 

"Ukraine has developed an open and pluralistic political system and
media freedoms have expanded," said Co-Chairman Hastings, who served as
deputy head of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly election observation
mission in Ukraine in February and has observed two other national
elections there. "Although Ukraine has had good elections now for the
last five years, I can tell you that you need more than good elections
to make a functioning democracy."

 

Despite close ties to Russia, Yanukovych has declared integration into
the European Union a top priority for his presidency.  At the hearing --
"Ukraine: Moving Beyond Stalemate?" - the U.S. Helsinki Commission
examined the scope of new challenges Ukraine faces and their
implications for U.S. policy, hearing testimony from Daniel A. Russell,
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and
Moldova; Damon Wilson, Vice President and Director of the International
Security Program, Atlantic Council; and Anders Aslund, Senior Fellow,
Peterson Institute for International Economics.

 

A full hearing transcript, including all of the statements by the three
witnesses who testified as well as a written statement from Ukraine's
Ambassador to the United States, will be available today (March 17th) at
www.csce.gov; photos are up on www.flickr.com/helsinkicommission and
video should be up by Noon on www.youtube.com/helsinkicommission.

 

###

The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the
U.S. Helsinki Commission, is an independent agency of the Federal
Government charged with monitoring compliance with the Helsinki Accords
and advancing comprehensive security through promotion of human rights,
democracy, and economic, environmental and military cooperation in 56
countries. The Commission consists of nine members from the U.S. Senate,
nine from the House of Representatives, and one member each from the
Departments of State, Defense, and Commerce.

 

Voice of America television on hearing (in Ukrainian):


http://www.voanews.com/ukrainian/2010-03-16-voa1.cfm


 


The New York Times

WORLD BRIEFING EUROPE

Ukraine: Bid To Ban Military Ties 

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

17 March 2010

Late Edition - Final

5

Ukraine's new governing coalition in Parliament says it will pass a law
preventing the country from joining any military alliances, including
NATO. The coalition supporting the new president, Viktor F. Yanukovich,
says in a formal statement of intent released Tuesday that the
legislation will ''enshrine Ukraine's nonaligned status in law.'' The
move would help Mr. Yanukovich fulfill a campaign promise to prevent
Ukraine's NATO membership. His predecessor, the devoutly pro-Western
Viktor A. Yushchenko, had struggled to gain NATO membership, infuriating
Moscow. Russia, keen to restore Soviet-era influence over former Soviet
states, has been fiercely averse to NATO's eastward expansion.


 


The Christian Science Monitor


www.csmonitor.com


 


Ukrainian vs. Russian language: two tongues divide former Soviet
republic


Ukraine's state language is Ukrainian. But 1 in 3 citizens of the former
Soviet republic is a native Russian language speaker. The result is what
locals call the 'Kiev compromise.' 

By Fred Weir Correspondent 
posted March 15, 2010 at 4:32 pm EDT 

Kiev, Ukraine - 

They call it the "Kiev compromise," and it works like this:

Two people meet and one begins talking in his or her preferred language
- say, Ukrainian. The other responds in Russian, and the conversation
takes off, going back and forth, seemingly without missing a beat. If
you didn't listen closely, you might never guess that there are two
distinctly different languages in play.

That compromise, as a stroll down any Kiev (Kyiv) avenue will confirm,
is a mundane reality. It holds true across large swaths of central
Ukraine. Head west, and Ukrainian gradually becomes the only language
you hear. To the east or south, it's Russian that heavily dominates. Ask
any Kievan what he or she thinks about it and you're liable to get a
live-and-let-live sort of shrug, with the answer that they really don't
think about it much at all. It's just part of getting along.

Not so for politicians, who rate language as one of Ukraine's most
divisive issues. The Constitution cites one state language, Ukrainian,
but demographics show that 1 in 3 Ukrainians is a native Russian
speaker, and about half say Russian is their first language. Political
groups have sprung up to advocate on both sides. 

Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko leaned toward the
nationalist point of view, and Russian-speaking groups assailed him
angrily for decrees that ordered Ukrainian as the sole language to be
used in courts, state service, and academia. Mr. Yushchenko, a fluent
speaker of Russian, famously made his point during visits to Moscow by
conversing with his Kremlin counterpart only through an interpreter.

With the recent election of Viktor Yanukovich, from the heavily
Russified eastern Ukraine, the debate is already assuming a contrary
tone.

The fact that President Yanukovich speaks publicly in Russian is "a
taste of how things are going to be," says Vladimir Vyazivsky, a
parliamentary deputy with Yushchenko's Our Ukraine movement. "It's
terrible to imagine how [Yanukovich] is going to mistreat not just the
Ukrainian language, but also Ukraine's culture and history in future,"
he says.

Ukrainian nationalists say the solution is simple: Everyone who wants to
live here should speak the eponymous language. "We need to create a
united, integrated nation, and that means we must have one common
language. Everyone must speak the state language, Ukrainian," says Pavlo
Movchan, head of the pro-Ukrainian grass-roots group Prosvita.


Reversing Russification


Mr. Movchan argues that the prevalence of Russian in Ukraine is the
result of more than three centuries of domination by Moscow, accompanied
by an aggressive policy of Russification that should now be reversed.

"The Ukrainian state must use the powers of central government to
promote the primacy of Ukrainian through the education system, the
media, courts, culture and so on," he says. "All states do this, and for
us it's a matter of national urgency." 

Nationalists cite a variety of examples, including the United States,
where, despite a large and growing Spanish-speaking minority, English
remains the sole official language.

When Yushchenko came into office, about 60 percent of TV programming was
in Russian and 40 percent in Ukrainian, experts say. After five years of
assertive "Ukrainianization," that ratio has been roughly reversed. But
a quick survey of Kiev newsstands suggests Russian-language newspapers,
books, and magazines remain by far the biggest slice of reading fare.


Consider Canada


Russian-language activists argue that analogies with monolingual
countries do not apply because, they say, they are founding citizens of
the state and not immigrants. "My ancestors have lived on what is now
Ukrainian territory since the 18th century, and we've always been
Russian speakers," says Lyudmilla Kydryavtseva, a professor of
linguistics at Kiev's Shevchenko University. 

Ms. Kydryavtseva says she voted for Ukraine's independence in a 1991
referendum - supported by more than 90 percent of the population - that
established the legal basis for Ukraine to break away from the Soviet
Union.

"When we voted for independence, no one told us we would be forced to
change our age-old identity, to unlearn our native tongue and speak a
different language. That wasn't part of the original deal," she says.

Russian-language activists want to make Russian the second state
language and point to countries with more than one official tongue,
including Canada, Switzerland, and India. "There is this pervasive
suggestion that if you speak Russian, you're not a loyal or true
Ukrainian. This makes Russian-speakers feel like second- class
citizens," says Ruslan Bortnik, vice chairman of Russian-Speaking
Ukraine, an advocacy group.


Living with compromise


Yanukovich has pledged to improve the status of the Russian language as
part of an effort to reconcile with Ukraine's main trading partner,
Russia, after several years of frozen relations.

On March 11, President Yanukovich said he would no longer seek to
promote Russian to a state language, and two days later Ukrainian
parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn warned that Russian would become the
country's main language if given official status.

For now, nationalists may be appeased. But critics say Yanukovich is
playing with fire. 

"If Russian were an official language, the main fear is that it would be
a wide-open door for Russian influence in Ukraine," says Oleksiy
Kolomiyets, president of the Center for European and Transatlantic
Studies in Kiev.

Others say that if the politicians would not stir the pot, Ukrainians
could live with the Kiev compromise. 

"Young people today are easy with both languages," says Alexander
Chekmyshev, chairman of the Committee for Equal Access, a venerable
grass-roots voters' group. "They may speak Russian among themselves, but
they sing the national anthem in Ukrainian at football matches. They
show that they're proud of their country in many ways," he says. 

 

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