The USA and Ukraine are countries that never officially had political and territorial conflicts between them. Moreover, Ukraine and the USA

are mutually interested in a strategic partnership. However, in spite of a background of destructive PR-campaigns of separate Ukrainian and

American politicians, the modern America’s image has lost its attractiveness for many Ukrainians. And Ukraine for many years was being watched

suspiciously from behind the ocean.

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International information and analytical edition | Ukraine | The Kiev Times | May-June 2013

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DEADLY TRUTH

CHRONICLESOF LATE SPRING

TOWARDS THE 70TH ANNI-VERSARY OF THE OPERATION «KIEV OFFENSIVE»

THE BRIDGE. NBA STARS IN UKRAINE

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In the previous three years the events in Middle East and Maghreb area acquired an extremely important meaning in the context of the global safety. Instability, since so called «Arab spring» right up until today, is generating new conflicts in different points of the world. Syria was no exception. A country that three years ago was flourishing, now lies in ruins. Militants from all over the world with the support from several countries of the «democratic» west kill Syria’s civilians by hundreds... Today, as never before, the world needs to hear the Syrian people’s voice.

For a long time in Ukraine there was a fashion for a «third force». According to its «possessors» original concept, it had to appear between the authorities and the opposition to lead disappointed and disbelieved masses. The main mistakes of its «bearers» consisted in the fact that to «appear» from «between»…

Ukraine celebrated the 9th of May. More than half a million people took part in the solemn events for the Victory Day. Which kind of day it was in the capital and the regions?

Famous political publicist, professor of St Cyril and St Methodius University of Veliko Turnovo, Doctor of Philosophy from Bulgaria Mincho Minchev has devoted one of his articles to the Eurasianism ideology, having entitled it: «Eurasianism as a national fate». If the Bulgarian professorship thinks about Eurasian ideology, it won’t be too much for us to look at the conceptual foundations of this doctrine, especially since the Ukrainians also were related to its birth.

The necessity of diversification of Ukraine’s power supply today isn’t rejected by any political force in Ukraine. But the idea of extracting shale gas provoked in the Ukrainian community as much enthusiasm as aversion.

Ukraine’s long-term tribulations – between the East and the West seem to be drawn to a close. Both the EU and Russia got tired with Ukrainian multi-directionality familiar to the whole world. An escalation is appointed for autumn: in November 2013 Ukraine should sign the Association Agreement with the EU, provided that Ukraine fulfills concrete steps for answering to the questions formulated by the European Union Council.The signature of the agreement, no matter what they say, will automatically entail moving away from Russia, entangling their bilateral relations and breaking of their economic ties. That’s what Vladimir Putin repeatedly mentioned, and for the present we have no reason not to trust his threatening.

Elections in Kiev should become the main political event of 2013. But they won’t bring any significant changes. The results of the opposition in the majority of Kiev constituencies during the autumn elections have brought out the expectation that the opposition representative would be able to lead the capital. But even without this beautiful dream, the elections for Kiev’s Mayor should become the main political event of the year.

The case of the Russian pilot Yaroshenko reveals a non-Hollywood reverse side of the special services’ work and US justice, and it depends on Ukraine whether a wrong thing would be righted.

SAID AQIL: THIS IS A DELICATE WAR – A WAR WITHOUT LOSSES

THE 2013 VICTORY DAY: A HOLIDAY! A SCANDAL?

EURASIANISM AS THE TIME CHALLENGE

KARL SHLITER: SHALE GAS IS A GREAT RISK FOR THE FUTURE

ANATOLY TOLSTOUKHOV: THIRD REPUBLIC AS A DONUT HOLE

KIEV: SYMBOLIC VICTORY, SYMBOLIC AUTHORITIES

UKRAINE’S GEOPOLITICAL MYTHOLOGY IN FIGURES

US SPECIAL AGENTS IN UKRAINE

THE KIEV TIMES | MAY-JUNE 2013 2 SOCIETY

For years since the Ukrainian independence,

the Great Victory holiday has never celebrated without incidents. And now, after the parliament being joined by the «Svoboda» and the Communists, whose attitudes radically differ about the Great Patriotic War, the country stood on the threshold of the holiday waiting for another innovations and scandals.

Fortunately, the 2013 Victory Day was not saddened by serious incidents, though there were the preconditions for that. As is well known, in the morning of the 9th of May the Lvov circuit Administrative Court took the decision of prohibiting any meetings and other mass actions conducted by veteran organizations and political forces. But the activists came anyway to the Mars field and the Hill of Glory – one unfolding copies of the Victory flag, the other standing with banners «Moscals – go home!», «Fascism equal to socialism, equal to death». But for the first time over the past several years, the police cordon let everybody – both young people in gym suits and the veterans – in to the venues, without any exception.

However, there were some skirmishes, traditional for Ukraine. This year Ternopol «caused a stir». There was a fight between the activists of «Svoboda» and the police. «Fighters for the Ukrainian idea» tried to prevent the communists from laying flowers to the Eternal fire. There were victims in that scuffle – one MP from «Svoboda» had his shirt torn, and another’s face was damaged. The skirmishes between the policemen and the «Svoboda» representatives led to six people’s arrest. The Ternopol Region Prosecution launched criminal proceedings for public order gross violation (part 2 of clause 296 of Ukrainian Criminal Code).

In Ivano-Frankovsk the solemn actions have been picketed by about 100 activists of the same «Svoboda», who protested against the use of red flags. The Communistic Party representative came to the celebration with a large wreath in the form of the five-point star with sickle and hammer. The «Svoboda» representatives brought large banners with the inscriptions: «Say NO to the occupants’ flags!» and «Red flags – NO!». The local authorities laid garlands on the monument of Motherland without any holiday speeches.

While the West was fighting, the East was singing! More than 5 thousand residents of the Donetsk region choired «The Victory Day» song, thus holding a new record – as the press-service of the Donetsk regional state administration said: the largest «victory» singing in Ukraine’s history. A correspondent record in the Ukraine’s Record book has been made by its representative

Igor Pidbichiy. He filed a complaint against Donetsk’s Governor Andrey Shishatsky and Mayor Alexander Lukyanchenko, who took part in the chorus, singing as well.

The residents of Kirovograd have also «entered the history»: for some reason, they painted manholes with the colors of…St. George’s ribbon. Manholes were painted on the street that received the parade of the 9th of May. The City Administration became angry about such initiative: it turned out that nobody gave permission to paint the manholes. Now the law-enforcement officers are looking for the painters in order to force them to paint back the manholes to their neutral colors.

In Odessa, in addition to the traditional parade, there was a large-scaled pageant gathering thousands of citizens. Any picture of the Victory Day’s celebration won’t be complete without this pageant’s description. On a meadow in the area of Luzanovka beach there was a reconstruction of one of the last GPW battles that took place close to Berlin in May 1945. According to the pageant’s plot, a small squadron of German soldiers, worn by battles, was trying to burst through to the west in order not to surrender to the Americans, but instead of them they met the forefront elements of the Red Army. The fight lasted for half an hour. After the end of the battle, the soldiers kneeled before the veterans and congratulated them.

According to a longstanding tradition, Sevastopol celebrated the 9th of May by a large military parade with the participation of both the Ukrainian and the Russian fleets. Marines of the two countries walked in common columns and children carried portraits of those liberators who didn’t survive to this day. This year the parade was attended by veterans from Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia invited by the city management. The widened scenario of Sevastopol’s

THE 2013 VICTORY DAY:Ukraine celebrated the 9th of May. More than half a million people took part in the solemn events for the Victory Day. Which kind of day it was in the capital and the regions?

Olga Medvedeva

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parade predictably provoked the Ukrainian nationalists’ protest: the Verkhovna Rada deputy from «Svoboda» Eduard Leonov called «illegal» the parade and asked the prime-minister to explain «on what ground does a foreign state demonstrate its military potential on the Ukrainian territory». In contrast to the nationalists’ prohibition of the Soviet symbols and their aggressive rhetoric, the Crimean residents organized the motor rally «Our great Victory», in which 10 crews from all over the CIS took part. The participants of to the event brought a Victory Flag’s enlarged copy with them and unfolded it in the large cities on their way. The rally started in Sevastopol on the 23d of March, their route, of a length of 25 thousand kilometers, passed through 95 cities of Ukraine, Trans-Dniester Region, Moldavia and Russia and finished in Moscow on the 8th of May.

In the capital, the Victory Day was celebrated without unnecessary pathos and scope. There were no heavy tanks nor planes in the sky. Nobody invited the veterans to walk along the central square, as well. They only confined themselves to the military-demonstrative step and a single tank. In Kiev’s Park, the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych laid flowers to the grave of the Unknown Soldier, honoring the memory of the fallen warriors. Besides that, the Head of State brought flowers to the bust of his patron space

pilot Georgiy Beregovoy. In the solemn actions also took part the first President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk, the Verkhovna Rada chairman Vladimir Rybak, the first vice-minister Sergey Arbuzov, the National Security and Defense Council’s secretary Andrey Kluev and the chairman of Kiev City State Administration Alexander Popov. Regionals, communists and oppositionists mixed near the Eternal Glory memorial. All of them, for some reason, decided to honor the fallen at the same time. By the way, the opposition had to listen to many «thanksgivings» from the veterans and charges in hypocrisy from ordinary citizens. The Ukrainian democratic politicians, in harmony with those who justify the OUN-UPA activity, had to swallow capacious «Fascists!» and «Bandera kaput!» claimed by the visitors of the Glory Park.

In short, they all were together, besides the Kiev residents themselves. If in previous years, people stood along the entire Kreschatik in several rows, this year there were more policemen than celebrating citizens. Long holidays in the high season of «potatoes» planting have played their role.

Politicians who haven’t been called to the official part of the celebration didn’t forget to promote themselves using such a blessed occasion. Calls not to

celebrate the Victory Day very «successfully» laid upon the canvas of the May Easter holidays.

People’s deputy from «Svoboda» Irina Farion appeared at the morning meeting for the World War II victims. «Their «pobeda» (Victory in Russian language) will never be our «peremoga» (Victory in Ukrainian). The empire that was called the USSR and its colony, the Ukrainian SSR, weren’t our states, so we had nobody to protect and nothing to fight for. But there was our native land and a single army – the Ukrainian rebel one – that protected this», said Farion. «That’s why to call this a victory means to be false, primitive and merely sado-maso», she said and added that there couldn’t be any consent between the UPA soldiers and the Red Army until the Nuremberg-2 over Communism is organized.

The pardoned ex-Minister of Interior Yuri Lutsenko considers that the 9th of May should be recognized as a day of sorrow, not a holiday. «Two of my grandfathers finished the war under the Reichstag. My friend Taras Stetskiv’s relatives fought in the UPA. Those were the fates of our ancestry; that was their comprehension of their duty of fighting against evil, for their land and their families. To oppose their choice means continuing the war. This is the wish of those scoundrels who turned the 9th of May into the Stalin day», said Lutsenko.

Alas, people’s deputies have

never learnt to do something good for their electors during the inter-election period, and those untalented people from the political advertisement have never learnt to do miracles from the air, that’s why they do them from the «red calendar days». However, in spite of the mass victory of «gardens» over the memory, and the attempts to lessen the value of the Victory, the holiday took place. There were flowers for the

veterans, touching photos of front-line soldiers with children, lively dialogues, stories of the winners about operations, queues for St. George’s ribbons, and front songs. For the majority of the Ukrainians (82%) the 9th of May is still a holiday. That’s what the results of a survey conducted by Research&Branding Group indicate. Only for 13% of our fellow citizens the Victory Day is an ordinary day-off, and for 3% of them it is a working day at all. The largest amount of those for whom the 9th of May is a great holiday is among the residents in South (91%), East (89%) and Center (87%) Ukraine, among people 50-54 years old (87%) and older than 55 years old (88%), as well as among city dwellers (86%). As an ordinary day-off, the 9th of May is more often considered by residents of West Ukraine (28%) and youth up to 30 years old (19%).

Of course, the 9th of May is a holiday not only for those who were killed for the victory, those who were on the battlefields and at the rear, on a labor front; this is also a holiday for their living children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And together with the wishes for health and long living to the veterans we’d like to wish us, their descendants, to be patient and to understand anybody’s point of view and the fact that nobody has monopoly on the truth. Because everything in this life has a meaning only when there is mutual understanding, health and peace.

Congratulations and thanks for everything!

A HOLIDAY! A SCANDAL?

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THE KIEV TIMES | MAY-JUNE 2013 4

It was the most powerful of all battle-fronts, counting 44

infantry and 3 cavalry divisions, 5 armored divisions and 2 mechanized corps.

That period the Hitlerite command considered Kiev’s directions to be the most important ones. The Voronezh front concentrated 30 German divisions including armored divisions. The enemy army had 3600 ammunition and mortars, about 400 tanks and mobile guns, and 665 planes. Having good roads on the right bank of the Dnieper, the enemy had an advantage in freedom of maneuver. Its ground troops supported the 4th air corps, which had time to transfer its base to the well-placed airdromes across the Dnieper.

To take Kiev by a simple punch in the face would be impossible. That’s why the front commander made the decision to destroy the enemy groups and release Kiev with the help of other attacks. The main attack was made from the Bukrin bridgehead by the forces of the 40th army under the command of colonel-general K. Moskalenko, the 27th army under the command of lieutenant-general S. Trofimenko and the 3d guard army of general-lieutenant of armored troops P. Rybalko, the 8th guard and the 10th armored corps outflanking Kiev from the southwest; the second attack was made from the Lutezh bridgehead by the forces of the 38th army, strengthened by the 5th guard armored corps, to the south along the Irpen River outflanking Kiev from the northwest. By the 5th day of operation they planned to seize Kiev, with the help of a shock group army to break Kiev–Zhitomir highway, and block the enemy’s escape routes to the west.

The situation, the day before The situation in which the front

operation has been prepared, was hard. In order to strengthen the «Eastern barrage» by the end of September, the Wehrmacht commander repositioned 3 armored and 3 infantry divisions in Kiev’s direction, and by the forces of two armored and two infantry divisions stroke at the Bukrin bridgehead. The soldiers of the 40th and the 3d guard

armored armies fought to the bitter end. But even at the cost of huge losses, the enemy didn’t manage to press our army.

On the 11th of October, in such complex conditions, the offensive started. The enemies were hardly defending themself and they were not able to dissipate the opposition. The Commander of the Voronezh front (that was renamed into the 1st Ukrainian front, since the 20th of October) decided to temporarily suspend any dynamic actions. The building of a large lift bridge was launched at the Bukrin bridgehead in the area of Kozintsy village. The bridge was built in just 11 days, under the enemy bombardment.

The Supreme Command Stavka and the 1st Ukrainian front command, after analyzing the October battles, came to the following conclusion: they needed new solutions, on the basis of another operative conception.

There was no expediency to assault Kiev from the Bukrin bridgehead: the suddenness has been lost. The preparation for the new operation has begun on the 24th of October by the Supreme Command Stavka signing of the directive. It stated: «…To

regroup the troops of the 1st Ukrainian front with the purpose of fortification of the right wing of the front, with the urgent task to destroy the enemy and seize Kiev...».

Commander’s order On the 1st of November at

the Lutezh bridgehead in Novo-Petrovtsy, the Commander of the front, Vatutin, conducted the meeting of the officers and politicians of the 38th army. It was attended by representative of the Supreme Command Stavka G. Zhukov. Moskalenko announced his decision and put the tasks to the commanders of the formations. Then the course of the tasks accomplishment and the issues of interaction had been worked over on site.

The Commander of the front ordered to start offensives by the main attack group. The offensive has been scheduled for 8:40 on

the 3d of November. During the night the troops took their initial positions and a sapper defused the minefields.

Two days before On the 1st of November

the 40th and the 27th armies launched their offensives from the Bukrin bridgehead. The attack of the enemy’s towards defenses on separate areas allowed our troops to move to the distance of about 1,5 km. In spite of self-denying actions of the attackers, they didn’t manage to develop the planned success. Using barrage and counter-attacks, the enemy

stopped the attackers with the help of tanks.

However, the main thing has been done: the front command ascertained that the staff of the German-Fascist group of armies

«South» and its Commander Manschtein weren’t able to know about the changes in our troops and didn’t suspect about the new operative plan of the 1st Ukrainian front command.

Morning, the 3d of November Due to the fog, the aerial

softening-up of the attack has become impossible. At 8.00 the artillery rained down its fire on the first position of the enemy defense, farther north than Kiev, on the artillery, the signal office centers, the points of control and the enemy reserves. After 40 minutes, without a pause, the artillery preparation was transferred to the artillery support

of the attacking troops – the barrage. The Hitlerites incurred in huge losses of men, weapons and military equipment. The majority of their defensive installations have been destroyed.

The advanced echelon troops, almost without resistance, started to attack. Nearly without obstacles, the attackers moved 2 kilometers forward. The first intense counter-attack by all their forces, including infantry regiment with tanks, was launched by the enemy only in the afternoon. The pitched battle lasted till late at night and only after losing about a half of their

tanks, the Fascists started to fall back to the north line of Kiev.

However, the tasks of the first attack day hadn’t been completely fulfilled and that could lead to a reduction of the attack speed.

The fact that the enemy only in the nearest reserve had the 7th and the 8th armored and the 20th motorized divisions meant that on the 4th of November the battle near Kiev would be extremely bitter. Stalin demanded Vatutin not to delay the begun operation and again highlighted the meaning of Kiev’s bridgehead for the Fascists’ proscription from the entire Right-Bank Ukraine.

The 4th of November At dawn, the Commander of the

front specified the tasks for the 38th army. The 51st infantry corps of major-general P. Avdeenko had to reach the line Yankovichi-Hodosovka-Kazachiy Island. After entering the breach, the 3rd guard armored army had to block the Kiev-Korosten road and Kiev-Zhitomir highway and reach the Boyarka-Budaevka-Vita Poschtova-Hotov-Zhulyany area, outflank Kiev from the west, and attack Vasilkov and Fastov.

The commanders of the armored corps received a telegram, where Vatutin demanded not to be afraid of cutting off the infantry, boldly destroying the enemy centers of resistance, scaring the enemy, and chasing them non-stop, to take Kiev by the morning of the 5th of November. The 38th and

the 60th armies passed to the offensive. The weather became worse, the rain was drizzling, and the actions of the front aviation became ineffective. The enemy resistance strongly increased, they

tried to launch heavy counter-attacks. A stubborn fight deployed in Puscha-Voditsa area, where the German 7th armored division by counter-attack seized a children sanatorium and half-surrounded our 20th guard armored brigade of the 5th corps, and our 269th infantry regiment of the 163d infantry division. On this area, the commander brought the 340th infantry divisions to the battle.

At the daylight, the troops of the 38th army widened the breach from the Dnieper to the Irpen River by a distance of 2-5 km. There were strong bases of the enemy at Vyshgorod and Berkovtsy. The greatest success was achieved by the 51st infantry corps by reaching Priorka – the northern outskirt of Kiev; the 6th and the 7th guard armored corps were already fighting near Svyatoshyno.

The night from the 4th to the 5th of November

Under the cover of darkness, the Hitlerites started to destroy the city. Our soldiers and officers distinctly saw the light of conflagrations in Kiev and heard explosions of planted landmines. In order not to permit a complete destruction of the city, they had to hurry.

The 7th guard armored corps

launched their night offensive. After the artillery attack the tanks with their lights and sirens on, moved to the enemy. In motion they delivered an intensive fire by guns and machine-guns. The enemy failed and started to withdraw. Pursuing the Hitlerites, the tankers overcame a tank ditch and reached the Kiev-Zhitomir highway. The main communication feeding the Kiev enemy group from the west had been cut off.

The 5th of November By the morning the battle for

Kiev had a turning point. Under the threat of encirclement, the German Fascist command began to withdrawal their troops to the southwest direction. Simultaneously the reposition of the enemy units from the Bukrin bridgehead to the Kiev area had started. At dawn the 2nd air army conducted a bombing attack on the northern and northwest outskirts of Kiev.

The troops of the 38th army, together with the units of the 3d guard armored army, during the 5th of November, by separate directions, shifted to the distance of about 25 km. The 50th infantry corps of general-major S. Martirosyan rounded Kiev from the west and, towards the evening, reached Borschagovka and Zhulyany.

On the left wing, the 38th army deployed battle directly for Kiev. It involved soldiers and officers of the 51st infantry and the 5th guard armored corps and the 1st Czechoslovakia detached brigade. Towards the end of the day these units, having overcome the enemy effective resistance, entered the center of Kiev. Units of the 240th division of General T. Umanskiy, after blocking several enemy furious counter-attacks, rushed in to Podol.

During the night of the 6th of November

There had been battles on the Kiev’s streets. That night became the decisive in its liberation. The Fascist triggermen and incendiaries continued to blow up and burn down the city. Their dirty work was covered by rear guards. Fighting with them, the attackers released street by street, building by building. At midnight the soldiers of the 51st infantry corps burst through Kirov str. from Podol, and left an inscription on one of the bridges: «24.00. The Yakushev battalion entered first. Long live free Ukraine!».

The 20th guard armored brigade of lieutenant colonel S. Shutov doughtily smashed the enemy. His family stayed in the occupied city and it isn’t hard to understand, what he felt by releasing his native city from the enemy.

At 00.30 on the 6th of November the soldiers of the 180th infantry division, headed by general-major F. Shmelev, erected the red flag on the building of the Central Committee of the Ukraine Communist Party. The same flag later also appeared on the building of the Council of People Commissars.

At three o’clock in the morning of the 6th of November, the Commander of the 38th army, Moskalenko and the member of the Council of war Epishev arrived at Kreshchatic. After assuring that the troops had completely seized the city, at 4 o’clock in the morning they reported the front command about the full liberation of the Ukrainian capital.

The Front Commander Vatutin and the representative of the Supreme Command Stavka Zhukov, in the morning of the 6th of November wired to the Supreme Commander: «We are eager to report that the task you’ve set for seizure of our splendid city Kiev – the capital of Ukraine – by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian front is accomplished. Kiev is completely cleaned from the German invaders. The troops of the 1st Ukrainian front continue accomplishing their task». The Kiev’s bridgehead (about 150km to the depth and about 400km along the front), built during the ten-day offensive, later played a huge role in the liberation of Right-Bank Ukraine.

TOWARDS THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF OPERATION «KIEV OFFENSIVE»

It was one of the most powerful operations for the Ukrainian liberation from Nazi occupation. With the Red Army reaching the Dnieper and its immediate forcing in September, October 1943 radically changed the situation in Ukraine. Using this situation, the Soviet command taskedthe Voronezh battle-front to seize Kiev and reach the line of Ovruch-Korosten-Zhitomir-Kazatin

Vladimir Berezhinskiy

Stalin demanded Vatutin not to delay the begun of operation and again ighlighted the meaning of Kiev’s bridgehead for the Fascists’ proscription from the entire Right-Bank Ukraine

Having good roads on the right bank of the Dnieper, the enemy had an advantage in freedom of maneuver. Its ground troops supported the 4th air corps, which had time to transfer its base to the well-placed airdromes across the Dnieper

HISTORY

Kiev in 1943

Kive liberation diorama. The Lutezh bridgehead

Kiev occupation lasted 778 days. During that period, the Fascists badly destroyed and plundered the city. For their participation in the armed resistance, wrecking activity and sabotage Hitler’s chasteners executed more than 195 thousand Kiev’s residents. More than 100 thousand, mostly teenagers, had been driven to Germany for penal servitude. If before the war Kiev had been settled by 900 thousand people, after its liberation only 180 thousand residents were left.From a report of the War Council of the 1st Ukrainian front addressed to the Supreme Commander: «Kiev gives the impression of a dead city. Kiev residents in groups are coming back from forests, swamps, gullies and cemetery crypts».From an assessment of our troops’ actions by the Wehrmacht land forces staff: «…The situation in Kiev indicates the beginning of a huge breach operation, which will have a decisive meaning for the entire Eastern front. The center of the main danger in the «Yug» (South) armies’ area is located in Kiev».From a message by London Radio: «The taking of this city by the Soviet army is a victory that has a huge military and spiritual meaning… Germany hears its funeral bell ringing. Avalanche is getting closer».

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DEADLY TRUTHIdeology of the modern Ukrainian nationalism is perfectly built into the conceptions of the territorial claims from the direction of the neighbors

Boarders in Europe are a quite vague notion. Only in the

last century the boarders were twice considerably reshaped. Uninterruptedly fighting against each other, the European people always had (and have now) big mutual territorial claims. In the XXI century, as before, there is a major subject relating to stability preservation of the boarders that were fixed after the World War II. In this situation of peacekeeping, stability and safety on the continent, the guarantor of these notions are the countries that won the War. And correctness of this statement is demonstrated by a storm of emotions provoked in Western Ukraine by the intention of the Polish Seym to adopt the resolution about «the genocide started by the OUN-UPA in relation to the Polish population of Eastern Kresy in 1939-1947»

In fact, the followers of the

Western Ukrainian nationalism today face a serious problem, because, rejecting contribution of Ukraine to the victory in the World War II and praising the role of the UPA, they prejudice the boarders of Ukraine.

Case about the Volhynia carnage Almost the entire discourse of

modern ideologists of the radical Ukrainian nationalism is built on the cultural and historical subjects. In 1991 the UPA and Bandera took the place of the CPSU and Lenin. From 1991 the penetration of this discourse from western regions became general. Just as the aggressive demands to spurn nonsense of the Soviet period history, accepting true religion of «the Soviet colonialism victim» that unsuccessfully fought for freedom and national identity. According to this ideology, the Ukrainian can be considered only a person, who accepts this quite primitive cultural and historical cliché.

The Polish Seym’s draft resolution – in truth, not the first one – has shaken foundations of the entire nationalistic constitution. The Poles directly stated that considered the OUN, the UPA, «Galicia» SS division and the Ukrainian police on the German service as the criminal elements. And the UPA activity in the «eastern regions of the Second Polish–Lithuanian

Commonwealth» – the genocide of the Polish people. At that the Seym especially emphasizes that has claims not to the Ukrainian people but exceptionally to the stated political and armed forces.

With the same rigidity as the western Ukrainians have, the Poles fix the 11th of June as the Memorial Day of genocide victims that is more commonly known as the «Volhynia carnage», and attack the «cult of Bandera and the UPA». «Meanwhile authorities in Kiev and Warsaw keep full silence, in the Ukrainian cities there appear monuments to Stepan Bandera and other leaders of the OUN, their names are given to the streets and squares; there are marches praising «heroism» of the UPA; there are publications rejecting involvement of the UPA in the Poles’ murders. These tendencies are complete rejection of the ideas of pervious

resolutions of the Seym that called for harmony between the Poles and Ukrainians based on the truth. Today this truth is impudently rejected …Silence about criminal traditions of the OUN-UPA as well as its successors’ activity is a demonstration of short-sightedness that favors lie bearing», the Polish parliament

deputies sure. Response of the local councils of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lutsk to the first persons of Ukraine and Poland, chairmen of the Verkhovna Rada, the Senate and the Seym has a quite usual format. For instance, Lutsk deputies consider that the Poles should «confess to the Ukrainians for longstanding policy of occupation and destruction of the Ukrainian identity». And remember that «similar draft resolutions act exceptionally in the Kremlin’s favor» because worsening of Ukrainian-Polish relations «is advantageous only for the geopolitical interests of the Russian Federation».

Polish lawmakers have been charged by the Ukrainian nationalists in chauvinism, xenophobia and aspiration to «impose somebody’s heroes or forbid other nation to honor theirs». «Besides, the Seym’s draft resolution contains features of territorial claims to Ukraine», the address of the Lutsk city council said. The Lviv residents are more restrained in their speaking but they are also concerned both by territorial pretensions of Poland and the fact that «irresponsible Polish politicians are trying to receive political dividends on the memory about hard past».

Common mood of the western regions has been supported by the Ukrainian MFA. Its representative announced that adoption by the Polish Seym of the statement

about acknowledgement of the OUN-UPA as a criminal organization «won’t meet high level of the strategic partnership between two countries». However,

emotional exhaust «UPA is the Ukrainian nation» (which made no impression on Poland) didn’t bring comprehension of the major question – the territorial one. But that isn’t right, because this subject can blow up relations between Ukraine and Poland.

A hint at Western Kresy In the light of another

prohibition of red flags in the Victory Day in Lviv is astonishing: the right of the Ukrainians to live in their own cathedral state has been acquired just under the «hated symbolic». International legal foundations of the post-war boarders in Europe were laid in summer 1945 by Yalta and Potsdam agreements of the heads of the governments of three allied winner-states – the USSR, the USA and the Great Britain. They were added by the peace treaties signed on the 10th of February 1947 in Paris on behalf of the United Nations.

To the middle of the 70s a complex of double-sided agreements about boarders

consolidating the principle of their imperishability was created. This process finished in 1975 by the Final act of the Helsinki Council for safety and collaboration in Europe, convoked by the initiative of socialistic countries, the members of the Warsaw Pact. Perhaps, this will shock the Lutsk deputies but Russia as an assignee of the USSR is the guarantor of the modern Ukrainian boarders. Besides Ukraine itself has right to pretend to them as an assignee of the USSR state whose considerable contribution to the victory in the World War II has been appraised by the membership in the UNO and 15 international organizations.

The reverse logic, as the Poles have demonstrated, is very simple here. If the stay of Ukraine in the composition of the USSR is openly called «occupation», the same definition can be applied to Poland as well. In 1939-40s its eastern territories were occupied, right? The OUN is a political organization created

by the ethnic Ukrainians on the territory of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. And its military wing formed during the period of heroic struggle of the Poles for independence. From the point of view of the Polish state, the UPA is an armed gang and the Ukrainian S.S. men first of all swore and served Germany – the second Poland’s occupant.

Did they fight for the Ukrainian independence? Maybe. But the Poles perfectly know where its boarder had been before 1939. And if Ukraine was occupied, an appropriate question arises: what did the UPA do in Poland? The Seym and small seyms of separate provinces were unanimous concerning this point: they started genocide and this is the crime without period of limitation. And in general it

doesn’t matter what is the opinion of Lviv or Lutsk concerning this. In fact, the «sovereign» ideology of the Western Ukrainian nationalism is perfectly laid to the ideology of the neighbors directed to rendering of the historical justice like they conceive it for themselves.

For instance, suit with Romania concerning the Black Sea shelf might not exist because the agreements about order of the Soviet-Romanian boarder in 1949 and 1961 have been ratified both by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Romanian parliament. But the Romanians played on Ukrainian ambitions and phobias in relation to Russia – the assignee of the Soviet Union. Repeatedly emphasizing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact’s criminality, in the International Court they offered the line of shelf’s delimitation, coinciding with the boarder of South Bessarabia and Moldova. «The ancient Romanian territories have been tremendously seized by Soviet forces... The south of Bessarabia and the north of Bukovina, together with the area of Herz have been included to the Ukrainian SSR» – another absurd creation of the Stalin policy. «The Romanian territories, released from the Romanian army, were iteratively occupied by the Red Army in August 1944», wrote Ziua newspaper in 2008.

There are a lot of examples we can make concerning argumentativeness of the territory of modern Ukraine – from Carpathian Rus’ to the Crimea. But the main thing is that in modern Europe the principle of the boarders’ imperishability has been strongly diminished by dismemberment of Yugoslavia and creation of Kosovo. The Western Ukrainian deputies didn’t quite intend to prejudice the existent boarders. There would be something too much of this. But the fact that they almost unconsciously put things to the territorial claims from the neighbors’ direction is more than enough.

Dmitry Zaborin, coordinator of «Electronic Memory Book of Ukraine» project

HISTORY

Perhaps, this will shock the Lutsk deputies but Russia as an assignee of the USSR is the guarantor of the modern Ukrainian boarders

The Poles directly stated that considered the OUN, the UPA, «Galicia» SS division and the Ukrainian police on the German service as the criminal elements

In modern Europe the principle of the boarders’ imperishability has been strongly diminished by dismemberment of Yugoslavia and creation of Kosovo

Even 70 years after ethno-political conflict on Volhynia the Ukrainians and Poles can’t forgive their countrymen murder to each other. Notwithstanding the conciliatory public rhetoric of the first persons, any discussion of the «Volhynia carnage» necessarily comes to two things: a dispute about who started first and clarification about who was crueler. The only thing that can hardly be argued is a mutual wish of the Poles and Ukrainians to be undivided owners. The German occupation with involving the Ukrainian population to the service in the police and local administrations has strongly pushed forward its political activity strengthened by totalitarian ideology of Dmitry Dontsov’s integral nationalism. And participation in the Jews’ depopulation brought necessary skills. The Poles on their part didn’t give up a hope to restore their state. As a result of the overlay of the first, second and third issues, the summer of 1943 became a culmination of the Volhynia tragedy. The UPA position was uttered by journal «Do zbroi» (To arms): «Let them go to the Polish native lands to build Poland, because here they can only hasten their disgraceful death». On the 11th of July 1943 there started an action for the Volhynia lands’ liberation with further issue of a decree about transition of the lands of Polish landowners and colonists to the ownership of Ukrainian farms.It is worth to note that these events took place on the territories of the German General district (Generalbezirk) Volhynia-Podolye. But the reasons of mutual hatred have been accumulating since the times of the Brest Union of 1596, which turned the Orthodox Rusyns to the Catholics. As a consequence, mass destruction of the Polish civil population by Bandera followers run across opposition of self-defense troops and the Armia Krajova (Home Army) submitted to the Polish government in banishment. On its part the AK conducted «blind» retribution actions in response to the UPA terror, destroying those Ukrainian villages that were closer. The end of the carnage has been put by approaching of the front hence the large associations of the Soviet partisans.To the 60th anniversary of the events the Presidents of Ukraine and Poland in 2003 adopted «The mutual statement «About reconciliation in the 60th anniversary of the tragic events in Volhynia». However, the attempts to completely put the blame for the Volhynia carnage on each other stop neither in Ukraine nor in Poland.

«The Volhynia carnage»: unlimited counting

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THE KIEV TIMES | MAY-JUNE 2013 6 SOCIETY/THE TKT SPECIAL PROJECT

The Kiev Times Ukrainian edition and the USA’s Spiritual Diplomacy Foundation have become initiators of an international non-governmental project – THE BRIDGE – according to which in April 2013 the visit of the NBA stars to Ukraine took place. The visit

has been a gesture of unification on the level of human relations between Ukrainian and American people.

The American basketball stars’ visit has been introduced by the premier publication of the USA-Ukrainian Observer, the

first journal about Ukraine for a wide American audience. The issue involved assistants of the US presidents, high military commanders, famous politicians, writers and public figures and this is the evidence of a high interest for truthful information about Ukraine. The NBA

veterans’ delegation in Ukraine included bright stars of the American basketball. Anthony Bonner, David Wood, Paul Grant, and James Bartolotta – the famous NBA veterans from the SportPower team – have already visited 25 countries. But Ukraine left an imperishable impression

in their hearts.The guests attended the Chernobyl APP, the Kiev’s basketball school and special hostels for children with psychological impairments.

Within the visit there were working meetings with the Kiev

Arena stadium project group.A documentary about the delegation’s stay in Ukraine is going to be shown on the Ukrainian and American television in September.

Meetings with the basketball stars have become real holiday

THE BRIDGE. NBA STARS IN UKRAINEThe USA and Ukraine are countries that never officially had political and territorial conflicts between them. Moreover, Ukraine and the USA are mutually interested in a strategic partnership. However, in spite of a background of destructive PR-campaigns of separate Ukrainian and American politicians, the modern America’s image has lost its attractiveness for many Ukrainians. And Ukraine for many years was being watched suspiciously from behind the ocean

Alexandra Pogorelaya

Meeting of Viktor Yanukovych with the American NBA veterans

Meeting of the NBA stars with fans at the airport

David Wood teaches Kiev children to adroitly throw the ball into the basket

The official press-conference of the NBA stars entitled "Legendary stars of the NBA in Kiev" in UNIAN

A trip to the ethnic center Pirogovo

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www.thekievtimes.ua 7SOCIETY/THE TKT SPECIAL PROJECT

for some poor children. Festive atmosphere was complemented by circus artists and Ukrainian showbiz stars.

The NBA veterans conducted a master-class for children of the Kiev’s basketball school that was attended by 200 young

sportsmen. The apotheosis of this sport event has become a friendly match between sports school children and American professionals.

The basketball players visited the St. Sophia Cathedral and walked along some historical places

in Kiev. Within THE BRIDGE project, the NBA veterans, the head of the Spiritual Diplomacy Foundation, Michael Morgulis, and the publisher of The Kiev Times, Alexander Seriy, met the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych. The President thanked the delegation

members for their attentive attitude toward Ukraine. Viktor Yanukovych has highly assessed the aid to the Ukrainian children rendered by the Spiritual Diplomacy Foundation. The Head of State assured the guests that Ukraine has always been respectful to America and

its people. He noted that our countries used to be the allies in their struggle against Nazism in the World War II.

Head of the Spiritual Diplomacy Foundation Michael Morgulis in his response speech, told: «We have to be allies in a peaceful

life. Let’s build bridges of love between our people».At the end of the meeting the sportsmen presented Viktor Yanukovych the ball with the American basketball stars’ autographs and wished Ukraine «…to overcome complexities on its difficult historical path».

Anthony Bonner played in the NBA for 6 seasons for the Sacramento Kings (1990/91-1992/93), the New York Knicks (1993/94, 1994/95) and the Orlando Magic (1995/96).David Leroy Wood played in the NBA for a long time (1988-1997). In the US team in 1998, during the Basketball World Championship, he received the bronze medal.Paul Grant made his debut in the NBA on the 5th of February 1999, with a victory over the Denver Nuggets. He played for the Rockford Lightning (1999-2000). In 2000/01 season he played for the Los Angeles Stars and the Indiana Legends. In 2007 Grant was an assistant of the MIT Men’s basketball couch.James Bartolotta. His main awards: D3Hoops National – player of the year; the Jostens Trophy, 2009 NABC – player of the year. According to the Academic journal, Bartolotta entered the «Americans of the year» list.Anthony Bonner: «Sport has no limits. No matter what country you’re going to play for, the main things are your emotions, your feelings, all that is happening to you»… Michael Morgulis: «Through sport we wish to divert children and youth from drugs and temptations, to let them direct their mind and energy to the right course. We wish Ukrainian and American people to be close».

Meeting with the management of the "Devision Enterntainment Company - the developers of multi-functional concert-sport arena, which will receive the final of the "Eurobasket-2015" tournament

Visit of charity fund "Aspern"

Kiev city tourMaster-class for teenagers in school

A trip to the ethnic center Pirogovo

THE KIEV TIMES | MAY-JUNE 2013 8

The end of the neurosis The signature of the agreement,

no matter what they say, will automatically entail moving away from Russia, entangling their bilateral relations and breaking of their economic ties. That’s what Vladimir Putin repeatedly mentioned, and for the present we have no reason not to trust his threatening.

However, there are reasons to consider that Viktor Yanukovych

cannot take such a decision by his own – this responsibility would be too big, and the determination of the country’s external vector is going to be shifted forward to all Ukrainians. In other words, be submitted to a referendum. What the results of this referendum can be, and whose side the Ukrainians’ sympathies are taking today – it is not as simple question as it may appear, and it is difficult to find an answer; as much difficult as it may be to find promoters of these or those surveys.

Data of sociological tests considerably differ. For example, we can compare the data of those surveys, which have been recently published:– 40% of the population consider that the signature of the Free Trade Zone Agreement with the EU is more advantageous for Ukraine than joining to the Customs Union (37%) (survey of the sociological group «Rating»);– 57% of Ukrainians support the integration to the Customs Union (data of a survey conducted at the request of the Medvedchuk «Ukrainian Choice»);– 46% support joining the Customs Union («Social Monitoring» Center);– 52% support Ukraine joining the EU (data of the Deutsche Welle).

Considering such controversies, for the analysis of the Ukrainians’ foreign political preferences, we addressed to the recent study of «Key Communications» (conducted from October 2012 to

January 2013), which was ordered by the Great Britain Embassy in Ukraine. At the same time, Great Britain isn’t a lobbyist of Ukraine in the EU and takes a traditionally neutral position in relation to our country, and the study given below wasn’t used for PR-campaigns or any creation of media-occasions.

Before starting the analysis of the situation, it’s worth to note that the level of awareness of the

Ukrainian citizens concerning the Association Agreement with the EU and the Free Trade Zone is extremely low. There is no elucidatory and agitation work at all – we are accustomed to consider that the idea of Europe itself is so attractive that it doesn’t need popularization. Meanwhile, a number of political and social organizations are occupied in the Customs Union’s informational campaign: from Viktor Medvedchuk’s «Ukrainian Choice» to organizations such as «Russian-speaking Ukraine». All major cities host round tables and conferences, gathering the opinion leaders of the region, during which the followers of the idea of joining Ukraine to the

CU explain the benefits of such step, simultaneously persuading people that Ukraine will never be an equivalent partner for the EU and that it will loose much more joining the Free Trade Zone.

In spite of the fact that Ukraine doesn’t take measures for any agitation in favor of the FTD, the Ukrainian authority is obviously preparing to an alliance with the EU, and to make concessions to the Europeans. The seriousness of these steps has clearly shown that Viktor Yanukovych hopes to celebrate the New Year 2014 in the Free Trade Zone – pardon to

Yuri Lutsenko has become not the only, but the very demonstrative act inside the general program of liberalization of the current authorities’ image in the West.

But what if all these actions

would be vain and people would vote against the European vector? What Viktor Yanukovych would do? Would he imprison Lutsenko again, and get back to the old good rhetoric about the common spiritual root of three fraternal peoples? It doesn’t seem that the Administration is ready to take such risk; most likely the result of the Referendum is either provided or predetermined.

What has the analysis shown?

According to the results of the analytic study «Key Communications» we mentioned above, in general the population doesn’t have any formulated view of the integration processes: about 30% of the questioned people spoke for the integration with the EU, 30% for the Customs Union, and about 30% didn’t decide what to answer. Meanwhile, the number of citizens who simultaneously support both the blocks is still stable (25-30%). As it was demonstrated by 2011-2012 tendencies, the number of the CU integration followers is growing, due to those citizens who «didn’t decide on their answers».

The level of Euro-integration support, in the expert

environment and RPA (Research and Production Association), makes about 80%, however their influence on the public opinion is still extremely restricted: 32,1% generally don’t trust social organizations, 23,5% completely don’t trust them. Meanwhile, 72,7% of population are not sure that it could have any impact on taking political solutions. The results of these studies also indicate that part of the Ukrainian population does not accept its country as an European state.

Ukrainian citizens’ perception of the integration processes

1. More than a third of the Ukrainian citizens (33%) are willing to consider that Ukraine in the EU is taken as a raw-material base and cheap manpower resource. Only 7% of Ukrainians consider Ukraine as a partner for the EU. Meanwhile, 44% of the questioned people think that Ukraine is taken as a raw-material base in Russia and 26% consider the relations between the two countries to be rather brotherly or friendly (25%).2. The Community has approximately similar expectations concerning a collaboration with the EU and the Customs Union; at the same time there are considerable advantages in relation to the latter:• positive development of trade and economic relations: with the EU – 65,9%, with the Customs Union – 71,1%;• improvement of relations with the EU countries – 63,2%, with the Customs Union – 71,8%.

Evaluating the perspectives of

an economic growth through the integration, 29,9% of Ukrainians consider that the progress would be rather achieved together with the Customs Union (23,3% hesitate), and 25,3% with the EU (28% hesitate).3. Meanwhile, citizens recognize that there are certain problems in Ukrainian-Russian relations, among which there are:• energetic dependence – 45%;• distrust of each other’s political management – 32%;• economic dependence – 24%.All doubts concerning the necessity of an integration to the CU are reasoned by the fact that the economics of the countries entering the Union can’t be called successful (29,2%), as well as by the difference between foreign courses in Ukraine and Russia. The number of factors influencing the level of uncertainty in the necessity of an integration with the EU include:• financial crisis in the EU – 31,9%;• aggravation of the economic competitiveness between the EU and the RF – 25,4%;• doubts about that this would lead to any progress in Ukrainian economy – 21%;• fears about that the EU would impose its positions to the third countries – 17,9%.4. In relations with the EU, citizens first of all pay attention to the economic issues of:– trade – 77%;– economic development – 76%;– regional collaboration – 71%;– migrations – 60%.

The general attention in relation to the Russian

Federation that citizens are focusing on, are economic coincidence (38%), political interests (26%), and political leaders’ will (21%).

It is worth noticing, that receiving the information about the CU and the FTZ from different sources, Ukrainians are mostly inclined to trust information from European editions and international magazines.

Equality as a diagnosis

As these researches demonstrate, there is an almost permanent and surprisingly equal division between the EU followers and the CU followers, in the Ukrainian society. For the majority of citizens the pro-Western and pro-Eastern position is an essential and ideological choice, suggesting either liberal sympathies or choice in favor of a conditional post-Soviet empire. In spite of this conflict tension, a quite considerable share includes citizens, whose position isn’t determined. In addition, there is a considerable layer of citizens that prefer not to participate in any geopolitical associations.

Besides, the situation is considerably complicated by the fact that both Europe and the Customs Union, in Ukrainians’ conscience are represented by a set of patterns, mythologized images of a resuscitated Soviet Union – the kingdom of equality and cheap products on one hand, and an incredibly high level of living in a boundless and clean Europe on the other hand. The functioning of these patterns is in general advantageous for the majority of functionaries both of the CU and the local European integrators, greatly because the agitation on an essential level requires immeasurably more intellectual costs – a resource that Ukrainian politicians don’t possess.

And this means that, in this case, if the question about the foreign political vector of the Ukrainian development will be submitted to a referendum, the majority of citizens will vote for a sales brochure, not having realized what a responsible step they had made. In the case if it will be possible to say that it is true will of the people.

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044 486 3360www.lg-d.com

Differentiation of the Ukrainian population according to the geographic and demographic features remains stable:

Ukraine West Center South East

Joining the EU 38,3 70,1 50,6 28,9 11,9

Joining the Customs Union 36 7 23,9 47 60

Non-joining any organization 10,8 12,8 10,5 11,8 9,4

Difficult to answer 14,8 10 15 12,2 18,8

Age 18-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+

Joining the EU 50,80% 44,50% 37,70% 31,40% 27,70%

Joining the Customs Union 25,40% 30,20% 36,30% 41,30% 45,90%

Non-joining any organization 10% 12,60% 10% 12% 10,20%

Difficult to answer 13,90% 12,70% 16% 15,30% 16,20%

Ukraine’s long-term tribulations between the East and the West seem to be drawn to a close. Both the EU and Russia got tired with Ukrainian multi-directionality familiar to the whole world. An escalation is appointed for autumn: in November 2013 Ukraine should sign the Association Agreement with the EU, provided that Ukraine fulfills concrete steps for answering to the questions formulated by the European Union Council

UKRAINE’S GEOPOLITICAL MYTHOLOGY IN FIGURES Matviy Levin

COVER STORY

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Pardon to Yuri Lutsenko has become not the only, but the very demonstrative act inside the general program of liberalization of the current authorities’ image in the West

More than a third of the Ukrainian citizens are willing to consider that Ukraine in the EU is taken as a raw-material base and cheap manpower resource

www.thekievtimes.ua 9UKRAINE/EVENTS

CHRONICLES OF LATE SPRING This year spring amused the Ukrainians not only by flood and a sudden change of clothing – from fur coats-jackets to T-shirts-baggies – but also by abundance of news. How was the Ukrainian life during last month?

Death on the threshold of a Hospital

Another scandal spread through the country. Sad statistics of deaths because of medical negligence has been complemented by an egregious case. On the 23rd of April a man was killed on one of Kiev’s central streets. The man, deeply wounded, was laying under the windows of private medical clinic «Healthy&Happy Ukraine» and didn’t receive any medical assistance. The hospital administrator informed that the clinic receives clients only by prerecord and that all doctors were busy at that moment. Only after some witnesses of the accident introduced themselves as journalists, a doctor came out to see the dying man. But unfortunately he didn’t manage to save his life. The ambulance also arrived after his death. Later, at the press-conference, the head-doctor of the clinic, said that the girl-administrator had medical education but had never work as a health care worker, not even for a single day, and was confused by that situation. «There are definite imperfections in the speed of rendering assistance, but a qualified specialist rendered his assistance before the ambulance arrived», he said. While the Ukrainians were indignant for the Internet information, posted on Facebook by the witnesses of that tragedy, the website of the clinic was shut, and the company’s page in the social network filled with outrageous comments. «That has nothing to do with me! Yes, this is Hippocratic style!» – this is the most inoffensive of them. Even the slogan of the clinic – «Нealthy&Happy is our philosophy, that determines our work and which you can count

on» – now is considered as a mockery. Kiev’s police started a criminal case for non-rendering of assistance to a person who died in result of a knife wound, received on Saxaganskogo str. That’s what the press-secretary of the Goloseevo police department, Yulia Mustasch, said. «Criminal proceedings have been started under the clause 139 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code – non-rendering of assistance to a patient by a medical worker – who is obliged to render such kind of assistance, according to the established rules – so entailing the patient’s death», the police press-service informed.

An Ukrainian is going to Mars It’s most likely possible to

escape from the Ukrainian realities only by changing the place of living. And settle not only somewhere abroad but maybe even on another planet. Ukrainian Dmitry Kuhtaruk wasn’t scared to take «one-way ticket» to… Mars, willing to take part in the ambitious project of a «red planet» settlement that was initiated by the Dutch. According to the organizers’ plans, in 10 years, four Earthlings will move to a permanent location on Mars. A 22-years-old student, a dentist from Ivano-Frankovsk, has already passed the first stage of the selection to the Martians. The main motive of his resettlement on Mars, according to Dmitry, is to benefit the humanity. By the way, any return of these people to the Earth is not provided. And there are no guarantees that the flight will be successful and that people will be able to live on Mars. First Ukrainian spaceman Leonid Kadenuk doesn’t approve this irretrievable flight: «One should be able to fly to the space,

work there and come back home, to the Earth. No human being has to live on other planets all the time», says Kadenuk. He wishes Dmitry to study hard to have extensive knowledge in all sciences, engage in sports and prepare psychologically.

«Martians» are going to Georgia

The former Head of Kiev, Leonid Chernovetsky, also decided to leave Ukraine. But currently «the Mayor of all Martians» is not going to Mars, but only to Georgia, to the spa town of Kobuleti. There Chernovetsky has been building for one year his family estate and in autumn is going to have a house-warming on 5 hectares of land. The capital ex-Mayor’s

farmstead has been built in a high-tech style and it much resembles to the house of his daughter Kristina in Koncha-Zaspa: the same glass doors, details made of transparent plastic, flat unfinished roof. Chernovetsky fell in love with Georgia, because of his first wife Alina Ayvazova, with whom he

often rested on the Black Sea coast. In addition, the former capital mayor maintained friendly relations with the Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili. There are many star neighbors. One of them is the Georgia’s Minister of Energetic, formerly the football player of «Dynamo», Kakha Kaladze.

And a wizard will come on a blue helicopter

Of course, these are not all of the miracles. During the May holidays in Odessa witnesses saw a super-modern helicopter, which was flying along the coast, from time to time landing on the closed territory of one of the boarding-houses. Surely, it wasn’t a wizard flying on it. It was the regional deputy Vasiliy

Khmelnitsky. In addition to the blue helicopter, the deputy has his own residence and a private boarding-house with its own beach. Khmelnitsky himself assures that he has only an indirect relation to this object: «A boarding-house is built there, and a friend of mine rents a house, – the deputy told a TV channel. – Sometimes I fly to him by a rented helicopter, I can afford it». Light multi-purpose helicopter Bell 429 was developed by the Bell Helicopter Textron Company. This is the first Bell 429 in Europe, and the 27th produced by the factory. His cost makes from 4.5 to 5 million US dollars.

A people’s deputy put himself for auction

However, not all deputies have enough money to buy a helicopter. Some of them don’t even have money for their own pre-election campaign and they resort to untraditional methods of getting the cherished sums. Thus, Oleg Lyashko who heads the radical party of Ukraine is trying to make an auction. He is going to offer everyone to have dinner with him at the restaurant or visit him. Trades will be conducted once in two weeks, and those who pay for a dinner with the politician will provide him with a chance to run for becoming Kiev’s Mayor. Of course, it is not possible to know whether there are many people wishing to buy

such a «date», and moreover it is difficult to imagine how much they are ready to pay for it. The politician himself has told that these dinners, that are going to be conducted once in every two weeks, are going to be attended by his wife as well. And the deputy’s election campaign to the position of Kiev’s Mayor will be

completely financed from these acquired funds.

A unique Ukrainian creation has flown away to China

On the wave of scandals and political games, a piece of news concerning the creation of a unique battleship in Ukraine remained almost unnoticed. However, these Ukrainian developers made happy not our fleet, but the Chinese one. The newest landing ship was built for the Chinese naval forces on the Feodosia shipyard. The first air-cushion battleship-amphibian of «Zubr» class has already been put into the water and sent to the customer. According to the words of the Chairman of the «Sea» Company Vitaliy Krivenko, this ship is the largest air-cushion ship in its class. It develops a speed of 60 knots per hour and is designed for accepting military equipment and seaborne assault from even unfurnished shore. It can also transport mines and build mine belts. The amphibian is able to transport 500 paratroopers or three battle tanks or ten APCs or eight IFV, your choice. «In spite of all complexities (including the accident, when two people died because of a cat-crane falling as a consequence of excessive loads) we proved that Ukraine, as before, gives a start in life to unique ships», he emphasized.

Olga Medvedeva

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KIEV: SYMBOLIC VICTORY, SYMBOLIC AUTHORITIES

POLITICS/CAPITAL

Elections in Kiev should become the main political event of 2013. But they won’t bring any significant changes

Dmitry Zaborin

The freshest prognosis is that the elections will take place at the end of May – the end of June with one round

The head of the Kiev City State Administration (KCSA) auto-matically becomes the mayor elected at the direct elections

The results of the opposition in the majority of Kiev constituencies during the autumn elections have brought out the expectation that the opposition representative would be able to lead the capital. But even without this beautiful dream, the elections for Kiev’s Mayor should become the main political event of the year. The possibility that they will take place this year is very high. If only because the Law requires it.

The freshest prognosis is that the elections will take place at the end of May/end of June in one round. Kiev is of too high relevance to let the situation develop into an unpredictable (i.e. democratic) scenario. This is the main problem for Kiev’s residents, whose city is considered of a political exceptional value and a makeweight to anyone’s party authority.

If the Kiev mayor’s elections were held in the near future, Vitali Klitschko would have the highest chances to win them. This is proved by the results of a sociological research conducted by the «Razumkov’s Center».

30.5% of all electors or 35.8% of those who are going to take part in the elections are ready to vote for him. Alexander Popov would have the second rate (16.4% and 18.0% correspondingly), Peter Poroshenko – the third one (12.0% and 14.6% correspondingly). The research was conducted by sociological service of the Razumkov’s Center in Kiev from 3 to 8 of April 2013. They questioned 1216 respondents at the age senior than 18 years old. Theoretical error of selection doesn’t exceed 2.9% with probability of 0.95.

Yin and Yang of Kiev’s Mayor

The capital’s Mayor has one more problem. Kiev is a hero-city, possessing the special status of being governed simultaneously by the City Council (with the Mayor at its head) and the State Administration. According to the interpretation given by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in 2003, the head of the Kiev City State Administration (KCSA) automatically becomes the mayor elected at the direct elections.

However, the order of this «automatic» appointment supposes the presence of a decree by the President of Ukraine. And the Mayor is responsible simultaneously to the Cabinet of Ministers and to the Head of State. This is conditioned particularly by the fact that the functions of the capital authority include the provision of «correspondent conditions» for all the public authority’s activities. And it also provides – what is much more important in

a political sense – «interaction with the President of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in every development and realization of events, programs and projects affecting the capital’s interests».

What that means, it is quite simple to understand, in the example of a large-scaled parade – a military one or, for instance, a sexual minority’s parade. Or public holidays. The opposition Mayor could not only refuse to cooperate with the President (and theoretically even switch him

the light off) but proclaim some holiday in Kiev to be invalid. And make, on the contrary, other holiday a common one a different holiday – with torchlight processions and beautifully throwing up hands as one.

A person who wins the elections as Kiev’s Mayor will strengthen his (or somebody’s) start position for the presidential

elections and get some kind of a deposit, consisting of administrative resources and access to different information that can be used for agitation and propaganda. On that basis, the victory of an opposition candidate inevitably supposes emerging problems with the appointment to the KCSA position and regular conflicts with the central power. And the victory of the Mayor from the power means constant

opposition’s attacks against him, right up to direct blocking of his work. Thus Kiev is a symbolic victory and symbolic authorities.

What to do next

Following its recognized style, the opposition can’t decide about a single candidate for about six months. The main one of all possible candidates is Vladimir Klitschko, who faces a difficult problem: to decline from the national level to problems of rusty pipes that in any event would arise for a responsible person. Anyhow, the opposition

promises to agree about its mayor candidate and announce him during the protest action in the capital on the 18th of May. The second candidate, whom the experts are so heartily discussing, is Peter Poroshenko, «a neutral figure». Meanwhile, according to the BUT outstanding representative Nikolay Tomenko, «if we are talking about a single

candidate from the opposition, this candidate should be offered by those parties that act like opposition». Poroshenko – he says – is the wrong guy.

The statement of Peter Poroshenko concerning the fact that the opposition determined about its single candidate at the Kiev elections has become a surprise even for the opposition itself. As it turned out, none of three opposition parties made such decision. People’s deputy from «Svoboda» Yuri Sirotyuk affirms that his political force didn’t inform about support of Peter Poroshenko’s candidacy as a single candidate from the opposition at the Kiev mayor elections. «We didn’t take such decision and I didn’t hear this question to be put for examination», said the representative of «Svoboda» in his comments to the mass media.

And, as for the third candidate, Nikolay Katerinchuk – with his kind eyes looking from a huge poster at the cross of Vladimirskaya and Proreznaya streets – he has already been called a «technical power candidate».

Ex-minister of interior Yuri Lutsenko considers that Nikolay Katerinchuk, who actively wishes to become a candidate for the Kiev mayor, isn’t an opposition candidate but the player of the President’s administration. That’s what he said in his interview to Obkom edition.

«Katerinchuk, who is a candidate in Kiev, isn’t the opposition. This is simply a paid show of the President’s administration. And it seems to me that everybody understands this. But probably a person who is busy with everyday survival doesn’t feel this», said Lutsenko.

Meanwhile, the current Kiev’s Mayor Alexander Popov is slowly but steadily moving ahead, developing the image of an unhurried and self-confident master. The capital’s newspaper «Vecherniy Kiev» (Evening Kiev) reporting about the authority’s successes in the development of infrastructure, the scavenging and transplanting of green plantations, is being distributed into the mailboxes.

And this is his undoubtful advantage: the former officer of State Security Popov has come to the position of the Kiev’s Mayor from a similar Mayor position, which he won four times. And his defect is that, first of all, he is not charismatic and, second, he is connected with the Party of Regions. And the Kiev’s residents have a special, negative attitude to this party. Of course, this isn’t Popov’s fault, but it is his problem.

And a common problem lies in Kiev’s peculiarity. Any person having a good reputation can be elected as Mayor. But at the

same time, all famous persons provoke a sharp annoyance to the people. Thus this person must «understand and love Kiev», the ideal case – if he is a native Kiev resident. But even if some ideal appears, Kiev’s residents all the same will find a reason in order not to vote for him: either due to his affiliation or his ugly face. And taking into account the amount and motley of the capital’s electors, only a hundred dollars note can please everybody without exception.

Among possible candidates who bring up their mayor’s ambitions there are only few natives of Kiev. For the entire history of independent Ukraine the capital didn’t have its own aboriginal mayor. So, the first mayor of Kiev Leonid Kosakovskiy was born in village Chernivtsy of the Vinnitsa region. Alexander Omelchenko is the native of village Zoziv of Lipovets area in Vinnitsa region. Leonid Chernovetskiy was born in Kharkov. Secretary of the Kiev City Council (acting Kiev mayor) Galina Gerega was born in village Glinets of the Lvov region.

Who where was born?Vitali Klitschko, people’s deputy – Belovodskoe village (the Kyrgyz SSR)Peter Poroshenko, people’s deputy – Bolgrad (Odessa region)Nikolay Katerinchuk, people’s deputy – Lugovoe village in Altay (Russia) Alexandra Kuzhel, people’s deputy – Konstantinovka city (Donetsk region) Alexander Popov, the KCSA chairmen – Krivoy Rog city (Dnepropetrovsk region)Oleg Lyashko, people’s deputy – Chernigov city

Andrey Illyenko, people’s deputy – Kiev Sergey Bondarchuk, ex-head of political council «Our Ukraine» – Kiev Yuri Karamazin, ex-people’s deputy – Zvenigorodka city (Cherkassy region) Ivan Saliy, ex-chairmen of the KCSA – Irzhavets village (Chernigov region)

This secret of success was known only to Leonid Chernovetskiy, who simply paid his key electorate (the elderly) on a regular basis. But even in this case, everything that concerned the functioning of the huge megalopolis and the everyday problems of its residents was all the same at the back seat. The parliamentary elections’ experience demonstrated that during times of political exacerbation, nobody pays attention to this. But after that, life anyway forces you to ask who actually should remove the garbage from your courtyard.

Open land sale, regulation of buildings, legalization or prohibition of prostitution, water and storm sewage treatment, basic reconstruction of roads network or, at last, increasing of schools number teaching Russian language. The Mayor has many things to do besides distributing leaflets into the mailboxes. And it still depends on the urban community, whether they will elect a «strong economic manager» or make obscene gestures to the authority, by principle voting for noisy nationalists, as it happened during the parliamentary elections. This is a matter of human dignity by the Kiev’s community.

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US SPECIAL AGENTS IN UKRAINE

SCANDAL

In fact, any person could be in place of the Rostov’s pilot

Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was sentenced by the South District’s Court of New York to 20 years of deprivation of liberty. In the scheme that was invented and realized in Africa by the Drug Enforcement Administration agents, it doesn’t matter who got into the field of their attention: a Russian, a Ukrainian or a Swede, guilty or not guilty. It’s enough to find an advertisement of the An-12 plane purchase, call there and you will become a hostage of the big game named «international struggle with drug traffic». And then everything depends on your luck. You would not like the DEA false agents and the oblique hints to a drug sale. Or you will change your mind about this plane purchase, offered by the agents. Then you would be lucky and avoid a nightmare.

Biting the bait Pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko

actually needed that plane and he wasn’t lucky…

After the USSR’s collapse, many pilots from Ukraine and Russia appeared on the Black continent. They were looking for a possibility to earn and support their families. Graduated at the Krasnokutsk civil aviation college, Yaroshenko worked by one-time contracts since 1998, and everything was good.

As his wife Victoria told to The Kiev Times, that time his husband Konstantin found an advantageous contract for fish transportation and, together with his crew, was going to take by leasing the appropriate machine.

«In newspaper he read an advertisement about the sale of a cheap plane with good technical characteristics. I remember it vividly: he told that the plane was equipped with almost new engines. An ideal variant. It was in his interests to make the deal as soon as possible. But for some reasons the sellers temporized», she said. Now it is clear, why...

Negotiations lasted for 10 months, during which the sellers disappeared and appeared again, appointing meetings

in different places. The key meeting took place in Kiev, at the «Intercontinental» Hotel. According to Victoria, who came to the Ukrainian capital with her husband, Konstantin attended the Antonov’s ASTC, concerning other planes’ repair and at the same time met some people, who later turned out to be false agents of the DEA. Yaroshenko though that those were honest people, that’s why he signed an agreement for the An-12 purchase, and gave them a deposit. However, the DEA agents, who introduced themselves as the sellers, required the meeting just for the collection of incriminating evidences. The entire conversation was took by video equipment and recorded via previously installed «bugs».

«Of course, nobody was going to sale the plane. It belonged to the Drug Enforcement Administration, and in fact the operation with Konstantin’s participation wasn’t the only one, since the agents used that very plane as a bait, – says Yaroshenko’s lawyer Alexey Tarasov. – During the meeting in Kiev my client mostly kept silence and listened to what they said because his knowledge of English is very poor. The DEA agents in their long speeches inserted some definite phrases that should further artificially create the US jurisdiction. For instance, three times during all the meetings they hinted that formerly they were sending drugs to America». Yaroshenko didn’t react to those hints.

In general three seconds of such hints were used also in the

Court by the Prosecution part to confirm the fact that Yaroshenko knew that the matter was about transportation of cocaine and the place where exactly it has to be transported.

But mere talks weren’t enough for the agents. Finally, in May 2010 Yaroshenko, who was in Mali, received a phone call. He was offered to immediately move to the capital of Liberia to complete a bargain about the purchase of the plane. He didn’t know that the agents had

prepared a dramatic destiny for him and that from Monrovia the pilot would be directly sent to prison in New York.

Good and bad drug-dealers During the operation,

conducted under control of the senior DEA investigator Sam Gaye, other four were arrested. They are true drug-dealers: Chigbo Peter Umeh, who served his jail term in the USA, Jorge Ivan Castano and two local Africans – Nathaniel French and Kudufia Mavuko. The last two got into this story by accident, and sincerely told the court that they were selling and would sell drugs only at home. That’s why the «innocent» dark-skinned men have been immediately released and deported.

As to the remaining three, according to the prosecution version, they collectively planned the creation of the largest traffic terminal in Liberia «for further sale of thousands tons of cocaine in Europe or other countries in the African continent». About 4 tons of drugs had to be supposedly transported by Yaroshenko, on the infamous An-12, from South America to Liberia, then to Ghana and then to the United States.

It was not necessary for the American agents to have some specific drugs as well as clear facts concerning this point – explains Alexey Tarasov. The American law operates such a notion as «collusion», that means incorporation of intentions of several persons and opened actions confirming them. For example, the purchase of a

plane. «It is enough even to repair its engine or fill it and this will be considered an “opened action”. But at one condition – preliminary collusion can be made only with another criminal but not with a government agent. A person whom you agree with, has to be a real offender», says Tarasov.

That was exactly the reason why Yaroshenko was called to Liberia, where mister Umeh was really building some business chain. This drug-dealer, according

to the investigation data, even bribed the son of the country’s President (and pluralistically the head of the local special service) by the sum of 100 thousand USD. Since the moment of his arrival, the Russian pilot immediately received a couple of big guys, who not only slept in his hotel room, but brought him to the meeting with the drug-dealers. When all necessary phrases were told and all correct questions were asked, Konstantin, with a sack on his head, appeared in front of the Liberian security service and on the 30th of May was removed to the USA – without teeth, with injured kidneys and genitals.

Neither the Russian Embassy in neighboring Ghana nor the RF Embassy in the United States was informed about this. Only on the 2nd of June one person called Victoria’s cell phone and informed her that he was representing the interests of her husband, who in that moment was in prison in Manhattan, New York, charged of secret arrangements. Besides, the Russian law-enforcement authorities, from the very beginning, tried to make Yaroshenko a witness for the case of the «weapon baron» Viktor Boot. Right up to the fact that he was his private pilot. And also on the basis of the records of his conversations with the false agents, where Yaroshenko mentioned that he had been in Angola and heard about Boot.

High priority caseThere was no doubt that

everything should finish badly. Judge Jed Rakoff has categorically forbidden talking about tortures and kidnapping, Yaroshenko experienced a form of pressure, and the prosecution operated information without any confirmations. One of such examples is an unfounded allegation by the agents, concerning the fact that the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine gave permission for the carrying out of a special operation in its own country’s territory. Let’s recall that unauthorized actions of this kind are criminally liable according to the Ukrainian laws.

Veteran of the New York bar, Lee Ginsberg immediately offered his client to collaborate with the prosecution and admit his guilt.

Having received a flat refusal, for a while he read what his assistant gave him, and in the end of the process simply slept on his folded hands.

Yaroshenko’s family sold everything possible in order to pay for his defense services. «If I knew that my son was guilty, you know, a black sheep in a herd, we wouldn’t make such sacrifices. But the entire family said: we will fight to the last gasp, as he is not guilty. My son would never do this», says his mother, Lubov Mikhailovna, blinking her tears back. Together with Victoria she flew to New York and saw the entire process from beginning to end. And today she is willing to do everything is in her power. Especially as currently the case has a high priority in the Russian foreign-policy department. Six out of eighteen figurants of the «Magnitsky anti-list» are connected directly with Yaroshenko’s case and this demonstrates Russia’s attitude about this case.

Alexey Tarasov, a young but famous lawyer, originally from a Russian family, is busy with Yaroshenko’s appeal. He intends to obtain the confession from the court that precedent «USA against Toscaninio» is now acting in favor of his client. As Alexey explains, this precedent took place at the beginning of the 70s, in the same appellate district. Then, the Court of Appeal stated that a person should be released in the presence of three elements: 1) if he is kidnapped in another country; 2) if the investigation is connected with any infringement of other states’ rights or any breach of international laws; and if, after being kidnapped, a person is cruelly tortured. «When there are three of such components in the case, the American court must close it, as contradicting the principles of the American justice, the very principles on which the USA were built as a Nation. All of them are present in Yaroshenko’s case», the lawyer says, calmly.

This calmness is actually hard for him because the State, which he is a citizen of, with all its might is trying to prevent him to

raise doubts about the correctness of the court’s decisions. «In American Court, proofs have to be undoubted. If there are proofs in favor of his guiltlessness, a person can’t be brought to a verdict of guilty», says Tarasov. There are many amazing facts in Yaroshenko’s case. To start with, judge Rakoff didn’t admit the fact of Yaroshenko’s tortures because a prison nurse, having examined Yaroshenko, came to a conclusion that he was… completely healthy. The case materials have being circulating across the country for months, without getting to the addressees (including Konstantin, in prison). And the feeding of the appellate argumentation was almost disrupted, because the case turned out to be blocked in the electronic system. But in order not to allow the program to be closed, somebody needs just to move his mouse every seven minutes.

This transformation of a brilliant special operation into a dirty forgery is a strong hit to the USA’s reputation. Especially since the DEA agents have been presented as heroes, and their «connection» with Konstantin Yaroshenko and Viktor Boot loudly swept over the mass media. The USA is so attentively watching what is happening with the Yaroshenko’s case that even the pilot’s interview to the Russian «Izvestia» about the horrible conditions of his detention in prison, and the threat to his life, brought him 20 days in the punishment cell. The assessment of illegal actions against the USA agents on the Ukraine’s territory by the General Prosecutor’s Office can considerably change the investigation course. If, of course, the American juridical system can acknowledge its mistakes, and sincerely confess that the special agents in this case acted outside the law.

For Ukraine, Russia and even the USA the Yaroshenko’s case is the evidence of a state’s dignity. As well as the evidence of that very justice so beautifully described in a lot of Hollywood movies.

The case of the Russian pilot Yaroshenko reveals a non-Hollywood reverse side of the special services’ work and US justice, and it depends on Ukraine whether a wrong thing would be righted

Dmitry Zaborin

This transformation of a brilliant special operation into a dirty forgery is a strong hit to the USA’s reputation. Especially since the DEA agents have been presented as heroes, and their «connection» with Konstantin Yaroshenko and Viktor Boot loudly swept over the mass media

THE KIEV TIMES | MAY-JUNE 2013 12

Let’s start from a definition of what «Eurasianism» actually

means. It is a philosophic and political as well as a cultural and religious trend, that was conceived in the environment of the White Guards’ emigration in 1920-1930. The main postulate

of Eurasians laid in their denial of the universality of Romano-Germanic civilization and European centrism (meaning by Europe, the western countries). To the endeavor of integration with the West, preached by the «Westerners», the Eurasians opposed the idea of integration with the East – with Turkic people.

The Eurasians acknowledged absolutist features associated with the Western culture, where only European and Western are considered to be significant,

and any depth of Arab, Hindu, Persian, and Slavic conception are haughtily rejected. There are no higher and lower cultures – there are different cultures. This was the position of the Eurasians. For them the Romano-Germanic civilization was just one out of

many, not better and not worse than any other.

Rus’ – not Europe, not Asia, or Eurasia – for the Eurasians was the bearer of a distinctive cultural and historical type, not only as geographic but also as cultural and psychological type. This was a distinct Eurasian civilization, the continent country possessing huge territorial scale, from the Carpathians to the Pacific, serving as a bridge between Europe and Asia and belonging to neither of them. Unlike the point of view about the Mongol

Tatar Yoke being a prevailing catastrophe in historiography, the Eurasians took the Golden

Horde with greater sympathy than the West. Reminding that Alexander Nevsky refused to take Catholicism and instead choose temporary subordination to the Golden Horde khans so preserving the Orthodox Faith, the Eurasians affirmed that when the West there came, it took both tangible wealth and spiritual soul. The Mongols didn’t put the conversion to their faith by the conquered people as a condition for their vassalage, that’s why the

Golden Horde’s khans didn’t care which religion their nationals were worshipping – Buddhism, Orthodoxy or Islam. For the Eurasians, their subordination to the Golden Horde guarded them against spiritual absorption by the West, right up to the change of religion.

For the Eurasians the political nature of Rus’ was a harmonic combination of Forest and

Steppe, not only in a toponymic but also in a mental sense, i.e. the worldview symbiosis of sedentary and nomadic people, the Slavic and Turkic elements. This synthesis was the foundation of Rus’ political life.

We can find several natives from Ukraine among the first Eurasians – such as the geopolitician Peter Savitski, the musicologist Peter Suvchinski (ethnically Polish, by the way), and the theologian Georgiy Florovski. Each of them introduced something peculiar into the Eurasianism.

Peter Savitski wrote that Russia-Eurasia, as a continental mass, would always experience a hostile policy by the Anglo-Saxon civilization, which was dying for a world harmony that could be achieved only through the weakening of Russia-Eurasia.

In his article «Eurasianism as a historical conception» Savitski wrote: «The Eurasians perceive the Russian world as a special world, in geographic, linguistic, historical, economic and in many other senses. This is a «third world» of the Old World, being part neither of Europe nor of Asia, but different and, at the same time, commensurate with them both».

Peter Suvchinski devoted his compositions to the history and genesis of the Russian musical culture, as well as the philosophical comprehension of its political processes. He underlined how the Russian culture was ground and tied to traditions, so that any separation from its traditional foundations would be a catastrophe, and that’s what the 1917 Revolution heralded about.

Georgiy Florovski, as a theologian, paid more attention to religious issues. He was called «the most Orthodox of all modern Russian philosophers» by the famous representative of the Russian religious philosophy, Nikolay Lossky (by the way, also ethnically Polish). Florovski published the book

«Dostoevsky and Europe» and is co-author of many Eurasian collections, such as «Russia and Latinism», «Eurasian records», «The Continent of Eurasia», «The Mongols and Rus’» etc. On his article «About unhistorical people» father Georgiy dwells in details about this question, criticizing «Westerners» for their blind worship to anything, provided that it is something of the western kind; he stressed the danger of any Western influence’s

intrusion into the Ukraine territory, including its spiritual sphere, expressed in the Eastern Catholicism as an ideological distortion of the Orthodox faith. Later, Florovski digressed from the Eurasianism. He shared the purposes of the first Eurasians but didn’t share their views about the ways that could be used to achieve these purposes.

The first Eurasians calls to

turn to the East, today acquire a special urgency. The United States are already turning to the East but not for a friendly dialogue between civilizations, as the Eurasians believed, but for the suppression of their competitor – China – and the establishment of their control over South East Asia, where the center of the world politics is shifting to.

In 1990s the Kazakhstan President, Nursultan Nazarbayev promoted the Eurasian ideology’s revival. Westernized Yeltsin was not interested in such initiatives. Now it’s quite another matter, since much has been said about Eurasian and Customs Unions, Eurasian Economic Community etc. Any participation in these projects will bring Ukraine big economic and political dividends. Opponents to this idea affirm that the Eurasian Union is a chimera.

Let’s note that even amid the European political beau monde there are admirers of this idea. The former President of the European Commission Romano Prodi considers the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) as a cluster, which will fasten Europe and Asia. Economic clusters in this case can be called intergovernmental unions such as APEC, BRICS etc. Today it’s difficult for any small national economy to survive, and this leaves its mark on the whole world geopolitical situation. Appearance of geo-economic clusters and macro-regions (the European Union, South Africa) has been noticed. In nowadays world, clusters determine economy, geo-culture and politics. In our days, we can observed the tendency to a multipolar world order, i.e. the presence of several centers of political and economic powers, competing with each other. Such centers are already today the EU, the USA and China.

In due time, the German geopolitician Karl Haushofer proposed the theory of the «large spaces». In his view, only large geopolitical blocks – «large

spaces» – can be independent. The USSR was such a block; today these blocks are the EU, the USA and China. For the United States, which are striving for their global hegemony, it is advantageous to provoke separative tendencies on the outskirts of large states in order to split competent «large spaces» into small pieces. The Eurasianism just offers to turn Eurasia into a large geopolitical Eurasian space, collecting together all its fragments. In

order to pursue an independent policy, the countries of the Eurasian space – which almost completely coincides with the boarders of the former Soviet Union – must unite into one powerful geopolitical organism.

Self-isolation and sitting in a god-forsaken place, would be a path to nowhere. We have to realize that the time of «large spaces» has come.

POLITICS/INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

EURASIANISM AS THE TIME CHALLENGEFamous political publicist, professor of St Cyril and St Methodius University of Veliko Turnovo, Doctor of Philosophy from Bulgaria Mincho Minchev has devoted one of his articles to the Eurasianism ideology, having entitled it: «Eurasianism as a national fate». If the Bulgarian professorship thinks about Eurasian ideology, it won’t be too much for us to look at the conceptual foundations of this doctrine, especially since the Ukrainians also were related to its birth

Vladislav Gulevich

For the United States, which are striving for their global hegemony, it is advantageous to pro-voke separative tendencies on the outskirts of large states in order to split competent «large spaces» into small pieces

For the Eurasians the political nature of Rus’ was a harmonic combination of Forest and Steppe, not only in a toponymic but also in a mental sense

Unlike the point of view about the Mongol Tatar Yoke being a prevailing catastrophe in the historiography, the Eurasians took the Golden Horde with greater sympathy than the West

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Mister Shliter, shale gas today is a really «hot» subject in Ukraine…

Only in Ukraine? All Europe talks of nothing but this!

Yes, but several months ago Ukraine made a step towards switching from talks to actions. The Ukrainian authority signed an agreement with Shell Company concerning the development of Yuzov deposit. However, the Ukrainian community is very alarmed by the ecological consequences of shale gas extraction. Are they really so dangerous?

The USA have been extracting shale gas for the past five-seven years. We could make sure that wells that were used to extract shale gas weren’t completely safe. On the bottom layers or on the level of the extraction there is methane passing through, and thus polluting the underground waters. This is one of the serious threats. Another ecological risk are the chemical substances that under high pressure with sand and water are pumped down under the ground. Some chemicals that are part of this mixture composition are really very toxic. Representatives of gas companies say that shale gas is deep under the ground and polluted water won’t ever get up to the higher layers, where underground drinking water supplies are concentrated. But we saw a different picture in the USA. And consider that the operational period of such wells is relatively short. Main volumes of gas are extracted from a well during two-three years, and then its production volumes considerably reduce, in 7-8 years the well looses its profitability and it is necessary to make a new one.

But in Ukrainian officials’ words, in five years the Yuzov deposit will be able to produce several billions cubic meters of shale gas per year!

Yes, yes, this is quite possible. I mean that for this we need a thousand small wells, approximately at one kilometer of distance from each other. And this is the problem with shale gas. You invest a lot of energy, money and water into a deposit development for a short-term benefit. And if a gas company that develops this deposit says that it will create many jobs, this is not completely true, because these jobs will be created only for a short period of time. As to speak about other ecological risks, one should remember that in the area of shale gas extraction there were some registered cases of weak seismologic processes. Of

course, they are not so powerful to destroy residential buildings. However, if you provoke any seismologic phenomena, they are able to displace drinking water supplies and other underground layers and it is not desirable to do this. I quite understand the position of Ukraine, which has a geopolitical dependence from shale gas extraction: you don’t want to depend on Russian energy products. But you don’t consider that you’re going to get another form of dependence. The one on foreign companies concerned with shale gas extraction; and large part of its income will be removed outside of Ukraine. But if you invest the same money into renewable energy, in this case its income will stay within your country. And to my opinion, the promotion of renewable energy is a much better perspective for the economic development of regions.

Ukraine is a large country and its potential in terms of renewable energetic is really huge. That’s why it seems slightly strange that you’re going to invest a significant capital and to destroy ecology on large areas for a relatively short-term benefit. And when supplies of shale gas had run out, would

you buy Russian gas again? Why should you invest billions and billions of euros into shale gas, if in 20 years you’d have to return to renewable energy anyway? Why not to do this right now?

Shale gas is a new sphere of energy. Do scientists and experts have sufficient data to offer an objective picture of the ecological consequences of its extraction?

Of course not! All that we have are some data, and they are incomplete. Because it is profitable to release one kind of data for upstream industries and different data for ecologists. But we already have confirmed facts indicating that shale gas extraction is a reason for underground waters pollution. Representatives of the production companies say: it’s just because the first wells were insufficiently strong, but we have better technologies now...

Is that not true? The technical innovation moves on…

Surely, technologies are improved. But facts show that shale gas extraction technology is not yet completely safe. In addition, the companies promise that they are going to use

chemicals of less toxicity for their production of the mixture pumped under the ground. They have told before: «Yes, chemicals are toxic, but don’t worry, they are deep down and will never get to the drinking water». However, the problem is that no matter how deep the polluted water is right now, even in a thousand years it will reach the level where it can be taken. So, there is a great risk for the future. If doing something on such considerable depth, you make a mistake, you won’t be able to correct it.

Mister Shliter, have you heard something about new technology of shale gas extraction that allows pumping liquefied propane in the form of a heavy gel instead of a toxic mixture? They say that, in this case, the underground waters don’t get polluted...

Yes, I know this technology. Do you know what happens with this propane, after that?

They say it simply evaporates.Each gas has its potential

impact on the global worming (GWP). If you look at a special table of GWP, you can see that

leakage of one kilogram of propane is equivalent to leakage of 20 kg of carbon dioxide. So, if you use propane for fracking, this will have a significantly adverse impact on climate, because in this case it is 20 times more dangerous than carbon dioxide, and another greenhouse gas, methane, that gets to the atmosphere during shale gas extraction as well, even 25 times.

Is it true, that companies concerned with shale gas extraction are keep in secret the composition of their fracturing chemical mixture?

Yes, the chemical composition of this mixture is considered a commercial secret. But in the EU there is the following requirement: if highly toxic

components are entering any mixture composition for more than 0,1% , the company has to inform about that. Otherwise, they have the right to keep silence about their mixture composition. But the resolution, which was adopted by the European Parliament last year, offers to demand the company to disclose the entire chemical composition, before getting the permission to develop a shale gas deposit. I think it would also be a good idea for Ukraine to make it one of its agreement provisions: company has to be open and transparent concerning the type of chemicals it is going to apply. The European

Parliament also offers to demand the company to make tests of water on different layers before starting boring, to provide further possibility of comparing whether the water has become polluted as a result of the production company’s activity. And if it happens to be true, the company has to pay big money.

Would it be possible to sue a company?

This should be an automatic compensation, even without a court order! And this condition has to be put into the contract from the very beginning. If Ukraine still wishes to start this risky extraction business, it has to place all possible risks on the company and their stockholders, not on the Ukrainians.

Do the ecological consequences of shale gas extraction depend on geological or natural peculiarities of a definite region?

This can’t be predicted. Because gas lies at different depths, in different hydrological conditions, and different companies use different chemicals for fracking. Yes, perhaps, you would face various problems in various places. But is it possible to say that shale gas extraction in one place is safer than in another one? I don’t think so.

How many country-members of the EU have reinstated the moratoria on shale gas extraction?

The list is growing. France and Bulgaria were first. However, now, many countries of the EU

seriously consider about taking this step.

And how about your native Sweden?

We started to develop a deposit in Skone province. Gas company promised us: «Here we are going to extract a lot of shale gas, and everybody will be rich!». But finally they didn’t find such a volume of shale gas, they hoped for. Currently there is a new development on two islands in the Baltic Sea – Olland and Gothland. But people who are living there, set against this and organized protest actions. And this is another problem, which Ukraine will necessarily face – the public protest. As I said before, shale gas production requires the development of large areas for the boring of many wells. And, as a rule, these territories are thickly settled already.

To what extent Sweden depends on foreign gas supplies?

It doesn’t depend at all. We have a few of our own gas, which is used for heating and gas stoves, and also chemically processed gas for heavy industry. But generators don’t work on gas. The main energy resources in Sweden are: nuclear, wind and hydroelectric power stations, as well as a quite high rate of biogas. By the way, biogas is a wonderful possibility for Ukraine. If you have a cow farm, then manure is an ideal raw material for biogas. Plus all types of organic waste, including food waste. And if you don’t use this mass for the biogas generation, a part of it transforms into methane, which, as I said before, is more dangerous for the climate than carbon dioxide. This means that biogas application brings a double benefit: economic and ecologic. For instance, in my native city, with 150 000 of residents, all the city buses and almost all the taxis use biogas generated from municipal food and organic waste. A raw material for gas is right in the city, it doesn’t need to be transported and extracted. If you’re talking about energetic dependence of Ukraine, why wouldn’t you first use all the possibilities you already have?

The necessity of diversification of Ukraine’s power supply today isn’t rejected by any political force in Ukraine. But the idea of extracting shale gas provoked in the Ukrainian community as much enthusiasm as aversion. Only an objective and suspended assessment by an authoritative international expert can reconcile the two polar opinions

KARL SHLITER: SHALE GAS IS A GREAT RISK FOR THE FUTURE

US-UKRAINE OBSERVER – BRIDGE BETWEEN TWO COUNTRIES

Interview by Victoria Vlasenko

You don’t want to depend on Russian energy products. But you don’t consider that you’re go-ing to get another form of dependence. The one on foreign companies concerned with shale gas extraction And when supplies of shale gas had run out, would you buy Russian gas again?

OPINION

The monthly publication dedicated to building of relationships between the USA and Ukraine brings a wide variety of topics important for both countries and provides the English-language readership with unique materials about Ukraine – one of largest and progressive America’s partners emerged from the former Soviet Union.

www.usukraineobserver.com

THE KIEV TIMES | MAY-JUNE 2013 14

SAID AQIL: THIS IS A DELICATE WAR – A WAR WITHOUT LOSSES

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS/INTERVIEW

In the previous three years the events in Middle East and Maghreb area acquired an extremely important meaning in the context of the global safety. Instability, since so called «Arab spring» right up until today, is generating new conflicts in different points of the world. Syria was no exception. A country that three years ago was flourishing, now lies in ruins. Militants from all over the world with the support from several countries of the «democratic» west kill Syria’s civilians by hundreds... Today, as never before, the world needs to hear the Syrian people’s voice. In Ukraine they are represented by the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to the Syrian Arab Republic in Kiev, doctor Said Aqil

Thank you, mister Ambassador for granting us this interview. First of all, some words about the conflict between Syria and Israel.

This is an act of aggression from Israel’s side. Recently our army actively cleaned those regions that were poisoned by the terrorists. These terrorists can’t fight against our army anymore, so Israel came to help them. The present development in Syria confirm that the so called «coalition of revolutionary forces and opposition» created and supported by the West, is a direct executor of Israel’s policy in our region. Everything that is happening now in Syria serves Israel’s interests. These are not people’s protests. It is not a revolution requiring any improvement of conditions and democratization. This is a direct fulfillment of the plan about creating a «New Middle East», which intersects with the so called «Yinon Plan» – the 1982 Zionistic plan. This plan reads that, in order to let Israel survive, all countries around it have to be weakened and split , so that it will be able to exist and widen, realizing Israel’s dream to get boarders, as they say, «from the Euphrates to the Nile». And this plan is to be realized by these terrorists, this coalition with the support of Western countries, the NATO with the USA at their head. This plan, unfortunately, involves some Arab countries – Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Libya etc.

Do you mean the plan, approved after Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights in 1981?

Yes, this is exactly what I mean. And this plan complies with the

plan for the New Middle East development, approved by the US administration, realized since the war against Iraq in 2003 and later transferred to other countries, on the wave of the so called «Arab spring».

Not so long ago we experienced a whole row of «color revolutions». We perfectly

understand that the situation in Middle East strongly differs from our situation. What is your opinion about the events that took place in Maghreb countries?

Many people say that there was a revolution. That people need improvement of their conditions.

And this is clear; every nation wants to live better. But what happened in these countries isn’t a spring at all. It is death, devastation and destruction. This is the embodiment of the Zionistic plans about splitting the Arab state to smaller and more easily controlled puppet pseudo-governmental formations, in order to pump out their resources.

Before these events Syria was a strong and independent country, with wealthy natural resources, a developed economy, zero external debt and a strong army. Such country didn’t suit the West, that’s why it was necessary to organize these disturbances, this chaos, to raise people against

the power and simply watch us destroying each other. For them this is a war without losses. And where, by the way, is it the promised democracy in Iraq? George Bush in his address to the Iraq people after the invasion by the American troops in Iraq said that the US were going to give them goods and medicines. What an offence for the Iraq – the materially and culturally wealthiest nation! The Americans have first destroyed and sacked Iraq, and then they offered the Iraq’s people help (of course, at their own expenses). They simply want our peoples to live in poverty, to destroy each other and to think of nothing else.

Are there plans for the consolidation of at least several Arab states to oppose this?

Once there was a plan for the Arab countries’ unification. But unfortunately the colonizers, in the old and new NATO form, don’t allow us to join and are doing everything possible to put us further away from each other. Many Arab leaders are submitted to the dictate of the US and their allies. They are marionettes of the West and can’t take their own decisions. The unification of the Arab countries remains a cherished dream for the Arab nations.

And what about the League of Arab Countries?

Unfortunately, the League is under the control of petrodollar countries, the leaders of which are mostly submitted to the US’ policy. The US’ administration has never hidden its unlimited support to Israel, stating that

Israel’s safety is their main goal. That’s why it isn’t worth to wait for anything better from such League. But here we need to make a distinction between the interests of the Arab countries’ administrations and their peoples’ interests. People are for the unification, for the opposition to Israel. The majority of the Arab nations are fighting for their liberation from the western dictate, for a true but not American democracy, for opposing the supremacy of the USA and their allies over our region.

We pin great hopes on the relations between Syria and Iran, at their highest level, calling them the «Opposition Axis»: Syria, Iran, Libyan opposition and Palestine opposition. This axis opposes the

forces engaged in the fulfillment of the development plan for the New Middle East, which is talked over aloud by the USA without any embarrassment. If you remember the words of Wesley Clark (former Supreme Commander of the UNO

in Afghanistan), who revealed the US administration’s policy after the meeting with Ramsfield in 2002. Ramsfield said to Clark: «We’re going to attack Iraq». Clark said in response: «Why? Did you find any weapons of mass destruction there? Or any ties with Al-Qaeda»? Ramsfield said: «No». «Then why»? – asked Clark.

«Because we have a plan and it has to be fulfilled». «And what’s next»? – asked Clark. «Then 6 countries more: Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, Somali and then Iran». This plan has been programmed long ago and finally they intend to

attack Iran. To tear the opposition axis and destroy the countries entering it, they first launched the war against Lebanon in 2006 and in 2008, then against Gaza Strip and now against Syria. But there is a continuation of this plan: finally it will be transferred to Russia and China. Do you remember what Kissinger said?

Interview by Denis Denisov

Many Arab leaders are submitted to the dictate of the US and their allies. They are marionettes of the West and can’t take their own decisions

The League is under the control of petrodollar countries, the leaders of which are mostly submitted to the US’ policy4. The US’ administration has never hidden its unlimited support to Israel, stating that Israel’s safety is their main goal

Phot

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NIA

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www.thekievtimes.ua 15INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS/INTERVIEW

First it’s necessary to hit Syria and Iran, and then go to the Russian Bear and the Chinese Dragon.

This is an old theory.He told this last year, by the

way.

Analysts say that Saudi Arabia is one of the main US’ allies in the region. Recently Qatar has been marked out in this sense. Tell me please, what do you think about the role of Saudi Arabia and Qatar in the region?

Qatar today plays a great role and not only in Middle East. Qatar interferes in many world countries’ business. And dimensions of Qatar are not important, as the Qatar residents talk not for themselves but say what the USA dictate them. And I think that it is the Qatar’s management that lays plots in the Middle East by the USA’s direction. By the way, the largest US’ military base in the world is located in Qatar – a base that is almost half-a-country size. And they, by the way, are financing and providing criminals who make acts of terrorism in Syria and who are called, in the West, the «armed opposition». They are also politically pressing other Arab countries to force them to take decisions against Syria. Just imagine that, at the

very beginning of the Syrian conflict, the majority of the LAC countries, under the Qatar’s and Saudi Arabia’a pressure and threats, decided to support the so called «external opposition» created by the West, and then they adopted the resolution of freezing the Syrian membership in this League. Then there was a call for external military intervention and after a while they adopted an even more illegal resolution of transferring the Syrian chair to the representatives of this opposition, thus breaking the League statute and all the UNO’s laws that led to a greater sharpening of the situation.

What is your opinion concerning the UN representatives’ sensational statement that the rebels used chemical weapons in Syria’s territory?

On Sunday, the 5th of May, Carla Del Ponte, entering the composition of the UN’ commission that investigates about possible violations of human rights in Syria, said that the experts had serious suspicions about the rebels opposing President Bashar Assad having applied chemical weapons. Carla Del Ponte informed that, in accordance with evidences from victims and doctors, the rebels

used sarin. And imagine that, in contempt of what Del Ponte said, after that, there was the US representative’s speech saying that there were no evidences concerning who used it. This is a provocation! Obviously like in Iraq, where they looked for nuclear weapons, didn’t find them, launched a war but

didn’t even apologize! The same scenario, they wish to play in Syria.

What would be the course of this conflict’s development in 2013?

First of all, we need to clear the country from terrorists. Our soldiers are show exceptional

courage and heroism in their struggle against the international terrorism. Our army has already cleared a whole series of regions and continues working. The majority of our people support the authorities. If it were not so, the authority wouldn’t be able to withstand 26 months in this conflict. For this period our economy proved its stability. Two years ago one dollar cost 50 Syrian pounds and now it costs about a hundred. The national currency has fallen only twice! Considering the situation in the county this is real heroism that life still goes on in a normal course, in spite of the scaling hostility against us coming from the USA, Israel and their allies. Second, I hope that great states like the USA and

Russia will come to a consensus, about this problem.

By the way, the meeting of the USA and Russia Presidents will soon take place, so we hope that they will be able to find a peaceful political solution to this conflict. Our authority is ready to carry on a national dialogue. It calls for this from the very first day of the

conflict. But there is a question: why the so called «external opposition», that was named «coalition of revolutionary forces and opposition», doesn’t take part in such dialogue? They always say that they are for democracy and that they are representatives of the entire Syrian nation. Why do they avoid dialogue and the conducting of general elections under the supervision of an international commission? And that’s why few people support them. That’s why they wish to come to power by armed means, by means of provocations and external interventions as it happened in Libya.

Mister Ambassador, what do you think, how adequately is

Ukraine reacting to the tragic events in Syria?

Syria and Ukraine have very good relations. At the end of 2010, during our President Bashar Assad‘s visit to Ukraine, they signed a series of agreements, and many of them have been fulfilled to the present day. The goods exchange between our

countries continues. Though, of course, the events in our country in some way affected the volumes of the exchange trade. Politically Ukraine’s position in relation to Syria, as several times expressed in the statements of the Ukrainian MFA, is that Ukraine hopes for a peaceful regulation of the conflict, and pleads for the Syrian nation to decide on their fate without any external intervention. This is what concerns the Government’s position. As for the people, I noticed that Ukrainian people mostly understand the situation in Syria, they support Syria, opposing any external aggression and intervention in Syrian business, and they are really concerned that our authority would defeat this plot.

Qatar today plays a great role and not only in Middle East. Qatar interferes in many world countries’ business 6. The majority of our people support the authorities. If it were not so, the authority wouldn’t be able to withstand 26 months in this conflict

The Americans have first destroyed and sacked Iraq, and then they offered the Iraq’s people help at their own expenses

THE KIEV TIMES | MAY-JUNE 2013 16

To appear between… – is a path to abyss…

As a rule, such «forces» appeared on the eve of or during elections that have never been pure in our country. That’s why their life was short, loud and disgraceful. «A third force» finally proved to be nothing – and this is known to everybody today…

After the Ukrainian authority’s strengthening, the opposition united and they declared war to the death to each other. To appear between, to appear on war – for the «third force» it is like death

itself, even before the authorities and the opposition will bring themselves to it. And nobody will listen to the fairytales.

There, in the political abyss, we can find remains of all «third evil forces», who took to slip to the power at the history turns and missed them for the reasons that are understandable especially now – the roads are awful, there are no road signs, and troubles with brake...

Apparently, having studied the lessons of will in prison, Yuri Lutsenko and his friends decided to become a powerful «third force» and to appear clean before people. But, let’s be frank, the legend is disastrous: the clean hands that left traces in the 2004’s betray. Fingerprints are everywhere... But in the entire «republic» it is simpler to hide them and blend in the crowd being a sort of purified. Everybody there is with

the same face, but if somebody isn’t known, he immediately gets all advantages. And how not to

mention in the crowd a people’s deputy with revolutionary spirit, twice Minister of the Interior, an ex-convict from politics, whose fate and health are under control of the united Europe and the western democracy world? So damn the «third force». Long live a «Third republic»! It seems that there is only one new word – republic. But it is like a bridge from the world of fairytales to the history, where there are also various tales.

It can be first concluded: to create a plan of a «third republic» in prison, one needs to read much. Perhaps, about France, where after the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the collapse of the Second Empire the «third republic» was born, which in its turn collapsed under attack of Fascist Germany. Of course, to read about Ukraine, whose republican history doesn’t have

as deep roots and crowns of politics and fruit of independence as the French has. We can come

to a conclusion: stop staying in «self-defense». We want a «Third republic»! Instead of a motto «Let’s hit impassability by motor rally», the old-new crew of «commanders from democracy» offers to obscure familiar noise by another one: «Let’s push the opposition to correct

solutions by new national on-party movement». What kind of solutions are these? The plan of a new country, a single candidate for a president, his team… – a public wave before the elections. What for? For the European integration at any cost. Demonopolization and deoligarchization of the economic and political systems. Full-fledged self-government. Liquidation of the Soviet period’s punitive system…

What Yuri Lutsenko is going to do for this, if to believe him? – To create nothing… To claim for nothing… And without changing the opposition’s relief, with only changing the politics geometry, to depose the regime and to build a new country…Or to go to the

bottom again. This is what is programmed in the strategy – a gamble that was peculiar to Yuri long ago…

It seems that we heard something of this kind in 2004. And the united opposition leaders in general repeat the same over and over again. There is a secret that was disclosed only to Lutsenko – the «Orange revolution» had a leader without a plan and a team, and the united opposition doesn’t even have a worthy leader… That’s why a person who pushes the process will reach the top. If he wasn’t «crowned» in Mensk – he will be «crowned» in Kiev… And there is no distance to the presidency.

This is the purpose undertaken by the «old orange brigands» under the guise of business.

That is more correct title of the «warlords». That’s why they aren’t associated with the characters of the film «Old brigands». Moreover, «Only old men are going to battle». And even «Seven old men and a girl»… And this is rather a thriller – «Ghosts are coming back». And from the Gogol’s times Ukraine has had its own ghosts and devils…

Almost for twenty years of independence we had time to understand that if one does not possibly look at the state and community, the power and the opposition, the industry and business, the freedom and the prison etc. as a single whole, then starting a reconstruction of Ukraine means building not a

house but eternally unfinished objects, which will always be surrounded by mess and hostility.

The life itself seems to have given prompts long ago. First. Future Ukraine can’t be built with the help of endless struggle against one another. It should be better substituted by competitiveness. Second. Disrespecting authority simultaneously striving to become it means to dig one’s own grave. Third. Today it is useless, while trampling the authority, to ask for support of that part of society that votes for this authority. Fourth. If the authority and the opposition don’t feel themselves like twins divided by the history and politics, they won’t ever understand what the integral development of the country is. And this is the national idea of today and tomorrow. Fifth. One always needs to remember: those who play heroes will be heroes. Ukraine of the «orange heroes» has already shown itself.

I didn’t see and hear anything of this in another political round of the TUR («Third Ukrainian Republic»). Everything remained on the level: we were chucked out, we will chuck – that’s how we move ahead.

P.S. In one of the first evenings after the victory of the «Orange revolution» on the 5th Channel I told Y.V. everything about what anticipated the

«democrat winners». And today I have a moral right to say what anticipates creators of the «Third Ukrainian Republic» as a new «political pyramid», if to build as to destroy, and to destroy isn’t to build… – «Third republic» as a donut hole. No matter how the public would wish another…

OPINION

THIRD REPUBLIC AS A DONUT HOLEFor a long time in Ukraine there was a fashion for a «third force». According to its «possessors» original concept, it had to appear between the authorities and the opposition to lead disappointed and disbelieved masses. The main mistakes of its «bearers» consisted in the fact that to «appear» from «between»…

Anatoly Tolstoukhov

Apparently, having studied the lessons of will in prison, Yuri Lutsenko and his friends decided to become a powerful «third force» and to appear clean before people

Future Ukraine can’t be built with the help of endless strug-gle against one another

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