Time for Attention to Ukraine

Editors’ note: Various fonts were not provided to properly display all the text within this article.

TIME FOR ATTENTION TO UKRAINE

Mark A. Bowdidge

Division of Music, Brewton-Parker College

Mount Vernon, GA 30445, USA

912-583-3132

912-583-2997 Fax

and

John S. Bowdidge

College of Business Administration, Missouri State University

Springfield, MO 65897, USA

417-836-5565

417-836-6224 Fax

ABSTRACT

In the summer of 1991, when USSR ultra-conservatives kidnapped President Gorbachev, there began the unraveling of the Soviet Union. Each republic within the USSR began its own slow movement toward independence – and toward the West. One such republic was Ukraine. The Ukrainian motion has intensified and continues to this day.

Keywords: Yushchenko, Tymoshenko, NATO, European Union, Yushchenko’s acne, meeting President Bush, Kravchenko’s suicide.

INTRODUCTION

Following the final settling in very early 2005 of their Presidential election, the new leadership of Ukraine quickly set about organizing itself. As we shall see in the pages to follow, this was not to be an easy task. Great changes were in store for Ukraine. It was not to be as simple as “straighten out things here at home!” The task ahead was to be far more complex. In early February of 2005, a headline writer for Russia’s .Ru defined the nation’s chief objective in this way: “” (53). That comes into English roughly as: “Ukraine is seeking its rightful place on the map of Europe.”

If that headline writer for .Ru is accurate, then we have excellent advice for the Ukrainians from their own Bible [Matthew 7:7]: “ – ,  – ,  – ” (7, p. 10) – “Ask and ye shall receive; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto thee.” And that seems to be what the New Government is doing right now.

HERE COMES THE NEW GOVERNMENT

After a period of disputes, it was finally decided as 2004 was ending that the winner of the Ukrainian presidency was , or in English Viktor Yushchenko. The Germans spell it Juschtshenko and theFrench use Iouchtchenko.

A totally-new and large Cabinet had to be formed, and the Kiev newspaper provided the long list for its readers, using the heading: “: ” (27). That comes into English as: “Yushchenko’s Cabinet of Ministers: from A to Z.” Moscow’s  noted something special about this particular Cabinet: “ – ” (13), meaning: “The new Cabinet – the youngest in Ukrainian history!” Is that bad? First Timothy has an answer: “” (7, p. 242), meaning: “Let no man despise thy youth.”

If the media of Eastern Europe were looking for some controversy, a young Cabinet was not it. They more wisely turned their attention to the lady proposed for the position of Prime Minister in the Yushchenko Government.

THE TYMOSHENKO FACTOR

There’s quite a background to Yulia Tymoshenko, President Yushchenko’s choice for Prime Minister. On January 26, 2005, the Paris daily Libération revealed some of it for us:

Le Parquet russe a délivré un mandat d’arrêt contre elle en septembre 2004, au plus fort de la campagne présidentielle, pendant laquelle toute l’équipe du président russe Vladimir Poutine s’était placée sans réserve du côté du rival de Iouchtchenko.... Contrairement aux attentes russes, ce mandat n’est pas devenu international car Interpol a exigé de plus amples informations. La belle Ioulia...peut donc continuer à voyager de par le monde, à l’exception de la Russie, premier pertenaire commercial de son pays (21) – The Russian Prosecutor issued an arrest warrant against her in September, 2004, at the height of the [Ukraine] presidential campaign, during which the whole team of Russian President Vladimir Putin was, without reservations, behind the team of Yushchenko’s rival.... Contrary to Russian attempts, the warrant did not become international because Interpol required more information. Beautiful Yulia...is therefore able to travel across the world, with the exception of Russia, Number One trade partner of her home country.

That was January 26. On February 16, there was good news in The Moscow Times:

Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov said Tuesday that Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko will enjoy immunity from arrest if she travels to Russia despite a criminal charge against her.... Tymoshenko “won’t have any problems if she wants to visit Russia,” Ustinov said.... “State leaders, including prime ministers, enjoy immunity worldwide.” At the same time, Ustinov said that his office would not drop its criminal case against Tymoshenko (35).

What were the charges against Yulia? Moscow Times stated: “Prosecutors have accused Tymoshenko of bribing Russian defense officials.... Tymoshenko has denied the charges as political” (Ibid.). Libération can provide a few more details:

...avoir versé, en 1995, des pots-de-vin à des responsables du ministère russe de la Défense, alors qu’elle dirigeait la société d’électricité ukrainienne (21) ...having paid, in 1995, bribes to leaders of the Russian Ministry of Defense at the time that she was directing the Ukrainian Electricity Company.

Back home in Kiev, a headline in cast doubt on the Russian promise from Ustinov. They did it with the placement of a question mark: “?” (40), meaning: “Tymoshenko will not be arrested in Moscow?” When Tymoshenko is no longer an elected official, she’d better be careful about her travel plans. So suggests the headline of the Libération story quoted just above: “Entre Kiev et Moscou, le réchauffement n’était que temporaire” (21), meaning: “Between Kiev and Moscow, the [friendly] warming up of [relations] is only temporary.”

Despite that question in her past, the Ukrainian single-chamber, 450-seat Parliament voted on her candidacy on February 4, 2005. Tymoshenko needed 226 votes. The result was very clear although various news agencies disagreed as to the exact figures. Mara D. Bellaby, writing for Associated Press from Kiev, awarded her 373 votes (5). Ron Popepski, on hand for Reuters, made it 379 for Yulia (38). .Ru (54) put the number at 357. There were no negative votes among the 407 Parliament members who were present. That zero opposition was explained in .Ru:

50 ,  “”  (Ibid.) – [A rough translation] Fifty people did not participate in the voting. They abstained because voting “against” would have no impact anyway.

Quite obviously, the Parliament liked what Tymoshenko was proposing for her new Government; the .Ru headline proclaimed the good news this way: “” (Ibid.), meaning: “The Ukrainian Parliament approves Yulia Tymoshenko’s program.”

In paragraphs above, it has been noted that the Moscow Government of Vladimir Putin did everything it could to prevent President Yushchenko and Prime Minister Tymoshenko from coming to power. But polite diplomacy must go on. A visit to Kiev by Putin on March 21, 2005 to see top Ukrainian officials turned out to be surprisingly pleasant. Kiev’s   went so far as to post this hard-to-believe headline: “” (42), meaning: “Tymoshenko charms Putin.” That headline was in Ukrainian;  ’s Russian edition quickly told of the “charming” process. Note the time allocation:

....  5 ,  20- (41) – The first meeting of Tymoshenko and Putin was a surprise – not only for the journalists but also for Putin.... scheduled to last no longer than 5 minutes, it turned into 20 minutes.

That was a good day for the new Government! While the Tymoshenko problem seems to have been solved, at least one other remained.

ACNE ON THE PRESIDENT’S FACE

Acne on a person’s face is almost never seen as life-threatening. However, the case of President Yushchenko is an exception. Alan Cullison, writing for The Wall Street Journal on December 13, 2004, indicated that there was serious poisoning behind that acne:

Doctors confirmed that presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned during Ukraine’s bitterly contested presidential campaign.... Mr. Yushchenko called for a new investigation into his poisoning, following Austrian doctors’ announcement [at Vienna’s elite Rudolfiner clinic]...that dioxin had caused his mysterious illness this fall (15).

Three days earlier, Yushchenko’s Chicago-born wife was quoted in a bulletin from Washington by Yahoo! India News and Reuters:

“I tasted some medicine on his breath, on his lips,” Kateryna Yushchenko said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “And I asked him about it, he brushed it away, saying there is nothing.” She said the next day her husband became ill and eventually was rushed to a hospital. “We were told that if we had only waited a few hours, we might have lost him”....Kateryna Yushchenko said her husband’s facial disfigurement increased over a period of weeks.... “But doctors assure us that when the poison goes away, his face will return to the way it looked before” (59).

Three months later, this rather comforting report was published on March 9, 2005 in .Ru, confirming what the doctors had told Kateryna Yushchenko back in December:

, , (33) – The face of [Ukraine President] Viktor Yushchenko, covered with acne as the result of dioxin poisoning, will be found to be of normal appearance within several months.

While waiting for a complete cure, the busy new Ukraine Government was planning to move westward.

THE MOVEMENT TOWARD N.A.T.O. AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

It was apparent in the earliest days of the new Ukraine Government that the nation has plans to become affiliated with the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). That was quickly picked up and stated by  (Ekaterina Katz) writing in the Russian newspaper .Ru on February 15, 2005:

 (29) – Ukraine is proclaiming its policy course to begin the integration process with the European Union.

According to Yahoo! and AFX, a week later on February 22, 2005, Yushchenko very clearly confirmed the  report with this very obvious statement in Brussels:

“We would like to see Ukraine being integrated into the European Union and into the north Atlantic alliance,” he told reporters, after a summit meeting with NATO leaders including US president George Bush (57).

At about that same time, Germany’s Handelsblatt echoed that statement:

Der neue Präsident der Ukraine Viktor Juschtschenko hat den Wunsch seines Landes bekräftigt, so rasch wie möglich Europäischen Union beizutreten.... Zuvor hatte Juschtschenko beim Nato-Gipfel in Brüssel für eine Mitgleidschaft der Ukraine im westlichen Militärbündnis geworben (26) – The new President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko has the wish that his nation be able as soon as possible to enter the European Union.... Shortly before the NATO summit in Brussels Yushchenko applied for a Ukraine membership in that Western military alliance.

The European Union’s General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) made a relevant statement on this matter on February 22, 2005:

The Council welcomed the appointment of the new Government in Ukraine, and expressed support for its ambitious programme of political and economic reforms. A new commitment to democracy and reforms opens new prospects for Ukraine and for EU-Ukraine relations. The EU acknowledges Ukraine’s European aspirations and welcomes Ukraine’s European choice (19).

That statement from GAERC is typical diplomacy in action; complimentary remarks with no specific commitments.  (Leonid Amchuk), who was covering the Brussels meetings for Kiev’s , must have picked up this lack of specific EU and NATO commitment. His report for February 22, 2005 bore the heading: “” (2), meaning: “A Brussels waffle for Yushchenko.” Only a slight variation on the Belgian waffle.

Said another way, EU and NATO were clearly waffling – that is being evasive and definitely non-committal about those memberships desired by Ukraine!

CONTACT WITH PRESIDENT BUSH

News media around the world have let it be known that U.S. President George Bush has paid special attention to President Yushchenko. On January 11, 2005, Moscow’s .Ru headlined: “” (12), meaning: “Bush congratulates Yushchenko on his victory in the election.” And that congratulation was delivered by telephone!

When in Brussels on February 22, President Bush took this additional bold complimentary step forward, according to .Ru:



 (16) – George Bush compares Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko to George Washington.

With such White House attention being paid to President Yushchenko, there was understandable anticipation of an historic face-to-face meeting of the two chief executives. For its February 3 issue,headlined: “” (48), meaning: “Yushchenko will be meeting with Bush at the NATO summit.” On that same date, Reuters made the Bush-Yuschchenko meeting seem even more important: “Yushchenko to Come to NATO for Summit with Bush” (58). As the “summit” was about to open, Valentina Dubina translated from an article in  as follows: “Bush will meet with Yushchenko separately” (17). This very special meeting was now ready to take place.

How long were the two Presidents together? The Paris daily Libération told us:

L’entretien a duré environ un quart d’heure en présence de la secrétaire d’Etat américaine Condoleezza Rice at du chef de la diplomatie ukrainienne Boris Tarassiouk (24) – The meeting [interview] lasted around a quarter of an hour in the presence of the American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Chief of Ukrainian Diplomacy Boris Tarassiouk [].

Fifteen minutes is not too long a “summit.” Quite possibly the Russian press is a little prejudiced against the new Ukraine regime. That might explain why .Ru described this meeting in Brussels as “... 7 ” (16), meaning: “...going on for 7 minutes.” Compare those two estimates with the 20 minutes Vladimir Putin spent with Ukraine Prime Minister Tymoshenko!

Hopefully, there is no great significance to the “quart d’heure” or the “7 .” In the future, Bush and Yushchenko can spend much more time together.

And we are happy to report that on April 4, 2005 in Washington the two leaders had a longer meeting, during which President Bush was quoted by as making this complimentary remark regarding President : “, ” (11A), meaning roughly: “Bush calls Yushchenko a friend, who inspires others.” Up in Boston, on that same trip, Yushchenko received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in a ceremony featuring Senator Ted Kennedy (32A).

OTHER PARTS OF THE PUZZLE

Two other items from Ukraine were making the news as summer 2005 approached.

The Iraq Decision

Moscow’s .Ru broke the news on March 1: “”(55), meaning: “Ukraine has made the decision to reduce its military forces in Iraq.” The BBC Russian Service gave details of the very first step: “ 150  15 ” (56), meaning: “The first 150 soldiers will be going home by March 15.”

On March 22, Associated Press and Canadian Press explained the situation and its history:

Ukraine strongly opposed the U.S.-led war but later agreed to send a large contingent to serve under Polish command in central and southern Iraq. The deployment was widely seen as an effort by former President Leonid Kuchma to repair relations with Washington, frayed by allegations that he approved the sale of radar systems to Saddam Hussein’s regime in violation of UN sanctions. Ukraine’s participation in the U.S.-led coalition is deeply unpopular, but Yushchenko has said Ukraine should keep a presence in Iraq and take part in development and reconstruction efforts there. The troop pullout was one of the new president’s campaign promises (44A)

On March 11, TurkishPress.com covered the American reaction to this withdrawal:

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice...downplayed Ukraine’s planned withdrawal of [1,650] troops from Iraq, emphasizing the issue was being coordinated between the two countries. “We fully understand that the Ukrainian government has decided to end that troop presence,” Rice said in Washington after meeting with her Ukrainian counterpart, Boris Tarasyuk [] (38A).

It is important to note:

Ukraine has the sixth-largest contingent in the US-led coalition in Iraq after the United States, Britain, South Korea, Italy and Poland (Ibid.). Eighteen Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in Iraq and more than two dozen have been wounded.... (44A).

Kravchenko’s Apparent Suicide

.Ru referred on March 7, 2005 to an event of several days earlier “... 4 ” (32), meaning: “...the death on March 4 of the former Minister of the Interior Yuri Kravchenko.” The death was announced in the world’s media as a suicide. Commenting upon it, France’s Le Figaro stated:

«Il est sûr que la mort de Kravtchenko est un coup dur pour Iouchtchenko. Elle sert en premier lieu les hauts responsables du ministère de l’Intérieur impliqués dans l’affaire Gongadzé et l’ancien président Léonid Koutchma», a estimé le politilogue Olexandre Dergatchov (45) – “It is certain that the death of Kravchenko is a hard blow for Yushchenko. It will take on top priority among the high responsible persons in the Interior Ministry implicated in the Gongadze affair as well as the former President Leonid Kutchma,” observes the political scientist Olexandre Dergatchov.

Le Figaro, .Ru, The Wall Street Journal, and Neue Zürcher Zeitung, all hunted up by the current study, assumed that their readers were overly familiar with the situation. The accounts in these four periodicals, therefore, were just a little confusing. It is thus incumbent upon this current study to clarify the significance of the Kravchenko suicide!

Alan Cullison in The Wall Street Journal introduces us to a “muckraking journalist” named Goergiy Gongadze. Gongadze apparently authored numerous articles furiously attacking – from a News website – practices and actions within the Ukraine presidential regime of Leonid Kuchma.

Some audio tapes exist which contain the voice of President Kuchma. On those tapes Kuchma can allegedly be heard ordering action by Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko. Wall Street Journal writer Cullison quotes Kuchma as he speaks to Kravchenko regarding action against journalist Gongadze: “drive him out, throw [him] out, give him to the Chechens” (14).

In September 2000, journalist Gongadze was murdered. The trial is coming up. Journal writer Cullison explains why all of this can be a problem for new President Yushchenko – who was the Prime Minister in the Kuchma regime at the time of the murder:

Mr. Yushchenko’s allies say the probe must confront the former president if Ukraine is ever to have a proper truth-telling. Mr. Kuchma [that former President]...maintains his innocence.... Still, a thorough investigation into Mr. Gongadze’s murder could prove uncomfortable for Mr. Yushchenko, since it threatens some....colleagues in Ukraine’s [present] ruling elite (Ibid.)

Keeping watch on the trial and its impact is required if we are to stay up with this new Ukraine.

WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS?

These have been, and continue to be, interesting times for Ukraine. Has there been a Western role in this drama? Perhaps. Madeleine Albright, American Secretary of State until January 2001, did a little cultivating. Here’s how she described it in her Memoir: