INSIDE: l Ukrainian Canadian students hold congress – page 8 l New book: “Beauty of Ukrainian Embroidery” – page 10 l New York City’s 37th annual Ukrainian Festival – page 11 THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXXI No. 22 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JUNE 2, 2013 $1/$2 in Ukraine Toronto conference brings together Ukraine’s rulers use thugs Ukrainian leaders for training to get their dirty work done Vladyslav Sodel Olya Grod Gopniki, or violently inclined thugs, attacked opposition protesters and journalists on One of the lively break-out sessions during the “Stronger Communities” workshop. May 18 in central Kyiv. They were reportedly hired to guard the Party of Regions’ “anti-fascist” rally, though the party denies any relation to them. Opposition leaders claimed they were ordered by top state officials to attack protesters. by Oksana Kulynych Foundation (UCEF). The expanded workshop was designed TORONTO – Increasingly, Ukrainian to build on the success of an earlier non- by Zenon Zawada with no respect for the law and no moral code other than the money they can gain. community organizations in Canada and profit forum in June 2012 that featured Special to The Ukrainian Weekly the United States have been called to Natalia Bordun, the director of the Institute In independent Ukraine, oligarchs have hired thugs with tainted pasts to serve as strengthen their governance and to adopt of Leadership and Non-Profit Management KYIV – Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini their bodyguards or to carry out violent best practices from effective non-profit at the Ukrainian Catholic University, and a had the black-shirted squadristi to do his raids on targeted properties. However, the organizations. This yearning for greater group of Canadian management experts. dirty work. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych administration has given professionalism and strategic planning The brainchild of Christine Kuzyk, a Yanukovych and the Party of Regions have gopniki new opportunities, putting their served as the impetus for an all-day leader- development manager for UCEF, the April the Adidas-clad “gopniki.” Though they ship workshop held at the Advocates’ haven’t yet become as violent as talents to use in persecuting the political 13 workshop was organized with the sup- opposition, usually with violence. Society Education Center in downtown port and encouragement of Paul Grod, the Mussolini’s men, they serve the same func- Toronto on Saturday, April 13. tion of intimidating political opponents. “They don’t have anything to fight the president of the Ukrainian Canadian growing dissatisfaction on the streets Titled “Stronger Communities through Congress, who felt that many more organi- Some gopniki (a Russian word used to Stronger Organizations,” the workshop denote impoverished, often criminal, ele- except using criminals, given that they zations could benefit from the insights and don’t have the support of the people,” said attracted 70 participants representing ments of society) are well-trained athletes, best practices that emerged from the Oleksandr Palii, a veteran political observer more than 30 Ukrainian Canadian organi- or “sportsmeny,” while others are bony forum last year. Other organizations rallied and author. zations and Catholic and Orthodox parish- alcoholics. What they share is their back- to the cause with financial and organiza- The May 18 attack in Kyiv on opposition es. The conference was co-sponsored by ground of poverty and lack of education, tional support, including the Shevchenko protesters and journalists, as nasty as it the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) and their post-Soviet values of “might- was, was merely the tip of the iceberg of and the Ukrainian Catholic Education (Continued on page 12) makes-right” intimidation and violence, the politically motivated attacks involving gopniki allegedly organized by the Party of Regions and the Yanukovych administra- tion, which work hand in glove and deny Anti-Tabachnyk Coalition launched in Kyiv such hirings. Throughout history, authoritarian gov- by Tamara Olexy ernments and dictatorships have employed Ukrainian Congress Committee of America private citizens to inflict violence on politi- KYIV – Dozens of national deputies of cal enemies in order to shift responsibility Ukraine, well-known scholars, authors, away from the government onto thugs and community leaders, as well as representa- rioters, who are then claimed to have acted tives from various non-governmental of their own will, political experts said. organizations gathered on May 23 at the That’s the same principle behind the use Writers’ Union in Kyiv to participate in a of gopniki, who do the dirty work for the roundtable on “The Issue of the Ukrainian Party of Regions that party members and language in Ukraine’s Education System.” the police can’t do openly out of concern The discussion was held on the initiative for further injuring their already tenuous of the All-Ukrainian Committee for the reputations. Protection of the Ukrainian Language. Such thugs played a key role in the The participants unanimously agreed October 2012 parliamentary election cam- that the greatest problem that looms over paign, intimidating opposition candidates the education system in Ukraine is the such as Oleh Medunytsia, now a national words and deeds of Dmytro Tabachnyk, deputy with the Batkivshchyna party. the anti-Ukrainian minister of education. A week before the vote, gopniki inter- Anti-Tabachnyk Coalition initiator Ivan Lozowy addresses the roundtable held rupted a meet-and-greet he had with citi- (Continued on page 6) in Kyiv on May 23. (Continued on page 12) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JUNE 2, 2013 No. 22 ANALYSIS Moscow’s ‘Pyrrhic victory’ in 1945 led Bubka joins race for IOC head ty’s commitments to the European Union. KYIV – Ukraine’s former Olympic pole Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara to Soviet collapse in 1991, says Russian writer vault champion Sergei Bubka has announced this during a May 28 hearing in announced his candidacy to succeed Brussels of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs that focused by Paul Goble lived on the occupied territories and their International Olympic Committee (IOC) progeny even over the course of the post- President Jacques Rogge. Mr. Bubka on recent political developments in The “chief cause” of the collapse of the war repression and a half century of propa- announced he would run for the office at a Ukraine. “We hope to gain observer status Soviet Union in 1991 was Stalin’s occupa- ganda did not become Soviet citizens.” meeting of the IOC executive committee in in the alliance of the three countries of tion of the Baltic countries, western They only awaited their chance, and with St. Petersburg on May 28. Mr. Bubka is cur- Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Our posi- Ukraine, western Belarus and Bessarabia, the weakening of the Soviet center at the rently president of the National Olympic tion here is open and direct: we join those thus making what the Russian Federation end of the 1980s, they took it. Committee of Ukraine and senior vice-pres- provisions within the Customs Union, celebrates today as a resounding triumph “The people’s fronts in the Baltic repub- ident of the International Association of which do not contradict our obligations to into “a Pyrrhic victory” for the country, lics, the Romanian nationalists in Moldova, Athletics Federations. He won the Olympic the European Union,” Mr. Kozhara said. The according to a Russian blogger. the Ukrainian nationalists from Rukh and pole vault gold medal in Seoul in 1988 and minister added that negotiations between In a blog post reposted on the Ekho the Belarusian Popular Front, drawing on also won six world championships. Mr. Ukraine and the Customs Union are now Moskvy portal, Russian businessman the support of the population in the west- Bubka joins Germany’s Thomas Bach, going well. (Ukrinform) Aleksey Blindul says that “the chief cause ern sections of the republic, Mr. Blindul Singapore’s Ng Ser Miang, Taiwan’s C.K. Russian consul in Crimea resigns which destroyed the Soviet empire was the writes, “began a struggle for independence, Wu, Puerto Rico’s Richard Carrion and occupation” or, as some call it, the “libera- and after a couple of years this ended with Switzerland’s Denis Oswald in the race for SYMFEROPOL – The Russian consul in tion” of these border areas (ablindul.live- the destruction of the Soviet Union.” the post of IOC chief. The vote to decide Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea journal.com/67788.htm repeated at echo. (Because it had removed the local popu- who will replace Mr. Rogge will take place has resigned amid a controversy caused by msk.ru/blog/ablindul/1070390-echo/). lation from East Prussia and the part of at the IOC’s general session in Buenos Aires his recent comments regarding the depor- As one of the winners in World War II, Finland it had seized, the Soviet Union did in September. (RFE/RL, based on reporting tation of Crimean Tatars during World War the USSR insisted on retaining not only the not face the same challenges from these by AFP and pravda.com.ua) II. Vladimir Andreyev told journalists on territories it had occupied earlier during two places, the blogger notes. But those May 24 that he was resigning in protest that conflict, including Estonia, Latvia and places, which had been wealthy segments Yanukovych meets with Putin in Sochi over the stand taken by the Russian Foreign Lithuania, portions of Poland and part of of European countries before 1939 were SOCHI, Russia – Ukrainian President Ministry on the issue. In an interview with Finland, but also the northern portion of transformed into areas resembling “the Viktor Yanukovych was in the southern a local television company aired on May 21, East Prussia, which it renamed Kaliningrad.