www.ukrweekly.com INSIDE: • The crisis at Ukraine’s state archives — page 5. • Commentary on the verdict in the Gongadze case – page 8. • More on NATO’s summit in Bucharest — pages 10-12. HE KRAINIAN EEKLY T PublishedU by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profitW association Vol. LXXVI No. 15 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, APRIL 13, 2008 $1/$2 in Ukraine NATO makes commitment to eventual membership for Ukraine and Georgia by Vladimir Socor Eurasia Daily Monitor At its Bucharest summit, NATO postponed a decision on approving Membership Action Plans (MAPs) for Ukraine and Georgia; but it gave the two countries much more than immediate MAPs. The alliance committed itself clearly – albeit without a deadline – to the political and strategic goal of Ukrainian and Georgian member- ship in the alliance. “NATO welcomes Ukraine’s and Georgia’s aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO. Both nations have made valuable contributions to alliance operations. We welcome the democratic reforms in Ukraine and Official Website of Ukraine’s President Georgia and look forward to free and fair parliamentary During the NATO-Ukraine Commission meeting on April 4, President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine listens elections in Georgia in May. MAP is the next step for as NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer speaks. Ukraine and Georgia on their direct way to membership. Today we make clear that we support these countries’ applications for MAP. Therefore, we will now begin at a Ukraine’s leaders see victory at NATO summit high political level to address the questions still outstand- ing, pertaining to their MAP applications. We have asked by Illya M. Labunka come of the 59th annual meeting of the Euro-Atlantic foreign ministers to make a first assessment of progress Kyiv Press Bureau alliance, that Ukraine’s head of state is certain his country at their December 2008 meeting. Foreign ministers have will join NATO’s MAP by the end of 2008. In December of KYIV – Although the NATO summit in Bucharest did the authority to decide on the MAP applications of this year, the foreign ministers of the 26 member-states of not fulfill Ukraine’s specific request for a Membership Ukraine and Georgia,” stated the NATO Bucharest the NATO are scheduled to meet at NATO Headquarters in Action Plan (MAP) and Ukraine’s leaders have accepted the Summit Declaration released on April 4. Brussels, at which time Ukraine’s MAP candidacy will once alliance’s decision as somewhat of a tactical defeat, In an accompanying statement, NATO Secretary- again come up for consideration. President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer announced, “These coun- Commenting on the results of the Bucharest summit, Tymoshenko consider the summit’s results a strategic victo- tries will become members of NATO, there can be no President Yushchenko stated on April 6 that NATO’s ry. misunderstanding of that” – “not a sliver of a doubt,” he In fact, President Yushchenko is so content with the out- (Continued on page 28) added for emphasis. As Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski commented (PAP, April 4), the summit’s outcome turns a looming tactical defeat into a major strategic success for Ukraine, Georgia and their North American and European supporters. The tacti- SUSTA national conference held in Philadelphia cal defeat had seemed distinctly possible, ahead of and midway through the summit, as a result of German-led by Matthew Dubas spoke in support of student efforts to bring Ukraine into attempts to block the MAPs, giving Moscow an indirect Europe, but he said the European Union is not ready to veto through Berlin on the decision. However, pro-MAP PHILADELPHIA – Approximately 100 students partici- expand. countries mustered sufficient critical mass to turn the pated in the conference of the Federation of Ukrainian Chrystia Freeland, U.S. managing editor of the Financial tables on the naysayers and win the debate. They shifted Student Organizations in America (known by its Ukrainian Times, who spoke briefly due to her busy schedule, urged it from the technical issue of the MAPs to the political acronym as SUSTA) at the University of Pennsylvania here the students to visit Ukraine and gain first-hand experience issue of membership for Ukraine and Georgia in NATO. in Philadelphia on March 29. from seeing Ukraine and learning how things work over As a net result, membership prospects for Georgia and The event was coordinated by the Ukrainian Society at there, and to use that experience for the betterment of Ukraine in NATO are no longer in doubt. Membership U. Penn. and demonstrated a high level of organization, as Ukraine. itself remains subject to their performance as assessed by the agenda included discussion panels, videoconferencing Morgan Williams, a member of the U.S.-Ukraine the alliance, as with all aspirant countries. NATO is a with a professor and a student from Ukraine, and the elec- Business Council, shared his personal experience in doing beneficiary of this decision, no less than Ukraine and tion of officers for 2009. business in Ukraine. He explained to the students the oppor- Georgia. The decision has restored the credibility of In comparison to last year’s event, there were more NATO’s open-door, merit-based admission policies, tunities available to them because of their Ukrainian back- Fourth-Wave Ukrainians involved in local Ukrainian stu- ground and how they can play a vital role in modernizing which had been thrown into question by those who were dent clubs and more interaction and dialogue throughout the resisting the MAPs in deference to Russia. the business practices in Ukraine by consulting for interna- year, which helped to make this event successful. tional businesses in Ukraine. This includes combating cor- For the first time in the NATO’s 59-year history, the Igor Makar, president of the Ukrainian Society at U. alliance announced a political commitment to inviting ruption and bringing Ukraine’s businesses up to internation- Penn. and project director of SUSTA, welcomed the gather- al standards, he said. countries – Ukraine and Georgia in this case – to become ing. He later remarked, “It was a great conference, with an members in due course. Moreover, this commitment was Dr. Serhii Plokhii, Mykhailo Hrushevsky professor of impressive collection of panelists from the diaspora and Ukrainian History at Harvard University and director of the announced even before the two aspirant countries had Ukraine with great variety of topics.” technically embarked on the MAP process. Until now, all Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, spoke of the need to “I think the most important thing,” he continued, “is that convince the world and Europe that Ukraine is part of MAP countries went on to become members of the the end of the conference is not the end, but the start of alliance; but the process was not automatic. Europe, both geographically and ideologically. something and we continue to work for SUSTA.” Moreover, in the pre-summit debates, the advocates of The question, according to Prof. Plokhii, is “What do Oleksander Myhailchuk, head of the cultural and infor- Ukrainian and Georgian MAPs attempted to overcome Ukrainians in Ukraine think about their European future?” mational section at the Embassy of Ukraine, commended German objections by decoupling MAP from actual European optimism in Ukraine, according to Prof. Plokhii, membership, in their arguments. While there is no “guar- the students for organizing such a conference, and support- was evidenced by the renaming of European Square in Kyiv ed the student activities that engage them in work toward (Continued on page 14) the betterment of Ukraine. Hearing the other speakers, he (Continued on page 4) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, APRIL 13, 2008 No. 15 ANALYSIS NEWSBRIEFSNEWSBRIEFS Human rights activist decries Russia’s Putin: Ukraine not a state like always.” (RFE/RL Newsline) MOSCOW – The Moscow Times Russia will block NATO enlargement destructive culture of lies and mendacity reported on April 8 that President MOSCOW – Foreign Minister Sergei by Robert Coalson ent media can only be taken as “a continua- Vladimir Putin said on April 4 at the meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in Lavrov told Ekho Moskvy radio on April 8 RFE/RL Newsline tion of your untruth,” rebounding against Bucharest that Russia will work to break that Moscow will do all it can to prevent the hard wall of the public’s cynicism. NATO membership for Ukraine and Although there has been considerable up Ukraine if that country joins NATO. Russia, of course, has had unaccount- Georgia in order “to avoid an inevitable talk in recent months about possible politi- Citing a report in the daily Kommersant able government for more than 1,000 years serious exacerbation of our relations with cal, constitutional or economic crises in from April 7, The Moscow Times sug- and the Soviet era accustomed the public to both the alliance and our neighbors.” He Russia, only distinguished human rights gested that an unidentified foreign dele- incredulity. Although President Putin’s repeated Moscow’s long-standing argu- activist Sergei Kovalyov has drawn atten- gate described Mr. Putin as “losing his Russia is not a reincarnation of the Soviet ments that NATO enlargement is rooted in tion to a crisis that is already under way: temper” at the meeting and saying to Union, it has succeeded in re-establishing “Cold War logic,” that much of the Russia’s “shameful moral crisis.” U.S. President George W. Bush: “You this pernicious aspect of its political cul- Ukrainian public is opposed to NATO In a largely ignored open letter to understand, George, that Ukraine is not ture, making it arguably worse by stripping membership, and that the pro-Moscow President Vladimir Putin published shortly even a state.” Mr.