Ukrainian Is Losing Ukrainian Energy Supplies 6 Language Schools 14 Viewers 44 Ukrainian International Monthly Edition Week №2 (14) February 2011
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NLG TERMINAL PAGE DONETSK PARENTS PAGE WHY BOOB TUBE PAGE COULD DIVERSIFY DO BATTLE FOR UKRAINIAN IS LOSING UKRAINIAN ENERGY SUPPLIES 6 LANGUAGE SCHOOLS 14 VIEWERS 44 Ukrainian international monthly edition Week №2 (14) FEBRUARY 2011 www.tyzhden.ua featuring selected content from the economist for free distribution currenT affairs|contentS Trends & Talk The main chance Terminal stumbling block Ukraine’s Government is using the Events, Quotes, The Three-Martini Launch idea of a liquid gas terminal as a Numbers Building an NLG terminal in Ukraine could be a move to powerful geopolitical card— diversifying gas suppliers—or one that it may not have the 4 just a waste of taxpayer money 6 courage to play 9 ideologues Ethnic Parents to the cleansing, Barricades Ideological Splits then and Donetsk officials are The ruling party now eager to close down could be facing a Ukrainian schools even if showdown between they are 95% filled with its pragmatic and students. But parents pro-Russian wings are fighting back 10 12 14 Crooked In a Captious Land Demobilization 2011 Lawmaking Kyiv’s policy towards A massive layoff of officers A “minor” the Crimean Tatars could leave Ukraine’s army violation of the remains controversial weaker and its police more Constitution grows and inconsistent corrupt into a scandal with criminal undertones 16 18 22 If not NATO, then Russia? Mr. Yanukovych goes to among The pols The ability of the public purse to Washington pay for defense is just one of the The Yanukovych Administra Learning Democracy tests of its “non-aligned” status tion’s image in the West is German historian Frank that Kyiv is failing made by Americans, paid for by Golczewski talks about Ukrainians and watched closely the WWI era and the by Russians benefits of pluralism 22 24 28 neighbors The Land of the Dancing with When Evil turns to Good Nebbish bears Patriarch Filaret talks Leonidas Russians have never BP’s Russian about raider attacks on Donskis: been a free people. venture is the Kyiv Patriarchate The Source of From time to time already proving and the delusion of a Success they simply changed trickier than “Russian world” masters expected 31 32 34 36 Raider of the Lost The arTs Ukrainians vs Television Patriarchate Quitting the “boob tube” Ukrainian Orthodox Strangers in Their Own Land is becoming more churches are skeptical Ukraine’s FM frequencies offer and more justified for of the Moscow church's little–except third-rate foreign Ukrainians. Their reasons arguments on canonicity and soviet-era pop, sprinkled are many and "non-canonicity" with a bit of classic rock 40 42 44 The Ukrainian Week №2 (14) February 2011 Mailing address: PO Box 2, Kyiv, 03067 Founder: ECEM Media Ukraine LLC Publisher: The Ukrainian Week LLC Publisher address: vul. Mashynobudivna 37, Kyiv 03067 Ukraine Published since 2010 E-mail: [email protected] Tel.: (044) 351-1300 State registration certificate 16412-4884P of March 13, 2010 Print: ТОV SKIMP, Triada Print Publishing Bohdan Andriytsev, Director, ECEM Media Ukraine LLC Ordering number: 609. Print run: 10,000 Roman Tsupryk, Chairman of the Editorial Board Sent to print on March 7, 2011 Serhiy Lytvynenko, Editor-in-Chief, Ukrainskiy Tyzhden Free distributions Lidia Wolanskyj, Editor, Ukrainian Week International Edition Anna Korbut, translator 2|ukrainian week|№2 February 2011 editorial|Trends & Talk How not to lose Ukraine t first glance, the news coming out of Ukraine medium business destroyed, as well as students, who offers little to be optimistic about. In just one don’t want to see education become completely com- year, the new Administration has dropped the mercialized and universities lose their autonomy. As Acountry’s ratings for human rights almost to a result, those in power have had to compromise. the levels of the mid-1990s. Beyond state oversight yet These protest actions have also shown the soli- helped at every step by state agencies, Ukraine’s oli- darity of the country: participants come from across garchs are busy monopolizing entire branches of in- the land, without regard to language preferences or dustry, grabbing stakes in the country’s largest enter- opinions about historic figures. prises. Some Cabinet Members, such as Education Opinion polls continue to show that Ukrainians Minister Tabachnyk, allow themselves to say things consider freedom of speech, of assembly and of elec- that are not only offensive to Ukrainians as a nation, tions an intrinsic good and that they consider it un- but even echo racist statements by Nazi officials dur- acceptable to restrict or take away such freedoms. ing the WWII occupation. Instead of battling wide- The press continues to have highly-principled jour- spread corruption, the government is settling accounts nalists who critically evaluate the government’s ac- with political opponents and accusing activists of tions and offer Ukrainian voters objective informa- criminal activity based on patently absurd grounds. tion about the state of affairs in their country. The biggest danger is that, instead of making use The power of the state is seen by Ukrainians as of the current concentration of power to undertake coming, not from pure abstract “force,” or the sta- promised reforms, today’s governing elite are trying tus of “superpower,” or the ability to interfere in the to rebuild Ukraine into a kind of zone of heightened affairs of one’s neighbors, although this is typical comfort for the elect. A zone in which the rest of the for Russian society. Instead, the power of the state country will be a source of labor and funds to cover is seen by Ukrainians as its ability to protect the budget spending. For those in power, the plan seems rights and well-being of its citizens. to be to swim in luxury and funnel the profits from When it comes down to it, Ukrainians prefer to enterprises under their control, not into moderniza- resolve their political conflicts at the negotiation table tion or infrastructure, but into the satisfaction of per- and through free elections. Yet these traits are not sonal whims or the capitalization of private projects merely the achievement of recent years. The qualita- outside Ukraine, through offshore channels. tive difference between Ukrainian society and Russian Needless to say, a state built along these lines is is that Ukrainians have long embraced European val- very vulnerable to external forces, especially Russian ues as their own. Because of this, Ukraine’s identity ones. First of all, its leaders need support and protec- has not disappeared into some “all-Russian” identity, tion against its own citizenry and, secondly, they need despite several centuries under Russian rule—and investment so that their own plans can succeed. many forceful campaigns by Russian imperial and so- On the other hand, the price of this kind of sup- viet rulers to bring this about. The distinctiveness of port will be giving up control over strategic assets in Ukrainians from “Great Russians” lies not only in Ukraine’s economy to the Russians—something their language and historical memory, but also in their Russian officials, from Vice Premier Sechin to worldview, on the place of the individual in their soci- members of the Duma are already openly saying. ety, and on the priority they give to different values. These are assets that will generate sufficient addi- In the end, even the current people in power in tional resources for the Russian economy while sup- Ukraine are in no hurry to fall into the arms of the porting the Kremlin’s plans in Europe—plans that are Russian bear: they would still prefer to run their terri- clearly set out in the Russian Federation’s strategic tory on their own. Yet this idea is in conflict with the documents: taking control over energy transport and expansion of authoritarian practices. If Ukraine’s distribution networks, expanding Russian influence leadership does not trust its own people but choses to over decision-making processes in Europe, and draw- fight them instead, it will be very vulnerable, indeed. ing European countries into deals that may be incon- For Ukrainians to complete their path to Eu- venient for them but useful for Moscow. rope, that is, to come back home, its leaders need to The good news is that, in trying to set up a dicta- pass the challenge of Europeanness that their citi- torship along the lines of the one in Moscow, the key zens are presenting them now. This means: talk to word for the current Administration in Kyiv is “try- your opponents, include them in the decision-mak- ing.” It has already bumped up against resistance ing process, discuss reforms in advance so that they from Ukrainian civil society, that is, the community can be appropriately amended, and don’t set up any of citizens who are capable of expressing and defend- more feeders for your clique. ing a political position. Ukraine’s foreign partners should actively de- For Ukraine’s civil society is too European to al- mand that its leaders opt for this way of running the low itself to be used as a soviet tool. The very reac- country. To ignore the threat of dragging Ukraine tion of Ukrainians to the gauntlet tossed by their po- into the “Russian world” is not just against Ukraine’s litical leadership is typical of European societies with interests, but against the interests of all of Europe. a sense of proper human rights and freedoms and The bloody history of the 20th century has shown us the ability to defend these. Protest movements are all that the sacrifice of liberty in one European nation happening at the national level, bringing together not only does not solve the issue of European securi- business people, who don’t want to see small and ty—it complicates things even more.