The Ukrainian Weekly, 2017
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INSIDE: l Conclusion of interview with Alexander Motyl – page 3 l HURI series on Ukraine and the 1917 revolution – page 7 l Chicago welcomes Women’s Bandura Ensemble – page 16 THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXXV No. 44 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2017 $2.00 Canada faces Moscow’s wrath Ukraine’s health care system after enactment of Magnitsky law to get comprehensive overhaul by Christopher Guly On October 17, Bill S-226, the Justice for Special to The Ukrainian Weekly Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act (Sergei Magnitsky Law), unanimously OTTAWA – As Canada’s Magnitsky law passed the Canadian Senate and took effect came into effect, the man closely connected the following day after receiving the to its namesake who campaigned for the required royal assent. legislation has found himself further target- The law – presented as a private mem- ed by Russia. Reacting to the bill, Russia’s ber’s bill by Ukrainian Canadian parliamen- Embassy in Canada called it a “hostile tarians Raynell Andreychuk in the Senate move” and promised “reciprocal counter- and James Bezan in the House of Commons measures”; President Vladimir Putin com- – was also unanimously endorsed in the mented that “This is just used to blow up lower house in early October. more anti-Russian hysteria.” Bill S-226 will allow the Canadian govern- Bill Browder, the Chicago-born, London- ment to freeze the assets and impose travel based financier who hired Sergei Magnitsky bans against foreign nationals “responsible as the lawyer and accountant for his now- for, or complicit in, significant acts of corrup- former Moscow-based Hermitage Capital tion and gross violations of internationally Management hedge fund in 2005, recently recognized human rights,” according to a had his visa revoked (and later reinstated) statement by Sen. Andreychuk, a Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine by the U.S. Department of Homeland Conservative who represents Saskatchewan Acting Health Minister Ulana Suprun reacts in Ukraine’s Parliament on October 19 Security after the Russian government in the upper house and who introduced the after reforms she has pushed to overhaul the nation’s health care system were passed placed his name on Interpol’s wanted list. legislation in the Senate last year. by the legislature. It’s the fifth time the Kremlin has tried to “What this law does is that it creates a use Interpol as a way to arrest Mr. Browder, certain amount of credibility and momen- by Mark Raczkiewycz Up to 8 percent of the nation’s economy who was sentenced to nine years in prison tum for Magnitsky sanctions worldwide is spent on health care – or 80 billion hrv KYIV – Ukraine adopted a crucial legisla- by a Russian court after being tried and con- that didn’t exist before Canada joined into ($3 billion U.S.), according to data provided tive health care package on October 19 that victed in absentia for tax evasion in 2013. the fray,” said Mr. Browder, who testified by the Health Ministry spokesperson. And is designed to improve the health of its peo- In a phone interview from London, Mr. before the Senate and House foreign affairs Health Minister Suprun, a physician born, ple and remove Europe’s largest country Browder told The Ukrainian Weekly that he committees in support of the law. He also reared and trained in the United States, from the list of nations that have the considers Moscow’s latest move against had successfully lobbied the U.S. Congress says that 136,000 Ukrainians die yearly – him to be “a badge of honor” and “a direct world’s highest death rates. It is the first lives a normally functioning medical sys- response” to Canada’s new Magnitsky law. (Continued on page 18) comprehensive change to the country’s tem would save. Soviet-era health care system since Ukraine With 15.6 deaths per 1,000 people, gained independence in 1991. Ukraine last year had the third highest The ailing state-run system will, as of death rate in the world after South Africa January 1, 2018, see “money follow the and Russia, according to the WHO. Crimean Tatar leaders are freed patient,” according to Health Ministry spokesperson Mariana Zbanatska, instead of Deputies’ immunity, anti-graft court since it occupied and seized control of Crimean Desk, having funds being allocated based on the Parliament pushed last week to elimi- Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service Soviet-era method of counting hospital beds. nate immunity from prosecution for Kremlin critics say that Russia has tar- “This will improve how the overall health national deputies. The bill passed in the Crimean Tatar leaders Akhtem geted Crimean Tatars and others who care system operates, provide better access first of two readings after which it was sent Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov, who were sen- opposed Moscow’s takeover of the Black to treatment and introduce standardized to the Constitutional Court for review as is tenced to prison by Russian courts on the Sea peninsula, which followed the ouster pricing for services throughout the country,” required by law because it makes changes occupied peninsula in September, were of Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President she told The Ukrainian Weekly by phone. to the nation’s highest legal document. released from custody on October 25 and Viktor Yanukovych by throngs of protest- The measures essentially follow how the President Petro Poroshenko also sub- arrived in Turkey, Ukrainian officials, leg- ers in Kyiv. United Kingdom finances its health care mitted his draft law for the establishment islators and lawyers said. Mr. Chiygoz was convicted of organiz- system and was backed in its original con- of an anti-corruption court – a key require- Ukraine’s First Deputy Minister of ing an illegal demonstration and sen- ception by the World Health Organization ment of the International Monetary Fund Information Policy Emine Dzheppar told tenced to eight years in prison on and the Group of Seven industrialized for further disbursements to Kyiv – to the RFE/RL about their release. Mustafa September 11 after what Amnesty democracies. Verkhovna Rada. Numerous times in the Dzhemilev, the veteran Crimean Tatar lead- International called a “sham trial.” However, Health Minister Ulana Suprun past two weeks he has voiced hopes to er who is now a Ukrainian lawmaker, also Mr. Umerov was convicted of separat- and her team subsequently lamented that have the parallel anti-graft judicial body told RFE/RL that the two men had been ism on September 27 after a trial that “vested interests” struck out certain accords created by year’s end. freed from Russian custody in Crimea and Human Rights Watch called “ruthless during the reform bill’s final adoption. were on their way to Turkey. They were retaliation” for his opposition to Moscow’s Namely, the option of co-payment for certain War casualties, cyberattacks expected to arrive in Kyiv on October 27. takeover of the peninsula. He was sen- services and “international protocols” that Alleged Russian cyberattacks yet again “Two more hostages – two political tenced to two years in a type of peniten- were penned to update outdated proce- struck Ukraine on October 24. This time prisoners – have obtained freedom,” tiary called a colony settlement. dures when a patient visits a hospital. they paralyzed operations at the Odesa Nikolai Polozov, a lawyer for Mr. Chiygoz, Mr. Polozov told RFE/RL that all Still, a National Health Care Agency will International Airport and electronic ticket- said on Facebook. charges against Messrs. Chiygoz and exist to control quality and determine how ing system of Kyiv’s subway, the country’s Rights groups and Western govern- Umerov have been dropped. medical services are paid in a system that is largest. ments have condemned the convictions, “Their release became possible thanks supposed to be free, in accordance with the Moscow denied any involvement in the calling their trials part of a campaign of Constitution of Ukraine, but currently forces attack. pressure and abuse conducted by Russia (Continued on page 13) patients to pay even for the most basic of ser- vices to save their lives, Ms. Zbanatska said. (Continued on page 18) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2017 No. 44 ANALYSIS Putin hosts another Valdai to draw Kyiv moves to extradite Saakashvili October 20 from Penal Colony No. 10 in the southern Russian city of Novorossiysk, Former Georgian President Mikheil where she was sentenced on charges of attention away from Russia’s stagnation Saakashvili has called upon his supporters propagating extremism and separatism Lavrov put the blame for the deadlock in in Ukraine to protect him from Ukrainian online. Ms. Polyudova said upon her release by Pavel K. Baev President Petro Poroshenko. “Poroshenko advancing the non-proliferation agenda that she will continue to engage in political Eurasia Daily Monitor wants to extradite me,” Mr. Saakashvili said squarely on the U.S. Congress, which, activities after a short period of rest. Ms. in a statement broadcast on the NewsOne The annual meeting of the Valdai discus- according to him, has worked itself into a Polyudova conducted several hunger television outlet on October 24. “I ask Kyiv sion club provides a unique opportunity for “Russophobic rage.” But in fact, it is Russia’s strikes at the penal colony to protest condi- residents and all other honest people for many Western experts to “meet” with massive program of modernization of its tions there. She was charged in 2014 for protection.” Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Vladimir Putin. This year, the nuclear arsenal that directly undermines Internet posts in which she criticized the Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko Kremlin sought to build up expectations by Moscow’s proclaimed commitment to non- Russian government’s illegal annexation of announced that the country’s migration divulging that Mr.