INSIDE: l Project on psychological health during wartime – page 4 l Pylyp Orlyk’s coat of arms found at Baturyn – centerfold l Our community: From Florida to New Jersey – page 17 THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXXVII No. 7 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2019 $2.00 NEWS ANALYSIS Health care reformer Suprun Patience, commitment needed to transform reinstated as acting minister Ukraine’s Public Broadcasting Company Still faces ruling on right to hold post by Mark Raczkiewycz Other functions that require her signature KYIV – If politics wasn’t behind the dis- by Mark Raczkiewycz were kept in flux, including sending 44 missal of public broadcasting chief Zurab KYIV – Medical care system reformer patients for treatment abroad and ongoing Alasania, then the shifting of its date until Ulana Suprun, M.D., can perform her duties construction work at the National Children’s after the March 31 presidential election was. as Ukraine’s acting minister of health after Specialized Hospital Okhmatdyt in Kyiv. This week the general director of the the judge who suspended her last week The Cabinet of Ministers gave her clear- Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine ance to act on such matters on February 13 (UA:PBC) had his contract truncated, effective reversed his injunction on February 14. on May 6, two years before its expiration. The decision came after four days of based on a resolution, but forbade her from By 2021 he was supposed to transform deliberation by Kyiv Administrative Circuit sitting in government meetings and formu- the Soviet-era dinosaur, consisting of 4,500 Court Judge Serhiy Karakashyan based on a lating strategy. employees, 23 branches, 26 television Justice Ministry appeal. Now, in a rare move in Ukrainian juris- channels and 28 radio stations, into a shell Dr. Suprun will face the same judge on prudence, Judge Karakashyan backpedaled with a foundation modeled on the British February 15 on the issue of whether she on his earlier decision. The court where he Broadcasting Corporation or the Public has the authority to be acting health minis- presides is notorious for making dubious Broadcasting Service in the U.S. ter, and from which his original injunction rulings. The justice who heard Dr. Suprun’s That endeavor was pre-emptively cut emanated, based on a complaint by case is not an exception. short on January 31 when the broadcaster’s National Deputy Ihor Mosiychuk of the In late 2018 he had ruled to reinstate UA:PBC populist Radical Party. Roman Nasirov as head of the State Fiscal supervisory board ended Mr. Alasania’s ten- Zurab Alasania, general director of the “Thanks to everyone for their support,” Service. Anti-corruption activists noted that ure less than two months before the presi- Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine. dential election by secret ballot after chang- the 56-year-old Detroit-area native said in Mr. Nasirov, whom the Cabinet of Ministers ing the agenda during a regular meeting. An uproar ensued among some of the a statement on the Health Ministry’s web- had suspended from duties pending a fraud The vote was initiated by a Radical Party civil society members of the board, inde- site. “The fight for qualitative changes [in case that allegedly caused $75,000 damages representative who sits on the governance pendent journalists and media watchdogs. health care] continues.” to the state, won back pay for “involuntary board – each parliamentary faction gets They decried the non-transparent and The daughter of patriotically minded absence from work.” Activists said that the one seat while civil society members get closed manner in which Mr. Alasania was Ukrainian parents had warned that judge didn’t take into account evidence pre- one seat more than the total given to fac- dismissed, and raised questions about the Ukraine’s patients were being “held hos- sented by the National Anti-Corruption tions. (Currently there were 17 seats: eight political nature of the board’s vote, how it is tage” due to the legal proceedings that kept Bureau, including a letter from the British for parliamentary factions and nine for her from signing off on the delivery of $23 non-profits.) (Continued on page 4) million worth of drugs to regional clinics. (Continued on page 5) Freedom House report on global freedom notes “democracy in retreat” Freedom House In 2018, the “Freedom in the World” report recorded the 13th consecutive year of decline in global freedom. The reversal has spanned all continents and a variety of coun- tries, from long-standing democracies like the United States to consolidated authoritarian regimes like China and Russia. The overall losses are still shallow compared with the gains of the late 20th century, but the pattern is consis- tent and ominous. Democracy is in retreat. Overall in 2018, 68 countries suffered net declines in political rights and civil liberties, with only 50 registering gains. The share of “Not Free” countries has increased over the past 13 years, and the crisis of confidence in long- standing democracies has intensified. Democratic norms such as free and fair elections and free expression are being shattered. Over the period since the 13-year slide began in 2006, 116 countries have seen a net decline, and only 63 have experienced a net improvement. Key global findings - gory but ranked behind other major democracies such as France,• The Germany United States and the remained United Kingdom.firmly in theU.S. “Free” rule of cate law declined as government policies and actions improperly (Continued on page 9) Freedom House’s map of “Freedom in the World” in 2018. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2019 No. 7 ANALYSIS U.S. now threatening sanctions Record 44 candidates for president near Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Russia occupied and took over in 2014. The Ukrainian election officials said a record sailors face up to six years in prison if con- against Nord Stream 2 contractors 44 candidates have registered to run in the victed. The United States and other country’s March presidential election. Pioneering Spirit, the world’s largest multi- Western countries have called for the by Rauf Mammadov President Petro Poroshenko is seeking a purpose vessel, completed the 930-kilome- Ukrainian sailors’ release, calling their Eurasia Daily Monitor second five-year term and has vowed to ter-long subsea segment of TurkStream in a detention illegal. (RFE/RL, with reporting press for European Union and NATO mem- The administration of President Donald record three months. It then sped to the by TASS and Interfax) bership for the country. Recent polls indi- Trump has moved beyond browbeating the Baltic Sea to join other vessels working on cate former Prime Minister Yulia Russians, Dutch to talk re MH17 European countries involved in the Nord Nord Stream Two. Gazprom is racing to Tymoshenko and comedian Volodymyr Stream 2 project and threatening sanctions complete both TurkStream and Nord Moscow is ready to engage in talks with Zelensky will be Mr. Poroshenko’s closest against the natural gas pipeline’s partners; Stream 2 before January 1, 2020, when the the Netherlands about the 2014 downing rivals in the March 31 election. The it is now making the same threats against company’s gas-transit agreement with of a Malaysian passenger jet over territory 53-year-old Mr. Poroshenko, one of its contractors. But German Chancellor Ukraine expires. held by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine’s richest men, came to power in Angela Merkel and her successor at the Saipem, which built Gazprom’s original Ukraine, said Russian Deputy Foreign the aftermath of the pro-European Maidan Christian Democratic Union party, Nord Stream 1 and the Blue Stream pipeline Affairs Minister Aleksandr Grushko. “Our protests that pushed Moscow-friendly Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, refuse to (Offshore-mag.com, November 1, 2002), dialogue did not stop, including on a politi- President Viktor Yanukovych out in knuckle under. At the World Economic won a contract to build the subsea section cal level,” he said on February 8, according February 2014. He has vocally advocated Forum in Davos (January 23), Germany’s of Russia’s South Stream pipeline before the to Russia’s Interfax news agency. “We closer integration with the West and criti- departing leader said that Berlin will stick project was canceled in 2015. Although it is touched upon those issues, we are ready with the deal to buy more Russian gas, in a legal dispute with Gazprom over the cized Russia following Moscow’s seizure of for talks.” Mr. Grushko made the comments which will be delivered via Nord Stream 2 cancellation, Saipem won a major contract Ukraine’s Crimea region and amid a con- the day after the Netherlands said it was (Russia Business, January 24). in December 2018 to build the Russian tinuing war against Russia-backed separat- “increasingly confident” Russia will agree Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador Richard company Novatek’s Arctic 2 liquefied natu- ists in parts of the eastern region known as to formal talks about the findings of an Grenell has elevated to a new level his con- ral gas project (Saipem.com, December 19, the Donbas. Ms. Tymoshenko, 58, was a international investigation that Moscow demnations of German businesses involved 2018). The Italian firm has also signed an leader of the 2004 Orange Revolution but bears legal responsibility for its role in the in the offshore gas pipeline (Handesblatt, agreement with Gazprom to study the feasi- was defeated by Mr. Poroshenko in the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight 17. January 14). Specifically, he sent a letter bility of the so-called South Stream Lite 2014 presidential election.