www.ukrweekly.com INSIDE: • For the record: Yushchenko’s response to Medvedev – page 3. • Commentary: Europe’s share in Ukraine’s malaise – page 5. • Ukrainian Medical Association meets in Vancouver – page 11. THEPublished U byKRAINIAN the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profitW associationEEKLY Vol. LXXVII No.34 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2009 $1/$2 in Ukraine On the 18th anniversary of independence Ukrainian Independence Day Ukraine on the geopolitical sidelines by Zenon Zawada Razumkov Center for Economic and Kyiv Press Bureau Political Research, a leading Kyiv think- tank financed by scores of international KYIV – Ukraine is stuck in a gray buf- funds and institutions. fer zone between two systems of collec- The Vinnytsia native served on the tive security, in the view of Valeriy Chaly, National Security and Defense Council the deputy director of Kyiv’s Razumkov between 1997 and 1999, and attends the Center, and the nation’s permanent inter- annual Yalta European Strategy confer- nal conflict has forced it to the geopoliti- ence, where Ukraine’s elite gathers to dis- cal sidelines with the threat that only cuss the nation’s future. global powers will decide its fate. Ukraine’s NATO entry isn’t relevant at Though the nation elected a firmly pro- the moment, Mr. Chaly said, as the NATO president in Viktor Yushchenko, Verkhovna Rada lacks a critical majority Ukraine lost its chance at deeper Euro- that would cardinally change Ukraine’s Atlantic integration “because of the non- foreign policy priorities and orientations. consolidation of political elites and the “NATO is not ready, Ukraine is not inadequate understanding of national ready. And, unfortunately, politicization interests and priority tasks,” Mr. Chaly is continuing and it’s possible that this said. ping-pong game with NATO will be a “We are practically locked in a zone, subject for the presidential campaign,” he which in my view is a rather dangerous said. situation for Ukraine,” Mr. Chaly noted While it’s often suggested that during a mid-July press conference he Ukraine’s leadership ought to opt for a said was intended to raise awareness and neutral, non-aligned status between the spark discussion on Ukraine’s geopoliti- Chrystyna Lapychak North Atlantic Treaty Organization cal future. “Our definitive place and role (NATO) and the Russian Federation, for- Eighteen years ago, on August 24, 1991, this was the scene outside the are undefined. It’s this transitional state eign policy specialists know that’s not a Ukrainian Parliament building as Ukraine’s independence was declared. of a buffer transit zone which is threaten- viable option, he said. This historic photo was taken from a window inside the Parliament build- ing, in my view.” Ukraine is already failing to finance its ing by Chrystyna Lapychak, who was assigned at the time to The Ukrainian Mr. Chaly is among Ukraine’s fore- armed forces according to legislative Weekly’s Kyiv Press Bureau. most foreign policy experts, directing international programs for 12 years at the (Continued on page 10) Yatsenyuk presidential campaign: Yulia Tymoshenko addresses UWC, Change, or politics as usual? by Zenon Zawada presidential race. promises funding for diaspora programs Kyiv Press Bureau About 11 percent of voters said they by Zenon Zawada to lead the Cabinet of Ministers the prior would vote for Mr. Yatsenyuk, and more evening in passing a resolution to restore KYIV – What initially sparked hopes Kyiv Press Bureau than 13 percent of those certain to vote on government financing for diaspora pro- for change is turning into politics as January 17, 2010, said they will choose LVIV – Prime Minister Yulia grams. usual. him, according to a poll of 2,006 respon- Tymoshenko impressed the Ukrainian The prime minister’s sudden embrace As Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s campaigners dents conducted between July 20 and 28 World Congress (UWC) at its August 20 of the Ukrainian diaspora arrives before ignite scandals and post billboards claim- by the Razumkov Center for Economic annual meeting here not only with a sup- ing the rather nerdy-looking 35-year-old and Political Research in Kyiv. portive address, but also with her decision (Continued on page 9) will “save the country,” mounting evi- Meanwhile, 13.3 percent of respon- dence reveals his presidential campaign dents said they fully support Mr. has little potential to change much of Yatsenyuk’s current political activity, anything, observers said. compared with 16.7 percent full support His financers are the same old oli- for opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych, garchs, and his campaign advisers are 12.7 percent for Prime Minister Yulia recycled from the campaigns of Viktor Tymoshenko and 5.7 percent for President Yanukovych and Leonid Kuchma, accord- Viktor Yushchenko. ing to reports. A good part of Mr. Yatsenyuk’s success Meanwhile in his bid to appeal to the is based on being a new face amidst a broadest electorate, Mr. Yatsenyuk is field of candidates that largely repulses avoiding taking positions on key issues or Ukrainian voters, who have seen them all proposing specific reforms or programs before, experts said. he would pursue as president. “His platform comes down to: I’m a “He’s like generic beer, trying to better choice than these jerks you’re used appeal to the biggest amount of voters by to, who you’re not happy with,” Mr. having the least content and taste,” Kyiv Lozowy said. “In this configuration, the political expert Ivan Lozowy said. “But last thing he wants is to take a position on from the point of view of election tech- any issue. The bottom line is he doesn’t Zenon Zawada At the Ukrainian World Congress annual meeting on August 20 at Lviv Polytechnical nology, it’s probably the right way to go.” want to tackle these issues.” Indeed, Mr. Yatsenyuk has succeeded University (from left) are: Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, UWC in keeping his third-place position in the (Continued on page 9) President Eugene Czolij and UWC Vice-President Maria Shkambara. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2009 No. 34 ANALYSIS NEWSBRIEFS Documents shed light on Soviets’ Protest against Medvedev letter plant blew up. According to eyewitnesses, the explosion was so strong that windows suppression of Ukrainian Catholic Church KYIV – Dozens of activists from the were broken in the nearby houses. The Ukrainian People’s Party held a demon- Emergencies Ministry in the Donetsk by Brian Whitmore clearly a blatant act of state intervention in stration in front of the Russian Embassy region refrained from comments on the in Kyiv, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Church affairs,” said Andrii Krawchuk, the cause of the accident, but did report that former president of the University of reported on August 14. They were pro- there were no fatalities or injuries. Some Patriarch Kirill’s recent high-profile Sudbury in Ontario, and the author of the testing Russian President Dmitry 100 tons of pyrotechnics were stored at visit to Ukraine was interrupted by an book “Christian Social Ethics in Ukraine.” Medvedev’s August 11 letter to Ukrainian the facility, which is located in the unwanted visitor from the past: Joseph In another letter, published in early President Viktor Yushchenko criticizing Yakovlivka settlement. (Ukrinform) Stalin’s ghost. August by the Austrian Catholic news Kyiv’s foreign policy towards Russia, A five-decade-old letter from the Soviet agency Kathpress, Nikita Khrushchev, then which he called Mr. Yushchenko’s “anti- Russia sees victory on NATO issue Russian course.” Protesters demanded Communist Party archives, made available a member of the Soviet Politburo and a KYIV – The Russian Foreign Affairs to RFE/RL’s Russian Service as Patriarch that Mr. Medvedev withdraw his state- high-ranking official of the Communist Ministry considers it a victory of com- Kirill was wrapping up his 10-day visit to ment and apologize to Ukraine. They also Party of the Ukrainian SSR, informed mon sense that Georgia’s and Ukraine’s Ukraine, illustrates the extent to which the warned that similar protests would be Stalin of “work undertaken to dismember NATO memberships are no longer on the patriarch’s predecessors were involved in held in front of Russian Consulates in the [Ukrainian Greek-Catholic] Church international political agenda, said a high- Stalin’s efforts to wipe out the Ukrainian other Ukrainian cities if their demands and transfer the... clergy to the Orthodox ranking Russian diplomat, according to Greek-Catholic Church in the 1940s. Church.” That letter was dated December are ignored. (RFE/RL) news reports released on August 15. The letter, from then-Russian Orthodox 17, 1945, just 10 days after Aleksy’s corre- Reaction to Medvedev’s accusations “Russia and NATO bear common respon- Patriarch Aleksy I to the head of the Soviet spondence. sibility for security on the Euro-Atlantic Council on Religious Affairs, Georgy The Rev. Ihor Yatsiv, press secretary for KYIV – A newly released poll showed area. The fact that the theme of these two Karpov, was dated December 7, 1945, the head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic that Ukrainians perceive Russian countries’ membership in NATO is no when the Kremlin was consolidating con- Church, Lubomyr Husar, told RFE/RL’s President Dmitry Medvedev’s recent longer on the political agenda is above all trol over territories in heavily Catholic Russian Service that the documents shed accusations about Kyiv’s anti-Russian a victory of common sense,” Russian western Ukraine after World War II. important light on efforts by Soviet author- behavior in different ways, RFE/RL’s Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Karpov was a colonel in the NKVD, a pre- ities to liquidate Catholicism in western Ukrainian Service reported on August 19.