www.ukrweekly.com InsIde: • “2008: THE YEAR IN REVIEW” – pages 5-37. HEPublished byKRAIN the Ukrainian National AssociationIAN Inc., a fraternal non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXVIIT UNo. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY W 11, 2009 $1/$2 in Ukraine Voice of America ends Russia cuts off gas supplies radio broadcasts to Ukraine to Ukraine over pricing issues by Zenon Zawada A joint statement issued by President Kyiv Press Bureau Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on January 1 called for a price KYIV – In their biggest conflict ever, of $201 per 1,000 cubic meters and a natural Russian and Ukrainian natural gas officials gas transit rate of $2 for each 1,000 cubic failed to agree on prices for supplies and meters per 100 kilometers of Ukrainian transport, once again disrupting the vast pipeline. The Russian government wants to flow of natural gas into Europe and threat- keep the transit rate at $1.70 for 1,000 cubic ening economic crisis throughout the conti- meters transported per 100 kilometers. nent. As Russian and Ukrainian leaders hag- Gazprom, Russia’s government-owned gled over Ukraine’s price for natural gas and natural gas monopoly, cut off gas supplies to the price to use Ukraine’s pipelines – Ukraine the morning of January 1, setting Naftohaz Ukrayiny Chair Oleh Dubyna off cycling rounds of supply threats, accusa- spent several days fruitlessly negotiating tions of theft, bids, counter-bids and similar with Gazprom Chair Alexey Miller – posturing as part of negotiations that, for the European officials complained they were first time, extended beyond Christmas Day already suffering from the conflict. according to the Julian calendar, January 7. Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Romania, State officials and independent observers Macedonia, Croatia and Hungary reported cited numerous reasons why the Russian they lost all their Russian natural gas supply government is fomenting and prolonging the by January 6, and Czech officials reported Yaro Bihun conflict – damaging Ukraine’s image in their supply declined by 75 percent. Anya Dydyk-Petrenko, the anchor of VOA’s last Ukrainian radio program, Europe, gaining European support for gas The Bulgarian Ministry of the Economy which aired on December 31, 2008, contemplates her final farewell in the last pipelines circumventing Ukraine, damaging declared a crisis in its country. Hungarian minute of the broadcast. President Viktor Yushchenko’s standing, as officials said their country would rely on its well as pressuring Ukraine. natural gas reserves, which could last for by Yaro Bihun tive director of the Broadcasting Board of “We believe that the price that is being several weeks. proposed today, $417 to $450 (per 1,000 Special to The Ukrainian Weekly Governors (BBG), the radio broadcasts Transdnistria, the separatist enclave of cubic meters), is economic pressure on our were cut in order to devote VOA’s mis- Moldova loyal to Moscow, reported to the state that has no relation to realistic prices WASHINGTON – After more than half sion resources more effectively to the European Union and the Organization for that exist today on the European market,” a century of communicating with the peo- increasingly more popular modern means Security and Cooperation in Europe that it ple of Ukraine, the Voice of America of communication in Ukraine, as they are said Oleksander Shlapak, the Presidential ended its Ukrainian radio broadcasts on elsewhere – television and the Internet. Secretariat’s top economic advisor. (Continued on page 45) the last day of 2008. The BBG, the umbrella agency for all Those broadcasts, which began in non-military U.S. international broadcast- 1949, continued through the Cold War via ing, also oversees Radio Free Europe/ short-wave transmissions and since Radio Liberty, which will continue its Gazprom stops gas deliveries Ukraine’s independence over its internal Ukrainian-language radio broadcasts, he radio networks, were originally scheduled said. to Ukraine – What next? to be discontinued at the end of In an interview with The Ukrainian by Roman Kupchinsky September. At the last minute they Weekly, Mr. Trimble said that the board is tries were discussed in closed negotia- tions but with both parties resorting at the received a three-month reprieve, which required to review the mission of its lan- Eurasia Daily Monitor ran out on December 31. January 5 same time to public statements and According to Jeffrey Trimble, execu- (Continued on page 45) threats as a means of applying pressure On the morning of January 1, OAO on each other. Gazprom, the Russian state-owned gas Ukrainian arrears of $2.1 billion monopoly, in league with the Russian appeared to be the primary reason for the government, decreased the volume of cutoff. The Ukrainian state-owned ener- gas shipped to Ukraine by 90 million gy company, Naftohaz Ukrayiny, cubic meters a day – the amount that claimed, however, that the money was Ukraine had contracted for in 2008. Gas owed to RosUkrEnergo (RUE), a Swiss- shipments of 300 million cubic meters based intermediary company, 50 percent per day for European customers, shipped of which belongs to Gazprom and 50 via the Ukrainian trunk pipeline, were percent to two Ukrainian businessmen. not affected at first; but on January 2 Gazprom insisted that the money was Hungary, Bulgaria and Poland began owed to them. On December 31, 2008, recording drops in pipeline pressure and Naftohaz stated that the debt had been slight disruptions in supply, while paid in full. Gazprom spokesman Sergey Romania reported a gas decrease of 30 to Kuprianov disputed this and claimed that 40 percent. the Ukrainian side still owed $614 mil- In November 2008 Gazprom lion dollars in late charges. announced that it would stop gas deliver- RosUkrEnergo, which was made a ies to Ukraine on January 1, 2009, unless middleman for gas supplies to Ukraine at Kyiv settled all its accounts for gas deliv- Gazprom’s insistence in January 2006, ered in 2008, including late payment has been the center of a continuing con- penalties. Throughout December the two flict between Ukrainian Prime Minister From the Stefan Maksymjuk archives sides could not reach an agreement and Yulia Tymoshenko and Gazprom. Ms. VOA’s first Ukrainian radio broadcast was made from a New York studio on did not sign a contract for 2009 gas deliv- December 12, 1949. Shown sitting behind the small announcers’ table in this his- eries. The issues dividing the two coun- (Continued on page 44) toric photograph are (from left): Yevhen Prychodko, Olena Nessin and Ivan Kolos. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2009 No. 2 ANALYSIS NEWSBRIEFS Russia gets a slow start Ukrainian citizens leave Gaza Laszlo Solyom of Hungary, Ivan Gasparovic of Slovakia, George Bush of KYIV – A total of 183 citizens from the United States, Nicolas Sarkozy of into a post-prosperity year countries of the Commonwealth of France and Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Independent States left the Gaza Strip on by Pavel K. Baev Republic, and European Commission January 2. According to various estimates, President Jose Manuel Barroso. The letter Eurasia Daily Monitor In autumn 2008 those evacuated include 40 to 60 Ukrainian noted that throughout the year 2008 January 5 citizens. A motorcade carrying the evacuees Ukraine held talks with Russia on the Gazprom was headed for Jordan; from there, two aircraft terms for delivery of natural gas to Ukraine The extra-long Christmas-New Year- of the Russian Emergencies Ministry was to Rozhdestvo (Julian calendar Christmas) and its transit across Ukraine to Europe for reaping record transport them to Moscow. Ukraine’s 2009 and the years to come. In the course celebrations in Russia have been muted Foreign Affairs Ministry said Ukrainian this season, and unmistakable anxiety of those talks, Ukraine acted in compli- profits from embassies in Egypt and Israel, Ukraine’s stands in stark contrast to the exuberance ance with the agreements reached by the office in the Palestinian National Authority that greeted the arrival of the year 2008. exporting gas to two countries’ presidents on February 12, and the ministry’s consular service depart- Just two weeks before that “best-year- 2008, and mutual commitments sealed by ment are monitoring the situation in the ever start,” President Vladimir Putin had Europe, because the October 2, 2008, intergovernmental Gaza Strip. According to Ukraine’s announced the name of his successor and memorandum of cooperation in gas indus- the price of gas Embassy in Israel, the number of Ukrainian the Russians were preparing to vote for try. Mr. Yushchenko noted that a memo on citizens currently on the territory of the Dmitry Medvedev with total confidence the establishment of direct long-term rela- follows that of oil Gaza Strip may be around 400. As of that nothing would change in Russia’s tions between Gazprom and Naftohaz on January 6, another 65 Ukrainian citizens astonishing success story. Now the “tan- the delivery and transit of Russian natural with a lag of six (22 adults and 43 children) asked for evacu- dem” system of leadership is firmly gas provides for a gradual transfer over the ation from the conflict zone. (Ukrinform) established, but the persistent pledges to to nine months. course of three years to free market prices, economically sound and mutually “stay the course” betray only the colossal Gas consultations with EU bureaucratic machine’s helplessness in These increased approved, for Russian gas and tariffs on its transit via Ukraine. “On December 30, the face of the sudden downturn, which is prices are set to KYIV – On the order of Ukrainian expected to accelerate (Vedomosti, President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime 2008, Ukraine fully paid the supplier for December 30, 2008; Kommersant-Vlast, disappear in 2009, Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a delegation the natural gas it received during the past December 22, 2008).