INTERNATIONAL

INFORMATION AND
ANALYTICAL EDITION

THE KIEV TIMES
www.thekievtimes.ua
NOVEMBER 2013
UKRAINE EUROPE:
ACCESSION OR RETURN?
Millions of Ukrainians are waiting
for the President to make a
monumental decision.
It will be a historical choice, the
same one for Donetsk and Lviv,
Chernigov and Kherson, Uzhgorod
and Zaporozhe.
This choice will have to be made
by politicians and offcials, miners
and foresters, scientists and
students, sportsmen and artists.
Moreover, it must not be vigorously
opposed, or made just for the sake
of appearance, and defnitely not
in the familiar mode Its not my
funeral.
The country is already changing
because we understand it is high
time to change. But how?
How do we fnd compromise and not
get lost looking for a phantom El
dorado?
First of all, stereotypes must
be broken. All of them. Or the
maximum possible amount.
How many of you have read the
actual text of the Association
Agreement with the EU?
Is it worth believing everything
politicians of different ranks claim?
What is the Russian embrace like:
fraternal or sinister?
They always say time changes
things, but you actually have to
change them yourself; minds crave
stability, parents think
that happiness awaits their
children. The country lives with
the expectation of a promising
future.
Ukrainian history is bound tightly
with the history of Europe.
We have always been Europe.
The current situation is more
urgent, in choosing the future
of our economy, than
any other that has come before.
This issue of The Kiev Times will
attempt to sort out where we are
moving as a country.
We believe that the right way will be
chosen.
So where are we heading? We are
moving to the future.
THE KIEV TIMES | NOVEMBER 2013 2 SPECIAL ISSUE
R
uslan Skobley, Warsaw:
There are defnite laws on
the labor and educational market,
in the legal sphere, for protec-
tion of private and intellectual
property. Perhaps it will be easy for
us to adopt but not so much with
planting it into Ukrainian ground.
The West will open its market
for the national commodities; the
competition will rise inside the
country leading to a push for a
small- and midscale business.
European integration is an
impulse for the country and its
citizens. A chance to become
better, get more possibilities for
education, work and business.
Based on the example of Poland
it can be stated 100% sure that it
used its chance to the fullest.
European standard is not a
stereotype or a clich. It is a
refection of national wellbeing.
Standard on the road, in a court
room and in a shop. Believe the one
who has been living in Poland for
the last 5 years.
Ekaterina Grinevich, Kherson:
I honestly hope that Ukraine will
get out of this bugging crisis in the
near future. Pro-western course
of the country? I would like to
believe that European companies
will be investing more into the
development of Ukraine.
I sincerely hope that there will
be more work places and that our
employers will fnally hire young
specialists, develop their skills and
give them opportunity to go up the
career ladder.
So long as the situation with
work places in our city is very
tense, this is my main unsolved
issued for now.
Olexandr Brygynets, peoples
deputy of Ukraine:
Real integration is important to
us, not just formally signing the
papers. I am certain that Viktor
Yanukovych can do it. However,
I do not believe that he can do
something for the real integration.
The thing is not the desire, it is
just that he has not set that task!
The Association is a formality of
the government to help them get
loans. I would really appreciate it if
Ukrainian government was able not
only to sign the agree-ments but
also deal with real matters.
Vasiliy Shaposhnikov,
Kremenchug:
Association membership of
Ukraine in the European Union,
unconditionally, has both pros and
cons. As a man of European culture
sharing the values of people in
this hemisphere I support the
global and civilizational choice
of my country. I want to live in a
state where the highest value is its
citizens and people are more afraid
of criminals than police offcers;
peoples deputy and a plant worker
are equal before the law not just
de-jure but also de-facto.
On the other hand, on the local
level I, as a public fgure, see very
negative perspectives for Ukrainian
economy. The Agreement is not
signed yet but Kremenchug is
already wit-nessing a negative
effect. Russia is cutting off the
oxygen to local frms restricting
the export of industrial production.
This is a very painful question
for us because 80% of total
Kremenchug export of industrial
products belongs to our northern
neighbor.
The biggest employer in the city,
Kremenchug wagon car plant, has
recently announced the planned
dismissal of 500 employees. Some
other enterprises such as steel-
works have al-ready practically
collapsed. The situation keeps
getting worse.
What does the fall of industrial
production mean for us, dwellers
of the industrial city? The worst
comes to worst it means going back
to the 90s. Dark streets, high crime
rate, inse-curity about tomorrow
and possibility to earn for a living
We have been through this and we
do not want to do it again.
All these factors lead me to
conclude that as thousands of
Kremenchug residents I wel-come
European vector of Ukraines
development theoretically. But
practically it is not quite soothing
to go there on empty stomach and
with empty pockets.
Ivan Sidun, Uzhgorod:
I would like to single out the key
word potential. The West will
allow Ukraine open its po-tential
which is surely big.
Let us imagine you got a dog that
cannot do anything. But the dog
has everything to learn new skills.
Until it is too late. We all realize
that Ukraine has an undiscovered
potential (in particular, economic)
that needs to be realized. Again,
the biggest role is played by the
temporal factor. However, how
much is our country ready for
large-scale transformations, to my
mind, remains a mystery.
Vasiliy Gorbal, London:
In my opinion, the signing of
the Association Agreement with
the EU does not mean Euro-pean
integration. I think that many
politicians have not dug deep
enough into the issue yet and they
believe that once the agreement is
signed we will immediately become
Europe.
We need to estimate all the
risks we can face and keep in mind
things important for the social
point of view: culture and history.
Anna Levina, Kiev:
Honestly speaking, European
integration and its rhetoric get
under the skin! How much longer
can we be choosing? If I have
picked out the dress, approached
the cash desk and want to pay for
it, will I start messing about with
the shop assistant or go look for a
better dress in another shop?
I have been to Europe many
times and I surely want European
standards to come to our country.
However, I am more worried about
mentality rather than import and
export. I would Ukraine to have
European mentality so that it is
possible to ne hired not through
the buddy system but owing to
professionalism. And that the
salary is not only enough to buy
food and some clothes but also
travel somewhere abroad.
You asked me a question and
all I keep thinking about is: Is
anyone going to hear an average
Ukrainian in this country?
Vadim Kolesnechenko, peoples
deputy of Ukraine:
22 years of moving in a vicious
circle should probably have taught
Ukrainians that nothing is free; you
have to pay for everything. We will
get what we invest.
One should not wait for manna
from the heaven from moving
westwards. This is just a set of
tools and arguments for us to start
modernize the economy, society
and most importantly ourselves.
For example, if the citizen of
Ukraine wakes up tomorrow and
thinks how to change himself, I
am sure, we can move any way we
want. We will be able not only to
proclaim sovereignty of the country
but also reach this sovereignty
along with independence and
general recognition
of the country.
NOT A WORD ABOUT
YULIA TIMOSHENKO
In anticipation of the Vilnius summit reporters of The Kiev Times took on board the vox populi
technology asking random people and peoples deputies one and the same question: What would you
like to tell the readers of our newspaper in the context of the European integration? But not a word
about Yulia Timoshenko! Everything is already said
By Rostislav Bunyak
O
n April 7, 2013, Ukrainian
President, Viktor Yanukovych,
by Decree 197/2013, pardoned the
former Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Ukraine, Yuri Lutsenko.
Lutsenko had been serving his
4-year sentence in the Mena colony
91, which was imposed by the
Pechersk District Court of Kiev.
Press services of the General
Prosecutors Offce of Ukraine,
the Presidential Administration
of Ukraine and the human rights
spokesman of the Verkhovna Rada
affrmed that Lutsenko hadnt
personally addressed the President
of Ukraine with a petition for
pardon.
An offcial petition was fled by
ombudsman Valeria Lutkovska and
an unspecifed national of another
country.
The subject of presidential
pardons in our country is extremely
knotty for many people. Few people
actually know that according to
current Ukrainian legislation, the
pardoning procedure, including
that of Lutsenko, cannot be legally
implemented without a petition
from the convicted person.
It is a paradox, but in Ukraine not
only can you be imprisoned against
your will, you can also be freed.
In an attempt to preserve some
semblance of justice, several
Ukrainian citizens fled a lawsuit
to invalidate the Presidents decree
pardoning Lutsenko. Volodymyr
Olentsevych, known for his
controversial appeals to the court in
the past, was among them.
Naturally, on the eve of the
Vilnius summit the court is not in a
hurry to examine these lawsuits.
Just as a reminder, clemency
eligibility and pardoning procedures
are regulated by the Constitu-tion
of Ukraine. There are two laws to
consult: Provisions of pardoning
procedures confrmed by the
Decree of the President of Ukraine
902/2010 of 16.09.2010 and
Submission order of a pardon
application to the President and
the approved clemency application
enforcement con-frmed by the
Decree of the Ministry of Justice of
Ukraine 1439/5 of 28.09.2012.
To be pardoned, convicted
criminals have to personally fle a
petition to the President of Ukraine.
Yuri Lutsenko has never fled such a
petition to the President.
Based on the above-mentioned
facts, there are some very obvious
questions. Why havent the legal
povisions regulating presidential
pardons been changed?
Why has the pardoning of Yuri
Lutsenko become an exception to
the law?
Why did the Ombudsman
for Human Rights in Ukraine
unprecedentedly fle a clemency
application with no legal power to
do so?
Why did the President of
Ukraine approve such an illegal
clemency application fled by the
Ombudsman?
Of course, these curious questions
invite rich and imaginative
speculation. Perhaps, Lutsenkos
pardoning is a conscious step made
under pressure of the European
Union on the eve of the Vilnius
summit. Perhaps, the pardoning
of the former Minister of Foreign
Affairs is the result of negligence of
legal services of the head of state
and the ombudsman in Ukraine.
Perhaps, teammates of Yuri
Lutsenko deliberately neglected to
adhere to the pardoning procedure
and have other plans for the newly
released ex-minister.
Perhaps, there is another reason
for the special treatment of Yuri
Lutsenko and his unique pardon.
However, no reason can be good
enough to magically transform
Presidential Decree 197/2013 of
April 7, 2013, into being compliant
with current Ukrainian law.
IS YURII LUTSENKOS
PARDONING LEGAL?
Several months ago the former Minister of Foreign Affairs was unconditionally
released from prison. However, there are still debates concerning whether his
pardoning was appropriate, or even legal.
By Igor Nikitin, Lawer
In Ukraine not only can you be imprisoned against your will,
you can also be freed
The Agreement is not signed yet but
Kremenchug is already witnessing
a nega-tive effect
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www.thekievtimes.ua 3 SPECIAL ISSUE
A
pplying the principle
onlookers see more
than players can help us to
understand the process, its history,
development and consequences
better.
Most important for the Ukrainian
population, events leading the
country to close relationship with
the European Union should be
considered as if one is lifted clear
from the surface; from a historical
gradient. Ukraine is an im-portant
object of world politics that should
serve its geopolitical and civiliza-
tional purpose to help the world
community, meaning the West,
establish control over Eurasian
territories; frst and foremost
Russia where 40% of worlds
mineral resources are found.
Liquidation of the USSR solved one
important problem, yet the fnal
occupation of Eurasia appeared
to be more remote in time than
Zbigniew Brzezinski expected.
Russia, on the contrary, did not
follow the way of self-destruction
outlined for Boris Yeltsin by the
West. Separation of Ukraine from
the countries of the Customs Union
is a crucial task the solution of
which allows for the creation of
a self-suffcient geopolitical pole
a threat for the West. It is just a
partial solution, though. The West
shall not follow Eastern traditions
and perch on the river bank
hoping that the waters current
will bring them the corpse of their
enemy. Especially since many
river banks are already occupied
by the Chinese. Controlled
chaos in various territories and
multicolor revolutions elsewhere
together with new and changing
technologies speed up the process.
Sparking conficts on inter-ethnic
grounds is an excellent opportunity
to trigger confrontation within
Russian, Caucasian, Central
Asian peoples, between Orthodox
Christians and Muslims (30% in
Russian Federation). Some more
homicides at the mundane level
regardless of nationality and
religion can move things to the
breaking point. Representatives of
the aforementioned groups become
tempted to harden positions and
fght for their coreligionists or
compatriots. Foreign organizers
rub their hands over these deaths
and the masses that never fully
realize democracy or modernity,
moved by sincere, righteous rage,
yet it sometimes feels as if this
entire situation is programmed in
advance and artifcially directed
from outside.
In order to accelerate the
placement of resources under the
control of the democratic world
community and support possible
domestic confict in the territory of
Russia we can expect the creation
of controlled chaos territories in
adjacent countries. Ukraine suits
that purpose well, and much is
already done.
Unlike counties of the Middle
East and Africa Ukraine is not
populated by the Muslims to such
extent as to apply a traditional,
well-mastered scheme with
highly infammable Islamists
can be applied by outside groups.
Different ideas are required. It is
not diffcult to pay for an organized
protest; however, some people
can make much more money by
doing other work than putting
up barricades because they have
necessary skills and education.
Some are moved to action not
only for money but by ideas and
therefore an appeal to ideology
is much more effective. Firstly,
it is cheaper for the organizers;
secondly, it is sincere; thirdly,
young unemployed people without
education can be widely recruited!
An idea becomes a material
force as soon as it has gripped the
masses.
Mainstream religious groups
in Ukraine are too peaceful to
trigger civilian confict. Therefore,
the ideal substitution of religion
would be ideology with the
extremism. Educational system
degradation and imposed havoc
that challenges family and social
traditions can make themselves
felt. Liquidation of the USSR
implied the disappearance of youth
organizations with their military
and patriotic games zarnitsi
(wildfres), pioneer camps, and
work and recreation camps. In spite
of the absence of ideology young
people are still striving for the
idea of politics in action. Until we
havent won their hearts the latter
are warmly welcomed by scout
organizations and fan formations.
And zarnitsi go on
Recently the tip of this iceberg
showed up in the incident at the
Lvov stadium during the football
match between the national teams
of Ukraine and San-Marino. The
use of fascist symbolism at this
match led to the disqualifcation
of the stadium and our national
team. For some time now Ukrainian
fascist variants sentenced by
at the Nurnberg Trials became
heroes of Ukraine for some
people who even today adore
them. These people are primarily
youngsters and members of
hooligan groups of mainly
adolescents age (12-17 years
of age). 95% of the population
does not hold much truck with
this Bandera propaganda, yet
it is extensively promoted and
covered by Ukrainian TV-programs.
Irreconcilability and intolerance
of these groups to views different
from their own cannot but cause
resistance from the rest of the
population which so far silently
watches organized columns sieg
heiling as they march. Fights
break out with the police and
adherents of other ideologies
following initiation by pro-fascist
youth organizations.
Using youth organizations
as a powerful destructive force
inside the state is not a new idea.
Similar examples are numerous
in the post-war period. Under the
auspices of western intelligence
agencies a number of clandestine
military style youth groups were
created in Hungary. Junker
Association, Lux as well as
more mature organizations such
as White Partisans, National
Resistance Movement and others
were the actors of the well-
known events of 1956 in Hungary.
As late as 1956 the security
agency disclosed 45 clandestine
organizations and arrested
numbers of espionage agents.
During the coup in Budapest in
1956 such youth specialists as
Jacek Kuro and Karol Modzelewski
with the help of MI6 and CIA
organized the Young Rebels
Union constituted of adolescents
aged 12-15 and successfully used
their experience in 1968 during the
Prague Spring. Later theoretical
and practical groundwork was used
in the events of the late 70s to
implement plan Polonia aimed at
destabilization and coup in Poland.
There are some examples of
successful participation of youth
organizations in military operations
wars on the territory of the
former Yugoslavia immediately
come to mind. Serbian voluntary
guard Arkans Tigers was formed
by some of Crvena Zvezda
football club fans who took part
in the battle of Vukovar at the end
of 1991. The Tigers defended
the Republic of Serbian Krajina
from Croatian army and performed
police functions. They also took
part in the liberation of Bijeljina
and Zvornik fghting against the
armies of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
and restored autonomy of the
Autonomous Province of Western
Bosnia. The most skillful guerilla
fghters (former football fans) later
made up SF Supertigers who
were dismissed in 1996 after the
end of the war between Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
Taking into consideration
constant work of military type
summer camps outside Kiev where
Bandera formations train, earlier
discussed experiences should not
be underestimated. Nonetheless, I
would not Bandera followers and
the Tigers next to one another.
The delay in the transfer of the
Ukrainian army to the contract
base is a great success for Ukraine.
Apart from the existing external
threats (Romanian territorial claims
for the part of Ukrainian territory
and actual return of 80% of the
questionable territories off the shelf
of the island of Zmiinyy to Romania
is just the beginning) the contract
based army could become a real
threat to the integrity of Ukraine. As
judged by economic achievements
there is no money to provide for
contract based army because these
soldiers need to be paid and have
accommodation. A natural way
to save on accommodation is to
organize contract service by place
of residence. In fact, this policy is
being practiced today. Dominant
points of view on how the country
should develop, on religion, and
political preferences of Galichina
and, for example, Donbas, differ
signifcantly. Sometimes they are
irreconcilable. Local politicians
are actively seeking to play on
differences instead searching
for the common ground and the
unifcation of our country. The
Arab Spring shows that a few
shots of anonymous snipers are
enough to kindle a civil war. Under
our conditions the frst victims
could be, for instance, visiting
football fans of, say, Shakhter
Karpaty, or participants of torch-
light processions and divisons of
SS-Galichina in Kiev. Further
Yugoslavian or Syrian scenarios
may follow. Provided that such
regions as Galichina or Donbas get
contract-based armies equipped
with heavy artillery.
An inevitable decrease of the
quality of life in Ukraine as a result
of Ukraines signing agreements
with the EU in November, 2013 has
resulted in the infammation of
domestic affairs. Russia will be, of
course, blamed for pauperization
of Ukraine. By no means will
the European Union be held to
account. Black Sea Fleet, trade
wars, industrial espionage, customs
misunderstandings everything
will be picked up and fomented by
the mass media.
Apart from this, there are also
Crimean problems. There are those
in the re-gion who are gaining
political importance despite being
unregistered organizations, which
are literally, criminal groups
under the law. Among these, the
Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People
are campaigning for Crimean
separation from Ukraine and the
establishment of an independent
nation state. The Crimean Tatars
have become skilled in combat and
tactics, with some volunteering
in Syria against the Syrian state.
Banned in many countries, Hizb-
ut-Tahrir advocates for the creation
of a world caliphate which would
operate openly in the Crimea.
The combination of domestic
problems in Ukraine and tensions
with Russian may very well make
Ukraine into a new fash point
on the world map and lead to the
deployment of peacekeepers from
the civilized and democratic
world. By turning voluntarily into
a territory controlled by the West,
and betraying its historical allies
Ukraine increases its chances of
fnding itself adrift in dystopian
chaos which has as its goal the
establishment of a regime
of control over natural resources
and the extermination of the
geopolitical competitors
of the West.
Chief Executive
Artem Shamrai

Managing Director
Katerina Roshuk

Editor-in-Chief
Rostislav Bunyak

Photo Editor
Dmytro Zagoruiko
Designer
Oleksander Lyubeznov

Editors
Olga Medvedeva
Juri Oros
Oleksi Komarovsky

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ARABIAN SPRING IN
UKRAINE? AUTHORS
BEING THE SAME
It is impossible to comprehend the incomprehensible. Focusing on a
separate tree we sometimes do not notice the forest. Scrutinizing the sky
can make you fall into a ditch. Swords cross and skulls are shattered over
arguments about choosing the vector of integration and collide against
walls erected by the government and opposition: between people and state.
By Alexander Dudchak, Economist
Ukraine facilitates the solution of a more important civilizational
task establishing control over Eurasian territories
Aggravation of feud between Russia and Ukraine can turn
the latter into a new flash point on the world map
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THE KIEV TIMES | NOVEMBER 2013 4 SPECIAL ISSUE
T
wo years ago within the
framework of the project:
Ukraine: History of the Great
Nation the Shevchenko National
Theater of Opera and Ballet was
on tour in Lviv where it gave
performances of the ballet The
Master of Borisphen and the opera
Norma. As it turned out, the
last time artists of the Kiev Opera
Theater were on tour in Lviv was
just before 1941 It took the two
cultural capitals of Ukraine and
Europe more than 70 years to start
talking. A stupendous display of
pseudo-patriotism and pseudo-
democracy!
Ukrainians cherish playing games
of patriotism. They adore political
extremism. They love playing
games of whos the bigger patriot/
democrat.
As The Eastern Partnership
Summit approaches the fery
rhetoric of martyrdom among
patriots and democrats alike is
heating up in my Motherland.
Who is THE bigger patriot? The
opposition member or the member
of the Party of Regions; Lviv folk
or Donetsk dwellers, He or She?
Everyone wants to cross the river of
European integration as in a magic
fairytale With the wave of a wand.
Yet history is not a fairytale. I recall
the beginning of the 90s having
the same patriotic and democratic
games within the Supreme Council
of democrats, at Independence
Square, and all over Ukraine. Then
and now the country was drowning
in the same manipulations: the
language, attitude to democracy,
criticism of the government, love for
Europe, and the threat of Russia.
Obviously, I was not one of the
democratic patriots back then. I
am from the Donbas region of East
Ukraine. I spoke mainly Russian.
I was a member of the CPSU
(Communist Party of the Soviet
Union) and never took part in
Narodny Rukh campaigns. At that
time I was assigned to the local
chapter no. 239 God what slurs
they hurled at me! All the way down
to the cruelest, traitor of Ukraine.
I was asked: Why dont you
issue statements in Ukrainian? I
answered: The time hasnt come
yet. I would be embarrassed of my
language, and therefore, of myself.
I think in Russian. Speaking on a
stage I need to sound persuasive
Everything fell into place in time.
Today I am on friendly terms with
Ukrainian. I think this language
does not nurse a grievance against
me, as it allowed me to compose
poems and songs
Ever since then I have had to
go through the government and
opposition. I have seen democracy
in different lights: in authoritative
chambers and interrogators
offces Getting ready to be
arrested in 2005, I hastily published
Philosophy of Democracy
written in a furry after the
Orange Revolution. A few years
later Democracy of Many Faces
appeared, as an analysis of the
phenomenon of democracy from the
individuals point of view.
Democracy is multi-faced
indeed: controlled, speculative
and manipulative but claiming to
be invaluable and unconditional.
The leader who plays both sides,
winking to the East and then to
the West, turns his native language
into a mere political football. He
abuses his native language. He is
weaker and more cowardly than the
ones wishing to grow to the level of
idioma.
One needs to look ahead so
that Ukrainian becomes a native
language, Russian does not turn
into a foreign one, and English is
sought after and is not just some
fashionable exotic trend.
The same thing should be said for
a government resting upon pseudo-
democratic standards. When there
is a double-standard, there is a
divided government. Government
opposition, us them, old ones
young ones, Donetsk people
others and so on.
Democracy is not accountable
for the failings of a nation;
however, the government is. The
government protects itself with its
instinct for self-preservation while
the progress of our society fades
into the background. Under such
circumstances the ones bestowed
with power very quickly become
cursed by it. It is only a matter of
time Viktor Yushchenkos reign is
a striking example.
The government today faces a
strategic choice and the regular
elections at the same time. The
choice is global. The elections are
presidential. Such a chain of events
is witnessed for the frst time in our
history. It is also the frst time that
the government and the opposition
agree on a path for foreign policy. In
this case, their agreement is purely
ad hoc.
Meanwhile the rest of the
world watches a wild dance: not
one performed by Ukrainian pop
star Ruslana, but by Ukrainian
politicians. So, as long as they are
eloquent, passionate, and have a
clear motivation, the world will
continue to watch.
These politicians could be called
patriots yet there is one but
One cannot be called a patriot if
he has never been one. Neither
can one be a fake democrat. The
current situation reminds me of the
creation of the Ukrainian National
Football Team. Formally it has
been here through all the years of
independence, but a squad with
some real potential was created
only this year when there seemed to
be no chance of getting to the fnal
round of the World Cup. But
A wise man once wrote:
experience is born of errors Trial
and error; conficts and diplomatic
victories; and successes and
failures direct the world toward
unity, a persontoward wholeness,
a politician toward balance, and
Ukraine toward the future.
We will say to ourselves one day
that there are not two Ukraines;
no divide between Lviv folk and
Donetsk folk; no communists or
Bandera admirers; democrats
and patriots; globalists and
nationalists There will be no
people outliving the tragedies of the
past, or confusion and uncertainty
of the present One day there will
be no desire to snub Donbas or
cut off a slice of Galicia, imprison
or purge political rivals, steal, or
neglect their civic duties.
Then life will be changed at the
grassroots level, and we will simply
have the country of Ukraine where
citizens live together happily.
The Eastern Partnership Summit
is an achievement and a barrier at
the same time. The same can be said
for Ukrainian-Russian relations.
These two directions are not
simply ways to the West or the East.
The choice is a way forward to the
realization of a broader mission, to
the Ukrainian dream, to the national
dream. We can do it as soon as we
stop playing patriots and democrats
and become them for real.
P.S.
There is one diffcult issue
which is tearing Ukrainian society
apart: The Ukrainian, European,
and American political obsession
with liberating the imprisoned
Ukrainian maiden in the tower,
Yulia Timoshenko is this the
height of national spirit or the
depth of its fall? To my mind,
regardless of the political situation,
Timoshenko deserves to be treated
fairly. If a person is sick, he or she
should get proper help. Ukraine,
being her home, is the obvious
choice for such treatment. But for
the sake of life, it surely would be
even better to go abroad, provided
that no one mocks the virtues
of our legal processes. Some
politicians have become far too
absorbed in playing humanistic
games, and are fast approaching
the limits of their moralizing.
T
he agreement between Ukraine
the Cossack Republic, which
had an elected government, and
the Moscow state (later the Russian
one), which possessed some traits
of despotism, was quite unnatural.
Most of modern-day Ukraine
became part of the Russian Empire
and was ruled by the successors of
Alexis, Tsar of Russia, for centuries
to come.
After Bogdan Khmelnitskiys
death in 1657, Ukraine passed
through the so-called Ruin.
During this 20-year period, it was
ruled by nine consecutive hetmans.
Starting in 1660, individual
representatives among them were in
power on the banks of the Dnieper.
From a global point of view, this
led to a defnite slowdown of the
process of state-building as well
as to the collapse of provisional
institutions and traditions of
independence. Moscow took full
advantage of the situation. It
continued restricting the authorities
of the Cossack Empire. In the days
of Peter the Great, this process
greatly accelerated. This led to
the confict between Peter the
Great and hetman Ivan Mazepa
and subsequent victory for the
young emperor, near Poltava, over
Charles of Sweden. After such a
defeat, Sweden gave up its imperial
ambitions forever, while in Russia
they considerably intensifed.
Speaking about what is referred
to as the betrayal of hetman Ivan
Mazepa, we should keep in mind
an important moment which has
already been examined by Russian
historian Tairova-Yakovleva: We
should refrain from denouncing
and cursing Mazepa and try to learn
from the tragedies of our ancestor.
Dont follow those propagandistic
stamps used to explain the Russian-
Ukrainian confict at the beginning
of the 18th century. Blame for the
confict is overly simplifed, and
is far too often placed squarely on
the shoulders of Ivan Mazepa, the
betrayer. We must be brave and
affrm that the interests and goals
of the young Russian Empire and
the depressed Hetmanate differed
from each other. Ukraine was a sort
of hostage of Russias geopolitical
plans.
This also manifested itself in
the ambition of Petersburg to
achieve full political liquidation
of Ukrainian autonomy. A secret
guide to the Senate Prosecutor
General written by Catherine
stated the following: Little Russia,
Livland and Finland are provinces
ruled by the granted privileges. It
would be obscene to violate the
privileges, but these provinces
cant be considered foreign and we
mustnt treat them as the foreign
lands. These provinces, as well as
Smolenshchyna, must be Russifed
and stop scowling.
This happened in 1764. They
liquidated the Hetmanate
institution and established a special
college. Eleven years later, in 1775,
they liquidated the Zaporizhian
Sich, destroyed its fortifcations,
took away its archives and cruelly
punished its foremen. Then they
began the liquidation of the
remaining pillars of Ukrainian
autonomy: the regimental military-
administrative system and the
Cossack army.
But those negative events of
Ukrainian history were accompanied
by an important factor: at the end of
the 18th century, the formation of
the national territory of Ukraine was
completed. The migratory processes
distinguished in different areas were
of particular importance.
Administrative changes
came along with some cultural
innovations. Migration of Ukrainian
cultural fgures started in the mid
18th century. This was a sort of
ideological movement, the wish to
apply intellectual potential within
the state which was militarily and
politically more powerful, but less
culturally developed in those times.
Kiev scientists brought their own
educational model to Muscovy,
contributed to the appearance
of new literature and painting
genres, and helped the creation of
a new style called baroque. Due to
the initial infusion of Ukrainian
culture into Russian culture, later
Ukrainians became infuential
shapers of Russian culture on par
with Russians themselves.
The impact of the new
nationalities also affected the
religious feld. Under Peter the
Great, the leading roles in the
earlier empires church were held
by representatives of the Kyiv-
Mohyla Academy, Stefan Yavorsky
and Theophan Prokopovich. Only in
the 18th century did the situation
generally change in favor of the
Great Russians.
It should be stated that in the
19th20th centuries, the Russian
Empire was one of the most
powerful European structures.
Thats why during the process
of creating a centralized state,
it created the native Russian
lands conception. The theory
decreeing that Moscow is a third
Rome, appeared in the 19th
century, and was consolidated
by an appeal to the heritage and
values of the Kievan Rus and unity
of the Orthodox world. Excluding
historical realities, this situation
continues today. But then the
Russian government needed local
governors, so it provided defnite
privileges for the local social
elites. The rights of the Ukrainian
gentry, fxed in the Charter of
the Gentry of 1783, were a great
stimulus for further unifcation of
the Ukrainian and Russian parts
of the two nations respective elite
circles. Tsarism afforded Ukraine
opportunities for military or secular
careers, thus encouraging their
loyalty. Thats why the gentrys
representatives fought to protect
their own corporative interests
rather than fghting for the rights to
previously seized lands. The words
of Vasyl Kochubey, an advisor to
Nicholas II of Russia, were a great
example of such mentality. When
his countrymen from the Dnieper
Left Bank came to help him, he said:
No matter that I was born a Little
Russian, Im a greater Russian than
anyone else My status raises me
above all shabby arguments. I see
your provinces problems from the
point of view of our entire societys
common interests. I dont care
about microscopic views.
In the second part of the 19th to
the beginning of the 20th century,
relations between the two nations
representatives were developing
in different directions. As a result,
the great reformer Peter Stolypin
classifed Ukrainians as aliens (we
know how his life ended in Kiev).
In other words, at the beginning
of the 20th century, this notion
was used in regard to the entire
non-Russian population, and the
Russians were accepted as a state
nation. So, then the project of the
Great Russian nation nominally
composed of Russians, Ukrainians,
and Byelorussians, was buried by
the authoritarian government.
Other projects of co-existence of
different nations in one state were
absolutely lifeless and unpromising
in the historical sense.
We all know how historys
most recent and perhaps overly
ambitious project ended.
PATRIOTS,
DEMOCRATS, AND THE
GAMES THEY PLAY
UKRAINE IN THE
RUSSIAN EMPIRE
Democracy is not accountable for the failings of a nation; however, the
government is. The government protects itself with its instinct for self-
preservation while the progress of our society fades into the background.
By Anatoliy Tolstoukhov, PhD in Philosophy
In 1654 The Pereyaslav Treaty was signed. Its initial aim was to create a
union of two states, which later transformed into a protectorate. Basically
this treaty became grounds for the annexation of a weaker country by a
young empire. From global and national points of view, the events occurring
after the treaty were historically absurd.
By Alexander Motsya, PhD in History
When there is a double standard,
there is a divided government
Kiev scientists brought their own educational
system to Muscovy
P
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www.thekievtimes.ua 5 SPECIAL ISSUE
Your business legal
support

Vorovskogo, 29-E, office 13, Kyiv, 01054
044 486 3360
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N
early every guest to Kyiv
considers it a must to walk
down the Andriivsky Spusk, marvel
at local monuments, and buy
Ukrainian souvenirs, a great part
of which are handmade images of
Ukrainian women and Ukrainian
men. Be it a hospitable Ukrainian
peasants wife of an unknown age,
wearing a wreath, lots of makeup
and bragging about her huge
breasts, or permanently inebriated
men in kuchmas and vyshivankas
(traditional Ukrainian clothing),
with enormous beer mugs. Or a
mythical Cossack Mamay, armed to
the teeth, an upland pirate of the
late Middle Ages, wearing Turkish
garments; he plays mandolin in
his time off from pillaging and
killing innocent people. He is not
committed to either family, or
society, or state. He is some sort of
an asocial element, a member of an
organized gang.
This image of our people
is imprinted in the mass
consciousness of our neighbors.
However, the true image of
the country, shaped by the last
thousand years, is an integral
part of Central European cultural,
intellectual, spiritual, political and
economic identity. A century ago
this country formulated a concept
of the world order, enforced the
principles of a constitutional state
for equal free people regardless
of their origin, religion, language,
and place of birth. Who and what
does this article deal with? This
text deals with some events in the
history of peoples that populated
the present-day territory of Ukraine
years ago. Some of those areas were
part of powerful world empires
the Eastern Roman Empire
(Byzantium), the Mongol Empire,
the Ottoman Empire, the Russian
Empire and the Austro-Hungarian
Empire. Some others formed
Kievan Rus (Lat. Regnum Russi).
Others used to be both sovereign
principalities and integral parts
of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania,
and also The Republic Polish
Rzeczpospolita. Its Latin name
(Res Publica, Pol. Rzeczpospolita)
translates as public matter.
The public matter of three
peoples the Lithuanians, the
Poles and the Kievan Russians.
Political leaders established this
Res Publica a dual state of three
nations, that lasted for almost 300
years and infuenced immensely
the development of Ukrainians,
Lithuanians, Poles, Jews and other
peoples who inhabited the territory
from time immemorial.
This text doesnt offer any
scandalous claims. What it offers
is an account of the well-known
events, chronologically presented,
which resulted in the formation of
the community we call citizens of
Ukraine today.
Kievan Russian (not Russian
this notion appeared only in the
18th century) people did not know
the notion of Ukrainian until the
middle of the 19th century, as has
been proven by Natalya Yakovenko,
a professor of the Kyiv-Mohyla
Academy. The concept of Ukraine in
political, administrative and legal
senses came into existence only
in August 1917 when the Russian
Provisional Government led by
Alexander Kerensky recognized
the right of Ukrainian people to
autonomous existence within the
Russian Democratic Republic.
From that time on it was the only
power structure to do so. This text
defnes key concepts and provides a
systematic account of main events
that took place on the present-day
Ukrainian and adjacent territories
from the middle of the 10th
century till the proclamation of
independence of Ukraine on August
24, 1991. Throughout this century
from the 10th to the end of the 18th
the Right Bank of present-day
Ukraine was an inseparable part of
Central European space. Meanwhile,
the Left Bank Wild Steppe
served as a permanent battlefeld
for numerous nomad hordes from
prehistoric times on.
Between 1772 and 1995, large
parts of this territory became
occupied (from the Dnieper to
Zbruch) or annexed (present-day
Left Bank) by the Russian Empire.
However, contemporary Western
Ukraine was embraced by the
Habsburg Dynasty of European
monarchs who ruled over the
immense part of the world as it was
known at that time.
The occupation of Rzeczpospolita
divided a once inseparable nation
for a very long time. Its smaller
part developed legally, culturally,
and spiritually within the Austria-
Hungarian Empire. After the fall
of the Empire in 1918 and until
the frst Soviet occupation in 1939
present-day Western Ukrainian
lands were the provinces of Poland.
The bigger part of Kievan Russian
people found themselves under the
rule of the Romanov Dynasty. 150
years of being a part of the Russian
Empire spilled over into a bloody
Civil War, unprecedented black
repartition of private property and
abolishment of all legal and moral
norms. During the frst 30 years
of communist dictatorship (1918-
1948) 20 million people living on
the present-day territory of Ukraine
were exterminated, disappeared or
perished. This fgure was 70% of
the entire population as of 1917,
or almost 50% in 1941. Moreover,
it became the biggest manmade
anthropological catastrophe in
the history of Europe in the last
thousand years. Reasons and
consequences of this catastrophe
are not comprehended by either our
society or political leaders. One of
the reasons is a lack of knowledge of
the real history of our country and
people that populated its territory
from the remotest times. Historical
knowledge in the consciousness of
our state leaders and people has
been replaced by myths formulated
by the most famous, quoted, and
prolifc national historian. The Head
of the Central Council of Ukraine,
later Soviet academician Mykhaylo
Grushevskyy, formulated axioms
about a long-established existence
of Ukraine and Ukrainian
people who over the course of
history never had their own state
and were forced to live under the
rule of foreign invaders. He absurdly
attributed aspirations to create
a state to Zaporozhean Cossaks:
people who terrorized adjacent
lands for centuries and were
against any legal codes. In short,
he formulated radical anti-Polish
and anti-Catholic, meaning anti-
European concepts and ideas.
The postulations of Grushevskyy
were appropriated and perfected
by both Ukrainian Soviet and
Ukrainian Diasporas historical
sciences, which by the way heavily
criticized each other. A strange
mix of their conclusions became
dogmas after the proclamation
of the independence of Ukraine.
As a result, school and university
textbooks, political platforms,
foreign and domestic policies are
based upon those misconceptions.
Foundational concepts of
Ukrainian history, the way they
function in our consciousness, are
bases for the fake Ukrainian history.
It is about non-existent Ukrainian
people. It is sadly the history of
people on the outskirts of European
history and its nations: frst and
foremost Lithuanians, Poles,
Hebrews, Tatars, Germans, Romans,
Hungarians, Slovaks and others.
In short, it is a history of a nation
that never existed in a country that
did not exist until August 1917.
In fact, the history of Kievan Rus
(which started to identify itself
as Ukraine at the end of the
19th century) is a part of a larger
historical frame which includes
East Slavs and other ethnicities that
for ages have occupied the land in
between Oder and Dnieper from
west to east, and in between the
Baltic and Black Seas from north
to south. In 2013 Ukraine should not
ENTER the European community
but RETURN to it.
Read more at thekievtimes.ua
UKRAINE EUROPE:
ACCESSION OR
RETURN?
This text defines key notions and provides a systematic account of main
events that took place on the present-day Ukrainian and adjacent territories
from the middle of the 10th century till the proclamation of independence of
Ukraine
By Danylo Yanevskyy, PhD in History
Grushevskyy absurdly attributed aspirations to create
a state to Zaporozhean Cossaks
The notion of Ukraine in political, administrative and legal senses
came into existence only in August 1917
The concept of "Ukraine" came into existence in 1917 under Kerensky's rule
The postulations of Grushevskyy were appropriated by both Ukrainian Soviet and Ukrainian
Diasporas historical sciences
The bigger part of Kievan Russian people found themselves under the rule of the Romanov Dynasty
THE KIEV TIMES | NOVEMBER 2013 6 SPECIAL ISSUE
C
ontemporary historical science
has elaborated on the quite
reasonable opinion that was
presented by the academician of
NAS of Ukraine, P. Tolochko, in his
article From Rus to Ukraine.
Speaking of the frst formation
stage of such terminology, it needs
to be mentioned, that national and
foreign written sources contain
the names Russian land, or just
Rus designating the frst state
of the eastern Slavs; in scientifc
literature it is called Kievan Rus
(named after the frst capital on
the banks of the Dnieper river).
Worth mentioning is that in the
geographical sense, this specifc
region was Russian land in a
narrow meaning of the term: local
princes, members of the clergy
and merchants from Novgorod the
Great in the north of the Slavic
world, Suzdal and Ryazan in the
north-east, and Halych in the
Ciscarpathian region gathered here
to discuss important state issues.
The word Ukraine also appears
in the Old Russian times. Analysis
of records from 1187, 1189, 1213
state that back then it referred to
the outskirts of Pereyaslav, Galych
and Volyn principalities, i.e. the
term Ukraine did not mean
the actual name of the territory
but rather implied its frontier
character.
After the time of the Golden
Horde, the old Russian name
(not to mix with Russian)
continued to be used as the name
of the country. It is no coincidence
that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
was additionally named Russian
after Slavic lands were absorbed.
After the Pereyaslav Treaty of
1654 signifcant popularity was
given to the term Minor Rus
in the documentation and on the
pages of historical compositions.
This term was formed gradually
between the 14th and 17th
centuries, and frst signifed the
territory of the Galych and Volyn
principality later extending over
the entire Southern Rus. The
name Major Rus crystallized out
in the northwest over time.
The notions Major and
Minor were used in essays of
medieval geographers referring to
some other countries and implied
their inner political and territorial
divisions (we can mention
Wielkopolska and Maopolska).
The Minor part of the country
is its metropolis; the Major one
is a colony, an extended territory.
There is no need to get offended by
the Minor Russian designation of
present-day Ukrainian territories,
at that time, for it is supported
by the old Russian tradition.
However, the Ukrainian variant
was not covered by the mantle
of oblivion. Moreover, the
word Ukraine found a sound
explanation then. It was cleared in
the 17th century by P. Chevalier
the French diplomat who spent a
long time at the court of the Polish
king and had direct contacts with
Ukrainian Cossacks: The country
where the Cossacks live is called
Ukraine. From the point of view
of the French national the region
of East Europe really was the
outskirts of European agrarian
civilization beyond that the
world of wild nomads began.
A new impetus for the
development of Ukrainian
consciousness and self-
signifcation dates back to the 19th
century; however, even then there
was no unanimity about the issue
either. As a bright example, let us
address the point of view of M.
Kostomarov: In the 17th century,
the names Ukraine, Malorossia,
Getmanshchina were coined and
soon became archaisms as none
of them embraced the sphere of
the entire nation and only meant
local and temporary occurrences
in its history. The recently made
up name Yuzhnorossy remains
bookish, unless it stays so forever.
The quite renowned historian
had a point there, except the last
prediction: endurance of the
Ukrainian name. An important role
here belongs to T. Shenchenko
who, as noted by M. Gruchevskiy,
solved this issue of what his
fellow countrymen should call
themselves; they are people
that speak Ukrainian, keep to
their lifestyle and history. This
designation was not only picked
up by the national elite but also
representatives of the social
gutter.
The outcome of this complicated
process was that from the very
beginning of the 20th century,
from the times of the Ukrainian
revolution of 1917-1920, the term
Ukraine was fnally assigned to
a particular part of the European
world.
I
t is true that very few of the sieg
heiling crowd can explain which
of the OUN and which of the
UPA they demand to glorify. One
way to do it is en masse Melnikov
followers who devotedly killed
heroes that followed Bandera, or
vice versa. Maybe they even see the
Bolsheviks and Makhnovists among
their idols?
Applying for all possible meetings
and torch-lit parades to honor
the heroes of UPA, nationalists
like to cite anti-historical and
questionable, from a legal point
of view, edict of Yushchenko On
Honoring the Participants in
the Struggle for Independence
of Ukraine in the 20th Century.
Issuing it just a few days before
resigning his post as the President,
Yushchenko conferred a title
Participant in the Struggle for
Independence to members of
everything he could think of at the
moment: UPR, Hetmanate, OUN,
UPA, Carpathian Sich. While
doing so he never really got into
defnitions. Guess now, allegedly,
who I have in mind!
As a historian deriving his
knowledge from questionable
sources, Yushchenko was not aware
of many peculiarities of his own
countrys history as well as the
history of the republics, unions
and gang formations enlisted
in the edict. For example, at the
time the edict was being signed,
he had no idea that the Ukrainian
Peoples Republic was the name
of two administrative formations
of 19171918: not only was it the
UPR of Grushevskiy-Petlyura-
Vinnichenko but also Soviet
Ukraine proclaimed December 25,
1917 in Kharkov by the decree of
the All Ukrainian Convention of the
Soviets! Thus, honoring the fghters
of the UPR, you can easily drink to
both the Reds and the Yellow and
Blue. As for the abbreviation UPA,
and the use of the term Ukrainian
Insurgent Army this is an entirely
different story. Knowing only
about the existence of Banderas
UPA, Yushchenko probably did not
realize that combat units of Nestor
Makhno were also called the UPA.
The same designation was used by
the Commander-In-Chief of Soviet
armies Antonov-Ovseenko, referring
to the Reds who fought for the
expulsion of the Blue and Yellow
fghters from Ukraine at the end
of 1918 and the beginning of 1919.
Which of them should we honor? Or
does it really matter?
Okay, let us put aside historical
sophistry for a moment, and
assume that, per se, sieg heiling
torch carriers and Yuschenko
himself honor the Organization
of Ukrainian Nationalists and
Ukrainian Insurgent Army of 1930
to the 1950s. However, similar
organizations and formations,
proudly calling themselves
armies, were numerous! At that,
we all know the way Banderas
OUN atrociously avenged Melniks
OUN and the latters reciprocation.
Not less atrocious was the struggle
between Shukhevitchs UPA and
Bulba-Borovets UPA.
7080% of memories of the
Bandera or Melnik followers consist
not so much of accusations of
the Bolsheviks or Hitlerites, but
labeling main enemies of Ukraine
found among the heroes of the
other OUN or other UPA. This
proportion is applicable to the
numbers of people killed. No matter
how much is said about how UPA
(any of them) were struggling to
restore the independence of Ukraine
against the occupants of different
kinds, for the most part they were
killing Ukrainians! One can easily
fnd the lists of victims of newly-
minted heroes. For example,
much ado was made about the
list of dwellers of the Gorodotsk
district, Lviv region who died at
the hands of Banderas followers.
The overwhelming majority of this
awful list 596 surnames are
Ukrainians, not Germans, Poles,
Jews or Russians!
Feeble attempts to pass these
people off as occupiers fail at
the start. The majority are farmers,
grain-growers, teachers, women and
children. How is 10-year-old Petya
Vavrinov related to the PCIA when
he was killed by Bandera followers
in Ugry village? What about the
children of the collective farm
chairman atrociously killed in front
of his parents? One was 8, the other
one 10 A 6-year-old daughter of
village council secretary Kantsyar
axed to death! And 2-year-old Anna
and 4-year-old Hryhoriy Klyuchnik
who were killed that exact same way
in front of their mother just because
their father was fghting at the front
within the Red Army and he was
really fghting against fascists! How
can one now equate these children
to SS-soldiers, and atrocious
murders to acts of bravery?
While Ukrainians are encouraged
to call UPA combat soldiers
heroes as well as Galichina
divisions, the USA started a trial
against such a hero 94-year-
old Mikhail Karkots, a veteran of
several subdivisions of the OUN,
Galichina and even Wehrmacht.
American journalists are shocked
that the Nazi commander could
live quietly in the USA for 60 years,
hiding from justice. Do you know
what caused the proceedings
against the aged Ukrainian? His
book published a few years ago
in Ukrainian and presented in
Western Ukraine openly distributed
in Ukrainian public libraries and
educational institutions. Karkots
was received in Ukraine as another
hero who, supposedly, fought
the occupiers. His memories do
not shock Ukrainian citizens nor
the aforementioned sieg heiling
ladies. This is where we strongly
differ from the civilized world,
which still considers Nazi actions as
bloody crimes, not heroic deeds that
have no expiration date.
UKRAINE BEFORE 1917.
BUT WAS IT UKRAINE?
WHO DO THE SIEG
HEILING LADIES SALUTE?
Analysis of records from 1187, 1189, 1213 state that the notion Ukraine
did not mean the actual name of the territory but rather implied its frontier
character.
By Alexander Motsya, PhD in History
The lechery around glorification of OUN and UPA is unceasing in Ukraine.
The UPA veterans are treading around Kiev again, on Khreschatyk the
youngsters organize torch-lit parades to honor heroes, and exalted ladies
salute onlookers with a distinctively straight and upward-angled arm heil!
assuring that the UPA never collaborated with the Nazis.
By Vladimir Kornilov, Director of Eurasia Research Center
The country where the Cossacks live
is called Ukraine
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2014. Retroft on KLMs 777-200s is planned for the
summer of 2014.
+380 (44) 490 24 90
AIRFRANCE, KLM
www.klm.ua
Very few of the sieg heiling crowd can explain which
of the OUN and which of the UPA they demand to glorify
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www.thekievtimes.ua 7 SPECIAL ISSUE
N
othing comes from nowhere.
Nobody can ever substitute
the dogma of private propertys
immutability. Each of us guards the
cherished deed to our apartment or
house, land or dacha like a precious
golden ring, hiding it in a number
of packages somewhere behind the
cupboard (so nobody could fnd it)
ready to fght a dragon with our
bare hands if necessary. We dont
have to open the door to anybody.
Each of us can go on at length
about the sanctity of property
rights. And there is one strong
excuse in response to all reproaches
of neighbors: I can walk on my
head at home. Not too long ago,
about 6070 years, there were other
times that we keep silent about
now, and hope to forget them, as
they were very bad.
The middle of the last century
was marked by violent vandalism
against private property and land
owners who were left naked and
barefoot in a single moment.
Nobody asked them permission
to open the door or show their
documents for the property. KGB
offcers simply came and took
away their property, which had
been earned by whole families.
Everybody swallowed that. And
everybody was quite egoistically
satisfed with this ardent vandalism.
Because it isnt ours. It isnt mine.
Because one could take things
away from Poles. Why did Count
Dzieduszycki need that whole
villa? As for the Jews, its good
that theyre gone: there is a place
for people from the neighboring
villages. And we will remember
only those stories about our poor
compatriots being evicted from
their houses and sent to Siberia.
We will somehow forget about what
happened to other people.
The dirty little word restitution
will continue exciting the
imagination of the descendants of
those who owned property before
the war, as well as the descendants
of those who came to everything
ready-made, to the drawers full
of clothes and started to live in a
comfort they hadnt earned nor
created themselves. Property
restitution is one of the conditions
for European integration. These
items are optional and irrelevant,
but in fact the most emotional
because they are intended to
capture the imagination. A scene
showing the overseas descendants
of Count Potockis family coming to
Lviv and throwing innocent people
out of their homes, forcing them
to go to sleep at the train station
followed by ORT (Channel One
Russia) cameras, cries out to be
imagined.
Let me offer a different picture
for the sake of balance. Why dont
thousands of people from the
families of the dekulakization
period (those Ukrainians who
lost their houses and lands) bring
the issue of return of their hard-
earned property to a head? Any
restitution should be directed frst
of all toward the satisfaction of the
interests of all citizens. There are
a lot of Ukrainians who were left
barefoot or put out of this world.
Eastern and southern Ukraine
swarms with family stories with
only one person to blame. How
are the repressed peasants worse
than the Danube Swabs, Serbia
so generously presents lands to?
The problem is that our people
are not shy, not passive, and not
undereducated. They simply would
do nothing. Theoretically, even
if there were some restitution
mechanism, our people would be
terrifed to fle a lawsuit requiring
the state to compensate them
with a sum of money equal to the
price of a confscated family house
turned into a village council by
the Bolsheviks. They would rather
live in mass-produced apartment
blocks, eat Mivina (ramen noodles)
and remember those glorious times
when their grandfather fed half of
the village and had 5 morgens of
land.
Legally, restitution is the most
diffcult process of changing the
owner. First of all, this requires a
nation-wide law that Ukraine, Im
sure, will never have. It wont have
it because appropriation of what
belongs to others is a characteristic
feature of a nation with a long
history of lacking its own cohesive
nationality while simultaneously
building up other empires. Todays
patriots sincerely believe that the
ancient city of Lviv is totally theirs,
a Ukrainian city. Amnesia forces
them to forget that only 16-18%
of the population was Ukrainian
before the war. So, wandering near
the Potocki Palace, the Bandinelli
Palace or the villa of Joseph Franz,
the majority of Lviv residents
sincerely consider this heritage to
be theirs. To accept the fact that
the Bolsheviks, like racketeers, took
this private property on behalf of
the masses means to confrm at
least the moral right of Potockis,
Bandinellis or Franzs descendants
to claim their property. This
will never happen for a number
of reasons, including Ukrainian
pride, insatiable drive for profts,
a national inferiority complex,
and historical resentment towards
the aggressors. Furthermore,
Ukrainians will never admit
that there is much more to the
Ukrainian history of Lviv and will
never go beyond a Pan-Ukrainian
mentality, according to which
even the sun shines in a special,
Ukrainian, way. More to the point
no restitution until Ukrainians live
in Ukraine.
The problem of restitution (which
currently doesnt exist) does not lie
with a legal or juridical question,
but frst of all with an ethical one.
The Ukrainian (in my particular
case the Galician) ethic defnitely
doesnt acknowledge that Lviv was
forced to become a Ukrainian city
at the hands of the Soviets that
simply came and took away the
private property of the Poles or
the Jews on behalf of the modern
citizens of Ukraine. The Galician
ethos is based on opposition, on
revenge and on punishment for
unforgettable offenses. The fear
of losing Ukrainian Lviv, modeled
in the Soviet era, is so strong that
even innocent statements that
mention the many displaced Poles
and murdered Jews are seen as
Ukrainophobic and a threat to the
citys Ukrainian identity. However,
modern Lvivs charm is in fact
the charm of Polish and Jewish
infuences. The fate of authentic
Lviv, now inhabited by present
day Ukrainians, is not much
different than that of the Austrian
apartments they moved into: an
aristocratic veneer, majestically
adorned, housing ignorant
peasants.
Thats why restitution is based
on an important notion justice.
All those palaces, villas and castles
were built by someone! Somebody
lived and received guests in them.
Somebody formed the family stock
with the purpose to hand over
these estates to their children and
grandchildren. They are real people,
pre-war businessmen, aristocrats,
Seym deputies, counts, collectors
and employers. All of them by our
common efforts are dissolved in an
atmospheric and very convenient
excuse, namely that was a very
long time ago. For the majority of
contemporaries, the feeling that
that was a very long time ago
means anonymity, impersonality,
and conditionality. Is it true that
each of us, in some 60 years, agrees
to become nobody, some kind of a
lost wisp of smoke, without a name,
a surname, or trace of existence?
Why is Europe passing through
the restitution catharsis in throes
and protests? Not with the objective
of capitalistic gains. And not even
with the objective of taking revenge
against a communistic or nazi
monster. Restitution is a declarative
gesture of rendering justice. This
is rehabilitation of the neglected
right of private property. This is an
attempt to tell ourselves that to
come and roughly take away is
punished even after a half century.
We (the nation without legal
consciousness, without the culture
of respect for those who are not
one of us) will never understand
this. We will assess restitution as a
second seizure of property, not as
the return of everything to those
who were innocently robbed of it
in the frst place. (Or at least to
compensate them for that which
was lost). We are unable to make
out that the pre-war owners were
not only Counts and millionaires,
but minor owners of small shops
and ordinary residents of Lviv.
Lets pretend that their tragedies
had never happened. Suicides,
destructions and hard times had
never happened either. And that
they didnt accept violent property
loss as a personal apocalypse.
Restitution mostly scares those
who wish to forget history or,
to be more precise, selectively
remember and apply it. Its
impossible to acknowledge aloud
that history is tragic and unfair,
and simultaneously do everything
possible to cut down the triumph
of justice. If a state (I emphasize
a state but not ordinary people)
rejects restitution, it demonstrates
its connection to the great-power
racket. It seems redundant to
mention the mentality of people
again, but our peasants with their
whole families fght for two meters
of a homestead. However, all of
them devoutly ignore thousands of
square meters of others property
that was simply illegally taken
away. Thats why the attitude to
restitution is a test for the attitude
to the past. Those who wish to
tailor it to their proft will continue
to consider the villa of Joseph Franz
to be Ukrainian.
Europe has already passed
through this property catharsis,
or is currently passing through it.
Poland, Hungary and Romania are
balanced by stocks and securities.
The Czech Republic pays back
money with a defnite coeffcient.
Serbia returns land to the repressed
Swabs. Latvia prohibited evicting
current residents and committed
to providing them with equal
accommodation. Lithuania is
in the process of returning land
properties. Bulgaria assigned all
non-liquid enterprises sunk by
infation to the new owners. All
of these countries have opened
up a discussion, and the number
of the displeased has increased.
Their number will increase even
more. The reason is that there are
always more people who prefer to
leave the unpleasant past behind.
On the other hand, restitution
as it is approached by European
countries is inspiring, with its great
respect toward the practice and the
confdence it instills in the ordinary
citizen that his private property
is inviolable. It costs states a lot
of money and effort to teach its
citizens that human crimes cannot
be divided into those that need to
be punished and those that can be
ignored. Scary stories saying that
European bourgeois will come and
take everything away can impress
nobody except the communistic
electorate. Restitution is
implemented by a state under
its guarantees. Residents of
the former stone buildings can
sleep peacefully. There are no
mechanisms of restitution and they
wont appear soon. The prewar
archives have been destroyed. Most
of the property has been reshaped
and repurposed. Ukraine is not the
USSRs legal successor.
Finally, justice is not our forte
nor will it be in the foreseeable
future.
PHANTOM OF
RESTITUTION
Restitution mostly scares those who wish to forget history or, to be more
precise, selectively remember and apply it. Its impossible to acknowledge
aloud that history is tragic and unfair, and simultaneously do everything
possible to cut down the triumph of justice.
By Ostap Drozdov
No restitution until Ukrainians
live in Ukraine
Property restitution is one conditions
for European intergation. These items are optional irrelevant,
but in fact the most emotional
THE KIEV TIMES | NOVEMBER 2013 8 SPECIAL ISSUE
T
he Polish state considered
proximity with Russia as its
main strategic problem, since the
Russians tried to take the role of
regional leader in Eastern Europe
away from Poland. From the
time of Ivan the Terrible, Polish
geopoliticians have suggested
various recipes for dealing with this
struggle, and all of them agreed
that without tearing Russia along
its ethnic seams there was no
chance for Poland to gain regional
leadership. The idea to cut national
and ethnic minority groups off
from Russia had never left the
Polish diplomatic agenda, and in
the 20th century it received its
fnal conceptual component in the
form of the Prometheism Doctrine.
Poland compared itself with the
legendary Prometheus who brought
people the fre of freedom. As
Prometheus was devotedly fghting
for human happiness, Poland was
devotedly fghting for the freedom
and independence of nations
enslaved by Russia.
It was up to Warsaw, as for
whom to add to the list of the
enslaved. As a result, this list
contained nations that had never
been at odds with the Russians, for
instance, Byelorussians, Karelians,
and Zyrians. In general, the Polish
Prometheism had the aim to
establish a whole group of legally
independent states, which would
completely depend on Poland and
its allies (Azerbaijan, Georgia,
Turkestan, Ingria, Idele-Ural, the
Don and Cuban Cossack republics,
the Crimea, Belarus, Moldavia
and, of course, Ukraine) after the
destruction of the Russian Empire.
A whole network of expert, analytic
institutes and Prometheus offces
were founded to promote this
Prometheus ideology not only in
Poland but also in Teheran, Helsinki,
Harbin, Paris, Cairo, and Berlin.
The idea of Prometheism
served as an additional ideological
tool of the so-called Doctrine of
Intermarium, supposedly sponsored
by Josef Pilsudski. The essence of
this proposal was the consolidation
of all pseudo-independent states
located between the Baltic and
the Black Seas around Poland.
The Doctrine of Intermarium was
a concealed attempt to revive the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
from sea to sea organized as
federal republics. According to
Pilsudskis idea, this would be
a federation of states driven by,
like Poland, Russophobia, but,
due to their insignifcant political
authority, not daring to dispute the
regional leadership over Warsaw.
Ukraine took a special place both
in the Prometheism Doctrine and
in the Doctrine of Intermarium,
because its geographical position
turned it into a fence closing off
the road to Europe from Russia.
Polish support of Ukrainian
independence in any form was
not an altruistic impulse of heart
but a bare geopolitical intention.
For instance, lets read the article
of the famous geopolitician
Wlodzimiers Baczkowski titled
We are not Ukrainophiles. We
are not Ukrainophiles we are
not moved by Ukrainian history;
the image of steppeor a cherry
orchard doesnt touch us, and
we wont shelter the abstract
freedom We look on Ukrainianism
(Byelorussianism, Lithuanianism)
as an ally [], realizing our own
purposes and expansions course
Thats why we shout: Ukraine
must be independent! Baczkowski
wrote if there is no Ukrainian
nation, it is necessary to create
one, artifcially deepening the gap
between Ukrainians and Russians in
order to stay out of the nationally
united 90 million Great Russians
plus 40 million Little Russians,
because a Ukrainian deprived of his
Ukrainianism is a political Russian.
In these ideas Ukraine by default
takes the current role of Poland
in the con-frontation of Western
countries with Russia. Formerly,
Poland was considered the last
bastion of Europe in front of the
Eurasian threat. Now, Ukraine
has all the chances to become this
bastion. The closer Kiev is to the EU,
the more responsibilities Ukraine
will have to accept. Those include
military and political obligations,
which will not always be declared
offcially. If the civilizational
frontline shifts from the Polish
territory to the Ukrainian territory,
Poland will no longer be the
battlefeld between two worlds the
Polish-Catholic and the Russian-
Orthodox. From then on, the major
conficts will break out exclusively
on the territory of Ukraine. Poland
will stay away from this battle, while
Ukraine as a buffer, which prevents
Russian expansion towards the
West, will have to carry all of the
political and economic burdens on
its own. All of it will be under the
empty slogans of the triumph of the
pro-European choice.
P
oles, as a nation belonging to
the Western-Catholic world,
aspired to join both the EU and
NATO and were duly admitted
to these organizations. This
progression to full-fedged NATO
and EU member was not without its
own cultural intricacies.
Each nation and every country
exists not only in real astronomical
time but in social time as well.
Social time can be understood as
a period of social activities flled
with events and facts that encode
cultural traditions, norms, values,
and beliefs on the inhabitants
of a country. The prevailing
civilizational (or cultural) code
of the Polish state is one that
casts Poles as defenders: the
Polish state is the last outpost of
Western Christianity, locked in
an eternal struggle on its eastern
borders against the schismatic
East Slavs. This narrative has
acquired a politically correct gloss
over the years, yet it has remained
essentially the same. Additionally,
the wish to integrate the post-
Soviet republics that are located
between Poland and Russia has
become a fxture of this narratives
ideology. Such cultural codes and
practices develop over centuries.
Therein lies the challenge of rapid
social change.
This is precisely why certain
members of a certain relatively
successful economic union remain,
to put it mildly, unhappy compared
to more prosperous members.
The leaders of these discontented
nations were quick to join the
union, and did not fully consider
the slow-moving clock of social
time.
Nobody can be an African today
and turn into a European tomorrow,
in one day. One cant belong to one
civilization, and in a night, after
joining another one, wait for manna
from heaven. Fissures between
moral, economic and political
standards that have developed over
many centuries will be immediately
revealed, stranding the newly-
arrived without the promise of a
bright future.
In socio-cultural terms, Poles
have never felt themselves to
be different from the West, and
entering the EU was a good ft for
their cultural norms and political
goals.
Since that time, Poland has
achieved relatively frm economic
stability, and could achieve even
more, if instead of holding to the
aforementioned narrative of the
honorable defense of Western
Christendom against the gnarly
eastern hordes, it would prioritize
less ethereal matters such as
cooperation with CIS countries,
most of all with Russia.
Moscow has effective economic
relations with Berlin that have
developed over the head
of Warsaw, due to its own
stubbornness. The economic
axis of Moscow Warsaw
Berlin would beneft all three
capitals, but the Polish national
conscience isnt able to dismiss
the psychological directive, which
has set the historical mission of
Poland as a buffer of the western
world on its eastern borders (this
is a perfect demonstration of an
acquired cultural code). Thats why,
according to political mythology,
Poles call Poland the European
Winkelried (Winkelried was a
Swiss patriot who threw himself
upon Austrian spears during the
Battle of Sempach and thus brought
victory to his brothers in arms) and
are very proud of it. Poles feel the
rest of Europe should be indebted
to them for the endless sacrifce
they have made in confronting
Russian Orthodox civilization.
As a member of the European
Union and NATO, Poland took part
in the occupation of Iraq, welcomed
the aggression of NATO against
Serbia, supported the invasion of
Afghanistan, and did not object
to Kosovos 2008 declaration of
independence. Its impossible to
be in the European family and
not take part in its foreign policy
decisions. It is just as impossible to
isolate oneself from its obtrusive
gay propaganda the corner stone
of European politics. The Poles
must digest all this somehow, and
while they managed to justify
their participation in the NATO
operations (the USSR was the
occupant in Afghanistan, but we
defend democracy there; rejection
of Kosovo from Serbia is a fair
punishment of Belgrade for human
rights violation), as a Catholic
nation they can hardly accept
the homosexual values of an
enlightened Europe.
Thats why in the future, Polish
society will have quite a dilemma to
resolve: how to preserve traditions
and not become the black sheep?
UKRAINE IN THE EU: A SUCCESS
OF POLISH GEOPOLITICS
Kiev's steadily increasing proximity to the European Union can be viewed as a success of Polish
geopolitical thought. Lets analyze the benefits of an EU-integrated Poland, also known
as Kiev's lawyer in Europe.
By Vladislav Gulevich, Political Analyst
POLISH IDENTITY IN
THE EU EXAMPLE
FOR UKRAINE
When discussing the future of Ukraine in the EU, supporters of European
in-tegration often reference the Polish experience. Look at Warsaw, they say,
they are quite content with life in the EU. The reality of the situation is a bit
more complex however.
By Vladislav Gulevich, Political Analyst
www.thekievtimes.ua 9 SPECIAL ISSUE
N
o country has left the EU so
far, but many of them have
repeatedly tried to avoid European
Union commitments. This EU
aversion became a particularly
prominent topic fve years ago
when the world fnancial crisis of
20072008 entered its most active
phase.
In Britain, 100 thousand
signatures for a referendum on
the countrys proposed secession
from the European Union have
already been collected. Such views
are shared by almost 50% of the
citizens of the United Kingdom.
In January 2013, Prime Minister
James Cameron promised to hold
a referendum between 2015 and
2017. His own words, spoken in
the Parliament and spread by the
media, have come to be seen as the
views of a Euro-skeptic.
Sir James Cameron said the
following: Great Britain will
attempt to recover authority
granted to the EU after 2015.
When we agree to new conditions,
were going to give the British
people two simple choices at the
referendum: to stay in the EU
under these new conditions or to
leave quietly. It would be wrong to
ask people whether they wanted
to stay or to leave before the
opportunity to establish correct
relations appears. If Britain leaves
the EU, it will be a one-way ticket
without a chance to come back.
Britain wishes to be a part of
the reformed EU, but the level of
disappointment over the European
Union is currently higher than
ever. We are a family of democratic
nations based on a single market,
not a single currency. Those who
are outside the Euro-zone admit
that those who are inside of it
need institutional changes. So, EU
members that are not a part of the
Euro-zone have their own reasons
to keep it this way. In addition
to Great Britain, these countries
include Denmark and Sweden,
as well as Croatia, Hungary,
Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic,
Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. The
countries of a non-Euro-zone are
quite satisfed with their current
status in the EU. They dont want
to transfer control over their
national fnances to the European
Central Bank or surrender their
microeconomic policy to the Euro-
commissars of Brussels.
But the main Euro-skeptic
today is Hungary. On January 1,
2012, a new anti-European Union
Constitution, adopted by the
parliament on April 25, 2011, came
into force. The preamble of the
new Hungarian Basic Law specifes:
Spiritual and intellectual
unanimity of the Hungarian people
rests upon God and Christianity. A
scandal fared up after an attempt
to include an item about Christian
values to the draft constitution of
the European Union (20042005).
Another similar scandal that comes
to mind was around the Treaty of
Lisbon (20072009) when the topic
of religion was entirely ignored.
A quite logical conclusion of the
Christian values primacy became a
law which is formulated as follows:
Hungary defends the institution
of marriage between a man and
a woman, as well as voluntarily
established marital relations and a
family as the basis for the countrys
survival. Hungary supports the
birth of children. This article
actually outlaws same-sex marriage
and commits the state to protecting
human life, understood as starting
from conception, meaning a
prohibition of legal abortion.
In a section devoted to economic
policy, it states that the Hungarian
forint is the na-tional currency.
It also specifes that a switch to
the euro requires a corresponding
decision by the Parliamentary
constitutional majority. Article
36, about the countrys budget,
includes standards restricting
Hungarian national debt to 50% of
GDP and presetting the income tax
rate in the country. Alas, within the
current European Union all this is
referred to as the competence of its
central authorities!
Another article of the
Constitution of Hungary is
extremely controversial. It says:
Being guided by the ideal of a
united Hungarian nation, Hungary
must be responsible for the destiny
of Hungarians living outside its
borders, must favor their survival
and development, and must
continue to support their efforts
directed toward the preservation of
their Hungarian culture. It will also
favor their cooperation with each
other and Hungary. Considering
the large size of Hungarian
communities in neighboring
countries, this may provoke various
conficts and misunderstandings.
Today we have a curious fact
and a lesson for Ukraine: one of
the member-countries of the EU
already has a current Constitution
written up in case the European
Union disappears. But what
prevents other EU countries,
especially those outside the Euro-
zone, from adopting a similar basic
law?
T
he government of Greece
is trying to introduce an
amendment to the Criminal Code,
which, if approved, will essentially
forbid any criticism of the EU. If
violated, it will be followed by six
or more months of imprisonment.
The text of the amendment was
brought to light by journalist Jorgos
Delastik in the Greek newspaper
Ethnos (Oct.24). The amendment
is as follows: Whoever with intent
to violate sanctions or restrictive
measures imposed against States
or entities or bodies or natural or
legal persons by the decisions of
the UN Security consultative or
EU regulations, shall be punished
with imprisonment of at least six
months
In particular, this law will be able
to regulate the protests of Greeks
against intervention into Syria or
any other country in the future if
there is a corresponding sanction
of the EU council. The Greek
government has earlier accused the
opposition of extremism because
it dared to offcially criticize the EU
and its economic policies. In other
words, criticism of the EU in Greece
has become so widespread that it
threatens the existence of the Greek
state and it needs to be fought by
the sword of the Criminal Code.
For the wheels of state never spin
without oiling. As a matter of fact,
the Greeks have become the most
anti-EU nation of Europe.
This spring, the Head of the
Church of Cyprus, Archbishop
Chrysostomos II urged the Greek
government to withdraw from the
EU, which is, in his opinion, doomed
to fall apart. The Archbishop
blamed the crisis of the EU on
three creditors the EU, European
Central Bank, and the International
Monetary Fund. Chrysostomos II
stated that the EUs fate will be
defned by the current state of
affairs in Italy. As a reminder, the
economy of Cyprus came to the
verge of a default as a result of a
fnancial crisis this spring, when
the government had to confscate
foreign deposits in the local banks
in order to somehow make ends
meet.
Of course, you can think of Euro-
skepticism as an exclusively Greek
feature. However, today many
European politicians no longer view
a withdrawal from the EU as an
impossible development for their
countries. Moreover, many of them
even rally for establishing special
procedures for a possible secession
from the EU, taking into account all
possible factors.
In mid-October, ex-President
and ex-Prime Minister of Czech
Republic, Vclav Klaus, published a
book entitled Czech Republic at the
Crossroads Time to Decide.
According to Klaus, the EU is the
source of all the negative things
happening in Czech society, its
politics, and national economy.
He insists that abundant and
omnipresent regulations, practical
liquidation of national governments
sovereignty, and dilution of
responsibility are some of the chief
faults of the present-day EU. He
also believes that by continuing EU
membership, it will be impossible
for the Czech Republic to implement
long overdue fundamental and
systematic reforms. 15 years ago,
as Prime Minister, Vclav Klaus
took part in negotiations about the
future EU membership of the Czech
Republic, at that time calling this
idea an arranged marriage. Today,
the Czech Republic would have to
fle for divorce, says Vclav Klaus.
However, current President
of the Czech Republic, Milo
Zeman, publicly questioned the
ex-Presidents position. I have a
totally opposite opinion. I consider
myself a Euro-federalist. I strongly
believe that not only is the EU
helpful for the Czech Republic, but
the Czech Republic is helpful for the
EU they equally need each other,
stated Milo Zeman.
The head of the state is sure
that the EU as it is today should be
viewed not only as a free market
and trade zone but as a special
community with a specifc cultural
identity. I hope that Vclav
Klaus admits the existence of
such phenomenon as European
culture, argued Zeman. However,
does everybody beneft from the
European culture in its current
version? Milo Zeman did not
mention anything about the
economy and fnances of the EU in
this hypothetical argument with
the Ex-President let sleeping
dogs lie. However, it must be taken
into account that the wish to leave
the EU is now quite widespread
among the ruling elite, not to
mention marginal political forces.
Thus, the question persists: where
is the European Union heading to
today?
ON REAL AND
VIRTUAL EURO-
SKEPTICS
WHO WANTS TO
LEAVE THE EU AND
WHY?
After reading a couple of statements made by European politicians wishing
to leave the EU, I was reminded of the old saying One ruble (in this case
euro) to get in and ten to get out!
By Eugeni Morin
The Kiev Times readers have probably heard before that in many European
countries a punishment for public denial of the Holocaust is imprisonment.
Europe intends to continue with such practices of fighting thought crimes.
By Evgeni Morin
One of the member-countries of the EU already has
a current Constitution written up in case
the European Union disappears
Czech Airlines presents
A 330
coming soon... www.czechairlines.com
Criticism of the EU in Greece has become so widespread that
it threatens the existence of the Greek state
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THE KIEV TIMES | NOVEMBER 2013 10 SPECIAL ISSUE
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H
as the Ukrainian population
again turned into sincerely
mistaken people? This happened
for the frst time during the
perestroika era, on December
1, 1991, at the referendum for
independence. The second
time this happened was on Kievs
Independence Square Maidan
Nezalezhnosti in the winter of
2003-2004 when foreign benefactors
assisted the residents of a tent camp
who, even without that, were well
equipped by special funds. And, the
third time this took place was when
they supported the idea of joining
the World Trade Organization.
Our life strongly depends on
information received by the brain.
This information infuences
the generation of our thoughts
and opinions. But even open
access to information may not
always help. So, one needs its
full comprehension. Perhaps, the
authorities read the agreement with
the EU but didnt understand it.
This fragment of the Association
Agreement can be found on
the Internet: part 2, clause 44,
paragraph 2. Duty introduced
according to provisions of the
paragraph 1 of this clause mustnt
exceed the lowest of duties
introduced within the most
favorable treatment regulations
on the day that precedes the day
the Agreement comes into force, or
the rate of import duty fxed in the
Schedule of Ukraine in Addendum
of this Agreement. Import duty can
be applied only to the import before
the end of the year as is stated in
Addendum of this Agreement. It
seems its impossible to understand
it.
Examination of the original
text, beginning from February this
year (without claim to thorough
comprehension) shows a classic
manipulation of information
by professional European
agitators, and promises to lead to
discrepancies between the text and
application of the document, which
is going to be signed by Ukraine in
November.
Agitation for European
integration more often starts with
a trap-question: Are you against
integration with the European
Union? The audience cant always
reply as it is on the other side of the
TV screen, or maybe because no one
would wish to take the initiative
and have problems. Or maybe
because this question is addressed
to a limited and specially trained
contingent of a special studio. Such
a question has only one answer
in that context. But look: nobody
talks about actual membership of
Ukraine in the EU anywhere! Its
worth remembering those countries
that have signed the Association
Agreement: Algeria, Egypt, Israel,
Libya, Morocco, Mexico, Palestine
(temporary treaty), Tunisia, Chile,
and South Africa. Are we on the way
to joining that list?
There is also an Agreement of
association and stabilization, signed
by Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Serbia, and Montenegro. But in
contrast to our Agreement, the
above-mentioned agreement
contains at least a reference to the
prospect of membership.
The former premier of Great
Britain, Tony Blair, sees Ukraine
in the EU in 2025. But the same
Britain is preparing a referendum
about withdrawing from the EU!
The Populus Company conducted
a survey, commissioned by the
British newspaper The Times. If
the referendum had been held at
the beginning of 2013, 40% of the
British electorate would have voted
for withdrawal from the EU. 37% are
against withdrawal, and 23% found
it diffcult to reply. It seems Britain
is simply warming up a place for
Ukraine in order to give it up in the
future.
European integrators reserved
Ukraine the right to be considered
a developing county (while at
the end of the 80s the Ukrainian
SSR, according to UN classifcation,
was a super-developed state):
paragraph IV, chapter 2, part 1 of
clause 43 A country that develops.
To the extent to which Ukraine is
considered a developing country, for
the purposes of the clause 9 of this
Agreement, no protective measures
applied by the EU part wont be
applied to it, subject to fulflling
conditions stated in the clause 9 of
this Agreement.
Here are some facts and
quotations
Quotation from the Agreement:
part 2, clause 56, paragraph 2. For
achievement of goals stated in the
paragraph 1 Ukraine must follow
the schedule of Addendum III of
this Agreement:() to implement
correspondent acquis of the EU for
its legislation;
The same clause, paragraph 8.
Ukraine will gradually introduce
the code of European standards (EN)
as national standards, particularly
harmonized European standards,
whose voluntary application
is considered not meeting the
legislation requirements stated in
Addendum of this Agreement.
In addition to this implementation,
Ukraine will cancel the controversial
national standards, in particular
application of so called All-Union
State Standards (GOSTs) developed
before 1992. Does this mean
that Ukrainian State Standards are
controversial national standards?
Prime-Minister Mykola Azarov,
during his meeting with delegation
of The Alliance of Liberals and
Democrats for Europe held
on October 3, 2013, said: The
Agreement of Association is
comprehensive and quite complex
for Ukraine. For example, the
technical regulations adaptation
for Ukraine in 10 years requires
about 165 million euro. This is a
huge work. Well need to rebuild our
entire economy to the standards
totally new for us. This is 4 times
larger than the total volume of
all direct foreign investments
to Ukraine for the years of
independence. Nobody will give
this money to Ukraine. And Ukraine
doesnt have its own money.
Mykola Azarov affrms: Within
the frst year, the EU reduces import
duties almost to zero in 98% of
all our commodity positions. In
our turn, during 5 years we reduce
duties not to zero, but to weighted
average 2.75%. We preserve a
defnite level of protection for a
considerable period.
Until Ukraine fulflls requirements
for ecological and labor legislation,
one can declare openness for
Ukrainian goods without any
risk. According to academician
Heiz, Ukraine needs to spend 50-
100 billion euros to fulfll the EU
ecological requirements! While
Ukraine adapts these requirements,
Ukrainian goods are going to be
outside the Free Trade Zone.
The Europeans have made plain
that they wont allow competition of
the Ukrainian side on their markets.
Azarov provided a quotation of the
words of the Airbus representative
who clearly stated that he wont
allow Antonov planes to compete in
world markets.
European agitators try
to convince us of the new
possibilities somewhere out there
in the EU to apply our talents
Statistics indicate otherwise:
140 thousand qualifed workers
migrated from Spain to Germany;
35 thousand migrated from
Italy to Germany; 40 thousand
migrated from Greece to Germany
Unemployment in Spain makes up
more than 25% including more than
56% among its youth; in Greece
unemployment has reached about
30%, including 60% among its
youth! 2.5 million people have left
Romania. 400 thousand people have
left Latvia, and this makes up 15%
of the population!
At the demand of European
integrators we must equalize
prices for electricity. European
manufacturers wont allow us to
resort to dumping (pricing policy)
with regards to the European goods.
Ukraine will have to raise prices
within the country.
Recently, Petro Poroshenko noted
that the volume of Russian export
to the EU considerably exceeds
the volume of export to the CU
(Customs Union) countries. The
volume of RF (Russian Federation)
exports to the EU reaches $118
billion, with only $18.5 billion to
the CU. But the EU population,
which consists of 28 countries as
of 01.07.13, is 504 million people,
and the population of CU countries
Belarus and Kazakhstan is 27
million people. This means that
Russia exports almost 3 times as
much per capita to the EU as it does
to the CU. Ukraine is persistently
against NATO, though weve
been graciously offered the role
of cannon fodder: part 2, clause
10, paragraph 1. The Parties will
strengthen practical cooperation in
prevention of conficts and in the
sphere of anti-crisis management,
particularly with the purpose to
provide more active participation
of Ukraine in civil and military
operations of the EU organized to
overcome crisis situations, as well
as in correspondent studies and
trainings, in particular those held in
the context of the Common security
and defense policy.
Andit is very important that the
agreement mention unconditional
fulfllment of all items!

So, lets review:
- we wont ever become an EU
member;
- it will be a long time before
cooperation with the CU returns;
- entry of Ukrainians to EU
countries isnt specifed in the
agreement;
- a rise in prices for public
services will inevitably lead to a
decline in stand-ards of living;
- land sale will become
unavoidable;
- The Ukrainian defense industry
will die once the EU companies
are able to participate in the
Ukrainian arms procurement
contracts;
- Ukraine will become a buffer
zone between Europe and
Eurasia, until it becomes the
enemy of Russia.
The worsening of standards of
living will have to be explained
somehow! Of course, an external
enemy will be required. And this
enemy will be actively formed by
the controlled Russian media. And
a new scenario will start then But
this is quite another story.
N
owadays almost everybody
oppositional and
ruling majority politicians,
experts, analysts, mass media
representatives are estimating the
prospects of signing the Association
Agreement with the European
Union.
Without pursuing the task of
refuting the Euro-skeptics and
Euro-optimists let us concentrate
upon purely sober estimates of the
AA project provisions which the
majority of Ukrainian citizens will
not read.
Current Ukrainian legislation has
consciously chosen a path toward
European Integration. Ukrainian
law On the Basis of Domestic and
Foreign Policy adopted in 2010
after the initiative of President
Viktor Yanukovych provides a
means for the integration of Ukraine
into European political, economic
and legal space so that Ukraine can
become a fully legitimate member
of the EU. Therefore, the creation
of the free trade area is one of the
strategic goals of dual trade and
economic cooperation between
Ukraine and the EU. Taking into
account aspirations of integration of
our country, the EU offered to create
the free trade area in the format of a
free trade area plus (FTA+).
It is essential to distinguish
a classic free trade area (FTA)
from a more advanced format, a
universal free trade area (FTA+).
Classic free trade area foresees
the creation of clusterization of
two or more customs territories,
cancellation of tariff restrictions
and other preventive measures
for considerable trade volumes.
At that particular exemption from
free trade, a regime of so-called
delicate goods is allowed. The
FTA+ format includes not only trade
of commodities but also services,
and provides access to the markets
of state purchases. Making deals in
FTA+ format involves a number of
specifc provisions concerning:
- deep liberalization of goods and
services trade, differing signifcantly
from the provisions corresponding
to the agreements of the WTO;
- Liberalization of the foreign
investment regime;
- Liberalization of the state
purchases regime;
- Application of more severe
measures on intellectual property
protection;
- Implementation of common
ecological norms and standards, as
well as labor standards.
The ultimate purpose of creation
of the FTA between Ukraine and the
EU is the formation of a common
economic space. Future FTA will
serve the purposes of achieving
the deepest possible economic
integration with both parties of the
Agreement.
The project of the AA contains
the entire chapter on the creation
of the FTA. It is the most important
part of the document for it regulates
goods and services trade between
46-million Ukrainians and 500
million EU residents.
It foresees such revolutionary
innovation as free transfer of
commodities (some part of them
will have the quota, for example,
milk, meat or grain, the others
will be imported to the territory of
Ukraine and the EU customs-free)
and provision of the possibility
for the Ukrainian party to render
services for the EU (for example,
transportation of goods).
The instruments of trade security
are also foreseen; introduction of
sanitary and phytosanitary norms;
assistance to the development of
relations in the power feld.
What are the advantages of the
free trade area?
Based on the analysis of the
provisions of the project Agreement
it is necessary to single out the
following advantages of the FTA:
- improving the access of Ukrainian
goods and services onto the EU
market;
- improving export conditions
for Ukrainian production due to
price advantage gain owing to
cancellation of import duty.
- re-equipment and modernization
of national enterprises;
- increase in investment volumes
from the countries members of
the EU into Ukrainian economy;
- increase in volumes of dual trade
and grow of the foreign currency
fow;
- increase in sales volumes
of agricultural production of
traditionally export-oriented
branches (grains, sunfower oil):
- increasing effectiveness of labor
resources allocation;
- extension of product and service
mix on the Ukrainian national
market;
- improving the competitiveness
of domestic products with the
introduction of the new standards;
- reduction of non-tariff barriers for
trade in agricultural products within
the framework of cooperation in the
feld of sanitary and phytosanitary
measures;
- harmonization of customs
procedures and improving the
effciency of the customs authorities
in the context of trade facilitation;
- establishment of a harmonized
legal framework for the activities
of the subjects of trade relations by
bringing Ukrainian legislation to EU
legislation;
- encouraging the development
of competition and restricting
monopoly;
- improving access to high-quality
imported machinery, seeds, crop
protection, etc.
What risks does the FTA carry?
Any integration processes contain
risks. Experts defne the following
risks for Ukraine:
- the need to raise signifcant
funds to enable the adaptation and
implementation of new legislative
acts;
- increase in competitive pressures
in the domestic market;
- losses in some industries due to
their low competitiveness on the
European market;
- increase in the level of
unemployment;
- displacement of domestic
producers on the domestic market;
- increase in the bilateral trade
defcit due to the deterioration
in the structure of exports in
connection with the reorientation
of domestic exporters from export
of end products to export of raw
materials and semi-manufactured
goods;
- shortage of domestic goods in
the domestic market due to the
reorientation of export producers;
- lack of funds and the need to
fnd partners and investors for
the purpose of modernization of
existing facilities;
- need to upgrade and change
production technologies;
- limited ability to provide
protection of young sectors of the
economy who have not reached the
proper level of competitiveness and
are in need of government support;
- reducing the competitiveness
of agricultural products in the
domestic market due to the
presence of a strong system of state
support of the EU agriculture;
- reduction of demand for
agricultural machinery of the
national production.
Based on the facts discussed
above it can be said that signing of
the Association Agreement with
the EU is an unconditional progress
that will manifest itself in about fve
years.
Sliding down to the Customs
Union will mean comfortable
stagnation today or a lukewarm
bath of some kind where the
water will be cooling down with
time. Thus, the blow against non-
modernized outdated Ukrainian
economy, which will wish to hide
in the post-Soviet markets, and it
will be even more painful than it
can be today as it follows from the
CU restrictions imposed upon the
access of Ukrainian goods to their
markets.
EUROPEAN TRAP FOR THE
UKRAINIAN ECONOMY
10 ADVANTAGES OF THE
ASSOCIATION WITH THE EU
The groundlessness of legends about the alleged niceties of life that are supposed to flood Ukraine
after signing the Association Agreement and Free Trade Zone with the EU has been scientifically
proven. However, both the Ukrainian government and the opposition would risk anything, including their
honor, dignity, and a chance for Ukraine to ever join the list of developing countries, in order to sign the
agreement.
By Alexander Dudchak, Economist
Nowadays almost everybody oppositional and ruling majority politicians,
experts, analysts, mass media representatives are estimating the prospects
of signing the Association Agreement with the European Union.
By Vladimir Denysiuk, senior analyst at of strategic intelligence Geostrategy
Examination of the agreements original text reveals a classic
manipulation of information by European agitators
The Association foresees such revolutionary innovation as
the free transfer of commodities
www.thekievtimes.ua 11 SPECIAL ISSUE
T
he document was marked
confdential for a long time
with a Ukrainian translation
being offered only recently. This
circumstance left little time to
analyze the necessity of Ukrainian
products in the EU, if the fateful
agreement is signed.
An open secret is the dire state
of the countrys economy following
the 2008 crisis. Strange as it may
seem, many view the Association
Agreement as Ukraines entry into
the EU. The Agreement stipulates
the opening of the Ukrainian
market on a unilateral basis.
However, there is no mention of
Ukraines chances of becoming
a member of the EU in the
agreement.
Considering Ukraines export
markets, it is not diffcult to notice
that a number of different raw
materials are exported to the EU,
but a majority of Ukraines value-
added commodities are exported to
the countries of the Customs Union
(further CU).
In Europe there is no need
for industrial branches with the
high potential of growth that
could become a driving force of
the Ukrainian economy (aircraft
industry, rocket and missile
engineering, defense industry,
atomic machine manufacturing).
Branches required to apply EU
standards at once wont be able
to compete on the home market.
The reason is that by accepting
the conditions of the Association
Agreement, Ukraine will have to
switch to the technical standards
of the EU for the domestic market.
After signing the Agreement,
guidelines for machinery and
equipment for the home market
will be imposed, thus annulling
the old norms of technical
regulation. It seems infeasible
from any point of view. Within the
EU, the processes of transfer and
adaptation to the guidelines of the
European Union typically take 20
years. Ukraine has been enouraged
to reorganize its production in 1-3
years. According to the regulations
of the Agreement, this norm
would be practically impossible
to change after the agreement is
signed because all the decisions on
changes are made by the Council
of Association where the EU has
50% of the votes. In addition,
unlike processes for current and
past EU candidates, the text of the
Agreement makes no provisions
for the system of compensatory
measures, possibilities and sources
of concessional loans for Ukrainian
producers within a transitional
period and a period of adjustment
to the new requirements.
Correspondingly, enterprises do
not have the fnancial possibility to
transfer to the standards prescribed
by the Agreement because there is
no model on how to do so.
Enterprises will be obliged
to reequip their production
on their own and under strict
time constraints; otherwise the
realization of their production on
the territory of Ukraine will be
banned according to the conditions
of the Agreement.
In fact, nowadays the majority
of Ukrainian hi-tech and
food enterprises export their
production to the markets of
the CU, in compliance with the
free-trade agreement. Almost
all commodities for high-grade
processing are exported to the
CU markets (it can be deduced
from the structure of Ukrainian
export to the territories of the CU
and EU). Signing the EUAA will
lead to the revocation of 70% of
import duties from EU countries to
Ukraine in the course of the frst
year. Vice Prime Minister of the
Russian Federation D. Shuvalov
made an offcial statement that
as progressively as Ukraine
will be canceling the duties,
the CU will have to introduce
duties similar to the European
ones for the goods coming into
the market from the EU (most
favored nation treatment). Such
asituation would cause Ukrainian
producers to lose the ability to
compete on the markets of the CU
against European producers. The
EU subsidizes its manufacturers
on all stages of production and
export, which is forbidden for
the Ukrainian government to
do. Based on the Agreement of
WTO membership, the subsidies
mentioned are compensated by
the rates of customs duties of the
CU (for example, 15% of dairy
production under most favored
nation treatment) and the regime
of free trade for Ukraine, but the
association agreement does not
envisage the absence of subsidies
for European manufacturers on
third-party markets.
Thus, Ukrainian enterprises
will lose both home and export
markets. A year will be enough
to replace Ukrainian-produced
goods with those imported from
Europe, causing the destruction
of Ukrainian enterprises and
an increase in the number of
unemployed, hastening the growth
of social tension in the country.
This situation puts Ukrainian
manufacturers into a very diffcult
position.
Without proper and deep
analysis of the upcoming risks and
losses for Ukrainian enterprises
as well singling out special tools
to eliminate them in the area of
technical regulation, the signing
of the Association Agreement with
the EU will lead to the collapse of
the idea of European integration
for Ukraine and irreparable growth
of social tension within the
country.
F
ormer USSR citizens, as well
as everyone living in socialist
countries up until 1989-1991 are
quite familiar with the vegetables,
fruit, wine, brandy, and tinned
foods produced in Bulgaria. At that
time Bulgaria was jokingly referred
to as the veggie patch of the
Eastern Bloc. Both the climate and
natural conditions of Bulgaria were
quite conducive to agricultural
development; a number of products
became brands: Bulgarian sweet
peppers or Bulgarian sour milk
that were popular all over the
Eastern Bloc.
However, when transformed from
the 16th republic of the USSR
(as it was informally called) into
a new member of the EU the
country almost completely lost
markets in the post-socialist world
for their agricultural production.
Bulgarias market share in Eastern
Europe and the former USSR was
quickly snatched up by other
countries. Today it is rather
diffcult for Bulgaria to return to its
former markets. Due to its minimal
use of mineral fertilizers, Bulgarian
production is highly praised in
Europe but it cannot get through
to Russian, CIS and former Soviet
markets. Why?
First of all, the EU forbids
imports of cheap food products
from outside the borders of the
EU, thus maintaining a high price
for food on the continent. This
has caused a permanent confict
between developing countries
and the EU on one side and the USA
and some other WTO countries
on the other called the Doha
Development Round (Doha is the
capital of Qatar where the WTO
summit took place in 2001).
Secondly, the agricultural
budget for CAP is made up of the
tax liabilities of all countries and
amounts to nearly a half of the
EU budget. The trick is that in
order to raise marketability the
EU returns this money only to
those countries that boast a high
level of agricultural production,
i.e. the same old EU members
like France, Germany, Italy, Spain,
Belgium and the Netherlands.
Other members of the EU, such
as Finland, are somehow less
subsidized. After having entered
the EU at the beginning of the
1990s more than 5,000 farming
households went bankrupt. Still
others, like Latvia, get no subsidies
at all. There is no point in wasting
the budget on petty producers
getting in the way!
It is interesting to wonder if the
Romanians and Bulgarians ever
stopped to consider what awaited
their small agrarian countries in
the European Union? Did they ever
infer that they would be granted
the honorable right to subsidize
the agriculture of Old Europe and
watch their own production grow
feeble without subsidies? It would
appear that some countries revel
in agricultural socialism while
others have to sort out the charms
of market competition.
Hence, poor countries new
members of the EU are put
under such conditions that they
cannot either fully seek subsidies
or agricultural funds from the EU
to develop their industry. Their
lot in life is to pay EU taxes and be
a market outlet for the powerful
countries of the Old EU.
In the meantime, the
European Commission refused
to adjourn the privatization of
Romanian agricultural lands by
foreigners. Land sales will start
in January 2014. This will make
the agricultural situation in the
country even more complicated.
The Romanian government asked
the European Commission to allow
sales only to the attested investors,
the ones who have necessary
experience and want to invest in
the development of agriculture.
Bucharest wants to create a
special body that will ensure the
correct estimation of land prices
in transactions. Yet the European
Commission decided against any
exemptions previously granted to
other EU members.
Meanwhile, the EU intends to
cut down on agricultural funding
of neighboring Bulgaria. Currently,
the agricultural branch of this
Balkan country is in need of
modernization and protection of
the domestic market from cheap
(subsidized) products imported
from Western European countries
which have practically driven
the fruit and vegetables of local
producers out of the market.
It turns out that the EU is willing
to support only strong producers.
Sink or swim fts European logic
best. However, the old members of
the EU are not ready to let go of
their life jackets.
MARKETABILITY OF
UKRAINIAN GOODS
EU DOUBLE STANDARDS
OR AN AGRICULTURAL
BUGABOO OF THE WEST?
Signing the cherished European Union (further referred to as the EU)
Association Agreement is the #1 topic in Ukraine and a matter of both
concern and interest for anyone somehow related to Ukraine. This event
has many directions and points to consider; one of them is marketability of
Ukrainian goods in EU countries.
By Oleg Naginskyy, CEO of the Customs Union Suppliers Association
The EU forbids imports of cheap food products from outside
the borders of the EU, thus maintaining a high price
for food on the continent
A year will be enough to replace Ukrainian-produced goods
with those imported from Europe
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Many countries aspire to join the EU for the benefits of membership It
is interesting to wonder if the Romanians and Bulgarians ever stopped to
consider what awaited their small agrarian countries in the European Union?
By Evgeni Morin
THE KIEV TIMES | NOVEMBER 2013 12 SPECIAL ISSUE
O
ne of the key promises stated
by this agreement is the
creation of a visa free regime
and free trade market in the EU.
In other words, something not
provided by the Agreement!
The funniest thing is that
while talking western countries
into signing the fateful docu-
ment, the Ukrainian diplomats
responsible for such agreements
stated quite the opposite in
Western European capitals!
The Ambassador of Ukraine in
the EU Konstantin Eliseev, who is
on an endless tour of the countries
still hesitant to support the
Agreement, in his interviews for
the European mass media assures
them that there is nothing about
visas or trade migration in the
document! The Dutch newspaper
De Volkskrant quotes Eliseev: Do
not be afraid. Ukrainians are not
getting right to work in the EU!
A senior Ukrainian diplomat
understands the main fears of
the developed EU countries!
Actually, the Dutch reporter talks
about them obliquely: he calls it
a concern that after the Poles,
Bulgarians and Romanians West
and North will also attract your
fellow citizens. And the West is,
of course, scared, knowing how
diffcult it would be to digest
millions of hungry Ukrainians!
What was the real purpose of the
EU expansion in the 1990s? Let us
recollect the worrying statistics
of the 70-80s. The population of
practically all developed countries
was decreasing rapidly as burgers
salaries rose due to the lack of an
abundant work force (unskilled).
Europe was overwhelmed with
mostly uneducated migrants from
the poorest African and Asian
countries, unwilling to ft within
the European environment.
The fall of the Berlin Wall
could not have come at a better
time. Apart from eliminating
its main geostrategic business
competitor Western Europe got
a cheap work force of millions
of migrants, qualifed enough
and used to hard physical labor
yet not so completely different
from the Western public as the
ones from Somali and Pakistan.
Certainly, burger Europe did not
feel like sharing its highly paid
positions with migrants from
Poland or Lithuania. That is why
the expression Polish plumber
has become so common a phrase
in Europe as Russian vodka or
American rides in the mind of
an average person. Ukrainians
are fed with tales of the Polish
economic wonder. However,
some information is kept back; for
example, for the last few years the
second ranked language spoken
in Great Britain is Polish, and it
is the Poles that keep their frst
place among criminals those sent
to prison. One may ask: if there
is such a boom in Poland, why
do the Poles take off to neighbor
Germany, England or France at
the next opportunity? The answer
is simple: Polish professors
(Lithuanian, Estonian, Slovakian)
working in England receives higher
wages as a plumber or cab driver
than as an academic teaching in
his or her home country.
Overall, Western Europe has
solved its demographic problem!
The population of developed
countries keeps steadily growing
owing to the constant infow
of Polish plumbers, a cheap
work force from Eastern Europe.
Meanwhile, a vacuum is created
at the borders of the EU! Now
Poland, Lithuania and Estonia
(further as the text goes) are in
need of unskilled work force as
their plumbers have moved to
the West for big money. What
should the Poles do under such
circumstances?
The have found the answer in
Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands
migrants from Galichina dragged
along to Poland to occupy those
low-paid positions regarded by
average Ukrainians as a possibility
to have at least some income. The
cheap work force from Ukraine
is literally saving Poland and
neighboring countries of Eastern
Europe from depopulation!
In private conversations the
Poles never try to conceal why
they need Ukraine. Former Presi-
dent Alexander Kwaniewski in his
interview for the Wpost magazine
has recently openly, in spades,
called Ukrainians a convenient
(read cheap. Auth.) work
force for the Poles explaining:
We are interested in it because
several hundreds of thousands
of Ukrainians work in Poland
today having almost replaced
two millions of the Poles who
moved to the West. Moreover,
Ukrainian emigration to Poland
is convenient because it does not
trigger religious, civilizational or
any conficts. They are, in fact,
from our point of view, the easiest,
most pleasant migrants we need
right now. Rather explicit, isnt
it? An indication of the acceptance
of this view was demonstrated by
a recent Polish reporter, who was
interviewing the ex-President, was
very surprised at such formulation:
what is the big secret? It is obvious
for the Poles! Furthermore, it is the
essence of the Eurointegration of
Ukraine for them!
What will Ukraine get from
sending its sons to work as
low-paid servants of the Polish
families who have sent their
own breadwinners into the West
for rich pickings? Europe solves
its demographic problem at the
expense of the Poles; the Poles
use Ukrainians in that sense also.
Where should Ukraine get labor
resources in order to sustain its
economy and businesses? We have
no such source of labor as the
Ukraine is for Poland! It turns out
that those merrily promising free
trade market in Europe really may
bring about the de-population of
Ukraine?
We need to realize that the
goals of the western and eastern
parts of the EU regarding Ukraine
are different. The West has not
digested the intake of labor
migration from Poland and the
Baltics and is waiting in horror
for January 1, 2014 when all the
restrictions will be taken off
the migrants from Romania and
Bulgaria. This is precisely why
Brussels does not intend to lift
such restrictions from Ukrainians
in neither the short- nor long-
term. Yet Poles need cheap
plumbers to replace the ones
that moved west. This is absolutely
essential to the Polish miracle!
Speaking honestly, they need
to reach quite a few goals:
closing down of Ukrainian enter-
prises that will both eliminate
competitors and provide a stable
fow of an even cheaper work
force; keeping Ukrainian salaries
at the same low level (what is the
point in highly paid Ukrainians?);
maintaining, however
contradictory it sounds, some of
the barriers for labor migration
illegal migrants are always cheaper
that the legal ones, all barriers
lifted will make Poland a transit
country for Ukrainian workers.
This is the real essence of the
Association Agreement! This
is implied by the words free
trade market in Europe! This is
why such expensive advertising
campaign of living in a paradise,
meaning the EU.
Think about that!
L
ocking its gates to low-skilled
foreign immigrants, the Old
World still follows the American
model of development by devouring
those young and zealous, brainy
innovators with empty pockets.
Nevertheless, considering the
ubiquitous nature of the internet
nowadays, you can connect with
these skilled and motivated people
in their home countries.
This story is just a snapshot of the
many examples.
Ukrainian IT-specialists took
second place at the international
online competition Brainbench
2013. More than 11 million
participants from 50 countries
registered. 56 Ukrainian
programmers showed outstanding
results in individual tests on
databases, several different
programming languages,
frameworks and graphs. First place
was awarded to the American team.
Other developed countries such as
Germany, Israel and Canada did not
even make it into the top 10.
Brainbench.com is an online
platform for specialist certifcation
in all professional spheres ranging
from biotechnologies to economics
worldwide. The Bench Games
Championship has been held
for several years now; its projects
allow participants to take free
qualifcation tests (free access is
granted to more than 600 tests)
in various disciplines and to
receive a certifcate confrming the
qualifcation. The lack of demand
upon the return to Ukraine is one
of the biggest problems today. For
example, specialists and national
companies working in the IT-sphere
who are able to develop a high-
quality product, are growing fewer
every year. Ukrainian institutions
train around 50,000 IT-specialists
per year! However, today Ukraine
faces a defciency of professionals
working this sphere.
A survey of the IT labor market in
the frst quarter of 2013 showed that
in the feld of software development
there was a tremendous (the largest
of the survey, in fact) defciency in
the number of programmers for:
mobile technology, Net, Java, Flash
and others. The main reason is
that they prefer to cooperate with
foreign outsourcing companies.
Despite being recognized by the
government, Ukrainian talents are
more frequently applied in other
countries. One great example
of this is the European turbofan
plane A-400 which frst took to
the skies in 2009. Interestingly
enough, European aviation workers
studied the analogous Ukrainian
An-70 which made its frst fight
15 years prior to that. Its possible
construction was even discussed in
Europe. As a result, these planes are
surprisingly similar.
Brain drain has become a much
more serious problem for Ukraine
in recent years. According to
the offcial data, almost 2,000
specialists moved abroad, for
permanent residence, to the
USA, Germany, Russia and other
countries between 1996 and 2011.
Moreover, experts predict that the
fight pace of Ukrainian brains
abroad could threaten national
security. Many factors drive this
intellectual exodus, but the main
one is fairly obvious low salaries.
Ukraine is losing its intellectual
potential, and because of this its
future.
THE ESSENCE OF EUROPEAN
INTEGRATION IS TO REPLACE
PLUMBERS IN POLAND?
UNSUNG UKRAINIAN GENIUSES
For the last few weeks Ukrainians have been hammered with abundant
advertising promising an enormous amount of benefits and goodness
brought by the upcoming Association Agreement between Ukraine and the
EU
By Vladimir Kornilov, Director of Eurasia Research Center
The West knows how difficult it will be to digest millions
of hungry Ukrainians
Despite being recognized by the government, Ukrainian
talents are more frequently applied in other countries
If you've ever purchased a complex and technologically advanced product
from Europe, there is a good chance that a significant number of its parts
were manufactured by the technical genius of Ukrainian-born engineers and
developers. Sadly, these people remain nameless in a time when Ukraine
needs heroes of a new level, intellectual heroes. However, Europe needs
them too.
By Vladimir Novikov
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W
ho should determine
foreign economic policies
for the country politicians or
economists?
Usually, politicians have the
last word when it comes to
governments decisions. However,
before defning foreign economic
policies, one should seriously
take economists opinions into
consideration. Politics is a form of
radically formulated economics.
Discussions about either signing
the Association Agreement with
the European Union, or joining
the Customs Union indoctrinate
the society with many myths and
stereotypes. What is your opinion
about this?
There are two major myths. The
frst one is that after signing the
Association Agreement Ukrainian
life conditions will drastically
improve. The second myth is that
joining the Customs Union is the
only right choice predetermined
by the history of Ukraine.We will
have a European life only after we
raise our producing capacities to
the European level, start to use
natural resources reasonably, and
when the citizens of the country
unconditionally follow the laws
and legal provisions in every area
of life from the most intricate
to the routine ones. As for the
historical choice, Ukrainian people
made it more than 20 years ago.
It is documented by the existing
legislation and supported by the
overwhelming majority of political
forces and population. This choice
lies in the European future.
After the Association Agreement
is signed, the Ukrainian
mechanical engineering industry
will be in ruins. How would
you comment on this popular
stereotype?
Manufacturing companies that
adhere to high standards now
and those that will learn to be
competitive in the world market
will continue functioning. They will
have some time to learn. Companies
that will be unable to adapt to new
quality standards simply will have
no future in any union. Does anyone
really think that Russia will buy
outdated machinery and equipment
in Ukraine? Now, we are in the CIS
and all of a sudden Russia refuses to
like our candies.
Now mass media are heatedly
discussing a scenario that the
EU will shut down Ukrainian
factories. Do the market leaders
face the same threat?
The EU will not shut down
Ukrainian factories. The ones
unable to work according to the EU
standards will be compelled to shut
down. This is the law of economics.
People who operate Ukrainian
industry understand this very well.
Those who stand up for the
European integration claim that
agro-industrial sector of Ukraine
will step into an unclouded
future. Their main thesis is:
Ukraine is one of the world
leaders of grains and sunfower
oil export and Europe will not be
able to withdraw from the trade
with Ukraine. Will agriculture
become the basis of national
economy?
Experts warn about a possibility
of a global shortage of food supplies
in the near future. Ukraine is
blessed by God because it is given
the most fertile lands in the world
and has an advantage that surpasses
the capacities of many other
countries. And I am not talking only
about grains and sunfower oil. It is
hard to enumerate everything our
agrarians can grow. Yet, I would not
view agriculture as one and only
locomotive of the economy.
Do you support a widespread
opinion that Ukrainian light
industry is dead?
The light industry situation is
really diffcult. My hope is that it
will recover. Modernization can
help, as well as the fact that it can
be more proftable for the European
companies to produce goods in
Ukraine rather than in China. Lets
take a look at neighboring Poland.
Light industry is developing quite
successfully there. New work
conditions should create additional
opportunities for small and
midscale businesses. And it is not
only true for the light industry.
Can the EU trick us by giving
a formal consent to our tight
cooperation and at the same
time protecting its producers
from competition by quota?
The Agreement does not impose
quota on the majority of goods.
However, when they are required,
the parties have already agreed on
their conditions and amounts for
the foreseeable future. Apart from
that, the Agreement contains an
article about their regular review in
case of a necessity.
How do you estimate the risk
of Ukraine getting low-quality
products disguised as high-
quality European products?
Low-quality products from
the EU should not be imported
into Ukraine. One of the main
functions of a state is to prevent
inferior goods from entering its
markets. This function is not fully
implemented in Ukraine. There are
legislative disadvantages in this
sphere, too. To improve the quality
of products should be a top priority
for us now. Otherwise, no markets
will be open to our country.
When one opens up domestic
market, should they more
concentrate on selling the
products abroad or keeping
positions of Ukrainian
manufacturers within the
country?
Domestic market is the most
important outlet for producers
of any country. The possibility to
saturate ones own market with
goods is a key to stable economic
development. For national
producers the main consumer
should be the Ukrainian nation.
Otherwise, we will break the basic
laws of economics.
Regarding the importance of the
European integration, former
leader of the Ministry of the
Interior Yuri Lutsenko, who then
fell from grace, noted that he is
actually willing to pay more for
high-quality butter and other
commodities from the West.
What is your opinion?
Quality is not strictly defned.
However, there are quality criteria
which are stated and described in
a variety of documents. Producers
of inferior goods will be compelled
to shut down their business if
their products are not in demand.
What we really need is an effective
system of quality control.
By signing the Association
Agreement, the country, apart
from fears and superstitions,
hopes to receive investments.
How will that go?
The Association Agreement,
certainly, will lead to the growth
of investments from the EU
countries. It will become a signal
for the investors that our country
is establishing civilized rules of
business management. This is
justifed by the experience of the
post-socialist countries, in which
the co-operation with the EU led
to the increase in investments.
I am sure that the investments
will be brought to the industrial
sector as well. For example, our IT-
specialists, instead of going abroad,
will be able to fnd a job in Ukraine
and work for the biggest Western
companies which are either already
present in Ukraine or will come
soon. I am also sure that Ukrainian
military industrial sector after
receiving foreign investments will
be able to effectively realize its
potential. There are not too many
aerospace countries or countries
that produce super-airliners, best in
their kind: An-70 or An-158.
Can the risk level of choosing the
Western direction be calculated?
There is a risk. Businesses and
manufacturers unable to meet
European quality requirements
will be shut down or perform a
new function. Exporters unable to
handle high standards will have to
look for other market outlets for
their products. To move forward
cannot be easy, and to increase the
level of life takes much effort.
While moving westwards, we
keep the East in mind. Different
experts warn us that Russia will
close off its markets for us. Is it a
possibility?
I dont want to pass a judgment
over the Russian actions towards
some of the Ukrainian products
because their intent is clear.
However, Russia is our important
trade and economic partner and we
need to take this into consideration.
Russia, too, understands Ukraines
importance for its economy.
Nevertheless, by raising the quality
of its products, Ukraine will be
looking for other market outlets
apart from the Russian ones.
What is the role of the Ukrainian
Chamber of Commerce in similar
situations?
The UCC systematically
facilitates national businesses and
among other things assists them in
their work with foreign markets.
After the Agreement is signed,
the importance of the UCC will
increase especially for small- and
midscale businesses. Large-scale
Ukrainian companies have their
own marketing departments but
the small ones can learn about the
rules of the EU market, its quality
and safety requirements, only from
the UCC.
We are planning to create a
Department of co-operation with
the EU and pay a lot of attention to
helping our businesses to become
competitive at the European
market. Ukrainian products, which
are certainly competitive, have to
fnd their buyers. Maybe they will be
from the EU, Russia, or even Africa,
or any other market. Assistance to
the Ukrainian manufacturers is one
of the UCC priorities.
The UCC has all the opportunities
and necessary tools. We are
members of the International
Chamber of Commerce and the
International Chambers Federation,
and the Eurochambers. We
founded more than 20 bilateral
business councils and other similar
structures with foreign partners; we
have established business relations
with colleagues from more than 80
countries.
For the last 10 years, 40% of
Ukrainian foreign trade is with
the CIS countries; the EU share is
30%. Now, we are witnessing the
tendency of the growing EU share
in the foreign trade of Ukraine. So,
where will we lose and where will
we gain in future?
In the period from 1996 to 2012
foreign trade volume between
Ukraine and the CIS countries
increased by 3.2 times and export
by 3.5 times. Within the same
period, Ukraines foreign trade with
the EU countries grew by 5.5 times
and export by 5.2 times. Thus,
the growth pace of foreign trade
volume between Ukraine and the
EU increased approximately by 70%.
And this growth is stable.
GENNADIY CHIZHIKOV: IT IS TIME
TO REFUTE CERTAIN MYTHS
The President of the Chamber of Commerce in
Ukraine is confident that the future of Ukrainian
economy does not depend on the signing of
the Association Agreement with the EU or co-
operation with the Russian Customs Union. First
and foremost, it depends on modernization of
manufacturing companies.
By Rostislav Bunyak
The EU will not shut down Ukrainian factories. The ones unable
to adapt to the EU standards will be compelled to shut down
Does anyone really think that Russia
will buy outdated machinery
and equipment in Ukraine?
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S
ome experts state that trade
between Russia and Ukraine
decreased by $19 billion dollars
in one year.
The explanation is easy: Ukraine
has cut down on their demand for
Russian energy supplies; Russia has
introduced a number of restrictions
on domestic exports from Ukraine,
such as confectionary and dairy
products. In addition, problems with
Ukrainian meat have recently arisen.
Of course, we realize that Ukrainian
exports can be quickly replaced by
other suppliers. What is more, we
need to mention that Russia has
been extremely critical of Ukraine
for entering the World Trade
Organization only to turn around
and join the club itself, getting an
even better deal in the process.
What are you hinting at?
It is not improbable to suggest
that the step towards European
integration, which Ukraine is
making today, is making Russia sit
up and take notice. Moreover, in
the long-term, Russia could follow
our lead and deepen economic and
even political cooperation with the
European Union.
Even if that happens, todays
political manipulations could
lead the country to a dead end.
The choice of a foreign economic
partner is, ultimately, a matter of
politics.
Certainly, choosing European
integration can cause serious
threats such as restriction of
external business volume with the
countries of the Customs Union,
and inconvenient conditions for
energy export. Gazprom, which
initiated discussions of preliminary
payments for gas import to Ukraine,
is perhaps the most obvious
example of this inconvenience.
The choice has to be made
anyway. Political clarity allows for
a better perspective and is more
effcient.
But is there such a thing? I have
heard several times that Viktor
Yanukovych is still on the fence
with this issue.
Actually, it is clear that the
president has made his choice.
When the Party of Regions was
experiencing ambiguity, we got
together and discussed this issue.
Our decision was unanimous
Euro-integration. Furthermore, we
decided in favor of the EU not just a
few days ago; the issue was always
a part of the foreign policy of the
Party, and now it is its top
priority.
Political Scientist Vadim Karasev
thinks that until the Olympic
Games in Sochi have been
completed, Russia will behave
modestly. After that, a real war
for market outlets will descend
upon us.
We are already paying a high
enough price for European
integration. Obstacles to Ukrainian
exports to CU countries are real
concerns, their economics impacts
already being felt. We realize that
the pressure can swell even more.
However, we have always proposed
the idea that Ukraine could serve
as a sort of bridge for Russia in its
desire for European integration.
The same idea was fnally
articulated by the Prime Minister
of The Russian Federation, Dmitriy
Medvedev. He noted that extended
relations between Ukraine and
the European Union along with
the signing of the Association
Agreement can alternatively
become a competitive advantage
for Russian companies which
could cooperate with Ukrainian
businesses exporting to the EU.
T
he Customs Union is a system of
international treaties between
Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
This system comprises a single
customs territory, abolishes
customs duties within the Union,
and shapes uniform customs and
foreign trade policies towards
third-party countries. 92% of
Russian foreign duties were taken
as the basis for establishing tariff
rates. According to international
agreements within the Customs
Union, the Russian budget receives
87.95% of the total import customs
duties. The Belarusian budget
receives 4.7%, and the budget
of Kazakhstan 7.35%. In the
Customs Union Commission,
which is its main regulating body,
representation is distributed as
follows: Russia 57%, Belarus and
Kazakhstan 21.5% each.
It is worth noticing that the
CIS countries have an imbalanced
common structure of foreign trade.
Raw materials are dominating in
exports; manufacturing prevails
in imports. Thus, about 60% of
Ukraines exports are made up
of raw materials (agricultural
products, chemical products,
metallurgy and mineral products).
The CU countries exports are
mostly comprised of energy
resources and raw materials. So,
upon entering the CU, Ukraine
would be competing with its
CU partners on the world raw
materials market because it would
be exporting similar raw materials.
Subject to the Ukrainian economys
dimensions, most export duties
will be directed to the Russian
Federations budget. One may
recall recent statements made
by Alexander Lukashenko about
the transfer of $3.8 billion dollars
of export duties to the Russian
budget made by Belarus in 2012 for
petroleum derivatives made from
Russian oil and delivered to third-
party countries. To compare, in
2011 the transfer was $3.07 billion
dollars.
About 1/3 of all Ukrainian
imports are made up of energy
resources, which is quite a
considerable percentage of
the total. On average, Ukraine
imports about 6065% of the
entire volume of gas consumed
within the country, 6570% of
all oil processed in the country,
and 100% of the nuclear fuel for
Ukrainian Atomic Power Stations.
90% of imported gas is delivered
by a single supplier Gazprom.
Ukraine receives 8085% of all
imported oil from Russia. We
receive 92% of all nuclear fuel
elements from a single supplier as
well from the Russian OJSC TVEL.
So, considering the dependence of
the Ukrainian economy on energy,
joining the CU may considerably
cheapen energy resources and
make the power intensive products
of Ukrainian enterprises more
competitive on the world market.
According to the Statistics
Committee, for the last ten years,
about 40% of Ukrainian foreign
trade has been with CIS countries
and about 30% with EU countries.
At the same time, trade with
developing Asian countries is
becoming increasingly common.
During the EU fnancial crisis of
2008, Ukraine managed to avoid
considerable reduction of its
exports due to the reorientation
of export fows to the countries
of the CIS and Asia. On the other
hand, it should be noted that CU
countries are actively diversifying
their foreign trade, and orienting
it mostly to China and other fast-
growing Asian markets. According
to the Institute of Strategic Studies
(founded by Leonid Kuchma), a
part of inner-party trade in the
CU makes up only 11%, which
is 6 times lower than that of the
EU index, 5 times lower than in
the FTZ of China, and
4 times lower than that in the
Northern American FTZ NAFTA.
Ukraine has a negative foreign
trade balance both with the CIS
and the EU. Import exceeds export.
In 2012 a foreign trade balance
with Russia totaled -$9.8 billion.
In 2013 this index reached $10.1
billion with European countries.
Ukraine has a positive foreign trade
balance with Asian and African
countries. So, it doesnt really
matter if Ukraine joins the CU or
the FTZ in the EU. This wont solve
the problem of the negative foreign
trade balance of the country.
It should also be noted that after
becoming a member of the CU,
Ukraine would be committed to
raising import duties on certain
commodities in its trade with
third-party countries to the current
level of the CU. For example,
currently crude oil is imported
to Ukraine with a zero percent
import duty. After joining the CU
this duty would be 5%. So, Ukraine
will have to purchase goods (light
industry products, food industry
and mechanization equipment)
from partner countries of the CU,
because import from third-party
countries would be unproftable
and much more expensive than it
is now. While choosing a course of
integration, Ukraine needs to focus
on its competitive advantages in
the world division of labor. What
kind of Ukraine is it going to be?
Highly technological or agrarian,
power-intensive or science-
intensive, a transit state or a
hub at the center of Europe? The
answers can help us select the best
international union that will be
most benefcial to our
government.
VLADISLAV LUKYANOV: WE
REALIZE THAT THE PRESSURE
CAN SWELL EVEN MORE
THE CUSTOMS UNION:
HOW PROFITABLE COULD
IT BE FOR UKRAINE?
The Peoples Deputy of Ukraine from the Party of Regions believes that
Russia will choose the same way toward European integration as Ukraine.
By Rostislav Bunyak
While choosing a course of integration, Ukraine needs to focus on its
competitive advantages in the world division of labor.
By Alexey Leshchenko, Gorshenin Institute
What kind of Ukraine is it going to be? Highly technological
or agrarian, power-intensive or science-intensive, a transit state
or a hub at the center of Europe?
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www.thekievtimes.ua 15 SPECIAL ISSUE
B
RICS has come to be a well-
known acronym, with each
letter representing the developing
industrial powers Brazil, Russia,
India, China, and South Africa.
This title appeared almost 12 years
ago in the work of economist Jim
ONeill, who was the then head of
one of the largest commercial banks
in the world Goldman Sachs Asset
Management.
In his 16-page review, published
on November 20, 2001, the author
used the acronym BRIC in a report
on the world economy, entitled
The World Needs Better Economic
BRICs. The homophonous
connotation of the word brick
implicit in the acronym drove home
the point that these countries were
acting as a foundation for future
world economic growth. This is how
BRIC came to be. (Later the BRIC
countries would be joined by the
letter S for South Africa).
12 years later the idea to merge
four countries into one union
seems to be bold and well-planned,
but then it looked completely
scandalous. ONeill himself said
that he felt constantly compelled
to exclude several countries from
BRICS, owing to their excessive
differences geographical,
historical, cultural, religious, not
to mention language and world
view. But in spite of that, Brazil,
Russia, India and China are bound
by their status of having rapidly
developing economies as well as
a common aspiration to achieve a
more balanced world order. Thats
why the Chinese version of the
acronym BRICS is more colorful
and metaphoric than its English
connotation:
(jinzhuan guojia) which is literally
translated as countries erected
from golden bars but not simply
the bricks.
In his 2001 report, which has
become a historical one, Jim ONeill
noted a unique characteristic about
each country, according to their
functions in the world division
of labor: Brazil is a world raw-
material base, Russia is a world
flling station, India is a world
chancellery, and China is a world
factory. Many scholars and critics
who write about the economy today
consider Jim ONeill to be one of the
greatest specialists in world fnance
over the last decade. This seems
to hold true today, as evidenced by
his regular publications in some
of the most prestigious fnance
and business journals, including
Bloomberg.
So, what did the author of the
term BRICS last write about these
countries? He examined the topic:
So what do the Brics countries
want from their new development
bank? Thats what he called the
article published in the British
newspaper The Independent on
August 8, this year.
The author compares the BRICS
countries on the basis of different
criteria. China and India are the
largest importers of raw materials;
Brazil, Russia and SAR are their
exporters. In Russia the annual
income per capita in 2012 was
about $24 thousand on the level
of the European Union. In Brazil,
China and SAR it varied between
$9 and $12 thousand. India is much
poorer its income per capita is
about $4 thousand. Four of the fve
BRICS countries are the largest
states with a developing market
economy. But in fnancial terms, the
economic growth of China exceeds
the economic growth of all BRICS
countries put together. J. ONeill
especially emphasizes the economic
role of China (the world factory
of goods) and the geopolitical
role of SAR (the world center of
gold mining), supposing that the
new development bank will be
established in one of these states.
During this period I saw a
really strange subject in China.
Not because of its dimensions but
also because, in spite of the recent
GDP growth decline, it is the only
country from BRICS that met my
2001 expectations in relation to the
economic growth over this decade,
ONeill writes.
According to the articles author,
to succeed, these large countries
with developing markets really
need to develop three spheres of
the key factors of 18 criteria for
stable economic growth. They are:
public administration, education
and access to modern technologies.
These are the criteria used by
Goldman Sachss analysts to single
out BRICS countries.
But there is another comparative
criterion the joint common
(external and internal) debt of the
West and BRICS. Both in gross
and in per capita terms. It turned
out that BRICS represented the
creditor-countries, and all countries
of the West were the debtors. So, it
is unclear: either a high standard of
living and development is connected
with high rates of debt burden,
or accumulation of debts will last
forever in the modern world and
the BRICS countries will endlessly
credit the West And what if the
debt pyramid immediately stops
growing what would happen to the
West? Alas, there is no word about
this in the article by the creator of
the term BRICS.
F
or the frst time in Ukraine,
all the most progressive world
practices ranging from therapeutic
horse riding to art-therapy will
be integrated and offered at a
single facility. Kameliya, the
frst eco-rehabilitation center of
hippotherapy, is a fairytale land
with its own rules and laws; a world
of children and horses.
Eco
Green principles inform
the centers architecture. All
buildings blend into the natural
landscape; everything is made of
environmentally safe materials
and equipped with energy-saving
systems. Human ecology, or the
relationship between people
and their environment, is highly
emphasized.
The first one
The novel center will unite
various practices of rehabilitation.
Moreover, it is an unusual
architectural complex, a sheltered
space where children should feel
safe, as if in a cozy, beautiful world.
Rehabilitation
The Center is being established for
the beneft of children suffering
from ICP, autistic and nervous
disorders, and psychological
traumas. The underlying concept
also involves harmonization of
children and adolescents with
antisocial inclinations as well as
psychological support and training
for their parents, as it is important
that children feel comforted beyond
the Center.
Center
Kameliya is an impetus to
encourage the establishment
of such centers across the
country. Scientifc research and
international conferences dedicated
to networking in the sphere of
hippotherapy will be held here.
Plans call for the formation of a
national scientifc database in order
to effciently keep statistics and
records about children with special
needs. Additionally, in the future
the training and resource center will
offer internships for students.
Of hippotherapy
Hippotherapy is tremendously
effective in the rehabilitation of
children with special needs. No
technical simulator compares to
what a child gains from the contact
with a real horse.
Kameliya
was the name of the horse that
began the history of hippotherapy
in our country. Social support is
exceptionally important for the
realization of this project. The
level of social responsibility in our
country is mounting up; more and
more people are becoming aware of
their own personal responsibility for
our society, its present and future.
www.kameliya-centre.com
I
n recent years, the world has
become increasingly focused
on US national debt. The US
government is compelled constantly
to raise the maximum debt limit.
In 2008 it amounted to only $9.9
trillion; in 2011 it reached $15.1
trillion. The main US creditors
are China and Japan, which have
granted almost half of all US loans.
The remaining US credits have been
granted by a number of European
countries, OPEC (The Organization
of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries) and Brazil.
Default rehearsal
Leading world economists
forecast that on October 17, a
technical default of the US economy
would be inevitable because
there wasnt enough money to
serve the enormous volume of
state fnancial liabilities. This
would entail the failure of the
whole current fnancial system.
But a day before the ostensibly
unavoidable default, on October
16, US Senate leaders managed to
reach an agreement. This enabled
President Barack Obama to sign
an appropriations bill, as well as
to raise the US debt ceiling and
borrowing limits. In addition, the
US leadership managed to continue
fnancing government institutions
until January 15, 2014. The Kiev
Times previously reported that on
September 27, the US government
had partially shut down budget-
fnanced organizations after it was
unable to approve state budget
distribution for next year. The main
point of contention was President
Barack Obamas keystone issue, in
the run-up to the 2012 election,
of healthcare reform, which was
signed into law almost three years
ago and upheld by the Supreme
Court in 2012. According to the
international ratings agency
Standard & Poors, the US economy
lost $24 billion as a result of the
partial shutdown of government
institutions. Moreover, the
stalemate felt by budget-fnanced
organizations reduced US GDP
growth in the fourth quarter by 0.6,
approximately 2%.
Currency concerns
Naturally, the slowing of the US
economy had a negative effect on
the dollars value and exchange rate
in regard to other world currencies.
Within the last week of the budget
disputes in the USA, the dollar
depreciated, even in spite of a
positive outcome and avoidance of
a technical default. From the 14th
to the 18th of October, the value
of the American currency dropped
by 1.1% compared to the six major
world currencies. If these trends
prevail, we could see a rate of $1.40
per euro soon the treasurer of
the National Credit Bank, Oleg
Zorenko, stated.
The more the national debt grows,
the more dollar bills are issued. This
naturally leads to the devaluation
of the currency. Thats what the
president of the Ukrainian analytic
center, Olexander Okhrymenko,
said, confrming the treasurers
concerns. As a result, goods in
dollars rise in price, and the dollar
debts, on the other hand, depreciate.
If US securties fall in price, there is
a risk that the world investors would
wish to sell them. But the United
States already cant reacquire all of
its public bonds, nor even a part of
them Okhrymenko explains.
There are a number of other
reserve currencies in the world,
such as the euro, pound, yen, and
Swiss franc. But they are not so
popular. The world isnt ready to
trade and sign contracts in these
currencies Okhrymenko says.
The Chinese Yuan is of key interest,
but this currency is not yet a freely
convertible one.
Crisis for export
After a brief slump to the
American currency and its
devaluation, owing to the FRS
Quantitative easing program,
the economic gaps are going to
intensify, frst in export-oriented
countries due to more expensive
imported goods for the American
consumer. Ukraine will also be
negatively infuenced, and pressure
on the hryvnia will increase. Thats
what the head of the analytic
department of the investment
company Concorde Capital,
Olexander Parashchiy, predicts.
Unfortunately, the Ukrainian
economy still strongly depends on
the American currency. Thats why
its depreciation may lead to a price
surge in Ukraine as well, Olexander
Okhrymenko complains. As a
result, all savings and deposits of
Ukrainians, as well as the National
Banks international reserves
in dollars, will drop in value, he
explains.
Analysts believe that the rate of
the US dollars devaluation will grow
in the near future. Perhaps the USA
will switch on the dollar printing-
press to pay its debts. This will
certainly lead to the reduction of
the dollars value Oleg Zorenko
complains. Only if the USA will start
to reduce its expenses and avoid the
printing of new banknotes, analysts
believe, would the American
currency be saved.
EU AND BRICS: WHO
OWES WHAT TO WHOM?
AMERICAN THREAT
By Evgeniy Morin
America is impetuously increasing the volume of its national debt, which has
already exceeded $17 trillion. Experts believe that this may have a negative
effect on the value of the dollar which, in turn, will reduce international
reserves of the National Bank of Ukraine and the savings of ordinary
Ukrainians.
Could the young BRICS oppose the old West?
By Mike Garbuz
BRICS represented the creditor-countries, and all countries
of the West were the debtors
The rate of the US dollars devaluation will grow
in the near future. Perhaps the USA will switch on
the dollar printing-press to pay its debts
KAMELIYA A LAND OF CHILDREN AND HORSES
Nearly 20,000 children living in Ukraine today are diagnosed with cerebral palsy (and the numbers are sadly increasing). Holistic rehabilitation is the only way
to help these children find a place in society.
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THE KIEV TIMES | NOVEMBER 2013 16 SPECIAL ISSUE
Y
ou hosted one of Ukraines
most famous political Talk
shows, and thus you were able to
see the political life of Ukraine
from the inside. What has made
the biggest impression upon
you? How is the Ukrainian
political scene different from
that of Russia?
When my Moscow colleagues
ask me this question I tell them
to imagine a country in which all
of the major TV-channels belong
to private businessmen. These
channels run political shows only
live and they always, as a matter
of fact, feature leaders of the
opposition parties. In this country,
supporters of the oppositional
politicians have almost a half of
the spots in the parliament and
opposition parties and movements
are represented in all the regional
legislative meetings and hold
the majority in some the regions
of this country. Some of its city
mayors support the opposition,
marches and protests are allowed
throughout the land, and its
media have a variety of voices
and opinions. Journalists, who
harshly and at times excessively
criticize the government, dont go
to prison, and media owners dont
lose their jobs. The president of
this country, according to all of the
opinion polls, has at most 3035%
public support but there is no
doubt that there wont be a second
round at the elections. No matter
which political technologies are
employed by the supporters of the
ruling party, everybody knows that
the 2015 elections will be with a
sharp and even ferce struggle. This
freedom, in my opinion, is what
distinguishes Ukraine from Russia.
You have just said that the
government is harshly and
uncompromisingly criticized.
Earlier, in a different interview,
you mentioned that in Ukraine,
high voltage oppositional
critique sometimes lacks
competence and constructive
commentary. Does it refer to
exclusively to the reality in
Ukrainian?
I do not renounce my
words: Ukrainian journalism
is characterized by uncritical
adherence to the opposition. To
use an old Soviet expression,
many Ukrainian journalists
suffer from a childrens Left
disease. It manifests itself when
bloggers, authors of investigative
publications, and columnists
very often replace constructive
critique with accusatory zeal and
then a measure of journalistic
honor becomes the harshness
of incriminations towards the
government. For a regular reader
it can be diffcult to distinguish
between an op-ed of a blogger
who keeps a blog on an online
newspaper and a position of an
editorial board of the newspaper.
I am saddened when I notice that
some of my younger colleagues
dont bother putting their
arguments together in order to
justify the wrathful claims they
make. For many of them, this
current government is a priori
thuggish, criminal, and
lawless, corrupt etc., and it
seems it is an etiquette rule now to
trash them. The situation is a bit
different in Russia. I feel there is an
increasing drop in professionalism
of Russian journalists. For the last
14 years, from the moment when
Vladimir Putin became Prime
Minister, slowly, step by step, inch
by inch, the nuts were tightened
harder and harder. The censorship
was becoming more and more
strict. Certainly there are certain
reservations where it is allowed
to freely express ones opinion:
New Times journal, Novaja Gazeta
(New Newspaper), radio station
Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow),
Internet TV-channel Dozhd (Rain)
and some other news websites. But
these media are allowed to exist
only because the Kremlin needs to
defend against Western criticism.
They are simply a decoration which
creates the illusion of a free press
in the country. Also, their small
circulation and limited distribution
prevents these resources from
becoming politically infuential and
receiving a signifcant viewership.
If that happened, there is no doubt
about their immediate shutdown.
All of the important TV-channels
and newspapers with a vast
circulation are living in a situation
of increasing pressure and in an
increasingly complex system of
taboos. In such an environment,
the brains of my younger
colleagues are drying out. By the
way, sooner or later, they will end
badly. I remember that at the end
of the 1980s in the USSR, including
Ukraine, as a result of Gorbachevs
perestroika, the system of obstacles
and censure started to collapse.
The majority of journalists that
received their experience in the
USSR could not adapt to the new
world. By the beginning of the
1990s, there were, I think, 8090%
new journalists in the media. I
think it will inevitably happen in
present-day Russia and it is only a
matter of time.
Some people think that you
have used your status as a public
fgure with access to the political
arena in Ukraine in order to
take revenge on Russia to some
extent. What would you say to
these people?
People who say these things are
complete fools. Does it even make
sense to lead a discussion with
fools?
I would tell you, though, that
one shouldnt confuse Russia
and its political regime. Russia
is my motherland and it didnt
wrong me, so why would I want
to take revenge on it? The current
government is what I really dislike.
I will continue to criticize it, using
the language of facts, and will
speak out in media that allow
me to do so. From time to time
I write articles for New Times, I
am invited to talk at Dozhd or at
Ekho Moskvy whenever I happen
to be in Moscow. In 2008 I was
unexpectedly invited to work in
Kiev it was a matter of chance
because I never looked for a job
in Ukraine. I have been living
and working here already for 6
years now and the major topic
of my shows has been Ukrainian
politics. When I had to speak about
the Russian situation I talked
about it the way I understand,
interpret, and assess it. Another
thing is that some people allow
one way of talking about Russian
politics and I would describe it as
enthusiastically obsequious. Such
people remind me of aardvarks
this is how deeply and thoroughly
they lick the Kremlins ass.
The most discussed topic in
the media today is the future
of Ukraine. What are your
thoughts?
I think Ukraine sooner or later
will join the EU. I am not sure that
the Association Agreement will be
signed this year and nobody can
claim responsibly what will happen.
I am absolutely sure that in 10, 15,
20 years Ukraine will be a full EU
member. This is a question of time
because the direction was chosen
a long time ago and determined by
a number of geographical, cultural,
political, and economic reasons.
Why do you mention cultural
reasons?
Ukraine is not Russia. I think
that the wish to be embraced again
by mother Muscovy exists only in
the heads of rabid outcasts and
people of older generations who
were not able to adapt to the post-
Soviet reality. Moreover, a positive
attitude towards Russia is perceived
by many mistakenly as a wish to
go back to the former Empire.
For example, today Americans
have very good relations with the
British. However, a long time ago
English colonists in North America
with weapons in their hands fought
for independence from the British
crown. Later they stopped fghting,
reconciled, and became strategic
allies and partners. But one
would never interpret the friendly
attitude of Americans toward
the English as the intent of the
former to become again part of the
British Empire. Similarly, the fact
that many Ukrainians still speak
Russian, at home and at work, read
Russian-speaking publications,
and sometimes watch Russian
channels doesnt mean that they
are ready to merge with the mother
land led by the KPU (Communist
Party of Ukraine), Ukrainian
Choice (Another Communist Party
of Ukraine) or to follow those
fervent journalists who even dont
consider themselves Ukrainians.
If I remember it right they think
of themselves as South Russian
voices.
What does the European choice
mean for Ukrainians?
I think it is a choice of a
civilization type. As a trivial
example, where do Ukrainians
go on vacation? To Italy, Greece,
France or to Lake Baikal?
But do they understand the
difference between going on
vocation to Europe and living
according to the European
standards, which includes paying
taxes, cutting out bribes, and
ceasing to spit on the ground?
I think they understand. I
completely agree with you here. My
good old friend always says, one
shouldnt confuse tourism with
migration. It is not very easy to
live in the West, and certainly not
as a westerner does. But I think a
normal human after learning good
manners starts feeling differently.
After some time people will
understand how great it is to live
by European norms and standards.
One gets used to a good life really
fast. I also want to emphasize
that a geopolitical choice is not
about economics. The history of
the country is not about short-
term economical gains or losses;
it is a choice that will defne a
destiny of the country for the next
centuries. Every society ultimately
chooses to emulate a model that
has competitive strengths and
attractive prospects.
Ahead of the Eastern
Partnership Summit in Vilnius,
the number of publications in
which Russia was represented
as backward in the Western
media has increased. These
negative depictions were called
information wars between
Russia and the West. Was there
a war?
There is really nothing to
represent when it comes to Russia.
The country is notorious for its
corruption. Russia has a well-
established government capitalism
for friends, or what is referred
to as crony capitalism. It means
that only those businessmen who
are close to the political elite
in the hierarchy sign the most
proftable contracts. Enormous
amounts of money are made on
the Olympic objects constructions,
APEC Summit in Vladivostok, and
most certainly the circle of the
Presidents closest friends (which
is known in Russia as club Ozero)
are now making money on the
preparation for the future World
Soccer Championship, which will
be held in Russia in 2018. Why
is Russia trying so hard to host
another international forum or
another championship? The answer
is simple: these events are easy
to use in order to convert public
funds into private capital. Finally,
there are the geopolitical interests
and motives of the current ruling
party and the President. The former
hopes to be remembered in the
History books as Ivan Kalita of the
21st century, who managed to unite
the former territories of Kievan
Rus around Moscow. Driven by the
same geopolitical interests, the
West doesnt want Russia, which
has recently become overtly anti-
Western, to strengthen and expand.
Zbigniew Brzeziski once said,
there never will be a new Russian
Empire without Ukraine that is
why the propaganda machine is
in full swing. A big geo-political
game is going on, so it is natural
that there are information and
ideological wars at every frontline.
It has always been and will always
be this way.
And the last question, once
on air at Dozhd, you said that
the devil is not as black as it is
painted describing nationalism
in Ukraine. Do you still believe
that the political party Svoboda
does not constitute a threat to
democratic values?
Svoboda is so radical and blatant
in its nationalism that it will never
get more than a small percentage
of national support. The fact that
so many people voted for Svoboda
during the last presidential
elections can be explained by the
wish of many people to vote out
of spite against the ruling party.
Many of those who voted for
Svoboda do not even share its basic
ideological claims. To vote against
all psychologically would mean a
desperate gesture, whereas to vote
for has something, if you want,
perversely constructive. On one
hand, people were disappointed by
the current party and on the other
side by the opposition. In the last
decades many European countries
witnessed, when in the period
of a crisis people were tired and
annoyed by the same old politicians
who were rotating in turns and as
a result, out of nowhere, radical
right fgures emerged on the
political scene. They even became
quite popular for a short period of
time. This happened in Austria,
the Netherlands, France and other
countries. I think that Svoboda will
be still enjoying signifcant support
in some areas of Western Ukraine
and mostly among its village
population. Probably its new
adherents will appear in Central
and Eastern Ukraine but it will
remain a party of the minority. Yes,
many dont like it and I am among
them. But, you know, as long as this
party acts in the framework of a
parliamentary democracy, does not
promote illegal ideas or slogans,
and doesnt urge the citizens
to start a coup, we will have to
tolerate its supporters. Well, this is
how democracy functions.
EVGENI KISELEV: SOONER OR LATER UKRAINE
WILL BE PART OF THE EU
Ahead of the Vilnius Summit, famous political
scientist and former TV show host Evgeni Kiselev
shared his ideas about the probable outcome of a
political tug of war with Ukraine in the middle.
By Maryana Priven
Ukrainian journalism is characterized by uncritical adherence
to the opposition
The geopolitical choice of a country
is not defined by economics
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