[Ohio UZO News] FT; AP; NYT; EDM; Freedom House; KP; HC
Deychak, Orest
Orest.Deychak at mail.house.gov
Thu Jan 17 09:44:54 EST 2008
Financial Times
Ukraine steps closer to WTO entry
By Alan Beattie in London and Roman Olearchyk in Kiev
Published: January 17 2008
The European Union yesterday paved the way for Ukraine to join the World
Trade Organisation, a move which will admit a highly productive
agricultural and steel economy and give Kiev power to delay Russia's
entry to the global club.
Peter Mandelson, EU trade commissioner, said he had reached agreement
with Ukraine on the capping of export duties on a number of products
including metals, animal hides, live cattle and other agricultural
goods. Under WTO rules each existing member can block new members from
joining unless they make trade reforms.
"We intend to abolish export duties when we negotiate a free trade
agreement with Ukraine," he told the FT. "In the meantime we wanted a
commitment that export duties would not be raised."
The EU has complained that export duties on metals constitute a hidden
subsidy to Ukraine's own metal-processing industry by making it too
expensive to export the raw material to metallurgical factories abroad.
Final agreement for Ukraine to join the 151-member WTO could come as
early as the first week in February, whereupon it would gain the power
to demand concessions from Russia, its neighbour, which first applied to
join the organisation in 1993.
Mr Mandelson said he doubted Ukraine's accession to the WTO would hold
up Russia's entry, adding that Moscow's target of joining by the middle
of this year was "ambitious but doable".
Relations between Russia and Ukraine have been strained since the
so-called "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine in 2004.
Speedy western integration efforts spearheaded by Kiev's president,
Viktor Yushchenko, were derailed last year under the Moscow-leaning
government of Viktor Yanukovich.
But Kiev's western integration drive, including plans to join the WTO,
Nato and EU in the distant future, is expected to resume after the
pro-western Yulia Tymoshenko took over as premier late last year.
Earlier this week, Kiev's leaders published an open letter to Nato
asking for their country to be accepted into a so-called membership
action plan - the first of many steps towards joining the military
alliance.
The letter, signed by Mr Yushchenko, Ms Tymoshenko and parliament
speaker Arseniy Yatseniuk, asked Nato officials to accept Kiev into such
a program at the April summit in Bucharest
Russia's WTO accession has been held up by objections from the EU, the
US and other influential members, not least on the implementation of
laws protecting intellectual property rights. The US music and movie
industry in particular has complained that counterfeiting is rife in
Russia and that the judicial system is unable or unwilling to stop it.
Mr Mandelson said EU farmers should not fear competition from Ukraine,
which has a highly productive agricultural sector and is one of the
world's largest wheat growers. "As far as wheat is concerned there is
plenty of demand to go round at the moment," he said.
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U.S. senator urges broad public discussion of NATO membership in Ukraine
By MARIA DANILOVA
Associated Press Writer
392 words
16 January 2008
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - A senior U.S. senator on Wednesday urged Ukraine to
hold a broad public discussion on joining NATO -- an issue that sharply
divides this former Soviet republic where many are suspicious of the
West.
Western-leaning President Viktor Yushchenko is pushing for membership of
the military alliance, but opinion polls show more than half of
Ukrainians are opposed to the idea. The government says a decision on
whether to join NATO will be made based on a nationwide referendum.
"The United States certainly supports that vital discussion in this
country," Senator Richard Lugar told The Associated Press in an
interview.
Yushchenko stepped up his efforts Tuesday by formally requesting NATO's
Membership Action Plan, a key step on the road to joining the alliance.
He expressed hope that a decision on the plan could be reached at a NATO
summit in April in Bucharest, Romania.
Ukraine's NATO bid also faces strong opposition from Russia, which has
been angered by NATO's eastward expansion and deployments close to its
borders.
Lugar, the leading Republican on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, acknowledged that the discussion wouldn't be easy. "Other
countries may want to enter into an international debate, they may have
comments also," he said.
Lugar, who has devoted much of his career to nuclear safety and energy
security, also urged Ukraine, which depends on Russia for most of its
energy supplies, to develop its own oil and gas fields and consider
alternative energy sources such as wind power.
"Very clearly there are resources in this country -- oil and natural
gas. This is going to require cooperation with international companies,
with international investment," Lugar told the AP. "I am most hopeful
that there will be a timetable that will be moved up to think through
what resources there are available here."
Lugar expressed hope that relations with Washington would further
strengthen after the government of pro-Western Yulia Tymoshenko took
office in December after months of political deadlock.
"Relations are excellent and my guess is that they will grow even
stronger," Lugar said.
Yushchenko on Tuesday invited President George W. Bush to visit Ukraine
in April. The U.S. Embassy in Kiev said such a visit was possible.
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Metropolitan Desk
An Immigrant With a Tough Job and an Easy Smile
By ANNE BARNARD
16 January 2008
>From the stylish streets of SoHo, where he labored on the rising frame
of the newest condo hotel to bear the Trump name, to the modest
three-story brick walk-up in Greenpoint where the sounds of his early
departure for work served as a virtual alarm clock for his landlady,
Yuriy Vanchytskyy was remembered on Tuesday as a reliable, hard-working
and cheerful presence.
Mr. Vanchytskyy, who died in a construction accident on Monday when he
plunged 42 stories from the concrete skeleton of the Trump SoHo
building, immigrated from Ukraine about eight years ago, said his
landlady, Zeeshan Tambra, 40, outside the house on Java Street as she
took out the trash -- a task, she said, that Mr. Vanchytskyy often
helped with.
Though he spoke little English, he found ways to joke and to connect,
speaking in staccato phrases of one or two words and filling in the gaps
with a big smile, she said. And even though he left every day at 5 a.m.
and would return home tired at 3 p.m., she said: ''Even the job I'm
doing now, he would do it. I have other nice tenants here, but no one
else does that.''
At the construction site, Mr. Vanchytskyy, who neighbors and co-workers
said was in his 50s, was a respected figure, one of the older and more
experienced workers.
''Hard working brother; always smiling; he was happy to be working,''
said Tony Morals, 41, who was cleaning up the site on Tuesday as city
officials continued to investigate the accident. ''Some people come to
work grumpy and mad. He wasn't one of them.''
Mr. Vanchytskyy and his wife, Natalia, who works at a home for the
elderly and was recently studying to reactivate the engineering degree
she earned in Ukraine, had three children, Mrs. Tambra said. A son named
Yuriy and a daughter named Irena live in the New York area, she said,
and another son, married with children, lives in Ukraine. Mr.
Vanchytskyy had returned from a visit to him on Friday. Outside the
house on Tuesday, the younger Yuriy said the family was not ready to
speak to reporters; the blinds at the windows were closed.
But Mrs. Tambra and her husband, Muhammad, described how Mr. Vanchytskyy
and his family had become close to them. The house reflected the
changing neighborhood, with young hipsters, newly arrived with a wave of
gentrification, on the top floor; the hard-working Ukrainians on the
second; and the Pakistani immigrant owners on the first. The two older
families barbecued together, and their children played together, the
Tambras said.
''He was a very funny, very joyous person,'' Mrs. Tambra said, recalling
how a few months ago, when her brother came to stay with her, he teased
her that he would report it to her husband: ''Other man, other man, no
good, no good! I tell your husband you have a boyfriend.''
Mr. Tambra is a taxi driver who has to wake up early, his wife said --
but not as early as Mr. Vanchytskyy.
''We'd hear him get up and leave for work,'' Mrs. Tambra recalled.
''We'd say, 'Oh, Mr. Yuriy is up, so it's time for us to get up.' I
can't even imagine working like that,'' Mr. Tambra said.
It was a break in that clockwork schedule that signaled to Mrs. Tambra
on Monday that something was not right.
''Yesterday I didn't hear the door. I wondered why he wasn't home yet,''
she said. Then the police came to the door and left a message for Mr.
Vanchytskyy's wife to call them.
Soon, the woman the Tambras knew as Miss Natalia came to Mrs. Tambra
looking pale, and said there had been an accident at her husband's job.
''We all started crying,'' Mrs. Tambra said. ''We always worried
something like that would happen with his work.''
At the construction scene, too, the accident bore out a nagging fear.
''We never want to see one of our own go,'' Mr. Morals said.
Eurasia Daily Monitor
January 15, 2008 -- Volume 5, Issue 7
________________________________
NEW UKRAINIAN PRIME MINISTER LAUNCHES STATE AUDITS, SAVINGS PAYOUTS
Having barely formed her Cabinet of Ministers, Prime Minister Yulia
Tymoshenko got down to business. She resumed several campaigns that she
had launched when she was prime minister in 2005 but were dismissed by
her successors as too "populist." In addition to starting to reshape the
energy market, she also began to compensate Ukrainians for savings lost
amid the 1991 Soviet Union dissolution.
"I want us to start getting used to politicians fulfilling obligations
taken during elections," Tymoshenko told ICTV. She promised a lot in the
run-up to the September 2007 election which swept her back to the prime
minister's chair. If she fails to deliver on her promises - such as
fighting corruption, removing intermediaries from the gas trade with
Russia, increasing wages and pensions, and reimbursing Soviet-era
savings - the presidential election campaign of 2009 will be lost for
her before it starts.
Meeting the new head of the Naftohaz Ukrainy national oil and gas
company, Oleh Dubyna, on January 2, Tymoshenko pledged to save Naftohaz
from bankruptcy. She appointed her long-time right-hand man, First
Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Turchynov, to chair a commission to
check Naftohaz's activities in 2006-2007. Naftohaz operated at a loss
during the period. It accumulated a multi-billion dollar debt and failed
to come up with a timely financial report for 2006, so it is teetering
on the brink of default. Tymoshenko said that the Ukrainian state would
guarantee Naftohaz's debts, after which Fitch upgraded Naftohaz's senior
unsecured rating from "B+" to "BB-."
By checking Naftohaz, Tymoshenko will not only improve the company's
performance, but the move also shows that Naftohaz's interests, as well
as national interests, were damaged by her predecessors' reliance on one
intermediary in gas trade with Russia. Tymoshenko insists that
RosUkrEnergo, a Swiss-registered joint-venture between Gazprom and
Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash, should cease to be the monopoly
supplier of natural gas to Ukraine. However, her opponents warn that
changing the existing scheme may result in higher gas prices for
Ukraine.
On January 8, Tymoshenko ordered a comprehensive audit of the coal
industry. "I want miners, their families, and the whole society to learn
about every instance of abuse in the coal sector," she said. Ukraine's
coal mines have been among the main sources of wealth for Tymoshenko's
arch-rivals from the Party of Regions (PRU), whose stronghold is Donbas,
Ukraine's main mining region.
On January 9, Tymoshenko announced that the "Contraband, Stop!" campaign
would be re-launched. In 2005 Tymoshenko had lowered import duties on
goods like fruit and mobile phones, simultaneously purging the ranks of
the customs service. Among other things, the campaign targeted smuggling
across the border with Moldova's breakaway Transnistria region.
"Contraband, Stop!" was shelved under Tymoshenko's successors.
The re-privatization campaign may also be re-launched. It scared many
potential investors and was arguably one of the main reasons behind
Tymoshenko's dismissal by President Viktor Yushchenko in September 2005.
On January 10, the Supreme Court threw out an appeal against an earlier
court ruling that invalidated the privatization of the Luhansk
locomotive plant in 2007. Both Tymoshenko and Yushchenko believe that
the
plant's sale to a Russian company was not transparent.
On January 12, Tymoshenko said that Nikopol Ferroalloys Plant (NFZ)
should be re-nationalized. NFZ was sold in 2003 to Viktor Pinchuk, the
son-in-law of the then-President Leonid Kuchma. Tymoshenko pledged to
return NFZ to the state in 2005, but although courts invalidated the
deal in 2005-2006, court rulings have been ignored.
On January 9, Tymoshenko also launched an ambitious campaign to repay
lost Soviet-era savings. Neither of the former Soviet republics has
managed to reimburse them. This is a serious test for Tymoshenko's
ability to muster popular support. Her presidential election chances
will depend to a great extent on the success of this particular
campaign, as millions of unfortunate depositors are involved.
The campaign's beginning has not been very successful, which may
undermine popular trust in Tymoshenko. First, the state budget provides
for only a fraction of the sum that is to be repaid. The rest should
come from privatization proceedings in 2008-2009, whose volume is hard
to predict. Second, Tymoshenko equated the Ukrainian hryvnya to the
Soviet ruble, which was considerably stronger, so depositors will
receive much less than actually was lost. Third, only 1,000 hryvnyas
($200) will be compensated in cash per depositor, irrespective of the
actual size of the deposit. Fourth, the campaign has been poorly
organized. The elderly have to spend hours in lines, and they are poorly
informed about the procedures. One old man died of a heart attack
outside a bank in Zaporizhya, and one elderly lady had her leg broken in
a stampede at a bank in Cherkasy.
Tymoshenko's rivals seized the opportunity to expose the campaign's
weaknesses. The PRU press service accused Tymoshenko of "seeking
publicity at any cost." "People are being fooled, receiving just 1,000
hryvnyas for the lost deposits," the Party of Free Democrats said in a
statement.
(UNIAN, January 2, 11; Itar-Tass, January 8, 11; ICTV, Ukrainski novyny,
January 9; AP, January 11; Interfax-Ukraine, January 11, 12)
--Pavel Korduban
Freedom in the World 2008: http://www.freedomhouse.org
<http://www.freedomhouse.org/>
Note: Ukraine is the only of the 12 non-Baltic post-Soviet countries
included in the "free" category; 4 fall into the "partly free" category;
and 7 in the "not-free", including Russia and Belarus. Overall, Freedom
House judged 90 countries to be free, 60 partly free, and 43 as not
free.
<http://www.kyivpost.com/>
Opinion > Op-Ed
Surviving Russia's drift to fascism
Jan 17 2008, 00:54
The West must also appreciate that a fully fascist Russia is an
immediate threat to its neighbors
Back in 1993-1994, Vladimir Zhirinovsky's sudden rise to prominence and
the resonance that his openly chauvinistic and revanchist views found
among elements of the Russian public gave rise to talk of a "Weimar
Russia." Zhirinovsky quickly self-destructed, and the Weimar Russia
image soon faded. Unfortunately, it may be time to speak of a far more
worrisome phenomenon - a post-Weimar, or even fascist Russia.
Contemporary Russia is remarkably similar to post-World War I Germany.
Both countries emerged from imperial collapse and regime change and
experienced massive economic hardship and political chaos. Their
populations felt humiliated and their imperial identities were battered,
and they responded by blaming their enemies, former colonies, disloyal
minorities - and democracy. Both countries turned to nationalist,
chauvinist, revanchist and neo-imperialist rhetoric, and embraced
charismatic leaders promising to reestablish national glory, rebuild
state power, and command international respect. Both rulers promptly
abandoned democracy - to the applause of the majority of their
populations.
These similarities suggest that it may be time to abandon such terms as
managed or sovereign or hybrid democracy for today's Russia. Even the
term "authoritarian" may not be fully adequate. There are good reasons
to think that Vladimir Putin's Russia is acquiring all the
characteristics of a fascist state.
Fascist states are non-democratic and hyper-nationalist and they glory
in their greatness, but the most striking thing about them is their
leader and his relationship with the population. The "supreme leaders"
of fascist states always exude vigor and, by playing on popular fears,
manage to implicate the population in its own repression. Fascist
leaders claim to be youthful, manly, and active, and they form mass
movements based on the young. And fascist leaders are wildly popular,
successfully presenting themselves as embodiments of a nation's best
qualities.
Putin's Russia shares most of these features. As the recent
parliamentary elections showed, its democratic institutions have become
pliant tools of the Kremlin. The siloviki dominate all ruling elites,
Putin is the undisputed "national leader," the Nashi youth movement has
taken off, the Russian state is the object of official glorification.
Hyper-nationalism, mistrust of foreigners and glorification of Russia's
Stalinist past have become official.
Like Mussolini, Putin favors stylish black clothing that connotes
toughness and likes being photographed with weapons.
Although Putin's Russia possesses many of the defining characteristics
of fascism, they have not yet congealed into a consolidated political
system. Russia today resembles Germany in 1933 or Italy in the
mid-1920s. Russia could follow in their footsteps, or it could falter
and find its way back to some form of democracy. Everything depends on
whether Putin stays or really goes in the spring of 2008. If he stays,
Russia will have taken another step toward full-fledged fascism. If he
goes, Russian democracy will have gotten a slight reprieve.
Although fascism makes Russia look strong, it is also the source of
several weaknesses. All fascist states scare their neighbors by their
proclivity to engage in chest-beating. The tougher Russia gets, the
tougher it sounds, and the more it gets involved in playing the great
power that it no longer is-the greater the gap between its aspirations
and capabilities and the greater the likelihood of overreach and
foreign-policy disaster. The resulting militarism, fear of encirclement
and tensions will, in the medium- to long-term, deplete and distort the
economy, waste scarce resources and ultimately undermine the state.
Leadership cults only work as long as the founding leaders are still
vigorous. When supreme leaders falter - as they inevitably do - or leave
the scene, successor elites engage in cutthroat competition to assume
the mantle of authority. As they weaken the regime's foundations and
expose the system as brittle, the state's image as a Leviathan worthy of
official and popular veneration crumbles. The next two years will be
especially difficult for Russia, as it copes with a genuinely post-Putin
political system or with a seemingly post-Putin system still run by
Putin.
Humiliation is a weak foundation on which to build state and leader
legitimacy. Although Russians currently want the reassuring guidance of
a "vozhd" (chief), sooner or later they will cease feeling humiliated.
When that happens, as it surely will (once their prosperity and exposure
to the world and its blandishment increases), they will eventually
abandon humiliation for more satisfactory forms of self-identification.
There's little for the European Union or the United States to do about
Russia's alarming drift toward fascism. Regime change from outside
doesn't work, and even if it did, neither the EU nor the US has the
resources or will to attempt it. And embargoes, boycotts, and other
punitive measures are likely only to strengthen Russia's fascist
tendencies.
The West should learn from its response to Hitler. The democracies of
interwar Europe may not have been able to prevent his rise, but they
could have prevented Germany's expansion into the Rhineland, Austria,
and Czechoslovakia. Today's democracies - and above all Germany and
France - must finally realize that Russia is not democratic.
The West must also appreciate that a fully fascist Russia is an
immediate threat to its neighbors - the non-Russian states of the former
Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Russia's neighbors - and Ukraine and
Belarus in particular - must therefore become at least as important to
the foreign-affairs and business establishments of Europe and the US as
Russia is.
If Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia's other non-Russian neighbors remain
prosperous, stable, and sovereign, Russia's fascist tendencies will play
themselves out within Russia - possibly leading to the country's
implosion. Russians, who deserve better, will be the losers, but at
least they'll be the only losers.
Alexander J. Motyl is a professor of political science at Rutgers
University in Newark, NJ in the US.
Congressional Record Statement by Helsinki Commission Chairman Rep.
Alcee L. Hastings
HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY IN BELARUS OFF TO DISCOURAGING START IN THE
NEW YEAR -- HON. ALCEE L. HASTINGS (Extensions of Remarks - January 15,
2008)
[Page: E8]
---
HON. ALCEE L. HASTINGS
OF FLORIDA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2008
* Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, last
month, I chaired a Helsinki Commission briefing with a delegation of
leading political opposition figures and democratic activists from
Belarus. The briefing was entitled, ``The Future Belarus: Democracy or
Dictatorship'' and focused on the prospects for change in a country
located in the heart of Europe that has Europe's worst track record with
respect to human rights and democracy. Unfortunately, developments since
the delegation's visit to Washington have been deeply discouraging and
do not bode well for Belarus' democratic future.
* One of the young people who testified at the
briefing, 19-year-old Zmitser Fedaruk, spoke eloquently of the dangers
that young human rights activists face in Belarus. His words were
prophetic, as a few days later, back in Belarus, he was beaten and
knocked unconscious by riot policemen, then rushed by ambulance to the
hospital. Just last week, the Minsk district prosecutor's office in
Minsk refused to open an investigation into Zmitser's beating.
* A day earlier, my friend Anatoly Lebedka, one of
Belarus' staunchest defenders of democratic rights, who also testified
before the Commission, was roughed up by Belarusian police as well. It
was far from the first time that this leader of the democratic
opposition had been beaten up or repressed by the Lukashenka regime. On
January 4, the Lukashenka regime banned Anatoly from travelling abroad
in what was obviously a politically-motivated decision. Today, Anatoly
is in jail serving a 15-day sentence, along with several dozen other
pro-democracy and small business advocates who participated in a January
10 protest against restrictions on activities of small businesses. Some
of the activists--mostly young people--received injuries during their
arrest. Tatyana Tsishkevch, who was severely beaten during her arrest
and presented her bloodstained jacket in court, received a 20-day
sentence. Arsien Pakhomau, a freelance photo correspondent for ``Nasha
Niva'' weekly--one of the very few remaining independent publications in
Belarus--was also sentenced to 15 days' administrative arrest. On the
day of the protest, a number of websites that cover social and economic
affairs in Belarus, such as Charter '97 and Radio Liberty, were
partially or fully blocked by the authorities.
* These most recent repressive actions follow the
sentencing of opposition activist Artur Finkevich to 18 months in
prison; the arbitrary use of judicial power to put out of business
independent newspapers such as ``Novi Chas''; steps to liquidate
theopposition Belarusian Communist Party; and the fining of Baptist
pastor Yuri Kravchuk for unregistered religious activity. Belarus is the
only country in Europe with compulsory registration before religious
activity can take place.
* Unfortunately, the indications in just the first
few weeks of this New Year are not encouraging. Lukashenka's
presidential administration has recently rejected the opposition's
proposal to hold talks on the upcoming 2008 parliamentary elections,
refusing an offer by the Belarusian opposition to consider joint
proposals on conducting parliamentary elections in accordance with
democratic standards.
* Madam Speaker, as Chairman of the U.S. Helsinki
Commission and as someone who has long been involved in the OSCE process
to promote security, cooperation, democracy and human rights among the
56 OSCE countries, including Belarus, I am deeply disappointed in the
Belarusian Government's continual flaunting of freely undertaken OSCE
commitments. It is my strong hope that Mr. Lukashenka will cease the
self-imposed isolation of his country--threatening, most recently, to
expel U.S. Ambassador Karen Stewart--and will give serious thought to
the offers of cooperation that have come from the United States and the
European Union if Belarus releases political prisoners and displays
respect for basic democratic norms. In the meantime, the Lukashenka
regime can be assured that my colleagues and I on the Helsinki
Commission are determined to stand by Anatoly Lebedka, Dzmitri Fedaruk
and all those in Belarus--young and old--bravely struggling for freedom,
democracy and respect for human rights.
END
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