www.kyivpost.com: Letters to the Editor http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/ Letters to the Editor Euro 2012: Maydan of hate? http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/119367/ Letters to the Editor Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:45:03 +0200
When visitors come to this place many they will remember the courageous protests during the 2004 Orange Revolution and for some, even the student protests and hunger strikes during the downfall of the Soviet Union in 1990. Many others, perhaps not as well-versed in history, will come to the square simply because it is one of the nicest places in Kyiv to sit, rest, people-watch, grab a snack and buy souvenirs.]]>
On these tables they will find books with titles like, “Jews in Ukraine Today: Reality without Myths,” “The Jewish Syndrome,” and “The Worldwide Moscow-Jewish Problem.”

Some of these books describe how the Holocaust never happened and how Jews are trying to destroy modern-day Ukraine, while others illuminate the conspiracies of the Freemasons. If the visitor is not disturbed enough with the anti-Semitism and freemason fantasies, one can also find Russophobic publications too. Some visitors will be horrified to see the book of infamous American racist and former Ku Klux Klan leader, David Duke, “The Jewish Question through the Eyes of an American: My Investigation of Zionism” being sold in Ukrainian.

The majority of this literature is published by the university press of the private Ukrainian university, the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management (MAUP).

MAUP is well-known as the “University of Hate” in the West for its support of Holocaust deniers and its egregiously offensive publications and conferences. Over the past five years, MAUP’s despicable activities have been well documented by western and Ukrainian academics and journalists alike, including Per Rudling and Oleksandr Naiman.

In 2005, a number of Ukrainian intellectuals here and abroad also wrote a letter condemning the activities of MAUP. Thankfully after this publicity some (but not all) of the literature has been removed from the main bookstores in Kyiv. Despite these courageous efforts by intellectuals, this hate literature still lines the bookshelves of bookstores throughout Ukraine, especially in Volhynia and Galicia.

Surely, visitors might ask themselves some of the following questions after seeing this display of hate. “Can I imagine this hate literature being sold in Times Square or Trafalgar Square or at the Brandenburg gate?” “What does this literature being sold in such a prominent place say about this country’s priorities and orientation?” “How would they feel if visitors came to their country and in the heart of capital at the main souvenir stands, hate literature was being sold?”

The scholar, Anna Veronika Wendland, recently argued in a debate about Omer Bartov’s book Erased in a Ukrainian journal that until scholars can learn to set aside offensive stereotype that all Ukrainians were and are ubiquitous anti-Semites, only can a real debate occur about Ukraine’s troubled past would remain unresolved. While I can hardly think of a scholar local of foreign who does not agree such stereotypes are harmful and unproductive, I’d counter that Ukrainians also need to start helping themselves. And the hate literature would be a great place to start.

Some may counter, like the president of MAUP, Heorhii Shchokin, has on occasion, that it is anti-democratic to outlaw literature of any sort and that giving neo-Nazis an outlet is, in fact, the essence of “democracy.” This literature need not be banned -- it should simply be relegated to the dark basements and meetings of the societal outcasts who write and pedal them. Just as in the West, the owners of stores and public space (be it the government in this case) have a right to decide what is sold on their premises. Pushing out the hate need not take the form of repression and thus risk the martyrdom of the purveyors.

As a scholar who lived in Ukraine over the last year, I see the Euro 2012 tournament as a great opportunity for Europeans and the world to get to know Ukraine a little better and find out all the amazing things Ukraine has to offer. I and many of my Western colleagues who work here would like nothing more than for this event to be a success. Disturbing hate literature on the Maidan will send the wrong message to visitors. To continue to turn the cheek to the most hateful and destructive in their midst, albeit a minority, only hurts Ukraine on a whole. Please remove the hate and preserve the Maidan as a space for freedom and democracy.

Jared McBride is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California Los Angeles in the history department. He is currently a Fulbright-Hays scholar researching his dissertation on World War II in Volhynia in Ukraine. ]]> Black Iron describes company http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/118860/ Letters to the Editor Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:10:12 +0200 Dear Editor,

On behalf of Black Iron Inc. (“Black Iron” or the “Company”), our shareholders, and your interested readership, we would like to express our concern over how the company has been portrayed in your recent editorial pieces and provide you with an appropriate introduction and true facts. ( Dec. 2 story"American TV personalities arrive to polish image of Ukraine's politicians" and Dec. 2 story "King bootlicker.")

We believe we are in the process of building something of significance for our shareholders, and just as importantly, creating a major opportunity for Ukraine. To our knowledge this Project will be the largest foreign investment in Ukraine for a Greenfield (i.e. new) mine to date. Construction and daily operation of the mine will result in substantial job creation plus tens of millions in new tax revenues for the country.]]> Black Iron Inc.

The company was incorporated on June 29, 2010, under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) for the purpose of acquiring, exploring and developing mineral properties. On Oct. 25, 2010, the company acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of the Cyprus Subsidiary, which owns 100 percent of the registered capital of Shymanivske Steel LLC and Zelenivske Steel LLC.

Through Shymanivske Steel, the company’s activities are focused on the exploration and development of the Shymankviske iron ore project located in Kryviy Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Region. In addition, the company holds the exploration permit for the Zelenivske project in the close vicinity through Zelenivske Steel.

Shymanivske project

The ompany currently owns through its wholly-owned subsidiary Shymanivske Steel, a 100 percent interest in the mining permit that comprises the Shymanivske Project. The mining permit covers an area of 2.56 square kilometres located in the mining district of KrivBass. Extensive past exploration has been conducted on the Shymanivske Project, including approximately 37,000 meters of drilling and a Soviet engineering study. Black Iron retained Genivar, an independent engineering and consulting company, to complete a technical report for the Shymanivske Project in compliance with mining industry standards National Instrument 43-101. Pursuant to the report, the Shymanivske Project contains approximately 345 million tonnes of measured and indicated resources grading 31.83% iron and approximately 469 million tonnes of inferred resources grading 31.05% iron.

Black Iron has had quite an active 2011 with respect to the Shymanivske Project. In May, we released results of a ground gravity survey over the project, which showed the potential extension of iron ore mineralization at the north end of Shymanivske. This new area has not been included in our resource estimate and has the potential to push our total mineralization for the property above 1 billion tonnes. In October, we completed our confirmatory twin hole drilling program on the property. The program consisted of 6,042 meters of drilling, which was used to verify and validate the approximately 37,000 meters of historical drilling. We were quite pleased with the results of the program and received an independent report from the professionals at Watts, Griffis and McOuat Limited, Consulting Geologists and Engineers of Toronto, Canada concluding that the twin hole work agreed very well with the historical drilling work. Finally, on October 31, we issued the results of our Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Project, showing a pre-tax 42.1% internal rate of return, 2.2 year payback, and US$3.0 billion net present value. The Project has very robust economics, with projections of US$900 million or more to be directly invested into the project in Ukraine, which will also create thousands of local jobs. We believe this will represent the largest foreign direct investment into a Greenfield project in Ukraine.

Initial Public Offering – March 29, 2011

Black Iron debuted on the Toronto Stock Exchange on March 29 of this year. We raised approximately $38.5 million to fund the initial phases of our exploration and development plan. It is this money, in addition to the roughly US$30 million raised previously, that we are currently investing in Ukraine to complete drilling, geological and engineering work, which we ensure includes jobs for local Ukrainian firms.

As a result of our public listing, the Company has a broad shareholder base, which changes with each day of trading. Post IPO, our shareholder register looks as follows (all of which is publicly disclosed):

Shareholder Luxor Capital Partners – 23.5 percent.

Management, Board & Insiders -- 20 percent.

RBC Global Resource Fund – 12 percent.

Groupo Salinas – 12 percent

Public Float -- 32.5 percent.

We have undertaken a number of broad institutional and retail marketing campaigns across, North America, Europe, and Asia in an effort to communicate the Black Iron story and to potentially attract new investors. At this time, we are not aware of any of our current shareholders being based, or tied to, Ukraine or the CIS region. We believe the opportunity that exists with Black Iron is significant, and we hope to attract new investors across the globe, including Ukraine and the CIS region.

Special Advisor – Larry King

As part of our ongoing efforts to reach out to new investors and to explain the significance of the project we are building in Kryviy Rih, we have retained internationally recognized media host, Larry King. Mr. King will provide us with international advisory and awareness services based on his years of experience in international affairs and broadcasting, as well as his significant network of international contacts.

It is true that Mr. King’s visit to Ukraine helped provide awareness for Black Iron and our Shymanivske Project within Ukraine. But just as important, Mr. King’s visit has provided awareness for Ukraine and the investment opportunities that exist within the country, to many investor groups in North America and Europe. With few publicly-listed companies operating in Ukraine, and even fewer listed on exchanges outside the CIS or London, Black Iron represents an opportunity to showcase a great mining asset while at the same time highlighting a country that is rich in mineral and agricultural wealth.

Two-thirds of the publicly raised funds for the world’s mining sector are generated through the Toronto Stock Exchange each year. We are hopeful that we can build a successful project in Ukraine in combination with the capital available through the Toronto Stock Exchange, and that in the process we’ll help showcase Ukraine and pave the way for many other foreign direct investments into the country by other international groups.

Access To Information and Full Transparency

Black Iron is a publicly-listed company on the Toronto Stock Exchange main platform and as such is required to provide full and timely disclosure on the company and its developments. You can follow our progress and read all of our disclosure by visiting our website at www.blackiron.com, or by reviewing all of our publicly filed materials, including our IPO Prospectus, Technical Reports, Press Releases, Financials, etc. at www.sedar.com.

Alternatively, you can always reach us electronically at info@blackiron.com or by telephone at +1 (416) 309-2950.

Thank you for providing us the opportunity to clarify who Black Iron Inc. is and what we are trying to achieve. We believe it is important that our efforts be portrayed accurately and hope that you’ll consider providing some additional background to your subscriber base.

Sincerely,

BLACK IRON INC.

Matt Simpson – President & CEO Nikolay Bairak – VP, Government & Community

George Mover – Chief Operating Officer Aaron Wolfe – VP, Corporate Development

Paul Bozoki – Chief Financial Officer Investor Cubed Inc. – Investor Relations

Christine Gallo – Corporate Secretary]]> Corruption flourished under Yushchenko http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/115050/ Letters to the Editor Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:34:18 +0300 Dear Editor,

Brian Mefford is factually wrong when he disputes the Kyiv Post’s charge (KyivPost editorial, Sept. 9, "Bad Choice) that corruption flourished under ex-President Viktor Yushchenko’s tenure. (Kyiv Post "Yushchenko deserves achievement award, Sept. 22)]]>
Transparency International found that Ukraine improved its battle against corruption only in 2005-2006 (primarily due to the efforts of the Yulia Tymoshenko government, not Yushchenko) but then stagnated rapidly from 2007 back to low levels found in the Kuchma era. In 2009, Yushchenko’s last year in office, Ukraine’s Corruption Perceptions Index ranking was worse than in 2004, Kuchma’s last year in office. The return to high levels of corruption in 2007-2009 is a product of the country’s lack of leadership, weak political will to combat corruption, political crises and intra-elite conflict.

Georgia represents a different trajectory to Ukraine since the Rose Revolution in Georgia with President Mikheil Saakashvili showing the political will that was absent under Yushchenko to combat corruption and provide a better business environment. The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business gave Georgia 16 and 11 annual rankings in 2009 and 2010, placing it alongside European and North American economies. Ukraine was ranked during the same two year period as 146 and 142nd. The World Banks rankings on Starting a Business and Protecting Investors showed a similar gulf between both countries with Georgia ranked 5 for Starting a Business in both 2009 and 2010 while Ukraine was ranked 126th and 134rd. Georgia was ranked 38th and 41st in 2009 and 2010 under the Protection for Investors ranking while Ukraine again received a poor ranking of 143rd and 109th.

A similar gulf between Georgia and Ukraine exists in their rankings by Transparency International.Georgia entered the post-revolutionary era in a worse position than Ukrainewith the country a de facto failed state. Between 2005-2009, Georgia’s CPI ranking dramatically improved from 130 to 66th. During the same period, Ukraine’s CPI ranking improved from 107 to 99th between 2005-2006 during the first of two Tymoshenko governments but then regressed over the next three years to 146th position, lower than in the last year of Kuchma’s rule (122nd).

Transparency International found that Georgia progressed in its battle against corruption each year since 2004. In 2009, only 5 countries in the European Union and the European Free Trade Agreement had better rankings in dealing with corruption than did Georgia.The 2009 Global Corruption Barometer ranked Ukraine 4.3 (with 5 the worst and 1 the best) while Georgia received a ranking of 3.1, a level better than the USA (3.7) or Canada (3.2).

In the last years of Yushchenko’s presidency,78 percent of Ukrainians did not feel there was a struggle against corruption with 22 percent seeing efforts to combat corruption.Political instability and weak political will influenced the deterioration in Ukraine’s CPI ranking during the last three years of Yushchenko’s presidency.

Mefford is one of the few persons in Ukraine who believe that Yushchenko successfully fought corruption even though he received a paltry 5 percent and 5th place in the 2010 elections. In comparison, then President Leonid Kravchuk managed to receive 44 percent after hyperinflation in the 1994 elections – the same figure Viktor Yanukovych received in December 2004.

Voters in democracies are the final judges of a politician’s time in office.

Yours sincerely,

Taras Kuzio

Editor, Ukraine Analyst]]> Reader urges Bryan Adams to boycott Yanukovych http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/115049/ Letters to the Editor Sun, 16 Oct 2011 21:51:22 +0300
I am writing to you with regard to your planned performance on Oct. 28 in the city of Lviv at the opening ceremony for the Lviv football stadium for the Euro 2012 football championship, alongside the event’s reported attendance of President Viktor Yanukovych. (Kyiv Post, Sept. 21, "Bryan Adams and Yanukovych to open Lviv stadium)

]]>
Bernard Trottier (Riding of Etobicoke—Lakeshore, Conservative Party of Canada) made the following statement to our Parliament earlier this week:

“Mr. Speaker, recently we have seen some very troubling events take place in Ukraine. The persecution, arrest and continued detention of Yulia Tymoshenko, along with many others, are cause for great concern both in Canada as well as in the international community….These apparently politically-motivated actions undermine the rule of law and human rights, which are at the core of all democracies. The Ukrainian people, having long lived under the rule of regressive and undemocratic Soviet policies, will not accept a return to darker times. Ukrainians deserve to live in a peaceful and prosperous society, where they can enjoy the same freedoms and safeties seen across other western nations.”

The conditions of the imprisonment of Tymoshenko’s and [ex-Interior Minister Yuriy] Lutsenko could all be reason enough to reconsider any dealings with Ukraine’s current regime by any Western activist or institution.

Given the political nature of these particular cases, I shall focus instead on just a few examples amongst the plethora of other examples of serious ethical, political, administrative and humanitarian wrongdoings in Ukraine directly related to Yanukovych’s regime as well as to the preparations of the Euro 2012 football championship in Ukraine, and in the city of Lviv in particular.

The first example is the completely corrupt tender process that the municipal officials in Lviv ran for the building of the stadium, where they announced a financial tender which was to be awarded to the company that could finance building the new stadium and its infrastructure without burdening the local economy and population.

The tender was awarded to a company that had no financing and was eventually given to a Ukraine based company to be fully financed at the tax payer’s expense. When the rest of the world is trying to be frugal, the powers that be in Ukraine continue to try to squeeze the most out of their populace, only exacerbating the country’s deepening economic and societal crisis.

Regarding the building of the stadium, workers who were hired to do so were not paid for four months, and then the company that they were employed for was folded, and they were left without four months of wages. To this day they have not seen compensation for their labor. A lavish opening ceremony of this stadium will be just another blow to the dignity of these workers and their families.

What you will be paid for your performance, is not clean money. It is money that has been stolen from the population and the municipal and national budgets through deep-rooted schemes of endemic corruption, by officials who from day one of the tournament’s announcement have done everything possible to reap personal advantage of this landmark event in every imaginable way. Improvements to the quality of life of the people in the host-cities of the Euro 2012, i.e. creation of job opportunities, economic growth and capital inflow are all a fairy tale that even pre-school kids will not believe anymore.

However, the problems in Ukraine are much deeper than a systematically corrupted and economically ruinous mismanagement of the preparations to the Euro-2012 football championship. There is a constantly growing opposition in all spheres of society to the current regime - a regime that cannot be labeled as anything else but criminal.

This opposition is being answered to with increasingly worrisome methods. Among many other unnamed instances, this year’s Amnesty International Report on Ukraine is filled with unaddressed cases of unlawful detainment, torture and ill-treatment of protesters and students that stood up on various occasions to voice their opinion against the current regime represented by Yanukovych.

Back in July, Sting canceled a concert in Kazakhstan over claims of human rights violations on oil workers in that country. I believe that the current situation in Ukraine gives many more reasons for the same kind of action.

As a fellow Canadian, I would very much like you to reconsider whether you will play in Lviv or not. I know that there are plenty of other performing artists out there who would support you in your stand – a stand which would be just, regarding the current state of affairs in a country with an extremely fragile democracy, and which is turning into a police state run by a few who care very little about those they were elected to represent.

I call on you and anyone who believes in democracy to boycott all events related to the Euro 2012 football championships in Ukraine.

Sincerely,

William (Vasyl) Pawlowsky

Kyiv, Ukraine.]]> NBU's currency restrictions misguided http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/115041/ Letters to the Editor Sun, 16 Oct 2011 20:29:24 +0300
I have worked in Ukraine since 2001.

While insufficient information is provided by the NBU to fully justify its actions, it is apparent that the government of Ukraine is intent upon greater levels of control and restriction on public life.

While most of the developing world embraces greater global integration and transparency, Ukraine seems to be moving backwards into the dark ages of the autocracy and bureaucracy that epitomised Soviet-era style of government.

Such a vision for Ukraine is a huge mistake which can set back Ukrainian development and integration with the global community, for many years. NBU, as controller of the money-supply and regulator of the commercial banks, has many options available to control and be informed about currency operations and non-cash transactions. Unfortunately, it has not apparently sought to order a commercial bank round table conference to openly debate the NBU imperatives and to agree the necessary technology parameters and investment needed for reliable and invisible analysis of money flows.

So instead, we are seeing the consequence of previous lack of vision and panic measures resulting in the most crude control mechanisms being imposed which are more to be expected in countries exhibiting backward-thinking dictatorships, rather than those that are applicable to the well educated and increasingly well-travelled Ukrainian population. It is clearly a government error. Either deliberate or inadvertent, it makes no difference.

Sadly, it appears that Ukraine's progress in the world will have to await the arrival of a new generation of more enlightened and more selfless politicians and civil-servants before consistent improvement in the lives of Ukrainian people can be expected.

Why is it so difficult in Ukraine, for the NBU to explain, on national television channels, what are its reasons for changes in regulatory rules that affect the lives of every Ukrainian citizen and foreign visitor? It is inconceivable that such changes could occur in developed democratic countries without such explanations.It is a clear failure of leadership at the top of the NBU.

Sincerely,

Derek Farmer
Kyiv




]]> Ukraine ahead of the West http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/112997/ Letters to the Editor Fri, 16 Sep 2011 18:50:53 +0300 Dear Editor,

My name is Eva, I am Ukrainian and currently live in USA where I study biomathematics at local university. Approaching graduation, I face a tough decision – stay in US and pursue career here or come back to Ukraine. Kyiv Post story “Ukrainians debate identity as nation marks 20th year” helped make up my mind – I will back to Ukraine.]]>
I make this conclusion based comparing young people in US and Ukraine. We, young Ukrainians, and Russians as well, were brought up during deep economic recession and because of this turned out more firm, with more patience and diligence.

Most of Americans, and probably Europeans as well, had comfortable childhoods that did not require any effort on their side. They had everything they need - toys, food, entertainment and no responsibilities. In American schools, if you do minimum effort – you get the highest mark, which is not the case in Ukraine. US school curriculum is behind ours by at least two years.

Yes, Americans start working early, when they are around 16. But from my personal experience I know they don’t take their jobs seriously – they are often late or on sick leaves, always grim and unhappy.

Of course my opinion is subjective, but many older Americans share it. In the University of Houston where I study, young students from the former USSR are top of the class, even though English is not their mother tongue. American students, on the other hand, are always below average. I am sure that new generation of Americans will not be able to compete with us when the time of our generation comes. Having spent five years here in US, I have made my choice to come back to Ukraine, not because of patriotic feelings, but because I am sure that our country has potential, while in US and Europe they will reap the fruits of their labor. They will roll down while we move forward.

Sincerely,

Eva Kukko, League City, Texas, USA]]> Boycott of Ukrainian embassy events is not the answer http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/110818/ Letters to the Editor Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:42:29 +0300 Kyiv Post article, a colleague, Taras Kuzio, has called for a Ukrainian diaspora boycott of Ukrainian embassy events in protest of the trial of [ex-Prime Minister] Yulia Tymoshenko and her Aug. 5 arrest. Although I wholeheartedly share his deep concern with the regression of the rule of law in Ukraine, I most respectfully do not concur in the notion that boycotts of Ukrainian diplomatic events are the appropriate response.]]>
There is an ancient adage “Don’t kill the messenger!” Rather, it would be ultimately more productive to send -- in a persistent and ever more vociferous barge -- clear and unequivocal messages through the Ukrainian diplomatic emissaries that the present erosion of the rule of law in Ukraine is unacceptable, not merely to the Ukrainian diaspora, but more importantly to western countries. What better way to express these deep concerns than face to face in a frank but appropriate manner at Ukrainian diplomatic events.


Myroslaw Smorodsky
American attorney and governor of the Ukrainian American Bar Association
Mahwah, New Jersey, USA]]> Kuzio urges boycott of Ukrainian embassy events worldwide http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/110602/ Letters to the Editor Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:04:13 +0300 Dear Editor:

In the light of recent developments in Ukraine, specifically the imprisonment of ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and ex-Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, as well as up to 50 other political prisoners, I call upon Ukrainians in the United States, Canada and elsewhere to boycott official events and celebrations at Ukrainian embassies.]]> This is a time for solidarity with Ukrainian political prisoners and not with the Yanukovych regime which has already proven it is seeks to eradicatethe Ukrainian national identity that has been cultivated by all three previous Ukrainian presidents.
First Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk has already expressed his condemnation of the imprisonment of Tymoshenko. Now it is time for us to do the same.

Taras Kuzio Editor, Ukraine Analyst]]> Treatment of Tymoshenko unfair; investigate Yushchenko http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/110461/ Letters to the Editor Tue, 09 Aug 2011 17:32:58 +0300 Dear Editor:

The current treatment of [ex-Prime Minister] Yulia Tymoshenko is unfair. It matters not if you support her party or opinions. The actions against her are harbinger of things to come and does not bode well for the citizens of Ukraine.]]>
Like democracy, I would agree she is the least evil of all alternatives. I do not support all of her ideas, but her concern for Ukraine is real and shown by her continued efforts. She is not perfect. Like all of us, she has her faults and past misdeeds

The situation is now deteriorating at an increasing pace in Ukraine. This newspaper’s experience with libel lawsuits is well known to readers. The window for you to act is closing. New libel laws which take effect on Nov. 1 will effectively reduce your relevance and even your ability to operate. That fight should be joined now in conjunction with the efforts in support of Yulia.

I do not envy your owner or manager or editor. Your decision is now simple; join the fight, or next they come for you.

PS: I tire of all news organizations referring to the past experiences of the Orange [Revolution team] as a conflict between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko. I read the paper daily and often was surprised at her forebearance of him. In truth, the situation was simply one of his trying to undercut her efforts at every turn, even when he sacrificed the good of the nation. Reports of his interference in the gas deal currently under trial clearly show this.

Your paper has not, to my knowledge, ever done more than report his declining support. I would welcome knowing the editorial view of this man’s time in office and the effect it had on Ukraine. It would make an interesting serial report. The people of Ukraine would benefit from understanding how it all went wrong.

Joseph Gregg
San Antonio, Texas, USA.]]> Nation becoming another Belarus politically http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/100913/ Letters to the Editor Thu, 31 Mar 2011 22:08:27 +0300 To the Editor:

I am amazed at the continual slide of Ukraine towards the same establishment of government as that of Belarus! The part that worries me is that the people do not seem to realize it or are just too numb to stand up after the last five years of failed government.]]>
The government in power shows daily that it has no regards for the citizens, other than their rich backers, wellbeing, freedoms or advancement.

Slowly but surely the tentacles of this machine is reaching into the national, regional and local governments and placing cronies that will follow orders from Kyiv knowing that to do otherwise would jeopardize their well being or the cash cows that they milk each week.

I have lived in many countries over the years and have witnessed many things that the politicians have perpetrated on their citizens. But most of the time the people have fought back through the ballot box. Unfortuantely, the way the system is set up in Ukraine, it does not allow this.

The constitution only seems to serve as a document to be used when the moment serves the people in power and is ignored when it does not agree with their direction. In civilized countries the defeated politicians become the opposition. In Ukraine, they become prisoners!

I read that the poverty level in Ukraine is set at Hr 742 per month, just below $100. I guess that if you make Hr 743, you are considered middle class! The vast differences between those with disposable income and those scraping to make a living is so vast that I don’t understand why the people are not in the streets now.

I moved to Ukraine because of the people and the culture. The Ukrainian people have not changed and the native culture has not changed, but the course of the country has and that is a very scary thing indeed!


Ben Powell
Lugansk]]> Committee to Protect Journalists: We are ‘alarmed by manipulation of still-unsolved Gongadze investigation’ http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/98772/ Letters to the Editor Thu, 03 Mar 2011 23:59:55 +0200 Editor’s Note: The following is a statement issued on March 2 by the New York City-based Committee to Protect Journalists regarding what appears to be a continued coverup by Ukrainian authorities in the 10-year murder of Ukrainian journalist Georgy Gongadze.]]>
The Kyiv Court of Appeals ruled today to reject a second appeal by Myroslava Gongadze, the journalist’s widow, against the prosecutorial downgrading of the status of the murder from a contract killing to a “killing on verbal command.”

The new status of the case, in effect, pegs the responsibility for commissioning the crime on a single culprit—a dead interior minister—and technically precludes investigators from going after a larger circle of suspected masterminds.

A two-year-long trial of three suspected accomplices in Gongadze's murder ended in 2008 with convictions, but no one has been held responsible thus far for masterminding the crime. Prosecutors have failed to investigate former and current high-ranking officials—including former President Leonid Kuchma and then-head of presidential administration and current Parliament Speaker Vladimir Litvin—who have long been suspected of being involved in Gongadze's killing.

“This is nothing but an attempt by the authorities to close off further prosecutions in the murder of Georgy Gongadze,” CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. “All perpetrators of this heinous crime, regardless of their rank, influence, and position, must be brought to justice.”

The Kyiv Court of Appeals ruling comes on the heels of procedural violations committed by investigating authorities in the case. In a March 1 public letter to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, CPJ laid out its concerns about seeming official attempts to quickly wrap up the most significant stage of the Gongadze investigation.

Gongadze, 31, editor of the independent Internet newspaper Ukrainska Pravda—which often criticized the policies of then President Leonid Kuchma—was last seen on September 16, 2000, leaving the home of a colleague to meet his wife and two young children. His headless body was discovered in a forest outside the town of Tarashcha two months later.

Persistent allegations of high-level government involvement in the murder have lingered since late November 2000, when an opposition leader released tape recordings of what he claimed were conversations between Kuchma, his chief of staff (and current parliament speaker), Vladimir Litvin, and then-Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko.

On the tapes—transcripts of which were carried by news agencies—three male voices discuss various ways of "dealing" with Gongadze. Kuchma and Litvin have repeatedly denied involvement. In 2005, Kravchenko was found dead in his apartment just hours before his scheduled questioning in the Gongadze case. Authorities said he had committed suicide but was found to have been killed by two shots in the head.]]> Femen: Low on brains, big on hypocrisy http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/97457/ Letters to the Editor Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:58:02 +0200 -To The Editor:]]> Yanukovych: Sexist-in-chief), Maria Popova, a member of the Femen women’s group, disparaged Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych for inviting investors to come to Kyiv to experience “Ukrainian women taking off their clothes in spring.”

What is there to criticize?

Yanukovych can hardly hope to entice investors with anything else his country has to offer these days: “Come to see our broken infrastructure!,” “Have a look at our begging pensioners!,” “Enjoy one of the most corrupt judicial systems on earth!,” “Try to navigate the least business friendly bureaucracy in Europe,” “Pay bribes to be let go by vodka-drinking policemen for speaking English after midnight on Kreshchatyk.”

None of these slogans will lure investors of sound mind to Ukraine, so the president went for the only tangible asset Ukraine currently has: Ukraine’s young women.

Femen reacted irately to such a brazen advertisement of Ukraine’s women’s dress style, as their monopoly of making young Ukrainian women look sluttish internationally will come under dire threat if Yanukovych continues to promote Ukraine this way. Because, in fact, during my years in Kyiv, I have never seen a Ukrainian women take of her clothes in public, lest she be a member of Femen.

But the Femen leadership did not really understand the president’s good intentions. He is in no way trying to dismantle Femen’s monopoly, but in fact he is finally acknowledging the great service Femen does to the nation: thanks to their frequent getting naked in front of the international press, including jumping around bare-breasted for the entertainment of foreign TV viewers for no sensible reason except a desire to be on TV, Femen has given the world a lasting picture what a Ukrainian girl is: beautiful, slim and ready to undress as soon as a camera is pointed at her.

Yanukovych’s great error was to forget to mention that such displays of naked girl gatherings can be enjoyed all year round in Kyiv, not just in spring.

So Maria Popova’s call for the impeachment of Yanukovych is an overreaction, born out of a misunderstanding. But such a lack of thought is standard for the leadership of Femen.

Every time they move away from their naked to spoken messages, the complete opposite effect happens. They attempt to show that Ukraine is not a brothel by showing the same world lots and lots of young girls’ bosoms. They denounce pornography as degrading to women, but protest with a pornographic actress.

Such contradictory messages and lack of coherence are hallmarks of Femen’s activities. Thus, the leadership of Femen should be grateful for the clarity with which Yanukovych conveyed Femen’s only over-arching message to the world: “Ukrainian women easily take off their clothes.”

And with Femen’s continuous advertisement campaign to investors’ base instincts and Yanukovych finally extending presidential gravitas to their campaign, bright times await this country as a future hybrid Thai-Belarus.

Thomas Claus Theiner is a Kyiv-based political consultant who specializes in long-term political and media campaigns. Currently he is preparing to launch a revamped ukraine.com and has been coming to Ukraine regularly for four years.]]> A Nobel Peace Prize for Yanukovych? This idea never crossed my mind http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/96861/ Letters to the Editor Thu, 10 Feb 2011 23:31:34 +0200 Dear Editor,

It would be an understatement to say I was surprised on reading Anthony Salvia’s article in Kyiv Post on Jan. 28 titled: “Ukrainian president may deserve to win the Nobel Peace Prize,” in which the author writes about the “terrific” achievements of the president of Ukraine over his first year of presidency.

The Kyiv Post, as long as basic rules of politeness, and decency, are respected, ought to welcome every type of comment, including Salvia’s. It does.

Congratulations.

I imagine that Salvia, a previous U.S. official, expresses an independent view, i.e., that he is not today working and therefore remunerated by whomever to write such an article.

And in such a case, as a 12-year expatriate in Ukraine, and as a banker, a well-informed witness of the situation, as well as last year's developments, I have a hard time understanding how someone, who I presume is intellectually honest, could make such a proposition.

I would therefore suggest to Salvia very humbly that he try to meet and listen to Ukrainian citizens, to some expatriates, starting with the best informed ones – the journalists and businessmen – and discover what Ukraine’s situation today really looks like and how it has changed or not over the last year.

Nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, even if “politics” ought to play a role, should be thought about in a more serious way, I believe.

My French compatriot Albert Camus’ essay titled “The Rebel” (1951) is worthy of discovery or rediscovery for Salvia. What makes us, including many Ukrainians, great on earth is this capacity to rebel. Albert Camus won the Nobel Prize, but in literature…and I am sure that many of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates (Nelson Mandela to start with) had this capacity to rebel. Maybe Yanukovych has it also, if I believe Salvia.


Jacques Mounier
Head of banking in Ukraine for Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank
Kyiv]]> Nalyvaichenko to OSCE: Rights of Ukrainians in Russia systematically violated http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/95689/ Letters to the Editor Wed, 26 Jan 2011 20:31:20 +0200 Editor’s Note: The following is an open letter sent by Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, Chairman of the Political Council the Our Ukraine Political Party, to H.E. Ambassador Knut Vollebaek, the High Commissioner On National Minorities at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.]]>
We highly respect your authority on these issues and would like to address them with you. These are matters of utmost importance for my country and all Ukrainian communities around the world.

We have witnessed a series of resonant events with the Ukrainian community in Russia. These events are clearly aimed at the Ukrainian minority and in our opinion are deliberate actions of the Russian government in systematic violations of the Ukrainian national minority rights in that country.

The Russian Federation is the largest neighboring country of Ukraine. According to the national population census in Russia of 2002, more than 3 million ethnic Ukrainians live within the country. Ukrainians in Russia are one of 90 officially registered communities in 16 regions of the country.

Our party and our civic partner-organizations vigorously advocate for the free exertion of national minority development principles. We believe this to be an inalienable part of an interstate good neighboring policy between Russia and Ukraine.

Respect to cultural and civic rights of national minorities is an obligation of Russia envisaged in many international and Ukrainian-Russian bilateral agreements.

Regrettably, we have to admit that on practice the Russian authorities do not respect their obligations to guarantee the free development of the Ukrainian national minority on its territory.

Protection of Ukrainian cultural rights in Russia is of outmost importance.

Opportunities for educating children in Ukrainian language are very limited. There are approximately ten Ukrainian Sunday schools and a dozen of schools with Ukrainian as an optional study language in all regions of Russia. All petitions to the official authorities for establishing Ukrainian-language schools in the regions of compact residence of the Ukrainian community remain unsatisfied.

Ukrainian communities do not receive state support for their functioning – there are no Ukrainian-language newspapers and radio or TV broadcasting in the Russian Federation.

The following and most recent actions of the Russian official authorities to drastically limit cultural and civic freedoms of the Ukrainian community must be addressed:

• In November 2010, the High Court of Russia cancelled registration of one of the biggest civic communities of the Ukrainian minority, the “Federal nation-cultural autonomy of the Ukrainians in Russia” (FNCAUR). The reason for such court ruling was the conclusion of the Justice of Ministry of Russia to the effect: “…the activity of the FNCAUR is aimed at discrediting the political course of the Russian government on interracial unity, and such activity threatens the constitutional regime…”.

• On January 3, 2011, Russian Foreign Minister Segey Lavrov officially stated that “FNCAUR’s activity was targeted at damaging bilateral Russian-Ukrainian relations”.

• In December 2010, we witnessed a new round of repressions against the Ukrainian library in Moscow (the only official Ukrainian literature library in Russia). The Russian Prosecutor’s Office launched a criminal investigation based on charges of distribution of the printed materials with xenophobia content at the library. During the past three months, the Extremism Department of the Interior Ministry of Russia conducted three searches at the library, seized books and computer hardware, as well as inflicted wounds to the Director of the library Nataliya Shariniy. At present the library is closed for the undetermined time-frame.

• Russian media continues to report that the Russian Ministry of Justice petitioned the High Court of Russia for liquidating the other Russian-wide civic Ukrainian community organization: “Unity of the Ukrainians in Russia”, which comprised 41 regional associations such as “Batkivshina”, “Blakytna Desna”, “Prolisok”, “Mriya”, Ukrainian regional center “Dnipro”, “Yasen – Ural Ukrainian national culture center”, “Ukraina-Seim” partnership, Association of Ukrainians from Povolzhie, “Kyiv Rus”, Ukrainian culture centers “Promin”, “Svitanok”, and “Krynytsia”.

The abovementioned cases followed the previous year’s actions by the Russian authorities, such as:

• In April 2008, the Moscow city authorities shut down the Ukrainian educational center that allegedly did not have the necessary licensing documentation. The Ukrainian educational center in Moscow had worked for more than 10 years under School #124 license, and its members were employed in accordance to the law of the Russian Federation. After the shut-down of the center its employees were questioned by the Federal Security Service (FSB).

• On May 10, 2009, Russian authorities Yuriy Kononenko persona non grata, who was the first deputy director of the Unity of the Ukrainians in Russia, an activist of the Ukrainian cultural-educational movement in Russia, founder of the Ukrainian literature library in Moscow.

• In 2008-2010, a series of administrative measures were imposed on the Ukrainian cultural movements in Saint-Petersburg, Surgut, Voronezh, and Ufa.

Such situations inflict uneasiness of the Ukrainian community representatives in Russia. The Unity of Ukrainians in Russia and Federal nation-cultural autonomy of the Ukrainians in Russia urged Russian authorities to stop the harassment of the Ukrainian organizations. They claim that state authorities of Russia are set to eradicate the well-organized Ukrainian community in Russia and replace it with new pseudo-Ukrainian ones.

Harassment of the Ukrainian community in Russia is accompanied with the decrease of civic rights and democratic freedoms in the country, and aggravation of xenophobia in the Russian society.

These adverse circumstances pose a grave threat to preserving the Ukrainian national identity and protection of the Ukrainian minority rights in the Russian Federation.

People’s attempts to directly address the Governments of Russia and Ukraine on the issue of protecting their national rights have been unsuccessful.

Taking into account the abovementioned issues, we kindly ask you to consider the situation and assist in protecting the rights of the Ukrainian community in the Russian Federation.

Copies of this letter shall also be forwarded to our partners from the European Union and Council of Europe.

Together, with your assistance, we can speak up for the people who have no voice and whose civil liberties and minority rights have been taken away.]]> Friedman: Poland, Ukraine share much http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/95289/ Letters to the Editor Thu, 20 Jan 2011 21:55:44 +0200 Editor’s Note: George Friedman, chief executive officer of Stratfor, a geopolitical risk analysis company based in Austin, Texas, traveled recently to Turkey, Moldova, Romania, Ukraine and Poland. In this installment, Friedman – whose organization is a partner of the Kyiv Post – shared his observations about Poland, Ukraine's western neighbor and close ally.]]> George Friedman writes: The Poles, like the rest of Central Europe, look at the European Union as the solution to their strategic problem.

To understand Poland, you must understand Frederic Chopin. First listen to his Polonaise and then to his Revolutionary Etude. They are about hope, despair and rage. In the Polonaise, you hear the most extraordinary distillation of a nation’s existence. In the Revolutionary Etude, written in the wake of an uprising in Warsaw in 1830 crushed by Russian troops, there is both rage and resignation.

In his private journal, Chopin challenged God for allowing this national catastrophe to happen, damning the Russians and condemning the French for not coming to Warsaw’s aid. Afterward, Chopin never returned to Poland, but Poland never left his mind.


A boy waves the Polish national flag during ceremonies commemorating the 90th anniversary of Polish independence in front of the Tomb of Unknown Soldier on November 11, 2008, in Warsaw. Poland's hard-fought independence came on Nov. 11, 1918 – the day of the armistice that ended World WarI – following 123 years of partition by Russia, the Austro-Hungarian empire and Germany. (AFP)

Poland finally became an independent nation in 1918. The prime minister it chose to represent it at Versailles was Ignacy Paderewski, a pianist and one of the finest interpreters of Chopin.

The conference restored the territories of Greater Poland, and Paderewski helped create the interwar Poland. Gdansk (the German Danzig) set the stage for Poland’s greatest national disaster when Germany and the Soviet Union allied to crush Poland, and Danzig became the German justification for its destruction.

Greatness, tragedy
For the Poles, history is always about betrayal, frequently French. Even had France (and the United Kingdom) planned to honor their commitment to Poland, it would have been impossible to carry it out. Poland collapsed in less than a week; no one can aid a country that collapses that fast. (The rest of the invaders’ operations comprised mopping up.)

Wars take time to wage, and the Poles preferred the romantic gesture to waging war. The Poles used horse cavalry against German armor, an event of great symbolism if not a major military feat. As an act of human greatness, there was magnificence in their resistance. They waged war — even after defeat — as if it were a work of art. It was also an exercise in futility.

Listen carefully to Chopin: Courage, art and futility are intimately related for Poland. The Poles expect to be betrayed, to lose, to be beaten. Their pride was in their ability to retain their humanity in the face of catastrophe.


A group of people dressed as Nazi-era concentration camp prisoners (L) block a street as they protest against a march by ultra-nationalists marking Independence Day in Warsaw, Poland on Nov. 11.

I think Chopin can be understood geopolitically. Look at where Poland is. It rests on the North European Plain, an open country whose national borders to its west and east are not protected or even defined by any significant geographical boundaries. To its east is Russia, by 1830 a massive empire. To the west were first the Prussians and after 1871 the Germans. To the south until 1918 was the Hapsburg Empire. No amount of courage or wisdom could survive forces as massive as this.

Poland is neither the master of its fate nor the captain of its soul. It lives and perishes by the will of others. Little can be done to stop the Germans and Russians when they join forces or use Poland as their battlefield. The most Poland can do is hope that powers farther away will come to its aid. They can’t. No one can aid a country that far away unless it aids itself. Chopin knew this in his soul and knew that the Poles would not succeed in aiding themselves. I think Chopin took pride in the certainty of catastrophe.

There is a book by Ivan Morris titled “The Nobility of Failure.” It is about Japan, but the title resonates with me when I think of Poland, Chopin and Paderewski. The Poles were magnificent in defeat, something I say without irony. But it must be remembered that Polish history was not always about the nobility of failure, nor is this kind of nobility Poland’s certain fate. Before the Russian empire emerged, before the Hapsburgs organized southeastern Europe and before the rise of Prussia, Poland was one of Europe’s great powers, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.


At right, in a photo made available by Yad Vashem Photo Archive in Jerusalem, Nazi guards stand outside the Belzec death camp in occupied Poland in 1942. (AP)

When the Germans are divided, the Russians weak and the Austrians worried about the Ottomans, then Poland stops being a victim. The Poles remember this and constantly refer to their past greatness. It is not clear that they fully appreciate why they were once great, why the greatness was taken away from them or that its resurrection is not unthinkable. The Poles know they once dominated the North European Plain.

They are convinced that it will never happen again.
The Poles today want to escape their history. They want to move beyond Chopin’s tragic sense, and they want to avoid fantastic dreams of greatness. The former did nothing to protect their families from the Nazis and Communists. The latter is simply irrelevant. They were powerful for a while when there was no Germany or Russia, but they’re not now. Or so it would appear. I would argue that this view is lacking in imagination.

(Photo: Frederic Chopin)

Poland, Russia, Europe
The Poles, like the rest of Central Europe, look at the European Union as the solution to their strategic problem. As an EU member, Poland’s German problem is solved. The two nations are now to be linked together in one vast institutional structure that eliminates the danger the two once posed to each other.

The Poles also think the Russians are not a danger because the Russians are weaker than they appear and because, as one Foreign Ministry official put it to me, neither Ukraine nor Belarus is simply a Russian satellite. Indeed, he thought of Ukraine and Belarus more as buffers. As for the old Austro-Hungarian threat, that has dissolved into a melange of weak nations, none of which can threaten Poland.

Under these circumstances, many Poles would argue that the dangers of life on the North European Plain have been abolished. From my point of view, there are two problems with this perception. The first, as I have said in previous essays in this series, is that Germany is re-evaluating its role within the European Union. This is not because the German leadership wants to do so; Germany’s financial and political elites are deeply wedded to the idea of the European Union.

But as with many elites worldwide after 2008, Germany’s elites have lost a great deal of room for maneuver. Public opinion is deeply suspicious of the multiple bailouts the German government has underwritten and may have to underwrite in the coming years. As German Chancellor Angela Merkel put it, Germans are not going to retire at 67 so Greeks can retire at 58.

From the point of view of Germans — and the least interesting views are expressed by the increasingly weak elite — the European Union is turning into a trap for German interests. For the Germans, a redefinition of the European Union is needed. If Germany is going to be called on to underwrite EU failures, it wants substantial control over the rest of Europe’s economic policy. A two-tiered system is emerging in Europe, one in which patrons and clients will not have the same degree of power.


A picture taken on April 1, 1943, shows men digging out bodies of Polish officers from a mass grave in Russia. More than 22,000 Polish officers were killed by Soviet security forces in the Katyn forest and other sites in 1940. (AFP)

Poland is doing extraordinarily well economically for the moment. Its economy is growing, and it is clearly the economic leader among the former Soviet satellites. But the period in which EU subsidies will flow into Poland is coming to an end, and problems with Poland’s retirement system are looming. Poland’s ability to maintain its economic standing within the European Union is going to be challenged in years to come. Poland could then be relegated to the status of client.
I don’t think the Poles would mind being a well-cared-for client.

The problem is that the Germans and other core EU members have neither the resources nor the inclination to sustain the EU periphery in the style the periphery wants to be cared for. If Poland slips, it will have the same sort of controls put on it that are being placed on Ireland. One Polish official made clear he didn’t see this as a problem. When I mentioned the potential loss of Polish sovereignty, he told me that there were different kinds of sovereignty and that the loss of budgetary sovereignty does not necessarily undercut national sovereignty.

I told him that I thought he was not facing the magnitude of the problem. The ability of a state to determine how it taxes and distributes money is the essence of the sovereign state. If it loses that, it is left with the power to proclaim national ice cream month and the like. Others, most particularly the Germans, will oversee defense, education and everything else. If you place the budget beyond the democratic process, sovereignty has lost its meaning.

Another conversation concerned Russian power. Again, officials emphasized two things. The first was that Russia was weak and not a threat. The second was that Russian control over Ukraine and Belarus was much less than imagined — neither is fixed in the Russian orbit. On this, I agreed partly. But they do want to limit Ukraine’s and Belarus’ options in foreign policy. They will not permit politico-military alliances between the two and Western nations. And they will insist on Russian army and naval forces’ having access to Belarusian and Ukrainian soil.

I do not find the argument about Russian weakness persuasive. First, strength is relative. Russia may be weak compared to the United States. It is not weak compared to Europe or Russia’s near abroad. A nation does not have to be stronger than its strategic requirements, and Russia is certainly strong enough for those. True, Russia’s population is in decline and it is an economic wreck. But Russia has been an economic wreck since Napoleon, if not before. Its ability to field military power disproportionate to its economic power is historically demonstrable.

I raised the question of European, and particularly German, energy dependence on Russia, and was told that Germany only imports 30 percent of its energy from Russia. I had thought it was 45 percent, but still, I see 30 percent as a huge dependence. Cut that percentage off and the German economy becomes unsustainable. And that gives Russia a great deal of power.

Finally, there is the question of German and Russian cooperation. As I have discussed before, the German dependence on Russian energy and the Russian requirement for technology has created a synergy between the two countries, something reflected in their constant diplomatic consultation. In addition, German questions about the future of the European Union have taken them on a more independent and exploratory course.

For their part, the Russians have achieved the essentials of a geopolitical recovery. Compared to 10 years ago, Putin has taken Russia on an extraordinary recovery. Russia is now interested in splitting Europe from the United States, and particularly from Germany. As Germany is looking for a new foundation for its foreign policy, the Russians are looking to partner with Europe.

The Polish leaders I spoke to all made it clear that they did not see this as a problem. I find it hard to believe that a German-Russian understanding does not concern the Poles. I think the real point the Poles are making is that they have no choice. When I pointed out the option of the Intermarium with American backing, a senior Foreign Ministry official pointed out that under the new NATO plan the Germans have guaranteed two divisions to defend Poland while the United States has offered one brigade. He was extraordinarily bitter on this score.

Following on the American decision to withdraw from a commitment to construct a fixed, permanent Ballistic Missile Defense installation in Poland and the tentative nature of a rotational deployment of a single Patriot battery, he saw this as a betrayal by the United States of earlier commitments. His charge was that there was no American commitment under the new NATO plan, or at least nothing credible.


Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, left, is welcomed by his Polish counterpart Bronislaw Komorowski in the yard of the presidential palace in Warsaw, Poland, on Dec. 6. Medvedev came to repair historically troubled relations between Poland and Russia. (AP)

Polish self-reliance, U.S.
Poland had been helpless for centuries, the victim of occupation and dismemberment. It had been free and sovereign in the interwar period. It had thrown away its sovereignty by simply depending on French and British guarantees. Guaranteeing Polish national sovereignty is first and foremost a Polish national issue. First, a nation does not give away control of fundamental national prerogatives, like its economy, to multinational organizations, particularly ones dominated by historical threats like Germany.

But most important, a nation’s sovereignty depends on its ability to defend itself. True, Poland cannot defend itself from a treaty signed by Germany and Russia, at least not by itself. But it can buy time. Help may not come, but without time, help can’t possibly come. Of course, Poland can decide to accommodate itself to the Germans and Russians, assuming that this time things will be different. It is a comfortable assumption. It may even be true. But Poland is betting its nation on that assumption.

My reading of the situation is that both Polish officials and the Polish public understand that they are safe for the moment but that the future is unknown. They also feel helpless. Poland is a bustling European country, full of joint ventures and hedge funds. But all of the activity only covers the underlying tragic sense of the Polish nation, that in the end, the idea of the Polish nation is not in Polish hands. What will come will come, and the Poles will make a heroic stand if worse comes to worst. Chopin turned this sensibility into high art.

Ultimately, I am an American and therefore less taken by tragic sensibilities than by viable strategy. For Poland, that strategy comes from the recognition that not only is it caught between Germany and Russia, it is the monkey wrench in German-Russian entente. It can be crushed by this.

But it can prevent this. To do that, it needs three things. First, it needs a national defense strategy designed to make it more costly to attack Poland than to find a way around it. This is expensive. But how much would the Poles have paid to avoid the Nazi and Soviet occupation? What seems expensive can be cheap in retrospect.

Second, Poland by itself is too light. As part of an alliance stretching from Finland to Turkey, the Intermarium, Poland would have an alliance of sufficient weight to matter that would be free from the irrelevancies of NATO. NATO was the alliance of the Cold War. The Cold War is over, but the alliance lives on like a poorly fed ghost administered by a well-fed bureaucracy.

Poland would need to coordinate with Romania, regardless of, say, Portugal’s opinion on the matter. This alliance requires Polish leadership. It will not emerge from it. But Poland must first overcome the fantasy that the 18-year-old European Union represents Europe’s millennial transformation into the peaceful Kingdom of Heaven. Eighteen years isn’t much time by European standards, and Europe has been looking unwell of late. If Germany bets wrong on the European Union, it will survive. Will Poland? National strategy is based on the worst-case scenario, not on hopeful understandings with transitory leaders.

Finally, the Poles must maintain their relationship with the global hegemon. Certainly, the last years of the Bush administration and the first years of Obama’s administration have not been pleasant for Poland. But in the end, the United States has fought three times in the 20th century to prevent a German-Russian entente and the domination of Europe by one power, whether that be Germany, Russia or a combination of the two. The wars were driven by geopolitics. A German-Russian entente would threaten the United States profoundly. That is why it fought World War I, World War II and the Cold War.

There are things the United States cannot permit if it can stop them. The domination of Europe by one power tops the list. At the moment, the United States is more concerned about ending corruption in Afghanistan. This fixation will not last. Of course, the United States runs by a different and longer clock than Poland does. The United States has more room for maneuver. Poland also has time now, but it must use it in preparation for the time when the Americans regain their sense of perspective.

The European Union might right itself, and what emerges could be a confederation of equal nations as originally planned. The Russians might go quietly into that good night. But the problem the Poles have is what they will do if the best case doesn’t emerge. I would argue that there is no nobility in a failure that could be avoided. I would also argue that if you listen carefully to the Polonaise, it is an invitation not only to survival, but to greatness.

The Polish margin of error is extraordinarily thin. What I found in Poland was not an indifference to that margin, but a sense of helplessness coupled with intense activity to do well while living well is impossible. But it is the sense of helpless fatalism that frightens me as an American. We depend on Poland in ways that my countrymen don’t see yet.

The longer we wait, the greater the chance of tragedy. The Germans and Russians are not monsters at the moment, nor do they want to be. But as Chopin makes clear, what we want to be and what we are are two different things, a subject to be considered in my concluding essay.

George Friedman is chief executive officer of Stratfor, a private geopolitical analytical firm based in Austin, Texas, and found at www.stratfor.com. This article can be found at http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20111202_geopolitical_journey_part_7_poland]]> United Kingdom ban may backfire on Kyiv Post http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/95155/ Letters to the Editor Wed, 19 Jan 2011 12:49:15 +0200 Editor’s Note: On Dec. 14, in response to a libel lawsuit filed against the Kyiv Post in London, the newspaper blocked United Kingdom users from accessing its website because British courts have taken a wide interpretation of jurisdiction in these matters. The libel law there is draconian in its restrictions on free speech and a movement is under way to change the libel law. More information can be found from The Libel Reform Campaign. (libelreform.org) RosUkrEnergo co-owner Dmytro Firtash filed the lawsuit (in response to a July 2) Kyiv Post article “Gas trade leaves trail of lawsuits, corruption.” The Kyiv Post denies Firtash’s accusations.
]]>
Personally, I have been a regular reader of the Kyiv Post ever since its launch and, particularly being U.K.-based, the online version is a useful source of information on Ukraine.

It was hugely frustrating to learn that access is blocked for U.K. users as a protest against the U.K.’s libel laws. I am sure the point has been raised by those who have already responded that it is simply the likes of myself and my colleagues – friends of Ukraine – who are losing out as a result of this. I have no idea whether this method has got the message across to the oligarchs, their barristers and the law courts, which I assume was your intention.

I admire and fully support the Kyiv Post’s stance on freedom of speech in Ukraine and you are playing a hugely important role in highlighting this. I just wonder whether, in this particular case, you could have made your point, yet avoided the “collateral damage.”

As I mention, the Kyiv Post is an invaluable source of information for myself and numerous friends and colleagues here in the UK. I would also like to state that the quality of the paper and its reporting has made huge strides in the past 12-18 months. However in this day and age, we do have access to a wide range of media from and covering Ukraine. Therefore I do hope that this action does not backfire by causing you to lose readership.

With hope that my access to kyivpost.com is restored very shortly.

Best wishes,

Stephen Butler
Director of Strategy/Managing Director, Ukraine
Adam Smith Conferences]]> United Kingdom readers sound off on Kyiv Post ban in response to libel law http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/94743/ Letters to the Editor Thu, 13 Jan 2011 23:10:35 +0200 Editor’s Note: On Dec. 14, in response to a libel lawsuit filed against the Kyiv Post in London, the newspaper blocked United Kingdom users from accessing its website because British courts have taken a wide interpretation of jurisdiction, allowing foreigners to bring lawsuits for anything on the Internet that is accessible to U.K. readers. The libel law is draconian in its restrictions on free speech. A movement is under way for change. More information can be found here.]]> Newspaper risks ‘alienating’ admirers

Dear Editor,

As an admirer and regular reader of the Kyiv Post, I have to say I think you are shooting yourselves in the foot over this [decision to ban United Kingdom traffic to the newspaper’s website].

Such bans invariably stifle freedom of speech - the very thing, you contend, you are concerned about.

As I understand it, such libel laws in the United Kingdom are under active review by the government and both leading politicians and media organizations have voiced their concerns.

By implementing such a ban on web traffic from the U.K., the Kyiv Post runs the risk of alienating its admirers and achieving little or nothing in return - far better for the Kyiv Post, along with other media outlets, to actively campaign for contentious libel laws in the U.K. to be rescinded.

With this in mind, it is important that its voice is heard. A ban does nothing to enhance this.

Quite the opposite. In my view, you have made a mistake and the best course of action is to immediately recognise it, win respect by acknowledging the fact and then proactively campaign for the judicious amendment of all such laws that curtail freedom of speech, wherever in the world they may be, (and there are plenty of candidates).

Kind regards,
Steven J. Hutchings
Editor, Sidmouth Herald
Exeter, United Kingdom



Why deny readers access to ‘excellent’ coverage?

Dear Editor,

While I am entirely sympathetic to your objections to the abuse of United Kingdom libel law by libel tourists, I am not convinced that this [blocking Kyiv Post access to the U.K.] is the best way to highlight the issue, or to drum up support for U.K. libel law reform.

You might consider, instead, directing readers in the first instance to your note of protest, including the link to libelreform.org, and then allowing them to click through to kyivpost.com.

Otherwise, all you are doing is denying readers who happen to be based in the U.K. - whether they are British or not - of access to your excellent coverage of Ukrainian news.

Best regards,
Franklin Steves
Political Counsellor
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
London, England



‘Please remove ban;’ Kyiv Post needed in U.K.

Dear Editor,

Please remove the ban on access to the Kyiv Post from the United Kingdom. It is the way that many people who work or have family connections in Ukraine keep in touch.

A free and accessible press is vital to the evolution of Ukraine towards becoming a real and open democracy.

This ban cuts you off from a country where many have the best intentions for Ukraine.

Best wishes,
Bill Wimbledon
Cardiff, United Kingdom



Ban does not help cause of free press, libel reform

Dear Editor,

Libel law at least allows the challenge of an issue in open court in a fair democratic societies where the truth is not state controlled and orchestrated by a puppet Russian government.

In the United Kingdom, journalists are free to work without fear of the [Security Service of Ukraine] SBU or police interviews and beatings to intimidate them and report without fear to their families and homes.

The Kyiv Post is an independent source of news to those in the United Kingdom and alienating them will only cause the fight for free press in Ukraine to go further underground.

Maybe you should rename the Paper the “SBU Post.”

Regards,
Simon Martin
Assessor
Highbury College Portsmouth, United Kingdom



Kyiv Post needs support of its U.K. readers, ban only makes it harder for them to help

Dear Editor,

In late 2009, as I was preparing to move to Ukraine, I discovered the Kyiv Post online as an excellent and informative source of news and information on current affairs and political developments inside the country.

The broad range of subjects covered and the frankness of the articles helped me “lift the lid” on Ukrainian life and the well-written English language articles triggered an interest in people, places and topics which I had never known about before.

Once I had arrived in Kyiv, the weekly printed edition quickly became a “must read” for me as it probably did (and is) for many other foreigners living in the city. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that I read the paper over-to-cover almost every week for most of the year and I hope I am much better informed because of it.

For this reason, and because I continue to follow events in Ukraine with considerable interest that I am disappointed with the recent decision to block all United Kingdom users from accessing your site.

Whilst I sympathize with the Kyiv Post’s position on this issue and I agree that the U.K. laws need updating to prevent them from being abused, I am not convinced that muzzling yourselves and restricting access for everyone in the U.K. is either correct or necessary.
Whilst I sympathize with the Kyiv Post’s position on this issue and I agree that the UK laws need updating to prevent them from being abused, I am not convinced that muzzling yourselves and restricting access for everyone in the UK is either correct or necessary."

- Ian Bearder, KP reader.

By blocking those of us in the U.K. who care about Ukraine, you lose your ability to influence debate here in the U.K. or to initiate discussion on the many important issues facing Ukraine today. Other U.K. citizens like myself will miss the opportunity to learn about the country. At a time when the U.K. and Ukraine should be coming together, they will (thanks to a lack of information) grow further apart.

There is no other English language news like the Kyiv Post. Such action also punishes your partners and advertisers by denying them exposure to a U.K. audience.

Finally, I would ask if it is necessary or fair to punish one segment of your readership (based purely on nationality) for a law with which the Kyiv Post disagrees?

Is it not similar to the Economist or the Financial Times blocking access to Ukrainian citizens because of the new tax code, or because of Ukrainian government’s own record on freedom of speech?

If the Kyiv Post is opposed to the U.K. libel laws and if it makes a clear and well argued case against such laws, people who read your paper will agree. If they agree and feel strongly about the issue, they are free to sign the petition and to contact their elected representatives.

Such campaigns may be cumbersome and slow to take effect, but with the right level of support (which this campaign appears to have) things can be changed and the laws can be updated.

In fact, with a new government in place in Westminster who are keen to hand power back to the people you might find renewed political support for such changes.

According to the website of the U.K. parliament, libel legislation was discussed on Dec. 1.

Answering questions on issues including libel tourism, Jonathan Djanogly, parliamentary under secretary of state, explained that the government is currently reviewing the law on defamation and as part of this review it is considering the problem of libel tourism.

If the Kyiv Post is opposed to the U.K. libel laws and if it makes a clear and well argued case against such laws people who read your paper will agree, and if they agree and feel strongly about the issue they are free to sign the petition and to contact their elected representatives."

- Ian Bearder, KP reader.

Interestingly he explained that “research conducted in the context of the libel working group’s consideration of this issue did not show a significant number of actual cases involving foreign litigants in the High Court in 2009.”

However, he did acknowledge that major problems arise “from the threat of libel proceedings by wealthy foreigners and public figures, which is used to stifle investigative journalism, regardless of whether actual cases are subsequently brought-hence the fact that the number of cases alone might not accurately reflect the extent of the problem.”

The U.K .government are therefore “considering possible options carefully” and looking at ways to “tighten the rules and practice in order to head off inappropriate claims at the earliest possible stage, in cases where court permission is required to serve a defamation claim outside England and Wales.”

If this is achieved, would this not solve the problem?

So, to liberate your news, to keep UK readers informed about Ukrainian affairs and to keep up the pressure on the UK government, can I suggest the following as a compromise:

1. Wherever and however possible, urge everyone in Ukraine (or anywhere in the world for that matter) who supports you to write to the U.K. embassy urging them to highlight the importance of this issue.

2. Encourage readers (especially U.K. readers) and interest groups to write to their elected representatives (http://www.theyworkforyou.com makes this very easy)

3. Remove the ‘block’ on your website but keep a re-direct in place which takes online readers to a holding page which explains your concerns and asking them to sign the petition at http://www.libelreform.org/sign. Once they have seen this page - let them continue to your site as usual.

You certainly have my support on this issue, and I am happy to sign the petition, but please, liberate your news.

There could be any number of issues on which you need the support of U.K. readers (even if we are small in number) and it is far better is you work with us instead of against us. After all, an eye for an eye would leave the whole world blind.

Ian Bearder
Oxford, United Kingdom

P.S. for a complete transcript of the parliamentary debate, click here.]]> Kyiv Post should rescind United Kingdom ban http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/94318/ Letters to the Editor Fri, 07 Jan 2011 12:08:19 +0200 Editor's Note:On Dec. 14, in response to a libel lawsuit filed against the Kyiv Post in London, the newspaper blocked United Kingdom users from accessing its website because British courts have taken a wide interpretation of jurisdiction in these matters. The libel law there is draconian in its restrictions on free speech and a movement is under way to change the libel law. More information can be found from The Libel Reform Campaign. RosUkrEnergo co-owner Dmytro Firtash filed the lawsuit in response to a July 2 Kyiv Post article "Gas trade leaves trail of lawsuits, corruption."]]> Dear Editor,

While I am entirely sympathetic to your objections to the abuse of United Kingdom libel law by libel tourists, I am not convinced that this [blocking access to the UK] is the best way to highlight the issue, or to drum up support for UK libel law reform. You might consider, instead, directing readers in the first instance to your note of protest, including the link to libelreform.org, and then allowing them to click through to kyivpost.com. Otherwise, all you are doing is denying readers who happen to be based in the UK - whether they are British or not - of access to your excellent coverage of Ukrainian news.

Best regards,

Franklin Steves
London, England]]> EU countries still discriminate against Ukrainians http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/94254/ Letters to the Editor Thu, 06 Jan 2011 14:10:56 +0200 Dear Editor,

Despite all the efforts done by the Ukrainian authorities to try and ease visa regulations for Ukrainian citizens, it seems to me that the problem is too rooted in the minds of the European Union authorities. It is like they still discriminate against Ukrainian citizens without any apparent reason.]]>
He had a registration certificate to a university in Spain and showed proof of payment for a student's residence in Spain for all the study period. Yes , you are right.....his student visa application was rejected by the Spanish Consulate in Kyiv!

When I heard about the rejection I was astonished as I know the guy's abilities. This is not only discrimination per se but it is also something deeper rooted in the minds of EU authorities. I am sorry that I don't share the optimism of many Ukrainians regarding the future Visa free travel to EU.

I just felt the compulsion to share this case with you as it angered me. The guy who was refused doesn't know that I wrote this letter to your newspaper. As a typical Ukrainian, he did not take the rejection to heart. He intends now to go to plan B: study in Italy.

Thank you,

Mario Fuhrer
Simferopol]]> United Kingdom ban won't help Kyiv Post http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/94195/ Letters to the Editor Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:01:17 +0200 Editor's Note:On Dec. 14, in response to a libel lawsuit filed against the Kyiv Post in London, the newspaper blocked United Kingdom users from accessing its website because British courts have taken a wide interpretation of jurisdiction in these matters. The libel law there is draconian in its restrictions on free speech and a movement is under way to change the libel law. More information can be found from The Libel Reform Campaign. Moreover, the U.K. libel law favors plaintiffs and is costly to defend. RosUkrEnergo co-owner Dmytro Firtash filed the lawsuit in response to a July 2 Kyiv Post article "Gas trade leaves trail of lawsuits, corruption."


]]> Dear Editor,

Libel law at least allows the challenge of an issue in open court in a fair democratic societies were the truth is not state controlled and orchestrated by a puppet Russian government. In the United Kingdom journalists are free to work without fear of the [Security Service of Ukraine] SBU or police interviews and beatings to intimidate them and report without fear to their families and homes. The Kyiv Post is an independent source of news to those in the United Kingdom and alienating them will only cause the fight for free press in Ukraine to go further underground. Maybe you should rename the Paper the "SBU Post."

Regards,

Simon Martin
Assessor
Highbury College Portsmouth, United Kingdom]]> Kyiv Post fan calls United Kingdom libel laws 'grossly unfair' http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/94131/ Letters to the Editor Tue, 04 Jan 2011 18:50:33 +0200 Editor's Note:On Dec. 14, in response to a libel lawsuit filed against the Kyiv Post in London, the newspaper blocked United Kingdom users from accessing its website because British courts have taken a wide interpretation of jurisdiction in these matters. The libel law there is draconian in its restrictions on free speech and a movement is under way to change the libel law. More information can be found from The Libel Reform Campaign. Moreover, the U.K. libel law favors plaintiffs and is costly to defend. RosUkrEnergo co-owner Dmytro Firtash filed the lawsuit in response to a July 2 Kyiv Post article "Gas trade leaves trail of lawsuits, corruption."

]]> Dear Editor,

Although taken very much by surprise, I was, with some difficulty, able to verify that the Kyiv Post's block on U.K. web traffic was genuine and also to access information on the reason for it. In this respect, it is worth mentioning that some of the difficulty arises from the block also covering all the archived copies of the Kyiv Post that I have retained.

The libel laws in England and Wales have been grossly unfair from time immemorial and blatantly favour those with financial muscle. (It would also be reasonable to point out that this country's law is not unique in the latter respect.) However, your use of the emotive phrase "the libel capital of the world" carries the implication that any external case is actionable in London. But the reality, presumably, is that the best way for the Kyiv Post to avoid speculative actions here is to have as few direct connections with Britain or British citizenship as possible.

The libel laws in this country are indeed likely to hinder free speech and journalism, (although this is not always the case and the statement in itself would be too simplistic). But one of their most basic flaws is that they permit actions which, instead of promoting fairness, encourage the unfairness implicit in forcing parties to back down simply because of the risk of financial ruin in defending the defensible. Nevertheless, the legitimate activities of journalists include passing on information without fear or favour and, at a time when things are happening in Ukraine which have potentially serious implications and which need to be made known as widely as possible, one has to question whether the block is itself in the best interests of both journalism and of Ukraine.

The Libel Reform Campaign is a worthy cause which, if it is going to succeed at all - and of that I have considerable doubts both from the perspective of un-writing law and political will - will take a very long time to achieve its aim. In the meanwhile, instituting a block which, if followed through, would need to be open-ended will simply stifle important information and, in terms of the campaign, is likely to have no beneficial effect whatsoever.

I can readily understand the paper's dilemma but, as I cannot access Kyiv Post information (assuming the block is retained), there is no purpose in my receiving further weekly digests from you. While I will continue to watch developments in Ukraine as best I can, I have, for reasons obvious from the fact that I read the Kyiv Post in the first place, some cause to doubt the accuracy of various of my likely alternative sources.


Basil G. Twigg
Aberystwyth, United Kingdom]]> United Kingdom reader wants Kyiv Post back http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/94061/ Letters to the Editor Mon, 03 Jan 2011 14:18:51 +0200 Editor's Note:On Dec. 14, in response to a libel lawsuit filed against the Kyiv Post in London, the newspaper blocked United Kingdom users from accessing its website because British courts have taken a wide interpretation of jurisdiction in these matters. The libel law there is draconian in its restrictions on free speech and a movement is under way to change the libel law. More information can be found from The Libel Reform Campaign. Moreover, the U.K. libel law favors plaintiffs and is costly to defend. RosUkrEnergo co-owner Dmytro Firtash filed the lawsuit in response to a July 2 Kyiv Post article "Gas trade leaves trail of lawsuits, corruption."]]>
Please remove the ban on access to the Kyiv Post from the United Kingdom. it is the way that many people who work or have family connections in Ukraine keep in touch. A free and accessible press is vital to the evolution of Ukraine towards becoming a real and open democracy. This ban cuts you off from a country where many have the best intentions for Ukraine.

Best wishes,
Bill Wimbledon
Cardiff, United Kingdom

]]> Kyiv Post should end United Kingdom ban http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/94058/ Letters to the Editor Mon, 03 Jan 2011 13:43:57 +0200 Editor's Note:On Dec. 14, in response to a libel lawsuit filed against the Kyiv Post in London, the newspaper blocked United Kingdom users from accessing its website because British courts have taken a wide interpretation of jurisdiction in these matters. The libel law there is draconian in its restrictions on free speech and a movement is under way to change the libel law. More information can be found from The Libel Reform Campaign. Moreover, the U.K. libel law favors plaintiffs and is costly to defend. RosUkrEnergo co-owner Dmytro Firtash filed the lawsuit in response to a July 2 Kyiv Post article "Gas trade leaves trail of lawsuits, corruption."]]>
Whilst I support your stance on freedom of speech and libel laws, I am somewhat miffed that you have blocked your site. How/when will I be able to read it? My wife's side of the family is Ukrainian and I also have strong ties having lived in Kyiv for four years and basing my novels there.

The Kyiv Post is a window on Ukraine which you have now blocked.

Please kindly raise the shutters.

Kind regards,
Alex Shaw
Author of "Hetman" & "Cold Black"
Worthing, United Kingdom

]]> Kyiv Post should find other ways to fight UK libel law http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/93151/ Letters to the Editor Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:14:19 +0200 Editor's Note:On Dec. 14, in response to a libel lawsuit filed against the Kyiv Post in London, the newspaper blocked United Kingdom users from accessing its website because British courts have taken a wide interpretation of jurisdiction in these matters. The libel law there is draconian in its restrictions on free speech and a movement is under way to change the libel law. More information can be found from The Libel Reform Campaign. Moreover, the U.K. libel law favors plaintiffs and is costly to defend. RosUkrEnergo co-owner Dmytro Firtash filed the lawsuit in response to a July 2 Kyiv Post article "Gas trade leaves trail of lawsuits, corruption."]]>
For this reason, and because I continue to follow events in Ukraine with considerable interest that I am dissapointed with the recent decision to block all UK users from accessing your site. *("The Kyiv Post, effective Dec. 14, 2010, is blocking access to all web traffic originating from the United Kingdom in protest of the draconian libel laws there that hinder legitimate free speech and threaten the work of independent journalists, authors, scientists and others worldwide. In a phenomenon known as “libel
tourism,” rich and powerful plaintiffs file lawsuits in London – “the libel capital of the world” – to exploit laws stacked in their favor, stifling journalism and threatening news organizations and others with costly lawsuits.") *

Whilst I sympathize with the Kyiv Post's position on this issue and I agree that the UK laws need updating to prevent them from being abused, I am not convinced that muzzling yourselves and restricting access for everyone in the UK is either correct or necessary. By blocking those of us in the UK who care about Ukraine, you lose your ability to influence debate here in the UK or to initiate discussion on the many important issues facing Ukraine today. Other UK citizens like myself will miss the opportunity to learn about the country and at a time when the UK and Ukraine should be coming together, they will (thanks to a lack of information) grow further apart.

There is no other English language news like the Kyiv Post. Such action also punishes your partners and advertisers by denying them exposure to a UK audience. Finally, I would ask if it is necessary or fair to punish one segment of your readership (based purely on nationality) for a law with which the KP disagrees? Is it not similar to the Economist or the Financial Times blocking access to Ukrainian citizens because of the new Tax Code, or because of Ukrainian government's own record on freedom of speech?

If the Kyiv Post is opposed to the UK libel laws and if it makes a clear and well argued case against such laws people who read your paper will agree, and if they agree and feel strongly about the issue they are free to sign the petition and to contact their elected representatives. Such campaigns may be cumbersome and slow to take effect, but with the right level of support (which this campaign appears to have) things can be changed and the laws can be updated. In fact, with a new government in place in Westminster who are keen to hand power back to the people you might find renewed political support for such changes.

According to the website of the UK Parliament, libel legislation was discussed just two weeks ago on the 1st December. Answering questions on issues including libel tourism, Jonathan Djanogly, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State explained that the government is currently reviewing the law on defamation and as part of this review it is considering the problem of libel tourism. Interestingly he explained that "research conducted in the context of the libel working group's consideration of this issue did not
show a significant number of actual cases involving foreign litigants in the High Court in 2009".

However, he did acknowledge that major problems arise "from the threat of libel proceedings by wealthy foreigners and public figures, which is used to stifle investigative journalism, regardless of whether actual cases are subsequently brought-hence the fact that the number of cases alone might not accurately reflect the extent of the problem."

The UK government are therefore "considering possible options carefully" and looking at ways to "tighten the rules and practice in order to head off inappropriate claims at the earliest possible stage, in cases where court permission is required to serve a defamation claim outside England and Wales." If this is achieved, would this not solve the problem?

So, to liberate your news, to keep UK readers informed about Ukrainian affairs and to keep up the pressure on the UK government, can I suggest the following as a compromise:

1. Wherever and however possible, urge everyone in Ukraine (or anywhere in the world for that matter) who supports you to write to the UK embassy
urging them to highlight the importance of this issue.

2. Encourage readers (especially UK readers) and interest groups to write to their elected representatives (http://www.theyworkforyou.com makes this very easy)

3. Remove the 'block' on your website but keep a re-direct in place which takes online readers to a holding page which explains your concerns and asking them to sign the petition at http://www.libelreform.org/sign. Once they have seen this page - let them continue to your site as usual.

You certainly have my support on this issue, and I am happy to sign the petition, but please, liberate your news. There could be any number of issues on which you need the support of UK readers (even if we are small in number) and it is far better is you work with us instead of against us. After all, an eye for an eye would leave the whole world blind.

Ian Bearder
Oxford, United Kingdom

PS, for a complete transcript of the Parliamentary debate, see:
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2010-12-01b.930.0#g930.1]]> UK reader unhappy about Kyiv Post block http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/92931/ Letters to the Editor Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:18:48 +0200 Editor's Note:The Kyiv Post, effective Dec. 14, has blocked access to all web traffic originating from the United Kingdom in protest of the draconian libel laws there that hinder legitimate free speech and threaten the work of independent journalists, authors, scientists and others worldwide. In a phenomenon known as “libel tourism,” rich and powerful plaintiffs file lawsuits in London – “the libel capital of the world” – to exploit laws stacked in their favor, stifling journalism and threatening news organizations and others with costly lawsuits. For more information, please log on to: http://libelreform.org/]]>
As a United Kingdom resident and a regular Kyiv Post online reader, I am writing to let you know of my dismay and disappointment that the web version of your newspaper is no longer available here. I know other people in the UK who access the KPsite feel the same way too. I fully understand the reasons for your block - the libel laws in this country are absurd, but I'm sure your decision was made with a heavy heart. Those who would use these English laws to put the squeeze on KP are merely revealing the frailty of their self-conviction and their inability to take criticism.

Perhaps we only appreciate things when they are gone. Keep up your good work, which is more important than we sometimes realise.

Levko Ivanytsky
Nottingham, England]]> Ukraine's Educaton Minister Tabachnyk aims to gradually close Kyiv-Mohyla Academy http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/92548/ Letters to the Editor Fri, 10 Dec 2010 11:34:39 +0200 Translation from Ukrainian To:

Viktor Yanukovych, President of Ukraine

Volodymyr Lytvyn, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

Mykola Azarov, Prime Minister of Ukraine
Open letter
from Serhiy Kvit, President of the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy,”
about the policies of Dmytro Tabachnyk, Ukraine’s Minister of Education and Science,
for authoritarian and centralized governmental control of higher education in Ukraine
and the degradation of science and learning in the country more generally.
Honorable Mr. President,
Honorable Mr. Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine,
Honorable Mr. Prime Minister of Ukraine,

On behalf of the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” I am addressing you with the purpose of informing you about current developments in higher education in Ukraine that, in our opinion, will lead to a self-imposed isolation of the country in the sphere of education, as well as to the unacceptable degradation of the nation’s science,
education, and economy.

The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine is presently engaged in hurried discussions of a Draft Law “On Higher Education” for Ukraine that threaten to inhibit the normal development of institutions of higher education by not providing them with sufficient autonomy to make it possible for them to attain a level of international competitiveness. This Draft Law includes a number of specific threats, the most important of which are the following:

1. Although there are references in the Draft Law to the subject of autonomy for the institutions of higher learning, it is uncertain what they mean exactly. We believe that responsibility for a university’s growth and development should fall on the university itself, and that therefore such institutions should be entrusted with broad academic, financial, and organizational freedoms for the task. The concept of academic freedom, in addition to basic scientific and educational components, also includes freedom for a university to define its own mission and objectives, and to develop a culture of critical thinking, cooperative action, and empowerment for students. Accordingly, institutions of higher education institutions should organize their activities and be able solve problems independently, while the state and society (that is, the public in general, employers of university graduates, non-government organizations, etc.) should assess the abilities of a university’s graduates and the quality of research that is produced there in the marketplace. De facto refusal of the idea that universities should be charged with responsibility for the quality on the labor market of the diplomas they grant, as is proposed by the Draft Law, conflicts with fundamental principles of both European and world higher education practices.

2. The potential for a market-based approach to the funding of universities is being obstructed in an attempt to maintain an unacceptable status quo in which the universities have at their disposal only those funds that come from the state. Such a situation prevents the normal development of universities and feeds corruption. Instead of diversifying the sources of income for higher education institutions, the current situation will continue the inefficiencies that are endemic to exclusive reliance on state funding for higher education, and will do nothing to reduce the impossibly heavy burden on the state budget that education needs now present.

3. A new “iron curtain” of sorts is being erected by the Draft Law between Ukrainian higher educational institutions and those of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) by virtue of how higher in Ukraine will fail to correspond with that in the rest of the continent: (1) the formal launching of a three-cycle system of higher education in Ukraine (Bachelor – Master - PhD) without creation of any genuine, structured PhD programs; (2) complete disregard for the ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) system; (3) disregard as well for agreed-upon standards that define steps for academic mobility for professors and students alike; (4) continuation of the structural obstacles that have prevented the launching of interdisciplinary academic programs in Ukraine; (5) confirmation of complete dependence of individual universities on higher education standards that would be set unilaterally by the Ministry of Education and Science; (6) the lack of opportunities for students to enroll in at least a bare minimum of elective courses in their chosen programs of study; (7) the lack of a national strategy for the life-long learning in Ukraine; and (8) the absence of any program for the Ukrainian academic community to master the English language, the common language for academic discourse around the world. This last item alone would make it completely impossible for Ukrainian higher educational institutions to be taken seriously and be competitive in the world arena.

4. New higher education standards are being formed without regard for the legitimate interests of potential employers of university graduates and without a strong understanding for the distribution of skills that will be needed in the national and local economies in the future.

5. A much-needed plan to decrease the number of higher educational institutions in Ukraine is being put forward with insufficient attention to the nature and quality of existing institutions. Indeed there is a blanket quantitative regulator being applied, one that is unknown in world practice – for example that comprehensive universities should have a minimum of 10,000 students, and that academies should have 3,000. Such a simplistic approach would exacerbate the problems of higher education in Ukraine by encoding arbitrary standards, as well as underscoring for all to see that Ukraine is not willing to institute positive reforms for genuine improvement of higher education.

6. There is no understanding in the Draft Law that reforms in higher education are directly connected with any university reforms per se, including creation of possibilities for universities to chart their own development and enact innovative activities. Likewise, there is nothing to stimulate new initiatives on the part of universities, nor to increase their academic responsibilities, including that for engagement in research, globally one of the most important activities at institutions of higher learning and a key component for measuring their academic quality. Therefore, special attention is needed in Ukraine to integrate science and education through a real “bridging” between higher educational institutions and the various research institutes of the Academy of Science of Ukraine. Moreover, unless the current very high teaching loads of university faculty members are significantly reduced, any hope for the development of a meaningful research component in the country’s higher educational institutions would be just a no more then empty words. The goal of the educational reforms should be the creation of high quality, competitive universities that would have positive influence on the development of the national economy within a context of a mission based on principles of social responsibility. In this way, our universities could participate as equals with foreign institutions in global discourse on educational and research matters.

7. The Draft Law is in conflict with the Program of Economic Reforms of the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych himself for the years 2010-2014 “Prosperous society, competitive economics, effective state,” because it completely ignores the issues of the Bologna process, academic quality, and our ability to be globally competitive.

The many experiences that North American, European, and Asian universities have had with educational reforms point to a different approach: there should be close-up and
professional-based cooperation and understanding between various branches of government, academic communities, and society as a whole. Without such an approach successful reforms can never be implemented, nor can there ever be commonly agreed-upon visions as to the goals of higher education.

Taking into consideration what I have mentioned above, I respectfully suggest that we discard this ill-conceived Draft Law that Minister Tabachnyk has put forward.

Serhiy Kvit
President of the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”
December 6, 2010]]> Human rights groups pen open letter on Ukraine's no show to nobel prize ceremony http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/92411/ Letters to the Editor Thu, 09 Dec 2010 11:05:38 +0200
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not make any official statements to explain the reasons for this position to the Ukrainian public and the international community.

Despite the lack of official statement, it would appear to be support for the People’s Republic of China which has shown extraordinary activity over the awarding of Liu Xiaobo. It is obvious that the unofficial explanation that the diplomat is at a meeting in diplomatic language means that the country is not prepared to say directly, but is indirectly protesting against the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The other countries that have declined the invitation are: China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Tunisia, Saudi-Arabia, Pakistan, Serbia, Iraq , Iran, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the Philippines, Egypt, Sudan, Cuba and Morocco. None of those countries can at present be called a model of democracy and respect for human rights. The list contains none of the member states of the European Union which Ukraine has declared it wishes to join.

The USSR in the past also boycotted or protested against the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Andrei Sakharov, Boris Pasternak, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Joseph Brodsky, and also persecuted those people for their convictions. Ukraine’s refusal to take part in the ceremony is essentially in the same category as those actions. Ukraine values more highly political and economic relations with China, then commitment to the values of human decency and freedom.

Liu Xiaobo is a true symbol of peaceful struggle against the authoritarianism of the state and wide-scale violations of human rights. He is a symbol to the whole world of the importance of observing human rights and defending democracy. Refusal to show solidarity with his actions demonstrates lack of understanding by the State of fundamental values for the existence of a democratic State.

According to Article 11 § 1 of the Law on the Principles of Domestic and Foreign Policy” from 1 July 2010, “Ukraine as a European non-affiliated State carries out open foreign policy and wishes to cooperate with all interested partners, avoiding dependence on particular States, groups of States or international structures.”

We consider that the lack of an official representative of Ukraine at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony for Liu Xiaobo will be seen by the EU and the international community as a move away from the principles of democracy and respect , and as a demonstration of solidarity with those particular countries which do not support the generally accepted concept of human rights and put forward their “own models” of interaction between the State and individual as a cover for authoritarian tendencies and infringements of human rights and fundamental freedoms.


The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union
The Institute for Mass Information

http://helsinki.org.ua/en/index.php?id=1291809113]]> Kyiv Post should be more balanced http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/91975/ Letters to the Editor Fri, 03 Dec 2010 00:26:59 +0200 Dear editor,

My name is Abe Lyons. I am an American living in Ukraine and receive whenever it comes out.

I really enjoy the insights and the other stories that your journalists risk life and limb for on a daily basis to report.

The world and Ukraine are benefitting from your great work.

However, I am a bit concerned with the color in which you tend to paint your articles.

That is to say, most of your staff are clearly not fans of President Viktor Yanukovych.

The tone in many articles is heavily geared against the work that Yanokovych is doing.

I did very much enjoy your article in a recent edition which allowed for components on both sides of the issue to have their say.

This was a step in the right direction. I myself am not a journalist, but I do know that there are always multiple ways to see the same issue.

As such, please keep in mind that however horrible Yanokovych may be in your eyes, there is always the other side.

It also seems to me that the job of a journalist is to present the information from an unbiased point of view at times: simply giving the facts and allowing the reader to make their own informed decision on the matter.

Now, I recognize that this is easier said than done. I am not sure if we can even actually report as such, but we can try.

This is not meant to be a hate letter. I will continue to read the quality paper that you all produce.

Please, however, take more opportunities.

Thank you, and remember that the middle is always an optimal place to be.

Thanks, Abe Lyons
Rohatyn, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast]]> Taxi drivers ripping off Kyiv visitors http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/91973/ Letters to the Editor Fri, 03 Dec 2010 00:24:28 +0200 Dear editor,

I picked up the Kyiv Post when I was in Kyiv recently. It was a good read.

As a recent visitor to Kyiv, which I loved and have recommended to my friends here in the United States, can I, however, make one remark - and that is about the taxi drivers.

We accept that, as tourists, we will beoverpriced.

Every single fare we took within Kyiv was always 100 hryvnias.

However, we felt cheated when we were charged a fare of 200 hryvnias from the Kyiv main railway station to Independence Square.

The taxi driver had his meter on and showed it to us. Clearly, it was a fake. We trusted him and the system, which was our mistake.

It was the only sour moment of a lovely week in Kyiv. Despite this, we found the people of Kyiv friendly and the city a real eye-opener.

Much more interesting than Moscow!

Yours faithfully, Michael Burton
London. England]]> Lozynskyj article does great disservice http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/letters/detail/91972/ Letters to the Editor Fri, 03 Dec 2010 00:18:08 +0200 Dear editor,

I was both amazed and deeply disappointed by the offensive and highly-uninformed tone taken in the recent opinion piece by Askold S. Lozynskyj entitled “How insensitive bigots continue to play Ukrainians and Jews against each other.” [Kyiv Post online, Nov. 8]

Lozynskyj does a great disservice to the Ukrainian people when he uses language that is both anti-Semitic and ignorant of historical facts when he tries to argue that there is an inherent anti-Ukrainian bias in the Jewish community or in the Jewish media.

While relations between the Jewish community and the Ukrainian establishment and the government are remarkably improved over past decades, the reality is that for the entire history of a Jewish presence in this country, we have been victims of countless pogroms, latent anti-Semitism and the murder of tens of thousands of our Jewish brothers and sisters.

The role of some Ukrainians as perpetrators in the Holocaust must never be denied but we also recognize that there were many Ukrainians who actively worked to save Jews and their heroic actions must always be highlighted.

The bottom line which Lozynskyj fails to appreciate is that for us ever to create a lasting sense of positive co-existence between Jews and the Ukrainian people, we must first confront history’s realities, however painful they might be, rather than ignore them.

Sincerely, Oleksandr Feldman
Member of the Verkhovna Rada, President of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee.]]>