She just can’t get enough of mixing her feminine mystique with her “L’Etat, c’est Moi” ideology.
PM/presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko: She’s with those who take a step forward. She’s with those who save people. She’s with those who can love. She’s with those who can forgive. She’s with those who love life. She takes pride in those who can be really strong. She’s with those who always reach their goals. She will win. She is Ukraine.
She puts on another vyshyvanka, wallows in people's pain and admits no wrongdoing. She sounds like an advance-fee fraud letter.
The Cinderella of the Orange Revolution wants a second chance. Wait, a third one! Oh, no, a fourth one! (depending on how many times you voted for her)
She waxes inspirational and nostalgic; She talks about faith and freedom; She says she knows people who spoke Ukrainian for the first time on Maidan; She says she knows people who sang the Ukrainian anthem with their hands over their hearts for the first time; (She definitely doesn’t know anyone who’d laugh at Putin’s jokes degrading Ukraine’s statehood); She reaches across the aisle to Yanukovych supporters who, too, craved freedom; She blames those who betrayed the Orange Revolution; (She doesn’t blame herself); She tells us not to feel sorry for the Orange Revolution; She promises to do it all over again if she has to; She recalls Natalia Dmytruk, police cadets, volunteers and two young protesters, from Donetsk and Lviv, who got married during the Orange Revolution; She makes fun of Yanukovych’s jail record and likens him to a bruised and battered dog named Lucky; She reminds us that freedom is worth the fight; She says there will be no going back to the oligarch past if she wins; She won’t let it happen.
Incumbent President Yushchenko: We’ve come a long way and we’ve been through a lot. We didn’t walk on water, nor did we walk on sunshine. There are achievements and there are mistakes. They’re hurting me. I’m a Ukrainian, a citizen, and, just like you, I’m a free person. Jockeying for power is not the meaning of my life. The meaning of my life is Ukraine. The meaning of my life is freedom. Freedom is like the sun: an ordinary wonder. You notice it when you lose it, when it’s gone. I want to forever preserve freedom for all of us. I want to forever preserve our state. I want to forever set fair and equal rules — for all. That’s why I’m running. I’m aware of the purpose. My choice has been made. Your choice will be made by you — because even now everything depends on us only. We must forge ahead. We cannot stop, lest our children, grandchildren and grand-grandchildren start over again. I choose a free, strong and just Ukraine. We’ll make it. And Ukraine will win.
Good point about taking freedom for granted!
So far, we’ve only gained freedom of speech. It’s a lot. But not enough.
Both claim they care about the people. One claims he cares more than the other.
Both belong to a caste that loves Ukraine at a rate of $40K per year (10 times Ukraine’s nominal GDP per capita) and change.
For them, change means millions of dollars worth of “unexplained money” that buys them luxury cars, watches, mansions, etc.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome MP Vladyslav Lukyanov (PRU) and his partner-in-loving-Ukraine MP Oleh Lyashko (BYuT)!
It all began Thursday morning with a routine tie-grabbing brawl, featuring Lukyanov and Lyashko. (Putin clearly missed out on this one.)
Lukyanov then used the occasion to criticize the Tymoshenko government’s refusal to raise pensions, a cause championed by the Party of Regions and President Yushchenko.
Using Lyashko’s battle-scarred tie as an illustration of Ukraine’s giant income distribution gap, Lukyanov led the emotional charge. Ukraine’s average monthly pension — Hr. 680 ($85) — pales by comparison to Lyashko’s tie, worth Hr. 3,000 ($375), Lukyanov hollered.
That’s the price quote that Lukyanov said he had heard from Lyashko in private.
Lukyanov claims to be the proud owner of an $11 tie, which he bought in Japan. Meanwhile, Lyashko argues that his tie costs about Hr. 500 ($63).
Two high-level/high-humor meetings took place in Ukraine on Thursday.
When Yushchenko met with Saakashvili in Kyiv, he spoke Ukrainian and misspelled Medvedev’s first name and patronymic as Анатолій Дмитрович (Anatoly Dmytrovych).
In Russian, that would be Анатолий Дмитриевич (Anatoly Dmitriyevich), an ass-backwards version of Дмитрий Анатольевич (Dmitry Anatolyevich).
Ukrainian President Yushchenko: Today, I made an appeal to the Russian President, Анатолій Дмитрович [Anatoly Dmytrovych]...uh...that they [gas agreements] be reviewed and canceled because their motive is not based on organizing symmetric market relations of two businesses regarding the issue at hand.
Spokeswoman Iryna Vannykova: Mr. President, you misspoke slightly. You said Анатолій Дмитрович [Anatoly Dmytrovych] when you should have said Дмитро Анатолійович [Dmytro Anatoliyovych]. I don’t know if it’s worth telling you...
Yushchenko: Oh... Vannykova [to Yushchenko]: OK, let’s wrap it up then.
Vannykova [to reporters]: OK, colleagues, thank you! The press conference is over. Thanks!
For some reason, Yushchenko chose not to correct himself even after his whispering spokeswoman quickly approached him about it.
When Tymoshenko met with Putin in Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine, later in the day, the two spoke Russian.
Putin didn’t behave like a guest. He behaved like a czar. And Tymoshenko behaved like his sweetheart.
Asked about Yushchenko and Saakashvili — and their pilgrimage to the Holodomor Memorial in Kyiv — Putin paraded his sense of Berlusconi 2.0 humor. Poking fun at Yushchenko’s support of Saakashvili in the Russia-Georgia of 2008, Putin built a cascade of jokes. One of them even had a Pushkin quote interpolated into it.
Putin’s joke about the danger that Saakashvili and his nervous tie-munching behavior could pose to Yushchenko elicited an outburst of laughter and admiration from Tymoshenko. See for yourself.
Russian PM Vladimir Putin: Uh...what our colleagues were doing, I have no idea, but I think that...uh...two presidents always have things to talk about: to discuss somethin', to go someplace* [smiles]: “The warriors recalled their days bygone, and all the battles they never won.”** Maybe that was that [audience explodes with laughter]. We...we’re going together to...we’re now going to...to a dinner...my colleague has invited me...to...I’d say we’ll be talking about...about Chekhov. Well...that’s it, I guess. Oh yes, what else can I advise and recommend? Uh...the two presidents would better have their dinner — should they have dinner — with their ties off.*** Ties cost a lot now. Heaven forbid...you know what I’m talking about [audience explodes with laughter].
Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko [gets excited, addresses Putin by patronymic]: Vladimirovich, I definitely can have dinner with my tie off!
Putin: Yep! Tymoshenko: Hahaha!
Putin: Ha, lest the guests will...gobble up Yushchenko’s tie!
*Reflects on Yushchenko and Saakashvili visiting the Holodomor Memorial, an issue in the reporter's question [full video available here]; **Quotes from Alexander Pushkin’s The Song of Oleg the Wise [verse translation mine]; ***Refers to Saakashvili’s tie-munching behavior.
Bravo! This comes as a sequel to the famous “mazurik” joke that Putin cracked about Yushchenko while meeting with Tymoshenko in Moscow in October 2008.
Putin and Tymoshenko should finally coin the term humor diplomacy.
Let's say Merkel goes to Russia and takes a pot shot at the Siege of Leningrad and the million of Russians who perished in the famine. Meanwhile, Hu goes to New York, Washington or Jerusalem and pokes fun at 9/11 and the Holocaust. How's that for a start?
Oh, by the way, Mr. Putin, thank you for your generosity! It’s a huge relief you won’t fine Ukraine based on those whorrible “we take, you pay” terms of the gas deal that you and Tymoshenko had signed last January.
You may now take off your tie and take your sweetheart to the finest restaurant in town.
PM Yulia Tymoshenko: I understood how, for many years, the country has been ripped off, how those miserly pennies have been taken away from the budget — one that’s barely making both ends meet for the healthcare system — and how, at egregiously overblown prices, medical equipment and medications have been procured.
When she returned the courtesy, she used the word tyrit (тырить — Russian slang/Putin-speak for steal).
Putin uses tyrit to describe what he calls Ukraine’s theft of Russian gas — every time Gazprom cuts off gas supplies.
PM Yulia Tymoshenko: I was surprised when I saw in the President’s tax returns some 13 hectares [32 acres] of newly acquired land in Bezradychi, Kyiv. I, too, think that, perhaps compared to the President, I look like a bum, because I haven’t snitched a single plot of government land while working as Prime Minister.
At a children’s hospital in Yevpatoria, he traded a cardiac monitor for a thank-you painting of a local landscape.
Presidential candidate Yanukovych: What do you call this device? Hospital personnel: Cardiac tomograph. Yanukovych: Cardiac...? Personnel: Monitor! Yanukovych: Cardiac monitor. Do you need a cardiac monitor? Personnel: Of course! Badly! Hahaha! Personnel: Here you go, so you can look at it periodically and recall being in a good workplace, where good people live, in a good city.
I love that Sainsbury’s: Where good food costs less plastic bag!
How about this one: Yanukovych’s: Where his life tastes good and your life costs less?
Tymoshenko has a roadshow of her own, but she can't get her numbers straight.
PM Tymoshenko, Vinnytsya, Nov. 10: Yesterday, when we looked at the data for every oblast, we saw that in Ukraine, on the whole, we have at least a fourfold drop in illness incidence compared to the peak dates of November 2-4.
Tymoshenko, Kyiv, Nov. 11: From November 8 to November 10, we see the figures rise...uh...almost threefold...well, more than two-and-a-half fold. This suggests that the epidemic today is not relaxing its grip.
The only way for the epidemic to relax its grip is for you guys to embrace our healthcare.
Presidential candidate Vasyl Protyvsikh: Money help came from, first of all, my friends, who are scattered all over the world, the rich ones. Yesterday, this pal of mine calls me from Chicago and says, “What can I do to help you? How can it be done?” (He’s been living there for 15 years; his wife is a professor at a Chicago medical university.) My relatives, my fellow villagers...
In other words, he’s telling us that the money comes from his own village and from Ukrainian Village?
Or maybe it comes from the guys who sang the “Ukrainian Bell Carol” in ER Season 2, Episode 10?
This man obviously got the best of our system. He now wants to get the best of those who want to get rid of that system.
He masquerades as the “against all” candidate. Meet Vasyl Protyvsikh, president of Ivano-Frankivsk Chamber of Commerce and a former chief of Ivano-Frankivsk Customs.
Presidential candidate Vasyl Protyvsikh: I was thinking about this question: Uh...the government is for the people, the president is for the people, the Verkhovna Rada in its entirety is for the people. Now who’s against the people that they’re so bad off? And all of this prompted me to, that is, express the will of the people who...who are against Ya [nukovych] and against Yu [lia/shechenko].
Changing his second name from Humenyuk to Protyvsikh (proty vsikh — against all) probably cost him a few hundred hryvnias.
Running for president costs Hr. 2.5M ($300K), a sum required of all approved candidates.
Central Election Commission registrars had a problem declining his second name but didn’t decline his application.
Some 2.73% voted against all in the September 2007 preterm parliamentary election.
In a tight and high-stakes presidential race, even 0.1% can be all that matters.
How much Protyvsikh will siphon and — and from who — remains to be seen.
Yanukovych brings 30,000 flu masks to Vinnytsya, with a promise of supplying the entire Ukraine with 20,000,000 more. (From Donbas? Wrong. From China!)
For him, touching base with swing voters in central and western Ukraine means greater chances of winning.
Tymoshenko brings equipment to a Lviv hospital.For her, losing western Ukraine means losing.
Kid [obviously recalling a nightmare]: ...a dog will come to me! PM Tymoshenko: Really?
That’s right! Our healthcare is a nightmare.
Meanwhile, people are peddling handmade flu masks on the streets of Kyiv.
Some even recall the unfortunate words Tymoshenko spoke during her October 24 rally.
PM Yulia Tymoshenko: And I know that when every one of you goes home, you will carry a piece of this good, wonderful infection of fighting for freedom to every village, town and city. Can you do that?
So far, we’ve had more freedom of infection than infection of freedom.
As of Friday afternoon local time November 6, we have seven confirmed H1N1 cases in Kyiv, including one fatality. Six infected people are fighting for their lives, including a 2-month-old baby and a 23-year-old pregnant woman.
She says we have no swine flu epidemic but enough material to produce 95 million masks in 10 days.
In the meantime, she readily accepts international aid and says the first H1N1 (or “California flu,” as she brands it) fatality has been confirmed in Kyiv.
Tymoshenko walks around and calls it California flu. (Read: Not Originated Here — Not My Fault.)
Ukraine entered the epidemic without appropriate test labs and thus had to send all its tests to the UK.
And by the way, now that the death toll has reached 71, our Sanitary Doctor General says there’s no swine flu epidemic in Ukraine — just the regular flu.
Meanwhile, people are dying because the hospitals don't have enough oxygenators. But who cares about oxygenators now that we have Tymoshenko's Louis Vuitton dresses, Yanukovych python leather shoes, not to mention their oligarchs’ cars, villas and jets.
Enjoy this you-are-not-alone-I'm-here-with-you-I’m-not-fully-responsible address.
PM Yulia Tymoshenko [1:49-2:30]: And therefore far from all acute respiratory diseases are the California flu. For example, out of 178,000 people who have gone down with the flu in our country since the beginning of the year, only 14 as of this moment are recognized as ill with the California flu. The third thing you need to know is that, according to World Health Organization statistics, only about a percent — one percent of California flu cases have lethal consequences. And that's only in cases when people sought medical help after a considerable delay.
What a relief! Too bad at least 328 Ukrainians who have died so far will never be comforted.
Now think about her terminology. She doesn’t say swine flu. She doesn’t say H1N1. She says California flu! Is that official WHO terminology?
On the one hand, she says she takes full responsibility. On the other hand, she says quite the opposite. She dilutes responsibility, something she’s done before.
Because the economic crisis originated outside Ukraine, it either didn’t exist or — once it hit Ukraine hard — was not her fault. Likewise, because the swine flu originated outside Ukraine, her crisis management faults are not her faults.
Forget about all the early warnings, memos, stats, acute medical supply shortages, drugstore stockouts, crazy prices, antique hospital equipment, lack of test labs, etc. She’s doing her best! Period.
At least 61 people are in critical condition. H1N1 has been officially confirmed in seven cases. Schools and kindergartens in nine oblasts have been closed: Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Zakarpattya, Chernivtsi, Rivne, Volyn, Khmelnytsk and Vinnytsya.
“Ukraine has entered a flu epidemic, of the so-called California (swine) type. As of October 29, we have 951 people hospitalized. Unfortunately, we have to note 30 fatalities,” Minister of Healthсare Vasyl Knyazevych said at a briefing Friday.
More recent reports bring the death toll to 37.
UPDATES Tymoshenko, Yanukovych and Yushchenko have canceled their campaign rallies. Interoblast movement will be restricted. Mobile military hospitals are on standby.
This Channel 1+1 report looks into an HMO in Irpin, Kyiv oblast, flooded with sick people who fear for their lives.
Every doctor gets 50 patients per day. The situation is deteriorating. An epidemic is going on but nobody will admit it officially.
The number of confirmed H1N1 cases has climbed to 11. According to online rumors, Kyiv disease control authorities will send helicopters spraying anti-H1N1 chemicals overnight.
As of Sunday morning local time, 48 people have died, 150,000 are suffering from respiratory diseases and 14 swine flu cases have been officially confirmed.
As of 13:01 local time, 53 people have died, 184,919 are suffering from respiratory diseases, including 82,691 children. Some 7,383 people have been hospitalized, of whom 123 are in ICU.
As of 5:00 pm local time November 1, 60 people have died and 191,431 are suffering from respiratory diseases.
As of Monday afternoon local time, 67 people have died. All deaths are alike, with 22 confirmed H1N1 cases as testing and autopsies continue, Deputy Minister of Health Vasyl Lazorshynets said.
As of 5:00 pm local time November 2, 70 people have died.
As of Tuesday afternoon local time, 71 people have died and some 255,516 are suffering from respiratory diseases.Contrary to earlier statements, the government now says there's no swine flu epidemic in Ukraine but a seasonal flu epidemic only.
As of 1:00 pm Wednesday local time, the first H1N1 fatality in Kyiv has been officially confirmed.
As of Thursday afternoon local time, the official death toll has reached 92, including 6 children, 4 pregnant women and 4 doctors.
As of Friday afternoon local time November 6, we have seven confirmed H1N1 cases in Kyiv, including one fatality. Six infected people are fighting for their lives, including a 2-month-old baby and a 23-year-old pregnant woman.
As of November 6, 135 people have died.
As of November 8, 144 people have died.
As of November 9, 155 people have died and 65 swine flu cases have been officially confirmed. A total of 969,247 have become ill with respiratory diseases since the epidemic's outbreak.
As of November 10, 189 people have died. Some 1,122,188 are suffering from ARVI, of whom 57,286 have been hospitalized.
As of November 11, 213 people have died. Some 1,192,000 are suffering from ARVI, of whom 62,000 have been hospitalized and 350 are in ICU.
As of November 14, 282 people have died (17 died during the last 24 hrs). Some 73,373 have been hospitalized since the outbreak (3,682 during the last 24 hrs).
As of early November 16, 299 have died (17 during the last 24 hrs); 1,364,939 have fallen ill since the outbreak (17,401 during the last 24 hrs).
As of November 17, 328 people have died; 1,457,000 have fallen ill since the outbreak (56,000 during the last 24 hrs).
MP Hanna Herman (PRU): When you’re standing, you feel some sort of movement. And we here are ready to take the first steps. MP Serhiy Kivalov (PRU): People were saying really sincerely that the only candidacy from the Party of Regions is Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych. MP Oleksandr Kuzmuk (PRU): There will be order in the country. Reporter Mustafa Nayem: What happens if Yanukovych doesn’t win? MP Nestor Shufrych (PRU): No way! MP Vladyslav Lukyanko (PRU): What? It’s unrealistic! You know, I think Ukraine will lose everything. Kharkiv Mayor Mykhailo Dobkin (PRU): Yanukovych will definitely win. It’s just a question of how much he scores in the first round and how much in the second one. Singer-supporter Taisiya Povaliy: But he will win! Dobkin: It’s a situation when Yanukovych will be competing with himself. Producer-supporter Ihor Likhuta [Povaliy’s husband]: All the candidates are decent people, but ours is the most decent one.
Vice Premier Oleksandr Turchuynov (BYuT): It’s a very serious event, one on which our country’s future depends. Singer-supporter Pavlo Zibrov: I’m a grown-up person and I made a choice, and those kids running back and forth are just making money, I think. Reporter Mustafa Nayem: Many are saying it’s a Maidan [protests] rehearsal in case Yulia Tymoshenko doesn’t become president. Turchuynov: You know, Maidan cannot be rehearsed, it cannot be arranged technologically. Either you have it or not. Our Maidan is in our hearts. MP Andriy Shevchenko (BYuT): Yulya is cute? Daughter: Yes! Turchuynov: [Welcome] Yulia Tymoshenko! Reporter: Don’t you have the reflex to shout “Yushchenko?” Shevchenko: Hahaha! Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko: No, [incoherent]. In 2004, Yushchenko was the only way for the country not to roll back. Uh...but it’s only idiots and corpses who don’t change their points of views. Reporter: What happens if Tymoshenko loses? MP Serhiy Sobolev (BYuT): I can’t even imagine.
Her real selling point doesn’t imitate Yushchenko’s 2004 slogans: “The rich will help the poor!” and “The bandits will be sitting in jail!” (Hahaha!) Nor does it emulate her party’s 2006 and 2007 slogans: “Justice does exist. It’s worth the fight!” and “She did it back then. She’ll do it again!” (Really?)
To counter these voter doubts, she armed herself with a panoply of endorsers and performers. On Saturday, they royally descended on Maidan, the heart of Orange Revolution.
Coming from all walks of life that lead to Tymoshenko, dignitary after dignitary waxed eloquent and lavished accolades on their president of choice. A cornucopia of promises, memories and sales pitches flooded a Maidanful of people, many of whom had traveled to Kyiv as party delegates by bus or train from all over Ukraine.
(Tymoshenko’s main rival had unleashed his yanucopia on Friday, delivering a just-name-it-and-claim-it stump speech at a Party of Regions convention. One can compare Yushchenko’s and Tymoshenko’s 2004 and 2009 open-air stump speeches to Yanukovych’s 2004 and 2009 members-only ones.)
Endorser:former foreign affairs minister Borys Tarasyuk
Ukraine Will Win!
Tymoshenko collected two endorsements from the European People’s Party (EPP): from Wilfried Martens and Antonio Lopez-Isturiz.
Endorser: Ruslana
Endorser: Borys Paton, 91, chairman of the National Academy of Sciences
The funniest one came from our former president Leonid Kravchuk — an ardent endorser of Yanukovych in 2004! For some reason, Tymoshenko decided that the man who had pissed away our nuclear arsenal, presided over hyperinflation and endorsed Yanukovych would be an asset to her campaign.
Endorser: former president Leonid Kravchuk
Finally, the Queen of the Night steals the show, in a vyshyvanka coat. Her speech, emotionally charged and long-winded, electrifies but a few souls.
At the opening, she credits herself with the blessings of Pope Benedict XVI and the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. A prayer, sung by Nina Matviyenko, follows.
After praying, Tymoshenko pays tribute to Ukraine’s heroes, thanks her team, recalls the Orange Revolution and calls for unity.
Then, she blasts Yushchenko and his hobbies. Later, she blasts Yanukovych and his oligarchs. She blames obstruction and corruption. She blasts and blames this and that. She forgets about her aborted grand coalition plans. She sidesteps her Draconian gas deal with Russia. She keeps mum on the Pedogate scandal. She pretends there’s no corruption in her own camp.
What struck me as novel amid these otherwise routine rhetorical escapades was her likening disenchanted voters to special needs people who still can win. Like Olena Yurkovska, the Ukrainian Paralympic biathlon champion who won four gold medals in Turin in 2006. What a nice analogy and pep talk! Coach Tymoshenko dissociates herself from her job, associates me with her failures and inspires me to push the envelope. (And push yet another ballot down her ballot box!)
It’s like saying, “Yeah, I screwed up. I didn’t deliver. But it’s all your fault anyway so shut up and take courage! Your disenchantment cripples you. Just vote for me one more time and you’ll be all you can be!”
She launches into an us-against-them diatribe and proceeds with a massive deja-vu stereotype-busting attack: Don’t think that all politicians are alike. They're not. She’s not like them! She’s moral and can be trusted!
To inject the masses with her “She’s Ukraine!” slogan, she levels with them:
Small business owners — fed up with red tape and bribery (while running her own small business in Dnipropetrovsk, she had to deal with bureaucracy and extortion);
Homebuyers — hard-hit by dollar-denominated mortgage loans (she hates the exchange rate);
Students — suffering from joblessness and homelessness (born and bred in a khrushchyovka, she knows how it feels; while a student, she jockeyed tires “twice my height” at night and, if elected, will make housing affordable, at low interest rates.)
What did I miss? Oh, yeah, she also talked about how she:
Reined in the energy and payments crises as vice premier in 2000-2001 crisis;
Ended up in jail for upsetting Kuchma’s cronies;
Kicked RosUkrEnergo’s and Vanco’s asses;
Boosted coal reserves;
Doesn’t care about approval ratings;
Cares about stabilnist only;
Loves the Ukrainian language;
Will feed the world with Ukrainian agriculture;
Will make Ukraine the most energy-efficient country in the world by relying on coal;
Will make Ukraine a full-cycle nuclear fuel state (no kidding, Uncle Sam!)
Will offer 10-year tax breaks to renewable energy producers;
Will restore justice;
Will build a Europe within Ukraine and maintain friendly relations with neighbors;
Will protect Ukraine’s national interests;
Will deliver everything she promised;
Expects winning the respect of future generations;
Has a dream like Martin Luther King’s;
And guess what? Her dream is to make other peoples’ dreams come true. (With other people’s money?)
She misspoke on the energy issue: “And everyone should know that if we burn coal instead of gas, we’ll triple the cost of heating and hot water for the people.”
She also burnished her idea of “dictatorship,” couching it in Putin’s “dictatorship of law” terminology.
PM Yulia Tymoshenko [final words]: And that’s why this election is a struggle for our Ukraine’ preservation, and not a struggle between politicians. And I know that it is Ukraine that will win this presidential election and it is she that will gain what she’s been waiting for for hundreds of years. And we all will be serving this right and truthful cause. And that’s why I want God to be with Ukraine. I want God to be with every one of you. And that’s precisely why, with great pride, I say: Glory to Ukraine!
I didn’t stay for the concert. I went home, along with throngs of other rally-goers. While not depressed, we were nowhere as cheerful as five years ago. Nobody had the heart to scream “Ty-mo-shen-ko!” again and again like we screamed “Yush-chen-ko!”
Obviously, some senior Ukrainian diplomats see little difference between diplomacy and prostitution.
Oleksandr Chaly: We really shouldn’t have inferiority, but we should understand that we’re a not-so-large state and we’re no match for Russia. Canada taught us, from 1998 to 2002, how to build relations with a big neighbor — because they have a history of relations with the United States. And the first thing they taught us: Remember that these relations are asymmetrical. And when Trudeau was asked how he was building relations with the United States, he said, “Very simple. Imagine you’re in the same bed: [pause] a not-so-large person and an elephant — and you have to sleep. If you accommodate the elephant, you’ll sleep very well.” [some applause] And we should understand this: That we’ll never make Russia accommodate us.
Sleeping with an elephant. What an enlightening realpolitik perspective from a senior Ukrainian diplomat and Yushchenko’s former deputy chief of staff! (As if one fake degree wasn't enough.)
Nitpicking aside, either the U.S. is questioning Canada’s sovereignty and territorial integrity — like Russia keeps questioning Ukraine’s — or I’m missing something important here. (That’s not to mention not-so-large countries like Israel, Pakistan, France and the UK and their anti-elephant nuclear deterrents.)
Mr. Chaly, do you prefer that the elephants use condoms while sleeping with us or do you prefer love at first sight?
Forget about Sen. Larry Craig. In Ukraine, sex offender suspects don’t get busted.
Even when it comes to child sexual abuse.
The lawlessness of our lawmakers knows no bounds. In June, MP Viktor Lozynsky (BYuT) hunted and killed an unarmed man. He then posed before the cameras and came close to being awarded for his party called assisting in the “capture of an armed criminal.” As a sign of goodwill, Lozynsky even filed a motion that his parliamentary immunity be lifted pending investigation. But once details of the shocking murder emerged, he ran away and remains on the run.
On top of this comes the case at hand: two kids, a boy and a girl, ages 12 and 9, sexually abused for three years by a number of people whom they may or may not have identified.
Those people are:
Three BYuT MPs: Serhiy Teryokhin, Ruslan Bohdan, Viktor Ukolov; Four Artek youth camp workers: Borys Novozhylov, Genrikh Ratt, Dmytro Lepeshev, Volodymyr Dunayev; An Orthodox priest: Vadym Payevsky; and The kids’ adoptive father: Dmytro Polyukhovych.
Some of the evidence presented so far appears to be incomplete or inconclusive. Claims regarding the MPs originated from the father, the prime suspect, while under arrest, as cited by the mother in the criminal charges. According to lawyer Tetyana Montyan, the kids corroborated these claims in a private conversation with her.
As of this writing, no charges have been officially made against the MPs, all of whom deny wrongdoing.
The videotaped orgies took place at two locations and may have involved other children:
At Artek, the famous Crimean youth camp. (The victims mentioned other children, in “old-fashioned clothes,” who came to Artek from orphanages and may have been involved.)
At a Kyiv apartment, which, upon examination, fit the victims’ description, according to earlier reports. (A more recent report, however, states that during a crime scene reconstruction on Saturday the boy neither denied nor confirmed being raped there.)
With 98% probability, polygraph tests confirm the kids’ abuse claims, as do child psychologists and medical examiners.Ukrayinska Pravda offers a transcript of the polygraph tests.
The mother, Olena Polyukhovych, in her own words, had noticed her kids’ depressed behavior sometime ago and even consulted psychologists but they, she says, weren’t able to determine the cause.
A psychologist consulted by Ukrayinska Pravda disputes this claim, arguing that the cause would have been all too apparent to a mother, let alone to a psychologist.
She filed the charges in Kyiv on April 16 but ended up sabotaged and, according to her claims, even threatened. Ukrayinska Pravda offers a copies of the medical examiner’s opinion and “no corpus delicti found” rejection letters from the police.
There's also a copy of the “seek help elsewhere” letter from the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights.
At that time, the mother was having an affair, trying to get a divorce and going through a custody battle of sorts.
According to conflicting claims, either she or her husband or her boyfriend told the kids about their adoption.
Finally, the story found its way to the public, leaked to various outlets and exploited by renegade BYuT MP Hryhoriy Omelchenko, a retired colonel, and by the Party of Regions. Viktor Yanukovych, leader of the Party of Regions, will be the main rival to PM Yulia Tymoshenko in the January 2010 presidential election.
Interestingly, MP Viktor Ukolov happens to be a Tymoshenko strategist, apparently responsible for her ubiquitous and heavily spoofed “They’re interfering. She’s working” ad campaign. Facing public scrutiny, he now has stepped down. In his latest blog on Ukrayinska Pravda, he described himself as a misled, disappointed and self-exiled friend of the stepfather, and one who wishes him justice.
Prominent Ukrainian lawyer and activist Tetyana Montyan talked to the kids and their mother. Speaking at a press conference Thursday, she said the kids have intimate knowledge of the abusers’ anatomy. And, as we all know, some of the suspects have parliamentary immunity.
Lawyer Tetyana Montyan: On July 7, this woman, having understood that, despite all this, nobody cares that her children were raped, writes petitions to the President, to the Prime Minister and to Commissioner for Human Rights Karpachova. Let me quote the reply from Karpachova’s office. The mother gets a letter from some employee Tarhulova from the secretat…secretariat of the Ombudswoman of the Verkhovna Rada (she acts as an adviser to the Ombudswoman): Tarhulova Iryna Herasymivna [family name, first name, patronymic]. “Dear Olena Valentynivna, your petition to the Commissioner for Human Rights has been reviewed. Let us inform you that your petition concerns inadequate pretrial investigation by an investigator of the investigation department of the Dniprovsk department of the Ministry of the Interior in the city of Kyiv, whereas oversight of the legality of pretrial investigations is the prerogative of prosecutorial authorities. Therefore, we’re forwarding your petition accordingly to the prosecutor of the Dniprovsk district of the city of Kyiv.” This woman Karpachova gets a petition, which you all have read online, citing all the possible facts pertaining to this case. That’s the reply of our Commissioner for Human Rights.
On Friday’s “Shuster Live,” Montyan shared her knowledge of the case, saying that the girl had confessed to being “touched” on April 16, 2009. Upon hearing this, the mother filed the charges immediately but criminal proceedings were not opened until August 14. Ukrayinska Pravda provides a copy of the criminal proceedings.
Montyan describes the mother as naïve, easily manipulated and sexually inexperienced — a perfect match for a husband-father-pedophile. He mentioned the three BYuT MPs while under arrest. The kids identified them based on photographs from the Verkhovna Rada website. In a private conversation with her, Montyan says, the kids referred to the three as “Uncle Seryozha,” “Uncle Vitya,” “Uncle Ruslan” and described their sexual behavior in detail. [diminutives for Serhiy, Viktor, Ruslan]
The kids’ identity, leaked to the public, will make their lives unbearable in Ukraine, Montyan legitimately concludes.After questioning the kids intensely, Montyan became convinced that their statements could not be the product of brainwashing.
An expert in child molestation cases, she would practically stake her professional reputation on the veracity of the kids’ claims.
Speaking with a trembling voice, Iryna Bohdan, wife of MP Ruslan Bohdan (BYuT), made a case for her husband’s innocence. She emphatically refuted the accusations, calling them “a strictly political game,” and expressed her and her husbands’ readiness to take a polygraph test.
In an interview with Ukrayinska Pravda, MP Sehiy Teryokhin went as far as to volunteer for a live broadcast polygraph test, provided so does the kids’ mother. He has also appealed to the Prosecutor General to open criminal proceedings against what he called the mother’s perjury.
How much of this accounts for a smear campaign and how much portrays a shocking case of child sexual abuse remains to be seen.
