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Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14 What to do on the day of lovers? Some couples inscribe their initials on padlocks and fasten them to a bridge near Mariyinsky Park. Others go searching for the perfect aphrodisiac. See stories in Lifestyle, pages 19 and 24.

Onopenko o speaks In a Kyiv Post internterview, the chief justice upreme of Ukraine’s Supreme e nation’s Court says the st courts have lost their independence under or President Viktor Yanukovych.

See story on page 8

www.kyivpost.com

vol. 16, issue 6

February 11, 2011

Libel Warriors Be careful what you say or write about two Ukrainian billionaires, Rinat Akhmetov (L) and Dmytro Firtash. If they really take offense, they might file a libel lawsuit against you in London, the ’libel tourism’ capital of the world, known for its lax protections of free speech. Critics are pushing for changes in English libel law, some of which would curb lawsuits by foreigners.

Rinat Akhmetov (L) and Dmytro Firtash greet each other on May 18, 2010.

The pair have a lot in common. They are billionaires, close to President Viktor Yanukovych and are fond of hiring top international lawyers to protect their reputations – even if it means filing libel lawsuits in London against news organizations, as Firtash did against the Kyiv Post in 2010 and as Akhmetov has done in the past. (UNIAN)

Akhmetov flexes muscle via lawyers

BY V L A D L AV R OV LAVROV@KYIVPOST.COM

As the richest of Ukraine’s rich, Rinat Akhmetov’s life today is unquestionably bright. But the 44-year-old businessman’s past – or rather, reports of a questionable past – keep popping up. When they do, they threaten to spoil the pretty public storyline of an enlightened billionaire philanthropist who puts his nation’s interests first.

Inside:

But there is no need to worry too much about Akhmetov. He is wellstocked with PR specialists and litigation-minded lawyers to keep his public image sparkling and to stamp out bad publicity. His legal team is quick to pounce on reports about Akhmetov that they consider to be libelous, scandalous or merely inaccurate. The lawyers also have a good track record of obtaining retractions, public apologies or libel settlements. Æ10

News Æ 2, 8 – 13 Opinion Æ 4, 5, 14 – 17

Advertising: +380 44 234-65-03 advertising@kyivpost.com

INSIDE: • Kyiv Post interviews former Foreign Minister Borys Tarasiuk.

Page 2 • Raid on prominent law firm sparks fresh fears about persecution.

Page 9 • London banker: Ukraine needs to work extra hard to get more investment.

Page 7

English libel law: ‘Embarrassment’

BY V LA D LAV R OV LAVROV@KYIVPOST.COM

London is considered the “libel tourism” capital of the world because of weak protections of free speech under English libel law. As a consequence, rich, powerful and famous individuals from all over the world have filed hundreds of lawsuits in London against journalists, publishers, scientists and others.

Even though neither plaintiff nor

Business Æ 6, 7

Employment/Real Estate/ Lifestyle Æ 19 – 29, 32 Classifieds Æ 30, 31

Editorial staff: +380 44 234-65-00 news@kyivpost.com

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defendant may be from the United Kingdom, judges in London have interpreted jurisdiction broadly – accepting cases in which only small numbers of people in the U.K. read the allegedly offending material in print or over the Internet. English libel law also offers broader protections of a person’s reputation, thereby curtailing what many regard as legitimate and robust free speech on matters of public importance. Æ12

2 News

FEBRUARY 11, 2011

February 11, 2011

www.kyivpost.com

Vol. 16, Issue 6 Copyright © 2011

by Kyiv Post The material published in the Kyiv Post may not be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. All material in the Kyiv Post is protected

by Ukrainian and international laws. The views expressed in the Kyiv Post are not necessarily the views of the publisher nor does the publisher

Tarasiuk: An ‘authoritarian’ Ukraine will never join European Union

carry any responsibility for those views. Газета “Kyiv Post” видається ТОВ “ПаблікМедіа”.

Щотижневий

наклад

25,000

прим. Ціна за домовленістю. Матерiали, надрукованi в газетi “Kyiv Post” є власнiстю видавництва, захищенi мiжнародним та українським законодавством i не можуть бути вiдтворенi у будь(якiй формi без письмового дозволу Видавця. Думки, висловленi у дописах не завжди збiгаються з поглядами видавця, який не бере на себе вiдповiдальнiсть за наслiдки публiкацiй. Засновник ТОВ “Паблік-Медіа” Головний редактор Брайан Боннер Адреса видавця та засновника співпадають: Україна, м. Київ, 01034, вул. Прорізна, 22Б Реєстрацiйне свiдоцтво Кв № 15261(3833ПР від 19.06.09. Передплатний індекс ДП Преса 40528 Надруковано ТОВ «Новий друк», 02660, Київ, вулиця Магнітогорська, 1, тел.: 559-9147 Замовлення № 11-3395 Аудиторське обслуговування ТОВ АФ “ОЛГА Аудит” З приводу розміщення реклами звертайтесь: +380 44 234-65-03. Відповідальність за зміст реклами несе замовник.

Mailing address: Kyiv Post, Prorizna Street 22B, Kyiv, Ukraine, 01034 Advertising tel. +380 44 234-65-03 fax +380 44 234-63-30 advertising@kyivpost.com Editorial staff tel. +380 44 234-65-00 fax +380 44 234-30-62 news@kyivpost.com Subscriptions Nataliia Protasova tel. +380 44 234-64-09 fax +380 44 234-63-30 subscribe@kyivpost.com Distribution Serhiy Kuprin tel. +380 44 234-64-09 fax +380 44 234-63-30 distribution@kyivpost.com Marketing Iuliia Panchuk tel. +380 44 234-30-40 fax +380 44 234-63-30 marketing@kyivpost.com

BY OKS AN A GRYTSENKO GRYTSENKO@KYIVPOST.COM

As President Viktor Yanukovych reaches the end of his first year in office, one of the clearest changes in Ukraine since he took over from his predecessor, Viktor Yushchenko, has been in foreign relations.

Yanukovych says he’s pursuing a course of European integration, while also nurturing relations with Russia.

After he ended Yushchenko’s efforts to join the NATO military alliance and signed an agreement to prolong the stay of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet on Ukrainian territory by 25 years, critics accused him of moving too close to Ukraine’s former imperial master.

But tensions in that relationship have recently come to the fore. Russia has refused to budge on longstanding Ukrainian pleas to reduce the price of critical natural gas supplies, or to abandon plans to build two pipelines to deliver gas to Europe which bypass Ukraine, potentially depriving Kyiv of millions of dollars in transport revenues.

The Kyiv Post spoke with two-time Foreign Minister Borys Tarasiuk, who now heads parliament’s committee on European integration, to find out where Yanukovych is taking the country, how successful he has been, and what the risks of his policies are.

Kyiv Post: If the current government is so pro-Russian, as many experts believe, why are their attempts to negotiate down the price of Russian natural gas imports taking so long and, so far, proving unsuccessful?

Borys Tarasiuk: Russia is acting in a rather unfriendly way toward the current Ukrainian government when it constructs the so-called North Stream pipeline and continues talking about construction of the South Stream pipeline – both bypassing Ukraine’s Europe-bound gas transportation system. Those projects will obviously cause harm to both Ukraine and the European Union, as they will plunge Europe into more gas dependence on Russia.

Meanwhile, Russian big business is eager to snap up its slice of attractive

Ex-Foreign Minister Borys Tarasiuk (L) and ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko share friendly words during a rally in Kyiv on Jan. 22 to celebrate Unity Day,. (Yaroslav Debelyi)

parts of Ukraine’s economy, just like our domestic big business groups. The authorities should realize that.

KP: Maybe they do already realize it. Recently in Davos, Yanukovych called Russia’s South Stream not a commercial project, but a “way to pressure Ukraine.”

Does this mean that Yanukovych and his team are starting to move away from Russia?

BT: I suppose our ruling team merged with Russia so closely that it is now finding it very difficult to drift apart from it. Realism is catching up to Ukraine-Russia relations. Alas Ukraine’s authorities are starting to realize that Russia will not be satisfied as long as an independent Ukrainian state exists. The mere existence of Ukraine as a state is a challenge for the Russian political elite. And the more Ukrainian authorities protect the country’s national interests, the worse relations between Ukraine and Russia will get.

KP: Yanukovych’s recent trip to Poland reconfirmed the impor-

tance of integration into the EU for Ukraine’s foreign policy. How do you view Ukraine’s current relations with Europe?

BT: I welcome that Yanukovych has conformed to Ukraine’s strategy of joining the EU, but declarations are no substitute for real actions. I doubt that a Ukraine where the Constitution and laws are violated, where the president is actually establishing authoritarian power, where the opposition faces selective justice, where political repressions exist, will ever join the EU. KP: But Ukraine is negotiating on an association agreement with the EU. Isn’t it a success?

The association agreement will really take relations between Ukraine and the EU to a new level, but it will not be an achievement of the current authorities.

They are only following up on what was laid out by their predecessors, including me.

The European Union refused for a long time to call the new agreement with Ukraine an agreement on association, but in 2009 the EU finally revised its stance. I expect that the association

agreement will be ready for signing in the second part of this year, and in one or two years it will be ratified by the EU states.

The visa-free regime was also laid out in 2005 when we abolished visas for EU nationals. In my opinion, the visa-free regime with the EU will be established in one or two years, provided the Ukrainian authorities go on fulfilling their obligations to Europe.

KP: What do you think about the attempts of Ukraine to intensify relations with China? Could China become our new strategic partner?

BT: Theoretically it’s possible, but in practice Ukraine hasn’t achieved anything new in relations with China.

When bilateral trade between our countries increases to $10 billion from the current $5 billion, then I will say that the current authorities achieved more than we did. But for now, I don’t see any innovations in Ukraine’s foreign policy.

Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at grystsenko@kyivpost. com

Fans say Euro 2012 ticket rule change makes it hard to watch favorite teams

BY M A R K R AC H K E VYC H RACHKEVYCH@KYIVPOST.COM

A ticket rule change coming into effect for the Euro 2012 soccer championship has the potential of limiting the match attendance options of countless fans wishing to root for a particular national team.

According to the rule change, only residents or citizens of a participating Euro 2012 national team can apply for the “Follow My Team” option in which ticketholders can book tickets for all matches played by their team.

This means, for example, that fans of the Ukrainian team residing abroad and who are not citizens of Ukraine will have to apply for individual matches instead or rely on relatives. In previous tournaments, including Euro 2008 and the 2006 and 2010 World Cups, any fan could have chosen the “Follow My Team” ticket package.

This rule will affect any of the

hundreds of thousands of British, American, Canadian and Australian citizens of Ukrainian descent who want to follow their team.

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) said the ticket rule change is “aimed at ensuring a festive and safe atmosphere in the stadiums,” adding that “a key parameter in the implementation of such security is based on the segregation of fans.”

UEFA also added that fans who are of Ukrainian or Polish heritage could apply for tickets for individual matches of their favorite team as it is already known where they will play their three group matches.

“Furthermore, and as every individual is allowed to apply for up to four tickets per match, they could also rely on relatives still living in their country of origin to purchase ‘Follow My Team’ tickets,” UEFA said in an emailed statement sent to the Kyiv Post.

Still, the rule change has some fans up

The Euro 2012 twin mascots, one wearing Ukraine’s national blue and yellow colors (R), the other Poland’s white and red, pose with children during a presentation in Kyiv on November 28, 2010. The Euro 2012 football championships will be jointly hosted by the two neighboring nations from June 8-July 1, 2010. (AFP)

in arms. British citizen and Ukrainian soccer fan Phil Howden called UEFA’s move a “disappointment.”

“I will now (have to apply) for the

games on an individual match basis and hope for the best, although this makes getting any ticket for the knockout stages … very difficult logistically,”

said Howden, who lives in the United Kingdom.

UEFA defended the move by mentioning the remaining ticket procurement options left for those who don’t qualify for the “Follow My Team” option, which include purchasing tickets through the ticket resale platform on its website.

“We think that there are still several options left for such fans and that it was therefore most appropriate to ensure minimum security risk by implementing fans’ segregation. This move should also have a positive impact on diminishing potential black market activities,” UEFA said.

Applications for Euro 2012 tickets are being accepted March 1-31 on UEFA’s website and will be selected via an independently audited lottery system in April.

Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at rachkevych@kyivpost. com.

www.kyivpost.com

3

February 11, 2011 Advertisement

European Business Association News

,EADERS 4ALK Leaders Talk: This week we talk to Rolf-Jan Zweep, CEO, ING Bank Ukraine PJSC

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www.eba.com.ua

*O 'PDVT Efficiency of the new Technical Regulation questioned

T

he new government’s initiative to regulate the market of consumer electronics may bring about more troubles and tribulations to the business community due to the nature of its implementation and many discrepancies with the Ukrainian and EU norms. Companies say that although Technical Regulation for EMC was approved back in July 2009, other essential documents which are normally adopted in advance before the enforcement date of any Technical Regulation, have been promulgated much later, which hurts massively their import procedures.

Technical Regulation for electromagnetic compatibility of equipment was approved by Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 785 of July 29, 2009, while the List of standards which in the event of voluntary application serve as the proof of product’s conformity with the requirements of Technical regulations, and amendments to the List of products subject to mandatory certification, in the context of implementation of Technical regulations for EMC had not been approved in due time before the Regulation’s enforcement.

Moreover, the day of its mandatory application was officially announced at the end of October 2010, i.e., two months before the day of Regulation’s mandatory enactment, leaving next to no time for companies to adapt to the new working conditions.

The EBA Consumer Electronics Committee members are deeply concerned not only with the discordant procedure for implementation of this document but also with its disagreement with the respective norms of the European Union and Ukrainian regulations. Besides, certain provisions of Technical Regulation for EMC are practically unfeasible both for companies, supervisory authorities and certification bodies.

The list of the discrepancies in the document is rather lengthy, which clearly minimizes chances for companies to comply and avoid penalties. Moreover, failure to harmonize Technical regulations for EMC with the respective European standards in full scope could put at risk signing by Ukraine of the Agreement on Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products (ACAA), whereas Technical regulations for EMC is one of those technical regulations whose complete harmonization is required for signing of the Agreement.

EBA Consumer Electronics Committee Member

“M

any’s the time I have received questions from our foreign colleagues: “Why should this Regulation be implemented and what benefit does Ukraine expect to receive?� In my personal opinion this is not connected with the willingness to ensure the quality of product imported to Ukraine and to check its “environment friendly� characteristics and other technical standards.

Nor will this Regulation lead to any technical standards improvements. I would also disagree with the claims that it aims to simplify and enhance product conformity control against technical IGOR Miroshnichenko standards. In reality, this Regulation creates more bureaucracy and paper work not only for all international companies which import to Ukraine but also for Ukrainian certification authorities.

What is more, the request of additional labelling in Ukraine is illogical and duplicates the control which the product undergoes before entering Ukraine, meaning the control according to the European standards. Logically, if the product is marked as the one compliant with the EU standards, it has to be enough for us as well.

Finally, the request to register EMC declarations and additional labelling in Ukraine creates extra bureaucracy and odd barriers, which surely does not improve country’s image and investment climate. Companies producing high quality innovative products compliant with strict and efficient international standards recognize that these changes in the Ukrainian legislation are likely to result in nothing more than increased paper work and related expenses. From my point of view it is just another attempt to reinvent the wheel.�

2%')/.!,.EWS Tourist fee introduced in Odesa City Council deputies introduced a tourist fee in Odesa, which was announced on Monday, 31 January 2011.

From now on, tourist fee payers are Ukrainian citizens, foreigners, and stateless persons, who arrive to Odesa and receive services of temporary residence, like overnight accommodation.

Tourist fee rate in Odessa comprises 1% of the fee collection base - cost of the whole residence period with VAT excluded. The right to charge these fees belongs to administrations of hotels, camps, motels, hostels for visitors and other institutions of hotel type and health resorts.

Moreover, the right of fee collection was granted to housing intermediary organizations, which transfer people for settlement to the lodging that are beneficially owned by individuals or are subject to lease agreements, and entrepreneurs, who charge fees under a contract, concluded with particular executive body of Odesa City Council. Tourist fee is not collected from people, who permanently live in the city pursuant to a lease contract, who arrived on a business trip or travel package. The exception also concerns war veterans, people who dealt with elimination of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant catastrophe, physically disabled people, handicapped children and people who accompany them. Due to the novelty the Odesa City Council expects to raise UAH 500 thousand as a tourist fee to Odesa budget in 2011.

EBA Aesthete Club The EBA Kharkiv Branch launched a new project – EBA Aesthete Club. The first meeting which was held in the Gallery of Modern Art hosted EBA member-companies representatives who had the chance to become familiar with the works of the honoured artist of Ukraine Mykhaylo Popov who presented the exhibition – “Nobody Drinks from Beauty�.

Art experts gave an overview of modern art and defined its two main sectors – realism and contemporary, the last one represented by pop-art and avant-garde.

Visitors of the exhibition had an opportunity to get acquaintance with the artist, see how he gets inspiration from the simple landscapes of his small motherland, plunge into the wonderful world of his paintings full of love to Ukraine, and network with colleagues.

7E LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR FEEDBACK AT

PGGJDF!FCB DPN VB

4 Opinion

February 11, 2011

www.kyivpost.com

Editorial Stop! Or I’ll take the whole pie from you!

Scorched earth It is clear that President Viktor Yanukovych and his allies are not merely satisfied with monopolizing power, but want to eliminate all real or imagined enemies who may conceivably pose a threat to them.

Who is most at risk of facing arrest or heavy-handed investigations under President Viktor Yanukovych’s rule?

If you believe Yanukovych, anyone who breaks the law should be afraid because he is combating corruption and lawlessness. His team denies persecuting foes and claim many of their own allies are either arrested or under investigation. They have never put names behind these numbers. Moreover, we don’t see any high-level officials from the president’s team facing investigations for obvious abuses. And those who occupy the highest law enforcement posts – interior minister, security service chief and prosecutor general – are more political hacks than competent professionals.

Instead, we see a couple of common denominators that make people targets of this administration: Allies of ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko are automatically suspect. A person moves up the enemies’ list further if they helped Tymoshenko squeeze out the murky, Swiss-registered RosUkrEnergo from the gas trade while she was prime minister from 2007 to early 2010.

Such is the fate of several former Naftogaz, State Customs or Justice Ministry officials behind bars or under criminal investigation. Some of them, including former Customs Service chief Anatoliy Makarenko and former Naftogaz deputy chief Ihor Didenko, have been in jail since last summer without trial or bail. The “crimes” appear nothing more sinister than carrying out Tymoshenko’s orders to acquire, on behalf of the nation, 11 billion cubic meters of gas from RosUkEnergo.

Tymoshenko said she acquired the gas lawfully as part of the Jan. 19, 2009 accords with Moscow that ended a three-week gas shutoff that left parts of Europe shivering. RosUkrEnergo challenged her claim in a Stockholm court.

After President Viktor Yanukovych’s election, close allies of RosUkrEnergo co-owner and Ukrainian billionaire Dmytro Firtash came to power. They include Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko, presidential chief of staff Serhiy Lyovochkin and Security Service of Ukraine chief Valeriy Khoroshkovsky, whose agency – in violation of elemental conflict-of-interest standards – led the way in investigating the case of the disputed gas.

As Germany’s Der Spiegel reported in an article reprinted by the Kyiv Post on Feb. 4, the Stockholm arbitration case became a farce after the new administration took control of Naftogaz and withdrew the nation’s claim to the disputed gas. The reversal left the court with only one choice: To allow a massive, multi-billion-dollar transfer of wealth from a poor nation to the wealthy private interests behind RosUkrEnergo.

Perhaps the highly volatile conflicts over natural gas explain why Magisters, the prominent Ukrainian law firm, suffered a police raid on Feb. 3 that was carried out with aggression normally reserved for violent criminals or drug dealers. Magisters served as legal counsel to Naftogaz in its legal dispute with RosUkrEnergo until Yanukovych took over.

Perhaps this rationale also explains why Firtash is suing the Kyiv Post. Our newspaper has reported extensively and fairly, we believe, on RosUkrEnergo. We are being sued in London for one of those news stories.

Taken together, these assaults on justice and fair play form a disturbing pattern that is, thankfully, gaining more international attention by the day.

At first, it was hard to fathom why the Yanukovych administration is engaged in such self-destructive attacks against political opponents and free press. But after RosUkrEnergo is factored in, it all starts making more sense.

These guys simply want to stay in power for a long time and, in their world, the best way to ensure their hold is to stamp out all enemies, real and imagined – hence, the scorched-earth strategy. They don't like people with long memories and who know what they've done. They probably don’t realize it yet, but their arrogance will be their undoing.

Editor's Note: Independent observers have noted a decline in democracy during President Viktor Yanukovych's one year in power. Pressure is being brought to bear on media outlets, including the Kyiv Post, which faces a libel lawsuit in London by Dmytro Firtash, the billionaire co-owner of RosUkrEnergo with close ties to Yanukovych's inner circle. The story in question was published July 2 and involved straightforward reporting about alleged corruption and conflict of interest in the gas trade. We have offered to correct factual inaccuracies and have invited Firtash's comments, but he has chosen litigation. This indicates to us that his aim is to silence the Kyiv Post as one of Ukraine's oldest and most respected sources of independent journalism. Since Dec. 14, the newspaper has blocked Internet traffic from the U.K. in support of proposals to improve free-speech protections of English libel law. More information can be found here: http://www.libelreform.org/ and more information about the Firtash lawsuit and the story in question can be found at http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/71733/

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Help! They are robbing me!

NEWS ITEM. Ukraine is pouring billions of dollars of mostly borrowed state money into overhauling the nation’s outdated transport, hotel and stadium infrastructure to host the Euro 2012 soccer championship. Only a handful of companies have won the largest contracts. The government has allowed contracts with no competitive bidding, justifying it as necessary to meet deadlines. The cost of building a stadium in Lviv has doubled while reconstruction of Kyiv’s Olympic stadium could double to $600 million and wooden benches for a Kharkiv metro stop cost $8,000 each. As critics raise questions about alleged abuses, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) recently backed off a threat to remove Ukraine as a host country after the nation’s soccer-crazed oligarchs pledged to end bitter rivalries over control of the nation’s soccer federation.

IMF loans only deepen unchecked corruption bankrupting nation VICTOR TK ACH UK

The government of Ukraine is currently negotiating yet another billion-dollar tranche of loan funding from the International Monetary Fund, the third tranche from a $15.2 billion assistance package. Will more IMF money help? Does Ukraine’s government deserve another bailout?

To answer these questions, let’s take a look at the big picture.

Ukraine is one of the poorest nations in Europe. Today, the national per capita gross domestic product is barely $3,000. In contrast, Ukraine’s immediate neighbor, Slovakia, has a gross domestic product 5.3 times higher.

According to the United Nations, 78 percent of Ukraine’s population lives in relative poverty while 12.5 million live on less than $3.50 per day. Ukraine is close to or at the bottom of just about every international performance indicator.

Apart from raw commodities, the country now produces very little at all.

The small-and-medium enterprise sector contributes less to the national economy than the European average; most of the economy is dependent on commodity production of an elite few.

Yet this country used to contribute more than 17.5 percent of industrial and 22 percent of agricultural production of the former Soviet Union. It was the breadbasket of Europe. It was the center of Soviet space and high technology, aviation, electronics, ship building, armaments and engineering industries. It was a real powerhouse. What has gone so wrong?

Æ Financial system leaks $10.75 billion a year through various schemes Some might blame the failure on the West for not providing sufficient support. Some might blame politicians for wasting time on national pride and ignoring priorities. Some might blame the people for preserving post-Soviet values.

But we believe that the real culprit is home-grown corruption.

Corruption is now endemic. It enables the elite to rape the nation of billions. At the bottom it is, in many cases, the only means of survival. For the last 350 years, Ukrainians have been fighting one oppressor or another. The fact that culture exists at all is a tribute to Ukrainian tenacity and survival skills. Yet these skills may well be their downfall.

Under the czarist empire, the communists and the Nazis, making the system work for you was a means of staying alive.

Today that tradition has continued to the point where fiddling with the system is considered normal. The problem is that the only people these modern-day patriots are stealing from is themselves.

The scale of corruption in Ukraine today is truly mindboggling.

The international financial watchdog Global Financial Integrity estimates that the Ukrainian financial system has been leaking $10.75 billion a year through Æ16

Feel strongly about an issue? Agree or disagree with editorial positions in this newspaper?

The Kyiv Post welcomes letters to the editors and opinion pieces, usually 800 to 1,000 words in length. Please e-mail all correspondence to Brian Bonner, chief editor, at bonner@kyivpost.com or letters@kyivpost.com. All correspondence must include an e-mail address and contact phone number for verification.

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Opinion 5

February 11, 2011

VOX populii WITH MARINA VARLAMOVA

If you had a chance to spend St. Valentine’s Day with any Ukrainian, who would it be?

Iryna Kolotylo, lawyer: “Even if it was possible, on Valentine’s Day I would like to have a date with my boyfriend. I think that he is the most interesting person in the whole world, and we would spend that day in some extraordinary, even crazy way.”

A homeless man in Kyiv grabs a bottle of beer on Feb. 2, 2010 in front of a campaign billboard of Ukraine’s Regions Party leader and then-presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych. (AFP)

Battle under way over nation’s image abroad Yanukovych critics Trip to Washington try to hoodwink exposes ugly truth foreign community about Yanukovych OLEH VO L O S H Y N

The political bloc of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is currently on a mission to delegitimize the new administration in Brussels.

In articles and statements, her supporters present an apocalyptic picture of today’s Ukraine, urging the European Union to consider threatening Kyiv with sanctions such as those recently imposed on Belarus. One recent article published on the EUobserver website talks about “severe restrictions on democracy and civil liberties ... absolute control of parliament ... pressure on journalists and civil activists ... new criminal prosecutions with a clear political motivation.”

These fantasies and unconfirmed allegations are an attempt to hoodwink the international community into believing that Ukraine is becoming some kind of police state. In fact, what is happening in Ukraine today can be described in one word: stabilization.

Simply put, democracy cannot survive without public order and the rule of law. Without these two elements a country will sooner or later fall into mayhem. Achieving stability after a period of lawlessness, in Ukraine or anywhere else, means two things: order

replacing chaos and fighting against corruption at all levels.

Two years ago Ukraine was in a very bad place, bordering on anarchy. The president was fighting with the prime minister while the prime minister was fighting with her governors. One crisis followed another with almost total disrespect for the rule of law. This vicious circle led to a gas crisis, which almost resulted in Ukraine becoming a gas slave to the Kremlin.

Events in Ukraine left many in the international community flabbergasted. Even the highly diplomatic European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, described Ukraine’s leadership as worse than that of some African chiefs.

While foreign leaders were being dragged into Ukraine’s political wars, the mass media presented this comedy, or rather tragedy, into a sensational spectacle for the world to enjoy – the final humiliation for a country sinking into a quagmire of corruption and economic disaster. If this shambles can be called democracy, then I am against such a thing.

In 2007 the EU demanded that Ukraine fulfill four conditions: 1) normalization of relations between different branches of power; 2) stabilization of relations with Russia; 3) economic reforms; 4) the fight against corruption.

Today, when all the EU demands are being met, Ukraine is suddenly being accused of rolling back on democracy. Is this not hypocrisy? Yes, Æ17

VOL ODY MY R A RIEV

From Feb. 1-4, a delegation calling itself the “Rapid Reaction Group” visited Washington, D.C. We traveled at our own expense.

The packed schedule included closed sessions with the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ambassadorat-Large Melanne Verveer (and others at the Department of State), Vice President Joe Biden’s Eastern European advisor, several individual congressional offices and senior foreign policy advisers at the Atlantic Council. We also had public sessions: one in Congress in cooperation with the U.S. Helsinki Commission, at the National Endowment for Democracy and at the National Press Club.

Summarized briefly, our delegation’s key points followed two basic themes and presented one request: The first theme was that President Viktor Yanukovych’s government is cracking down on basic freedoms and methodically developing a repressive state model in the image of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, which clearly contradicts the president’s stated aim of European integration and his repre-

sentations to Western officials and journalists.

The delegation described the Yanukovych regime’s aggressive and selective use of its prosecutorial powers to pursue a self-serving and malicious political agenda, and how Ukraine’s judiciary is completely compromised with its judges being beholden to the president.

The absurd case against Former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko (jailed since December on charges of misspending small amounts of state money involving his driver) was specifically highlighted. The delegation described it as an egregious example of why the West must watch what the Yanukovych government is doing and not what it says.

Likewise, the delegation gave examples illustrating that freedoms of press, religion, and assembly also are being threatened behind disingenuous government denials and presidential statements to the contrary.

Indeed, it is the style of the Party of Regions to use language that resonates with the West – and then to act in an opposite manner.

The delegation’s second theme concerned Ukraine’s civil society.

We pointed out that the strength and purpose of Ukraine’s civil society did not vanish as a result of the complete failure of the “Orange” governance team of ex-President Victor Yushchenko and ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

While we could not point to Æ16

Kateryna Cheredayek, economist: “I would definitely spend Valentine’s Day with my husband. I believe he would not understand me if I chose another Ukrainian. Frankly speaking, I want us to have a romantic dinner at a restaurant. We have not had a real date for a while, so spending time together would be the greatest gift for me.”

Oleksander Yatkevych, financier: “I would not choose any Ukrainian as I do not celebrate this holiday at all. I believe that Valentine’s Day is not of the Ukrainian origin and is not about real feelings, but about selling gifts.”

Olga Babak, engineer: “Our lives lack positive and memorable moments. I am glad that St.Valentine’s Day has come to Ukraine because it is a day of love, true feelings and sacrifice. A date with my boyfriend would be a perfect celebration.”

Artem Vasyuk, student: “If I had such a chance, I would spend this day with some famous football player as football is my hobby. When it comes to a romantic side of the holiday, of course, I would have a date with my girlfriend. Right now I have no idea how I would spend it, but it would definitely be a surprise, my girlfriend would always remember.”

Vox Populi is not only in print, but also online at kyivpost.com with different questions. If you have a question that you want answered, e-mail the idea to kyivpost@kyivpost.com.

6 Business

www.kyivpost.com

February 11, 2011

Source: Ukrtelecom priced ‘low’ for sale to lone Austrian bidder

Lviv Business School kicks off ‘Business Credo’ discussions Lviv Business School, a part of Lviv-based Ukrainian Catholic University, held its first Business Credo discussion on Feb. 3 at Kyiv’s Opera Hotel. The guest speaker at the event, the first of what are to be regular discussions on business topics, was Borys Gudziak (right), rector and head of the Ukrainian Catholic University.

Born in the U.S. of Ukrainian roots, educated in Europe and active in Ukraine, Gudziak’s talk focused on “the price of honor� in Ukraine, the nation’s business environment and society in general.

Widespread corruption experienced by Ukrainians in both education and business was discussed. “In the short-term, corruption is an easy way to get past difficult Ukrainian realities, barriers and bureaucracy. But in the long term, this process is destructive,� Gudziak said. The event was attended by more than 100 young Ukrainian professionals, top managers and politicians, including former Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov.

Natalia Popovych (left), president of Kyiv-based public relations firm PRP Group, moderated the event. (Oleksiy Boyko)

ÆOn the move LJUBOMIR MUDRIC joined

which barred participation by large European companies such as Deutsche Telekom, were designed to prevent competitive bidding. Analysts and experts have also speculated that Epic could be acting as a front for oligarchs. Epic denies the claim but said it would likely resell Ukrtelecom in the future for a profit. Another option is to bring in strategic investors as partners.

Ukrtelecom said this month its creditors, Credit Suisse First Boston and Deutsche Bank, were seeking early repayment of the balance on a $222 million loan extended in 2005 due to the expected change of control. It was immediately unclear if this development could derail the sale.

Controlling about 80 percent of Ukraine’s fixed-line market and having a relatively small mobile business, Ukrtelecom earned $6.1 million in the first half of this year, compared with a loss of $16 million in the same period of 2009. It has been slated for privatization for years but an initial public offering was delayed due to political wrangling and infighting. Estimates of its value have ranged from $1 billion to $3 billion.

Send On the Move news to otm@kyivpost.com or contact Oksana Faryna at 234-6500. It should include a photograph of the individual who has recently been appointed to a new position, a description of their duties and responsibilities, prior experience as well as education. Note: The Kyiv Post does not charge for publishing these notices or any news material.

OLDRICH ANDRYSEK

AstapovLawyers, a Kyiv-based law firm, as a partner.

Mudric will coordinate advising efforts in the areas of restructuring, strategic management, international capital market access, investments, mergers, acquisitions and corporate governance.

Prior to the appointment, Mudric worked as president and chairman of the board of Allseeds Group, an agricultural company.

Mudric studied international relations and law at the Kyiv National University of Taras Shevchenko. He also holds master degree in economics and international economic relations from the university.

Reuters, Kyiv Post Staff – A low-ball valuation of Ukraine’s dominant fixed-line telecoms operator Ukrtelecom could clear its sale to a sole bidder after a failed auction, Reuters reported on Feb. 8.

A company hired by the Ukrainian government has valued its 92.79 percent stake at $1.3 billion, almost the same as the auction starting price, a source close to the deal told Reuters.

Ukraine's State Property Fund could not immediately confirm the price.

Ukraine planned to sell Ukrtelecom at auction last December in what would have been the biggest asset sale one year into the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych. But the auction was called off after Austrian investment firm Epic submitted the only bid. The government ordered an independent valuation of the stake before making an offer to the bidder. “Everything has been decided and the sale will proceed but the fact that it is not taking place at an auction demonstrates that [Ukraine] is not welcoming real strategic investors,� said Oleksander Valchyshen, an analyst at Investment Capital Ukraine.

Some analysts say auction rules,

assumed responsibilities as the regional representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine.Prior to this appointment Andrysek worked as a chief of section in the division of international protection at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva. In 2007, he worked in Kyiv as UNHCR’s legal expert on the Soderkoping process, a cross-border cooperation initiative between countries on Europe’s eastern border.

Andrysek studied international public law at Universitas Carolina in Prague and completed Ph.D. research at the University of Utrecht, Netherlands

ROMAN SARAMAGA

VIKTOR PYNZENYK was

joined AstapovLawyers, a Kyiv-based law firm, as an associate in the international arbitration and litigation department.

In his new role, he advises clients on the sale of vessels, change of flag of vessels, arrest of ships, bunkering of vessels, questions of safety of navigation, and other matters. Prior to the appointment, Saramaga worked as an associate at Ukrrichflot.

He also worked as a junior associate at Arzinger and Partners.

He holds a master’s degree in international law from the Institute of International Relations at the Kyiv National University of Taras Shevchenko.

elected deputy chairman of the supervisory council of UkrSibbank bank.

He is a well-known Ukrainian politician and economist who has been elected to parliament five times, served as minister of economy, minister of finance, and deputy prime minister in different governments. Pynzenyk resigned from his post in Yulia Tymoshenko’s government in 2009.

He studied economics at Lviv State University and received a Ph.D. from Moscow State University.

We y V

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T

+ (38) 044 228 73 70

kiev@interdean.com www.interdean.com

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Business 7

February 11, 2011

Business Sense

Elizabeth Hafner, director for Russia and Eurasia at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Editor’s Note: Business Sense is a feature in which experts explain Ukraine’s place in the world economy and provide insight into doing business in the country. To contribute, contact chief editor Brian Bonner at bonner@kyivpost.com

WITH TIMOTHY ASH

Ukraine needs to work harder for slice of investment Businesses tell U.S. official about Ukraine agriculture sector pains Kyiv Post Staff and Reuters – Leading grain exporters this week raised criticisms of state interference in the grain export market with a senior U.S. trade official.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, which represents many of the largest grain exporters in Ukraine, discussed the “negative impact” of “heightened state involvement into the sector’s operations” with Elizabeth Hafner, director for Russia and Eurasia at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

The Chamber had earlier strongly criticized as “not transparent” the government’s procedure for handing out quotas to export grain after a summer

drought cut production. Several international companies did not receive allocations. In s statement following the meeting with Hafner, the Chamber warned that state interference could lead to “less investment into the sector, as clear signals are being sent that current investors are in the process of being pushed out of the market.

The Agriculture Ministry said on Feb. 9 it would review the country’s grain stocks to decide whether it needs to restrict grain exports for the remainder of the current season.

“We will re-examine grain stocks of our producers and will make a decision,” Agriculture Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk told reporters.

Raiffeisen: Chinese, Libyans eye Ukrainian agribusiness projects Reuters – Investors from China and Libya are interested in buying agribusinesses in Ukraine to secure food supplies, a newspaper quoted top Austrian investment bankers as saying.

“We have had a few requests from China and Libya, for example, who would like to make large acquisitions in the Ukrainian agriculture business,” Wirtschaftsblatt quoted Raiffeisen Investment AG (RIAG) management board member Wolfgang Putschek as saying in an interview published on Feb. 4. Another investor was eyeing solar energy producers, he said,

adding: “Money is no object for the Chinese.”

The investment banking arm of Raiffeisen Bank International is seeing a general upturn in mergers and acquisitions activity in Eastern Europe, Putschek and colleague Martin Schwedler told the newspaper.

“Compared with last year our pipeline for RIAG projects has risen more than 100 percent,” Putschek was quoted as saying. He estimated private equity funds had amassed 5 billion to 7 billion euros to invest in Central and Eastern Europe.

London-listed Avangard boosts 2010 egg output, prices down Reuters – Ukraine’s biggest egg producer Avangard said on Feb. 9 it had boosted egg output by 22 percent last year to 4.42 billion. But the company said in a statement its average sale price in 2010 was lower than expected because of a fall in demand for eggs during a record hot summer. Avangard said demand had recovered in the fourth quarter.

“Avangard’s cost base was not materially impacted in 2010 by the

high cost of grain in the Ukrainian market ... caused by the reduction in grain yields following the region-wide drought,” Avangard said.

Ukrainian analysts have said a fall in Ukraine’s 2010 grain harvest had caused a 50 percent rise in feed grain prices. Avangard, which sold 20 percent of its shares for $187.5 million in an IPO on the London Stock Exchange in 2010, said it had increased its exports last year.

Azarov: importers behind price spikes, import duties considered Kyiv Post Staff – Prime Minister Mykola Azarov on Feb. 9 blamed importers for pushing up the price of fuel. He hinted that duties would be brought in to establish fair competition on the oil products market, which he said had been distorted by importers’ control, allowing them to fix prices.

Domestic fuel producers had ear-

lier complained that competition from state-subsidized producers in Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan was making their refineries unprofitable. TNK-BP last month said it was shutting down its refinery, citing unprofitability.

The Fuel and Energy Ministry has said it is considering imposing duties on imported oil products.

Foreign direct investment flows can be a great driver of growth and structural reform – something Ukraine desperately needs, and the current government has said it is committed to securing.

Foreign companies supply capital and know-how and can act as catalysts for broader growth and development in an economy, generating export receipts and numerous jobs. Hubs of FDI also tend to create momentum towards broader institutional reform – legal, regulatory, banking and finance – and further development of infrastructure, such as roads and other transport connections that have a broader benefit to an economy and the country as a whole.

FDI can thus be a hugely powerful force for change. The big advantage of FDI is that it tends to be sticky. Foreign direct investors are usually in it for the long haul. They take a long time to make the decision to invest (by, for example, building a factory or buying a bank), but once invested they tend to remain in-country and do not leave easily or quickly.

Against this context it is interesting to note that one of the big and lasting impacts of the banking crisis has been the sustained collapse in FDI inflows to Eastern Europe, which contrasts with developments in other regions – Asia and Latin America in particular – where inflows have proven to be much more resilient. Indeed, across Emerging Europe FDI inflows are currently running around 40-50 percent lower than before the crisis.

FDI flows into Ukraine show a mixed picture. After peaking at $10-11 billion on an annualized basis in 2007-2008, they dropped to around $4.6 billion in 2009, but then appear to have recovered modestly to $5.7 billion for the full year in 2010. This still provided full coverage of the current account deficit for that year – $2.6 billion – which is encouraging. But we doubt, pending major state asset sales, that FDI flows will recover to anywhere close to their level in 2007-2008. This is a point of

Æ Across emerging Europe, foreign direct investment still lagging significantly from preeconomic crisis levels concern, given that with growth coming back on stream the current account deficit is beginning to widen again.

Indeed, the question for economies such as Ukraine and the broader region is will FDI flows quickly recover?

I tend to think not.

First, remember that a weight (perhaps 40 percent) of FDI flows into the region over the past decade have been bank-related. In the period 20052007 foreign banks were paying top dollar – including in Ukraine – for local banks. Clearly, given that many Western banks are now aggressively managing their own balance sheets lower, and given very high non-performing loans, appetite for further acquisition in the region is, and is likely to remain, much lower.

The risks in terms of banks still are rather that they cut and run from the region and hence we see outflows on this account. There is perhaps some upside in economies such as Ukraine and Kazakhstan, where Russian banks might be willing to acquire local banks to build presence in what they consider home markets. However, even cash-flush Russian banks are unlikely to want to pay top prices for banks in the region.

Second, the assumption that recession in developed markets would lead to the relocation of manufacturing capacity to Emerging Europe has proved false. Many Western manufacturing companies (particularly in autos) have received support from parent governments and hence have tended

to reduce capacity offshore, where it is politically easier to do so.

Third, weak growth prospects for the region, high and likely persistent unemployment (subduing domestic demand), and still relatively high wage costs and structural weaknesses make the region unappealing compared to Asia, Latin America and even Africa.

The region is also still viewed as prone to crisis, giving foreign direct investors another reason to put money to work elsewhere.

The upshot of the above is that the FDI cake for Emerging Europe will be much smaller, and countries in the region will have to work that much harder to compete for a slice of the cake. Given choice, foreign direct investors will tend to converge on those economies that offer the best investment environment, the best (low) tax regime, lower levels of corruption, less red tape and bureaucracy.

On nearly all these accounts, Ukraine scores poorly.

There is thus little time for complacency from Ukrainian policymakers as they work to resolve all these bottlenecks to FDI. With a much smaller FDI cake likely to be the lasting result of the banking crisis debacle, competition for FDI will be extreme.

Ukrainian policymakers will have to work that much harder to offer Ukraine as an attractive place to do business.

Timothy Ash is global head of emerging markets research at the Royal Bank of Scotland in London. He can be reached at timothy.ash@rbs.com.

In case you missed them, read the last five Business Sense columns by experts online at kyivpost.com Feb. 4 with Oleksandr Lozovyi, analyst at Kyivbased investment bank Phoenix Capital: “Economy in 2011: Hopeful prospects to brighten outlook” Jan. 14 with Jorge Zukoski, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine: “Grain export quota allocation lacks transparency, fairness”

Jan. 28 with Oleksiy Chernyavskiy, director of Energobusiness, a Kyiv-based consultancy: “Subsidized oil imports harm Ukraine”

Jan. 21 with Slava Vlasov, partner with the tax and legal department at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Ukraine: “Implications of new tax code still unknown”

Dec. 3 with Sergey Kuun, oil and fuel market expert at A-95 Consulting Group: “Import schemes in energy market cost state dearly”

Nov. 12 with Michael Lee, independent agricultural specialist: “Nation should not be in rush to lift moratorium on sale of farmland”

8 News

www.kyivpost.com

February 11, 2011

Under pressure, Onopenko wants chat with president criminal case against her was launched?

VO: After it was launched – no.

BY Y U R I Y ON YS H K I V ONYSHKIV@KYIVPOST.COM

Since Viktor Yanukovych took over as Ukraine’s president one year ago, he has systematically monopolized most levers of power in the country by putting loyalists in charge of all branches of government. The only major exception is one influential position in Ukraine’s judiciary branch. Vasyl Onopenko remains chief justice of Ukraine’s Supreme Court, a position he was elected to nearly five years ago when he was a political ally of current opposition leader and ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Last year, Yanukovych’s governing coalition tried to undercut the Supreme Court’s influence by adopting legislation that sharply cuts its authority. But the move drew strong protest from the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional matters. The commission is pressuring Yanukovych’s governing coalition to return lost authority to the court.

It remains to be seen if Yanukovych’s administration will do so.

Even if they do, however, Onopenko’s days at the court could be numbered.

He claims to be facing increasing pressure to step down, citing criminal investigations into his one of his daughters and his son-in-law, Yevhen Korniychuk, a former deputy justice minister, arrested last year and still jailed on abuse of power charges for not holding a competitive bid in the selection of Magisters law firm to represent state-owned Naftogaz, the energy monopoly.

In a Kyiv Post interview, Onopenko questioned the fairness of investigations into his relatives and pledged not to quit. He criticized last year’s judicial reforms saying they disrupted the balance in the nation’s judiciary system and called for a face-to-face meeting with Yanukovych.

Kyiv Post: You are calling for a meeting with Yanukovych. Is a date set?

Vasyl Onopenko: I did initiate such a meeting to inform the president about the real situation in the justice sphere after last year’s judicial reform. But a meeting has not yet been scheduled.

KP: Do you consider the raid by prosecutors earlier this month at the Kyiv office of Magisters law firm, in which your son-inlaw Yevhen Korniychuk once worked, as one of the investigations through which someone is trying to put pressure on you?

VO: I do not think so. I do not have and have never had any connection with this company. This company also had no relation to the Supreme Court of Ukraine. And Korniychuk left the firm long ago.

KP: You have said that criminal proceedings against your relatives are indirect pressure on you. What is the goal of those who resort to pressure you?

VO: There are two scenarios here: either to make me change my position as head of the Supreme Court, or to make me resign.

KP: Who do you think is behind such a plot?

BO: I don’t want to rush to judgment or speculation, but hope that a meeting with the president will help me clarify this.

KP: Political analysts say the pressure could be coming directly from deputy head of the presidential administration Andriy Portnov or the first deputy prosecutor general, Rinat Kuzmin. Do you see such an explanation as plausible? Both reportedly had conflicts with Korniychuk.

VO: As far as I am informed, there really were some personal conflicts between Korniychuk and these individuals. However, I am convinced that one cannot use official powers to resolve personal conflicts. This would be abuse of power. [Editor’s Note: Neither Kuzmin nor Portnov have responded to recent Kyiv Post interview requests.

Both were not immediately available for comment when called for response to Onopenko’s comments.]

KP: Don’t you think that in the centralized power structure that exists in Ukraine today, such pressure could not be approved without permission from the top, from President Yanukovych?

BO: I find it hard to judge. I need to meet with the president, above all to discuss the state of the justice system and the negative consequences of judicial reform. It has been six months since it was adopted. Its effects are obvious. Courts as judicial bodies and judges have lost their independence.

This is a direct threat to the judicial protection of human rights. As a result, the country and, therefore, the president as head of state, are losing credibility. Only those who aim to manually control the courts are benefiting.

Æ ‘Courts and judges have lost their independence’ – Vasyl Onopenko KP: The president, by law, has formal influence over parliament and the Cabinet, but not on the judicial branch. Hypothetically speaking, why would you, therefore, seek to talk with the president on these matters?

VO: The president is the guarantor of the constitution and human rights.

In fact, most of his powers extend to the executive branch, the police, which in the absence of an independent judiciary are becoming uncontrollable and therefore dangerous to society. At the same time, a president has certain powers to solve personnel and organizational issues of the judiciary. In addition, the president is a subject of legislative initiative and signs laws adopted by the parliament. So, altogether these powers give him an opportunity to influence the situation.

KP: Will you raise the issue of criminal cases against your relatives during your meeting with the president?

VO: This is not the main question of the meeting. The main thing I want is to inform the president of the problems that exist now in the judiciary branch.

Recently, during the official opening of

KP: Why not?

VO: As a parent, I do not want to complicate her situation. She is now suffering because of me. However, I am willing to help her resolve the civil dispute by paying off the loan.

President Viktor Yanukovych (L) and Supreme Court Chief Justice Vasyl Onopenko. (UNIAN)

the court year in Strasbourg, in which I participated on the invitation of the president of the European Court of Human Rights Jean-Paul Costa, I met with the European parliament commissioner for human rights, judges of the European Court of human rights and with the management of the Venice Commission. They are very concerned with the reduction of the level of judicial protection of human rights and liberties in Ukraine.

When the current law on the judiciary was discussed, I was the only one among top state officials to strongly oppose it. I told the parliament not to adopt the bill. I also asked the president to veto it. Then the president told me: let it work for six months and let’s see the results. Today we see the results are mostly negative.

The Supreme Court has been denied the ability to perform its constitutional function. No one guarantees the unity of case law and equal application of laws in state courts.

The Supreme Court, which previously did it, is now deprived of such powers. [Other] courts have gained status higher than the Supreme Court. For a case to get to the Supreme Court, you need permission from five judges of a high court to allow the Supreme Court to even review it. This does not exist anywhere in the world! It deprives citizens of access to the highest judicial body in the country and deprives the Supreme Court of the right to judge. If a high court does not allow the case to proceed to the Supreme Court, then citizens or legal entities have no other choice but to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

KP: Would you say that the Supreme Court of Ukraine may now be the last outpost of an independent judiciary in Ukraine?

VO: It’s true. The Supreme Court is the most competent, impartial and independent judicial body. It is the highest judicial instance that, according to the constitution, can make a final decision. But the current laws [adopted last year] prevent us from performing this role.

KP: But people in Ukraine’s business community say that you are one of the perpetrators of the system in which arbitration takes place outside the

court and decisions and court rulings can be bought. What do you say to that?

VO: No one can blame me for this.

KP: Then why do businesses, including foreign businesses in Ukraine, have such little faith in its domestic courts?

VO: I am not standing behind every single court. Such cases are ruled in economic courts. And I have nothing to do with economic courts.

KP: But they name you?

VO: They can name whoever they want to. Even the sun has spots on its surface. But I have nothing to do with arbitration in economic courts. This is a provocative question that should not be even asked. This is not the first time I said that those who are not satisfied with my firm position [regarding the judiciary] say things like that.

KP: Maybe the Supreme Court’s authority was limited because you have a different view, because you are not part of the loyal team?

VO: That’s what many experts, politicians, and journalists say.

KP: If the situation regarding your family does not change even after you meet with the president, how will this story end? What might be your next steps?

VO: My term as Supreme Court chairman ends in September. Until then, I have no reason to leave. Of course, these investigations against my relatives do not, from a psychological standpoint, contribute to a good mood.

When a criminal case is launched in what is a civil dispute (his daughter's alleged failure to pay back a loan), it is frustrating. How will it end? By closing down the proceedings in the case, because this is a civil, not a criminal case.

KP: Have prosecutors already contacted your daughter?

VO: This is a question for the General Prosecutor’s Office. My daughter, Iryna, is an adult and independent person who makes her own decisions and actions and should be responsible for them.

KP: Did you talk to her after the

KP: Back in December 2004, in the heat of the Orange Revolution, the Supreme Court played a big role in making a ruling that ordered a repeat vote in the disputed presidential election. You were not head of the court then. But if the justice system in Ukraine deteriorates further, could the court – now under your leadership – make any decisive decisions which could make a difference?

VO: First of all, as I’ve said, the Supreme Court has been, generally, deprived of the rights to make decisions as such. Secondly, even if the Supreme Court had this authority, I could not answer this question because decisions are made by all of the court’s judges.

Thirdly, you posed a hypothetical question, the circumstances of which are not known. Fourthly, some of these questions you posed are not a subject to review for the Supreme Court, but for the Constitutional Court.

KP: What will you try to achieve during your meeting with the president?

VO: There will be a more global discussion about the situation in Ukraine, criminal prosecutions, including arrests of people. This is not about my relatives. It’s about the general situation.

Cases regarding my younger daughter and the husband of my eldest daughter, Yevhen Korniychuk, are only specific examples of a general problem.

As a lawyer, I always held the position that arrest should be a last resort. As lawmaker, I introduced a bill according to which only those suspected in murder – that is people that may be dangerous to society – should be detained. But now in Ukraine we see the level of arrests to be the highest of all European countries.

KP: So you think you that Korniychuk should not have been arrested?

VO: Based on the circumstances known to me as a lawyer, I see no legal grounds for detaining and arresting Korniychuk. As far as my daughter goes, at issue is a common civil dispute.

She was ready to solve, to pay off the debt, but suddenly the legal action started. It turns out that paying back the loan was not needed. They needed to make a criminal case out of a civil one in order to discredit and pressure me through my daughter. On Jan. 31, they filed a lawsuit. The following day, the General Prosecutor’s Office launched a criminal case.

KP: Don’t you see the fact that Kuzmin signed the decision to launch a criminal case against your daughter as a signal of direct pressure upon you?

VO: I’m so often asked about pressure on me through this case. Each time I answer I have fewer reasons to say no.

Kyiv Post staff writer Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at onyshkiv@kyivpost. com

www.kyivpost.com

News 9

February 11, 2011

Law enforcement raid on prestigious law firm sparks more fears of persecution

BY P E T E R B Y R N E BYRNE@KYIVPOST.COM

A platoon of state prosecutors and armed police on Feb. 3 swooped on the offices of Magisters, one of Ukraine’s largest and most prominent law firms, conducting a 14-hour search and seizing records about the firm’s past legal work for Naftogaz Ukraine, the staterun oil and gas monopoly.

Magisters advised Naftogaz in the notorious international arbitration case in Stockholm during the previous government of ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. In the dispute, RosUkrEnergo and its co-owner, Ukrainian billionaire Dmytro Firtash, challenged Tymoshenko’s acquisition on Naftogaz’s behalf of 11 billion cubic meters of gas that had belonged to RosUkrEnergo.

After President Viktor Yanukovych took power, Magisters was removed from the Stockholm case and Naftogaz reportedly dropped its claim to the gas – resulting in a multi-billion dollar windfall for RosUkrEnergo after the Stockholm arbitration judge ruled in Firtash’s favor on June 8.

Tymoshenko had justified the state’s acquisition of the gas by saying it was part of an agreement with Russia on Jan. 19, 2009 that ended a nearly three-week shutoff of gas. Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom also owns 50 percent of RosUkrEnergo, the gastrading intermediary that Tymoshenko and others have criticized as unnecessary and harmful to national interests.

Firtash successfully argued that she had no right to acquire the gas, and found renewed clout as his close associates took positions of power in the Yanukovych administration.

Those include Serhiy Lyovochkin, the president’s chief of staff, and Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko, who served on the RosUkrEnergo coordinating committee.

After the Stockholm ruling, many people involved in Tymoshenko’s seizure of the gas have been jailed, arrested or come under criminal investigation for their role in removing the disputed gas from RosUkrEnergo.

Currently, seven former Naftogaz and State Customs officials involved in the dispute remain in jail or under investigation. The probes into all seven suspects are led by the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, the law enforcement agency headed by Firtash associate Valeriy Khoroshkovsky.

Prosecutors said the search of Magisters’ offices is linked to a criminal case, but refused to specify which one.

Yuriy Boichenko, spokesman for the General Prosecutor’s Office, said: “State prosecutors followed routine procedures for search and seizure operations pursuant to a criminal case.”

Magisters management and political analysts said the raid appears part of a pattern of intimidation of those who are not openly supportive of the government.

Andrew Mac, a managing partner who heads Magisters’ Kyiv office, said the show of force reminded him of

intimidating law enforcement practices that were prevalent in Ukraine more than a decade ago during the authoritarian rule of then-President Leonid Kuchma.

Volodymyr Fesenko, director of Kyiv-based think tank Penta, said the use of armed officers made the raid “look like an orchestrated exercise in harassment.”

However, even those not connected to Tymoshenko or the gas dispute are complaining of renewed heavy-handed tactics by law enforcement.

Dozens of businesses – foreign and Ukrainian – have complained to Kyiv Post staff in recent months about pressure from state authorities, including tax inspectors and customs officials. All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

Bullying lawyers?

Around 30 prosecutors and armed police barreled past security at the entrance to Magisters’ two-story office headquarters on downtown Kyiv on Feb. 3 at 1:30 p.m. Law enforcement officers in blue camouflage fatigues forced lawyers to wait in the lobby and began searching for evidence.

Magisters’ employees said they were denied access to communications for six hours. One pregnant employee was urgently rushed to hospital by ambulance during the raid.

The officers also prevented Kyiv Post journalists from talking with employees of the firm.

Andy Hunder, Magisters’ London-

Authorities have not explained why they conducted a Feb. 3 raid on Magisters law firm, but its lawyers represented state-owned Naftogaz when ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko acquired 11 billion cubic meters of gas on the nation’s behalf. The RosUkrEnergo gas trader on June 8 won a Stockholm arbitration court ruling to reclaim the gas.

based director for international development, said that prosecutors have refused to explain what they were looking for.

“We have always assisted them in any way we could with their investigations,” Hunder said. “Over the years, we have provided thousands and thousands of documents about our work for Naftogaz. … Prosecutors spent a considerable amount of time at our offices during 2009, but not in the guerrillastyle fashion we saw on Feb. 3.”

A family affair Lawyers at Magisters said the firm acted as counsel to Naftogaz (alongside White & Case) for many years until February 2010. White & Case continues to represent the state-owned gas company.

State prosecutors in recent months have expressed interest in the activities of Yevhen Korniychuk, a managing partner at the firm during the

early 2000s. Elected to parliament in 2006 as a political ally of Tymoshenko, Korniychuk went on to serve as deputy justice minister in her cabinet from December 2007 until March 2010. He was arrested on Dec. 22 for allegedly selecting Magisters in early 2009 to advise Naftogaz in the case without considering competitive bids.

Korniychuk – one of a dozen or so Tymoshenko allies to have been jailed since Yanukovych took office on Feb. 25, 2010 – has denied wrongdoing.

The 45-year old lawyer is also the son-in-law of Supreme Court Chief Justice Vasyl Onopenko. A former political ally of Tymoshenko, Onopenko is one of the last non-Yanukovych allies to retain a position of power in Ukraine. Earlier this month, prosecutors launched an investigation into one of Onopenko’s daughters for failure to pay back a loan.

Kyiv Post staff writer Peter Byrne can be reached at byrne@kyivpost.com

10 News

www.kyivpost.com

February 11, 2011

Many see harm to democracy, free speech in English laws Members of the media gather outside of London’s High Court of Justice on Dec. 16, 2010. (AFP)

Æ1

As a result, many news reports that delved into unflattering aspects of Akhmetov’s past have been pulled off the Internet, with or without a retraction.

He is not the only one of Ukraine’s elite to use threats and legal action to keep his image polished. Ukrainian billionaire Dmytro Firtash, for instance, has a pending libel lawsuit in London against the Kyiv Post for a July 2 front-page article involving allegations against him by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

But Akhmetov is by far the richest and the most powerful. In that sense, he leads the club of Ukrainian millionaires and billionaires who seek to improve their reputations while trying to sanitize or airbrush their pasts.

Akhmetov says he is justified in protecting his personal and business image from unfair, inaccurate and libelous attacks. But some critics think the true aim is to frighten journalists off investigative reporting that contributes to better understanding of public issues and public figures.

Akhmetov is a kingpin – a major backer of President Viktor Yanukovych, a leading member of the president’s Party of Regions and a member of parliament. He has a fortunate estimated recently at nearly $24 billion.

He is sole owner of Ukraine’s leading industrial and financial group, System Capital Management, with interests spanning from mining and energy to communications, media and football.

Akhmetov controls Ukraine’s leading Russian-language daily, Segodnya, and one of the top television channels, TRK Ukraine. In 2009, his football club Shakhtar Donetsk won the prestigious Union of European Football Associations cup.

But details remain sketchy about how Akhmetov got his start in business during the lawless capitalism of

the 1990s, when great wealth was up for grabs following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

And so questions linger.

Ironically, one of the few places on the Internet where Akhmetov addresses a key question about his past is the pro-presidential Party of Regions website.

In a 2006 interview posted on the website, Akhmetov is asked point blank: “There is lots of talk about your past, about your [alleged] connection with the criminal world. Will this not affect your work in parliament?” At the time of the interview, the once publicity-shy Akhmetov had just made the leap into politics after his election to parliament.

In his response, Akhmetov denied having a criminal past or links to criminal elements. He said no evidence has been discovered by law enforcement to back up such allegations. He said: “You know … what you say about my criminal circle … I run an absolutely legal business with an absolutely transparent structure of ownership.”

That interview came months after a senior Ukrainian law enforcement officer publicly described Akhmetov as a gangster.

In 2005, Serhiy Kornich, then head of the Interior Ministry’s economic crimes department, was quoted by Russian daily Kommersant and other journalists as saying that Akhmetov was “the head of [an] organized crime group.” Kornich left office without ever proving his sensational claims.

The controversies mainly involve one decade of Akhmetov’s life, during his rise to the top, from 1985 and 1995.

It was a bloody, violent time in Ukraine as rival groups battled for control of businesses and industries. For example, Akhmetov’s close associate, Akhat Bragin, was killed in what looked

Akhat Bragin, a former associate of Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, is a symbol of the nation’s lawless capitalist era of the 1990s. His murder – in a 1995 bomb blast near Donetsk’s soccer stadium – remains unsolved. (UNIAN)

like a mafia-style assassination. Bragin, president of the Shakhtar Donetsk soccer team, died when a bomb exploded at the stadium. The crime is unsolved.

Akhmetov eventually took over the soccer club and created a holding company for the industrial empire that belongs to him.

Rhode Island case A recent chapter in the “How did Akhmetov get his start?” saga took place in, of all places, the tiny American state of Rhode Island during last fall’s election campaign for state governor.

“I remember listening to the Buddy Cianci Show [on local 630 WPRO radio] and there was Ukrainian expert Taras Kuzio going on and on about [Akhmetov] … the man in charge of the foundation that Lincoln Chafee was on the board of,” said Betty Galligan, owner of Providence, Rhode Island-based PR and marketing firm Newberry. To put it mildly, Galligan recalls Kuzio’s references to Akhmetov

as unflattering.

The foundation in question was Akhmetov’s Foundation for Effective Governance, whose board of directors included then-independent candidate for Rhode Island governor, Lincoln Chafee, who went on to win the November election. Chafee, a former U.S. senator, disclosed that he earned up to $100,000 in consulting fees in 2009 from Akhmetov’s foundation.

Rhode Island journalists started checking into Akhmetov’s past and took particular note of the sensational 2005 remark about Akhmetov’s alleged “organized crime” ties made

by Kornich.

As Rhode Island journalist Jim Baron describes it, this bit of pre-election news was greeted by Chafee’s main opponents, Democratic Frank Caprio and Republican Robert Robitaille, as an early Christmas present, while local media began exploiting this issue like “children who found a new toy.”

Yet all the attempts by local journal-

ists to find evidence of wrongdoing

by Akhmetov led to nothing, not least because he has never been charged or convicted of any wrongdoing. Nor did the publicity and mudslinging prevent Chafee from winning the race.

Immediately after his election, Chafee resigned from Akhmetov’s foundation.

“The Ukrainian incident,” as local experts refer to it, came to nothing also in a literal sense. Stories about the controversy have been scrubbed from public view.

Within weeks, the original investigative article “International Intrigue: Lincoln Chafee Consults Controversial Ukrainian Billionaire” disappeared from the GoLocalProv website. Also missing was the audio file of the radio show featuring Kuzio, the Ukrainianfocused political analyst who publicly discussed the controversy surrounding Akhmetov. Two related news items also disappeared from the website. Æ11

In 2005, Serhiy Kornich (above) of the Interior Ministry accused Rinat Akhmetov of ties to organized crimes; no evidence exists to back up those claims.

www.kyivpost.com

News 11

February 11, 2011

Akhmetov becomes issue in Rhode Island governor’s election Æ10

Josh Fenton, publisher of GoLocalProv, told the Kyiv Post on Nov. 24 that the articles disappeared for technical reasons. But the Akhmetov’s articles still hadn’t reappeared months later. The representatives of 630 WPRO radio station wouldn’t return the Kyiv Post’s repeated requests to comment.

While not directly saying whether Akhmetov's lawyers got the reports retracted, the billionaire's spokeswoman, Elena Dovzhenko, said: "Perhaps the managers of the media outlets ... realized that their reporting was wrong, and took responsible action?"

In January, Akhmetov got the French daily newspaper Le Figaro to retract an unflattering description of him. In 2007, the Swiss daily Neue Zuricher Zeitung did the same.

London ‘libel tourism’ On Dec. 2, the Foundation for Effective Governance held a conference on freedom of speech. Attendees included Kim Campbell, former prime minister of Canada and also a board member of Akhmetov’s foundation, as well as Joe Lockhart, former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s press secretary.

The event discussed definitions of freedom of speech to its limits in different nations, also mentioning libel, an issue that Akhmetov could speak about with expertise.

With the assistance of lawyers from Washington-based Akin Gump Strauss & Feld and London-based Shillings, Akhmetov has filed two libel lawsuits in London’s High Court of Justice against Ukrainian publications.

In 2008, a London court awarded Akhmetov $100,000 after he objected to stories in the Ukrainian online publication, Obozrevatel, whose journalists investigated his early years by talking to his former classmates and neighbors in Donetsk. Earlier in 2008, Akhmetov used the Schillings lawyers to get a public apology from the Kyiv Post (then under different ownership with a different editorial team) for an opinion article.

Akhmetov’s United Kingdom libel lawsuits against Ukrainian media are singled out by the Center for International Media Assistance as defying jurisdictional logic. The report on libel tourism explains that the Kyiv Post had barely 100 subscribers in Britain, and Obozrevatel had almost no visitors in the United Kingdom and wasn’t even published in English.

Dovzhenko, Akhmetov's spokeswoman, said he has "only resorted to legal action when statements that are clearly false and harmful for his reputation are broadcast, for example, on the Internet and the [news media outlet], even after competent lawyers have shown their evidence, refuses to correct the record and remove the false statements."

But these lawsuits, Dovzhenko said, do not mean that Akhmetov is hostile to a free press. To the contrary, his spokeswoman said: "Mr. Akhmetov has expressed many times his position regarding the value of the freedom of speech for a democratic state and the responsbility for the use of information."

Dovzhenko also said that Akhmetov's press office "regularly talks and deals with all media, including ... Obozrevatel and the Kyiv Post. Therefore, the conclusion about 'chilling effect' for the Ukrainian media is not confirmed

Mark Stephens, the noted London media lawyer, represents the Kyiv Post in a libel lawsuit.

by actual communications of Mr. Akhmetov with journalists."

Justice for rich?

Akhmetov has explained his choice of the London venue for lawsuits in a way that doesn't flatter Ukrainian courts: "I don't want the process to be political. I want all parties of the case to be confident in the fairness and impartiality of the procedings."

Yet, according to the Center for International Media Assistance and other free-speech groups, London is a favored destination for libel lawsuits because of England’s notoriously weak speech protections.

In the United Kingdom, the good reputation of the claimant is valued more than the freedom of speech of the defendant. The burden of proof, moreover, is reversed in England: News organizations have to prove their stories are true, whereas, in many other nations, the subject of the story has to prove that the claims are false. Moreover, in America, for example, public figures cannot prove libel unless they show that the news organization deliberately and maliciously spread false information.

Moreover, the high costs of litigation in London make it almost impossible for small publications to defend themselves: Libel cases in London on the average cost 140 times more than in the rest of European Union.

According to Robert Sharp, who is with the London-based PEN charity, the U.K. libel framework originated two centuries ago and persists today.

“The libel law is two communication revolutions out of date,” Sharp said.

He traced original defamation laws as meant to prevent young aristocrats from dueling in response to slanderous accusations against them. In the 18th century, those accusations were often printed on leaflets. A system of fines had been established and, most bizarrely, true allegations were considered by the law as having more damage than false ones. In the United States, by contrast, truth is a defense against libel."

According to Sharp, the current libel laws are based on discredited principles: The claimant is automatically considered to have a reputation and the chances of getting a favorable verdict are high, even if the allegations by

the news organizations have substance.

In addition, Sharp said, most lawyers in media lawsuits would work on a “no win, no fee” basis. As a result, being on the losing end of a libel lawsuit costs $200,000 on average and can exceed $1.5 million.

Sharp, whose PEN organization supports the rights of writers, said the cases against Ukrainian media stood out even by London standards, where international libel litigation is quite common.

“People think it’s bizarre and counter-intuitive… Why would a dispute between Ukrainians [in Ukrainian publications] take place in the U.K.?”

Sharp said. “One could argue that the Ukrainian legal system might be inadequate, but after analyzing the cases and the statistics, it becomes clear that it’s the U.K. system that’s at fault.”

Sharp said a campaign is under way to amend the defamation laws governing libel and slander. Among the proposed changes: Removing the automatic assumption that a claimant has a reputation in the U.K. capping the legal costs that the defendant has to cover in case of losing and introducing the term “public interest,” which would allow journalists to publish unfavorable information about public figures such as wealthy businessmen, as long as the publication does its due diligence and gives people they investigate the opportunity to respond.

Meanwhile, some countries have started countering “libel tourism” on their own.

In August, U.S. President Barack Obama signed the so-called Freedom of Speech Act. It protects U.S. writers and journalists from overseas libel tourism by making impossible to enforce libel judgments that conflict with First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech.

The United Kingdom amendments are expected to be voted on later this year. In the meantime, journalists can do little to protect themselves from English courts. “I wish I could give a checklist of how to avoid being sued in London, but I am afraid, there is none,” Sharp said.

Keith Smith, a former U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania and an analyst with Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, might agree.

In 2007, Smith – who researches European energy issues – was approached by Akin Gump on behalf of Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian billionaire who co-owns the Swiss-registered gas-trading company RosUkrEnergo.

As Smith recalled, the lawyers discussed the possibility of a lawsuit in London for an interview published in Hungary where he discussed Eural Trans Gas, a gas trader incorporated on behalf of Firtash. In 2003-2004, this Hungarian-registered company served as an intermediary selling Central Asian gas to Ukraine.

To Smith, the damage the article could have caused in the United Kingdom was doubtful, since the interview was in Hungarian.

“The whole idea is to intimidate scholars and journalists from looking closer inside this company,” said Smith, who fought the case and hired a lawyer. In the end, he avoided a court case by admitting that he only had a copy, but did not see the original documents backing up his claims. Smith said the lawyers demanded that he admit a lie,

In this Nov. 2, 2010 file photo, independent candidate for Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee celebrates his victory with his wife, Stephanie, at his campaign headquarters in Warwick. Chafee, a former U.S. senator, came under attack during the campaign for his association with Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov as a board member of Akhmetov’s Foundation For Effective Governance. (AP)

which he refused to do.

Unlike Sharp from English PEN, Smith is more optimistic about the prospects for investigative journalism.

He cites changes in the U.S. laws and plans to amend the libel laws in the United Kingdom, as well as growing public distaste for wealthy people hiring expensive lawyers to go after media and non-governmental organizations,

many of modest financial means.

Unless changes in the English libel law happen, people the world over may have to live with less information, which is the lifeblood of democracies.

Or they can somehow hope that public figures will someday write truthful tellall autobiographies.

Kyiv Post staff writer Vlad Lavrov can be reached at lavrov@kyivpost.com.

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www.kyivpost.com

February 11, 2011

Rich turn London into ‘libel’ capital Æ1

The burden of proof, moreover, is shifted from the accuser to the accused – a reversal of normal standards of justice, in which the defendant is entitled to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

Also, because litigation costs are vastly higher in England than in the rest of the European Union, the playing field is tilted heavily in favor of the rich. Experts say that merely the threat of a lawsuit is often enough to get news organizations to issue a retraction and a public apology. Other times, defendants have no means to defend themselves and, consequently, end up losing the cases without a fight.

According to the report “Libel Tourism: Silencing the Free Press Through Transnational Legal Threats,” published by the Washington, D.C.based Center for International Media Assistance, the U.K. laws are ideal for “oligarchs, organized crime figures and wealthy businessmen to punish authors and journalists, regardless of the merit of their cases.”

The growth in defamation claims has sparked a public campaign to change the English law in a way that offers greater protections for speech and curbs the practice of “libel tourism” by foreign plaintiffs.

In January, the campaign got support from British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who described the existing law as an “international embarrassment” that is having a “chilling effect on scientific debate and investigative journalism.”

“It is simply not right when academics and journalists are effectively bullied into silence by the prospect of costly legal battles with wealthy individuals and big businesses,” Clegg said.

“Nor should foreign claimants be able to exploit these laws, bringing cases against foreign defendants here to our courts – even if the connection with England is tenuous. It is a farce – and an international embarrassment – that the American Congress has felt it necessary to legislate to protect their citizens from our libel laws.”

The British government’s draft legislation is expected in March.

The following are some of the most vivid recent libel cases filed or heard in U.K. courts. They were taken from news reports and the 2009 report “Free Speech Is Not For Sale” by English PEN, a London-based charity which defends the rights of writers, and the Index on Censorship:

Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky (L) arrives at the High Court in central London, on Feb. 9, 2010. (AFP)

descent, Saudi Arabia; Defendant: Elias Kifle, blogger, USA; Outcome: Pending.

Elias Kifle, an Ethiopian living in the United States, published a series of articles about Sarah al-Amoudi, the claimant’s 23-year-old daughter who resides in London.

The articles in question, which basically retold articles published in the U.K.’s Daily Mail, suggested that alAmoudi had been “married off at the age of 13 to an elderly and disabled senior member of the Saudi royal family as a gift.”

In addition, the articles mention al-Amoudi’s alleged financing of organizations linked to terrorist groups, and alleged involvement in the murder of his daughter’s supposed long-term lover in 2004.

The articles also suggested that alAmoudi “has been hunting for his daughter and his (supposed) granddaughter across London in order to ensure their execution in Saudi Arabia by the way of flogging, stoning to death or otherwise.”

In response, Kifle has launched a legal fund to help fight the lawsuit.

Bad science (2007-08)

Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi

The Saudi princess (2010) Plaintiff: Mohammed Hussein alAmoudi, businessman of Ethiopian

Plaintiff: Matthias Rath, vitamin pill manufacturer, South Africa; Defendant: Ben Goldacre, journalist, U.K.; and the Guardian, U.K.; Outcome: Case dropped.

Matthaias Rath, a vitamin pill manufacturer, had taken out full-page advertisements in South African publications denouncing AIDS drugs as ineffective, while simultaneously promoting his own supplements. Ben Goldacre, a Guardian columnist, raised concerns about these aggressive advertising strategies in articles in January and February 2007. Rath sued for libel.

Although Rath dropped the case a year later, the Guardian had by this time racked up legal costs of more than $750,000 with no guarantee that these would be recovered. While the Guardian was awarded initial costs of over more than $350,000, there

While the newspaper had only 100 subscribers in the U.K. at the time, the paper apologized as part of an undisclosed out-of-court settlement in February 2008.

Al-Arabiya (2007)

Plaintiff: Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz, businessman, Saudi Arabia; Defendant: J Millard Burr and Robert O Collins, authors; Cambridge University Press, U.K.; Outcome: Retraction and public apology received.

Khalid bin Mahfouz brought a libel claim in August 2007 against Cambridge University Press over “Alms for Jihad,” a book written by two Americans, J. Millard Burr and Robert O. Collins. The book examined how Islamic charities were used to channel money to Al Qaeda operations and linked Mahfouz to terrorism funding.

Although the authors disputed Mahfouz’s claims, Cambridge University Press decided to withdraw the book, rather than defend the action. Their intellectual property director, Kevin Taylor, told the Bookseller website that “it would not be a responsible use of our resources, nor in the interests of any of our scholarly authors, to Æ13

Plaintiff: Sheikh Rashid Ghannouchi, Tunisia; Defendant: Al Arabiya, Satellite News Channel, Dubai; Outcome: Judgment awarded.

A satellite television network, Al Arabiya, based in Dubai and broadcasting in Arabic, was successfully sued in London by Tunisian Sheikh Rashid Ghannouchi, the leader of the exiled An Nahda party, over a news broadcast that linked him to al-Qaeda and suggested that he was among Islamic figures being targeted in Britain in the wake of the July 2005 bombings in London.

The importance of the case is that the program was broadcast in Arabic, but was available via satellite receivers in the U.K. jurisdiction. Ghannouchi was awarded more than $250,000 in November 2007.

Cambridge University issued a public apology and destroyed this book after a libel lawsuit.

Obozrevatel loses (200708) Plaintiff: Rinat Akhmetov, businessman, Ukraine; Defendant: Obozrevatel, two of its editors and one of its journalists, Ukraine; Outcome: Default judgment.

Obozrevatel is a Ukraine-based Internet news site that publishes in Russian, with only a few dozen readers in Britain. This case was brought

by Akhmetov in relation to a series of four articles about Akhmetov’s youth, published in January and February of 2007. A default judgment in Akhmetov’s favor was obtained, along with damages of more than $75,000 and costs, in June 2008.

Matthias Rath

can be little doubt that the case was brought by Rath in an attempt to prevent journalists questioning his business activities.

Land grab (2007-08) Plaintiff: Rinat Akhmetov, businessman, Ukraine; Defendant: Kyiv Post, Ukraine; Outcome: Out-of-court settlement Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest citizen with a fortune recently estimated at nearly $24 billion, sued the Kyiv Post (then under different ownership with different editorial leadership) in London over allegations contained in an article published in October 2007. The opinion article alleged that Akhmetov had acted unlawfully in real estate transactions.

Alms for Jihad (2007)

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News 13

February 11, 2011

Powerful find London courts receptive to claims of libel Æ12 attempt to defend a legal action [in this case].”

Cambridge University Press posted an apology on its website, calling the claims made in the book “manifestly false,” wrote to libraries around the world to request that they remove the book from their shelves and paid out unspecified damages and legal costs. Tellingly, neither Burr nor Collins agreed to put their names to the apology.

An Icelandic Chill (20062008) Plaintiff: Kaupthing, Investment Bank, Iceland Defendant: Ekstra Bladet, Denmark Outcome: Retraction and public apology received.

The Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet was sued in London by Kaupthing, an investment bank in Iceland, over articles it had published that criticised advice the company had given to wealthy clients about tax shelters.

Kaupthing, through its solicitors Schillings, successfully claimed U.K. jurisdiction because some of the critical articles had been posted on the paper’s website, and had been translated into English. It was also noted that the chairman of the bank, Sigurdur Einarsson, about whom some of the articles were written, was resident in London.

Ekstra Bladet initially refused to retract the articles, but was eventually forced to settle the case before it went to trial. The paper had to pay substantial damages to Kaupthing, cover Kaupthing’s reasonable legal expenses, and was forced to carry a formal apology on its website for a month.

Jameel (2006) Plaintiff: Mohammed Yousef Jameel, businessman, Saudi Arabia; Defendant: Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal Europe; Outcome: Defendant prevails.

The Wall Street Journal reported on U.S. and Saudi government surveillance of the bank accounts of prominent Saudi citizens who were suspected of channelling funds to terror groups.

On a supplementary, hyper-linked web page, Yousef Jameel was among those named as being monitored. He subsequently brought proceedings against the American publisher in London.

During the case, it transpired that only five people in the U.K. had downloaded the list of names, three of whom were associated with the claimant.

Despite this, jurisdiction was accepted by the English courts, and a jury found that the article was defamatory of Jameel. On final appeal to the House of Lords, it was held that the Court of Appeals had denied the Wall Street Journal the chance to show its article was in the public interest. Baroness Hale, in her judgment, said that serious journalism is to be encouraged.

Slave (2005-08) Plaintiff: Abdel Mahmoud Al Koronky, former diplomat, and his wife, Sudan; Defendant: Little, Brown, publishers, U.K.; Outcome: Case dismissed.

Mende Nazer published an account of her experiences in Khartoum and London, in which she described her life

as a modern slave to a Sudanese businessman, Abdel Mahmoud Al Koronky, a former Sudanese diplomat, and his wife. The claimants, both residents of Sudan, brought proceedings for libel in London, denying that they had kept Nazer as a slave.

The court ordered the plaintiffs to provide more than $500,000 security for costs, to be paid into court before the case could continue. The case was stayed pending this payment, but the plaintiffs appealed the order, first in the Court of Appeals and then to the House of Lords. This process took more than two years.

Both appeals were unsuccessful, and the case was dismissed. The defendants were awarded costs, but these proved impossible to recover from the claimant.

Mende Naver’s book Slave became the subject of a libel lawsuit in London.

Human Rights Watch (2005) Plaintiff: Unnamed; Defendant: Human Rights Watch, NGO, USA; Outcome: Mediated settlement.

In the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, Human Rights Watch produced an investigative report into the massacres, “Leave None to Tell the Story.” The report presented eyewitness testimony alongside Rwandan government documents and named numerous persons who played a role in the genocide.

In 2005, one of the men named in the report threatened a defamation suit against Human Rights Watch in the U.K., although only a handful of the reports were in circulation at that time and an extremely small number of people had even accessed the report online from the U.K. Human Rights Watch reviewed the evidence behind its report, going to Rwanda to reconfirm facts and locate sources at great expense.

At the time of the research of the report, the complainant, like many in the former government, had fled the country and his whereabouts were unknown. Human Rights Watch paid for mediation of the claim, despite the individual being under investigation for genocide by the Rwandan government.

The mediation resulted in Human Rights Watch clarifying certain details

South African members of the Treatment Action Campaign, including traditional healers, march on May 26, 2005 in front of Cape Town’s High Court against Dr. Matthias Rath, a controversial doctor and AIDS researcher. (AFP)

of the report, but not changing the substance of the main allegations.

Rachel’s Law (2004-08) Plaintiff: Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz, businessman, Saudi Arabia; Defendant: Rachel Ehrenfeld, journalist, USA; Outcome: Judgment entered, but unenforced; case spurs U.S. law change.

Rachel Ehrenfeld is the author of “Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed – And How To Stop It.” The book, published in 2003 in New York, argued that money from drug trafficking and wealthy Arab businessmen was funding terrorism. The book made several allegations about the Saudi billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz, who also featured in the Alms for Jihad case.

Despite “Funding Evil” having been distributed overwhelmingly in the United States, the few copies sold in the U.K. jurisdiction allowed Mahfouz to claim reputational harm in the U.K. Ehrenfeld refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the U.K. courts in this matter and took no steps to participate in the case. A U.K. judge then made a summary ruling that the allegations in her book were unsubstantiated.

Judgment in default was granted in favour of Mahfouz and his two sons.

Each was awarded more than $15,000 in damages and their legal fees.

Although Mahfouz did not seek to enforce the judgment, Ehrenfeld counter-sued Mahfouz in New York, seeking a declaration that to enforce the U.K. judgment would be “repugnant” to her First Amendment rights.

The New York Court of Appeals decided that it could not rule on the matter because Mahfouz (a Saudi citizen and resident) had not conducted business in the state of New York.

This was a significant finding, given Mahfouz’s use of the English courts, despite Ehrenfeld’s almost non-existent connection to that jurisdiction. This decision therefore left open the questions of whether the U.K. judgment could be enforced in the U.S., and whether writers had adequate protection against foreign libel judgments.

The decision provoked an outcry, and the New York State Assembly acted. In February 2008, New York state passed the Libel Terrorism Protection Act, nicknamed “Rachel’s Law.” This legislation declares foreign libel judgments unenforceable unless the foreign law grants the defendant the same First Amendment protections available in New York State.

Similar protections came into place nationally with the Free Speech Protection Act of 2009, approved

by Congress and signed into law last year by U.S. President Barack Obama.

Frequent flyer (19972003) Plaintiffs: Boris Berezovsky and Nikolai Glouchkov, businessmen, Russia; Defendants: Forbes Magazine, U.S.; Outcome: Settlement reached.

The House of Lords allowed Russians Boris Berezovsky and Nikolai Glouchkov to sue the American Forbes magazine over an article concerned with their business activities in Russia, which contained numerous accusations. Around 780,000 copies of the magazine were sold in the United States, while only around 6,000 copies were accessed in print or via the Internet in the U.K. PEN notes that English courts have certain tools available to them to combat libel tourism. These include refusing permission to serve court documents out of the jurisdiction as an abuse of process, if the claimant has only a minimal reputation to defend in this jurisdiction. The second weapon is that a claim may be dismissed if a defendant can demonstrate that another jurisdiction is more appropriate.

The trial judge initially ruled that Russia or the United States would be a more appropriate jurisdiction in which to hear the case, not least because Berezovsky’s reputation was primarily founded in Russia. In a landmark 3-2 majority decision, the House of Lords overruled on the grounds that Berezovsky’s daughter was in Cambridge and because of the frequent business trips he made to this jurisdiction. A majority of the Lords decreed that, in fact, he did have a reputation to defend in the U.K., and that a Russian judgment would not be sufficient to clear his reputation in this jurisdiction.

Forbes and Berezovsky settled in 2003 with a reading of a statement in the High Court, a retraction of the offending article and the publication of a correction.

Letter to the editor (1984-97) Plaintiff: Vladimir Telnikoff, journalist, Russia; Defendant: Vladimir Matusevitch, journalist, U.S.; Outcome: Judgment won, but unenforced.

A spat between two Russians in 1984 sparked a decade-long libel case, which brought into clear focus the differences between English and American libel law. Vladimir Telnikoff, a journalist, complained in an article in the Daily Telegraph that the BBC’s Russian Service employed too many Russianspeaking ethnic minorities. Another journalist, Vladimir Matusevitch, a U.S. citizen, wrote a letter to the editor in response. Telnikoff sued, claiming that Matusevitch had imputed “racialist

Vladimir Matusevitch of Russia got sued for a letter to the editor.

views” to him, comments which he said were libelous.

Matusevitch refused to apologize for his letter, claiming he was making “comment” and not stating fact. Although this argument initially prevailed in the High Court in 1989, the case was eventually decided in Telnikoff’s favor in 1991, following an appeal to the House of Lords. It was found that what had to be considered was Matusevitch’s letter in itself, rather than in the context of the original article by Telnikoff. It was found that the letter to the editor conveyed the “fact” that Telnikoff was a racialist. Damages of more than $360,000 were awarded.

Matusevitch then moved to Maryland, in the United States, where Telnikoff sought to enforce his U.K. judgment. The Maryland Court of Appeals, in a 6-1 majority judgment, found that recognition of the English judgment would be “repugnant to the public policy of Maryland.” The court said that “American and Maryland history reflects a public policy in favor of a much broader and more protective freedom of the press than ever provided for under English law,” and that “the importance of [the] free flow of ideas and opinions on matters of public interest” meant that Maryland could not enforce the English libel judgment.

Kyiv Post, again (2010) Plaintiff: Dmytro Firtash, Ukraine; Defendant: Kyiv Post, Ukraine; Outcome: Pending.

Ukrainian billionaire Dmytro Firtash filed a libel lawsuit in London last fall, alleging that a July 2 Kyiv Post story made it appear that he was “engaging in massive criminal corruption.”

The story, according to the complaint, damaged Firtash’s “personal and professional reputation” in the United Kingdom. The Kyiv Post disputes this and stands by the story.

Source: PEN report: “Free Speech Is Not For Sale”; Kyiv Post research

14 Opinion

February 11, 2011

www.kyivpost.com

Egypt, Tunisia and betrayal of democratic revolutions Y UL I A TYMOS H E N KO

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Project Syndicate.

From snowy Kyiv, I have watched the revolutions in Cairo and Tunis with joy and admiration.

Egyptians and Tunisians are right to be proud of their desire to peacefully overthrow despotic governments. But as someone who led a peaceful revolution, I hope that pride is tempered by pragmatism because a change of regime is only the first step in establishing a democracy backed by the rule of law.

Indeed as Ukraine is now demonstrating, after revolutionary euphoria fades and normality returns, democratic revolutions can be betrayed and reversed.

The first of Ukraine’s lessons for Egyptian and Tunisian democrats is that elections alone do not make a democracy. After all, what if the enemies of freedom use elections to entrench their antidemocratic agendas? What if elements of the old regime or the cadres of militant minorities only pretend to embrace democratic norms in order to hijack the new democracy?

In Ukraine today, these are not abstract questions. Six years after the Orange Revolution, not only is Ukraine’s democracy under threat, but the

rule of law is being systematically perverted and its national independence bartered away.

Indeed, the hybrid presidential-parliamentary system that the country established as part of the settlement that brought a peaceful end to the Orange Revolution is being hollowed out to concentrate all political power in the hands of a supposedly democratically elected president.

Of course, Ukraine’s plight does not mean that the people of Egypt and Tunisia should spurn the call for free elections. Determining the will of the people does require expression through the ballot box. But elections alone cannot solve the fundamental political problems confronting Egypt and Tunisia. In particular, they cannot create a liberal order and open society.

To be effective, elections must be preceded by an extensive debate, in which political arguments are made, attacked, defended and ultimately embodied in ideologically coherent party organizations. Democratic consent can truly be given only when voters know what they are consenting to. Whoever refuses to make a public case for what he or she intends to do when in power — as Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych did during his election campaign — is no supporter of the democracy that citizens risked their lives to establish.

Moreover, democracy must be rooted in the rule of law. There must be accepted rules that are binding on everyone in politics so that whoever does not accept or obey them is disqualified.

Yanukovych’s naked attempt to hijack the election that precipitated the Orange Revolution should have resulted in his being banned from running in future elections. Yet he was not.

Æ Civil society, rule of law needed for democracy Now as president, Yanukovych’s crude instinct is to treat the law and constitution as Karl Marx thought of them: as a mixture of sentimentality, superstition and the unconscious rationalization of private interests. Stealing elections, suppressing the vote and behaving in contempt of the rule of law are negations of democracy. Those who engage in them must be seen as democracy’s enemies and treated as such.

A second lesson follows from this. The fact that a government has been democratically elected does not mean that the cause of freedom has prevailed. The rest of the world must not turn a blind eye to authoritarian backsliding. Yet today, not only are many of Ukraine’s neighbors silent about Yanukovych’s strangulation of Ukraine’s democracy, but some openly celebrate the supposed “stability” that his regime has imposed.

For decades, Egyptians and Tunisians paid a high a price in freedom for the stability of others. They must never be asked, or forced, to pay it again.

One way to help prevent a democratic revolution from being betrayed from within is by build-

ing a genuine civil society. We in Ukraine learned this truth from harsh experience in the communist era. Although communism could, every now and then, coexist with private property and with private enterprise, it could never coexist with civil society. The most fateful attack to accompany the installation of any dictatorship is an attack on civil society.

In Ukraine after the Soviet collapse, freedom of speech was restored overnight. But reviving civil society is a complicated task, as the peoples of Egypt and Tunisia will soon find out. The reason is self-evident: Civil society is an intricate, fragile and even mysterious entity that evolves over decades, if not centuries. Its pillars — private, voluntary associations, decentralization of the state and delegation of political power to independent bodies — must be nurtured patiently and from below.

Where civil society remains underdeveloped, every problem filters up to the Big Man squatting at the top. So the more power is concentrated at the center, the more it becomes possible for antidemocratic forces to gain — or regain — control over a country.

As the people around the world encourage the coming of democracy to Tunisia — and hopefully to Egypt as well — let us not be beguiled by its formal trappings. Let us celebrate the arrival in North Africa of the spirit of liberty and of solidarity, which brought Ukraine its liberty once and will do so again. And let us pledge that our solidarity does not end at the borders of our nations.

Freedom — true freedom — is indivisible.

Yuliya Tymoshenko was prime minister of Ukraine and is now leader of the opposition.

Tymoshenko’s bad revolutionary advice KO S T YA N T Y N G RYS H C H E N KO

Yulia Tymoshenko’s comment published this week in the Feb. 7 issue of The Moscow Times and other media titled “The Orange Revolution

Betrayed” clearly revealed her most striking character trait: She is a born revolutionary.

“A revolution has a start, yet a revolution never ends” are the lines from a famous Communist march. These words sound very much like her political manifesto as well. Indeed, revolutions sometimes inevitably break out as the only way to fulfill society’s overdue and neglected needs. But they can’t and shouldn’t burn forever.

This is a simple truth that is oddly hard to realize for people who enter the political stage by revolutionary means, but become clueless and

helpless once they have to construct something.

Revolution is not a universal answer to every political problem, just like a defibrillator is not a universal healing to every health predicament.

This has been very evident in Ukraine during the five years of Orange rule.

What Ukrainians really need is peace, stability and at least a modicum of pride in their country.

The sad truth is that the five post-revolutionary years brought Ukraine neither of those. Moreover, the initial revolutionary intoxication and euphoria turned into a prolonged hangover. Judging from

Tymoshenko’s comment, the country’s problems are the work of some anonymous “enemies of freedom” who betrayed and reversed the revolution. And this is another side of a true revolutionary: They are always surrounded by would-be traitors. And when things don’t work out their way, it’s always someone else’s fault, not theirs.

With this reasoning, it’s no wonder that despite the devastating record of her Cabinet in Ukraine, Tymoshenko has the gall to give advice to Egyptians and Tunisians. After all, she still has the insolence to doubt the will of her own Æ15

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February 11, 2011

News/Opinion 15

Gryshchenko: Don’t listen to sweetvoiced ‘sirens’ who promise paradise Æ14 people — who dumped her at

Kyiv Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky

Chernovetsky back in town, sounding nervous Kyiv Post Staff – Leonid Chernovetsky, Kyiv’s eccentric mayor, reappeared in Kyiv this week after facing rising criticism that he had not showed up for work in months.

In a 40-minute interview aired on Channel 5 late on Feb. 9, Chernovetsky was seen explaining that he had spent much of recent months residing abroad in “Georgia” and “European” countries.

But he insisted that had fulfilled his duties as the elected mayor of Kyiv signing papers that were “brought” to him, or during visits back to Ukraine.

In a break from his usual quirky public appearances, the 59-year old Chernovetsky appeared particularly nervous when discussing reported investigations into his inner circle of political allies.

Chernovetsky and a team of loyal supporters that have helped him manage the city in prior years were sidelined

from power last year after President Viktor Yanukovych’s governing coalition adopted laws which reduced his authorities. Power was shifted to a new position: city administration head.

Presidential ally Oleksandr Popov was appointed to the position and has since taken on city management.

Chernovetsky suggested smear campaigns and political persecution were behind accusations targeting him and his allies.

“I don’t know of a single politician who would not be afraid ... or would not expect political repressions,” he said in response to an interview question about probes Yanukovychappointed prosecutors had into his inner circle.

The affluent former banker went on to say: “I am even more afraid about my children and grandchildren. I want them to live in Ukraine.”

the last presidential election that was universally recognized as fair, transparent and democratic.

Tymoshenko claims that democratic elections “do not make a democracy.”

Of course they don’t. A true democracy is a combination of three main elements: the rule of law, civilized political process and plenty of hard systemic work. Typically revolutionaries like Tymoshenko don’t mind the rule of law as long as it doesn’t concern themselves, their friends and relatives.

Just like Che Guevara probably wouldn’t have made a good plumber or construction worker, Tymoshenko did not do a good job as prime minister. She was unable to institute systemic reforms because, like a true revolutionary, she constantly confused the economy with a barricade. She was caught unprepared by the world economic crisis because she couldn’t think big in economic terms. On the top of that, she didn’t delegate duties because she didn’t trust anyone and saw only potential traitors around herself.

In her comment, Tymoshenko tried to give Tunisians and Egyptians advice. I would like to give them some advice of my own: • First and foremost, don’t trust revolutionaries with building democracy. Some people are great at building things and some only at terminating them. Revolutionaries make the world’s best terminators, but they are generally incapable of hard systemic work.

• Second, remember a successful transformation of any country

The wounds of an anti-government protester are attended to by an Egyptian army general on Feb. 5 just outside Tahrir Square, Cairo. (AP)

depends on its ability to bring bright people to the government and those who can deliver on their promise, not simply political activists with their own personal agendas. The people’s quality of life will depend directly on the type of politicians who are elected to power.

• Third, don’t listen to the sweetvoiced “sirens” who promise you paradise tomorrow, yet have been proven to benefit only themselves in the past.

This certainly doesn’t mean that Ukraine’s current government is beyond reproach. Every revolution is filled with polarization and partisanship. True statesmanship is about taking these toxins out of the political process. In the end, a government

leaves its positive mark on society not by succeeding politically, but by succeeding historically, and this is achieved through bipartisanship.

In this sense, Ukraine’s government is ready to cooperate with every opposition group or member as long as they are ready to think in terms of the nation’s interest and not petty political bickering. The tactics can be negotiated, but strategy has to be the same: pragmatic reforms to benefit Ukraine’s future. Unfortunately, it took Ukraine five years to reach this post-revolutionary period of stability.

I hope it will happen sooner in Egypt and Tunisia.

Kostyantyn Gryshchenko is Ukraine’s foreign minister and a close backer of the nation’s current president, Viktor Yanukovych.

16 Opinion Letter to the editor

A Nobel Peace Prize for Yanukovych?

This idea never crossed my mind 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

Tkachuk: IMF worsens Ukrainian corruption Æ4 the deliberate under-pricing of exports, overpricing of imports and the purchase of non-existent services – much of which is facilitated through offshore tax havens in Cyprus, the Seychelles and the Cayman Islands. All are designed to ensure that profits are held offshore and out of reach of the Ukrainian tax system.

The fraud within the value-added tax refund system has practically bankrupted successive governments and resulted in legitimate exporters being repaid in five-year redeemable government bonds. So indebted is the valueadded tax system that many international investors have simply given up, sold out and moved on.

The fraud is brilliant. Nonexistent cargoes get loaded onto nonexistent ships, but paperwork says that the goods have been exported. All the customs and tax office stamps are perfectly genuine and the value-added tax is reclaimed in the normal way. It has been going on for years and has cost the nation a fortune.

Exclusivity Price!

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February 11, 2011

If you want to meet a minister, bribe the secretary. If you want to win a court case, bribe the judge. If you want a university degree, bribe the tutor or the rector. If you want quality medical attention, bribe the doctors and nurses.

If you want to avoid paying speeding fines, bribe a traffic cop.

Combine all of this with endemic overpricing and the scale of the problem should be ringing alarm bells, particularly at the IMF. The problem is that Ukrainian corruption is not simply restricted to home waters. Some Ukrainians are masters of manipulating the international financial and legal systems. Either with the connivance of the Western banking and legal systems or through their ignorance, they have built up truly impressive financial laundering networks.

Cypriot companies are Ukraine’s largest foreign investors. Cypriot lawyers regularly plough the path to Kyiv in order to set up offshore financial instruments that use the double taxation agreement – often to aid and abet

AVAILABLE FOR RENT NOW!

questionable practices.

The IMF is planning to lend Ukraine a further $1.47 billion without insisting that the government takes real steps to combat and shut down these systems which continue to bleed budget coffers dry as fresh foreign loans pour into the other pocket. This is not to accuse the government of theft. But this money will find its way out of Ukraine, one way or another, leaving the people of this poor country to pick up the bill.

Perhaps it is time for the well-meaning bankers in Washington to open their eyes and take a fresh look at the scale and reality of Ukrainian corruption before they exacerbate the problem by handing over yet more cash.

Victor Tkachuk is chief executive officer of the Kyiv-based People First Foundation (www.peoplefirst.org.ua), a former deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, adviser to three Ukrainian presidents and a former parliament member, Tkachuk can be reached via viktor.tkachuk@peoplefirst.org.ua.

Ariev: Corruption in Regions Party clear to everyone Æ5 mass demonstrations like that on the Maidan in 2004, when protesters overturned an election rigged for Yanukovych that year, we provided many examples of mini-Maidans taking place throughout Ukraine. These demonstrations focus on specific issues. We explained that the resulting gains show the continuing vitality of Ukraine’s civil society.

Many in Washington did know about the tax code protests in cities throughout Ukraine and that Yanukovych had been forced to compromise. But the Washington audiences took note of the delegation’s reports on the other widespread civil society campaigns relating to a new law on access to government records, the defeat of an effort to make Russian the second official language of Ukraine and a draft law to limit public assembly.

The request of the delegation was that a Western dialogue with and about Ukraine’s civil society is at least as important as the often-delayed U.S.-Ukraine bilateral talks and needs to be comprehensive and sustained.

Unexpectedly, the delegation received “support” for its messages from the Yanukoyvch government itself. All of those with whom the delegation met found quite extraordinary what the Party of Regions did in the Verkhovna Rada on the day the delegation flew to the United States. It was as if the president’s party actually wanted to help confirm the truth of the delegation’s claim about rampant corruption in Kyiv.

The story has already been widely reported that, despite the fact that I actually had my parliamentary voting card with me on the trip, my vote was recorded as supporting legislation for postponing the next parliamentary elections.

What the Regions Party did was a significant step beyond the already open, notorious and flagrantly unconstitutional practice in the Rada of deputies leaving their voting cards with their faction whips or colleagues to cast a vote for them in their absence.

The ruling bloc somehow voted for me even though, to repeat, I had my

Æ Party of Regions has shown it cannot be trusted – Volodymyr Ariev voting card with me in the United States! I displayed this card to audiences at every meeting. The case was made – by the criminal behavior of the Regions Party – that although Ukraine’s government might not be transparent, its systemic corruption is clear to everyone.

By their own action, the Party of Regions provided evidence against itself and in support of the group’s warnings to Washington that the Yanukovych government and its supporters in the Rada cannot be trusted.

Volodymyr Ariev is a people’s deputy in the Verkhovna Rada, part of the Our Ukraine People’s Self-Defense minority faction. Other members of the Washington delegation from Ukraine included: Oleh Rybachuk, chairman and co-founder of the non-governmental organization “Centre UA;” Oles Doniy, a member of the Ukrainian parliament with the Our Ukraine faction; Andriy Shevchenko, a member of Ukrainian parliament with the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko; Alyona Getmanchuk, director of the Institute of World Policy; Olena Gromnytska, vice president of Glavred-Meida and chief editor of the magazine Profil; Mykola Kniazhytsky, journalist with TVi station; Kateryna Levchenko, president of the international women’s rights center La StradaUkraine; Vitaly Portnikov, editor-inchief of TVi since May; and Svitlana Zalishchuk, co-founder of the non-governmental organization Centre UA.

www.kyivpost.com

Voloshyn: Critics do great harm to nation’s reputation Æ5 Ukraine has problems. But discussions about democracy cannot be conducted on the basis of: “If the party of my friends is in power then it is democracy, but if it is my opponents in power then it is not.”

The previous administration talked a lot about democracy and EU integration. But democracy is historically rooted in the middle class. And the previous leaders, according to Ukraine’s Gorshenin Institute, saw the middle class erode from 9.3 percent of Ukrainian society to 7.4 percent due to the spread of corruption and red tape.

If corruption is defeated – or at least significantly weakened – in different spheres of Ukrainian life, this will give a powerful impulse toward democratic development for Ukrainian society and its economy.

The swamp of impunity and corruption had to be drained and this involves investigating representatives of both the previous and the current governments.

Currently, more than 350 officials from our government, including a number of senior figures like a former governor and head of the Crimean parliament, Party of Regions member Anatolii Hrytsenko, are under investigation, compared to 73 persons from Tymoshenko’s party, BYuT. Can this be called selective justice?

In 1990 Korea indicted two former

Opinion 17

February 11, 2011

presidents for corruption. Italy went through a similar process in the 1970s.

Today, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania are undergoing similar reforms. If none of this is undemocratic, then why is an investigation into Tymoshenko, openly accused of corruption even while in office, presented as an outrage? Is it because her party is a member of the European People’s Party?

Is European People’s Party membership a license for corruption?

There is a big difference between Yanukovych and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenka. It is comparable to the difference between Franco in Spain and De Gaulle in France – both were accused of not respecting democratic norms. But if Franco wanted to conserve the past, de Gaulle was trying to build the future.

I am a Ukrainian patriot, and I consider appeals to the EU to introduce sanctions as absurd. Ukraine needs reforms to survive, not for the sake of Yanukovych, but first and foremost for the Ukrainian people. Ukraine’s politicians should be judged by their actions.

Those who try to manipulate international opinion to harm the reform process have no future in Ukraine.

Oleh Voloshyn is director for information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. A version of this article was first published on the EUobserver website on Feb. 8, and it is reprinted with permission from the author.

Look, Vasya, What a magazine!

What a pretty girl!

You like it?

Then we should seize it as malicious porn!

NEWS ITEM: Police in Kyiv’s Podil, Holosiyivsky and Solominsky districts on Jan. 25 and Jan. 26 seized four EGO-plus and one Playboy magazine due to their “erotic nature.” The officers, however, failed to indicate the legal grounds for their inspection and seizure of the magazines, which are legally registered. (Drawing by Anatoliy Petrovich Vasilenko)

Nunn, Foley: Orphanage children unprotected from abuse, neglect MARTIN NUNN a n d M A R T I N F OL E Y

The violation of human rights in Ukraine is one of the pressing issues of our day. The suppression of freedom of speech, the control of the right of assembly, the oppressive use of the tax police and the blatant banditry of the road police however all pale into insignificance when compared to the wanton starvation of disabled children by those whom the state has empowered to protect them.

The care of children is one of the defining cornerstones of Ukrainian culture. Families will go without just about everything to ensure that their children have enough and have a future.

Yet not all well in this basic responsibility. Last Sunday, a highly respected British newspaper, The Sunday Times, published an investigative story on the deliberate abuse and starvation of disabled children at a state children’s home at Torez, just outside Donetsk.

The accusations were denied by the home’s director.

The story, uncovered by Teresa Fillimon, executive director of the children’s charity His Kids Too! is one of neglect and suffering on an inhuman scale.

Under the charter of the United Nations, of which Ukraine is a founding member, all people have rights

irrespective of sickness or disability.

But this does not seem to apply at the Torez children’s orphanage. The pervading understanding appears to be: “These children are no use to anyone so we may as well let them die.” This was the same excuse given by the Nazis for leading thousands of mentally ill patients to the gas chambers. It is not an attitude that can be tolerated in 21st century Europe.

The head doctor at Torez, Alexander Vasyakin, claims that he does not have enough food or money to feed the children properly. But according to eyewitness accounts, he resists international assistance. And when the inspectors or dignitaries visit, there is deliberate and wanton deception. The children are dressed in better clothing, soiled beds are replaced, new sheets laid out, toys and televisions appear, the incontinent are placed in nappies and those most ill are moved out of sight and placed under lock and key.

Over the last year, 20 children have died not of their disability but of diseases bought on by malnutrition.

Rather than appeal for national or even international help, the home serves its children a thick gruel, spoon feed to each child for little more than a minute at a time. Such inhumane practices

barely allow time for the children to swallow. Most eat little and are left to suffer for hours in their own urine and vomit.

Serious questions need to be asked as to why the coroner has issued death certificates on children that have more than likely died of malnutrition, why the state apparatus or staff has not raised alarm and how children have simply been allowed to fade away. There needs to be an inquiry and those who have either deliberately or through neglect let children suffer in this way should face the full force of the law.

Sadly this may not be the only case as Maxim Meleckiy, a 20-year-old law student who grew up in children’s homes and suffers from cerebral palsy discovered to his cost. Meleckiy now hitchhikes around the country, taking statements from other children who just like him have suffered both inhumanity and indignity. According to these testaments, children are regularly beaten, starved, tied to radiators, raped and even loaned to pedophiles.

Yet, when they try to complain, they are arrested by the police and handcuffed for being “mentally unstable” and threatened by officials.

On the opposite side there are children’s homes in Ukraine that are brilliantly run by dedicated staff who treat the children as if they were their own.

Kyiv Lions Club has found many that not only do the best they can on state finances, but also raise funding from local benefactors, not to line their own pockets, but to build a real life for those less fortunate.

Orphanage children in Torez orphanage house seen in this May, 2010 file photo. (Courtesy)

The international non-governmental organization networks have introduced home-style foster care where children grow up with “brothers and sisters” in small family units. But they have met serious resistance from both the state apparatus and vested interests.

One champion of these needy children is billionaire Rinat Akhmetov. He has set aside millions to close down every state children’s home in Ukraine by 2017 and replace it with international-standard foster homes. He is right for doing so. After all, a sizable proportion of people in Ukrainian prisons spent their childhood in state care.

This story will reverberate right around the world and so it should.

Ukraine will be judged not by the actions of this cruel few but on how the case is now handled by the authorities. However, we must also look to ourselves for it is no longer acceptable to look the other way.

The Ukrainian maxim: “I saw nothing, my home is on the other side of the village” has no place in the modern world. If by our deliberate blindness, children are allowed to suffer such depravities then, by our inaction, we are all guilty.

Martin Nunn is communications director at the People First Foundation.

He can be reached at martin.nunn@wipr. com.ua. Martin Foley is a London-based investigative journalist.

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Lifestyle

Enhance intimacy on Valentine’s serving aphrosidiac dinner

February 11, 2011

Play | Food | Entertainment | Sports | Culture | Music | Movies | Art | Community Events

Pedestrian bridge offers steel love for Valentine’s

Æ24 www.kyivpost.com

Food Critic WITH MARK RACHKEVYCH Y YCH .C CO COM OM O M RACHKEVYCH@KYIVPOST.COM

Editor’s note: Eating out in Ukraine is a gamble. To bring you honest food reviews, Kyiv Post writers go to restaurants unannounced, pay for their own meals and never accept favors from restaurateurs.

Thai chef cooks up authentic, tasty cuisine in Kyiv's Sakurakai

Lovebirds immortalize their love by etching their names on padlocks and fastening them on the bridge, throwing away the keys. (Joseph Sywenkyj)

BY S V I T L A N A KOL ES N IKOVA KOLESNIKOVA@KYIVPOST.COM

Only some 10 meters long, this tiny foot bridge links not just two parks in the Kyiv center but also thousands of hearts who once clamped a love padlock across its railing. One of the most romantic cult places, the Love Bridge will be invaded by an army of lovers again on St. Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14.

The love lock craze is not exclusive to Ukraine: Such padlocks can also be found on fences and bridges in Moscow, Verona, Brussels and Mount Huang, China, among many other cities. With their names etched in rough metal, couples clamp the steel symbols of their devotion and throw away the keys into the abyss – or whatever there is under the bridge.

The Kyiv crossing has not been

blessed with a romantic landing base for the keys. Built in 1912 by Yevhen Platon, the famous Ukrainian engineer who revolutionized electric welding, it hangs across a busy road. Connecting Mariyinsky and Khreshchatyk parks, it looks heavy on locks and stories.

The bridge was first known as the devil’s crossing. Trembling violently at the first gusts of wind, it wasn’t a favorite with early 20th century pedestrians. After some repairs, it apparently became popular with the brokenhearted wishing to take their life there and then.

There’s one legend about a student who jumped from the bridge in front of his sweetheart. Another story mentions a young couple who let go of the rails because their families disapproved of their union. Some tour guides recount that there was even a guard assigned

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to the bridge to prevent suicides, but apparently it did not help much. Yulia Nikishenko, a culture expert at Kyiv Mohyla Academy, argues that these tales have not been recorded anywhere but the human mind.

Between the 1970s and 1990s, the bridge was decorated with colored ribbons. “I remember they were very simple, without any inscriptions,� said Nikishenko. “But when there were too many, the bridge looked uninviting.�

Locks replaced ribbons in the 1990s.

By that time many bridges across the world had already been padlocked.

The tradition is believed to have come from China where the Great Wall inspired lovers to cling their love onto the wires suspended from the wall.

But unlike the mammoth Chinese construction, this Kyiv bridge looks

frail under the weight of love.

The municipal road authority, Kyivavtodor, started taking some of the locks down two years ago. Scrap metal with romantic inscriptions weighed nearly a ton, said Oleksandr Levchenko, the head of the road service. “Whether anyone likes it or not, we’ll be cutting them off annually. Love should not depend on a lock,� he added.

Culture expert Nikishenko is also against the steely declaration of love: “It’s a Ukrainian habit to express feelings in a practical way. Why with the help of an object?�

Padlocks may not work for Nikishenko, but there are thousands in Ukraine who believe in their power.

Similar love bridges hover in Chernivtsi, Odesa, Cherkasy and Kharkiv, among other cities. Olena Bondareva, from one of Kyiv’s etching services, Æ26

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Despite a direct flight between Bangkok and Kyiv, Thai food is a rare find in Ukraine.

Traditional Thai ingredients like lemongrass, coconut milk, bean sprouts, red chilis, soy noodles and curry, among others ,cost a fortune and are sold only in a handful of markets in Kyiv.

In this regard, the Kyiv Post was pleased to discover Sakurakai and its Thai chef-managed kitchen, which served two delightfully tasty meals.

My dining mate and I bypassed the soup menu, which curiously lacked the traditional, yet simple, hot and sour chicken soup, a must for any serious Thai restaurant.

Instead we went straight for the appetizers. I was craving spring rolls (Hr 58), whose soybean noodle crust was crisped to perfection. Most likely deep fried in a wok, they were filled with shitake mushrooms, sweet pepper, sesame seeds, coriander root and ginger and fiery red spicy and sweet dipping sauce. It was aromatic and packed full of flavor without any ingredient superseding the other.

Mix Sate (Hr 79) was the second starter of thinly sliced pieces of chicken and pork on two wooden sticks garnished with soy sauce and sesame seeds. It came with a pasty crushed peanut and curry dipping sauce. The aftertaste of the curry had a nice kick.

We washed this down with Staropramen draft beer (Hr 20).

Still on the lookout for traditional food in our selections for the main course, we were again shocked. This time lemongrass was missing in the dishes and coconut milk was rarely used. Lemongrass, however, is easy to grow indoors, just like parsley.

But there was plenty of Thai curry and Phad Thai, stir fried noodles with various condiments, from which to choose.

I opted for Phad Sam Siam (Hr 158) from the wok menu, a type of dish the Thai mainly borrowed from the Chinese. The difference is in the amount of grease that goes with frying – the Thai cook it light. It’s a wok tossed dish of sauted shrimps and scallops, shitake mushrooms, and vegetables in a soy-oyster sauce. The latter is labor intensive to prepare from scratch.

I asked for it to be prepared “suicideâ€? hot knowing that the kitchen creates mild dishes Æ23

20 Entertainment Guide

After a slow-moving January, the art scene is coming back to life with the fifth Sculpture Saloon. It’s a mustsee exhibition for all art lovers. All 74 sculptures of world-famous French impressionist artist and painter Edgar Degas will make it to Kyiv. Degas, now considered a founder of the impressionist trend, denied the term back in the 19th century and called himself a realist.

Only one sculpture was exhibited in his lifetime – “The Little Fourteen Year Old Dancer.” After Degas’ death, his heirs discovered about 150 wax sculptures, 74 of which were fit to be cast in bronze.

Apart from this art mammoth, the Saloon will present some 30 works from leading Ukrainian modern sculptors.

Feb. 18 - March 13, 11 a.m.- 8 p.m., Mystetsky Arsenal, 12-14 Lavrska, metro Arsenalna, 2885225. Tickets: Hr 40.

Best gallery picks Artist Mykola Ridny is bogged down by never-ending paperwork. Sick and tired of powerbrokers, he offers an artistic take on stamps, folders, files, and ballot papers – solicitors of bureaucracy, in his exhibition “Documents.” Apart from photographs and paintings, there’s a video installation, in which children walk over the stones that are laid out in the shape of the word “power.” In another work, Ridny painted governmental seals in an effort to show his disdain for the political manipulation they stand for.

(advancedstyle.blogspot.com)

Edgar Degas at Sculpture saloon

Monday, Feb.14

Grandma DJ DJ Ruth Flowers entertained some hot-shot celebrities like Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis at 2010 Cannes Film Festival. She was called “The hippest Deejane in circulation”

by Vanity Fair magazine.

Not so long ago, however, 69-year-old Flowers was a regular British grandmother. Her grandson’s birthday changed her pension plan when he invited her to join him at the disco party. The electro music playing in the club was way different from the beats she danced to back in her youth, but she still loved it. With a lot of free time, the cool grandma started playing with the sounds on her set. French producer Aurelien Simon couldn’t resist her enthusiasm and that’s how her first track “Still Rocking” was released.

Now DJ Flowers or Mamy Rock, as she’s also known, drives the parties wild around the world.

Monday, Feb.14, Club D*Lux, 3 Hrushevskogo, 200-9009, www.dlux.com.ua, www.mamyrock.com. Tickets: Hr 100 for men, free entrance for women.

(www.jazzonstage.nl)

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Feb. 18 - March 13

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February 11, 2011

The Small Gallery of Mystetsky Arsenal, Lavrska 12, 288-5140, www. artarsenal.in.ua, until Feb. 20 Austrian photographer Andreas H. Bitesnich rose to fame some 10 years ago. His first collection published in “Nude” photobook in 1998 was marked by the Kodak special award. Over the years he collected the prestigious Gustav Klimt Prize and Vienna Award, among others, published five more photobooks of portraits, nude and travel photography and worked for international magazines. Check some of his most impressive work in “Body Architecture” exhibition in Brucie Collections, 55B Artema St. 353-1234, www.bruciecollections.com, until Mar. 14 Reflecting on the most popular winter colors in Ukraine – black, white and gray, 10 artists present a collection of oil paintings and computer-generated pictures “Ukrainian Abstraction. Black and White Work.” Black seems to be taking the lead. But it can either mean inner strength and security, or asceticism and grief. The sense is in the eyes of the beholder.

Bottega gallery, 22B Mykhaylivska St., 279-5353, www.bottega-gallery.com, until Feb.17 (closed Sundays and Mondays) “Yin” exhibition unites different art genres and generations, presenting the works of 26 Ukrainian female artists. From surreal and sensual ceramics of 70-year-old Nelly Isupova to provocative and brutal paintings of 20-year-old Alina Kleytman, the artwork explores different sides of femininity. The curators say this emotional and romantic art mix symbolizes the arrival of the age of women in modern art.

M17 Contemporary Art Center, 102-104 Gorkogo St. (Antonovycha), 596-2030, www.m17.com.ua, until Feb. 22 (closed Mondays) Vinny Reunov takes popular brands and paints them in oil on canvas to highlight the importance of art in popular culture. In his “Live broadcast” exhibition, he plays with advertising images and TV personalities. Reunov mixes up Chanel cosmetics, caviar, olives, and grated cheese together with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, all of which is painted on canvas.

Karas Gallery, 22A Andriyevsky descent, 238-6531, www.karasgallery.com, until Feb. 13 Ukrainian sculptor Mykola Malyshko borrowed a few ideas from traditional African art to make a series of wooden sculptures. Spiritually, his work pays respect to the African sculpture tradition. Damaged by time or burned down by missioners in the 19th century, not much of it has survived to this day. Simple and sometimes rough sculptures by Malyshko reflect on tribal lifestyles in Africa.

Ya Gallery, 55/57 Voloska St., 537-3351, www.yagallery.com.ua, until Feb. 14 If you ever felt like shooting a work of art for whatever reason, you are not alone. Mykyta Kravtsov and Anton Logov painted war-torn, abstract scenes in order to show pain from shooting first. Then, they gunned down their work, filming the process along the way.

Two more artists, Oleksandr Lyapin and Anna Voitenko contributed to this artsy violence with a series of digital pictures “To Kill Pokemon.” Pokemon is a Japanese cartoon and video game character extremely popular with children to the annoyance of many adults.

Ya Gallery on Khoryva, 49B Horyva St., 492-9203, www.yagallery.com.ua, until Feb. 14 (closed Sundays)

Take me out for Valentine’s Day • Friday, Feb.11 – Concert of Swedish music at 7 p.m., National philharmonic, 2 Volodymyrsky Uzviz, 278-1697, www.filarmonia.com.ua. Tickets: Hr 20-70.

• Saturday, Feb. 12 – Chamber ensemble “Kyiv Soloists” will play lyrical music pieces by Tchaikovsky, Dvorzak, Grieg and others during the “Love Symphony” concert. 7 p.m., Cultural center Master-Klass, 34 Mazepy, metro Arsenalna, www. masterklass.org/eng, 594-1063. Tickets: Hr 50.

• Saturday, Feb. 12– Flamenco Fusion Band will play music and dances from around the world. 7 p.m., Budynok aktora, 7 Yaroslaviv Val St., 235-2081, www. actorhall.com.ua. Tickets: Hr 50-70 • Saturday, Feb. 12 – Dances of the world, including Arabic, Argentinean, gypsy, Afghani and others performed by 20 Ukrainian dance groups. 7 p.m., Budynok Ofitseriv, 30/1 Hrushevskoho. Tickets: Hr 100-300 • Sunday, Feb. 13 – Concert “Tango history” will mark the 90th birthday of Astor Piazzolla. National philharmonic, 2 Volodymyrsky Uzviz, 278-1697, www.filarmonia. com.ua. Tickets: Hr 30-80 • Monday, Feb. 14 – Ensemble “Kyiv-brass” will perform pieces by Piazzolla, Miller, Dunayevski and others. 7:30 p.m., the House of Organ Music, 77 Velyka Vasylkivska St., 528-3186, www.organhall.kiev.ua. Tickets: Hr 20-50 • Tueday, Feb. 15 – Chamber ensemble “Kyiv soloists” will perform pieces by Mozart and Stravinsky at 7 p.m., National philharmonic, 2 Volodymyrsky Uzviz, 2781697, www.filarmonia.com.ua. Tickets: Hr 20-70

Compiled by Nataliya Horban and Alexandra Romanovskaya

www.kyivpost.com

February 11, 2011

Movies

Entertainment Guide 21

Live Music Happy-go-lucky singers from Sontseklyosh offer a variety of 1930s retro, Ukrainian folk, and Soviet songs sprinkled with jazz and Latino music.

(Courtesy)

A scene from ‘The Silences of the Palace’. (www.toutlecine.com) THE SILENCES OF THE PALACE Language: French with Ukrainian subtitles Drama. France, Tunisia (1994) Directed Moufida Tlatli Starring Amel Hedhili, Najia Ouerghi and Hend Sabri At the end of French colonial rule in Tunisia, 25-year old singer Alia returns to the prince’s palace, where she was born to a kitchen hand and unknown father. As she wanders through the abandoned place she reminisces about her past, particularly the sexual favors that were demanded of her mother and other servants.

OLIVER! Language: English with English subtitles Crime/Drama/Family. UK (1968) Directed by Carol Reed Starring Mark Lester, Ron Moody and Shani Wallis Based on “The Adventures of Oliver Twist”

by Charles Dickens, this is a musical adaptation of a stage musical of the same name about a little boy called Oliver, who lives on the streets in 19th-century London.

After meeting pickpocket Fagin, he joins a team of little crooks. But when Mr. Brownlow catches Oliver stealing, he takes him off the streets instead of handing over to police.

The plot of the original novel, however, has been simplified to suit the musical genre better, with some parts being cut out completely.

“Oliver!” won six Oscars out of 11 nominations, including awards for Best Picture and Best Director for Carol Reed. It also won two Golden Globes for Best Film – Musical or Comedy, and Best Actor for Ron Moody, who played the role of Fagin.

VIRIDIANA Language: Spanish with Russian subtitles Drama. Mexico (1961) Directed by Luis Bunuel Starring Silvia Pinal, Fernando Rey and Francisco Rabal Viridiana is about to become a nun.

However, her widowed uncle, who paid

for all her studies, insists on her coming to visit him first. When she arrives, it turns out that her uncle has been in love with her for a long time. His forbidden passion shocks Viridiana so much that she decides she can’t go back to the convent. She tries to redeem herself by creating a shelter for the destitute people. But, as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

ENTER THE VOID Language: English with Ukrainian subtitles Drama/Thriller. France (2009) Directed by Gaspar Noé Starring Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta and Cyril Roy Drug dealer Oscar and stripper Linda are new to Tokyo. Yet shortly after they settle in, Oscar is shot during a police raid. His spirit, however, soon reappears to watch over Linda, his sister. A strange erotic whirlpool of Oscar’s memories haunts the rest of the picture oddly mixing the past with the present.

Born in Argentina, French filmmaker Gaspar Noe is clearly inspired by Stanley Kubrick, often quoting him in his works. “Enter the Void” was nominated for best picture at the Cannes International Film Festival. Because of some erotic scenes the movie is prohibited for the kids under 18.

ZHOVTEN 26 Kostyantynivska St., 205-5951 Enter the Void Feb. 11-17 at 8:40 p.m.

MASTERCLASS CINEMA CLUB 34 Mazepy St., 594-1063 Viridiana Feb. 15 at 7 p.m.

Oliver!

Feb. 17 at 7 p.m.

BUDYNOK KINO 6 Saksaganskogo St., 287-7557 The Silences of the Palace Feb.14 at 7 p.m.

ART CLUB 44 44B Khreshchatyk St., 279-4137, www.club44.com.ua Concerts traditionally start at 8 – 10 p.m.

Feb. 11 Via Zhiguli, Hr 50 Feb. 12 Bezpeka, Numer 482, Hr 60 Feb. 13 Soiuz 44 Jam Session, free admission Feb. 14 MJ Project, free admission Feb. 16 Sontseklyosh, free admission Feb. 17 Good life, Hr 20 DOCKER’S ABC 15 Khreshchatyk St., 278-1717, www.docker.com.ua Concerts traditionally start at 9:30-10 p.m.

Feb. 11 UkrainSKA, Angie Nears, Hr 70 Feb. 12 Ot Vinta, Red Rocks, Hr 70 Feb. 13 Foxtrot Music Band, free admission Feb. 14 St.Valentine’s Day with Red Rocks, Hr 30 Feb. 15 More Huana, Hr 20 Feb. 16 The Magma, Hr 30 Feb. 17 Tex-Mex Company, Hr 30 DOCKER PUB 25 Bohatyrska St., metro Heroyiv Dnipra, www.docker.com.ua Concerts traditionally start at 9:30-10 p.m.

Feb. 11 Lampasy (Russia), Tex-Mex Company, Hr 70 Feb. 12 AC/DC Tribute: Easy Dizy (Russia),

The perfect place for relaxing,business meetings and corporate events

are welcome to visit:

billiard and a launge bar

Proletarian delicious cuisine, business lunches 12.00-15.00 and live sports events.

BOCHKA PYVNA ON KHMELNYTSKOHO 4B-1 Khmelnytskoho St, metro Teatralna, 390-6106, www.bochka.com.ua Concerts traditionally start at 9-10 p.m.

Feb. 11 Hot Guys, Chill Out Feb. 12 Animals Session, Beefeaters, Feb. 13 Pushkin Klezmer Band, Hr 30 Feb. 14 Grazhdanin Topinambur, Lucky Band, Feb. 16 Carte Blanche Feb. 17 L.A. PORTER PUB 3 Mazepy St., 280-1996, www.porter.com.ua Concerts traditionally start at 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 11 Brown Shuga Feb. 12 Tartilla Feb. 13 Juke Box Feb. 14 Pozitiv Band

Feb. 16 Ivan Bliuz Feb. 17 Max Tavricheski JAZZ DO IT 76A Velyka Vasylkivska St., 599-7617, http://jazz-doit.com.ua vFeb. 11 Ihor Bohdanov Duo Feb. 12 Majestic Duo Feb. 14 St. Valentine’s Program Feb. 16 Natalia Maximenko Other live music clubs: GOLDEN GATE IRISH PUB, 15, Zolotovoritska St., 235-5188, http:// goldengatepubkiev.com/ TO DUBLIN IRISH PUB, 4 Raisy Okipnoi St., 569-5531, http://www. to-dublin.com.ua/ PIVNA NO.1 ON BASEYNA, 15 Baseyna St., 287-44-34, www.pivna1. com.ua DRAFT 1/2 Khoryva St., metro Kontraktova Ploshcha, 463-7330 KHLIB CLUB 12 Frunze St., www.myspace.com/xlibclub CHESHIRE CAT 9 Sklyarenko St., 428-2717 O’BRIEN’S 17A Mykhaylivska St., 279-1584 DAKOTA 14G Heroyiv Stalinhrada St., 468-7410 U KRUZHKI 12/37 Dekabrystiv St., 562-6262.

Compiled by Alexandra Romanovskaya and Svitlana Kolesnykova

Restaurantmuseum Guests

More Huana Feb. 13 Vostochny Express, free admission Feb. 14 St. Valentine’s Day with The Magma, Feb. 15 Tres Deseos Latino Party, free admission Feb. 16 Rockin’ Wolves, free admission Feb. 17 Karnavalnaya Zhara, free admission

two halls

Call 200-18-81 www.trc-bolshevik.com

22 Lifestyle

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February 11, 2011

Despite rapid development, China keeps its heritage alive

Bamboo temple outside Kunming is a place of worship for many Buddhists. Buy some candles and incense to burn in the temple and take time to listen to tranquil Buddhist chanting. (Courtesy)

BY S V I T L A N A T U C H YN S KA TUCHYNSKA@KYIVPOST.COM

Editor’s note: Having travelled through Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Laos, the Kyiv Post lands at the final destination of its Asian trip – Yunnan province in southern China.

KUNMING, China – Driving across the border from Laos to China is like entering a new century. The shabby border patrol building and broken road on the Laotian side gives way to flat asphalt and a hi-tech glass and a steel-border checkpoint in China.

China, the world’s most populous nation with more than 1.3 billion people, is modernizing quickly. But its ancient past peeks around almost every corner, from tea parlors to temples.

I visited Yunnan province in the south, travelling from the border to the nearest big town, Jinghong. A small town by Chinese standards, Jinghong is home to 400,000 people and is a popular local holiday destination.

While there is little to see there, it is perfect for getting to know the spirit of southern China.

Stroll along the Mekong wharf and enjoy the peaceful view of hillside tea growing over the river. Local fishermen offer slow boat trips up and down the stream. Nearby lies an old city market where both the architecture and the spirit of merchants from the middle ages are preserved.

Take a look at wood carving shops, where craftsman carve large oak tables, elephant statues and bookcases. You probably won’t buy anything – unless Budget • Double room in Jinghong $13 • Meal in Jinghong, per person $ 2 – 5 • Rent a motorbike $ 3 – 10 per day • Double room in Kunming $17 – $40 • Meal in Kunming, per person $ 4 –10 • Flight: Kunming – Guangzhou – Urumchi – Moscow – Kyiv (China Southern and Aeroflot) $500

you want to pay huge shipping costs – but it’s interesting to watch craftsmen at work on their shops’ doorsteps.

From Jinghong, I took a very comfortable night bus to the capital of Yunnan province, Kunming. Home to the most ancient tea culture in the world and the most ethnically diverse province of China, Yunnan is worth a trip.

Dozens of minorities like Yi, Bai, Miao, Dai and many others live here. To see their villages and observe tea growing and processing, you will have to rent a jeep or a bike and travel to the countryside. Avoid places recommended in travel guides – they are usually packed with

ÆEvery cafe owner in Yunnan takes pride in brewing moonshine and vodka. tourists. Instead, head to Bang Ma village (near Mengku town) or Ma Hei village (near Yi Wu town) as they are very quiet and friendly. Beware that nobody speaks a word of English there or any other language except the local tongue.

Nowhere else in Asia is the language barrier as hard as in China. I spent more than half an hour trying to find my way to the tea market in Kunming, asking people on the streets, in hotels and business centers.

However, the tea market was worth the trouble. It is a town within a town, with hundreds of tiny shops where you can spend days checking out all sorts of tea and tasting it in a traditional tea ceremony, performed for you. Apart from traditional green and white teas you will have a great chance to try local specialty pu-erh tea, which is fermented and usually pressed into cakes, and tea made of various flowers.

Kunming itself is filled with sky scrapers and modern urban architecture, but, as many cities in China, it blends well with ancient temples, tiny centuries-old shops and cozy cafes.

Roam around the old city with eastern and western towers – pagodas, built during Tang dynasty (618-907) – and watch locals play Xiangqi, a Chinese game similar to chess.

Every cafe owner in Yunnan takes pride in brewing his moonshine wine and vodka. Huge carafes of spirits are displayed on the counters. Made with herbs and fruits, most of the drinks are very good, but can be very strong, so be sure to taste before ordering.

Yunnan cuisine is probably one of the finest in China. Try local specialties such as Guo qiao mi xian, noodles with egg, vegetables, ham and chicken. A roast duck with honey and pine needles is also delicious, as well as fish stewed with herbs and garlic.

Baozi, a steamed bun with various fillings, is cooked and sold at every street corner. Servings are huge, so don’t repeat my mistake of ordering several dishes.

As in most places, I faced severe language difficulties while ordering food. I often ended up pointing at what other people had in cafes or even just at a random dish on the menu. In one place I was fortunate to find one man who spoke in broken Russian and told me about his student years in Donetsk in the 1980s.

To get away from the city I took a bus to Bamboo Temple just outside Kunming. Originally built during the Tang dynasty, the temple is constructed entirely of bamboo and is surrounded by a peaceful forest. Time seems to have stood still in this place, which also serves as a Buddhist monastery. Monks chanting, sweeping paths and watering flowers add to the tranquil mood.

From Kunming, most tourists go to Dali or Lijiang, ancient villages with marvelous architecture surrounded by mountains and lakes. However, my

A tea shop in Kunming has loose and pressed types of teas in regular and odd packaging. A tea ceremony can be performed on request free of charge.

(Courtesy)

vacation was coming to an end and I had to get back to Kyiv.

Getting back in the early-January high season turned out to be an adventure in itself. I had to take four flights to get home, including an uplanned 24-hour stopover in Moscow. But it

wasn’t so bad – I had plenty of time to look at photos and remember the four beautiful countries that made up my trip through Asia.

Kyiv Post staff writer Svitlana Tuchynska can be reached at tuchynska@kyivpost.com

www.kyivpost.com

February 11, 2011

Marina Lewycka, writer of Ukrainian descent, puts comic spin on immigration

BY N ATA L I A A . F E D US C HAK FEDUSCHAK@KYIVPOST.COM

Fifty-eight turned out to be Marina Lewycka’s lucky number. That is the age when this British writer of Ukrainian descent shot to literary fame in 2005 with the publication of her first novel, “A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.” Since that propitious debut, Lewycka has published two other bestsellers and is now working on a fourth book.

A child of Ukrainian emigres, Lewycka became one of the leading voices of Britain’s contemporary immigrant experience. Through keen observation and tenacious research, her work delves into hefty issues, but with more than a touch of comedy, say critics, than other authors would allow.

“Tractors” is the story of an elderly widowed man who marries a much younger Ukrainian emigrant, the voluptuous gold-digger Valentina, and his two daughters’ varied reactions to the union. “Two Caravans” explores the lives and exploits of immigrant workers in the strawberry fields of Kent, England. “We Are All Made of Glue” is the story of an estranged middleaged couple, with Jews and Palestinians searching for a homeland thrown into the mix.

“The madcap world of Marina Lewycka is now familiar to millions of readers as a kind of formula,” noted Amanda Craig in The Independent.

“An engagingly quirky narrator takes us on a journey in which serious themes such as family quarrels, age, war and genocide are given a comic gloss.”

Humor played an important part in Lewycka’s life.

“That comes from my family,” she said. “I grew up with their sense of humor, their conversation, their friends.

I think their attitudes toward food and money were very typically Ukrainian.”

That, however, is where Lewycka’s “Ukrainianness” ends.

Although she learned Ukrainian from her mother as a child, Lewycka’s

Marina Lewycka

parents wanted her to fit into the British society. Hailing from Poltava and Kyiv, they had spent time as forced laborers during World War II and then immigrated to Britain a year after Lewycka was born in Kiel, the sight of a German refugee camp in 1946.

“They were very keen to become as English as possible,” she said. “I think they wanted me to make my way in England. It’s not that they rejected the Ukrainian language and values, but [they felt] as emigrants we should fit into the home country.”

Still, Lewycka did not grow up quintessentially British.

“My parents very much identified with being outsiders, although they did have many friends who were Polish, Yugoslav friends, French and German friends, people who weren’t English” but who did have a shared emigre experience.

While Lewycka said that “ethnicity can be a trap as well as a comfort,” the cultural hodgepodge she experienced as a child has been at the foundation of her books.

Lewycka had almost been ready to give up on writing when “Tractors” was published.

She had been enrolled in a creative writing class through the university where she worked when her prose

caught the attention of one of the course examiners, who happened to be a literary agent. By then, Lewycka, who began writing at the age of four, had already completed two novels – and received 36 rejections for the second.

The premise for “Tractors” was taken from family experience, while the characters were drawn from people she had met, Lewycka said. “I wrote it for fun, for myself and for my friends,” she said admitting that she never expected the book would be published.

The agent took her on and within months not only was “Tractors” on Britain’s best-seller list, but quickly became an award winner, among which a nomination for the 2005 Man Booker Prize. The book sold more than one million copies in the U.K. alone and has been translated into 29 languages, including Russian, but not Ukrainian, something which mystifies Lewycka to this day.

Perhaps, she said, Ukrainians “wanted me to have a more reverential look at Ukraine.”

While Ukrainians are unlikely to get reverence from Lewycka any time soon, what they have found is a compassionate voice that, through humor, is able to chronicle their struggles.

"Two Caravans," which was translated into Ukrainian, stemmed from a booklet Lewycka was given about the plight of Ukrainian seasonal strawberry pickers in Britain.

“I read it and I thought ‘Hum, if my parents hadn’t come as refugees as they did in 1947…I would be part of this new global migration, not displaced by war, but work. If I don’t tell this story, nobody else will.’”

Her newest novel will explore the world of finance, the credit crunch and the global economic crisis. “It does have a Ukrainian character, it’s a girl and she’s a banker, but she’s not an oligarch,” Lewycka laughed.

Kyiv Post staff writer Natalia A. Feduschak can be reached at feduschak@ kyivpost.com

Food Critic: Sakurakai worth visit for Thai food lovers Æ19 to suit the spicy-averse palate of Ukrainian food goers. The bland steamed rice was a nice counterbalance to the spicy dish.

My partner’s Kvai Teo Kya Hai (Hr 79), basically a chicken Phad Thai dish, had the similar taste that I’m accustomed to in U.S. Thai restaurants.

The chicken was tender, had plenty of cute bean sprouts, green onions, rice noodles, soy and eggs. Again, it was light and not saucy or overloaded with any specific herbs.

I enjoyed the experience. Sakurakai has a simple Asian interior with bamboo stalks partitioning tables for privacy yet allow for freedom of movement.

It’s intimately lit as screens with depictions of dragons and elephants drape over the windows.

I understand many ethnic restaurants are limited in the range they could offer given the availability of ingredients in Ukraine, but this place has enough to choose from and is creative with the Thai ingredients it uses.

As usual, the service wasn’t something to write home about. Although English speaking, our waitress didn’t give herself the chance to practice

The Thai fare served in Podil’s Sakurakai restaurant doesn’t disappoint either in taste or with its simplistic Asian interior. (Joseph Sywenkyj)

it as often as we’d have liked – she could’ve been more attentive to put it mildly.

Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at rachkevych@kyivpost. com

54/23 Verkhniy Val Street, Kontraktova Ploscha metro Reservations: 428-70-99; 428-70-98 Hall for smokers – 35 Hall for non smokers – 50

Lifestyle 23

24 Lifestyle

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February 11, 2011

Speed up chemistry, serve aphrodisiacs for Valentine’s

BY K AT YA G O R C H I N S KAYA GORCHINSKAYA@KYIVPOST.COM

If there is any day aphrodisiacs should be eaten, it is on Valentine’s Day. It is the Greek goddess of love Aphrodite who gave her name to the fare believed to increase sexual desire and arousal.

But it’s not just the Greeks who were concerned with finding the ingredients for boosting their love lives. The Chinese, for example, would go as far as eating deer or seal penis to improve performance, but luckily there are plenty of other, much more common and appetizing options around.

Champagne and caviar Champagne and caviar seem to be the universal staple of love foods.

Champagne relaxes and reduces inhibition. But that’s not all! The scent of dry champagne replicates the aromas of female pheromones, while caviar provides a total of 47 vitamins and minerals to boost the effect.

In Ukraine, red caviar is common and affordable, from about Hr 400 per kilo or starting from Hr 38 per 125-gram jar. Of course, in English, it’s not even considered to be caviar and is scornfully referred to as “fish eggs.”

But no derogatory attitude reduces its quality as an aphrodisiac.

The real caviar – the kind James Bond orders for his demanding lovers – comes from sturgeon, and is one of the most expensive foods in the world. Perhaps, its exclusivity and association with luxury enhance its reputation as an aphrodisiac. Its price

Salmon, caviar, or shrimp may add extra zest to your evening.

hovers around Hr 8,000 per kilo at markets. Big supermarket chains stock it in small jars, which make it even more expensive. A 50-gram jar in Dary Morya, a specialized fish and seafood supermarket on 23 Pavlovska Street, goes for Hr 900.

If you want to kill two birds with one stone and buy both champagne and caviar in the same store, head for Good Wine on 9 Mechnykova Street, which stocks them all. Moreover, the choice of champagne there ranges from Artemovske (Hr 38) to exclusive French wines, the price of which can run as high as five digits. They also stock Cavas and other types of sparkling wine. A very decent bottle of Brut Cava goes for Hr 80, for example.

A plateful of nutritious and sexy oysters can spark Valentine's Day.

Oysters All things fishy are associated with Aphrodite, who was born out of sea foam. So, there is no surprise that oysters feature high on the list of love foods. Apparently, the Romans knew about aphrodisiac qualities of oysters from 2 A.D. The shape of oysters is often compared to the shape of female sexual organs, but it’s not the shape that makes them the food of love.

They’re rich in zinc, a must-have ingredient for testosterone production. This male hormone is believed to boost sexual desire in both men and women.

Moreover, being high in protein, oysters are extremely nutritious.

All you have to do is squeeze some lemon juice over them. Of course, you can top them up with chopped sweet onions and balsamic vinegar, too.

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In Kyiv, the best place to buy oysters (and, in fact, anything that comes from foreign seas) is the Global Fish store at 1-D Bohatyrska in Obolon. It’s located quite far from the city center, but the fish is really fresh. You will pay anything from Hr 12 to 30 per oyster there, while in other shops prices will go up to Hr 40 a piece.

Salmon almon and veggies Salmon lmon is yet another gift from hrodite believed to have an abilAphrodite ity to improve one’s love life. It’s ose magic omega-3 fatty acids those at seem to be good for anything, that m the health of your heart to from rmone production. Salmon is hormone rsatile: you can grill it, poach it, versatile: fry it, or eat it raw. You can top it up with a leafy green salad with ocado, carrots and celery. Toss a avocado, ndful of basil leaves on top. All handful of these ingredients are believed to have the effect you’re looking for on Valentine’s Day, for various asons. The leafy greens reasons. d celery are espeand lly helpful for cially omen, while women, en will benefit men m eating carfrom ts. Avocado, rots. zed for group prized B vitamins and enty of folic plenty ds, will be acids, od for both. good

Bananas ananas It’s not the suggestive ape that shape akes them makes xy. It’s the sexy. tassium and potassium amin B, which vitamin aree used in horone production. mone nanas are probably Bananas onee of the most comon and affordable mon gredients to tickle ingredients ur libido, costing your ound Hr 14 per kilo. around

Incidentally, they’re the central ingredient in the banana split, one of the easiest desserts to make.

Chocolate It’s not an accident that more boxes of chocolate are given on Valentine’s Day than on any other occasion. And nor is it to do with the heart shaped pack heart-shaped packaging. Chocolate is one of the most common aphrodisiacs, packed with phenylethylamine, which is similar to endorphin, the “hormone of happiness” produced by our bodies.

That’s not to mention theobro mine, a relative of caf-

Unleash the power of chocolate with handmade bars full of sexy goodness.

antioxid feine, and antioxidants, which are the o red wine. Although prized ingredient of chocola will have some of any type of chocolate ingred these useful ingredients, the concentrahig tion will be the highest in dark chocolate, with the most cocoa, the original go source of all this goodness. box of chocolates in You can buy boxes any supermarket, starting from about o Korona to Belgian Hr 20 for a box of Duc d`O at Hr 80 per 250-gram box. g really fancy, you If you want to go ha can buy some hand-made chocolates confection from a confectionery such as Repriza or Semadeni. Tru Truffles start at about Hr 8 per piece in these places.

There are many more foods, herbs and spices that are considered to p have aphrodisiac powers.

The list here m was chosen to make an easy threestart course meal, starting with an aperitif of champagne and topped with tea or chocola coffee with chocolates.

And every one ingredient will contribute to of these ingredients the goal of having a tasty and sexy Valentine’s Day. To print a shopp shopping list for a dinner for two, please visit www.kyivpost.com.

Deputy chief edito editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at gorchinskaya@kyivpost.com

Italian actress Monica Bellucci poses naked with only caviar covering her body for the Dec. 2010 issue of French Photo magazine. (www.1.bp.blogspot.com)

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Lifestyle 25

February 11, 2011

From curves to botox lips, female artists paint their own kind

BY A N A S TA S I A F O R IN A FORINA@KYIVPOST.COM

In a week when the president tried to attract foreign investors by touting the beauty of semi-naked women, rather more nuanced visions of what a woman is and what she wants went on display at the M17 Contemporary Art Center.

Twenty-seven leading Ukrainian female artists came together for the “Yin” project. According to Chinese philosophy, Yin and Yang are two powerful energies – opposite but also interconnected – creating balance and harmony, at the same time battling for supremacy.

“The 20th century, the Yang epoch, and the time of logic are all exhausted,

while intuitive perception of the world, the time of Yin, is coming back,” said curator Oleksiy Tytarenko.

The exhibition, which opened on Jan. 27, provides a variety of sensual, tender, strange, even brutal examples of modern Ukrainian female art – from the frank and coarse paintings of young artists to 70-year-old Nelly Isupova’s colorful tin-glazed pottery using 500-year-old techniques.

The exhibition begins with the astonishing work of Maryna Talutto. “Silicon teeth” is an attempt to make women remain themselves and preserve their natural beauty. The work consists of six round photographs stuck on the wall in a triangular shape. Each shows two close-up photographs of different women’s lips, some after botox treat-

A girl stands in front of the painting ‘Bather’ by Lesya Khomenko. (Courtesy)

Triptych ‘Transformations of menstruation’ by Alina Kleitman.

(Courtesy)

ment, laid one over another in a way that both can be seen simultaneously.

The post-botox lips are blown up like balloons, and the technique used highlights the unnatural look that the injections give.

“The main idea is to show the disastrous impact of the botox injection that makes a woman look absolutely different,” said Talutto.

Nelly Isupova, the oldest participant in the project, wants the viewer to think about the origin of females with her tin-glazed ceramic sculptures. They have four legs, no arms and leaves and flowers instead of heads.

“Some people may think a woman is a tree or flower or sun. Nobody can be sure about her nature, but it’s beautiful and strong for sure,” said Isupova.

This kind of pottery – called majolica and invented in Italy in the 15th century – is known for its bright colors on a white background.

Anna Valiyeva’s work “Liberty” examines the position of women in modern society. It’s a large picture of women’s naked bodies moving upward, painted in black enamel on polyester. “It symbolizes progress, freedom, independence and at the same time natural will to love and to be loved,” Valiyeva said.

The whole exhibition challenges you

ÆFemale artists oppose attempts to conform to artificial images of beauty. to look deep into the consciousness of the modern woman – what she cares about, likes, hates. It shows the variety of artists’ interpretations of the modern women’s way of life and her role in the society. There’s a lot of focus on being natural and genuine, opposing attempts to conform to artificial images of beauty.

As well as “Silicon teeth,” there is Lesia Khomenko’s “Bather,” a painting of an ordinary woman lying on the beach, unconcerned about her body, which is far from the shape you’d see on a magazine cover.

Beauty, the exhibition tells us, can be more than skin deep. Whatever Ukraine’s tribal chief may think.

Kyiv Post staff writer Anastasiya Forina can be reached at forina@kyivpost.com

Tin-glazed ceramic sculpture ‘Muzameduza’ by Nelly Isupova. (Courtesy)

M17 art gallery, 102-104 Horkogo (Antonovycha) St., tel. 596-2030, www.m17.com.ua

26 Lifestyle

www.kyivpost.com

February 11, 2011

Best bride wins a trip to Jamaica

Participant Natalia Goncharova (M).

More than 200 women competed in The Best Bride of the Year contest announced in early 2010. But only seven of them reached the finals held in Premier Palace hotel on Feb. 2. Finalists had to catwalk in their wedding gowns and lingerie, waltz and write a story about how they met with their husband. To qualify, all women had to be married in 2010.

Brides were selected by online voting.

Six-month pregnant Natalia Rokytska from Kyiv won the title and the trip to Jamaica.

Fashion designers and celebrities attended the event sharing their wedding memories with each other. (UNIAN, Ukrainian photo)

Winner Natalia Rokytska from Kyiv.

Flower girls dressed as angels snack on apples during the show.

Young women, especially, favor inscribing their love in padlocks, throwing away key Æ19 said that that 80 percent of their

Padlocks weigh down the Love Bridge in the Kyiv center but please lovers with promises etched on steel.

(Joseph Sywenkyj)

orders come from young women aged between 16 and 25. Inscriptions mainly bear names and hearts, but sometimes odd love declarations get ordered.

“Everything will pass and this will too,” read one of the Bondareva’s locks.

“Some find it romantic,” she mused.

“But I think it’s a waste of money because the locks will be cut off anyways.”

Tetyana Granovska from the bridge repair service in Dnipropetrovsk sounded very upbeat when asked about her city’s Love Bridge. “We clamped the lock ourselves. My husband ordered it, and we chained it on the day of our

wedding anniversary,” said 49-year-old Granovska. She noted that her service has not been removing the locks yet. “It is cool to have them all. You can even see some very large Soviet ones.”

Kyivavtodor’s Levchenko disagreed.

“Last year they had one love, this year – another, and next year, there’ll be a new one. But the bridge should remain in proper condition,” he said worrisome that road vibrations may shake the locks down and damage cars passing underneath.

Yet steel crossings continue to lure thousands of couples with a promise of eternal love. And even if the love bridges don’t live up to expectations, some think they will hold the memory

of past love, which most people would not want to lose.

Kyiv Post staff writer Svitlana Kolesnikova can be reached at kolesnikova@kyivpost.com

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www.kyivpost.com

Lifestyle 27

February 11, 2011

Crumbling Jewish quarter in Lviv may get new hotel NATA L I A A . F E D U S C HAK FEDUSCHAK@KYIVPOST.COM

LVIV – The battle over Lviv’s architectural and archeological heritage is being waged on historic Fedorova Street, just off the city’s main square.

The heart of the old Jewish quarter has become the latest focal point in the all-out war over the protection of the city’s heritage. The area – with its unique synagogues – was largely destroyed by the Nazis in World War II and stood empty until a private developer got hold of it.

Here, on a cold winter day a crane hummed until recently, and workmen milled about despite a local court order to halt construction of a hotel on its site.

With a couple of lawsuits by a religious group pending, the plot’s future is still unclear.

Throughout Ukraine, the country’s architectural and archeological heritage is in distress. The decay of Lviv’s cultural heritage, however, has taken on particular resonance in recent months.

Not only is the city a UNESCO world heritage site, and thus any construction must follow strict guidelines and be carefully monitored, it is Ukraine’s architectural gem.

Lviv has steadily gained the reputation as a must-see Eastern European travel destination. Any shoddy development that changes the face of Lviv dampens not only tourist enthusiasm as it competes with places like Krakow and Prague, where millions of dollars have been spent in restoration efforts, but the city coffers tourism fills as well.

Architects, however, said damage has already been done through unsanctioned and unprofessional construction.

“We’ve lost the city of the Middle Ages,” said architect Oksana Boyko.

She has written extensively about the buildings that once graced the Jewish quarter, which included the city’s famed Golden Rose and Great City Synagogue. Another building housed

Construction works have been halted on Fedorova Street in Lviv following the court order. (Natalia Feduschak)

a yeshiva, a school for boys and dated back to the 16th century. It lay in ruins for decades.

In a competition bid that some question, a Kyiv-based investment firm eventually ended up with the section to build a hotel complex under a 49-year lease for the land.

To date, the firm has already spent $180,000 on archeological digs, said Ihor Gyske, the project’s commercial director. It is a sizable sum and more than other investors spend for similar works, most specialists agreed.

Still, architects and archeologists are concerned about the fates of the remains of unique 15th and 16th century artisan buildings which were uncovered during the archeological digs, and a Jewish religious bath house, called a mikva, that borders the construction site.

They are also worried about a large crack that was discovered in an adjacent building. An emergency commission in Lviv has concluded that the crack was partially to blame for the construction, with an old sewage system and the age of the building itself contributing as well.

Lviv has been hailed for its multiple layers of architecture that reflect the many political powers and ethnic groups, which for centuries breathed life into the city. Yet throughout Lviv, centuries-old buildings are being threatened as too-often unsanctioned reconstruction takes place to make way for cafes and stores, sometimes owned by powerful people. Age-old historic wooden windows are being replaced with white plastic, while architectural details – vines, stars, cherubs and even substantial doors –

are being lost through inexperienced laborers.

City officials who oversee the construction of buildings said concern over perceived ruination is sometimes overblown and that Lviv has been blamed for deconstructed buildings, which were not under its jurisdiction.

“Lviv is not Kyiv,” said Liliya Onyshenko who heads the department for the preservation of the city’s historic surroundings. She said Lviv has been “left alone with itself” to manage and preserve the buildings that sit on the 130 hectares of land that comprise Lviv’s UNESCO site.

“For two years, we’ve gotten no money from the state budget,” she said, although it is the government’s responsibility to fund Ukraine’s UNESCO sites. “The state doesn’t really care.”

Archeologists decry the fate of

the delicate 19th century St. Sophia school, which was torn down to make way for the overbearing Polish consulate and look with horror at a bank built in the city center in the Soviet realist style. In regards to Fedorova Street, they said digs should be conducted on the entire plot, rather just a section, and that the underground architecture should be incorporated into the hotel. In addition, they mourn the virtual demolition of the building that housed the yeshiva, of which only the facade is left.

“Lviv is known in the world not because of hotels but because of its common cultural heritage,” said Meylakh Sheykhet, who heads Lviv’s Jewish community. Sheykhet is part of a group that filed several lawsuits to stop construction of the hotel.

Gyske said his group has tried to reach out to Sheykhet but to no avail.

He also dismissed widespread rumors that an underground parking garage was planned for the hotel, a move that would destroy the underground architectural planning and could threaten the structural soundness of neighboring buildings.

As for the deconstructed building that housed the yeshiva, Onyshenko said “it was in a wrecked state.” By law, however, that building should be reconstructed to its original form.

The city council admits to feeling trepidation over the Fedorova Street site as well as others in the city.

Without “construction police” to monitor the progress of approved projects, investors don’t necessarily understand the city’s uniqueness, said Onyshenko.

Making matters worse is that companies and individuals who want to build in Lviv will often bypass local authorizes and obtain permission to construct from ministries in Kyiv, thus tying the hands of the municipality.

“They don’t identify with Lviv,” Onyshenko, who favors a moratorium on construction in Lviv, said.

Kyiv Post staff writer Natalia A. Feduschak can be reached at feduschak@ kyivpost.com.

28 Paparazzi

www.kyivpost.com

February 11, 2011

International Women’s Club of Kyiv President Judy Minier (L) has a good time with Argentinean Ambassador Lila Roldan Vazquez.

Guests at a networking night organized by the International Women’s Club of Kyiv.

International women of Kyiv meet in new Jean-Claude Brasserie

Christophe Lacarin provides wine for the evening.

Slovenian Embassy Charge d’Affaires Nataša Prah.

Æ

The wine and champagne flowed freely as members of the International Women’s Club of Kyiv (IWCK) met on Feb. 7 to celebrate the success of the group’s 2010 holiday bazaar. Held annually in early December, last year’s event raised Hr 1.3 million. The venue for the affair was the newly-opened Jean-Claude Brasserie, located at Besarabsky Market. Sporting a luscious stained glass interior that inspires visions of France, some 100 guests enjoyed appetizers boasting salmon, meat and cheese, as well as wine. With 300 members in Ukraine, IWCK brings together women from all over the world to participate in charitable, cultural and social activities. Funds raised from the bazaar will be used for ICWK’s 2011 charity projects. (Joseph Sywenkyj)

French winemaker Christophe Lacarin (R), who produces wine in Odesa, examines his drink.

If you want Kyiv Post Paparazzi to cover your event, please send details or invitations to news@kyivpost.com or contact photo editor Yaroslav Debelyi at 234-6500

Hairdressers and make-up artists compete

The international festival of hairdressers’ art, perfume and decorative cosmetics “InterCHARM-Ukraine 2011” is underway in Kyiv till Feb. 12. Some 500 domestic and foreign companies are taking part in beauty contests. Seminars and master classes are being held for professionals and amateurs. To see the latest trends in hair and make-up designs, head to Kyiv Expo Plaza at 2B, Salutna St. Tickets: Hr 15, more information at www. intercharm.kiev.ua/eng. (AP)

A stylist prepares a hair creation during the International Festival of Hairdresser Art.

www.kyivpost.com

February 11, 2011

Publication of items in Kyiv Post Community Bulletin Board is free of charge. The newspaper will print as many submissions as space permits, but notices must be no more than 30 words, except for the people in need section. Advertising of paid services or commercial ventures is prohibited in this space. Permanent items must be resubmitted every three months. Deadline for submissions is 3 p.m. Friday for the next issue. New listings are boldfaced. Please e-mail news@kyivpost.com or contact lifestyle editor Yuliya Popova at 234-6500.

Business clubs – 4 listings Î The Business-English Center meets on Sundays at 3 p.m. for a series of business English skills workshops. For more information, call Alex at 234-0871 or email: e-club@i. com.ua or visit www.etcentre.com.ua. Î A new gentlemen’s club is always open for well-educated, successful members (free admission) to combine establishing business relationships with unconstrained socializing.

Please contact us: vadym_n@ukr.net, kobserg@yahoo.com, (067) 7406820 Sergio. Î The British Business Club in Ukraine meets every Saturday for business discussion and once every month for networking.

Membership is by invitation only and is open to individuals and companies. Please email: administrator@bbcu.com.ua. Î Free English discussions about Internet marketing. Bold Endeavours, a British marketing and web development company, welcomes senior marketing managers/directors to an English language discussion group about search engines and Internet marketing at noon on the first Saturday of each month.

Call 221-9595, or register online at www.bold. com.ua.

Public speaking – 6 listings Î Dnipro Hills Toastmasters Club would like to invite success-oriented people to learn and develop public speaking, presentation and leadership skills. Join us Sundays from 10 to 11 a.m. at Kyiv Business School, 34 Lesya Ukrainky Street, metro station Pecherska. For detailed information, please, check our website www.dniprohills.org.ua Î EBA Toastmasters Club invites enthusiastic, goal-oriented people to learn and improve their communication and leadership skills in friendly learning and supportive environment. We meet every Monday at 7.30 p.m. at American Councils at Melnykova, 63. For more information, contact Svetlana Nesterenko at lana_svk@ukr.net or call 067 220 77 55. More information can also be found at: www.ebatmc.blogspot.com. Î Top Talkers Toastmasters Club is happy to invite ambitious and enthusiastic people to learn by doing. Together we will discover inner potential in public speaking and leadership in each of us. We meet every Tuesday at Kraft Foods, 23 Yaroslaviv Val St. at 7 p.m.

Please check our website www.toptalkers.org Î American Chamber of Commerce Toastmasters Club invites English speaking business professionals to advance their presentation and communication skills in a friendly and supportive atmosphere. We meet each Wednesday at 7.30 p.m., at the Microsoft Ukraine office, 75 Zhylyanska St., Floor 4, Business Center Eurasia. To receive further details on the club and its membership, please contact our club vice president for membership, Anton Stetsenko at 093-6095161. Î Kyiv Toastcrackers Club, a part of Toastmasters International, is a worldwide organization that helps men and women learn the arts of speaking, listening and thinking through effective oral communication. We invite new people to benefit from the meetings on Wednesdays, at 7 p.m. at the House of Scientists, 45a Volodymyrska St. For more information see www.toastcrackers.kiev.ua. Î Talkers Toastmasters Club invites those interested in improving their public speaking, communication skills, English and creative abilities to join its meetings on Saturday mornings at 11 a.m. Please, check club’s website at arttalkers.wordpress.com, call 096-565-6229 or e-mail: arttalkers@gmail.com

Religion – 8 listings Î Christ Church, Kyiv. We are the Anglican/ Episcopal Church, serving the Englishspeaking community in Kyiv. We meet Sundays at 3 p.m. at St Catherine’s German Lutheran Church, 22 Luteranska Street, a fiveminute walk from Khreshchatyk. Bible study on Tuesdays at 7.30 p.m. Please call Graham at 098-779-4457 for more information, www. acny.org.uk/8592. Î You are invited to the St. Paul’s Evangelical Church. Roger McMurrin is its founding pastor. Music for worship is provided by the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Worship services are held every Sunday at 2:30 pm at the House of Artistic Collectives (Veriovka Choir Hall, 4th floor) at 50/52 Shevchenko Blvd. Call 235-4503 or 235-6980. Î International Church, Kyiv. English and Spanish Bible study classes. We invite you to weekly services at 10.30 a.m. Saturdays at 13A Miropolskaya St. (metro Chernigovskaya, second stop by a tram Boichenka. Central entrance of two-story building). Telephone: 38-093-757-6848, 542-3194. Î Word of God Church offers Bible study every Sunday and Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Sunday school, nursery for children. For more information call: 517-5193. Î International Baptist Church invites you to our English language worship services (Sundays at 10 a.m.). We are located near Vyrlytsya metro in the downstairs hall of Transfiguration Church, 30B Verbytskoho. http://livingvinechurch.googlepages.com.

Î The Evangelic Presbyterian Church of the Holy Trinity invites you to our worship service, held in Ukrainian and Russian with simultaneous English translation. We meet each Sunday at 50-52 Shevchenka Blvd., #402 (4th floor). Worship begins at 11 a.m. Sunday school for adults begins at 9:45 a.m. Pastor Ivan Bespalov: tel. (044) 287-0815; (097) 3179598; e-mail: ivanbespalov@gmail.com. Î Kyiv International Bible Church, an Englishlanguage evangelical nondenominational church meeting at 10:30 a.m. on Sundays at 34A Popudrenka, between Darnytsya and Chernihivska metro stops. Contacts: 5018082, or kievIBC@gmail.com. Î International Christian Assembly meets at 57 Holosiyivska St. Services are held every Sunday: 9 a.m. till 11:30 a.m. For further information contact: Paul, +050-382-2782, www. icakiev.com

Support groups – 5 listings Î Divorce mediation, commercial mediation, consulting on diagnostics of conflict resolution in organization. Ukrainian Mediation Center, www.ukrmedation.com.ua Please contact Oksana Kondratyuk: 066-758-66-44, delo2@i.ua. Î Individual consultations, psychological support in divorce, family relations, stress management, health issues, relaxation, selfesteem, personal development. Call Elena: 097-294-6781. Î Alcoholics Anonymous English-speaking group meets Saturday/Sunday at 12.30 p.m. and Tuesday/Thursday at 7 p.m. at various locations. Contacts: aakyiv@ukr.net, 096-4600137 (friend of Bill) for details of meeting location. Î Counseling/advising in relationships, personal growth, body/ mind/spirit matters.

Well-known Ukrainian psychologist counsels expats in English and French in the center of Kyiv (Lyuteranska). See www.hohel.kiev.ua or call 050-595-3686 between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Î Individual psychological counseling for Russian and English speakers. Family issues, mood disorders, anxiety, depression.

Psychological Rehabilitation & Resocialization Center. Call Elena Korneyeva, 050-573-5810, between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., or e-mail: kornyeyeva@rambler.ru.

Social, sport and health clubs – 2 listings Î Volleyball group, expats and locals, seeks new players, male or female. Skill levels, advanced beginner to intermediate. We meet on Sundays, 11 a.m., near Livoberezhna metro. For more info, send email to vbkiev@ gmail.com Î Kiev Hash House Harriers club meets every second Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Lucky Pub, 13 Chervonoarmiyska St. (near Lva Tolstoho metro station). For more details, visit the website at http://hashhouseharriers.kiev.ua/

International clubs – 9 listings Î Stolypin Club (Kiev) meets every third Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m. at various locations. It is a non-profit public organization uniting Kyiv’s citizenry, including prominent business representatives, politicians and the liberal professions. The club is private, but opens its doors and its spirit to the wider community, affording the public a chance to partake in certain events alongside club members and guests. Please contact Tamara Avdeyeva at 096-462-4646 or assistant@stolypinclub.org. Î Welcome to the friendly atmosphere of a French-speaking club. We meet once weekly on Saturdays or Sundays for conversation practice and movie sessions. Please contact Svetlana: 067-907-1456 or email: consonances@ukr.net. Î Student Embassy Project invites students to join intercultural events in Kyiv, Lviv and Ternopil. The initiative is aimed at international students’ integration into Ukrainian society, youth leadership development, intercultural dialogue. To learn more please e-mail us at studentembassy@gmail.com or visit: http:// studentembassy.org.ua. Î The Kyiv Rotary Club meets on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. at Andreyevsky Prichal restaurant, 6 Bratskaya Str. For more information, please contact Nataliya Rodovanskaya at 067-2965672 or n_radov@yahoo.com. Î The International Women’s Club of Kyiv (IWCK) welcomes women from around the world to join our support network and participate in our extensive social and charitable programs. For more information, see our website www.iwck.org, call or e-mail the IWCK Program Coordinator Galina Timoshenko at 234-3180, office@iwck.org. Address: 39 Pushkinska, #51, entrance 5, door code 250. Î The Rotaract Club Kyiv meets on Thursdays at 7 p.m. at the Ukrainian Educational Center, Prospect Peremohy,#30, apt. 82. For more information, please email: president@rotaract-kyiv.org.ua or visit our website www.rotaract-kyiv.org.ua. Î Democrats Abroad Ukraine is the official organization of the Democratic Party in Ukraine; connecting Americans with U.S. politics and the Democratic Party; registering,

informing, and motivating voters; supporting U.S. candidates, holding events, and fundraising. To join, email info@democratsabroad. org.ua. Î The Kyiv Multinational Rotary Club welcomes all Rotarians who are in Kyiv and new potential Rotarians. Our meetings are conducted in English and are held every Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. at the Radisson Hotel, Yaroslaviv Val St. 22. For a map and further information please consult our website at: http://kmrclub.org. Î The Kyiv Lions Club is one of 45,000 Lions Clubs around the world. We raise funds and provide services to help those most in need in our community by supporting charities in our chosen sectors of giving: children, the disabled, and the elderly. We meet on the second Monday of every month in the downstairs bar of the Golden Gate Irish Pub at 7 p.m. For more information contact Paul Niland at 044-531-9193 or paul.niland@primerosfunds.com.

English clubs – 12 listings Î Free English speaking club A@5!

Improve your English speaking skills and have fun. Be prepared to speak in English most of the time with native speakers. Conversational clubs and thematic discussions on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information, please contact Vadym at vadik_s@ukr.net or +066 767-4407 Î English-Russian Conversation Club for adults. People of different ages are invited for international meetings. Mini-groups, individual approach. Making new friends. Conversational trainings. Email: engrusglobe@i.ua Î Sprout Christian International School is looking for native English-speaking volunteers who are enthusiastic and love working with children to help in pre-school and English club starting coming September. For more details please call ASAP: Natalie Istomina: +067 501-0406, +093 798-9840. Î Wave Language School offers free English speaking clubs to the public. Join us on weekends from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturdays and 1 p.m.– 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. Please contact us by email if you are interested: info@wavelanguageschool.com. We hope to see you soon – everybody is welcome. Î Free English practice at conversation club, regular meetings on Fridays at 7 p.m. near Akademgorodok metro. English native speakers. Interesting topics for discussion.

Everyone is invited. Join us at 76 Irpenskaya str., off.31. http://english.in.ua/, 229-2838. Î Free book & DVD exchange. Hundreds of English books and movies. Bring one, take one at the Phoenix Center. Address: metro Pecherska, 2 Nemyrovycha-Danchenko, University of Technology and Design, blue 14-storied building, 3rd floor. Hours: Mon-Fri 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Sat noon until 1:30 p.m. Î Native English speakers. Meet the best and the brightest in Kyiv, well-educated, ambitious, and talented young people 20-30 years old. Share your English skills and make new friends. Everyone is welcome to visit for free.

We also organize picnics, balls and excursions. Five days a week at different locations.

Please contact Mark Taylor at jmt260@hotmail.com for more information. Î Free speaking English club in Irpen on Saturdays at Lan School. Call 093-623-3071. Î Improve your English-speaking skills and have fun. Be prepared to speak English most of the time with native speakers.

Conversational club, thematic discussions on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information please contact Vadym. email: vadik_s@ukr. net or call 066-767-4407. Î Free international conversation club on Fridays at 7 p.m. at English Language Center.

Interesting topics for discussion, studying the Bible sometimes. Join us at 4B Kutuzova lane office No. 106 (m. Pecherska) and 76 Irpenska, office No. 31 (m. Akademgorodok. The ELC LTD. Tel. 5811989, 229-28-38. http://english. in.ua Î Are you a native English speaker? We are glad to invite you to join our English-speaking club. Call 067-620-3120 (Olga) or e-mail Olga.

Bondar@atlantm.com.ua Î Free English/German conversation club on Sundays. Druzhbi Narodiv 18/7, office No. 3. Everyone is welcome. Tel: 529-75-77.

People in need - 7 listings Î Nastya Kotova, 15, has been diagnosed with acute leukemia. She had a successful bone marrow transplant in Israel two months ago. Nastya is in a relatively stable condition now for the first time in many months.

A step away from recovery, she still has to go through a rehabilitation period. The Kotov family urgently needs $12,000 to continue the treatment. Please help save their daughter’s life.

More information: http://www.donor.org.ua/index.php?module =help&act=show&c=1&id=1170 http://fonddarina.com/ru/child/nastyakotova?news#72 Contact Nastya’s volunteer, Iryna: 096-37389-71.

Bank details: Beneficiary: Kotova Olena Vasylivna (Nastya’s

Community Bulletin Board 29 mother) Deposit money on a banking account: # 4405885014676768 PrivatBank Account #: 29244825509100 MFO: 305299 Code: 14360570 Î Maksym Nalivkin, 12 years old, needs your help. The boy had suffered from cerebral haemorrhage and further subarachnoid hemorrhage, which led to 3 brain surgeries and constant artificial pulmonary ventilation.

Since March 2010 the boy has been held at the resuscitation department, for 2 months he’s been out of coma, there are slight positive changes that give hope. He still needs a long-term rehabilitation; however his family already spent their savings on treatment.

In case you have any possibility to support them, Maksym’s family would much appreciate it.

Contacts: Mother Elena Nalivkina - mob.tel.: +380 99 625-2475 Father Arkadiy Nalivkin - mob.tel: +380 503185499; tel: +380 552 22-2806; email: nag.box@ gmail.com; skype: arkady_g.nalivkin; ICQ: 8423832 Webpage: http://nag.pp.net.ua/ Bank details for hryvnia transfer: Bank: Черноморское отделение Херсонского филиала «Приватбанк» МФО Code: 305299 ОКПО Code: 14360570 Account: 29244825509100 Purpose of payment: 4627085825848787, Nalivkina Elena Nikolaevna, ИНН: 2596602804 Multicurrency account (U.S. dollar, euro): BENEFICIARY: NALIVKIN ARKADYY, Kherson, Ukraine ACCOUNT: 2620001696644 BANK NAME: JOIN STOCK COMPANY "THE STATE EXPORT-IMORT BANK OF UKRAINE" (UKREXIMBANK), KHERSON BRANCH SWIFT: EXBSUAUXKHE BANK ADDRESS: 46, RADIANS'KA STR., KHERSON Maksym’s family also appeals for advice - any useful contacts of rehabilitation professionals, recovery programs, as well as charity organizations or grant programs for such cases. Î Two-year-old Vanya Chornozub from Kherson Oblast has brain cancer. Since no clinic in Ukraine was able to cure him, he has been transferred to Germany for further treatment. Due to the efforts of many people, two years of therapy brought very good results.

Vanya is getting better. But his parents are very short of money to pay for further treatment. His parents appeal to anyone who can help support Vanya’s treatment.

Contact person: volunteer Olga Kopylova: +380-67-234-1225 Webpage www.donor.org.ua/index.php?mod ule=help&act=show&c=1&id=870 Details for money transfers: PrivatBank

Account: 29244825509100 Bank branch location code: 305299 Code: 14360570 Details of payment: card replenishment: 4405885012914724, Chornozub À.À., support for son’s treatment Î Sofia Sydorchuk, 3,5 years old, needs your help urgently. The girl has recently been diagnosed with myeloblastic leukemia, she is in hospital, the intensive chemotherapy department. Sofia needs to undergo a course of medical treatment that consists of 4 blocks of chemotherapy (one block has already been done). It is difficult to determine the exact cost of the treatment at this stage; our best estimate is around Euro 200,000. After chemotherapy Sofia needs to move to a specialised rehabilitation clinic in Israel or Germany.

Sofia’s family hopes for your support, each day they do treatment and tests.

You can make a donation via one of the following options: (1) Donations made through a bank transfer Banking details for transfers in Hr: Beneficiary: ÀÒ “Ukreksimbank” Account: 2924902234 Bank of the beneficiary: ÀÒ “Ukreksimbank” MFO code: 322313 EDRPOU code: 00032112 Payment purpose: receipt of funds to the account of Sydorchuk D.V. 0001025541 (2) Donations via web-money Z351457992891 R639870369876 E252216931289 U585571766822 (For instructions on transferring the money via web-money please refer to: http://webmoney.ua/withdrawfunds/) Î The Down Syndrome Ukrainian Organisation gathers parents who have trisomic children, in order to help them raise their kids, and aims at changing the public perception of the disease. The Organisation is now opening a Center for Early Development of the Children with Down Syndrome in Kyiv.

The association has recently launched the operation “Serebrenaya Monetka” (Silver Coin) in order to raise funds for the center.

Transparent boxes have been displayed in the 100 branches of UkrSibBank (the subsidiary of the French BNP Paribas group) in Kyiv, in order to collect the small coins that everybody has in their pockets. All donations are welcome.

Details can be found at http://www.downsyndrome.com.ua/; http://www.ukrsibbank.com.

The operation will end on March 19th. All the proceeds of the operation will be used to buy equipments and furniture for this Center.”

Hryvnya account: BENEFICIARY: Vseukrainskaia Bkagodiyna Organizatsia Down Syndrome ACCOUNT: 26007265663400 MFO 351005 UKRSIBBANK

30 Employment A leading European engineering and environmental consulting firm is seeking

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11 931 15 907

By Fax, Phone or E-mail (from 9 a.m. to 6p.m.

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3 333

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Tel. +380 44 234 6503 Fax. +380 44 234 6330 e-mail: protasova@kyivpost.com

All prices are given without VAT.

English on Sundays

RESUME

RESUME

MINI

B&W

15 boxes 260Ă—179,5

Brian Bonner, chief editor, Kyiv Post at bonner@kyivpost.com

Competitive salary and conditions.

Please send English CVs to daspleaf@eptisa.com

Size (mm)

Software developer MINI

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Requirements: minimum 5 years of professional experience in the development of written commercial materials, fluent English and Russian, excellent written English and Russian communication skills, university degree, some experience in the development/writing of proposals for IFIs (World Bank, EBRD, EU) preferred, strong knowledge of MS Word, Excel, Power Point required

RESUME

Responsibilities: development and coordination of commercial proposals and commercial materials for work in NIS countries

THE IDEAL CANDIDATE SHOULD: Have fluency in English, Ukrainian and Russian.

Show good news judgment and have the ability to work quickly under deadline.

Have experience in news editing.

Prices for ads (UAH)

Kyiv Post

RESUME

Requirements: minimum 5 years of professional experience, fluent English and Russian, degree in accounting or a related degree and relevant professional experience, some work experience in an international environment, some travel to Madrid and among the NIS countries will be required

Commercial Developer

How to place an Employment Ad in the

IS LOOKING FOR A

Responsibilities: financial management and financial reporting for all business activities in the NIS countries

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WWW KYIVPOST COM

February 11, 2011

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Employment/Classifieds 31

February 11, 2011

Business Advisory Services UKRAINE is looking for candidates to fill the position of:

PROJECT OFFICER The Project Officer is responsible for all aspects of the implementation of the Programme’s activities in accordance with the requirements of the donors and the EBRD. This includes: The Business Advisory Services Programme is managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

It provides grants for qualifying companies to address issues related to their development with the help of local consultants

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Excellen Excellent n written and verbal communication skills; Strong qquantitative and analytical skills; 1+ year years rs of experience in investment research; Solid tec technical c familiarity with financial analysis and corporate valuation (MBA, C CFA, CPA is a plus); Excellen Excellent n English and Russian or Ukrainian a must; Ability too work under tight deadlines and to multi-task; Detail-o Detail-oriented, or result-driven, team-player

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and Russian.

BAS Ukraine is not bound to accept any of the proposals. The successful candidate will be hired as an independent contractor. The duration of the contract will be 1 year, which can be extended, subject to availability of funding and satisfactory performance.

The assignment requires full-time residence in Kiev, Ukraine.

To apply, please submit your CV and a covering letter, by email to shevchuj@ebrd.com by 20.02.2011 at the latest.

Kyivpost.ua

9OUR FUTURE STUDENTS MIGHT SEE YOUR AD

IS LOOKING FOR A

SPORTS EDITOR

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FOR ITS ONLINE UKRAINIAN/ RUSSIAN LANGUAGE VERSION

THE SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATE MUST: Be knowledgeable about a wide range of spectator and participatory sports popular to Ukrainians; Be willing to get exclusive interviews on a regular basis; Have experience working for online news sites; Have fluency in Ukrainian, Russian and English languages.

Please send CV, three writing samples, three story ideas and an explanation of why you want to work for the Kyiv Post, one of Ukraine’s top news sources, to: Brian Bonner, chief editor, Kyiv Post at

bonner@kyivpost.com

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Best Wishes From Tom the Bomb

32 Photo Story

February 11, 2011

Art students pass exams

2

1 During midterm examinations, the Kyiv Institute of Fine Arts and Design turns into a chaotic art gallery. Long sleepless nights preceded a stressful exam day on Jan. 25. In the dorm roomsturned-studios, some 500 students had to prepare up to seven works to pass the grade (1). Finding a place for hundreds of drawings displayed at the same time was tough (6). When hallways, classrooms and a gym ran out of wall space, paintings and sketches invaded the floor (2). Young artists rushed to fix their mistakes with a brush (3) – much like regular students fuss over

www.kyivpost.com

a last word in their essay when the test time is up. Professors then carefully examined the tasks and graded them (4, 5).

Incidentally, the tests coincided with Saint Tatiana’s Day, known as a patron of all students. In 1755, Russian Empress Elizabeth founded Moscow State University. St. Tatiana’s church was built on its campus, which later contributed to her status of the students’ guardian.

Story by Nataliya Horban Photos by Roman Hrytsenko

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