Kuchma counters Lazarenko's accusations by citing The Ukrainian Weekly editorial (11/09/97)

Kuchma counters Lazarenko's accusations by citing The Ukrainian Weekly editorial

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma responded on November 1 to accusations "that no democracy exists in Ukraine today" made by Pavlo Lazarenko during the former prime minster's recent visit to the United States, and caused a minor stir by quoting an editorial from The Ukrainian Weekly to support his attack on Mr. Lazarenko.

"It would be more accurate to say that the authoritarian ways of the government ended after Lazarenko decided to leave the post of prime minister," President Kuchma said at his first press conference in several months.

At a gathering of Ukrainian Americans in Washington on October 23, Mr. Lazarenko had said, "There is no democracy in Ukraine. It died with the coming of the current administration - or regime."

President Kuchma answered Mr. Lazarenko by attempting to discredit his visit to the U.S. He quoted verbatim the first three paragraphs from this newspaper's editorial of November 2, and also rebuffed accusations made in an article in the newspaper Vseukrainski Viedomosti on the Lazarenko trip that the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington was not functioning effectively, and that Ukrainian leaders and the diaspora supported Mr. Lazarenko.

Oleksander Turchenev, the head of the Central Coordinating Council of the Hromada Party, which Mr. Lazarenko leads, said he felt that the U.S. visit went normally. He called the president's comments part of "an ongoing war between two opposing forces. [On] one side is the bankrupt policies of the current government selling off the last of our country, while the other side is fighting for the rebirth of our country based on entrepreneurship and the rebirth of productivity." Mr. Turchenev said he would not comment on statements made by Mr. Lazarenko during his visit or in the Ukrainian newspaper articles.

The Ukrainian Weekly editorial from which President Kuchma read excerpts (and of which the Hromada Party demanded a copy early the next business day) sought to warn the Ukrainian community in the U.S. and Canada that with the start of the election season in Ukraine, other politicians could be arriving in the West to seek political support and could end up using the diaspora for their purposes, as it appears did Mr. Lazarenko. The editorial gave examples of inaccuracies published by Vseukrainski Viedomosti and Pravda Ukrainy in their stories about Mr. Lazarenko's trip.

In addition to stirring up the Lazarenko camp, the use of the editorial caused consternation among Ukrainian Americans. Because Mr. Kuchma read only the first three paragraphs, he never explained that the point of the editorial was not only to criticize Mr. Lazarenko's actions during and after his U.S. visit, but to put the Ukrainian American community on notice that it could be used again, explained Roma Hadzewycz, editor-in-chief of The Ukrainian Weekly. "If he quoted only the first paragraphs, then he missed the point of the editorial," said Mrs. Hadzewycz.

On November 5 the president's press secretary, Dmytro Markov, who worked at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington as press attaché until 1996, said: "The president simply read the editorial because it reflected the point of view of the community with which Mr. Lazarenko met." He also explained that the Ukrainian Embassy had forwarded information which showed there were inconsistencies in the Vseukrainski Viedomosti and Pravda Ukrainy stories, including false statements that the New York Times and the Washington Post had covered the Lazarenko visit.

However, here were at least two key inaccuracies in the translation used by the president, as well. The president quoted the editorial as stating that Pavlo Lazarenko is "considered one of the most corrupt officials in Ukraine," while the editorial read "once branded as one of the most corrupt officials in Ukraine." At another point the president read that Mr. Lazarenko "offended the Kuchma administration," whereas the editorial stated that "In Washington he went on the offensive against the Kuchma administration."

But what most concerned many newspapers here, including Kyiv's largest daily, Kievskie Viedomosti, and the popular business newspaper Halytskiy Kontrakty, was how President Kuchma could obtain a copy of a U.S. newspaper at least a day before it officially hit the newsstand. Mr. Markov was slightly off when he told a reporter from Kievskie Viedomosti that The Ukrainian Weekly is printed on Wednesday. The newspaper can actually be purchased in Manhattan as early as Friday afternoon, two days before the printed publishing date.

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