2001: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

U.S.-Ukraine relations: signs of dissatisfaction

The year 2001 had many indications of an improving U.S.-Ukraine relationship: Ukraine joined in the U.S. fight against international terrorism, improved its economy, maintained its security and other ties with the United States and NATO, and exchanged senior-level visits with its trans-Atlantic strategic partner.

But the relationship was also dogged by a number of irritants: the unsolved, suspicious murder of muckraking journalist Heorhii Gongadze, allegations of pervasive high-level corruption, and the apparent official unwillingness to curb the large-scale production of pirated Western optical media products.

These irritants simply would not go away, and, as a result, the bilateral relationship ended the year with a not-so-very-merry Christmas - Ukraine got a dreaded "rizka" (switch) instead of a present from the administration's St. Nick and found a smaller present than expected under the Congressional foreign assistance Christmas tree.

After two years of pressure, threats and limited action in its attempt to curb Ukraine's role as Europe's leading producer and exporter of pirated music, video and computer program products (CDs, CD-ROMs, DVDs, etc.) the U.S. government finally put its foot down - on December 20 the office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced trade sanctions against Ukraine.

Beginning on January 23, 2002, the United States will levy "prohibitive tariffs" on $75 million worth of metals, footwear and other imports from Ukraine, which will offset the amount of annual damages that this piracy of optical media has caused to Americans, according to the announcement.

The sanctions were announced on the same day the Verkhovna Rada again failed to pass anti-piracy legislation. Explaining the U.S. action, Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick also suggested that Ukraine's lack of action may hurt its chances of getting into the World Trade Organization. "We take piracy of U.S. intellectual property seriously. So does the WTO, which Ukraine wants to join," he said.

The United States had placed Ukraine on the priority foreign country watch list in March, and in August it stripped Ukraine of its status in the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) which it grants developing economies.

Within days of the USTR action on sanctions, the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate approved a compromise foreign assistance package for fiscal year 2002, which would give Ukraine "not less than" $154 million. While more than the $125 million recommended by the House, the amount is less than the $169 million requested by the Bush administration and the $180 million that originally passed in the Senate. It is also less than the $170 million appropriated for Ukraine for 2001 and the $195 million it received in 2000.

While the 2002 aid legislation directs the State Department to report to Congress "on progress by the government of Ukraine in investigating and bringing to justice individuals responsible for the murders of Ukrainian journalists," unlike the "certification" provisions in previous years, this year's provision does not threaten to cut off aid if the report is negative.

The unsolved slayings of Heorhii Gongadze, as well as other lesser-known Ukrainian journalists reporting about high-level corruption, and questions of press freedom in Ukraine have been raised repeatedly throughout the year by the Bush administration and in Congress.

The State Department's annual Human Rights Report cited Ukraine's mixed record on human rights and the government's failure to curb institutional corruption and abuse.

Administration spokesmen periodically expressed U.S. concerns in response to inquiries, and the U.S. position was driven home resolutely by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice during her visit to Kyiv on July 25. "We hope to have good relations with Ukraine," she told reporters in Kyiv, "but it can only be on the basis of forward movement on these very important issues."

In Congress, the U.S. Helsinki Commission, which has always taken the lead in monitoring such issues, frequently expressed its concerns and held a special hearing on Ukraine. The commission's chairman, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), also introduced legislation that would tie foreign economic assistance to corruption-fighting efforts in countries that receive U.S. aid.

During the hearing on May 2, dubbed "Ukraine at the Crossroads - 10 Years After Independence," Helsinki commission members had a chance to quiz President Leonid Kuchma's top national security advisor, Yevhen Marchuk, on Ukraine's political and economic problems, including the tape scandal allegedly linking the president to the murder of Mr. Gongadze and to some high-level corruption, as well as the removal, a few days earlier, of Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko, who had been highly regarded in the West as an incorruptible reformer.

Mr. Marchuk said that the tape scandal and Gongadze affair "complicated" the political process and were being used by the president's opponents "to instigate the political crisis in Ukraine." On the other hand, he added, this societal friction could also be seen as a "natural component of a complex process of the maturing of the young Ukrainian democracy."

Mr. Marchuk also took time to underscore Ukraine's economic progress and positive role in international affairs - its track record on implementing undertaken commitments and the consistency of is foreign policy. He cited as examples the elimination of Ukraine's nuclear weapons, its adherence to international arms control and non-proliferation regimes, and the closure of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant.

Sitting in the audience in the hearing room was the slain journalist's widow, Myroslava Gongadze, and their two young daughters, who had been granted asylum in the United States.

Maj. Mykola Melnychenko, the presidential bodyguard who secretly recorded president Kuchma's conversations, had an opportunity to explain his side of the taping controversy during a Washington news conference on August 14. He received asylum in the United States at about the same time as Ms. Gongadze; the U.S. action was revealed by the State Department on April 16.

Maj. Melnychenko said he doubted that President Kuchma would ever resign over the tape scandal. But he was certain that sooner or later the president would be brought to account for the killing of Mr. Gongadze and other crimes. He denied press reports that he was helping U.S. investigators looking into Ukrainian money-laundering activities in the United States and that he gave them access to the tape recordings.

Questions about the presidential tapes, the Gongadze murder and corruption were also discussed to a greater or lesser degree in many of the official and unofficial visits to Washington by Ukrainian political figures in 2001.

The first such visit, at the end of February, was by Socialist Party leader Oleksander Moroz, who had received copies of some of Maj. Melnychenko's secret tapes, played some of them publicly and launched his movement to oust President Kuchma. He said he came to Washington to get acquainted with the personalities in the new Bush administration and to give them his perspective on developments in Ukraine.

Among other Ukrainian political figures on similar missions to Washington at this time was former Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk, who held a round of meetings at the State Department, the National Security Council and on Capitol Hill, but unlike Mr. Moroz, shied away from publicity and the press.

Also making the rounds of the Washington power centers in March was Serhii Tyhypko, another former member of the Yuschenko Cabinet, who, also unlike Mr. Moroz, said that absent clear evidence of the president's complicity to criminal activity he would back Mr. Kuchma. Mr. Tyhypko also indicated that Prime Minister Yuschenko needed to strengthen his government with a broader coalition.

As it turned out, a few weeks later Mr. Yuschenko, lacking adequate support in the Verkhovna Rada, was ousted on a no-confidence vote. Already out of office but not out of politics, Mr. Yuschenko came to the United States in November as the head of a new election bloc, Our Ukraine, which is preparing for elections to the Verkhovna Rada in 2002. While in Washington and New York, he met with administration officials and members of Congress, business leaders, the press and the Council of Presidents of major Jewish organizations.

The first high-level Ukrainian official to meet with the new administration in Washington was First Vice-Prime Minister Yurii Yekhanurov. The primary objective of his mid-March visit was to secure additional credits from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, but it also included meetings with Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and other U.S. officials.

Two weeks later Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Anatolii Zlenko came calling on Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. He brought with him a letter requesting FBI assistance in the Gongadze case. A State Department spokesman later said that Secretary Powell indicated to Mr. Zlenko that the United States was prepared "to cooperate" and reiterated U.S. concerns about the case and about "the need for a full, open and transparent investigation."

During a briefing Mr. Zlenko characterized as unfair and simplistic the Western media's focus on allegations made against the president by his political opponents, and the branding of Ukraine as the world's "enfant terrible," full of crime and corruption. The protests in Ukraine do not amount to a "national uprising," he said. They are the "inflammatory tricks" of those trying to take political advantage of the situation.

A similar analysis of the political crisis was sounded by President Leonid Kuchma's chief of staff, Volodymyr Lytvyn, on his visit to Washington in mid-June. Although not an official visit, it included meetings with senior U.S. officials, members of Congress and others interested in Ukraine. Afterwards, Mr. Lytvyn said that the U.S. officials showed "a deep knowledge and understanding of developments in Ukraine" as well as "a sincere desire" to help Ukraine overcome its problems."

As for the Gongadze case, Mr. Lytvyn told the Washington Times he believed that the journalist was killed by those trying to embarrass the president. "It was a provocation that got out of control," he said. "They were aiming at the president and they hit the country's reputation in the world instead."

The last official visit of 2001 was in late October by Anatolii Kinakh, who replaced Viktor Yuschenko as Ukraine's prime minister. He came seeking improvements in the trade relationship with the United States, increased private investment and continued credits from the international financial institutions in Washington. He had talks with Secretary of State Powell and other members of the Cabinet, as well as with Vice-President Richard Cheney. His discussion with the vice-president was by a video-conference, since, following another national alert about an imminent terrorist attack, Mr. Cheney was spirited away to an undisclosed secure location.

Before coming to Washington, the prime minister visited the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York, where he also attended a memorial service at St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church and met with Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan.

Ukraine is cooperating with the United States and the international coalition in combating international terrorism by sharing intelligence and allowing overflights by U.S. military transport planes. Mr. Kinakh said that he and Vice-President Cheney agreed to broaden this cooperation to include investigations of illegal money-laundering activities.

High on the agenda of his talks in Washington was the development of the Odesa-Brody-Gdansk oil pipeline that would carry Caspian oil through Ukraine to Europe and the CD piracy issue. He said that according to his government's estimates, the imposition of U.S. retaliatory trade sanctions, might cost Ukraine some $400 million.

The September 11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Center was condemned on Ukraine's national television by President Kuchma, who said "the civilized world must demonstrate unity, concord and coordination of efforts" to combat this evil. Less than two weeks later, Ukraine announced that it would give the United States open access to its airspace for limited military cargo transport as part of its role in the fight against international terrorism. Its armed forces, however, would not take direct part in ground actions in Afghanistan.

In accordance with Ukrainian tradition, on the 40th day after the terrorist attacks, October 22, Ukraine commemorated the victims at a requiem concert at the National Opera House in Kyiv. The concert was performed by the Odesa State Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by American Hobart Earle. U.S. Ambassador Carlos Pascual, who attended the concert along with the ambassadors from France, Spain and Georgia and the leading members of the Verkhovna Rada, thanked the Ukrainian people for their many expressions of sympathy and support.

The Verkhovna Rada and the U.S. Congress initiated a closer relationship during 2001. A group of U.S. lawmakers visiting Kyiv in February agreed on a cooperative exchange initiative with Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada, which will allow the two legislative bodies to address problems common to their countries. Later, in November, three members of that group - Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Bob Schaffer (R-Colo.) and Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) - held the first meeting of the Congress-Verkhovna Rada Working Group. The video-conference meeting dealt with such topics as Ukraine's investment climate, privatization and intellectual property rights, and the possible elimination of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, a Soviet-era law that Ukraine says is complicating its relationship with the United States.

As for high-level U.S. visits to Ukraine in 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was the first senior Bush administration official to meet with President Kuchma. During an overnight stopover in Kyiv on June 5 he assured Ukraine that it would be included in all international negotiations on a U.S. missile defense system. "I can't speak for Russia, but I can assure you that the U.S. intends to consult fully with Ukraine as we proceed," he said.

National Security Adviser Rice followed in July, on her way to Moscow for talks on that very subject. Following her meetings with President Kuchma and Prime Minister Kinakh, she praised Ukraine's recent economic achievements and said a partnership with Ukraine is "highly desirable" for U.S. strategic interests. She also stressed that a transparent investigation of who murdered Mr. Gongadze and the holding of free and just parliamentary elections in 2002 "will make a tremendous difference to Ukraine's standing in the world," to its investment climate and "toward building that European vision that we all have for Ukraine."

While President Bush has yet to visit Ukraine, he came close in June, while on a visit to Poland. The speech he delivered there certainly was of interest to Ukraine. He said it was time to stop talking about East and West, but rather about an "open Europe" without "false lines." And he noted that "the Europe we are building must include Ukraine."

President Bush urged that all of Europe's new democracies, "from the Baltic to the Black Sea and all that lie between, should have the same chance for security and freedom - and the same chance to join the institutions of Europe - as Europe's old democracies have."

Ukraine's integration into the European community and NATO was a major topic of one of three noteworthy conferences held in Washington last year dealing with Ukraine. During one of the sessions of The Washington Group's annual Leadership Conference in October, the ambassadors of Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine focused on that very subject. And the professionals group honored retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Nicholas Krawciw for his work in promoting closer U.S.-Ukraine military ties.

Another conference, organized by the Organization for the Defense of Four Freedoms for Ukraine, originally scheduled for September, was postponed until late October-early November because of the post-September 11 disruptions and the anthrax contamination on Capitol Hill. The rescheduled conference, titled "Ukraine's Quest for Mature Nation Statehood: Roundtable II - Taking Measure of a U.S.-Ukraine Strategic Partnership," coincided with the Washington visit of Prime Minister Kinakh, who addressed the meeting.

On May 9 the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation and the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus co-sponsored a one-day conference, "Ukraine: From Breadbasket of Europe to Marketbasket for the World," at the Russell Senate Office Building. This roundtable focused on the challenges and successes in the food-producing and food-processing sector of Ukraine's economy. Its stated goal was to positively influence further U.S.-Ukraine economic development through greater private investment in Ukraine and changes in public policy.

In addition to the assistance the United States provided Ukraine through its foreign assistance budget last year, there were a number of other emergency and discretionary grants disbursed by the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, among them: $61,000 in medical equipment to four hospitals in Donetsk treating survivors of the Zasiadko mine explosion in August that killed 55 miners; and $750,000 for a Ukraine media development fund to help resolve problems limiting press freedom in the country. The fund will support the development of a free and independent media in Ukraine by helping Ukrainian journalists, media organizations and other non-governmental groups.

The U.S. Embassy has also worked closely with the government of Ukraine in combatting the trafficking of human beings, with major U.S-funded programs focusing on prevention, protection and assistance for Ukrainians at risk, and prosecution of traffickers.

In its first annual "Trafficking in Persons Report," the U.S. State Department reviewed trafficking activities in 82 countries, including Ukraine. It estimated that some 700,000 persons are victims of trafficking worldwide every year. Ukraine is mentioned as a major source and transit country for women and girls trafficked abroad for sexual exploitation, primarily to Central and Western Europe, the United States and the Middle East.

For year 2001 saw Ukraine become more visitor-friendly, as the government in July did away with a number of annoying visa requirements and other irritants for those wishing to travel to Ukraine. Americans, and citizens of a number of other countries, now no longer need to present an invitation to get a visa, to provide a detailed itinerary of their trip, to fight off attempts to sell them medical insurance at the airport, and to register with the local police when traveling from place to place within Ukraine. And, to ease things even more, visa application forms now do not have to be requested by mail or in person; they can be downloaded by computer from the Ukrainian Embassy's website.

For Ukrainians wishing to visit the United States, the events of September 11 probably made that possibility even more difficult than it already had been. Those seeking immigrant status in the United States, however, had the opportunity to once again try their luck in the Diversity Visa Lottery, which grants permanent resident immigrant visas each year to 55,000 applicants. The winners are selected at random.

The 10th anniversary of Ukraine's independence was marked around the globe, wherever fate had cast Ukrainians to live and work. In the United States, the premiere celebration was at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, where some 300 diplomats, government officials, businessmen and representatives of numerous organizations joined in the festivities. Among the guests was a historic grouping of all four U.S. ambassadors to serve in Kyiv during its 10 years of independence - Roman Popadiuk, William Green Miller, Steven Pifer and Mr. Pascual.

Welcoming the guests, Ambassador Kostyantyn Gryshchenko recognized the fact that, since gaining independence, Ukraine has not advanced as far as some would have hoped. "But we have come a long way," he added.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 6, 2002, No. 1, Vol. LXX

| Home Page |