Controversy erupts over foreign influence on Ukraine's elections (03/31/02)

Controversy erupts over foreign influence on Ukraine's elections

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Foreign influence on Ukraine's parliamentary elections became one of the central issues of the last week prior to the March 31 vote.

The loudest political reverberations came after both houses of the United States Congress passed a resolution calling for free and fair elections in Ukraine. There was also much ado about perceived intrusions into the electoral process by Russian politicians, including Moscow Mayor Yurii Luzhkov and Ambassador to Ukraine Viktor Chernomyrdin regarding the U.S. action and the elections situation in Ukraine in general.

Ukraine's authorities responded with bewilderment and consternation to the U.S. congressional resolution, which was passed overwhelmingly by both the House of Representatives and the Senate on March 20 and 21.

The document expressed support for "the efforts of the Ukrainian people to promote democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights in Ukraine." It urged the government of the country "to enforce impartially its newly adopted election law," including provisions for the transparency of election procedures, equal access to the media for all election participants, multi-party representation on election commissions and access for international election observers.

The day after the resolution was approved, President Leonid Kuchma responded by describing the congressional action as "unprecedented" and expressing astonishment over what he perceived as an indication from Washington that it did not believe that democracy is developing in Ukraine. He said he was concerned over how the Ukrainian public would respond to such a perception and addressed continued commentary from foreign capitals and politicians over the state of elections in Ukraine.

"Either we are a nation and a state, or we are a soccer field where our strategic partners play," said an exasperated President Kuchma, according to UT-1 television.

The resolution was criticized also by Askold Lozynskyj, president of the Ukrainian World Congress, who appeared on Ukrainian television saying that it was too harsh on Ukraine.

Communist Party leader and candidate Petro Symonenko accused the United States of interfering in Ukraine's domestic affairs. Both he and Progressive Socialist Natalia Vitrenko, another candidate in the parliamentary elections, called for the ouster of the U.S. ambassador.

Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Ministry responded the same day by issuing a statement in which it called upon all countries to "act in a sophisticated and cautious manner, proceeding from commonly recognized principles of international law as non-interference into domestic affairs of the state and respect for its sovereignty and territorial integrity" in the last week before elections.

Moscow's ambassador to Ukraine, Mr. Chernomyrdin, broadened the debate to a three-party discussion when he told Interfax-Ukraine that he believes Ukraine must respond to the United States congressional resolution, especially since U.S. election procedures could be questioned. He said the U.S. had no right to make demands on Ukraine in light of the fact that the person who received the most votes in the U.S. elections in November 2000 had not become president.

Mr. Chernomyrdin made his statement before a meeting with leaders of the Party of the Winter Crop Generation, one of the 33 political organizations vying for seats in the Ukrainian parliamentary elections. He had previously met personally with most of the other political candidates, as he and Russian authorities in Moscow continued to keep close tabs and comment extensively on the Ukrainian elections, which he and other Russian officials were loathe to consider interference into Ukrainian elections on their part.

On March 20, he had told ITAR-TASS that he was worried about the Our Ukraine Bloc's expected victory in the elections. "Yushchenko says that he favors broad democracy and supports President Leonid Kuchma, but when we look at the structure of his bloc we see who is in it and what statements they make and it begins to worry us," said Ambassador Chernomyrdin, according to RFE/RL.

Making light of Mr. Chernomyrdin's seemingly full involvement in the pre-election campaign process in Ukraine, the Russian newspaper Sevodnia last week called the Russian ambassador "the biggest expert on the elections."

"Those with whom he has met, have been guaranteed seats in the Parliament," noted the newspaper on March 26, according to the Kyiv daily newspaper Den.

Mr. Chernomyrdin was not the only Russian voice directed at Ukrainian elections in the last week, however.

National Deputy Dimitrii Rogozin, the head of the Russian State Duma International Relations Committee, echoed the envoy's views, though his comments were harsher, comparing Ukrainian nationalism to Chechen extremism.

From his perch in Moscow, Oleksander Voloshyn, the head of President Vladimir Putin's administration, also had something to say about Ukrainian elections, specifically which political organizations he wanted to see in the next Verkhovna Rada, among which he named the Communists, the Social Democratic Party (United) and the pro-presidential For a United Ukraine bloc.

Moscow Mayor Luzhkov made his semi-regular appearance in Crimea on March 25 to remind residents of that autonomous region of Ukraine that he had not forgotten about them. Instructed by Ukrainian authorities to stifle his opinions on Russian citizenship for Crimeans or face revocation of his visa, Mr. Luzhkov quipped with Sevastopol residents only half in jest that, "Crimea is a Russian home, err, I mean Ukrainian home," reported Novyi Kanal's Reporter program.

Boris Nemtsov, a member of the Russian State Duma from the Union of Rightist Forces, traveled to Ukraine as well, spending a day in Kyiv on March 23 "to walk the streets of the city and speak with the people to assess the mood of voters," as he explained.

Ukraine's Central Election Commission, responding to Mr. Nemtsov's visit, finally reacted to the various moves and comments by the Russian politicians and issued a statement on March 25 that non-Ukrainians have no right to campaign or to take part in the general pre-election debate.

The same day, during a visit to St. Petersburg, Russia, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ivan Pliusch also reacted and said that the statements by the Russian officials "could be construed to be interference in Ukraine's domestic affairs."

On March 26 Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Igor Ivanov added his thoughts to the mix when he told journalists in Moscow that "Russia has never and never will intrude in the internal affairs of a country, more so when it is a friend," reported Novyi Kanal.

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