Turning the pages back... March 5, 1995 (03/05/06)

Turning the pages back...

March 5, 1995

Eleven years ago our op-ed page carried one of the many articles written by Eugene Iwanciw, director of the UNA Washington Office. This one was titled "The real story of U.S. assistance," and it ran as one of Mr. Iwanciw's regular columns called "Letter from Washington."

On March 5, 1995, Mr. Iwanciw tried to paint an accurate, and meaningful, picture of U.S. aid to Ukraine. "For the past year we have been hearing that Ukraine is the fourth largest recipient of U.S. foreign assistance, after Israel, Egypt and Russia. Those claims have even been printed in our community newspapers," Mr. Iwanciw wrote. "We have heard big numbers such as $700 million of assistance in fiscal year 1994 and $200 million in fiscal year 1995. I have continually challenged the accuracy of these figures."

He went on to explain that accurate data are almost impossible to find and that different sources, often in the same agency, will cite different figures. "In addition, one must sort the apples from the oranges that are often mixed together in the administrations' announcements of 'assistance' to Ukraine. The apples are the actual assistance programs, while the oranges are credits or loans that must be repaid."

Finally, Mr. Iwanciw said, the U.S. Department of State had set the record straight in "U.S. Assistance and Related Programs for the New Independent States of the Former Soviet Union, 1994 Annual Report." He then took a look at actual expenditures, noting that "in terms of total dollar amounts, Ukraine ranks third after Russia and Armenia."

"This, however, is deceptive," he continued. "How does one compare the total dollar amounts when you have a country as large as Russia with 150 million people and a country as small as Armenia with 3.4 million people? The only solution is to analyze the amount expended for 1992-1994 on a per capita basis, which is what I did."

Mr. Iwanciw then found an eye-opening result: "Rather than ranking third, Ukraine ranks 11th out of 12 NIS countries. Only Uzbekistan ranks behind Ukraine. Even Azerbaijan, a nation prohibited from receiving U.S. assistance because of its war with Armenia, comes out ahead of Ukraine." Furthermore, with $7.5 per capita in U.S. aid, Ukraine was well below the average for NIS countries, which was $16.47.

When USAID was asked about these figures, first it said per capita expenditures are not a proper measure of assistance. Then USAID said that Ukraine received so little assistance because it had not pursued economic reforms. And yet, Belarus received 3.5 times as much aid as Ukraine, while Tajikistan received 2.5 times as much - that despite the fact that both countries were decidedly far behind on economic reform.

Mr. Iwanciw's conclusion: "The reality is that the administration has not pursued a 'Russo-centric' policy as much as it has pursued an 'anti-Ukrainian' policy, no doubt to please the Kremlin."

Source: "The real story of U.S. assistance," in "Letter from Washington" by Eugene Iwanciw, The Ukrainian Weekly, March 5, 1995, Vol. LXIII, No. 10.

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