We won’t get fooled again!

The wheels of democracy at times seem to turn extremely quickly, however, when it comes to diplomacy they clearly move at a cadence that few can understand. There have been many statements of warning from Western leaders condemning the seven-year sentence handed down to former prime minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko, however, will such statements ever materialize into action?

Yanukovych clearly by his rhetoric does not seem concerned with the statements made by the west, and why should this surprise anyone? I have mentioned this thrice, he does not understand diplospeak, and the only way that he will understand is to be dealt with in a manner that those in his world deal with one another, with force.

"It appears that they have been stringing us along," said a senior Western diplomat in Kyiv, to the Financial Times. Maybe some diplomats out there do understand the way Yanukovych and his band of robber barons operate, but maybe they don’t. When I read these kinds of comments veiled behind anonymity there seems to me a preponderance of the later.

It is time for Western diplomats to think beyond the box of Western diplomacy, and start to think they way those who are now holding court in Ukraine think. The polite statements in a language that is as foreign to the regime of Yanukovych might as well be delivered in Old Church Slavonic, which is just as foreign to him and his henchmen as the language of diplomacy which to them is an artillery of words, which they simply do not understand.

Clearly, the West has been strung along by this jester and those who preceded him. But somehow, his predecessors understood diplospeak, and in the past those words were backed up with actions. Because as the idiom goes: “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” It seems that the West for the last couple of years have been in the “shame on me” mode in its relationship with Ukraine, and until their recent statements are followed through with targeted actions which will have direct repercussions on those who have and continue to rape Kateryna, economically and culturally, very little headway will be made.

The barrage of statements delivered in the direction of those in power in Ukraine has clearly fallen up deaf ears, because until someone finds a way to deliver the message using vocabulary used in the criminal underworld that they will understand there will be no reaction. However, such language just may be understood: “You son of a bitch, you are such a petukh that you are afraid of Volodymyrivna! All you can do is lock her up! You shit; you know the only way you can win an election is with her out of the way! You good for nothing mudak! This is the end for you and your groups who care nothing about your country, but only wish to rob its people!” And once the message is delivered in a language that is understood, then clear and forceful action is required.

Some tough love is necessary and has to be delivered by clear and targeted actions. The passage of legislation which would allow countries to freeze and arrest of the assets of those associated with the current regime; travel restrictions on all those associated with the regime; a complete and total review of all companies owned by these individuals and to ensure that no foreign aid intended to help the development of the country in different spheres, is being skimmed by these characters; and pressure on the EUFA by countries of Europe and its football fans to revoke Ukraine’s right to act as host of the Euro-2012 Football Championships. These and other creative and targeted actions are required, because without them the civilized democratic countries of the world will continue to be stuck in the mode of “shame on me!” and will take on a new mantra, first voiced by Pete Townsend of “The Who” back in 1971, where they will:



Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again


The question remains: Will they be strung along and fooled again?

Vasyl Pawlowsky Independent Consultant

The commentary of this was first published on the Ukraine Business Online site.

An orange carrot called Euro-2012

Before the early winter of 2004 Ukraine was nothing but a grey smudge somewhere on the periphery of a contemporary Europe. It was a country with a developing democracy and with its fair share of problems as it tried to shake off the legacy of the Former Soviet Union, but when the Orange (R)evolution took place, the world started to take notice. As a result of the bloodless revolution, a revolution of smiling cooperative Ukrainians, wanting to build a better nation, one based on democratic principles, Ukraine was offered a carrot. That carrot was the Euro-2012 Football Championships which it is to co-host with its Western neighbor Poland; a country that through a great deal of shock therapy reformed itself from being a key member of the Warsaw Pact into a functioning democracy.

However, Ukraine somehow, to this day, even twenty years of independence has not gone through the reforms necessary in order to become a truly functioning democracy. The unlawful trial, unethical detainment and the flimsily grounded, yet brutally enforced verdict on former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, announced by a clearly in-the-pocket judge, is just one such incident - prominent because of Tymoshenko’s high international profile, yet very indicative of the unmistakable ruthlessness of the current regime.

“In Tymoshenko’s trial, however, many elements of Stalin’s grotesque legal charades are present: a near-hysterical prosecutor, a compliant judge, a ruler who washed his hands of the affair like Pontius Pilate.” wrote Nikita Khrushchev’s great granddaughter, Nina Khrushcheva in the The Daily Beast on October 10 a day before the verdict was announced.

Yanukovych’s master of spin Hanna Herman had at some point stated that the president was “not aware of the charges brought against Tymoshenko” and annoyed by this, but how will his annoyance play out? Particularly if one takes the time to ask oneself: If despite all the heavy international condemnation of this trial, and despite all the looming political and economic consequences, for a regime that appears so busy trying to build some sort of legitimate image abroad, the verdict was still followed through on, in full force, without even blinking, then one can only speculate about the level of ruthlessness which this government goes about with its daily business when the rest of the world is not watching, and Ukraine is not under the microscope?

Earlier, if the modus operandi by those who came to power was divide and conquer, now it is clearly seek and destroy, using any possible means. It appears that at times principles of revenge are placed higher than any political or even economic rational. Although, there is very well grounded political and economic rational behind eliminating from politics the regime’s Number 1 opponent.

So who will the regime’s next opponent be? Maybe when the consequences of this show trail are felt by Ukraine’s politicos, they will with the restrained brutality of Stalin, put an end to the political careers of the prosecutor and judge in the case as suggested by Nina Khrushcheva? After all they were nothing but useful-idiots employed by the regime to eliminate the opposition, they too are expendable.

But will there be consequences? Yanukovych’s advisors are certain that Ukraine’s strategic importance is too big for Europe to simply switch to hard measures of boycotts, travel bans, account freezes, etc. The officials in Kyiv think that they can manage to balance their instances of unconcealable lawlessness, corruption and brutality, with their efforts to appear democratic and progressive by appeasing the West with select deals and partnerships. Getting ready for Euro 2012 in the most pompous way possible, is one of these efforts.

Yet the common everyday good people of Ukraine have nothing to do with the Euro-2012 Football Championship. Most eek their way through life based on principles that are so far away from the current occupiers of government seats. In speaking to a friend yesterday, his mother’s pension was recently reduced again, and that considering that the average pension in Ukraine is somewhere around 100 dollars a month, in a country where prices for everyday necessities are topping those in the West. In short, any standard of life is unthinkable, and it is a continuously spiraling downward.

Meanwhile Deputy Prime Minister Borys Kolesnikov is touting the economic viability of the country and how all the stadiums and infrastructure for Euro-2012 as such an economic accomplishment. An economic accomplishment that was presented to the people of Ukraine as one that would be financed by foreign investors. Now who can tell me how much direct foreign investment has come into Ukraine because of the wonderful and honorable game of football? Probably not a single nickel! The roads, airports and many other things were all things that should have been taking place regardless of whether Ukraine was hosting Euro-2012, they were things that had to be done and now those in power are doing them in such a way that they can ingratiate themselves to the tune of at least 30% of each project’s value.

For example, let’s take a look at the reconstruction of the Olympic stadium in the nation’s capital. By the best estimates of any professional in the industry, the project should have cost at the very most 300 million dollars, but when you hear that it cost close to 550 million dollars, one has to start seriously wondering. So where did 250 million dollars vanish to? These are monies that could have gone toward pensions, improving the state of health care or education?

The boycotting of the Euro-2012 should be just one of many different repercussions of the grotesqueness of the current state of affairs in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress is calling on the Government of Canada to “send a clear message to President Yanukovych,” however; the Government of Canada better brush up on its lexicon before sending that message, or it, like the many other messages that were intended to be shots fired across the bow will have no effect. Warnings are not enough for these types, as I tried to make clear earlier, they don’t understand diplo-speak. Those shots should not be going over the bow, but actually hitting it, because unless all members of the regime of Yanukovych feel the economic and political consequences on their own skin, Ukraine will continue to slip further away from democracy.

The powers that be in Ukraine think they are entitled to hosting the Euro-2012 championships. They are not entitled; Ukraine was given a carrot for a job that was ongoing in terms of developing a democracy. Under the current regime that democracy has been floundering in many different areas. The common every day people of Ukraine will only be empowered by a complete and ultimate boycott of the Potemkin Euro-2012 village that those in charge are trying to take away from the people that enabled the carrot in the first place.


Vasyl Pawlowsky Independent Consultant
This commentary was first published on the Ukraine Business Online site.

Euro-2012 and image in wonderland UA

Yes, Wonderland UA. Sounds enchanting, doesn’t it?

For many years individuals traveled to Ukraine as a form of extreme tourism, and some still travel to Ukraine for sex tourism. Why do you think the girls from FEMEN have their knickers in a knot? Even the folks in Lviv have been spending a lot of money on how to entice young men with their sexually implicit public relations videos for 2012.


Yes, ultra-soft porn sells, but it does little for the image of a nation. Meanwhile there are elements of the Diaspora that also have their shorts knotted; in that Yevhenia Carr, the daughter of former Prime Minister Tymoshenko hasn't been able to learn Ukrainian. There is good reason for both these groups to be a little pissed, but may I put to my fellow members of the Ukrainian Diaspora the following question:”How many members of Ukraine's current government which the Diaspora continues to deal with in an as-if-everything-is-ok kind of mode actually speak Ukrainian or even respect the language?”


Besides the Rule of Law being a problem in Ukraine and which is trampled on a daily basis, there are a few things that caught me by surprise recently. Just when you think you have it all figured out Ukraine throws another surprise your way.


The first surprise is a revelation for football fans planning to travel to Ukraine by car for the Euro-2012 Football Championships. To my brethren in the Diaspora, you are also in for a surprise, which you should be just as angry about as Mrs. Carr's inability to learn Ukrainian.


In tourism, for the last couple of hundred years, there have been four “S's” that have played a role, and we cannot deny these. They are Sun, Sand, Ski and Sex! But these are only elements which are employed to sell a destination.


In 2012 the key drawing card to Ukraine will be the European Football Championships, if anyone can fit in one of the first three “S's” into their itinerary then more power to them. Respect Ukrainian women like you would your own, or don't bother visiting Ukraine. As the women from FEMEN say, “Ukraine is not a brothel!”


So you are coming to Ukraine for Euro-2012 by car? Do you know where you are going to park that car of yours? Recently, I saw a report on the TV show, Znak Oklyku (Exclamation Mark), how individual companies have taken over the available parking spots available by simply putting up official looking signs that state those only cars of “such-and-such a business can park here”. Under the Highway Code of Ukraine none of these signs are recognized. Along with these signs come burly security guards with about as much couth as a brick wall to enforce their own rules of the concrete jungles of Ukraine.


Parking in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital and in Lviv is nuts, just ask anyone with a car. When Michel Platini was in Ukraine last week what did he see? He saw a Potemkin village. He saw squat about the realities of current Ukraine and how prepared it is for the Euro-2012 Ukraine. Ukrainians, particularly officials, are very good at presenting the false-reality of their nation.


So, maybe anyone who plans to travel by car to Ukraine for the Euro-2012 should start preparations by doing the following. Make sure that you prepare yourself a sign that reads: “For the automobiles of Football Fans of Euro-2012.” You may also want hire some burly types to enforce your parking space. There is clearly no guarantee that there will be any type of parking for fans who decide to make their way into Ukraine under their own means of transportation.


Now regarding the issue of language, here is some news that really floored me. In trying to improve Ukraine's image and the image of the Kyiv National Linguistic University, the university has set up a new Supervisory Board. Well, that is great until you hear about the clowns who were appointed to it.


First on the list is Yuriy Ivanyushenko who according to media reports is also known as Yura “Yenakievskiy,” an allegedly criminal authority who also happens to be a member of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada.


Then there is Tariel Vasadze, chairman and primary shareholder in the UkrAvto Group, Ukraine's largest car importer, and former member of BYuT who voted for the new Tax Code earlier this year and was expelled from the party and now sits with the Party of Regions.


The third should be a big hit amongst those who recognize the atrocities committed by Stalin. She is none other than Kateryna Samolyuk one of Ukraine's top commies who in 2010 stated that statues of Stalin should be placed in all regional centers of Western Ukraine to remind them who saved them and the rest of Europe from the Fascist-Germans.


The fourth member is none other than Ukraine's Minister of the Energy and Coal Industry Yuriy Boyko, another Party of Regions member who is alleged to have been involved in a scheme to bilk $150 million out of the state’s coffers in the purchase of an offshore oil platform.


Heading the Board is Valentyn Zaychuk, a bureaucrat within the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, who at least at one time was tied to something positively Ukrainian as a teacher of the Ukrainian language and literature.


What this Supervisory Board has planned to do to improve the University's image and that of Ukraine's image abroad is anyone's best guess. Though I have serious doubts as to what the true intention of the creation of such a board is, and filling with such characters of such moral fiber. Only time will tell.


In short, Ukraine is a wonderland and it ceases to amaze me in the things that happen there. The levels of corruption, influence peddling, arbitrary decisions by different people who are in positions of power, and the simple grab for more and more by a select few. Have any of these individuals who have pillaged the country of its wealth ever looked around to see how their neighbor is doing?

Clearly not! Such behavior is in fact very non-Ukrainian, for those who have some moral fiber.

Vasyl Pawlowsky Independent Consultant
The commentary of this was first published on the Ukraine Business Online site.