Quotable notes

"I remember how I once 'sold myself' to [Leonid] Kuchma. It was on the eve of the second round of the presidential elections in 1994. There was some discussion of the presidential race in the building of the Union of Journalists, while Kuchma's election staff - in a building across the Khreschatyk - just publicized a statement by their candidate on how the incumbent president, Leonid Kravchuk, was pressuring him and limiting his access to the media. I came with that statement to the Union of Journalists and asked what was their opinion about it. I heard from all sides: 'You have sold yourself for money to the red directors.' [Ed. note: Kuchma was a high-ranking party official and the director of a rocket-producing plant.] Members of the Union of Journalists hissed at any 'opposition' because they were assiduously working for the incumbent president. Several days later, those same people greeted me in a humble voice and looked attentively at me, trying to figure out whether I remember who of them was against Kuchma. Because he won."

- Independent Kyiv-based journalist Iryna Pohorelova, as quoted in the February 1 issue of the biweekly Ukrainskyi Rehionalnyi Visnyk and cited by RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 18, 2001, No. 11, Vol. LXIX

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