Russophiles throughout Ukraine protest Yushchenko's domestic, foreign policies

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's Russophiles have been rebelling against the domestic and international policies of President Viktor Yushchenko in recent months, posing a threat to the nation's long-term stability.

The revolt began in Kharkiv on March 6, when the City Council voted to grant the Russian language regional status. On May 29 thousands of Russophiles took to the streets of Feodosiya to protest the presence of U.S. troops.

The Crimean Parliament voted on June 6 to declare the autonomous republic a "NATO-free territory" in opposition to the military alliance created to defend Europe against the Soviet Union.

At a press conference the same day, President Yushchenko said the pro-Russian votes are anti-constitutional and voiced his suspicion that forces within the Russian Federation were stoking the revolt.

"Everyone understands that this is a mine placed with one goal: to stop our progress and to show that Ukrainians are unable to conduct themselves with solidarity," Mr. Yushchenko said.

"Groups are doing this well with foreign money," he later added. "I can't even name the political groups. But that's life, and I don't hold any illusions that Ukrainian politics will be easy."

Pro-Ukrainian leaders view the revolt against the Ukrainian language more seriously than the anti-NATO protests because they pose a more serious threat to the nation's stability and unity.

"The goal is to provoke instability in Ukraine, stop its democratic development and movement toward Europe, and create conditions to return Ukraine to the bosom of its so-called elder brother," said Yurii Kliuchkovskyi, an Our Ukraine national deputy.

Following Kharkiv, the city councils of Sevastopol, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Luhansk voted to grant the Russian language regional status.

The oblast councils of Luhansk, Donetsk and Mykolaiv also followed suit, suggesting the revolt was a well-organized effort by Russian forces, with the help of their allies within Ukraine.

"Without a doubt, the Party of the Regions also was involved, along with separate forces that didn't make it into Parliament.," Mr. Kliuchkovskyi said in an indirect reference to Natalia Vitrenko's People's Opposition Bloc.

"Unfortunately, it's quite well coordinated, which is obvious from how it's being done simultaneously," he added.

The legislation passed in the councils provides for use of the Russian language in government offices and on documents, street signs and outdoor business signs.

In early May, Justice Minister Serhii Holovatyi announced that all attempts to declare a regional language were unconstitutional. They violate Articles 10 and 92 of the Constitution of Ukraine that make Ukrainian the exclusive language in all government dealings, both national and local.

To change the government language, the pro-Russian forces would have to muster a majority in the Ukrainian Parliament to amend the Constitution.

Taking into account the Justice Ministry's conclusions, the Procurator General's Office protested each of the council's votes, Mr. Holovatyi said. If a council declines the protest, the procurator general has the obligation to file a complaint in court, he said.

"Imagine if the Kharkiv City Council under (Mykhailo) Dobkin decided to issue a Kharkiv currency," Mr. Holovatyi said. "Our Constitution clearly states that Ukraine's currency is the hryvnia, and the national language is Ukrainian. What's happening is they're showing their lack of culture."

As legal justification for their legislative acts, the bills refer to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages adopted by the Council of Europe in 1992 and ratified by Ukraine on May 15, 2003.

The European Charter was designed to protect regional and minority languages of citizens who have traditionally lived in a particular nation and whose language differs from the official one.

The councils have no basis for using the European Charter because it's meant to preserve languages that are threatened, Mr. Holovatyi said. Nothing is threatening the Russian language in eastern and southern Ukraine, where Russian is spoken by most.

"There is no problem regarding language," he said. "This is political speculation."

On June 6, President Yushchenko repeated the government's firm position that Ukraine has only one official language.

"The Ukrainian language is one of the foundations of the existence of the Ukrainian nation. It's one of its attributes, like its emblem, territory and flag. Every country has similar policies regarding its state language," he said.

As if dealing with the rebellion against the Ukrainian language weren't enough, hundreds of protesters swarmed the main gate of the Crimean port of Feodosiya on May 29 after local leaders learned the American cargo ship USS Advantage had docked days earlier.

Imitating Orange Revolution tactics, the Russophiles pitched tents and more than a hundred stayed on to blockade the port, led by neo-Cossack militias in cavalry uniforms.

Pro-Russian politicians sounded the alarm that the Verkhovna Rada hadn't authorized foreign troops to be on Ukrainian soil, a requirement for every such occasion.

Communist Party Chairman Petro Symonenko demanded resignations from Defense Minister Anatolii Hrytsenko and Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk, and even threatened President Yushchenko with impeachment.

The Verkhovna Rada's ombudsman for human rights, Nina Karpachova, demanded that Ukraine's procurator general hold accountable those who gave permission for an American ship to dock in Crimea.

The Party of the Regions national deputy said the rights of Feodosiya residents had been infringed upon by such a "brutal violation of the Ukrainian Constitution and fundamental nation-building documents."

Even the leadership of the Socialist Party of Ukraine, which supported the Orange Revolution, called for the resignation of Defense Minister Hrytsenko.

More than 220 U.S. Marine reservists from the Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Selfridge, Mich., had arrived in Feodosiya on May 27 in order to set up a training base near the town of Staryi Krym, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine reported.

Pro-Russian agitators and leaders began spreading rumors that Americans were setting up a military base, which stirred up local Russophiles.

The Marines' planned exercises merely involved installing latrines and showers, and setting up tents in preparation for an international naval exercise, Sea Breeze 2006, which is to begin in late July.

The U.S. Marine reservists had no military purpose in Staryi Krym, the U.S. Embassy said. They were also going to build barracks that would eventually house Ukrainian soldiers at the base.

The Embassy's official statement noted: "Members of the American group themselves are not part of any military exercise but were invited in preparation for the multinational Sea Breeze exercise. The construction unit in Ukraine will have departed by the time Sea Breeze is scheduled to begin in late July."

However, the Verkhovna Rada had denied permission for the Sea Breeze exercise in a February vote, which gave pro-Russian forces in Ukraine enough cause to launch the anti-NATO protests once the U.S. ship arrived.

When it did arrive, the Marines unloaded bulldozers, graders, containers, medical supplies and some arms and light weapons, mortars, smoke grenades, machine guns and ammunition.

To explain, Ukraine's Foreign and Defense ministries issued a joint statement in which they pointed out that the USS Advantage is a commercial ship and therefore wouldn't require parliamentary approval.

However, the statement didn't account for the weapons and soldiers on board.

Crimean Russophiles continue to protest and blockade access to the Feodosiya port and the Staryi Krym training base, preventing the Marines from entering either site.

The American soldiers have since been biding their time at a Ukrainian Defense Ministry sanatorium, sometimes even venturing out but mostly observing the protesters from their balconies.

"The Americans are treating our request as an order and staying inside the sanatorium," said Volodymyr Bova, a spokesman for Ukraine's naval forces, who added that several African American Marines have been the targets of racial taunts.

A separate group of about 100 Marine reservists had arrived in Symferopol on June 2 and boarded a bus bound for a Defense Ministry sanatorium in the village of Partenit. Dozens of anti-NATO protesters ambushed the bus at 4 a.m.

Yelling anti-American slogans such as "Yankee, Go Home," rocking it back and forth and even shattering a window, they managed to stall the bus, which switched its destination to Alushta with the help of Ukraine Naval Security Forces.

On June 8 Pora activists descended on Feodosiya and set up a counter tent encampment to demonstrate their support for NATO exercises.

In response, enraged Party of the Regions supporters attacked them.

Among the ironies of the conflict is that Sea Breeze 2006 is not an exclusively NATO exercise, but a joint Ukrainian-U.S. endeavor as part of NATO's Partnership for Peace program in which the Russian Federation is also a participant.

Partnership for Peace programs aren't sponsored or organized by NATO, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine said.

Another irony is that while NATO and the U.S. have no plans to station their troops in Ukraine, the Russian Federation is the one foreign state that maintains a significant military presence in Ukraine via its Black Sea Fleet.

Ukrainian activists have alleged that Russian troops have been illegally occupying certain Ukrainian bases.

President Yushchenko and his political allies accused Russian political forces of inflaming Ukraine's internal conflicts, exploiting a military operation that has been conducted in Ukraine every year since 1997.

The Security Service of Ukraine banned Russian State Duma member Konstantin Zatulin from visiting Ukraine because he had participated in the Feodosiya protests.

Meanwhile, in addition to declaring Crimea a "NATO-free territory" the Crimean Parliament demanded that U.S. troops, NATO representatives and engineering, technical and military equipment should be kept out of the republic until the Verkhovna Rada votes on the matter.

The Party of the Regions has already said it will vote against the Sea Breeze exercise for July, leaving the president dependent on the Socialist Party of Ukraine, which is reluctant to support it.

However, since he's been unable to form a parliamentary coalition thus far, it's doubtful that the Verkhovna Rada will convene a full session in time for a vote.

Mr. Yushchenko's critics maintain the Feodosiya incident is yet another example of his government's inability to lead the nation, as his presidency has been plagued with scandals and controversies.

When the Feodosiya protests erupted, Mr. Hrytsenko had maintained that the USS Advantage had only brought in construction materials. Days later he admitted that weapons also were part of the cargo.

Mr. Tarasyuk, meanwhile, claimed there were no "foreign military units" aboard the Advantage. When the public learned that Marines were, in fact, on the ship, he explained that Reserves are U.S. civilians.

If the government fails to pass the necessary legislation, it would have to cancel not only the Sea Breeze exercise, but five others planned with international forces.

The outcome would be yet another major setback for President Yushchenko, who has made Ukraine's NATO membership by 2008 among the top goals of his presidency.

Russia's goal is to discredit Ukraine as a potential NATO member, Hryhorii Perepelytsia, an expert at the Foreign Affairs Ministry's Diplomatic Academy, told the Associated Press.

"The war for Ukraine has started," he said. "What is happening in Feodosiya is just a piece of a more powerful anti-NATO campaign."

Perhaps the most ironic aspect of the conflict is the scenario under which the Sea Breeze exercise was to be carried out under: NATO forces were to restore order in a breakaway peninsula caught between a totalitarian government and a democratic one.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 11, 2006, No. 24, Vol. LXXIV

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