LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (06/11/06)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Support Soyuzivka Heritage Foundation

Dear Editor:

I urge all Ukrainians to consider making a tax-deductible contribution to the Soyuzivka Heritage Foundation. The Ukrainian National Association has set up the charitable foundation, because we, as Ukrainians, are proud to have a Soyuzivka, but not proud enough to support Soyuzivka throughout the year.

If Soyuzivka is to remain a 100 percent Ukrainian resort, it needs our support.

First, consider staying there. Second, through a tax-deductible contribution, you can continue to provide needed capital. Personally, I have attended camps and vacationed at "Suzy-Q" and have sent my children there as well. It afforded me the opportunity to be immersed in Ukrainian culture while staying in the U.S.

Our resort in the Catskill region is truly a gem. Please contribute to the Soyuzivka Heritage Foundation if you want Soyuzivka to continue to exist and flourish not only for our generation, but for future generations as well.

Eugene Serba
Mount Laurel, N.J.

The relevant facts on Russia's actions

Dear Editor:

Economic and political relations among countries are too complex to allow one to draw conclusions on the basis of the price and sales volume of a single product/service. A realistic, valid conclusion must be based on a comprehensive analysis of relevant facts. The conclusion by Yuri V. Ushakov, Russia's ambassador to the U.S., in his essay "Don't Blame Russia" (The Wall Street Journal, February 13) that Russia is subsidizing Russia's neighboring countries and their "entire industries" by selling to them natural gas at "heavily subsidized prices" ignores certain significant relevant facts.

Under the agreement signed by Russia and Ukraine in 1997, Russia is to pay to Ukraine $93 million per year for stationing Russia's navy in the Crimean port of Sevastopol through 2017. Under real market conditions the price should be 20 times that amount, or $1.8 billion per year, which results in a $1.7 billion annual subsidy by Ukraine to Russia. In addition, contrary to the 1997 agreement, Russian military forces have taken control of many lighthouses and other hydrographic objects in that area (Associated Press, Kyiv, February 14), although in May 1997 Russia confirmed Ukraine's property rights to real estate and land that is in use by the Russian Black Sea Fleet (The Ukrainian Weekly, January 22).

Under the January 2 agreement, Ukraine's 2006-2030 transit charge of Russia's gas to Europe is fixed at $1.60 per 1,000 cubic meters compared to an average European charge of $2.50 (Eurasia Daily Monitor, February 16), i.e., at a 36 percent discount.

In 2006-2030 Ukraine is to annually store 15 billion cubic meters of gas belonging to RusUkrEnergo for a fixed charge of $2.26 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas per year, "... an extremely low rate compared to those charged in most European countries" (Eurasia Daily Monitor, February 16).

While Russia claims that the $230 price to Ukraine per 1,000 cubic meters of gas is equal to the market price, in fact it is "some $60" above the price paid by Germany and France (speech by Yulia Tymoshenko, former prime minister of Ukraine, at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service, February 15).

Russia continues to maintain military bases in several former Soviet republics, and also supports and arms separatists in Georgia.

Mr. Ushakov also claims that Russia was subsidizing former Soviet republics in the same manner. However, extensive research on the status of the economy of Ukraine within the USSR, based on official Soviet documents, reveals that the opposite was true at least in the case of Ukraine. Comprehensive analysis of capital formation and its disposition in Soviet Ukraine indicates that Russia - via the central government of the USSR and its related institutions, withdrew from Ukraine in 1959-1980 without compensation 264,216 million rubles worth of capital, which was equal to 23.3 percent of Ukraine's national income, 96.2 percent of total capital investments in Ukraine's economy and 251.7 percent of investments in Ukraine's industry in that period.

Using the then official exchange rate of 10 rubles per one U.S. dollar, Ukraine lost on account of the rest of the USSR, $26.2 billion. Including the 1928-1932 period, Ukraine lost $26.9 billion. Adjusted to the current price level, Ukraine's loss would be two to three times that amount.

While Mr. Ushakov objects to the claim that Russia is using its energy resources as an instrument of political pressure, he confirms it by stating that Russia's pricing policy with respect to former Soviet republics was "inherently transitional" and that it was shaped by Russia's "... hopes for [their] expanded integration with Russia."

Z. Lew Melnyk, Ph.D.
Cincinnati

The letter-writer is professor emeritus, University of Cincinnati.

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