Russia, Ukraine, Sevastopol,

A Nation Deeply Unhappy
Those are the damning results of a poll released on Nov. 11. The survey was commissioned by the Washington-based International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology and funded by the United States Agency for International Development.“The Orange Revolution provided the chance for major changes to take place in the nation. But the survey results suggest that this opportunity was not utilized by Ukraine’s political elite,” said Jamie Dettmer, IFES’ director for communications and advocacy.Of 1,218 citizens surveyed between Oct. 17 and Oct. 28, only 15 percent believe that they live in a democratic country. Ukrainians were almost unanimous in their deep disappointment with the current economic and political situation in the nation, with 93 percent registering this sentiment.The survey suggests complete frustration in a society that once had high hopes for change. “Political standstill is stalling reforms and sidelining the development of state institutions that could help Ukraine overcome crises and reach economic growth,” Dettmer added.The poll results were made public on the very day that Victor Yushchenko, Ukraine’s increasingly unpopular president, announced he would delay plans to hold a snap parliamentary election. If an early election happens at all, it will probably take place next year at the soonest.“It would not be reasonable to hold elections during the year-end holidays,” Yushchenko said during a trip to Warsaw on Nov. 11.The poll results became known a day before the Verkhovna Rada voted on Nov. 12 to oust presidential loyalist Arseniy Yatsenyuk as acting speaker. A total of 233 out of 450 members voted to get rid of Yatsenyuk, 34, as leader.The rising public dissatisfaction comes a year before a presidential election campaign expected to feature rivals Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Party of Regions leader Victor Yanukovych.Fed upThe polls also found that 76 percent of citizens believe Ukraine is moving into chaos. It shows the highest disappointment rating in recent years of any IFES-commissioned poll, its director, Rakesh Sharma, said.In February 2005, just after the Orange Revolution, some 43 percent considered Ukraine to be on the way to stability. In September 2007, during pre-term parliamentary elections, some 47 percent said that the country is becoming more stable.The picture is so much bleaker today. “It’s impossible to live and to expect that everyday life will become more worthwhile,” said Valentyna Dudenko, a Kyiv pensioner. “I don’t trust anyone in power anymore.”While the 2004 Orange Revolution was seen as a major victory for democracy in post-Soviet Ukraine, the poll clearly shows that two bitter parliamentary elections since then have eroded public trust.The poll indicated that citizens see corruption to be as widespread as ever and don’t believe the nation’s justice system is capable of defending basic human rights. Citizens polled by the IFES study said the most corrupt institutions in the country were parliament, police, customs and the educational system.Citizens are feeling the pinch of inflation, and see worsening relations with Russia as one of the most serious problems.The IFES poll shows that 84 percent don’t trust Yushchenko, 83 percent don’t trust parliament, 72 percent don’t trust the government and 63 percent mistrust Tymoshenko. The villain of the Orange Revolution – Yanukovich – was not unscathed, either. Some 64 percent distrust him, the polls indicate.“The [political elite] killed the hopes of Ukrainians from the Orange Revolution for a better state and nation,” said Mykhailo Nodelman, a Kyiv teacher who supported Yushchenko in 2004. “The president is the first to blame.”Its not only the president, but the entire presidential system of government that bothers people, too. In the IFES survey, only 25 percent favored a presidential system of government. A bit more, or 38 percent, would prefer a parliamentary system of government. Only 12 percent support the status quo, a mixed parliamentary-presidential system with unclear divisions of authority.The poll showed that only 3 percent of Ukrainians think political parties serve the interests of the population, while 56 percent said parties serve their own interests. “Ukraine’s political elite don’t understand that power means responsibility. The power must serve people, not itself,” said Kyrylo Nesterov, a university student. “I don’t see any sense in voting at the elections. My vote will change nothing.”More elections aren’t the answer, citizens say. According to the IFES poll, more than three quarters believe that an early election won’t help and a similar number believe they don’t have any influence on decision-makers.A glimmer of hopeDespite the overwhelming pessimism, analysts do not think Ukraine is on the verge of collapse. “If you were to ask people in Western Europe what they think about their politicians, they will also be heavily disappointed,” said Sergiy Taran, the director of International Democracy Institute. “People like their political elites only in authoritarian countries.”Taran said that Ukrainians' highly negative feelings today are a threat only to the current political elite. “This political elite has become bankrupt, just like its predecessor before 2004,” he said.But, unless new faces emerge, voters will be confronted with the same old choices on election ballots.
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When Love Hurts KIEV, Ukraine -- In Ukraine, bitter divorces among the country's influential and rich elite are just starting to make headlines of their own Twice-divorced real-estate tycoon Donald Trump knew how to get out clean.Along with a hand in marriage, he offered his former partners expensive accessories: pre-nuptial agreements. Ivana Trump and Marla Maples, with $25 million and $1 million in farewell dowries, respectively, even wished him well with his new brides.The painful divorce cases of the rich and famous, such as Trump, have been splattered all over tabloids in the West for decades. In Ukraine, such bitter splits among the country’s influential and rich elite are just starting to make headlines of their own.Juicy divorce details, assets in contention and even family photographs dominate the pages of such paparazzi publications as www.tabloid.com.uaYet the process of divorcing a mogul in Ukraine remains a far cry from tales of glitter, fortune and fame seen in the West. Most Ukrainians see marriage contracts as urban legends from Hollywood films with no relevance to local realities.“But when you leave home and cannot come back because of guards at the door … then it is serious,” said Marharyta Chervonenko, drawing a line through her 18 years of marriage.She married a big shot. Her ex-husband is Yevhen Chervonenko, an affluent businessman and former car racer. He is also a former transportation minister and was governor of Zaporizhya Oblast. Now he supervises preparations for the Euro 2012 soccer championship to be co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland.The Chervonenkos got divorced in 2007 without benefit of a prenup that would spell out how to divide the considerable assets. They went along with the “all-is-fair-in-love-and-war” scenario, so the split has become quite nasty.“Since then, I have been through raider attacks, bankruptcy and threats,” she said. “He once told me that I broke up with the system, not just him.”Fearing she would be left with nothing after divorce, Marharyta launched a fight over the couple’s assets two years ago along with a public campaign to defend her rights and help others in similar situations.Under Ukrainian law, divorcing couples must split everything they accumulated in marriage 50-50 – unless there is a contract, of course. The Ukrainian rich, however, rarely list assets in their own name. They declare only small official incomes, a path that leads to a lot of mystery and insinuations in turbulent times.The Chervonenko case seems to be just like that.When the former racer landed in politics, he transferred some of his businesses to his wife’s name, she said. Their properties had a different story.In court, a judge managed to revoke Marharyta’s rights to their house in a prestigious Kyiv suburb and her mother’s flat in Yalta. The ex-husband, however, was not a beneficiary.A former friend who had officially given these properties as presents to the Chervonenko family suddenly decided to take them back and won the case.Marharyta did not give up and continues appealing the verdict. Her daughter from a previous marriage also filed a lawsuit against her former stepfather, alleging that he denied her entry to the flat where she is still formally registered.Yevhen Chervonenko refused to comment on personal matters.This messy case is likely to drag on.“These processes take years,” said Zoryslava Romovska, author of Ukraine’s Family Code.“A defendant pretends he is sick, and then his lawyer is sick. Then, they are both on a holiday and so it goes in circles.”According to Justice Ministry statistics, every second marriage ends in divorce in Ukraine. But, strangely enough, prenups are still frowned upon.“A prenup will not guarantee you love, but it will ensure stability,” Romovska said.For instance, a husband moves in with his wife into her flat. Under civil law, he can live there indefinitely. However, authorities will make him leave in the event of divorce, if there is a contract. Contracts can be beneficial in other ways, too, spelling out responsibilities.“You cannot contract how many times a week you should kiss each other,” laughed Romovska. “However, no one can stop you from specifying that a woman is responsible for raising children and a man for making money.”A prenup is free in form, she added, and lawyers usually include whatever the couple thinks is important. Family law does not clarify the division of responsibilities. It says that only material rights can be discussed in a contract. But its author, Romovska, argues that domestic duties have a direct relationship to the joint assets.An average prenup costs Hr 800. However, even lawyers ignore them.One lawyer who might have wished he had a prenup is Serhiy Vlasenko, famous for defending Victor Yushchenko’s case in the Supreme Court during the disputed 2004 presidential vote. On the waves of the Orange Revolution, the popular uprising, Vlasenko set the stage for Yushchenko winning the presidency.Famous after appearing on television during the legendary court case, Vlasenko married a model and socialite, Natalya Okunska.Although it was not his bride’s first marriage and she had children, the lawyer failed to arrange a prenup. Accusing each other of adultery and assault, they divorced last September. Okunska hooked up again with her previous husband, himself high in political echelons and father of one of her children.“It’s all over the papers, I have nothing to add,” said Vlasenko, chary on words.In earlier interviews, he denied beating his wife and specified that he provides for the children in line with a financial agreement they had. Okunska, however, is complaining that she was exploited and then left with nothing.Romovska said in cases like these, there could be psychological reasons behind the mess.“Like any other divorcees, the women of oligarchs are left with a scar,” said Romovska. “Despite a car, a house and a dacha left by their husbands, they keep lamenting for their former status and money.”Not all of them, however. A Ukrainian dancer who married a distant cousin of Sophia Lauren, the famous Italian actress, said she wanted neither.“We bought a wedding dress and a tuxedo with my own money,” said Olga Kopitsa, now 32, reflecting on her marriage with Roberto Skala, now 35. “I thought the rest would come in its own time.”At a concert in Pisa, he spotted her on stage and in a few months they got married. When Kopitsa got pregnant, they moved in with his family in Naples. She claims to have felt like a prisoner there.“He rarely worked and only partied with friends,” she recalled. “His family watched my every step. I was allowed a bath only once a week and could only watch TV until nine in the evening.”She finally escaped on the pretense of a holiday in Ukraine. Kopitsa said all she wanted was a divorce to start a new life at home. But without a marriage certificate, it seemed impossible. With the help of the Italian Embassy in Kyiv, she located their marriage certificate and then divorced under Ukrainian law. In Italy, however, she may still be considered officially married. “We didn’t have a prenup. We had nothing,” she shrugged.Skala was not immediately available for comment.Most lawyers, however, recommend a contract in the event of marriage to foreigners, since divorce laws vary wildly. The Economist magazine even published “A Globetrotters Guide to Divorce” for those born in one country, married in another and working somewhere else.In Ukraine, a woman was traditionally blamed for divorce. High-profile cases were hushed up. Across the ocean, things were different. Backed by the prenup, Trump wife No. 1 wrote a self-help book for divorcees. Trump wife number No. 2 co-starred in a reality show “Ex-wives Club.”Marharyta Chervonenko seems to have started a trend by going public with her version of “The War of the Roses,” the 1989 Hollywood hit movie starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.She founded an organization called “I Am Strong” to help abandoned wives. She says in marriage she felt like a horse running in a circus arena. She now claims to be better off helping others get over the same.
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Alberta Approves Memorial Day For Ukrainian Genocide

EDMONTON, Canada -- Premier Ed Stelmach's voice cracked as he spoke about an Act introduced and passed unanimously Thursday that makes every fourth Saturday in November an official memorial day in Alberta for the Ukrainian famine and genocide, or Holodomor.
"I do this with a great range of personal emotion," said Stelmach, whose grandparents immigrated to Alberta from Ukraine a century ago.In a speech heavily peppered with Ukrainian phrases and words, Stelmach called the famine forced upon Ukrainians in the early 20th century "one of the most heinous atrocities of modern history." He outlined how millions of people from his ancestral home were starved to death by Soviet policies that stripped grains from Europe's traditional "bread basket.""My grandfather and grandmother were amongst those early pioneers who came to Alberta in the late 1890s," Stelmach said. "Marie and I still maintain the original farm that they settled on, till the same soil that they did and . . . "The premier took a long pause before continuing, "And we also give thanks for the abundant crops that soil yielded."Sadly, he said, the dark black soil of the Ukraine his own ancestors treasured could not offer the same happy yields through the early 1930s.The Act was introduced by Aboriginal Affairs Minister Gene Zwozdesky - who is also of Ukrainian descent.
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