[aaus-list] Kuzio on Iatseniuk

Fri Jul 10 13:58:32 EDT 2009

“Now the entire Yatseniuk campaign is being undertaken under the
leadership of Russians who control the flow of every dollar in the
headquarters.....”.Pinchuk’s preference for using Russian election and
political consultants over Ukrainian or Western consultants sheds
ultimately light on his disposition and ideological orientation."

The Russification of Yatseniuk’s Election Campaign
Taras Kuzio

Just as US President Barack Obama was landing in Moscow for an
important visit to “re-set” the button in US-Russian relations,
pro-ua.com (3 July) and Ukrayinska Pravda (6 July) published similar
investigative reports into the russification of political
technologists running Arseniy Yatseniuk’s election campaign. Although
Yatseniuk told ICTV on 6 July that “I have never worked with political
technologists” this was obviously therefore untrue.
Ukrainian political technologists headed by KMA Professor Rostyslav
Pawlenko have been forced out. Pawlenko is a protégée of well known
KMA Professor Olexiy Haran and worked as head of the analytical
service in the presidential secretariat from 2005-2007. I knew him
when he worked on Viktor Yushchenko’s 2004 election campaign and we
spoke together at a conference on Ukraine in Vienna that year.
Pawlenko has returned to the presidential secretariat.
Pawlenko’s first foray into election consultancy was working for the
Winter Crop Generation (KOP) in 2002, the first political project
financed by Viktor Pinchuk with the aim of taking votes away from
Viktor Yushchenko’s newly established Our Ukraine. Two leading figures
in KOP were Valeriy Khoroshkovsky, an ally of Inter and gas
intermediary RosUkrEnergo owner Dmytro Firtash,  and Inna Boguslovska,
a fierce critic of Yulia Tymoshenko who was elected to parliament in
2007 by the Party of Regions. In the 2006 elections Boguslovska had
campaigned in a second failed Pinchuk project, Viche.  Last month
Boguslovska resigned from the Party of Regions although she refused to
resign her seat that had been won in a proportional system by the
party, not by the individual.
Pro-ua.com reported that, “Now the entire Yatseniuk campaign is being
undertaken under the leadership of Russians who control the flow of
every dollar in the headquarters”.  The headquarters of Front for
Change is in the Kyiv district of Podil with the Front occupying the
fourth floor of a building and the Russian technologists occupying the
fifth floor.
The most striking revelation is that the candidate with the allegedly
“new face” of  the  “younger generation” is neither a new face or
representative of young Ukrainians. In fact, the russification of
Yatseniuk’s election campaign shows to what degree he has not learnt
lessons from Ukraine’s past.
Of the three main presidential candidates – Yulia Tymoshenko,
Yatseniuk and Viktor Yanukovych – only Yatseniuk is using Russian
political technologists. Yanukovych and the Party of Regions changed
their Russian political technologists  for Americans in autumn 2005.
The Tymoshenko bloc, Yushchenko and Our Ukraine have always used
Western political consultants.
The Russian political technologists heading Yatseniuk’s campaign
produced the black propaganda of Yanukovych’s 2004 campaign, such as
alleging that Yushchenko believed Ukrainians were divided into “Three
Types” (see poster). One of the leaders of the Russian group of
consultants is Vladimir Granovsky who worked in the underground
Yanukovych campaign in 2004 headed by Andriy Kluyev which produced the
grotesque black propaganda and dirty tricks. Granovsky is thought to
be behind the idea of Ukraine divided into “Three Types” that was used
in the anti-Yushchenko posters.
Yatseniuk was no where to be seen in the Orange Revolution and never
stood on the Maidan (even Nikolai Azarov sneaked on to the Maidan
stage with the help of Petro Poroshenko). Searching Google Images you
will not find a single photograph of Yatseniuk during the Orange
Revolution. Pinchuk, the main financier of Yatseniuk’s campaign, and
Volodymyr Lytvyn, who was parliamentary speaker in 2004,  both mingled
with the Orange Revolution crowds. But, Yatseniuk had obviously more
important things to do than to show  his support to Ukrainians who
were protesting for their democratic rights.
Using  Russian political technologists behind the worst and most crude
aspects of the black propaganda of Yanukovych’s 2004 election campaign
casts a negative shadow over Yatseniuk. Although he is often seen as
Yushchenko’s protégée he would not seem to hold the same emotional and
ideological connections to the Orange Revolution.
Yushchenko and Yatseniuk are in fact cut from the same cloth in both
being very reluctant revolutionaries. If Yushchenko had not been
removed as prime minister in April 2001 he would have faithfully
served President Leonid Kuchma to the end of his term, even seeking to
be endorsed by Kuchma as his “successor”. Yushchenko described his
relationship to Kuchma in a bizarre manner as like “:father and son”.
 Throughout the anti-Kuchma protests of 2000-2003 Yushchenko either
condemned them (as in the famous February 2001 open letter signed with
Kuchma and parliamentary speaker Ivan Pluishch). Or, he wavered
between supporting the protests and negotiating a deal with Kuchma
whereby Yushchenko would return as prime minister.
Yushchenko’s hesitancy as a “revolutionary” has been clear throughout
his presidency.  Yatseniuk’s similar disposition and career background
would indicate that he would be little different if he were to be
elected president. Certainly he would be no “revolutionary” seeking
“change” and most definetly no “Ukrainian Obama”. A Ukrainian media
consultant told me, “I do not like him. He is an empty vessel. Of
course he will lose”.
Pro-ua.com reported that attempts by Yatseniuk to imitate Obama’s
election campaign, such as seeking donations from below via the
internet, failed and have been closed down. The influence of Russian
political technologists have been seen in the black and brown-coloured
billboards now seen throughout Kyiv that have been heavily criticised
by Ukrainian election and advertising specialists. Pro-ua.com wondered
if the Russian political technologists “either do not believe in his
victory or else do not want a full-scale campaign and therefore
Yatseniuk’s victory”.
The russification of Yatseniuk’s election campaign sheds light on two
other factors.
Firstly, the financing of his campaign of which Pinchuk is now the
largest contributor. According to pro-ua.com and Ukrayinska Pravda,
Pinchuk was behind the russification of Yatseniuk’s campaign.
In addition to Pinchuk’s financial largesse, Yatseniuk has received a
large amount of free television time on Ukraine’s most popular
television channel, Inter. Granovsky is a member of Inter’s ruling
board of directors and an influential “ideologue” on the channel.
Inter channel owner Firtash, who is one of the owners of the corrupt
RosUkrEnergo gas intermediary, has provided indirect support to
Yatseniuk through the provision of costly free access to Inter.
Pinchuk’s finances and Firtash’s involvement through Inter have led to
Yatseniuk being described as either a “Television Project” or a “Big
Business Project”.
Secondly, Pinchuk’s preference for using Russian election and
political consultants over Ukrainian or Western consultants sheds
ultimately light on his disposition and ideological orientation. Why
is Pinchuk and many other members of Ukraine’s elites feshitise
Russian political consultants as if they could perform voodoo magic?
Pinchuk has been cultivating a  “pro-Western” image for the last six
years through his NGO, Yalta European Strategy, and most recently in
his financial contributions to the Brookings Institution and Institute
for International Economics in Washington DC. The russification of
Yatseniuk’s campaign, at the insistence of Pinchuk,  shows Pinchuk’s
pro-Westernism to be opportunistic and vacuuos.
Who then is the “pro-Russian” candidate in the January 2010 elections?
If we use political consultants as a guide then we have to conclude
that it  is  Yatseniuk.

--
Stephen Velychenko
CERES Associate;
Research Fellow,Chair of Ukrainian Studies;
Munk Center
University of Toronto
Devonshire Place
Toronto M5S 3K7

-- 
Stephen Velychenko
CERES Associate;
Research Fellow,Chair of Ukrainian Studies;
Munk Center
University of Toronto
Devonshire Place
Toronto M5S 3K7
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