Posted by Vasya on August 05, 2005 at 01:41:57:
In Reply to: Re: Copyright owner posted by Ross on August 03, 2005 at 11:02:55:
Thank you Ross for the link to the interview with Andrei. What seems to be lacking here is any sense of reality. As could probably be expected Andrei has one excuse after another. He comes off as just another spoiled brat. It has finally occured to the kid that he's going to be under scrutiny as long as papa is pres. What has evidently not occured to him is that, given the extreme poverty everywhere around him, running around in a super-expensive BMW might be perhaps not the thing to do. I remember so many occassions where I'd be sitting in a lovely Kyiv cafe, sipping on a beer with friends, and almost always, before we'd leave, an elderly lady or, on one occassion, a not so elderly gentleman would come up and, politely but obviously embarassed, ask if they might have our empties. God, it hurt!
Petunia -- you obviously care about Ukraine. Everyone on this board should only commend you. But......trying to excuse incredibly stupid behavior (and here I'm talking Yuschenko Sr!) can only hurt Ukraine. I would hope we could do better than emulate some Arab satrap who mentally still lives in the stone age, or even the current American president (who seems hellbent on establishing a stone age society right in the US). Why, we're Europeans, haven't you heard?
I don't know what Ukrainian law is but what was Yu thinking in turning over rights worth several millions to his teen age kid? (even if he wern't a spoiled brat) Is it rocket science to realize that this money, properly spent could a) do a bit of much needed "social good" and b) provide a pr bonanza for the good guys.
It's going to be interesting to see how the press conference fiasco is going to play out. Uk Prav unfortunately does have a tendency to sensationalize (and it's a tendency which lately has been growing) but hopefully Zerk. Tyz. will lead a more measured response to Yu's antics.
How much more "European" would Yu's actions have been if he'd merely swallowed his "don't touch my kids" pride and come out with a short statement "It hurts me deeply that my son has acted so unwisely, but this is something that we're going to deal with within our family" and then followed up with a public apology from Andrei (whether it was sincere or not would be of no consequence).
Of course if it's documented that Andrei really does have access to millions and millions it's a whole different ball game. Let's pray this is not the case.