UKRAINE: YUSHCHENKO'S INDEPENDENCE DAY SPEECH

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KIEV 003332 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/29/2016 TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR KDEM PHUM MARR UP SUBJECT: UKRAINE: YUSHCHENKO'S INDEPENDENCE DAY SPEECH REEMPHASIZES WESTERN ORIENTATION REF: A. KIEV 3029 ¶B. KIEV 3130 ¶C. KIEV 3277 ¶D. KIEV 553 ¶E. KIEV 1773 Classified By: Charge a.i., for reasons 1.4(a,b,d). ¶1. (C) Summary. During subdued Independence Day celebrations August 24, President Yushchenko stressed that the western-focussed policies adopted after the Orange Revolution (i.e., pursuing EU and NATO membership) would be continued by Ukraine's new government led by Viktor Yanukovych that he described as: "could be better -- and could be worse." Yushchenko also struck a number of his traditional themes, including the importance of judicial and law enforcement reform, emphasis on Ukrainian as the sole state language, and recognition of the 1932-33 Holodomor as genocide. At the President's Independence Day reception later in the evening, Minister of Justice and Our Ukraine (OU) insider Zvarych informed Charge that Yushchenko and Yanukovych had signed an agreement that Ukraine would pursue a Membership Action Plan (MAP) with NATO, but that the agreement would not be made public. Zvarych also suggested OU and Regions might merge prior to the 2009 Presidential elections as a way of securing Yushchenko's reelection. ¶2. (C) Comment: Yushchenko's speech seemed more somber and less celebratory than his Independence Day address in 2005, the first since the Orange Revolution and his inauguration. While an OU insider, Zvarych's comments always need to be taken with a grain of salt; he was dumped as Minister of Justice in 2005 after it was revealed he had misrepresented his educational background, inaccurately claiming to have received a PhD from Columbia. We should not take Zvarych's comments as definitive; as the GOU streams back into Kiev from August vacations, we will seek clarification regarding MAP. While Yushchenko mentioned his agreement with Yanukovych on MAP to Ambassador August 4 (ref a),Yanukovych and particularly his foreign policy adviser Orel have seemingly adopted different stances since (refs b-c),and institutional struggles over defining Ukraine's foreign policy will likely play out in the coming months. End Summary and Comment. Yushchenko strikes his main (western oriented) themes -------------- -------------- ¶3. (U) Ukraine's low-key 15th Independence Day celebrations began with an hour-long prayer service at the 11th century St. Sophia's Cathedral attended by the Yushchenko family, PM Yanukovych, most ministers, former President Kuchma, and former Rada Speaker Lytvyn (former PM Yuliya Tymoshenko was notably absent). Following the service, the VIPs moved to the square outside St. Sophia's for a modest military review and Yushchenko,s speech, in which he reiterated Ukraine's aspirations to join NATO and the EU and stated that these goals would be achieved "with the will of the people." ¶4. (U) Yushchenko called on government officials at all levels to be responsive to the people of Ukraine and to remember that government service was a responsibility, not a privileged position. Yushchenko also reminded the Prosecutor General and the Minister of Interior of their responsibility to bring corrupt officials to justice, as he pledged to submit a package of draft legislation on judiciary and law enforcement reform to the Rada in the near future (note: in his February State of the Nation address, Yushchenko stated this would be his top domestic priority for 2006, see ref d). ¶5. (SBU) Returning to other themes he has stressed since becoming President, Yushchenko called on the Rada to enact a resolution recognizing the Holodomor as genocide; the remark received applause -- beyond polite, but not thunderous -- from the crowd. Yushchenko stated that Ukrainians wanted one united Orthodox Church in Ukraine, a remark that also drew applause. ¶6. (U) Yushchenko stressed the individual rights and liberties of citizens, including the right of every citizen to speak his or her native language (note: clearly referring to Russian) without fear of persecution. However he emphasized that there "will be no alternative to the Ukrainian language as the language of official communication, since this is the language of our freedom." (Note: Yushchenko elaborated on the Ukrainian language theme August 27 in Lviv as part of celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of noted Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko. "Ukrainian is and will remain our sole national language...the loss of language is the loss of the nation and the loss of the foundation for national development.") KIEV 00003332 002 OF 003 ¶7. (U) After the ceremony, most of the Diplomatic Corps in attendance drove to the Russian Embassy to sign the condolence book for the August 22 air crash in Donetsk which killed 171 people. In recognition of the tragedy, Yushchenko decreed that upbeat Independence Day public festivities and the fireworks display planned for later on August 24 be postponed until August 26. Yush-Yanu agreement on MAP? -------------- ¶8. (C) At the President's Independence Day reception that evening, Minister of Justice Roman Zvarych told Charge that Yushchenko and Yanukovych had signed an agreement prior to the August 4 formation of a Yanukovych-led government in which Yanukovych agreed that Ukraine would pursue a NATO MAP (note: see ref A for Yushchenko's first mention of the agreement to Ambassador). Zvarych said the agreement would not be made public. ¶9. (C) At some point before the November Riga Summit -- Zvarych said the timing had not been decided yet -- the Yanukovych-led government would issue a "declaration" stating Ukraine's interest in the "possibility" of pursuing negotiations that will lead to MAP (note: Zvarych was very careful in his word choice and said that it would not be a request for MAP, but a "declaration" stating Ukraine's interest.) ¶10. (C) Zvarych said that Yushchenko had asked him to accompany Yanukovych to Brussels. While professing not to know Yanukovych's intended talking lines for Brussels, Zvarych speculated that Yushchenko might tell Yanukovych to tell NATO's SecGen about the clause regarding MAP in the secret agreement. Yanukovych was taking Yushchenko,s lead SIPDIS on foreign policy, he claimed. Difficulties of being Orange under Yanu -------------- ¶11. (C) On other issues, Zvarych echoed Interior Minister Lutsenko by claiming that he had not wanted to be Minister of Justice, but that Yushchenko told him to do it. His job was to keep an eye on Yanukovych and his guys, "and they know it." He had to be careful in what he said at Cabinet meetings, he claimed, because all believed he was speaking for the president. Zvarych said he was serving as the coordinator of the eight "Orange" ministers in the Cabinet, who were determined to see that the President's agenda was carried out. ¶12. (C) Zvarych said that he had drafted the legislation enacted by the Rada regarding constitutional reform; he claimed that it pertained solely to local administrative reform by providing a constitutional framework for local administrative reform) and had no implication or link to the shift in powers from the President to the PM (Comment: Zvarych seems to be confusing the first half of constitutional reform passed December 8, 2004, which did govern the shift of certain powers from the President to the Premier, and the second half, contained in draft Bill 3207, which pertains to local administrative reform. Zvarych later touched on the plans to reform local government that will give local authorities the right to raise revenues independent of the central government and local councils the right to elect from their members executive committees that will serve as the local executive bodies). ¶13. (C) Picking up on one of Yushchenko's themes of the day, Zvarych laid out his plan for reform of the law enforcement and judicial system: renovating dilapidated courtrooms; reforming the Prosecutor General's office and placing it in the Ministry of Justice; creating a National Bureau of Investigation to fight corruption and major crimes and placing it under the control of the Ministry of Justice; and removing investigatory authority from the SBU and Customs Service. (note: Zvarych inherited this plan from his Ministerial predecessor Holovaty, Yushchenko's hand-picked point man on judicial reform who will continue to lead the so-called Holovaty Commission). Yushchenko's future - as Regions' man? -------------- ¶14. (C) Looking forward, Zvarych could "envisage" a merger or union between Regions and Our Ukraine (OU) leading up to the 2009 Presidential elections. "Everything" OU did between now and 2009 would be aimed at securing Yushchenko,s re-election, he stated. When asked how this would affect OU's base, Zvarych replied that Regions and OU have much in common, especially economic policy (note: We first heard of KIEV 00003332 003 OF 003 the Yushchenko-Regions scenario from a deputy Regions' leader in early May, see ref E. Yushchenko's deal with Yanukovych has already split OU, with a minority ready to move into opposition to the Yanukovych government. At least one OU leader, Mykola Katerynchuk, has called on People's Union Our Ukraine, Yushchenko's party, to expel any party members who voted for Yanukovych as PM. A). ¶15. (U) Visit Embassy Kiev's classified website: www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/kiev. Gwaltney