Last year, Yushchenko approved of the government giving the mansion and land to Yanukovych. Hanna Herman, deputy head of the president’s administration, said Yanukovych will not consider the offer. “Unlike the grandsons of the ‘bad guys’, the president of Ukraine does not trade in heroes,” Herman said, referring to the controversy that Bandera still inspires for his alleged Nazi sympathies during World War II. Bandera was, in fact, imprisoned by Nazi Germany for most of the war after declaring Ukraine’s independence. His UPA army fought both the Nazis and Soviets. Eager to put down Ukraine’s independence movement, the Soviets smeared Bandera as a Nazi collaborator.
Highly esteemed Viktor Fyodorovych!
I am writing you on the matter of the posthumous Hero of Ukraine title that I accepted Jan. 22 on behalf of my grandfather from the hands of your predecessor, Viktor Yushchenko.
I heard that it’s causing you some problems in Moscow and that Gazprom may raise gas prices if you don’t rescind the state award by Stalin’s [World War II] Victory Day party on May 9.
I also heard a Polish politician is threatening that Ukraine will not become a member of the European Union if you do not take back the award. (I am not sure the slanderous Pawel Zalewski checked with the other members of European Parliament before opening his mouth).
I was thinking and thinking, when the answer appeared on the Internet. I read how Barack Obama decided to donate his Nobel Peace Prize money to charities. “What a great idea,” I thought.
I got to thinking some more on how to help out Ukraine and correct another one of the “wrongs” your predecessor committed. And how you and I both can help out Ukraine, which is like one big charity case.
A view of the entrance to Mezhyhiria, a 120-hectare luxury property near Kyiv owned by Viktor Yanukovych. (UNIAN)
Here’s the deal: I will give back the Hero of Ukraine award if you give back the Mezhyhiria property you got from Yushchenko. I think that the gifts we received from Yushchenko are worth about the same. If I give back the Bandera award, Ukraine will have cheaper natural gas prices from Russia and a free trade agreement with the EU worth tens of millions of euros. Your mansion and property are also worth tens of millions of euros.
Together, we will fill the coffers of the state budget and help pay back wages owed to doctors and teachers and maybe some pensions.
What do you say? Let me know the time and place for the exchange and I will be there. I’ll be the guy wearing a gold star on my lapel.
Sincerely,
Stepan. A. Bandera
Grandson of Hero of Ukraine
P.S. This letter was written in ironic jest during a momentary sense of heightened self-importance. The point is to show the absurdity of the Bandera debate: almost everybody from Moscow to Warsaw to Edmonton has an opinion on Bandera, who was killed more than 50 years ago, yet no one seems to care about the real issues that plague Ukraine today. Yanukovych’s residence in Mezhyhiria is but one example of the widespread corruption and abuse of political power that makes life miserable for millions while benefiting the few. Stepan Bandera is just a distraction by those who want Ukrainians to be like mushrooms: fed shit and kept in the dark.
Stepan Bandera is a former Kyiv Post editor now living in Canada. You can read his blog entries at http://kyivscoop.blogspot.com/
