Jan. 6, 1999
If you were among the expatriates who had the pleasure of spending the New Year’s holidays in cozy Kyiv, then doubtless you noticed a bit of a change in atmosphere. The constant buzz of traffic ebbed for a few days, stores closed their doors, and even the babushkas hawking discount salo outside my door on Voroskoho street appeared to have rolled up their scarves and retreated to their dwellings for a few days of horilka-laced R&R.
But perhaps nowhere was the change so profound as in the Kyiv Post editorial room. It mattered little that most of our staff took off for the holidays last week because, quite frankly, there was not a lot of news to report, outside of the occasional politician seen drunk in public.
To be sure, there was the occasional press conference, such as the State Property Fund’s year-end performance report. I expected our reporter to come back from that one with a story detailing how badly the performance of the fund in 1998 stank. Alas, it was not to be, as the deputy SPF director showed up late and the spokeswoman invited everybody to start drinking instead. The SPF official did finally turn up, but only after our reporter had already abandoned the bacchanal. Credit the SPF with having a sound public relations strategy – prepare the masses for your helplessly unbelievable gibberish with spirits.
Lord knows it would have taken no small amount of liquor to stomach some of the tripe other Ukrainian politicians were laying on our ears this New Year’s. For examples of two prime perpetrators, look no further than the two top politicians in the land, President Leonid Kuchma and Parliament Speaker Oleksandr Tkachenko.
Well into my third or fourth bottle of champagne, I smiled like a obsequious elf at Kuchma’s Ukrainian words when translated for me by a friend into Russian. “It is the holiday of state and people, family and humanity,” ran the president’s pointed words. “During such moments, we have the opportunity to stop, take a breath and transcend this hectic everyday life, to reflect on one more cycle in life and to be warmed with bright and simple feelings.”
Was that a tear forming in my left eye?
“The doubtful experiments, conflicts and opposition, with which this century was abundantly marked, should be left behind. Civil dissent, alienation and hostility are not traits of the Ukrainian character.”
Upon rereading Kuchma’s words in English two days later, I felt used. Kuchma’s no dummy. He knows the benefit of giving a speech on New Year’s Eve (broadcast on every one of Kyiv’s TV channels, no less) when 96 percent of the population is stewed. In the wake of the SPF fiasco, I began to sense a common thread running through the public relations psychology of Ukrainian politicians. What was next, Oleksandr Moroz giving a 3 a.m. address at Dynamo Lux?
A sober glance at Kuchma’s words turned out to be, well, a sobering experience. The “doubtful experiments” of the past, while certainly doubtful, are no less dubious than the experiments being carried out in today’s Ukraine. A colleague of mine returned from his break toting inside information on how virtually every lucrative business in the country is in the pocket of the presidential administration, which in turn is in the pocket of a few select post-Soviet power brokers. All of which makes it difficult to imagine that the nation’s business and political leaders are capable of too many “bright and simple feelings.”
Tkachenko was similarly glib in his New Year’s address: “In defiance of all political differences, the Verkhovna Rada proves its high responsibility to the Ukrainian people.”
This from a man who wants to renationalize land (was any actually privatized?), reunite with Russia and roll back the reforms that represent the Ukrainian people’s only hope for a bright future.
Watching my screen-saver in the office last week, I was struck by a thought. It seems about the only news we get here lately tends toward the negative. With the whole country still on vacation, however, news of all sorts just stopped rolling in and the city seemed as peaceful as I can remember it.
Thus we arrive at the perfect solution to Ukraine’s woes: declare all of 1999 a holiday. With a presidential election and a whole host of bad omens ready to make 1999 the rockiest in independent Ukraine’s history, can it really be much worse than opening the government back up?
Greg Bloom is the Post’s business editor.
