Maidan

Here's a clue: Millennium Challenge Account, or MCA.

There has in fact been a lot of up and down on the US side regarding line-item foreign aid budget to Ukraine -- despite compelling and overwhelming imperatives following the Orange Revolution that demand by all moral precepts that Ukraine is the most deserving country on Earth for first, primary focus of US foreign aid budget.

But there is a little secret but not-so-secret in the background.  US House of Representatives were first to bring to public light that Ukraine deserves this money, and Yushchenko followed on in a very, very rare address to joint session of US House and US Senate during the first week of April 2005.  Here is the secret/not secret: the US has a reserve account of FIVE BILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR set aside as a line-item budget to support emerging democratic/market reforms.  

Two weeks ago, for the first time in history, some of this money was finally approved for -- Macedonia.  While Macedonia may be deserving of a slice of this money, there is no more deserving country in the world for this particular US aid than Ukraine.

US House of Representatives have already said so, US Senate agrees.  US President Bush can only follow and agree with US House and Senate that Ukraine deserves special consideration for this aid budget.  This money is entirely, completely separate from the paltry USAID budget being argued for Ukraine, which is fluctuating between about US$30 million and US$115 million for this year.  MCA is the budget account that I've had in mind all along, and have discussed with business colleagues from Kyiv and Warsaw,  as the go-to funding on the US side to underpin democracy and market development in Ukraine.  I�ve said in this forum that half a billion dollars over four years should be appropriate and sufficient � a small fraction of MCA funding.  Moreover, I and others have already developed a game/business plan that will guarantee two things, already agreed by US Embassy-Kyiv as of two years ago as being a viable plan:

1-Poverty reduction throughout Ukraine, which according to Kyiv Post�s May 5 print edition, page 5, is President Yushchenko�s top priority




2-Economic stimulus in Ukraine that has only one possible outcome, to boost Ukraine�s economy and move Ukraine closer to her potential as an economic powerhouse

US$125 million a year for four years will get the job done, for every oblast throughout Ukraine.  This is a microscopic fraction of the MCA budget, and can be put to no better use than in Ukraine as has already been suggested by the US government and reminded to them by President Yushchenko.

Sometimes, we Americans get things very, very wrong.  I won�t mention any particulars here.  Sometimes, we are also capable of getting things right, and channeling a fraction of the MCA budget to Ukraine will prove to be one those occasions where we can actually get foreign policy right.

Only one addition and amendment, however, from my point of view: US$250 million a year for the next four years, instead of US$125 million per year, for a total US investment of one billion dollars over four years, and Ukraine will be transformed into THE leading example of emergent democracy in the world.  If freedom and democracy are what Bush is really seeking, as he is claiming lately, he needs only to agree with his US Republican-controlled Congress to prove it.

The basic plan has been in place, and already approved by the US side under the Bush administration, for two years now, pending elimination of corruption from the top down in Ukraine.  Elimination of corruption was my requirement � to which I had every right under US law, in that I wrote the plan � and I beg the forbearance of my US colleagues along the way of getting that done. To be absolutely clear on this particular point, it was Ukrainian citizens and their steadfast refusal of corruption in Ukraine that made ALL the difference. We Americans at best only encouraged, but the millions of peaceful protesters in November-December 2004 were Ukrainian citizens. So let's make no mistake as to how the Orange Revolution happened, and why: it was the heart and soul of Ukrainians, though perhaps encouraged by others in this world who value freedom and democracy -- which happens to include many of us born and raised in the US. In that sense, I humbly and respectfully suggest as an American citizen that it is now time for solidarity in principle of freedom and democracy with citizens of Ukraine, in more than words and congratulatory rhetoric.

Ukraine has now kept her part of the bargain.  Now it�s time for the US to step up and do our part.  One billion dollars over four years is one-twentieth of MCA total budget over four years, and cannot possibly be put to better use than in New Ukraine.  Further, a billion dollars is the same amount we�re now spending in, say, Iraq, each week.  I won�t go into the successes, or lack thereof, of those expenditures there.  But I will remind the US side that right is right, and there is no more righteous case to be made than investing in Ukraine�s new democracy, under terms and conditions which were agreed more than two years ago on condition that corruption not come into play. US Embassy-Kyiv, US Embassy's Economic Section, and US Ambassador to Ukraine know exactly what I'm talking about, as does the newly-cleaned government in Crimea -- as well as some recently discharged officials in Crimea's government who learned the hard way that corruption has no place in today's Ukraine.

Dear Terry,
There are people in Canada who are involved with Ukraine and are involved in criminal activity in Ukraine. The business of sending parcels overseas by special companies are being watched by the RCMP and this family Kisil is very suspicious. Also, stealing donations by Ruslana Wresnewskyj which is difficult to prove but look what she has established in Ukraine. She is a koom to a high positioned family in Ukraine and this family is not aware of her stealing. She is very disliked in Canada. Also, her brother Boris is in the Canadian Gov't and he is devious. He leads the Ukrainian community to believe that he's heterosexual but he's a pedophile. This family has treated new Ukrainian immigrants very badly. Money is laundered in Canada from Ukraine. I speak frankly. Slava Ukraini!

Why are we dumm? Because we are poor. And why are we poor? Because we are dumm.

In addition we are also crazily envious, and horribly intolerant.

Now, to the point.

Borys Wrzesnevskyj has done A LOT for Ukraine, and anyone who has been following Canadian news through Orange Revolution knows that. Most probably he has done much more than any of us has, including you.

Accusing a peson of being a pedofile on grounds that he is supporting same-sex marriage is a manifestation outrageous stupidity, please do not shame yourself.

Internet searches turned up nothing on either Ruslana Wresnewskyj or Boris Wresnewskyj (Google and Yahoo.) Google did turn up three references to Borys Wresnewskyj. None were negative.

Although the original post was not about those two people in any way, now that you bring them up in an international public forum, I can only respectfully request that you back up your allegations with substantive evidence of some sort.

Otherwise, I will only add that there are people from every country in the world involved in criminal activity within every country in the world. Ukraine is not exceptional in that regard generally, aside from recently demonstrated determination by Ukrainian citizens living in Ukraine to clean things up within Ukraine.


Regards,
Terry

Victor,

This is a very insightful and incisive question!

In fact, I've been working in Russia and Ukraine on the very issues you're describing for the past six years, and have had many, many discussions along those lines.

It seems impossible to separate poverty relief, civic development, market reforms, and organized crime. All of those factors are interconnected to some degree in every location in the world. I agree that rule of law is fundamental, and have in fact said exactly that in an interview with International Committee for Crimea, just prior to Ukraine's Orange Revolution. ( http://www.iccrimea.org/scholarly/economicdev.html ) And you're right: without rule of law, if the economic cake gets bigger, it will likely be consumed for the most part by organized crime merely because they can get away with it.

This comes down to fighting organized crime, which I've recognized and done within Crimea since 2002. Crimea's Prime Minister Kunitsyn, for example, was fired just a few days ago, on April 20. That was not entirely mere coincidence to my efforts in Crimea. I won't detail those efforts here, only because they're too complex to fairly address in a forum brief.

At the same time, I must in all honesty say that the efforts of civic activists across ALL of Ukraine made possible what I set as a personal and professional objective in Crimea: to clean out the Crimean government of utterly corrupt officials, for the very simple reason that it needed to be done in order to have any hope of developing a normal market economy. That would not have been possible without broad-based civic activism and determination across most of Ukraine, among people who were already intent on cleaning up all of Ukraine quite before I raised Hell in Crimea.

Moreover, many civic activists who made it all happen across Ukraine became civic activists because they were poor! Not stupid, not incapable, not without talent, but merely poor because of corrupt, criminal government across almost all of Ukraine who were looting the entire country and economy for their own personal benefit. The need for market reform, whereby most Ukrainians could share the pie rather than a privileged, criminal few, was obvious. Thus, poverty relief/market reform/civic activism/rule-of-law all merged into one whole, inseparable context whereby it wasn't and isn't possible to achieve any of those factors without achieving all of them.

Rule of law, as I've conceded myself, is fundamental to all reform needed in Crimea, and in Ukraine. But there is no separating those other factors. One might say that all factors get to the need for rule of law, and generally I agree with that proposition. Still, without civic activism and development, a strong and very, very intentional focus on poverty relief (at a very personal, not social, level), and focused effort on market reform to share the pie, overcoming organized crime in and of itself probably wouldn't happen.

Respectfully,

Terry Hallman

Kharkiv