In recent days the Ukrainian and Russian mass media have given wide coverage to the Russian proposal that was approved by the Political Affairs Committee of PACE, the statutory organ of the Council of Europe. Citing PACE vice-president Goran Lindblad, the mass media reported that thanks to the activity of Russia’s representatives, this organization will now study the consequences of the Holodomor of the 1930s on the entire territory of the former USSR, not just in Ukraine. Russian mass media reports focused generally on Russia’s victory in this question.
Olha HERASYMIUK, Member of Parliament in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and one of the initiators of the resolution on the Holodomor in the PACE:
"Someone is deliberately spreading slanted information that the Russian draft resolution on the Holodomor won in the PACE. The Political Affairs Committee did consider the question of unifying both proposals into a single report. The first proposal, which was drafted by the Ukrainian parliamentary delegation to the PACE, collected over 50 votes from the delegates of the national delegations of various European countries. In particular, the proposal called the Holodomor of the 1930s a crime. Its adoption spurred the Russian delegation to action, and it tried to tone down the question, although it was formulated in a delicate fashion. It did not mention compensation. Therefore, during the May session the Russian delegation presented another proposal whose title marks the 75th anniversary of the famine on the territory of the former Soviet Union. In this way they wanted to overwhelm our proposal with this report and remove the Ukrainian question. The PACE Political Affairs Committee considered the question of whether there should be two reports or two unified into one. PACE vice-president Goran Lindblad supported two reports.
"Unfortunately, the Russian point of view, which was backed by some serious state lobbying, was heard. One can say here that, owing to various circumstances that are making the Europeans yield to the Russians, the decision to make a single report was approved. However, this is not the Russian version but a unification of the Ukrainian and Russian proposals into a single one. The question of how to title this report remains open. There is still a lot of room for work in order to champion the inclusion of a separate chapter in the report, which would adequately reflect the situation in Ukraine in the 1930s. This is what we are working on now. A rapporteur for this report has not been appointed yet. So the work of drafting it will take a few months."
