The film Zmova [The Collusion. – Ed.] shown at ICTV [last week] polished the decision of the Pechersk СCourt concerning Kuchma’s case. It was a kind of “dessert” after the “fatty” food at the table of the former president. The first part of the film called The Strong and Influential was shown on Wednesday night and repeated on Thursday morning (this part had been previously demonstrated) and the second part called The Combined Variant was shown on Thursday night and repeated on Friday morning. Thus they tried to shape the public opinion! It would be recalled that eleven years ago the action “Ukraina bez Kuchmy” [“Ukraine without Kuchma.” – Ed.] started, so it is like balm to the Kuchma’s soul who is still accused (seven days are given to appeal against the decision of the court). Though… “Only Kuchma knows how well he can sleep since he remembers what he said in 2000. Our court will not return him guilty but he will not feel better. Only for the first five minutes,” Olena Prytula, editor-in-chief of Ukrainska Pravda wrote in her blog.
Interestingly, none of the active participants of the abovementioned action was present at any of the trials because of Kuchma’s advocates complaint. Why?
“On the one hand, we were busy with other things,” Volodymyr Filenko, MP and the active participant of the action “Ukraine without Kuchma,” said. “We have been struggling for Tymoshenko and Lutsenko, on the other hand, we knew what the decision will be. I am sure that under the current Ukrainian government Kuchma’s case will not be resolved since Yanukovych is the president and Lytvyn, the interested party in this case, is the speaker.”
What should we do then?
“Wait for another time, democratic authorities and fair legal proceedings. I can assure you that this question is left open.”
How would you comment the decision of the court?
“One of the biggest problems in Ukraine is the absence of fair legal proceedings. Kuchma’s case is one of the episodes demonstrating the blatant situation of our judicial system. It concerns other resonant cases against the current oppositionists Tymoshenko and Lutsenko... The verdict for Kuchma is not an exception; it confirms the absence of the fair legal proceedings. It is well-known that the courts are also used in business cases. In business they often institute legal proceedings against themselves. They gain a suit at law and then do everything they want with the property and the stockholders. I suspect that Kuchma instituted this case against himself. In all probability, it was done not by Kuchma but by his son-in-law Pinchuk. That is we have what we have. From the point of Justice (or, rather its absence) Kuchma is not guilty. However, do the people share this opinion? I am not sure about it. Those who murdered Gongadze are imprisoned but those who ordered this murder, comprising Kuchma are free. It means that the question is left open.”
“Ugh… staying in this country is getting so disgusting...”, this how the user nicknamed Mercer commented the decision of the Pechersk Court (www.pravda.com.ua) and Viktor Yanukovych’s words that ‘it pains me to hear sometimes various critical and even negative opinions about the judicial system.’ It is no coincidence that the level of confidence in the Ukrainian courts fell by 15 percent over the last year. According to the information of the Institute of Sociology at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, in 2011 69 percent of Ukrainians do not trust the courts. I wonder how much the confidence level will fall at the end of 2011 since there are so many legal processes in it?
The press-office of the leader of the Socialist Party of Ukraine Oleksandr Moroz reports that “it is obvious that the court decision that the legal proceedings against Kuchma are groundless has been ordered. The conclusion of the Constitutional Court concerning the Melnychenko recordings and their status, the Pechersk District Court and the demonstration of the compiled materials called Zmova at ICTV are the links of one and the same chain. They are the attempts to whitewash the former president, or rather pay off for the responsibility of being involved into the crime or several crimes. The thing is that the current fuss of the interested people with the big money does not mean anything from the point of the national interests. They have already affected the state and its reputation. That is why the current attempts of the ‘camouflage masters’ only condense the dark colors in the image of the state.”
This judicial system does not give any chances to any of us. That is why a lot of Ukrainians struggle for justice in the European Court for Human Rights (we are at the 4th or 5th place in Europe for the number of recourses). By the way, it is possible that the injured party in Kuchma’s case will struggle for justice there. Oleksii Podolsky’s representative Oleksandr Yeliashkevych has repeatedly claimed that “the main court decisions will be made abroad but the whole procedure has to be held in Ukraine in order to record all the abuses.”
Certainly, Kuchma’s family is working on this as well. The annual Yalta conference that gathered the influential politicians of the past and present is the evidence of this. Contacts and friends abroad are very important. However, according to Yeliashkevych, the corruption machine that worked in Ukraine in Kuchma’s case will not work abroad since there the judicial system and people’s mentality are different. It should be noted that Kuchma and his environment are holding “the European strategy” and buying expensive houses in London at the same time…
Meanwhile, Kuchma, inspired by the court decision goes on and on: “It is not enough to clear president Kuchma… We have to clear the reputation of our country which is impossible without finding those who really organized and ordered this terrible anti-Ukrainian provocation in the new history: the ‘cassette scandal’ and Heorhii Gongadze’s disappearance.”
“Kuchma’s claims that he wants to solve this case are really cynical,” Myroslava Gongadze replies. “If he had wanted to hold a real investigation he would not have made his advocates openly violate the law in order to finish the case for technical reasons. We will probably appeal against this decision. This is the question of principle. The Ukrainian authorities are used to humiliating our people and by appealing against this decision I will try to protect not only my own rights and Heorhii’s honor but the principles of justice that will probably exist in Ukraine.”
There is a question to the society. It is clear that the imperial Soviet past, “Kuchma’s decade” and the post-revolution disappointment and disillusionment in all the politicians tell but it does not excuse the moral degradation. There is nobody to count on but our own forces. “How can we overcome the social discord in the country where the judicial system is absent?” famous dissident and political prisoner, editor-in-chief of Nasha Vira newspaper Yevhen Sverstiuk asks. “This question is very complicated and deep. Certainly, this system has to be improved. This is the work for many years. We should speak about the problem and reveal it at every turn using all the media.”
“We are separated from the politics,” Semen Hluzman, human rights advocate and former dissident and political prisoner thinks. “Kuchma is not a politician, he is the dirt. We [the initiators of the union Hawrylyshyn, Sverstiuk, Huzar, and Hluzman who addressed the Ukrainians at the press conference held the other day and asked them to unite to resist the destructive tendencies. – Author] are not going to fight against somebody since the problem of our society is not in Kuchma or Yushchenko or the current president Yanukovych but in the people living here who cannot lose their soviet mentality. I understand that we lack hope now. The word ‘moral’ sounds too loud. We can try to influence the situation somehow, however, we cannot stop this judicial lawlessness or fight the corruption. However, we can activate a small part of Ukrainians and explain them that they are not along. Every of them have their likes near or far from them. Thus we declare that we and our country have the future. However, nobody wants to fight the president or the Verkhovna Rada. The problem is not in the president’s surname but in the fact that the people allow the government doing whatever it wants.”
What about the modern journalism? Some people say that Kuchma’s case is not a burning issue anymore. Oleksii Podolsky was struck by the words of the young journalist Sonia Koshkina: “Once at Shuster’s program we argued with Sonia Koshkina. She said that nobody needs this case [Gongadze’s case. – Author] since everybody is tired of it, people lost interest in it and there are other burning issues.” Probably, if the Italians though the same about the murdered journalist Mino Picorelli the Andreotti’s case would have never been finished. It is true that Tymoshenko’s case is on the lips; however, if Gongadze’s case would have been finished long time ago, or the normal rules of play would have been set in the country, the opposition would not be persecuted now. In a word, Kuchma’s case is the test first of all for the journalists.
“The actions of Pinchuk and his media (the manipulative film Zmova) is a shame,” journalist Otar Dovzhenko claimed. “We only sympathize with these journalists and the audience of the channel ICTV. It is the shame for the media workers since they know well who Kuchma is and what he did with them and their colleagues. A lot of those who work at ICTV now had to work according to the lists of topics. It cannot be forgotten. Probably, they have some Stockholm syndrome since now we can often hear in the discussions that Kuchma was OK as compared to the current authorities. As for me, this is the servile logic. We should not forget what Kuchma brought to Ukraine and what happened under his rule. The journalists must not forget about the censorship system that acted under his cover and was organized by him.”
Besides, except the court decision and demonstration of the film there is one more coincidence: the eleventh anniversary since the action “Ukraine without Kuchma” started.
“First of all, this trial was intended to solemnly declare that Kuchma is not guilty. Now he will refer to the court decision if he is blamed or given a hint concerning his complicity in Gongadze’s murder. Secondly, the Melnychenko recordings were definitively declared illegal. Practically, it puts Kuchma in the clear concerning everything that is on the Melnychenko recordings. In a word, this decision is aimed at completely whitewashing Kuchma from everything he was blamed for as the reasons why the action ‘Ukraine without Kuchma’ started.”
