Last night, my friend didn't bother to send me the other text on Ukrainian election that the Spectator published alongside John Laughland's piece. And I didn't bother to explore the Spectator site further. Well, today I have, and found a story that more or less balances off what Laughland has written - Yearning to Breathe Free, by Radek Sikorski.

I'm sort of glad I didn't see it yesterday because maybe it would've made me too shy to send the letter to the editor - and I'm very happy I did.

Anyway, here's a bit from Sikorski's piece that sounds like a reply to Laughland:

Some people have become so blinded by anti-Americanism that they assume that whatever Uncle Sam backs must be a bad thing. In this twisted logic, if the US Congress passes a ‘Belorus Democracy Act’ or helps the struggling Ukrainian independent media, that is interference, but when Russia pulls out the stops for Yanukovych, that’s just good old Slavic solidarity. In fact we Slavs no more wish to live in kleptocracies, or be ‘disappeared’ by our governments, than people elsewhere.

A friend from Odesa has forwarded me this link to a piece on the election in Ukraine in the Spectator (Western Aggression, by John Laughland). Laughland is a trustee of the British Helsinki Human Rights Group, an organization that has been observing the first round of the election.

This is the letter to the editor I've just sent regarding Laughland's piece:

Dear Editor,

This is a ridiculously superficial and uninformed take on the situation in Ukraine, and a one-sided, prejudiced view on the country's politics.

However, judging by Mr. Laughland's Sept. 8 piece in The Guardian, The Chechens' American Friends, he is being fully consistent in making the impression that Boris Berezovsky has failed to bribe him enough and Vladimir Putin has succeeded.

Sincerely,

Veronica Khokhlova
Kyiv, Ukraine

The Guardian story I'm referring to is here.

I've been to another student rally today - but I'm too tired to write about it here, especially since I've already described it briefly on my fotopage, and posted 32 pictures... I've a fever now - so please forgive me for sending you away to my other site for more news from Kyiv...

It's so weird to be a citizen of such an obscure country as Ukraine...

The New York Times has a story today about the U.S. allies in Iraq - namely, about Hungary planning to withdraw its troops by March 2005, following the January election. A number of current and former allies are mentioned in addition to Hungary - but Ukraine isn't, despite its 1,650 troops based in Iraq.

I personally think it's good that we're so invisible, very good, at least in the context of the Iraqi adventure... but it is still too weird.

Below is the number of troops each of the coalition members mentioned in the New York Times' piece has or used to have in Iraq (originally, the total used to be 22,000 troops from 32 countries):

Britain - 12,000
Italy - 3,100
Poland - 2,400
the Netherlands - 1,400
Bulgaria- 483 (down to 430 next month)
Thailand - 450
Hungary - 300
New Zealand - 60 engineers (on the way out)
Singapore - 33 (down from 191)
Moldova - 12 (down from 42)

Norway - 155 military engineers (withdrawn), "15 staff members to help NATO train and equip the Iraqi security forces" (still there)
Spain - 1,300 (withdrawn)
the Dominican Republic - 302 (withdrawn)
Honduras - 370 (withdrawn)
Nicaragua - 115 (withdrawn)
the Philippines - 51 (withdrawn)

And here's a paragraph on Ukraine's Iraq plans, from the Guardian's pre-election piece:

When it comes to the 1,650 Ukrainian troops in Iraq, which most Ukrainians oppose, the candidates have different rhetoric, yet the same shade of grey as a reply. Mr Yushchenko's promise to withdraw the men is tempered with the pledge not to "discomfort" Ukraine's allies - the new Iraqi government and the US. Mr Yanukovich counters that the troops will come home some time after the election, in January.

(A scary thought: I'd rather have 1,650 troops that no one knows about in Iraq than Yanukovych as this country's president...)

(This, of course, refers to the day George W. Bush got re-elected...)

I'm down with a cold and sick of politics. So I decided to read some poetry, by Vasyl Stus, a Ukrainian poet and, twice, a political prisoner. That, of course, isn't a good way to escape thinking about politics.

Vasyl Stus died in a Perm region labor camp in 1985, midway through his 10-year sentence for political dissent. That was his second sentence; the first one sent him to a Mordovian camp (1972-77), and then to exile in Magadan region (1977-79). The man who pretended to defend Stus in 1980, Victor Medvedchuk, now heads President Kuchma's Administration.

But I knew all this before. I knew that Stus hadn't been the only one in the Soviet Union whose life was ruined by Brezhnev, not Stalin, in the years that many assholes consider idyllic, abundant in cheap food, etc. There are plenty of people here who still miss that time.

What I didn't know is that Donetsk, the city to which Stus' parents moved when he was 2, used to be called Stalino from 1924 (the year Lenin died) to 1961 (eight years after Stalin's death). I've just discovered it in the bio of Stus, at the end of the book of his poetry and letters. I couldn't believe my eyes.

When Donetsk is mentioned now, it's hard not to think about politics, either: Victor Yanukovych, the prime minister and a presidential candidate, spent much of his life in and around this city.

I did a web search to make sure Donetsk was really called Stalino for 37 years: somehow, it is hard to believe. But skimming through the brief history of Stalino/Donetsk, I ran into a little something that made me forget politics for a while: Stalino/Donetsk was also called Yuzovka for a while, and though I did hear about it, I never bothered to think about the origins of this name.

It turns out that it was named Yuzovka after a 19th-century Welsh industrialist, John Hughes. There's another way to spell Yuzovka in English - Hughesovka. In 1870 (the year Lenin was born), Hughes came to what then was the Russian Empire and built a metallurgical plant - and around the plant grew a city, first Yuzovka, then Stalino, and now Donetsk.

Getting back to the Ukrainian election and politics, the Central Election Commission is still counting those 2.33 % of the votes, and we still do not know who won the first round: Victor Yanukovych or Victor Yushchenko. So far, we know that 10,895,667 Ukrainians (39.88 %) have voted for Yanukovych, and 10,713,348 for Yushchenko (39.22 %).

I'm sure Yushchenko wins in the second round and becomes the next Ukrainian president. And 'biased' isn't a correct term for me: I don't pretend to be impartial - I am one of those nearly 11 million Ukrainians who believe Yushchenko will make a better leader than Yanukovych, for many, many reasons. I wish I had enough energy to recount some of these reasons - but I'm down with a cold and sick of politics. I also wish I could translate a poem or two by Stus and post them here - but I'm a lousy translator.

I followed the student rally across the city center to the Ukrainian Parliament building yesterday afternoon: they were voicing their support for Yushchenko, and also protesting against frauds during the election and the count of the votes. Really nice guys, a very moving experience, obvious solidarity from the people driving by in cars and those watching the rally from their balconies: many were honking in a friendly way and waving orange flags.

Two elderly women walked next to me, very passionate and outspoken. As we passed the police guarding the Cabinet of Ministers building, one yelled at the cops: "Shame on you! You're selling yourself for nothing to the criminals! Shame on you!" Then the head of the Central Election Commission, Serhiy Kivalov, got his share of curses: "A traitor! He sold out!" And then one of the women yelled something that I didn't find too smart: "He doesn't even speak Ukrainian! He only speaks Russian! He sold out to the enemies!" To which the other woman replied that it didn't really matter all that much what language he spoke, and the first one let it pass, and the two screamed in unison again for a while - and I wasn't paying attention to the language either was using, until the second one suddenly asked, loudly, without any embarrassment, and in Russian: "And how do you say 'traitor' in Ukrainian?" And a middle-aged man from the crowd in front of us turned and, looking amused but not irritated, replied: "Zradnyk." (In Russian, it's "predatel.") And the Russian-speaking woman, together with her Ukrainian-speaking comrade, yelled: "Kivalov zradnyk, Kivalov zradnyk!"

The reason Kivalov is drawing so much hatred is because the Central Election Commission is taking forever to count the remaining 4 or 3 percent of the bulletins - according to everyone's predictions, Yushchenko is going to win the first round, and his opponents are looking for ways to avoid this embarrassment, and the longer they pretend to be counting the remaining votes, the more ridiculous it looks.

Unfortunately, there's still gonna be the second round on Nov. 21, even if Yushchenko gets more votes now.

(More pictures from the rally on my fotopage, HERE.)

This morning, many Ukrainian parliamentarians showed up wearing stupid blue-and-white scarves with Yanukovych's name on them - "Our [something] Yanukovych" - you couldn't see what they called Yanukovych because the middle part of the scarves was on the back of their necks - but it was probably the word "president" (or "proffessor" spelled with two "f" - the way Yanukovych prefers to spell it).

There were enough little orange flags there, too, and little orange ribbons pinned to the parliamentarians' jackets - enough Yushchenko supporters. Yulia Timoshenko spoke beautifully, announcing Yushchenko's victory and condemning the thugs who were trying to steal the country. There was some booing while she spoke - or perhaps it was a mixed response.

What's sickening is that almost all of those who spoke after Yulia Timoshenko screamed about their love for Yanukovych and about his victory.

I forgot to mention it yesterday - but I've finally met a person who knows someone who supports Yanukovych: her own mother. This person voted for Yushchenko herself, and is now thinking of a way to distract her mother from voting in the second round. The mother blames Yushchenko for taking away the benefits their family used to have before he became prime minister. She also thinks Yushchenko is a thug because she saw footage of him beating the shit out of a special forces guy - the daughter hasn't seen this footage, and I haven't, either - but even if it's true, shouldn't the interior affairs minister be fired? isn't it shameful for this special forces guy - someone trained to fight and kill - to fall at the hand of an ailing politician?

I'm not saying people shouldn't have the right to vote for Yanukovych. I just don't understand how anyone can admire - and see him fit to be the president - the man with two criminal convictions, the man who can't spell and can speak neither Russian nor Ukrainian decently, the man capable of ordering his aides in front of the TV cameras to take some elderly protester "the fuck out of here."

Everyone's making fun of George W. Bush - but, compared to Yanukovych, he's an intellectual. And this is what's shameful and disgusting - to live in a country ruled by someone much dumber than Dubya.

And here's a sweet, relevant New Yorker cartoon:

I decided to read on the U.S. election and noticed a piece on ours in the New York Times:

2 Candidates in Ukraine Election Face Runoff

There's also something in The Telegraph:

Monitors denounce Ukrainian election 'fix'

And from the AP, via the Washington Post:

Poll: Yushchenko Leads Ukraine Election

I haven't read these stories yet myself - I'm waiting for Yushchenko to win and then I'll see what they've all been saying...

Serhiy Kivalov is the name of the guy from the Central Election Commission, who spent a minute or so yesterday, thinking whether he should announce Yushchenko's significant Kyiv lead over Yanukovych or not. He is the head of the Commission (his Russian equivalent is Aleksandr Veshnyakov - they do look alike a lot, not really "separated at birth" but pretty close). That episode hasn't been mentioned enough - it may prove to be more or less something like the trembling hands of Gennady Yanayev during the August 1991 coup, a decisive moment. In any case, it was as funny and as significant and as telling to me personally. No matter what happens next.

As I said before, it's exactly the same country: calm; people are commuting from work, the subway is crowded and many smell of alcohol; nothing is happening around the Central Election Commission building or near the Presidential Administration; at the Maidan Nezalezhnosti they are singing Vyacheslav Butusov's Ya Khochu Byt' S Toboi (I Want to Be With You) all the time. It's sort of boring. I'm grateful to God that we havent't had any bloodshed, but it is boring, considering the fact that the Central Election Commission has stopped counting the votes as soon as Yushchenko approached Yanukovych (as of now, the difference is less than 1 percent and, according to the Ukrainian legislation, they can stay this way for the next ten days, which would prevent Yushchenko from campaigning, until the second round officially kicks off).

My friend told me that it was fun at Yushchenko's headquarters yesterday night - many famous people hanging out there, including Boris Nemtsov, one of Russia's main opposiotion leaders, and a few cool bands, and Yulia Timoshenko, and yes, all the people gathered outdoors, carrying or dressed in something orange. I passed Yanukovych headquarters tonight - located in the building of what once used to be a movie theater - and all I saw was a fountain and a metal fence surrounding the building, no people, no supporters or anything.

Miscellaneous stuff: totally by accident, I've eavesdropped on Stephen Bandera, a grandson of one of the most notorious Ukrainian leaders, Stepan Bandera, calling Kuchma "a smart man, though not a wise one." Strangely, it has made me feel like such a radical - I do consider Kuchma a brainless idiot, and I do have a Russian friend who calls me a "Banderovka" - a hard-core Ukrainian nationalist - every time I mention Kyiv, even when I'm just talking about the weather. Go figure. There was also a Polish election observer guy who spoke perfect Ukrainian but sort of accused me of being a CIA person because of my accent: it usually takes me at least a week to switch from Russian/English to Ukrainian/Russian/English, and my Ukrainian has never been something to be proud of. This Polish guy was observing the election in Kyiv and said everything had been great. He loves Donetsk, too, because the region he grew up in Poland is a coal-mining region and reminds him of Donbas. Another observer, from the Netherlands, also said everything had gone okay - in a town close to Kyiv, Brovary, where he had been observing.

The two guys who got slightly less than 6 percent each are Moroz and Symonenko, a Socialist and a Communist. Moroz used to be together with Yushchenko and the opposition for a while - but then they split and, now that it looks like Yushchenko needs to get some of those additional votes in the second round, Moroz is negotiating with both Yushchenko and Yanukovych. He must feel like a king now - everyone's well-being depends on him. And Yanukovych has announced that his program has a lot in common with those of Moroz and Symonenko.

So we woke up in the same country - no curfew, no revolution, no bloodshed, Yanukovych leads by 0.97 percent, according to the official count, and loses by 12.16 percent, according to the Yushchenko's headquarters alternative count. OSCE and other observers say the election was not a fully open and democratic one, but that already sounds like a recording or something - is there a country in the world where everything goes as it has to? I really wish Yanukovych just said, Oh fuck it, and took off to Côte-d'Azur for a vacation and never came back, but that's not gonna happen and we'll have the second round in three weeks. About 10,000 people came to a rally to support Yushchenko in Lviv, and there were a few hundred here in Kyiv as well, demonstrating for the fair election - but if you watch Ukrainian daytime TV, you wouldn't even know that there has been an election. Pathetic.

The day I arrived in Kyiv, I opened our mailbox and found A Letter From Russia there, addressed to me, Veronika Ihorivna Khokhlova. My mama was with me then, and she started laughing when she saw the envelope, and told me that all the young people - those potential Yushchenko supporters - have been receiving this.

There's no return address on the envelope - just an imitation of two postmarks, one of them carrying the words, Pismo iz Rossii (A Letter From Russia). Below is a drawing of a solid, male handshake - in blue, the color of Yanukovych's campaign. The letter, despite its title, was sent from Ukraine, not Russia: there's a 0.45-hryvnia Ukrainian stamp in the right-hand upper corner, with a picture of those wonderful flowers that grow in the wheat fields, vasilki in Russian and voloshky in Ukrainian, and the Ukrainian symbol, a trident. There's also a real postmark: Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 28, 2004.

Inside, there's a letter, typed in Ukrainian, signed by the Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Communities in the Russian Federation, V.M. Khrystenko. He is writing me "on behalf of over 10 million Ukrainian expats living in Russia":

We live in Russia, but all of us, Ukrainians, care about the fate of our native country. We stand for the strong and independent Ukraine, and cannot stay aside while our Motherland is in danger.

Then Mr. Khrystenko tells me how wonderful Yanukovych is - while Yushchenko is nothing but mean and evil.

A person who carried out a loud election campain on someone else's money, and having sold his own independence, is ready to sell that of Ukraine. [...] Yushchenko's friends are the American swindler George Soros, who has been lavishly financing his campaign, and an American counsellor, a Polish-American [amerikanopolak] Zbigniew Brzezinski, as well as other experts in seizing power in poor countries.

There's more - but I'm too disgusted to waste my time translating it here.

Mr. Khrystenko stops short of telling me who to vote for. After recounting all the wonders that would happen to Ukraine if Yanukovych is elected - and all the horrors that await us if Yushchenko wins - Mr. Khrystenko concludes:

We, the Ukrainian community, hope that common sense, life experience and the great wisdom of the Ukrainian people will help make the right choice.

We stand for the strong and independent Ukraine!

Whatever.

I'll end this with a non sequitur from P. J. O'Rourke's Sept. 1991 piece about the former Soviet Union - one of the truest things ever said about us:

Nina took me to talk with the leaders of the TV-station protest. This was one of five or six political interviews that I did while I was in the Soviet Union - with Ukrainian Nationalists, Ukrainian non-Nationalists, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, anti-Gamsakhurdian Georgians, pro-Gamsakhurdian Georgians and some people I don't know who they were.

I can tell you what they all had to say, if you like, I mean if you're having trouble getting to sleep or something. I would ask them what their group advocated, and they would say, "Democracy must be defended." I would ask, "How do you propose to do this?" They would say, "There must be a structure of democracy in our society." I would ask, "What are your specific proposals?" They would say, "We must build democratic institutions." I would ask, "By what means?" They would say, "Building democratic institutions is necessary so that there is a structure of democracy in our society at all levels." And by this time I'd be yelling, "BUT WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO??!! And they would say, "Democracy must be defended."

The Soviets were firmly rooted in the abstract, had both their feet planted on the air. It was impossible to get them to understand that government isn't a philosophical concept, it's a utility, a service industry - a way to get roads built and have Iraqis killed. [...]

Speaking about Iraqis, I've almost forgotten about the U.S. election. Normally, I try to forget about the pointlessness of Ukrainian politics by focusing on what's going on in the States - it's more entertaining this way. But now the opposite has happened: Ukraine has made me forget about the States. And what I wish above all now is that November passes as quickly as possible, with Yushchenko and Kerry elected and forgotten about. I can't wait for our regular New Year's trip to Istanbul. I'm sick of politics.

P.S. You can read all of P. J. O'Rourke's text in his Give War a Chance book. But, to save you a few bucks, here's a joke he ends this piece with - he could've left everything else out, for all I know, and this joke would've filled the gaps:

There's a joke people tell in the Soviet Union: Mitterrand, Bush and Gorbachev have a meeting with God. Mitterrand says, "My country faces many difficult problems - lagging exports, Muslim minorities, European unification. How long will it be before France's problems are solved?" God says, "Fifteen years." Mitterrand begins to cry. "I'm an old man," says Mitterrand. "I'll be dead by then. I'll never see France's problems solved." Then Bush says, "My country faces many difficult problems - rececssion, crime, racial prejudice. How long will it be before America's problems are solved?" God says, "Ten years." Bush begins to cry. "I'm an old man," says Bush. "I'll be out of office by then. I won't get any credit for solving America's problems." Then Gorbachev says, "My country faces many, many difficult problems. How long will it be before the Soviet Union's problems are solved?" God begins to cry.

About an hour and a half ago, Channel 5 was showing the head of the Central Election Commission live, announcing some of the preliminary results. First, there was Kharkiv region, pretty scary: Yanukovych over 60 percent, Yushchenko less than 20. Then, there was Kyiv: the guy stared at his computer screen for about a minute without saying a word; he looked concerned, and puzzled, and quite dumb. Finally, he said: Yushchenko 58 percent, Yanukovych 15 percent (I'm not sure about the figures, I just happened to be in the room at that moment and wasn't prepared for anything extraordinary, I don't even remember the guy's last name - but these figures are pretty close...). And Channel 5 switched to their studio immediately, letting Yulia Timoshenko - who looked totally gorgeous - comment on what they've just heard. That was so hilarious - a very embarrassing moment for Yanukovych fans.

Some fifteen minutes ago, I heard someone screaming outside. I opened the balcony door and saw two young guys passing through our backyard and yelling - Yushchenko! Yushchenko! - in a somewhat discordant way, but definitely happily. That was nice, too.