MoldovAnn

I spoke to Sasha in Chisinau again tonight. Western news has repeatedly reported that internet was cut off in Moldova, but I was skeptical since I’ve personally been emailing with friends and there is plenty of blogging from Moldova. Sasha said that external internet traffic had been shut down (ie Facebook, vKontakte, etc), but internal traffic had been and continues to be “on”, although overloaded by excessive demand. I’ve exchanged emails the last couple of days with friends in Moldova, so apparently not all external traffic was cut off- maybe just access to websites but it doesn’t seem like email was affected.

There has been a “Romanian” flavor to the demonstrations – the protesters took down the Moldovan flag and raised the Romanian flag. But as Sasha put it, only a bit sarcastically, no part of Moldova has been under any particular government for more than 30 years. For sure a big part of Moldova has no interest in “reuniting” with Romania. The not insignificant ethnic Bulgarian population, for instance, still feel intense loyalty to Russia for the refuge the Tsar gave them 180 years ago when they fled Turkish-occupied Bulgaria. The Gagauzians, Ukrainians and Russians living in Moldova are also not at all interested in joining Romania. The minorities may seem small in number, but in a country of 4 million, any population is significant. While I feel little sympathy for Russian-language fanatics in Ukraine (I mean, if I could understand 50% of Ukrainian the first day I set foot here just because I spoke Russian, and now after just 3 1/2 years in Ukraine I can understand 90%, I just don’t buy it that life-long Russian-speaking residents don’t understand Ukrainian), I feel immense sympathy for the Russian-speaking population of Moldova in their alienation from the majority Romanian-speaking population. Different alphabets, different language families – except for a few cross-over words, there’s really nothing in common to help one with the other. The Russian speakers are really isolated and cut-off from the majority’s experience.

I have yet to read any news report that even acknowledges another point of view from the pro-Romanian one. Kudos to The New York Times for getting a reporter on the ground in Chisinau, but the flaw is still as strong as ever in their reduction of regional bureaus and attempt to use Moscow as their hub for Eurasia. How can a reporter even begin to understand the complex nuances of what’s happening in Moldova if they arrived on the spot a day after the shit hit the fan? What local expertise or understanding does a journalist have if they view the world from the lens of Moscow? Russia is at least half of the problem.

There have been reports of the government blocking all but state-run pro-government TV channels from the airwaves. How about the parts of southern Moldova that get their news exclusively from Moscow, and don’t even receive Chisinau channels? How about the 318 fully funded spots Russia gives to Molodovans (RUS) to study in Russia? Of the 2800 fully-funded scholarships for citizens of the former Soviet Republics, the second largest number of scholarships goes to citizens of a a country with the fifth smallest population of the 14 countries where Russia offers these scholarships. Only Georgia, with a slightly larger population, gets more free rides to study in Russia than Moldova. It’s a brilliant and subtle way to exert influence, if you ask me. I know one of the Moldovan kids studying in Russia on one of those scholarships – believe me, he thinks Russia is the best thing to ever happen!

The Communist Party claims victory in Sunday’s Parliamentary elections in Moldova, and yesterday protests broke out in the center of Chisinau. There had been very strong campaigning against the Communists, who have been in power since 2001, but my guess is the opposition was split among so many parties that they defeated themselves.

I talked to two friends in Chisinau yesterday – one in her office right in the center of town, in the heart of the protest area; the other at work on the edge of town. The first told me there were reports of injured protesters being transported away by ambulances. Both said the protesters are overwhelming young people. Traffic was blocked in the center, but a few blocks away was supposedly running normally.

I am having a hard time finding good news sources on-line. The New York Times is reporting from Moscow, which to me means they don’t know squat either, their news is as much hearsay as the anything else. And since they have no facts to report, they published an article about the social networking aspects of the protests. Please. Give me some real news!!!

I’m trying to find blogs, there’s a lot of twittering. Moldovarius has some commentary and photos. Ah, and I see GlobalVoices just posted. OK, I gotta go read all that.

I just watched the inauguration video – what a day to be alive, what a day to be an American!

I tried to put into words for Igor the way I feel this evening, to express the pride that I feel. It’s hard to express this overwhelming feeling with English words, even harder for me with Russian words!

Like many Ukrainians disillusioned with the defunct Orange Revoluntion, Igor cracked “We’ll see how you still feel in 6 months.” I do have high hopes and high expectations for President Obama. But as with the Orange Revolution, an important change has occured that cannot be taken away. My country is not the same today as it was yesterday.

It can be argued that no one could live up to the expectations placed on President Yushchenko, and maybe no one could live up to the expectations now placed on President Obama, but we have them. And we have hope and faith in a great country.

What a day to witness!

I woke up really early this morning, tried to go back to sleep, and finally gave in – got up, turned on the computer, went to NPR.org, but paused before reading the headlines. My stomach in knots, my hands shaking. My country has confused me and even disappointed me so much in recent years…

When I saw the headline “Obama Sails To A Sweeping Victory”, my eyes filled with tears and I felt relieved. I am so proud of my country right now. I am so proud.

I’m listening to President-Elect Obama making his victory speech. Never been happier that I couldn’t sleep!

Democrats Abroad Ukraine are calling voters in the US to encourage people to vote, and to answer questions about the Obama/Biden campaign. Being from a swing state, I’ve got a long list of Ohio folks to call. It’s exciting to talk to so many people who have (1) already voted, and (2) have or are going to vote for Obama/Biden!

Check out the Obama/Biden campaign, you can volunteer to knock on doors and/or make calls. You can do it wherever you are in the world – we’re calling the US tonight using Skype; it only costs 2 cents/minute!

UPDATE: I called 57 Ohio voters for under $3.00 – including a 45 minute call with “on the fence” voter. You can do it too! Help get out the vote.

So many people are blogging and reporting about Georgia, I am too busy following everyone else’s posts to write anything meaningful of my own. I’m disappointed in all sides, and deeply saddened by the loss of life and property. I think both sides have proven they don’t have much respect for anyone, including their own citizens.

As usual the western media is a lazy sucker. Russia has proven its military might, but Georgia has clearly won the media wars. I guess it pays to have an English-speaking president who studied in the US. Whatever he studied in the States, he certainly mastered the American sound bite. Does anybody in the US even realize that Georgia actually attacked first?

Interesting fact I learned yesterday – Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko is godfather to Georgian president Saakashvili’s children. Interesting.

For more informative, detailed and interesting blogging on Georgia, check out my blogroll, most of whom are blogging about the crisis. A good place to start is Global Voices’ special site on South Ossetia.

I spent last week as a volunteer election observer, seconded by the US government to the election observation mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It was a busy, exhausting and really great week. (By the way, I was officially on vacation from UNV and my volunteer work with OSCE was completely unconnected to my work with UNV.)

Most of the short-term observers arrived very early Saturday morning – airspace is less expensive in the middle of the night, so many flights arrive and depart in the capital Tbilisi at hours that I would prefer to think don’t exist. We landed about 4:00 am. After passport control, customs, collecting luggage, checking in with OSCE and finding the right chartered bus for my hotel, it was nearly 7 when I finally collapsed in bed. I slept a few hours, just enough to get me through the only full free day of the week.

My roommate in the hotel was an adorable young woman from Slovenia, Patricija. She and two of her colleagues from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Monika and Marko) made up the entire Slovenian delegation to the mission. They were all some of the nicest people I’ve met in a long time, and I happily spent much of my free time with them during the week. Patricija is a tiny thing, energetic and peppy – kind of like a perky toy poodle. I enjoyed her enthusiasm and optimisitic attitude as much as anything else in Georgia!

But Georgia itself was also really great. Everyone talks about the hospitality and friendliness of Georgians, and I certainly encountered nothing to challenge that legend. I had heard that not many people speak Russian anymore, so I’d been nervous I wouldn’t be able to communicate much with folks. It’s true not so many young people speak Russian these days, but pretty much everyone over 30 I encountered spoke Russian. Their accents were another story though! I took a short guided tour of one ancient church, conducted in Russian, and frankly couldn’t understand 90% of what the guide said. But she was a nice lady!

Saturday the Slovenians kindly adopted me into their group and we all agreed that the first place to visit was the ancient city of Mtskheta, the capital of the Georgian kingdom from the 3rd century BCE to the 5th century CE. We were so anxious to get on the road and do some sightseeing that we hailed the first taxi we saw, made him an offer for a half day of driving, and hopped in. Only after we settled in for the drive outside of Tbilisi did we start to take notice of what exactly we’d gotten in to. Monika was reading her guidebook and asked me to explain one phrase to her – it read something like this: “There are many private taxis, they are safe. But beware of beat-up cars.” I simply looked around and indicated the car we were in to explain the “beat-up” phrase. A couple times during the day, the driver couldn’t get the car started up and we had to push the car while he tried to pop the clutch to get it going. It became quite a joke for us, which of course was much funnier after we were safely back in Tbilisi, having cut short our plans for touring the nearby countryside after just two sites rather than risk getting stranded somewhere.

But those two sites were some of the most famous one near Tbilisi – the ancient capital with its beautiful Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, dating from the 11 century, and the nearby Jvari monastery, dating from the 6th century. Perched on a hilltop, Jvari offers a breathtaking view of Mtskheta and the surrounding hills and valleys. Just gorgeous.

Saturday evening we investigated the famous sulphur baths in Old Town Tbilisi. We visited three or four of them to compare and get the full scoop, planning to come back later in the week. Patricija and I went to one Tuesday night for a truly fantastic experience. The natural spring pours forth water at 50 degrees Celsius (122F), and in the small pools where you soak it is about 42-43C (107-109F). The tiled room is steamy, and the water feels absolutely great. We opted for the massage, which isn’t so much a muscle massage as it is a good thorough scrub down with a special woven hand mitt. You lay on a marble table, and the massuese rubs off so much dead skin you think you’re going to be just bare bones – but it feels great! My skin was soooo soft and smooth afterwards. We soaked, steamed, got rubbed down, soaked again – all in all, we spent an hour there and it was far from enough. We would have happily stayed several more hours.

Sunday the four of us decided to head out early to visit the town of Gori, about 80 km (50 miles) from Tbilisi. Why would we go to this sleepy town of under 47,000 people? It’s the birthplace of world-famous dictator Josef Stalin, and they’ve got a museum to him there. Too bizarre to pass up.

There’s not much I can add to Carpetblogger’s amusing post about the place. The museum is Soviet-style humonstrous, with cavernous halls. Among the many things I couldn’t quite get about the place was what the hell is actually in that huge building? The exhibitions we saw could not have accounted for even half of the space that had to be in there, judging from the outside. Did we miss the good stuff? And by that I mean did we miss the stuff that actually mentioned something about the fact that the subject of the museum was responsible for the death of millions of his citizens? I’m not asking for an analysis, even less a critique of him or his life. But I think what was most offensive about the place was the complete and total absence of any mention whatsoever that he might have done something a little bit bad in his life. I suppose I have to acknowledge that at least they didn’t say he was a good guy either. It was a rather mundane museum – facts, figures, photos, newspaper clippings, office furniture, family photos. You could almost forget the guy was a monster. The closest the guide came to mentioning anything approaching critical, and I’m sure it was more on account of a poor English translation someone gave her of the official tour, was when she pointed to a photo of Stalin casting a ballot and she said “And this is the first democractic election when Stalin elected himself.” I wanted to ask if they counted any of the other ballots cast in that election, or if it the one was enough to call it. I’d like to think it wasn’t just a poor translation but rather someone’s subtle way to sneak something more than the mundane facts into the tour.

I did learn a thing or two – Stalin was married twice and had a son. His second wife is actually still alive and lives in the US. They have a photo of his grandchildren visiting the museum.

They have Stalin’s personal railway car next to the museum, which is the length of two normal railway cars. It was relatively modest inside. The guide said Stalin didn’t like to fly and prefered to travel by rail as much as possible.

They also have the two-room house were Stalin was born and lived the first four years of his life. It looks to have been separated from whatever other construction it used to be part of, and the two rooms stand awkwardly in front of the musuem, under a stone and glass canopy. Stalin and his parents lived in just one of the rooms, which they rented from the people who lived in the other one. It was really small; hard to imagine a family living only in that tiny space.

In the end, I wondered if there might be something to the museum’s non-analytical take on Stalin’s life and reign. After all, everybody else only talks about the crappy stuff he did – but who knew he had a son and that his grandkids are still alive and kickin? I asked our driver what Georgians thought about Stalin. He said there are definitely people who hate him, mostly those who were repressed (go figure!). On the other hand, many Georgians see him as the great leader who defeated facsism and united a huge percentage of the world, and those Georgians are proud that Stalin was Georgian. Our driver also stated proudly that Stalin always made his first toast to Georgia – “He never forgot his motherland,” he said. I wonder if he remembered the ones he shipped off to Siberia?

And toasting in Georgia is a topic worthy of an entire blog post in and of itself, but that will have to wait for another day. It’s late, I’m tired, and the Georgian stomach bug that kindly accompanied me home hasn’t quite gotten the hint yet that it’s time to get packing. More later.

And summer=potatoes, and fall=potatoes, and winter=potatoes – at least in Ukraine. In spring, the country is obsessed with planting potatoes. (In summer it’s weeding the garden, including the vast potato patch; in Autumn it’s harvesting potatoes, which is much harder work than planting them; and in winter it’s eating potatoes over and over and over). Igor was called home by his parents to help with the spring planting this past weekend. I meekly asked if I should help to, and didn’t ask twice after he told me no. Instead, I planned an outing with my colleague and friend Elena.

After our usual Saturday morning fitness class, we planned to go about 90 minutes north of Kyiv to Ivankiv to visit my friend Valentina and to see a couple of the youth centers in the area. Elena is from Bulgaria, and although she’s been in Ukraine almost 2 years, she has not had much opportunity to travel outside of Kyiv. She’s heard me talk a lot about the youth centers and has expressed interest in seeing one or two of them. Perfect outing for a spring Saturday. Unfortunately, my car didn’t seem to agree. The good thing was that the car decided to stage its rebellion while we were still in Kyiv. I don’t want to even think what a nightmare it would have been to deal with a broken down car 100 kilometers from home!

It was the weirdest thing – suddenly, pressing the gas pedal caused no reaction in the car at all. The engine was running, but I couldn’t accelerate. Fortunately, we were able to coast to the side of the street to a not-too-busy spot. I called my mechanic, who called a tow truck for me. By the way, a tow truck is called “evakuator”, which for some reason I think is kind of funny. Anyway, after about an hour the tow truck arrived, hoisted the car up, and we enjoyed a pleasant chat with the nice driver on the way to the mechanic’s. Elena loves talking to taxi drivers, and I always find it amusing and entertaining to ride with her as she never fails to get a driver chatting. It didn’t take much to get this driver talking. He was particularly interested to know how much gasoline costs in the US. The last I heard, I told him, was that it was about $3/gallon, but I can never remember how many liters are in a gallon. Not to worry – he knew exactly – 3.8. (I just heard today that it’s up to $4/gallon.) It’s up to 6 hrivna/liter in Kyiv, which is about $1.20/liter or $4.50/gallon. When Ukrainians complain to me that they pay higher prices than in the US, I usually tell them they are lucky they’re not paying western European prices (i.e. $2.40/liter or $9/gallon as it was in Netherlands in February). But still, the prices are painful.

After dropping the car off at the mechanic and relieving my wallet of 318 hrivna (about $63), Elena and I were getting went in search of lunch. We ended up at a nice little Armenian cafe where we both got “lavash pizza”. It was fabulous, and along with a beer was a perfect way to chill after the stress of the car adventure. We were nearby the Botanical Gardens, which Elena had never been to, so we walked over in hopes of seeing the magnolia trees in bloom.

The line was ridiculous. In true Ukrainian fashion, on one of the first beautiful spring Saturdays, only one ticket window was working. The line snaked around several times, spilling out into the street. Even more brilliantly, only one gate was open and it was being used both for entering and exiting the gardens. The crowds of people pushing against each other in attempt to get into and out of the place would have been amusing if I wasn’t waiting to participate in the mayhem myself.

Once we finally got inside, we followed the crowds to the magnolia garden. I really regret that I didn’t have my camera with me! The tulip beds were gorgeous – and so many different varieties! We enjoyed strolling under the big pink and white blooms of the magnolias, and then found a quiet spot in the shade of a tall tree covered in delicate white buds. I don’t know what kind of tree it was, but the aroma was just perfect – kind of like honeysuckle. We sat and talked, enjoying the sunshine and tree’s perfume.

Sunday was gray and rainy, but tons of people were out enjoying the warmer weather, despite the drizzle. Dems Abroad got together to watch a recording of the Clinton-Obama Pennsylvania debate. What a load of garbage that was. Most of us left after the first hour when not a single question of substance, like about their policies, was asked. A thoroughly disappointing debate, which provide any information that would actually help one to make an educated decision about a candidate. Hopefully this primary mess will be over in a day, and then we can get onto the mess of the actual presidential election.

And as for the car, I didn’t really understand what the mechanic said happened , but he only charged 30 hrivna ($6) to fix it! We have now spent about the same on the car as we actually paid for the car – a hundred something to register it, and nearly 900 in tune up and repairs. Still, I can’t complain! We certainly couldn’t find another decent car for $2000. We might be taking our first long car trip/vacation over the upcoming holidays – stay tuned!

Oh, and the upcoming holidays are: 27 April, Orthodox Easter; 1-2 May, International Labor Day; 9 May, Victory Day. Most of the country gets all of next week off (28 April – 2 May), although UN only officially takes 28 April (for Easter) and 1 May as holidays. And many people will add on another week of vacation through 9 May, so the country is, for all intents and purposes, closed for 2 weeks in May. Igor and I, of course, couldn’t manage to organize ourselves in time to take advantage of all the free days, but we’re looking to take a few days right after the “May holidays”, which I hope will actually be better for us – everyone else will be back at work and we can enjoy some quiet, relaxing travels together. Let’s hope it works out!

Russian president Vladimir Putin, during a private meeting with US President George W. Bush at the NATO Summit, is reported as saying “Don’t you understand, George – Ukraine is not even a nation! What is Ukraine? Part of her territory is Eastern Europe, and part, a considerable part, was given by us!”

This was reported first in this Kommersant article (RUS), which is referenced in this Ukrayinska Pravda article (UKR). This UNIAN article (ENG), interestingly, doesn’t quote Putin’s purported inflammatory statement, although it does include his outright threat: “Russia may consider forcefully incorporating the eastern part of Ukraine and the Crimea into its territory.”

A couple hours after this story “broke” (which is quite an overstatement, since it wasn’t even reported on the evening news in Kyiv), Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko voiced her rather lame response.

My husband Igor said of her response: “Які політикі, така й відповідь – ніяка.” (Her response is just like Ukrainian politics – meaningless.)

Let’s hope the media and public pick up on this story soon, and are as outraged as they rightfully should be! For all the NATO nay-sayers out there, you won’t find NATO threatening or denying Ukrainian sovereignty and independence!

Having recently gone through the US visa application process with my Ukrainian husband, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of gleeful revenge when I read this article about the “new” visa application procedures Ukraine is introducing for foreign tourists. I’d love to see some of those State Department folks go through the humiliating (and expensive) hoops of fire that our embassies call “visa application process.”

After his interview with the embassy official, during which their goal seemed to be to trap even the likes of Mother Theresa in lies, Igor rather meekly said to me, “You know, after this experience, I really don’t want to go to your country.” And his interview was rather mild compared to the many horror stories I’ve heard.

I myself was left disillusioned and disappointed with my country, too. The What’s On article captures beautifully the standard practice of many embassies in Ukraine. Would we accept similar treatment of our own citizens?

As of 1 April, when the new law comes into effect, all foreigners wishing to visit Ukraine will have to undergo a complicated and extensive visa application process. The process of applying for a visa for Ukraine will have to be commenced a minimum of six weeks before travel… By the new law, it is also compulsory that the interview itself is as humiliating and degrading as is humanly possible, and that all applicants are treated with the utmost suspicion… It is necessary they prove (a romantic) relationship is ‘real’ and they will not be a flight risk… Applicants will also have to prove their earnings in their home country to further ensure they will return once their visa has expired… The visa fee will be $500 to start with, and this will be paid along with the initial application and will not be refundable should the application be denied, which is highly likely as, according to the law, at least 50% of applications have to be rejected.

And all this is only for visitor visas. Obtaining a work permit for Ukraine is already a difficult task that requires that all foreigners can only take a job here if no Ukrainian can perform the task to the same standard. Under the new law, this criteria is going to be much more strictly enforced, and the candidate will have to prove their suitability by providing diplomas, a CV, and by sitting a series of oral and written exams on the subject. Obtaining a work permit in no way guarantees a work visa to go with it, and the system of applying for such a visa will be even more rigorous than that of a visitor visa.

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In another, non-April Fool’s Day, conundrum – how do I file my US taxes when my spouse doesn’t have a U.S. social security number? The most I can find on the IRS website is that my spouse should apply for one. Frankly, since we do not live in the US and neither of us earns money from a U.S. organization, I really don’t see the reason for him to get a SSN. Any ideas or suggestions, anybody?

From DemocratsAbroad.org –

In just two weeks, from February 5th to 12th, Democrats Abroad will hold a Democratic Global Presidential Primary, with voting by Internet, fax, mail and in-person at Voting Centers in 34 countries around the globe. We’ll send 22 delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. This will be the FIRST online global primary ever!

Americans living abroad can register to vote at: http://VoteFromAbroad.org/

Record-breaking numbers of voters have turned out in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. The primary train has pulled out of the station and will be coming our way in just two weeks!

Please spread the word to other Americans living around the world and bring record-breaking numbers out to vote in the Democratic Global Presidential Primary!

My friend Ivanna and I were volunteer election observers Sunday for the Parliamentary elections.

There are something like 33,000 polling stations across Ukraine. The “hot spots” were considered to be in eastern Ukraine, in the areas more traditionally considered Russian-leaning, and where the most significant and more obvious incidents of fraud have been detected in recent elections (like a party receiving 103% of votes in some districts). The international delegations of election observers where smaller this year, though – about 2500 international observers. Almost 5000 Ukrainian observers were registered, representing various watchdog groups and NGOs. There were also representatives of the political parties observing at polling stations.

There were 20 parties running for the 450 seats in the Verhovna Rada. Each party who wins at least 3% of votes can sit in Parliament, with their proportion of seats equivalent to their proportion of votes. Citizens vote for a party, not individual candidates. The party has a list of their members, and depending on how many seats the party wins in Parliament, that number of their party list then become Members of Parliament. For example, let’s say Party X wins 20% of the vote, which grants them 90 seats in the Verhovna Rada. So, the first 90 people on their party list become Members of Parliament.

I suppose there are pluses for someone in this system, but for the average voter, it seems to me to have a lot of disadvantages. For one thing, the parties are not required to have any kind of regional distribution of their MPs. In theory, parties could have all of their candidates from one part of the country, thus leaving another part without any local person representing them at the national level. I hear often that people don’t know who they should contact in government about their concerns and issues, and this, I would say, is at least partly a result of not having direct election of candidates from one’s region.

On Sunday, every voter all across the country (and around the world at voting stations in Ukrainian consulates and embassies in foreign countries) received the exact same ballot listing 20 parties. Every voter made one check mark, selecting one party. And thus 450 parliamentary seats are decided, with one check mark.

But I digress from my original intention to post about my experiences as an election observer…

We opted to observe polling stations in our neighborhood, the Pechersk area of Kyiv. No one was predicting or expecting any problems in the center of the capital, and I certainly wouldn’t say that we witnessed anything resembling serious attempts to falsify the vote. But we did see some interesting and curious things, and talked to a lot of people about what they thought of the day.

Saturday afternoon we made short visits to 3 nearby polling stations to see how the preparations were going. Since my observing partner Ivanna is an experienced election observer, it was also a good opportunity for her to share some pointers and tips with me, as this was my first time. She explained how the polling station is supposed to be set up: only one way in and out of the voting room; the parties’ lists all displayed; the rules for properly voting on display; no police in the actual voting room.

Sunday we started the day at 6:00 am, attending the opening meeting of a polling station committee on my street. 20 hours later I stumbled home exhausted, having visited a total of 14 polling stations all less than one kilometer from my apartment.

The ballots had been delivered to the polling station on Thursday, where they remained locked in a safe until the opening meeting Sunday morning. We watched the committee members seal the ballot boxes and then insert into each box a signed control slip.

They distributed the ballots amongst themselves and manned their stations.

At about 6:45, 15 minutes before polls were scheduled to open, a group of 4 men (3 in suits, one in jeans and a t-shirt) entered the station and walked up to the group of committee members as they were sealing one of the ballot boxes. Ivanna and I couldn’t hear what they said to the committee chair, but we watched closely as they quietly discussed something. The men then walked to the back of the hall and stood around. We noticed one guy wearing a communication device in his ear, the kind the secret service use. Since no one except committee members and registered observers are allowed in a polling station before opening, we were quite curious to find out exactly who these guys were and what they were doing.

We approached them in the back of the room – one short man who seemed to be the “leader” (he had the earpiece), a medium-sized man, and one gorilla stuffed into a suit (the guy in jeans had gone outside). They said they were from the Secret Service, here to check the site before the Minister of Foreign Affairs Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a strapping young man with a shockingly fast-paced career (he’s a whopping 32 years old), came to vote. Although as observers we technically are just supposed to observe what goes on and report on it later, Ivanna couldn’t restrain herself from pointing out that they were not supposed to be in the polling room (the law is explicit that no police, militia, etc can be inside the voting room). With a tone of condescension as if he was talking to total idiots, the short guy started to tell us that everything was OK, they were allowed to be there. Ivanna went back and forth with him for a few minutes, finally just telling them she would note in her report that they had been illegally in the station. They shrugged at us, but I did notice a minute later they walked out of the room.

Shortly after the polls officially opened at 7:00 am, the thug crew returned. The short guy and his side-kick returned and started looking through voter lists. They spent a few minutes at one table, then moved on to another, and then another. In the end, they looked through the lists at 3 of the 4 tables, where the committee members were apparently only happy to oblige.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a clear picture of them.

One of the suits accompanying the short guy saw me take the photo above and said something to his boss. They made a beeline for me, at which point I got nervous. The short guy told me it was illegal to take photos of state security personnel. I didn’t know what to say, but it’s a good thing Ivanna did.

Ivanna: “We have no idea who you are, and besides it is absolutely allowed to take photographs inside the polling station of anyone and everyone.”
Suit: “We already told you we are with the Secret Service.”
Ivanna: “You can say anything you want, I can say I’m from the Secret Service, too. You didn’t show us any identification.”

The suit flashed his ID at us quickly. (I later regreted that I didn’t ask to inspect it closer and write down his name.) He started in again about how it’s not permitted to take photos of State Security. Ivanna started in again about how they are not permitted to be in the polling station, and certainly not permitted to be looking through voter lists. They went round and round again for a minute or so, and then the thug crew left. We asked a committee member what they had been doing, and she said she thought they had been checking which list FM Yatsenyuk was on so he would know where to vote. Since the lists were organized by address, we didn’t understand why they had to look through 3 lists to find his name. The committee member just shrugged her shoulders, seemingly unconcerned by what was seriously concerning to us.

We discussed the matter with some of the other Ukrainian observers, and everyone agreed that (a) I had the right to take photos of them inside the polling station and (b) the thugs shouldn’t have been inside. But only Ivanna actually confronted them.

We left about 15 minutes later, and the 4 thugs were standing outside talking and smoking. A couple hours later we passed by that polling station again, and they were still there. They were gone when we passed by again in the afternoon.

Many “bigwigs” live in the Pechersk area, and after the incident with the Secret Service thugs, we were curious to know if others were sending advance crews to supposedly prepare for them. No other station that we visited reported any such incidents to us. We saw the head of the National Bank voting, accompanied only by his wife and son. We stopped in the evening at the station where Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych had voted earlier in the day. The committee chair told us that some security personnel had arrived about 15 minutes before the PM, took a quick look around, and then waited outside until Yanukovych arrived promptly at 10:30. His guards posted themselves around the room, but never talked to anyone, looked through any lists, or interfered in any way.

Why did the foreign minister need a thug brigade to scout out the station and the lists before he voted? The whole thing was very strange, and maybe we should have stayed at that station until he showed up.

We noticed a few of the challenges faced by certain segments of the population. Absolutely no accommodation had been prepared for the visually impaired – the ballots were only in typeprint format, and thus not privately accessible for blind voters. We saw at least 4 visually impaired people throughout the day who were accompanied into the voting booth by their spouse or other person who assisted them to vote. Before entering the voting booth, the committee chairs made sure the rest of the committee members and the official observers knew what was going on, and in some cases even asked for everyone, observers included, to indicate their consent. I would like to think the spouses and helpers were honest, but that is clearly one easy way to commit voting fraud.

Another problem, and not just on election day, is the utter lack of accommodations for the physically handicapped in Ukrainian buildings. I once heard that it was a Soviet policy that only in buildings of 6 or more stories was it considered necessary to have an elevator; my own 5 story apartment building does not have one. Of the 14 different polling stations we visited on Saturday and Sunday, only 2 were located on the first floor (and they happened to be on different sides of the same school building). In the maternity hospital, of all places, the station was on the 4th, and we nearly got lost trying to navigate the maze of corridors to finally find the right room.

One of the more controversial election rules is actually an attempt to accommodate the disabled, elderly and others who for whatever reason are homebound. They can submit an application to the election board to vote at home, otherwise known as mobile voting. In past elections, mobile voting proved a fantastic way to cheat. There is, of course, a specific protocol established for home voting – a special box is used; 3 members of the precinct’s election committee, each from a different political party, are to accompany the box to the individual’s residences and wait in a separate room while the citizen votes. Some people who are eligible for home voting nonetheless choose to vote in person. Like this woman:

She came to the polling station with another woman (I think her daughter), but walked in with the assistance of a stool. She was lucky enough to be voting in the only building we visited that had an elevator (of course the voting room was on the second floor). If I had known where I could buy a walker or a cane on a Sunday evening, I would have gone out and bought her one right then and there. I felt so bad for her, shuffling along with that stool.

Ivanna and I decided to end the day at a small polling station where only students at the nearby military academy had voted. There were 406 votes cast there (out of 596 registered voters for the station).

This young man was the last voter of the day – he ran in at 9:59 pm, just making it before the polls closed at 10:00. The small group of 13 committee members applauded him. They had had a long and pretty boring day, although I suspect those 409 young men aged 18-20 got some nice attention from the almost entirely female and middle-aged committee.

Ivanna and I chose this station to observe the counting for several reasons, one of which was that we thought it would be an interesting sample population. All male, aged 18-20 years old, from various regions of the country. On the one hand, you could expect the younger generation to lean more towards the reformist and European-focused parties. But on the other hand, being in the military academy (and probably many of them coming from military families), you might expect them to be more conservative. We were curious to see how this particular constituency would vote.

We were pleasantly surprised when the final tabulations had the Yulia Timoshenko Bloc winning the precinct – by a small margin, but nonetheless, her party won the precinct. And these young men turned out to vote pretty darn close to the voting profile of the overall country.

Party
Yulia Timoshenko Bloc – 34% (Precinct), 30.75% (Country)
Party of Regions – 31% (Precinct), 34.33% (Country)
Our Ukraine/PSD – 12% (Precinct), 14.17% (Country)
Lytvyn Bloc – 5.7% (Precinct), 3.96% (Country)
Communist Party – 4.7% (Precinct), 5.38% (Country)
Socialist Party – 2.22% (Precinct), 2.86% (Country)

Interestingly, “none of the above” actually came in 4th place in the precinct, with 6.7% (compared to 2.73% nationwide).

We had not expected a particularly late night given the small number of votes in the precinct, but luck was not with us for getting a good night’s sleep. The committee members got very confused when completing the official vote tabulation form and it took them over an hour to finally decide how to properly complete one part of the form. It was a particularly unclear question on page 2.

The page reads something like this:

11. Number of ballots cast at the voting station: 406
12. Number of ballots in each voting box:
Number 1: 252
Number 2: 154
13. Number of ballots not included in the count: 0
14. Number of ballots cast in premises of the voting station: 406
15. Number of ballots cast in the premises of the voter: 0
16. Number of ballots cast in the voting precinct: 406
17. Number of ballots not valid: 2

The problem arose between #13 and #17. There were two ballots declared invalid by the committee because the voter marked more than one party. Those seem to clearly fall under line #17. But they couldn’t decide what #13 meant – should they include the invalid ballots as “not included in the count” or not? But since technically no ballot is supposed to go uncounted, and considering there is a line for invalid ballots, what exactly is an uncounted ballot? They took over an hour to finally decide to complete the form in the way indicated above, listing no “uncounted” ballots and two “invalid” ballots. Makes me wonder if other committees were similarly confused and how they completed those lines.

We left the polling station around 2:00 am, our work for the day completed.

Everyone talks about corruption in Ukraine – it’s prevalent, it’s endemic, and there’s not much you can do about it.

I’ve witnessed a few corrupt transactions in my day, both in Ukraine and in Moldova. Mostly, I’ve seen incidences with the local police. One of their favorite games in Ukraine is to stop cars for some kind of violation or just a “document check”. These are simply opportunities to shake down a driver. Once, riding in a taxi to the airport, the police standing by the road signaled for our car to pull over. They asked to see the driver’s documents and claimed something was out of order – some stamp missing or god-knows-what. It’s perfectly possible that his documents weren’t completely in order, I have no idea. But instead of writing him a ticket and sending him on his way, they hemmed and hawed, putzed around, and eventually just stood there staring at him until he offered a “solution”, in the form of some cash. Then we were allowed to proceed on our way.

Cars with foreign license plates are especially easy targets for the police. My Polish colleague has his car here, and for the first few months he was stopped EVERY SINGLE time he drove his car and harassed by the police. He finally managed to get his car registered in Ukraine and got Ukrainian license plates, which reduced significantly the number of times he gets pulled over.

Once, while riding with a car load of Polish politicians in a car with Polish license plates, we were stopped outside Kyiv by the police. They Poles didn’t speak much Ukrainian or Russian, but could get by generally due to some similarities with their own language. We decided I would wouldn’t say anything and would stay out of the matter. The police produced some bizarre instrument and claimed to be checking emissions from the car. They told the Polish driver that his car met the standards, and that he needed to pay 50 hrivna ($10) for a document stating the car had passed inspection. They did actually give him some kind of document, although the whole thing seemed rather fishy to me. They cracked it up to a good story and a good laugh.

Yesterday, I heard one of the more shocking instances of corruption. A UN colleague of mine lives here with his wife and newborn child. They have been here over a year, and a couple months ago it was time to renew their registration documents (as in the U.S., all foreigners must have visas and proper registration to live and work in Ukraine). My friend’s visa and registration were renewed without question and without problem. His wife’s, on the other hand, was delayed and delayed and delayed, and finally, just a few days before her current visa expired, she was denied renewal of her visa, without any explanation or justification. My friend and his wife were getting desperate, and had no idea how to proceed. He finally asked for help from someone in the United Nations office, and the Resident Representative (highest UN official in the country) told his own secretary, Tetiana, to take care of it.

Tetiana called someone at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to find out what was going on. That person, not particularly high up in the bureaucracy, responded “Well, if you want us to do this for you, we’ll expect something in return.” This lackey, clearly unconcerned and unafraid of ANY consequences, blatantly demanded a bribe from a United Nations official in exchange for a visa and registration that they had absolutely no legal right to deny in the first place!

Many friends have been asking me this week for more details about what exactly is going on here in Ukraine. I decided to put as much as I can all together here, with the disclaimer that I will try specify what I have seen with my own eyes, heard with my own ears, and what I have been told by others.

As I mentioned in a post last week, President Yushenko has dissolved the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) in response to Prime Minister Yanukovych’s attempts to literally buy deputies (members of parliament) so his Party of Regions (PoR) can get a super-majority which would allow them to override Presidential vetoes. The PM and his party’s deputies refuse to accept the presidential order and are continuing to “work” or whatever it is they do there. Since most of what they seem to have done this past year is just block anything and everything from happening, it’s hard to believe they are doing anything more productive right now.

The PM and his party bussed in thousands of people to Kyiv to participate in demonstrations and to camp out around the main government buildings, purportedly to show the President how much they disagree with his decision to dissolve the Rada as well as to show their support for the PM. Rumors have abounded from the beginning that they were all being paid as much as 100 hrivnas (about $20) a day. Looking at the people, it seems like a strange mix to me – young men and women in their 20’s, and old men and women in their 50s and 60s. I can more or less understand the elderly population’s support for the PoR since many of them are nostalgic for Soviet-era stability and the pro-Russian stance PoR claims to stand for. But the teenagers and 20-somethings? Hell, they certainly have no first-hand memories of the so-called “stability” of the Soviet Union. What the heck are they doing out there? Wednesday night, I watched the news and myself saw a man admit that “all of us are being paid to be here.” It’s one thing to hear the rumors, it’s another to hear one of these “supporters” blatantly and almost proudly admit this. He smiled, and seemed not the least bit embarrassed or ashamed to share this fact on national television.

I myself have noticed what I can only call a lack of passion among these so-called protesters that further convinces me they are all paid lackeys. They just don’t look engaged – they are sitting around eating, drinking, drinking, drinking, talking, drinking. I don’t hear them talking about politics at all.

My Ukrainian teacher told me she has noticed this, as well, and she recalled for me at length the differences between the current situation and the Orange Revolution. In 2004, people spontaneously gathered in Kyiv, she told me. They organized themselves, orchestrated their own demonstrations. They were civil and peaceful and purposeful in their acts of peaceful demonstrations. They lived 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in their tents on Independence Square and other areas of central Kyiv. Many Kyiv residents spontaneously prepared food and brought it and hot tea to feed and warm those living in the Square. There was a feeling of unity, of brotherhood, and of the importance of the actions being taken.

Now, she told me, is completely different. As she exited the metro station near Marinskiy Park, where many protesters gather each day, she walked through an unusually large crowd. As she listened to the chatter around her, she realized most of them were from out of town, and many where in the capital for the first time. “Did you see that building”, one young man said to another. She understood that they were in awe of being in Kyiv, not of being a part of history. As she walked by Marinskiy Park, she saw a man with a clipboard checking off names – making sure everyone showed up for work today? On the news the night before, she had watched a report from one of the PM’s rallies. The camera spanned the crowd of thousands, and the journalist worked through the masses trying to interview people. The young people were dancing – dancing to the music on their MP3 players. They weren’t even listening to the speeches. The journalist got a couple people to take out their earphones, and they all recited the same exact words of support for Yanukovych, as if they all had been coached in what to say. One man seemed to forget what he was supposed to say – “We’re for, uh, we’re for, uh uh uh. We’ll, we’re not for Yushenko.” That was the best he could come up with on his own.

My friend Michael witnessed the unloading of dozens of new sleeping bags and pads from a Toyota Land Cruiser, not exactly the kind of vehicle your typical underpaid Ukrainian villager drives. How much money has the Party of Regions pumped into this action? And where, exactly, is that money coming from? My teacher told me about an interview she watched on TV with the director of the Party of Regions during which he swore that all the financing for these events is coming from the Party. “Can you show me the budget and other financial documents that prove this money was raised by PoR alone and in no way comes from the state coffers?” the journalist asked him. He couldn’t respond.

The question of the legitimacy of the dissolution of the Rada has been sent to the Constitutional Court. Five judges have already publicly expressed their fear about the pressure being put on them regarding this case. Twelve judges are needed for a quorum, so with these 5 afraid to participate, that leaves a just-barely enough thirteen who will make a decision. My teacher told me that she heard on the news that PM Yanukovych called the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court. What they discussed, we can only imagine. But the impropriety of the PM calling the Chief Justice about anything right now, with such an important and controversial case in front of the court, is beyond belief.

The Speaker of the Rada, Oleksandr Moroz, has made public and not-very-veiled threats against the Head of the Elections Commission warning that the Commission is not to go ahead with election planning. In response, the youth party Pora is camping out in front of the Elections Commission’s office building.

Pora was a very popular and very instrumental organization during the 2004 Orange Revolution. Pora members were die-hard supporters of Yushenko and his “Our Ukraine” party, they were a large percentage of those camping out on Independence Square, and they were very effective in getting out the youth vote. By 2006, they had officially registered as a political party and they ran for the Vekhova Rada; however, they did not receive the minimum percentage of votes needed to actually gain seats.

In response to Pora’s members setting up camp to protect the Elections Commission, the Party of Regions sent a delegation to camp out there as well. The numbers from either side are not particularly large, but the contrast is noticeable. The Pora members stand quietly and attentively all day long in front of the entrance gate to the territory of the EC’s building, holding their flags and wearing their party’s colors. The PoR members mill about, drinking beer and vodka, playing cards, kicking a football around, eating, drinking more, and just hanging out. Young couples line the benches making out. They don’t give any appearance of having a purpose there. Last Saturday morning about 10:00 am, a friend and I walked past the EC building on our way to the swimming pool. A young man with PoR threw some litter on the ground as we walked past him, and my friend politely informed him that he had dropped something. He turned towards her, with some of the blurriest eyes I’ve seen in ages, and slurred “oh, it’s nothing, don’t worry.” She gave him a dirty look, and he clumsily bent down to pick it up (nearly falling over in the process). He was completely sloshed at 10 o’clock in the morning. And he wasn’t alone. The shops in the center of Kyiv have been selling out of alcohol every day. Now there is a moratorium on the sale of alcohol in the center of the city – although I still see a plethora of empty beer and vodka bottles on the streets – where are they getting it from?

The president held a press conference yesterday and was uncharacteristically firm, clear, and decisive. He reasserted his determination to hold elections in May, per the timeline required by the Constitution in the event of the dissolution of the Rada.

Opposition to the PM and his Party of Regions, namely supporters of the President’s “Our Ukraine” party and Yulia Tymoshenko’s party (cleverly named “Party of Yulia Tymoshenko”), have been noticeably absent from Independence Square and other sites of the PoR’s mass gatherings. I’ve been told that Tymoshenko specifically instructed her party’s members to NOT engage in the demonstrations. She has held some rallies, but has not wanted her supporters camping out in the city.

More demonstrations are expected this weekend. An American friend yesterday expressed his concern that as tensions continue to rise, the likelihood of violence breaking out increases. I assured him that it seems highly unlikely, as the first side to throw stones (or punches) will destroy the legacy of the 2004 Orange Revolution, when absolutely no one was injured or killed – a legacy Ukrainians are rightfully proud of.
I am hopeful that the Ukrainian population will maintain its record of peaceful opposition and non-violent demonstrations, whatever other outcomes may occur.

While all my NPR and BBC podcasts are focused on Iran, we are in the midst of our own little political mess in Ukraine. Prime Minister Yanukovych has been wooing Parliamentarians to leave their coalition with the President’s party and join his own in an attempt to get a kind of “super majority” that would allow his coalition to override any Presidential vetoes. It is widely rumored that he has actually been paying people to join his coalition, and figures like $10 million (yes, that’s ten million U.S. dollars) have been bandied about as the going price. This is very clearly an unconstitutional maneuver, as the constitution requires a Parliamentarian to remain with his/her party with which he/she was elected throughout his/her term in office.

There were big rallies over the weekend by both camps, with some Yulia Timoshenko thrown into to really get folks riled up. Thousands of people have been bussed into the city, and most seem to be living in Markinsky Park, next to the Verkhovna Rada (Supreme Council). It is rumored that the PM’s party, called the Party of Regions, is paying people to demonstrate and “show their support” for the PM.

Monday night, President Yushenko dissolved Parliament on the grounds that the PM’s actions are unconstitutional. My colleagues tell me the constitution spells a few very specific cases when the President can actually dissolve Parliament, and the current situation doesn’t seem to fall under any of those categories. The Prime Minister has refused to acknowledge the dissolution, and Parliament claims to be going about its usual merry business of not doing much at all. However, it will be interesting to see how the Constitutional Court decides this case, given the unconstitutional actions of the PM.

On Sunday Igor and I walked by Marinskiy Park, where tents were set up and hundreds (maybe even thousands) of people were milling about. My office is about 1 block from Marinsky Park, 2 blocks from the Verkhovna Rada (Supreme Council), 3 blocks from the President’s office, and a 7-minute walk from Independence Square. We’ve been watching the crowds, listening to the rallies, and getting stuck in the traffic jams. Monday afternoon I went for a walk through the expansive park, mostly because I wanted to enjoy the wonderful weather, but also to do some rubber-necking and see what’s going on. People looked tired. Many were setting up picnics. Lots of police were milling about, and at the back of the park were parked lots of buses – some full of sleeping soldiers and policemen. They are working ’round the clock. In my typical pragmatic fashion, I was wondering where all those people were, well, you know, going. Then I saw 2 rows of Port-o-Potties behind a building. Actually, I smelled them, and then I saw them.

I had a chuckle when a friend of mine working in Afghanistan IM’d me on Monday to check if I am OK. I had to chuckle at the irony. The worst thing that seems to have happened so far is that all the shops around here are completely sold out of everything. These are Ukrainians, I told her, generally pretty nice people. Except for in stores, or the post office, or in any kind of service job. Besides, why get violent on the streets when you can just take someone out, in front of the courthouse, in broad daylight.