Ukraine's Municipal Elections Will Be on Halloween

Ukraine will have the municipal elections on October 31, 2010, the Halloween Day. These elections are more likely to become the first non-democratic elections since the 2004 Orange Revolution. The political situation is very dramatic. The Yanukovych administration ruthlessly suppress the political opposition. 

Most municipal and mayor elections will be the one-candidate elections. The red tape of the centralized bureaucracy hinders the democratic process of candidate nomination and registration. Facing outrageously ruthless government pressure, candidates from the political opposition could neither nominate nor registerr themselves for the upcoming elections in several provinces, strongholds of the presidential party, Party of Regions. Some candidates are forced to revoke their nomination in support of the incumbent candidates who are members of the Party of Regions. By default, most municipal and mayor elections become the one-candidate elections. In Eastern provinces such as Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Luhansk advertising companies refuse to provide time and space for political advertisement of the opposition’s candidates.

The government cements the vertical integration of power at the speed that reminds the second term of the Kuchma administration. The Yanukovych administration forces all government officials to enlist in the Party of Regions. Also, President Yanukovych abuses his power by calling for criminal investigations of the opposition’s politicians. Many allies of Mrs. Tymoshenko are arrested or under investigation. Her former deputy and closest political ally, Oleksandr Turchinov, is under investigation. The General Procurator issued the arrest warrant for Bohdan Danylyshyn who was Minister of Economy in the Tymoshenko government. All recent events remind the tragic events of 1937. 

Several NGOs called for responsible public action in the upcoming elections. Most Ukrainian voters tend to agree on the new consensus that they have to vote "against all" since there are no other options in most provinces. The following banner says: "Election on the Halloween. October 31st. If you don't vote, the evil will win!" 

Ukraine's First Lady Quotes Mises, Hayek, and Professor Peter J. Boettke!

I would not believe it if I did not read it myself. In the July issue of Ukraine's leading newspaper Pravda,
former first lady, Kateryna Yushchenko, quotes Mises, Hayek and ... my dissertation advisor, Professor Peter J. Boettke. Mrs. Yushchenko wrote her op-ed about free market debate in Ukraine. She makes excellent points.
Here is a link to the original and here is a link to the Google translation. Since the Google translation is not perfect, I just want to clarify it. Mrs. Yushchenko quotes Dr. Boettke drawing analogy of the heavily regulated market economy with the Olympic swimmer in shackles. She quotes Professor Boettke saying that "if you put shackles on legs and hands of the Olympic swimmer, wrap heavy chain around him, and drop him in the swimming pool, he will drown. But you still can't say that he can't swim." Neither you can say about the heavily regulated market economy that free market does not work. Really great op-ed!

Ukrainian Dance

Everyone asks me about Ukrainian national dance. It can be different. Here is a link to the performance by the Zorya Ukrainian Dance Ensemble at the Texas State Fair, Dallas, TX on Oct 10, 2010. It was awesome.

The 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics

Peter Diamond (MIT), Dale Mortensen (Northwestern U), and Christopher Pissarides (LSE) won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics for their contributions to the theory of unemployment. Congratulations! Their work on job search theory, wage stickiness, hysterisis, job creation, and job destruction shed new light on our understanding of unemployment.
It's interesting that the US Senate rejected Peter Diamond's nomination for the Federal Reserve Board back in April 2010. His intellectual influence still carries on to the FED through his former student and current chairman of the FED, Ben Bernanke.
Also, the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics is a good reason for celebrating the Austrian Economics because the prize-winning work on employment includes insights from the Schumpeterian creative destruction and the Hayekian discovery process.

Yanukovich's Party of Regions Beats Up People, Cuts Down Trees, and Auctions Off Public Park

Kharkiv, the second largest city of Ukraine, became a place for the blood-shedding stand-off between residents of Kharkiv and the Kharkiv mayor. On June 2, 2010, the mayor's security service stormed a camp of protesting Kharkiv residents. The Kharkiv police observed the battle without taking any sides. Protesters sought refuge in the standing-by police officers who denied them in protection. The protesters were insulted, beaten up, threatened with chain saws so they had to flee. The police arrested and removed the remaining protesters.

Kharkiv residents were protesting mayor's decision about real estate development of the city park, Gorky Park. The park's square footage is approximately five times as big as New York's well-known Central Park. According to the real estate development plan, the private contractor would built a highway across the park and gated residential communities with amenities such as tennis courts and swimming pools. The plan looks like a normal real estate development but it violates the law. The Gorky park is public property designated for recreational activities. It cannot be a subject for a real estate development. 
I watched the events closely because it's my hometown. I hoped that the common sense would take over corruption and lawlessness. It didn't! Kharkiv's deputy mayor Gennady Kernes and Kharkiv's governor Michael Dobkin who are members of the presidential party, Party of Regions, were ruthless and unstoppable.  
Here is a link to the documentary(CNN video) that shows how the stand-off between residents of Kharkiv and the Kharkiv mayor's office ended on June 2, 2010. It's shocking that the police officers did not protect citizens from unidentified security guards (thugs) who removed demonstrators from the designated area of real estate development. The video has comments from the crime witnesses. Subtitles have a correct translation.
Here is a link to the website of NGO Kharkov Forest.
Here is a map with the real estate development plan of the Gorky park, provided by the NGO Kharkov Forest.

A Farewell to Democracy, Free Media, and Free Enterprise: Ukraine's Prospects Revised

In my old post I wondered whether Ukraine had a strong political opposition to counteract advances of President Yanukovich against democracy, economic freedon, and free media. My answer was yes. And I  was too optimistic. I thought that either former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko or former president Viktor Yushchenko could stop the Yanukovich machine. They failed again. Everyone left Tymoshenko. Her former sponsors and party members are in the Yanukovich team now, not always voluntarily. Yushchenko is a political ghost. Nobody can stop President Yanukovich and his Party of Regions, at least, in Ukraine. The Yanukovich administration did more in six months than the Kuchma administration in ten years. The Yanukovich administration curbed media freedom, oppressed small-scale and medium-size business, and installed dictatorship.     
A farewell to freedom of speech. The Yanukovich administration curbed freedom of media really fast. Ukraine's mass media looks like Russian media now. Nobody criticizes President Yanukovich openly. It got to the point that the Voice of America can lose its broadcasting partners in Ukraine very soon as it happened in Russia. 
A farewell to free enterprise. The Yanukovich administration hammered small-scale and medium-size businesses with oppressive tax policy. The new tax code promises to become the apocalypse of economic freedom in Ukraine. All small-scale and medium-size businesses move their operations to the shadow economy before the new tax code will go in effect.
Finally, a farewell to democracy! The Yanukovich administration won the case vs the 2004 Constitutional Amendment in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. The 2004 Amendment was very important step in Ukraine's democratization. It was once in a lifetime opportunity.  In brief, this amendment separates powers between president and prime-minister where the former is responsible for foreign policy and the latter takes on duties of domestic policy. Not anymore! The executive power is centralized now! The Constitutional Court ruled last Friday that the 2004 amendment violated the Constitution of Ukraine and thus the Constitutional Court overruled it. Did I mention that right before the seminal ruling four judges of the Constitutional Court were replaced with four new judges affiliated with the Party of Regions.
So, Ukrainians, please, say a farewell to democracy for the next five years at least. But it's no the saddest part. It's really sad that if Yulia Tymoshenko won the presidency, she would do the same. The only difference is that the Party of Regions could stop her. Who is going to stop the Yanukovich machine?