TVi and LB.UA Are Under Fire

The World Affairs' Alexander J. Motyl writes about the most recent government crack down on independent media: one, independent television station TVi and, two, independent internet news portal LB.ua (Levyi Bereg or Left River's Bank). Each story is interesting. But it's nothing new. Putin has already done it with NTV mass media group and there are many similar cases in other non-democratic countries. I think that the main issue is that civil society remains very apathetic to ongoing events.

LB.ua is under investigation for breaching confidentiality of state issues because the internet portal published personal text-message correspondence of MP Volodymyr Landik (Party of Regions - Luhanks). In a nutshell, their photographer snapped pictures of MP's cell phone screen while Mr. Landik was texting during the parliamentary session.  The correspondence relates to Mr. Landik's son who was videotaped beating a young girl up in a restaurant in Luhanks more than a year ago and subsequently imprisoned. The infamous video was made public on YouTube, Facebook, and other social networks. When the criminal charges were pressed against the LB.ua,  the chief editor Sonya Koshkina fled the country fearing for her life. The criminal charges are bogus. If someone has to be charged here, it must be Mr. Landik for wasting tax payers' money by doing personal business while he is in his public office.

TVi that is the only television station supporting the political opposition was pushing buttons of the Party of Regions for a long time. TVi was provoking the Party of Regions methodically. The last
straw in the conflict between TVi and the state authorities was a genius of political journalism, Mr. Portnikov. He did excellent job by raising public awareness about values of democracy and government embezzlement of power.The Party of Regions and its leader, President Viktor Yanukovych, took the bait. Now the Party of Regions' political capital is bleeding while the Yanukovych administration is cracking down on TVi with another bogus charges of tax evasion.

It's really nothing new or unexpected. If TVi or LB.ua really wanted to avoid the conflict, they could be based somewhere in Europe close to their partners like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. They pushed buttons of the Party of Regions and Mr. Yanukovych effectively. The state authorities unleashed their fury by violating all norms of democratic society. Civil society, however, remains very apathetic to all events. In the light of the upcoming parliamentary elections, it is a bad signal to the opposition leaders.

Black Harvest

The Ukrainian government announced that grain harvest was 20% lower than it was anticipated. Though bad news came as a surprise to the Ministry of Agrarian and Food Policy, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) talked about it for a couple of last months. In June the FAO predicted that Ukraine's grain production will fall to 46 mln tons, 18% below the previous year, because of unfavorable weather conditions. 

I am sure that Ukraine's total grain output will be lower than it's anticipated now due to drought and lack of irrigation system. Needless to say, most Ukrainian farmers still rely on the two-rain rule to harvest their crops despite all advancement in the modern agricultural technology. They rely on favorable weather conditions because they lack funds to rebuilt irrigation system that was dismantled in the early 1990s during the transition period. 

But I am afraid that Ukrainian farmers suffer more from lawlessness than from the current drought. The main issue is the so-called black harvest. In a nutshell, small-scale farmers are forced to load trucks with their grain for free. It's the so-called black harvest. The black harvest trucks operated by thugs, allegedly from Donetsk region, show up when a farmer harvests his crops. Thugs take grains by force and load them in their trucks. Farmer is left with nothing. If farmer cannot recuperate his losses, he will go bankrupt. 

If you wonder why farmer doesn't call police, the answer is quite simple. It does not change anything. If the local police receives this call, they have to check with their headquarters whether someone is behind the stickup operation. Their headquarters has to check with other law enforcement offices at district level, city level, and province level. By the time they are done with the so-called background check, thugs are gone. But you cannot blame cops for their inefficiency. Cops and farmers have to play by the same rules.If cops arrest well-connected thugs, they will loose their jobs and they will be also fined. 

What causes these unfavorable business environment? It's also drought. Other kind of drought. The Ukrainian elite is running short on cash that it needs for the upcoming parliamentary elections. To get cash, they do what they do the best - rob hard-working people.

Anti-Ukrainian Western Propaganda or Another One Bites the Dust

Have you read Adam Swain's op-ed yet (Kyiv Post, July 15, Western Propaganda War Falsely Frames Ukraine Authoritarian)? It's a must. If you follow Ukraine's political life closely, you are in for some treat. I am sure that each of you will find something dear to your heart in this article. I would like to highlight three main points that caught my attention.

The first point that Swain makes is that there is a propaganda war against "democratic" Ukraine led by the western mass media.  The western mass media dishonestly describes Ukraine as a country lacking democratic norms. Moreover, there is no reason to believe that President Yanukovych wants to establish an autocratic rule of governance. 

Sure, President Yanukovych wants to build a nation with a consolidated democracy and free market economy. And he does everything to achieve these goals. First, he rigs the elections. Second, he throws dozens of opposition leaders in jails where they are deprived of their human rights and beaten up like Mrs. Tymoshenko. Third, his family takes business from opposition businessmen like Avakov, Fel'dman, Burda, Nemirovsky, and many others. And this list can go on. 

None of what President Yanukovych does has something to do with a democratic rule of governance. Instead, he is reversing Ukraine's history of political and economic development when Ukraine went from kin-based society to feudalism and then to capitalism. Ukraine is sliding back to the kinship system of governance where political and economic power is only kin-based. 

The second point that Swain makes is that the criminal case against Mrs. Tymoshenko is not politically motivated because it's legit. If a definition of legitimacy means different things in different countries, her case could be legit. But I doubt it that it's the case. The legitimacy of the Tymoshenko case is the last thing that comes to mind of anyone who has been following it. President Yanukovych used his kinship connections to push the Tymoshenko case through the judicial system. Should we even talk about how the judicial system works in Ukraine? Look, it does not work for regular people. And it cannot work when President of Ukraine has vested his interest in the case.    

Finally, Swain writes that the international pressure from western political leaders on the Tymoshenko case undermines the rule of law and the independence of judiciary in Ukraine. 

To make it a reasonable claim, you need to have the rule of law and independent judiciary in place. None of them exists in Ukraine. Cops are thugs and thugs are cops. Any court room is for sale. Any criminal sentence has its price.

To make democracy work, you need to have at least these democratic values in place: protection of individual rights, respect for the rule of law, independent judiciary, accountability of government, trust in government, and respect for tolerance and pluralism in civil society (ht Larry Diamond). To make capitalism work, you need to have freedom of contracts, property enforced and protected private property rights, constitutional rule of law, and independent judiciary (ht to Francis Fukuyama). So what does Ukraine have now? Nothing. That's why Ukraine's needs more attention from world mass media, international political community, and human rights activists.

 

Ukraine's Democracy is in Pain

I got back from Ukraine couple weeks ago. I was there for quite some time. But I can't still make up my mind about what I expected to see there and what I really saw there. I kept my expectations very low. But I was still shocked with the extent of cronyism and illegitimacy of government. The executive branch of power usurped other two branches of power. The constitution does not mean anything anymore. The Party of Regions and their puppets, including the Socialists, the Communists, and other twenty five parties make amendments to the constitution without calling for a national referendum. The number of the politically-motivated prosecutions is sky-rocketing reaching its peak with a physical abuse of the former prime minister Tymoshenko. 

What has happened to Mrs. Tymoshenko must send shivers down the spine of everyone who is a firm believer in human rights. The physical abuse of the political inmate # 1, the unmasked violence against the queen of the political opposition, and the blatant use of the prison guards' knuckles against the body of the Ukrainian woman draws a line between two stages of political life in Ukraine: one, with weak human rights and, two, without human rights. The second stage started on the same day when the pictures of Mrs. Tymoshenko's bruised body were revealed.  

Look I am not even mentioning the D word (i.e. democracy). I doubt that anyone has ever understood what the D words means in Ukraine. Neither Schumpeterian nor Przeworskian definition of the democracy can explain what is happening in Ukraine. According to Larry Diamond, democracy needs protection of individual rights, respect for the rule of law, trust in government, accountability of government, and respect for tolerance and pluralism in civil society. None of these democratic values exist in Ukraine.


Moreover, people are very confused about how democracy and rule of law must work. Everyone understands that you must report any kind of crime. But if you do it, you are a snitch. How can I tell on someone if I don't want to be a snitch? It's very confusing. So what do people do? They hide behind their smartphones, YouTube videos, and twitter accounts. Who gets these messages? Does anyone really trust a virtual social network in Ukraine?

In Europe and USA people talk smack about government on Facebook. In Ukraine a similar social network Odnoklassniki gives you impression that people do not care about what's happening with their democracy or they prefer to distance themselves from political events.  Are people apolitical in Ukraine? I do not think so because they talk about politics in private all the time. Once again, it's confusing. The civil society is either very weak or inexperienced. It could also be that the Yanukovych government's thuggish aggressiveness sent the whole nation in a very deep knockout. Well, sooner or later you need to get back on your feet, make pain go away, and fight back.