Thank you very much. I'd like to thank the committee for inviting me. My background is that for the last 23 years I've lived and worked in Kiev. I'm currently a managing partner of an international law firm but I spent 10 years as an adviser to the Ukrainian government, twice as chief of staff to the Minister of Justice of Ukraine and I was an advisor to Prime Minister Tymoshenko in public administration reform and President Yushchenko on governance reform. But please don't blame me. I really did try.
So, it's a great honour for me to be here today and I came from Kiev to testify before the committee because I wanted to get a few things across to you. I'm currently advising the governor of Donetsk Oblast Serhiy Taruta on reforms in that very difficult situation. That will be the basis of my presentation to you this afternoon.
Edmund Burke, the English philosopher, said that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. The turmoil in Ukraine in the context now in its fourth month will not be resolved without robust resolution on the part of its key western partners, Canada, the European Union, and the United States.
The protests on the Maidan spawned the birth of an authentic Ukrainian civil society. But they have also unleashed pent-up frustrations with the systemic cronyism and corruption of Ukraine’s political class, characterized by a distrust of all of the country’s governing institutions. The country is paying a huge price for what the Minister of Economy of Ukraine has dubbed as massive state racketeering during the Yanukovych years. The Prime Minister of Ukraine says the country has witnessed the theft of almost $15 billion from the state treasury. Moreover, Ukrainians across the country are demanding a greater say in how they are governed, through the decentralization of powers from the state.
Institutional change on this scale would be a challenge under the most ideal circumstances; however, it must be now carried out in the face of an external threat to the very existence of the country. Against the backdrop of a currency in free fall and the imminent collapse of a bankrupted economy, with 220,000 Russian troops on war footing ringing its land border, Ukraine now faces the very real prospect of being torn asunder.
Amid the start of the reforms by the Ukrainian government, the signing of part of the association agreement with the European Union last week and the apparently successful negotiations with the IMF, it appears that Ukraine will obtain the financial backup it needs to get on its feet. The main challenge now is to secure Ukraine’s eastern and southern regions from imminent Russian annexation.
The task will not be easy, but it is not impossible. While Ukrainians for the most part see themselves as Europeans, there is no consensus in the country now on how to move forward. What divides Ukrainians is not language—there was a poll last year and it showed that it was 134th on the list of issues—but the socio-economic impact of the Soviet legacy in the east and west of the country. Western and central Ukrainians are nationally conscious, agrarian, commercial, and constitute the heart of Ukraine’s middle class. These independent-minded and self-reliant people see themselves in Europe. Their brethren in eastern and southern Ukraine remain mired in a Soviet-era mind and heavy industry warp and identify more provincially with their regions.
The one-company towns and industrial cities that emerged after the Second World War brought Soviet-style serfdom to the region that has endured to this day. Soviet-era propaganda about the Great Patriotic War, American imperialism, and western Ukrainian fascist bourgeois nationalism have been cynically propagated by the political and economic elites of the region. As they enriched themselves through the cheap acquisition of industrial assets, they shackled the minds and pockets of 20 million workers, pensioners, teachers, doctors, and other public workers and voters. As a result, the people of eastern and southern Ukraine were kept fossilized in the sterile mythologies of the Soviet past through total control of the media and blatant anti-western and anti-Ukrainian propaganda. Worse, they have been kept impoverished through the suppression of wages to avoid the cost of modernizing decrepit industrial plant.
Since, at its core, the Maidan was the manifestation of an ongoing process of de-Sovietization of Ukrainian society, it is no wonder that the eastern regions of Ukraine did not wholeheartedly support this movement. While the youth is drawn to the Maidan’s narrative of self-reliance, freedom, respect, justice, and European future, their parents and especially their grandparents see instead potential chaos, uncertainty, and instability, reawakening the traumas of the last century.
President Putin is brilliantly exploiting these phobias to try to repeat his success in Crimea in order to tear away Ukraine’s eastern and southern oblasts. Today, even though the violent protests of the past few weeks have been contained, the level of discontent remains high and separatist rhetoric is rising in intensity. People in eastern Ukraine are angry, confused, resentful, and scared. They feel cheated, robbed, and abandoned by their native son, Yanukovych and the discredited Party of the Regions. Russia’s propaganda undermining the legitimacy of Ukraine's new leadership and seductive rhetoric of higher salaries and pensions is channelling all of that negative energy against the new government in Kiev.
This is, therefore, an ideological battle, the focal point of which is the eastern oblast of Donetsk, Ukraine’s industrial and coal-mining heartland. Representing over 10% of Ukraine’s population and 30% of its industrial exports, it is here that the fate of the territorial integrity of Ukraine will be determined. President Putin’s strategy at this stage seems to be to try, just as in Crimea, to take eastern Ukraine without an invasion, but by sowing chaos and fomenting dissent designed to perpetuate a sham referendum. Donetsk Oblast's new governor, Serhiy Taruta, understands that only by improving the livelihoods of the people living in the oblast, by addressing their deep-rooted social and economic grievances and helping them see their future in a united European-oriented Ukraine, can the people of the east and south of the country be kept in the fold.
To try to keep the east from fracturing and to calm the concerns of the people, the Donetsk administration has embarked on an ambitious six-month crisis management plan of action, a copy of which I have provided to the secretary. It involves the fight against poverty, improving the business environment, a local government reform and an action plan, targeted measures to alleviate key social problems in the region, fostering unity by twinning Donetsk with western Ukrainian regions, and ensuring free and fair presidential elections. Because of its outsized political and economic influence, Donetsk will influence the fates of the other eastern and southern oblasts.
This is not a confrontation between Ukraine and Russia, but between Russia and the West. It is a conflict about values, principles, and the right of people to freely determine their own destiny without external coercion. It is in the West’s collective interests to embrace Ukraine’s choice to pursue a democratically confident and economically stable Ukraine firmly integrated into Europe. Indeed, the ultimate prize for the West is not even a stable Ukraine, but a democratic Russia. A peaceful, prosperous European Ukraine destroys Putin’s residual imperial ambitions and provides Russia with an opportunity to eventually transform into a democratic, responsible, and peaceful partner.
I am proud to say that Canada has not been a bystander in this drama. Our government and parliament have been robust and unwavering in their support of the Ukrainian people from the beginning of the Maidan. However, much remains to be done to rebuild Ukraine. Canada has invested millions of dollars of taxpayers' money over the years assisting the country. Our programs are well-placed to help mediate the healing process in Ukraine, especially the eastern portion, and to construct institutions necessary to create a modern Ukrainian society founded on the values we cherish, the rule of law and democratic governance.
I'd be very happy to answer any of your questions.
Thank you very much for your attention.
