President Viktor Yanukovych has stepped into another scandal, this one over his assets. He declared his total income for 2011 as being 17,362,024 hryvnia, which, at 8.03 hryvnia to the dollar (the exchange rate on April 15th), comes out to $2,163,257. Not bad enough for a populist president who claims to be one of the regular folk, but the real scandal concerns the source of Yanukovych’s money. A mere 757,615 hryvnia ($94,396) constitute his presidential salary, while 155,409 hryvnia come from dividends and interest. (He’s got 14,521,454 hryvnia stashed away in banks.) So what’s the source of the remaining 16,449,000 hryvnia ($2,049,497)? Turns out those are his “author’s royalties” and other income...

The operation began at 4AM on April 28, 1947. The result was that over a period of roughly three months some 20,000 soldiers of the Polish People’s Army, the Internal Security Corps, and special personnel of the police Milicija Obywatelska and the Security Service Urzad Bezpieszenstwa forcibly cleansed the ethnic composition of the southeastern regions of Poland, relocating some 150,000 Ukrainians to the Northwest. Many died during the roughshod process. The authorities were discriminate enough to single out intellectuals and clergy who were then incarcerated in the Jawozno concentration camp. Many were tortured and later died in the camp. The resettlement...

Ukrainians do not need someone else’s permission to have their own Church. I’ve said it. I’ve written it. And now I’m repeating it for the umpteenth time. Metropolitan Yurij of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Canada is aiding and abetting the Moscow Patriarchate. His inhospitable attitude toward the visit of Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kyiv Patriarchate is misguided. Independent of the lack of Christian hospitality, it gives the Moscow Patriarchate legitimacy and greater leverage to interject itself in the social, political, and religious life of Ukraine. In a letter released April 19, 2012, the Metropolitan advised his parishes...

Aristotle wrote this line over 2,300 years ago, and it remains relevant as we gather here today to discuss the importance of the rule of law in a successful, modern society. One interpretation of Aristotle’s statement would be that, in the absence of rule of law, there is no society – at least not one that is truly civilized. One of the hallmarks of the 21st Century is that, at least in terms of perception, the world is getting smaller. Individuals throughout the world are now much more able to observe instantly new developments in diverse societies. Throughout the world we are seeing individuals stand up and proclaim that they would prefer to live in a democratic society governed by a genuine rule...

In his 2011 income declaration, President Viktor Yanukovych said he got paid $2 million for the rights to four books and any future works from Donetsk-based publishing house Noviy Svit. Some think the deal is too sweet to be believed. The man who misspelled “professor” as “proffesor” has declared himself one of Ukraine’s most well-paid authors. In the five years after President Viktor Yanukovych made the spelling error on a application for his failed 2004 presidential bid, he wrote four books with titles such as “A Year in Office” and “How Ukraine Should Live On...

The German Embassy in Kyiv recently hosted a lecture by a matriculating Polish-German history student, known for extremist positions. The lecture was brazenly entitled “Bandera – fascist.” There was some dispute as to whether the event had occurred through an oversight, but the German Ambassador readily and shamelessly reassured all that he was on top of this matter and felt that it was appropriate. Interestingly enough the self-proclaimed pro-Ukrainian Ukrainian “Pravda” published the Ambassador’s arrogant explanation but refused to publish any opposing view. Unfortunately, this incident was not isolated. Ukrainians worldwide and, essentially anyone with a moral compass, were aghast when several years ago Germany decided to prosecute the recently deceased Ukrainian Ivan Demjanjuk on accessory allegations that no German or any other national had been prosecuted for in Germany. In fact...

Today, the Honourable Beverley J. Oda, Minister of International Cooperation, concluded a weeklong visit to Ukraine. Minister Oda reviewed progress on Canada's development work, which supports sustainable economic growth and job creation and aims to improve the lives of Ukrainians through a strengthened democracy. Minister Oda hosted a series of roundtable forums on sustainable economic growth with key Canadian and Ukrainian partners. A Canadian delegation accompanied the Minister on her visit. The delegation included representatives of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, the League of Ukrainian Canadians, and the Ukrainian National Federation of Canada...

Bohdan Batrukh, founder and director general of the B&H Film Distribution, informed The Day that some of the computers and documents, that had previously been confiscated, were now returned. On April 5, the tax police of the State Tax Inspectorate in Kyiv Shevchenkivsky district confiscated accounting and organizational documents and computers that were the property of B&H Private Joint Stock Company, Kinopalats LLC, Cinema LLC, and also equipment for dubbing audiovisual products into Ukrainian language that belonged to Le Doyen LLC (see The Day No. 23, April 10, 2012). “They have returned the computers and all the disks that were confiscated from the Le Doyen Studio. The establishment is already operating in normal mode. At this moment...

For all his pretensions of being a “transformative” president, Barack Obama’s foreign policy prescriptions are rooted in a deeply conservative and nostalgic tradition. When it comes to Russia, the tradition this White House channels most is that of Richard Nixon. This seemingly incongruous resemblance was well illustrated in a recent controversy over the nullification of a Nixon-era piece of legislation, the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which binds U.S. trade relations with autocratic regimes to those regimes’ human rights records. Jackson-Vanik is the thorn in the side of Obama’s “reset” policy with Russia, which wants to accede to the World Trade Organization—a major component of the reset. So long as Jackson-Vanik still applies to Russia, American businesses won’t be able to...

The Publishing House of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy has continued to publish books and materials on the various aspects of the Holodomor in Ukraine. A partial list of such publications in Ukrainian is included below. • Ukrainian Holocaust 1932-1933. The first volume of the series of testimony by witnesses was published in 2003. Seven volumes have been published to date. • Holodomor 1932-1933 in Ukraine, A Chronical, 2008. Marochko V., Movchan O. • Stalin’s Genocide, 2011. Norman Neimark. Translation in Ukrainian...