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• Business Focus: Kyiv Post survey ranks Ukraine’s top commercial lawyers Page 10 • Kyiv Post exclusive interview: Cargill CEO says Ukraine should be feeding world Page 6 • British ambassador watches for honest government procurement Page 5

July 1, 2011

www.kyivpost.com

vol. 16, issue 26

Showtime for Show Trial B Y Y U R I Y O NYS HKIV ONYSHKIV@KYIVPOST.COM

Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko appeared in court three times in the last week to face charges of abuse of power that she says are aimed at crushing opposition to President Viktor Yanukovych.

The authorities' handling of Tymoshenko, a long-time foe of the president, is being closely watched in Western capitals as a critical test of the Yanukovych administration's commitment to democracy and the rule of law. If Tymoshenko is convicted of criminal charges that she illegally ordered a subordinate to sign a 2009 gas deal with Russia without the required permission of the Cabinet of Ministers, she could be barred from taking part Æ18

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko argues with the judge during her court hearing in Kyiv on June 24. (AFP)

Journalists coddle in Ukraine’s Vanquished Jews: lame, tame interview ‘Their fate was clear to them’ at Mezhyhiria estate

BY Y U R I Y O N YS H K I V ONYSHKIV@KYIVPOST.COM

In an interview aired on June 28 on several leading Ukrainian television channels, President Viktor Yanukovych gave a tour of his notorious Mezhyhiria estate located north of Kyiv.

But he revealed only a tiny part of the 140-hectare, multi-million-dollar, luxury-filled compound which he first promised to show to inquiring jour-

Inside:

nalists more than one year ago. He demonstrated a 1.7 hectare territory where he claims to reside, ignoring and not explaining who owns and what is located on the rest of the territory.

In yet another troubling sign of how servile some top media has become under Yanukovych’s leadership, four top television journalists – one from a popular print publication and another from a website – all handpicked for Æ21

News Æ 2, 18 – 20 Opinion Æ 4, 5

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Editor’s Note: This is the second in a five-part series that examines the Holocaust in western Ukraine that nearly wiped out the Jewish community during ng Nazi Germany’s occupation in World War II. This segment examines how the e war crimes were carried out in and near Lviv.

BY NATA L IA A . F ED USCH A K FEDUSCHAK@KYIVPOST.COM

VYNNYKY, Ukraine – In 1943, as a teenaged Bohdan Harata walked along a path on the outskirts of this small town near Lviv, he watched as a German prepared to shoot three

Jews and send their bodies tumbling into the ravine below. “He saw that he had only two bullets,� said Harata, now 79, raising a shaking hand to show where they had been standing. “Then he sent one of the Jews to fetch a bul-

Business Æ 6 – 17

Employment/Real Estate/ Lifestyle Æ 22 – 30, 32 Classifieds Æ 30, 31

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let. The Jew went and then there were three of them. They stood there and waited The Jew returned. The men waited. didn’t run. Their fate was clear to them.�

The murder of these three Jewish men who had been working in a forced labor camp in the village was part of what has become known as the Holocaust by bullets – the killing of Jews in Nazi-occupied Ukraine.

While much attention has been paid to the gas chambers in death Æ20

2 News

JULY 1, 2011

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July 1, 2011

Vol. 16, Issue 26 Copyright © 2011

by Kyiv Post The material published in the Kyiv Post may not be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. All material in the Kyiv Post is protected

by Ukrainian and international laws. The views expressed in the Kyiv Post are not necessarily the views of the publisher nor does the publisher carry any responsibility for those views. Газета “Kyiv Post” видається ТОВ “ПаблікМедіа”.

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прим. Ціна за домовленістю. Матерiали, надрукованi в газетi “Kyiv Post” є власнiстю видавництва, захищенi мiжнародним та українським законодавством i не можуть бути вiдтворенi у будь(якiй формi без письмового дозволу Видавця. Думки, висловленi у дописах не завжди збiгаються з поглядами видавця, який не бере на себе вiдповiдальнiсть за наслiдки публiкацiй.

www.kyivpost.ua: дайджест статей МНЕНИЕ: Конституція та реальність Браян Боннер Українська Конституція, безперечно, є солодко написаним документом. Більшість погоджується із її принципами, які починаються з першої статті: "Україна є суверенною та незалежною, демократичною, соціальною та правовою державою". Проблема в тому, що, як відомо більшості українців та іноземців, реальність рідко співпадає із ідеалами, прописаними у Основному законі країни.

U.S. Ambassador John F. Tefft during a June 29 interview as America, which has 15,000 citizens in Ukraine, gets ready to celebrate its 235th independence anniversary. Ukraine turns 20 on Aug. 24. (Alissa Ambrose)

Засновник ТОВ “Паблік-Медіа” Головний редактор Брайан Боннер Адреса видавця та засновника співпадають: Україна, м. Київ, 01034, вул. Прорізна, 22Б Реєстрацiйне свiдоцтво Кв № 15261(3833ПР від 19.06.09. Передплатний індекс ДП Преса 40528 Надруковано ТОВ «Новий друк», 02660, Київ, вулиця Магнітогорська, 1, тел.: 559-9147 Замовлення № 11-4917 Аудиторське обслуговування ТОВ АФ “ОЛГА Аудит” З приводу розміщення реклами звертайтесь: +380 44 234-65-03. Відповідальність за зміст реклами несе замовник.

Mailing address: Kyiv Post, Prorizna Street 22B, Kyiv, Ukraine, 01034 Advertising tel. +380 44 234-65-03 fax +380 44 234-63-30 advertising@kyivpost.com Editorial staff tel. +380 44 234-65-00 fax +380 44 234-30-62 news@kyivpost.com Subscriptions Nataliia Protasova tel. +380 44 234-64-09 fax +380 44 234-63-30 subscribe@kyivpost.com Distribution Serhiy Kuprin tel. +380 44 234-64-09 fax +380 44 234-63-30 distribution@kyivpost.com Marketing Iuliia Panchuk tel. +380 44 234-30-40 fax +380 44 234-63-30 marketing@kyivpost.com

ПОЛИТИКА: Екскурсія в Межигір'я та інтерв'ю Януковича Kyiv Post В інтерв'ю декільком провідним українським телеканалам та іншим ЗМІ, яке було оприлюднено 28 червня, президент України Віктор Янукович провів екскурсію своїм горезвісним маєтком Межигір'я, що розташоване на півночі Києва. Проте, він показав лише малу частину зі 140 гектарів багатомільйонного помістя, яке Межигір'я заповнено розкішшю і яке надійно охороняється. Він показав лише маєток на площі у 1,7 гектарів, де, як він стверджує, проживає, але не пояснив, хто володіє тим, що знаходиться на решті території.

Tefft: Ukrainian officials know US concerns about democratic ‘backsliding’ B Y M A R K R AC H K E V Y C H RACHKEVYCH@KYIVPOST.COM

America’s sixth ambassador to Ukraine drew on U.S. history when examining Ukraine’s rugged and evolutionary path towards developing a democracy.

In a June 30 interview with the Kyiv Post, John F. Tefft evoked America’s ups and downs. Those include a Civil War that almost split the country in half and centuries before civil rights were secured for all citizens. “[U.S. Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton was here a year ago and she spoke about ‘the road’ to building a democracy and spoke…of our own humility when it comes to democratic development,” Tefft said.

Ukraine is now, however, “backsliding” on the road to democracy and the U.S. diplomat said he has made it clear in private to officials at the highest level and in public that Ukraine must strengthen the “fundamental factors” of democracy.

He also expressed concern for the appearance of selective justice being pursued against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko as well as other members of her former government.

“We have disagreements [with the

БИЗНЕС: Держава продає першу “партію” енергокомпаній Марія Шамота Конкурс з продажу державного пакету акцій чотирьох енергогенеруючих компаній почнеться у серпні. Першими на молотка підуть Київенерго (25% акцій), Черкасиенерго (21% акцій) та Західенерго (45%). Від продажу держава розраховує отримати близько 6 мільярдів гривень. Готувати продаж частки державної власності в енергокомпаніях уряд почав іще навесні. Іще всередині травня Верховна Рада погодилася списати енергокомпаніям більше 25 млрд. грн. заборгованості за спожитий газ та електроенергію. Серед претендентів на частки в обленерго, на думку експертів, є декілька бізнес-груп. Серед зацікавлених осіб називають Ігоря Коломойського з групи Приват та Костянтина Григоришина. А от на енергогенеруючі компанії основним претендентом залишається структура Ріната Ахметова ДТЕК. УКРАИНА: Прийти поздно, сидеть тихо. Портрет украинца в офисе Ирина Сандул Они долго спят, едят на рабочем месте и боятся высказать свое мнение. Так рабочие будни офисных сотрудников в Киеве описывают сотрудники HR-агентств и - свежим взглядом - работающие здесь иностранцы. На работу украинцы редко приходят раньше 9:30 утра. Обедают по-быстрому в офисных кухнях корпоративными ланчами либо домашней едой из судочков. Перерабатывают в среднем по 1.5-2 часа в день. В выходные работают редко. Отпуск выбирают по неделе – две, иногда не весь. Инициативы проявляют по-минимуму. А начальство относится к ним без особого уважения. Офисные сотрудники Полный текст статей и блогов можно прочитать на www.kyivpost.uа

Ukrainian government] that there is backsliding,” Tefft said, citing the U.S. State Department’s June 24 statement that referred to the trial against Tymoshenko as “politically motivated” and “undermining the rule of law.”

However, Tefft refrained from speculating about whether the 2012 parliamentary election would be considered free and fair should Tymoshenko or any other major opposition figure be kept off the ballot.

U.S.-Ukrainian officials have a history of open and candid dialogue.

Tefft described the bilateral relationship as “very complicated,” productive and yet “sometimes worrisome.”

The Wisconsin native acknowledged that Ukraine has made great progress in 20 years as a nation, but stressed the importance of having a free and democratic press, a judicial system that’s free and independent.

In short, rule of law is “at the core of all parts of society,” he said.

The government clearly “knows where we stand on these things,” and has spent more than $1.6 billion since independence on programs from the U.S. Agency for International Development to help Ukrainians build their nation.

Drafting a new criminal procedure code and a new election law Æ19

TEN MOST-READ STORIES OF THE WEEK ON

ДЕСЯТЬ САМЫХ ЧИТАЕМЫХ СТАТЕЙ НЕДЕЛИ НА

www.kyivpost.com

www.kyivpost.ua

1

Ukraine’s vanquished Jews from World War II

2

Next school year to end in May, external testing to finish before Euro 2012

3

Ukraine’s ‘Most Important Task‘

4

Why Poland has a booming stock market, popular pension funds and Ukraine doesn’t

5

Bolshoi’s top dancer is global superstar

6

Ukrtelecom’s new owner: ‘We are not fronting Akhmetov, the Russians or the Turks’

7

Role of migration in shrinking Ukraine

8

Gadget Guru: TV gets smarter, may replace PC if prices drop

9

Who will volunteer for Euro 2012?

10

Russian astronomers hope to find aliens within two decades

1

На тротуаре Прорезной джип насмерть сбил 40-летнюю женщину

6

2

Автомобиль Медведева въехал в толпу людей (ВИДЕО)

7

3

Екскурсія в Межигір'я та інтерв'ю Януковича (ВІДЕО)

4

Тактика запугивания Тимошенко в WikiLeaks (текст)

5

Тимошенко пішла з суду

Держдепартамент США: Переслідування українських лідерів опозиції виглядають як політичні Россия оставит Беларусь без света

8

WikiLeaks: Украина пугала МВФ дефолтом

9

Украинка пыталась перерезать себе горло напротив Мавзолея

10

Янукович с Путиным встретились в Крыму в неформальной обстановке

www.kyivpost.com

3

July 1, 2011 Advertisement

Ambitious for Ukraine

O

n 23 June 2011 the first plenary meeting of the Domestic and Foreign Investors Council (DFIAC) chaired by the President Viktor Yanukovych took place in Kyiv. In the course of the meeting the largest strategic investors exchanged their views on the prospects and challenges of the business environment of the country and the steps to be taken in order to approach Ukraine’s ambitious task - to enter the G20 of most developed and influential nations by 2020. A strategic goal has also been set – European integration, full entry into global society and the effective use of the country’s advantages in an increasingly competitive globalised world.

Prior to the meeting the European Business Association presented a raft of strategic measures making the scenario for country’s coveted long-term economic revival. Special emphasis was given to the current problems and challenges business faces.

DFIAC meeting memorandum was based on EBA proposals portfolio, focused on 7 pillars, which are regularly monitored within EBA Investment Index: Corruption, Court system and Land reform, Currency regulation, VAT refund, Customs Procedures simplification and Technical barriers to trade. The DFIAC plenary meeting outlined the common view of premier businesses and the Government old and new challenges existing for the investment climate of the country and its potential for social and economic development. The main points are listed below, including the view of EBA community on how to resolve these problems.

1. One of the most serious issues is the need for a continuous determined battle against corruption which appears at all levels of society. The members of the DFIAC welcome the strengthening of the legislative database against this destructive force but at the same time wish to draw attention to the need for the actively preventing corruption amongst gov-

*O'PDVT

C

ustoms system as an essential element in the functioning of the market requires simple, rapid and standard customs procedures.

The EBA regards free trade as one of its pivotal tasks and we thus welcome a transition to electronic customs clearance, the use of clear and transparent methods for determining customs value, and the implementation of a new unified Customs Code for Ukraine which takes into account global best practices and complies with World Trade Organisation and European Union principles.

The draft new Customs Code pending for Parliamentary approval is the third in Ukrainian legislative timeline; the first version was enacted in 1991 and has naturally undergone significant changes. Launched in 2010, the current draft edition contains a raft of well-balanced norms, proposed by the Government and the business community.

The draft new Customs Code if ratified will not only advance the international trade standards, but also add up to a record of greater certainty, fairness, and efficiency in Ukraine’s customs administration.

The experts agree unanimously that draft new Customs Code is a huge leap towards streamlining customs process and advancing the EU Customs strategy.

Ukraine’s leading domestic and foreign investors discussed the key ways to strengthen economic growth and provide for the interests of both Government and Business. ernment officials of all levels.

2. Closely allied with this task is the need to ensure the real rule of law and an independent branch of judicial power. This necessitates a judicial branch staffed with highly competent professionals, the transparency of court decisions, an unwavering respect for legal norms and the absolute certainty of enforcement of legal contracts – the last point is extremely important for investors.

3. Improvement to the taxation system continues to remain on the agenda.

The domestic and foreign business community welcomes the implementation of the Tax Code, which has brought many improvements in this vital area. At the same time, there is a need for improvements to the system, including the administration and timely refund of VAT, with which many exporters continue to suffer from.

4. Agriculture should become one of the drivers of Ukrainian economic growth. The investor community expects that this extremely important sector of the economy will function on the basis of free market principles.

5. Considering Ukraine’s potential as an agricultural country, one of the key issues for the investment climate in Ukraine remains the absence of an official land market.

Ukraine can compete in agriculture on a global level, but in the absence of mechanisms guaranteeing ownership rights all investment projects will be limited in scope to specific small segments of the market which do not depend on the market for land.

6. Another challenge for Ukraine’s economy as a whole and the investment climate in parallel is the need to raise energy efficiency of domestic production.

7. Ukraine must simplify trade and customs procedures in compliance with Ukraine’s obligations to the World Trade Organisation and other international bodies.

8. Ukraine should take steps to strengthen the banking sector and develop local capital markets. Here, investors expect the full renewal of lending to the economy, which will help it to decisively emerge from the crisis.

9. One more problem affecting the investment climate in Ukraine is the officially existing, but in practice non-functioning mechanism for public private partnerships (“PPP”). This mechanism could provide a real alternative to privatization of state assets and would allow entrepreneurial initiative to thrive whilst retaining the state’s controlling function over socially important sectors of the economy.

10. Ukraine is badly in need of deregulation and increasing the efficiency of provision of administrative services.

At present there are too many intermediaries whose services are unjustifiably expensive and this situation stimulates the appearance of additional administrative services which benefit nobody but the state officials and intermediaries.

11. If Ukraine is to maintain its competitive advantages it is essential to overcome the developing crisis in the national system of education at all levels – from pre-school to University.

12. One additional systemic problem which affects the investment climate is the protection of intellectual property rights. In Ukraine the abuse of author’s rights and intellectual property is flourishing. In this area there is a need for a systemic approach to the establishment of a clearly defined national policy and legislative system.

13. Domestic investors are concerned about the need to stimulate demand for domestically produced products, particularly in regard to high technology production.

Draft Customs Code – Advancing the EU Standards VLADIMIR Didenko Chair of EBA Customs Committee Partner, Magisters

New edition of the Customs Code (in wording after the preliminary approval by Verkhovna Rada) suggests several important improvements that may simplify customs procedures.

The most important novelties are as follows: 1. Importers will have right to choose customs office where they wish to submit cargo declaration for customs clearance. This may considerably reduce administrative burden and transport costs for the import of goods as the importers will be able to use the most rational logistic solutions.

2. Strict timing requirements for customs clearance (up to 4 hours).

3. Opportunity for preliminary goods declaration.

Positive developments also include better rules application of customs regimes and use of guarantees. Based on public discussion of the new edition of the Customs Code it is expected that prior to second vote in the Verkhovna Rada the working group will continue the work on elaboration of wording of the Customs Code. In particular, we expect that the working group will consider EBA proposal to introduce into the Customs Code the rules for inclusion of royalties to the customs value rather then delegating to the Cabinet of Ministers the authority to set up such rules.

PETER Pototsky Customs Development Manager DHL Express Ukraine

Draft new Customs Code coincides with the provisions envisaged by Istanbul Convention (on temporary admission of goods), International Convention on Simplification and Harmonisation of Customs Procedures, International Convention on Harmonisation of Frontier Controls of Goods, and standards of World Customs Organization.

The draft Customs Code if enacted prescribes: - the introduction of the Authorized Economic Operators (AEO) – the traders who benefit from the highest degree of trust from the сustoms authorities; - E-declaration of goods - traders and agents may submit all documents for customs clearance electronically. This reduces frequency of face-to-face contacts between traders and customs officials, thus strenghening measures to cut the red tape; - the trader may declare goods at any customs office throughout Ukraine. This simplifies logistics procedures for businesses with branched network of clients; - fixed time for customs clearance is set at 4 hours; - the trader may lodge customs declaration for the shipments before they arrive in Ukraine or at respective customs office.

TOMÁŠ Fiala,

Managing Director, Dragon Capital EBA President

O

n behalf of the European Business Association, which unites over 800 companies collectively employing over one million people, I would like to express my gratitude to the President for his invitation to an open dialogue. We also appreciate his readiness to react to our proposals regarding the improvement of the investment climate in Ukraine.

Members of our Association have responded to your reform plan and the first steps taken to implement it last year very positively. The Investment Attractiveness Index, which the EBA calculates quarterly, rose sharply during the second and third quarters of 2010. But we are not happy to see that the index has stopped growing during the last three quarters and its 2Q 2011 reading, obtained two weeks ago, even slipped.

Why? First of all, because of omnipresent corruption and the absence of the Rule of Law. Corruption and private interests paralyze the realization of your initiatives and eliminate businesses’ efforts to work, invest and create new jobs. The struggle with this challenge will be very difficult.

I do not expect that corruption can be overcome without a fivefold reduction in the number of public administration employees and a corresponding hike in the salaries of those who remain.

In order to restore the pace of reform and the trust of the investment community, it is crucial that in the next month pension reform is adopted, increases in retail tariffs are continued in order to balance them with production costs, and cooperation with the IMF is reinstated. These steps have been delayed far too long already.

A major direct investment transaction or a privatization deal would send a relevant signal.

In 2005 the gate for international investors was opened by Raiffeisen, which paid over $1bn for Bank Aval, and Mittal Steel, which privatized Kryvorizhstal for nearly $5bn. Following the financial crisis, there have been no major deals involving multinational companies.

In agriculture you need to create a level playing field and long-term stable conditions. The imposition of grain export quotas and their nontransparent distribution strongly affected investment inflows, and not only in this sector. The quality of land reform will be the next test. And we support it.

In the tax and customs areas we have seen improvements this year, but we are still far from European standards. You should not drastically raise indirect taxes and excise duties, as it generally eliminates the attractive rates enacted by the Tax Code.

Another urgent and uphill task for Ukraine is to create a dynamic, transparent and liquid capital market, and to introduce a second tier of the pension system based on Poland’s shining example. Ukrainian companies are leaving for foreign exchanges, and together with them leave qualified jobs, depriving the Ukrainian market of high-quality issuers and hampering formation of stable pools of capital domestically.

In conclusion, I would like to say that Ukraine could get closer to, or even become a member of, the G20 group of countries by 2020. But to be there, Ukraine’s GDP on average should grow by 11 percent in each of the next nine years. It is possible only with full and systematical implementation of reform plan.

The European Business Association is ready to work with you and your colleagues to achieve this ambitious goal!

Lobbying NewsBits: EBA Dairy Committee members are inspected by Russian veterinary authorities for the potential export to the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan • More at www.eba.com.ua

4 Opinion

www.kyivpost.com

July 1, 2011

Editorials

Clubby journalists It must have been a heady experience getting a special invitation from President Viktor Yanukovych to see a small slice of his multimillion-dollar estate in Mezhyhiria, and have it all filmed by presidential camera crews.

The experience was so intoxicating that the assembled journalists in attendance lost their heads and didn’t even bother to ask Yanukovych any tough questions.

How did he acquire Mezhyhiria from the state? Why was a complicated web of shell companies used to mask the transaction? Where did the money come from for the purchase and elaborate renovation under way in recent years at the 140-hectare luxury compound? Who controls it? How much was paid?

No, TV personalities Savik Shuster and Yevgeny Kiselyov, among the handpicked stooges in attendance, didn’t think it was polite or relevant to ask questions in the public interest from the state’s top public servant. So they ended up serving more as props for presidential PR than journalists.

Shuster and Kiselyov appear very interested in being part of the insiders’ club and pulling down big salaries as hosts of popular, televised political mud-slinging matches. They appear less interested in doing any real journalism, or using their positions and fame to serve the public interest. Confronted about their presidential tete-a-tete, they were shameless, unapologetic and even confrontational about their lapses.

“I think that all Ukrainian journalists are divided into two parts: those worried about the problem of Mezhyhiria and those interested in actual politics. I belong to the latter category. That’s why I didn’t remember it,” Kiselyov said. “Honestly, I do not care about it.”

“It is not correct,” Shuster said, acting more like someone invited to tea with the queen rather than a journalist with the president. “The guy is inviting you to his place and you are spitting into his face. This is not how things are done.”

Shuster is right in saying “this is not how things are done” – in Ukraine anyway.

Shuster, Kiselyov and others puffed up on their egos think they are the story, not the story itself. And the story here smacks of abuse of government privileges with a strong whiff of private graft. And when it involves the president, it’s a big story.

Mistakes in fact and judgment happen in journalism and we make our share.

But, for goodness sakes, not trying at all to get the story or ask the hard question is the biggest sin of all. Approaching its 20th anniversary as a nation, Ukraine’s journalists need to be less supine and servile and remember who they should be serving – the public, not politicians or vested business interests.

Trying democracy The start of the trial of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko on charges of abuse of power is also the start of a trial of the authorities’ commitment to democracy.

So far, they’re failing miserably.

The charge against the former prime minister is that she abused her power by ordering a subordinate to sign a gas deal with Russia without permission from her Cabinet of Ministers. She is also facing investigations into the procurement of ambulances and the alleged misuse of budget funds that should have been assigned to green projects.

Few from Washington all the way to Brussels and beyond Kyiv doubt that the trial against Tymoshenko and the probes into a dozen or so of her allies amount to selective justice. Given the rampant, pervasive corruption that everyone sees, it is simply unbelievable that of the charges against leading figures, nearly all are against former members of Tymoshenko’s government. The pretense that Yanukovych and others maintain that this is not a political trial is laughable.

Everything that presidential friend General Prosecutor Viktor Pshonka does smacks of political retribution on behalf of Yanukovych and his friends, such as billionaire Dmytro Firtash, whose business interests suffered during Tymoshenko's two terms as prime minister.

It is hard to be sympathetic toward Tymoshenko. She gained great wealth during a time of extreme poverty for most Ukrainians in the 1990s, allegedly benefitting from sweetheart deals from then-Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko. She denies any wrongdoing.

It was only three years ago when she flirted with the idea of forming an alliance with Yanukovych that would have seen both running the country long-term through a power-sharing pact.

Nevertheless, the circus of her trial cannot be taken seriously as an attempt to fight corruption in Ukraine. It is telling that the first accusations against Tymoshenko’s government were detailed in a presidential Party of Regionsfriendly report by three U.S. investigative and legal firms.

That was a show document. This is a show trial.

Published by Public Media LLC Jim Phillipoff, Chief Executive Officer Brian Bonner, Senior Editor Editors: Kostiantyn Dovgan, Katya Gorchinskaya, Roman Olearchyk, James Marson, Yuliya Popova Staff Writers: Alexey Bondarev, Tetyana Boychenko, Oksana Faryna, Natalia A. Feduschak, Anastasia Forina, Oksana Grytsenko, Kateryna Grushenko, Nataliya Horban, Vlad Lavrov, Yura Onyshkiv, Kateryna Panova, Mark Rachkevych, Denis Rafalsky, Yuliya Raskevich Nataliya Solovonyuk, Maria Shamota, Svitlana Tuchynska, Nataliya Vasyutyn, Elena Zagrebina Photographers: Alex Furman, Joseph Sywenkyj. Photo Editor: Yaroslav Debelyi Chief Designer: Vladyslav Zakharenko. Designer: Angela Palchevskaya Marketing: Iuliia Panchuk Web Project: Yuri Voronkov Sales department: Irina Gudyma, Maria Kozachenko, Alisa Kyryliuk, Elena Symonenko, Yuriy Timonin, Sergiy Volobayev Subscription Manager: Nataliia Protasova Newsroom Manager: Svitlana Kolesnykova

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“Meet my new personal photographer”

“Yeah, I have one too.

She’s just slipping into something more comfortable.”

NEWS ITEM: Both members of the Russian ruling tandem announced in June that they have hired new personal photographers, and both of them are young women. The gadget-loving President Dmitry Medvedev’s appointee, Ekaterina Shtukina, was described by the media as highly professional with a good track record. It is Prime Minisiter Vladimir Putin’s appointee, Yana Lapikova, who received the most attention. It turned out that her most famous photograph was a cat portrait with a hookah pipe against a burgundy curtain. According to reports, she also likes to pose for suggestive photographs, a fact that caused an explosion of comments in the Russian blogosphere.

As dedicated communists, we follow in the footsteps of our leader, Lenin!

Liar, liar... you have long lived your life as a capitalist!

NEWS ITEM: Bitter rivalries are breaking out in Ukraine’s Communist Party, led by Petro Symonenko since 1993.

Some in the party want to replace Symonenko, a gifted orator who claims to be dedicated to the communist cause. He lives a lavish lifestyle and his son is reportedly a big earner in business dealings. During a party congress last month, leadership called upon all communists to put aside differences, live their lives and run their party as Vladimir Lenin, founder of the USSR’s version of communism, would have.

Feel strongly about an issue? Agree or disagree with editorial positions in this newspaper?

The Kyiv Post welcomes letters to the editors and opinion pieces, usually 800 to 1,000 words in length. Please e-mail all correspondence to Brian Bonner, senior editor, at bonner@kyivpost.com or letters@kyivpost.com. All correspondence must include an e-mail address and contact phone number for verification.

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Opinion 5

July 1, 2011

Telling the future of the Party of Regions Editor’s Note: This is the second in a two-part series analyzing the standing and strategy of Ukraine’s ruling Party of Regions.

Police detain an activist during a May 14 rally to protest against President Viktor Yanukovych. The demonstrators demanded the resignation of Yanukovych and the Cabinet of Ministers during the rally outside parliament. (Yaroslav Debelyi)

organizational and financial resources to ensure a long-term political strategy, no matter what scenario will take place.

To date, there is general agreement that none of these political forces has such resources and that these parties, in order to survive, must in one form or another have very clear and mutually beneficial arrangements with the ruling party.

There can be two such arrangements. First, if the leaders of the Party of Regions decide they are interested in the presence of political allies and the creation of a quasi-democratic atmosphere in the country, they will do everything to ensure that the People’s Party and any other reliable partners are present in parliament as independent political forces.

These parties will go into the elections on their own and have a sufficient number of strong candidates in single-member districts. In this case, both the People’s Party and the Communist Party will have to make enormous organizational and financial effort to overcome the electoral apathy toward these parties, and thus take on major financial and political risks. After all, the ruling party may not stick to any agreements.

Second, if the Party of Regions does not consider the risks significant, it may decide not to reach any arrangements and take on its political allies on a voluntary basis, not allowing anybody to enter its electoral field. In this case, today’s political allies must soberly assess their prospects and be ready to sacrifice their political forces in order to preserve their

representation in the authorities at all levels.

There is no perfect and correct decision for Party of Regions leaders as to how to proceed. Any decision is fraught with risk, and it is obvious that political competition is better than a monopoly of one political force.

But it is also clear that the Party of Regions will be fighting for dominance in the political space.

Parliament needs independent political forces, but the problem is that virtually all political parties are badly prepared for the forthcoming parliamentary elections, and they have to hope for a miracle if they want to overcome even the existing barrier of 3 percent to enter parliament.

The only exceptions are the Front of Changes party of Yatseniuk and the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) Party of Tymoshenko. But opposition parties remain fragmented and this situation is likely to remain so after the elections. There is no reason to expect the emergence in parliament of an influential opposition.

In the near future, therefore, the most dangerous “enemy” for the ruling party is the ruling party itself – internal squabbles, mistakes in foreign policy, and fiscal, economic, pension and other reforms that may influence the voters’ mood much more strongly than a free media or opposition protests.

Vladimir Granovski has been a consultant to Ukrainian politicians, businesses and foreign investors since the 1990s. His clients have included the ruling Party of Regions and President Viktor Yanukovych.

Is Ukrainian governance improving?

LE I G H T U R N E R

How important is it that Ukraine clears away a major source of corruption?

An apparently obscure piece of legislation offers a useful insight into the challenges facing the way Ukraine’s system of governance works; and a good indication of whether Ukrainian governance is improving.

The Ukrainian government agreed in 2010 to adopt a public procurement law in line with European Union standards. Public procurement means the buying of goods and services by official organs of the state.

It may sound obscure, but such purchases involve a lot of money – in the EU, public procurement

WITH SVITLANA KOLESNYKOVA

Vox Populi: Do you think that the trial against ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is the result of an independent investigation or a case of political persecution?

Emilia Kulchytska, retiree “I think all these charges are false, [President Viktor] Yanukovych is afraid of her and wants to remove her from the presidential election field because he is scared of rivalry. And also she talks about him pocketing state property, Mezhyhiria. She will not go to jail, but people say that, even if she receives a suspended sentence, she will not be eligible to run in the next elections. And if we keep silent, it will really happen.”

VLADIMIR GR A N OV S K I

There are skeptics and optimists in any team, and the ruling Party of Regions – which backs President Viktor Yanukovych – is no different. The skeptics exaggerate threats, while the optimists underestimate them.

There are three potential political scenarios developing for the ruling party at the moment, and the view on which is likely to come about largely depends on whether you are a skeptic or an optimist.

The worst-case scenario for the Party of Regions is a rapid drop in the political rating of President Viktor Yanukovych and his party, especially among his core electorate. This could lead to opponents such as ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, ex-Foreign Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk and Svoboda Party leader Oleh Tiahnybok gain strong representation in parliament after elections next year, as well as a number of independently-minded candidates taking seats under the majoritarian system.

This will significantly complicate the use of administrative resources at the presidential election and could lead to the emergence of a real competitor for the presidency. As a result, it could lead to defeat at the presidential election.

The second, somewhat more optimistic scenario, suggests that despite the drop in ratings, the Party of Regions will win a majority in parliament, but not the 300 of 450 seats needed to change the constitution. In this case, the opposition will have no chance to create a majority, and Yanukovych would win the presidential election, although not without difficulties.

The third scenario is one for the party optimists.

It could manage to realize the aim of monopolizing the political field, bringing the maximum number of majoritarians to its side and creating a constitutional majority in parliament. This would allow the authorities to control all the major political and economic processes, preventing the emergence at the presidential election of a real candidate other than the acting president, and thus, despite all the risks, to remain in power for two terms.

The question for the Party of Regions’ current political allies – Volodymyr Lytvyn’s People’s Party, the Communist Party and, possibly, Sergiy Tigipko’s Strong Ukraine – is how they react to the development of each of these scenarios. They will have to decide whether they have sufficient personnel,

VOX populi

is worth around $3.5 trillion a year. This makes a good public procurement law vital for any country.

Such a law fights corruption by making it harder for people in power to give valuable contracts to friends and relations without proper competition to find the best price and quality. Result: everyone is better off – except corrupt people in power.

The problem is that, after a year of trying, the Ukrainian public procurement law has not yet been agreed upon. On several occasions, a draft law which meets EU standards has been drafted; but before it can be agreed, those with an interest in having less effective public procurement laws have managed to have the draft law amended in order to weaken its provisions.

This has happened several times. The latest situation is that in response to representations by the EU and World Bank that the latest draft law did not meet EU standards, Yanukovych – helpfully from a point of view of ensuring a public procurement law with teeth – vetoed the draft and instructed the Supreme Rada to make it consistent with EU standards.

The fact that it has taken so long to agree on a public procurement law shows the difficulty the Ukrainian authorities have in squaring the interests of competing interest groups in the political system.

While there are many Ukrainians who understand how an EU-compatible public procurement law will benefit the nation, they have so far been unable to make this happen against those who benefit from the current system.

I shall therefore be watching with interest to see what happens next. If a new, EU-compatible version of the law is approved by the Rada, signed by the president and enters into law, that will be a good sign that Ukrainian governance is improving.

If there is further delay or a law is adopted which does not meet EU standards, that will show the opposite.

Leigh Turner has been the British ambassador to Ukraine since June 2008. You can read all his blog entries at blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/turnerenglish (in English) or blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/turner/ (Ukrainian)

Clara Lystrova, cosmetic consultant “Of course this is political persecution, a clear case. Look at [ex-Interior Minister Yuriy] Lutsenko – because of what is he jailed? Because of nothing. Is it normal? Everything is cooked up.

They just need to remove her from elections, from power. And this is called political persecution.”

Andriy Demydenko, economist.

“All these are political intrigues, nothing more. The aim is to eliminate a competitor in the future, not even today, so that she cannot prepare for the future battle. She will not be jailed. Everything will be OK. But it will drag on and be costly.”

Anastasiya Ryavykina, on maternity leave “Every politician has a sin that needs to be prosecuted.

Not that I am against Tymoshenko – not at all. She definitely has crimes to be held responsible for, and I agree that what is happening is justice. But I don’t believe she will go to prison, not in this country.

She already has enough money to settle the issue.”

Yuriy Sahno, enterpriser “There are zero chances in our country that this is an objective investigation.”

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6 Business

July 1, 2011

www.kyivpost.com

Cargill CEO: Nation should help feed world instead of shaking up prices K Y I V P O S T S TA F F

Ukraine and Russia could substantially boost crop and food output if they lift export restrictions and open up more to investment, the head of U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill said during a Kyiv Post interview. Visiting Kyiv on June 23 to take part in an investment advisory council chaired by President Viktor Yanukovych, Cargill chief executive Mark Page urged Ukraine and other grain-producing countries in the Black Sea region to lift export restrictions.

His visit comes nearly one year after Russia fully banned grain exports due to poor weather. Ukraine followed in Russia’s footsteps last autumn, imposing controversial grain export quotas despite reaping a reasonably large harvest of some 40 million metric tons.

Facing mounting international pressure to drop the restrictions seen by many as unnecessary, Ukraine replaced the quotas this summer with duties. Russia has also recently dropped its grain export ban, but warns that it could reintroduce restrictions if needed.

Experts say that while such protectionist policies could help keep food prices low in the short term, they come at big long-term cost by hurting cash-strapped farmers and curtailing investment that is needed to boost production. Ukraine has in recent years reaped harvests of 30-50 million tons.

But yields are about a third of the European Union average.

In talks with Yanukovych, Page said he “highlighted the opportunity for Ukraine to double food output in the next decade.” Page said Cargill could in coming years sharply add to the $150 million investment it has already pumped into production of sunflower seed oil and commodity trading. But he warned that protectionist government policies could lead to the opposite, a rollback on investment plans.

Kyiv Post: How do you see agriculture commodity prices going into 2012, in light of weather and

Æ ‘This is a great place for the world to grow more food. But all the gifts that nature provides can be undone with bad policies.’ other concerns? In light of the recent price spikes, are we looking at sustained high agriculture prices?

Greg Page: Everybody mentions the spike in 2007 and the spike in 2010.

They leave out the spike downwards in 2008-2009. To put it in a broader context, it is important to look at volatility of production first and then price afterward. If you go back 40 years, we have in that time doubled the amount of calories that the world produces basically with the same amount of land. Clearly, the world’s farmers have shown that they can respond to a growing population and to an improved diet.

If you take that trend and measure each year the trend up or down from that, most years production in the world is plus or minus 2 percent. Last year was not an [exception] from that.

We had the dryness of the Black Sea area, flooding in Pakistan. The global calorie production was probably off 2 percent. But it led to a 60 percent change in price.

What has changed in recent times is the amount of price response to relatively modest changes in production.

Clearly with 24-hour per day news media, wherever there is a drought, you get to watch it 2-3 times per day for a month. But if you measure the constancy of the world’s food production over the last decades, these are

fairly normal year to year deviations.

Production has been keeping pace if you look at it over three or four year average periods.

KP: But some world leaders are warning that this century could become the “Century of Hunger” if the right policies are not adopted. You seem to not see this risk.

GP: No, and I think one of the reasons is price, what we were talking about. The world this year is likely to have a double-digit increase in fertilizer use. I was recently in Sumatra in Indonesia. I have been off and on around the Tapioca (a starch extracted from a root) production business. And in all those years I have not seen someone fertilizing Tapioca. But at today’s prices, we see people doing it. We talked with the farmer and he said he saw an increase in his production of as much as 40 percent.

I think that the response of producers around the world, if they get any reasonable weather, is going to be just what economics would predict ... more production as a result of more attention.

KP: But could some government policies put this at risk?

GP: Sure. They did last year. The intervention of governments in trade,

Greg Page, CEO of U.S. agriculture giant Cargill. (Natalia Kravchuk)

particularly in countries that supply food, in effect further shortened the supply and raised the anxiety of countries that needed to import as a result of climate.

KP: There seems to be a split in G20 talks, with some countries leaning on one side calling for more government regulation of commodity markets, while others are calling for more open markets. Which policy is right?

GP: I think that a study of nature and demographics would tell you that the right policy is a realization that there will be weather disruptions. Currently in the U.S. we are experiencing a terrible one in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. If the United States were multiple countries and there was no free trade among states, there would be enormous food shortfalls in those areas. A plus for the Black Sea nations [is that they are nearby where the world’s populations are] growing fastest, in the Middle East and North Africa. That’s a market that is most readily available to Ukrainian, Russian, Romanian farmers.

I think it is almost impossible to predict global food security without global free trade on food. Weather will always cause more disruption on a local level than it will cause on a global area. In a given region, you could see 30-40 percent drops in production. Globally we seldom see drops of more than single-digit percents in a given year. If the world is to have affordable food, food security, it has to be a trust-based system, where those that have positive weather trends help those that have had weather disruption.

If we go to a highly protectionist system, it has the effect of turning the whole world into rigid silos that are solely dependent on their own weather.

That is going to be a lot more volatile than trust-based free trade.

KP: Do you see a risk of protectionism or resource nationalism unfolding?

GP: Yes. I think in times of fear there is a certain element of the human psyche that turns inward. I think it is something that has to be talked about.

It is not surprising.

Reportedly the world’s largest commodities trader, Cargill has invested heavily in Ukraine. It pumped more than $50 million, for example, into building a Donetsk-based sun flower oil production facility (above) from scratch. (Ukrinform)

KP: Did you discuss this issue with Ukraine’s president today (during the investment advisory council on June 23)?

GP: Yes. We highlighted the opportunity for Ukraine to double in the next

decade their food output. We think that is an entirely reasonable aspiration.

But to do it, what is needed is private capital, cooperation of banks. It is not that a single company or institution can do this. The technology is out there.

Given the natural resources of the Ukrainian agriculture sector, to set the goal of doubling production in the next decade is entirely reasonable.

And when you look at the growth of the world’s population, it is entirely necessary.

KP: What message did you hear from him? Did he understand this?

GP: I think he has a very good understanding. Is the government here going to take the actions on land ownership, equal treatment of government or semistate organizations? Time will tell.

KP: If Ukraine and other countries in the Black Sea region which could play a big role in filling the world food gap don’t pursue such policies, do you think there could be a rollback on investment plans?

GP: Certainly. This is a great place for the world to grow more food. But all the gifts that nature provides can be undone with bad policies.

KP: How much do you think big investors in Ukraine such as your company have incurred in losses as a result of grain export restrictions imposed last year?

GP: The reputation of the nation was harmed most.

KP: How much investment do you think Ukraine and Russia could receive if they don’t return to export restrictions?

GP: Cargill would hope that our business in Ukraine would be bigger than simply participating in the grain export business, and vegetable oil processing. We have to talk about how many more export elevators would be required if Ukraine’s production doubles. A grain export elevator could cost $150 million. Our goals in Ukraine now are... we are building a feed plant here. We want to get involved with livestock producers.

A lot of Cargill’s worldwide clients, whether it’s Nestle or McDonalds, are here. We would look for opportunities to serve them in this market as they grow. For Cargill, the opportunity is to not just invest in the grain or oil seed business. The opportunities in the broader food chain are enormous.

www.kyivpost.com

Business 7

July 1, 2011

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Business Sense

Editor’s Note: Business Sense is a feature in which experts explain Ukraine’s place in the world economy and provide insight into doing business in the country. To contribute, contact senior editor Brian Bonner at bonner@kyivpost.com

WITH ANTON KHMELNITSKI

Nation’s risky market curbs great agriculture potential

– Anton Khmelnitski the Ukrainian one, has strict requirements and quarterly International Financial Reporting Standards statements as well as an established $87 billion pension fund industry. This has facilitated capital raising for Ukraine companies and allowed investors to reinvest in Ukraine following the crisis.

Sadly, Ukraine is again missing out on one of the biggest opportunities to develop its stock market and more importantly to offer its population the possibility to own shares in a key strategic sector such as agriculture, which employs more than 20 percent of the population. It is instead Polish pensioners who benefit from growth.

The strategic importance is obvious.

19.2%

Which countries profit most from food?

Breakdown by countries, % of total number of public companies operating in the agri-food industry 10.3% 9.0% 7.1%

4.5%

Ukraine’s territory has a large network of rail transport, covering 70 percent of the land with strategic access to the Black Sea and large port operations capable of handling nearly 35 million metric tons of grain exports – nearly as much as total annual production.

Ukraine could in theory produce 100 million tons of grain, more than double today’s 40 million tons. This would represent 16 percent of the world market. The structure of the agri-food companies differs as well from other countries, as they fully integrate the land in their operation unlike Brazil or North America where contract farming is more common practice. Ukrainian food-processing companies have therefore a natural hedge against rising input price as well as land appreciation upside.

The business model also differs from other classic producer models with vertical integration and specialization

rather than horizontal business segmentation. This important value added element is realized through further integration in high margin food processing. In the longer run the gross domestic product and export structure of Ukraine could be transformed.

For example, today the world chicken trade is only 12 percent of global production, of which Brazil and the U.S. are the leaders. Ukraine continues to narrow its gap of imported chicken, which still stands at 200,000 tons per year. An industrial agri-food producer such as Ukraine’s MHP listed in London, representing already 50 percent of the local production, will be able to meaningfully export starting in 2015. For that purpose, the largest and most modern European chicken processing plants are currently being built in the Vinnytsya Oblast. This model can also be replicated for other types of food products such as egg, meat, dairy

Look Abroad to Find Ukraine’s Next Generation of Blue Chips Company

Time of Placement

Stake Sold, Percent

Proceeds, $ million

Market Capitalization, $ million

Market Capitalization, $ million (8/06/2011)

Type of Placement

Stock Exchange

Cumulative return since Initial Public Offering (IPO)

Industrial Milk Company

April 2011

32%

31

95

130.99

IPO

Warsaw Stock Exchange

37.9%

KSG Agro

April 2011

33%

40

120

145.34

IPO

Warsaw Stock Exchange

21.1%

Milkiland

Dec. 2010

22.00%

69

314

441.45

IPO

Warsaw Stock Exchange

40.6%

IPO

Warsaw Stock Exchange / NewConnect

9.5% 21.2%

Agroliga

Dec. 2010

16.70%

1.4

8.4

9.2

Avangard

April 2010

21.70%

208

959

1,162.47

IPO

London Stock Exchange

AgroGeneration

March 2010

25%

16

64

95.23

IPO

Alternext (NYSE)

48.8%

Agroton

Nov. 2009

25%

42

168

283.51

PP

Frankfurt Stock Exchange

68.8%

Sintal

August 2008

15%

35

230

120.84

PP

Frankfurt Stock Exchange

-47.5%

Mriya Agro Holding

June 2008

20%

90

450

1,095.20

PP

Frankfurt Stock Exchange

143.4%

MHP

April 2008

19%

323

1,662

1,857.26

IPO

London Stock Exchange

11.7%

MCB Agricole

March 2008

24%

56

233

51.78

PP

Frankfurt Stock Exchange

-77.8%

Kernel Holding

Nov. 2007

38%

218

574

2,233.10

IPO

Warsaw Stock Exchange

289.0% -78.8%

Landkom

Nov. 2007

55%

111

202

42.92

IPO

London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market

Ukrros

July 2007

20%

42

210

37.90

PP

Ukraine’s PFTS/Frankfurt Stock Exchange

-82.0%

Astarta Holding

Aug. 2006

19%

32

168

688

IPO

Warsaw Stock Exchange

309.5%

IPO

London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market

-63.8%

Average

40.7%

Ukrproduct

Source: Elbrus Capital

Feb. 2005

32%

9

41

14.86

1.3%

1.3%

1.3%

1.3%

1.3%

Vietnam

1.3%

Nigeria

1.9%

Zimbabwe

1.9%

Egypt

3.2%

Other, less then 1%

Source: Elbrus Capital

South Africa

Thailand

USA

Brazil

Sri Lanka

Ukraine

China

India

3.2%

Argentina

4.5%

UK

5.1%

Russia

5.8%

Hong Kong

7.7%

South Arabia

9.0%

Indonesia

Æ Ukraine is missing opportunity to develop its stock market as others, including Polish pensioners, benefit.

Malaysia

Food prices look set to rise again this year. Production yields are near peak, and stock levels are low. This is combined with increased weather instability, population growth in emerging markets as well as changes in food habits in China.

Ukraine should be a major beneficiary and now offers liquid exposure for investors through agriculture companies listed on European markets. With the end of the 10-year moratorium on land sales expected on Jan. 1, 2012, Ukraine is likely to have the foundation to enter a new decade of fast growth to realize its agriculture potential.

Today, listed farming-food companies are generally difficult to find.

Agriculture equity investments often consist of indirect plays such as fertilizers, tractors or seed producers, most of which trade in developed markets.

Ukraine is offering a new way to invest in agriculture with a rapidly rising number of real land-farming operations coming to the public markets. Over the last three years, more than $10 billion of capitalization and 15 firms have been successfully listed, despite difficult conditions, with several names delivering triple-digit returns. These companies typically have 100,000 hectares under operation through lease agreements.

They represent less than 10 percent of a total land bank of 32 million hectares available.

The average quality of the agribusinesses is in many ways superior to what Ukraine has been used to offer to investors, which was typically a handful of non-transparent, old legacy asset companies with poor disclosure and liquidity. Ukraine is seeing a boom in new agribusinesses seeking to list abroad, particularly in Poland. Warsaw has recently become the new magnet for Ukrainian companies and this is now also starting to attract companies from other sectors.

The Warsaw stock exchange, unlike

products and high margin vegetables.

Another specific element to Ukraine is land reform. Today, Ukraine values its land at a fraction of its fair value.

This is the result of a law enforcing a moratorium on land sales, which was activated in 2001. It is expected that this will be lifted as soon as next year.

The impact here as well is significant, as financing through land collateralization will become possible, which should facilitate bank lending.

Ukrainian agriculture companies historically used mostly equity financing, but with lands on the balance sheet, companies will be able to get better financing terms, freeing up resources for acquisitions of machinery and working capital. The structure of the Ukrainian economy would evolve with the gas and steel industry seeing a gradual reduction in their dominance.

Banks would also find new sources of growth, providing much needed diversification and stability to a system still ravaged by a property bubble.

If global soft commodity prices continue to grow, it will accelerate the entire process and improve further the attractiveness of these companies.

Nonetheless, inherent risks such as government intervention, a relatively weak judicial system and political instability could mitigate the investment appeal for foreigners.

For investors willing to get exposure to Ukraine agriculture, it still seems safer to invest with well established, large companies listed abroad, where interests between managements, minorities and owners are better aligned and transparency is higher.

Ukrainian agribusinesses remain the best way today to capitalize on rising global soft commodities prices, as well as playing the upside in land appreciation in one of the most fertile and large land banks in Europe.

Anton Khmelnitski is the managing director of Kyiv-based Elbrus Capital, a fund management group. He has more than 12 years of experience investing in Eastern Europe and can be reached via anton.khmelnitski@elbrus-capital.com

8 Business

www.kyivpost.com

July 1, 2011

US financial havens mask secretive Ukrainian deals CHEYENNE, Wyoming; ATLANTA, Georgia (Reuters) – The secretive business havens of Cyprus and the Cayman Islands face a potent rival: Cheyenne, Wyoming.

At a single address in this sleepy city of 60,000 people, more than 2,000 companies are registered. The building, 2710 Thomes Avenue, isn’t a shimmering skyscraper filled with A-list corporations. It’s a 1,700-square-foot brick house with a manicured lawn, a few blocks from the State Capitol.

Neighbors say they see little activity there besides regular mail deliveries and a woman who steps outside for smoke breaks. Inside, however, the walls of the main room are covered floor to ceiling with numbered mailboxes labeled as corporate “suites.” A bulky copy machine sits in the kitchen.

In the living room, a woman in a headset answers calls and sorts bushels of mail.

A Reuters investigation has found the house at 2710 Thomes Avenue serves as a little Cayman Island on the Great Plains. It is the headquarters for Wyoming Corporate Services, a business-incorporation specialist that establishes firms which can be used as “shell” companies, paper entities able to hide assets.

Wyoming Corporate Services will help clients create a company, and more: set up a bank account for it; add a lawyer as a corporate director to invoke attorney-client privilege; even appoint stand-in directors and officers as high as CEO. Among its offerings is a variety of shell known as a “shelf” company, which comes with years of regulatory filings behind it, lending a greater feeling of solidity.

“A corporation is a legal person created by state statute that can be used as a fall guy, a servant, a good friend or a decoy,” the company’s website boasts. “A person you control... yet cannot be held accountable for its actions.

Imagine the possibilities!”

Among the entities registered at 2710 Thomes, Reuters found, is a shelf company sheltering real-estate assets controlled by a jailed former prime minister of Ukraine, according to alle-

gations made by a political rival in a federal court in California.

The owner of another shelf company at the address was indicted in April for allegedly helping online-poker operators evade a U.S. ban on Internet gambling. The owner of two other firms there was banned from government contracting in January for selling counterfeit truck parts to the Pentagon.

All the activity at 2710 Thomes is part of a little-noticed industry in the U.S.: the mass production of paper businesses. Scores of mass incorporators like Wyoming Corporate Services have set up shop. The hotbeds of the industry are three states with a light regulatory touch - Delaware, Wyoming and Nevada.

The pervasiveness of corporate secrecy on America’s shores stands in stark contrast to Washington’s message to the rest of the world. Since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, the U.S. has been calling forcefully for greater transparency in global transactions, to lift the veil on shadowy money flows.

During a debate in 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama singled out Ugland House in the Cayman Islands, reportedly home to some 12,000 offshore corporations, as “either the biggest building or the biggest tax scam on record.”

Yet on U.S. soil, similar activity is perfectly legal. The incorporation industry, overseen by officials in the 50 states, has few rules. Convicted felons can operate firms which create companies, and buy them with no background checks.

No states license mass incorporators, and only a few require them to formally register with state authorities.

None collect the names and addresses of “beneficial owners,” the individuals with a controlling interest in corporations, according to a 2009 report by the National Association of Secretaries of State, a group for state officials overseeing incorporation. Wyoming and Nevada allow the real owners of corporations to hide behind “nominee” officers and directors with no direct role in the business, often executives of the mass incorporator.

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko is serving an eightyear prison sentence in America.

An estimated 2 million corporations and limited liability companies are created each year in the U.S., according to Senate investigators. The Treasury Department has singled out LLCs as particularly vulnerable to being used as shell companies, as they can be owned by anyone and managed anonymously.

Delaware, Nevada and Wyoming had 688,000 LLCs on file in 2009, up from 624,000 in 2007.

Treasury and state banking regulators say banks have flagged billions of dollars in suspicious transactions involving U.S. shell companies in recent years. On June 10, a federal judge in Oregon ordered a company registered there to pay $60 million for defrauding a Ukrainian government agency through sham transactions involving shell companies. The civil lawsuit described a network of U.S.registered shells connected to fraud in Eastern Europe and Afghanistan.

A growing niche in the shell business is shelf corporations. Like paper-only shells, which enable the secrecy-minded to hide real ownership of assets, shelf companies are set up by firms like Wyoming Corporate Services, then left “on the shelf” to season for years.

They’re then sold later to owners looking for a quick way to secure bank loans, bid on contracts, and project

Ukrainian businessman Gennady Korban, close to billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky, is considered by Reuters news agency to be a rival of former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko.

financial stability. To speed up business activity, shelf corporations can often be purchased with established bank accounts, credit histories and tax returns filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

“They just slot in your names, and you walk away with the company.

Presto!” says Daniel E. Karson, executive managing director at investigative firm Kroll Inc. “The purpose is to conceal ownership.”

On its website, Wyoming Corporate Services currently lists more than 700 shelf companies for sale in 37 states.

The older they are, the more expensive, like Scotch whisky. Brookside Management Inc., formed in December 2004, sells for $5,995, while Knotty Management LLC, formed in May, costs just $645. In Delaware, incorporator Harvard Business Services markets First Family LLC, created in May 1997, for $10,000.

New laws require companies to have a physical presence in the state through an owner or a registered agent, and make it a felony to submit false filings.

Wyoming Corporate Services is run

by Gerald Pitts, its 54-year-old founder and president. On paper, he is a prolific

businessman. Incorporation data provided by Westlaw, a unit of Thomson Reuters, show that Pitts is listed as a director, president or principal for at least 41 companies registered at 2710 Thomes Avenue.

Another 248 firms name Edge Financial Inc., another incorporation service, as their “manager.” Gerald Pitts is the president of Edge Financial, according to records on file with the Wyoming secretary of state’s office.

Companies registered at 2710 Thomes Avenue have been named in a dozen civil lawsuits alleging unpaid taxes, securities fraud and trademark infringement since 2007, a review of Westlaw data shows. State and federal tax authorities have filed liens against companies registered at the address seeking to collect more than $300,000 in unpaid taxes, according to Westlaw.

Pitts says Wyoming Corporate Services fully complies with the law and doesn’t have any knowledge of how clients use the companies he registers. “However, we recognize that business entities (whether aged, shell or traditional) may be used for both good and ill,” Pitts wrote in an email to Reuters. “WCS will always cooperate with law enforcement agencies who request information or assistance.

WCS does not provide any product or service with the intent that it be used to violate the law.”

Ukraine connection Gerald Pitts and his own incorporation firms have never been sued or sanctioned, according to federal and state court records. Wyoming officials said Wyoming Corporate Services operates legally. “If they do it by cubby holes and they are really representing each person, they meet the law,” said Patricia O’Brien, Wyoming’s Deputy Secretary of State.

But clients of his have run into trouble.

Linked to 2710 Thomes is former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, who was once ranked the eighth-most corrupt official in the world by watchdog group Transparency International. He is now serv- Æ9

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US shell firms tied to jailed ex-leader Pavlo Lazarenko Æ8 ing an eight-year jail term in California for a 2004 conviction on money-laundering and extortion charges. According to court records, that scheme used shell companies and offshore bank accounts to hide stolen Ukrainian government funds.

Court records submitted in Lazarenko’s criminal case and documents from a separate civil lawsuit, as well as interviews with lawyers familiar with the matter, indicate Lazarenko controls a shelf company incorporated in Cheyenne that owns an estimated $72 million in real estate in Ukraine through other companies. The U.S. government continues to seek more than $250 million from bank accounts in Antigua, Barbuda, Guernsey and other countries that it says were controlled by Lazarenko and his associates, according to a forfeiture action filed by the Department of Justice.

The paper trail linking Lazarenko to the real estate in Ukraine is labyrinthine. At the heart of it is a shelf company called Capital Investments Group, registered at 2710 Thomes Avenue.

U.S. lawyers for a Ukrainian businessman named Gennady Korban submitted documents claiming that Lazarenko is the true owner of Capital Investments Group and other U.S. companies. Lazarenko and Korban are rivals in Ukraine, and for years have traded allegations of corruption and assassination. An organization chart accompanying Korban’s submission alleges Capital Investments Group owns 99.99 percent of a Ukrainian firm called OOO Capital Investments Group. That company, the chart claims, is the owner of another company, OOO Ukrainsky Tyutyun, where Pavlo Lazarenko is a director. Each of the firms and several others are used as corporate fronts to control properties in Ukraine, the filing alleges.

Seven properties are named in the 2009 filing by Korban, including 55 Pushkin Street and 58 Komsomolskaya Street. The dossier on Capital Investments Group claims that other directors of the alleged front companies include Lazarenko’s wife, son and mother-in-law.

Federal prosecutors successfully urged the court in late 2009 to disregard Korban’s submissions, arguing that it would take too much time to vet his account and thus delay his resentencing after a lengthy appeal. A few months later, in February 2010, Capital Investments Group sued Korban and others in federal court in Delaware.

That lawsuit claims two properties in the Ukraine controlled by Capital Investments Group – 55 Pushkin and 58 Komsomolskaya Streets – were stolen from it using forged documents.

The lawsuit says Capital Investments was formed in September 2005. It is registered at 2710 Thomes Avenue, and Gerald Pitts, the court documents say, is “President, Secretary, Chairman and director.” But Capital Investments Group doesn’t disclose the name of its owners. Daniel Horowitz and Martin Garbus, attorneys for the company, have represented Pavlo Lazarenko in other U.S. and Ukrainian litigation.

They declined to provide the owners’ names, citing client confidentiality, and wouldn’t comment on Lazarenko’s links to CIG. The U.S. Attorney’s office in San

Business 9

July 1, 2011

Æ U.S. continues to seek more than $250 million from Lazarenko’s offshore accounts; some allege his Wyoming firm controls $72 million Francisco declined to comment. Asked about his association with Lazarenko and Capital Investments Group, Gerald Pitts declined to provide information on specific clients. Pitts said he is aware of the Delaware lawsuit and “is cooperating fully with authorities in the matter.”

American loopholes The loopholes in U.S. disclosure of bank-account and shell-company ownership have drawn fire.

The U.S. was declared “non-compliant” in four out of 40 categories monitored by the Financial Action Task Force, an international group fighting money laundering and terrorism finance, in a 2006 evaluation report, its most recent. Two of those ratings relate to scant information collected on the owners of corporations. The task force named Wyoming, Nevada and Delaware as secrecy havens. Only three states – Alaska, Arizona and Montana – require regular disclosure of corporate shareholders in some form, according to the 2009 report by the National Association of Secretaries of State.

Some lawmakers want tighter rules.

Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s Permanent Subcommittee for Investigations, has introduced the Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act each year since 2008. The bill would require states to obtain and update information about the real owners of companies, and impose civil and criminal sanctions for filing false information.

“Criminals use U.S. shell companies to commit financial fraud, drug trafficking, even terrorist financing, in part because our states don’t require anyone to name the owners of the companies they form,” Levin said in an email to Reuters. The bill has been beaten back by a coalition of state officials and business groups, citing concerns about the cost of implementing the new law and federal government infringement on state incorporation rights.

A leading opponent is the National Association of Secretaries of State.

Kay Stimson, a spokeswoman, said in an email that the Levin bill “would have placed new burdens upon states and legitimate, law-abiding businessesmany of which are struggling to stay afloat during these difficult financial times-while continuing to provide lawbreakers with the means to evade the law.”

An aide for Levin said the bill is expected to be re-introduced soon. The new bill will add provisions requiring incorporation agents who sell shelf companies to provide beneficial owner

data, said a Senate aide familiar with it.

Cat and mouse Shell companies remain a headache for law-enforcement authorities. Officials say court-ordered subpoenas served on incorporators of shell and shelf corporations generally do deliver the names of the real owners hiding behind nominees. But if the owners are not U.S. citizens or companies, the investigation often hits a dead-end, they say.

There are additional hurdles.

Wyoming Corporate Services charges $2,500 per year to supply an attorney who can provide an extra shield.

Cheyenne attorney Graham Norris Jr. tells prospective clients sent to him by WCS that he will create a company on their behalf. That way, he says, he can invoke attorney-client privilege-adding a layer of privacy anytime there is an inquiry about their identities.

“When you do need to contact Wyoming Corporate Services, you may do so through me,” advises a June 13 “Dear Client” letter supplied by Norris to Reuters. “If you contact them directly, there is a greater risk they may disclose that information in response to a subpoena; remember there is no privilege with Wyoming Corporate Services, only with your attorney.”

For a fee, clients can request that Norris file a motion to quash any subpoena, the letter says. It warns that in cases where fraud or criminal conduct is alleged, a court might order Norris to name the owners. Still, after any inquiry about identity, the letter says, Norris must inform the client-and “I must also decline to answer the inquiry.”

Investigators say they are sometimes loath to use subpoenas for the very reason highlighted in Norris’ letter-fear of tipping off targets. “In the initial stages of investigation, when we encounter a domestic shell corporation, we know we can’t subpoena the company that sold the corporation to the end users, because we don’t want the target to find out they are being investigated,” says FTC attorney James Davis.

Other U.S. agencies raise similar complaints about shells. The 2006 U.S. Money Laundering Threat Assessment, prepared by 16 federal agencies, devotes a chapter to the ways U.S. shell companies can be attractive vehicles to hide ill-gotten funds. It includes a chart to show why money launderers might like to create shells in Wyoming, Nevada or Delaware, which offer the highest levels of corporate anonymity.

The information in the chart is credited to the website of a firm called Corporations Today-an incorporation service run by Gerald Pitts in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

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KATHERINE YEGOROVA The situation is the same for all kind of Head of Competitive Law services – a customer tries to find the most Department preferable and optimal combination of price and quality of legal services. The question is : Can highly priced services guarantee high quality?

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Are there any direct links between price and quality of legal services on the Ukrainian legal market?

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The main factors which can indicate quality of law companies’ services - is it price, staff/partners or a successful company’s profile, etc.?

The national market of legal services is overcrowded by various law companies that provide different offers. The main problem is to choose a right one. Law companies can appear and disappear at the same moment without control and response. However, the work of them is really important for a customer and could have many further consequences.

Everybody understands that a well-known name is more often a good job of a PR manager first of all and only then results of the lawyers’ work. There are many companies that have high prices without background. That is why we should take into account that companies are usually evaluated by its specialists and their profiles. Nowadays we always try to collect recommendations and only then give the case to a direct specialist not a company.

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One problem is to find a good and qualified specialist and absolutely another is to get a guarantee from a specialist. All businesses that are running in Ukraine are adapted for current changeable conditions, namely political, economic and social. There are too many conflicts of laws in various spheres of the Ukrainian legislation that create impossibility to give a guarantee for a customer for achieving any result.

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10 Business Focus

www.kyivpost.com

July 1, 2011

Special news coverage ahead on the following topics in Business Focus: July 22 Ukraine’s Energy Challenges

August 26 Education in Ukraine and adroad

September 9 Top Law firms

September 23 Top 100 companies in Ukraine

Ukraine’s ‘top lawyers’ can be worth knowing K Y I V P O S T S TA F F

Whether you’re a small businessperson, big foreign investor, oligarch, diplomat, gumshoe journalist or average citizen, getting to know the top commercial lawyers in Ukraine can come in handy.

Why? Because these intelligent, educated and well-informed individuals have some of the best insights into what is happening in Ukraine and how to get things done.

They know the country’s muddled laws inside out and how favoritism works in courts. As a result, they know best how to swim successfully in the murky waters of this nation’s very untrustworthy judicial system.

They know best how to protect investments, open closed doors, seal deals, get permits and pay taxes. They know what lawmakers are up to when they adopt legislation that stifles competition or fuels corruption. They know what law changes are needed to fix the country. The list goes on.

In servicing foreign investors – big and small – they help bring fresh blood into Ukraine’s economy and know best of all what legislative hurdles are keeping badly needed foreign direct investment out. In servicing domestic oligarchs and their companies, they know what is happening – and far too often choking – Ukraine’s heavily monopo-

Æ Kyiv Post received responses from 27 firms and got 50 nominations lized and politicized economy.

“Lawyers do get in on a lot of information,” said Oleh Malskyy, a partner at Kyiv-based AstapovLawyers. “It adds a lot to understanding of what’s going on in the country.”

Ukraine is not an easy place to do business. Mitigating risks is more than wise. Getting out of trouble when it arises is a matter of survival.

When it comes to the best of Ukrainian lawyers, sources say they work hard and long hours, but get rewarded well. Ukraine’s top lawyers can earn millions of dollars annually, enough to retire on after a few years of grueling work, insiders said.

“The minimum annual income that qualifies you as a top lawyer would be somewhere at $2 million,” said Malskyy. “This is approximately what a leading Ukrainian law firm would pay a partner for a successful year.”

According to Malskyy, lawyers at international law firms typically charge the highest rates for their work, with the top end at $850 or so per hour.

Hiring junior lawyers at the same firm

can cost three times less.

“The difference between the monthly salaries of beginner lawyers and a top partner can be between 100 to 1,000 times, [with the] beginner at a starting salary of $1,000-2,000 per month,” said Serhiy Chorny, managing partner in Kyiv for international legal services giant Baker & McKenzie.

Some of Ukraine’s top lawyers are actually born abroad. Foreign lawyers often play a vital role in bringing their valued expertise to Ukraine. Many of them also go out of their way to lobby reforms in the country with domestic officials and abroad.

The majority of Ukraine’s top lawyers are Soviet-born, but Western-educated.

As a result, they stand out in terms of experience, know-how and world views from the older generation. They see and understand how far Ukraine has come since its oppressive past and how far it has yet to go before attaining European or American standards.

Some high-profile Ukrainian lawyers – such as Serhiy Vlasenko and Oleg Riabokon -- both formerly of

Kyiv-based Magisters law group – have in recent years made the leap into Ukrainian politics. If more follow suit soon, some think Ukraine could stand a better chance of improving its governance.

“It would be really great to get into parliament and work there on improving the legislation,” said Chorny. “I think any normal lawyer would want to do it. You feel there is an opportunity to do it, and you really know how.”

So, who are the top Ukrainian lawyers?

Choosing the top 10 or top 50 commercial lawyers is not an easy task.

In reality, there are likely hundreds of lawyers in Ukraine that are at the top of their game. Some excel in one area. Others are versatile. Others may not know Ukraine’s laws so well, but are creative in finding solutions. Others are simply superb and inspirational managers.

Here is how the Kyiv Post conducted this survey: We asked more than 70 top commercial law firms to nominate three of the nation’s top lawyers, giving them a ranking from 1 to 3; nominations of in-house lawyers were forbidden. Three points were awarded for first place, two for second and one for third.

We received 27 responses and nearly 50 nominations of lawyers. Twelve lawyers stood out from the crowd, each receiving more than four points.

October 7 International Accounting Firms

Businesses that participated in Kyiv Post vote for top lawyer • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Arzinger AS Consulting Asters Avellum Partners Baker & McKenzie-CIS B C Toms & Co Beiten Burkhardt Chadbourne & Parke Clifford Chance CMS Cameron McKenna DLA Piper Ukraine Ernst & Young Gvozdiy & Oberkovych Law Firm Ilyashev & Partners International Law Firm Integrites KPMG LCF Law Group Magisters Misechko and Partners Noerr TOV Orlov, Mikhailenko & Partners Pavlenko & Poberezhnyuk Law Group PwC Salans Salkom Law Firm Sayenko Kharenko Schoenherr

www.kyivpost.com

Business Focus 11

July 1, 2011

Michael KHARENKO

Olexander MARTINENKO

Sayenko Kharenko, partner

CMS Cameron McKenna, senior partner Michael Kharenko is known as a master lawyer when it comes to cross-border transactions and international financing. In terms of his record, numbers speak louder than words.

According to the data provided by mergermarket.com, a Financial Times group publication that specializes in analyzing the mergers and acquisitions market, the Sayenko Kharenko law firm is listed among the top three Ukrainian legal advisors having closed deals involving Ukrainian assets worth almost $6 billion.

This result makes Sayenko Kharenko the top Ukrainianowned mergers and acquisitions specialist. The only two law firms which managed to close higher in terms of the value of Ukrainerelated M&A deals advised on are Baker & McKenzie and Allen & Overy, both big international law firms.

Ukrainian-born Kharenko, who co-founded Sayenko Kharenko in 2004, advised on some of the biggest M&A deals in Ukraine’s history.

He helped restructure foreign borrowings by some of Ukraine’s biggest state companies: fixedline telephone monopoly Ukrtelecom (recently privatized), railway company Ukrzaliznytsia, oil and gas company Naftogaz and roadways company Ukravtodor. Kharenko has also worked on big initial public offerings on foreign exchanges by private Ukrainian companies, including real estate developers KDD Group and TMM, top domestic poultry producer MHP, as well as hydrocarbon producer Cadogan Petroleum.

Kharenko was also behind the first ever hryvniadenominated eurobond issued by a Ukrainian bank (a more than Hr 2 billion issue by state bank Ukreximbank in February). It was intended to

11

points

Harvard Law School graduate Olexander Martinenko is praised by colleagues for his exceptional knowledge of merger and acquisition law as well as extensive knowledge of Ukrainian corporate law. He joined CMS Cameron McKenna in 2007 after spending the prior 15 years at the Kyiv offices of Baker & McKenzie, first as an associate and later as a partner.

Martinenko leads CMS Cameron McKenna’s oil, gas and natural resources practice. It is considered one of the toughest and murkiest, yet most lucrative areas of Ukraine’s economy to work in. The sector is heavily controlled by a small group of Ukraine’s most powerful businessmen and politicians. As a rule, foreign investors are not given the green light to enter this market. When they do, they need the best legal advice they can get.

All this makes Martinenko’s job a lot tougher. For the last 15 years, he has represented a leading international oil and gas company looking for opportunities. Knocking on Ukraine’s doors has taken much longer than expected, but Martinenko points says the government has finally realized the danger in neglecting the development of Ukraine’s own oil and gas base. He expects Ukraine to open up its underdeveloped energy sector to the world’s top investors soon, betting that they can help boost domestic energy production and, in turn, reducing the nation’s dependency on expensive Russian fuel imports.

Overall, Martinenko seems to have no illusions about the tough legal environment he is working in. To him, Ukraine is simply not a rule-of-law country yet, as “law-making and law-enforcement procedures in this country are widely selective and subject to various manipulations by power

10

mitigate the risks of currency fluctuations.

Being an authority on M&A transactions, Kharenko says that one of the most important after-effects of the 2008-2009 global economic crisis on Ukraine is that transactions are getting increasingly sophisticated, complex and speedy. In Kharenko’s view, this is one the main challenges for the lawyers working in this area today.

“The buyers as well as the sellers want to complete deals fast. The lawyers do not have nearly as much time for thorough due diligence and assessment of risks as they used to,” Kharenko says. “It’s important to engage lawyers who have enough experience and sound judgment to compensate for the lack of time.”

Having established the first foreign law firm in Ukraine - we continue to establish the highest standards

holders and executors.” As for widespread corruption – one of Ukraine’s biggest challenges – Martinenko simply sees no “honest will to combat it” on behalf of the government.

Taking such obvious setbacks aside, some parts of Ukrainian legislation continue to puzzle Martinenko. He cannot help but notice massive contradictions which persist in Ukraine’s Civil and Commercial Codes.

“They are at complete odds with each other.

Yet they were passed by the Verkhovna Rada and became effective on the same date,” Martinenko said.

B. C. TOMS & CO Attorneys and Counselors at Law

Please contact us at:

1 /1 Prorizna Stree Kyi T: +38

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, Ukraine 44) 490 6000

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12 Business Focus Vasil KISIL

www.kyivpost.com

Serhiy CHORNY

Vasil Kisil and Partners, senior partner Generally referred to by colleagues as the legend of Ukraine’s legal community, Vasil Kisil is credited as the man who brought McDonalds to Ukraine. But to understand how this story unraveled, ultimately leading to the establishment of his prominent law firm, you need to get a glimpse into Kisil’s life in Soviet Ukraine.

De facto, the roots of Kisil’s law practice trace back to the mid-1980s when he, a law student at Kyiv’s Shevchenko University, set up a student club for the indepth study of international private law. Out of this desire to learn more about the Western legal system starts the story of one of Ukraine’s most prominent law firms.

Amazingly, as early as 1982, Kisil wrote his first book called “Foreigners and Soviet Law.” It was followed up in 1987 by another book, the “Legal Status of Foreigners in the USSR.” Kisil was arguably one of the first Ukrainian lawyers not only to use the term “foreign investment,” but also to raise the possibility that Ukraine is not exactly a safe haven for it. The issue was raised prominently in his 1994 book involving the protection of foreign investments in Ukraine.

Kisil is considered by colleagues to be a leading Ukrainian expert on private international, civil and investment law. Kisil’s work includes his legal advice to McDonalds in the early

July 1, 2011

Baker & McKenzie, managing partner

9

points

The list of major cases that Serhiy Chorny worked on during his 18-year career in Ukraine for Baker & McKenzie, one of the world's top law firms and a major player in Ukraine, is nearly seven pages long.

He has been involved in a significant share of the whopping $8.5 billion worth of Ukraine-related deals that his law firm handled in the last decade, according to mergermarket.com data.

Heading the Banking, Finance and Capital Market department at Baker & McKenzie’s Kyiv office, Chorny works with banks and advises on international capital markets transactions, securities trade and points cross-border leasing deals.

The list of Chorny’s Ukrainian clients includes most, if not all of the country’s most powerful industrial and financial groups. To name just a few, Chorny has advised Metinvest, the mining and steel company owned by richest Ukrainian Rinat Akhmetov on its $1 billion capital markets borrowing. Chorny was also involved in the issue of $500 million worth of Eurobonds by PrivatBank, Ukraine’s largest bank owned by billionaires Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov.

9

Also among Chorny’s clients is Ferrexpo, an iron ore giant owned by billionaire Kostyantyn Zhevago that raised nearly $350 million through an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in 2007.

It remains the largest initial public offering transaction done by a Ukrainian company.

It is all the more surprising that Chorny’s outlook on the legal environment in Ukraine is brutally frank.

In his opinion, all the confusions and contradictions found in the nation’s cumbersome legislation are not there by mistake. To the contrary, Chorny thinks they are imbedded by design to make any dispute dependent on the regulator’s decision rather than the law itself.

“One could say: why do you complain? Such legal mess creates an ocean of opportunities, as the lawyers become indispensible in helping the businesses out,” Chorny said.

“But better-quality laws would permit lawyers to concentrate on helping their clients with really complex cases, rather than to waste hundreds of hours and their clients’ money in struggles over a sensible interpretation of non-sensible normative texts.”

Oleksiy DIDKOVSKIY Asters, managing partner 1990s, when the fast food giant entered the market. International chemicals powerhouse Du Pont has also turned to Kisil on Ukraine-related matters.

Kisil is no longer a practicing lawyer.

He devotes most of his time to teaching and scientific work. He is also a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, an intergovernmental organization established to assist arbitration and other forms of dispute resolution between states.

But clearly he still has the respect of the legal community contacted by the Kyiv Post, which voted him in as one of the top Ukrainian lawyers.

While no one doubts Oleksiy Didkovskiy’s achievements in areas such as mergers and acquisitions, corporate law, litigation, arbitration and insurance, some of his colleagues believe he excels the most in telecommunications.

Didkovskiy was involved in one of the most famous legal battles in Ukraine’s history. That happened when Norway’s Telenor and Moscow-based Alfa Group couldn’t come to an agreement on how to develop their telecommunications assets in Ukraine. Both companies owned shares in Kyivstar, the country’s leading mobile operator and Ukrainian Radio Systems.

The peaceful agreement, which was reached in 2010, involved an asset swap points and united their telecom interests in the region under Vimpelcom. This solution marked an end to a years-long battle which involved lengthy litigation, damaging PR campaigns and the blocking of shareholder meetings.

8

Serhiy PIONTKOVSKY Baker & McKenzie, managing partner Being one of the country’s main legal experts on heavy industries, such as energy, chemicals, mining and infrastructure, Harvard Law School graduate Serhiy Piontkovsky was part of the single biggest mergers and acquisitions deal in Ukraine’s history.

Piontkovsky was an adviser to the world’s largest steelproducing company, MittalSteel (now ArcelorMittal), in the privatization tender on Kryvorizhstal, Ukraine’s largest steel mill. This 2005 tender was not only the biggest privatization ever to take place in Ukraine, as the steel mill was sold for a whopping $4.8 billion, but is also referred to as Ukraine’s only open and transparent sale of state property.

Had Piontkovsky quit law after this transaction alone, his career would be considered complete by many. But six years on, Piontkovsky is still at it, taking on the most challenging legal cases.

To name just a few, Piontkovsky is involved in advising on the pioneer project of building Ukraine’s first concession road, with roads being one of the country’s most problematic and underdeveloped areas. He has also taken on a project advising several potential strategic investors from the United States and Europe in connection with the pending privatization of regional energy distributors. To put it mildly, most of the experts do not expect that this upcoming privatization will be a model of openness and transparency like the one of Kryvorizhstal, due to the potential interest of the country’s main industrial and financial groups.

They are allergic to competition and use their influence over politicians to keep outsiders out.

Piontkovsky is also known for advising the U.S. government on the acquisition of the land plot for the new U.S. Embassy compound in Kyiv in a $5 million deal. While it may sound like an easy job compared to his other projects, this deal is the first ever land acquisition by a foreign state in Ukraine, which means that Piontkovsky, for at least the second time since Kryvorizhstal, has made history.

7

points

The solution is arguably among the most brilliant examples of corporate-dispute resolution and Didkovskiy, who advised Telenor, deserves credit for his role.

His experience is not limited to telecommunications alone, as among his key deals is advising the world’s largest supplier of industrial diamonds, Element Six (a De Beers Group company), on the acquisitions of Poltava Diamond Plant.

Being deep in the mix of everything from telecommunications, diamonds to the insurance business, has gained valuable experience, personal wealth and insight for Didkovskiy. Now, he says, it is time to give back to the society that made his success possible through pro bono work.

“It’s high time for the legal community to start investing time and energy into educating society,” Didkovskiy says. “Ukrainians should learn their rights, not only obligations put on them by the state.”

Adam MYCYK CMS Cameron McKenna, managing partner One colleague who named Adam Mycyk as his favorite lawyer in the Kyiv Post Top Lawyers survey praised his sharp mind, explaining that he “quickly understands a problem and implements some ingenious approaches to problem resolution.”

Mycyk joined CMS Cameron McKenna in Ukraine in 2007 after spending four years with Chadbourne & Parke. Overall, this Ukrainian-American has points more than 15 years of experience working in Ukraine. He has counseled multinationals and other foreign clients on privatizations, mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures with Ukrainian partners.

Mycyk’s main area of counsel is complex, cross-border commercial and financing transactions. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that, in Ukraine’s realities, any such deal requires no less than a heroic deed on behalf of a lawyer.

One of the most challenging and complex deals Mycyk has worked on was the 2010 purchase by food giant Nestle of Kharkiv-based Technocom, a leading Ukrainian producer of instant noodles sold under the popular Mivina brand. This was the first big acquisition in Ukraine after the 2008-2009 financial crisis, which hit Ukraine hard and froze many plans for mergers and acquisitions. Its successful closure, for which Mycyk can be credited, signaled to the market that Ukraine was coming out of the crisis.

Speaking about other deals, Mycyk points out that he especially enjoys working with clients who are first timers on international transactions. “The role we play as a lawyer often expands into more of a commercial rather than legal adviser,” he said.

Working in Ukraine’s rough-and-tough legal environment, where one obvious drawback is widespread lack of respect for the rule of law, can be difficult for Americaneducated and born lawyers. But the CMS managing partner said there is always a bright side.

“Foreigners are often treated a bit better than their Ukrainian colleagues,” he said.

7

www.kyivpost.com

Business Focus 13

July 1, 2011

Vadym POPKO

Artem STOYANOV

Popko Brothers & Partners, managing partner Vadym Popko, who turns 30 this year, is the youngest person on the Kyiv Post’s top commercial lawyers list. Getting such high acclaim from colleagues at such a young age is, in itself, a big achievement. Even more startling is that Popko received his formal certificate from Ukrainian regulators to practice as a lawyer only two years ago.

Considered a specialist in corporate law, banking and litigation, Popko in many ways serves as a role model even to many of his more seasoned colleagues.

He claims to be very selective in the cases he takes on. Popko considers his main challenge as deciding which cases to take on, rather than Ukraine’s notoriously tough legal environment.

“There are those situations when the client is not right, but really wants to win,” Popko explains. “We have the following principle: Our client is always

LCF Law Group, managing partner

6

points right. And if he is not, this is not our client.”

As the youngest lawyer on this year’s Kyiv Post top commercial lawyers list, Popoko is clearly still idealistic in a profession filled with hired guns who believe that everyone and every business – whether they are right or wrong – should get the best possible representation that money can buy.

Jaroslawa JOHNSON Chadbourne & Parke, managing partner “The principal challenge of being a lawyer in Ukraine is regrettably not much different than it was 19 years ago when I started the Kyiv office,” admits Jaroslawa Johnson, a Ukrainian-American. “This challenge is advising international investors on the basis of underdeveloped and constantly changing laws.”

Johnson, whose specialty is crossborder transactions in developed countries and emerging markets of the former Soviet Union, points out that over the course of her international legal experience that spans over two decades, she worked in many countries where her advice to clients was very straightforward, just as the local laws are. Ukraine, in her experience, is anything but straightforward.

“Lawyers often have to design unique and complicated structures to make transactions work,” she said.

And it seems from her Ukrainian experiences that Johnson does know a great deal about unique and complicated structures necessary to make things work in Ukraine. Her story on the acquisition of a chocolate factory in Sumy Oblast on behalf of Kraft Foods in 1995 is more fit for an action movie plot than a routine M&A transaction.

As Johnson recalls, the closure was to take place in February. But on that particular snowy day, the snow was so heavy that getting from Kyiv to Sumy was impossible. Therefore, the buyers

When asked to describe his job in one sentence, Artem Stoyanov did it figuratively.

To him this is all about a bunch of papers he is given every day, while his task is to structure this chaos in the most favorable way for his client.

As one may have guessed, Stoyanov’s main area of specialization is litigation on tax-related matters, arguably one of the toughest areas of Ukrainian legislation. In addition, Stoyanov takes on land-related cases, bankruptcies and works on implementing court decisions.

As he observes, these are the areas in highest demand on the legal services market. After the financial crisis, which led to serious liquidity problems among many Ukrainian companies, lawsuits between banks and borrowers are on the rise.

Similarly, the problems with filling up the state budget coffers led to a dramatic increase in tax pressure on businesses – hence a similarly significant increase in the number of court cases on tax issues.

Stoyanov’s recipe for becoming successful with the company he started in 2009 is to concentrate on taxes and bankruptcies.

Given that Ukraine’s tax and bankruptcy laws are among the most difficult and cumbersome in the world, and this situation is not likely to change drastically in the foreseeable future, Stoyanov is likely to enjoy a stable and sustainable demand for his services.

5

points

Jared Grubb Clifford Chance, managing partner

6

points had to lease a Soviet-built Antonov 24 turbo prop aircraft to transport the buyers’ team to Sumy, where they managed to land only on a second attempt in the middle of a snow-covered airfield. Yet, as they arrived to the factory, it turned out that closing the deal was impossible.

“Our client decided to bring a check drawn on a Swiss bank, which no banker in Sumy has ever seen, rather than bringing a stash of cash as we advised,” recalls Johnson. “So, we returned to Kyiv on the same day and closed the deal at the then new Credit Lyonnais Bank, which provided the necessary cash.”

No doubt that this and a string of similar adventurous experiences in the early 1990s gave Johnson a unique insight of the Ukrainian market, which along with the Western training and mindset, in her colleagues’ opinion, has earned her a place among the country’s best lawyers.

New Zealand-native Jared Grubb specializes in cross-border finance, including debt restructuring, syndicated lending, acquisitions and project finance.

Grubb joined Clifford Chance’s Kyiv office in 2009 after working in Moscow. Being a relative newcomer to the country, colleagues say the benefits from using his fresh outlook on Ukraine to benefit of clients.

Many of his Ukrainian lawyer colleagues and expat old-timers tend to be overly pessimistic about Ukraine’s chances of rapidly reforming itself into a modern business friendly economy. Yet, in Grubb’s view, the country’s chances of winning or losing its battle with corruption are more or less equal.

“Ukraine is at the crossroads,” Grubb says. “It can either become a country in which the rule of law matters and provides protection and an even playing field for its citizens points and investors or into a country riddled with bureaucracy and corruption criminals can flourish.” without any rule of law and in which Until that crossroads is passed,

5

Grubb is very excited about the quality and complexity of legal work that Ukraine has to offer, especially in loan restructuring.

Grubb recently advised the lending side in a debt restructuring situation where the borrower was one of Ukraine’s largest and most influential business conglomerates.

The transaction involved nine jurisdictions, over 80 different facilities and 60 lenders, making it one of the most complex restructuring deals on the market.

Yet, not being content just with doing his job, no matter how exciting it may be, Grubb also feels that changing things for better in the country is also to a large extent up to the lawyers.

“The main challenge is to fight to create a system where there is a level playing field, where there is a rule of law which people can fall back on with confidence that their legitimate rights will be protected and where they will be free from tyranny,” says Grubb.

Advertisement

10 years of Investment Arbitration under Energy Charter Treaty

T

he energy market of Ukraine is on the threshold of a full-scale reform which, in combination with forthcoming privatization of the energy generating companies, may encourage Igor Siusel foreign investments in this sector.

Associate Partner Protection of these investments by the state, as well as the efficient mechanism of impartial resolution of disputes relating to this activity, is one of the key elements of steady growth and development of the Ukrainian energy market. In the interview below, Igor Siusel, Associate Partner at Lavrynovych & Partners International Law Firm, highlights the main achievements and trends of the ECT arbitration.

- In April 2011 the ECT Arbitration celebrated its 10th anniversary. What are the main achievements and trends of the ECT arbitration?

- The ECT provides comprehensive legal protection for economic activity and investments in the energy sector based on the principles of non-discrimination and national treatment or most-favoured-nation treatment (whichever is more favourable), as well as efficient dispute settlement procedures.

Should an investor’s rights under the ECT be violated, the investor may submit the dispute for resolution by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), an ad hoc arbitration tribunal established under the Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law,

or the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC).

Since 2001 a total of 29 cases have been commenced under the ECT, 14 of which are still pending. Most of the disputes have arisen in the context of activities associated with electric power generation and sale and oil and gas exploration and production (including storage and transportation).

Consideration of five out of the 15 concluded cases resulted in their settlement, and three cases were resolved in the investor’s favour, which is very promising for investors seeking protection under the ECT. The ECT seems to be a more preferable investment protection than a bilateral investment treaty (BIT), because a great many BITs, which are currently in force between ECT member states, provide for a limited right to arbitration for compensation in case of expropriation.

- We noted that an investor may choose between three arbitration options. Which of these options are most preferred by investors?

- In the context of ECT arbitrations, the ICSID was chosen in 17 out of 29 cases. But although the ICSID is the dominant institution, the SCC is a strong runner-up with its 7 ECT cases.

- Who are the parties to ECT investment arbitrations?

- Investors involved in ECT investment arbitrations are mainly Western European and European subsidiaries of US and Canadian companies. Dutch and Cypriot investors, represented mostly by trusts or holding com-

panies, as well as private investors, are also involved in ECT arbitrations.

ECT arbitrations have been mainly commenced against Eastern European states, including Ukraine, and Central Asian states.

- What are the amounts claimed in ECT cases?

- Amounts claimed in ECT cases range from the relatively small amount of USD 2.5 million to the exceptional amount of USD 100 billion. The latter is the highest amount ever claimed in investment treaty cases, and as such it shows the enormous values that may be at stake in energy investments.

- What are the costs incurred by investors in ECT arbitrations?

- Investors’ costs in ECT arbitrations consist mainly of arbitration costs and legal costs and may amount in aggregate to several million US dollars.

- What are the time frames for consideration of investment disputes under the ECT? - Consideration of ECT investment disputes by the SCC may take about two years and a half, while the ICSID may consider ECT investment disputes during some three years and a half.

- Ukraine was a party to one of the investment arbitrations under the ECT and is now involved in another arbitration as the respondent. What are your expectations regarding a possible surge in the number of arbitrations against Ukraine, especially following the privatization of state-owned power

generating companies?

- Since the Ukrainian energy market is overregulated, the privatization of state-owned power generating companies with the participation of foreign investors and the subsequent deregulation of this market may potentially lead to an increase in arbitrations against Ukraine under the ECT.

Igor Siusel is Associate Partner at International Law Firm Lavrynovych & Partners. With over 12 years of experience in international arbitration and dispute resolution, Igor advises national and multinational corporations on domestic and international transactions. Igor practiced law at Baker & McKenzie, Ukrainian Law Firm Paritet, Oranta National Joint Stock Insurance Company and the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine. He holds an Attorney’s Bar Certificate and a Master’s degree in International Private Law and in International Economic Relations from the Institute of International Relations of the Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University.

International Law Firm Lavrynovych & Partners is recognized by PLC Which Lawyer, Who Is Who Legal CIS, Getting The Deal Through, and other professional directories as one of the Top 10 Ukrainian law firms. Lavrynovych & Partners has offices in Kiev, Odessa and Chicago.

14/24 Klovsky uzviz, office 101 01021 Kyiv Ukraine tel.: +38 0444942727 web.:www. Lp.ua

14 Business Focus Oleg Makarov Vasil Kisil and Partners, managing partner Oleg Makarov has been a partner with Vasil Kisil since the establishment of the company in 1992, and when its founder, Vasil Kisil, decided to quit active practice in 2007, he became the firm’s managing partner.

For the last 20 years, Makarov has been a litigation lawyer, mainly specializing in cases dealing with taxation, property and corporate law.

Amazingly, being a regular in Ukraine’s courtrooms, Makarov seems to have very little to complain about, when it comes to the country’s notoriously non-transparent judiciary.

It seems that he has learned the tricks of the trade so well that he seems to feel at home even in the most hostile of courtroom surroundings.

As Makarov explains, gone are the times when individual lawyers would win cases only through their eloquence in presenting their argument. Nowadays, he says, the cases are simply too complex to be handled by individual star lawyers with great charisma. Instead, many require the input of entire legal teams.

The team’s ability to think logically, get into the smallest details of every case they work on and foresee the way

RACHKEVYCH@KYIVPOST.COM

4

things will develop in court seems to be Makarov’s recipe for success.

Interestingly, Makarov categorically discounts the old cliché of comparing a legal case with a game of chess. For him, this analogy is just way too narrow to be accurate.

“When you have an opportunity to make a check, you don’t always make a check,” Makarov says. “Your task is to win, not just to make an offense advance.”

Honorable Mention Nominees who received between one and three points, listed alphabetically Name

Company

Oleg Alyoshin

Vasil Kisil & Partners

Volodymyr Baibarza

Baibarza Fedichin

Vadym Belyanevych

Vasil Kisil & Partners

Yuriy Chumak

Lexfor

Anatoliy Dovgert

independent

Michael Doubinsky

Doubinsky & Osharova

Oleksiy Filatov

Vasil Kisil & Partners

Olyana Gordiyenko

Baker & McKenzie

Pavlo Kazymirov

Renaissance Capital

Armen Khachaturyan

Asters

Margarita Karpenko

DLA Piper Ukraine

Andrei Kolupaev

Lexwell & Partners

Sergei Konnov

Konnov & Sozanovsky

Sergii Koziakov

Sergii Koziakov & Partners

Andriy Kravets

Andriy Kravets & Partners

Tatyana Kuzmenko

AstapovLawyers

Andrey Lysenko

Philip Morris Ukraine

Denis Lysenko

Vasil Kisil & Partners

Iryna Marushko

Lavrynovych & Partners

Oleksiy Melnyk

Melnyk & Partners

Alexander Minin

KM Partners

Andriy Moroz

Lavrynovych & Partners

Yevgen Popko

Popko Brothers & Partners

Alexey Reznikov

Magisters

Volodymyr Ryzhyy

Ryzhyy Legal Bureau

Vladimir Sayenko

Sayenko Kharenko

Yaroslav Simonov

Voropayev & Partners

Mykola Stetsenko

Avellum Partners

Mariya Sukhan

Schoenherr

Dmitry Taranyk

Sayenko Kharenko

Andriy Tsvetkov

AS Consulting

Andriy Vyshnevsky

EnGarge Attorneys at Law

Viacheslav Yakymchuk

Baker & McKenzie

Dmytro Zabigaylo

Horizon Capital

Ilona Zekely

Magisters

www.kyivpost.com

Firms encourage lawyers to do pro bono work for governments, non-profits and low-income people

BY MA RK RACH KEV Y CH

points

July 1, 2011

In a nation where the average monthly salary is $300, not many can afford a lawyer’s hourly rate. This hard fact excludes most Ukrainians from access to legal representation.

Since the majority of people don’t use lawyers for even the most basic of services, many aren’t aware of their legal rights or how to defend them.

Some Ukrainians don’t know how to obtain state subsidies for utilities, apply for alimony payments or how to conduct simple real estate transactions.

Fortunately, the capital’s main legal players realize this. They appear well in tune with the idea of free, or pro bono, work for the neediest people as part of a socially responsible business strategy.

“It’s not hard to organize an event to get the top 50 law firms to provide pro bono activities,” said Valentyn Zagariy, president of the Ukrainian Bar Association.

Zagariy’s 3,000-member organization recently brought together 47 law firms on a Saturday to provide legal services to individuals, civil society organizations and small businesses free of charge.

Bar association member Asters law firm was one of them.

“While we strongly encourage pro bono practice, it’s not compulsory,” said Asters founding partner Oleksiy Didkovskiy. “It’s amazing how many people don’t know what they’re entitled to. So we play a socially vital role by educating the public.”

Didkovskiy estimates that, by the end of the year, his firm will have devoted at least 3 percent of its case load, or roughly 58 hours per lawyer a year, to do pro bono work.

By comparison, the American Bar Association’s ethical rules state that all lawyers must provide a minimum of 50 hours of pro bono legal work and services per year.

Most law firms in Kyiv take a caseby-case approach when evaluating potential pro bono cases, according to Kyiv Post research. The majority of cases involve consultations and evaluating the rights of a person or legal entity. Occasionally cases are more complicated.

Magisters, a Kyiv-headquartered law group which has expanded across the former Soviet Union in recent years, has represented plaintiffs who suffered from the 2006 Elita Center real estate scam in which 1,759 condominium buyers lost an estimated $80 million.

One lawyer at Magisters took on a case dear to him by representing a young girl who burned herself after falling into a manhole filled with hot water.

But most often they provide consulting work to charities, nonprofit organizations such as museums as well as litigating in court, according to Andy Hunder, Magisters’ international business development director in London.

Some are more exacting in how pro bono cases are allocated.

Gvozdiy & Oberkovych law firm does annual pro bono budgeting and assesses targets each year.

Founding partner Serhiy Oberkovych said this approach helps the firm to “structure the nature of the work, set the scope of the pro bono program and provide criteria against which requests

Æ Some guidelines call on lawyers to give 50 hours of free work per year for assistance can be assessed.”

Experts said the pro bono efforts of law firms remain underutilized.

“Pro bono activities exist in Ukraine, but these are often unorganized ad hoc efforts essentially left to the initiative of the individual attorneys. Without a mechanism making the availability of services known to people in need, it is likely that much of the goodwill generated by pro bono work is underutilized,” said Inna Topal, who oversees the U.S.-sponsored Access to Justice Legal Empowerment project.

Currently, 26 law firms, including Konnov & Sozanovskiy, Spenser & Kauffmann, Lavrynovych & Partners, and AstapovLawyers have joined the project to provide various services.

For instance, AstapovLawyers is helping the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

“AstapovLawyers is one of the few, if not the only, company in the Ukrainian market to be developing an independent human rights protection practice,” said Ivan Lishchyna, a senior associate with AstapovLawyers.

If a matter is of broad public concern, or if a case would not be pursued otherwise, then Oberkovych deems it pro bono worthy. The firm also helps non-profit groups and poor people.

Gvozdiy & Oberkovych has helped people obtain services from the government, in real estate and land disputes, or specialized information based on their intervention. The reasons for providing free legal work are as varied as the services firms provide. Many mention altruistic reasons of giving back to society, while others mentioned gaining additional experience in a certain legal field, and some said it was their duty.

“We want to do this. We don’t want people who cannot afford legal services at full price to be denied services,” said Taras Rozputenko, senior associate with Gvozdiy & Oberkovych law firm.

Didkovskiy of Asters believes it makes good business sense and offers a chance to learn new areas of the law.

“We continuously expand our experience and internally build a system of pro bono involvement,” Didkovskiy said of the rewards of doing pro bono.

He also noted that the more educated pro bono clients are, the more return clients his firm receives.

On top of pro bono, law firms promote education and volunteering or donate to charities, among other socially responsible activities.

Magisters, for example, has been working directly with an orphanage

Serhiy Oberkovych, founding partner of Kyiv’s Gvozdiy & Oberkovych law firm, said his firm takes pro bono work seriously enough to budget and assess targets each year.

Andy Hunder of Magisters says his firm has represented citizens who suffered from the 2006 Elita Center scam, in which 1,759 condominium buyers lost an estimated $80 million.

in Kyiv Oblast for years. It has also for years sponsored mock courtroom competitions among law students and has promoted a paperless campaign in all of its offices.

DLA Piper Ukraine also sponsors a contest among law students who win scholarships and spots in all their global offices and has assisted the Eastern European Foundation in writing a guide on public-private partnerships.

Asters helped the International Chamber of Commerce translate the Uniform Rules on Demand Guarantees, one of the most important documents that govern settlements in international trade.

Another law firm, Illyashev&Partners, assessed Kyiv police behavior in the beating of soccer fans in 2007. They did so on behalf of Ukraine’s football federation, a non-profit organization.

It concluded that many police officers behaved illegally.

In terms of legislation, there’s a parliamentary committee working on a pro bono bill that, if passed, would go into force in 2013 and would set up pro bono centers throughout Ukraine operated by the Justice Ministry.

Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at rachkevych@kyivpost. com.

www.kyivpost.com

Business Focus 15

July 1, 2011

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LAW FIRMS Listing is arranged in alphabetical order TEL./FAX

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AMPARO Consulting Group, (in Ukraine since 2008), www.amparo.ua, amparo@amparo.ua, 15 Saksahanskoho Str., off.#10, Kyiv 01033, Ukraine (44) 289-42-42 (44) 289-38-88

Aleksandr Zlenko

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16

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85

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Porsche, Strabag, Schwarzmüller, Bayer AG, Bunge, Henkel, Citibank, Rheinmetall, Vienna Insurance Group, SHARP, etc.

Asters, (in Ukraine since 1995), www.asterslaw.com, info@asterslaw.com, Leonardo Business Center, 19-21 Bohdana Khmelnytskoho Str., Kyiv 01030, Ukraine (44) 230-60-00 (44) 230-60-01

Oleksiy Didkovskiy, Armen Khachaturyan

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Kyiv, Ukraine

100

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Banking & finance, M&A, capital markets, corporate, commercial, competition & antitrust, IP, telecommunications

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Boeing, Coca-Cola, Citibank, EBRD, IFC, ING Bank, GalaxoSmithKline, Nissan Motor, Philip Morris, Telenor, World Bank

Avellum Partners, (in Ukraine since 2009), www.avellum.com, info@avellum.com, Leonardo Business Center, 19-21 Bohdana Khmelnytskoho Str., 11th floor, Kyiv 01030, Ukraine (44) 220-03-35

Mykola Stetsenko

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

23

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English, German

Corporate finance, banking and finance, capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, antitrust/merger control, real estate, tax

USD1 billion MTN Programme of Metinvest; USD313 million sale of Vik Oil to TNK BP; Acquisition of Rise by Ukrlandfarming

Avangard, Credit Suisse, Kernel, MHP, PrivatBank, Rabobank, Renaissance Group, Ukrlandfarming, VTB Capital

Baker & McKenzie – CIS, Limited, (in Ukraine since 1992), www.bakermckenzie.com, kyiv_info@bakermckenzie.com, Renaissance Business Center, 24 Vorovskoho Str., Kyiv 01054, Ukraine (44) 590-01-01 (44) 590-01-10

Serhiy Chorny, Serhiy Piontkovsky

0/100

Chicago, USA

100

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English, German, French, Ukrainian, Russian

Competition, banking & finance, capital markets, corporate/M&A, dispute resolution, IP, natural resources, pharmaceuticals, private equity, real estate, tax

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Multinational corporations, banks & organizations, leading Ukrainian companies

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B.C. Toms & Co Law offices, (in Ukraine since 1991), www.bctoms.net, kyiv@bctoms.net, 18/1 Prorizna Str., off.#1, Kyiv 01034, Ukraine (44) 490-60-00 (44) 278-10-00

Bate C. Toms

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London, UK/ Kyiv, Ukraine

35

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English, French, Polish, German, Italian, Russian, Norway

Agricultural investments, banking, oil, gas & electricity, taxation, litigation & arbitration, M&A

BEITEN BURKHARDT, (in Ukraine since 2004), www.beitenburkhardt.com, bblaw-kiew@bblaw.com, 38 Turhenevska Str., Kyiv 01054, Ukraine (44) 494-04-00 (44) 494-04-01

Dr. Julian Ries, Felix Rackwitz

0/100

Munich, Germany

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English, German, Polish

Corporate and general commercial law, M&A, real estate, banking and finance, agriculture, renewable energy, tax and customs, litigation

Chadbourne & Parke LLP, (in Ukraine since 1993), www.chadbourne.com, Kyiv@chadbourne.com, 25B Sahaydachnoho Str., 3rd floor, Kyiv 04070, Ukraine (44) 461-75-75 (44) 461-75-76

Jaroslawa Johnson

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New York, USA

38

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English, Ukrainian, Russian, French, Polish, German

Corporate/M&A, banking and finance, capital markets, dispute resolution, real estate, tax, energy, antitrust

Advised a large group of international lenders in a US$400 million debt restructuring of Kreditprombank

EBRD, IFC, OPIC, Bank of Cyprus, Interpipe, HSBC, Turkcell, US ExIm Bank, Gruma International Foods S.L, Wizz Air Ukraine

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Clifford Chance, (in Ukraine since 2008), www.cliffordchance.com, ukraine@cliffordchance.com, 75 Zhylyanska Str., Kyiv 01032, Ukraine (44) 390-58-85 (44) 390-58-86

Jared Grubb

0/100

London, UK

30

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English, Polish

Legal specialisation in banking and finance, corporate and M&A, debt restructuring, capital markets

CMS Cameron McKenna LLC, (in Ukraine since 2007), www.cms-cmck.com, kyivoffice@cms-cmck.com, 38 Volodymyrska Str., 6th floor, Kyiv 01034, Ukraine (44) 391-33-77 (44) 391-33-88

Adam Mycyk

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London, UK

50

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Corporate and M&A, commercial, energy and projects, real estate, banking and finance, dispute resolution and other

Nestlé S.A. (Switzerland) on a transaction to acquire Technocom LLC, the largest producer of dehydrated culinary in Ukraine under the Mivina brand

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Business Focus is the Kyiv Post’s spotlight on companies, industries and services in Ukraine.

The stories on the news pages of Business Focus are written by Kyiv Post editorial staff members, but the lists of companies are paid advertisements. Listing is arranged in alphabetical order. For more information about publishing your company's information in our list, please contact the advertising department at advertising@kyivpost.com. Key to abbreviations: WND – would not disclose.

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16 Business Focus Advertisement

www.kyivpost.com

July 1, 2011

LAW FIRMS Listing is arranged in alphabetical order

TEL./FAX

TOP EXECUTIVE

OWNERSHIP, UKRAINIAN / FOREIGN (%)

HEADQUARTERS

# OF FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES IN UKRAINE

PRICE RATE $, (PER HOUR)

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

LEGAL SPECIALIZATION

MAJOR DEALS IN 2010

MAJOR CLIENTS

Advising Donetsksteel on restructuring of its debt portfolio before a pool of creditors (more than USD 1 bn)

Donetsksteel, Stirol, EBRD, BSTDB, TNK-BP, UCC, Inditex, Slavutich Carlsberg Group, ITE, Regus Group, Antonio Merloni, Leroy Merlin, etc.

DLA Piper Ukraine, (in Ukraine since 2005), www.dlapiper.com, Ukraine@dlapiper.com, 77A Chervonoarmiyska Str., Kyiv 03150, Ukraine (44) 490-95-75 (44) 490-95-77

Margarita Karpenko

0/100

London, UK

70

WND

English

Banking & finance, corporate & M&A, real estate & construction, tax, IP & technology

Dovhan & Partners Law Office, (in Ukraine since 2009), www.dovhanandpartners.com, office@dovhanandpartners.com, 21L Yaroslaviv Val, Kyiv 01034, Ukraine (44) 222-89-39

Dr. Viktor Dovhan

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

10

50-250

English, German, Polish

Corporate, M&A, banking and finance, real estate, litigation

WND

Standart NV, Tehnoplaza Ukraine, Med Lab Technology, Streamline Shipping,, Coca Cola Ukraine Limited

EBS (Emergex Business Solutions), (in Ukraine since 2009), www.ebskiev.com, info@ebskiev.com, 13-A Universytetska Str., Kyiv 03110, Ukraine (44) 249-79-05 (44) 249-79-06

Helen Volska, Managing Partner and Director

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

90

WND

English, German, French, Spanish

Registration, taxation, liquidation, corporate

WND

WND

EnGarde Attorneys at Law, (in Ukraine since 2007), www.engarde-attorneys.com, office@engarde-attorneys.com, 7 Vorovskoho Str., Kyiv 04053, Ukraine (44) 498-73-80 (44) 498-73-85

Irina Nazarova

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

23

WND

English, French, German, Russian, Spanish

Litigation, intl. arbitration, corporate law, M&A and restructuring, competition, tax, labor, IP, intl. trade

WND

WND

WND

WND

Ernst & Young, (in Ukraine since 1991), www.ey.com/ua, kyiv@ua.ey.com, 19A Khreschatyk Str., Kyiv 01001, Ukraine Kyiv: (44) 490-30-00 (44) 490-30-30 Donetsk: (62) 340-47-70

Alexei Kredisov, Country Managing Partner

WND

London, UK

517

WND

English

Vladimir Kotenko, Partner, Head of Tax & Law

Corporate law, M&A, tax law, antimonopoly law, labor law, IPO, NPL sale & structuring, transfer pricing, customs

Gestors, (in Ukraine since 2010), www.gestors.com.ua, info@gestors.com.ua, Leonardo Business Centre, 17/52 B. Khmelnitskogo Str., off.#240, Kyiv 01030, Ukraine (44) 597-17-54

Vitaly Makhinchuk

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

14

WND

English, German, Italian

Corporate, M&A, investments, tax, real estate, banking & finance, litigation, criminal law, trade law & antidumping

Legal support of the foreign producers with respect to the antidumping investigations

Ukrainian-Chinese Association, MoneyGram速, Festo, Bank Forum, Domino Group, Quinn Holdings Ukraine

WND

WND

Gide Loyrette Nouel, (in Ukraine since 2006), www.gide.com, gln.kyiv@gide.com, 4 Volomydyrka Str., Kyiv 01001, Ukraine (44) 206-09-80 (44) 206-09-81

Karl Hepp de Sevelinges

0/100

Paris, France

35

WND

English, French, German

Legal services in all areas of business law

Golovan and Partners Law Firm, (in Ukraine since 1996), www.golovan.com.ua, Office.Donetsk@golovan.com.ua, 21A Illicha Str., Donetsk 83003; office.kyiv@golovan.com.ua, 3 Sholudenka Str., off.#306, building 1, Cubic, Kyiv 04116, Ukraine (62) 335-97-70 (62) 335-96-32 (62) 335-98-30 (44) 230-47-71 (44) 230-47-81

Dr. Igor V. Golovan Managing Partner

100/0

Donetsk, Ukraine

27

1500-3500 UAH

English

Land, real estate, M&A, investment, anti-trust law, securities, foreign economic activity, banking and finance

WND

WND

Gramatskiy and Partners, (in Ukraine since 1998), www.gramatskiy.com, office@gramatskiy.com.ua, 16 Myhaylivska Str., off.W#7, Kyiv 01001, Ukraine (44) 581-15-51

Ernest Gramatskiy

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

41

50-250 Euro

English, Polish, Italian

Courts & arbitration litigation, foreign investments, taxation, real estate, land, corporate law, legal consulting

WND

City Capital Group, Seven Hills, Danfoss, De-Vi, Larsen, Gold Mandarin

WND

Ceskoslovenska obchodni bank; Marks & Spencer; GAP; AGORA; The PBN; PSG Group; MARS Capital; South Airlines; AVIAREPS; Network21; BAUER Technics

WND

Leading Ukrainian and international companies in Ukraine and abroad

Gvozdiy & Oberkovych Law Firm, (in Ukraine since 2004), www.golaw.ua, info@golaw.ua, 19B Instytutska Str., Kyiv 01021, Ukraine (44) 581-12-20 (44) 581-12-22

Valentyn Gvozdiy, Sergiy Oberkovych

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

20

WND

English

Renewable energy, agriculture & land, litigation, investments, corporate, M&A, natural resources, real estate & construction, tax, banking & finance

Ilyashev & Partners, (in Ukraine since 1997), www.attorneys.ua, office@attorneys.ua, 11 Kudryavska Str., Kyiv 04053, Ukraine (44) 494-19-19 (44) 494-19-99

Mikhail Ilyashev

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

45

100-360 Euro

English

Corporate law, M&A, dispute resolution, tax, labor Law, banking & finance, intellectual property, real estate, etc.

Integrites international law firm, (in Ukraine since 2005), www.integrites.com, info@integrites.com, 15B Borisohlibska Str., Kyiv 04070, Ukraine (44) 391-38-53 (44) 391-38-54

Vyacheslav Korchev

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

76

100-350

English, French, German, Kazakh, Lithuanian

Trade finance, banking & finance, M&A, dispute resolution, capital markets, tax

WND

OTP Bank, MHP SA, Raiffeisen BankAval, Rabobank Int., Hochland, Euler Hermes, NEFCO

International Financial and Legal Consulting, (in Ukraine since 1999), www.iflc.ua, info@iflc.ua, 17-25 Gertcena Str., off.#17, Kyiv 04050, Ukraine (44) 230-01-65

Artur Ioffe

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

12

WND

English, French

Investment projects, legal analysis, etc.

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KONSU KYIV LLC, (in Ukraine since 2008), www.konsu.com, kiev@konsu.com, 9/2 Chervonoarmiyska Str., off.#31, Kyiv 01004, Ukraine (44) 499-13-55 (44) 499-13-54

CEO of Konsu Group Pirjo Inkeri Karhu;

0/100

Deputy Director Oksana Kochmarska

Accountor Konsu Oy (Lappeenranta, Finland) Konsu is member of Accountor Group www.accountorgroup.com

10

WND

Finish, German, English, Swedish

Registration of legal entities, contract law, compliance review, Due diligence and financial management service

KPMG-Ukraine Ltd., (in Ukraine since 1992), www.kpmg.ua, info@kpmg.ua, 11 Mykhalyivska Str., Kyiv 01001, Ukraine (44) 490-55-07 (44) 490 55-08

Floris Schuring, Managing Partner

WND

KPMG is a global network presented in 146 countries worldwide

330

WND

English

Legal consulting, tax litigation, tax and legal services for M&A, international corporate tax, VAT, O&TC and customs consulting

Kuzminsky & Partners Law Firm, (in Ukraine since 2009), www.kuzminskypartners.com, office@kuzminskypartners.com, 18A Mykhailivska Str., off.#31, Kyiv 01001, Ukraine (44) 492-70-76 (44) 496-24-79

Volodymyr Kuzminsky

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

8

WND

Russian, English, French

Corporate law, M&A, banking & finance, real estate, IP, dispute resolution

WND

WND

WND

Louis Dreyfus, Winner, Kyivstar, Puma, OTP Bank, Bank of Cyprus, Aeroc, Maspex, Universal Bank, P&G, JTI

LCF Law Group attorneys have provided the foreign investor with the successful court decision concerning the refund of VAT from state budget (30 mil. UAH)

latobank, Alfa Bank, Bank FORUM, QBE-Insurance Garantix, Generali Garant Inkomstrach, Allianz Ukraine Kyivguma, UkrSibinvest

Lavrynovych & Partners, (in Ukraine since 2004), 01021, 14/24 Klovsky uzviz, off.#101, Kyiv, Ukraine, office@Lp.ua, www.Lp.ua (44) 494-27-27 (44) 492-99-97

Maksym Lavrynovych (Managing partner)

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

53

WND

English, Italian

Corporate law, M&A, financial law, international law, real estate, litigation, competition law, PPP

LCF Law Group, (in Ukraine since 2009), www.lcfgroup.com.ua, info@lcfgroup.com.ua, 47 Volodymirska Str., off.#3, Kyiv 01034, Ukraine (44) 455-88-87 (44) 502-55-23

Anna Ogrenchuk, Managing partner of LCF LAW GROUP, Attorney-at-law

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

15

100-250 Euro

Russian, Ukrainian, English, German

Litigation, B&F, corporate law, M&A, real estate&land law, tax practice, capital market&securities, insurance

www.kyivpost.com

Business Focus 17

July 1, 2011

LAW FIRMS

Advertisement

Listing is arranged in alphabetical order TEL./FAX

TOP EXECUTIVE

OWNERSHIP, UKRAINIAN / FOREIGN (%)

HEADQUARTERS

# OF FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES IN UKRAINE

PRICE RATE $, (PER HOUR)

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

LEGAL SPECIALIZATION

MAJOR DEALS IN 2010

MAJOR CLIENTS

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Noerr TOV, (in Ukraine since 2007), www.noerr.com.ua, ilo@noerr.com, 7/11 Khreschatyk Str., Kyiv 01001, Ukraine (44) 495-30-80 (44) 495-30-90

Dr. Mansur Pour Rafsendjani

0/100

Munich, Germany

30

WND

English, German

Commercial, real estate, corporate, employment, litigation, media, IP, IT, governmental affairs, tax, renewable energy, PPP

Pakharenko & Partners, (in Ukraine since 1992), www.pakharenko.com, pakharenko@pakharenko.kiev.ua, Business Centre “Olimpiyskiy”, 72 Chervonoarmiyska Str., Kyiv 03150, Ukraine (44) 593-96-93 (44) 451-40-48

Antonina PakharenkoAnderson

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

50

WND

English, French German, Spanish Portuguese, Chinese, Czech Polish

Intellectual property, media, competition, corporate, contract, customs, labour law

WND

WND

PETERKA & PARTNERS, (in Ukraine since 2006), www.peterkapartners.com, office@peterkapartners.com, 17/52 Bohdana Khmelnytskoho Str., Kyiv 01030, Ukraine (44) 581-11-20 (44) 581-11-21

Alexander Poels, LL.M.

0/100

Prague, Czech Republic

15

WND

English, French, German, Czech, Slovak, Dutch, Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian

Foreign investment, commercial, M&A, competition, real estate, labor, financial, banking, tax, litigation, etc.

WND

Peugeot Citroen, Veolia Voda, Bel Shostka, ECE, Manship, Skoda, KBC, Vinci, ADB, Novo Nordisk, Konica Minolta, KRKA

Popko Brothers & Partners, (in Ukraine since 2009), www.popkoandpartners.com, office@popkoandpartners.com, 72 Chervonoarmiyska Str., off.#18, Kyiv 03150, Ukraine (44) 492-16-00 (44) 492-16-01 (44) 492-16-02

Vadym Popko

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

12

100-350

English, French, German

Litigation, corporate law, M&A, banking & finance, mediation, antitrust, family law, real estate, bankruptcyw

WND

Altis-Holding, KyivPidzemShlyakhBud, Eurogasbank, Bogner, Prime Yalta Rally, Baramist Limited, Praktika, BRP

WND

Multinational corporations, developers, commercial and investment banks, leading Ukrainian companies, investment funds

WND

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Salans, international law firm, (in Ukraine since 1992), www.salans.com, kyiv@salans.com, 49A Volodymyrska Str., Kyiv 01034, Ukraine (044) 494-47-74 (044) 494-19-91

Oleg Batyuk, Managing Partner, Kyiv

0/100

International law firm, 22 offices worldwide / 1 office in Ukraine

70

WND

English, French, German

Corporate / M&A, banking and finance, real estate, tax, employment, competition, energy / natural resources, dispute resolution, IP

Salkom Law Firm, (in Ukraine since 1998), www.salkom.ua, salkom@salkom.kiev.ua, 12 Khreschatyk Str., Kyiv 01001, Ukraine (44) 537-39-40 (44) 537-39-55

Evgen Kubko

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

59

90-350 Euro

English

Antitrust and competition, banking & finance, corporate / M&A, energy, IP, labour & employment, litigation, real estate, securities, tax

Spenser & Kauffmann Attorneys at Law, (in Ukraine since 2006), www.sklaw.com.ua, office@sklaw.com.ua, 3 Panfilovtsev Str., Kyiv 01015, Ukraine (44) 288-83-83 (44) 288-67-07 (44) 288-55-72

Valentyn Zagariya, Managing Partner

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

40

80-350

English, French

M&A and corporate, competition and antitrust,real estate, finance, insurance and tax, international arbitration and litigation, capital markets

Advised one of the biggest retail chains in Ukraine on USD 1 billion assets restructuring of group of companies

Kviza Trade (Velyka Kyshenya), STB TV Chanel, Alico Ukraine, Cardiff Insurance Company, Pharmstandart, Savik Shuster Studio, Nemiroff

Squire, Sanders & Dempsey L.L.P., (in Ukraine since 1992), www.ssd.com, Peter.Teluk@ssd.com, Leonardo Business Center, 19-21 B. Khmelnytsky Str., Kyiv 01030, Ukraine (44) 220-14-00 (44) 220-14-11

Peter Teluk

0/100

Cleveland, USA

20

130-580

English, Russian

Corporate, project finance, private equity, real estate, communications, transportation, energy, agribusiness

Advised Group DF on over $ 1.1 billion chemical fertilizer acquisitions and related financings

3M, ArcelorMittal, BP, Bunge, Columbia Capital, ContourGlobal, DuPont, Eaton Corp., Group DF, The Boeing Company

Syutkin and Partners Firm of attorneys, (in Ukraine since 2006), www.syutkin-partners.com, www.lawyer.ua, office@syutkin-partners.com, 26/17 Lyuteranskaya Str., off.#30, Kyiv 01024, Ukraine (44) 253-32-21 (44) 353-00-19

Mykola Syutkin

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

7

80- 250 Euro

Russian, English

Commercial law, corporate law, bankruptcy, real estate, land law, environmental law, tax, M&A, due diligence, legal disputes

WND

WND

VASIL KISIL & PARTNERS Law Firm, (in Ukraine since 1992), www.kisilandpartners.com, vkp@vkp.kiev.ua, Leonardo Business Centre, 17/52-A Bogdana Khmelnitskogo Street, Kyiv 01030, Ukraine (44) 581-77-77 (44) 581-77-70

Oleg Makarov, Managing Partner

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

110

WND

English, German, French, Polish, Swedish, Spanish

Competition, finance, corporate, energy, IP, foreign trade, labor, dispute resolution, infrastructure, real estate, tax

WND

Astellas Pharma, Bayer, CME, Dell, Du Pont, Eurosport, Fitch, HP, LG, Nissan, Philips, Siemens, Shell, Volkswagen

Volkov & Partners, (in Ukraine since 2005), www.volkovpartners.com, office@volkovpartners.com, Illinsky Business Centre, 8 Illinska Str., 3rd entrance, 4th floor, Kyiv 04070, Ukraine (44) 207-02-70 (44) 207-02-72

Oleksiy Volkov

100/0

Kyiv, Ukraine

30

50-250 Euro

English, German, French

Corporate, dispute resolution, M&A, tax, banking & finance, international trade, antitrust, real estate

Obtaining antimonopoly clearance for Alfa Bank’s restructuring of its Ukrainian assets

Cargill, McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd, Samsung Electronics, EBRD, Amway, Astarta, Ukrainian Grain Association

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18 News

www.kyivpost.com

July 1, 2011

Tymoshenko: Farce ahead Æ1 in elections, eliminating the main rival to Yanukovych and the propresidential Party of Regions ahead of parliamentary elections next year and a presidential ballot in 2015.

Many analysts said the case against the opposition leader – who faces two other investigations into the procurement of ambulances and alleged misuse of state funds – is politically motivated.

They note that only lower-level officials from the current administration are under investigation, despite widespread evidence of massive corruption.

Yanukovych says there is no political element to the charges and insists that the court will decide whether she is guilty or not.

That court received its first tonguelashing from the fiery Tymoshenko on June 24 at a pre-trial hearing where she accused the judge of carrying out the president's orders and described the attempt to prosecute her as “political revenge.” Tymoshenko, who made a fortune in the gas trade in the 1990s, was a leader of the 2004 Orange Revolution that humilliated Yanukovych when a court overturned a presidential election rigged in his favor. He lost the revote to President Viktor Yushchenko.

In appearing before Kyiv’s Pechersk District Court June 24-25 and again on June 29, Tymoshenko became the first former Ukrainian prime minister to stand trial since her former political ally, Pavlo Lazarenko, was convicted by a U.S. court of fraud, money laundering and other crimes.

If convicted, Tymoshenko faces up to 10 years in prison, and would become the second former prime minister after Lazarenko to be punished with jail time.

U.S. prosecutors and judges spent years on the case leading to the conviction of Lazarenko, who allegedly doled out lucrative energy supply contracts to Tymoshenko in the mid-1990s while she headed a gas trading business that earned her fabulous wealth and the nickname of “the gas princess.”

But, in this case, European Union and American officials don’t see any parallels between what Tymoshenko is accused of doing and what Lazarenko is convicted of doing.

“The United States is aware of the opening of the trial against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and reiterates its concern about the appearance of politically-motivated prosecutions of opposition figures in Ukraine,” Victoria Nuland, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman, said.

“When the senior leadership of an opposition party is the focus of prosecutions, out of proportion with other political figures, this creates the appearance of a political motive. We urge the government of Ukraine to refrain from actions that create such an appearance and undermine the rule of law in Ukraine. We will closely monitor the legal proceedings against Yulia Tymoshenko and other opposition figures,” Nuland added.

To demonstrate Brussels’ concern, Jose Manuel Pinto Teixeira, head of the EU delegation in Ukraine, showed up at court on June 24 to witness the first day of the trial. Referring to cramped conditions and lack of proper ventilation in the court room, he said: “The conditions of this trial are inhumane.”

On that first day of trial, Tymoshenko came out fighting, accusing the judge, Rodion Kireyev, of being “a puppet

Factbox: Yulia Tymoshenko’s chequered career (Reuters) Here are some facts about Ukraine’s former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, 50, who went on trial on Wednesday charged with abuse of power.

Who Is Yulia Tymoshenko?

Nicknamed the “gas princess” for her involvement in the gas industry in the 1990s, her striking looks and designer clothes. Born in November 1960, she entered parliament in 1996 and was made a deputy prime minister in charge of the energy sector in 2000 by the new premier Viktor Yushchenko.

Charges Against Tymoshenko In 2001, formal charges of forgery and smuggling gas were brought against Tymoshenko while she was head of United Energy Systems, a private gas trading firm in the mid-1990s.

Then President Leonid Kuchma, her bitter critic, accused her several times of exceeding her powers as deputy prime minister. Tymoshenko denounced the criminal investigations as a witchhunt, saying her efforts to clean up the corrupt energy sector threatened the interests of powerful businessmen. She spent a month in a detention centre following the investigation, but a court cleared her.

In May 2010, Ukraine’s state prosecutor launched a new criminal case relating to what it said was the misuse

by Tymoshenko’s government of about $290 million in cash received for selling carbon quotas.

In the latest trial the prosecution has alleged that Tymoshenko abused her power in the signing of a 2009 gas import agreement with Russia. The prosecution said that, without consulting her government, she coerced the then-head of state-owned Naftogaz to sign the gas deal with Russia’s Gazprom. She has denied this.

The hearing was adjourned until July 4.

Political rise and fall Her fiery speeches and calls for social justice enthralled vast crowds in the “Orange Revolution” – weeks of street protests against official results in the 2004 presidential election in which Moscow-backed Viktor Yanukovich was initially declared the winner.

After Yushchenko won a presidential re-run ordered by the Supreme Court, she was named premier of an “orange” government, but it was riven by infighting.

Tymoshenko alarmed investors with calls for a mass review of privatisations and analysts criticised her populist social spending sprees. She fell out with Yushchenko and was sacked in September 2005 after less than eight months in office.

When Yanukovich became prime minister after a 2006 parliamentary election, she was reconciled with Yushchenko and was the prime force behind his decision to dissolve parliament and call an early election, which gave the “Orange” parties a tiny majority in parliament.

In Jan. 2009, Tymoshenko brokered a 10-year gas deal with her Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to end a threeweek energy row that led to supply cuts to Europe.

However Tymoshenko went on to lose to Yanukovich in a bitter campaign for the presidency in February 2010. In March, she was ousted in a vote of noconfidence and was replaced by new prime minister, Mykola Azarov. - In a pretrial hearing last week, Tymoshenko used a the opportunity to allege that Yanukovich was behind a crooked court action that was certain to convict her of abuse of power. She complained of political persecution to the European Court of Human Rights ahead of the trial.

Interior Ministry officers block supporters of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko before a pre-trial hearing in a Kyiv court on June 24. Tymoshenko faces charges of abuse of power as thousands of people massed in her support in the capital. (UNIAN)

of the presidential office,” which she claims is trying to silence political opposition in Ukraine through criminal investigations.

Tymoshenko demonstrated defiance again on June 29, when the court adjourned until July 4 to give her time to study the charges against her.

On June 29, parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, whose faction in parliament is allied with Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, took a shot at Tymoshenko. Lytvyn, whom Tymoshenko suspects of complicity in the still-unsolved 2000 murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze, said the ex-premier’s quarrels with the judge handling the case discredit the judiciary system. He denies any involvement in Gongadze's disappearance.

The case Tymoshenko stands accused of exceeding authority when as prime minister she brokered a January 2009 natural gas supply agreement with her Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

The agreement was praised by EU officials at the time for ending a price dispute that cut off supplies to Europe, and for boosting transparency by cutting out intermediary trading companies controlled by businessmen close to Yanukovych. But it was criticized sharply by Tymoshenko’s political opponents in Ukraine, including then-President Viktor Yushchenko, for introducing prices deemed too high for Ukraine.

Specifically, the charges brought upon Tymoshenko by prosecutors accuse her of ordering subordinates to sign the supply contracts without having approval from all members of the Cabinet of Ministers. Tymoshenko insists such approvals were not required. Prosecutors claim otherwise.

Prosecutors claim Tymoshenko’s actions on the gas contracts cost the country over Hr 1.5 billion ($187.5 million) in losses. In contrast, Tymoshenko asserts that her actions raised an additional Hr 1 billion ($125 million) in gas transit revenue.

In two separate charges not yet filed in court, prosecutors accuse Tymoshenko of misspending Kyoto Protocol funds while premier and of wrongfully purchasing automobiles for doctors in rural regions. Tymoshenko denies wrongdoing on all counts.

Describing the trial and investigations as a farce, Tymoshenko says that slapping her with a phony criminal record would allow Yanukovych to further monopolize political power. An April poll by Kyiv's Razumkov Center showed that Tymoshenko’s party has 12 percent nationwide support, trailing behind Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, which leads with 15 percent backing.

Selective justice Yanukovych has repeatedly denied Western concerns that the probes smack of “selective justice.” He insists the investigations into Tymoshenko and associates – some of which have been in pre-trial detention for nearly a year without due process – are nothing more than an attempt to combat corruption. Yanukovych’s administration claims law enforcement is investigating wrongdoing by all political colors.

They point, as proof, to a recent investigation launched against ex-President Leonid Kuchma for complicity in journalist Georgiy Gongadze’s murder in 2000. Under Kuchma, Yanukovych climbed Ukraine’s political ladder to become prime minister in 2002.

“Hundreds of criminal cases have been launched against representatives of current and previous administration. By hiding behind their opposition status, former officials are trying to avoid accountability for corrupt acts that have nothing to do with politics,” Yanukovych said.

Skeptics abound.

Oleksiy Haran, scientific director of the School for Policy Analysis in Kyiv, says that only lower-level officials from the current administration are under investigation.

“At the same time there are lots of facts of corruption by the current government,” Haran said. “I was particularly impressed by a fictitious tender as a result of which Ukraine overpaid $150 million for an offshore oil rig. Someone made a lot of money.”

Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko praised the purchase and denied any overspending. But prosecutors have not even dared to investigate it.

In contrast, according to Haran, law enforcement have kept former Interior MinisterYuriy Lutsenko, a Tymoshenko ally, in pre-trial detention since last December in connection with alleged overspending of tens of thousands of dollars.

“If one looks into every government, each one violated laws. But we see investigations only into members of the former government,” Haran said.

Prosecutors, he added, should start by investigating alleged murky land deals and development at Mezhyhiria, a posh 140-hectare multi-million-dollar former state residence north of Kyiv where Yanukovych resides.

The estate, according to investigative journalists, was suspiciously transferred from public ownership to Yanukovych and companies affiliated with his inner circle. Yanukovych admits to owning only a 1.7 hectare plot of land and a house there. But his tax declarations do not seem to match up with the apparently high cost of development of the smaller portion which Yanukovych admits to owning.

Moreover, neither the president nor anyone in his circle has clearly explained who owns and has invested into development under way at the larger part of the integrated compound.

Political analyst Vadym Karasiov also considers the trial against Tymoshenko to be politically motivated.

“The country’s judiciary is currently under the control of the executive or is even part of it,” Karasiov said. “In such a situation, any trial against politicians can turn from purely legal cases into political trials.”

In an interview aired on leading Ukrainian TV channels on June 28, Yanukovych commented on the Tymoshenko trial by saying that he faced criminal probes in 2005 after the Orange Revolution that denied him the fruits of a fraudulent presidential election the year before.

Yanukovych said he found legal ways to defend himself. He advised Tymoshenko to follow his example instead of adopting a political strategy aimed at discrediting the investigation’s fairness.

But Karasiov said Tymoshenko has no chance to defend herself this way.

“Courts back then were much more independent,” Karasiov said.

According to Karasiov, authorities are aiming to accomplish two goals in the case: To destroy Tymoshenko as a popular political figure and show that there is justice in the country.

Kyiv Post staff writer Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at onyshkiv@kyivpost. com

www.kyivpost.com

News 19

July 1, 2011

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The 2011 annual American Independence Day picnic will take place 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on July 2 at Spartak Stadium on 105 Frunze Street.

The Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine charitable event will feature live musical entertainment from performers, DJs, contests, children's playgrounds, fireworks, a grand raffle, and of course, tasty food and cold beverages.

Admission is Hr 80. Kids three years old and younger are admitted free of charge.

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Independence Day picnic on July 2 in Spartak Stadium in Kyiv

Spartak Stadium

Revelers celebrate at the 2008 Chamber of Commerce Fourth of July picnic in Kyiv. (Courtesy)

Remembering Pope John Paul II A Ukrainian Catholic believer kisses relics of Pope John Paul II during a mass at the St. Alexander Cathedral in Kyiv on June 23. The relics of Pope John Paul II were brought to Ukraine to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his visit to the country. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)

Investment climate remains concern for US ambassador Æ2 ahead of the 2012 parliamentary election are items of keen interest.

Next year’s parliamentary election is “critical to the future,” Tefft said.

Tefft emphasized Ukraine’s progress in building a civil society.

“There are a lot of effective organizations here, people who aren’t afraid to speak out on a whole range of issues, and I’m not talking about politics and media,” Tefft said. “If you look at what some of the people who work on HIV/AIDS, or trafficking of women, these are people who speak their minds and who have taken a leading role in society.”

Both sides have made progress in energy cooperation. The U.S. Geological Service will help Ukraine

map some of its shale and other kinds of natural gas. He’s hopeful that the laws passed by Ukraine’s parliament will boost the domestic energy sector’s development “whether it be offshore drilling in the Black Sea, capturing coal methane in eastern Ukraine, or shale.”

The investment climate remains a concern for Tefft, who has had to run interference for American companies with mixed success. “We’ve had things we’ve been told ‘no’ on, but then later when we pushed, they move forward on them,” Tefft said. “It’s a continuing process.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at rachkevych@kyivpost. com.

Æ Tefft cites progress in creation of strong civil society groups in Ukraine

Heavy rains flood Cherkassy The scene on the streets of Cherkassy on June 29. Heavy rains turned the central Ukrainian city into a lake, with water rising to waist-level. Heavy rains have pounded much of Ukraine for the past week, including Kyiv. More rain and flood warnings are promised for next week.

(Courtesy)

20 News

www.kyivpost.com

July 1, 2011

A German soldier watches Ukrainian civilians drag a Jew down a street in Lviv, July 1941. (ushmm.org) Bohdan Harata shows a ravine outside Lviv where, as a child, he saw German soldiers slaughtering Jews during World War II. (Pavlo Palamarchuk)

Assassination of Ukrainian leader

by Jew increased anti-Semitism Æ1 camps on the territory liberated

by Allied forces, the killings on what became Soviet land have for decades been largely confined to silent memory.

But new investigations following the collapse of the Soviet Union have led many historians to reexamine Eastern Europe’s place in the Final Solution, the Nazis’ plan to eliminate Jews from Europe.

Between 1941 and 1943, more than 1.5 million Jews met their death by bullets in Ukraine. They were massacred by mobile killing units called the Einsatzgruppen, Waffen SS units and German police. Local residents who collaborated with the Nazis willingly or by coercion helped in the killing.

Today’s western Ukraine found itself at the epicenter of the Holocaust. Home to some 570,000 Jews before the war, the region became a grisly theater for two types of murder – death by bullet and extermination camps that served

as the forerunners for the larger, more famous sites in modern-day Poland.

Some scholars think the foundation for the Holocaust in western Ukraine was set in the inter-war period after World War I. In particular, during 21 months – from September 1939 to June 1941 – when Moscow controlled the region, the tenuous peace between Ukrainians and Jews was finally shattered. The groundwork was set for the violence that was to come later.

Jews in today’s western Ukraine had often faced anti-Semitism. In the early years of its existence, Dilo, which for nearly 60 years was the most influential regional Ukrainian newspaper, frequently published items derogatory toward Jews. Halychanyn, a pro-Moscow newspaper published in Lviv from 1893 to 1913, was even more extreme: several reports on inter-ethnic economic disputes ran under the headline

Timeline: World War II in Lviv Aug. 23, 1939 – Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in which both powers pledge to remain neutral if either country were attacked by a third party. The treaty contained a secret protocol dividing Northern and Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence.

As part of the pact on: Sept. 1, 1939 – Germany invades Poland Sept. 17, 1939 – Soviet troops cross the Polish border.

Sept. 22, 1939-June 30, 1941 – Lviv falls under Soviet rule. The period is marked by deportations and executions of all nationalities, particularly the elite and those opposed to Soviet rule. Lviv’s Jewish population, which numbered 110,000 before the war, swells to 200,000.

June 22, 1941 – Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union at 3:15 a.m., violating the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

June 23-26, 1941 – Nearly 7,000 inmates – mostly Ukrainians and Poles, but also Jews – are murdered at three area prisons, including infamous Brygidki. The event becomes a negative milestone in Ukrainian-Jewish relations.

June 30, 1941-July 26, 1944 – Lviv is occupied by Hitler’s Germany. So-called Aktion – the Nazi code name for operations to round up Jews to send to concentration and death camps – begin immediately. Over the next two years, some 12 Aktion occurred in Lviv, decimating the city’s Jewish population.

July 27, 1944 – Lviv again falls under Soviet rule.

May 7, 1945 – Germany signs the document of unconditional surrender in Reims, France. All told, the Nazis imprisoned and exterminated an estimated 9 million people, 6 million of whom were Jews.

Symon Petliura

“Jewish vampires.”

Still, “Ukrainian anti-Jewish violence was rare in Galicia (Halychyna) throughout the 19th century and immediately after the First World War,” Frank Golczewski, professor of East European History at the University of Hamburg, wrote in the book “The Shoah in Ukraine.”

“By the start of the Second World War, however, this had changed – for the worse,” Golczewski said.

A breaking point in the relationship between the Ukrainian and Jewish communities in Lviv Oblast came on May 25, 1926.

On the streets of Paris, Samuel Schwarzbart assassinated Symon Petliura, the national leader who had led Ukraine’s struggle for independence after the 1917 Russian Revolution.

During his trial, Schwarzbart said he sought revenge for the Jewish pogroms that had occurred on Ukrainian territory during Petliura’s reign. Between 35,000 to 50,000 Jews had died then; Schwarzbart lost up to 16 family members in the pogroms.

Petliura’s role in the pogroms continues to be debated today. Scholars generally recognize he did not show

A German soldier guards Jews behind a barbed-wire fence in Lviv between 1941 and 1943. (ushmm.org)

personal anti-Semitism. According to Ukrainian press reports from the time, he tried to stop anti-Jewish violence, but he was unable to control his military officers. At the time of Petliura’s murder, however, Jewish organizations throughout Europe jumped to Schwarzbart’s defense. In Lviv, Dilo and Chwila, the city’s Polish-language Zionist newspaper, carried on a battle of the words.

Ukrainians became outraged after Schwarzbart was acquitted by a Parisian court; many believed he was a Soviet agent.

By 1939, many Ukrainians had come to believe that Jews were associated with Communism. The press was often filled with references to “Judeo-Bolshevism,” pointing out that a number of leaders of the Russian Revolution – such as Leon Trotsky, Lazar Kaganovich, and Grigory Zinoviev – were Jews.

When the Red Army in 1939 took over Lviv, which was then part of Poland, ethnic tensions were heightened by Soviet policies of repressing all nationalities. Those who did not bow to Soviet rule, including Jews, were deported to Siberia, arrested or killed.

When German troops marched into Lviv on June 30, 1941, they were welcomed by many Ukrainians who saw them as liberators from the Soviets.

It did not take long for terror to be unleashed on Lviv’s Jewish population, which had swelled to some 200,000 people, including refugees who had come from parts of Nazi-occupied Poland. The first killings of Jews began on the day Germans entered the city.

Before they quit the city, the Soviets, meanwhile, had murdered some 7,000 political prisoners held in three prisons. Using Soviet propaganda methods, the Germans blamed the massacre of the mostly Ukrainian and Polish prisoners on Jews, and thus helped incite a pogrom that killed some 4,000 Jews over four days.

Lviv’s Jewish ghetto was established in November 1941. Over the next two years, Jews were subjected to so-called “Aktion” operations that involved their mass assembly, deportation and murder, frequently with the help of local Ukrainians, archival documents in Lviv show.

The height of the Aktion came

between March and December 1942, when tens of thousands of Jews were rounded up and sent to Janowska – a labor, transit and concentration camp located on the outskirts of Lviv. Or the Germans sent Jews to Belzec, which was one of the first Nazi extermination camps. Located 47 miles northwest of Lviv, now in modern Poland, it was one of the most efficient death camps. Only two Jews are known to have survived it out of the 430,000 to 500,000 Jews estimated to have died there, including the majority of Lviv’s Jewish population.

Lviv itself was declared “Judenrein” – totally cleansed of Jews – on Nov. 23, 1943.

Yet it is in places like Vynnyky where average Ukrainians came face-to-face and experienced the intimate nature of the Holocaust.

With a population of 5,000 in 1925, the town was comprised of 3,300 Poles, 2,150 Ukrainians, 350 Jews and 200 Germans. Harata said he does not remember a Jewish ghetto being established in Vynnyky. Instead, all of the city’s women and children were deported, and a labor camp for men was established shortly after the Germans came.

Harata said when prisoners had served their purpose, or were too sick to work anymore, they were led to the ravine not far from the center of town.

“The Jews went to death calmly,” he said, noting he had witnessed at least 10 executions during the war. “They dug their own graves and then stood at their edge. You did not see fear. They were a deeply religious people.”

Part 3: Surviving the Holocaust in Lviv Kyiv Post staff writer Natalia A. Feduschak can be reached at feduschak@ kyivpost.com.

Ukraine’s Vanquished Jews Part 1 (June 24): Boris Orych and western Ukraine Jews Part 2 (July 1): The killing grounds Part 3 (July 8): Surviving the Holocaust in Lviv Part 4 (July 15): Saving Jewish heritage Part 5 (July 22): Reconciliation?

www.kyivpost.com

News 21

July 1, 2011

What, where is Mezhyhiria?

Mezhyhiria

Outdoor bird cage (ostriches)

Named after a 10thcentury monastery that once stood on the site, Mezhyhiria is a 140-hectare former government estate located in the village of Novi Petrivtsi, just north of Kyiv, along the west bank of the Dnipro River in Vyshgorod District. Given that it’s just 22 kilometers from Ukraine’s capital, sitting on the river surrounded by tranquil forests, land here costs from $1,000 to $3,000 per 100 square meters.

Kyiv Sea Security building

70-space garage complex

Guest house Yacht club Land leased by firm called Tantalit

President Viktor Yanukovych walks with journalists at his Mezhyhiria estate. (youtube.com)

President invites uninquisitive reporters to his luxury estate Æ1 the interview by Yanukovych’s press service – failed, at least in portions of the interview aired, to ask about or request to see the rest of the compound..

These select journalists, including high profile television talk show stars Savik Shuster, Yevgeny Kiselyov and Oleksandr Tkachenko, were chosen instead of journalists who have, for more than a year, called upon Yanukovych to open doors to his guarded estate. Journalists taking part came without camera crews, letting the Presidential Administration tape and edit the interview.

Conducted in Ukrainian and Russian languages, the interview started off

with a tour of a 1.7 hectare portion of Mezhyhiria which, according to Yanukovych’s most recent tax declaration, belongs to him. Yanukovych, who claimed in prior years that he rented the property, appeared to admit to owning it now. But controversy has long haunted him over the legality of a complicated scheme of transactions through which it was acquired, and where he got the money to develop it.

The house demonstrated by Yanukovych appeared to be expensively furnished. Just outside journalists were shown a newly-constructed swimming pool, sauna and wooded area where Yanukovych claimed to exercise. Journalists were also shown

Waterfall seen in Mezhyhiria estate on June, 24. (youtube.com)

President Viktor Yanukovych’s pool is seen in the background by the rotunda where he gave an interview with journalists. (youtube.com)

Former site of Mezhyhiria Monastery

Æ Select journalists did not ask president obvious questions picturesque landscape that included an artificial waterfall.

A more formal sit-down interview later commenced under a rotunda that overlooked the pool area and a wellkept garden.

During the interview, none of the journalists asked about the larger area of the Mezhyhiria territory. Via satellite photos it appears to be adjacent and part of the same integrated compound. Documents indicate that it is owned by a web of domestic and offshore companies that have been linked to Yanukovych’s family and close associates.

The broader territory includes a massive, multi-level log cabin and yacht club. Both are located along the so-called Kyiv Sea, a huge lake created by a damn that restricts flow of the Dnipro River further down to Kyiv.

According to reports by the respected Ukrainska Pravda website, the territory also includes an indoor tennis court which Yanukovych supposedly uses. Construction of a golf course also appears to be underway, according to Ukrainska Pravda.

Why didn’t the journalists at the interview – which started off with a tour of the president’s estate – ask the tough and obvious questions about the broader territory that have long been asked by investigative journalists?

Kiselyov told the Kyiv Post he does not remember whether journalists asked Yanukovych who the rest of Mezhyhiria belongs to. He explained: “I think that all Ukrainian journalists are divided into two parts: those worried about the problem of Mezhyhiria and those interested in actual politics. I belong to the latter category. That’s why I didn’t remember it,” said Kiselyov.

“Honestly, I do not care about it.”

Shuster told the Kyiv Post that the question of Mezhyhiria and its ownership was not raised at all. “It is not correct. The guy is inviting you to his place and you are spitting into his face. This is not how things are done,” he said.

Viktoria Siumar, head of the non-profit Institute for Mass Information in Ukraine, said the journalists invited appear to put aside the main credos of journalism – objectively informing the public and holding officials accountable – accepting instead “the rules of the game” set by the president.

Describing the group of journalists at the interview as professionals,

Golf equipment storage units

Golf course Clubhouse Yanukovych’s owns land: 1.76 hectares

Renaissance of Ukraine foundation’s leased land: 7.6 hectares

Administrative building Source: Ukrainska Pravda

Horse stable Covered arena Outdoor arena Show jumping arena Outdoor tennis court

Siumar said “they understand that the question of Mezhyhiria is not a question of the president’s private life, but a question of corruption, of interaction between the authorities and society when the authorities are closed.”

The whole situation “once again demonstrates” that many Ukrainian journalists are “not” fulfilling their much

Levada equestrian club

needed role as “the fourth branch of government and aren’t really seeking to be it,” Siumar said. Sadly, according to Siumar, most mass media outlets in Ukraine are not delivering high standards of journalism, nor is society demanding it.

Kyiv Post staff writer Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at onyshkiv@kyivpost. com

Lifestyle

At Lviv’s Salo restaurant, fat never tasted so good.

Æ25

July 1, 2011

Play | Food | Entertainment | Sports | Culture | Music | Movies | Art | Community Events

Summer solstice, the Ukrainian way

Yaromysl Ivaschenko of the ’native’ faith jumps over a cleansing fire with his children on the solstice night. (Alex Furman)

BY K AT E RY N A PA N OVA PANOVA@KYIVPOST.COM

As a rainy evening seeped through woodlands in one of Kyiv’s wilder parks, a group of 16 people frollicked despite the prospects of a heavy downpour.

Wearing traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirts, they picked a green patch right on the Dnipro River bank.

All four of nature’s elements – water, air, earth and fire – were place to begin the celebration of the summer solstice on June 21.

This special holiday of the longest day of the year has had spiritual significance for thousands of years. Celebrating with bonfires, the Celts praised the energy of the sun.

Christians adopted the date as the feast of St. John the Baptist to convert the pagans. In Asia, the end-of-June festival honors the Chinese Goddess of Light.

The group in Druzhby Narodiv Park – made up of mostly middle-aged revelers – was getting ready to honor the ancient god of sun and fertility, Dazhbog. Before Eastern Slavic nations were baptized in the 10th century, this god was one of the key worship figures among pagans.

Journalist Svyatoslav Voytko, 25 years old, served as priest for the wreath-clad worshippers. He said his followers are members of the Native Ukrainian National Faith, founded in the ’60s by Ukrainian-Canadian immigrant Lev Sylenko. Their faith is all

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about patriotism and nationalism, adding fuel to the fire. “It is natural for Japanese to follow Shintoism, and Judaism is practiced by one nation only, so why should Ukrainians not have a native faith?� he said, calling the people to prayer.

Forming a circle around the bonfire, they pressed their hands against their hearts and prayed to Dazhbog, calling him “the consciousness of the world.�

Then the young and old touched the ground, followed by a commemoration of Ukrainian princes, Cossack hetmans and anti-communist leaders who fought for the country’s independence. The congregation, which Voytko said has some 1,000 followers in Kyiv, opposes Christianity. Explaining the differences

between the two, the priest-journalist said that Dazhbog, unlike Jesus, allows the killing of enemies if they threaten Ukraine in any way. “Christians kill their enemies too, in spite of the 10 Commandments. The ‘native’ faith, however, is honest about it,� Voytko said, continuing the ritual by sanctifying the fire with prayers.

Despite this heavy description, the followers seemed to dwell on simplicity, earthliness and kindness toward each other. As the fire got stronger, people started to jump over it to cleanse the spirit and secure good luck.

Young couples tried to fly over the flames, keeping their hands locked for strength and unity in a relationship. This romanticized ritual is Æ32

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Night N O Owl WITH ALINA CHERNYSH CHE CHERNYSH@KYIVP CHERNYSH@KYIVPOST.COM

Dante moved from the river to the park One of the great things about Kyiv night life is, despite impressions to the contrary, there is always something new going on. It would be wrong to call it “the city that never sleeps� like the Big Apple. But let’s just say that Kyiv is “the city that takes a power nap at dawn.�

Just like with terrible road traffic on the way to the most popular destinations, the traffic to the late-night hotspots is always busy. On June 17, everyone was chanting that Dante Park was due to open. I was curious to find out if it’s going to be any different from a posh floating dance floor on the Dnipro River, where Dante was last year. It was famous for its celebrity guests, hungry party-goers from abroad, an expensive menu and less expensive female visitors.

The grand opening was grand indeed. It all started with a crazy traffic jam somewhere near D’lux club and all the way to Dante Park, which now occupies the former Shashlychnaya restaurant. Some visitors who were tired of waiting decided to walk, deserting their cars on the sidewalks.

I was one of those grumpy ones making my way on foot in high heels. But when I saw an absolutely gorgeous interior of the newly opened Dante, for a moment I had stars in my eyes all over again.

Spacious, blindingly white and classy would be the three phrases to describe it. As I was falling in love with the luscious greenery and gazebos draped in white fabric, I stepped on the carpets between the tables. They seemed to be covering rough surfaces and formed a perfect metaphor for the crowds seen at Dante Park that night.

Fake people, fake smiles, fake lips, fake breasts‌ The old traditions of cocky glamour have, indeed, been properly kept. People from all over the world added color to the night.

Original and fake designer dresses, skirts, suits, shoes flashed all around, mixing with provocative glances, loud laughs and boastful conversations.

You could even sing karaoke if you wanted. It was a dream come true for some, a nightmare for others.

Show ballet Dante Park and D’Arts were good entertainers dancing together with clubbers. The food, including the ubiquitous sushi, was also excellent.

In short, this place was able to satisfy all you might want from a sleepless night on the town. But somehow it reminded me of yet another nightclub in Kyiv that caters to posh wannabes and gold diggers.

Once outside Dante Park, we stepped back into a traffic jam. A sentiment that I overheard summed up the experience well: “This Dante circus was not worth all the gas my car spent in this traffic.�

Dante Park, 16 Parkova Doroga www.dante-park.com Female - free, male - Hr 300

www.kyivpost.com

Entertainment Guide 23

Best concerts Sum 41 is a Canadian punk rock band. Overflowing with energy, they are one of those restless bands who give more than 300 concerts a year. Formed in 1996, the rockers named their group in honor of 41 days left till the beginning of a school year.

Throughout their 15 years on stage they have been constantly experimenting with their style. The latest change many fans link to lead singer Deryck Whibley’s divorce from fellow Canadian star Avril Lavigne.

Tuesday, July 5, Stereoplaza, 17 Kikvidze St., 222-8040, metro Druzhby Narodiv, www.stereoplaza.com.ua. Tickets: Hr 300-1,500.

(upstenu.files.wordpress.com)

July 1, 2011

Saturday, July 2

Erasure is a British synthpop duo born 20 years ago. Keybordist and songwriter Vince Clark came from Depeche Mode, while singer Andy Bell was a butcher before he saw an ad in the newspaper looking for a singer in a new band. Now you probably know their hits "Always" and "I Love to Hate You" by heart but it wasn't easy for them in the beginning. In Kyiv, they'll perform their best songs from 17 albums released to date.

Saturday, July 9, 7 p.m., Arena Concert Plaza, 2 A Baseyna St., 222-8040, metro Ploscha Lva Tolstoho, www.arena-kiev.com.ua. Tickets: Hr 300-1,000.

Sting is the stage name of British musician Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner. After playing bass guitar in The Police, Sting decided to drift solo in 1981 and obviously succeeded. Throughout his career, he has received 16 Grammy Awards and has written some of the most-played pop songs of all time, which have made his mellow, slightly raspy voice an internationally recognized trademark. In Kyiv, he will be accompanied by the National symphonic orchestra of Ukraine and promises to perform some of his and The Police’s most well-know hits, including “Englishman in New York” and “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.”

Tuesday, July 7, Palats Sportu, 1 Sportyvna Sq. Tickets: Hr 550-7,900.

Tchaikovsky opera ‘Iolanta’ premier

Best classical picks • Friday, July 1: Ensemble “Collegium Kiev Wind” will perform pieces by Mozart and Strauss at 8 p.m., Cultural center Master-Klass, 34 Mazepy St., metro Arsenalna, www.masterklass.org/eng, 594-1063. Tickets: Hr 30.

• Friday, July 1: Braty Bluzu jazz band at 7 p.m., Sullivan Room Kiev, 8 Prorizna St., (066) 485-5555. Tickets: Hr 350.

• Saturday, July 2: Jazz with Denis Dudko’s Quintet, Okean Elzy’s former bass guitarist, 8 p.m., Sullivan Room Kiev, 8 Prorizna St., (067) 658-5874. Tickets: Hr 350.

• Sunday, July 3: Opera “Norma” by Bellini at 7 p.m., National Opera, 50 Volodymyrska St., 279-1169, www. opera.com.ua. Tickets: Hr 20-200.

• Tuesday, July 5: Ballet “Swan Lake” by Tchaikovsky at 7 p.m., National Opera, 50 Volodymyrska St., 279-1169, www.opera.com.ua. Tickets: Hr 20-300.

• Wednesday, July 6: Oratorio (orchestra, choir and soloists) “Messiah” by Handel at 7:30 p.m., the House of Organ Music, 77 Velyka Vasylkivska St., 528-3186, www.organhall.kiev.ua. Tickets: Hr 20-50.

(starlife.com.ua)

(panoramio.com)

Friday, July 1 and July 8

Written in 1851, “Iolanta” is the last opera by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, a prominent Russian composer. He drew his inspiration from the play “King Rene’s Daughter” by the Danish poet Henrik Hertz. It tells the story of princess Iolanta who’s blind from birth. She is not aware of her disability as the king has ordered his court to keep it a secret. Iolanta finds out the truth from a prince who is in love with her, and later this turns out to be the key to her miraculous recovery.

Some music historians say that although the public received Tchaikovsky’s opera really well, the genius himself was disappointed and felt that he had exhausted his creativity. Last time the Ukrainian opera staged Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece was in 1961. They decided to resurrect it 50 years later in hope that this love story will appeal to a modern audience.

Friday, July 1 and July 8, National philharmonic, 2 Volodymyrsky uzviz, 278-1697, www. filarmonia.com.ua. Tickets: Hr 20-200.

Graffiti competition An essential attribute of many modern cities, graffiti is a controversial type of art. Many get irritated by the “sketches” polluting the public walls, while others find some of them astonishingly beautiful if done by professionals. To add its voice on the matter, Kyiv will host a competition among 18 teams from all over Ukraine who will to compete for the right to decorate a building on Khreshchatyk Street. Each team has to present their vision of a strong Ukraine on a six square meter board before the judges. Which building the winner gets to facelift is still being kept secret. Master classes from graffiti artists and techno mixes from DJs should add more interaction to the show.

Saturday, July 2, noon, Druzhby Narodiv Arch, near the European Square, www.upstenu.wordpress.com. Free admission.

Saturday, Sunday, June 2-3

(shu.sumno.com)

Getting a ticket to the annual Global Gathering, you are signing up for some really good music. Originating from the UK, this annual dance music festival takes place in six countries. Lasting longer than 16 hours Kyiv’s edition of this major open-air party will feature some of the world’s most prominent DJs, including Richie Hawtin, Markus Schulz, and of course Tiesto, a legendary Dutch DJ who has been named the world’s best three times by respectable DJ Mag magazine. Overall, some 60 artists from 11 countries will be rocking the crowds from five different stages on Saturday, July 9, 2 p.m.- 6 a.m., Chaika airfield, 287-8787, www.globalgathering.com.

Tickets: Hr 349-499.

Back to the roots: Trypilske Kolo festival Though good in many ways, the cosmopolitan lifestyle often deprives us of the feeling of freedom that can be experienced only in nature. Head to the annual festival Trypilske Kolo, or Trypillya Circle, to remind yourself of the beauty of Ukrainian landscapes and have fun with an ethnic twist. Taking place for the fourth time, the festival commemorates the ancient culture of Trypillya that thrived on the territory of modern Ukraine in the 5th century B.C., and whose cultural artifacts still leave many archaeologists in awe.

The program is jam-packed with more activities than you can possibly fathom: from Brazilian, African and Bulgarian dances to theater performances, fire shows and drumming lessons.

The field hosting this ethnic party is located about 80 kilometers away from Kyiv but the trip should be worth it. For those willing to stay overnight, there is a camping site supplied with firewood and fresh water. Note that Trypilske Kolo is a place for clean fun, which means a big no to smoking, alcohol or drugs. See www.tkfest.com.ua/eng for details.

Saturday, Sunday, July 2-3, town Rzhyshiv, buses available from metro Vydubuchi (Hr 30), 331-82 70, (097) 569-7437. Tickets: Hr 30-110.

Compiled by Nataliya Horban

24 Entertainment Guide

www.kyivpost.com

July 1, 2011

Movies

Live Music

THE OTHER CHELSEA. A STORY FROM DONETSK Germany, Ukraine 2010 Language: Russian and English with English subtitles Directed by Jakob Preuss

Preuss, decidedly a talented filmmaker, shows Donetsk as a place where rich and poor share the same passion – football.

Miners with their miniscule wages and a handful of oligarchs with millions of dollars – all converge on a stadium. They

sit in different zones but enjoy the same match and cheer for the same club – Shakhtar Donetsk owned by billionaire Rinat Akhmetov. As Shakhtar advances in the European league, it makes millions of impoverished Ukrainians happy because the football team may be their only pride and joy.

“The Other Chelsea” is a very realistic story of an illusion that has more influence than the reality itself. Akhmetov’s successful investments only highlight a widening gap between a dream of a happy life and the stagnation that happens in Donetsk today.

A must-see for everybody who wants to know more about the real Ukraine.

MASTERCLASS CINEMA CLUB 34 Mazepy St., 594-1063 July 7 at 7 p.m.

Compiled by Alexei Bondarev and Caitlin Cleary

Saturday, July 2

Magma performs excellent covers on famous songs. (www. magma.com.ua) ART CLUB 44 44B Khreshchatyk St., 279-4137, www.club44.com.ua Concerts traditionally start at 8 – 10 p.m.

July 1 Selo I Lyudy, Hr 50 July 2 MJ Project, Hr 50 July 3 Soiuz 44 Jam Session, free admission July 4 Coffein, free admission July 5 Latin Jazz Party: Arka Ovrutsky Quartet, free admission July 6 Dmitriy Haiduk, Nycholas Tym, Hr 50 July 7 DomRa, free admission

(AP)

DOCKER’S ABC 15 Khreshchatyk St., 278-1717, www.docker.com.ua Concerts traditionally start at 9:30-10 p.m.

July 1 Tabula Rasa, Crazy Train, Hr 70 July 2 Red Rocks, Vostochny Express, Hr 70 July 3 Foxtrot Music Band, free admission July 4 Animals Session, free admission July 5 More Huana, Hr 20 July 6 Rockin’ Wolves, Hr 30 July 7 Ruki v Briuki Rockabilly Party, Hr 30

Klitschko vs. Haye Buckle up for an historic heavyweight showdown between Ukrainian champion Wladimir “Dr. Steelhammer” Klitschko and England’s David “Hayemaker” Haye this weekend. The hype that surrounds this match is due in part to Klitschko’s celebrity status in Ukraine and his terrifyingly impressive 55-3 record with 49 knockouts. The major source of the building excitement, however, is the fierce rivalry between the two boxers that began in 2009 when Haye wore a shirt depicting him triumphantly holding the bleeding, decapitated head of a Klitschko brother (Wladimir and Vitali) in each hand. Wladimir was outraged. The younger Klitschko thinks that Haye needs to be given a brutal reality check in the ring, while Haye has sworn to destroy him in the first round. Regardless, two years worth of trash talk and threats will finally be put to the test this Saturday in Hamburg.

July 2, 10:45 p.m., Inter TV channel, starting at 11 p.m., Hamburg Imtech Football Arena, Germany

DOCKER PUB 25 Bohatyrska St., metro Heroyiv Dnipra, www.docker.com.ua Concerts traditionally start at 9:30-10 p.m.

July 1 Strong Time, Red Rocks, Hr 70 July 2 More Huana, Yuhym Dym, Hr 70 July 3 High Score, free admission July 4 Lemmons, free admission July 5 Tres Deseos Latino Party, free admission July 6 The Magma, free admission July 7 Rockin Wolves, free admission

BOCHKA PYVNA ON KHMELNYTSKOHO 4B-1 Khmelnytskoho St, metro Teatralna, 390-6106, www.bochka.com.ua Concerts traditionally start at 9-10 p.m.

July 1 Carte Blanche July 2 Hot Guys JAZZ DO IT 76A Velyka Vasylkivska St., 289-56-06, http://jazz-doit.com.ua Concerts traditionally start at 8:30 p.m.

July 1 Jazz Inside July 2 Alexander Marchenko, July 6 Elena Nikolskaya Other live music clubs: PORTER PUB, 3 Sichnevogo Povstannya St., 280-1996, www.porter.com.ua GOLDEN GATE IRISH PUB, 15 Zolotovoritska St., 235-5188, http:// goldengatepubkiev.com/ TO DUBLIN IRISH PUB, 4 Raisy Okipnoi St., 569-5531, http://www.to-dublin.com.ua/ PIVNA NO.1 ON BASEYNA, 15 Baseyna St., 287-44-34, www.pivna1.com.ua DRAFT 1/2 Khoryva St., metro Kontraktova Ploshcha, 463-7330 KHLIB CLUB 12 Frunze St., www.myspace. com/xlibclub CHESHIRE CAT 9 Sklyarenko St., 428-2717 O’BRIEN’S 17A Mykhaylivska St., 279-1584 DAKOTA 14G Heroyiv Stalinhrada St., 4687410 U KRUZHKI 12/37 Dekabrystiv St., 5626262.

Compiled by Svitlana Kolesnykova

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Lifestyle 25

July 1, 2011

The Salo Vodka-Bar, 6/8 Prospect Svobody, Lviv www.saloart.com.ua.

Hearts, breasts and busts — lard sculptures are kept in glass fridges in Lviv Salo restaurant. (UNIAN)

Lviv Salo restaurant serves tasty lard in many shapes, forms

BY N ATA L I A A . F E D US C HAK FEDUSCHAK@KYIVPOST.COM

LVIV, Ukraine — “I don’t do salo,” said my friend laughing as we descended a long flight of stairs leading to what is Lviv’s only salo restaurant and bar.

Yes, that’s right, salo, as in the specially cured lard that Ukrainians love to bits. It may not top the list of ideas around which to shape and mold a restaurant, but Lviv’s newly opened venture offers salo lovers culinary delights while introducing the layman to this wondrous, albeit fatty, dish.

Salo – pig fat – has been a staple of Ukrainian cuisine for time immemorial.

Farmers used to wrap a thick slice into a kerchief and take it into the field for lunch. It didn’t melt under the sun and offered enough calories to keep one going through a grueling day.

Since those days of practicality, however, salo-making has become an art.

To get just the right texture – melting in your mouth – farmers have lovingly

fed pigs with milk and high quality grains to ensure tenderness. Pigs have also lived a life of luxury to maintain low levels of stress since that emotion hardens their fat. Which brings us back to Lviv’s Salo Vodka-Bar. The bar is both a restaurant and museum, which has taken a modernist view of salo. Right now the focal point is the world’s largest heart made of salo and a little baby salo alien lying in a crib.

On the culinary end, the shape in which salo is presented is also an art form. Dishes come in the form of David’s great male genital, Marilyn Monroe’s lips and Venus’ breasts, among others.

Each of these dishes is enhanced with foodstuffs. For instance, one of the most popular dishes, David’s great gift, is filled with meat varenyky, pickles and cabbage. The Hr 190 dish that feeds three is popular among women.

“It is hard for about 10 minutes and then begins to soften because the varenyky are hot,” our waitress said.

At least it lasts longer than the real thing, my friend and I chuckled back.

The vast majority of dishes at the bar might be too much to ingest for the average person. Most are for two or three people, and steeped in cholesterol.

Yet the bar has come up with a dish that is an introduction of sorts to salo without all the frills. This is what my friend’s husband and I had.

For Hr 40, we had small slices of 12 types of salo on black bread, with a shot of vodka, beer or juice included.

Nine pieces of salo are from different regions of Ukraine, while three come from Italy.

I was surprised to learn that Italians also eat salo, although theirs is much saltier than the Ukrainian and can contain large bits of prosciutto.

The bread has to be black, our waitress said, because it enhances salo’s taste. For whatever reason, white bread just doesn’t work.

I ordered my plate with a bit of trepidation, fearful that with so many pieces

A woman looks at the heart made of lard, which pumps more lard instead of blood in Salo restaurant in Lviv. (UNIAN)

of salo, I would not feel okay later. I’ve eaten salo in the past, but mostly tiny tastes just for company. Much to my surprise, however, the salo was truly delicious. It did what it was supposed to do; in those 12 bites, I experienced not only different Ukrainian regions, but different culinary salo styles.

Some salo pieces had a bit of thickness, but were tasty nonetheless. My dish was washed down with beer, while my friend’s husband had a generous bottle of non-alcoholic beer. My friend who doesn’t do salo tasted morsels from her spouse’s plate and was impressed.

To that end, the bar did what it is presumably supposed to do – introduce people to salo. It is evident the proprietors understand that not everyone is going to eat pig fat. So they also offer a large sushi menu – dishes here are less expensive than in Kyiv – as well as Italian.

We ordered a salmon roll for Hr 38 and a samurai roll for Hr 50. From the Italian menu I ordered a mozzarella,

tomato and avocado salad for Hr 47.

It is one of the best I have ever had in Ukraine.

Then it was time for dessert. I have always been skeptical of salo dipped in chocolate. So we opted for ice cream and salo in the shape of Marilyn’s lips. Comprised of 80 percent ice cream and 20 percent salo, the latter was barely noticeable.

Little bits of fruit complimented the dish, and quite honestly, I would have it again.

The Salo Vodka-Bar has hit the right chord at the right time. Not only is its atmosphere playful and fun – tables are adorned with cutting boards and large magnifying glasses to read the menu – the food is good. The personnel are patient in explaining the menu and how the salo is able to be shaped in so many interesting forms. And finally there is the bathroom which you have to see to believe: Salo in and salo out.

Staff writer Natalia A. Feduschak can be reached at feduschak@kyivpost.com

26 Lifestyle

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July 1, 2011

Beach bums’ heaven in Kyiv

BY O L E K S A N D R A DIMIT RIYEVYC H DIMITRIYEVYCH@KYIVPOST.COM

There are more beaches in Kyiv than you can fathom. Wild, private, nudist, dirty, clean, by the lakes or the Dnipro River – just get in there early with plenty of sunscreen before the sand feels like a burner. Each season the question of cleanliness of the sand and the water pops to mind, and each year there are fewer and fewer beaches that authorities declare safe. This summer only three places (Dytyachy, Telbin and Chortory) received “good-to-swim” passports but we offer you a wider selection where you can strip down, laze in the sun and chill off in the water because – frankly – Ukrainian officials don’t always get it right.

Hydropark is a large recreational complex barely renovated from the Soviet times on the left side of the Dnipro River but Kyivans love it anyways. It has lot of budget entertainment: from boat rentals to cheap ice cream in the green canopies of the trees.

Ukrainian disdain for rules hits the beach in summer, as people ignore no-swimming signs to take a dip into the dirty waters of the Dnipro River. (UNIAN)

Dytyachy This public beach has everything you need – from a lifeguard to a playground – to feel comfortable there with children, hence its name – “Dytyachy” or children’s. It’s free to enter and throw a towel on the sand but expect to pay some nominal charges if you want a beach bed and a shade. On the down side, this beach, along with other public beaches in Hydropark, is always crowded but there are plenty of private beaches if you want more privacy.

Municipal authorities did detect E.coli bacteria in the water so be careful heading to Hydropark.

Where: Metro Hydropark, take the right turn on the way out of the metro and then left before the Venetian bridge.

a swimming pool, potted palm trees and a yoga session – all try to make you forget you are in Ukraine. That’s if you are cool with paying Hr 300 for a bungalow on Mondays or Hr 400 on Sundays. The parking is free though!

Where: Metro Hydropark, turn right on the way out of the metro, go straight after the Venetian bridge.

Olmeca Formerly known as Opium club and UA Beach Club, now Olmeca occupies a manicured patch of sand not far from the city center in Hydropark. A private facility, it has a restaurant with European, Japanese and Asian cuisine, Thai massage services (Hr 600, ouch!), a photographer to capture your joy on the water skis or a wakeboard and plenty of other attractions. For Hr 50, you get a sun bed and an umbrella. If you like to feel like a VIP, pay Hr 200 and take a dip in a swimming pool instead of the river. To drive a jet ski for five minutes, you’ll have to part with Hr 150.

Where: Metro Hydropark, turn right on the way out of the station, after the Venetian bridge, take the central path to the beach.

drink right on the beach, or you can rent a motor boat for Hr 1,800 for an hour to admire wild Dnipro bays and Ukrainian oligarchs’ and politicians mansions from the distance.

Where: Zhukov Island. If you drive, take the Stolychny road, make a U-turn past the Domosphera supermarket and take the first right into the woodland.

Telbin Surrounded by residential high-rises, this public beach is on the lake and has a feel of a city park. You can spread your towel either on the grass, the sand or rent a chaise longue for Hr 20 for the whole day. There are volleyball and soccer fields, table tennis and small boats and water bicycles for Hr 45 per hour. The absence of umbrellas is compensated by plenty of trees lining up the bank.

Where: Metro Livoberezhna, shuttle bus #599 to Shumskoho Street.

Sun City This beach has everything from a shisha bar and a yoga patio to a massage parlor and a night club. For a fee, of course. Pay Hr 30 during a week day and Hr 40 on a weekend to enjoy its premises reclining on a chaise longue and an umbrella included in the price.

Among other services: Hr 4 per ride down a waterslide, Hr 100 for five minutes on a water scooter and Hr 20 for a 10-minute massage.

Where: Metro Hydropark, turn right on the way out of the metro, past the Venetian bridge turn right again.

Chortory is a part of – has plenty of entertainment, from wakeboarding to kayaks for rent. It’s a huge territory with so many green paths that you might want to explore on a bike. No bike rentals there, sadly.

Where: Metro Petrivka, any shuttle bus that goes to Troeshchina, come out and turn right after the Moscow bridge.

Bora-bora beach club As the name suggests, this is one more luxurious beach club in Hydropark with all the facilities you may require from a beach. Surprisingly, the entrance is free of charge but you’ll have to pay Hr 60 for a beach bed and an umbrella if you don’t want to get burnt. Private bungalows with soft cushions right by

Trukhaniv complex For Hr 120, you get to enjoy the civilized part of the Trukhaniv Island – another woodland area on the Dnipro River overlooking beautiful slopes with onion church domes. The price includes an umbrella, a sun bed, access to two swimming pools and chance to play ping-pong, volleyball, badminton, darts, mini-football or football. A 30-meter long slide should keep the heart beating if you are bored of lazing in the sun. Make sure you bring your own food and drinks though; there are no cafes there at this point. And if it’s raining you can still come here to warm up in the sauna for Hr 200 per hour.

Where: Trukhaniv Island, cross the foot bridge at Podil, 12 Parkova Street.

Dniprovska Riviera Chortory This beach on the Dnipro River is for pure minimalists: There isn’t much apart from a toilet and a sports ground.

But Druzhby Narodiv Park – which

The Zhukov Island is a national reserve on the Dnipro River but it doesn’t mean you can’t party there. For Hr 70, you get a beach bed, an umbrella and the quietness of the Kyiv green outskirts. A waiter will serve you food and

Mayachok This beach is so glamorous; some people like to throw weddings here. But on an ordinary day, the entrance is only Hr 100, which includes beach beds and umbrellas. For 20 more hryvnyas, you get a gazebo. Mayachok, or a light house in Ukrainian, has Wi-Fi in its restaurant. Playgrounds for children, paintball for adults – Mayachok with its spacious grounds and lots of activities is the place to be this summer.

Where: Zhukov Island. If you drive, take the Stolychny Road, make a U-turn past the Domosphera supermarket and take the first right into the woodland.

Kyiv Post staff writer Oleksandra Dimitriyevych can be contacted at dimitriyevych@kyivpost.com

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Lifestyle 27

July 1, 2011

Gadiukiny Brothers: The band that shaped Ukrainian rock

BY O K S A N A FA RY N A FARYNA@KYIVPOST.COM

Twenty years after the Gadiukiny Brothers pioneered Ukrainian rock music, their songs still draw huge crowds and the highest praise from the country’s top rock acts.

At a concert at Palats Sportu last month, the band reformed – minus lead singer Serhiy Kuzminsky, who died in 2009 – to blast out some of its hits, supported by 18 other groups performing cover versions of its songs.

The band, which took its name from the spy Gadiukin, a character in a Soviet short story, combined Western music styles of rock ’n’ roll, blues, reggae and punk, infused with a bit of Ukrainian folk. Kuzminsky’s lyrics rebelled against the Communist Party line of the time. Gadiukiny sang with dark humor about everything they saw, rather than the “perfect� Soviet citizen.

Kuzminsky spent time in prison for

selling and possessing drugs. After leaving prison, the musician wrote about junkies walking on farmlands and a guy in a jail dreaming about the moonlit body of his girlfriend. One song tells of Roxoliana, a gorgeous girl from Lviv, who would, according to the lyrics, give you both a passionate night and a venereal disease. Another is about a country girl from Kolomyia whose cheeks are as red as the tie of a pioneer, a Soviet version of a scout.

Other lyrics feature a guy who smokes cheap and strong Ukrainian cigarettes called Verkhovyna and feels the wind of change blowing from the north.

Even though the group stopped playing together in 1996, its music can be heard any time students or campers get together with a guitar. Many modern Ukrainian musicians were influenced by the cheerful music and biting lyrics of the band, which was formed in Lviv in western Ukraine in 1988 just a couple of years before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Serhiy Kuzminsky (with a microphone) and his legendary band Gadiukiny Brothers during their final concert in 2006 in Kyiv. (Ukrinform)

“As a teenager I used to listen only to The Beatles,� said Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, front man of Okean Elzy. “When I was given a cassette by the Gadiukiny Brothers, I refused to listen to them at first, but when I finally turned it on, I thought ‘Wow!’ Soon everyone in my group became huge fans of Gadiukiny.�

A number of the bands performing mentioned that Gadiukiny proved that rock could also be Ukrainian and that without them Ukrainian modern music would never have developed.

The concert, however, was tinged with sadness and was dedicated to the memory of Kuzminsky, who died of complications of cancer and hepatitis treatment at the age of 46. “Kuzia, how are you doing out there?�

Mykhaylo Lundin, the band’s drummer, asked rhetorically. He encouraged the audience to lift their lighters in the air. Non-smokers used the backlight of their mobile phones and the concert hall was immediately filled with thousands of lights.

Kuzminsky was born in the Ukrainian-speaking city of Lviv, but his grandfather was Russian. He did not care about fame, but it found him anyway. After achieving second place at the first Chervona Ruta festival (first Ukrainian music festival) in 1989, the band had several successful releases and gave concerts in Ukraine, Russia, Canada and Europe. After growing bored of his drug-fueled lifestyle, Kuzminsky got clean for a while, moved to Moscow and switched to electronic music. Living in Moscow, the former singer looked back at the Gadiukiny Brothers period and seemed happy it was over, often speaking cynically about the band.

In a 2005 interview with Nash magazine, he said their sudden fame was

Gaydamaky lead singer Oleksandr Yarmola performs in memory of Gadiukiny Brothers on June 3. (Ukrinform)

a misunderstanding and their songs, adored by thousands, were crap. “It looked like I was making rock ’n’ roll and sang songs about rednecks for the ‘in-the-know’ rock ’n’ roll community,� he said in the interview, which was peppered with offensive slang. “And suddenly you are somewhere in Berdychiv or Kolomyia [giving a concert]. And all the rednecks are in the concert hall.�

The true motivation of this charismatic band leader, who wrote dozens of hits, for saying this still remains unclear. But it never was an obstacle for Gadiukiny Brothers fans who still know some of their lyrics by heart.

Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko along with her entourage of bodyguards and lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko occupied several seats in the audience. Perhaps she was there to distract from criminal cases that wereopened against her by the prosecution. “The Gadiukiny Brothers are a part of our history,� said Tymoshenko, dressed in tight jeans and small jacket, sporting long curly hair instead of her trademark braid. “I came simply

to show my respect to the people who supported freedom with their songs in the difficult ’90s and radiated freedom.�

The band didn’t just churn out antiSoviet lyrics. In “We Are Boys from Banderstadt� Kuzminsky makes fun of Ukrainian patriots who go to church, respect their parents and are eager to protect their Motherland. His song “The Fine City of Ternopil� became an unofficial anthem of the city and, despite its drug-themed lyrics, is used at cultural city events. “It’s awesome that we are not afraid to make fun of ourselves,� said the band’s keyboardist Pavlo Krakhmaliov. “If people can laugh at themselves, they are able to overcome and move on. All Ukrainians were able to do so thanks to Serhiy.�

Guitarist Ihor Melnychuk said their band leader was “a kind of Messiah.� “He took ordinary people and turned them into small stories,� he said. “That was revolutionary at that time. He made that with love, not with hatred.�

Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Faryna can be reached at faryna@kyivpost.com Exclusive Media Partner

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28 Community Bulletin Board

July 1, 2011

Publication of items in Kyiv Post Community Bulletin Board is free of charge. The newspaper will print as many submissions as space permits, but notices must be no more than 30 words, except for the people in need section. Advertising of paid services or commercial ventures is prohibited in this space. Permanent items must be resubmitted every three months. Deadline for submissions is 3 p.m. Friday for the next issue. New listings are boldfaced. Please e-mail news@kyivpost.com or contact lifestyle editor Yuliya Popova at 234-6500.

Business clubs – 4 listings

more information call: 517-5193. Î International Baptist Church invites you to our English language worship services (Sundays at 10 a.m.). We are located near Vyrlytsya metro in the downstairs hall of Transfiguration Church, 30B Verbytskoho. http://livingvinechurch.googlepages.com. Î The Evangelic Presbyterian Church of the Holy Trinity invites you to our worship service, held in Ukrainian and Russian with simultaneous English translation. We meet each Sunday at 50-52 Shevchenka Blvd., #402 (4th floor). Worship begins at 11 a.m.

Sunday school for adults begins at 9:45 a.m. Pastor Ivan Bespalov: tel. (044) 287-0815; (097) 317-9598; e-mail: ivanbespalov@gmail. com. Î Kyiv International Bible Church, an English-language evangelical nondenominational church meeting at 10:30 a.m. on Sundays at 34A Popudrenka, between Darnytsya and Chernihivska metro stops. Contacts: 501-8082, or kievIBC@gmail.com. Î International Christian Assembly meets at 57 Holosiyivska St. Services are held every Sunday: 9 a.m. till 11:30 a.m. For further information contact: Paul, +050-382-2782, www.icakiev.com

Support groups – 6 listings Î The Business-English Center meets on Sundays at 3 p.m. for a series of business English skills workshops. For more information, call Alex at 234-0871 or email: e-club@i.com.ua or visit www. etcentre.com.ua. Î A new gentlemen’s club is always open for well-educated, successful members (free admission) to combine establishing business relationships with unconstrained socializing. Please contact us: vadym_n@ukr.net, kobserg@yahoo.com, (067) 7406820 Sergio. Î The British Business Club in Ukraine meets every Saturday for business discussion and once every month for networking.

Membership is by invitation only and is open to individuals and companies. Please email: administrator@bbcu.com.ua. Î Free English discussions about Internet marketing. Bold Endeavours, a British marketing and web development company, welcomes senior marketing managers/directors to an English language discussion group about search engines and Internet marketing at noon on the first Saturday of each month. Call 2219595, or register online at www.bold.com.ua.

Public speaking – 6 listings

Î Dnipro Hills Toastmasters Club would like to invite successoriented people to learn and develop public speaking, presentation and leadership skills. Join us Sundays from 10 to 11 a.m. at Kyiv Business School, 34 Lesya Ukrainky Street, metro station Pecherska. For detailed information, please, check our website www.dniprohills.org.ua Î EBA Toastmasters Club invites enthusiastic, goal-oriented people to learn and improve their communication and leadership skills in friendly learning and supportive environment. We meet every Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Edinburg Business School, 9/10 Dovnar-Zapolskogo str., floor 2, Oxford hall, Lukyanivska metro station. For more information, contact Svetlana Nesterenko at lana_svk@ukr.net or call 067 220 77 55. More information can also be found at: http://ebatmc.blogspot.com. Î Top Talkers Toastmasters Club is happy to invite ambitious and enthusiastic people to learn by doing. Together we will discover inner potential in public speaking and leadership in each of us. We meet every Tuesday at Kraft Foods, 23 Yaroslaviv Val St. at 7 p.m. Please check our website www.toptalkers.org Î American Chamber of Commerce Toastmasters Club invites English speaking business professionals to advance their presentation and communication skills in a friendly and supportive atmosphere. We meet each Wednesday at 7.30 p.m., at the Microsoft Ukraine office, 75 Zhylyanska St., Floor 4, Business Center Eurasia.

To receive further details on the club and its membership, please contact our club vice president for membership, Anton Stetsenko at 093-609-5161. Î Kyiv Toastcrackers Club, a part of Toastmasters International, is a worldwide organization that helps men and women learn the arts of speaking, listening and thinking through effective oral communication. We invite new people to benefit from the meetings on Wednesdays, at 7 p.m. at the House of Scientists, 45a Volodymyrska St. For more information see www.toastcrackers. kiev.ua. Î Talkers Toastmasters Club invites those interested in improving their public speaking, communication skills, English and creative abilities to join its meetings on Saturday mornings at 11 a.m.

Please, check club’s website at arttalkers.wordpress.com, call 096-565-6229 or e-mail: arttalkers@gmail.com

Religion – 8 listings

Î Christ Church, Kyiv. We are the Anglican/Episcopal Church, serving the English-speaking community in Kyiv. We meet Sundays at 3 p.m. at St Catherine’s German Lutheran Church, 22 Luteranska Street, a five-minute walk from Khreshchatyk. Bible study on Tuesdays at 7.30 p.m. Please call Graham at 098-7794457 for more information, www.acny.org.uk/8592. Î You are invited to the St. Paul’s Evangelical Church. Roger McMurrin is its founding pastor. Music for worship is provided by the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Worship services are held every Sunday at 2:30 pm at the House of Artistic Collectives (Veriovka Choir Hall, 4th floor) at 50/52 Shevchenko Blvd. Call 2354503 or 235-6980. Î International Church, Kyiv. English and Spanish Bible study classes. We invite you to weekly services at 10.30 a.m. Saturdays at 13A Miropolskaya St. (metro Chernigovskaya, second stop by a tram Boichenka. Central entrance of two-story building).

Telephone: 38-093-757-6848, 542-3194. Î Word of God Church offers Bible study every Sunday and Wednesday at 7 p.m. Sunday school, nursery for children. For

Î Jimmy’s Psychology Club within the Center ‘Australian Council in Ukraine’ invites guests to our free problem-sharing and counselling event every Saturday from 5 pm to 7 pm with qualified native speakers at 37Horiva St., Podil district (m. Kontraktova Ploscha). For more information, please contact us at steda@ukr. net or +050 568-8403. http://vkontakte.ru/club23571290 Î Divorce mediation, commercial mediation, consulting on diagnostics of conflict resolution in organization. Ukrainian Mediation Center, www.ukrmedation.com.ua Please contact Oksana Kondratyuk: 066-758-66-44, delo2@i.ua. Î Individual consultations, psychological support in divorce, family relations, stress management, health issues, relaxation, self-esteem, personal development. Call Elena: 097-294-6781. Î Alcoholics Anonymous English-speaking group meets Saturday/Sunday at 12.30 p.m. and Tuesday/Thursday at 7 p.m. at various locations. Contacts: aakyiv@ukr.net, 096-460-0137 (friend of Bill) for details of meeting location. Î Counseling/advising in relationships, personal growth, body/ mind/spirit matters. Well-known Ukrainian psychologist counsels expats in English and French in the center of Kyiv (Lyuteranska).

See www.hohel.kiev.ua or call 050-595-3686 between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Î Individual psychological counseling for Russian and English speakers. Family issues, mood disorders, anxiety, depression.

Psychological Rehabilitation & Resocialization Center. Call Elena Korneyeva, 050-573-5810, between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., or e-mail: kornyeyeva@rambler.ru.

Social, sport and health clubs – 3 listings

Î Travel Club Kiev meets at metro Lva Tolstogo at 3 p.m. on Saturdays to discuss travel stories and explore new destinations with each other. Meet new people and share your stories. Join us, it’s free! For more information contact Olga, +063 351- 6147. Î Volleyball group, expats and locals, seeks new players, male or female. Skill levels, advanced beginner to intermediate. We meet on Sundays, 11 a.m., near Livoberezhna metro. For more info, send email to vbkiev@gmail.com Î Kiev Hash House Harriers club meets every second Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Lucky Pub, 13 Chervonoarmiyska St. (near Lva Tolstoho metro station). For more details, visit the website at http://hashhouseharriers.kiev.ua/

International clubs – 14 listings Î Daily free walking tours around Kyiv. Our English-speaking guides will help you to discover the beauty of the ancient and contemporary Kyiv. Free information services. For more information please contact Marina at +066 851-8558, e-mail info@freetours.kiev.ua or visit http://freetours.kiev.ua/index.html. Î Kyiv EducationUSA Advising Center offers free monthly lectures on educational opportunities in the US. For more information on date and time of the events please see our calendar at http://www.americancouncils.org.ua/en/pages/17/ Î French speaking Club “Langue de Moliere” welcomes its members in cosy and charming atmosphere of BABUIN Café.

We meet every Saturday at 1 p.m. at 10 Simona Petliury (former Kominterna) Street, admission is free. For further information please visit our Facebook profile or call 068-351-0427, 093-2440920. Î Mike’s English Literature and Poetry Club within the Center ‘Australian Council in Ukraine’ invites guests to our free event every Wednesday from 4 pm to 5.30 pm with qualified native speakers at 37 Horiva St., Podil district (m. Kontraktova Ploshcha).

For more information, please contact us at steda@ukr.net or +050 568-8403. http://vkontakte.ru/club23571290 Î Free admission for foreigners to “Russian Speaking Club” on Saturdays, 15.00 in Kiev city center. Call Yana (095897 01 55) to ask for details or go to www.russianclub.com.ua Î Stolypin Club (Kiev) meets every third Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m. at various locations. It is a non-profit public organization uniting Kyiv’s citizenry, including prominent business representatives, politicians and the liberal professions. The club is private, but opens its doors and its spirit to the wider community, affording the public a chance to partake in certain events alongside club members and guests. Please contact Tamara Avdeyeva at 096-462-4646 or assistant@stolypinclub.org. Î Welcome to the friendly atmosphere of a French-speaking club. We meet once weekly on Saturdays or Sundays for conversation practice and movie sessions. Please contact Svetlana: 067-907-1456 or email: consonance-s@ukr.net.

Î Student Embassy Project invites students to join intercultural events in Kyiv, Lviv and Ternopil. The initiative is aimed at international students’ integration into Ukrainian society, youth leadership development, intercultural dialogue. To learn more please e-mail us at studentembassy@gmail.com or visit: http:// studentembassy.org.ua. Î The Kyiv Rotary Club meets on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. at Andreyevsky Prichal restaurant, 6 Bratskaya Str. For more information, please contact Nataliya Rodovanskaya at 067-296-5672 or n_radov@yahoo.com. Î The International Women’s Club of Kyiv (IWCK) welcomes women from around the world to join our support network and participate in our extensive social and charitable programs. For more information, see our website www.iwck.org, call or e-mail the IWCK Program Coordinator Galina Timoshenko at 234-3180, office@iwck.org. Address: 39 Pushkinska, #51, entrance 5, door code 250. Î The Rotaract Club Kyiv meets on Thursdays at 7 p.m. at the Ukrainian Educational Center, Prospect Peremohy,#30, apt. 82.

For more information, please email: president@rotaract-kyiv.org. ua or visit our website www.rotaract-kyiv.org.ua. Î Democrats Abroad Ukraine is the official organization of the Democratic Party in Ukraine; connecting Americans with U.S. politics and the Democratic Party; registering, informing, and motivating voters; supporting U.S. candidates, holding events, and fundraising. To join, email info@democratsabroad.org.ua. Î The Kyiv Multinational Rotary Club welcomes all Rotarians who are in Kyiv and new potential Rotarians. Our meetings are conducted in English and are held every Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. at the Radisson Hotel, Yaroslaviv Val St. 22. For a map and further information please consult our website at: http:// kmrclub.org. Î The Kyiv Lions Club is one of 45,000 Lions Clubs around the world. We raise funds and provide services to help those most in need in our community by supporting charities in our chosen sectors of giving: children, the disabled, and the elderly. We meet on the second Monday of every month in the downstairs bar of the Golden Gate Irish Pub at 7 p.m. For more information contact Paul Niland at 044-531-9193 or paul.niland@primerosfunds.com.

English clubs – 14 listings

Î Marina’s Practical English Club for Intermediate to Advanced Students within the Center ‘Australian Council in Ukraine’ invites guests to our free event every Thursday from 7 pm to 9 pm with qualified native speakers at 37 Horiva St., Podil district (m. Kontraktova Ploshcha). For more information, please contact us at steda@ukr.net or +050 568-8403. http://vkontakte.ru/ club23571290 Î Cambridge graduate leads free conversations in British English most Sunday mornings in downtown Kyiv venue. GMAT my speciality, but discussion of a wide range of cultural and commercial issues is encouraged Michael_Bedwell@hotmail.com Î Free English speaking club A@5! Improve your English speaking skills and have fun. Be prepared to speak in English most of the time with native speakers. Conversational clubs and thematic discussions on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information, please contact Vadym at vadik_s@ukr.net or +066 767-4407 Î English-Russian Conversation Club for adults. People of different ages are invited for international meetings. Mini-groups, individual approach. Making new friends. Conversational trainings. Email: engrusglobe@i.ua Î Sprout Christian International School is looking for native English-speaking volunteers who are enthusiastic and love working with children to help in pre-school and English club starting coming September. For more details please call ASAP: Natalie Istomina: +067 501-0406, +093 798-9840. Î Wave Language School offers free English speaking clubs to the public. Join us on weekends from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturdays and 1 p.m.– 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. Please contact us by email if you are interested: info@ wavelanguageschool.com. We hope to see you soon – everybody is welcome. Î Free English practice at conversation club, regular meetings on Fridays at 7 p.m. near Akademgorodok metro. English native speakers. Interesting topics for discussion. Everyone is invited. Join us at 76 Irpenskaya str., off.31. http://english.in.ua/, 229-2838. Î Free book & DVD exchange. Hundreds of English books and movies. Bring one, take one at the Phoenix Center. Address: metro Pecherska, 2 Nemyrovycha-Danchenko, University of Technology and Design, blue 14-storied building, 3rd floor. Hours: Mon-Fri 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Sat noon until 1:30 p.m.

Native English speakers. Meet the best and the brightest in Kyiv, well-educated, ambitious, and talented young people 20-30 years old. Share your English skills and make new friends. Everyone is welcome to visit for free. We also organize picnics, balls and excursions. Five days a week at different locations. Please contact Mark Taylor at jmt260@hotmail.com for more information. Î Free speaking English club in Irpen on Saturdays at Lan School. Call 093-623-3071. Î Improve your English-speaking skills and have fun. Be prepared to speak English most of the time with native speakers. Conversational club, thematic discussions on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information please contact Vadym. email: vadik_s@ukr.net or call 066-767-4407. Î Free international conversation club on Fridays at 7 p.m. at English Language Center. Interesting topics for discussion, studying the Bible sometimes. Join us at 4B Kutuzova lane office No. 106 (m. Pecherska) and 76 Irpenska, office No. 31 (m. Akademgorodok.

The ELC LTD. Tel. 5811989, 229-28-38. http://english.in.ua Î Are you a native English speaker? We are glad to invite you to join our English-speaking club. Call 067-620-3120 (Olga) or e-mail Olga.Bondar@atlantm.com.ua Î Free English/German conversation club on Sundays. Druzhbi Narodiv 18/7, office No. 3. Everyone is welcome. Tel: 529-75-77.

People in need - 9 listings

www.kyivpost.com Î Twenty-one year old Zhenia Anhel was diagnosed with myelomonocytic leukemia in early January. With your collective support, Eugen’s condition has improved, and he achieved a state of remission. During these days he is being prepared for his next chemotherapy treatment, after which a marrow transplantation is strongly recommended . The cost of such operation is 120 000 dollars. Therefore, we would like to ask you once again not to be indifferent to Zhenia Anhel’ s fate.

Contacts: Anhel Mariya Mykolaivna, Zhenia’s mother +38 097 159 38 89; Olena Betliy, Teacher, +38 095 137 7743, history.ukma@ gmail.com; Egor Stadnyi, Student Committee Head, +38 096 905 5743, estadniy@gmail.com; Iryna Ivanivna Yurechko, Deanery coordinator, (+38 044) 425-14-20; iriv@ukma.kiev.ua.

Website: http://www.helpangel.com.ua/ Bank details for individuals: PrivatBank card: 4627087834471890.

Account number (Hryvnya): 4149 6050 5082 6437 Account number(EUR): 5457 0820 5027 5655 Bank details for legal bodies (Hryvnya): Recipient: Privatbank Bank name: PrivatBank Account number: 29244825509100 МФО code: 305299 ЄДРПОУ code: 14360570 Details of payment: charitable contribution to Anhel Mariya Mykolaivna for medical treatment of her son, Anhel Yevhen # 4627087834471890 Tax ID 1915922443 Bank details for legal bodies (USD): BENEFICIARY: Anhel Mariya Mykolaivna Relief Fund for her son Evhen ACCOUNT: № 26258614433539 BANK OF BENEFICIARY: PrivatBank Dnipropetrovs’k, Ukraine Swift code: pbanua2x INTERMEDIARY BANK: jp morgan chase bank Chase metrotech center, 7th floor Brooklyn NY, 11245 USA CORRESPONDENT swift code: chasus33 ACCOUNT: 0011000080 Bank details for legal bodies (EURO): BENEFICIARY: Anhel Mariya Mykolaivna Relief Fund for her son Evhen ACCOUNT: № 26258614433443 BANK OF BENEFICIARY: PrivatBank Dnipropetrovs’k, Ukraine Swift code: pbanua2x INTERMEDIARY BANK: jp morgan AG Frankfurt/main, Germany Swift code: chasdefx CORRESPONDENT ACCOUNT: 6231605145 Î Iryna Zaslavets, 22, a journalist of the ‘City’ Ukrainian TV-channel needs your help. A year ago she was diagnosed ‘Hodgkin’s lymphoma’. Now Iryna has been undergoing treatment in Germany. To save her life family needs to raise up to 100,000 Euro. Iryna’s colleagues plead your support: ‘The girl is fighting and doesn’t lose hopes for life! She is a good personality, nice, always cheerful. We need her, as well as you do - because she is a real professional!”

Contacts: Anatoliy Petrovych, father: 097) 521 1585 Website: http://www.telekritika.ua/news/2011-03-23/61334 Bank details for Hryvnya transfers: Recipient: АB «Poltava-Bank», Lohvytsia town, Poltava pegion ЄДРПОУ сode: 09807595 МФО 331489 Account No: 262531 Details of payment: charitable contribution to the card #26256121025001 for Zaslavets Oksana Hryhoriivna Bank details for Euro transfers: Recipient: АB «Poltava-Bank», Lohvytsia town, Poltava pegion ЄДРПОУ сode: 09807595 МФО 331489 Account No: 262531 Details of payment: charitable contribution to the card # 26250121025201 for Zaslavets Oksana Hryhoriivna Web-money purse: Z665950782985 - Dollars U559246427396 - Hryvnya E221867865527 - Euro 9-year old Gleb Plisko suffers from epilepsy, and сerebral palsy since birth. The boy needs urgently a bone orthopedic operation that will give him a chance of restoring some mental and orthopedic functionality. The surgical intervention costs Hr 54,120 and is to be done in a specialized hospital in Evpatoria. The boy's mother is his only supporter, and she hopes for your assistance.

Contacts: Mother Natalia Subbotina - mob.tel +38 050 852-8529 Bank details for hryvnia transfer: OSCHADBANK ТОБО 39/098 ОКПО 02761766 МФО 384016 Р/С 290990952 Л/С И-28782 Bank details for dollar transfer: Beneficiary: Subbotina Natalia Valentynivna Account No.: 2620 7598520000/1025 Bank: OSCHADBANK Bank branch address: 95071, Sympheropol, 30/1 Sevastopolska St. Correspondent bank: Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, New york, USA SWIFT CODE: BKTRUS33 Account with institution: Acc. 04-095-334 SWIFT CODE: COSBUAUKCRI JSC Oschadbank Î Katyusha Larionova is only 4 years old. At the age of 1,9 she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, 4th stage. Since that time her parents has been fighting for her life. She had been treated in Ukraine without success. Due support of many responsive people Katyusha had a complex surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and bone marrow transplantation in Singapore, and finally went into a remission stage.

For 1,5 year Katyusha lived as a normal child, studied at development school. But in January 2011 metastases appeared in skull bones. Katyusha’s doctor in Singapore recommended a course of complex therapy, including chemotherapy, MIBG therapy, antibodies and repeated marrow ransplantation. To start the therapy is necessary as soon as possible. The cost of it is 87 thousand pounds sterling. Katyusha’s parents hope people help them to save their daughter.

Details on Katyusha’s condition you can find at: http://katyalariohelp.ucoz.ru/, or http://www.donor.org.ua/index.php?module=h elp&act=show&c=1&id=746 Contacts: Larionov Dmitriy, father, +050 501- 9566, Larionova Alina, mother, +050 621-1207, e-mail:desk@list.ru Or donate in Hryvnia: Privat Bank Account #29244825509100 MFО: 305299 Code: 14360570 Details of payment: replenishment of the card # 4149625301417414 Receiver: Larionova Alina Vladimirovna 2926510426 Î Nastya Kotova, 15, has been diagnosed with acute leukemia. She had a successful bone marrow transplant in Israel two months ago. Nastya is in a relatively stable condition now for the first time in many months. A step away from recovery, she still has to go through a rehabilitation period. The Kotov family urgently needs $12,000 to continue the treatment. Please help save their daughter’s life.

More information: http://www.donor.org.ua/index.php?module=help&act=show&c =1&id=1170 http://fonddarina.com/ru/child/nastya-kotova?news#72 Contact Nastya’s volunteer, Iryna: 096-373-89-71.

Bank details: Beneficiary: Kotova Olena Vasylivna (Nastya’s mother) Deposit money on a banking account: # 4405885014676768 PrivatBank Account #: 29244825509100 MFO: 305299 Code: 14360570

www.kyivpost.com

Paparazzi 29

July 1, 2011

And they’re off! A skin-tight vinyl catsuit and checkered flag kick off the cermony.

Singer-actress Kamaliya in a sleek car with husband Mohammad Zahoor looking on.

Elite crowd, fast Ferraris Æ

Good news for wealthy Ukrainians, who are known for their taste in fast, high-end cars. The legendary Italian car manufacturer Ferrari has finally opened an official dealership in Kyiv on June 23. After four years of negotiations and six months of preparation for the launch, a salon of 380 square meters offers four cars: two California (165,000 euros), 458 Italia (about 163,000 euros) and a sportscar Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano F1 in red color (around 300,000 euros). The fifth one, Ferrari FF, is expected to arrive in September. It didn't take long to find the first buyer, as one car has already been sold. Among those attending a grand opening ceremony were ISTIL Group and Kyiv Post owner Mohammad Zahoor and his wife, singer/actress Kamaliya. (Alissa Ambrose)

Invited guests take a look at the new Ferrari store.

If you want Kyiv Post Paparazzi to cover your event, please send details or invitations to news@kyivpost.com or contact photo editor Yaroslav Debelyi at 234-6500

The outside rain didn’t bother indoor dancers at Kozak Night.

Kozak Night fun Singer Foma of Mandry band

An artisan gives a master class in pottery.

The charitable event “The Kozak Night” on June 25 was dedicated to Ukraine’s looming 20th independence in August. More than 300 guests gathered in restaurant Rosha despite the rainy weather. All the funds raised during the event will be used to fund charity projects sponsored

by Kyiv Lions Club – an organization dedicated to supporting Kyiv’s most desperate needs.

(Anastasia Vlasova)

Singer Iryna Bilyk

30 Paparazzi

www.kyivpost.com

July 1, 2011

Rainy Constitution Day

Singer Gaitana

A sea of yellow and blue Ukrainian flags flooded Independence Square.

Singer Jamala

Fireworks end the celebrations.

Singer Svyatoslav Vakarchuk

Æ

Ukraine’s 15th Constitution Day on June 28, an official holiday, secured a long weekend for many Ukrainians but it was sadly interrupted by non-stop showers. Many festive events had been cancelled due to the weather but the final concert still took place at Independence Square.

Luckily, the shower turned into a drizzle and up to 25,000 people turned up to watch a grand concert. The show was broadcast live on national television.

(Yaroslav Debelyi, Unian)

Employment The Project “Promoting Mutual Trade by Removing Technical Barriers to Trade between Ukraine and the European Union�

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financed by the European Union and implemented by a consortium led by the consultancy firm European Profiles SA, is seeking to employ highly qualified experts for the following positions:

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We are looking for candidates with fresh ideas and lively writing styles!

To apply, send CV, three story ideas and a letter explaining why you want to work for the Kyiv Post, to: Yuliya Popova, Lifestyle Editor, at popova@kyivpost.com

COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR We are searching for a dynamic, energetic leader who will oversee the advertising, marketing, web development and distribution divisions of the news organization to maximize revenue.

This person will work in partnership with the editorial staff of the Kyiv Post to ensure that the organization retains its high level of trust and credibility in the community. This person is essential to ensuring that the news organization serves its readers and advertisers well.

We are searching for a go-getter with business development experience who: Is well-connected and respected in Kyiv; Has experience in selling advertising online and in print, and in negotiating deals and agreements; Has the personal skills to lead, train and motivate the staff; Understands the competitive market for journalism in Ukraine; Has fresh ideas for monetizing journalistic content; Stays on top of fast-changing trends in the media industry.

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32 Photo Story

July 1, 2011

www.kyivpost.com

Pagan rituals meet summer solstice

A man is walking through a burning arch, made of oak, which is supposed to increase male power.

Æ22 very popular among Christians as well. They, however, repeat it on the night of July 6 – following the old Julian calendar – called Ivana Kupala. The event is a tribute to Kupala, the pagan god of fruits of the earth, and Ivan (John) the Baptist, the Christian saint.

The Dazhbog people, however, live by the Gregorian dates and share the holiday schedule with many other pagans around the world. After the kissing flames ritual, Voytko lit up a straw wheel and pushed it into the river to purify it while the revelers took off their flower wreaths and floated them on the water. For unmarried women, this ceremony is especially important. The belief is that their beloved ones would come from the side of the river that the wreaths float to.

“I caught my wife’s wreath last year,” said Voytko, looking fondly at a young woman with dark curly hair called Nadiya. A former chemistry student and now a young scientist, she said she used

to be a Christian and had another name – Kateryna. “My husband did not force me to convert, I chose to myself. I like it because there are no lies, which you find in Christianity,” she said. Many of her fellow followers also took new names, some of which signify forces of nature.

Preparing to jump into the river, Nadiya said that it was the best time to get pregnant, because “the child will be born strong, having absorbed all the powers of this mystical day.” Her friends laughed at the supposition that their ancestors would have definitely had an orgy by now.

After a swim, some left for the night, which lasted only seven and a half hours, but the diehards stayed to greet the sun. It came up at 4:40 a.m. that day. In the morning mist, the “natives” finished their celebrations by burning the straw dummies of Kupalo and Marena, the male and female gods of fertility and family. Then it was time to rest and laze in the sun, which shines

less and less with each coming day until Dec. 22, the winter solstice.

Kyiv Post staff writer Kateryna Panova at panova@kyivpost.com Photos by Alex Furman, Alissa Ambrose

Where to celebrate on July 6: Pyrohovo ethnic outdoors museum, Pyrohovo village, an hour's ride by shuttle bus #156 from Bessarabian market, #172 from Leningradska Square or trolleybus #11 from Lybidska metro.

Celebrations start at 5 p.m. and last through the night.

Mamayeva Sloboda, 2 Mykhaila Dontsya St., shuttle bus #232 from Shulyavska metro and trolle ybus #27 from Petrivka metro. Celebrations, contests and quests for unmarried couples competing for a golden ring start at 7:45 p.m. Don’t forget your passports to prove that you are single.

A burning straw wheel gets pushed into a river to sanctify the water.

Svyatoslav Voytko (L) blesses a bush celebrating the summer solstice on June 21.

Dressed in traditional Ukrainian clothes, ‘natives’ share a meal after thanking the nature for it.