Eastern approaches

Ex-communist Europe

Ukrainians in the Czech Republic

We'll always have Prague

Jan 16th 2012, 13:25 by G.F. | PRAGUE

THE Czech Republic’s decision to grant Oleksandr Tymoshenko asylum has prompted speculation about whether the country is becoming a base for exiled allies of his wife Yulia, Ukraine’s jailed former prime minister and the heroine of the Orange Revolution. The answer is: not yet.

Mr Tymoshenko is the second member of his wife's circle to have fled Kiev for Prague. (Last year Bohdan Danylyshyn, her long-time economy minister, settled here.) Mr Tymoshenko has told the Ukrainian service of Radio Free Europe that he left Ukraine because he wanted to deprive the authorities there of a lever to pressure his wife, whom they want to “destroy”.

The seven-year prison sentence handed to Mrs Tymoshenko last year for signing a gas deal with Russia has done more than anything to isolate the administration of her arch-rival, President Viktor Yanukovich. In December the European Union postponed signing a free-trade deal with Ukraine because of the case. Mrs Tymoshenko's supporters say Mr Yanukovich wants to stop her from running in parliamentary elections this October.

The Czech Republic was a natural choice for her husband, who has business interests here and is registered to reside in the upscale suburban village of Lidice. Charged in Ukraine as a co-defendant in newly opened criminal cases against his wife—a billionaire who made her fortune in Ukraine’s murky natural-gas business in the 1990s—Mr Tymoshenko has been tight-lipped about the nature of his Czech dealings, which appear to centre on real estate.

He may also have been encouraged by the Czech authorities’ decision to grant amnesty to Mr Danylyshyn, whom the Ukrainian government accuses of squandering $2m of public funds during his time in office. Mr Danylyshyn ended up here by chance, after Ukrainian investigators lured him from Germany to their Prague embassy for questioning. Promised he would not be detained, he was nonetheless arrested by the Czech police on a Ukrainian request. He applied for asylum from jail.

Still, Mr Danylyshyn points out that Ukrainians have had close ties with Czechoslovakia since at least the 1920s, when many intellectuals and other refugees fled the Communist regime. Although he and Mr Tymoshenko are the sole high-profile asylum cases here, Ukrainians make up the Czech Republic’s largest minority, many of them working in low-paid jobs. Mr Tymoshenko’s speedy asylum bid has angered some of those who have spent years waiting for decisions on their own residency applications.

Prague’s significance to the Ukrainian opposition has undoubtedly grown. Mr Danylyshyn set up a non-profit group here to promote reform in his home country and lobby western governments last year. “We’re trying to unite Ukrainian progressive forces in various countries”, he said, “to develop democracy in Ukraine based on European values”.

The Czechs are also happy to stick it to Ukraine, which has condemned Mr Tymoshenko’s asylum as an excuse to stash money for his wife. Karel Schwarzenberg, the forthright foreign minister, characterised Ukraine’s response to Mr Danylyshyn’s asylum last year as a “fit”. Czech diplomats expect worse this time.

But Czech human-rights groups want Mr Schwarzenberg to do more for Ukrainians. The pipe-smoking Habsburg prince is perhaps the strongest pro-European voice in Prague, and hopes to run in the first direct presidential election next year. But he has said that the decision to grant Mr Tymoshenko asylum was made by the interior ministry alone.

It is not yet clear how much that choice was part of a coherent policy toward Ukraine, and how far it was the shunting ajar of an often tightly-shut door to a well connected figure.

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Didomyk

At today's working meeting in Kyiv, held at the request of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry upon an inquiry of Canadian Foreign Minister John Russell Baird, Canada's Ambassador to Ukraine Troy Lulashnyk proposed to send a group of doctors from Canada to examine Tymoshenko. Subject to defining the composition of the team and other practical details, the two sides agreed to proceed.

Didomyk

There were two significant developments in Yulia Tymoshenko's case.

In an apparent response to a growing criticism of inadequate medical care provided to Yulia Tymoshenko in her present detention, the Penitentiary Service of Ukraine has made public a statement that it would cooperate in establishing a "joint medical team of Ukrainian and foreign professionals to perform examinations and treatment of Tymoshenko in detention as may be required".

It remains to be seen, of course, who would participate on this "joint team" and what measures will be taken in response to doctors' recommendations.

The second development, of a rather speculative nature, is that Tymoshenko will soon be transferred from her Kharkiv jail to another city away from the four major centers where the 2012 European Football matches will be played. This move would tend to minimize foreign media interest in her case and undermine potential effectiveness of any public demonstrations planned by her supporters during this summer's international games.

MrSilesian

Today the Czech Republic is the target of economic immigrants from Ukraine, which is a very different picture compared to 1920s, when there was even Ukrainian University in Prague (closed by Germans in 1939).

Tomas Marny

Well, it was former Czech PM Topolanek who, as the Chairman of Council of Europe, urged the former Ukrainian PM Tymoshenko to settle the issue with Gazprom in order to end the gas crisis quickly and resume gas supplies through Ukraine to EU in January 2009 – so the Czech Republic has at least moral responsibility to help people who have now been prosecuted for signing the deal…

But in general, I can agree with jubus that the Czech Republic has serious issues with massive immigration from the countries of former USSR and Balkan. While historically (and geographically) the Czech Republic was most W/western country in the Eastern Block, the massive immigration from Eastern Europe in post-communist era (e.g. since 1989) has changed the face of the country more towards East than it ever was.

The trouble is not only purely criminal foreign gangs that operate on the Czech territory but even “common” immigrants simply because they ARE the country now. They have imported daily operation and problem solving habits from their homelands and considering their huge numbers (especially in selected places Prague, Carlsbad, etc.), ambitiousness and often great deal of more or less legal money, they have the power to change core traits of the place – and especially small countries are very vulnerable.

The results are already tangible - the Czech Republic has the worst issue with corruption and other pathological business and political practices among all new EU members and also there has been an unprecedented discussion taking place whether the Czech Republic should join the European integration direction or rather be more oriented towards East, especially Russia (stance of current president Klaus and his clique that contains suspiciously many influential people with Eastern European origin).

So if we want to keep Western trait of the Czech Republic, it would be more wise for oligarchs / asylum seekers to opt for traditional stable places like London next time that are not so vulnerable to being taken over by their influence.

Didomyk in reply to Tomas Marny

T.Marny wrote: "...even “common” immigrants simply because they ARE the country now. They have imported daily operation and problem solving habits from their homelands and considering their huge numbers (especially in selected places Prague, Carlsbad, etc.), ambitiousness and often great deal of more or less legal money, they have the power to change core traits of the place ..."

Indeed they do have the power and in some respects they have already changed the country's core traits. What the Brezhnev-Andropov-era Soviet 'advisers', supported by the Warsaw Pact army commanders, did not manage to accomplish, the modern Putin-era Russian 'businessmeny' and economic immigrants into the Czech Republic succeeded in doing.

The following are exerpts from an interview with Jaroslav PESEK, a noted Czech publicist and businessman, who commented on the political asylum and a broader issue of immigration for the Ukrainian daily 'DEN':

“There are some 200,000 Ukrainians residing in the Czech Republic. Some of them want to stay, of course. I think applying for political asylum is another way to make their status legit. There are quite a few ethnic Ukrainian nonprofit organizations and a journal which is published using government support. However, I can’t think of a single political movement in Central Europe capable of waging a serious campaign against Ukraine’s current illegitimate administration. Yes, there is Danylyshyn in Prague. He has interesting websites in Ukrainian, but the man’s impact on the Czech public is next to nil. Danylyshyn set up office on Politickych Veznu [Political Prisoners] Street. I like it, I find it symbolic. In fact the building he rents is opposite the one the Nazis used as Gestapo HQ during WW II, where they tortured Julius Fucik.”

"At present we have an influx of Ukrainians and Russians. In fact, Russian immigrants rank first. There are some 12,000 Russian firms registered in the Czech Republic.”

“Karlovy Vary is popularly referred to as a Russian city, considering that 40 percent of the local resorts have been bought by Russians. They feel at home there and propose to erect a monument to Peter I. Their conduct has a stronger impact on the Czech public, compared to that of the ethnic Ukrainian community. This situation may change eventually, but it is still there.”

LKHK in reply to Tomas Marny

Klaus being a notorious trojan horse of the Kremlin (and most likely a KGB agent) who seriously undermines Czech security interests (cue Ingolstadt pipeline) and immigration from Ukraine are two mutually moreless irrelevant phenomena. Also, I would make a huge difference between hardworking Ukrainians thanks to whom the construction industry thrives and and dubious Russian mobsters, aparatchiks and the like who populate Ivanovy Vary.

Tomas Marny in reply to LKHK

While there are, of course, differences among various groups of migrants, I cannot agree that massive economic migration is a positive phenomenon even if it is done bona fide and some entrepreneurs may take advantage of it. There are dozens of reasons why - look at the situation in the UK and their whining about immigration from Commonwealth and CEE. Let's name a few reasons:

* Pressure on low wages resulting in taking massive advantage of social welfare by locals because it does not pay off to work on such conditions. The situation is especially important in the Czech Republic that seeks convergence to Western standards not only in productivity / work-ethics (which has already been on par with WE in many domains) but also salaries which are desperately lower than in neigbouring Germany or Austria. And if there are (often exploited) foreign resources that are willing to accept bad conditions, there is no pressure for convergence.

* Economic migrants do not bring revenues as full-fledged locals to the country's budget as they often do not work as standard employees but as contractors without proper social welfare, health-care insurance and often completely in a gray zone without paying any taxes. Not to mentioned that they are often exploited by various dubious agencies and/or gangs of their more experienced compatriots.

* Very pragmatic utilitarian relationship of the migrants to the place they are economically engaged in. They are not really interested in making the place/country flourish. They usually do not follow its culture, don't understand country's spirit and are not reluctant to behave ruthlessly. They often live in ghettoized way.

* Migration may lead to the snowball effect - friends and friends' friends etc. will join and who stays at home to take care for situation at home? Any improvements may come only out of dissatisfaction of people with the situation in the places for which they have both emotional and legal bond. That's why if people massively resort to leaving a country, they give up any prospect of positive change.

* And, of course, family may suffer
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1038043/

detarbuc

The EU has had too much to say about the case(s) of the Tymoshenkos; their inputs have not been helpful.

While critisizing the residue of laws lsft over from Soviet times is valid and fair, this ought to be in general terms and NOT of specific individual cases.

Ukraine was 70 years under Soviet rule and before that under Czarist Russia; recovering from such takes time in ALL ex-Soviet States, including Russia. Such "laws" ought to be repealed for all, not just in individual high profile cases.

Unfortunately the current Ukrainian President Viktor Yanokovich inherited the gas deal and criminal charges from his predecessor, Viktor Yushchenko, who while professing love for European ways (and money) instigated the "exceeding authority" charges against the one, Yulia Tymoshenco, who was most instrumental in obtaining an election re-run that saw him become president in 2005.

This gas-price case is based on what was/is a bad deal for Ukraine, but if every politician, upon leaving office was subject to prosecution for incompetence or "exceeding uathority" prisons world wide would be overflowing with ex p0oliticians.

In this case the double tragety is that there are valid reasons, ethical, moral, and legal, to investigate how individuals and families such as Tymoshenko and associates became Billionaires in the aftermath of the Soviet collapse. Besides being in the right place at the right time what did these types do to justify such accumulations?? How did they manage to do so?

But the current sham case coupled with inputs from the EU has obscurred the REAL facts and made it next to impossible to competently investigate both civil and/or criminal wrong doing. The media with their publicising shrill but meaningless verbalisations contribute to this and similar tragetys.

However seldom is a seemingly negative scenario completely so; the good thing in all this for Ukraine is to escape the pull of a European Union that has at this time, too many problems with existing members various ideas to contemplate expansion.

Ukraine and Europe need free trade, and this can include Russia, but none of these can solve the others' problems and ideas of "democracy" (whatever/wherever that is).

Yura2009

Readers should be reminded that in late December the EU High Representative, Foreign and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton expressed sharp criticism of the appeal in the case of Yulia Tymoshenko. Ashton said that the appeal procedure did not meet the standards of objective, transparent and independent judiciary.

On December 23/2011 the Kyiv Court of Appeals rejected the appeal of Tymoshenko's sentence of seven years in prison and a three year ban to hold any public office. This effectively bars Tymoshenko from participating either in this year's parliamentary elections or in presidential elections in two years.

Ashton also said that without an objective trial of opposition leader Ukraine's government cannot count on a close relationship with the European Union. To quote Ashton - "Respect for the rule of law will be critical to the speed of political ties and economic integration of Ukraine with the EU".

What is now expected are EU actions, not just words.

Didomyk

While TE decision to focus attention on the Czech government's granting asylum to Alexandr Tymoshenko and Bohdan Danylyshyn, the former economy minister, is welcome, it is strange and regrettable that the author avoided any mention at all about the status of Yulia Tymoshenko's imprisonment and of the more active role of Yulia daughter Yevhenia in defence of her mother currently kept in a Kharkiv jail.

Yevheniya Tymoshenko has repeatedly stated to the media that her mother's life is in danger and that she is planning to visit European capitals to urge the EU leaders to respond to the situation.

She will travel to Strasbourg, London and other European capitals where she plans to speak about unjust treatment of her mother. Her focus will be less about the political situation and more on concerns about her mother's health and a threat to her life.

In an interview with Deutsche Welle she referred to her mother facing "physical destruction" because of her being "the sole opponent of the regime of Viktor Yanukovych" and "this is why she is being held in prison."

Information about Yulia Tymoshenko failing health has been repeatedly reported in the media, including her refusal to accept medicine provided by the prison medical personnel for fear of mistreatment. Her lawyer made it known that, in response to her wish to be examined by independent foreign doctors, a couple of countries were ready to send medical specialists. The state authorities have so far declined to facilitate such examination.
Instead, they resorted to an obvious media campaign by releasing a series of photos allegedly illustrating conditions of her confinement.

Numerous interventions and appeals by foreign leaders (including Hillary Clinton's recent very personal letter) to have Tymoshenko released from jail have been ignored by Yanukovych. At this stage the focus remains on the likely intervention by the European Court of Human Rights.

jubus

Wrong title. It should be:"Ukraianian mobsters, mafiosos and swindlers" in the Czech Republic. We'll always have Prague.

About Eastern approaches

Eastern approaches deals with the economic, political, security and cultural aspects of the eastern half of the European continent. It incorporates the long-running "Europe.view" weekly column. The blog is named after the wartime memoirs of the British soldier Sir Fitzroy Maclean.

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