The Rada Strikes Again…

Remember what I wrote about the SMS I received from the Embassy? After classes today I got online and had a facebook message from Savita Nair and an email from Martha Johns referring to what is now an internationally known episode. Mrs. Johns told me it made the 6:00 news!

Earlier in the day I asked my students what was going on yesterday…why I had received such a text message from the Embassy. One student referred to the deal Yanukovych struck with Vladimir Putin, who is in Kyiv now, regarding the lease the Russian naval fleet has on its Black Sea port in Sevastopol, which is owned by Ukraine. The lease was extended 25 years in exchange for lower natural gas prices. This country is totally dependent on natural gas. I have written about how my flat is heated by a furnace that fills with natural gas in each room, a water heater that heats water when the natural gas hits a flame, and a stove and an oven that run on natural gas.

I remember in January and February 2009, when Russia cut off Ukraine’s supply of natural gas bc they couldn’t agree on the price. One of my co-workers at the museum who knew I had applied for the Fulbright clipped articles from the newspaper about this and brought them to me. At the time I couldn’t imagine the consequences of this country being cut off from its natural gas supply, but I can now. Thousands of people died bc they had no heat in the middle of winter. I felt like I was going to die this past winter and I had plenty of heat. I can’t imagine how awful that must have been.

So, Ukraine gets lower and more stable natural gas prices for the next 25 years. For a poor country that is totally dependent on this supply, that aspect of this deal is helpful. However, this move is being interpreted as Yanukovych’s way of moving closer to Russia, a very controversial issue today in Ukraine. Most of my students want Ukraine to move more towards the EU, NATO, and the US, not Russia. I am living in the western part of Ukraine, however, which tends to be much more nationalistic and European-minded.

So yesterday, over 10,000 people gathered outside the Supreme Rada in Kyiv during the vote on Yanukovych’s deal with Putin. Evidently some of the deputies cast more than one vote. Evidently at some point, more votes were cast than there were deputies present. Thing became nasty. My students told me that when a Ukrainian gets angry, he throws an egg. So yesterday, there were eggs flying and smoke bombs going off in the Supreme Rada…deputies against deputies.

This country’s politics certainly do keep me entertained!