In response to claims by foreigners and Ukrainians that the United States funded Ukraine's Orange Revolution, a non-governmental organization investigated the financial side of events that unfolded after the November run-off election.
Foreign and Ukrainian leaders have claimed that the United States helped fund Ukraine’s Orange Revolution. In response, a non-governmental organization has investigated the financial side of the so-called revolution, which was marked by street protests lasting for more than two weeks after the fraudulent runoff election on Nov. 21.
Serhiy Taran, director of the Institute of Mass Information, financed by George Soros’ International Renaissance Foundation, said at a Dec. 17 press conference that the cost of the Orange Revolution was between $1.8 million and $2.9 million. However, if the Yushchenko camp had paid people to protest, as Yanukovych allies have claimed, the Orange Revolution would have cost about $1.65 billion, Taran added.
“And that’s only taking into account the Kyiv protests,” Taran said.
Yanukovych’s campaign manager Taras Chornovil and deputies from the Yanukovych-led Party of Regions parliamentary faction maintain that participants in the Orange Revolution were paid Hr 20 per hour to stand on Independence Square.
Taras Stetskiv, a member of parliament in Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine faction, said that Yushchenko allies began preparing for the street campaign in early November, when they understood that the presidential election would be falsified.
“People were never paid for their participation, but we covered their food and travel expenses,” Stetskiv said in an interview with the oppositionist Channel 5 on Dec. 13.
Our Ukraine deputy David Zhvaniya bought mobile kitchens and tents to house 10,000 people, he said.
Oleksandr Tretiakov, a member of parliament who also manages the funds for the Yushchenko campaign, said Ukrainians invested about Hr 20 million, or $3.7 million, [through the donation of goods and money] during the revolution. He added that no American money went into the Yushchenko campaign.
According to IMI estimates, Yushchenko supporters paid $97,000 for large tents; $15,000 for small tents; $6,000 for foam plastic; $27,000 for mobile kitchens; $170,000 for stage rental; $24,000 for heaters; and $1.2 million for food during the Orange Revolution. Additionally, the Yushchenko camp paid Hr 480,000 for the use of Ukrainian House on European Square.
Bands and other performing artists that supported the cause played for protesters free of charge and also provided laser lights, video screens and sophisticated sound systems.
“The Orange Revolution was carried out by the people and by representatives of foreign mass media [who brought attention to the situation],” Taran concluded.
In his interview with Channel 5, Stetskiv said the protests would not have been as large as they were without the support of Kyiv mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko. On Nov. 22, the first floor of city hall was turned over to the protestors.
Western interference
Speaking to supporters at a rally in the port city of Sevastopol, Crimea, Yanukovych said on Dec. 14 that “the U.S. government spent $65 million to fund the Orange Revolution in Kyiv.”
Yushchenko said in a Dec. 17 interview with The Associated Press that allegations he had received campaign financing from the United States were “nonsense.”
“Neither I nor my political partners have received or will receive any money from America, from the government or from non-governmental organizations,” he said.
Tsybulko, a former advisor to Kuchma and Yushchenko and a participant in the IMI investigation, said the accusations that the West supported Yushchenko’s campaign financially were unfounded. Through government aid and non-governmental organizations, the West has pumped millions of dollars into Ukraine to support a variety of initiatives, including the promotion of democracy, the development of a free and independent media and public health campaigns.
“[Through organizations like the Open Society Institute], Soros has invested $260 million into Internet development in Russia, and in Ukraine that figure is about $8 million. It is in Ukraine, not in Russia, where Internet has become the primary means of communication and a way of gaining information in the absence of truthful television coverage,” Tsybulko said.
Overall, about 1,500 grants – ranging in value from $500 to thousands of dollars each – are given to Ukraine annually by private donors and foreign governments. The United States alone has spent $58 million to promote democracy in Ukraine over the past two years.
Tsybulko said that parliament deputies from the Communist Party of Ukraine and pro-governmental factions also used small grants and technical assistance provided by these organizations in Ukraine.
Kenneth Wollack, president of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, was quoted by The New York Times on Dec. 21 as saying that Ukrainian pro-government parties had benefited from the training provided by his organization, but that opposition parties “are more likely to seek assistance from international organizations.”
Observers and exit polls
Freedom House and the National Democratic Institute helped fund and organize the civil regional election monitoring effort in Ukraine, which involved more than 1,000 trained election observers. The organizations also organized exit polls.
Freedom House and other groups supported the student group Znayu! (I know!) and the Freedom of Choice Coalition, which is a network of 300 NGOs active in election monitoring (coalition.org.ua). The youth election-monitoring group Znayu! disseminates election information, educates election monitors and says it is working to stop election fraud.
In an interview with the oppositionist Echo Moskvy radio station on Dec. 15, Russia’s leading journalist and former ORT anchorman Sergey Dorenko, who was in Kyiv during the orange revolution, expressed skepticism about American involvement in the event. He also said he did not believe that protestors were paid for their time.
“Just imagine that each of the half-million people on Independence Square stood there for two weeks for $1 a day – that would mean that $500,000 a day would have been paid to the people,” Dorenko said. “Can you imagine a place where that many people would go to receive their money? It would have been ridiculous!”
In the Dec. 20 televised debate between Yanukovych and Yushchenko, Yushchenko said that some of the people protesting on Independence Square earned more money in one day than the amount of his whole presidential campaign.
“They stood there to protest against the bandits in power,” Yushchenko said.
According to data provided by IMI, Yanukovich received an estimated $800 million in campaign funds from Russia, mainly from oil companies, as well as backing from his sponsor, Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man, between the months of July and December.
The Yushchenko campaign spent $116 million during the same period of time.
When asked if Akhmetov had given to the Yushchenko campaign as well, Our Ukraine parliament deputy Ihor Hryniv replied by saying: “I don’t know the answer to that question.”
Our Ukraine spokeswoman Iryna Herashchenko said she doubts that Akhmetov was a sponsor for Yushchenko’s presidential campaign. “All big money was being pumped into Yanukovych, and it has finally worked against him.”
