Legislation in Congress promises tough consequences if Ukrainian elections are fraudulent
against Ukraine’s elite if the Oct. 31 presidential election is deemed unfair, and accuses top Ukrainian officials of dismantling democracy here.
The bill, submitted in the U.S. House of Representatives on Sept. 15 by Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher (Calif.), is officially called the Constantine Menges Ukraine Democracy and Fair Elections Act of 2004.
According to the text of the legislation, the measure specifically targets Ukraine’s ruling elite and their assets in the United States – not the Ukrainian economy or its citizens as a whole – and would deny current top Ukrainian officials entry into the United States.
“Elections conducted by the Government of Ukraine during the past ten years have not satisfied the criteria established for free, fair, and transparent elections consistent with OSCE and European democratic standards,” reads a clause in the bill.
The Menges bill also directs the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security to deny entry into the United States to senior Ukrainian officials in the current government, and their relatives or representatives. Any assets in the United States acquired by Ukrainian officials or their relatives or agents through “improper or illicit means” would also be frozen. A further stipulation would mandate the U.S. president to submit annual reports to Congress unveiling the personal assets and bank accounts of President Leonid Kuchma, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and other senior government officials that are “located in the U.S., or another country.”
Assets/accounts determined to have been acquired illicitly would prompt the U.S. to act against them and encourage pertinent other countries to take similar actions.
The bill also calls upon Kuchma, Yanukovych and their subordinates to cease “persecution of political opponents” and “end the pattern of clear, gross and uncorrected violations” or face serious sanctions.
Ukraine’s Presidential Administration and Foreign Ministry were not able to comment on the bill before press time on Sept. 22.
Namesake solid
Constantine Menges, the bill’s namesake who died this July, served as a senior official on the National Security Council under President Ronald Reagan. The legislation, which is intended to encourage democracy, fair and transparent elections and human rights in Ukraine, describes Menges as a staunch anti-Communist particularly supportive of Ukrainian independence.
The document reads as a strongly-worded list of Ukrainian officials’ malfeasance, citing incidents from the television blackout of presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko to disruption of opposition political activity and the disappearance of independent journalists.
“Georgy Gongadze, Ihor Alexandrov, and other independent journalists in Ukraine who supported democracy and published critical reports concerning governmental actions have been murdered or have disappeared and are presumed dead,” the bill reads. “The current Government of Ukraine, led by President Leonid D. Kuchma and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych…actively suppresses freedom of speech and expression.”
Yushchenko is not named in the bill, nor does it point out that his chief rival in the Oct. 31 election is Yanukovych. The bill does, however, state that the election process in Ukraine has been marred by harassment, arrest and false disqualification of opposition candidates.
Growing dissatisfaction
The bill comes on the heels of several recent visits to Ukraine by current and former U.S. legislators and top government officials. The visits were intended to review allegations of election violations and to urge Ukraine to hold the upcoming elections fairly.
John Conlan, a former Republican congressman from Arizona who resides in Ukraine and offers consulting services to investors through the firm Conlan & Associates, described the bill as an unforgiving warning to Ukraine’s ruling officials. He said Ukraine’s current leadership would face serious consequences if the presidential elections are deemed unfair.
“I think it’s a clear indication of the intent of many in Congress to actually impose sanctions on anybody in the government [of Ukraine] from top to bottom if they are going to participate further in unfair elections,” Conlan said. “The seriousness of this bill shows the growing disdain for the lack of fair press and fair treatment of all candidates.”
Bill likely to pass
Conlan said the bill stands little chance of being passed prior to the Ukrainian presidential elections, as Congress is scheduled to recess soon. Congress will likely consider the bill when it reconvenes after the U.S. presidential elections are held this fall, but Conlan believes it could pass then.
One top-tier Ukrainian official who could be affected if the bill is passed into law is the former head of Ukraine’s state oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy, Ihor Bakai, who currently serves as the director of the Department of Presidential Affairs at the Presidential Administration.
Bakai earned large sums of money in Ukraine’s gas trading business in the 1990s and spent millions of dollars on real estate acquisitions in the eastern United States.
According to official U.S. property records obtained by the Post, Bakai and his relatives were involved in several real estate transactions in the States totaling more than $15 million. Bakai family acquisitions include real estate in Naples, Florida, which was later sold for about $13 million; and two homes near Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania. One such Pennsylvania property was acquired and later sold for about $500,000; the other for about $1.8 million, remaining under family ownership as recently as the beginning of 2004.
