Russian muscle-flexing in Georgia in August 2008 and more recently in Ukraine, by installing its lackeys as rulers, has caught the attention of the international community.
However, the reaction has been acquiescence with little indignation and no protest. Amid this Russian show of force, the connection of the April 10 crash that killed all 96 Polish leaders aboard a Soviet-manufactured and Russian-rebuilt plane has yet to be determined.
What is largely unknown is how the Kremlin internally has directed police tactics against its ethnic communities in Russia. Russia has never manifested much love for its non-Russian population, but recent steps have become brazenly hostile, yet with seemingly no protest from international organizations to which Russia belongs.
Clearly emboldened, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have taken on the Ukrainians in Russia. According to a the leaders of Ukrainian community organizations in Russia, since 2004Ukrainian culture in Russia has been under pressure, particularly in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Surgut, Voronezh and Ufa.
The library of Ukrainian literature in Moscow was cleansed of “Ukrainian nationalists.” The Ukrainian educational center at Middle School 3124 in Moscow closed its doors. The Russian Justice Ministry conducted an audit and suspended the activity of the leading Ukrainian federal structure (the Federal National Cultural Autonomy of Ukrainians in Russia). The ministry’s directive relied on the complaint of a third party, who alleged the following:
V.A. Semenenko, representing the Ukrainian non-governmental organizations in Russia in the name of the Federal National Cultural Autonomy of Ukrainians in Russia, regularly participates in events organized by foreign non-governmental structures. Those include the Ukrainian World Coordinating Council and the Ukrainian World Congress who meet on “matters concerning the Ukrainian nation.” The leaders of those organizations act from a position of nationalism and separatism…The activity of V.A. Semenenko… is aimed at propaganda glorifying the Ukrainian nation… The Federal National Cultural Autonomy of Ukrainians in Russia aims to discredit the current activity and the political course of Russia uniting nationalities and in its activity constitutes a danger to the existing constitutional order…
The allegations are striking even for Russia since they manifestly contradict international civilized norms for ethnic minority activity, the rights of association and assembly. The UWCC is legally registered in Ukraine and the UWC is legally registered in Canada. The Ukrainian community sought judicial redress. However, on May 12, Moscow regional court in Tversky supported the position of the Justice Ministry. It affirmed the liquidation, citing three violations of the suspension:
On October 29, 2009, V.A. Semenenko, in the name of the Ukrainian community, participated in a public event of Radio Liberty…On Nov. 11-12, 2009, co-chairs V. Babenko and V. Semenenko, organized and hosted in Moscow an international educational-practical conference entitled:“The history, status and future development of Ukrainian studies in Russia”… On Nov. 26, 2009, V.A. Semeneko represented the Federal National Cultural Autonomy of Ukrainians in Russia and presided over an event commemorating “the victims of the Holodomor and killings of Ukrainians in the ‘30s,” which was organized in support and honor of the victims with “an eternal flame” and a documentary-artistic exhibit about the Holodomor 1932-33 “genocide” of the Ukrainian nation, which opened in Kyiv on Nov. 25, 2009.
Under Russian law, article 42 on the suspension of the public associations’ activity, provides:
If a public association violates the Constitution of the Russian Federation, or the legislation of the Russian Federation, and if it performs actions contradicting the statutory goals, the federal body state registration or its corresponding territorial body, or the Prosecutor-General of the Russian Federation or the corresponding public prosecutor, subordinated to him, shall make a presentation on the above-said violations to the leading body of the given association and shall fix a time term for their elimination. If these violations are not eliminated within the fixed time term, the body or the official person, which (who) made the corresponding presentation, shall have the right to suspend by its (his) order the activity of the public association for a term of up to six months. The decision on the suspension of the activity of a public association may be appealed to the courts before the courts consider an application for its liquidation or for the prohibition of its activity.
There is another applicable law, article 43, on the consequences of the suspension of the activity of a public association, which says:
If the activity of a public association is suspended, its rights as a founder of the mass media shall also be suspended, and it shall be prohibited from organizing and holding get-togethers, meetings, demonstrations, processions, picketing and other kinds of mass actions or public events…
Incredibly, it would appear that Russian law supports the actions taken by the ministry and the court. Yet, even with such legislation in force, Russia remains a respected permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of the Council of Europe and the first addition to what was once the G7 [group of industrialized nations].
In May 1945 a delegation from the Ukrainian community in the United States (the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America) met with D. C. Poole, associate public liaison officer of the U.S. delegation to the San Francisco conference. The delegation remarked that the United States was the champion of oppressed people and that they felt confident of American official interest in the cause of Ukrainian independence. Poole answered that the interest of the American people in all who felt oppressed was well established in history. However, he pointed out that it was necessary, above all, to work out a friendly accommodation with the Soviet Union and that nothing should be done to disturb that effort. Little or nothing was done for almost half a century. One can only pray that today we live in a different world.
Askold S. Lozynskyj is a New York attorney and former president of the Ukrainian World Congress.
