Editor’s Note: This feature separates Ukraine’s friends from its enemies. The Order of Yaroslav the Wise has been given since 1995 for distinguished service to the nation. It is named after the Kyivan Rus leader from 1019-1054, when the medieval empire reached its zenith. The Order of Lenin was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union, whose demise Russian President Vladimir Putin mourns. It is named after Vladimir Lenin, whose corpse still rots on the Kremlin’s Red Square, more than 100 years after the October Revolution he led.
Friend of the Week: Konstantin Kotov
Jack Laurenson
It is not easy to be a supporter of Ukraine in today’s Russia. It is also not very common.
Since the country began its war against Ukraine in 2014, public opinion in Russia has overwhelmingly sided with, or remained ambivalent to, Kremlin aggression.
Opinion polls and surveys – however much they can be trusted – show that Russians, for the most part, support the idea that Crimea is Russian and the Donbas should be, in one way or another, slowly federalized by the regime in Moscow.
Relentless anti-Ukrainian propaganda, recycled on a daily basis by Russian state-controlled media has made sure that the neo-imperialism and regional expansionism championed by the likes of Vladislav Surkov has been deeply ingrained in the psyches of most ordinary Russians.
There are some exceptions, however. And there are those who bravely resist.
But the consequences can be severe. Especially so in a country where the dictator Vladimir Putin has spent two decades poisoning the minds of “voters”, undermining and weakening the political opposition and ruthlessly crushing dissent.
Konstantin Kotov, a pro-Ukrainian activist of the rarest sort, now understands that all too well.
The young protester from Moscow was on Sept. 5 sentenced to four years in prison for his opposition to Russian tyranny and support for Ukrainians. Before his incarceration, Kotov was well known for his protests in support of Ukrainian political prisoners held in Russia, particularly the filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for “terrorism” before his recent release as part of a long-awaited prisoner exchange.
Kotov frequently staged one-man protests against the politically motivated detention of Ukrainians in Crimea. He was a regular fixture in Moscow’s Red Square, holding a sign condemning Russia’s illegal detentions and deportations.
He was arrested on Aug. 10, the same day protests took place in Moscow calling for democratic local elections. Tens of thousands protested for democracy throughout August with hundreds being arrested, although few appear to have faced prison sentences as harsh as Kotov.
We cannot imagine the conditions that Kotov will face in the hellhole of a Russian prison, nor can we imagine how he will be treated upon his eventual release. We are confused and disappointed by the fact that no Ukrainian lawmakers or officials appear to have issued statements or said anything in support of Kotov, even though human rights advocates have.
For what it is worth, we think that he is a hero and a real friend to Ukraine and we offer our sincere thanks for his stand and his sacrifice.
The Sept. 7 prisoner exchange that took place between Russia and Ukraine was noteworthy in that Russia appeared so keen to acquire prisoners who were Ukrainian nationals, militants or spies that sided with Russia against their country.
Lawmakers here in Kyiv should consider offering Kotov the chance to come and live a safe life here in democratic Ukraine, when he is freed. If there is an opportunity to bring him here as part of a future prisoner exchange, that could also be considered.
In the meantime, the Kyiv Post recognizes him as a friend to Ukraine who is a deserving recipient of the Order of Yaroslav the Wise.
Ukraine’s Foe of the Week: U.S. Lawyer Gregory Craig
Matthew Kupfer
On Sept. 4, a court in Washington, D.C. found lawyer Gregory Craig not guilty of making false statements to the U.S. Justice Department about his work for the Ukrainian government under disgraced President Viktor Yanukovych.
Despite the verdict, Craig is far from innocent in the eyes of Ukraine.
A former White House counsel under President Barack Obama, Craig had gone on to work for law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. In that capacity, he played a central role in a 2012 report commissioned by the Yanukovych regime to whitewash its politically motivated imprisonment of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
And when Tymoshenko took the Yanukovych regime to the European Court of Human Rights in August 2012, it was Skadden Arps that prepared the Ukrainian government’s defense on a highly shady contract.
Tymoshenko would spend two years in prison, before being freed after the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution, which drove Yanukovych from power.
In his position at Skadden Arps, Craig played an important role in the kleptocratic Yanukovych regime’s efforts to persecute a competitor and contributed to the corruption endemic to the country. He was one of several American who fueled and fed off the pre-Maidan culture of graft in Ukraine.
In this regard, he is a symbol of the corruption that is also endemic to the United States’ political system. Craig is the archetypal political insider, a lawyer who has defended former President Bill Clinton and advised the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and Obama.
But after parting ways with the Obama Administration in 2010, Craig quickly found his way in the world of international legal counsel and lobbying.
Obama Administration rules forbade former officials from lobbying for two years after leaving office. Technically, Craig was a lawyer, not a lobbyist — an argument he made himself. But Craig’s work in Ukraine demonstrates how blurry the line between the two can be. And officials like Craig regularly slip between public office and the private sector, sometimes using their previous experience to grease the wheels of government for the benefit of unsavory individuals and foreign governments.
Were it not for the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election and the trial of Paul Manafort, Craig’s ties with Yanukovych would have become but a footnote of history. But that investigation soon focused on Skadden Arps, leading Craigh to resign in 2018. Then, the U.S. government opened a case against Craig for allegedly lying to the Justice Department in 2013 and 2014 in an attempt to avoid having to register as a foreign agent for his work in Ukraine.
Craig argued that he genuinely believed Skadden Arps did not need to register as a foreign agent — and the jury believed him.
But Yanukovych was long known as a corrupt leader, and Tymoshenko’s imprisonment appeared politically motivated from the very beginning. Even if Skadden Arps did not need to register as a foreign agent, it and Craig should have known not to touch the Yanukovych regime with a ten-foot pole.
Clearly, the money was too good. For this reason, he is a foe to Ukraine and winner of the Order of Lenin.
