BBC Monitoring - 08.23.2006

Ukrainian journalist decries silence in face of anti-Semitism

Ukrainian media do not react adequately to xenophobia and anti-Semitism in the country, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Stolichnyye Novosti, Volodymyr Katsman, has said. He complained that Ukrainian journalists did not protest when he was beaten up in Kiev in broad daylight.

He said he believed the attack was prompted by his investigations against the allegedly anti-Semitic Interregional Academy of Personal Management. Katsman hinted that it may be linked to Arab organizations.

The following is an excerpt from an interview with Katsman, entitled "Volodymyr Katsman: it's not my fault they didn't kill me like they killed Oleksandrov or Gongadze - then everyone would have written about it", posted on the Ukrainian website Glavred on 17 August; subheadings appear as in the original:

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The editor-in-chief of the weekly Stolichnyye Novosti, Volodymyr Katsman, wrote an open letter to the president, parliament, law enforcement agencies, politicians and journalists with an appeal to come to his defence against xenophobes and anti-Semites.

In particular, he was hurt by the fact that the community of journalists did not stand up for him when unknown persons beat him in April in the entryway to his own flat. [Passage omitted: more of the same]

Volodymyr Naumovych [Katsman] sees the roots of his woes in the long war between Stolichnyye Novosti and the Interregional Academy of Personal Management [IAPM], or to be more exact, between the rector of this academy, Heorhiy Shchyokin and the IAPM printed publications, Personal and Personal Plyus.

Katsman believes these publications and Shchyokin himself to be anti-Semitic, something which has been repeatedly declared on the pages of his Stolichnyye Novosti publication. Shchyokin and Personal print about the threat of world Zionism in nearly every issue.

Katsman is involved in investigating activities by IAPM and rather straightforwardly hints that those activities are supported by certain Arab countries. In turn, Personal is concerned about the activity of Katsman's associate Vadym Rabynovych and does not allow chances to prick at them both slip by. [Passage omitted: questions about terrorism and anti-Semitism in Ukraine are numerous]

"If a case does not directly concern politics, then solidarity among journalists is possible only on an individual level"

[Kozak] Volodymyr Naumovych [Katsman], in an open letter to the president, parliament, colleagues among the media and to others, you accused journalists of not showing workshop solidarity in your case. What gave you the right to say that?

[Katsman] In my opinion, the commonwealth of journalists today is a very blurry mass, which is only capable of showing what used to be called corporate, or workshop, solidarity in politicized PR-actions.

And if a case does not directly concern politics, if a certain party, faction or individual politician cannot gain some advantage, then, as I have been convinced, solidarity among journalists is only possible on an individual level.

I am very grateful to those people who supported me at a time when I had a tragedy and laid in hospital for a month and a half with a fractured skull. But I also know that many at the time said it was politics and let them sort it our among themselves and not a word was written in the media about what happened to me.

But excuse me, it's not my fault they didn't kill me like they did [Donetsk Region television journalist] Oleksandrov or [Kiev-based journalist Heorhiy] Gongadze - then everyone would probably have written about it. That's how we do things: force them to the grave and then pour torrents of tears...[ellipsis as published] Well, you shouldn't do that!

[Kozak] But you said yourself that people called and supported you...[ellipsis as published]

[Katsman] But not one official association of journalists - not the Independent Kiev Media Union, the Union of Journalists or any other association made an official statement at the time. To tell the truth, the Union of Journalists, where I was a member for 30 years, woke up a bit later. [Passage omitted: more of the same.]

"It's probably not prestigious to talk about anti-Semitism"

[Kozak] Do you think money is the reason for this stance on you?

[Katsman] I think it is linked to the fact that it is not prestigious to talk about the kinds of things we are talking about - xenophobia, racism and anti-Semitism. Just like the fact that there are problems of xenophobia in the press.

I mean the publications put out by IAPM - Personal and Personal Plyus, which print the works of the rector Shchyokin and other odious authors.

By the way, not only Jews are insulted in these publications: Personal and Personal Plyus have repeatedly come out against Poles and against Russians.

We think that IAPM has become a nest of xenophobia in the wide sense of the word: anything which Shchyokin and him team do not like is subject to ostracism. And the same for any person they don't like. Because of the shape of his nose or the size of his skull...[ellipsis as published]

For example, yesterday they were friends with a certain politician and he was a member of the IAPM supervisory council, he was a good and correct Ukrainian, but today that politician, for reasons of the xenophobic position of their leadership, left the supervisory council and poof! - he is bad.

For example, [Foreign Minister] Borys Tarasyuk left and in a couple of days Personal comes out with a huge article about how Tarasyuk is giving away Ukraine's national interests and that he is not a correct minister and so on.

And [former President of Ukraine Leonid] Kravchuk, in whose honour one of the academy's institutes was named, whose teeth Shchyokin kissed? His name was engraved on the plaque on the academy, and when he left the supervisory council, they simply scratched his name off!

And what about [Ukrainian President Viktor] Yushchenko? He left IAPM when he was still just a candidate for president - and good for him, I respect him for that! But then they started to pour dirt on him. So they are not only fighting us.

By the way, after the letter by the Ukrainian intelligentsia, which [philosopher] Myroslav Popovych and other esteemed people signed, IAPM took them to court...[ellipsis as published] And I think Shchyokin even won the case...[ellipsis as published]

[Kozak] You are simply describing a monster...[ellipsis as published]

[Katsman] Shchyokin is a headache not only for the editorial board at SN- Stolichnyye Novosti! It was exactly because of him that the Jackson-Vanik amendment was not repealed!

Because of him, the US State Department, upon the results of a review of adherence to human rights in Ukraine, drew the conclusion that the xenophobic activity of IAPM made it the organization which presented the biggest danger among the organizations noted in the research.

And that is the US State Department writing - not Katsman and not Rabynovych! Because of him, IAPM diplomas are not recognized for employment purposes in Poland...[ellipsis as published]

Yes, it is probably not prestigious to write about that. It is prestigious to write about how someone got someone else into parliament, because there is a certain political line there.

But when people are insulted and entire nations are insulted and inter-ethnic strife is sparked, as a result of which losers beat people or take a person to a synagogue with a bayonet and threaten to kill everyone - no, that is not prestigious! And that was the reaction after I was beaten. [Passage omitted: more of the same]

"I cannot read Rabynovych's thoughts"

[Kozak] By there way, about the elections and your participation in them. Maybe that was the reason you were beaten?

[Katsman] And what was the motive?

[Kozak] Well, maybe because of Vadym Rabynovych's activity, which was connected to certain parties, helped them? The United Social Democratic Party of Ukraine [USDPU] for example?

[Katsman] The USDPU? What nonsense! That is surprising to me...[ellipsis as published] I know the party, and maybe even some specific functionaries in it. But I never heard of help from our side...[ellipsis as published] We relate equally to all parties.

I was actually in the list of the Green Party, whose ideas I share. As far as I know, Rabynovych is also sympathetic to the Greens - and has said so himself quite often, although he always says he does not play politics.

I did not strive to take part in this election myself, but the Greens made me an offer, obviously thinking I would be an asset to their list.

I say this openly, without hiding anything. And so? Someone has to beat me over the head with a wooden bat in a stairwell for that? [Passage omitted: more of the same]

[Kozak] Okay, but maybe you were beaten because you are close to Rabynovych?

[Katsman] First, I am not Vadym Rabynovych's mind-reader and do not have the moral right to talk on that topic - you can ask him yourself about money or his public activities. But I've never heard of someone being beaten over someone else.

[Kozak] By the way, about public activities. You have used the word "anti-Semite" repeatedly, while Personal repeatedly calls you a Zionist. So maybe this position is linked to your ethnic background?

[Katsman] But you have come to the "Zionist" Volodymyr Katsman, whose is a member of a particular ethnic group, who is sitting here muttering something to himself. Yes, I have a certain, I hope, socially important position - the position of head of the SN-Stolichnyye Novosti publishing house. We publish certain articles, with certain positions and fill a certain niche in the media.

It is exactly that which is irritating and not simply that they hate the "Zionist" Katsman. You have to separate that. Nationality and political or social convictions, or confession...[ellipsis as published]

I haven't heard that the constitution was waived for Shchyokin or [far-right leader Oleh] Tyahnybok in terms of a civilized understanding of human rights...[ellipsis as published]

"The Pecherskyy court is not objective in cases concerning IAPM"

[Kozak] You have not only reproached the journalism society, but spoken of the subjectivity of the courts and the inaction of law enforcement agencies...[ellipsis as published]

[Katsman] No-one is even interested in the course of the investigation, no-one is raising the question of why there are no results after 130 days since the incident. Besides, in about the past 50 days the police have not even informed us about the course of the investigation - nothing specific, not a single word!

Law enforcement officials woke up only when I and the reviewer at SN-Stolichnyye Novosti and the editor of SN-Stolichnyye Serhiy Kovtunenko got a second letter with threats at a home address in which it said that if we continue to write about IAPM and its rector Shchyokin, then the fractured skull would only be the beginning. And it was signed by the servants of Bafomet.

[Kozak] Excuse me, who? Who threatened you?

[Katsman] The servants of Bafomet. I found out on the Internet that Bafomet is a symbol of the devil in the form of a two-headed goat, which apparently commits acts of revenge and justice. I don't know what kind of religion that is, I guess Satanic. And then we got white powder in an envelope at the editorial office...[ellipsis as published]

[Kozak] From Satan worshippers? Don't you think that is silly?

[Katsman] No, I don't. When things concern specific threats to your life, such things stop seeming silly. Especially since in the course of the journalistic investigation which we carried out, many worrisome facts came up.

In particular, there is a witness to a conversation between the person who ordered the attack on me and the person who carried it out: the day after it happened, they argued over the size of the reward, the one who made the order complaining that I was beaten with wooden bats and not a steel pipe. Sort of, "so why didn't you finish beating him up...[ellipsis as published]"

This all took place in the very centre of Kiev (I can't say the address, as it is a secret of the investigation), near a very suspicious basement, into which for some reason neither the tax inspectors nor the police can enter. This basement has been rented for many years by the representatives of a certain foreign country under the auspices of Ukrainian-something-or-other friendship.

We published a photograph of the building, and judging by the language in which the sign was written, one can tell what friendship they are talking about (the sign is in Arabic script - editor). The police have all this data, and as far as I know, there are no other versions except for an attack on me for professional activity. I am sure this is the one possible version.

[Kozak] Why are the police not doing anything? Should they put an arrest on the house of Ukrainian-something-or-other friendship?

[Katsman] What do you mean? What kind of arrest? The investigation was being handled by the Pecherskyy district office of Interior Affairs, and now it has been turned over to the city office of Interior Affairs...[ellipsis as published] Very strange things happened during the investigation: at first they told me they had found the executor, and showed me his electronic portrait.

I can't say I recognized him, since I did not see the people who attacked me at the moment of the attack. But it was clear that they had followed me for a long time and knew a lot about my habits.

I usually don't walk alone: my driver and bodyguard is usually alongside. But I let him go on this day, I didn't plan to stay at work - I just came for a few hours to "clean up the ends" of a few of my matters.

My dog was with me - not a watch dog, a small toy poodle and of course I planned to go home and not anywhere else. And the attackers clearly knew about this. Is there anything to go on? There is. And so?.. [ellipsis as published]

And now about the Pecherskyy court where the cases over IAPM and us were being reviewed. This court has a special "stance" on us: we have lost nearly all our cases on IAPM there. The Pecherskyy court does not believe that the Personal magazine is inciting ethnic hatred.

It also does not believe that the words "there were thousands of Jews in Hitler's brigades in occupied Kiev who served in the troops of the Wehrmacht" are a perversion of historical truth...[ellipsis as published]

That is some kind of nonsense! But that is not written in Mein Kampf, but by Shchyokin...[ellipsis as published] and not at the beginning of last century, but at the beginning of the 21st!.. [ellipsis as published]

I can also say why we lose these cases: we once wrote a lot about corruption within the walls of the Pecherskyy district court. And no-one debated the facts we showed, no-one took us to court, which I can say means that yes, "we got it".

[Passage omitted: More about cases in Pecherskyy district court.]

[Kozak] So according to you, the "anti-Semite" Shchyokin decided in this way to ruin the "Zionist" Katsman, and the war between you and IAPM has been going on for many years, as we know...[ellipsis as published]

[Katsman] It's not about a stand-off between anti-Semite and Zionist. I link everything that has happened to me to our investigation of activity at IAPM. Not one of our articles has perverted the real state of affairs - I can swear to that with my hand on any religion's scripture: we simply let the world know what they are publishing in fact and how that is classified in the civilized world.

In Germany there is a law against "denying the Holocaust". And if a politician or public person says a word about that topic, he simply ceases to exist as a politician or public person.

And we have a cassette with a recording where the head of the world famous Ku-Klux-Klan David Duke is giving a lecture to students at IAPM - a man who was judged in the United States for racism and whose entry to all civilized countries in the world has been closed off.

And his translator was [television news channel] 5 Kanal journalist Ihor Slisarenko who has been working for more than one year as vice-president of IAPM. I can't even begin to tell you what was said there. Hitler was simply vacationing! And what do you suggest we do - bury our voices in a wet rag? Has anyone else even said a word about that?!

[Kozak] But if everything is really like that, and the academy has existed for so long, then that means Shchyokin has some kind of support...[ellipsis as published]

[Katsman] What allows him to stay afloat for so many years is exactly the position which has been taken by politicians and the media, which I've already talked about. We need for Shchyokin to be locked out by the media on all sides.

Yes, people write about the problem of xenophobia from time to time, but it is not enough for society to take up an intolerant position vis-a-vis IAPM. That is, Shchyokin has never got a slap in the face from society.

[Kozak] But this all looks like - "let's ruin the anti-Semite Shchyokin". You have to agree, that is not very different from his position "let's destroy the Zionist Katsman".

[Katsman] It's not that simple. We once wrote, and I think that this is what provoked hatred on the part of IAPM, we wrote that structures indirectly linked to IAPM, specifically a certain Arab House which is on its territory and in its structure, is involved in certain scandals which took place during the Saddam Husayn epoch. If you will recall, there were oil scandals then into which several Ukrainian structures fell.

What made us think that? First, there is support for this version. Second, have you ever wondered why the official IAPM site is in Ukrainian, English and Arabic? Are there really that many Arabs in Ukraine, that IAPM needs an Arab-language version of their site? Why do they hold conferences in which representatives of Arab structures and Arab states take part?

[Kozak] So what? Don't they have the right to do that?

[Katsman] They do, that's not the issue. But why is every second or third conference dedicated to this topic? Why was a conference on World Zionism held in a closed regime, why were journalists not allowed to enter, and it was all guarded by a detachment of Cossacks?

I can show you a photo of a cordon of Cossacks - not Ukrainian, but some kind of international ones, in special clothing...[ellipsis as published] You couldn't get in there in any way, a fly could not have flown through.

Why is there an Arab house on IAPM property, and say, not a Europe or Africa house? Altogether this prompts one to think that this is not simply a structure in IAPM.

It is not that simple; if IAPM was a closed joint-stock company carrying out commercial activity in say the restaurant business, you'd think, what does that have to do with an educational institution?

I know that checks which the tax officials and law enforcement agencies want to carry out, possibly as a result of our articles, can't take place, because a private guard service simply does not let their employees in.

I think someone is very interested not only in the existence of this institute, but in its specific form of existence. Who exactly, I can't say: that is serious work for security structures and law enforcement agencies.

After all, in the end, if everything we write about IAPM - about the Husayn oil accounts and other things - was not true, that would all be easy to deny: here you are guys, read the documents, we are clean! But no-one even denies anything! Checks slide past IAPM and no-one can do anything! It's like a state within a state!

[Kozak] So you mean to say that very influential people are behind Shchyokin?

[Katsman] I don't know. I think that Shchyokin is a peculiar phenomenon of our time. Simply the topic he has chosen - xenophobia, or simply fascism - grew out of a strange alloy of commercial interest and some sort of psychopathic factor. He takes a very aggressive position, he can't stop and think, is it worth doing this?

On one hand, IAPM is a commercial structure which has placed its shares on the market and earns dividends, that is, it's activity obviously brings good income. But from the position of leadership, this institute is the common denominator of something dirty, black and uncivilized. In the whole world.

But the students are not at fault: they came to study, they paid money - it's a commercial institute and a prestigious one. IAPM gets great income - about 37m [currency not specified] a year for tuition. And let them take it! Personally, we have no gripe against the academy itself as an institution of education.

It's not the students' fault Shchyokin forces them to subscribe to the Personal newspaper and magazine and feeds their minds with xenophobia and anti-Semitism.

"Personally, I think I have done far less harm to Ukraine than Mr Shchyokin"

[Kozak] You know, anti-Semitism is an eternal topic, a sort of hostility and guardedness with relation to people of Jewish nationality has always been around, but for some reason it is considered impolite to speak out loud about it. Perhaps Shchyokin is simply saying what many people think and that explains his position now?

[Katsman] I don't want to know what has always been around and what hasn't; that is a question for historians and researchers. I want to know and see that in the country where the Maydan won [meaning the Orange Revolution in 2004, which supposedly meant a triumph of democratic values], in a civilized Ukraine which has chosen the European vector, that politicians who came to power under slogans of absolute equality before the law react to things like Shchyokin.

I want to know there will be a sure political and social reaction and articles in the press which say: "Stop! Inter-ethnic hate, xenophobia and anti-Semitism begin here!" I say the country in which the Maydan won and in which freedom of speech and democracy won. And when no-one - no MPs, no political parties, not the prosecutor-general nor the Ministry of Interior Affairs nor the Security Service of Ukraine - pays any attention to it, that is not freedom or democracy.

People like Shchyokin who love to put the blame on other nations - well, they do not love Ukraine! And who measured how much I love Ukraine? Did he measure with a thermometer or by the shape of my nose? Personally, I think I have done far less damage to Ukraine than Mr Shchyokin.

Should I tell you how much money Ukraine has lost due to the Jackson-Vanik amendment? Tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars a year! And he didn't take it away from Poles or Jews, but from Ukrainians...[ellipsis as published]

[Kozak] But if you write all the time about anti-Semitism, that means it exists in society, it finds resonance...[ellipsis as published]

[Katsman] You know, I do not agree that everything resonates with society for one simple reason. There is a simple and clear criteria: how much did Shchyokin's party - the Conservative Party of Ukraine - really get in the parliamentary election? You can count the people on the fingers of two hands...[ellipsis as published]

There is simply a very healthy society in Ukraine which does not have national prejudices - that is my opinion and I am convinced of it! I am certain that Ukrainian society is healthier than French society, where ultra-right Le Pen with all his racist slogans gets you know how many percentage points in an election...[ellipsis as published]

I don't want to say anything bad about France, but our society is more tolerant and healthier. But there is a smouldering spark of xenophobia, which lets off a, shall we say, not very nice smell. And for some reason, society can't sprinkle a little water on it in order to put it out. Yes, here I will agree that probably someone has an interest in that.

[Kozak] But if our society is so healthy in this respect, then why do people in Israel say: "You have such anti-Semitism there!". Maybe if someone was beaten it is just better to say that he was beaten without emphasizing that he is Jewish: people, excuse me, get beaten in the face, and not on their passport.

[Katsman] Well, for example, Mordechai Molozhenov was beaten because the low-lives who beat him did not like skull-cap and the shape of his nose.

When stones were thrown at the synagogue and swastikas were scrawled across its walls [in Kiev], for a long time the police said this was the work of some football hooligans who were quietly passing by the synagogue on the way to the match.

They said that until they found the specific leader of the skinheads, a loser all covered in fascist swastikas, who when arrested screamed: "No matter, kikes, I'll kill you all!" He got seven years. And by the way, that was the first time in all of independent Ukraine when the law on inciting inter-ethic hatred was used.

Yes, when they beat a person in the face, that should be punished as a violation of his rights. But when they beat a person just because they don't like the shape of his nose, how he is dressed or the God he prays to - it doesn't matter whether it is an Orthodox, Islamic, Catholic or Jewish sacrament - that should be classified exactly as an ethnic hate crime. And it should receive an immediate evaluation by society. Immediate! So that the temptation does not arise to commit such a crime again...[ellipsis as published]

But we have no reaction to such kinds of things. I think that it is the absence of such a reaction on the part of society and state institutions and the press which gives people in the West reason to say that probably not all is well and good with us.

[Kozak] But why is it that it is Jews who need to be protected from all of this and not say, Crimean Tatars, Armenians or the Karaim...[ellipsis as published]

[Katsman] I am not saying that only Jews need to be protected. When Shchyokin published his, shall we say, incorrect thoughts on Polish-Ukrainian relations or on Russian-Ukrainian relations, we immediately wrote that that was impossible, inadmissible and that it is the policy of Ukraine to resolve these issues and come to some sort of historic reconciliation. And you just can't pour oil on the fire at that moment simply because someone doesn't like someone else, that harms Ukraine...[ellipsis as published] 

[Kozak] Glavred also gave another person, mentioned in the interview the chance to express himself - 5 Kanal anchor Ihor Slisarenko, who was once and still is vice-president of IAPM.

Ihor Slisarenko, anchor of the 5 Kanal programme "Greenwich Time":

The person named Volodymyr Naumovych Katsman deserves every bit of empathy in connection with the bandit beating four months ago and sincere wishes for speedy recovery from his head injuries. Citizen Katsman Volodymyr Naumovych deserves support in realizing his constitutional rights in connection with the search for those guilty and bringing them to justice pursuant to the law.

Citizen Katsman is also right to demand, and we in turn, to expect, the results of the investigation of all criminal happenings connected to this citizen, beginning at least with that which took place in May 2004, when Katsman, as has been stated, found a certain parcel in the poor entry-way in his home suited to [Mikhail] Bulgakov, a certain parcel with the inscription "Death to the non-people and murderers of the Kuprity!"

(Katsman did not explain who the Kuprity were), which parcel was immediately investigated by police and sappers who arrived (happily, no bomb was found) and ending with the letter mentioned above from the "Servants of Bafomet".

At the same time, citizen Katsman Volodymyr Naumovych, as editor-in-chief of the SN- Stolichnyye Novosti publishing house (which by the way, is so far the single winner of the Golden Vacuum Cleaner Award from the UNIAN news agency for unabashed [and presumably unattributed] use of the agency's information reports) and as a public person, provokes nothing but negative emotions from me personally by his acts.

I see no need to refute anything which Katsman says. But it is important to point out that it is exactly for these comments by citizen Katsman that he has been taken to court for years and which cases have always ended with one verdict: they - these comments - (citation) "[in Ukrainian, apparently from court rulings] not only do not correspond to reality, but defile the honour, dignity and business reputation, and so such comments are subject to denial". [Continuing in Russian]

Honestly, I simply do not have the time now to present a folder of "special denials" and count exactly how many such decisions have been handed down and remain in force after all of defendant Katsman's efforts to dispute every decision in upper courts.

Nevertheless, in continual stubbornness of the utmost application, citizen Katsman has for years seen fit to not execute the decisions of Ukrainian justice.

For example, in 2003 Katsman appealed to [then President] Leonid Kuchma for an indulgence for freedom from executing the decisions of Ukrainian courts, and he also colourfully described that he complained by telephone (citation) "to the biggest American publisher, editor-in-chief of the famous American newspaper Novoye Russkoye Slovo, Valeriy Veinberg". Moreover, "there were US congressmen in Mr Veinberg's office during the conversation".

I think that a new wave of negatives from his side is provoked by the fact that the state executive service has finally decided to force citizen Katsman to fulfil court decisions - on his accounts and property, and this, as has been reported, are four apartments in the Pecherskyy district of Kiev which have been seized.

Can one consider the "Katsman case" a mere individual case? Alas, no. It represents a dangerous tendency in the Ukrainian mass media to pervert such basic understandings as freedom of speech and standards of journalism and ethics.

When citizen Katsman relates that he is allegedly suffering for "investigative journalism", this is pure profanation of the activity of journalism. For example, British journalists and editors consciously threaten themselves with incarceration for publishing documents held secret by the government, which are obtained during investigations - for example, on dumping nuclear waste into the ocean.

No-one denies the truth of the articles - the journalists go to court for breaking the law on state secrets. When, as I recall, defendant Katsman was told to confirm the truth of his accusations, his lawyers began to say that these were not really accusations, but (citation) "artistic detail"...[ellipsis as published]

Freedom of speech of course means nothing without responsibility. Citizen Katsman has clearly said that for him, freedom of speech lies in the right to such "artistic detail". But that is half the tragedy - as you can see, one can be held responsible for all of this.

The danger lies in something else - citizen Katsman, together with his patron citizen Rabynovych, is trying to limit the freedom of speech of others with the goal of destroying any criticism of one individual state and its ideology. In political groups, public people of such persuasion are called the "Israeli lobby".

They not only heap vulgarities and awkward but heavy accusations on journalists, scientists and politicians who are not to their taste (I recall the headlines in Stolichnyye Novosti - "Udovenko supports international terrorism!" - after which MP [Henadiy] Udovenko sued in court over his honour and dignity and won, but citizen Katsman is not fulfilling this court ruling either), these activists demand gagging the mouths of all those they do not like and depriving them of work and even achieving criminal repression.

But I also have good news for my journalist colleagues - the Ukrainian law is on our side. In 2002 the court decided in the name of Ukraine (upheld by a Supreme Court ruling) and directly ruled that no single state and no one ideology can be beyond criticism.

Even if it is the "single liberal democracy in the Middle East", which as we have recently become convinced yet again, can go unpunished while killing over 1,000 mostly peaceful people, women and children - Semites, by the way - so why should we not call their murders anti-Semitism? And making yet another million people refugees.

In comparison: in 1999, when it was announced that Albanian refugees in Kosovo numbered 900,000, NATO stated that this was a "humanitarian catastrophe" and immediately began to bomb Serbia. Or are we again dealing with a double standard, with a "special relationship" with "special" peoples and countries?