An inspiring article comes from the popular online newspaper the Huffington Post on what the Orange Revolution gave in terms of freedoms to Ukraine, and how the current pro-Russia regime is trying to stamp them all out and return to the days of the Soviet Union:

In 2004, Ukraine experienced the Orange Revolution: protest camps filled the capital, Kyiv; millions peacefully demonstrated in the bitter winter months to overturn a corrupt, Kremlin-pressured election. Five years later, Viktor Yanukovych, a laughable presidential candidate and the Russian-backed foe of the Orange Revolution, is now president of Ukraine, due to the global economic collapse — a tsunami for the country’s already fragile economy — and years of in-fighting that plagued the ruling liberals.

…

Now Yushchenko, once the great hero of the Orange Revolution, is now seeing his pro-NATO, pro-EU efforts dissolve, along with freedom for the press. Yanukovich, or Mini Putin, Ukraine’s new president, is threatening to rewrite history to make the Soviet years seem less horrifying, so Ukrainians can feel better about going back to being a Russian satellite state. And we all know, from the assassination of journalists, political opponents, and police violence used to break up demonstrations for civil rights, Russia’s leaders are still in a Soviet state of mind.

Here’s just one example of the growing threat to free speech in Ukraine, (which includes the kidnapping of a journalist and the brutal beating of another):

On September 8, the Security Service in Ukraine arrested Ruslan Zabilyi, a young historian and director of a museum in L’viv, a nationalistic pro-West, pro-democracy city in Ukraine near the border of Poland. Tymothy Snyder in the blog of the New York Review of Books writes:

On September 8, the Security Service (SB), under new leadership appointed by the Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, arrested in Kiev a young historian named Ruslan Zabilyi, the director of a museum in Lviv devoted to the occupation of Ukraine by the Nazis and the Soviets. He is charged with intending to pass state secrets to foreigners. On September 13 and 14, SB agents searched the offices of the museum’s research staff, confiscating two laptops containing archival documents for a planned exhibition on Ukrainian resistance to Soviet rule; authority over the museum has been transferred to the Institute of National Memory, which is now directed by a communist.

According to the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, Zabilyi was seized on the street by six plainclothes SB operatives, held without a warrant or an arrest order, interrogated for fourteen hours, and forced to surrender his computer and external hard drives. Though Ukrainian law is confusing on these issues, the basic case against Zabilyi seems to be that he was intending to transmit documents from archives to foreigners.

But that could never happen here. Right? Well, it depends on how much you pay them.

Who helped Mini Putin come to power and smooth out his messaging? Why a GOP lobbyist, of course

Continue reading What Liberals Must Learn From Ukraine’s Orange Revolution (Huffington Post) →

Via press release:

Toronto, September 9, 2010 On September 8, 2010 six representatives of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) detained at the Kyiv train station, Ruslan Zabilyj, Director of the National Memorial “Prison at Lonsky”. The Memorial is a recently opened museum to the victims of repressions at the Lonsky prison in Lviv, Ukraine, where thousands of Ukrainian political prisoners suffered under Polish, Nazi and Soviet occupations. Mr. Zabilyj is a historian, who oversees the Memorial, and serves as a researcher and archivist.

Mr. Zabilyj had just arrived in Kyiv on the train from Lviv. He was detained and held incommunicado for some fourteen hours at the SBU headquarter at 33 Volodymyrsky Street in Kyiv. He was not formally charged. However, he could not leave voluntarily and was not permitted to use his telephone. His inquisitors refused to identify themselves by name, but did inform him that his detainment was pursuant to instructions from SBU Director Valerij Khoroshkovsky, himself. Further, it was suggested to Mr. Zabilyj that it would be better for him if he quit his position at the Memorial, to think of his family, and cease contact with foreign scholars. He also was told to provide evidence that his research does not involve state secrets. He also was told that a list of those with whom he shared state "secret" archival information is being compiled.

A personal notebook and two compact disks were confiscated and not returned upon his release. Moreover, the SBU said that a criminal case against Ruslan Zabily has been started.

SBU repressive measures were not limited to Mr. Zabilyj alone. Today, the local SBU in Lviv blockaded the National Memorial and prevented entry to employees and visitors. In this regard as well, it is to be recalled that in 2009 the SBU agreed to transform the prison on Lontskoho Street in Lviv and to have it converted into a museum. The National Memorial opened its doors in June, 2009 and is today a museum/memorial and research center.

Attempts to intimidate Mr. Zabily were unsuccessful. Today, Ruslan Zabily filed a complaint against the head of the SBU: "I demand from Mr.Valery Khoroshkovsky an explanation with regard to the action of the SBU officers and to immediately return my private property – the computer and external drives. They contain only copies of historical documents, my research, and personal information. I appeal to you, dear journalists, to together help stop the censorship and pressure, put on history and historians.” He also demanded that his employees and research staff be allowed to return to their offices at the National Memorial.

This is not an isolated incident. It continues a pattern of intimidation by the SBU since Victor Yanukovich took control of Ukraine in late February 2010 and mimics tactics used by the Putin regime in Russia. The targets of this new policy have been journalists, academics, students and even clergy.

The Canadian Conference in Support of Ukraine (CCSU) deplores this reversion to Kremlin tactics, calls on the Canadian government to serve notice upon the Yanukovich regime that abuse of democracy and human rights will not be tolerated. We call on our fellow Canadians to speak out in defense of Mr. Zabily and the National Memorial “Prison at Lonsky”. Only through concerted action on the part of governments and NGOs alike can Mr. Zabily and all others seeking to defend and advance academic freedom, democracy, and civil society in Ukraine know that the world is watching and is standing with them.

They recently held a press conference to discuss these matters to the media as well:

Update: Here is another link to the story.