Ukraine: From Democracy to Chaos (2012) - full transcript
CROWD CHANTING
November December 2004,
across the planet, eyes
are riveted on Ukraine.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians
camp out in the freezing cold
to protest against fraud
in the presidential elections.
Democratic candidate, Viktor
Yushchenko has been poisoned.
Viktor Yanukovych, the
pro Russian candidate
of the regime,
has been falsely
declared victorious
Vladimir Putin
congratulates him.
After years of repression,
the people stand firm,
in the name of justice and
freedom, in the
name of democracy.
CHANTING
Round table discussions
led by the EU
lead to a third round
in the elections.
On the 26th of December
2004, Viktor Yushchenko
is elected president.
He and his ally Yulia
Tymoshenko promise
to bring democracy
to Ukraine.
8 years on, what has
become of the heroes
of the revolution
and their promises?
What has become of the hopes and
dreams of the Ukrainian people?
What cloud has hung over
this nation for centuries?
Democracy emerges in Ukraine
during the 16th century.
Groups of Ukrainians flee
their harsh serfdom in Poland
to settle on the green steppes
along the river Dniepr.
Fervent Christians
and fierce warriors
they create a community
protected by a
military unit called
Sitch Zaparog.
Their leader is elected.
Free men, rebels,
they are the cossacks!
The way they chose their leaders
was democratic. They voted.
This is at a time when,
who voted in Europe?
It was the monarchies,
it was the divine ruler
which comes from God and his
descendent becomes the next one!
CROWD AMBIENCE
Every Cossack came,
take off his hat
and put to the feet
of his candidate,
and who had more hats, he won.
So democratic procedure, yes.
In 1654 Bohdan Kmelnytsky,
the father of the
Ukrainian nation,
leads a massive revolt
against the Poles.
Forced into retreat he signs an
agreement with the Russian Tsar.
Unknowingly he signs
away Ukrainian
freedom to Russia for
centuries to come.
In 1917 the October revolution
puts an end to the
Tsarist empire,
Ukraine takes advantage
of the chaos
and declares its independence.
9 months later, the Red
army crushes the rebels.
In 1922 Lenin creates the USSR.
For the Bolsheviks, Ukraine
still belongs to Russia.
But the Ukrainians will
never be Russians.
PATRIOTIC SINGING
In 1927 Joseph Stalin becomes
the new master of the USSR.
The last thing Stalin wants in
Ukraine, is free thinking people
but he needs the wealth of its
land, its cereals, its coal
and human machines to
serve the soviet state.
In 1928 Stalin's five year
plan makes Ukraine the
industrial motor of the USSR,
but the peasants resist.
In the early 1930s Stalin
organises a state famine,
Holodomor.
The Ukrainians are refused
the right
to search for food elsewhere.
Their land becomes their
prison and their grave.
7 million die of starvation.
In the meantime propaganda
films show well fed
children and loudspeakers
relay patriotic songs.
Stalin dies in 1953.
The population is
duly unconsolable.
The master seems to
have orchestrated
the national mourning...
himself.
Throughout Soviet times, the
so called 'province' of
Ukraine continues to be
economically vital to the USSR.
It is also the
birthplace
of Soviet leaders,
intellectuals and writers.
The Ukrainian people
are some of the
highest educated in
the Soviet union
and the workforce for
the rising nuclear
and atomic industries
during the cold war.
When I think about
the Soviet times,
I remember a lot of humiliation.
It was really hard to
get very simple things like a
tooth brush, tooth
paste, soap, or shampoo,
you had to stand
in very long lines
to have these basic things.
It was very sick, very
ill, in its nature.
And also imagine
what it was like
to be Ukrainian
under the Soviet rule.
For many generations this
nation felt that the
very fact of its existence
was under huge question.
As a school boy, I
remember my school was
the only Ukrainian
school downtown Kiev
where kids could
study maths or
physics in their
native language.
LOW PIANO NOTE
On the 6th of April, 1986
the nuclear power station of
Chernobyl in Ukraine explodes.
At least 10,000 Ukrainians
and Beloussians will die.
Only the nomenclatura is
informed of the accident
and its gravity.
Chernobyl is 50 miles
from Kiev, the capital.
Ukrainian people are
informed 4 weeks later.
Chernobyl also causes the
Ukrainian political scene
to explode.
A party for
independence is created
by ecologists and intellectuals.
In 1989 in Germany
the Berlin wall is torn
down by the population.
A wind of change is
sweeping across the USSR.
In 1990, Lithuania
declares its independence.
And in Ukraine a human
chain crosses the country
the people sing,
Mother Moscow we want
to be made orphans.
ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
The first tent city on
Maidan which I remember,
happened when young students,
2 or 3 hundred of them,
they went to the central square
of the communist capital
of the soviet Ukraine
and they protested against
the communist rule.
On the 24th of August 1991,
the conservative
faction of the KGB
attempts a putsch
against Gorbatchev
who wants to reform the USSR.
Boris Yeltsin intervenes and
emerges as the new leader.
There was this
feeling of optimism.
At the same time nobody knew how
quickly things would fall apart,
so when the coup happened,
it was also extraordinary
in the Maidan,
which then was the
October Revolution square,
people were standing there
and the police barriers
were up, protecting...
and then on the day
that the coup ended,
I remember clearly
being in the square
and the police barricades just
melted and people surged hmmm.
APPLAUSE AND CHANTING
We had this feeling,
this flavour of miracle
which we had the chance
to see with our own eyes.
I was 15 years old at that time
but I clearly
remember this feeling
of inspiration, enthusiasm
which the country was full
of, it was wonderful.
The very same day, on the
24th of September 1991,
Ukrainian parliament, RADA,
declares the
independence of Ukraine.
CROWD AMBIENCE
PATRIOTIC SINGING
AND MUSIC
On the 1st of
December 1991,
Leonid Kravchuk, the
former president
of the Soviet Socialist
Republic of Ukraine,
is elected president.
TRIUMPHANT MUSIC
But independence
is not for free
and although Russian gas
transits through Ukraine,
Ukraine has a gas debt towards
Russia of 80 million dollars.
Yeltsin declares,
either Ukraine enters
the CIS or it pays up.
The gas blackmail between
Russia and Ukraine has begun.
Pro Russian Crimea becomes
an autonomous republic
within Ukraine.
The Black Sea is shared.
20 percent for Ukraine and
80 percent for Russia.
Russian flags fly in the
port of Sebastopol.
Independence means the
creation of a constitution,
of laws, of an army,
of a police force.
But over the centuries,
religious faith has been the
only refuge for the population.
They create a independent
Ukrainian Orthodox church
with a Kiev Patriarchy.
Kravtchouk is a bad manager.
And in 1994, he is replaced
by Leonid Kuchma
ex director of the strategic
missile complex of the USSR.
His slogan,
With Kuchma your factory
will take to its wings.
He abolishes the parliamentary
constitution to give
himself more power.
Kuchma comes from
Dnipropetrovsk, near Donbass,
in the industrial heart of
the USSR created by Stalin.
The east of Ukraine is
predominantly Russian speaking
because that was the common
language of the miners
who were brought into that
area to mine the coal.
It was also one of the major
centres of communist influence.
It was the great
patriotic miners
fighting for the
future of the country.
They were
heavily rewarded.
They were
some of the highest
paid workers in
the Soviet Union.
They were given incredibly
special status.
So, over a period of time,
there has been a natural
arrogance, if you
like, developed.
We are the best of the
people of Ukraine.
Kuchma launches a massive
privatization programme,
which favours his
family and friends,
especially in the energy
and media sectors.
He has started to create a
select clan of oligarchs.
An enterprising young couple,
Yulia Tymoshenko
and her husband,
seize this opportunity
and successfully create
different businesses
before entering
the gas industry.
Their company quickly becomes
the biggest intermediary
for Russian gas in Ukraine.
From now on the young women
is called the gas princess.
At the time, her dubious deals
with Russian businessmen
even lead to an
investigation by Interpol.
In both Russia and
Ukraine, the richest
oligarchs make their
fortunes in energy.
I believe the Americans
created the oligarchs.
I was working in Russia in a
mass privatization program,
where we were handing
out certificates
in one room to the
workers in factories
and they were then
selling them to
the general director
of the factory
for a bottle of vodka and ten
dollars in the next room.
And I can remember
having a discussion
with one of the very
senior people from USAID
and I said "This is crazy, we're
just making this man very rich."
This person turned
to me and said,
Martin you don't understand.
I have a briefing from the
president of the United States
to kill communism.
The only way we're going
to kill communism
is by killing the
economic basis of it."
Exactly the same thing
happened in Ukraine.
The process of privatization
was different
but there was no control
over the privatization.
Therefore it was a carve up.
The law was so badly
worded you could
drive a brigade of
tanks through it.
Some of them grew rich
at the point of a gun,
some of them grew rich
because they were extremely
good businessmen.
Some of them just happened to be
the right person in the right
place at the right time.
Since independence the
Mafia and banditry
have thrived in Donietsk,
at the heart of the coal
industry in the DOMBASS.
Kuchma's privatisations
also legalised these new
businessmen bandits.
In return, they promise
him obedience.
One of the bright young men who
is making a name for himself
in this sinister world
is Rinat Akhmetov.
He is the protege of the
Godfather of Donietsk,
the sponsor of the
football team Shaktar.
Akhmetov's benefactor is
mysteriously assassinated
in the stadium built
for his club.
Akmetov inherits not only the
club, but his whole estate.
The president and the
security service
would collect intelligence
on the corruption undertaken
by the oligarchs
and those files would
be kept under wraps
just as long as the oligarchs
were politically loyal
to the president.
If they stepped out of line,
the files would come out
and they would go on trial.
So it was a blackmail state.
St Sophie's Cathedral
belongs to all orthodox
churches in Kiev.
On the 18th of July 1995
the Ukrainian orthodox community
tries to bury its patriarch.
But the Russian orthodox
church bars the passage.
Kuchma sends in
the riot police.
CHAOTIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
In despair, the
congregation buries him
outside the walls
of the cathedral.
CHAOTIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
Repression is back
and Kuchma clearly shows
that his convictions
lie with the Russian
orthodox church,
the powerful tool of the KGB.
CROWD AMBIENCE
Fraud helps Kuchma win the
presidential elections in 1998.
His clan's control of resources,
corruption the muzzling of
the media, repression...
have all seriously
tarnished his image.
He needs a good
honest prime minister.
Victor Yushchenko, the head
of the national bank,
and creator of the new
currency, the Gryvna,
is considered by
Forbes magazine to be
one of the best
economists in the world.
A fervent patriot, he's
the man for the job.
CHATTERING
On the 3rd of November 2000,
a mutilated and headless body
is found in a shallow grave
in a forest near Kiev.
The man is wearing the chain
and ring of Georgiy Gongadze,
a journalist from
Ukrainski Pravda.
Gongadze's caustic
articles and interviews
regularly incriminate
the president.
The media belongs
to Kuchma's clan
and few voices dare speak out.
For Gongadze's colleagues
this is a pre meditated
assassination.
500 journalists demonstrate
against the regime
and demand freedom
of the press.
TAPE RECORDING
Melynchenko wants the
recordings to be made public.
The leader of the socialist
party, Oleksandr Moroz
has Kuchma's voice validated.
CROWD CHANTING
Gongadze, the lack of freedom of
the press, enough is enough.
The crowd takes to the floor.
The movement is called
Ukraine without Kuchma.
ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
In parliament, Kuchma's clan
makes the most of the moment
to fire Yulia Tymoshenko
who has become the
minister for energy.
Yulia Tymoshenko is arrested
on the 13th of February, 2000.
On the 2nd of April,
thanks to the
anti Kuchma demonstrations,
she is liberated.
When she leaves
prison she has a new
traditional Ukrainian hairstyle.
The next on the list
is Victor Yushchenko.
He is fired from his
position of prime minister
Yulia Tymoshenko and
Victor Yushchenko's parties
join forces in opposition
to the regime.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
APPLAUSE
On the 7th of May 2000.
Vladimir Putin is elected
president of Russia.
For Kuchma, Putin is a God send.
The Gongadze affair has
left deep scars,
the population is angry, his
clan is less manageable,
he needs help from outside,
and Putin couldn't ask for more.
His aim is to rebuild
an empire for Russia
like in the good old
days of the USSR.
Kuchma makes more trips to
Moscow than to his datcha.
Commercial deals are
made by the dozen
and the delicate problem of
gas is left in the cupboard,
for the time being...
For the 10th anniversary
of Independence
a massive parade is organised
in honour of Vladimir Putin.
But another matter
preoccupies the two men.
Kuchma cannot stand for
presidency a third time.
They need to prepare
a candidate
who is pro Russian and can
be easily manipulated.
Viktor Yanukovych is the leader
of the Party of Regions
created in 2001 in
the East of Ukraine
by the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov,
the political sponsor
of Viktor Yanukovych.
APPLAUSE
The files concerning the
criminal past of Yanukovych,
sentenced twice for
robbery, are carefully
kept under wraps by
the KGB in Moscow.
As planned, prime minister
Yanukovych becomes
the presidential candidate
for the regime.
Kuchma publicly
declares that these
elections will be the
most terrifying ever.
APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
The candidate in the orange
camp is Viktor Yushchenko.
Supported by the West he
stands for democracy,
justice and Ukrainian values,
and he has the charisma
of a John F Kennedy.
On the 5th of September,
late in the evening,
Yushchenko leaves Kiev
for a dinner party
organised by a member of the
Ukrainian secret services
at his datcha.
Over the next few days
Yushchenko's body is
covered with an
infected blister like eruption.
His doctors immediately
dispatch him
to Vienna to consult
specialists.
According to the tests
Yushchenko has been poisoned
by a form of Dioxine
which has belated effects on
body organs and leads to death.
The cruel irony is
that this poison
used by the Americans
in the Vietnam war
is called agent orange.
But it is also
fabricated by the KGB.
Just to show that the
attacks are not selective
a fortnight later,
Putin's PR team who
are running the
Yanukovych campaign
stage an attack on
their candidate
in a pro Yushchenko town.
The grenade is an egg
Kuchma and Putin are beginning
to have a few doubts
On the 21st November, the
second round of elections
confronts the two
main candidates.
Everyone is expecting
election fraud.
Ukrainian NGOs like PORA
are trained by American NGOS
to obtain democratic elections.
Lots of observers are
coming into our country
to check if our elections
were falsified or not.
But in our country we were able
to falsify the elections
and to falsify the freedom
of speech during 70 years.
Do you think it is very easy
to come and put an end to it?
Just because you
come from the West ?
It's not so easy because
we have lots of practice.
I was at home in my native
town in Tchernigiv
and I was an observer.
We counted the votes all
night, like several hours
we were counting and
then I went home.
When I woke up
in the morning
my mum was shocked.
And then I realised
something happened.
And she said Iryna, you
know, you should go...
PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT
CHATTERING
I was one of those
young people
who didn't care about
politics at all.
I would rather watch some
TV show than the news.
Why would I? I was like,
24, 25.
But, when this happened... in
2004, and they announced that
Yanukovych was our president.
We all knew it was
such a lie and
we could see it
with our own eyes.
So the president
was Yanukovych!
I started crying.
I went outside and that's where
everything started
for me personally.
I spent the whole night
on Kreshchiatic street
where people had already
started together.
BEEPING HORN
In spite of the
barricades and nails
placed on the roads
by the regime,
hundreds and thousands of
Ukrainians flock to the capital
by bus, by car, by
train, on foot.
Kreshchiatic, the main
street in Kiev and Maidan,
Independence square,
fill up with tents.
A tent for each region.
Maidan becomes a
map of Ukraine.
CROWD CHANTING
People from Kiev brought
food to Maidan.
Old ladies with nothing to eat,
gave their last crust of bread,
but as the days went by we
became more and more organised.
We conquered the
Ukrainian House
where people who were freezing
cold could sleep a little
warm up, take
medicine, eat something.
You could see on Maidan
women bringing tea and
little sandwiches and they gave
and they didn't
asked to be paid.
PIANO
PIANO
It wasn't about
Washington or Moscow,
it was about those people who
went on the Maidan.
They were risking themselves,
they knew they could
lose their jobs.
At some point, they knew that
there was risk of fight.
There was a danger
of being killed.
The first 7 days
of the revolution
are the most dangerous.
The population knows
that Ukrainian troops
have been ordered to
encircle the capital.
These soldiers are their
brothers, their cousins.
They have been given
real bullets.
Russian troops, disguised in
Ukrainian uniforms,
are en route for Kiev.
SIRENS
UKRAINIAN FOLK MUSIC
SIRENS
UKRAINIAN MUSIC
SIRENS AND
UKRAINIAN MUSIC
The blue camp is
near the station,
where miners and
other supporters
arrive from the East.
There are few women.
But Viktor Yanukovych has
brought along a secret weapon,
Mrs. Yanukovych.
DRUMS
When we climbed the hill,
we saw blue tents,
Yanukovych's supporters.
They were a bit aggressive,
but I squeezed
the hand of my friend
and I said just
keep smiling
and be friendly,
and then a crowd form
Maidan started to arrive.
I was really scared, because
violence can break
out at any moment,
but they started to shout
East and West together.
It was very important,
because the West of
Ukraine was for Yushchenko
and the East of Ukraine
was for Yanukovych.
CAR HORNS BEEPING
MUSIC
Election fraud has been
officially confirmed,
and the Europeans ask
Kuchma to call for a
round table discussion
to reach a solution.
Yulia Tymoshenko is not invited.
She is on the streets.
Her objective is
to avoid violence
between Ukrainians
at all costs.
Collin Powell calls Kuchma
from the United states.
If the troops move in,
the bank accounts of
Ukrainian oligarchs in the
US will be closed.
Kuchma makes a flying
visit to Moscow
to get Putin's endorsement.
On his return a deal is made.
Victor Yanukovych knows
that the show is over.
He feels betrayed.
Leonid Kuchma obtains
complete immunity.
The election commissions
will be replaced,
there will be another
round of elections
and a new constitution
will return Ukraine
to a parliamentary
republic by 2006.
MUSIC
One month later the Ukrainians
vote for the third time.
Victor Yushchenko becomes the
new president of Ukraine.
CROWD SINGING
Freedom is when people
can speak freely,
but democracy is when
the government listens.
The Orange Revolution brought
a very high expectation,
for very quick change.
And that put the leaders,
the heroes of the Orange
Revolution at that time,
in a kind of virtual trap.
SINGING
APPLAUSE
Putin had done everything to
prevent the Orange Revolution
but the very day
of his investiture,
president Yushchenko's first
official visit is for Moscow.
Surprising...
but strategic.
Show the bear you're its friend.
As expected, on his
return from Moscow,
President Yushchenko names
Yulia Tymoshenko,
the muse of the Orange
Revolution, Prime Minister.
MILITARY BRASS BAND
Second in charge, Yulia quickly
takes control of
government affairs.
The aim of the Orange
team is to build
a solid partnership with
Europe and the West.
NATO offers Ukraine membership
but the population only wants
to join the European Union
which remains silent.
Within the country,
Yushchenko and Tymoshenko
major task is to
attack corruption.
They start by re privatizing the
Soviet steelworks Krivoristhal.
Acquired for a fraction of its
value by Kuchma's son in law
Leonid Pinchuk and Rinat
Akhmetov in 2004.
GAVEL SOUNDS
APPLAUSE
In an international auction,
the steelworks go to
Mital Steel for a profit
of 4 billion dollars
for the state.
There is general
chaos amongst the
other oligarchs
in Kuchma's clan.
They all expect the axe to fall.
They were fleeing to Moscow,
to Monaco, fleeing to America,
they were committing suicide.
Some of them believed there
would be a pogrom against them.
They used that word.
The people also want revenge
for the murder of journalist
Georgiy Gongadze in 2000.
An enquiry confirms
Kuchma's implication.
and yet, the case
is put on hold.
Then comes the shock,
divorce.
Only 6 months after
her nomination
Victor Yushchenko dismisses
Yulia Tymoshenko
and her government.
He didn't explain
why he did like that
and so it was the most
important question,
you know, because
people wanted to know.
They wanted to know and they
had the right to know because
if you are going to provide
all democracy in this country,
you have to be open.
I couldn't recognize the
person who I knew since '92.
He became very different,
it's like, all good
and nice things
which make him the most
popular politician
had been suddenly replaced by
irritation to criticism,
by irritation to journalists.
He refused to open up.
He refused to drop
all the privileges.
20 years is not a
long period of time
for an independent country
but at the same time,
you can say that many missed
opportunities happened
and those missed
opportunities are
things such as, of course,
the Orange Revolution,
and Viktor Yushchenko.
Every historian
and every writer,
Ukrainian and Western,
will always say
this was a missed opportunity
for Victor Yushchenko
to become Ukrainian's
George Washington.
MUSIC
Vladimir Putin hadn't
had long to wait.
Only a year after the
revolution,
Orange power is already
on the way out,
and gas, the blood of
the new liberal Russian Empire,
becomes a real
political weapon.
In August 2004,
Russia had signed a long term,
five year, literally
unchangeable, agreement
with Ukraine, about gas prices
but a couple of
months afterwards,
Russian authorities
dramatically increased the
price of the gas
supply to Ukraine,
more than 3 times.
It was intended to show
the Ukraine and Europe
how powerful Russia is
in terms of gas supplies.
Price doesn't matter here.
They wanted to
switch off the gas.
MUSIC
Vladimir Putin
reopens the gas taps
when Ukraine accepts a
new gas intermediary
RosUkrEnergo.
The idea is that cheaper gas
from all parts of
the former USSR
be stocked at the border
between Russia and Ukraine,
mixed with Russian gas, and then
sold abroad at the same price.
The vast profits go
straight into the pockets
of Russian and
Ukrainian oligarchs,
and even Putin himself.
PIANO
I was on the BBC on January 3rd,
a day before they made
an agreement in Moscow
and Yushchenko could have
done anything he wanted
in terms of what he could have
demanded from Putin in Moscow.
He didn't have to go and
take in the RosUkrEnergo
because he had a very strong
position vis a vis Putin.
Putin was very scared
that on January 4th,
there would be an EU meeting
which would denounce him.
And instead, Yushchenko went
for the corrupt option,
RosUkrEnergo..
That gas corruption
fed into the Party of Regions,
fed into the Our
Ukraine faction in
parliament, including
his brother.
It fed into the
presidential secretariat.
And the only political force
in the Ukrainian parliament
that fought against
that gas intermediary
was Tymoshenko.
The first parliamentary
elections
since the Orange Revolution
are in March 2006.
In the new constitution,
the future Prime
Minister will have
more powers than the president.
Viktor Yanukovych, the loser
of the Orange Revolution,
is back in the race.
Yanukovych's party
wins the election,
and he becomes Prime Minister.
The game of musical
chairs has begun.
CROWD AMBIENCE
The explosive character
of the Ukrainians
and the existence
of nearly as many
individual parties
as seats in the RADA
make it ungovernable.
Which all leads to chaos.
And broken noses.
MUSIC
Europe, which so
far, has done little
to help the fledgling democracy
seems to wake up,
and demands that
Ukraine find
political stability.
Yanukovych and his
government are ousted
for repressive policies.
And after flash
parliamentary elections,
Yulia Tymoshenko can regain
her offices once more.
FIGHTER JET
On the 8th of August 2008,
Georgia launches an
attack on Russian
infiltrated south Ossetia.
Russia immediately retaliates,
too happy to have an
excuse to invade Georgia.
EXPLOSION
Al Jazeera live
from Washington.
Russia confirms its
forces are advancing
from the other breakaway
region of Abkhazia.
The Georgian government
has released a statement
saying, it is going to
urgently be seeking
international intervention
to prevent the fall of Georgia.
Russia uses the Black sea port
of Abkhazia to send in troops.
With renewed Cossack
determination
Yushchenko flies to the support
of president Saakachvili,
his comrade in arms.
Ukraine has not integrated NATO
and like Georgia, is
strategically vulnerable.
On the 13th of August,
Yushchenko signs a decree,
Russia is to inform Ukraine
72 hours in advance
of any Black Sea
fleet manoeuvres.
In the deal made with Putin,
Ukraine will gradually
pay Russian gas
the same price as Europe.
There will be no more
cause for gas blackmail
and RosUkrEnergo.
will cease to exist.
Yulia Tymoshenko's past as a
gas princess in the 1990's
makes her more competent than
many in the energy sector,
and the only Ukrainian
politician for
whom Putin says he has
any respect.
I don't think Yulia Tymoshenko
has ever been completely trusted
by Ukrainian people.
I believe that people think that
she made her fortune illegally
and less than honestly.
She's never been
charged for that.
She admits, you know, she
has admitted that she
played by the rules of the game
and the rules of the game
were pretty loose back then,
it was the Wild West.
But I do believe that
there was a time,
and I think the record shows
that she made an effort
to squeeze out these gas
trading intermediaries,
to squeeze out these
non transparent
transactions in the
electricity sector,
gas sector, coal sector
and she was met with fierce
resistance by people
who have vested interests
in these things.
5 years have passed since
the Orange Revolution
and the next presidential
elections are in January 2010.
Yulia Tymoshenko and
Victor Yanukovych
are the most popular candidates.
In December 2009,
an international symposium
is held in Kiev
to talk about Ukraine's future.
Prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko
is the only candidate to
accept the invitation.
Prime Minister
Tymoshenko is
very bright
and she is gutsy.
She is unafraid
and she is charismatic.
I think the politician
in many respects
that a lot of people
in this country
have been waiting for.
And she plays well on the
world stage as well.
That said, she's an incumbent
when the economy is in the tank,
and it doesn't matter
what country you're in
when you're the incumbent
and the economy is in the tank,
it is very, very
hard to get elected.
If you want to
cultivate popularity
in this part of the world,
put elites in jail...
make them accountable.
That's what the public wants.
They want to see some
justice after 20 years.
And I think of the candidates,
particularly of the 2 candidates
that go to the 2nd round
only she understands that.
I mean, if Yanukovych
comes to power
in the 2nd round
of the elections
and becomes Ukraine's
president,
then the oligarchs
have taken over!
By February 2010,
Yulia Tymoshenko and
Viktor Yanukovych
are neck to neck in the polls.
Travelling across the country,
Yulia draws the crowds in
her galvanizing speeches,
playing to the heartstrings
of the population.
Victor Yanukovych
has bought himself
a diploma in economy,
and learnt Ukrainian.
His style is different,
few words,
slightly mature pop stars
a few Mafiosi pals from Donetsk
an accordion
and coach loads of young people
paid to attend the meetings.
Victor Yushchenko's fans
are few and far between.
Viktor Yanukovych is
elected president
with 3 and a half percent more
votes than Yulia Tymoshenko.
She contests the results.
In the RADA, the opposition
seats remain empty.
PATRIOTIC MUSIC
People didn't vote for him
because they thought he was
going to be the greatest
thing since sliced bread.
They voted against
Yushchenko and Tymoshenko.
So there was a very big
negative anti vote here.
MUSIC
APPLAUSE
In May 2010, a few months
after the elections,
Russia decides the time
has come to move in.
President Medvedev, Robin,
in the Robin Batman duo,
comes to Ukraine for a
long official visit.
Medvedev is definitely less
frightening than Putin
and Yanukovych hits it off
with him from day one.
The two of them sign various
commercial deals
and Yanukovych feels on equal
grounds with his new friend...
...almost.
The Black sea Russian
naval base in the Crimea
has always been high on the
Kremlin's list of priorities.
It is only on lease to
Russia until 2017.
Yanukovych doesn't
take much persuading
to prolong the lease for
another 25 years.
But parliament
must have its say.
The fraud in RADA is grotesque.
Guerilla warfare breaks
out between the opposition
and the Party of the Regions.
But the vote in favour
of the proposition...
just passes,
and fraud is the
winner of the day.
The Kremlin can rub its hands.
By doing that,
he believed that
Russia would remain
very appreciative,
loyal, supportive and happy,
and we would get cheaper gas.
And therefore in April,
he signed that agreement
which is called
swapping national
security for cheap gas .
Relations with Russia
didn't become better.
Yanukovych is shown as
a clown on Russian TV,
and the economy is not
getting cheaper gas
and Russia is demanding a
total drop of independence.
The government is
trying to make the deal,
moves with the Kremlin, trading,
Russia's interests at the
expense of our sovereignty,
and some other political deals.
Probably they didn't understand
the nature of the
Kremlin leaders.
They would not accept half,
or a quarter of the price.
They would gain only the
whole of the Ukraine.
This is their objective.
One of the determined
supporters of Russia
is the minister of
Education, Dimitry Tabachnik.
Russian history and Ukrainian
history are one , he says,
and must be taught
through Russian eyes .
He renews school history books.
MILITARY MUSIC
In October 2010,
Dominique Strauss Kahn,
director of the IMF,
promises a loan of
15 billions dollars
to the apparently
progressive new government
to consolidate public finances.
This money will not
go to the people,
it will be siphoned
off by the oligarchs
and the country's
debts will increase.
As with Vladimir Putin in 2000,
the West seems oblivious
of the real nature
of the new president of Ukraine
and his priorities.
Once the deal's signed,
the new regime starts
to show its real face.
In November 2010,
Yanukovych's government
introduces tax reforms,
penalizing small businesses,
the backbone of the
shadow economy .
A demonstration is organized
by civil society movements
and called Maidan 2.
No longer trusted, politicians
are not welcomed.
The new tax law
is so damaging to small and
medium size enterprises
that 800,000 companies have
disappeared in the last year.
These reforms benefit big
business. The oligarchs.
These people want it all.
They're not prepared to
accept a little bit of it.
They don't just
want to be big fish
or medium sized fish
in a very big pond.
They want to be massive
fish in a very tiny pond.
There is this idea that we can
have it all, we can take it all.
We can just simply take over.
I mean, an example is
the Kiev gold factory,
when the director was visited by
police a couple of weeks ago
and told you re going
to sell your factory"
"and here is who you re
going to sell it to.
And he said I don't want
to sell my factory ,
and they said we ll
come back next week
and you'll sell it.
And they came back
next week, 75 of them,
they beat him up, they
wrecked his offices
and they said now, we
will be back on Friday
with the papers for you
to sell the factory.
He's left. Gone.
Now, when you've got the police
organized in such banditry,
and then you couple that with
what's going on with
the road police
and the tax police,
this is organized
state banditry.
MUSIC
Violence and state
banditry in business,
exploitation and slavery
in the darker parts
of the coal industry.
Every year hundreds
die anonymously,
while the elite of the country
gets richer and richer.
MUSIC
MUSIC
For some like Yuri Lutsenko,
former minister of the Interior,
it is the first night in prison.
He is accused of
having embezzled 5000
dollars from the State
to pay his driver.
The real reason behind
Lutsenko's imprisonment
is his leading role in
the Orange Revolution and
his battle against the Mafiosi
oligarch groups in Donietsk.
He is detained under
no legal grounds
until his trial and he
is not the only one.
20 members of the opposition
suffer the same fate.
In November 2011,
Yanukovych names an old
friend, Victor Pshonka,
as general Prosecutor.
His job is to take charge
of the opposition.
Yulia Tymoshenko
is summoned to the
General Prosecutor's office
every day for 6 months.
There are three main criminal
charges against her,
for having spent
the money from the
Kyoto summit to buy ambulances,
proved false,
for spending IMF money to
pay retirement pensions,
also dropped,
and, thirdly, for
having indebted Ukraine
in the 2009 gas deal
with Putin.
On the 11th of May 2011,
Yulia is detained by the
General Prosecutor.
CAMERAS CLICKING
I hope to use this
opportunity to convey
to President Yanukovych
our concern regarding
recent cases, of what is
perceived as selective justice
in Ukraine, against members
of previous administrations,
notably Mrs Tymoshenko.
Two possibilities lie
open for Ukraine
to increase its
business abroad,
the deep free trade agreement
with the European Union
or the customs agreement with
Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
The agreement with
Europe would open far more
doors to Ukrainian oligarchs,
but the Europeans are hesitant.
The Europeans, from the get go,
have been disingenuous
about how much they value
Ukraine's independence.
When governments have
had to make choices,
they've gone with a much
broader opinion which says,
at the end of the day,
it's more important to
have good relations with Russia
then with Ukraine.
And if having good
relations with Russia
means pushing Ukraine back
into the Russian orbit,
that's a decision we're
willing to make.
For Putin, his demand was,
you have to chose between
joining the CIS custom's union
of Russia, Belarus
and Kazakhstan
or signing the deep free trade
agreement with the
European Union.
You can't join both
because you only can
be in one custom's union
at the same time.
The recent visit of Putin
was sort of hysterical.
He was not simply pressing
but actually demanding
that Ukraine drops
the idea of signing
the free trade
agreement with Europe
and signs not only
the custom's union
but the single
economic space
becomes part of one
big market, Russia.
Putin openly despises Yanukovych
for his criminal past
and he is irritated by the fact
that this stubborn criminal
is trying to play
some kind of game
with the Europeans
Russia can then come along
and control Ukraine,
not politically but financially.
Russians don't play
chess for nothing,
they're always five
or six steps ahead.
Looking at where
Russia goes from here,
it has to control
the energy supply.
Once it controls that,
it controls the energy
supply to Europe.
Russia has always had
its eyes on Ukrainian
gas pipelines to Europe.
On the 24th of September
2011, Independence Day,
Yanukovych's good friend,
Medvedev, delivers an ultimatum,
either Ukraine pays off the
gas debts, which it can't,
or it sells its gas pipelines
to Russia to cover its debts.
For Ukraine, Russian gas
prices are higher than ever.
We don't need
Russian gas at all.
Let them establish the
price at ten million
or billion, per
thousand cubic metres,
it doesn't matter.
Because Ukraine, unlike
many European nations,
has abundant energy resources,
natural gas, oil,
hydro regeneration,
nuclear power stations,
some of the biggest in Europe.
We have coal for 400 plus years,
we have strategic
pipelines to transport
Asian and Russian gas to Europe,
we can balance our energy needs
without Russian gas at all.
Ukraine may have
abundant resources,
but it is like an
underdeveloped country
with no concept of state.
Resources are of no
use to the nation,
without political will
and long term development
by the state for the state.
- Ukraine could easily produce
over a hundred million
tons of grain a year.
That would bankrupt
European farmers completely
and make Europe
totally dependent
for food supply from Ukraine.
Now Russia knows that
and by controlling that,
they then control Europe.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
CROWD ANNOUNCEMENT
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
ANTHEM PLAYS
The problem with
Yanukovych's regime
is greed has just
gone out of control.
Ukraine's football stadiums
for the Europe 2012 games
are the most
expensive in Europe!
And yet the workers
are paid some
of the lowest
salaries in Europe.
So this is all theft from the
government on dodgy contracts,
of course most of
those building
construction companies
are from Donetsk.
EXCITABLE FOLK MUSIC
Rinat Akhmetov started of
in banditry in the 90s.
Today, the richest
oligarch in Ukraine,
a coal and steel billionaire
he is the living proof of how
to get rich in a poor country .
The Colosseum in
Roman times was the way
to distract the masses from
problems in the Roman Empire,
it's the same kind of thing...
give them lots of shows,
give them lots of
spectacles on TV
and hopefully they'll
forget about politics.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
SINGS IN UKRAINIAN
LOUD CHEERING
Money buys everything,
ownership is power.
With the Euro 2012
football finals coming up,
president Yanukovych declares
that Ukraine's beautiful women
are the greatest asset for the
country's tourist industry.
Ukraine's greatest tourist asset
does not necessarily agree.
The female movement FEMEN
has its own message
for Euro 2012 tourists.
CHANTING
Yulia Tymoshenko's trial starts
on the 24th of June 2011.
The 31 year old judge has
hardly any experience.
The resignation in
his face and his eyes
says much for the
repression in the country.
The judge now is completely
dependent on the prosecution
and on the president's men.
He cannot be independent,
and this young man who
has been put there
is also under pressure
and the whole process when I
was sitting next to my mum
he looks like some kind
of surreal show.
COURTROOM COMMOTION
In order to remove
the intermediary company
RosUkrEnergo from the market,
Mrs Tymoshenko
decided to accept
unprofitable conditions
for Ukraine.
This is pure personal revenge
against somebody who
became a threat
to their personal,
financial interests,
especially because the
gas lobby are very much
in power and in influence
around Yanukovych
and because they
are now in power,
for them, its time for revenge
against Tymoshenko
who, in 2009, removed the gas
intermediary RosUkrEnergo
and that meant the loss of up
to 7 billion dollars a year
for that group of people.
Accused of contempt of court,
Yulia Tymoshenko is arrested
and held in prison for the
rest of the proceedings.
The trial takes place
in the summer,
in a small cramped courtroom.
The heat is unbearable.
When one of Yulia
Tymoshenko's lawyers
complains about the conditions,
they are evicted.
The judge orders the militia to
empty the room of journalists,
members of the
opposition and family.
CROWD COMMOTION
For the rest of the trial,
Yulia Tymoshenko is left
to defend herself alone.
There are 30 witnesses
for the defence,
only three are heard.
There are 33 for
the prosecution,
28 are heard.
On the 11th of October of 2011,
Yulia Tymoshenko is found guilty
of having made an
illegal gas deal
with Vladimir Putin in 2009.
JOURNALISTS
SHOUTING OVER CROWD
COMMOTION
SHOUTS IN UKRAINIAN
SHOUTS AND SCREAMS
Yulia Tymoshenko is sentenced
to seven years in prison,
a fine of 186 million dollars,
the sum lost for the State,
and a ban from any political
function or elections.
Across the Western world,
this trial is condemned
as being a show trial
and the sentence a
political persecution.
In prison, strange
bruises appear
all over Yulia
Tymoshenko's body.
The pain in her back is so bad
that she can no longer walk.
She is refused the right
to see her own doctors.
When the torture
commission comes to see
the conditions of
her imprisonment,
she is quickly
transferred to a new,
freshly painted,
comfortable room
and filmed, against her
will, by the State TV.
Of course, they can orchestrate
any kind of accident,
you know, there are so
many ways now to kill a person
without any signs of
disease or substances.
She is very strong and
I really hope that
she'll continue to be strong for
us and, you know, for Ukraine.
MUSIC
In fact, what they've done
is reunite the country
because the concerns
that the people have
in the East and the West
of Ukraine are identical.
There is no difference anymore
between East and West,
the political divide
which was invented,
...now the country
is united by its
disillusionment of the system.
BANDOURI MUSIC
CHOIR SINGING
PRIEST CHANTING
Myroslava Leschenko
lived through the
history of Ukraine from
Stalin to Yanukovych
fighting against the repression
of the Ukrainian nation.
MUSIC
CROWD CHEERING
DRUMS AND MUSIC
Maidance is an inter city
dance competition.
It occupies Maidan, Independence
Square, for 3 months.
No tent can be planted.
Thousands and thousands
of young people take part.
Enthusiasm, innocence.
They dance for the
pride of their city,
for their country,
for the pleasure.
MUSIC
Do these young people
know that the state TV
organising this contest
belongs to former head
of the secret services
and powerful oligarch.
MUSIC
Yulia Tymoshenko is tried
on further charges
which could add another
10 years to her sentence.
She has become a martyr,
continuing her battle
from behind bars.
Victor Yanukovych has
opened a Pandora's box,
if he is to stay in power,
she and others must stay
or die in prison.
The oligarch's greed has
become cannibalistic,
more, and more, and more.
MUSIC
For Ukraine to
become a democracy,
for freedom to exist,
November December 2004,
across the planet, eyes
are riveted on Ukraine.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians
camp out in the freezing cold
to protest against fraud
in the presidential elections.
Democratic candidate, Viktor
Yushchenko has been poisoned.
Viktor Yanukovych, the
pro Russian candidate
of the regime,
has been falsely
declared victorious
Vladimir Putin
congratulates him.
After years of repression,
the people stand firm,
in the name of justice and
freedom, in the
name of democracy.
CHANTING
Round table discussions
led by the EU
lead to a third round
in the elections.
On the 26th of December
2004, Viktor Yushchenko
is elected president.
He and his ally Yulia
Tymoshenko promise
to bring democracy
to Ukraine.
8 years on, what has
become of the heroes
of the revolution
and their promises?
What has become of the hopes and
dreams of the Ukrainian people?
What cloud has hung over
this nation for centuries?
Democracy emerges in Ukraine
during the 16th century.
Groups of Ukrainians flee
their harsh serfdom in Poland
to settle on the green steppes
along the river Dniepr.
Fervent Christians
and fierce warriors
they create a community
protected by a
military unit called
Sitch Zaparog.
Their leader is elected.
Free men, rebels,
they are the cossacks!
The way they chose their leaders
was democratic. They voted.
This is at a time when,
who voted in Europe?
It was the monarchies,
it was the divine ruler
which comes from God and his
descendent becomes the next one!
CROWD AMBIENCE
Every Cossack came,
take off his hat
and put to the feet
of his candidate,
and who had more hats, he won.
So democratic procedure, yes.
In 1654 Bohdan Kmelnytsky,
the father of the
Ukrainian nation,
leads a massive revolt
against the Poles.
Forced into retreat he signs an
agreement with the Russian Tsar.
Unknowingly he signs
away Ukrainian
freedom to Russia for
centuries to come.
In 1917 the October revolution
puts an end to the
Tsarist empire,
Ukraine takes advantage
of the chaos
and declares its independence.
9 months later, the Red
army crushes the rebels.
In 1922 Lenin creates the USSR.
For the Bolsheviks, Ukraine
still belongs to Russia.
But the Ukrainians will
never be Russians.
PATRIOTIC SINGING
In 1927 Joseph Stalin becomes
the new master of the USSR.
The last thing Stalin wants in
Ukraine, is free thinking people
but he needs the wealth of its
land, its cereals, its coal
and human machines to
serve the soviet state.
In 1928 Stalin's five year
plan makes Ukraine the
industrial motor of the USSR,
but the peasants resist.
In the early 1930s Stalin
organises a state famine,
Holodomor.
The Ukrainians are refused
the right
to search for food elsewhere.
Their land becomes their
prison and their grave.
7 million die of starvation.
In the meantime propaganda
films show well fed
children and loudspeakers
relay patriotic songs.
Stalin dies in 1953.
The population is
duly unconsolable.
The master seems to
have orchestrated
the national mourning...
himself.
Throughout Soviet times, the
so called 'province' of
Ukraine continues to be
economically vital to the USSR.
It is also the
birthplace
of Soviet leaders,
intellectuals and writers.
The Ukrainian people
are some of the
highest educated in
the Soviet union
and the workforce for
the rising nuclear
and atomic industries
during the cold war.
When I think about
the Soviet times,
I remember a lot of humiliation.
It was really hard to
get very simple things like a
tooth brush, tooth
paste, soap, or shampoo,
you had to stand
in very long lines
to have these basic things.
It was very sick, very
ill, in its nature.
And also imagine
what it was like
to be Ukrainian
under the Soviet rule.
For many generations this
nation felt that the
very fact of its existence
was under huge question.
As a school boy, I
remember my school was
the only Ukrainian
school downtown Kiev
where kids could
study maths or
physics in their
native language.
LOW PIANO NOTE
On the 6th of April, 1986
the nuclear power station of
Chernobyl in Ukraine explodes.
At least 10,000 Ukrainians
and Beloussians will die.
Only the nomenclatura is
informed of the accident
and its gravity.
Chernobyl is 50 miles
from Kiev, the capital.
Ukrainian people are
informed 4 weeks later.
Chernobyl also causes the
Ukrainian political scene
to explode.
A party for
independence is created
by ecologists and intellectuals.
In 1989 in Germany
the Berlin wall is torn
down by the population.
A wind of change is
sweeping across the USSR.
In 1990, Lithuania
declares its independence.
And in Ukraine a human
chain crosses the country
the people sing,
Mother Moscow we want
to be made orphans.
ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
The first tent city on
Maidan which I remember,
happened when young students,
2 or 3 hundred of them,
they went to the central square
of the communist capital
of the soviet Ukraine
and they protested against
the communist rule.
On the 24th of August 1991,
the conservative
faction of the KGB
attempts a putsch
against Gorbatchev
who wants to reform the USSR.
Boris Yeltsin intervenes and
emerges as the new leader.
There was this
feeling of optimism.
At the same time nobody knew how
quickly things would fall apart,
so when the coup happened,
it was also extraordinary
in the Maidan,
which then was the
October Revolution square,
people were standing there
and the police barriers
were up, protecting...
and then on the day
that the coup ended,
I remember clearly
being in the square
and the police barricades just
melted and people surged hmmm.
APPLAUSE AND CHANTING
We had this feeling,
this flavour of miracle
which we had the chance
to see with our own eyes.
I was 15 years old at that time
but I clearly
remember this feeling
of inspiration, enthusiasm
which the country was full
of, it was wonderful.
The very same day, on the
24th of September 1991,
Ukrainian parliament, RADA,
declares the
independence of Ukraine.
CROWD AMBIENCE
PATRIOTIC SINGING
AND MUSIC
On the 1st of
December 1991,
Leonid Kravchuk, the
former president
of the Soviet Socialist
Republic of Ukraine,
is elected president.
TRIUMPHANT MUSIC
But independence
is not for free
and although Russian gas
transits through Ukraine,
Ukraine has a gas debt towards
Russia of 80 million dollars.
Yeltsin declares,
either Ukraine enters
the CIS or it pays up.
The gas blackmail between
Russia and Ukraine has begun.
Pro Russian Crimea becomes
an autonomous republic
within Ukraine.
The Black Sea is shared.
20 percent for Ukraine and
80 percent for Russia.
Russian flags fly in the
port of Sebastopol.
Independence means the
creation of a constitution,
of laws, of an army,
of a police force.
But over the centuries,
religious faith has been the
only refuge for the population.
They create a independent
Ukrainian Orthodox church
with a Kiev Patriarchy.
Kravtchouk is a bad manager.
And in 1994, he is replaced
by Leonid Kuchma
ex director of the strategic
missile complex of the USSR.
His slogan,
With Kuchma your factory
will take to its wings.
He abolishes the parliamentary
constitution to give
himself more power.
Kuchma comes from
Dnipropetrovsk, near Donbass,
in the industrial heart of
the USSR created by Stalin.
The east of Ukraine is
predominantly Russian speaking
because that was the common
language of the miners
who were brought into that
area to mine the coal.
It was also one of the major
centres of communist influence.
It was the great
patriotic miners
fighting for the
future of the country.
They were
heavily rewarded.
They were
some of the highest
paid workers in
the Soviet Union.
They were given incredibly
special status.
So, over a period of time,
there has been a natural
arrogance, if you
like, developed.
We are the best of the
people of Ukraine.
Kuchma launches a massive
privatization programme,
which favours his
family and friends,
especially in the energy
and media sectors.
He has started to create a
select clan of oligarchs.
An enterprising young couple,
Yulia Tymoshenko
and her husband,
seize this opportunity
and successfully create
different businesses
before entering
the gas industry.
Their company quickly becomes
the biggest intermediary
for Russian gas in Ukraine.
From now on the young women
is called the gas princess.
At the time, her dubious deals
with Russian businessmen
even lead to an
investigation by Interpol.
In both Russia and
Ukraine, the richest
oligarchs make their
fortunes in energy.
I believe the Americans
created the oligarchs.
I was working in Russia in a
mass privatization program,
where we were handing
out certificates
in one room to the
workers in factories
and they were then
selling them to
the general director
of the factory
for a bottle of vodka and ten
dollars in the next room.
And I can remember
having a discussion
with one of the very
senior people from USAID
and I said "This is crazy, we're
just making this man very rich."
This person turned
to me and said,
Martin you don't understand.
I have a briefing from the
president of the United States
to kill communism.
The only way we're going
to kill communism
is by killing the
economic basis of it."
Exactly the same thing
happened in Ukraine.
The process of privatization
was different
but there was no control
over the privatization.
Therefore it was a carve up.
The law was so badly
worded you could
drive a brigade of
tanks through it.
Some of them grew rich
at the point of a gun,
some of them grew rich
because they were extremely
good businessmen.
Some of them just happened to be
the right person in the right
place at the right time.
Since independence the
Mafia and banditry
have thrived in Donietsk,
at the heart of the coal
industry in the DOMBASS.
Kuchma's privatisations
also legalised these new
businessmen bandits.
In return, they promise
him obedience.
One of the bright young men who
is making a name for himself
in this sinister world
is Rinat Akhmetov.
He is the protege of the
Godfather of Donietsk,
the sponsor of the
football team Shaktar.
Akhmetov's benefactor is
mysteriously assassinated
in the stadium built
for his club.
Akmetov inherits not only the
club, but his whole estate.
The president and the
security service
would collect intelligence
on the corruption undertaken
by the oligarchs
and those files would
be kept under wraps
just as long as the oligarchs
were politically loyal
to the president.
If they stepped out of line,
the files would come out
and they would go on trial.
So it was a blackmail state.
St Sophie's Cathedral
belongs to all orthodox
churches in Kiev.
On the 18th of July 1995
the Ukrainian orthodox community
tries to bury its patriarch.
But the Russian orthodox
church bars the passage.
Kuchma sends in
the riot police.
CHAOTIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
In despair, the
congregation buries him
outside the walls
of the cathedral.
CHAOTIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
Repression is back
and Kuchma clearly shows
that his convictions
lie with the Russian
orthodox church,
the powerful tool of the KGB.
CROWD AMBIENCE
Fraud helps Kuchma win the
presidential elections in 1998.
His clan's control of resources,
corruption the muzzling of
the media, repression...
have all seriously
tarnished his image.
He needs a good
honest prime minister.
Victor Yushchenko, the head
of the national bank,
and creator of the new
currency, the Gryvna,
is considered by
Forbes magazine to be
one of the best
economists in the world.
A fervent patriot, he's
the man for the job.
CHATTERING
On the 3rd of November 2000,
a mutilated and headless body
is found in a shallow grave
in a forest near Kiev.
The man is wearing the chain
and ring of Georgiy Gongadze,
a journalist from
Ukrainski Pravda.
Gongadze's caustic
articles and interviews
regularly incriminate
the president.
The media belongs
to Kuchma's clan
and few voices dare speak out.
For Gongadze's colleagues
this is a pre meditated
assassination.
500 journalists demonstrate
against the regime
and demand freedom
of the press.
TAPE RECORDING
Melynchenko wants the
recordings to be made public.
The leader of the socialist
party, Oleksandr Moroz
has Kuchma's voice validated.
CROWD CHANTING
Gongadze, the lack of freedom of
the press, enough is enough.
The crowd takes to the floor.
The movement is called
Ukraine without Kuchma.
ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
In parliament, Kuchma's clan
makes the most of the moment
to fire Yulia Tymoshenko
who has become the
minister for energy.
Yulia Tymoshenko is arrested
on the 13th of February, 2000.
On the 2nd of April,
thanks to the
anti Kuchma demonstrations,
she is liberated.
When she leaves
prison she has a new
traditional Ukrainian hairstyle.
The next on the list
is Victor Yushchenko.
He is fired from his
position of prime minister
Yulia Tymoshenko and
Victor Yushchenko's parties
join forces in opposition
to the regime.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
APPLAUSE
On the 7th of May 2000.
Vladimir Putin is elected
president of Russia.
For Kuchma, Putin is a God send.
The Gongadze affair has
left deep scars,
the population is angry, his
clan is less manageable,
he needs help from outside,
and Putin couldn't ask for more.
His aim is to rebuild
an empire for Russia
like in the good old
days of the USSR.
Kuchma makes more trips to
Moscow than to his datcha.
Commercial deals are
made by the dozen
and the delicate problem of
gas is left in the cupboard,
for the time being...
For the 10th anniversary
of Independence
a massive parade is organised
in honour of Vladimir Putin.
But another matter
preoccupies the two men.
Kuchma cannot stand for
presidency a third time.
They need to prepare
a candidate
who is pro Russian and can
be easily manipulated.
Viktor Yanukovych is the leader
of the Party of Regions
created in 2001 in
the East of Ukraine
by the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov,
the political sponsor
of Viktor Yanukovych.
APPLAUSE
The files concerning the
criminal past of Yanukovych,
sentenced twice for
robbery, are carefully
kept under wraps by
the KGB in Moscow.
As planned, prime minister
Yanukovych becomes
the presidential candidate
for the regime.
Kuchma publicly
declares that these
elections will be the
most terrifying ever.
APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
The candidate in the orange
camp is Viktor Yushchenko.
Supported by the West he
stands for democracy,
justice and Ukrainian values,
and he has the charisma
of a John F Kennedy.
On the 5th of September,
late in the evening,
Yushchenko leaves Kiev
for a dinner party
organised by a member of the
Ukrainian secret services
at his datcha.
Over the next few days
Yushchenko's body is
covered with an
infected blister like eruption.
His doctors immediately
dispatch him
to Vienna to consult
specialists.
According to the tests
Yushchenko has been poisoned
by a form of Dioxine
which has belated effects on
body organs and leads to death.
The cruel irony is
that this poison
used by the Americans
in the Vietnam war
is called agent orange.
But it is also
fabricated by the KGB.
Just to show that the
attacks are not selective
a fortnight later,
Putin's PR team who
are running the
Yanukovych campaign
stage an attack on
their candidate
in a pro Yushchenko town.
The grenade is an egg
Kuchma and Putin are beginning
to have a few doubts
On the 21st November, the
second round of elections
confronts the two
main candidates.
Everyone is expecting
election fraud.
Ukrainian NGOs like PORA
are trained by American NGOS
to obtain democratic elections.
Lots of observers are
coming into our country
to check if our elections
were falsified or not.
But in our country we were able
to falsify the elections
and to falsify the freedom
of speech during 70 years.
Do you think it is very easy
to come and put an end to it?
Just because you
come from the West ?
It's not so easy because
we have lots of practice.
I was at home in my native
town in Tchernigiv
and I was an observer.
We counted the votes all
night, like several hours
we were counting and
then I went home.
When I woke up
in the morning
my mum was shocked.
And then I realised
something happened.
And she said Iryna, you
know, you should go...
PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT
CHATTERING
I was one of those
young people
who didn't care about
politics at all.
I would rather watch some
TV show than the news.
Why would I? I was like,
24, 25.
But, when this happened... in
2004, and they announced that
Yanukovych was our president.
We all knew it was
such a lie and
we could see it
with our own eyes.
So the president
was Yanukovych!
I started crying.
I went outside and that's where
everything started
for me personally.
I spent the whole night
on Kreshchiatic street
where people had already
started together.
BEEPING HORN
In spite of the
barricades and nails
placed on the roads
by the regime,
hundreds and thousands of
Ukrainians flock to the capital
by bus, by car, by
train, on foot.
Kreshchiatic, the main
street in Kiev and Maidan,
Independence square,
fill up with tents.
A tent for each region.
Maidan becomes a
map of Ukraine.
CROWD CHANTING
People from Kiev brought
food to Maidan.
Old ladies with nothing to eat,
gave their last crust of bread,
but as the days went by we
became more and more organised.
We conquered the
Ukrainian House
where people who were freezing
cold could sleep a little
warm up, take
medicine, eat something.
You could see on Maidan
women bringing tea and
little sandwiches and they gave
and they didn't
asked to be paid.
PIANO
PIANO
It wasn't about
Washington or Moscow,
it was about those people who
went on the Maidan.
They were risking themselves,
they knew they could
lose their jobs.
At some point, they knew that
there was risk of fight.
There was a danger
of being killed.
The first 7 days
of the revolution
are the most dangerous.
The population knows
that Ukrainian troops
have been ordered to
encircle the capital.
These soldiers are their
brothers, their cousins.
They have been given
real bullets.
Russian troops, disguised in
Ukrainian uniforms,
are en route for Kiev.
SIRENS
UKRAINIAN FOLK MUSIC
SIRENS
UKRAINIAN MUSIC
SIRENS AND
UKRAINIAN MUSIC
The blue camp is
near the station,
where miners and
other supporters
arrive from the East.
There are few women.
But Viktor Yanukovych has
brought along a secret weapon,
Mrs. Yanukovych.
DRUMS
When we climbed the hill,
we saw blue tents,
Yanukovych's supporters.
They were a bit aggressive,
but I squeezed
the hand of my friend
and I said just
keep smiling
and be friendly,
and then a crowd form
Maidan started to arrive.
I was really scared, because
violence can break
out at any moment,
but they started to shout
East and West together.
It was very important,
because the West of
Ukraine was for Yushchenko
and the East of Ukraine
was for Yanukovych.
CAR HORNS BEEPING
MUSIC
Election fraud has been
officially confirmed,
and the Europeans ask
Kuchma to call for a
round table discussion
to reach a solution.
Yulia Tymoshenko is not invited.
She is on the streets.
Her objective is
to avoid violence
between Ukrainians
at all costs.
Collin Powell calls Kuchma
from the United states.
If the troops move in,
the bank accounts of
Ukrainian oligarchs in the
US will be closed.
Kuchma makes a flying
visit to Moscow
to get Putin's endorsement.
On his return a deal is made.
Victor Yanukovych knows
that the show is over.
He feels betrayed.
Leonid Kuchma obtains
complete immunity.
The election commissions
will be replaced,
there will be another
round of elections
and a new constitution
will return Ukraine
to a parliamentary
republic by 2006.
MUSIC
One month later the Ukrainians
vote for the third time.
Victor Yushchenko becomes the
new president of Ukraine.
CROWD SINGING
Freedom is when people
can speak freely,
but democracy is when
the government listens.
The Orange Revolution brought
a very high expectation,
for very quick change.
And that put the leaders,
the heroes of the Orange
Revolution at that time,
in a kind of virtual trap.
SINGING
APPLAUSE
Putin had done everything to
prevent the Orange Revolution
but the very day
of his investiture,
president Yushchenko's first
official visit is for Moscow.
Surprising...
but strategic.
Show the bear you're its friend.
As expected, on his
return from Moscow,
President Yushchenko names
Yulia Tymoshenko,
the muse of the Orange
Revolution, Prime Minister.
MILITARY BRASS BAND
Second in charge, Yulia quickly
takes control of
government affairs.
The aim of the Orange
team is to build
a solid partnership with
Europe and the West.
NATO offers Ukraine membership
but the population only wants
to join the European Union
which remains silent.
Within the country,
Yushchenko and Tymoshenko
major task is to
attack corruption.
They start by re privatizing the
Soviet steelworks Krivoristhal.
Acquired for a fraction of its
value by Kuchma's son in law
Leonid Pinchuk and Rinat
Akhmetov in 2004.
GAVEL SOUNDS
APPLAUSE
In an international auction,
the steelworks go to
Mital Steel for a profit
of 4 billion dollars
for the state.
There is general
chaos amongst the
other oligarchs
in Kuchma's clan.
They all expect the axe to fall.
They were fleeing to Moscow,
to Monaco, fleeing to America,
they were committing suicide.
Some of them believed there
would be a pogrom against them.
They used that word.
The people also want revenge
for the murder of journalist
Georgiy Gongadze in 2000.
An enquiry confirms
Kuchma's implication.
and yet, the case
is put on hold.
Then comes the shock,
divorce.
Only 6 months after
her nomination
Victor Yushchenko dismisses
Yulia Tymoshenko
and her government.
He didn't explain
why he did like that
and so it was the most
important question,
you know, because
people wanted to know.
They wanted to know and they
had the right to know because
if you are going to provide
all democracy in this country,
you have to be open.
I couldn't recognize the
person who I knew since '92.
He became very different,
it's like, all good
and nice things
which make him the most
popular politician
had been suddenly replaced by
irritation to criticism,
by irritation to journalists.
He refused to open up.
He refused to drop
all the privileges.
20 years is not a
long period of time
for an independent country
but at the same time,
you can say that many missed
opportunities happened
and those missed
opportunities are
things such as, of course,
the Orange Revolution,
and Viktor Yushchenko.
Every historian
and every writer,
Ukrainian and Western,
will always say
this was a missed opportunity
for Victor Yushchenko
to become Ukrainian's
George Washington.
MUSIC
Vladimir Putin hadn't
had long to wait.
Only a year after the
revolution,
Orange power is already
on the way out,
and gas, the blood of
the new liberal Russian Empire,
becomes a real
political weapon.
In August 2004,
Russia had signed a long term,
five year, literally
unchangeable, agreement
with Ukraine, about gas prices
but a couple of
months afterwards,
Russian authorities
dramatically increased the
price of the gas
supply to Ukraine,
more than 3 times.
It was intended to show
the Ukraine and Europe
how powerful Russia is
in terms of gas supplies.
Price doesn't matter here.
They wanted to
switch off the gas.
MUSIC
Vladimir Putin
reopens the gas taps
when Ukraine accepts a
new gas intermediary
RosUkrEnergo.
The idea is that cheaper gas
from all parts of
the former USSR
be stocked at the border
between Russia and Ukraine,
mixed with Russian gas, and then
sold abroad at the same price.
The vast profits go
straight into the pockets
of Russian and
Ukrainian oligarchs,
and even Putin himself.
PIANO
I was on the BBC on January 3rd,
a day before they made
an agreement in Moscow
and Yushchenko could have
done anything he wanted
in terms of what he could have
demanded from Putin in Moscow.
He didn't have to go and
take in the RosUkrEnergo
because he had a very strong
position vis a vis Putin.
Putin was very scared
that on January 4th,
there would be an EU meeting
which would denounce him.
And instead, Yushchenko went
for the corrupt option,
RosUkrEnergo..
That gas corruption
fed into the Party of Regions,
fed into the Our
Ukraine faction in
parliament, including
his brother.
It fed into the
presidential secretariat.
And the only political force
in the Ukrainian parliament
that fought against
that gas intermediary
was Tymoshenko.
The first parliamentary
elections
since the Orange Revolution
are in March 2006.
In the new constitution,
the future Prime
Minister will have
more powers than the president.
Viktor Yanukovych, the loser
of the Orange Revolution,
is back in the race.
Yanukovych's party
wins the election,
and he becomes Prime Minister.
The game of musical
chairs has begun.
CROWD AMBIENCE
The explosive character
of the Ukrainians
and the existence
of nearly as many
individual parties
as seats in the RADA
make it ungovernable.
Which all leads to chaos.
And broken noses.
MUSIC
Europe, which so
far, has done little
to help the fledgling democracy
seems to wake up,
and demands that
Ukraine find
political stability.
Yanukovych and his
government are ousted
for repressive policies.
And after flash
parliamentary elections,
Yulia Tymoshenko can regain
her offices once more.
FIGHTER JET
On the 8th of August 2008,
Georgia launches an
attack on Russian
infiltrated south Ossetia.
Russia immediately retaliates,
too happy to have an
excuse to invade Georgia.
EXPLOSION
Al Jazeera live
from Washington.
Russia confirms its
forces are advancing
from the other breakaway
region of Abkhazia.
The Georgian government
has released a statement
saying, it is going to
urgently be seeking
international intervention
to prevent the fall of Georgia.
Russia uses the Black sea port
of Abkhazia to send in troops.
With renewed Cossack
determination
Yushchenko flies to the support
of president Saakachvili,
his comrade in arms.
Ukraine has not integrated NATO
and like Georgia, is
strategically vulnerable.
On the 13th of August,
Yushchenko signs a decree,
Russia is to inform Ukraine
72 hours in advance
of any Black Sea
fleet manoeuvres.
In the deal made with Putin,
Ukraine will gradually
pay Russian gas
the same price as Europe.
There will be no more
cause for gas blackmail
and RosUkrEnergo.
will cease to exist.
Yulia Tymoshenko's past as a
gas princess in the 1990's
makes her more competent than
many in the energy sector,
and the only Ukrainian
politician for
whom Putin says he has
any respect.
I don't think Yulia Tymoshenko
has ever been completely trusted
by Ukrainian people.
I believe that people think that
she made her fortune illegally
and less than honestly.
She's never been
charged for that.
She admits, you know, she
has admitted that she
played by the rules of the game
and the rules of the game
were pretty loose back then,
it was the Wild West.
But I do believe that
there was a time,
and I think the record shows
that she made an effort
to squeeze out these gas
trading intermediaries,
to squeeze out these
non transparent
transactions in the
electricity sector,
gas sector, coal sector
and she was met with fierce
resistance by people
who have vested interests
in these things.
5 years have passed since
the Orange Revolution
and the next presidential
elections are in January 2010.
Yulia Tymoshenko and
Victor Yanukovych
are the most popular candidates.
In December 2009,
an international symposium
is held in Kiev
to talk about Ukraine's future.
Prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko
is the only candidate to
accept the invitation.
Prime Minister
Tymoshenko is
very bright
and she is gutsy.
She is unafraid
and she is charismatic.
I think the politician
in many respects
that a lot of people
in this country
have been waiting for.
And she plays well on the
world stage as well.
That said, she's an incumbent
when the economy is in the tank,
and it doesn't matter
what country you're in
when you're the incumbent
and the economy is in the tank,
it is very, very
hard to get elected.
If you want to
cultivate popularity
in this part of the world,
put elites in jail...
make them accountable.
That's what the public wants.
They want to see some
justice after 20 years.
And I think of the candidates,
particularly of the 2 candidates
that go to the 2nd round
only she understands that.
I mean, if Yanukovych
comes to power
in the 2nd round
of the elections
and becomes Ukraine's
president,
then the oligarchs
have taken over!
By February 2010,
Yulia Tymoshenko and
Viktor Yanukovych
are neck to neck in the polls.
Travelling across the country,
Yulia draws the crowds in
her galvanizing speeches,
playing to the heartstrings
of the population.
Victor Yanukovych
has bought himself
a diploma in economy,
and learnt Ukrainian.
His style is different,
few words,
slightly mature pop stars
a few Mafiosi pals from Donetsk
an accordion
and coach loads of young people
paid to attend the meetings.
Victor Yushchenko's fans
are few and far between.
Viktor Yanukovych is
elected president
with 3 and a half percent more
votes than Yulia Tymoshenko.
She contests the results.
In the RADA, the opposition
seats remain empty.
PATRIOTIC MUSIC
People didn't vote for him
because they thought he was
going to be the greatest
thing since sliced bread.
They voted against
Yushchenko and Tymoshenko.
So there was a very big
negative anti vote here.
MUSIC
APPLAUSE
In May 2010, a few months
after the elections,
Russia decides the time
has come to move in.
President Medvedev, Robin,
in the Robin Batman duo,
comes to Ukraine for a
long official visit.
Medvedev is definitely less
frightening than Putin
and Yanukovych hits it off
with him from day one.
The two of them sign various
commercial deals
and Yanukovych feels on equal
grounds with his new friend...
...almost.
The Black sea Russian
naval base in the Crimea
has always been high on the
Kremlin's list of priorities.
It is only on lease to
Russia until 2017.
Yanukovych doesn't
take much persuading
to prolong the lease for
another 25 years.
But parliament
must have its say.
The fraud in RADA is grotesque.
Guerilla warfare breaks
out between the opposition
and the Party of the Regions.
But the vote in favour
of the proposition...
just passes,
and fraud is the
winner of the day.
The Kremlin can rub its hands.
By doing that,
he believed that
Russia would remain
very appreciative,
loyal, supportive and happy,
and we would get cheaper gas.
And therefore in April,
he signed that agreement
which is called
swapping national
security for cheap gas .
Relations with Russia
didn't become better.
Yanukovych is shown as
a clown on Russian TV,
and the economy is not
getting cheaper gas
and Russia is demanding a
total drop of independence.
The government is
trying to make the deal,
moves with the Kremlin, trading,
Russia's interests at the
expense of our sovereignty,
and some other political deals.
Probably they didn't understand
the nature of the
Kremlin leaders.
They would not accept half,
or a quarter of the price.
They would gain only the
whole of the Ukraine.
This is their objective.
One of the determined
supporters of Russia
is the minister of
Education, Dimitry Tabachnik.
Russian history and Ukrainian
history are one , he says,
and must be taught
through Russian eyes .
He renews school history books.
MILITARY MUSIC
In October 2010,
Dominique Strauss Kahn,
director of the IMF,
promises a loan of
15 billions dollars
to the apparently
progressive new government
to consolidate public finances.
This money will not
go to the people,
it will be siphoned
off by the oligarchs
and the country's
debts will increase.
As with Vladimir Putin in 2000,
the West seems oblivious
of the real nature
of the new president of Ukraine
and his priorities.
Once the deal's signed,
the new regime starts
to show its real face.
In November 2010,
Yanukovych's government
introduces tax reforms,
penalizing small businesses,
the backbone of the
shadow economy .
A demonstration is organized
by civil society movements
and called Maidan 2.
No longer trusted, politicians
are not welcomed.
The new tax law
is so damaging to small and
medium size enterprises
that 800,000 companies have
disappeared in the last year.
These reforms benefit big
business. The oligarchs.
These people want it all.
They're not prepared to
accept a little bit of it.
They don't just
want to be big fish
or medium sized fish
in a very big pond.
They want to be massive
fish in a very tiny pond.
There is this idea that we can
have it all, we can take it all.
We can just simply take over.
I mean, an example is
the Kiev gold factory,
when the director was visited by
police a couple of weeks ago
and told you re going
to sell your factory"
"and here is who you re
going to sell it to.
And he said I don't want
to sell my factory ,
and they said we ll
come back next week
and you'll sell it.
And they came back
next week, 75 of them,
they beat him up, they
wrecked his offices
and they said now, we
will be back on Friday
with the papers for you
to sell the factory.
He's left. Gone.
Now, when you've got the police
organized in such banditry,
and then you couple that with
what's going on with
the road police
and the tax police,
this is organized
state banditry.
MUSIC
Violence and state
banditry in business,
exploitation and slavery
in the darker parts
of the coal industry.
Every year hundreds
die anonymously,
while the elite of the country
gets richer and richer.
MUSIC
MUSIC
For some like Yuri Lutsenko,
former minister of the Interior,
it is the first night in prison.
He is accused of
having embezzled 5000
dollars from the State
to pay his driver.
The real reason behind
Lutsenko's imprisonment
is his leading role in
the Orange Revolution and
his battle against the Mafiosi
oligarch groups in Donietsk.
He is detained under
no legal grounds
until his trial and he
is not the only one.
20 members of the opposition
suffer the same fate.
In November 2011,
Yanukovych names an old
friend, Victor Pshonka,
as general Prosecutor.
His job is to take charge
of the opposition.
Yulia Tymoshenko
is summoned to the
General Prosecutor's office
every day for 6 months.
There are three main criminal
charges against her,
for having spent
the money from the
Kyoto summit to buy ambulances,
proved false,
for spending IMF money to
pay retirement pensions,
also dropped,
and, thirdly, for
having indebted Ukraine
in the 2009 gas deal
with Putin.
On the 11th of May 2011,
Yulia is detained by the
General Prosecutor.
CAMERAS CLICKING
I hope to use this
opportunity to convey
to President Yanukovych
our concern regarding
recent cases, of what is
perceived as selective justice
in Ukraine, against members
of previous administrations,
notably Mrs Tymoshenko.
Two possibilities lie
open for Ukraine
to increase its
business abroad,
the deep free trade agreement
with the European Union
or the customs agreement with
Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
The agreement with
Europe would open far more
doors to Ukrainian oligarchs,
but the Europeans are hesitant.
The Europeans, from the get go,
have been disingenuous
about how much they value
Ukraine's independence.
When governments have
had to make choices,
they've gone with a much
broader opinion which says,
at the end of the day,
it's more important to
have good relations with Russia
then with Ukraine.
And if having good
relations with Russia
means pushing Ukraine back
into the Russian orbit,
that's a decision we're
willing to make.
For Putin, his demand was,
you have to chose between
joining the CIS custom's union
of Russia, Belarus
and Kazakhstan
or signing the deep free trade
agreement with the
European Union.
You can't join both
because you only can
be in one custom's union
at the same time.
The recent visit of Putin
was sort of hysterical.
He was not simply pressing
but actually demanding
that Ukraine drops
the idea of signing
the free trade
agreement with Europe
and signs not only
the custom's union
but the single
economic space
becomes part of one
big market, Russia.
Putin openly despises Yanukovych
for his criminal past
and he is irritated by the fact
that this stubborn criminal
is trying to play
some kind of game
with the Europeans
Russia can then come along
and control Ukraine,
not politically but financially.
Russians don't play
chess for nothing,
they're always five
or six steps ahead.
Looking at where
Russia goes from here,
it has to control
the energy supply.
Once it controls that,
it controls the energy
supply to Europe.
Russia has always had
its eyes on Ukrainian
gas pipelines to Europe.
On the 24th of September
2011, Independence Day,
Yanukovych's good friend,
Medvedev, delivers an ultimatum,
either Ukraine pays off the
gas debts, which it can't,
or it sells its gas pipelines
to Russia to cover its debts.
For Ukraine, Russian gas
prices are higher than ever.
We don't need
Russian gas at all.
Let them establish the
price at ten million
or billion, per
thousand cubic metres,
it doesn't matter.
Because Ukraine, unlike
many European nations,
has abundant energy resources,
natural gas, oil,
hydro regeneration,
nuclear power stations,
some of the biggest in Europe.
We have coal for 400 plus years,
we have strategic
pipelines to transport
Asian and Russian gas to Europe,
we can balance our energy needs
without Russian gas at all.
Ukraine may have
abundant resources,
but it is like an
underdeveloped country
with no concept of state.
Resources are of no
use to the nation,
without political will
and long term development
by the state for the state.
- Ukraine could easily produce
over a hundred million
tons of grain a year.
That would bankrupt
European farmers completely
and make Europe
totally dependent
for food supply from Ukraine.
Now Russia knows that
and by controlling that,
they then control Europe.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
CROWD ANNOUNCEMENT
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
ANTHEM PLAYS
The problem with
Yanukovych's regime
is greed has just
gone out of control.
Ukraine's football stadiums
for the Europe 2012 games
are the most
expensive in Europe!
And yet the workers
are paid some
of the lowest
salaries in Europe.
So this is all theft from the
government on dodgy contracts,
of course most of
those building
construction companies
are from Donetsk.
EXCITABLE FOLK MUSIC
Rinat Akhmetov started of
in banditry in the 90s.
Today, the richest
oligarch in Ukraine,
a coal and steel billionaire
he is the living proof of how
to get rich in a poor country .
The Colosseum in
Roman times was the way
to distract the masses from
problems in the Roman Empire,
it's the same kind of thing...
give them lots of shows,
give them lots of
spectacles on TV
and hopefully they'll
forget about politics.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
SINGS IN UKRAINIAN
LOUD CHEERING
Money buys everything,
ownership is power.
With the Euro 2012
football finals coming up,
president Yanukovych declares
that Ukraine's beautiful women
are the greatest asset for the
country's tourist industry.
Ukraine's greatest tourist asset
does not necessarily agree.
The female movement FEMEN
has its own message
for Euro 2012 tourists.
CHANTING
Yulia Tymoshenko's trial starts
on the 24th of June 2011.
The 31 year old judge has
hardly any experience.
The resignation in
his face and his eyes
says much for the
repression in the country.
The judge now is completely
dependent on the prosecution
and on the president's men.
He cannot be independent,
and this young man who
has been put there
is also under pressure
and the whole process when I
was sitting next to my mum
he looks like some kind
of surreal show.
COURTROOM COMMOTION
In order to remove
the intermediary company
RosUkrEnergo from the market,
Mrs Tymoshenko
decided to accept
unprofitable conditions
for Ukraine.
This is pure personal revenge
against somebody who
became a threat
to their personal,
financial interests,
especially because the
gas lobby are very much
in power and in influence
around Yanukovych
and because they
are now in power,
for them, its time for revenge
against Tymoshenko
who, in 2009, removed the gas
intermediary RosUkrEnergo
and that meant the loss of up
to 7 billion dollars a year
for that group of people.
Accused of contempt of court,
Yulia Tymoshenko is arrested
and held in prison for the
rest of the proceedings.
The trial takes place
in the summer,
in a small cramped courtroom.
The heat is unbearable.
When one of Yulia
Tymoshenko's lawyers
complains about the conditions,
they are evicted.
The judge orders the militia to
empty the room of journalists,
members of the
opposition and family.
CROWD COMMOTION
For the rest of the trial,
Yulia Tymoshenko is left
to defend herself alone.
There are 30 witnesses
for the defence,
only three are heard.
There are 33 for
the prosecution,
28 are heard.
On the 11th of October of 2011,
Yulia Tymoshenko is found guilty
of having made an
illegal gas deal
with Vladimir Putin in 2009.
JOURNALISTS
SHOUTING OVER CROWD
COMMOTION
SHOUTS IN UKRAINIAN
SHOUTS AND SCREAMS
Yulia Tymoshenko is sentenced
to seven years in prison,
a fine of 186 million dollars,
the sum lost for the State,
and a ban from any political
function or elections.
Across the Western world,
this trial is condemned
as being a show trial
and the sentence a
political persecution.
In prison, strange
bruises appear
all over Yulia
Tymoshenko's body.
The pain in her back is so bad
that she can no longer walk.
She is refused the right
to see her own doctors.
When the torture
commission comes to see
the conditions of
her imprisonment,
she is quickly
transferred to a new,
freshly painted,
comfortable room
and filmed, against her
will, by the State TV.
Of course, they can orchestrate
any kind of accident,
you know, there are so
many ways now to kill a person
without any signs of
disease or substances.
She is very strong and
I really hope that
she'll continue to be strong for
us and, you know, for Ukraine.
MUSIC
In fact, what they've done
is reunite the country
because the concerns
that the people have
in the East and the West
of Ukraine are identical.
There is no difference anymore
between East and West,
the political divide
which was invented,
...now the country
is united by its
disillusionment of the system.
BANDOURI MUSIC
CHOIR SINGING
PRIEST CHANTING
Myroslava Leschenko
lived through the
history of Ukraine from
Stalin to Yanukovych
fighting against the repression
of the Ukrainian nation.
MUSIC
CROWD CHEERING
DRUMS AND MUSIC
Maidance is an inter city
dance competition.
It occupies Maidan, Independence
Square, for 3 months.
No tent can be planted.
Thousands and thousands
of young people take part.
Enthusiasm, innocence.
They dance for the
pride of their city,
for their country,
for the pleasure.
MUSIC
Do these young people
know that the state TV
organising this contest
belongs to former head
of the secret services
and powerful oligarch.
MUSIC
Yulia Tymoshenko is tried
on further charges
which could add another
10 years to her sentence.
She has become a martyr,
continuing her battle
from behind bars.
Victor Yanukovych has
opened a Pandora's box,
if he is to stay in power,
she and others must stay
or die in prison.
The oligarch's greed has
become cannibalistic,
more, and more, and more.
MUSIC
For Ukraine to
become a democracy,
for freedom to exist,