We were met by Volodymer Milavanov, division head of the legal department to Parliament and a senior advisor in the Legal Department of the Parliament of Ukraine specializing in Foreign and International Law Legal Research and currently implementing the GLIN (Global Legal Information Network) Project jointly with the Law Library of the U.S. Congress. We were driven by Chevrolet minibus to Hotel Nationalny near to the Parliament buildings. And entered a large grand vestibule lined with brown marble giving an atmosphere of security and permanence--rather like Victorian architecture. Then by lift to 10th floor along warm corridors and thick red carpet to a tastefully and richly furnished suite of inlaid woods and deep red brocades and a super glistening showroom of Villeroy and Boch fittings. Everything works. We were told that we were the guests of Parliament.
At 7.0 pm Mr. Milovanov and his wife Irina entered and Victor and I held discussions followed by dinner in the restaurant on 3rd floor. Russian salad, beef a la Kyiv, Crimean wine, Coca cola and coffee.
To show their confidence in the stability of Ukraine, Coca Cola is building a factory complex costing $300M 50 miles south from Kyiv which will be the largest Coca Cola factory in Europe to be completed in 1997.
Politics in Ukraine is not stable yet. There are 42 registered parties in Ukraine. From a one party system there are now many small splintered groups some of which even have similar goals. There are 450 seats or deputies in Parliament. The difficulty arises because votes are cast for a candidate and not for a party resulting in multiple small parties. Laws are being formulated to reduce the number of small parties, for example, a party must have 4% of the vote to participate in Parliament. Parties are encouraged to consolidate.
Ukraine aims to be part of the European Union and there are 150 criteria to be satisfied. Ukraine needs time to be taken seriously and efforts are being made to encourage democracy. What has taken 700 years in the British Isles must be done in a few years in Ukraine.
The present structure of Parliament is Communist 93 seats (40 voted for and 53 against the Constitution this year) Socialists 26, Ukrainian National Movement 29, Liberal 26, Agrarian Party 46 and the remaining seats are taken up by small parties.
The people elect the President who is presently Leonid Kuchma.
The relationship with Russia is tense.
The Ukrainians have a good sense of humour and readily portray their political problems with humourous stories, certain evidence of their tension.
The waste paper bin in this suite in an object of beauty and clean as a whistle, a drum of heavy shining brass encircled with two bands of embroidery matching the decor!
Kyiv is the capital city of Ukraine and twice as old as Moscow. It has a population of about 3.3 million people. The old city streets are lined by lipa or sycamore trees so the area is called "Lipsky." Kyiv is on a huge hill to the west of the river Dnipro flowing north to south and 100 km south of Chernobyl.
Kyiv received the fall-out from the plume of radioactive dust at an early stage but it is officially excluded from the radiated area as it would be difficult to relocate 3.3 million and all the institutions of learning, culture, science and all the many facilities. There is a beautiful island in the river Dnipro and people would relax on the sandy beaches. It was not until 1989 that it was found to be highly radioactive - three years later. All the electricity of Kyiv is generated at Chernobyl.