Drohobychgate

The recent break-in and vandalism of the Drohobych election headquarters of Yevhen Marchuk is eerily reminiscent of something that happened in Washington, DC during the 1972 presidential campaign. The National Democratic Headquarters in the posh Watergate Hotel were broken into and a couple of rookie reporters were sent to investigate. Woodward and Bernstein kept on the trail until official investigations unearthed a whole series of official improprieties, as a result of which twenty-five years ago President Richard Nixon was forced to resign in disgrace. In Drohobych, however, the local head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is refusing to even open an investigation because of the «obviously political» nature of the act. So what? Even here in Ukraine breaking and entering along with vandalism is a crime whether done for political reasons or not. Will we also stop investigating theft because this act usually has an «obviously economic» nature?

Ukraine, of course, is not the United States. If it were, Mr. Marchuk's organization could go to court and sue for a writ of mandamus, which is a court order compelling a public official to do his job, even if he would rather not do so. I have yet to hear of any such counterpart to such a basic tenet of the Anglo-American legal system here. Nor would anybody expect any Ukrainian counterparts to Woodward and Bernstein among the members of Ukraine's fifth estate. Even the most intrepid journalist knows that there are certain bounds beyond which one simply cannot go if s/he values his or her skin.

It all contributes to a feeling of fear and loathing. Many of the abuses Nixon was involved with — electronic surveillance without legal authorization, shady financial transactions, and covering up what those in power want to keep from the public — are so commonplace here that they simply are not news to anybody.

There is one cause for hope: that the West is finally getting serious about investigating corruption in Russia. This is important here because on the level of the shadow economy and shadow politics this country is already fully integrated with Russia, and no real investigation of disreputable doings there can possibly stop at the Russo-Ukrainian border. In other words, Russia's dirty linen is inseparably interwoven with Ukraine's, and if it gets aired, at least some kind of cleanup might just be possible.