READERS SOUND OFF 

I have always been amazed to notice the difference in the attitudes of people I met with, say, in Kyiv and those I felt in the Ukrainian media. The latter must be afflicted with some juvenile complex when one must at all times defend one's individuality and independence. And the words they use these days: ultimatum, threats, blackmail... I read all this in your newspapers over a couple of previous days, and all focused on the subject of Russian-Ukrainian relations. I must say that the Russian media does not use such words with regard to Ukraine, precisely because we need not defend ourselves in justifying our state system (which, thank God, is not seven or 180 years old but much older). In order to respect yourselves, you must:

1. Pay for the services rendered you (e.g., gas supplies).

2. Look for reasons for your problems at home, rather than exert so much energy trying to detect that treacherous Moscow hand.

3. Form your own foreign policy, clearly defining your priorities.

4. State your case in all disputable matters - e.g., the Crimea - in simple and unequivocal words.

5. Allow your media as much freedom as it has in Russia.

Otherwise all accusations addressed to Russia will remain as ungrounded as are all attempts of an obviously guilty party to justify its misconduct. Talking of the Crimea, you must understand that this is a Russian territory which just happened to fall in your hands, so you must treat it accordingly, as an autonomous republic with all the attendant rights, etc. Just try to understand this and don't be rude.
Oleg MALIV, journalist,
Russia (received via Internet)
  How Do We Use Mark Twain's Advice? Dear Editors,

I am your permanent reader form Donetsk. Of course, in today's Ukraine The Day is, unfortunately, the only newspaper that fairly and repeatedly reflects our reality, as dull as dishwater. In my opinion, your newspaper lacks a bit in civic activity and journalistic combative spirit. And with the current regime you risk being drowned in our society.

For example, here in Donetsk for almost two years The Day is impossible to buy in kiosks, and subscribers like me receive their copies with a delay of two to four days. And it is not the local post-offices' fault. The "instructions" come from the top, from Kyiv. I had the chance to live for a while in the USA, where newspapers cover the aspects of international life quite modestly, and the life in CIS countries can be judged only by reports from Russia. However, once I came across an article on our country with the following subtitle: "Ukraine is the Europe's Honduras, where political clowns choking in national Bolshevik demagogy hurry to tear to pieces what is left in this poverty-stricken country." Scathing words, but quite accurate and correct.

Thus to change the course of events, to remove from political horizon feeble mediocrity and thieves, civic activity is needed, that of the so-called electorate. And to rouse it to action a newspaper is needed, like The Day, for to have such a TV-channel under such circumstances is unrealistic.

It is very good indeed that you started publishing the readers' letters. The best I liked the paragraph by Mr. Mitkov from Kyiv (January 23,1999), and I would like to add to his questions for Mr. Marchuk one more: "What is his attitude toward the Russian language?" This is not an idle question. If we want to keep our state undivided and to develop our economy, an idea that would unite the nation is needed. But what nation will it be? Our history took such a turn that the nation cannot arise on ethnic grounds, hence a political nation must be created like in Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, etc. That is why Russian needs official language status in some regions. Half the country's population cannot be considered imperfect citizens. And "speaking the official language" cannot be a mark of qualification like membership in CPSU was before. For the results are quite visible: "we have what we have." People should be judged, as the Bible says, not by their words but by the deeds. In California and New Mexico there are two official languages, by the way - English and
Spanish, and each TV channel broadcasts in 18 languages.

Now coming to a future candidate: I would like him to be honest and worthy, not a swindler, clan leader, or an oath-breaker. They want to impeach the USA President for lying under oath although his motives were in essence natural. Here this would not work. Because our yesterday's and today's officials are professional oath-breakers. They took an oath to the past, Soviet power, to that party, to that nation. Now they swear to the people of Ukraine on a new Constitution, which they have never read. And in all cases they betrayed, abandoned, and overstepped. It grew into a habit, a conditioned reflex - to lie, knowing that there will be no punishment. But I think that the new President should be just an intelligent man who has not lost his memory, for the USSR and the camp of socialism were destroyed not by external enemies but economic failures taking their source from political postulates. And if the next President, even Mr. Marchuk, thinks: "I swore to the Right, so I can swear to the 'yellow-and-blue' as well," nothing good will come out of It. We, the people, the country, and the economy will come to a point of no return when everything falls apart, and he will receive the glory of pizza-popularizer Gorbachev. And to prevent such inglorious end The Day's civic virtue is needed.

We (Left, Right, and Center) have no right once again, as Mark Twain said, "to elect a red dog instead of the apostle Paul."
By Ye. P. TIUPIN, Donetsk