Chronicles of Degradation

President Kuchma's being named no. 6 in the world's worst enemies of press freedom also cannot be passed over in silence. In the last presidential election former President Kravchuk also used the media as much as he could, but in the final analysis he honestly ran, honestly lost, and honestly turned his office over to his successor. Nobody sees much sign of that happening come October. Kievskie vedomosti, recently reopened after being shut down by a lawsuit, carried an article criticizing this newspaper. Let them. We would much rather have critics than closed periodicals. We look forward to their next attack, if they get the chance.

Yet another sign of degradation is Oleksiy Plotnykov's sad tale of Ukraine's continual economic decline. Add to that the new regime being imposed on the nation's number one piggy-bank, the Savings Bank. It seems depositors' savings will be risked in the form of "investment" in politically connected enterprises. Of course nobody expects those loans to ever be repaid, which means that after the elections this nation's entire banking system could come tumbling down like a house of cards. Just when it seems there is nowhere left to fall, we see ourselves sinking deeper than even yesterday seemed possible.