Wandering Candle
// Viktor Yushchenko Crisscrosses Kiev on Easter Eve
During Easter celebrations yesterday in Kiev, President Viktor Yushchenko declared that Christ and Ukraine have been resurrected, and he promised to "drive the Pharisees and money-changers from the temple." Kommersant correspondents Mikhail Zygar and Mustafa Naiem kept the vigil on Easter Eve with the Ukrainian leader and discovered that his administration is prepared to push the elections, currently scheduled for May 27, back to a later date. Meanwhile, another schism is brewing in the president's flock of "orange democrats."
The Resurrection
The president's face blazed forth in front of St. Sophia's Cathedral in Kiev shortly before midnight, when he appeared on two monitors set up on either side of the main doors. The congregation crowded into the square: the doors into the church were closed, and only people with special passes were permitted to enter through the side door.
The president said, "Step by step, a coalition artificially and illegally took shape in the parliament, with the aim of accumulating 300 votes. The coalition expanded not on the basis of factions, but on account of individual deputies, in violation of the constitution."
The believers on the square listened intently to the president's Easter speech.
"This government is becoming uncontrollable. It is limiting your rights and changing the order in the country. This is called usurpation of power. The president's obligation is to stop any attempt against the state and the people. Our joint obligation is to cleanse the temple of Pharisees and money-changers."
The believers exchanged glances.
"Christ is risen!" exclaimed the president.
There was still around half an hour left before Sunday arrived, but the president's flock, which had been permitted into the church through the side door, believed him.
"Truly he is risen!" they chorused.
"Ukraine is risen," concluded the president.
The president's face faded from the screen and was replaced with the image of the Virgin Mary.
Viktor Yushchenko quickly left St. Sophia's – he had wanted to light the Paschal candle in Kiev's main church, but the airplane from the Holy Land that was supposed to bring the flame to Ukrainian soil was late. The flame from Jerusalem was supposed to be collected for Ukraine by the president's brother, Pyotr Yushchenko, but Israeli customs officers would not allow the Ukrainian charter flight to leave Tel Aviv with a burning flame on board. In order to preserve the holy flame, the president's brother had to drive to Jordan and take a plane from there to Kiev. Meanwhile, the president was in a hurry, because he had plans to visit five churches in Kiev practically simultaneously that night. From St. Sophia's, he set off for the service in St. Vladimir's Cathedral, which belongs to the Kiev patriarchate.
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A crowd of congregants had already surrounded the church by the time he arrived. When the procession with the cross began, led by Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kiev Patriarchate), the president's eight-year-old daughter Sophia, and Viktor Yushchenko himself, the crowd reverently took a step back and began to snap pictures of the procession with their mobile phones. The president led his daughter with his left hand lightly on the back on her neck, while saying something to the patriarch of Kiev and Rus-Ukraine, as the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church likes to style himself (the Moscow patriarchate calls him a schismatic and a heretic, excommunicated and accursed for "anti-church activities"). Having circled the cathedral, the president and the patriarch approached the main doors, which feature life-size portraits of Princess Olga and Prince Vladimir [Prince Vladimir of Kievan Rus converted to Christianity in 988]. As Viktor Yushchenko stood looking at his predecessor, Prince Vladimir the Fair Sun, the doors swung open.
The president's administration had agreed with Patriarch Filaret that he would pause briefly during the service to give the president the opportunity to politely take his leave, since the president was expected to make appearances at another four churches that night. However, the patriarch had no wish to release the president, and he did not pause at all, forcing Viktor Yushchenko to stay for the entire service. When eight-year-old Sophia fell asleep, a bodyguard picked her up, carried her out of the church, and laid her down in the back seat of a Mercedes belonging to the president's motorcade. The rest of the president's flock continued to stand: immediately behind the president stood the two strapping young bodyguards to whom the president had entrusted himself, his daughter Vitalina's husband Alexei, and Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, the head of Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party. Other officials – Viktor Baloga, the head of the president's administration, and Security Council secretary Vitaly Gaiduk – were somewhere in the fourth row.
"Where is Yulia?" whispered the congregation.
And indeed, Yulia Tymoshenko's press secretary had made assurances that very night that the leader of the eponymous bloc intended to be at the president's side all night as he visited various churches. But among the president's flock she was nowhere to be found.
After a 90-minute service, Patriarch Filaret addressed the congregation: "the holiday of Christ's resurrection should be an inspiration in the struggle against falsehood and iniquity," he said, before wishing the president luck in this difficult matter. The president and his entourage bowed and headed for the exit. One of the last to leave St. Vladimir's Cathedral was Viktor Baloga.
"Excuse me, can you tell me if there will be elections?" asked a Kommersant correspondent.
"Absolutely," he smiled, getting into his Mercedes.
"On May 27?" pressed the correspondent.
The head of the president's administration put out a hand to stop his bodyguard from shutting the door of the car. "I think not" – Mr. Baloga's face, a disingenuous look in his narrowed eyes, resurfaced briefly from the dark interior of the car – "a little bit later. Just a little tiny bit!"
The Samaritans
The next stop on the president's route was St. Andrey's of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, which split from the Moscow patriarchate in 1917. The officiant was Metropolitan Mefodiy of Kiev and Ukraine, who presented the president and his entourage with red velvet Easter eggs decorated with gold thread and lace.
After the service the Kommersant correspondent, resolving to ascertain to what degree Viktor Yushchenko is prepared to amend his decree dissolving the Rada and for how long the elections will be put off, again approached Viktor Baloga.
"Look, back off, will you? Christ is risen! Here, take this instead," smiled Mr. Baloga, holding out the egg that Metropolitan Mefodiy had just given him.
The president's flock next set off for the Church of Basil the Great, which belongs to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic (Uniate) Church, the second-largest church in Ukraine after the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). Viktor Yushchenko himself took the wheel as the motorcade drove slowly to the church, timing his arrival so that he could nip into the church in the break between the Gospel reading and the sermon to greet the bishop. At the entrance to the church he was awaited only by certain Kommersant correspondents, Father Vasily, and a young seminarian carrying an icon that the church had decided to give to the president as a gift.
"This is to help you in your battle against evil," fussed Father Vasily.
The president, already very tired by that point, managed to stay for half an hour at the service. At the exit, as his bodyguards exerted themselves to keep Kommersant's correspondents away from the president, they missing seeing an old woman carrying two knapsacks who threw herself at Viktor Yushchenko.
"Viktor Andreyevich! Viktor Andreyevich!" she cried. "Pan [Mr.] President, I've already appealed to you twice, but you don't answer. So this is the third time, since God loves a trinity."
The president turned grumpily to the old woman.
"Yes, yes, I remember. You requested something there, some kind of compensation. Well, whatever you want, give the papers to him," the president said, gesturing wearily at Viktor Baloga and heading for his car.
The Coming Day
The president returned to St. Sophia to meet his brother, who had finally brought the flame for the Paschal candle. The time had come to present it to the people. At the entrance to the cathedral, Pyotr Yushchenko handed the lamp over to a seminarian, who gave it to the president. Viktor Yushchenko lit two candles before passing the flame on to representatives of all of Ukraine's churches, who stood in a circle around him. From them, the flame rippled outward through the congregation in the square.
Near the side entrance to the cathedral, Volodymyr Yavorsky, the lone deputy from the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko who accompanied the president all night, shifted from foot to foot. His name had not been included in the list of those who were allowed inside the church, but he got in anyway after showing proof of his status as a parliamentary deputy. The members of the president's flock soon retraced their steps towards the side exit, clutching their candles and discussing Yulia Tymoshenko's absence.
"She took sick. For the last two days she's been having problems with her back, she's been going around in a back brace," a member of the president's administration shared with a Kommersant correspondent.
"Do you believe that Yulia Volodymyrovna didn't come because she's sick?" the correspondent asked deputy Oleksandr Tretyakov, the president's godfather.
"That's what she said. So what? It's flu season in Kiev," he said, smiling archly.
Behind him came deputy Davyd Zhvanya, one of the chief sponsors of the Orange Revolution, who now finances Yury Lutsenko's People's Self-Defense movement.
"And what do you think, will the elections take place as scheduled?" asked a Kommersant correspondent.
"I don't think so! We won't make it in time. They'll be sometime between June and August," he replied.
Finally, Pyotr Yushchenko appeared at the exit with his son Yaroslav, the deputy governor of the Kharkiv region. They greeted the Kommersant correspondents in honor of the holiday with kisses on both cheeks.
"The president said that in dissolving the Rada, he was driving the Pharisees from the temple," began a correspondent. "Does that mean that he's like Jesus?"
"You'll note I didn't say that!" grinned the president's nephew. "But on the whole, you're not far from the truth."
"He also said that Ukraine has been resurrected. Who exactly crucified it?"
"San Sanych! [a nickname for Verkhnova Rada Speaker Oleksandr Moroz]" blurted Yaroslav Yushchenko without thinking. "Everything started with him," he claimed, laying the blame for all of Ukraine's woes on the Socialist Party leader.
The exhausted members of the president's entourage scattered to their cars. The last stops on the itinerary were the Catholic Church of St. Nikolai and the Assumption Cathedral at the Kiev-Pechersky Monastery, which belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). By the last service, Viktor Yushchenko was just barely still on his feet. Eventually a stool was brought in for him.
Afterwards, the president's flock stood in the reception hall discussing who would go to which street demonstration on Tuesday, when passions on Kiev's central square are expected to burst forth again after the holiday. Meanwhile, the president sat deep in thought. Probably not about the judgment of God, but about the judgment of the constitutional court.
Mikhail Zygar and Mustafa Naiem (Kiev)
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 09, 2007
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