TRANSCRIPT OF AMBASSADOR TAYLOR'S PODCAST FOR OCTOBER
Dobry Den and welcome back to the American Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine.
This past month, of course, has been devoted to focusing on the elections here in Ukraine that took place last Sunday, the thirtieth of September. I spent a lot of time in September traveling to cities that were of course preparing for these elections. I talked to people in each of the main party headquarters as they prepared. These, we knew and Ukrainians knew, were going to be very important elections for Ukraine. If they were held in a free and fair and competitive, open, honest manner, would demonstrate that Ukraine continues to be the democratic leader in this part of the world.
On Election Day, I, and many of the members of my Embassy here traveled around the country and observed the election procedures. I traveled to Irpin, a town to the northwest of here and looked at many of the polling places in Irpin, between Irpin and here, and in Kyiv. Members of my Embassy went to every major city in every Oblast in this country, and we all observed that this election was a very good one. This election followed the procedures. The election officials and the election commissions both at the polling place level and the district level were very professional, very well prepared. They observed the rules and regulations. They followed the procedures that allowed Ukrainians to express their will in a free and open way.
It's also important to note that 62% of Ukrainians came out to vote, which is a very high percentage in relative turns. I note that in the United States we often have less than 60% of people vote. So this is important for Ukraine. It's a good sign of democracy.
As I speak to you today, the final outcome has not been announced, it's almost there. We generally know the outcome. We hope that the parties will get together and come up with a coalition that can govern Ukraine over the next several years. There are issues that Ukraine must deal with right away, so we urge a quick formation of the government, and we congratulate the people of Ukraine for a very good election.
The second thing I'd like to talk to you about today has to do with cultural relations between the United States and Ukriane. Last month, in September, we awarded two cultural grants. The first went to Lviv Historical Museum, and this grant will enable the museum to restore and digitalize an old manuscript. The name of this manuscript is the "Krystynopilsky Apostol." We hope that the digitalization and the restoration of this manuscript will enable historians and scholars all over the world to examine and take advantage of this historical and cultural treasure that is there in the Lviv museum.
The second grant that we awarded last month was to the Crimean Museum of Ethnography, and this grant will allow this museum to preserve costumes and jewelry from many ethnic groups coming from Crimea. Having spent some time in Crimea this summer, I was very impressed at the rich diversity of ethnic peoples in that part of Ukraine, and many of those peoples have a rich tradition that this museum will be able to preserve. This will be important, in particular, because some of those peoples, the Crimean Tatars in particular, during the Second World War were exiled form their home in Crimea. So this museum will enable all of us to see the rich tradition of Crimean Tatars, Armenians, Krymchaks, other ethnic groups who make that part of Ukraine a very interesting one.
The third thing that I would like to mention is a fun effort that Ukrainians and Americans put together, beginning in Lviv, having to do with a cartoon that is very famous in the United States called "Peanuts" and this cartoon has been made into a play, and this play is called, "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown." It's appearing in Lviv right now through November 18 at the Children's Theater. This cartoon, written by Charles Schultz, a famous cartoonist in the Untied States, is loved by Americans across the country. The characters - Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Snoopy - are well known in American homes and we hope that they will become well known in Ukrainian homes. This is now appearing in Lviv, as I say. I'm hoping that it will appear in other parts of Ukraine over the next several months.
So, thank you very much for tuning in. I look forward to seeing you again next month.