Interview with
Ambassador John E. Herbst

U.S. Elections Watch
November 3, 2004
Hotel Rus, Kyiv, Ukraine

Several Ukrainian Journalists interviewed the Ambassador during the U.S. Elections Watch hosted by the United States Embassy at the Hotel Rus on November 3. A transcript follows:

(Begin Text)

QUESTION: So first, could you talk about the elections in Ukraine? Some experts say that intrigue is still there, so nobody knows who will be the winner.

AMBASSADOR HERBST: Here in Ukraine, you mean?

QUESTION: Yes. First about Ukrainian elections.

AMBASSADOR HERBST: Well, we've already expressed our views on Election Day. The State Department made some comments a couple of days ago. We expressed concern because there were some significant violations of democratic rules. The voter lists were in very bad shape, and a lot of people have said that they were in worse shape this year than, for example, during the parliamentary elections in 2002 and the presidential elections in 1999. There are problems with the removal of election commissioners associated with the opposition parties the day before the elections. That is illegal under the election law passed this year. And then there are some very strange things that happened with the voting in various places, particularly in Khirovograd, so there are a lot of questions about the first round. We hope that the second round will be much cleaner than the first round, and we hope that those problems that we talked about will be fixed and it would also be nice to see the results come out for the first round.

QUESTION: Thanks. Mr. Ambassador, do you think that the American policy toward Ukraine will change if Mr. Kerry wins the election and, if so, in what way?

AMBASSADOR HERBST: We've seen in Ukraine a lot of representatives of the Administration and a lot of representatives of the Democrats over the past several months, and my impression is that there is a more or less consensus among Democrats and Republicans in the United States about American policy toward Ukraine, the policy that we've been following, which stresses a great interest in improving relations, but also the importance of democracy in Ukraine. I believe this will continue whether Mr. Bush is president again or whether Mr. Kerry is elected president.

QUESTION: How does it feel to live in a country that is divided over its leadership? You're living with, I mean, Americans are living with this, for the second presidential term. Is it easy for the country to have these splits about the leadership?

AMBASSADOR HERBST: I think that politics is all about differences as well as commonalities. It would be very odd, and I think very dangerous if everyone in America supported one candidate. The wonderful thing is that we have people who choose different candidates to support, and that our media reports accurately about the candidates. You know, Senator Kerry, of course, is not president, but he receives almost as much attention, or as much attention in our media, as President Bush. And he receives very favorable treatment from some media, not so favorable treatment from others, as does President Bush. It would be nice if the same thing happened in Ukraine.

QUESTION: What do you think about counting of the votes in Ukraine?

AMBASSADOR HERBST: The short and honest answer is that I don't know enough about it, but I am a little surprised by the fact that we had regular returns coming in on Monday, and suddenly, Monday afternoon, we stopped receiving information about the votes, and that struck me as a little bit odd.

QUESTION: Mr. Ambassador, some experts in the world, they think that if Mr. Kerry wins the elections, then global geopolitical conflicts would be eased in some way. This is something I would like to know, especially about the conflict in the Middle East.

AMBASSADOR HERBST: I think that the United States has been following a policy designed to improve the circumstances in the Middle East, the atmosphere in the Middle East, and that will be true whether President Bush remains in office or whether Senator Kerry becomes the next president.

QUESTION: What do you think about an independent media between the first and the second round?

AMBASSADOR HERBST: The independent media in Ukraine?

QUESTION: Yes.

AMBASSADOR HERBST: Well, I've been impressed by the fact that at this point well over 100 journalists who work for the major media have condemned the temnyky, which of course everyone knows have existed in Ukraine for the past couple of years, and which the authorities have continued to deny exist. And it seems to me that we've seen some positive developments in the media here over the past week or two, and I hope those will continue. It would be nice if, at last, the major media in Ukraine began to give substantial attention to the opposition candidates as well as to the presidential candidates.

QUESTION: Mr. Herbst, what do you think about the future relationship between Ukraine and the United States?

AMBASSADOR HERBST: I strongly believe that the relationship will get better, and I know that it will improve substantially if your elections turn out to be free and fair.

QUESTION: Who are you supporting in these elections in the United States?

AMBASSADOR HERBST: I don't have a candidate either in Ukraine, or in the United States.

QUESTION: Does the relationship between Ukraine and the United States depend on new president of Ukraine, and of new president of United States? Is there any connection?

AMBASSADOR HERBST: Again, I think that our policy toward Ukraine will be stable, or it will be consistent with what's happening. In other words, we've had the same policy over the past ten-twelve years, and I think we'll see more of the same policy, regardless of who is president. I don't think there was any significant change in our policy towards Ukraine when President Bush came into office, and if Senator Kerry were to win I'm not sure there would be a significant change. I don't think there would be. Again, though, our relationship would depend upon what happens in your elections. Not on who is elected - we're happy to work with either Mr. Yanukovych or Mr. Yushchenko - but on the way the elections are conducted.

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Read Ukrainian language translation of the transcript