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CROWD CHANTING

November December 2004,

across the planet, eyes are riveted on Ukraine.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians camp out in the freezing cold

to protest against fraud in the presidential elections.

Democratic candidate, Viktor Yushchenko has been poisoned.

Viktor Yanukovych, the pro Russian candidate

of the regime,

has been falsely declared victorious

Vladimir Putin congratulates him.

After years of repression, the people stand firm,

in the name of justice and

freedom, in the name of democracy.

CHANTING

Round table discussions led by the EU

lead to a third round in the elections.

On the 26th of December 2004, Viktor Yushchenko

is elected president.

He and his ally Yulia Tymoshenko promise

to bring democracy to Ukraine.

8 years on, what has become of the heroes

of the revolution and their promises?

What has become of the hopes and dreams of the Ukrainian people?

What cloud has hung over this nation for centuries?

Democracy emerges in Ukraine during the 16th century.

Groups of Ukrainians flee their harsh serfdom in Poland

to settle on the green steppes along the river Dniepr.

Fervent Christians and fierce warriors

they create a community protected by a

military unit called Sitch Zaparog.

Their leader is elected.

Free men, rebels, they are the cossacks!

The way they chose their leaders was democratic. They voted.

This is at a time when, who voted in Europe?

It was the monarchies, it was the divine ruler

which comes from God and his descendent becomes the next one!

CROWD AMBIENCE

Every Cossack came, take off his hat

and put to the feet of his candidate,

and who had more hats, he won.

So democratic procedure, yes.

In 1654 Bohdan Kmelnytsky,

the father of the Ukrainian nation,

leads a massive revolt against the Poles.

Forced into retreat he signs an agreement with the Russian Tsar.

Unknowingly he signs away Ukrainian

freedom to Russia for centuries to come.

In 1917 the October revolution

puts an end to the Tsarist empire,

Ukraine takes advantage of the chaos

and declares its independence.

9 months later, the Red army crushes the rebels.

In 1922 Lenin creates the USSR.

For the Bolsheviks, Ukraine still belongs to Russia.

But the Ukrainians will never be Russians.

PATRIOTIC SINGING

In 1927 Joseph Stalin becomes the new master of the USSR.

The last thing Stalin wants in Ukraine, is free thinking people

but he needs the wealth of its land, its cereals, its coal

and human machines to serve the soviet state.

In 1928 Stalin's five year plan makes Ukraine the

industrial motor of the USSR, but the peasants resist.

In the early 1930s Stalin organises a state famine,

Holodomor.

The Ukrainians are refused the right

to search for food elsewhere.

Their land becomes their prison and their grave.

7 million die of starvation.

In the meantime propaganda films show well fed

children and loudspeakers relay patriotic songs.

Stalin dies in 1953.

The population is duly unconsolable.

The master seems to have orchestrated

the national mourning... himself.

Throughout Soviet times, the so called 'province' of

Ukraine continues to be economically vital to the USSR.

It is also the birthplace

of Soviet leaders, intellectuals and writers.

The Ukrainian people are some of the

highest educated in the Soviet union

and the workforce for the rising nuclear

and atomic industries during the cold war.

When I think about the Soviet times,

I remember a lot of humiliation.

It was really hard to get very simple things like a

tooth brush, tooth paste, soap, or shampoo,

you had to stand in very long lines

to have these basic things.

It was very sick, very ill, in its nature.

And also imagine what it was like

to be Ukrainian under the Soviet rule.

For many generations this nation felt that the

very fact of its existence was under huge question.

As a school boy, I remember my school was

the only Ukrainian school downtown Kiev

where kids could study maths or

physics in their native language.

LOW PIANO NOTE

On the 6th of April, 1986

the nuclear power station of Chernobyl in Ukraine explodes.

At least 10,000 Ukrainians and Beloussians will die.

Only the nomenclatura is informed of the accident

and its gravity.

Chernobyl is 50 miles from Kiev, the capital.

Ukrainian people are informed 4 weeks later.

Chernobyl also causes the Ukrainian political scene

to explode.

A party for independence is created

by ecologists and intellectuals.

In 1989 in Germany

the Berlin wall is torn down by the population.

A wind of change is sweeping across the USSR.

In 1990, Lithuania declares its independence.

And in Ukraine a human chain crosses the country

the people sing,

Mother Moscow we want to be made orphans.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

The first tent city on Maidan which I remember,

happened when young students,

2 or 3 hundred of them,

they went to the central square of the communist capital

of the soviet Ukraine

and they protested against the communist rule.

On the 24th of August 1991,

the conservative faction of the KGB

attempts a putsch against Gorbatchev

who wants to reform the USSR.

Boris Yeltsin intervenes and emerges as the new leader.

There was this feeling of optimism.

At the same time nobody knew how quickly things would fall apart,

so when the coup happened, it was also extraordinary

in the Maidan,

which then was the October Revolution square,

people were standing there

and the police barriers were up, protecting...

and then on the day that the coup ended,

I remember clearly being in the square

and the police barricades just melted and people surged hmmm.

APPLAUSE AND CHANTING

We had this feeling, this flavour of miracle

which we had the chance to see with our own eyes.

I was 15 years old at that time

but I clearly remember this feeling

of inspiration, enthusiasm

which the country was full of, it was wonderful.

The very same day, on the 24th of September 1991,

Ukrainian parliament, RADA,

declares the independence of Ukraine.

CROWD AMBIENCE

PATRIOTIC SINGING AND MUSIC

On the 1st of December 1991,

Leonid Kravchuk, the former president

of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine,

is elected president.

TRIUMPHANT MUSIC

But independence is not for free

and although Russian gas transits through Ukraine,

Ukraine has a gas debt towards Russia of 80 million dollars.

Yeltsin declares,

either Ukraine enters the CIS or it pays up.

The gas blackmail between Russia and Ukraine has begun.

Pro Russian Crimea becomes

an autonomous republic within Ukraine.

The Black Sea is shared.

20 percent for Ukraine and 80 percent for Russia.

Russian flags fly in the port of Sebastopol.

Independence means the creation of a constitution,

of laws, of an army, of a police force.

But over the centuries,

religious faith has been the only refuge for the population.

They create a independent Ukrainian Orthodox church

with a Kiev Patriarchy.

Kravtchouk is a bad manager.

And in 1994, he is replaced by Leonid Kuchma

ex director of the strategic missile complex of the USSR.

His slogan,

With Kuchma your factory will take to its wings.

He abolishes the parliamentary

constitution to give himself more power.

Kuchma comes from Dnipropetrovsk, near Donbass,

in the industrial heart of the USSR created by Stalin.

The east of Ukraine is predominantly Russian speaking

because that was the common language of the miners

who were brought into that area to mine the coal.

It was also one of the major centres of communist influence.

It was the great patriotic miners

fighting for the future of the country.

They were heavily rewarded.

They were some of the highest

paid workers in the Soviet Union.

They were given incredibly special status.

So, over a period of time, there has been a natural

arrogance, if you like, developed.

We are the best of the people of Ukraine.

Kuchma launches a massive privatization programme,

which favours his family and friends,

especially in the energy and media sectors.

He has started to create a select clan of oligarchs.

An enterprising young couple,

Yulia Tymoshenko and her husband,

seize this opportunity

and successfully create different businesses

before entering the gas industry.

Their company quickly becomes the biggest intermediary

for Russian gas in Ukraine.

From now on the young women is called the gas princess.

At the time, her dubious deals with Russian businessmen

even lead to an investigation by Interpol.

In both Russia and Ukraine, the richest

oligarchs make their fortunes in energy.

I believe the Americans created the oligarchs.

I was working in Russia in a mass privatization program,

where we were handing out certificates

in one room to the workers in factories

and they were then selling them to

the general director of the factory

for a bottle of vodka and ten dollars in the next room.

And I can remember having a discussion

with one of the very senior people from USAID

and I said "This is crazy, we're just making this man very rich."

This person turned to me and said,

Martin you don't understand.

I have a briefing from the president of the United States

to kill communism.

The only way we're going to kill communism

is by killing the economic basis of it."

Exactly the same thing happened in Ukraine.

The process of privatization was different

but there was no control over the privatization.

Therefore it was a carve up.

The law was so badly worded you could

drive a brigade of tanks through it.

Some of them grew rich at the point of a gun,

some of them grew rich

because they were extremely good businessmen.

Some of them just happened to be

the right person in the right place at the right time.

Since independence the Mafia and banditry

have thrived in Donietsk,

at the heart of the coal industry in the DOMBASS.

Kuchma's privatisations

also legalised these new businessmen bandits.

In return, they promise him obedience.

One of the bright young men who is making a name for himself

in this sinister world is Rinat Akhmetov.

He is the protege of the Godfather of Donietsk,

the sponsor of the football team Shaktar.

Akhmetov's benefactor is mysteriously assassinated

in the stadium built for his club.

Akmetov inherits not only the club, but his whole estate.

The president and the security service

would collect intelligence

on the corruption undertaken by the oligarchs

and those files would be kept under wraps

just as long as the oligarchs

were politically loyal to the president.

If they stepped out of line, the files would come out

and they would go on trial.

So it was a blackmail state.

St Sophie's Cathedral

belongs to all orthodox churches in Kiev.

On the 18th of July 1995

the Ukrainian orthodox community tries to bury its patriarch.

But the Russian orthodox church bars the passage.

Kuchma sends in the riot police.

CHAOTIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

In despair, the congregation buries him

outside the walls of the cathedral.

CHAOTIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

Repression is back

and Kuchma clearly shows that his convictions

lie with the Russian orthodox church,

the powerful tool of the KGB.

CROWD AMBIENCE

Fraud helps Kuchma win the presidential elections in 1998.

His clan's control of resources,

corruption the muzzling of the media, repression...

have all seriously tarnished his image.

He needs a good honest prime minister.

Victor Yushchenko, the head of the national bank,

and creator of the new currency, the Gryvna,

is considered by Forbes magazine to be

one of the best economists in the world.

A fervent patriot, he's the man for the job.

CHATTERING

On the 3rd of November 2000,

a mutilated and headless body

is found in a shallow grave in a forest near Kiev.

The man is wearing the chain and ring of Georgiy Gongadze,

a journalist from Ukrainski Pravda.

Gongadze's caustic articles and interviews

regularly incriminate the president.

The media belongs to Kuchma's clan

and few voices dare speak out.

For Gongadze's colleagues

this is a pre meditated assassination.

500 journalists demonstrate against the regime

and demand freedom of the press.

TAPE RECORDING

Melynchenko wants the recordings to be made public.

The leader of the socialist party, Oleksandr Moroz

has Kuchma's voice validated.

CROWD CHANTING

Gongadze, the lack of freedom of the press, enough is enough.

The crowd takes to the floor.

The movement is called Ukraine without Kuchma.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

In parliament, Kuchma's clan makes the most of the moment

to fire Yulia Tymoshenko

who has become the minister for energy.

Yulia Tymoshenko is arrested on the 13th of February, 2000.

On the 2nd of April, thanks to the

anti Kuchma demonstrations, she is liberated.

When she leaves prison she has a new

traditional Ukrainian hairstyle.

The next on the list is Victor Yushchenko.

He is fired from his position of prime minister

Yulia Tymoshenko and Victor Yushchenko's parties

join forces in opposition to the regime.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

APPLAUSE

On the 7th of May 2000.

Vladimir Putin is elected president of Russia.

For Kuchma, Putin is a God send.

The Gongadze affair has left deep scars,

the population is angry, his clan is less manageable,

he needs help from outside,

and Putin couldn't ask for more.

His aim is to rebuild an empire for Russia

like in the good old days of the USSR.

Kuchma makes more trips to Moscow than to his datcha.

Commercial deals are made by the dozen

and the delicate problem of gas is left in the cupboard,

for the time being...

For the 10th anniversary of Independence

a massive parade is organised

in honour of Vladimir Putin.

But another matter preoccupies the two men.

Kuchma cannot stand for presidency a third time.

They need to prepare a candidate

who is pro Russian and can be easily manipulated.

Viktor Yanukovych is the leader of the Party of Regions

created in 2001 in the East of Ukraine

by the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov,

the political sponsor of Viktor Yanukovych.

APPLAUSE

The files concerning the criminal past of Yanukovych,

sentenced twice for robbery, are carefully

kept under wraps by the KGB in Moscow.

As planned, prime minister Yanukovych becomes

the presidential candidate for the regime.

Kuchma publicly declares that these

elections will be the most terrifying ever.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

The candidate in the orange camp is Viktor Yushchenko.

Supported by the West he stands for democracy,

justice and Ukrainian values,

and he has the charisma of a John F Kennedy.

On the 5th of September, late in the evening,

Yushchenko leaves Kiev for a dinner party

organised by a member of the Ukrainian secret services

at his datcha.

Over the next few days

Yushchenko's body is covered with an

infected blister like eruption.

His doctors immediately dispatch him

to Vienna to consult specialists.

According to the tests Yushchenko has been poisoned

by a form of Dioxine

which has belated effects on body organs and leads to death.

The cruel irony is that this poison

used by the Americans in the Vietnam war

is called agent orange.

But it is also fabricated by the KGB.

Just to show that the attacks are not selective

a fortnight later, Putin's PR team who

are running the Yanukovych campaign

stage an attack on their candidate

in a pro Yushchenko town.

The grenade is an egg

Kuchma and Putin are beginning to have a few doubts

On the 21st November, the second round of elections

confronts the two main candidates.

Everyone is expecting election fraud.

Ukrainian NGOs like PORA

are trained by American NGOS to obtain democratic elections.

Lots of observers are coming into our country

to check if our elections were falsified or not.

But in our country we were able to falsify the elections

and to falsify the freedom of speech during 70 years.

Do you think it is very easy to come and put an end to it?

Just because you come from the West ?

It's not so easy because we have lots of practice.

I was at home in my native town in Tchernigiv

and I was an observer.

We counted the votes all night, like several hours

we were counting and then I went home.

When I woke up in the morning

my mum was shocked.

And then I realised something happened.

And she said Iryna, you know, you should go...

PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT

CHATTERING

I was one of those young people

who didn't care about politics at all.

I would rather watch some TV show than the news.

Why would I? I was like, 24, 25.

But, when this happened... in 2004, and they announced that

Yanukovych was our president.

We all knew it was such a lie and

we could see it with our own eyes.

So the president was Yanukovych!

I started crying.

I went outside and that's where

everything started for me personally.

I spent the whole night on Kreshchiatic street

where people had already started together.

BEEPING HORN

In spite of the barricades and nails

placed on the roads by the regime,

hundreds and thousands of Ukrainians flock to the capital

by bus, by car, by train, on foot.

Kreshchiatic, the main street in Kiev and Maidan,

Independence square, fill up with tents.

A tent for each region.

Maidan becomes a map of Ukraine.

CROWD CHANTING

People from Kiev brought food to Maidan.

Old ladies with nothing to eat, gave their last crust of bread,

but as the days went by we became more and more organised.

We conquered the Ukrainian House

where people who were freezing cold could sleep a little

warm up, take medicine, eat something.

You could see on Maidan women bringing tea and

little sandwiches and they gave

and they didn't asked to be paid.

PIANO

PIANO

It wasn't about Washington or Moscow,

it was about those people who

went on the Maidan.

They were risking themselves,

they knew they could lose their jobs.

At some point, they knew that there was risk of fight.

There was a danger of being killed.

The first 7 days of the revolution

are the most dangerous.

The population knows that Ukrainian troops

have been ordered to encircle the capital.

These soldiers are their brothers, their cousins.

They have been given real bullets.

Russian troops, disguised in Ukrainian uniforms,

are en route for Kiev.

SIRENS

UKRAINIAN FOLK MUSIC

SIRENS

UKRAINIAN MUSIC

SIRENS AND UKRAINIAN MUSIC

The blue camp is near the station,

where miners and other supporters

arrive from the East.

There are few women.

But Viktor Yanukovych has brought along a secret weapon,

Mrs. Yanukovych.

DRUMS

When we climbed the hill, we saw blue tents,

Yanukovych's supporters.

They were a bit aggressive, but I squeezed

the hand of my friend and I said just

keep smiling and be friendly,

and then a crowd form Maidan started to arrive.

I was really scared, because

violence can break out at any moment,

but they started to shout East and West together.

It was very important,

because the West of Ukraine was for Yushchenko

and the East of Ukraine was for Yanukovych.

CAR HORNS BEEPING

MUSIC

Election fraud has been officially confirmed,

and the Europeans ask Kuchma to call for a

round table discussion to reach a solution.

Yulia Tymoshenko is not invited.

She is on the streets.

Her objective is to avoid violence

between Ukrainians at all costs.

Collin Powell calls Kuchma from the United states.

If the troops move in, the bank accounts of

Ukrainian oligarchs in the US will be closed.

Kuchma makes a flying visit to Moscow

to get Putin's endorsement.

On his return a deal is made.

Victor Yanukovych knows that the show is over.

He feels betrayed.

Leonid Kuchma obtains complete immunity.

The election commissions will be replaced,

there will be another round of elections

and a new constitution will return Ukraine

to a parliamentary republic by 2006.

MUSIC

One month later the Ukrainians vote for the third time.

Victor Yushchenko becomes the new president of Ukraine.

CROWD SINGING

Freedom is when people can speak freely,

but democracy is when the government listens.

The Orange Revolution brought a very high expectation,

for very quick change.

And that put the leaders,

the heroes of the Orange Revolution at that time,

in a kind of virtual trap.

SINGING

APPLAUSE

Putin had done everything to prevent the Orange Revolution

but the very day of his investiture,

president Yushchenko's first official visit is for Moscow.

Surprising...

but strategic.

Show the bear you're its friend.

As expected, on his return from Moscow,

President Yushchenko names Yulia Tymoshenko,

the muse of the Orange Revolution, Prime Minister.

MILITARY BRASS BAND

Second in charge, Yulia quickly

takes control of government affairs.

The aim of the Orange team is to build

a solid partnership with Europe and the West.

NATO offers Ukraine membership

but the population only wants to join the European Union

which remains silent.

Within the country, Yushchenko and Tymoshenko

major task is to attack corruption.

They start by re privatizing the Soviet steelworks Krivoristhal.

Acquired for a fraction of its value by Kuchma's son in law

Leonid Pinchuk and Rinat Akhmetov in 2004.

GAVEL SOUNDS

APPLAUSE

In an international auction,

the steelworks go to Mital Steel for a profit

of 4 billion dollars for the state.

There is general chaos amongst the

other oligarchs in Kuchma's clan.

They all expect the axe to fall.

They were fleeing to Moscow, to Monaco, fleeing to America,

they were committing suicide.

Some of them believed there would be a pogrom against them.

They used that word.

The people also want revenge

for the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze in 2000.

An enquiry confirms Kuchma's implication.

and yet, the case is put on hold.

Then comes the shock,

divorce.

Only 6 months after her nomination

Victor Yushchenko dismisses Yulia Tymoshenko

and her government.

He didn't explain why he did like that

and so it was the most important question,

you know, because people wanted to know.

They wanted to know and they had the right to know because

if you are going to provide all democracy in this country,

you have to be open.

I couldn't recognize the person who I knew since '92.

He became very different,

it's like, all good and nice things

which make him the most popular politician

had been suddenly replaced by

irritation to criticism,

by irritation to journalists.

He refused to open up.

He refused to drop all the privileges.

20 years is not a long period of time

for an independent country but at the same time,

you can say that many missed opportunities happened

and those missed opportunities are

things such as, of course, the Orange Revolution,

and Viktor Yushchenko.

Every historian and every writer,

Ukrainian and Western, will always say

this was a missed opportunity for Victor Yushchenko

to become Ukrainian's George Washington.

MUSIC

Vladimir Putin hadn't had long to wait.

Only a year after the revolution,

Orange power is already on the way out,

and gas, the blood of the new liberal Russian Empire,

becomes a real political weapon.

In August 2004,

Russia had signed a long term,

five year, literally unchangeable, agreement

with Ukraine, about gas prices

but a couple of months afterwards,

Russian authorities dramatically increased the

price of the gas supply to Ukraine,

more than 3 times.

It was intended to show the Ukraine and Europe

how powerful Russia is

in terms of gas supplies.

Price doesn't matter here.

They wanted to switch off the gas.

MUSIC

Vladimir Putin reopens the gas taps

when Ukraine accepts a new gas intermediary

RosUkrEnergo.

The idea is that cheaper gas

from all parts of the former USSR

be stocked at the border between Russia and Ukraine,

mixed with Russian gas, and then sold abroad at the same price.

The vast profits go straight into the pockets

of Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs,

and even Putin himself.

PIANO

I was on the BBC on January 3rd,

a day before they made an agreement in Moscow

and Yushchenko could have done anything he wanted

in terms of what he could have demanded from Putin in Moscow.

He didn't have to go and take in the RosUkrEnergo

because he had a very strong position vis a vis Putin.

Putin was very scared that on January 4th,

there would be an EU meeting which would denounce him.

And instead, Yushchenko went for the corrupt option,

RosUkrEnergo..

That gas corruption

fed into the Party of Regions,

fed into the Our Ukraine faction in

parliament, including his brother.

It fed into the presidential secretariat.

And the only political force in the Ukrainian parliament

that fought against that gas intermediary

was Tymoshenko.

The first parliamentary elections

since the Orange Revolution

are in March 2006.

In the new constitution,

the future Prime Minister will have

more powers than the president.

Viktor Yanukovych, the loser of the Orange Revolution,

is back in the race.

Yanukovych's party wins the election,

and he becomes Prime Minister.

The game of musical chairs has begun.

CROWD AMBIENCE

The explosive character of the Ukrainians

and the existence of nearly as many

individual parties as seats in the RADA

make it ungovernable.

Which all leads to chaos.

And broken noses.

MUSIC

Europe, which so far, has done little

to help the fledgling democracy

seems to wake up, and demands that

Ukraine find political stability.

Yanukovych and his government are ousted

for repressive policies.

And after flash parliamentary elections,

Yulia Tymoshenko can regain her offices once more.

FIGHTER JET

On the 8th of August 2008, Georgia launches an

attack on Russian infiltrated south Ossetia.

Russia immediately retaliates,

too happy to have an excuse to invade Georgia.

EXPLOSION

Al Jazeera live from Washington.

Russia confirms its forces are advancing

from the other breakaway region of Abkhazia.

The Georgian government has released a statement

saying, it is going to urgently be seeking

international intervention

to prevent the fall of Georgia.

Russia uses the Black sea port of Abkhazia to send in troops.

With renewed Cossack determination

Yushchenko flies to the support of president Saakachvili,

his comrade in arms.

Ukraine has not integrated NATO

and like Georgia, is strategically vulnerable.

On the 13th of August, Yushchenko signs a decree,

Russia is to inform Ukraine 72 hours in advance

of any Black Sea fleet manoeuvres.

In the deal made with Putin,

Ukraine will gradually pay Russian gas

the same price as Europe.

There will be no more cause for gas blackmail

and RosUkrEnergo. will cease to exist.

Yulia Tymoshenko's past as a gas princess in the 1990's

makes her more competent than many in the energy sector,

and the only Ukrainian politician for

whom Putin says he has any respect.

I don't think Yulia Tymoshenko has ever been completely trusted

by Ukrainian people.

I believe that people think that she made her fortune illegally

and less than honestly.

She's never been charged for that.

She admits, you know, she has admitted that she

played by the rules of the game

and the rules of the game were pretty loose back then,

it was the Wild West.

But I do believe that there was a time,

and I think the record shows

that she made an effort

to squeeze out these gas trading intermediaries,

to squeeze out these non transparent

transactions in the electricity sector,

gas sector, coal sector

and she was met with fierce resistance by people

who have vested interests in these things.

5 years have passed since the Orange Revolution

and the next presidential elections are in January 2010.

Yulia Tymoshenko and Victor Yanukovych

are the most popular candidates.

In December 2009,

an international symposium is held in Kiev

to talk about Ukraine's future.

Prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko

is the only candidate to accept the invitation.

Prime Minister Tymoshenko is

very bright and she is gutsy.

She is unafraid

and she is charismatic.

I think the politician in many respects

that a lot of people in this country

have been waiting for.

And she plays well on the world stage as well.

That said, she's an incumbent

when the economy is in the tank,

and it doesn't matter what country you're in

when you're the incumbent

and the economy is in the tank,

it is very, very hard to get elected.

If you want to cultivate popularity

in this part of the world,

put elites in jail... make them accountable.

That's what the public wants.

They want to see some justice after 20 years.

And I think of the candidates,

particularly of the 2 candidates that go to the 2nd round

only she understands that.

I mean, if Yanukovych comes to power

in the 2nd round of the elections

and becomes Ukraine's president,

then the oligarchs have taken over!

By February 2010,

Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovych

are neck to neck in the polls.

Travelling across the country,

Yulia draws the crowds in her galvanizing speeches,

playing to the heartstrings of the population.

Victor Yanukovych has bought himself

a diploma in economy, and learnt Ukrainian.

His style is different,

few words,

slightly mature pop stars

a few Mafiosi pals from Donetsk

an accordion

and coach loads of young people

paid to attend the meetings.

Victor Yushchenko's fans are few and far between.

Viktor Yanukovych is elected president

with 3 and a half percent more votes than Yulia Tymoshenko.

She contests the results.

In the RADA, the opposition seats remain empty.

PATRIOTIC MUSIC

People didn't vote for him because they thought he was

going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

They voted against Yushchenko and Tymoshenko.

So there was a very big negative anti vote here.

MUSIC

APPLAUSE

In May 2010, a few months after the elections,

Russia decides the time has come to move in.

President Medvedev, Robin, in the Robin Batman duo,

comes to Ukraine for a long official visit.

Medvedev is definitely less frightening than Putin

and Yanukovych hits it off with him from day one.

The two of them sign various commercial deals

and Yanukovych feels on equal grounds with his new friend...

...almost.

The Black sea Russian naval base in the Crimea

has always been high on the Kremlin's list of priorities.

It is only on lease to Russia until 2017.

Yanukovych doesn't take much persuading

to prolong the lease for another 25 years.

But parliament must have its say.

The fraud in RADA is grotesque.

Guerilla warfare breaks out between the opposition

and the Party of the Regions.

But the vote in favour of the proposition...

just passes,

and fraud is the winner of the day.

The Kremlin can rub its hands.

By doing that,

he believed that Russia would remain

very appreciative,

loyal, supportive and happy,

and we would get cheaper gas.

And therefore in April, he signed that agreement

which is called

swapping national security for cheap gas .

Relations with Russia didn't become better.

Yanukovych is shown as a clown on Russian TV,

and the economy is not getting cheaper gas

and Russia is demanding a total drop of independence.

The government is trying to make the deal,

moves with the Kremlin, trading,

Russia's interests at the expense of our sovereignty,

and some other political deals.

Probably they didn't understand

the nature of the Kremlin leaders.

They would not accept half, or a quarter of the price.

They would gain only the whole of the Ukraine.

This is their objective.

One of the determined supporters of Russia

is the minister of Education, Dimitry Tabachnik.

Russian history and Ukrainian history are one , he says,

and must be taught through Russian eyes .

He renews school history books.

MILITARY MUSIC

In October 2010,

Dominique Strauss Kahn, director of the IMF,

promises a loan of 15 billions dollars

to the apparently progressive new government

to consolidate public finances.

This money will not go to the people,

it will be siphoned off by the oligarchs

and the country's debts will increase.

As with Vladimir Putin in 2000,

the West seems oblivious of the real nature

of the new president of Ukraine

and his priorities.

Once the deal's signed,

the new regime starts to show its real face.

In November 2010,

Yanukovych's government introduces tax reforms,

penalizing small businesses,

the backbone of the shadow economy .

A demonstration is organized by civil society movements

and called Maidan 2.

No longer trusted, politicians are not welcomed.

The new tax law

is so damaging to small and medium size enterprises

that 800,000 companies have disappeared in the last year.

These reforms benefit big business. The oligarchs.

These people want it all.

They're not prepared to accept a little bit of it.

They don't just want to be big fish

or medium sized fish

in a very big pond.

They want to be massive fish in a very tiny pond.

There is this idea that we can have it all, we can take it all.

We can just simply take over.

I mean, an example is the Kiev gold factory,

when the director was visited by police a couple of weeks ago

and told you re going to sell your factory"

"and here is who you re going to sell it to.

And he said I don't want to sell my factory ,

and they said we ll come back next week

and you'll sell it.

And they came back next week, 75 of them,

they beat him up, they wrecked his offices

and they said now, we will be back on Friday

with the papers for you to sell the factory.

He's left. Gone.

Now, when you've got the police

organized in such banditry,

and then you couple that with

what's going on with the road police

and the tax police,

this is organized state banditry.

MUSIC

Violence and state banditry in business,

exploitation and slavery

in the darker parts of the coal industry.

Every year hundreds die anonymously,

while the elite of the country gets richer and richer.

MUSIC

MUSIC

For some like Yuri Lutsenko, former minister of the Interior,

it is the first night in prison.

He is accused of having embezzled 5000

dollars from the State to pay his driver.

The real reason behind Lutsenko's imprisonment

is his leading role in the Orange Revolution and

his battle against the Mafiosi oligarch groups in Donietsk.

He is detained under no legal grounds

until his trial and he is not the only one.

20 members of the opposition suffer the same fate.

In November 2011,

Yanukovych names an old friend, Victor Pshonka,

as general Prosecutor.

His job is to take charge of the opposition.

Yulia Tymoshenko is summoned to the

General Prosecutor's office

every day for 6 months.

There are three main criminal charges against her,

for having spent the money from the

Kyoto summit to buy ambulances,

proved false,

for spending IMF money to pay retirement pensions,

also dropped,

and, thirdly, for having indebted Ukraine

in the 2009 gas deal

with Putin.

On the 11th of May 2011,

Yulia is detained by the General Prosecutor.

CAMERAS CLICKING

I hope to use this opportunity to convey

to President Yanukovych our concern regarding

recent cases, of what is perceived as selective justice

in Ukraine, against members of previous administrations,

notably Mrs Tymoshenko.

Two possibilities lie open for Ukraine

to increase its business abroad,

the deep free trade agreement with the European Union

or the customs agreement with

Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

The agreement with Europe would open far more

doors to Ukrainian oligarchs,

but the Europeans are hesitant.

The Europeans, from the get go,

have been disingenuous

about how much they value Ukraine's independence.

When governments have had to make choices,

they've gone with a much broader opinion which says,

at the end of the day,

it's more important to have good relations with Russia

then with Ukraine.

And if having good relations with Russia

means pushing Ukraine back into the Russian orbit,

that's a decision we're willing to make.

For Putin, his demand was,

you have to chose between joining the CIS custom's union

of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan

or signing the deep free trade

agreement with the European Union.

You can't join both because you only can

be in one custom's union at the same time.

The recent visit of Putin was sort of hysterical.

He was not simply pressing but actually demanding

that Ukraine drops the idea of signing

the free trade agreement with Europe

and signs not only the custom's union

but the single economic space

becomes part of one big market, Russia.

Putin openly despises Yanukovych for his criminal past

and he is irritated by the fact

that this stubborn criminal

is trying to play some kind of game

with the Europeans

Russia can then come along and control Ukraine,

not politically but financially.

Russians don't play chess for nothing,

they're always five or six steps ahead.

Looking at where Russia goes from here,

it has to control the energy supply.

Once it controls that,

it controls the energy supply to Europe.

Russia has always had its eyes on Ukrainian

gas pipelines to Europe.

On the 24th of September 2011, Independence Day,

Yanukovych's good friend, Medvedev, delivers an ultimatum,

either Ukraine pays off the gas debts, which it can't,

or it sells its gas pipelines to Russia to cover its debts.

For Ukraine, Russian gas prices are higher than ever.

We don't need Russian gas at all.

Let them establish the price at ten million

or billion, per thousand cubic metres,

it doesn't matter.

Because Ukraine, unlike many European nations,

has abundant energy resources,

natural gas, oil,

hydro regeneration, nuclear power stations,

some of the biggest in Europe.

We have coal for 400 plus years,

we have strategic pipelines to transport

Asian and Russian gas to Europe,

we can balance our energy needs without Russian gas at all.

Ukraine may have abundant resources,

but it is like an underdeveloped country

with no concept of state.

Resources are of no use to the nation,

without political will and long term development

by the state for the state.

- Ukraine could easily produce

over a hundred million tons of grain a year.

That would bankrupt European farmers completely

and make Europe totally dependent

for food supply from Ukraine.

Now Russia knows that

and by controlling that, they then control Europe.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

CROWD ANNOUNCEMENT

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

ANTHEM PLAYS

The problem with Yanukovych's regime

is greed has just gone out of control.

Ukraine's football stadiums for the Europe 2012 games

are the most expensive in Europe!

And yet the workers are paid some

of the lowest salaries in Europe.

So this is all theft from the government on dodgy contracts,

of course most of those building

construction companies are from Donetsk.

EXCITABLE FOLK MUSIC

Rinat Akhmetov started of in banditry in the 90s.

Today, the richest oligarch in Ukraine,

a coal and steel billionaire

he is the living proof of how to get rich in a poor country .

The Colosseum in Roman times was the way

to distract the masses from problems in the Roman Empire,

it's the same kind of thing...

give them lots of shows,

give them lots of spectacles on TV

and hopefully they'll forget about politics.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

SINGS IN UKRAINIAN

LOUD CHEERING

Money buys everything,

ownership is power.

With the Euro 2012 football finals coming up,

president Yanukovych declares that Ukraine's beautiful women

are the greatest asset for the country's tourist industry.

Ukraine's greatest tourist asset does not necessarily agree.

The female movement FEMEN

has its own message for Euro 2012 tourists.

CHANTING

Yulia Tymoshenko's trial starts on the 24th of June 2011.

The 31 year old judge has hardly any experience.

The resignation in his face and his eyes

says much for the repression in the country.

The judge now is completely dependent on the prosecution

and on the president's men.

He cannot be independent,

and this young man who has been put there

is also under pressure

and the whole process when I was sitting next to my mum

he looks like some kind of surreal show.

COURTROOM COMMOTION

In order to remove the intermediary company

RosUkrEnergo from the market,

Mrs Tymoshenko decided to accept

unprofitable conditions for Ukraine.

This is pure personal revenge

against somebody who became a threat

to their personal, financial interests,

especially because the gas lobby are very much

in power and in influence around Yanukovych

and because they are now in power,

for them, its time for revenge against Tymoshenko

who, in 2009, removed the gas intermediary RosUkrEnergo

and that meant the loss of up to 7 billion dollars a year

for that group of people.

Accused of contempt of court,

Yulia Tymoshenko is arrested

and held in prison for the rest of the proceedings.

The trial takes place in the summer,

in a small cramped courtroom.

The heat is unbearable.

When one of Yulia Tymoshenko's lawyers

complains about the conditions,

they are evicted.

The judge orders the militia to empty the room of journalists,

members of the opposition and family.

CROWD COMMOTION

For the rest of the trial,

Yulia Tymoshenko is left to defend herself alone.

There are 30 witnesses for the defence,

only three are heard.

There are 33 for the prosecution,

28 are heard.

On the 11th of October of 2011,

Yulia Tymoshenko is found guilty

of having made an illegal gas deal

with Vladimir Putin in 2009.

JOURNALISTS SHOUTING OVER CROWD

COMMOTION

SHOUTS IN UKRAINIAN

SHOUTS AND SCREAMS

Yulia Tymoshenko is sentenced to seven years in prison,

a fine of 186 million dollars,

the sum lost for the State,

and a ban from any political function or elections.

Across the Western world,

this trial is condemned as being a show trial

and the sentence a political persecution.

In prison, strange bruises appear

all over Yulia Tymoshenko's body.

The pain in her back is so bad that she can no longer walk.

She is refused the right to see her own doctors.

When the torture commission comes to see

the conditions of her imprisonment,

she is quickly transferred to a new,

freshly painted, comfortable room

and filmed, against her will, by the State TV.

Of course, they can orchestrate any kind of accident,

you know, there are so many ways now to kill a person

without any signs of disease or substances.

She is very strong and I really hope that

she'll continue to be strong for us and, you know, for Ukraine.

MUSIC

In fact, what they've done is reunite the country

because the concerns that the people have

in the East and the West of Ukraine are identical.

There is no difference anymore between East and West,

the political divide which was invented,

...now the country is united by its

disillusionment of the system.

BANDOURI MUSIC

CHOIR SINGING

PRIEST CHANTING

Myroslava Leschenko lived through the

history of Ukraine from Stalin to Yanukovych

fighting against the repression of the Ukrainian nation.

MUSIC

CROWD CHEERING

DRUMS AND MUSIC

Maidance is an inter city dance competition.

It occupies Maidan, Independence Square, for 3 months.

No tent can be planted.

Thousands and thousands of young people take part.

Enthusiasm, innocence.

They dance for the pride of their city,

for their country, for the pleasure.

MUSIC

Do these young people know that the state TV

organising this contest

belongs to former head of the secret services

and powerful oligarch.

MUSIC

Yulia Tymoshenko is tried on further charges

which could add another 10 years to her sentence.

She has become a martyr,

continuing her battle from behind bars.

Victor Yanukovych has opened a Pandora's box,

if he is to stay in power, she and others must stay

or die in prison.

The oligarch's greed has become cannibalistic,

more, and more, and more.

MUSIC

For Ukraine to become a democracy,

for freedom to exist,