01/28/2002 | Serhiy Hrysch

Volodymyr Lytvyn Acknowledges Copyright Infringement and Adds Lie To Lie

Maidan

In January 28, 2002, the Head of Presidential Administration, the leader of an election block “For United Ukraine”, and the academic of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Mr. Volodymyr Lytvyn, has made a statement acknowledging that he copied an article “Civil Society” from the Foreign Policy magazine, translated it into Russian, and published it under his own name. Apparently, Mr. Lytvyn’s confession is flawed and targeted to mislead the Ukrainian and American public and ease his responsibility for his copyright infringement.

In January 28th interview with Marina Pyrozhuk of Radio Liberty / Radio Free Europe Ukrainian Service, Mr. Lytvyn defended his stealing the article by a larger audience of Ukraine’s newspaper “Fakty” in comparison to the audience of the U.S. published Foreign Policy magazine.

In his response to the correspondent’s question, Mr. Lytvyn alleged that he, in fact, made a service to the Foreign Policy Magazine. Answering to another question, Mr. Lytvyn mentioned that he is aware of “those” who think that he will benefit from the increased attention to his personality because of his illegal acts.

The most prominent lie of Mr. Lytvyn is that the Foreign Policy edition of winter 1999 (“three years old”, as he has put it), did not contain a reference to the author (Dr. Thomas Carothers). However, a search showed that the magazine had, in fact, mentioned the author of the article as “Thomas Carothers”. Mr. Lytvyn’s statement clearly indicates either huge degree of ignorance or straight lies.

Mr. Lytvyn complained about “double standards” of all professional political scientists: “This [situation] shows double standards of our political scientists and those who research the [political] issues on a professional, specialized, basis.” He commanded those political scientists to “calm down”.

Furthermore, Mr. Lytvyn acknowledged that he knowingly copied the article: “This was of course a mistake, but it was planned in this way. But there is no evil without the good.”

“I believe, [the article produced] an interesting effect. I was accused of almost propagating fascism. They did not know that they accuse the latest word of the American science about the American democracy,” said Mr. Lytvyn trying to misrepresent himself as a channel of the latest word in American science. Way to go, Mr. Head of Presidential Administration!

”I am praying to the ideals of a civil society,” added Mr. Lytvyn.

Background:

Mr. Lytvyn has copied the article "Civil Society" by Dr. Thomas Carothers of the Carnegie Foundation in Washington, D.C., translated into Russian, and published it with minor changes under his own name. The article of Dr. Carothers was initially published in Foreign Policy magazine in winter 1999.

The American and Ukrainian academia should be aware of the low ethical standards of Mr. Lytvyn and should not refer to him as "Doctor". The plagiarism of Mr. Lytvyn is a serious illegal and dishonest act and can be viewed as a substantial and sufficient basis for his pursuing in a U.S. and Ukraine’s court on a number of offenses.