A Dress Rehearsal
This is it - the big day! Will the General sign the document, or will there be further delays???? That is the question! In anticipation of things going well both Ed and I dressed up - he in a suit and tie and dress shirt, I in my black skirt, black Arche flats, green V neck long sleeved knit top and my fabulous shawl that I got in Costa Rica. It's getting pretty cold here now. It seems to go directly from very very hot summer to quite chilly late autumn here.
Ed was scheduled to meet with Gennadiy, Arkadiy and the General and his assistant and their lawyer (who turns out to be a general as well), and the Deputy Director for the entire region - the number 2 person in charge of all the police chiefs and officers in the Kharkiv Oblast) at 11 a.m. at the former KGB Building. We decided that I should go to, and take photos of this momentous occasion. There was just one small problem - neither Ed nor Gennadiy had yet to see or read the final agreement which Gennadiy was supposed to sign at 11 a.m.!!! Ed had arranged to meet both Gennadiy and Arkadiy at the building at 10 a.m., with Vicky, so that they could review it, but Arkadiy neglected to bring it with him! (The day before when Ed tried to get Arkadiy to email it to him, Arkadiy was not able to do that, and when he tried to get the Deputy Director's email address so that Ed could ask her for a copy, Arkadiy was unable to provide that either, even though he had obviously received her email address when he got the agreement that she had emailed to him on Saturday morning.) The Deputy Director was in a meeting, so she couldn't give them a copy, so they just cooled their heels for about an hour until the Deputy Director emerged from her meeting and could print out copies for them.
Meanwhile, I had gone to the printer that Vicky had told me about to finalize the text on my and Ed's "calling" cards - I can't really call them business cards because they have no business name, address or title! These guys are great (unlike the first printers I used). They did a proof instantaneously, helped me decide on the correct English phonetic spelling of our street in Kyiv (Kostyolnya - the last "y" replaces the cirillic symbol for softening the preceding consonant, so you have a sort of slight pause and intake of breath - sometimes it's indicated with an apostrophe, but this seemed better), and I disposed of the matter in about 10 minutes. I arrived at the former KGB Building, as directed by Ed, at 10:30, camera at the ready!
So I was there waiting with Arkadiy and Ed and Vicky when the Deputy Director emerged. She is a very attractive woman, with blond hair swept up on top of her head, and she was wearing her police uniform, with a big medal on her chest, and very high black spike heels with silver star burst decorations on the toe section of the shoe. Very nice! She has great legs so it looked fabulous. The uniforms are quite good looking, blue, with fitted jackets and short straight skirts.
We went into her office (which is really quite splendid by Ukraine standards, let alone Kharkiv standards) and she printed out a copy of the agreement for Ed. (We later learned from Vicky that the first thing she said, in Russian, was "Too bad we couldn't do this Saturday as planned, but I understand someone was sick" !!! Vicky didn't translate this for Ed at the time - good thing too because I would have gone ballistic. Arkadiy probably told her that Ed was sick, when Ed was available and desperate to get this thing done!!!) Ed quickly went over the agreement with Vicky - an important section had been deleted - and then, after Gennadiy arrived (he had had to go back to the office to get the official stamp for the signing of the agreement - he hadn't been told by Arkadiy that they were going to sign everything that morning), Ed began to discuss the deletion with the Deputy Director. The police position was quite reasonable - Ed wanted to include a provision requiring the police to wait to question a detainee, even when the suspect wanted to waive his or her right to counsel, until a PD lawyer confirmed with the detainee that he or she did, in fact, want to waive right to counsel. This could eat up a lot of time, especially if the PD lawyer was particularly slow in responding to the call from the police. But under Ukrainian law, the police have only a 3 hour window in which to question a detainee after arrest. The police investigators' position is that there is nothing in the law that requires them to wait so long for a public defender to confirm that the right to counsel has been freely waived (quite true), and they would therefore never follow this rule even if the agreement was signed with this provision included. Ed suggested that they limit the time for a PD lawyer to arrive to 45 minutes. He asked if it would be possible to write the agreement this way. The Deputy Director laughed and said "We can write whatever we want, but the investigators will not do it, and there is no law that requires them to wait for a lawyer once the right to counsel has been waived." She pointed out that it would be very detrimental to the Project sign an agreement that was openly flouted from the outset. So a compromise was reached - since the PD office will only be serving one police station and court instead of two, it will have enough lawyers to be able to assign one, on a rotating basis, to be present at the police station all the time so that there will be no delay in having the interview to confirm the waiver of right to counsel. Ed had wanted to avoid having a lawyer stationed at the police station because he didn't want the lawyers getting too friendly with the police officers and investigators, and possibly, as a result, subconsciously becoming less aggressive in their representation of their clients. He was also worried that the clients might think that the lawyers work for the police rather than for them. But, all things considered, this seems to be the best solution, at least for the time being.
The call came that the General was waiting for us. We went down two floors. The halls were carpeted with beautiful runners, the walls were wood paneled, and we were ushered into a beautiful conference room with a huge circular desk, with an empty space in the center in which there was a virtual garden of green houseplants! The General arrived - I was introduced by Ed "Ce moya durzhina - vona advocat" - and the General said he knew - word had already reached him that I was there. I took some photos, and then it was decided that there should be a big-deal signing session with the media, etc. present. So even though everything is now agreed to, the actual official signing will take place tomorrow (and I've worn the only nice thing I have with me today!!). I guess they won't be surprised to see me there with my camera - I wonder if I should bring Belle too!
As we were leaving I asked Vicky to ask the Deputy Director if she was wearing "regulation" shoes. The Deputy said that the regulations just say that black shoes must be worn, so she supposes that they are! Ed asked what the medal was for - and she said it was for "motherhood" - we all exclaimed and asked how old her child is, and when she said 22! I swear Ed and I both thought she meant 22 months! This woman looks 32 tops!! She told us that she is 45, which is hard to believe, and that you get this medal because your child has succeeded at something, so you are honored for having brought up the child very well. Her daughter is a ballerina with the Hanover Ballet (I'll have to find out whether that's Hanover Germany, or somewhere else). Ed and I told her how much we love the ballet and that we had seen Swan Lake on Friday night. She said that they are now doing Don Giovanni at the opera and it's quite good. Maybe we'll have to go - we'll see if we have time before we leave.
On my way home I stopped off at the post office to buy two envelopes with stamps to send two letters to our new address - one in English writing and one in Cyrillic. On the Cyrillic envelope I put my return address in English letters and on the other I put the return address in Cyrillic - so it will be interesting to see whether the English one gets to the address in Kyiv, and if not, whether it gets returned to me here.
I also stopped at a hotel that seems to have sprung up overnight. Two months ago there was a run down building that said "HOTEL" in Russian but was missing a couple of letters. Today it's quite nicely restored, with the usual granite entrance, but nice wood and carpets throughout. It's on Gogol Street and called the Chichikov, after the character in Dead Souls I suppose. All the receptionists seem to speak at least a little English. I looked at the rooms, and they are nicely done, with good quality furniture, and nicely and differently tiled bathrooms (tiny tiles, instead of the usual 12 inch square fake marble tiles). It costs $160 for a double, including tax and buffet breakfast, and it was worth checking out because Ed will no doubt have to make a few visits to Kharkiv after we move to Kyiv. They weren't too keen on the idea of Belle staying there, but I'll bring her by, and I'm sure they'll melt and give in. I had a capuccino in the bar while I wrote out the addresses on my envelopes - good Illy coffee - but yikes!! 20 HVA, without a tip!!! Even Beatric only charges 8.20 HVA with a tip.
Ed was scheduled to meet with Gennadiy, Arkadiy and the General and his assistant and their lawyer (who turns out to be a general as well), and the Deputy Director for the entire region - the number 2 person in charge of all the police chiefs and officers in the Kharkiv Oblast) at 11 a.m. at the former KGB Building. We decided that I should go to, and take photos of this momentous occasion. There was just one small problem - neither Ed nor Gennadiy had yet to see or read the final agreement which Gennadiy was supposed to sign at 11 a.m.!!! Ed had arranged to meet both Gennadiy and Arkadiy at the building at 10 a.m., with Vicky, so that they could review it, but Arkadiy neglected to bring it with him! (The day before when Ed tried to get Arkadiy to email it to him, Arkadiy was not able to do that, and when he tried to get the Deputy Director's email address so that Ed could ask her for a copy, Arkadiy was unable to provide that either, even though he had obviously received her email address when he got the agreement that she had emailed to him on Saturday morning.) The Deputy Director was in a meeting, so she couldn't give them a copy, so they just cooled their heels for about an hour until the Deputy Director emerged from her meeting and could print out copies for them.
Meanwhile, I had gone to the printer that Vicky had told me about to finalize the text on my and Ed's "calling" cards - I can't really call them business cards because they have no business name, address or title! These guys are great (unlike the first printers I used). They did a proof instantaneously, helped me decide on the correct English phonetic spelling of our street in Kyiv (Kostyolnya - the last "y" replaces the cirillic symbol for softening the preceding consonant, so you have a sort of slight pause and intake of breath - sometimes it's indicated with an apostrophe, but this seemed better), and I disposed of the matter in about 10 minutes. I arrived at the former KGB Building, as directed by Ed, at 10:30, camera at the ready!
So I was there waiting with Arkadiy and Ed and Vicky when the Deputy Director emerged. She is a very attractive woman, with blond hair swept up on top of her head, and she was wearing her police uniform, with a big medal on her chest, and very high black spike heels with silver star burst decorations on the toe section of the shoe. Very nice! She has great legs so it looked fabulous. The uniforms are quite good looking, blue, with fitted jackets and short straight skirts.We went into her office (which is really quite splendid by Ukraine standards, let alone Kharkiv standards) and she printed out a copy of the agreement for Ed. (We later learned from Vicky that the first thing she said, in Russian, was "Too bad we couldn't do this Saturday as planned, but I understand someone was sick" !!! Vicky didn't translate this for Ed at the time - good thing too because I would have gone ballistic. Arkadiy probably told her that Ed was sick, when Ed was available and desperate to get this thing done!!!) Ed quickly went over the agreement with Vicky - an important section had been deleted - and then, after Gennadiy arrived (he had had to go back to the office to get the official stamp for the signing of the agreement - he hadn't been told by Arkadiy that they were going to sign everything that morning), Ed began to discuss the deletion with the Deputy Director. The police position was quite reasonable - Ed wanted to include a provision requiring the police to wait to question a detainee, even when the suspect wanted to waive his or her right to counsel, until a PD lawyer confirmed with the detainee that he or she did, in fact, want to waive right to counsel. This could eat up a lot of time, especially if the PD lawyer was particularly slow in responding to the call from the police. But under Ukrainian law, the police have only a 3 hour window in which to question a detainee after arrest. The police investigators' position is that there is nothing in the law that requires them to wait so long for a public defender to confirm that the right to counsel has been freely waived (quite true), and they would therefore never follow this rule even if the agreement was signed with this provision included. Ed suggested that they limit the time for a PD lawyer to arrive to 45 minutes. He asked if it would be possible to write the agreement this way. The Deputy Director laughed and said "We can write whatever we want, but the investigators will not do it, and there is no law that requires them to wait for a lawyer once the right to counsel has been waived." She pointed out that it would be very detrimental to the Project sign an agreement that was openly flouted from the outset. So a compromise was reached - since the PD office will only be serving one police station and court instead of two, it will have enough lawyers to be able to assign one, on a rotating basis, to be present at the police station all the time so that there will be no delay in having the interview to confirm the waiver of right to counsel. Ed had wanted to avoid having a lawyer stationed at the police station because he didn't want the lawyers getting too friendly with the police officers and investigators, and possibly, as a result, subconsciously becoming less aggressive in their representation of their clients. He was also worried that the clients might think that the lawyers work for the police rather than for them. But, all things considered, this seems to be the best solution, at least for the time being.
The call came that the General was waiting for us. We went down two floors. The halls were carpeted with beautiful runners, the walls were wood paneled, and we were ushered into a beautiful conference room with a huge circular desk, with an empty space in the center in which there was a virtual garden of green houseplants! The General arrived - I was introduced by Ed "Ce moya durzhina - vona advocat" - and the General said he knew - word had already reached him that I was there. I took some photos, and then it was decided that there should be a big-deal signing session with the media, etc. present. So even though everything is now agreed to, the actual official signing will take place tomorrow (and I've worn the only nice thing I have with me today!!). I guess they won't be surprised to see me there with my camera - I wonder if I should bring Belle too!As we were leaving I asked Vicky to ask the Deputy Director if she was wearing "regulation" shoes. The Deputy said that the regulations just say that black shoes must be worn, so she supposes that they are! Ed asked what the medal was for - and she said it was for "motherhood" - we all exclaimed and asked how old her child is, and when she said 22! I swear Ed and I both thought she meant 22 months! This woman looks 32 tops!! She told us that she is 45, which is hard to believe, and that you get this medal because your child has succeeded at something, so you are honored for having brought up the child very well. Her daughter is a ballerina with the Hanover Ballet (I'll have to find out whether that's Hanover Germany, or somewhere else). Ed and I told her how much we love the ballet and that we had seen Swan Lake on Friday night. She said that they are now doing Don Giovanni at the opera and it's quite good. Maybe we'll have to go - we'll see if we have time before we leave.
On my way home I stopped off at the post office to buy two envelopes with stamps to send two letters to our new address - one in English writing and one in Cyrillic. On the Cyrillic envelope I put my return address in English letters and on the other I put the return address in Cyrillic - so it will be interesting to see whether the English one gets to the address in Kyiv, and if not, whether it gets returned to me here.
I also stopped at a hotel that seems to have sprung up overnight. Two months ago there was a run down building that said "HOTEL" in Russian but was missing a couple of letters. Today it's quite nicely restored, with the usual granite entrance, but nice wood and carpets throughout. It's on Gogol Street and called the Chichikov, after the character in Dead Souls I suppose. All the receptionists seem to speak at least a little English. I looked at the rooms, and they are nicely done, with good quality furniture, and nicely and differently tiled bathrooms (tiny tiles, instead of the usual 12 inch square fake marble tiles). It costs $160 for a double, including tax and buffet breakfast, and it was worth checking out because Ed will no doubt have to make a few visits to Kharkiv after we move to Kyiv. They weren't too keen on the idea of Belle staying there, but I'll bring her by, and I'm sure they'll melt and give in. I had a capuccino in the bar while I wrote out the addresses on my envelopes - good Illy coffee - but yikes!! 20 HVA, without a tip!!! Even Beatric only charges 8.20 HVA with a tip.
posted by Susan Spivak at 1:41 PM
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