The "Drug Wars" (4)- Kiev, Ukraine 1994

"Vodka in the morning, vodka in the evening, vodka at suppertime...."


Subsequent to the fall of the Soviet Union, the Drug Enforcement Administration's Office of International Training received numerous requests for drug law enforcement training from the newly-created ex-Soviet republic nations. As a member of one of DEA's traveling international training teams, I was assigned to be the course coordinator for a 2 week course to be held in Kiev, Ukraine in 1994. As course coordinator, it would be my job to do an advance trip to Kiev to meet with Ukrainian officials and US Embassy personnel, arrange hotel accommodations, a training room and interpretors. This course was considered a regional course, which meant that one or two drug law enforcement officers from each of the former Soviet republics would be attending. While I had previously traveled to Eastern Europe, this was my first trip to a former part of the Soviet Union. It was a memorable experience.

Upon arrival in Kiev, I was met by the DEA attache from Vienna, who had responsibility for the Ukraine. A Ukrainian-American, he was also fluent in the Ukrainian language. Our Ukrainian counterparts also met me, and they were very hospitable. During my advance stay in Kiev, they took me around the city to choose a suitable hotel in which to stay, accommodate the non-Ukrainian students and hold the seminar. After visiting the 2 main hotels in Kiev, which were "first-class' Soviet style hotels, I decided that their seminar rooms were simply not adequate to our needs. Per their suggestion, we checked out a place called the Prolisok on the edge of town. This place had been used as a lodging site for Olympic athletes during the Moscow Olympics. It was set in a wooded area, with a separate building for rooms and another building for the seminar. It was closed for the winter, but due to open in the spring. It seemed intriguing, the seminar room was large and suitable, so I booked it for our seminar.

It was during this trip that I was introduced to the Ukrainian custom (like the Russians) of getting drowned in Vodka. Like Russia, vodka was the Ukrainian curse. One evening, I accompanied my counterparts to the home of another cop and his family for dinner. There were about 8 of us there, and I remember the family daughter playing for us on the piano. As dinner was served, I noted that they had Moldovan wine. (Moldova was noted for its wine.) I was a wine drinker, so I drank wine with my meal. After dinner, glasses were placed on the table and the vodka came out. In events like these, it is traditional for everyone, beginning with the host, to stand and make a small welcoming speech, followed by a toast and-bottoms up with the vodka. This is expected of all men, and it would be offensive not to participate. Of course, I participated-no problem. By the time, the 4-5th person got up to speak, I was starting to feel the effects. Then, of course, I had to give my own speech, which I managed to slur out, telling them how much I had come to love Ukraine. Every night I was with my counterparts, a similar scenario played out.

On the day I was leaving for the airport, the cops drove me to catch my plane. I was pretty worn out from the obligatory vodka drinking and anxious to get on the plane. A couple of miles from the airport, the car swung into a wooded area and parked. The trunk was opened and out came bread, various meats and -vodka. So for the next hour, we stood in the woods eating and drinking vodka-so I wouldn't be thirsty on my flight home.

A couple of months later, our team traveled to Kiev in the spring to conduct the seminar. I traveled ahead a couple of days prior to make sure everything was set. I flew to Zurich to make my connecting flight to Kiev. After spending a few hours with the narcotic cops in Zurich, with whom I had previously worked while stationed in Italy in the 1980s, I went back to the airport to catch my flight-only to learn that it had been cancelled since I was the only person on the flight. Fortunately, I was able to book another flight through Vienna and call my colleagues in Kiev with my new arrival time-now 11 pm. They met me at the airport and took me to the Prolisok just in time to close the hotel bar drinking more vodka and toasting our upcoming seminar. It was then I learned that, when open, the hotel was a popular truck stop for drivers traversing Europe in their TIR (Pre-Customed cleared cargo) trucks. It had looked so charming when it was closed without all the trucks parked outside. As you might imagine, when my boss and the rest of the team arrived, they were less than thrilled. After a couple of days, they moved to one of the Soviet style hotels in town.

Then our students arrived from all over the former USSR. This included Russians, Balts, Central Asians and Belarusans. (Incidentally, it was this experience that inspired me to write my first book-on the languages of the former Soviet republics. Each of these cops had their own national language and spoke Russian as well, which was the common language. The most memorable character was a former KGB colonel from the Republic of Georgia. He arrived with two suitcases, one with clothes, the other with bottles of vodka. Virtually every night, there was a vodka fest in his room. When the festivities were not taking place in his room, everyone adjourned to the hotel bar where the vodka continued to flow. On the night my team arrived after a long flight from the states, one of our DEA guys was pretty sick and only wanted to go to bed. Nonetheless, the cop from Georgia was insistent that our guy drink vodka with him and was incensed when he begged off.

"What? Are you too good to drink with me? he demanded.

Thus it followed virtually every night. I soon realized that it had been a huge mistake to stay in the same hotel with the cops. Nevertheless, I decided to remain, even when my team changed hotels since it seemed necessary for the coordinator to be there at all times.

The seminar opened and speaking at the opening ceremony was the Minister of Interior, Yuri Kravchenko, a handsome, youthful man dressed in a colorful suit and white tie that seemed more appropriate to the Masters Golf Tournamnet than Ukraine.

During the weekend break, our counterparts arranged a boat ride down the Dnieper River to Kanev to visit the home of and Museum dedicated to the life of Ukraine's national hero, the dissident poet, Taras Shevchenko. The site is set on a hill overlooking the Dnieper, and is quite reminiscent of Mt Vernon. With a video camera rolling and patriotic music playing over a loudspeaker, my Ukraiian-American DEA colleague and I were able to lay a wreath on Shevchenko's grave. Then it was off to a restaurant for lunch and -more vodka. Our host from Kanev was a retired Soviet general from World War II (the Great Patriotic War to the Soviets). During the war, he had reportedly captured an entire German division, brigade, platoon or something by himself.

His experience in WW2 had not taken away his ability to put away the vodka. He led the speeches and the toasts and set the rules: according to custom, whenever anyone drinks to your health (HEALTH??!!), you must down the glass in one gulp. (Keep in mind, these were not shot glasses. They were more like water glasses.) Also, when you are giving the speech and the toast, you must do the bottoms up. It was kind of like those drinking games college kids play. I found myself thinking; "Now I know how he captured all those Germans. He got them drunk on vodka."

The closing ceremony on our last night was, as you might expect, soaked with vodka. The Minister of Interior was there again, and after the awards, everone got sloshed.

The next morning, we were picked up by the cops for the ride to the airport. Our team leader was so eager to get on that plane; he had had his fill of obligatory vodka. But I knew what was coming. As we neared the airport, I was riding in the car behind him and watching to see his reaction as the cars pulled into the woods for that final "one for the road".

Postscript: The following year, the Minister of Interior, Yuri Kravchenko, died of an apparent suicide. He had been involved in a political scandal and had accused the President, Leonid Kuchma, of having ordered the murder of a journalist. Kravchenko reportedly died of two (2) self-inflicted gunshots to the head.