Boris Gryzlov: We Don’t Feel like Strangers
Mr. Gryzlov, you have been Chairman of the Russian Duma for only several weeks, yet your [first] visit abroad is to Ukraine. Why Kyiv?
Gryzlov: Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Kyiv recently to attend the ceremony of closing the Year of Russia in Ukraine. His trip showed that, after the Year of Russia in Ukraine we can discuss a qualitatively new phase of bilateral relations; it’s when contemporary models of Russian-Ukrainian cooperation can be worked out. During the election campaign we stressed that we would develop close, friendly, and mutually advantageous relationships with neighboring countries, our former partners in the Soviet Union, with which we are building a single economic area. We are not going back on our campaign promises. Promoting such relationships is not a political whim, but a natural desire of our electorate. And I am sure that the Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Kazakh electorates feel the same. Meeting with people, one often hears about artificial barriers in the economy, problems with people’s and commodity movements. It makes one confused, but there is also a sincere human interest in learning more about how our neighbors live. We don’t feel like strangers. You said it was my first visit abroad. I’ve often visited Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, before and after the Soviet Union’s collapse, and I’ve never felt as though visiting a foreign country. On the contrary, I’ve always felt surrounded by friends and colleagues.
Cooperation among lawmakers has its specifics, doesn’t it?
Gryzlov: One of the specifics is that, by joining efforts, we can accomplish a great deal. Let me remind you that the presidents of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan met last year and came out with the single economic space initiative. Teams of experts have since worked hard and the heads of state discussed many points. The executive, however, has reached home stretch. Prior to my visit here, the president submitted a draft agreement on SES to the Duma. Now much will depend on our legislatures. Reaching the best results will depend on how quickly and effectively the four parliaments will consider and vote on the bills; it will also depend on the degree of responsibility we demonstrate in the matter. I think that it’s our joint mission. I want to suggest to the Chairman of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine the setting up of an interparliamentary task force to deal with the SES; that the required adjustments be made in the legislation, new laws enacted to meet the latest market standards. I hope that our Kazakh and Belarusian colleagues will support this initiative. Here is a concrete result that will have a positive effect on the economic development of our countries and our living standard. It’s the only way to effectively compete with Western economies, particularly with the United States and the European Union; only then will we be treated as respected and promising market operators. A closed and barrier-strewn market is like a traffic jam lasting for hours, in which you are stuck and have no escape. You must have noticed such jams in Moscow.
Perhaps nothing to brag about, but we have such jams in Kyiv, too.
Gryzlov: We want our citizens to move on the economic road as though it were an expressway, so our businesses would have enough room in all our countries, without traffic lights out of order and traffic accidents. This is what an effective parliamentary cooperation can achieve. Before being elected Chairman of the State Duma, Volodymyr Lytvyn, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, visited Moscow at the invitation of my colleague Sergey Mironov, Chairman of the Council of the Federation. I met with Mr. Lytvyn as the leader of the party winning the elections. We have a very interesting discussion, concerning the prospects of our cooperation, what could be changed for the better in the interparliamentary contacts, how important it was for us to maintain neighborly relationships. Well, time to start doing things, not just discussing them.
You have mentioned broken down traffic lights and road accidents with special feelings. You must be missing your work at the Interior Ministry.
Gryzlov: It was an important post and a good school, I’d say it was more than a school of management, it was a school of life. However, I’d like to point out that the minister of the interior has diverse responsibilities. I often met with colleagues from the Ukrainian ministry. Those meetings were more than protocol events; we met as like-minded colleagues. I was always aware of their sincere desire to help us. We, in turn, are prepared and willing to assist our Ukrainian colleagues. Talking of mutual assistance, I believe that combating crime, corruption, and abuses of office concerns not only the law enforcement agencies, but also parliaments. I would feel extremely gratified if we could accomplish something practical in our mutual interests. For example, by establishing a joint parliamentary task force to analyze the existing and prepare a new legislation against corruption; to work out effective legal restrictions leaving no room for organized crime. We could exchange experiences, unify laws, leaving the malefactors no bypasses and loopholes that still exist in our legislation. I am sure the result would be quick. There is an almost forgotten notion of the human dimension. It does exist in Russian- Ukrainian relationships, at the presidential, parliamentary, ministerial, and most importantly, I think, at the level of a man in the street.
It is hard to deny the human dimension at the level of the man in the street. Practically every poll over the past decade shows that people in Russia are friendly toward Ukraine and vice versa. However, it’s also true that we had a definite setback in our bilateral relationships because of the Tuzla dispute.
Gryzlov: I knew you’d touch on this issue. I could perhaps say simply that there was no setback, but you and your readers would not be satisfied with such a brief statement of an obvious fact. We knew that the Ukrainian media were closely following the situation with the dike on the Taman Peninsula. Quite often their attitude was — shall we say overemotional. And not only on your side; one could only feel amazed by the attitude of certain Russian media. But let me tell you that, while the press and individual politicians on both sides were puffing up reports on the problem, Russian President Vladimir Putin never mentioned any conflicts between the two countries. Moreover, our president flew to Kerch to meet with President Leonid Kuchma. During the meeting, the heads of state agreed in principle on bilateral use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, as well as on the principles of border delimitation [and demarcation], and signed an agreement. The Russian head of state has submitted it to the State Duma for ratification. Note that the notion of conflict was never mentioned during the summit in Kerch and in the course of subsequent top-level talks in Kyiv. Why? Because there can be no conflict, no undecidable problem in Russian- Ukrainian relationships. Perhaps there are people and forces preferring not to work on the development of our relationships, instead trying to capitalize on pouring fuel on the fire of some nonexistent conflicts. You can rest assured, however, that most people at the State Duma have nothing to do with such forces, because we understand patriotism not as puffing up one’s cheeks, not as a rally and appearances in television shows, but as daily painstaking work for the good of Russia — and for the good of both our countries, as in the case of the Russian-Ukrainian dialog. I would like to use this occasion to address all of you journalists. If you consider yourselves true professionals, do not let yourselves be manipulated by those using media for self-advertisement, who’ll sell their mothers so as to appear once again on television. Perhaps you will argue that reports on such overstated incidents will be read by more people than a feature on positive results of our cooperation. But there are considerably more people interested in friendship and understanding between our countries, people that do not regard neighbors as unwelcome strangers, who do not believe that a Russian-Ukrainian conflict is possible in the first place. There are tens of millions of such people in both countries. Add here our Belarusian, Kazakh neighbors, other former Soviet republics. People everywhere want us to maintain neighborly relationships, as many have relatives and friends in Russia and Ukraine. Politicians in these countries realize that there can be no progress anywhere in the post- Soviet area without effectively developing Russian-Ukrainian relationships. We all must work for the benefit of these people and justify their hopes.
