Once again to Sevastopol, much to the surprise of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, came Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. And again to the amazement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, just like three years ago and a year ago, he declared, that "Sevastopol is an outpost on the southern boundaries of the Fatherland, and we shall... insist on returning Sevastopol under the jurisdiction of Russia."
This time Luzhkov refrained from reiterating that Sevastopol is the eleventh prefecture of Moscow, perhaps he was convinced that the facts and figures had already made this obvious. The Moscow Mayor handed keys to a 120-room building to Russian Black Sea Fleet sailors and laid the cornerstone for the next, fifth building. The Moscow municipal government has already built a day-care facility for 90 children as well as repaired the medical-diagnostic center and the House of Officers. It has allotted money to accomplish the repair of the Moscow cruiser, for other ships, reconstruction of the Vladimir cathedral. In addition, assistance was rendered veterans. Seeing the restriction on Russian broadcasting, a satellite-to-home service system was scheduled, and all six TV programs from Moscow will be accessible to Sevastopol inhabitants.
As the Moscow mayor is greatly concerned about "the efforts of Ukraine at forced Ukrainization" and believes the region should be shielded from these "consistent efforts." "Relations between Russia and Ukraine will never be transparent, and sincere brotherhood will never exist between our peoples, if the injustice in relation to Sevastopol and the Crimea continues," the visitor from Moscow either threatened or pointed out, adding, "Our posture will be permanent and will be connected with an obligatory decision to be made after the return of Sevastopol to the bosom of Russia."
If the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had expected that, it would have certainly warned Mr. Luzhkov at the border, as it once did the great friend of the Crimea, Zatulin, of what can and cannot be done on the territory of an independent foreign state. But the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, probably at first did not expect anything, anyone, and had all gone to the polls in patriotic columns. And secondly, like the rest of the country, they probably temporarily stopped understanding whether they were living in a province or a still-sovereign state.
How can one keep from getting confused here! One high-ranking guest comes to the "center of Europe" and, forgetting about the local Eastern manners and the upbringing, in our house teaches us in what sequence we should deal with politics and the economy. He'd rather share his experience on the development of freedom of the press, for example, or of other democratic liberties so highly esteemed in Asiatic countries. Another high-ranking guest gives a broad hint to those who doubt that Russia will supply Ukraine all the natural gas it needs. And as that was our President who dropped a hint of doubt, when he and the guest displayed their adoring eyes to the public. The same guest criticizes those, trying to find out, where $40 million disappeared during the repair of the ill-starred Ukraina Palace in our, not his country. Those suspected of knowing precisely where that money is sit with the guest pretending like victors after a sandbox battle, to whom Vitka the Elder from the next block came to help like he had promised.
And here also the tempest in a teapot waves its finger from above: "If you change our ‘your main man' it would be bad, for the situation would change". Simple for him, he just gives an order, and others knock heads: what's really good in this "situation" that should be saved? With this the appearance on our TV screen of the powerful Russian chief of entrepreneurs, whose eerie look, comparable only to his haughtiness toward Ukraine, is a piquant seasoning to an alien feast, which foreign guests have celebrated in our hospitable walls.
The truth is, with their stooping, half-bent legs, appearance of provincial managers being scolded by the guests and still probably thinking, that they rule a sovereign state, one should take as a joyful surprise, that Ukraine has nevertheless achieved something: it prevented World War III, it seems, by the chief representative of Ukrainian Jewry, who has explained something to Yassar Arafat in Palestine Saddam Hussein in Iraq about Clinton and that it was hard to understand from the facts, broadcast on television Sunday. Now it would be nice to direct the efforts to "Primakov's red line" and move it somewhere for emergencies, even providing the Ukrainian Premier ignores it out of his ignorance and the "gaseousness" of his views of Russian foreign policy.
The Days of Ukraine's National Disgrace logically culminated in Luzhkov's visit in Sevastopol and his declarations. Waking up, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also made a statement. By calling Luzhkov "a local level leader," and the ministry was probably satisfied that nothing remains to threaten the ever tighter Russian-Ukrainian embrace. Thus the main state television program, which for seven days running was not entirely unsuccessful in entertaining the viewers, announced: "The fortress stood and will stand. And its name is Ukraine". This farce wrapped up a truly disgraceful week, in which there were, in effect, two noticeably determinative news stories. The first one was how the Ukrainian Television's 1+1's team tried to get Yevhen Marchuk on orders from the top. And the second one was how foreigners humiliated our leaders. Very interesting, isn't it? Even in terms of scale: on tractor production which supposedly fell when Marchuk was prime minister and Ukraine on its knees under President Kuchma.
It seems that Yuri Luzhkov did Ukraine comparatively little harm.






