Foreign Affairs Ministry Blames Russian Duma for Territorial Claims

Everybody knows that relations between Ukraine and Russia are cloudy not only in the trade, but also in the political sphere. And the declaration by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry concerning the fact that Duma failed to ratify the joint agreement on the system of preventing missile attack and space control is merely additional evidence.

The anti-Ukrainian declarations of the Duma members, among who there is the chairman of the committee for CIS Georgy Tikhonov, basically mean that the agreement on integrating Ukrainian anti-aircraft systems into the Russian defense system cannot not be ratified, because one of them is stationed in Sevastopol. And Sevastopol is a Russian city, according to the decision adopted by Supreme Council of Russian Federation, which was ousted by Yeltsin.

The Duma CIS Affairs Committee recommends the Russian government to negotiate with Ukraine on new agreement, which would proceed from this (which?) point of view.

Five years ago Ukraine was forced to turn to the United Nations because of Moscow's hysteria about the Crimea and Sevastopol. The UN Security Council verified that beyond any doubt Crimea and Sevastopol belong to Ukraine. However, Ukrainian diplomats told The Day, this question has not been finally canceled from the agenda - because they cannot draw any conclusions in Russia. "They (Duma deputies -The Day) have obviously counted on our toothlessness, that they could work it out with us," one high-level Ukrainian diplomat told The Day. "But it did not. The Foreign Ministry statement is a unique signal that we will not leave this unnoticed."

Then, on November 23, you could have heard anything in the Duma on the ratification. For instance: "For the first time we see this document, which states that Sevastopol belongs to Ukraine. According to all legal and international documents, Sevastopol has been given Ukraine. If we adopt this document, it will be the first in which we present Sevastopol to Ukraine." This is what Chairman of the CIS Affairs Committee Tikhonov said. Or: "We should not have divided the fleet. We should have solved our political problems with Ukraine. We know how political problems are solved. In 1968 they were successfully solved in Czechoslovakia." This is what Liberal Democratic Deputy Mitrofanov said. We can also add, that Duma Speaker Selesniov openly hinted during his stay in Kyiv that the grand agreement would be ratified only after Ukraine makes union with Russia.

The fact that Russia's highest legislative organ periodically turns to the problem of Crimea and Sevastopol demonstrates that there are forces in the Russian Parliament, which refuse to abide by the existing realities and are not aware of the negative consequences of such actions, the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry declaration read.

In particular, military servicemen say, anti-aircraft radar stations in Mukacheve and Sevastopol will not work for Russian security, although they were built to protect Moscow.

The international consequences could also be quite palpable for Russia, though the diplomats do not mention it. Russian diplomacy advises paying attention to the position of not the Duma, but of the executive, which favors constructive cooperation and partnership with Ukraine.

However, the Russian executive branch is obviously so busy with internal problems, that it does not insist on ratification of the grand and free trade agreements. And meetings between governors and businessmen, like the one held in Kharkiv last weekend usually end up with paper progress.