Foreign Ministry Changes Hands
Yesterday President Leonid Kuchma officially presented Anatoly Zlenko as Ukraine’s new Minister of Foreign Affairs, saying that Mr. Zlenko is precisely the man Ukraine needs today, “a diplomat to the core” who can avoid saying either yes or no. Outgoing Foreign Minister Borys Tarasiuk was thanked for his efforts, which the President described as having accomplished an extraordinarily great deal for Ukraine. The situation had simply changed, as had the world, Europe, and Ukraine. The President stated that there had been no intrigues connected with Mr. Tarasiuk’s removal. Still, the operation went intriguingly like clockwork with Tarasiuk’s removal being announced on Friday evening and Zlenko’s appointment announced on Saturday. There were no leaks, and the Ukrainian diplomatic corps remains “on course.” Something was bewildering in the eyes of both the experts and foreign ambassadors.
Talk of Tarasiuk’s speedy removal has been circulating since summer. Even then there were those predicting that the Millennium Summit would be the last global affair he would greet as Foreign Minister, but it was far from the last act of his diplomatic career. Moscow’s hand seems to have reached him, albeit very indirectly. Russia has long made no secret of the fact that it would preserve an altogether different person at the helm of Ukrainian diplomacy and lobbied Kyiv openly for such a change, but it is unknown if the larger neighbor will greet Mr. Zlenko’s appointment with much enthusiasm.
Mr. Tarasiuk’s openly favoring the Western vector in carrying out a “pro-Ukrainian” policy had irritated not only the Russians but also a number of high officials in Kyiv, despite his indisputable professionalism and studiously demonstrated caution, for he had created some of the ill-wishers himself. In this connection it could be observed that Tarasiuk in recent times has represented not so much Ukraine’s interests in the West as those of its government. This makes it possible to raise yet another question of how Western governments been so ill informed, as Premier Yushchenko has put it, about the vicissitudes of the Ukrainian budget process and in what sense Ukrainian diplomacy is to blame for this.
In any case, the change of ministers clearly did not take place because of those who had predicted Tarasiuk’s dismissal from the very outset, and it is far too early to sing his political requiem.
The President described Anatoly Zlenko’s return to his former post as a natural thing. Zlenko, referred by Ukrainian diplomats openly as the baron, has nothing to lose. He is already 62 and is considered a heavyweight by diplomats. He has already been Foreign Minister at the most difficult time and seems to have no political ambitions of his own. His experience in bureaucratic gamesmanship is legendary. His diplomatic experience makes it possible to conclude that if there are to be some changes in the accents (but not direction) of foreign policy concerning European integration, this is a field he knows up close and personally. His style of work differs from Tarasiuk’s, but this is simply because he is another man, molded in other circumstances and inherently a different person. That there are no permanent friends but there are permanent interests is something Mr. Zlenko knows very well and not least from personal experience. There will certainly be no grounds for suspecting him of any deliberate or unintentional disinformation, especially if he is able to transform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs into the center coordinating the state’s entire foreign policy.
