Geopolitical Asylum for Ukraine
US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher has confirmed that the US Immigration and Naturalization Service had granted political asylum to former state security officer Mykola Melnychenko and journalist Heorhy Gongadze’s wife, Myroslava. This fact will obviously make some adjustments to the idea of “strategic partnership,” especially in light of the fact that the case opened against Major Melnychenko by the Prosecutor General’s Office deals with criminal liability, not political persecution. Incidentally, The Times of London is convinced that nobody has threatened Myroslava.
Mr. Boucher refused to reveal the details of when and where Melnychenko applied to US authorities for asylum but said the decision was approved on April 13 in accordance with standard international practice. Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was quick to react, abandoning its usual time-out practice, which could mean that Kyiv was prepared for such a turn of events. Incidentally, President Leonid Kuchma said in this connection that the cabinet and Foreign Ministry had already reacted on his behalf and that some details of this affair remain unknown. The US Immigration and Naturalization Service’s decision is a “profound surprise,” the Foreign Ministry statement says. Indeed, the Americans must have known only too well that criminal proceedings had been instituted against Major Melnychenko for unauthorized bugging and disclosing official secrets, the ministry statement stresses, and these crimes are subject to vigorous prosecution by the American Themis.
There were a host of speculations about the destiny of Melnychenko who at first allegedly received a Czech visa, then stayed in Austria and then at a US military base in Europe. One of the latest rumors, that Major Melnychenko has long been under the Federal Witness Protection Program and the Ukrainian authorities are thus unable to secure his extradition, now appears not so unfounded. The Foreign Ministry interprets the US authorities’ decision as one contradicting the spirit of Ukrainian- American partnership.
In principle, it difficult to imagine, even in theory, that Ukraine could grant political asylum to an individual charged in the United States with espionage, bugging top offices, or disclosing official secrets. On the other hand, it is a moot point whether the United States itself will benefit from this situation.
The situation is truly strange. The US is supposed to wish that any authorities in Ukraine (or any other country) acts in its interests, but not against the backdrop of confrontation or even a certain cooling of relations. On the other hand, the statements by Mr. Boucher and US Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual that US policies toward Ukraine will remain unchanged can be interpreted in more than one way. Washington may be openly demonstrating that, although President Kuchma no longer serves US interests, it is still, if not even more, interested in developments in Ukraine. In such case, Melnychenko could indeed play the role of an important source of information for the US leadership. And, should there be a change of power in Ukraine, the incident could always be covered up by means of loans, moral support, or a combination of the two as in the Balkans. It could also show — above all to Washington and its European allies — the obvious erroneousness of their Yugoslav tactic.
We can assume that both Kyiv and Washington will have one less strategic partner for some time. The only question is which of them will win what as a result. The trouble is that the cassette scandal, originally thought of as having no wide international repercussions, has now assumed precisely an international dimension. The version that this Ukrainian domestic political conflict was orchestrated from abroad now appears even more convincing. As a result, both Washington and Kyiv see their room for maneuver shrinking. This raises unnecessary obstacles and provides some players with a greater freedom of action.
All this cloaks the fact that, in reality, both Heorhy Gongadze and Major Melnychenko, who will probably understand sooner or later that he has fallen been sacrificed in someone else’s great game, were only pawns all along.
