He was a man full of life

Viktor Chernomyrdin, a former prime minister of Russia, a longtime ambassador of that country to Ukraine, and, lately, special representative of the president for economic cooperation with CIS member states, died yesterday in Moscow at the age of 72. News agencies quote the ex-premier’s relatives as saying that Chernomyrdin passed away at his home at about 4 a.m. and was conscious until the last moment.

Sergei Stepashin, chairman of Russia’s Auditing Chamber and former prime minister, has called the Chernomyrdin’s death a great loss for the country. In Stepashin’s words, “it is Viktor Chernomyrdin who pulled the country out of an abyss in the mid-1990s, when the country was in fact ungoverned.”

Rosnano corporation head Anatoly Chubais, the first vice-premier in the Chernomyrdin cabinet, believes there have been very few fi-gures of Chernomyrdin’s magnitude in Russian history. In his opinion, Chernomyrdin was responsible, to a large extent, for creating the history of latter-day Russia.

Chernomyrdin has gone down in history as founder of Gazprom, the largest gas empire, the “unsinkable” prime minister of Russia until 1998, and an unsurpassable master of political aphorism. He held the office of prime minister for almost six years – longer than anybody else in post-Soviet Russia. After the election of Vladimir Putin as president, Chernomyrdin left public politics and was appointed Russia’s ambassador to Kyiv. He held this office for eight years – twice as long as the average term of an ambassador. There might have been “warm” people in the topmost offices at the time. And Chernomyrdin was precisely a man full of life, virtues and contradictions.

Chernomyrdin maintained a special relationship with our newspaper. He twice visited Den/The Day. Our newspaper was the first print medium which Chernomyrdin visited as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Ukraine. He closely followed Den’s publications and was a hero of the Den photo exhibit. He once wished to meet us and discuss history.

We were always struck with his openness, readiness to hear his interlocutors, and learn something new about Ukraine and its tragic spots, including the Holodomor. The Russian ambassador expressed sincere concern over the fact that Russia’s mass media were full of negative materials, including some on Ukraine. “I am worried that the Russians do not know many good things about Ukraine,” he once emphasized.

Chernomyrdin was an unconventional ambassador. He would say frankly that he flouted diplomatic protocol when he mingled with Ukrainian leaders.

He also showed this characteristic openness in his contacts with William Taylor, the then US ambassador to Ukraine. It was surprisingly easy for Chernomyrdin to perfect his diplomatic mastery.

Viktor Chernomyrdin was at times more Ukrainian than some of the current Ukrainian politicians who are trying to please the present-day Russian authorities for the sake of certain preferences. What can serve as an example is the phrase he said in a Den interview: “Some people are asking why Ukraine does not care about the Russian language. But why should it care about Rus-sian? It should care about its own, Ukrainian, language.” (Den, No. 133, July 28, 2001)

COMMENTARY

Yevhen MARCHUK, public figure:

“I happened to work with Viktor Chernomyrdin during the dramatic years, when we had to address the problem of the Soviet Union’s Black Sea Fleet, the division of debts and property, in addition to current affairs. Chernomyrdin left a lasting imprint on Ukrainian-Russian relations. Although he was a classical representative of the Soviet system, he was a high-profile personality, which helped him quickly grasp the realities of a new world and fit in, quite successfully, with the new circumstances. Although Chernomyrdin was a difficult negotiator for the Ukrainian delegation, it was possible to resolve even the most complicated problems with him. He was a person of high probity. I used to deal with many politicians during the negotiations. What distinguished Chernomyrdin was that he had never gone back on his word. He did not exactly rush to give promises — it took him a long time to study both easy and difficult problems, but whenever we made a deal, he always kept his decisions intact. This may have hindered his political career at times, but Chernomyrdin was aware of all the seriousness of Ukrainian-Russian relations. Moreover, he would always remain a patriot of his country and, at the same time, a realist open to a compromise.

“I conducted a dozen and a half rounds of talks with Chernomyrdin. We discussed various issues. I would like to stress that he was the most difficult but also the most interesting and efficient negotiator out of all those with whom I cooperated for a long time. He had some hidden affection towards Ukraine. This was perhaps because his wife was Ukrainian. Yet the political interests of Russia always came first.

“He was also a longtime ambassador of Russia to Ukraine. Although he was sometimes viewed here as a tough ambassador, he knew and understood Ukraine very well. Knowing all the techniques of diplomatic relations and being aware of how the position of a state’s leadership depends on the way it is informed by the embassy and the ambassador personally, Chernomyrdin used to take a stand that helped the Russian leadership, even in crucial moments, to be as much as possible aware of what was going on in Ukraine.

“Chernomyrdin was a very serious, able and skilled partner. And, what is more, he was a realist and knew that one could resolve certain issues by taking at least half a step to the other side. It is a pity he has passed away, for his very presence created an atmosphere of refraining from any actions based on ultra-right patriotism.

“Chernomyrdin was a highly honest human being. We owe very many positive things in Ukrainian-Russian relations to him alone. Undoubtedly, he was tough in many cases, when he defended his position, i.e., the position of the Russian leadership as a whole. But his inborn reason and proclivity to self-irony would help find a way out of the most conflict-prone situations. We all know his aphorisms very well — they have even been published as a book… In a word, he was a major personality — as a politician, human being, and citizen. Chernomyrdin was quite an outstanding figure in Ukrainian-Russian relations, for he made it possible to ride out of a number of critical situations. He is a historic figure — for both Russian and Ukrainian histories.”