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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Kyiv is Listening to Advice

13 October, 1998 - 00:00

The young independent country Ukraine is being advised with whom to
create alliances and with whom - God forbid. There are advisors aplenty
in Moscow and Minsk and listeners in Kyiv and far beyond its borders.

The advice given by the capitals of our brotherly countries is all the
same: Ukraine has to join the Russia-Belarus union and one day form a united
Slavic country. During his stay in Kyiv, Russian State Duma Speaker Gennady
Seleznev voiced this very opinion, which undoubtedly is not his alone.
And he had every right to take the stage as a real master in the Ukrainian
capital since it was Ukraine's president who looked to Moscow for advice
and support and not the other way around. The people of Ukraine have elected
a parliament, half of which does not need (at least in words) a country,
let alone an independent one. Ukraine has borrowed a great deal from Russia
and has nothing with which to pay off its debt. And if the country itself
(or its top officials) does not respect itself, why, then, should Seleznev
behave any other way in Kyiv, i.e., why doesn't he link the Friendship
and Partnership treaty with Ukraine with its intense Kyiv-NATO contacts
and need to establish a union?

And why do Lukashenka and Belarus' Prime Minister Ling not have the
right to use this Ukrainian weakness and drive home the point that the
agreement on state borders cannot be ratified unless Ukraine joins the
union?

Both Seleznev and Lukashenka used nothing more than a few public statements
by Ukrainian politicians and top officials on the need for overcoming the
crisis together and strengthening relations with Russia because as our
strategic partner, we can do nothing without it. Never mind that Russia
today has little to offer except its own crisis and a government program
resembling Stalin's Short Course on the History of the Communist Party.
It does not matter that Belarus has singlehandedly driven itself to international
isolation. It does not matter that under such conditions, Ukraine is their
last hope.

Common political logic alone tells Ukrainian leaders to quit catering
to Moscow and immediately start fulfilling the preconditions which will
allow it later to begin negotiations on entering the European Union. The
same common logic says that if anyone will help Ukraine out of its current
crisis, it will be Ukraine itself, not the West and definitely not Russia.
And the same logic foresees that Ukraine is on the verge of not being taken
seriously, for everyone is treated as they allow others to treat them.

 

 

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