Multidirectionalism Triumphs

Leonid Kuchma said recently, "Where I am not hampered, where I am responsible as President, there is progress." And he took foreign policy as an example. The most recent events call this statement into question. The concept of "multidirectionalism in foreign policy" in reality boils down to a complete lack of any strategy and uncertainty as to what we really want and what kind of state we are building.

The threat of Ukraine finding itself in a so-called gray zone is becoming more and more real. Neither Moscow, nor Washington, nor Brussels fully consider Kyiv truly one of their own. This was all too vividly demonstrated last week as Russian Senators deferred friendship with Ukraine, referring primarily to Kyiv's excessively pro-Western policies. On the other hand, the words of Canadian Prime Minister Jean ChrОtien, who visited Kyiv last week and represented, to an extent, the common opinion of the Western community, showed, under the guise of diplomatic compliments, the West's utter disappointment over the state of affairs in Ukraine.

A few years ago Mr. Kuchma, then Prime Minister, appealed to the Solons: "Just tell me what kind of state to build, and I'll build it." Now the head of state and guarantor of the Constitution ought to know the answer to this question.

But all of us seem to have to wait for the answer until the October presidential election. Yet, if somebody thinks we are being too strict with the President, let them read attentively Mr. Kuchma's reaction to the deferred ratification of the Ukrainian-Russian treaty. This fact caused in our head of state a "feeling of disappointment and uncertainty in tomorrow."