The brief Crimean Summit among the Ukrainian and Belarus Presidents and acting Russian Premier Wednesday night should be regarded as having yielded results. None of the trio said much in a televised interview before parting company. Each made a statement which sounded in the old customary vein, yet said nothing shedding light on their rendezvous.
Mr. Chernomyrdin could be singled out after stating that there were hardships that should be overcome by combining efforts, suggesting that the three meet somewhere on the crossroads of the three former Soviet republics, and confirming that the Kuchma-Yeltsin summit scheduled for September 18-19 in Kharkiv, will take place. Sources in Moscow assume that Mr. Chernomyrdin's trip to the Crimea and his two-hour stay on the peninsula was primarily meant to meet with IMF Manager Camdessus. The latter had to visit President Kuchma as soon as IMF voiced its concern over the situation in Russia and said it would have to postpone giving Ukraine the next loan.
When interviewed by Ukrainian television, President Kuchma used the word "union," perhaps for the first time since Ukraine became formally independent, saying that economic integration should be the basis of any such union. Experts staying close to the Presidential Administration consider that the term should not be taken at it face value, however.
One other thing is apparent. The Crimean summit, however brief, involved Aleksandr Lukashenka, resolved to revive the CIS, Viktor Chernomyrdin, considered Boris Yeltsin’s successor as Russian President, and Leonid Kuchma, President of a country believed to rely on Russia heavily in all its undertakings. Russia is now on the verge of total economic collapse with the attendant political crisis. Ukraine will host another presidential campaign next year, also faced with an economic crisis. Belarus has actually isolated itself from the rest of the world, except the CIS. So, apparently, this Crimean summit was not so much about regional cooperation, supposedly to advance these countries’ economies, enhancing contacts, or supporting Mr. Chernomyrdin’s idea about the next summit in someplace bordering on the three republics, as it was to try to figure out what was on in the offing for Moscow, Kyiv, and Minsk politically.
No one knows what has transpired among Messrs. Chernomyrdin, Camdessus, Kuchma, and Lukashenka. Everyone knows that Russian-Ukrainian trade indices are on a progressively downward curve, and that the Ukrainian government will have to take measures to protect Ukraine against the Russian crisis, thus furthering the Ukrainian-Russian trade decline, which could reach 30% toward the end of this year, compared to 1997.






