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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

Not Every Russian Premier Will Fly Half Way Across the Dnipro...

10 April, 1999 - 00:00

By Viktor ZAMYATIN, The Day
Yevgeny Primakov failed to visit Kyiv, watch the match between Dynamo and
Bayern, confirm a breakthrough in the Transnistrian peace process, and
resolve a host of Ukrainian-Russian trade and economic problems. On Wednesday
morning he announced he was postponing his visit to Ukraine. Unofficial
sources claim Mr. Primakov did so for health reasons, in particular, acute
backache. We only know about a request from the Russian side to hold Ukrainian-Russian
and Transnistrian summits in Kyiv between April 20-30.

The comments of Ukrainian officials on a new visit by a high Russian
dignitary, this time the Prime Minister, were highly unemotional. Nobody
doubts Mr. Primakov did not reach Kyiv for health reasons indeed. But at
the same time Russia is again facing a new wave of domestic political problems
which, in the opinion of many, have already played a certain role. And
when yesterday's power-wielding oligarchs, like Boris Berezovsky and banker
Smolensky, are now being sought by Interpol, this could in fact thwart
a visit. Moreover, Mr. Primakov's mission to Belgrade and Europe had failed
shortly before (which everybody except he admits), air strikes on Yugoslavia
continue, which in fact demonstrate Russia's loss of superpower status.
Resounding victories are the only thing Moscow needs against this backdrop.
But this could be problematic. The more so that on the eve of the proposed
visit the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared that the reactions
by Kyiv and Moscow to the Yugoslav bombings and their proposals to settle
the Balkan situation differed fundamentally.

As late as the evening of April 6, Mr. Primakov's visit to Kyiv was
still in the pipeline. Also in the works was the Kyiv summit on Transnistrian
problems slated for Friday and to be attended by not only Mr. Primakov
and Leonid Kuchma but also by president Petru Lucinski of Moldova and Transnistrian
leader Igor Smirnov. Kyiv expected a breakthrough, for the latest low-profile
efforts of Ukrainian diplomacy on this front have begun to bear fruit.

However, the request to put off the visit is not unprecedented. For
example, last year Ukraine also announced non-participation in the Central
European summit in Salzburg a few hours before it began, and this was not
considered something terribly out of the ordinary.

There are many still-unresolved Ukrainian-Russian problems: gas debts,
unblocking of hard-currency accounts at the Foreign Economic Bank Russia
inherited from Soviet times, long-promised allocation to Kyiv of its share
of real estate from former Soviet property in 36 countries, and joint projects.
It is unlikely that something might suddenly change just now.

Ukraine's foreign policy circles suspect it not mere circumstance that
Russia has asked to prepare Mr. Primakov's visit precisely at the time
of the planned Washington summits of NATO and NATO-Ukraine. It was the
same story, when the visit to Kyiv of then Russian Premier Victor Chernomyrdin
was timed to coincide with celebrations of the Marshal Plan jubilee. But
Kyiv, in the words of a top diplomat, is and will calmly go about its business.

 

However, none other than Primakov should visit Kyiv precisely now
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