The opposition demands a report on the presidents’ Sochi deal
Ukrainian politicians and ordinary people must know what the two heads of state negotiated and agreed upon, says the UDAR party’s statement published on Facebook
Recently, meetings of the Ukrainian and Russian Presidents Viktor Yanukovych and Vladimir Putin have become more and more secretive. A visit of the Ukrainian president to Russia is announced literally only hours before it takes place. This happened on May 26, when the press service of the Ukrainian president reported on the official visit four hours before the plane took off to Sochi. On the other hand the media provide information about the beginning of the meeting and quote some statements made by the presidents on their website. The rest – the results of the negotiations and the agreements reached by the presidents are kept in secret. Thus, mass media have to guess what was discussed during the meeting and whether the Ukrainian president hasn’t given up Ukrainian national interests. While the information about the presidents’ agreement on that Ukraine will obtain a status of an observer in the Customs Union would not cause any painful reaction, the same can’t be said if Ukraine agreed to give the GTS in exchange for a discount for Russian gas, according to some mass media.
The Day asked the former President’s Commissioner for International Energy Security Bohdan Sokolovsky to comment on this meeting and the conspiracy around it.
“I don’t know what they agreed upon, but if it was done in such secretive manner, I am convinced that nothing good will come out of it for the Ukrainian people.”
How in general can you comment on the fact that the meetings of the two presidents take place under the veil of such conspiracy and that the president of Ukraine goes to Russia nearly on every call of Putin? Were such things typical of the previous Ukrainian administrations?
“Things have never been that way before. If you remember, when Viktor Yushchenko was the president such meetings were prepared long in advance and for such meetings the participants had to receive appropriate authority to sign any documents. Nobody made a secret out of it. The topics for negotiations were known long before the visit took place. Even though the president can speak without any directives, such documents were prepared anyway according to the official rules.”
What do you mean when you say that nothing good will come out of these negotiations? Can you tell us about it in more detail?
“I think that first of all it is about GTS and our president understands that we cannot dispose of the GTS, however, he has no other options because he does not know what to do. That’s why his surrounding spoils his game. He can’t initiate reforms that would be implemented, economy remains unrestructured for fear of stepping on oligarchs’ feet. Because there is a certain dependency. In the grand scheme of things, the greatest hope is that after all is done they will be able to stiff Russia. But this will never happen for sure, because handing over the GTS to Russia is the last step before the collapse of our state. But, the state authorities, perhaps, do not realize that, as well as the fact that after that they will be of no use to anyone.”
In fact, it means, according to reports of the media referring to the sources in the Cabinet of Ministers, Kyiv is ready to accept the conditions of Russia, when Gazprom will become a key member of the consortium.
“Gazprom, especially in light of the new gas pipelines being built to divert gas transportation traffic, is primarily interested in having the control over the gas transportation system in Ukraine. The Kremlin openly supports the interests of Gazprom, since it never made a secret of that it has a desire to control the country. Now we have the situation, when, whoever has the control over the gas traffic, controls the entire Ukraine because virtually the entire economy depends on gas and a significant number of people physically consume gas. We cannot afford to hand over the gas system even if only for one percent. Our rulers must be well aware of this, but they act the way they do because they have no other way around it, and national patriotic feelings are alien to them.”
By the way, how do you explain the fact that there is no leak of information about the outcome of these negotiations on the Russian side as well?
“I think it is in Russia’s interest, since they are getting GTS so easily. Moreover, nobody voiced the value of GTS and who estimated it. The former Minister of Energy promised to make this assessment by November of last year, but it was never done. And Russia is waiting. Of course, the silence works to its benefit now, especially since the Ukrainian side asked them to keep the matters a secret for now, because if information leaks things might go wrong. Russian authorities understand these things and start speaking usually only after the work is done.”
On the other hand, can the Ukrainian parliament do something about it? There is a law that prohibits the transfer of the GTS not only in somebody else’s ownership, but even under third party management, right?
“In today’s parliament, unfortunately, national elements do not have the majority, and the current majority is, in fact, the fifth column. The attempts made by Arsenii Yatseniuk, Vitali Klitschko, and Oleh Tiahnybok are too weak.”
