The Russian President visiting the German Chancellor is hardly news to make headlines in the general post-Soviet political context. They have met one another often enough. This time, however, Mr. Yeltsin’s trip was warranted by his need of hard cash, an issue that could either secure Russia’s current leadership’s survival or imminent death. The Ukrainian President also visited the German leader previously. Protocol gestures apart, both Slavic leaders were after the same thing. Handouts.
Here the principal question is whether Germany can foot all of Moscow’s and Kyiv’s bills? Or at least some of them? Of course, Bonn is historically predisposed to understand Ukraine’s hardships. While Great Britain regarded the English Channel as the European boundary and France felt the same about the Rhine, Germany still had maps on sale indicating the Ural Mountains, rather than Moscow-Dnipropetrovsk as shown in most “civilized charts.” However, German hopes are dwindling, because Herr Kohl is now in a position in which he will hardly be able promise anyone any serious help. For the first time in many years his fiasco in the next elections is a serious possibility and no one can tell for sure what course Germany will take in 2000: Christian Democratic, Social Democratic, or a grand coalition in which Christian, Social Democrats, or Liberals will rally against the ultra-right onslaught. At present, Boris Yeltsin and Leonid Kuchma are helping Herr Kohl with their visits and requests, demonstrating the superiority of his Eastern policy, reminding the Germans that their state is once again, after World War II, the biggest hope not only for “United” but also Eastern Europe. At the same time, it is clear that Germany, faced with its Bundestag election campaign, will not pay much attention to Russian or Ukrainian problems, just as Moscow and Kyiv are not likely to wait for long. On the other hand, European history knows cases when civilized powers were expected to lend a hand and then something happened to those very countries in need of this help, making them rely on their own resources, they have all managed to survive. Of course there is the alternative of using the Washington hot line. “Hello? This is the Ukrainian President speaking. Mr. Clinton please.”
Photo by Arndt Weimann, Reuters:
Boris persuades Helmut







