But a push could save the situation
Ukraine has lost much during the last two years, even in spite of some positive moments. In particular, the fact that Leonid Kuchma was elected president was estimated by the West as a positive phenomenon because the Communists did not come to power. Another positive factor is the appointment of Viktor Yushchenko as Premier. He was considered a protОgО of the United States, and the West looked at him as the most liberal politician in Ukraine. However, in spite of the positive result of the presidential elections and the appointment of a new Premier, the Western world considers that stagnation in Ukraine continues. One gets the impression that during the last two years Ukraine had been completely forgotten. In this connection I would like to stress three aspects:
1. The European Union has defined the countries, which will be included in it in the immediate future. The European Union can be extended up to 25 or even 28 countries. Even Turkey and such badly reformed countries as Slovakia and Bulgaria have become candidates for EU membership. Ukraine does not appear on the list at all.
2. Ukraine does not take part in any of the European integration processes. The creation of regional cooperation in the Black Sea region does not work. Ukraine could not become a bridge between the EU and the Caspian region. The West absolutely cannot understand the role of Ukraine in participating in CIS integration processes.
3. Ukraine did not succeed in persuading the West that, according to its geographical and geopolitical position, it could be the main country through which the transport corridors for oil and gas from the Caspian region to the West could be laid. On the one hand, the main country for these corridors will be Turkey, on the other hand — Russia has announced that it is starting to build a new alternative branch to export energy through Belarus and Poland and bypassing Ukraine. Thus, Ukraine is losing its potential geostrategic importance for the European Union.
It has been ten years since the Soviet Union collapsed and Ukraine won its independence. Kyiv should pose itself the question why for all this time its aspirations for European integration did not work. One reason is that political reforms have been blocked. Another one is the lack of understanding of the nature of reforms by the Ukrainian elite and society as a whole. Thus, there is an impression that Ukraine and the EU are moving in a circle. And still nobody has managed to leave this circle.
Today one can state that Ukraine was not included in the list of states which were defined by the EU as its potential members. That is why the Western Europe has lost much of its interest to this country.
However, we should not forget that Ukraine’s potential, as well as that of the other countries of the region, is high enough, and by pushing its development forward it could soon start to move in the European direction it wants. But for the present we have not seen such a push yet, and there are more and more doubts that the current generation of the Ukrainians is capable of making it.
