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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

Russian Duma Ratifies Grand Treaty With Ukraine

29 December, 1998 - 00:00

On January 25 at long last the Russian Duma ratified the friendship,
cooperation, and partnership treaty with Ukraine, originally signed in
Kyiv in late May 1997 and ratified by the Verkhovna Rada January 14, 1998.

Russian Speaker Gennady Seleznev promised President Kuchma, Speaker
Tkachenko, and Foreign Minister Tarasiuk to ratify the document on at least
three previous occasions. It happened only after Oleksandr Tkachenko's
last visit to Moscow in mid-December when he gave his spiel at the Duma,
making statements and promises that would cause raised eyebrows and red
faces in Ukraine's upper echelons, including the need to form a Slavic
Union made up of former USSR republics with a joint defense policy, uniform
currency, and that dividing the Black Sea Navy was a stupid idea. Anyway,
the treaty has been ratified, subject to the condition expressed in a separate
Duma resolution that Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada guarantees Ukraine's non-accession
to NATO.

The Russian Duma vote brought 244 ayes and 30 nays, meaning that the
treaty was mainly seconded by the Communists. In fact, their leader Gennady
Ziuganov had long declared the need to ratify it and kept his word. The
most outspoken opponent was Mr. Zhirinovsky: "This treaty cannot be ratified,
because it is the product of anti-Russian forces." But most his associates
must have voted for ratification. Earlier the document had been opposed
by Vice Speaker Sergei Baburin championing the rebirth of Great Russia.

The Russian legislators may have been influenced by Foreign Minister
Igor Ivanov who said that evading its ratification and persisting with
territorial claims would only serve to enhance forces in Ukraine working
for NATO rapprochement, hampering Russian-Ukrainian bilateral relationships,
and be regarded as breaches of international law by Russia (something the
Russian lawmakers had almost completely ignored until recently).

Another possibility is that Russian Parliament has had its fill of verbiage
on the subject and postponing the ratification any further would mean,
among other things, a heavy blow to the Primakov Cabinet supported by the
Duma. Or international diplomacy must have been at play long and effectively
enough, for it is an open secret that Moscow "perceived" the necessity
of signing the Grand Treaty with Ukraine after quite some pressure was
brought to bear from without. Be it as it may, the crucial step has been
taken.

The ratification of both the Grand Treaty and an agreement on Russia's
use of antiaircraft defense installations in Mukacheve and Sevastopol does
not mean, of course, that Ukrainian-Russian relationships will develop
without a hitch from now on. Moscow is likely to continue its political
and economic pressure, as evidenced by statements coming from certain Russian
top-level executives. There are also problems of national - particularly
sea - border delimitation and Ukraine-NATO rapprochement that are likely
to remain a thorn in Russia's side.

After all has been said and done, ratifying the Grand Treaty is a symbolic
gesture indicating that Russia has again (after first signing the document)
recognized Ukraine as a sovereign state within its current frontiers.

 

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