Telltale Rake of the Council of Europe
Last week again passed for Ukraine under the sign of the Council of Europe. The last days before the opening of its session the Parliamentary Assembly decided to hold hearings on the status of the freedom of expression in Ukraine. It resulted in a medley: freedom of speech, Gongadze affair, and Melnychenko. What in Ukraine became interconnected only because of the political moment with elections on the way, in Strasbourg often looked altogether farfetched. Which, evidently, made members of the Ukrainian delegation speak about the politicization of the hearing.
The result was foreseen. Sanctions were neither imposed nor planned, the mandate of the Ukrainian delegation, unlike of the Russian one, are confirmed. The atmosphere surrounding the hearing was strict but benevolent, as head of Ukraine’s delegation Borys Oliynyk put it.
Recommendations have been made. Ukraine should strengthen the freedom of expression and investigate the Gongadze case to the end. Member-states of the Council of Europe should grant political asylum to Major Melnychenko, who is charged with slander in Ukraine. Perhaps some other time the situation with freedom of expression within the all-European context will be heard. Then many different and interesting things might be found. And, in any case, it would be somewhat more natural than to hear out just one weak student, Ukraine. Or even chronically lagging Russia, the delegation of which was deprived of its mandate for the second consecutive session.
Ukraine has had problems because it keeps stepping on precisely the same rake with the same foot. It is precisely this rake that denied Ukraine its confident gait toward victory.
After all, the Council of Europe is far from being the most influential international body in the world. Sometimes its opinion is reckoned with and sometimes not. In the case of Russia, for example, western business does not care about the problem with Chechnya and democracy on the whole, just a capacious and promising market that promises income. And also the relative stability of its political system that will not allow it to commit an act of nuclear suicide.
In case with Ukraine one has to admit that, since it does not possess superpower status and cannot provide proof of heroic feats on the path to creating a democratic society, the talk with it will be different. The Council of Europe is virtually the only organization where Ukraine has been admitted. As advance payment. Ukraine’s path to the European Union is blocked for many reasons, and constant problems with the Council of Europe are, after all, one of them. Perhaps, one has also to admit one cannot make the same demands on an elementary school pupil and college student. As to pupil himself, he can hardly count on privileges and possibilities until he himself goes all the way.
Perhaps as long as there are problems with the Council of Europe, that will be an incentive to strive for advancement, no matter how hard this might be. Kyiv simply cannot afford to follow path of Moscow, for which the Council of Europe today does not mean anything, or of Minsk, which has that same Moscow.
One wants to believe that the accent on renewing a good image of Ukraine, proclaimed by Foreign Minister Anatoly Zlenko, will be real. And, hence, there will be less stepping on the same rake.
