Ten Years from Divorce To Partnership

There are no problems between Ukrainian and Russia that cannot be solved, said Russian Ambassador Viktor Chernomyrdin, meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Anatoly Zlenko in commemoration of the tenth anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Russian Federation and independent Ukraine (photo). President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov sent messages on the subject to their Ukrainian counterparts. They read, in part, that “Russian-Ukrainian strategic partnership is acquiring obvious and perceptible features,” reports Interfax Ukraine. Analysts have long pointed to a noticeable increase in Russia’s interest in Ukraine, starting with Mr. Putin taking office and mounting since the cassette scandal and Ukraine’s isolation by the West.

Of course, one can refer to recent history and say that Russia for some reason was not the first to recognize Ukraine’s independence and establish diplomatic relations; there were also the long diplomatic battles over the Black Sea Fleet, Crimea, and Sevastopol. Russian diplomatic and business activities in Ukraine cannot even be compared, say, to those of Poland as Ukraine’s principal advocate in the West (somehow Russia can manage without any such advocates). In this sense one might describe as symbolic the Ukrainian presidential administration head’s statement in Moscow, to the effect that Kyiv is discarding its so-called multivector foreign policy. What does that mean? Commentaries will be forthcoming and it will be interesting to hear what the Ukrainian foreign minister will have to say on the subject.