Ukraine-Russia relations: less emotional, more pragmatic
Ukraine’s relations with Russia today are doubtlessly a foreign policy priority for both Ukraine’s elite and the rest of the population. Few if any people are happy about how these relations are evolving. The same is true of Russia, where every press and television coverage of events in Ukraine is closely followed by the populace. Kyiv and Moscow certainly have a consensus on one issue: their bilateral relations need to be out of this crisis. The principal distinction is that the Ukrainian side is concerned about what to do next, while Moscow often tends to discuss the guilty party.
There are sufficient grounds to believe we passed the lowest point in our relations this summer. A number of important and positive events have taken place this month. Toward the end of August an agreement was signed during the MAKS 2009 airshow to resume work on the AN-70 military cargo project, including its civilian version, and launch it into serial production. This project is of utmost importance for the aircraft industries in both countries, because it allows them to meet the domestic need by using this unique design and vie for a worthy place on the world cargo aircraft market.
For a long while, due to various reasons, Russia avoided committing to this project on equal terms with Ukraine. Its return to this project became possible owing to a principled decision made by Russia’s government; this is proof that even during a financial crisis Moscow will systematically work to preserve and expand its ties with Ukrainian businesses and design bureaus that specialize in high technologies.
Both countries are noticeably lagging behind the leaders in the technological domain, yet there are developments in certain sectors that allow them to compete with the US, European, and Asian manufacturers. In most cases, however, winning this competition requires combined efforts on the part of Ukraine and Russia.
We should welcome the Russian Federation’s decision not to sacrifice this effort for situational political reasons. Thus, we have succeeded in achieving even more headway in our relations than was possible in conditions of a better political dialog.
Our bilateral interdepartmental relations are also evolving nicely. Ukrainian Economy Minister Bohdan Danylyshyn made two trips to Moscow within 30 days, which shows that political misunderstandings are not a great obstacle in the way of dialog on practical matters, ones that mostly concern business people and hired workers in both countries.
Another major event is scheduled to take place on October 6–7 in Kharkiv, where Foreign Minister Volodymyr Handohii of Ukraine will meet with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to discuss interregional cooperation. Our regions, especially those located along the border between the two countries, are interested in cooperation. Bilateral trade and social and humanitarian contacts between them serve as a reliable foundation for maintaining these relations on an intergovernmental level. Interregional cooperation offers an ideal example of relegating political differences to the background in order to solve practical issues that benefit ordinary Ukrainian and Russian citizens.
The tour that Ukrainian Ambassador to Russia Kostiantyn Hryshchenko made around Russia’s regions bordering on Ukraine in July 2009 shows that one can often find more opportunities for Ukrainian businessmen and investors in Russia’s province than in Moscow or St. Petersburg. On such peripheral level, the political differences between the two capitals are almost nonexistent; rank-and-file Russians and regional authorities are friendly toward Ukraine and take interest in our country. They discuss with their Ukrainian counterparts simplified border-crossing procedures and progress in the European regions Slobozhanshchyna, Yaroslavna, and Dnipro, rather than NATO or the Black Sea Fleet.
Therefore, relations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation are showing considerably more constructive and dynamic progress, compared to the media reports. Another thing is that pushing away from the bottom does not mean reaching an acceptable level at which it is possible to completely utilize the potential of bilateral cooperation. One has to realize that there are areas in which achieving a compromise is either impossible or very difficult. Considering that there are forces in Russia that are not prepared to accept Ukraine as a full-fledged, sovereign state with its right to pursue its own independent foreign, security, linguistic, and humanitarian policies, Kyiv will agree to no compromises.
Equality, respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, a line clearly drawn between recommendations and ideas being imposed — all these principles must serve as the basis of cooperation between Ukraine and Russia. For quite some time Moscow sought to adhere to these principles in its dialog with the West, so it must treat Kyiv’s interests with understanding. We can leave behind a number of complexes and considerably reduce the impact of emotions on our dialog only when Ukraine and Russia have learned to respect each other as equal entities in international relations, even though our countries are linked in terms of history, economy, and humanitarian issues. We could learn from the experience of the Czech Republic, Denmark, Iceland, Great Britain, and Ireland.
Official Kyiv wants to resume a full-scale political dialog with Moscow. This does not mean that Ukraine will insist on placing the most disputable matters on the agenda first. The thing is that it is virtually impossible to resolve certain issues without contacts on the presidential level. Ukraine is prepared for this kind of dialog without any prerequisites, because we believe that any misunderstandings and differences between the two countries should be resolved at tete-a-tete meetings of the presidents, rather than via the television.
Oleh Voloshyn is the press attache with the Embassy of Ukraine in Moscow.
