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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

WORLD view From Ukraine

10 March, 1999 - 00:00

CIS Enters Virtual Status

All the peripeteia and commentary on Boris Yeltsin’s decision
to fire Boris Berezovsky as CIS Executive Secretary led us to overlook
one detail. Mr. Yeltsin’s action is nothing but a first step toward liquidation
of the CIS, which was in fact hinted at by Verkhovna Rada’s Rightists.

For example, a high-placed Ukrainian diplomat, speaking
to The Day’s correspondent, noted that all we can say now is that the CIS
is a virtual space. All previous agreements are being crossed out, which
puzzles even the Belarusians.

Ukrainian diplomacy (perhaps unlike the top leadership)
treated the figure of Mr. Berezovsky with a certain suspicion, because
he took too much on himself. Still, Berezovsky pursued a policy coinciding
with that of Ukraine: introduction of an unlimited free trade area and
revision of the whole Commonwealth structure.

Now it would be natural to expect this and many other things
to fall apart because of, as anonymous Ministry of Foreign Affairs sources
say cautiously, “ Yeltsin’s biased and free interpretation of the agreements
made by twelve presidents.”

The fact that the baron is convinced he can do whatever
he likes, as if he were an autocrat, only scares off those who are still
uncertain about Russia’s intentions. If even President Nursultan Nazarbayev
of Kazakhstan says this is not the proper way to do things, then it becomes
clear: this Commonwealth already exists in a state of virtual reality,
in which nothing has been done over the past seven years to interest those
who live in real life. Maybe, for this reason, we should not argue too
much about Ukraine’s affiliation with such an odd thing as the CIS Interparliamentary
Assembly, for there will be hardly any Assembly if there is no CIS. In
essence, the only losers today are Messrs. Berezovsky, Yeltsin, and Kuchma,
who at first initiated the appointment of Berezovsky and then took Yeltsin’s
side posthaste. To give the Ukrainian President his due, he added that
this cadre issue can only be solved by joint decision of the Commonwealth
presidents. This decision is expected to be made at the CIS summit still
slated for late March, as Ukraine’s permanent representative to the CIS
Yuri Vusaty told The Day.

It is not ruled out that this will be the last more or
less realistic decision of the Commonwealth as such.

And what now? Who will be the new CIS executive secretary?
Minsk-based well-mannered and amorphous apparatchik Ivan Korotchenia? Russian
Deputy Premier Vadim Gustov, who is said to be lobbied for this post by
none other than the victorious Premier Primakov? The former would be certain
to handle the problems of Minsk bureaucrats: the latter would make declarative
speeches.

The Commonwealth, of course, is no great loss. Nobody —
not even Russia — needs it anymore. It should and will vanish together
with its executive secretaries and interparliamentary assemblies. What
is a shame is the money we spend to take part in this weird association
of the exasperated: they did not even ask us when deciding to fire the
executive secretary, and we are supposed to be the second republic.

We won’t be second in Europe for a long time, but Europeans
will at least ask our opinion, for they respect procedure.

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