Economic Foretaste of NATO Question

The vote by names showed that a purely ideological anti-NATO viewpoint are only accepted by the Left segment of the assembly.This includes: considering Ukraine's further participation in NATO partnership programs impossible, considering invalid the not yet ratified agreements with the alliance, recalling Ukraine's permanent representative from Brussels, closing the Kyiv-based NATO Information Center, opposing retention of public office by those who "pursue a pro-NATO course," and halting the destruction of strategic air force units and missile silos.

The Communists understood this, and chairman of the National Security Committee Heorhy Kriuchkov took to economic reasoning: Ukraine has lost $4-6 billion from the embargo of Yugoslavia, the Danube Shipping Company alone has suffered a $500-million loss from the NATO strikes. The resolution included items that serve the interests of diverse lobbies, for example: to exempt temporarily the Danube basin maritime and river transportation sector from taxes and duties, convene the Danube Commission to discuss shipping safety, identify exactly the amount of Ukrainian embargo losses, and assess the environmental damage resulting from the arms race. Member of the Communist Party Central Committee Viktor Ponedilko assured The Day that the initiators of this resolution would lay further  emphasis on figures to persuade their opponents. Mr. Kriuchkov added that they would "work with" all factions and each Deputy an hour before a new discussion of the draft. To take into account their interests, the text may be altered. Should this fail and NATO continue its bombing, Mr. Kriuchkov does not rule out "any kind of steps," including obstruction of parliamentary proceedings.

The Right cannot openly support NATO under the conditions of non-stop bombing. Rightists primarily fear that breaking relations with NATO could push Ukraine into Russia's embrace. They draw attention to the legal side of the matter. Deputy Speaker Viktor Medvedchuk told journalists that Ukraine's relationship with NATO should be regulated not by resolution but by a special law (a law, unlike a resolution, must  also be signed by the President - Author). According to Mr. Medvedchuk, the competent committee has long had a draft bill on the fundamentals of Ukraine's domestic and foreign activities, but there is no consensus in the assembly hall about enacting it.

Hromada also lost no time in seizing this chance of publicity. One of the party leaders tried to spread a rumor that the NATO problem is directly connected with the Lazarenko affair: the United States has allegedly promised to extradite Mr. Lazarenko only if Ukraine (Parliament, in particular) does not make abrupt anti-NATO moves and that Prosecutor General Mykhailo Potebenko had spent the whole previous day in Parliament exactly for this reason. But Mr. Potebenko himself told The Day he was rejecting any possibility of linking the two issues. In his words, he communicates with People's Deputies on each opening session day, a Tuesday.