Putin cancels meeting with Tymoshenko

It became known the other day that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin would not visit Kharkiv in October to see his Ukrainian counterpart. According to Kommersant-Ukraina, the decision not to come to Kharkiv was made with due account of the election campaign: Moscow considers it inappropriate for the Russian premier to enter into too many contacts with Yulia Tymoshenko as a future candidate for the Ukrainian presidency.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov has confirmed this news.

“It is too early to speak about the exact place and date of the meeting. We think that both Putin and Tymoshenko have a very tight schedule to follow, and now we need to bring these schedules into line with each other,” he said.

Yet the Cabinet of Ministers is not too much saddened—on the contrary, they say Tymoshenko is ready to see Putin at any time.

“The Russian side now suggests holding this meeting in November, a day before CIS heads of government meet in Yalta. We will do what diplomats will decide on,” Tymoshenko’s spokesperson Maryna Soroka said.

What is the real reason why the Putin–Tymoshenko meeting was canceled? Obviously, there may be all kinds of factors here except for the officially announced one. It would be also naїve to presume that the ethical aspect was the decisive factor. This has never been of great importance to Russia. Moscow can well congratulate one presidential candidate over and over again on their victory without waiting for the final results. Somebody can come over on the eve of the election and make some statements. They have never attached any importance to all these niceties.

In the opinion of Taras Chornovil, head of the parliamentary subcommittee for foreign economic relations, Russian internal problems played the key role in this matter.

“We can see today that competition between Putin and Medvedev is somewhat on the rise. After waiting for some time for the Russian people and elites to understand that he, not Putin, is the president, Medvedev gradually began to show his teeth. He disavows some statements of Putin, and then he says he is putting Ukrainian problems, including gas, under his personal control, and so on.”

In Russia one can only bring one’s image-building campaign into motion by confronting with an external enemy and whipping up tough patriotism.