Nostalgia for Wooden Plow

Russian and Belarusian conference participants called for Ukraine to join the Union of Russia and Belarus.

At the press conference to sum up the gathering, the Ukrainian Speaker ruminated for journalists about how he views Ukraine's multi-vector foreign policy. In his opinion it consists in Ukraine's political integration with the West and economic integration with the East.

The descendants of the three fraternal republics were openly nostalgic. Russia was represented by a constellation of political stars: Comrades Stroyev, SeleznСv, and GoriachСva. Meanwhile, the leader of Ukraine's Parliament spoke of the need for commingling capital, transnational financial industrial groups, and other economic measures from Kuchma's early program. In general the mood overcame the ritual refrains, in which the Speaker of the Russian State Duma sang a moving aria on his dreams about Ukraine's future entry into the Russo-Belarusian Union. The Serbian representative lent the high gathering a final anti-Western note.

In this connection the position of Ukraine's executive branch is quite odd. The President receives the leaders of the delegations of fraternal peoples in Mariyinsky Palace; he cannot neglect the links with the Russian leadership on any level and hue, even when they come to Ukraine with the hope of creating a single state. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Borys Tarasiuk, as if suddenly waking up, expressed his disapproval and dismay at the conclave, criticizing the Left, noting that he was not even aware of the conference on its eve.

And still one more thing to consider, which a colleague pointed out, "Stroyev and GoriachСva come openly... But Berezovsky comes every month secretly, and this is also within the context of the Presidential election campaign."

PS: Oleksandr Tkachenko was furious at Mr. Tarasiuk's statement, calling it "the hayseed statement of a private individual," adding at the press conference, "It is not for the Minister of Foreign Affairs to judge a meeting of the leaders of three Parliaments. I think that after such a statement the minister should leave office."