Diplomat turned parliamentarian explains switch (06/07/98)

Diplomat turned parliamentarian explains switch

by Irene Jarosewich

NEW YORK - Hennadii Udovenko, Ukraine's former foreign affairs minister and now a member of Parliament met with the Ukrainian American community here the evening of May 8 at the headquarters of the Shevchenko Scientific Society. Sponsored by the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council and the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, the event was the local community's first opportunity to meet the international statesman turned Ukrainian national politician since the March parliamentary elections.

A favorite with the community in the New York metro area, where he has served Ukraine for many years in a variety of diplomatic positions, Mr. Udovenko spoke to a sympathetic home crowd as he explained his transition from Ukraine's top diplomat to baby-kissing national deputy elected from the Rukh party list.

Mr. Udovenko, who in the months before the election traveled the campaign trail throughout Ukraine with the chairman of Rukh, Vyacheslav Chornovil, said "I have supported Rukh's ideals for a long time" and several years ago had promised Mr. Chornovil that he would join Rukh. President Kuchma, however, asked that he continue in the diplomatic service.

Speaking about the elections, Mr. Udovenko claimed that though the multi-part election ballots were confusing, voters showed their political maturity - despite the ballots - and figured out the new balloting system, and that the election process went fairly and relatively smoothly. He noted that the Communist Party received only five more seats than they had in the previous session, not quite the overwhelming victory claimed. The existence of multiple and overlapping parties, he stated, is a reflection of a necessary step in Ukraine's political development away from one-party rule.

In response to questions, Mr. Udovenko stated that he was hesitant to make predictions about his chances of being elected chairman of the new Verkhovna Rada and cited other probable candidates. For several months political pundits and Ukrainian and Western journalists had speculated that his switch from diplomacy to national politics was planned with the idea that he would be presented by a coalition of national democrats and centrists as an authoritative candidate, one with both a national profile and international credibility, for the position of Parliament chairman. In its report of May 7 about the Verkhovna Rada and the upcoming battle for chairman, Reuters news service wrote that, for the West, Mr. Udovenko "was a good symbol and a positive signal for Western investors." (However, as of press time, four weeks after Parliament first convened, a chairman had not yet been chosen and Mr. Udovenko was not in the running).

Though he has become a national politician, Mr. Udovenko still has the instincts and mannerisms of an international representative. When asked questions from the audience about the government's lackadaisical approach to the promotion of the Ukrainian language, or the decline in support for Ukrainian culture, basic bread-and-butter questions for most Ukrainian politicians, his answers sounded rote and he even appeared to be slightly uncertain as to why anybody would actually want his opinion about something like that. He looked and sounded much more comfortable talking about foreign investment, or Ukraine's policy of integration with European and trans-Atlantic organizations, maintaining amicable relations with Russia, or the fact that in just a few short years Ukraine has set up 65 foreign embassies - a remarkable feat.

He stated that Ukraine's economic crisis is unsolvable without solid foreign investment, and that Russia must be cultivated as one of Ukraine's most important economic partners. However, he made no mention of corruption and accusations of so-called "mafia control" of many economic and financial processes in Ukraine that have limited foreign economic involvement. He alluded to a pending economic crisis in Russia, which since his presentation has become full blown, stating that "Moscow is blossoming, but 70 to 80 percent of Russia is falling apart, in Ukraine it's not yet that bad."

Mr. Udovenko claimed that the election of Boris Berezovsky, a Moscow media millionaire and an alleged Russian "mafia" businessman, as the executive secretary of the CIS "was not bad and would not really have an impact on Ukraine."

"Maybe Berezovsky will save the CIS if it becomes an economic union, but not a military or political one ... Ukraine is dissenting from the political and military aspects of the CIS, but it needs economic relations with Russia," he added.

He also compared the trans-national FIGs (Financial Industrial Groups), private organizations that spanned the boundaries of the former republics of the USSR in such vital sectors as oil, gas, telecommunications, with international mergers such as the recent union of Daimler-Benz with Chrysler. (Critics of FIGs, however, see the organizations more like Moscow-based monopolies of key sectors of the economies of the former republics).

Mr. Udovenko said he is optimistic about the new Parliament, claiming many of the new deputies are pragmatic in their approach to reform, and that, unlike the two other sessions of Parliament that have met since Ukraine's independence, both of which tended to vote in ideological blocs, this session will likely strengthen a developing trend of "situational voting" - swing votes from left to right, depending on the issue, with a chance for centrist coalition to dominate.