LETTER TO THE EDITOR (05/20/01)

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

More on statements by Mikhail Deliagin

Dear Editor:

The headline of a newsbrief published in The Weekly (May 6) reads: "Russian says U.S. behind Ukrainian events." The Russian in question is no lesser figure that Mikhail Deliagin, the head of the Russian Institute on Globalization and a frequent voice of the Kremlin on international issues. "The United States benefits from instability in various parts of the world and appears to be behind the current problems in Ukraine," says Mr. Deliagin, according to the newsbrief based on the report in the Rossiiskaya Gazeta (April 28). Mr. Deliagin also underscores that Moscow must do everything in its power to prevent this from happening.

Intrigued by this news item, I read excerpts of the Deliagin interview as reported in the Financial Times. According to this source it appears that there is quite a bit more to the Deliagin story. As a matter of fact, Mr. Deliagin appears to be proposing a "forward to the future, while going back to the past" concept for the resurrected imperial Russia.

To quote him from the Financial Times: "Therefore, Russia should act as flexibly and tenaciously as possible in order to retain and ideally even reclaim its political, economic and military positions and, moreover, not only on the whole post-Soviet territory. It is not an easy task, but it is solvable."

Here I am inclined to agree with Mr. Deliagin that for Russia, with the national budget smaller than that of K-Mart stores, the task of restoring the Russian Empire will not be easy. Well, maybe Mr. Deliagin in his grandiose, messianic view of the world will simply ignore such mundane issue as economics and budgets, and march ahead. And why not? Yesterday Belarus, today Moldova, tomorrow Ukraine and next week the whole world.

Pronouncements such as those quoted above, of course, do not go unnoticed in the West, especially in the Central European countries that were liberated from Russian occupation not so long ago.

"Ukraine is the key country in the whole new European security structure, said Victor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary in a story in The New York Times (April 30). He described the situation in Ukraine as uppermost on his mind as he prepared to meet President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney. "Without the guaranteed independence of Ukraine, the whole post- Cold War security architecture of Europe is in danger. For Ukraine to maintain its independence, in all senses, especially in political and security terms, is vital for all of Europe," Mr. Orban said.

So, in spite of what Mr. Deliagin says and President Kuchma does, maybe there is hope for Ukraine after all.

Ihor Lysyj
Austin, Texas

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