FOR THE RECORD: Brzezinski at Roundtable VI in Washington (10/16/05)

FOR THE RECORD: Brzezinski at Roundtable VI in Washington

Following are excerpts from the keynote speech delivered by Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor to U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and trustee and counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, at the conference Ukraine's Quest for Mature Nation Statehood: Roundtable VI in Washington on September 28.

Dr. Brzezinski focused his remarks on the Orange Revolution, which he called "a revolution of hope," adding that "it reflected some genuine feeling of true national identity that had now surfaced and which was defining itself in a democratic fashion." The revolution, he said, involved "a great deal of idealism, a hope for the better, a desire to cleanse the past and to cleanse it thoroughly"; "it was a real commitment, a serious commitment." He then turned to current developments in Ukraine.

... What is the relationship in all that is now happening between principle and opportunism?

What is the relationship between hope in its vague and defined fashion and the necessities of political life? How does one strike a realistic balance between the two?

One has to be conscious of the need for balance, because one cannot live forever on hope. But one can get indigestion from too much opportunism, and therefore there has to be a balance between the two.

The public, at some point, is going to ask: Were there crimes committed in the earlier era? And if there were crimes, will those responsible for them be brought to account? Or are they now to be forgotten?

The public is bound to ask if it has a memory, and it certainly does, because it was there at maidan making its commitment, a vow to a Ukrainian future that is better. Was there corruption, and if there was corruption, who were the corrupters? And who were the beneficiaries of the corruption, and what about their future?

The public is bound to ask: Was there nepotism and if there was nepotism, who was the beneficiary of the nepotism? And, further, is now all that to be swept under the rug? The public is bound to ask: Was there misuse of public office for personal gain, and if there was, is it going to be tolerated in the future?

That agenda cannot be ignored, particularly after the dramatic, intense, nationwide political awakening after the marriage between independence and democracy, after the commitment to principle. That agenda cannot be ignored, and striking a balance, therefore, between hope and realism is a complicated and difficult task. ...

But the question does arise whether some of the "agenda of hope" implicit in maidan is not going to be obscured by the imperatives of political realism, which exists and which has to be recognized.

The importance to stress here is that, in the difficult and complicated Ukrainian reality, one has to be very careful not to engage in unrealistic idealism, which eventually creates ferment and confusion, but not to lean also the other way, in order to be realistic and generate thereby a degree of opportunism which then leads to public disillusionment, disappointment, apathy and loss of hope.

... It is also a fact that those who wish Ukraine ill would like to see the Orange Revolution discredited and the Orange Coalition permanently destroyed. They didn't like it when it appeared, they opposed it when it struggled, they have watched suspiciously its entrenchment in power and they have been delighted to see it fragment.

I found it amazing that a foreign ambassador - I emphasize, foreign ambassador - could hold a press conference in Ukraine in order to applaud Ukrainian decisions regarding Ukrainian changes of government, as if it was his business to determine what is right and wrong for the Ukrainian government to do.

I know some neighboring countries of Ukraine - I won't tell you which, but you can probably guess - in which, if a Russian ambassador made such a move, the next day he would be packing his bags or perhaps waiting for them to be delivered at the airport in Moscow, having arrived there the night before. That is food for thought, because it suggests that there are major interests interested in fragmenting the new spirit of hope in Ukraine, disintegrating it, reducing it to the level of banality, inducing cynicism and disappointment. ...

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