Turning the pages back... June 23, 2002 (06/18/06)

Turning the pages back...

June 23, 2002

In an article carried by The Weekly on June 23, 2002, Dr. Taras Kuzio, then a resident fellow at the Center for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Toronto, covered a perennial problem in Ukraine; its foreign policy toward Russia. At that time, Leonid Kuchma was Ukraine's president, Vladimir Putin was recently elected as Russia's president and Borys Tarasyuk was replaced as Ukraine's foreign affairs minister.

The article states that an inter-factionary group had been formed calling itself "To Europe with Russia," led by Andrii Derkach, a leading member of the Dnipropetrovsk-based Labor Ukraine oligarchs. This shift in Ukraine's orientation from the West to Russia was made possible by the opaque dealings of President Kuchma and Russia's ratification of a 1997 treaty with Ukraine.

The view that "nobody is waiting for us in the West," - a slogan that President Kuchma first aired in his 1994 election campaign - propagated the lack of national pride and self-confidence of Ukraine. President Kuchma did further damage when he said, "Ukraine cannot make any progress without Russia."

This shift toward Russia also reinforced the Russophile view among many Western Europeans that Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians should be treated as one group. Mr. Kuchma included in his "Little Russian" foreign policy a decree in March that would commemorate the 1654 Treaty of Pereiaslav that placed Ukraine under Russian rule.

Dr. Kuzio wrote that, " 'Little Russianism,' like 'multi-vectorism,' is a reflection of an amorphous and confused national identity, and hence of an inability to choose between East and West. Indeed, Mr. Kuchma has changed Ukraine's foreign policy goals this year on a month-by-month basis."

Further, Dr. Kuzio pointed to the path of contradictions and the signs of indecision earlier that year. In February President Kuchma had urged preparations for integration into the European Union and the World Trade Organization, which showed that Ukraine was looking toward the West. The following month Mr. Kuchma said that Ukraine would take steps toward the Eurasian Economic Community (EEC), but referred to the body as the defunct CIS Customs Union. In April state officials called the move toward the EEC a contradiction of Ukraine's long-declared goal of joining the EU.

As Foreign Affairs Minister Anatolii Zlenko said, "No country can be in several customs unions or in several unions. It can choose only one union."

Source: "Analysis: Ukraine's 'Little Russian' foreign policy proclaims 'To Europe with Russia!'" The Ukrainian Weekly, June 23, 2002, Vol. LXX, No. 25

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