Neue Zürcher Zeitung:Ukraine and Europe's Future
02/28/2001 | Broker
Ukraine and Europe's Future
Ten years ago, a Polish diplomat said that Russia could become a normal nation state if the Ukraine remained independent. This still rings true today. Soviet and Russian territorial ambitions, and the military power this has necessitated, have almost always cost the Russian people dear. Curbing its imperialist streak would help Moscow to concentrate on matters closer to home. But Putin's adventures in Chechnya suggest that this has not happened yet. The Ukrainian capital Kiev is the cradle of the Russian people and their orthodox church; so perhaps the difficulty that some older Russians have with their current separation from the Ukraine is understandable. The Ukraine's current problems do not stem from Russian ambition, however, but from internal weakness. Government corruption, ten years of frustrated expectations, the killing of a journalist opposed to the regime, and the dubious arrest of a charismatic opposition leader have fuelled loud calls for President Kuchma's resignation. But the protest movement itself includes a number of politically shady figures alongside the more genuine opponents of the Kuchma regime. The movement has been further disappointed recently by the apparent defection of a possible successor, Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko, to President Kuchma's side. Kuchma's ruthless instinct for power and political cleverness, which have brought him some success in the difficult relations with NATO and Russia, may well see him through the current storm. Europe should certainly not give up on the Ukraine, despite its obvious weaknesses; if the Ukraine were to be left out of NATO and EU plans, it would be rendered all the more vulnerable to nationalist expansionists in Russia.
26 February 2001 / Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 24/25 February 2001
Ten years ago, a Polish diplomat said that Russia could become a normal nation state if the Ukraine remained independent. This still rings true today. Soviet and Russian territorial ambitions, and the military power this has necessitated, have almost always cost the Russian people dear. Curbing its imperialist streak would help Moscow to concentrate on matters closer to home. But Putin's adventures in Chechnya suggest that this has not happened yet. The Ukrainian capital Kiev is the cradle of the Russian people and their orthodox church; so perhaps the difficulty that some older Russians have with their current separation from the Ukraine is understandable. The Ukraine's current problems do not stem from Russian ambition, however, but from internal weakness. Government corruption, ten years of frustrated expectations, the killing of a journalist opposed to the regime, and the dubious arrest of a charismatic opposition leader have fuelled loud calls for President Kuchma's resignation. But the protest movement itself includes a number of politically shady figures alongside the more genuine opponents of the Kuchma regime. The movement has been further disappointed recently by the apparent defection of a possible successor, Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko, to President Kuchma's side. Kuchma's ruthless instinct for power and political cleverness, which have brought him some success in the difficult relations with NATO and Russia, may well see him through the current storm. Europe should certainly not give up on the Ukraine, despite its obvious weaknesses; if the Ukraine were to be left out of NATO and EU plans, it would be rendered all the more vulnerable to nationalist expansionists in Russia.
26 February 2001 / Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 24/25 February 2001