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12/06/2011 | Hadjibei
http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/alexander-j-motyl/what-should-europe-do-about-ukraine
Many Europeans probably don’t know that Ukraine has a 1998 statute on the books that permits just about anybody to acquire a diplomatic passport granting its bearer visa-free travel. As you’d expect, the president, prime minister, minister of foreign affairs, and genuine diplomats get to have a diplomatic passport. But so, too, do all parliamentary deputies, all cabinet ministers, all heads of provincial councils, the head of the secret police, a ton of other officials, and, just in case someone’s job description is not on the list, anybody with the “written approval of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, on condition that the President of Ukraine approves it.”
In other words, all the Regionnaire thugs and all the president’s pals get to go on shopping sprees in Europe.
Small wonder that the Regionnaires are playing hard to get with Europe. They know that, even if the association agreement goes bust, they’ll still be able to get a tan on the Riviera. As some pundits put it when commenting on Yanukovych’s 2010 electoral slogan, “Ukraine is for the people”: sure it is, and Europe is for the Regionnaires. (Another aside: Yanukovych, who, bless his heart, wouldn’t recognize irony if it hit him on the head like a miscreant wreath, reinforced this point by promising to transform Tymoshenko’s jail cell into her version of Europe: “I have recently heard a lot of comments from the lawyers of former Prime Minister Tymoshenko regarding Tymoshenko’s detention in prison, and I have given instructions to all agencies that are dealing with this issue to create the conditions that are currently envisaged at the European level.”)
The EU could end the Regionnaires’ monopoly on the real Europe in a flash. It wouldn’t have to blacklist Regionnaires, as some opposition democrats suggest. All it needs to do is quietly change a few rules and insist that the only Ukrainians who get to travel to the EU with diplomatic passports are bona fide diplomats engaged in bona fide diplomatic activity. Basta.
Everyone else—all the parliamentary deputies, all the provincial council heads, all the cabinet ministers, and all the president’s cronies—has to get on line at the appropriate European consulate, wait in stuffy rooms, fill out endless forms, pay exorbitant fees, produce invitations and bank accounts, and experience the same exact humiliation and frustration that regular folk do when they hope to go abroad.
In a word, the EU would treat Regionnaires as people, and not as fat cats.
Besides sending a powerful ethical message to the population of Ukraine, such a measure would also enable the EU to have the best of both worlds: sign the association agreement and end the Regionnaires’ free ride.
As one Ukrainian businessman told me, “If you force the Regionnaires to live like everybody else, they’ll quickly change their ways.”
I’m betting he’s right. After all, like all Mafiosi, the Regionnaires care only about their own power and wealth. If they have to stand in line with the unwashed masses, their power is worth nil. If they can’t travel at will to Paree, their wealth is also worth nil.
After all, what’s the point of having a Rolex, if you can only show it off to other crooks?
Many Europeans probably don’t know that Ukraine has a 1998 statute on the books that permits just about anybody to acquire a diplomatic passport granting its bearer visa-free travel. As you’d expect, the president, prime minister, minister of foreign affairs, and genuine diplomats get to have a diplomatic passport. But so, too, do all parliamentary deputies, all cabinet ministers, all heads of provincial councils, the head of the secret police, a ton of other officials, and, just in case someone’s job description is not on the list, anybody with the “written approval of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, on condition that the President of Ukraine approves it.”
In other words, all the Regionnaire thugs and all the president’s pals get to go on shopping sprees in Europe.
Small wonder that the Regionnaires are playing hard to get with Europe. They know that, even if the association agreement goes bust, they’ll still be able to get a tan on the Riviera. As some pundits put it when commenting on Yanukovych’s 2010 electoral slogan, “Ukraine is for the people”: sure it is, and Europe is for the Regionnaires. (Another aside: Yanukovych, who, bless his heart, wouldn’t recognize irony if it hit him on the head like a miscreant wreath, reinforced this point by promising to transform Tymoshenko’s jail cell into her version of Europe: “I have recently heard a lot of comments from the lawyers of former Prime Minister Tymoshenko regarding Tymoshenko’s detention in prison, and I have given instructions to all agencies that are dealing with this issue to create the conditions that are currently envisaged at the European level.”)
The EU could end the Regionnaires’ monopoly on the real Europe in a flash. It wouldn’t have to blacklist Regionnaires, as some opposition democrats suggest. All it needs to do is quietly change a few rules and insist that the only Ukrainians who get to travel to the EU with diplomatic passports are bona fide diplomats engaged in bona fide diplomatic activity. Basta.
Everyone else—all the parliamentary deputies, all the provincial council heads, all the cabinet ministers, and all the president’s cronies—has to get on line at the appropriate European consulate, wait in stuffy rooms, fill out endless forms, pay exorbitant fees, produce invitations and bank accounts, and experience the same exact humiliation and frustration that regular folk do when they hope to go abroad.
In a word, the EU would treat Regionnaires as people, and not as fat cats.
Besides sending a powerful ethical message to the population of Ukraine, such a measure would also enable the EU to have the best of both worlds: sign the association agreement and end the Regionnaires’ free ride.
As one Ukrainian businessman told me, “If you force the Regionnaires to live like everybody else, they’ll quickly change their ways.”
I’m betting he’s right. After all, like all Mafiosi, the Regionnaires care only about their own power and wealth. If they have to stand in line with the unwashed masses, their power is worth nil. If they can’t travel at will to Paree, their wealth is also worth nil.
After all, what’s the point of having a Rolex, if you can only show it off to other crooks?
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2011.12.06 | killer-thinker
Íå âäàñòüñÿ - â ªâðîëÿíä³ ñèäÿòü íà âåðõàõ òàê³ ñàì³ æèðí³ êîòè, ÿê ³ íàø³...