Ukraine's leaders react prudently to results of Russian Duma elections (12/24/95)

Ukraine's leaders react prudently to results of Russian Duma elections

by Marta Kolomayets
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's democratic leaders have been reserved - even prudent - in passing judgment regarding the outcome of Russian parliamentary elections held a week ago, on December 17, and their impact on Ukrainian-Russian relations.

"The situation is being carefully analyzed," said Yuriy Sergeyev, head of the information department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on December 19.

Reports from the Central Electoral Commission in Moscow show that the Communist Party of Russia, under the leadership of Gennadi Zyuganov, got over 21 percent of the vote, followed by Vladimir Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party with 10.89 percent.

Our Home is Russia, the centrist-democratic movement led by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, received 9.98 percent of the vote and the reform party Yabloko, led by Grigori Yavlinsky, got 7.27 percent.

Several other parties had more than 4 percent and were hoping that by the time the final count was in, they would reach the 5 percent threshold needed to make it into the Parliament.

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma told Interfax-Ukraine he is confident that the course of the Russian leadership would remain unchanged after the State Duma elections. He pointed out that Boris Yeltsin is the president of Russia and, thus, is the guarantor of its reform program.

President Kuchma said he was not surprised with the returns, since Russian sociologists had predicted as much. He added, however, that he personally thought Our Home is Russia would fare better. Commenting in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, Mr. Kuchma said he did not expect the alignment of political forces in Russia to change.

"Nothing terrible or unforeseen has happened," he added, reporting that he had spoken via telephone to Mr. Yeltsin, who seemed relaxed and in good spirits.

Both men expressed satisfaction with the recent progress in Ukrainian-Russian relations, including meetings between high-level officials of both governments, and said they looked forward to a trilateral meeting between the defense ministers of the United States, Ukraine and Russia in Pervomaiske, the base of the 43rd Rocket Division, on January 5.

President Kuchma said Ukraine should learn a lesson from its northern neighbor's parliamentary results. "There we see that leftists are the best-organized. And in Ukraine these forces also are well organized, while others have disagreements," he added, referring to democrats who have not been able to unite in the last four years.

"We must cast aside all squabbles for the cause of state-building," he said.

Rukh leader Vyacheslav Chornovil also stressed that the Communist forces are the most organized, using the structures of the former Communist Party of the USSR to promote their platform.

Serhiy Sobolev, leader of the Reforms faction in the Ukrainian Parliament, told the parliamentary newspaper Holos Ukrainy (Voice of Ukraine) that what does worry him is the possibility of the Communists and Liberal Democrats uniting on a platform of Russian imperial chauvinism.

Socialist Party leader and Parliament Chairman Oleksander Moroz was restrained in his comments, saying that the Russian parliamentary elections will not have a major impact on relations between the two countries. However, he did underscore the fact that the sentiments of people of the former Warsaw Pact countries are shifting toward left-wing political forces, as Communists and Socialists have recently scored big in Poland and Russia.

Yevhen Supruniuk, the Crimean Parliament speaker, told Interfax-Ukraine he hoped the new State Duma would display a "balanced and thoughtful policy toward the Crimean problem."

"The outcome of the elections to the Russian State Duma should send a serious warning to those who call for reforms, but fail to do everything to ensure their implementation," he stated.

"The parliamentary elections in Russia are fresh proof of how disastrous the path of reforms is," said Ukraine's Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko, adding that Russian voters expressed support for the Communist Party because it "mirrors the interests of the majority of Russia's citizens, and also because the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is made up of candidates who are well-known from the days of the Soviet Union as able organizers, industrial managers and politicians, and who are honest and consistent people guided by firm principles."

Mr. Sobolev told Holos Ukrainy the Duma elections "should not be taken too seriously," since the Russian president has done everything in his power to remove the Parliament from taking part in an active political life." Mr. Sobolev noted that it is Russia's presidential elections in June that have to be watched carefully.

Russian voters in Ukraine

About 13,500 Russian citizens voted for Duma candidates in Ukraine, reported Interfax-Ukraine. They went to polling places set up in Ukrainian cities that have Russian consular offices. These include Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkiv, Lviv, Symferopil and Sevastopil.

According to Vladimir Spandarian of the Russian Embassy in Kyiv, about 20,000 people had been expected to vote.

In 19 polling stations in Sevastopil, still the home of the Black Sea Fleet, Russian citizens - mostly pensioners and sailors - voted as follows: Za Rodinu (For the Homeland), 23 percent; the Congress of Russian Communities, 13 percent; the Liberal Democratic Party, 11 percent; the Communist Party, 7 percent; Our Home is Russia, 5 percent; Yabloko, 2 percent; and Democratic Choice of Russia - United Democrats, 1 percent.

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