Defiant Moscow mayor travels to Crimean city he says is Russia's (01/26/97)

Defiant Moscow mayor travels to Crimean city he says is Russia's

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Moscow's Mayor Yurii Luzhkov continued to test the patience of Ukrainian government officials with an unannounced and perhaps illegal visit to the city of Sevastopol, located on Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, on January 17.

There he again stated that the city "has been and will continue to be Russian" and that the issue will be decided in Russia's favor by international courts.

Lately Mr. Luzhkov has been at the forefront of an onslaught of words by some Russian leaders over the status of Sevastopol and the Black Sea Fleet that is based there, which they claim is Russian regardless of the fact that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev returned Crimea to Ukraine in 1954 and that officially Russia has stated again and again that it has no claims on the city. Ukraine and Russia have been negotiating the split of the fleet more than four years.

Mr. Luzhkov proposed a resolution in December in the Russian Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Parliament of which he is a member, which in essence declared that Sevastopol belongs to Russia.

The powerful mayor, who most political analysts believe has presidential aspirations and could win an election, showed up at a ceremony in which an apartment building financed from the budget of the city of Moscow was opened for families of servicemen of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

There he stated that no documents exist that can prove that Sevastopol was ever turned over to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954. "Even after Khrushchev made up his mind while in a state of intoxication to turn over Crimea, Sevastopol was a separate, independent administrative unit and was never given to Ukraine," said Mr. Luzhkov, according to Interfax-Ukraine.

It was another major headache for Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Minister Hennadii Udovenko, who days earlier had to deal with an alleged correspondence between Russia's Foreign Affairs Ministry and a presidential aide that mentioned a scheme to orchestrate the impeachment of Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma because of his "anti-Russia policies."

This time Minister Udovenko sent a message to Russia's Ambassador to Ukraine Yurii Dubinin. According to a spokesperson in the Foreign Affairs Ministry's press office, that message describes Mr. Luzhkov's remarks as "unfriendly and aimed against Ukraine's territorial integrity, which is recognized by the international community and Russia in particular."

Mr. Udovenko said at a press conference on January 21 that Mr. Luzhkov, for all his verboseness and potential political power, does not speak for the government of Russia. "Let us allow this issue to be resolved through diplomatic channels. Today our assignment is to build relations with Russia on good neighborly terms. Luzhkov's actions do not and should not reflect Ukraine-Russia relations," said Ukraine's foreign affairs minister. "Neither Luzhkov nor anybody else who makes such statements will derail this process. We await the return of Mr. Yeltsin to an active role. We feel that then relations will again normalize."

What particularly irked Mr. Udovenko is that he had received assurances from the Moscow mayor that he would not show up in Sevastopol for the opening of the apartment building. He said that Mr. Luzhkov had said a broken foot would keep him in Moscow and that the head of the Russian delegation also assured him that Mr. Luzhkov was not part of the delegation. "Then he shows up," said Mr. Udovenko.

How Mr. Luzhkov entered Ukraine is a question that is now being investigated. Ukraine and Russia last week had signed an agreement whereby visas would not be required for passage through custom checkpoints. However, that accord has not yet been implemented, and no one knew that Mr. Luzhkov had arrived, which is what Minister Udovenko said concerned him.

Mr. Luzhkov's departure from Ukraine was not as quiet as his arrival. In Symferopol he was detained when his body guard was found to be carrying a pistol. After a several hour detention, the two were released after consultation between the Customs Office and Mr. Udovenko. "At around midnight, I recommended that they be released," he explained. "They had already caused enough problems. Our objective is not to raise tensions, but to normalize relations between Russia and Ukraine. I do not think that this little gun was worth raising tensions."

Russia's Foreign Ministry quickly disassociated itself from Mr. Luzhkov's remarks. Igor Savolsky, director of the Foreign Ministry's CIS Department, said on January 20 that the Moscow mayor's statements "do not reflect Russia's official stand and should be treated accordingly," and reiterated that Russia has no territorial claims on Ukraine. He also called Mr. Luzhkov's suggestion that the International Court of Justice in the Hague would deal with the matter an "empty claim."

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