Russian Duma vice-chairman calls bilateral treaty with Ukraine a 'mistake' (12/20/98)

Russian Duma vice-chairman calls bilateral treaty with Ukraine a 'mistake'

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ratification by Russia's Parliament of the Ukrainian-Russian treaty on friendship and cooperation will not happen soon, the vice-chairman of Russia's Duma told representatives of the political left from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine on December 12 in Kyiv.

State Duma Vice-Chairman Sergei Baburin was in Kyiv to attend a political seminar organized by the Patriotic Party of Ukraine called "Russia-Ukraine-Belarus: A Glimpse into the 21st Century."

While calling the signing of the treaty a "mistake," he said that it may be a while before the State Duma debates the document. "I would not be ready even to say that this treaty is being prepared in the political kitchen. Rather it has been placed in the refrigerator," said Mr. Baburin.

The Ukraine-Russia Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership was signed in Kyiv on May 31, 1997, by Presidents Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine and Boris Yeltsin of Russia after five years of negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow. Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada ratified the treaty in January 1998, while the Russian State Duma, controlled by Communists, has stalled and wavered on the document for more than a year and a half.

At a press conference after the seminar, Mr. Baburin said the treaty was hastily put together and not properly thought through.

"This treaty is, in my view, a truly nice gesture of friendship and cooperation between Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Kuchma, but my feeling is that the interests of the people are far from identical to those of the presidents. In this respect the treaty of 1997 is far inferior to the treaty of 1990, which is still in effect, because the [latest] treaty does not contain several provisions of cooperation, including in the field of defense," said Mr. Baburin.

He said the 1997 treaty could turn out to be "a scalpel used, not to cure the disease, but to kill the patient."

The patient to which Mr. Baburin was referring is the Soviet Union, which has not existed since 1991 - except in the minds of Communists and nationalists in Russia and their political brethren in Ukraine.

Ukrainian National Deputy Mykola Haber, formerly of the Progressive Socialist faction and lately of the Hromada faction of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada, echoed Mr. Baburin's sentiments during the conference. He said that, without Ukraine, the Russian Federation is in for more fragmentation.

He said that the conference was needed "to outline a joint strategy for action to save both the Russian Federation, its prestige and international status, as well as Ukraine as an equal partner."

Mr. Haber, as well as all the other presenters at the conference, called for a Russia-Ukraine-Belarus union.

Ivan Symonenko, leader of the Ukrainian political party, Russian-Ukrainian Union, said his country needs to find its own Lukashenka. In 1997, Belarusian President Alyasandr Lukashenka signed a treaty with Russia that calls for eventual political and economic union with Moscow.

Mr. Symonenko suggested that current Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksander Tkachenko may be able to fill those shoes, and he called on Ukraine's "patriotic" forces to rally around the Verkhovna Rada leader.

The participants of the conference repeatedly criticized the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, as well as NATO "hegemony" over the Ukrainian-Belarusian-Russian Slavic brotherhood and called for the three countries to develop their own path.

"United we can hold off our opponents. We will not permit their hegemony, neither over Belarus, nor over Ukraine, nor over Russia," said Mr. Baburin.

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