Turning the pages back... December 12, 1998 (12/12/99)

Turning the pages back...

December 12, 1998

Exactly one year ago on December 12, the vice-chairman of the Russian State Duma told representatives of the political left from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine gathered in Kyiv that ratification by Russia's Parliament of the Ukraine-Russia treaty on friendship and cooperation will not happen soon.

State Duma Vice-Chairman Sergei Baburin was in the Ukrainian capital to attend a political seminar organized by the Patriotic Party of Ukraine called "Russia-Ukraine-Belarus: A Glimpse into the 21st Century." The Weekly's Kyiv correspondent, Roman Woronowycz, reported that, while calling the signing of the treaty a "mistake," he said that it may be a while before the State Duma debates the document.

The Ukraine-Russia Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership had been signed in Kyiv in May 1997 by Presidents Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine and Boris Yeltsin of Russia; the Verkhovna Rada ratified the treaty in January 1998.

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 added that the new treaty could turn out to be "a scalpel used, not to cure the disease, but to kill the patient."

Ukrainian National Deputy Mykola Haber, formerly of the Progressive Socialist faction and then of the Hromada faction, echoed Mr. Baburin's sentiments and said that, without Ukraine, the Russian Federation is in for more fragmentation. Mr. Haber and 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 Alyaksandr Lukashenka had signed a treaty with Russia that called 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.

Ultimately, the bilateral treaty was approved by the State Duma on December 25, 1998, and ratified by the Federation Council, the Russian Parliament's upper house, on February 17 of this year.

Source: "Russian Duma vice-chairman calls bilateral treaty with Ukraine a 'mistake,' " by Roman Woronowycz, The Ukrainian Weekly, December 20, 1998, Vol. LXVI, No. 51.

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