EDITORIAL: Boritesia - poborete! (06/11/00)

EDITORIAL

Boritesia - poborete!

U.S. President Bill Clinton undoubtedly was relieved to get out of Moscow and the grips of Russian politics to a much calmer and friendly atmosphere in Ukraine. President Leonid Kuchma is the antithesis of his Russian counterpart in what he expects from relations with the United States. The Ukrainian leader does not want political conflict and is not seeking a place for Ukraine among great-power countries.

There was some indecision by planners of the Clinton tour of Europe and Russia, which also took the U.S. president to Lisbon and Berlin, about whether the Kyiv stop should come before Moscow. However, now it seems that putting Ukraine last was an intelligent move, which allowed Mr. Clinton to get a better feel for the striking differences between the two countries and where they are headed.

In Moscow Mr. Clinton's discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin were thorny at best and ended up in an impasse. Agreement on a common anti-ballistic missile defense plan will take years to negotiate and is unlikely to receive much support in the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress. From all indications, Mr. Clinton left Moscow with no clearer understanding of whether Mr. Putin's aims include a reintroduction of an authoritarian state or continued democratic reforms.

In Kyiv the U.S. president met an open and warmer leader, one who has given every indication that finally he is moving towards the West in market and democratic reforms in a decisive manner, and whose government is giving ever stronger signals that it wants a place in the European Union and NATO. President Kuchma does not want or need controversy right now. He has had enough of the allegations of corruption that surround his country and the still unresolved debacle involving the National Bank of Ukraine and the IMF over the bank's handling of its hard currency reserves.

From Mr. Clinton the Ukrainian president wanted consultation, cooperation, a strong expression of strategic friendship and, no less so, additional financial support. He got all he asked for. In return the Ukrainian leader gave the West a plum it has sought for most of this decade: the closure of Chornobyl, which will happen on December 15 of this year, unless something seriously goes wrong during the stoking of financial pledges from the international community.

With Russia's democratic future uncertain at present, at least in the eyes of the West, Ukraine has the opportunity to position itself ever more strongly as the strategic key to a peaceful and stable Europe.

But first Kyiv must move to finish the reforms that have finally moved forward. It must implement an extensive and far-reaching agricultural program, which must include legislation to allow for the open sale of land and the establishment of farm credits and a farm bank. The country needs to revamp its energy sector and finish privatizing the largest of the factories still under its control.

How Ukraine responds in large part depends on Mr. Kuchma. He does not have the charisma and eloquence of Mr. Clinton, which would allow him to drive reforms by means of his personality. But Mr. Kuchma does have an extensive system of political contacts in place, an effective network of lawmakers and businesspeople developed through a system of political payoffs and favors, some perhaps questionable, that he has honed to a fine edge. The problem that Mr. Kuchma must confront, one he has avoided in the past, is to decide whom to cast off and whom to listen to. Too many of his backroom boys do not see benefit for themselves in open markets and democracy.

Mr. Kuchma cannot please all those close to him if he wants to fulfill the promises he has given his nation and Western leaders such as Mr. Clinton. He needs to throw aside the advice of some of his "consultants," mostly that given him by the leaders of the various clans. Currently such powerful individuals as Oleksander Volkov of the Rebirth of the Regions Party and Hryhorii Surkis of the Social Democratic Party are putting pressure on the president to dismiss Vice Prime Minster Yulia Tymoshenko because her energy sector reform plan might topple them from the top of the heap. There are rumors that they have targeted Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko as well, because his independence from their influence has left them powerless to impress upon him their needs. Dismissal of Mr. Yuschenko would be a tragedy.

It is just this prime minister to whom the president must listen more attentively. Mr. Yuschenko's economic reform program is well-reasoned with sound principles based on models that worked in Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Today these countries are feeling strong economic development and growth. Ukraine's reforms are seeping into the economic soil and soon should begin providing seeds of sustained economic growth. But the president must continue on that path.

In his affairs with the contentious clans that are attempting to overrun the Ukrainian economy, Mr. Kuchma needs to take to heart what Mr. Clinton told the throngs on Mykhailivsky Square. Mr. President: "Boritesia - poborete!"

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