NEWS AND VIEWS: "Russia first"policy hurts Ukraine (05/09/04)

NEWS AND VIEWS

"Russia first"policy hurts Ukraine

The following letter to the editor was sent to the Wall Street Journal on April 1, but was not published. We print it here in view of its subject matter, which will no doubt be of interest to readers of The Ukrainian Weekly. The author of the letter is Borys Potapenko, director of operations at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Warren, Mich.

In "What a Strong Russia Wants" (Wall Street Journal, March 31), Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov presents Russia's vision for cooperation with the U.S. on a host of international issues. To substantiate his sincerity, Mr. Lavrov goes out of his way in making multiple assertions on how "Russia has significantly enhanced her reputation as a responsible player in international affairs."

However, Mr. Lavrov exposes Russia's true reputation of harboring imperial ambitions when he asserts that the former USSR "is a sphere of her vital interests" that must not be turned "into a zone of rivalry for spheres of influence." In this, Ukraine remains Moscow's greatest worry. From President Vladimir Putin, who recently lamented the demise of the USSR, to all of his Kremlin predecessors dating back to tsarist times, controlling Ukraine has always been the linchpin for Russia's empire. Indeed, the restoration of Ukraine's independence in 1991 sounded the death knell of the Soviet Union.

Hence, the price for Russian cooperation is for the U.S. and the European Union to continue to shun Ukraine's persistent pleas not to be locked out of the European and Euro-Atlantic integration process. Yet, despite incessant efforts by Russia to derail Ukraine's European hopes, Ukraine has pursued policies that tangibly support vital U.S. and EU objectives.

In recent months alone, and over Russia's vehement protests, Ukraine signed the Odesa-Brody pipeline agreement that will bring Caspian oil to Europe thus lessening dependence on Russia. Ukraine ratified the agreement for rapid entry of NATO troops onto its territory. Ukraine reaffirmed its commitment to keep its contingent, the fourth largest, in the stabilization force in Iraq. Earlier, Ukraine relinquished all of its strategic and tactical nuclear weapons in exchange for ambiguous security assurances from the U.S. Ukraine closed the Chornobyl nuclear reactor and canceled a lucrative turbine contract with Iran, for which full compensation is yet to be received. Ukraine dispatched peacekeepers to the Balkans and, at the advent of the Iraq war, provided a radiological battalion to Kuwait and gave overflight permission to NATO and the U.S. for their operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Fear of riling Russia is the one explanation for the benign neglect by the U.S. and the EU toward a nation of 50 million in the heart of Europe and of strategically critical importance that is cooperating fully in the war on international terrorism and other issues of vital concern. Even U.S. and EU agreement on Ukraine's accession to the World Trade Organization is being held hostage to a "Russia first" policy. Moreover, to the great shame of America, last year the U.S. Senate refused, for the first time, to pass a simple commemorative resolution on the Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933 in Ukraine, so as not to embarrass Russia.

Clearly, Mr. Lavrov's admonition about meddling in Russia's "near abroad" has long since struck a pusillanimous cord in the U.S. and Europe.

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