Tomtoms of the Kremlin

Volodymyr Ohryzko, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, went last week to Moscow to discuss the problems of bilateral relations between Ukraine and Russia. This was his first visit to the Russian Federation as head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

During the meeting of the Russia-NATO Council at the Bucharest Summit, Vladimir Putin called Ukraine a zone of his interests. Other Russian diplomats spoke out in the same tone. A week ago, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Serhgey Lavrov, announced that Russia would do everything possible in order to not let Ukraine and Georgia receive NATO memberships. At the same time, the head of the Joint Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Yuriy Baluyevskiy, promised that Moscow wouldn’t watch Kyiv and Tbilisi enter the Alliance with indifference: “Russia will undertake actions directed towards securing its interests near its borders.”

Kyiv’s reaction to the words of the Russian President and other diplomats was expressed in the note of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: “the statements of the high-ranking officials of the Russian Federation are anti-Ukrainian and discrediting, it is a direct interference into the domestic affairs of our country”. Then, the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine demanded that the Russian side stop its practice of threats and keep within the agreement of friendship, cooperation and partnership between our countries.

It is clear that as the only response from Kyiv this is not enough to force the Kremlin to stop their direct and obvious threats towards Ukraine. This situation should be immediately discussed at the meeting of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. Today, all the branches of the state power and different political forces should coordinate their activities and have a single position regarding Moscow. However, it looks like the attitude of a number of the Ukrainian politicians towards the recent events in Bucharest was quite approving. And the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine decided to wait a little with the answer to the statements of the Russian president and other diplomats in order to, as Arseliy Yatsenyuk [head of the Verkhova Rada] said, develop a harmonious decision that “would adjust the relations between our countries and not aggravate them.”

Meanwhile, the statements of the Russian officials were one of the main topics of talks in Moscow. “We are worried with the statements by several high-ranking officials of the Russian Federation", said the Ukrainian Minister in the beginning of the meeting with his Russian colleague. However, according to our sources, the Russian side didn’t consider it necessary to respond to the note of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign affairs since, in their opinion, the note contained quotes taken from the media. And Ukrainian diplomats didn’t hear anything about the concrete steps that Russia was going to undertake to not let Ukraine and Georgia receive NATO memberships.

Scandalous statements of representatives of the Kremlin had predetermined the course of the meeting: the atmosphere of the meeting was so tense that some times, an exasperated Sergey Lavrov, who smoked a pack of cigarettes over the course of two hours, forgot about diplomatic tact and addressed his Ukrainian colleagues in a very unceremonious way.

The sounds of this “diplomatic sparring” could be heard by the journalists at the final press conference of Lavrov and Ohryzko, at which the ministers didn't leave the remarks of each other without comments.

Despite the fact that the Ukrainian minister couldn't assure his Russian colleague that Ukraine’s membership in NATO wouldn’t damage Russian interests, he could reach an agreement on arranging the experts’ consultations on this matter. This agreement is, perhaps, the only positive result of the meeting of the Ukrainian and Russian ministers. Ukrainian and Russian diplomats couldn’t come to an agreement on other points discussed at the talks – sea boundary delimitation, demarcation of over-land boundary, overcoming the consequences of the ecocatastrophe in the Kerch Strait, the Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, cooperation in the gas sphere, etc.

Incidentally, the result of the Ukrainian minister’s visit to Russia was quite predictable. Kyiv and Moscow adhere to absolutely different opinions on many questions. And the heads of Foreign Ministries or ambassadors (according to ZN sources, the present deputy head of the Presidential Secretariat of Ukraine, Olexandr Chalyy, will be a new ambassador of Ukraine to the Russian Federation)are not authorized to change those opinions. Only the political will of the presidents of our states can change the positions of Kyiv and Moscow. However, it looks like neither Kyiv, nor Moscow is going to yield to each other.

For instance, the Russians refuse to confirm the existing in the Kerch Strait boundary between Ukraine and Russia and continue to contend that the boundary should go through the centre of the Kerch-Yenikalsky channel.

Nevertheless, there was no progress even in the questions, on which it was quite possible to compromise. Thus, the Russians are doing everything possible to delay the settling of the issue on demarcation of the over-land part of the Ukrainian-Russian boundary, even though it was earlier agreed that during this meeting, the ministers should sign the draft agreement on demarcation. And the joint demarcation committee should have had started to work as early as in the beginning of 2007, but it still hasn’t had its first session.

It is not surprising that many considered the visit of the Ukrainian minister to Moscow to be not reasonable. Nevertheless, Ohryzko’s visit to Moscow was absolutely necessary. It gave an opportunity to support personal contact between the two ministers and define the main problems in the bilateral relations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation.

The Russians are absolutely against discussing the Russian Black Sea Fleet issue. Russian diplomats think that it is not the time to raise this issue today. Moscow reminds the recent session of the Russian Duma, where the Russian deputies called upon prolongation of the term of the agreement on the period of stay of the Russian Black Fleet in Crimea.

Meanwhile, Kyiv remembers how long it took Moscow to withdraw its troops from Georgia. That’s why during his official visit to the Russian Federation, the Ukrainian minister passed his Russian colleague a draft memorandum on the withdrawal of the Russian Black Sea Fleet from the territory of Ukraine before May 28, 2017. Under this memorandum, consultations defining the procedure of withdrawal of the Russian military units should start on June 1, 2008. The Russians’ reaction to this document was predictably negative: they called the memorandum inaccurate and contributing to increasing the tension in the relationship between Ukraine and Russia. However, Kyiv and Moscow will have to discuss the question about withdrawal of the Russian Black Sea Fleet from Ukraine anyway, since Ukrainian leadership is not going to prolong the agreement on the period of stay of the Russian Black Sea in Crimea. And if the Russians take care of the unavoidable withdrawal of their navy units from Ukraine as soon as possible, then it would be more convenient for their soldiers to move from one place of dislocation to another.