Ukraine cannot remember an ambassador like this. One must rack his or her brains to recall if there was another foreign ambassador accredited in Ukraine who enjoyed the same popularity and love among the people as does Viktor Chernomyrdin, former prime minister of Russia and now Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation in Ukraine and special envoy of the Russian president in charge of trade and economic relations. Mr. Chernomyrdin made his first trip to press the flesh as ambassador to the ancestral homeland of Zaporozhzhian Cossacks. Last Wednesday he paid a routine visit to Zaporizhzhia oblast. He visited the oblast center and Berdiansk the same day.
Local authorities did a good job preparing for the Russian diplomat’s visit. According to local old-timers, only the top government officials are usually accorded such a welcome. Privately, Zaporizhzhia bureaucrats did not hide their glee that Mr. Chernomyrdin chose as ambassador to visit precisely their region. The oblast’s beau monde — managers of the largest enterprises Motor-Sich, Zaporizhstal, and AvtoZAZ-Daewoo — came to see Mr. Chernomyrdin like a parade. It was obvious that the oblast pinned great hopes on the Russian diplomat. One by one, the industrial managers would tell the visitor about problems in cooperation with Russia that have lately arisen. One by one, they thanked Mr. Chernomyrdin for what he had done since he was premier of Russia. Yevhen Kartashov, chief of the Zaporizhzhia oblast administration, noted, incidentally, that Russia accounts today for 35% of the Zaporizhzhia oblast’s foreign trade turnover. The governor also pointed out that his oblast had incurred no debts for Russian natural gas.
In Berdiansk, Mr. Chernomyrdin was anticipated no less. It is difficult to assess how many hands Mr. Chernomyrdin shook and how many autographs he gave in that city... Quite obviously, the ambassador’s popularity could easily challenge that of the dozens of movie and theater stars who attended a film festival on the same day. Meanwhile, his toast at the festival inauguration, “Here’s to us, to you, to Ukraine and Russia, to oil and gas,” quite deserves to be considered another Chernomyrdin aphorism.
BLITZ INTERVIEW
“Mr. Chernomyrdin, are you more a politician or a diplomat?”
“I must say that I am a longtime decision-maker. I have always been an economic executive. Many years have passed since I was a manager. When I meet this kind of audience, I feel elated because I speak to them in the same language and discuss problems that I understand completely. I take pleasure in concrete work and relish this role above all. As to politician or diplomat. Being a diplomat is something inborn. But everything depends on a situation, on the goals set. I don’t think one can master this skill. The main thing is to know what to do.”
“What is your vision of solving the problems of Ukrainian-Russian cooperation?”
“There are no special problems and the point is not in problems. The point is we must make more specific use of the opportunities available. We maintain normal relations, but this is not enough today. I often say that we once had a $14 billion trade and economic balance, but it has now dropped to eleven or even seven. Although we’ve got resources and personnel, we are still beating around the bush. The Russians are also sluggish, we also continue to wait for somebody to come to us. We should not wait, we should work, search for and find customers for our products. Only he who makes quality and competitive products will be able to survive. Here we have a lot of things to think over and work on. Many problems arise because of borders, customs offices, and tax policy. Adopting the Tax Code, we immediately ran into a problem. Today, a part of the oil refineries belong to Russian companies. A value added tax was imposed, and the whole investment program is collapsing. Why on earth are you imposing it on your own people? Do we need this? No, we don’t, we should have thought it over. We did not think, we just pass something, and that’s it. One must think about the result. The result is that we hurt certain sectors.”
