Moscow expects Kyiv to provide “official and clear-cut explanations” of the situation with the hydrographic and navigational facilities in the Crimea, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said last Tuesday. “When Russian representatives were barred from the Yalta lighthouse, documents were seized, and the locks were changed, we asked the Ukrainian presidential administration for explanations, only to be told that they themselves found out about this from newspapers,” Lavrov said. According to Lavrov, Ukraine’s Presidential Secretariat suggested that this might be the handiwork of some youth organization “raising hell.” The Russian foreign minister emphasized, however, that after this comment “it was a complete surprise for Moscow to hear a Ukrainian foreign ministry statement announcing that all lighthouses and hydrographic facilities had been illegally seized by the Russian side.” “In this situation it is difficult to understand who represents the voice of Ukraine — the presidential administration, a certain youth movement, or Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” Lavrov stressed. The minister also admitted that Russian-Ukrainian talks on the use of navigational and hydrographic facilities had reached a deadlock. Meanwhile, in an interview with the newspaper Kommersant-Ukraina , Ukraine’s Minister of Defense Anatoliy Hrytsenko flatly denied the possibility of an armed conflict over the Crimean facilities leased by the Russian Black Sea Fleet. “I don’t think we will have any more misunderstandings of this kind, and we will be able to get down to smooth and constructive work,” Hrytsenko said. He did not rule out, however, raising the fees payable by the Russian Black Sea Fleet for the Crimean facilities, but he failed to specify the likely amount. The Day asked the experienced diplomat Yuriy KOCHUBEI, president of the Ukrainian Foreign Policy Association, to comment on the latest crisis in Ukrainian-Russian relations.
“Although so-called wars between Ukraine and Russia have taken place in one degree or another in the past, albeit in hidden form, the gas dispute was the most notable and glaring example. The lighthouse story has spotlighted the low professional level of the Ukrainian negotiators. The diplomats are not aware that negotiations are a science. All the problems related to stocktaking of the property leased by the Russian fleet should have been solved long ago, and this would have helped avert the current misunderstandings. We must learn a big lesson from this situation. We must make every effort to restore our rights to the facilities that lawfully belong to our state.
“Very little in fact has changed in Ukrainian-Russian relations. Although before we could view them as relatively stable, it is difficult to call them mutually beneficial. This state of affairs is bound to continue until Russia becomes psychologically prepared to admit that Ukraine is an independent state. Our problem is also that some politicians think that they may succeed in changing the situation and stage a comeback. In our relations with Russia we should put special emphasis on observing existing international legal acts. If any problems arise, they should be studied in minute detail and negotiated in a professional way. If any misunderstandings exist, one must immediately sit down at the negotiating table and clear things up.
“The gas war and the lighthouse dispute are elements of the election campaign; it is a struggle for votes. Using the instrument of ‘bilateral wars,’ Russia is trying to influence our voters, one way or another. It is a shame that some political forces are resorting to these kinds of spin control measures to further their own goals. This is a manifestation of Russia’s overall policy toward the independent Ukrainian state, especially after the Orange victory. It is no accident that all this is occurring shortly before the parliamentary elections. It seems to me that by pursuing such a policy towards Ukraine, Russia is considerably tarnishing its image in the world. The reaction of the international media is proof of this. The Russians expected the world community to condemn Ukraine during the gas dispute, but things went the other way around. There were a lot of voices in favor of Ukraine: the world was aware that this country was under huge pressure.
“The government chose confrontation with Russia on the eve of the elections. Is this risky? I think it is a good sign that we have a government that can adhere to principles. So we must make ample use of all existing international legal instruments. I do not think that the government or the forces that have stood up for our national interests will lose out on this. It is the betrayers of national interests who stand to lose. Russia is trying to politicize any issues in our bilateral relations and thus play a role in Ukraine’s pre-election field.”
