By Serhiy Zgurets, The Day
Last week’s Ukrainian and Russian naval exercise on the Black Sea seemed to have had the hidden agenda of creating a good backdrop for the first session of the Ukrainian-Russian Subcommittee to fill in the remaining gaps in the articles on the Russian Black Sea Navy operation and deployment in Ukraine.
One of the results of the session which ended on April 24 in Kyiv, was the approval of its membership. In Ukraine, it will be presided over by Viktor Semenov, former head of Sevastopol city state administration. In Russia, by Vladimir Kuroedov, Russian Black Sea Navy Commander. The Admiral was optimistic: the talks in Kyiv were “important evidence of a constructive and businesslike approach to implementing the Black Sea Navy accords signed last May.” One might add that this “constructive approach” resulted from the fact that Russia had formed its subcommittee half a year later than Ukraine, after Leonid Kuchma complained in Russia’s Izvestiya, two months prior to his visit to Moscow, that while both sides had agreed to solve the Black Sea Navy [BSN] problem, the Russian side was not actually prepared to negotiate due to the absence of a duly authorized body.
To date, out of a dozen supplementary accords some of the simplest ones stand a chance of being signed in the next 2-3 months, dealing with Russian BSN use of Ukrainian air space and the Black Sea, and with measures to secure ecological safety on BSN deployment sites. What remains to be agreed on is the time and method of additional settlements stemming from the Russian Navy’s presence in Ukraine. Kyiv is supposed to be paid some $97 million in terms of rental charges by Russia. Not much, all things considered, but it leaves one wondering whether Ukraine will ever receive this money or will Russia prefer the kind of payments being made for Kazakhstan’s Baikonur space launching site or military bases in the Republic of Georgia.
