Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Yevhen Marchuk believes the political elites of both countries are getting rid of their big and little brother complexes
“Mr. Marchuk, can we conclude that the results of the Sochi talks between the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, the ensuing programmatic statements of Leonid Kuchma on the development of Ukrainian-Russian relations, your active contacts and routine meetings with Sergei Ivanov, and decisions of the Russian Federation Security Council open a new leaf in the two Slavic countries’ relations?”
“I think many people in Ukraine and Russia are facing today a moment of revelation, and the political elites of our two countries are getting rid of the big and little brother complexes and stereotypes that have arisen in the past ten years of the two sovereign and independent states. In September-October, we took some important steps toward each other and gave Russian-Ukrainian international relations a new constructive impulse. I want to reiterate that Ukraine still regards Russia as a great neighbor and strategic partner.
“In Kyiv, the Russian direction of Ukrainian foreign policy has been reinforced by many presidential decisions and decrees, including those on cadres. But I underline that the Russian vector of our foreign policy as a strategic principle has never been called into question at the level of the top leadership and has always remained unchanged.”
“Yet, I will note that sometimes some high officials allowed themselves the liberty of loosely interpreting presidential instructions, but this was just a private opinion or perhaps elementary mindlessness. I have worked as Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council for a year and seen President Leonid Kuchma resentful over the ill-conceived steps of some Cabinet and Foreign Ministry officials with respect to cooperation with Russia.”
“Can we hope that in the future the stability of Ukrainian- Russian relations will be determined by businesspeople, not politicians of our countries?”
“This is not an idle question. The point is many Ukrainian businesspeople and entrepreneurs have become members of parliament and are actively engaged in politics. They, as a rule, support the development of political and economic relations between Ukraine and Russia. A certain part of the Ukrainian political elite is wary of Russia, considering that it pursues a perfidious and Machiavellian foreign policy. One should remember that Ukraine is one of the largest European countries with a political East and West of its own. The Eastern regions have been traditionally oriented toward cross-border economic cooperation with Russian regions, they maintain a host of deep-rooted humanitarian and family ties. The Ukrainian political West is specific. Without deliberating on the well-known problems, I only want to note that we consider that unity of the Ukrainian nation should be based on its ethnic multiplicity. We do not play down our domestic problems, but I can say Ukraine is being revived without bloodshed or ethnic conflicts. The credit for this should also go to this country’s political leadership.”
“One can often hear in Kyiv that it is time to throw off the influence of Moscow, but in all probability our countries are interdependent, are they not?”
“You are absolutely right! It is logical and correct to speak about interdependence. We are not only neighbors but also partners. History has decreed that the economic development of our countries completely depends on the extent to which the cooperative ties between the enterprises, formerly part of a single economic complex, can work together effectively, being guided only by considerations of mutual benefit, profit, earnings, and job creation.
“If Russia dominates somewhere, this is a given, a fact of life: you cannot bear a grudge with history. But the transit of Russian (natural) gas to Europe also depends on Ukraine, so there is no one-sided dependence, and our relations should be based on the policy of pragmatism and expediency.”
“Have the lawmakers agreed to give the go-ahead to the privatization of Ukraine’s gas transport system?”
“This is a problem of not the economy but the mentality of the young Ukrainian elite. I came to a conclusion already in 1995 that it is advisable from the standpoint of national interests to privatize Ukraine’s gas transport network. Today also I am trying to put across to many people here in Kyiv that we may see a day when we will have to sing and dance on an empty and rusty gas pipeline. I am certain today that we must persuade Russia to take part in the privatization of our pipeline in any acceptable and mutually advantageous form. I remember the 1994 Kharkiv negotiations with Viktor Chernomyrdin about the sale of Tu-160 bombers and the Variag cruiser, when the Ukrainian side did not heed the advice of experts and, as a result, lost very much.”
“Mr. Marchuk, you often meet Sergei Ivanov, secretary of the Russian Federation Security Council. Could you tell us more in detail about your cooperation?”
“I twice met Mr. Ivanov after the Sochi summit of our presidents. Mr. Ivanov is arriving in Kyiv on a routine visit very soon, perhaps in mid-November. We were assigned the task to personally supervise the fulfillment of presidential instructions to revitalize the economic and humanitarian cooperation between our countries. We have signed a protocol on cooperation between the Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and the RF Security Council and have drawn up a joint plan for controlling the fulfillment of the presidents’ instructions. For instance, the presidents obliged the governments to strike an energy balance between the two countries.”
“High on the agenda today is the problem of information exchange between our countries. Does it seem to you that someone is trying to put this problem in the ideological plane?”
“We plan to hold in the nearest future a Security and Defense Council meeting to discuss the protection of Ukraine’s information space. But you will agree this is an arbitrary description of the problem because there simply cannot be such thing as Ukraine’s closed information space: there is a world information space, with Ukraine being part of it. The president has set the goal of reaching the European civilized level of information exchange between Ukraine and the rest of the world. We are only too well aware that prohibitive measures in information are naive and unsuccessful. No one can ban the Internet. The official information policy means a guarantee for every individual to choose the language in which he/she wants to receive information. There is a popular Inter television channel in Ukraine. It is going to work shortly in three languages: Ukrainian, Russian, and English, so it is up to the viewer to select the language of broadcasting. Working out government programs for promoting the official language and creating condition for its functioning, we also try to reach societal harmony in such a delicate problem. The freedom of information will speed up the formation of civil society, defuse the problem of Ukraine’s provincial image, and allow our citizens to get access to the European and global information culture. As is known, money flows toward freedom, including the freedom of information.”
