[Ohio UZO News] Ukraine: NYT; WoE

[Deychak, Orest]

The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com

 

Crimea Tense As Ukraine And Russia Swap Barbs  (or, in the web edition,
Russia and Ukraine in Intense Standoff)

By CLIFFORD J. LEVY 

28 August 2009

Late Edition - Final

Page 4

 

SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine -- A year after its war with Georgia, Russia is
engaging in an increasingly hostile standoff with another pro-Western
neighbor, Ukraine.

Relations between the two countries are more troubled than at any time
since the Soviet collapse, as both sides resort to provocations and
recriminations. And it is here on the Crimean Peninsula, home to a
Russian naval base, where the tensions are perhaps most in danger of
bursting into open conflict.

Late last month, the Ukrainian police briefly detained Russian military
personnel who were driving truckloads of missiles through this port
city, as if they were smugglers who had come ashore with a haul of
contraband. Local officials, it seemed, were seeking to make clear that
this was no longer friendly terrain.

Ukraine has in recent years been at the forefront of the effort by some
former Soviet republics to switch their alliances to the West, and it
appears that the Kremlin has, in some sense, had enough.

President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia denounced Ukraine this month for
''anti-Russian'' policies, citing in particular its ''incessant
attempts'' to harass Russia's naval base in Sevastopol. Mr. Medvedev
condemned Ukraine's bid for NATO membership and its support for Georgia,
and said he would not send an ambassador to Ukraine.

And the criticism has not let up since then.

Monday was Ukrainian independence day, and Russian prosecutors used the
occasion to accuse Ukrainian soldiers and members of Ukrainian
nationalist groups of fighting alongside Georgia's military in the war
last August. The Ukrainians denied the charges, but they underscored the
bitterness in Moscow.

For its part, the Ukrainian government, which took power after the
Orange Revolution of 2004, has repeatedly accused Russia of acting as a
bully and trying to dominate the former Soviet space both militarily and
economically.

Looming is a presidential election in Ukraine in January, which might
cause Ukrainian candidates to respond more aggressively to Russia to
show their independence. The Kremlin might seek to exploit the situation
to help pro-Russian politicians in Kiev.

Both countries publicly avow that they do not want the bad feelings to
spiral out of control.

Still, they persist, especially in Sevastopol, where Russia has
maintained a naval base since czarist times.

The Kremlin has bristled at what it sees as Ukraine's disrespectful
governing of a city that it formerly controlled -- one that was the site
of momentous military battles, including in the Crimean War and World
War II.

Ukraine appears to regard the base as a sign that Russia still wants to
project its military might over the region.

The Ukrainians have not only briefly detained Russian military personnel
transporting missiles on several occasions this summer. They also
expelled a Russian diplomat who oversees naval issues and barred
officers from the F.S.B., the Russian successor to the K.G.B., from
working in Sevastopol.

The Ukrainians are trying to close a nearby Russian navigation station
and are threatening penalties over supposed pollution from Russian
vessels off Sevastopol, which is on the south of the Crimean Peninsula.

''Ukraine has become more demanding, and has a right to do that,'' said
the Sevastopol mayor, Sergei V. Kunitsyn, an appointee of the Ukrainian
government.

Mr. Kunitsyn said Russian military trucks transporting missiles in
Sevastopol had been stopped and searched by the police because their
route had not been approved in advance, as is required under accords
signed by Russia.

He insisted that day-to-day interactions involving the Russian fleet
were being carried out in a businesslike manner in Sevastopol, a city of
350,000.

He said Ukraine was not trying to oust the Russian fleet, though he did
raise the prospect of additional pressure.

''If we wanted to, they would have such problems that they would never
be able to leave the port,'' he said. ''According to the law, we could
find 1,000 reasons why the fleet could simply not live.''

The Crimean Peninsula, which has two million people, is part of Ukraine
through something of a historic fluke. In 1954, Nikita S. Khrushchev,
then the Soviet leader, transferred it to Ukraine from Russia, though at
the time the decision had little significance because both were part of
the Soviet Union.

Besides serving as host for the Black Sea Fleet, the peninsula had a
cherished role in the Soviet era as a vacation spot, with beaches and
abundant fruits and vegetables.

After the Soviet fall, Russia reached a deal with Ukraine to maintain
the base in Sevastopol, under a lease that ends in 2017. The Ukrainian
president, Viktor A. Yushchenko, has declared that it will not be
renewed, though his successors may not concur.

The current concern is that a spark in Crimea -- however unlikely --
could touch off a violent confrontation or even the kind of fighting
that broke out between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway enclave of
South Ossetia.

The situation is particularly uneasy because the population in Crimea is
roughly 60 percent ethnic Russian and would prefer that the peninsula
separate from Ukraine and be part of Russia. (Sevastopol has an even
higher proportion of ethnic Russians.)

People have been upset by new Ukrainian government policies that require
the use of the Ukrainian language, rather than Russian, in government
activities, including some courses in public schools. Throughout
downtown Sevastopol last week, residents set up booths to gather
signatures on petitions in an effort to overturn the regulations.

And on Monday, Ukrainian independence day, ethnic Russians in Crimea
held anti-Ukrainian demonstrations.

Sergei P. Tsekov, a senior politician in Crimea who heads the main
ethnic Russian communal organization, said he hoped that Russia would
wholeheartedly endorse Crimean separatism just as it did the aspirations
of South Ossetia and another Georgian enclave, Abkhazia.

''The central authorities in Ukraine are provoking the people of
Crimea,'' Mr. Tsekov said. ''They relate to us like Georgia related to
the Abkhazians and South Ossetians. They think that we're going to
forget our roots, our language, our history, our heroes. Only stupid
people would think that we're going to do that. Unfortunately, stupid
people currently lead Ukraine.''

Crimean separatists have been encouraged by prominent politicians in
Russia, including Moscow's mayor, Yuri M. Luzhkov, and a senior member
of Parliament, Konstantin F. Zatulin, both of whom have been barred from
Ukraine by the government because of their assertions that Sevastopol
belongs to Russia.

The Kremlin has not publicly backed the separatists, though it has
declared that the rights of ethnic Russians in Crimea must not be
violated.

While not denying frictions between Russia and Ukraine, Mr. Kunitsyn,
Sevastopol's mayor, said ethnic Russians in the city were more worried
about the local economy than who was in charge of the local government.
He said employment in military and merchant fleets had dropped sharply.

''People are slowly getting used to the idea that Sevastopol is
Ukraine's, and that Ukraine is helping Sevastopol,'' he said.

Near the harbor, though, residents did not necessarily agree.

Larisa G. Bakanova, 74, a retired teacher, was at a petition booth not
far from a monument to Adm. Pavel S. Nakhimov, who led Russia's defense
of Sevastopol in the Crimean War in the 1850s. She said people had
eagerly signed up to oppose Ukrainian language mandates.

''The pressure from Kiev is more and more intense,'' she said. ''They
are stirring us up. They need to understand that this is the city of
Sevastopol --a city of military glory, a city of Russian glory.''

Window on Eurasia: Kyiv Seeks to Mobilize Ukrainians Abroad to Counter
Russian Pressure 

 

Paul Goble

 

            Vienna, August 27 - In response to Moscow's continuing
efforts to exploit ethnic Russians living in Ukraine in order to put
pressure on the Ukrainian government, Kyiv is seeking to mobilize ethnic
Ukrainians in the Russian Federation and elsewhere to defend Ukraine
from Russian attacks and to promote Ukrainian interests as well.

 

            On Tuesday, Vera Ulyanchen'ko, the chief of President Viktor
Yushchenko's secretariat, hosted a meeting with representatives of
Ukrainians living outside of Ukraine and senior Ukrainian officials,
including acting foreign minister Volodymyr Khandogy and two deputy
chiefs of the Presidential Secretariat, Andrei Honcharuk and Valentina
Rudenko.

 

            Ulyanchen'ko told the group that the Ukrainian government is
committed to "activating" relations between Kyiv and Ukrainians living
in other countries in order to support both their efforts to "preserve
and disseminate Ukrainian culture" where they live and to "support
democracy in Ukraine" (www.ia-centr.ru/expert/5659/).

 

            The secretariat chief said that "state support for
Ukrainians abroad as a powerful political and spiritual force is one of
the priorities of President Viktor Yushchenko," as is shown, she
continued, by his frequent calls for the parliament to provide full
funding for programs directed "at the support of Ukrainians abroad."

 

            In his name, Ulyanchen'ko expressed the gratitude of the
Ukrainian nation for "the active support by Ukrainians abroad of the
president's initiative for honoring the victims of the Terror Famine of
1932-33" and for their efforts to secure "international recognition of
the Terror Famine as a genocide of the Ukrainian people."

 

            But Ulyanchen'ko devoted most of her time to what she said
are the "fundamental threats of a political, economic and international
character" now facing Ukraine during the run-up to the presidential
elections.  These threats, she continued, include ones directed against
"the existence of Ukraine itself and the existence of democracy in
Ukraine."

 

Discussing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's recent letter to
President Yushchenko, Ulyanchen'ko said that the Russian letter had had
the unintended consequence of "consolidating Ukrainians," as was shown,
she continued by "the activity and clarity of patriotic public actions
during the celebrations of State Flag Day and Ukrainian Independence
Day."

 

Medvedev's letter, she continued, was part of a continuing series of
Russian statements and actions which highlighted Russia's "imperial
ambitions" and Moscow's lack of respect for Ukraine and Ukrainians.
Indeed, she noted, Russian leaders, including Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin, have suggested that "Ukraine is supposedly a non-existent state."

 

And she concluded her remarks by saying that the efforts of other
government to influence "organization of Ukrainians abroad" against
Ukraine were "impermissible," an indication that such efforts may be
taking place and that Kyiv is now worried about their consequences.

 

            Tuesday's meeting in Kyiv is intriguing for three reasons.
First, it suggests that Ukrainian officials are now prepared to push
even harder than they have in the past to get governments around the
world to declare that the Stalin-era famine in Ukraine was a genocide,
an effort that parallels longstanding efforts by Armenians regarding
1915.

 

            Second, the meeting shows that Kyiv is now prepared to give
Moscow a taste of its own medicine. Russia has regularly sought to use
the dwindling number of ethnic Russians in Ukraine to put pressure on
Kyiv. Now, Kyiv appears to be hoping that it will be able to use the
more than six million ethnic Ukrainians in Russia, possibly leading
Moscow to back off from its tactic.

            

And third, such activism by the Ukrainian government may lead more
Russians to conclude, as one in three now does, that there is no need
"to lobby pro-Russian forces in Ukraine since there are no real
pro-Russian forces there" now.

            

Such Russians believe, according to a survey by the All-Russian Center
for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM), an agency known for its close
ties to the Kremlin, that Moscow "must work with the government
Ukrainians have chosen themselves" rather than trying to push forward
"pro-Russian forces"
(wciom.ru/novosti/press-vypuski/press-vypusk/single/12331.html

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