Yulia Tymoshenko in Washington on March 3, 2007.
Photo: PHL
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Yulia Tymoshenko Takes a Pot Shot at Russia
// With a Visit to the United States
Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko made a visit to Washington last weekend that culminated in a meeting with American Vice-President Dick Cheney. Her trip was calculated to impress upon the American leadership that the machinations of Ukraine's "pro-Russian" prime minister, Viktor Yanukovych, have the potential to strip Ukraine of its economic independence. Ms. Tymoshenko, whose solution to the situation involves changes to the country's constitution and early parliamentary elections, called on the US to support democracy in Ukraine and promised to achieve the country's integration into NATO. Kommersant's correspondent in Washington, Dmitry Sidorov, has the details.
Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of Ukraine's "orange opposition," kicked off her visit to Washington on February 25, exactly three months after her main rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, indulged in some flirtation of his own with trans-Atlantic travel. Although Ms. Tymoshenko met with the same crowd in Washington as Mr. Yanukovych – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rica, National Security advisor Stephen Hadley, and Vice-President Dick Cheney – the overall tone of her visit was completely different. Washington's decision to delegate top officials to hear out Ms. Tymoshenko was due not only to her recent reconciliation with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko but also to plans afoot in the White House to create an alternative to Europe's dependence on Russian energy supplies and to oppose Moscow's growing influence in the post-Soviet sphere.
In her turn, Yulia Tymoshenko was eager to use her visit to the US to strike as painful a blow as possible at Viktor Yanukovych by severing his nascent ties with Washington. The Washington Post noted in an article on February 22 that Ms. Tymoshenko planned to the American political elite a clear signal that "Ukraine's sovereignty and hopes for better relations with the US and the West are in jeopardy if the government of pro-Moscow Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych serves out its full term to 2011."
During her three-day trip to Washington, Ms. Tymoshenko met with any and all politicians capable of supporting her new alliance with President Yushchenko against Prime Minister Yanukovych. In addition to meeting with senior members of the Bush administration, she spoke at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies and the National Press Club and received an award from the influential Conservative Political Action Conference for her contributions to the development of democracy. At a banquet after the awards ceremony, she said that she has been significantly influenced by US President Ronald Reagan's words to Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev about the Berlin Wall: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." "Ronald Reagan knew that freedom demands constant pushing. I will confront the opponents of freedom in my country just as vigorously," promised Ms. Tymoshenko.
At the National Press Club, she painted Prime Minister Yanukovych as a die-hard opponent of NATO and referred to "a major campaign to discredit everything associated with NATO in Ukraine." She also promised that her party's bloc will achieve the country's integration into NATO.
One of Ms. Tymoshenko's most significant contacts was with Republican Senator Richard Lugar, the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Despite the loss of his chairmanship when the Democrats took over the Senate in January, Mr. Lugar won reelection in the congressional elections last November and has remained one of the most influential Republicans in Congress. He is well-connected both with the Democrats and with the Bush administration and was George Bush's special representative to Ukraine during the elections that led to the victory of the "Orange Revolution" that brought Viktor Yushchenko to power in 2004.
The gas war between Moscow and Kiev has caused Mr. Lugar to become an advocate for NATO's participation in resolving the issue of energy security. In June 2006, the Senate unanimously approved a resolution sponsored by Senator Lugar that mentioned that "NATO's dependence on imports of oil and gas from a handful of countries with state control over reserves makes the alliance vulnerable to political manipulation by energy suppliers."
The high point of Ms. Tymoshenko's visit, however, was her meeting with Vice-President Dick Cheney, which was also attended by President Bush's national security advisor, Stephen Hadley. According to Kommersant sources, Mr. Cheney's willingness to meet with Ms. Tymoshenko indicates that the White House supports her efforts, particularly since the American vice president only rarely meets with representatives of political opposition movements in other countries and even more rarely allows information about the meeting to be reported in the press.
Yulia Tymoshenko's meeting with Dick Cheney was dedicated to three main topics: the possible loss of Ukraine's economic sovereignty as a result of the pro-Russian orientation of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, plans for diversifying Europe's energy supplies, and the consequences that Mr. Yanukovych's moves may have for the development of democracy in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Kommersant has also learned that Ms. Tymoshenko presented Mr. Cheney with documents concerning Mr. Yanukovych's plans to expand the activities of the company RosUkrEnergo in the wake of last year's gas war between Moscow and Kiev. Ms. Tymoshenko is reported to have told Mr. Cheney that Mr. Yanukovych is considering handing control of a significant portion of Ukraine's energy sector over to RosUkrEnergo, 50% of which is owned by the Russian gas giant Gazprom.
Further evidence provided by Ms. Tymoshenko of the possibility that the Ukrainian economy will fall under the shadow of the "Russian umbrella" was information about a joint project with Russia to exploit Ukrainian uranium deposits. According to Kommersant's sources, the company in question was undoubtedly the Russian state-owned enterprise UGRK, which made the news in December 2006 with an announcement of a possible joint venture at the Novokonstantinovsky mine.
Counting on Mr. Cheney's interest in plans for diversifying energy sources for Europe, Ms. Tymoshenko brought up Mr. Yanukovych's intention to give Russian companies the right to work hydrocarbon deposits at the Ukrainian shelf in the Black Sea. Kommersant's sources declined to specify the deposits in question, but the issue is known to have been discussed at another closed meeting in a Washington think tank. "Yulia Tymoshenko has pointed out the necessity of controlling the transparency of tenders that could be submitted for the Black Sea shelf in the near future," said sources in Washington, adding that the Ukrainian opposition has made it clear that "the participation of American companies in the bid would be a good signal of active cooperation between Washington and Kiev."
Dmitry Sidorov (Washington)
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 05, 2007
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