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The Presidents Negotiate
// Putin and Yushchenko pass off reality as an agreement
They didn't agree on everything
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko announced yesterday in Moscow that the problem of Ukraine's debt to Russia for natural gas had been settled. However, after Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov spoke with the negotiators, he had a completely different impression.
The meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko lasted more than three hours. The negotiations would have begun the evening before. It was planned for the Ukrainian president to come to Moscow on February 11. Then the negotiations would not have been so grueling, but rather several pleasant minutes over dinner. The food at Novo-Ogarevo and the Kremlin is getting better and better. But Yushchenko arrived in Moscow the next morning. So, at 1:30, the presidents had only begun the discussion that journalists were so desperately waiting to hear about.
Besides the presidents, the Russian and Ukrainian ambassadors and presidential aides took part in the negotiations. Russian Ambassador to Kiev Viktor Chernomyrdin was wound up before the expanded session. After the negotiations, he couldn't stop negotiating. His eyes glinted feverishly, but it wasn't clear whether they were filled with celebration of victory.
He told his Russian colleagues that he was going to greet the Ukrainians and they looked after him in surprise that he broke of their conversation in mid-sentence.
Chernomyrdin is always interested in new people. The Ukrainians greeted him, they talked quietly and they asked him something. Chernomyrdin echoed their questions loudly.
“Huh? With the gas? It's good with the gas. Bad without the gas…” he told Ukrainian delegation member Vladimir Litvin. “What did they decide? You'll find out now. Here they come!”
And then finally the main characters in the drama appeared. It can rightly be called drama, since they had invited all the journalists to Gazprom headquarters to watch the turning off of Ukraine's gas supply in exchange for $1.5 billion in debt. (The Ukrainian negotiators most likely considered that part of the psychological attack on them.) Putin hurriedly read a speech from paper. He did it so mechanically as to show that the subject matter was not of great concern to him – humanitarian cooperation, the growth of trade turnover between the countries in the period under consideration, etc.
Yushchenko spoke about demarcating borders and the Black Sea Fleet, that is, about what they do not talk about when they really want to reach an agreement. From that point of view, Chernomyrdin was a smooth player. Or else he simply didn't understand.
I noticed that Russian protocol workers set headphones for synchronic translation on the chairs in the Kremlin's Malachite Hall before negotiations began, and I realized that the Ukrainians had requested that for the journalists and delegation members because the Ukrainian president intended to speak his state language. He had never gone that far in his relations with Russia before.
At the press conference, Putin spoke about political and cultural cooperation again at great length. In particular, he spoke about how Russian and Ukraine would try to observe the 200th birthday of Nikolay Gogol, the 300th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava and the 2000th anniversary of the christianization of Rus. I was almost convinced that the economic talks had failed and we had been brought to Gazprom for good reason.
Finally the floor was opened to questions from journalists. It would have been very strange indeed if the first question had not been about Gazprom's ultimatum. Putin explained that that issue, about which neither president had said a word in their speeches so far, was the main and most-discussed topic of their talks. “Ukraine and Russia have worked out a general procedure for cooperation in 2008 and beyond,” he said, adding that “The proposals of our Ukrainian colleagues completely satisfy Gazprom.”
Yushchenko took off his glasses and carefully laid them on the table before saying that “Ukraine will begin repaying its debt on Thursday.”
“As president, I didn't want to deal with the gas business very much,” he said. It didn't come out the way he meant it. He wanted to say that Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko should do it, but since she was incapable, they had to pull out the heavy artillery in the form of himself. Instead it sounded lazy.
“Payments will begin,” Yushchenko continued, “at 2007 prices. That price, $179, will be maintained in 2008.”
That was something nice for the TV viewers in Ukraine. Suddenly I realized that he was speaking Russian and no one needed the headphones. That show of power had been prepared in case the negotiations failed. Or else Yushchenko was so carried away that he had reverted to his usual language.
One more detail came out at the same time. The Ukrainian president stated that Naftogaz and Gazprom would set up a working group to “develop more direct and transparent relations.” That is, they were declining the services of RosUkrEnergo.
Here Putin spoke up and disclosed details of the contract between Naftogaz and Gazprom that Yushchenko has preferred not to mention to Ukrainian television viewers, obviously so as not to upset them. He said that, under the contract, Gazprom is required to make up for a possible shortage of Central Asian gas from its own resources, but at European prices. That was where the extra $500 million came from that Ukraine acknowledged as its debt.
Yushchenko considered it necessary to comment on that information. “Everything in this world has to be paid for,” he said gloomily.
A Ukrainian journalist asked Putin how Russia would react if a NATO based opened in Sevastopol.
Putin was silent a moment, which is a bad sign – for the journalist. She had the advantage of being a woman, so, no matter how much he wanted to, Putin could no suggest she be circumcised.
“What's you name?” he asked, seemingly to kill time and let himself calm down.
“Liana,” she replied.
“Liana! Sevastopol is a city of Russian-Ukrainian military glory,” he said. “And there will be a NATO base there!? How will the Russian and Ukrainian people feel about that?”
He went on to say that Russia will not interfere in Ukraine's business and, if it wants to restrict its sovereignty, then, of course, let it. No one will interfere in the process of voluntary restriction of sovereignty (obviously, so as not, God forbid, to stop Ukraine from holding its own funeral). But adequate measures will be taken.
“It's frightening even to think, never mind say, that Russia will aim its missile strike system at Ukraine. Just think about it for a second!” He spoke loudly and his voice carried to the farthest corner of the Malachite Hall.
Now it was not as hard to imagine that as it was to imagine Ukraine joining NATO. Now that event and the aiming of Russian missiles will forever be connected in the minds of the fraternal Ukrainian people.
“I don't think there is anything more to say,” Putin concluded.
“I wonder if Yushchenko is going to answer,” a Ukrainian journalist sitting near me whispered. “Will he answer or not?” She seemed to want him to.
“I want to say literally one phrase,” the Ukrainian president said. “Yes, in that case, very sensitive problems arise.”
He made it clear that the problem of Russia's Black Sea Fleet has to be solved, and the likelihood of a NATO base at Sevastopol cannot be discounted. He added that there were still several sensitive questions between Ukraine and Russia.
“Why are there limitations on Russian match supplies?” he asked with mild reproach in his voice. ”And there are limitations on Ukrainian sugar syrup imports!”
The press conference ended before a fire broke out from playing with matches. Yushchenko was clearly still nervous. He was heading for the door when Putin pointedly drew his attention back to the table. He had forgotten his glasses. Yushchenko looked at the Russian president with gratitude.
In all, the press conference ended successfully for both presidents, and badly for one prime minister.
I was able to ask Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and Energy Anatoly Yanovsky as he rushed past me whether he thought that Ukraine was ready to pay for gas that Gazprom would ask European prices, instead of Turkmen prices, for. (Later, that was specified as $300 per 1000 cu. m.) Yanovsky answered that the Ukrainians accept the price, but from the way he looked at me I thought that the price really didn't matter to them because they didn't intend to pay it.
Naftogaz head Oleg Dubina confirmed that guess. Remaining in the Malachite Hall for a few minutes, he said that first it had to be proven that that gas was Russian and not from Ukrainian reservoirs. In other words, there is still no agreement between Russia and Ukraine, at least according to the negotiators. Dubina also stated that there really won't be an intermediary between Gazprom and Naftogaz. Thus Dubina punished the gas intermediaries with the people's wrath that evening.
Andrey Kolesnikov
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 13, 2008
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