You're reading: No more smiles for Yanukovych in Yalta

Despite the sunshine, the mood in Yalta is gloomy this year.

From the very start of the 9th annual
Yalta European Strategy conference, it was evident that there will be little
talk of strategy, and plenty of tough questions for the Ukrainian delegation,
which is headed by President Viktor Yanukovych.

The central of them was, of course,
what’s going on with human rights and selective persecution in Ukraine – and
how likely is it to change?

To the clinking of glasses at the
opening dinner of the conference on Sept. 13, EU Commissioner for Enlargement
Stefan Fuele gave probably the toughest ever address to Ukraine’s officials
from a top European politician.

He said Ukraine was offered a unique
opportunity by the European nations to join their family through an association
agreement that became the most ambitious ever with a third partner. There was
much enthusiasm and hope, and almost as many plans in Europe for Ukraine.

But the progress has all but stalled
because Ukraine has failed to address what has been highlighted by the
Europeans as their major concern: Ukraine’s active demonstration that it is not
prepared to share the European values.

“We want to move forward with Ukraine
but how can we, when little action has been taken to redress the effects of
selective justice, in the cases of Mrs Tymoshenko, Mr Lutsenko and others?”
Fuele said.

He said Ukraine’s record in
protecting human rights, freedom of expression has been dismal.

“The change of tone this year is
quite dramatic,” said Thomas Eymond-Laritaz, senior adviser for APCO
International, a public affairs and strategic communication firm. A former
advisor to Ukrainian billionaire Viktor Pinchuk, the conference’s organizer, Mr
Eymond-Laritaz has been regular visitor to the Yalta conference, which strives
to be Ukraine’s highest profile discussion platform.

Fuele’s speech contrasted sharply
with that of Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, who spoke right
before him. Gryshchenko promised his audience that Ukraine is “prepared to
address any issues,” but then went on to say that he was talking about the
economic and social sector.

As President Yanukovych gave his
speech to the conference, it was clear that this is the line the nation’s
government is going to stick to. He talked elaborately about the world’s
economy (it’s bad and getting worse, and the world will never be the same), and
Ukraine’s aspirations to find its place in the new world that is emerging out
of the crisis (Ukraine has a realistic chance to become a winner in the global
competition that is now taking place).

He talked about signing an agreement
on the free trade zone with Russia, the prospects for energy cooperation in the
Black Sea region, but only mentioned cooperation with the EU fleetingly, saying
that a free trade agreement was finalized with the EU, but “our partners have
additional questions to us.”

Indeed, they had.

Alexander Kwasniewski, Poland’s
ex-president and one of the most loyal friends of Ukraine, who moderated the
session with Yanukovych, asked him what was on the minds of many people in the
room: What was Yanukovych going to do in the coming months and years in terms
of the European strategy, and how he was going to address the problem of Yulia
Tymoshenko, the jailed former prime minister who is serving a seven-year term
for what is widely believed to be a political case.

“We will continue along the path we
proclaimed, the path of reform and modernization,” Yanukovych answered. “We
have been moving along this way for 2.5 years.”

He went on to list Ukraine’s
achievements in this time, such as adoption of the new tax code and customs
code, a package of anti-corruption laws, the judicial reform has been started,
and now a new Constitution is going to be written by a competent and
authoritative public committee.

The audience was not impressed, so he
went on to list more achievements, saying his government inherited a weak
economy with a budget deficit of 17.9 percent. The deficit now is “about 3
percent.” He said Ukraine had no inflation, even a tiny deflation.

What he failed to mention is, of
course, that the nations’ gross domestic product will only grow by about 1
percent this year, and the pressure on the hryvnia is the strongest since the
2008 crisis, when it devalued by 45 percent. A new devaluation is once again
expected after the Oct. 28 parliamentary election.

The election itself has been another
prominent theme at the conference, which is running till Sept. 16. Fuele said
the race is being closely watched, and its results will be another test for
Ukraine.

“All of us here are friends of
Ukraine and we all know that the upcoming months will be very challenging. How
Ukraine deals with the effects of selective justice, how it moves on the reform
of the judiciary and the General Prosecutor’s office and above all, whether it
organizes the forthcoming elections according to international standards will
determine where Ukraine belongs,” he said.

He added that he expects changes in
the government based on election results, and that’s it’s “not enough” to keep
living on as if nothing has changed.

Yanukovych, in kind, responded to
these concerns in his speech. “We hope that after the current parliament
election all questions will be taken off [the agenda] and the integration will
continue,” he said.

His audience remained skeptical.
After all, last year, he also gave promises. Then, they were all about fixing
the justice system to “address the Tymoshenko problem.”

It does not look like it will be
delivered.

Fuele, Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl
Bildt and Elmar Brok, Chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign
Affairs, met up with Yanukovych away from the public eye in one of Livadiya’s
rooms, like they did last year.

But unlike last year, the meeting was
quite somber, and described by one of the participants as “just a regular sort
of meeting.” They attempted to deliver a message about human rights problems in
Ukraine, and in particular the case of Yulia Tymoshenko.

Lasy year, the meeting happened about
a month after her arrest. And the trio of Europeans came out of the meeting
with an impression that their message about her imprisonment “had been
delivered” and heard. One of them even said the president hinted he will take
action to tackle the problem.

This year, it seems no promises have
been made.

Kyiv Post editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at [email protected].