Often the best advice comes from your closest friends. They know you well. They have your best interests at heart. They can be taken into your confidence.
The same is true from personal friendships to ties between nations.
Therefore, when Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski invites President Viktor Yanukovych to Poland and warns him of trouble, Ukraine’s leader would be wise to listen.
Poland is one of the strongest supporters of Ukraine’s ambitions to join the European Union.
In what must have been a “who-are-you-trying-to-fool” moment between the two presidents, Komorowski clearly presented the ongoing criminal trial of ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Yanukovych’s strongest political foe, as part of the democratic retreat under way in Ukraine.
And this, he said, runs contrary to EU values and, in turn, jeopardizes Ukraine’s European integration plans.
The Ukrainian authorities need to find a solution that removes any doubts that this trial is an act of political revenge against the opposition.– Psident Bronislaw Komorowski
“Obstacles have appeared (on Kyiv’s path to European integration) and one of these is undoubtedly the trial of Yulia Tymoshenko, which in Europe, in many countries, is seen as a trial of a political, not a criminal, nature, that harms the image of Ukraine,” Komorowski said on Aug. 30.
“The Ukrainian authorities need to find a solution that removes any doubts that this trial is an act of political revenge against the opposition,” Komorowski told Yanukovych.
“This issue is a hurdle for Ukraine if it is a question of the speed of its move towards European integration. And that worries us as an advocate of Ukraine’s cause.”
It’s less clear what Yanukovych said in response. We hope he didn’t stick to incredible denials that his administration doesn’t tamper with the judiciary. Unfortunately, that’s the message we keep hearing in the halls of his presidential office.
For the sake of Ukraine and Yanukovych’s obviously less-important legacy, we hope he does some soul-searching.
He must realize that Poland, a friend and neighbor, is trying to help get him out of hot political water internationally and get his nation back on the right course.
