Editor’s Note: This feature separates Ukraine’s friends from its enemies. The Order of Yaroslav the Wise has been given since 1995 for distinguished service to the nation. It is named after the Kyivan Rus leader from 1019-1054, when the medieval empire reached its zenith. The Order of Lenin was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union, whose demise Russian President Vladimir Putin mourns. It is named after Vladimir Lenin, whose corpse still rots on the Kremlin’s Red Square, more than 100 years after the October Revolution he led.
Ukraine’s Friend of the Week: Rick Perry
Heads of state were notably few at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s May 20 inauguration, a bad sign for the nation’s geopolitical status at the moment. The United States delegation was no exception. No president, no vice president – and now no U.S. ambassador, after Marie L. Yovanovitch’s departure the same day.
U.S. President Donald J. Trump is unlikely to ever show up in Ukraine, which would make him the second consecutive leader not to visit the country while in office.
But U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry came and cheered Ukrainians by threatening more U.S. sanctions designed to put a stop to the German-Russian undersea Nord Stream 2 pipeline that could end Ukraine’s status as primary gas transporter to Europe.
“The United States Senate is going to pass a bill, the House is going to approve it, and it’s going to go to the president and he’s going to sign it, that is going to put sanctions on Nord Stream 2,” Perry said in Kyiv.
Perry said that “the opposition to Nord Stream 2 is still very much alive and well in the US” and that his country would target companies that have been involved in the Nord Stream 2 project in the “not too distant future.” The pipeline under construction would double the capacity of the existing Nord Stream line, to 110 billion cubic meters of gas yearly.
Perry also met with Zelenskiy to talk about potential U.S. investment in the Ukrainian energy sector. He met, too, with Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, Parliament Speaker Andriy Parubiy, Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev, and Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili.
This was Perry’s second visit to Ukraine in the last six months; he visited in November.
For caring enough to visit and rally the troops to stop Nord Stream 2, Perry earns the Order of Yaroslav the Wise as Ukraine’s friend of the week.
Ukraine’s Foe of the Week: Heinz-Christian Strache
Austria’s nauseatingly close ties to Russia exploded into public view on May 17 with the release of a secretly recorded video showing vice chancellor and far-right leader Heinz-Christian Strache discussing illegal party donations, supposedly from a wealthy Russian, in return for government contracts.
In the footage released by German media, according to the BBC, Strache can be seen relaxing and drinking for hours at a villa with a fellow Freedom Party member, parliament group leader Johann Gudenus. Strache wants the woman to buy a large stake in the Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung and make it support the Freedom Party.
The scandal is triggering early elections and a no-confidence vote in Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who had been in a coalition government with the Freedom Party until the scandal.
In December 2016, according to the Financial Times, Strache and Freedom Party officials even visited Moscow to sign a formal 10-year cooperation agreement. And delegations from Russia, under sanctions for waging war against Ukraine, are still frequent guests in Vienna. As few in Ukraine can forget, Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl not only invited Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin to her wedding last year, but danced with him.
“The Austrian far-right has really turned around 180 degrees in the last 15 years or so,” Bernhard Weidinger, an expert in Austrian postwar right-wing extremism told the Financial Times. “Historically they were really very anti-Russian. Nowadays really the entire far-right, including neo-Nazis, are clearly pro-Russian and by pro-Russian I mean pro-Kremlin and pro-Putin.”
For showing himself as unprincipled and corrupt, Kremlin stooge Strache richly deserves the Order of Lenin as Ukraine’s foe of the week. Unfortunately, there’s more like him in Vienna.
