The free-trade agreement was signed under first President Leonid Kravchuk. But it never worked because Russia failed to ratify it. Ynaukovych revisited the subject at least twice last year, during CIS summits in Dushanbe and Moscow.
On March 20, the State Duma of Russia ratified the agreement. President-elect Vladimir Putin, who was meeting with Ukraine’s president on that day, offered Yanukovych to sign the ratified document on the same day, as soon as Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada and Russia’s upper parliament chamber vote for it.
But there is a question on whether Ukraine needs to join this trade grouping now, when Russia is about to ratify in May the protocol on joining the World Trade Organization. Ukraine’s officials think there is a need for it, and that Russia’s joining the WTO would allow to continue bilateral relations based on WTO rules.
Recently, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said that “we have talked about both the benefits and certain difficulties that can appear and are appearing for the states that are not members of the Customs Union.”
First Deputy Prime Minister Valeriy Khoroshkovskiy replied by saying that “Ukraine does not take part in the projects where state powers are passed on to super-state organs. This is why we’re not signing resolutions like these. All the other issues, where such cooperation can be beneficial for Ukraine, we will join and are working on it.”
Khoroshkovskiy effectively confirmed what Yanukovych said before last week’s CIS summit. He told Rossiya-24 channel that “we’re looking closely at the EuAsEC [Eurasian Economic Commonwealth]. We’re not ready to say today whether integration would meet our national interests… Creation of super-national organs will take a part of Ukraine’s sovereignty away.”
The relationship between Russia and Ukraine is not an easy one. The issue is not just the aforementioned super-national organs. This type of a rocky relationship is not surprising between countries that are partners in some issues, friends in others, and competitors in others still.
My source in the Russian arms trader Rosvooruzhenie, for example, was clearly annoyed with Ukraine’s cooperation with Thailand. On the day of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations it was announced that the new tank contract with Thailand will be the poster boy for Oplots, the Ukrainian tanks. On the same Defense Minister Amytro Salamatin held negotiations with the chief of the Thai army.
On the very same day the chief Russian Health Inspector Gennadiy Onishchenko announced that the “specialists of Rospotrebnadzor can depart to Ukraine to check out the producers of cheese that are currently banned in Russia, on Monday, March 26.”
On the very same day the Ukrainian National Bank Governor Serhiy Arbuzov said that Ukraine may pay for Russian gas in roubles.
This week Yanukovych has a new series of negotiations, including those at the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea. Both Asian and European leader are on the list.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he planned to meet with Yanukovych at this summit, while European parliament deputy Marek Siviec, who announced this meeting, also said that the “agreement on association between Ukraine and EU will be initialed on March 30.”
At the same time, he talked about “pressure from Russia for Ukraine to join the Eurasian economic community.”
Yet so far, Ukraine is managing to stand up for its interests.
Viacheslav Pikhovshek is a former news editor at 1+1 channel and a former speechwriter for ex-President Leonid Kuchma.
