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Nation    

Former envoy calls for pressure on prez
Journal Staff Report

KIEV, Jan. 15 – The U.S. and the European Union should increase pressure on President Viktor Yanukovych to make sure that Ukraine improves democracy, Setven Pifer, a former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, said.

In an article published by the Financial Times on Tuesday, Pifer said that despite recent rhetoric by officials Ukraine is unlikely to join the Moscow-led trade bloc because this would jeopardize its independence.

“The EU and US should… do everything to crystallize a clear choice in Yanukovych’s mind: he can live up to the democratic standards that he has, at least in word, accepted and improve his relations with Europe and the west, or he can become more isolated,” Pifer wrote. “He may claim such a choice will drive him to Russia. But he almost certainly does not want to go there.”

The comment comes amid speculations that Kiev has been considering closer relations with Russia after its free-trade and political association agreement with the EU has been delayed.

The agreement was delayed for more than a year, as concerns in Brussels and EU capitals grew over the decline of democracy that has taken place on Yanukovych’s watch.


This has included the selective prosecution of former government leaders, such as Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister, and election processes that have been criticized by both foreign and domestic observers.

Several EU states have indicated they would block the agreement unless Kiev improves its record on democracy. Similar concerns in Washington have led to a parallel downturn in US-Ukrainian relations. Congress has even begun to talk of sanctions against Ukraine.

As Ukraine’s relations with the west have deteriorated, Moscow has sought to lure Kiev into the Customs Union.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine would get up to $9 billion annually through lower natural gas prices one it joins the Customs Union.

But joining the Russia-led bloc, which also includes Belarus and Kazakhstan, would automatically kill Ukraine’s prospect of the free trade agreement with the EU.

“A fundamental turn away from Europe and towards Russia and the customs union would prove controversial within Ukraine – both with the public, where polls show consistent support for integration with the EU, and with the elite, including some in Yanukovych’s Regions Party,” Pifer wrote.

“Ukrainian business would also have doubts,” Pifer wrote, adding that the Customs Union represents a combined gross domestic product of about $2.1 trillion, compared with the EU’s $17.6 trillion.

“A pivot east, therefore, would pose serious domestic political risks for Yanukovych,” Pifer wrote. “Kiev’s expressions of interest in the customs union aim to raise concern in the west that it is somehow “losing” Ukraine to Russia.”

“The president and others in the elite appear to have an inflated sense of Ukraine’s significance to Europe and the US, believing their nation figures so importantly in a geopolitical tug of war between the west and Russia that, in the end, the west will set aside its democracy concerns and accept Ukraine as it is.

“That is not likely to happen.

“For Ukraine, the logical foreign policy is one that deepens links with Europe while maintaining good relations with Russia. The west should not set aside its values to embrace a Ukraine that looks more likely to become Europe’s next Belarus rather than its next Poland,” Pifer wrote. (nr/ez)




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