Translated material
Language and Holodomor
Sergei Lavrov found two of the most pressing issues in Kyiv
Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and Speaker Alexander Moroz. Sergei Lavrov and the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Boris Tarasyuk held the first meeting of the subcommittee on international cooperation within the framework of the Yushchenko-Putin commission, where they discussed more than two dozen issues. Three technical documents were signed defining the procedure and results of the subcommittee's work.The date of the meeting between the presidents of the two countries remained unknown, although Lavrov’s visit was supposed to clarify this issue. As the Russian minister explained, the meeting of the two presidents will take place within the framework of the Ukrainian-Russian interstate commission Yushchenko-Putin. However, at the presidential level, the commission can meet only after a meeting of the subcommittees on defense and humanitarian cooperation. Interfax-Ukraine, citing a source close to the negotiations, reported yesterday that the meeting of the defense subcommittee will take place on December 4. After this, a date for Putin’s visit to Ukraine can be agreed upon.
Boris Tarasyuk called on his colleague to move away from the “politicization” of bilateral relations and start from “the lives and real needs of citizens.” The heads of foreign affairs departments discussed issues of social guarantees, pensions and expanding the network of checkpoints across state borders for citizens of the two countries. The issue of language was also raised. “We want to provide equal rights to Ukrainians in Russia and Russians in Ukraine on a mutual basis, so that their desire to speak and think in their native language is satisfied as much as possible,” said Minister Lavrov. The problems of completing the delimitation of the maritime border and the beginning of the demarcation of the land border, as well as the conditions for the withdrawal of the Russian Black Sea Fleet from the territory of Ukraine after 2017, were also discussed.
After meetings with the president and speaker, the Russian guest said that the two most pressing issues in bilateral relations are the Holodomor in Ukraine and the mutual use of languages. Yushchenko and Moroz informed Lavrov that the Ukrainian language needs support, since it has practically been forced out of use in the eastern and central regions of the country. Regarding the mass death from starvation of the inhabitants of Ukraine in the 1920s and 1930s, Alexander Moroz said that “there was a tragedy, and it cannot be the subject of silence or speculation.”
At Lavrov’s meeting with the Prime Minister of Ukraine, it was noted that inertia in bilateral relations, including in the economy, had finally been overcome. From July to September, trade turnover between the two countries increased by a third, to $900 million. Yanukovych assured Lavrov that Ukraine would not only defend its interests, but also take into account Russian ones.
In a commentary to Vremya Novostey, Ukrainian political scientist Vladimir Malinkovich considered the discussion of the language problem at the interstate level a positive factor, since “the topic of bilingualism will be relevant for a long time for Ukraine, a significant part of which remains Russian-speaking.” However, the expert called the topic of the Holodomor “artificially inflated,” since they are trying to present the Holodomor as “ethnocide of the Ukrainian people,” although in addition to 4 million Ukrainians, 1 million Kazakhs and 2 million residents of Russia suffered. “If the Holodomor is recognized as genocide against Ukrainians on a global scale, the question of the succession of the Russian Federation and its responsibility for acts committed in the USSR will arise,” which, of course, worries Moscow.
The expert noted that Russia “has made some progress in matters of dividing the waters of the Sea of Azov, agreeing to resolve the issue based on the principles of international law.” It is now “premature” to talk about the withdrawal of the Russian fleet, Mr. Malinkovich believes. The issue of the Black Sea Fleet will be resolved closer to 2017, when the term of office of the current government “will have long been exhausted” and other people will sit in the leadership chairs.