Translated material
A letter to Putin
I know you will soon be in Ukraine. It seems that with the old mission - to ask (or force?) The Ukrainian leadership to abandon the West - this time from European integration. You succeeded once without allowing Ukraine’s advance to NATO. But it is unlikely that you will succeed in the case of the European Union. Do not even try to start a new struggle for Ukraine - it may be the last for you.
You are a great professional in the issue of deterreting Ukraine from movement to the west. Sometimes you were lucky, sometimes not very. Please do not perceive it to yourself. Such is the share, apparently, of any owner of the Kremlin-to conquer-replace other people's lands: Moscow allowed the Poles, Finns, Lithuanians ... But this cannot even mentally allow the Ukrainian people.
Vladimir Vladimirovich, neither I personally nor the Ukrainian people have anything against Russia. You, apparently, are well known that more than 90% of Ukrainians are friendly to the Russian Federation - I assure me among them. But one thing: - love for Russian culture, for Russian friends, for Russia as a whole, and another - rejection of a special Russian path in politics.
In 2003, you suggested that the President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchme create a single economic space together. The weakened internal scandals, unspoken international isolation by Leonid Danilovich had no choice but to agree with your initiative. The President of Ukraine, I am sure, has more regretted his decision more than once. Otherwise, it is impossible to explain the criticism that was distributed to the EEP from the key Ukrainian ministers - and this is at the time of total control of the times of Kuchma!.
In 2008, the efforts of Russian diplomacy were abandoned to prevent Ukraine to join the plan of action regarding NATO membership. It is worth paying tribute to your talent and pressure: then Russia succeeded. Although, I admit, the methods that you used in negotiations with Western leaders looked not quite acceptable in relation to the people who would never allow itself to be similar to Russia. What did your passage cost actually about the inferiority of the Ukrainian state at a meeting with the leaders of the NATO member countries at the Bucharest summit: “There is one third in Ukraine in general ethnic Russians. Of the forty -five million people, according to the official census, seventeen million Russians. There are regions where entirely only the Russian population lives, say, in the Crimea ... Ukraine, in general, is a very difficult state. Ukraine, in the form in which it exists today, was created in Soviet times; She received territories from Poland - after the Second World War, from Czechoslovakia, from Romania - and now not all border problems have been solved on the Black Sea with Romania. So, from Russia it received vast territories in the east and in the south of the country ... Well, seventeen million Russians in Ukraine live. Who can tell us that we have no interests there? "
To some extent, your concern is clear. But it is not clear why you are talking about the fact that Ukraine received something from someone. Why do you not say that over the centuries the multimillion people in the heart of Europe have been deprived of their statehood; The fact that neighboring states shredded Ukrainian lands at their discretion, by virtue of their interests, depriving this people of the right to decide how to live. Well, in the end, Vladimir Vladimirovich, you regularly confuse in numbers: there are really many Russians in Ukraine, but not seventeen million - but only 17%. This, of course, is a large figure, but still the difference is tangible ...
You make a person’s impression. That is why I want to remind you about what you told reporters of the G8 countries in 2007. Speaking against the movement of Ukraine to NATO, you spoke about the possible entry of my country in the EU as follows: “We generally advocate for strengthening the European Union and have never said anything unnecessary in relation to this process ... Ukraine is a state with a 45 millionth population, with great economic and political, as we see, problems. Therefore, if once it comes to this, we have nothing against it. ” Everything came down to a simple formula: Russia against Ukraine in NATO, but not against Ukraine in the EU.
Many believed you then. And I was ready to believe, but the facts, facts, facts ... In 2002, during a visit to Kyiv, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov clearly stated: the entry into NATO is the sovereign right of Ukraine. In Russia, they perfectly understood: who needs Ukraine in NATO with such a president as Kuchma? The time has come - the position has changed. It turns out that the Russian leadership has nothing against the integration of Ukraine into Western institutions, but only until Kyiv is too close to signing important agreements with NATO or EU. You probably heard the phrase of the famous Ukrainian politician and writer Vladimir Vinnichenko: Russian democracy ends where the Ukrainian question begins. These words are already a century!
So it happens now. Ukraine is close to signing an association agreement with the European Union, which, among other things, will create a free trade zone with the EU. This is one of the main steps on the path of joining the EU. But you have already managed to oppose the economic integration of Ukraine with the EU. And, as expected in Kyiv, in a week you will come to discourage the European integration of President Viktor Yanukovych. Yes, probably the European Union is not perfect. Yes, probably, Ukraine is not quite adequate there. Yes, the path to the EU is the path of tests, the path of difficulties, the path is long. But this is the path to more developed democracy than in Russia and Ukraine now; By the best situation with freedom of speech than in Ukraine and Russia now; to a less corrupt lifestyle than in Ukraine and Russia now; To a more fair trial than, again, with us and you.
Vladimir Vladimirovich, the movement of Ukraine to liberal values is not a movement against Russia. Can you imagine a situation that a leader will appear in Ukraine who would pursue a policy to the detriment of Russia? You understand that this is impossible in a country where more than 90% of citizens are positively related to the Russian Federation.
You are in vain opposed to the accession of Ukraine to the free trade zone with the European Union. And it was not necessary to send Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov to Kyiv, who tried to dissuade Ukraine from this. Yes, and you should not be so categorical in public and declare that in the event of Ukraine joining the free trade zone with the EU, Russia will be forced to “build the border”. At least because Putin-2011 does not contradict Putin 2007. At least because the Ukrainians trusting you do not see in you a person who advocates the construction of borders between two, as they love to express themselves in Russia, fraternal peoples.
They are waiting for you in Ukraine. They will meet, as usual, with cordiality. But perhaps the last time. You may not understand the Ukrainian leadership that has made the incredible concessions of Russia over the past year - both in the issue of non -block status, and in the question of the Black Sea Fleet. You may not understand the Ukrainian people: okay, Ukrainians have not developed with NATO, but Ukrainians want to go to the EU. And why, Vladimir Vladimirovich, to give the soil to your opponents once again to remember the imperial character of Russia's foreign policy?
With the hope of understanding,
Sergey Solodky,
Ukraine