More than thirty years after the fall of the USSR, Russia has never agreed to design its Ukrainian neighbor as an independent and free state in its strategic choices. In an interview with the “world”, Tatiana Jean-Kastouéva, specialist in Eastern Europe, returns to three decades of hectic relationships between two post-Soviet states
Interview by
The fall of the USSR appears to the former Soviet republics as an opportunity and a risk. The Ukrainian economy is then so nested with that of Russia that the brutal rupture of links would have destabilized it. Nevertheless, Ukraine reserves a room for maneuver by not contributing to the creation of a new USSR: it refuses to sign the statutes of the CEI. Then, she tries to promote alternative organizations to CEI without Russia, such as Guam (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova), which brings together states with tensions with Moscow. Ultimately, there is a dual attitude in Ukraine: it is part of the CEI without giving up to emancipate from Russia.
How are relations with Boris Yeltsin Russia?
As in a couple who rushes to sign the act of divorce before having finished sharing the common goods. Yeltsine, pressed to end the Soviet heritage, concerned about the good relationship with the West and monopolized by the inner crises, bypasses the questions of the Crimea and the Fleet of the Black Sea, which was criticized for him in Russia. Despite the problems, agreements are signed: that on friendship, cooperation and partnership (1997) recognizes the intangibility of the borders and the territorial integrity of Ukraine, which retains Crimea. The nuclear question solution is found with the Budapest memorandum, signed in 1994 with the participation of the United States and Great Britain. Thus, Ukraine renounces nuclear power status and all atomic weapons are transferred to Russia, which, in return, reaffirms its respect for the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
as you Underline, the question of Crimea and that of the Black Sea fleet raise questions. How did the negotiations go?
These are the most thorny questions, sources of tensions between kyiv and the Crimean authorities, of which several separatist forces are claiming reintegration into Russia since the fall of the USSR. We tend to forget it, but a mediation mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) worked from 1994 to 1999 to stabilize the situation in Crimea. In other words, the germs of the conflict are already there. The game is calm under the presidency of Leonid Koutchma, a skilful politician who gives a guarantee of autonomy to the Crimea and reassures Moscow. This autonomy allows the peninsula to live one foot in Russia (with the Black Sea fleet, the subsidiary of the Russian University, the Russian -speaking media) and the other in Ukraine. Regarding the fleet of the Black Sea, there have been discussions on the creation of a common fleet, attempts by each part of the parties to submit it to its authority and a sharing: the Russian fleet and the Ukrainian fleet park in Sébastopol on Two separate bases, and the Russian part undertakes not to deploy nuclear weapons in Crimea. This evolution is accompanied by recurring tensions. In 2010, President Ianoukovitch signed the Kharkiv agreements for the lease for the Russian fleet up to 2042, agreements that shatter after the Maidan and the annexation of Crimea.
You have 77.82% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.