Essence and Entourage
Obviously, the recent Ukrainian elections were not a global event. Headlines of the pre-election weekend and elections day itself were yet another ripening of war in the Middle East, death of the Queen Mother, and finally, expiring of the American ultimatum to Belgrade on extraditing the “heroes” of the Balkan wars. The Ukrainian elections drew much more attention from politicians and officials than from the mass media — not a bad sign, meaning that they did not become a cataclysm or calamity.
This attention was displayed in different ways, evoking a phrase about geopolitical soccer where Ukraine is either the pitch or ball, but by no means a player. Such opinion became steadier under the influence of a rather harsh resolution of the US Congress demanding it secure democratic, free, and transparent elections and also rather strange events concerning declarations from representatives of seemingly different Russian political forces. In fact, up to the elections, criticism, including that coming from the top political leadership, was aimed only at the American resolution but not the not too adequate declarations made, in part, by the head of the Russian Presidential Administration Voloshin or Russia’s Ambassador to Ukraine Chernomyrdin on what political powers Moscow will support in Ukraine or how it should react to Washington’s actions. For some reason none of Ukraine’s leaders explained to our strategic partners that we are able to address our own problems and define our own politics. None of political parties mentioned by Voloshin or Pavlovsky had stated that it cares more for support from Ukrainian people than the Kremlin or anyone else. However, perhaps this is what they call technologies. Some Russians are already trying to persuade us that in fact Russia’s policy toward Ukraine will be based on a very pragmatic foundation and proceed from totally different imperatives. Incidentally, few noticed that simultaneously with Russian politicians’ declarations the Ukrainian government increased import duties on Russian goods, which means that it proved that it at least tries to protect precisely Ukraine’s interests. This seems closer to the point.
In general, it appears that, perhaps not without effort from Ukraine itself, all sides do not take into consideration the essentials. Not everything can be judged by the elections, no matter how important they are for the future. In particular, the 1999 elections in Austria, resulting in the success of the notorious Jorge Haider’s Freedom Party, were held in conformity with all democratic procedures. After them sanctions were taken against Austria, which casts doubts in the declarations on lack of commitment concerning results.
It is not taken into consideration that geopolitics is changing both its form and essence, as is evidenced by reality, and now is a far cry from the habitual geopolitics arisen between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Any dictate often leads to an opposite result having a negative effect on the whole system of international relations. Finally, world cannot be black or white, and this is also fundamental.
After all, Ukraine, the West, and Russia have a chance to demonstrate each other before the start of the presidential campaign what is essential, what is only entourage, where their real intents lay, and what is unacceptable, be it image or technology.
