UKRAINE’S WARREN CHRISTOPHER STEPS DOWN
It was no coincidence, when Hennady Udovenko was being appointed Foreign Minister of Ukraine, the then Head of the Presidential Administration Dmytro Tabachnyk compared him with Warren Christopher, meaning that Udovenko had to assist Leonid Kuchma the way the US Secretary of State filled in President Clinton’s diplomatic gaps in his first term.
However, here the resemblance between Christopher and Udovenko ends, since the Ukrainian Christopher was meant to be a figurehead using which the Chief Executive could feel free to manipulate the Foreign Ministry in particular and Ukraine’s foreign policy in general. Over the years of his office on Mykhailivska Square in Kyiv at least 3-4 other dignitaries could have added “Minister of Foreign Affairs” to the official title on their visiting cards.
Indeed, who would try to prove that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry handled all contacts with Washington, disarmament issues or relationships with Russia? Its aloofness became especially noticeable in the last year or two... The rivalry between the Foreign Ministry and the National Security and Defense Council is as obvious as the fact that Ukraine’s main perils do not come from outside but from within the country. A diplomat joked once that in this sense NSDC should be primarily concerned about coal miners’ back wages...
Hennady Udovenko could be blamed for a passive approach, lack of initiative, even timidity. Lack of character? Only partially. Mostly, this is a problem of the Ukrainian political system and political culture where a minister is a soldier, not a like-minded associate, and a whipping boy, not a respected and dignified professional. In other words, whoever succeeds Udovenko in his post will envy Germany’s Klaus Kinckel, Britain’s Robin Cook, or Poland’s Borislaw Geremek.
When one is ridiculed by people from the Presidential Administration in front of journalists, or impolitely corrected by the President, actually saying nothing to correct one’s previous statement, in front of US State Secretary Madeline Albright when a Presidential visit is arranged by people having nothing to do with the Foreign Ministry (as was the case with Lithuania) it takes extraordinary willpower to keep functioning without breaking down.
Apparently the time has come for Ukrainian diplomacy to be headed by a person capable of pushing his way through, showing dynamism, even cruelty when reaching a set target, somebody like Ms. Albright or Mr. Tarasiuk. However, whereas the former has carte blanche to implement US foreign policy, in Ukraine today trying anything in the same vein would be a very dubious venture.
