Kommersant, Russia
March 28 2005

Yushchenko to Come Back to His Veterans

// Ranks of the presidents at the May 9th celebration in Moscow thin

Victory day

Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko Saturday put an end to the
question of his participation in the May 9 celebrations in Moscow
marking the 60th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.
He will attend the CIS summit on May 8 but he will celebrate the
Victory Day in the Kyiv’s central Kreshchatik street together with
the Ukrainian WW2 veterans. Thus, Ukrainian president has joined
the ranks of those ex-Soviet republics’ leaders who declined to take
part in the Moscow festivities. Thus the event will evidently lack
the propagandistic impact Russian leadership wanted it to have.

“I will feel uneasy when our Ukrainian veterans celebrate the great
Victory down here, in Kyiv, while I will be in Moscow,” Ukrainian
president said Saturday. Victor Yushchenko made a promise, though,
that he would come to Moscow the day before, on May 8, when an
informal CIS summit would take place. He said he hopes that “Mr.
President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and other counterparts will
understand” his decision. Earlier, on March 18, in an interview with
Interfax Ukrainian president gave quite a different itinerary of his:
according to that version he was to celebrate the Victory Day first
in Kreshchatik, then come to Moscow for a few hours.

Be that as it may, Ukrainian president has entered the list of
the ex-Soviet republics’ leaders who refused to take part in the
Moscow celebrations. Earlier this month, Lithuanian president Valdas
Adamkus and his Estonian counterpart Arnold Rüütel turned down
the invitation to visit the Russian capital. The issue of coming is
not settled with the leaders of other countries but according to the
Kommersant’s information, the good half of the post-Soviet countries’
presidents may decline to arrive.

Every leader has his formal reason for the refusal. For instance,
Baltic countries account it for the fact that the WW2 finished for
their countries not in 1945, but in early 90s when the Russian
“occupation” troops were withdrawn. At the same time, the fact
that an opportunity to meet a large number of world leaders may be
missed has not influenced the decision of Lithuanian and Estonian
presidents. The problem has been solved in a simple way: on his way
to Moscow U.S. President George W. Bush will visit Riga on May 6,
where the U.S.A – Baltic states summit will be held.

According to the latest reports Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili
is not going to visit Moscow either. He pleads the necessity to get
prepared for the visit of the U.S president who will arrive in Tbilisi
on May 10 after the Moscow festivities are over.

If one believes the hints that come from Baku, Azerbaijani president
Ilham Aliyev may refuse to take part in the CIS summit and the Victory
Day celebrations in Moscow as well. The problem here is of a different
kind: Moscow laid its hopes to take advantage of this occasion to
make Azerbaijani president resume talks with Armenian president Robert
Kocharian on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. But the Baku officials lately
have been very skeptical about the way the conflict is being settled
and are not likely to be ready for high-level negotiations.

As a result, the propagandistic impact may prove to be far weaker than
Moscow wanted it to be, since the Kremlin was going to hold the 60th
Victory Day celebrations with even more impressive grandeur than the
300th anniversary of St. Petersburg.

Moreover, the leaders who confirmed they would attend the
Moscow festivities are going to put a fly in the ointment. Polish
President Aleksander Kwasniewski will put forward the question of the
condemnation of Molotov-Ribbetrop Pact which enabled Nazi Germany to
invade Poland and divide the country. Moreover, the Polish president
wants to explain his country’s viewpoint on the Yalta agreements as
of 1945 which split Europe into the two confronting parties.

Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the only one of the Baltic
leaders who is to come to Moscow, does it reluctantly. On the one hand
there is a good reason for the visit: the desire to improve tense
relations with Russia. On the other hand, the problems accumulated
cannot be resolved within a couple days spent in Moscow. At any rate,
the political declaration on the principals of relations, which Moscow
was looking forward to be concluded, is not to be signed.

And finally Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s participation
in the Moscow celebrations looks very improbable. Media reported
several weeks ago that Japanese PM declined to visit Moscow pledging
the celebrations contemporizing with the second half of the Parliament
session. This lame excuse must have seemed so unconvincing even for
the Japanese officials that the Japanese Foreign Ministry immediately
retracted saying that its final position is not determined yet. It
seems that the question is still being decided upon, and Tokyo still
can’t choose which fits their interests best – a gesture of good will
or the demonstration of steadfastness in the country’s dispute over
the four South Kuril islands.

by Boris Volkhonsky

–Boundary_(ID_voptkMrQt1JRyQpEZrmW7w)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress