Thursday

28th Mar 2024

Ukraine elections risk stoking EU-Russia tensions

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has said Russia is trying to destabilise his country, in comments that could be designed to draw EU politicians into taking sides in Ukraine's presidential elections.

Speaking in German magazine Der Spiegel on Monday (7 September), Mr Yushchenko said there is a risk that the Crimean peninsula could try to split from Ukraine.

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"There are no domestic reasons for this. The problem only arises when someone somehow plays the Crimea card. That is where a serious potential threat can arise," he said.

"The situation's future development essentially depends on Russia. Back in 1993, the Russian parliament declared the port city of Sevastopol [in Crimea] a Russian city. That was an official decision, which is still in effect. This resolution shows that there are powers that are out to destabilise the Crimea."

The statement is the strongest to date by a Ukrainian public figure of hidden concerns that Russia could be planning a South Ossetia-type scenario in Ukraine.

Russia in 2008 sent troops into Georgia on grounds of protecting Russian citizens after giving Russian passports to separatists in the South Ossetia region.

Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians in the Crimea also hold Russian passports, with Ukraine fearful that Russian agents in the region are fomenting separatist feeling in parallels with the Georgia conflict.

Mr Yushchenko in the interview with Der Spiegel suggested that Russia's actions are a threat to the security of other post-Soviet countries.

"These inappropriate interventions in our domestic affairs concern not only us, but also all of Europe," he said. "I'm afraid this is something that people in Europe still haven't understood at all."

His remarks come six months before Ukraine's presidential elections, where Mr Yushchenko, with just 5.5 percent approval, badly trails Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (15%) in opinion polls.

The president in Der Spiegel accused Ms Tymoshenko of working with Russia in order to secure personal power at any cost.

"Just look at the activities of the prime minister and her trips to Moscow: When I warn of a fifth column, I know what I'm talking about," he said.

Hitting a raw nerve

Mr Yushchenko's portrayal of the election as a struggle between national self-determination and Russian imperialism is likely to resonate in post-Communist EU countries such as Poland, the Czech republic, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The ex-Iron Curtain states have in recent years complicated EU-Russia relations by treating Russia with the same kind of suspicion voiced by the Ukrainian chief.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski on Monday endorsed Mr Yushchenko in a state reception in Warsaw, where he made a thinly-veiled reference to the threat of Russian "domination."

"This was a meeting between the leaders of two large countries linked by strategic ties. Europe, which must be a Europe of co-operation, not domination, must be based on this kind of understanding," the Polish head of state said.

"The battle for this kind of Europe will be played out on the territory of two countries - Poland and Ukraine."

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