EDITORIAL/2 " "
Protestors in Kiev look at Europe, but Moscow defends its own interests
For the past three weeks a set of initiatives brought to the streets hundreds of thousands of people protesting against president Janukovich’s decision of not signing the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union on the occasion of the summit on the Eastern partnership held in Vilnius past November 29. The treaty had been compiled throughout years-long negotiations with the contribution also of Janukovich’s government, and according to a survey it had been strongly wanted by the majority of the public opinion. Before the president’s about-turn, civil society rallied in the streets, and the protesters, supported by opposition parties, are now calling for the immediate resignations of the president and of the government in force.It’s strange to see the starred flag of the EU brandished as a symbol of freedom in the cold nights of Kiev. In our collective imagination, those stars representing a set of values are often those of the US flag. We have almost forgotten the significant motivations and the ideals that have led the generation of statesmen to invest in the European integration process on the aftermath of World War II. The images transmitted by the media over the past days are a powerful reminder, and should serve to awaken us from the lethargy of hypocritical egoisms that have overwhelmed us and that we are allowing to overwhelm also the EU project.Notwithstanding economic clauses, for an important portion of Ukrainian population the association deal with the EU represents an important political decision, on whose rupture reposes the very identity of the State and the Country’s political system. Indeed, since its independence, Ukraine swung from a state of subjection towards Russia to a progressive closeness to the EU.Russian president Putin is playing a game based on the typical logics of power, in keeping with a combination of ability and cold determination. Since his renewed election, Putin has been committed to ensuring that Moscow recovers its role as a global power on the same plane of the United States and China, and make its claims on the most important issues at international level. One of the tools used by the president in this strategy is the recent creation of a free-exchange area between Russia and some of the ex-Soviet Balkan republics such as Belarus, Armenia and Kazakhstan. In the Kremlin’s plans, Ukraine should become a part of this architecture and contribute to the strengthening of an economic bloc that is alternative to the EU, in which Russia figures as the major shareholder, and whose primary goal is the strengthening of Russia’s authority. Putin can count on the fact that Janukovich has always represented the sectors of Ukraine which have always sided with Moscow, not to mention an over thirty billion euro debt which Kiev owes Moscow for energetic supply.Worried about the situation, US Vice-president Biden, the president of the EU Commission Barroso and UN Secretary general Ban Ki-moon have contacted Janukovich to prevent an excessive use of force against the protestors. At present, practical conditions for the outbreak of an open conflict are lacking, but it’s a tense situation. The fundamental aspect is that the true player of the game is not in Kiev and if the EU wants to try to sit at the difficult table of world politics it first needs to know why it intends to do so and the price it is willing to pay.
