Interviews and articles
Optimism of Davos and Kiev Sadness
“In 1996", says Yevhen Marchuk, the former Ukraine’s PM, "I chaired the first Ukrainian panel ‘Where Ukraine is Heading?' in Davos, just as the one held eleven years on, in 2007. I proposed a toast that we may live to see the day when it is finally clear where exactly our country has arrived!"
We drank to that, and I took the liberty of making another toast, based on the following thought: one of the first cuneiforms, found among the remains of one of world's earliest civilisations, in the interfluves of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, contained a mournful inscription: "Where is this country heading?" People of all times and all civilisations have been asking themselves similar questions. Ancient Chinese, Romans, the present-day Americans alike stopped asking these questions when they began to assert that they had attained everything, reached all possible heights and welcomed the Golden Age. That is when their civilisations began the descent towards decline and eventual collapse. The big question is not what the aim is, but - as the Chinese say – the road to it. To cut it short, I proposed a toast to Ukraine's road.
Ukraine did not start down its own path after the USSR collapsed, but rather as long ago as we do not even know precisely when. And it will not come to an end after Ukraine joins the EU, or NATO, or the CIS Common Economic Area. Ukraine's road has from time to time dragged Ukraine into foreign harbours and cul-de-sacs, but it always managed to get out of them, and by now is on its own, independent path to success.
We were drinking to our Motherland in Zurich, where we went after the Ukrainian Conference of the World Economic Forum in the mountainous town of Davos in February this year. The following day, already back in Kiev, I had a chance to appear on the current affairs show of a well-known TV presenter. We had a live conversation and the presenter jumped headlong into accusing the politicians of tearing Ukraine apart and robbing the country. He claimed that the civilised world had turned away from Ukraine in abhorrence, which results in diminishing the country's chances of ever getting into the EU, or of its people living a decent life. After my Davos experience, I felt that his speech grossly overstated the point.
Let us address the point about the loss of interest in Ukraine from the developed world. In 2005, there were 35 visitors at the Ukrainian Conference; in 2006 the number increased to slightly over a hundred, and this year reached an astounding four hundred, a number that even surprised the organisers themselves. People were packed so tightly into the conference hall and the adjacent halls that it reminded us of the subway rush-hour. And the attendees were all high-ranking people: presidents, prime-ministers, European commissars, and bankers - even writers and astronauts. A dozen of Russia's most prominent businessmen were also there to learn more about Ukraine's current affairs.
Davos used to be different. Movers and shakers from business and politics met here, away from the buzz of their capital cities and the ubiquitous paparazzi, to quietly wheel and deal, and arrange the affairs of the world. Now, in the IT age, Davos has transformed into a global press- conference, where nothing is decided and very little is discussed. Mostly, things are merely presented. And if Ukraine is tackled as a comparatively new brand, Expert Ukraine believes that its promotion is going fairly well. One of the most important presentations by Ukrainian speakers in Davos was the report on the findings of the latest sociological research of the EU countries, commissioned by Yalta European Strategy, an international organisation that works to promote Ukraine joining the EU. As it turns out, while 61% of the Europeans surveyed support the idea of Ukraine's EU accession, only 25% of them support the European Commission in constraining this process. Despite the fact that Ollie Rehn, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, who also presented at the conference, declined to comment on the findings, we hope that he will forward the message to his colleagues on the European Commission.
Our Davos experience delivered a counter-argument for another of the aforemetioned TV presenter's statements. The standoff between the branches of political power in Ukraine is neither a unique, nor a disgraceful phenomenon. "Six out of ten years that I spent as Poland's President, I had to deal with an opposition-dominated parliament", announced Alexander Kwasniewski from the rostrum. "Back then, it used to strain me a lot. Now, as time has gone by, I can affirm that those years were by far not the worst, and the decisions we made then were not that bad either." With a pleasant smile, he suggested that Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian Prime Minister seated nearby, should establish an efficient cooperation with President Viktor Yushchenko. It should be noted that it was the rivalry between them that brought about the 2004 Orange Revolution. However, a few minutes before Mr Kwasniewski's speech, Mr Yanukovych himself said he believed that Ukraine's transition from a presidential to a parliamentary republic will be a smooth process benefiting everyone, and he confirmed that he was steadfastly intend on cooperating with the President. Even George Soros, known for his support of the Orange Revolution and Mr Yushchenko, eschewed a discussion of these issues at Davos.
...Teleconferences brought the voices of people from the squares of Ukrainian cities and towns into the Kiev studio. Their pleas were united by a leitmotif: "Instead of doing something good for the common people, all they do is trying to secure power!" Essentially, this statement is naïve. Until the question of political power is settled, neither good deeds nor reforms are possible. Another, wiser, interpretation of this appeal is to treat it as a demand, addressed to both sides of the political camp, urging them to formulate a unified vision of Ukraine's national interests and follow it. Similar inklings are being sent to Ukraine by the global community.
