Yanukovich Told Everybody Where to Get off with the Russian Language and Referendum on NATO

At the annual Shevchenko awards ceremony in Kanev of the Cherkassk area on Chernechaya Mountain where great Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko is buried, the president of Ukraine Victor Yanukovich gave promise to promote development of the Ukrainian language as the only state language in the country. "The Ukrainian language will be developed in the country as the only state language", - the newly made head of the state said.

Let's remind, earlier, being the leader of opposition Party of Regions and the candidate in presidents of Ukraine, Victor Yanukovich promised in the electoral program to make Russian the second state language in Ukraine.

Refusal to announce All Ukrainian referendum on NATO and granting to the Russian language the status of the second state language will mean treachery of voters who gave their voices for Victor Yanukovich in presidential election. It was declared by the head of the Communist Party of Ukraine Peter Simonenko who also supported the present president in elections in reply to Yanukovich's statement which he made at the Shevchenko awards ceremony.

Simonenko specified that "according to all sociological researches which were carried out recently, the majority of citizens of Ukraine considers that granting to the Russian language the status of the second state language will answer positions of the European charter, modern democratic standards and interests of millions Russian-speaking Ukrainians".

From editorial board: Actually, I expected something similar, though I think internal and foreign policy of the president Yanukovich will undergo many abrupt changes. Thus, it's not possible to consider verdict about language, as well as question on referendum on introduction into NATO solved. Though, of course, those who supported Yanukovich on elections - from the Ukrainian communists to the Kremlin political strategists - are today in pretty pickle.

However, not to repeat, I offer the readers my comment published the day before on popular Ukrainian site ForUm:

Yanukovich - Same Puppet, as Putin and Medvedev

Probably, it's already somehow awkwardly to remind in the eight hundred eighty eighth time that Victor Yanukovich's first visit in status of the President of Ukraine was to Bruxelles and then to Moscow though during elections it was a question of a bit different sequence of priorities.

However, it's not serious to draw any far-reaching conclusions, to put it mildly. Yanukovich does what circumstances make him to do and they also understand it in Moscow.

The question is different - to what extend disagreements between Russia and Ukraine bear subjective character, having relation to these or that political interests of separate political groups and to what extend these interests contradict each other already in the objective plan.

Probably, it is frivolous and even stupid to start arguing about Slavic brotherhood, as well as it's stupid to speak about some radical distinctions of the Ukrainian and Russian mentality which do not allow two countries and peoples to build relations on some rationale base.

In Moscow, at that both in the Kremlin and in the most radical opposition, they cannot perceive Ukraine as "true" overseas and the Ukrainians as foreigners - it's reality but it, in general, is only a background on which real relations are being built.

Still there are circumstances of distinction between peoples and states. The Russian state has interests which happen to be very far from interests of the Russian people, sometimes they simply directly contradict one another.

So, whether one could expect that the Russian Federation will build organic relations with people of Ukraine, even if with it's not in full harmony with own people. Thus it is necessary to take into account that the state Russian Federation builds relations not with people of Ukraine but with the Ukrainian state that's again not the same thing.

So who came to management of the Ukrainian state in the name of Victor Yanukovich and what's our pleasure in it (or grief)? Yanukovich after all is not by himself, he represents not only himself personally in power.

Ukraine, unlike the Russian Federation, is quite classical bourgeois state, only not European, one shouldn't be under delusion, it's typical Third World country.

It means first of all sharp rupture in a standard of living of a leading social class and basic population, the government in such country expresses interests not of all population but namely those groups that delegated the president and ministers of authority.

Another very important difference of Third World countries from, let us say, developed states of Europe or the North America - very big rupture in interests of a great bulk of citizens and so-called "elites" (in plural as elites in Third World countries seldom happen to be consolidated).

Russia in this plan differs from Ukraine precisely on the state type. It's not a classical Third World country (superstate ambitions remain, "Upper Volta with rockets") and not classical bourgeois democracy - there's in Bonapartist Russian Federation in many respects neofeudal mode which is marked by big rupture between interests of masses and a ruling layer and also by much bigger consolidation of elite.

Let's try to understand on such background who agrees with whom, what the points of agreement are, what interests are taken into consideration?

There is "pipe economy" which mainly interests management of the Russian Federation. In this case it's all the same, who sits opposite to Putin - Yanukovich, Timoshenko or someone else. Putin does not control "pipe", he only represents its interests as though as it is animated phenomenon and Putin is as the genie - "the lamp slave". He is not free in decisions and his decisions are entirely described in terms of tariff regulation.

Yanukovich is the same way not free as there are interests of financial and industrial groups over him which also have tariff on the first place.

Also there are external forces which will use reasonable efforts that neither in the Russian Federation, nor in Ukraine elite will "get away from a lead" and start formulating some other interests, except strictly outlined.

Here you are an interesting collision. Putin (and especially Medvedev) in words have already started suffering is estate being outlined by international division of labour. They would like (in words, at least) to get out from "lamp" because if it would not occur, they would be swept away by internal opposition as soon as the objective situation would change - at that sweeping away means really sweeping away and not letting to retire peacefully.

They already see that the policy imposed to them exhausts Russia-country (but not the state Russian Federation) into historical deadlock, from which there's only one inconvenient exit, sometimes directly on scaffold. They are clever people and they don't want to go on scaffold but they don't know and are not able to do something different.

It is important to understand here who Yanukovich is in this lay of things - the same puppet of external and internal forces as Putin and Medvedev - but whether he suffers from this role or not for present? Whether he understands the prospects of historical deadlock or he doesn't care a shit about it?

It will be clearly soon enough, at that not only from Yanukovich's behaviour but basically from behaviour of the Ukrainian elite. How interests of the Ukrainian state will be formulated - and whether they will be formulated in general?

Аnatoly Baranov, editor-in-chief of FORUM.msk

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