The position of Ukraine about Belarus gets tougher

Because of the desire to enjoy Moscow, Lukashenko quarreled with Ukraine.

Fraternal Belarus has been treating the Ukrainian officials and politician consultants not fraternally. In response to the extended list of unwanted people by the EU Minsk does not allow Belarusian dissidents and oppositionists going abroad. President Lukashenko explained that the European countries do not accept the Belarusian authorities at the instigation of the internal enemies. Moreover, Lukashenko threatened that the Belarusian authorities will make their “black list.” It has been tested on the Ukrainian citizens.

The other day the Ukrainian media consultant Oleh Khomenok was not allowed to Belarus; in this connection the parliamentary committee of Ukraine for Freedom of Speech and Information asked the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to protest. “We demand the Foreign Ministry to assess the actions of the Ukrainian embassy in Belarus that did not provide any help to Oleh Khomenok and to voice a protest against the actions of the Belarusian border guards,” member of committee Andrii Shevchenko reported. According to him, the parliamentary committee for Freedom of Speech and Information wrote three formal letters in this connection to the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine, to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Belarus in Ukraine.

According to Oleh Khomenok, he was going to Minsk “to consult the local publishing house.” When he was going through the passport checkpoint in Minsk he found out that he was in the list of the people banned to Belarus. That day he was sent back to Kyiv on a plane. The Ukrainian embassy in Minsk was unable to help him. In Khomenok’s opinion, this incident is due to the fact that he is the advisor for media at Internews Network, the organization whose activity is prohibited in Belarus. The website of the company informs that it organizes and holds trainings for media.

This event can be explained by the fact that the Belarusian authorities are allergic to the activity of the private media, so they do not need any consultants, especially foreign ones. However, this explanation is too general considering that Ukraine did not create any “black lists” for Belarus and does not have to do anything with the decision made by the EU members. We also cannot say that Ukraine has the same freedom of speech and democracy as Western and Central Europe. Of course, everything is comparative. The Ukrainian journalists can afford doing things in principle impossible not only in Minsk but in Moscow as well. This is why people related to the media are not welcome in Belarus and their visits are limited. However, in all probability, the problem is not in the journalism or media consultants. The problems is deeper, it underlies in politics and the general relations between the two countries.

In conditions of the all-European isolation Lukashenko is copying Russia’s actions. If Moscow started a food war with Ukraine why shouldn’t Minsk live up and follow the Kremlin’s example?

The last drop was the supposedly imprudent declaration made by the Belarusian Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Nadezhda Kotkovets. She conceded that Belarus would support Russia’s prohibition to import the Ukrainian cheese. Though no formal steps were taken, nervous Kyiv replied immediately.

At the end of February Ukraine prohibited importing the Belarusian pork referring to the rumors about the events of the African pig plague. Ukraine also banned importing dairy products: the Ukrainian veterinary service claimed that the Belarusian milk contains four times more antibiotics than permitted. In revenge, Belarus declared that it was going to ban importing the Ukrainian foods. This threat was never realized, however, Minsk and Kyiv started playing dirty tricks to each other. The Ukrainian experts frequently visit Belarus with inspections and audits of the exporter companies and the local veterinary service.

It is natural that Minsk asked its senior Customs Union partner for help. Rosselkhoznadzor [Russian Agricultural Inspectorate. – Ed.] informed: “In April we are going to inspect a number of Ukrainian enterprises exporting their products to Russia; in this connection the Belarusian Department of the Veterinarian Food Inspectorate asked us to check once again a number of enterprises selling their products to Belarus.” They are going to inspect nearly 20 Ukrainian enterprises.

The food war causes certain troubles to Belarus but it does not impact the bilateral trade that much. Belarus sells to Ukraine not more than one percent of the whole food export. Minsk is more interested in good relations with Russia, first of all because of the energy and other preferences. The stake is two billion dollars and nearly the same volume of the food export to Russia. Now Moscow’s support is extremely important for Lukashenko who is in the cold war with the EU. In these conditions Lukashenko decided to be holier than Pope. This is how he commented to the Russia Today channel the reasons why the agreement to turn the Eurasian Economic Community (EurasEC) into the Eurasian Economic Union has not been signed yet. “We unanimously wanted to sign the agreement [Moscow and Minsk. – Author]. However, Kazakhstan refused our suggestions.” Thus Minsk directly pointed at the responsible for impeding the integration. They would have integrated more long ago but Astana is malicious and impedes integration. Moscow does not speak about it for obvious reasons and Lukashenko obsequiously plays this role. He has to work hard to get preferences. There is no other way out; otherwise Belarus will go through the last year events again.

In its turn, the Ukrainian authorities demonstrate their firmness. The Ukrainian embassy in Minsk informed that the visit of the Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov due on March 22-23 “is postponed for a short period of time.”

It is easy for Kyiv to adopt this platform since Belarus is a weak link of the Customs Union and EurasEC. Yanukovych’s visit to Moscow and his negotiations there were ritual. Nothing was achieved which was just impossible for the current alignment of forces in the world and CIS and relations between the two countries. The actions of the Ukrainian authorities irritate Moscow more and more. They agreed to ratify the free trade agreement simultaneously by the parliaments of both countries. Moscow ratified the agreement but Kyiv started studying it thoroughly and preparing well-grounded remarks and special opinion. Can it be called a free-trade zone if over 50 extremely important Ukrainian import and export goods have been excluded? In other words, they cannot be freely traded.

The intensified repressions against Yulia Tymoshenko should also be mentioned. The Ukrainian authorities are preparing that the European Court for Human Rights will absolve her and will oblige to cancel the sentence because of violating the rights of the former prime minister. However, this is not the whole point. The problems with Tymoshenko are not related only to Brussels. They are discussed a lot but they are not very important. Moscow and the new-old President Vladimir Putin have been warned that he might be attacked because of exorbitant gas price and other dirty tricks played with the Ukrainian exporters to Russia.

Putin will not be attacked directly but with information and demonstration of the fact that Ukraine is not Russia. Now it will happen on the talk-show grounds at three television channels. This will be another opportunity to show Moscow that the door to Europe has not been closed yet and President Yanukovych still can go westwards. He only wants to wait for good results of the parliamentary election and then he will be able to do something with Tymoshenko if Brussels and Moscow treasure her so much.

As for Belarus, Ukraine’s position is getting tougher. The reason for this are Lukashenko’s actions and the desire to show Moscow its ability to make troubles, too. In particular, because the more problems Belarus has with its neighbors, the more problems Russia has with Belarus.

The situation in Moscow does not allow brushing aside everything happening nearby. The relations with Kyiv are getting strategic for the Kremlin. If now, before the parliamentary elections in Ukraine they do not make president Yanukovych step back in October, when the position of the Party of Regions and its allies-communists in the parliament weakens, the western wind will prevail the eastern one on the Dnipro banks. Then laying about itself will be too late for Moscow.