Taras Kuzio’s Blog

Beautiful Riga

I had never been to the three Baltic states and so it would be both a tourist and a work visit to Latvia. Pavol Demes and myself flew from Kyiv to Riga on Baltic Airlines. For an unknown reason we were upgraded to business class which was largely empty. As we were sat waiting in our seats Oleh Rybachuk came on board carrying big parcels of books which reminded me of a student activist going to a rally.
I felt a little uneasy as he went to sit in economy class. I went and asked the pilot if he could be moved to business. His reply was that this was impossible as there were insufficient business meals. My response that this was the former head of the presidential administration made no impression on the Latvian pilot.
Walking around Riga’s old town you would not believe that this was once part of the USSR. There was nothing Soviet here. It resembled Copenhagen or Stockholm. The Latvians were immensely proud that their country was the first former Soviet republic to host a NATO summit. In our hotel rooms we each had a gift box from our Latvian hosts with Balzam, the local alcohol, Latvian foods and hand knitted gloves. I had to think how to transport this “contraband” back to North America,
The German Marshall Fund organized all of the NGO and discussion forums around the summit. We also were able to attend dinners hosted by the Latvians, where US Senator Richard Lugar spoke, and the key note speech by President George Bush.
I understood from both key speeches that the US and NATO now saw Georgia as ahead of Ukraine in the drive to join NATO. This was obvious also from networking at the summit. The US and NATO saw a united Georgian elite view on NATO membership which had 70% public support. Unlike the Orange coalition which was ruined by President Viktor Yushchenko in September 2005, the Georgian Rose Revolution coalition remains united and more determined in its pursuit of reforms. The old Eduard Shevardnadze regime will never return, unlike Viktor Yanukovych.
I also reached this conclusion about Georgia because of the different attitudes to Rifa from Tbilisi and Kyiv. Georgia sent 9 individuals to Riga, including parliamentary speaker, National Bank CEO, Ambassadors and Deputy Foreign Minister. They were omnipresent throughout the NATO summit.
Ukraine sent only three, similar to Moldova and Belarus who sent two each. Ukraine’s representatives included only one official, Oleh Rybachuk, former head of the presidential secretariat and now presidential adviser. The leader of the Belarusian opposition was present but none of Ukraine’s parties.
Perhaps it was true what one Ukrainian NGO activist said to me when I asked him if he thought that Ukraine would join NATO under Yushchenko? He replied” Never”. Both NGO activists who, together with Rybachuyk, represented Ukraine wrote a pessimistic overview of Ukraine’s lack of interest in the NATO summit (http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2006/11/30/51592.htm). This disinterest was also evident during NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly in Quebec City.
My own talk was on a “night owl” informal meeting where I discussed the strengths and weaknesses of Ukraine’s drive to NATO membership. Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual and Georgian speaker Nina Burjanedze also spoke. Georgians took an active part in the discussions. Mr. Rybachuk spoke but, judging by the blank look on everybody’s faces, nobody understood what he said.