Poroshenko failed the PACE exam
Poroshenko’s speech at PACE was a serious failure for Ukrainian humanitarian and foreign policy.
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The director of the Ukrainian Institute of Policy Analysis and Management, Ruslan Bortnik, stated this at a press conference in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“This week in PACE: two radical changes occurred. Firstly, the humanitarian policy of the Ukrainian government was condemned for the first time at such a high level by such a high document. At the same time, she was convicted twice, this concerned not only the language law, but also other decisions. This also concerned the position that the Council of Europe took regarding the possible lifting of sanctions against Russia. This also concerned a less noticeable, but all the more important decision for Ukrainians - yesterday the ECHR decided to transfer 12 thousand cases against Ukrainian citizens about non-compliance with court decisions, the ECHR transferred these cases for implementation to the Cabinet of Ministers of Europe, which will be forced to either take some kind of sanctions or develop a special algorithm for Ukraine on how these matters will be completed. This is another legal crisis that we do not see, but which awaits us,” the political scientist believes.
According to Bortnik, a profound diplomatic defeat for Ukraine occurred in PACE, which will have serious internal consequences.
“By and large, the issue of languages was not resolved in PACE. This was a pretext, this was the Ukrainian mistake that everyone had been waiting for for a long time. The situation in PACE is a consequence of the struggle to build mechanisms and procedures for the return of the Russian delegation to PACE. The fact is that a crisis has arisen that has generally called into question the existence of the Council of Europe, one of the oldest international organizations, since Russia has clearly said that if the current course is continued, it will simply leave this organization. Other members of the Council of Europe have accumulated similar questions. This crisis raises the question: whether in the future the Council of Europe will be an effective instrument for influence in this space or not, the organization will cease to exist and will remain only on paper,” says the expert.
According to Ruslan Bortnik, Ukrainian politicians have not found their bearings in this big game.
“Instead of looking for compromises and rational solutions, Ukraine made a huge mistake in terms of human rights: first by adopting a language law, and then taking an absolutely uncompromising position like in 2014, which has already set teeth on edge in Europe and is considered largely unreasonable there. And therefore, in the end, Ukraine received two painful slaps in the face. And they hinted to her that it could be even harder. Zeeman's speech, which was made on the eve of the most important votes in PACE, was in fact the top bid in those behind-the-scenes diplomatic bargaining that took place in PACE between PACE and Ukraine. Ukraine was hinted that the situation could be even more difficult and many decisions could be even more unpleasant,” the expert concluded.
Ruslan Bortnik believes that people from the Ukrainian president’s entourage assured their boss that he would come to PACE like a knight on a white horse, wave his sword, and change the political alignment in favor of Kyiv. However, the political scientist is sure that this did not happen.
“He (Poroshenko-Ed.) spoke, people smiled, made two decisions, one of which destroys the current humanitarian policy of Ukraine. Now it will hang like a sword of Damocles over all decisions of international organizations on Ukraine, not only PACE, but also others. And it will hang over the Ukrainian foreign strategy, humanitarian strategy, and then there is also the question of lustration, the glorification of the right. That is, this game can be continued with very serious consequences for Ukraine. We lost the humanitarian bloc, but most importantly, the foreign policy bloc,” summed up Ruslan Bortnik.
The expert also believes that the Ukrainian president must make serious personnel decisions regarding the diplomats who set him up with his speech in PACE.
“Now all these foreign policy defeats are associated not with Klimkin or any diplomat, but with the president who spoke at PACE. And who did not pass the exam - the question-answer session turned into an exam for Ukraine, since the questions were posed primarily not on the language law, but on Minsk, on Crimea. Moreover, there is a serious concern that this is the beginning of some new page in relations between Russia and the West. And the Ukrainian factor is gradually being pushed aside so as not to interfere with these relations.”
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