Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06TALLINN1114
2006-12-19 13:50:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Tallinn
Cable title:  

UKRANIAN PRESIDENT YUSHCHENKO VISITS ESTONIA

Tags:  PGOV PREL UP BO EN 
pdf how-to read a cable
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DE RUEHTL #1114/01 3531350
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O 191350Z DEC 06
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TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9353
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TALLINN 001114 

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/19/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL UP BO EN
SUBJECT: UKRANIAN PRESIDENT YUSHCHENKO VISITS ESTONIA


Classified By: Classified By: CDA Jeff Goldstein for reasons 1.4 (b) &
(d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TALLINN 001114

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/19/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL UP BO EN
SUBJECT: UKRANIAN PRESIDENT YUSHCHENKO VISITS ESTONIA


Classified By: Classified By: CDA Jeff Goldstein for reasons 1.4 (b) &
(d)


1. (C) Summary. During a visit to Estonia, Ukrainian
President Yushchenko emphasized his country's interest in
NATO and EU membership, and asked the GOE to send senior
officials to Ukraine to explain the benefits of
integration. Yushchenko said that a rift between
Belarusian President Lukashenko and Russian President Putin
over energy prices has created an opportunity to nudge
Belarus westward. Foreign Minister Tarasyuk complained he
is being made a scapegoat in the political battle between
Yushchenko and PM Yanukovych. End Summary.


2. (U) During his December 12-13 state visit to Estonia,
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko met with President
Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, Foreign
Minister Urmas Paet, Chairman of the Parliament's Foreign
Affairs Committee Enn Eesmaa, former President Arnold
Ruutel, and representatives from Estonia's business and
academic communities. Yushchenko's official delegation
included the following individuals:

- Borys Tarasyuk, Minister of Foreign Affairs;
- Pavel Kiriakov; Ukrainian Ambassador to Estonia;
- Ruslan Demchenko, Head of the President's Cabinet;
- Aleksandr Tsalyi, Deputy Head of the President's
Secretariat;

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- Mihail Stepko, Deputy Minister of Education;
- Anatoliy Kinah, MP and Head of the Union of Ukrainian
Industrialists
- Anatoliy Ponomarenko, MFA Director of 2nd Department;
- Vladimir Stelmah, Central Bank of Ukraine Chair;
- Viktor Reshetnyak, Mayor of Vyshgorod


3. (C) Following the visit, Dr. Kaupo Kand, MFA Ukraine
Desk Officer briefed Poloff on Yushchenko's meetings.

-- NATO: Ukraine's NATO and EU membership aspirations
dominated the agenda of the meetings. Yushchenko spoke
candidly about the problem of popular opposition to NATO
membership in his country, especially in the east.
Yushchenko assured Ilves that while Yushchenko and Prime
Minister Yanukovych disagree on tactics, they are in accord
on the goal of NATO membership. Yushchenko cautioned that
progress on NATO will take time. Ukraine will not need to

hold a referendum if offered NATO's Membership Action Plan
(MAP),but one will be necessary to approve eventual NATO
membership.

-- EU: Yushchenko told Ilves and Ansip that there is less
public hostility to EU membership than NATO membership in
Ukraine and reiterated his commitment to continue with the
necessary economic and political reforms. In an aside,
Aleksandr Tsalyi told Kand that he believes the GOU needs
to be "careful not to raise the public's hope for EU
membership." (Note: Kand told Poloff he was surprised by
the comments and speculated that it reflected GOU concerns
regarding recent hostility in Brussels to further EU
enlargement. End Note.)

-- INTERNAL POLITICS: On the margins of the meetings, GOE
and GOU officials discussed Yushchenko and Yanukovych's
battle over efforts to remove Tarasyuk as Foreign Minister.
Tarasyuk privately complained to Enn Eesmaa that while he
appreciates Yushchenko's support for him, he feels he is
being attacked as a proxy for the President. Tsalyi told
Kand that Tarasyuk would likely stay on as Foreign Minister
until Yushchenko and Yanukovych find a compromise candidate
they both can accept to succeed Tarasyuk.

-- BELARUS: Yushchenko told both Ilves and Ansip that
Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has taken
Russia's decision to raise gas and oil prices to Belarus as
a personal attack against him and his regime, and that
Lukashenko has changed his position regarding Russia.
Tsalyi and Tarasyuk both stressed to Foreign Minister Urmas

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Paet that Lukashenko's rift with Russian President Vladimir
Putin has created an opportunity to nudge Belarus'
orientation westward. Tsalyi told Paet that he thought
Belarus was serious about reducing its dependence on
Russian energy by diversifying its sources and wants to
work with Ukraine to develop alternative gas/oil pipelines
that bypass Russia. Tarasyuk told Kand that Yushchenko and
Yanukovych both feel that the time is right to make
overtures to Belarus.

-- RUUTEL AS ENVOY?: In his meetings with both Ilves and
Ansip, Yushchenko asked for Estonia's assistance in
changing Ukrainian public attitudes toward NATO and EU
membership. Yushchenko proposed that senior Estonian
government officials and politicians come to Ukraine to

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help explain the benefits of NATO membership. In his
meeting with Ansip, Yushchenko specifically suggested
former President Arnold Ruutel spearhead this assistance.
According to Maksym Kravchuk, a Political Officer at the
Ukrainian Embassy in Tallinn, during a private dinner with
former President Ruutel, Yushchenko praised Ruutel for
assuaging the hostility of Estonians suspicious of EU and
NATO membership when he was President. "Ukrainians have
had many reformers make the case," Kravchuk explained to
us, "but we need a conservative like Ruutel, who has a
Soviet past, to argue for NATO and the EU." (Note: A few
weeks ago, Ruutel told the Ambassador that he is interested
in traveling to countries including Ukraine, Moldova and
Armenia to discuss Estonia's democracy and market reform
experience. It is not clear, however, that he has any
resources or backing to fund his own travel. It is also
unlikely that he would be either President Ilves or PM
Ansip's first choice as a democracy envoy. End note.)
GOLDSTEIN