About the visit of Hillary Clinton to Kiev

2010-07-07 Vladimir Dmitruk

Ukrainian mass-media didn't strain a lot to cover this event, most of the reports were made rather careless. For example, radio "Freedom" erroneously took the helicopter that is permanently exhibited near the main building of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, where the meeting with Hillary Clinton was held, for precautionary measures. Most of the mass-media concentrated on the arrest of someone Vjacheslav Kononov, who protested against the censorship in Ukraine and that they don't let him inform this important news to Hillary Clinton. But the "fighter against the censorship" (who, due to the data that one can find in the Internet, managed to change the membership in half a dozen public organisations) was soon released. Apparently, the organisers considered that the American Secretary of State is abreast of our situation and even promised to help to solve them. In her lecture about the base of democracy she reported the following:

"We had long conversations with the Minister of foreign affairs and with the President concerning the base of the civil society. Of course, we gave some recommendations, but we never give advices about somebody's appointment or dismissal".

The last sentence should apparently neutralize the suspicion that the Americans insisted on the dismissal of the vice-premier on humanitarian issues Seminozhenko who is accused of standing for the union with Russia. Before Clinton's report Ukrainian mass media even haven't thought about it. Thanks to Clinton Ukrainian journalists could finally understand where the reason of this sudden resignation is to look for. Though, if there were some connection between the visit of Clinton and the resignation of Seminozhenko, it is hardly a causative one. Most likely it was only pretext. Ukrainian authorities don't seem now to esteem the representatives of American power a lot. Of course, they have a little fear of them, but each moment they are ready to make some trick, demonstrating their independency.

From one hand, Ukrainian authorities are forced to bear this visit that is very much like inspection trip (in transit between Moscow and Krakow) and that the visitor venture boasting of "giving some recommendations" to Yanukovich. From the other hand, the press-conference was organized not with the President, and even not with the Premier, but with the Minister of foreign affairs. Formally, everything is correct. The Secretary of State in the USA is the same as the Minister of foreign affairs. But in fact the Secretary of State is in the US the second person in the state while the Minister of foreign affairs id even not the third or the fourth one, but just a clerk for particular assignments. That's why the conference of the second person of the most powerful empire of the world and Ukrainian Minister of foreign affairs is an evident slight for the empire.

But in other senses everything was very respectable. There were about half thousand of "selected" students listening to the commonplaces pruduced by the Secretary of State in the KPI. Then there were questions. We have to accentuate that there were a lot of people, wanting to put the question to Hillary Clinton and signifying that rising the hands. But, as it is traditionally in the democratic societies, only required questions had sound. One of them was predictable - about the future of the relations between USA and Russia and about the place of Ukraine in them. The answer was predictable too - that everything will be good.

Another questions that, due to the conference, are actual for Ukraine you probably would not guess. They are the rights of gipsies and of the sexual minorities.

Sure, there were signed some "important" papers during the visit. They were about "deepening of the relations" and "doubling of efforts". Americans one more time promised to help Ukraine with Chornobyl and Pavlograd. Ukrainians - to help with Afganistan.

Everything could look like a clowning. But only for those who doesn't understand real politics. Ukrainian government were interested here in only thing - the credit of IMF which they can share. And to achieve it they don't grudge to send soldiers to Afganistan, not to menthion about to send students to listen the lecture about democracy.

The credit is likely to be given.