UKRAINE: Russia extended a reluctant olive branch yesterday to Ukraine's new president, Mr Viktor Yushchenko, whose contentious election victory over Moscow's preferred candidate has chilled relations between the two former Soviet allies.
The conciliatory comments from Mr Sergei Ivanov, Russia's defence minister, came as Mr Yushchenko again had to postpone his inauguration because of last-ditch legal appeals from his defeated opponent.
"The Russian Federation is ready for co-operation with the newly-appointed leadership of Ukraine," Mr Ivanov said during a visit to Washington, which staunchly supported Mr Yushchenko and the huge street protests that helped propel him to power. "Now the election is already a thing of the past . . . I believe that the Russian government will establish the kind of normal working relations that it had with the previous government of Ukraine." Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly backed Mr Yushchenko's election rival, Mr Viktor Yanukovich, and quickly congratulated him on winning a free and fair vote; the results were later annulled for mass fraud and Mr Yushchenko won a re-run.
Mr Putin's displeasure was compounded by Mr Yushchenko's determination to loosen Russia's traditional grip on Ukraine and guide it towards the West, with the ultimate goal of joining the EU and NATO.
"For 14 years we have been independent, but now we are free," Mr Yushchenko said during the unprecedented election re-run, which saw him take 52 per cent of the vote against Mr Yanukovich's 44 per cent.
"A new political era has begun in Ukraine." And Mr Yushchenko's enthusiasm for stronger ties with the West is far from unrequited. The US State Department called his triumph "a momentous step in the Ukrainian people's struggle for democracy", while EU foreign policy chief Mr Javier Solana said his "wisdom in working for all Ukrainians and for good relations with all Ukraine's neighbours will prove to be a sound investment for future prosperity".
New EU member Poland has shown the most interest in recent events in Ukraine, and is keen to bring the country of 50 million into the Western fold as quickly as possible, to give Warsaw a solid buffer against traditional foe Russia.
"Ukraine should be given a chance to join the [ European] Union, and it's up to Ukrainians to say if they want to or not, and decide to meet EU entry criteria or not," the Polish President, Mr Alexander Kwasniewski, said this week. Kiev, however, knows better than anyone that Russia is still Ukraine's most important neighbour, and has the greatest influence over its short- and mid-term prosperity.
Ukraine's Soviet-era industry is almost wholly powered by Russian oil and gas, and most of Moscow's multi-billion-dollar energy exports travel west through Ukraine.
Russia's powerful Black Sea fleet is also based in Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.
Just as in nearby Georgia, where mass protests swept a West-leaning president to power a year ago, economic and military ties still bind Ukraine to its old Soviet master, and it is more prudent to gradually loosen them than to try and rip them asunder.
Recognition of this reality came from an unexpected quarter in the Yushchenko camp this week. Ms Yulia Timoshenko is the nemesis of Ukraine's outgoing president, Mr Leonid Kuchma, and is usually as outspoken as she is controversial, having survived numerous corruption charges related to her accumulation of huge wealth in the murky gas industry.
Many Russians see an icy, ruthlessly ambitious Ukrainian nationalist beneath her tailored suits, blonde plaits and democratic rhetoric, and so remain unconvinced by the overtures she made to the Kremlin in an article for the business newspaper Vedomosti.
"With Viktor Yushchenko as president of Ukraine, [ Russia's] fundamental interests will not suffer," she wrote, in what many saw as an attempt to prove that she had the diplomatic qualities needed to fulfil her desired role of prime minister.
"On the contrary, there will be new opportunities to promote [ those interests]," she continued. "As for the economy, Ukraine and Russia are destined to be partners of the first order for the next few decades."
As Kiev and Moscow edge towards reconciliation, Mr Yushchenko's supporters suspect that Mr Yanukovich's allies are stalling while incriminating documents are destroyed, assets are secreted abroad, and deals are struck on immunity from prosecution.