UDOVENKO’S CONFIDENTIAL VIEW OF YELTSIN’S CIS POLICY.

The official Kiev daily Nezavisimost published October 5 a confidential memorandum to President Leonid Kuchma from foreign minister Hennady Udovenko, assessing Boris Yeltsin’s recent decree on Russia’s policy toward the CIS countries. Some of Udovenko’s conclusions: "Russia has no intention to build its relations with the CIS countries in line with international law, nor to respect the principles of territorial integrity, sovereignty, and noninterference in domestic affairs…The integration, proclaimed as useful and necessary in Yeltsin’s decree…in fact means undermining the CIS countries’ sovereignty, subordinating their activity to Russia’s interests and restoring the centralized superpower." Regarding bilateral relations, Udovenko wrote of a growing risk that Ukraine will be faced with demands to cede parts of its energy infrastructure or industrial property rights to Russia in compensation for debts from past Russian fuel deliveries. Udovenko recommended to Kuchma that Ukraine consult with CIS member countries whose views are similar to Ukraine’s in order to work out common solutions to CIS problems. Udovenko told journalists that the document was not of an official nature and that he would investigate how it came to be published. At a Kiev briefing the same day he urged Russia to "give up its previous mentality and recognize historic realities… understand that Ukraine is an independent country and that there can be no return to the past." (14)

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