Am watching Savik Shuster Live, a popular Ukrainian political talk show. The topic is Crimea and the upcoming referendum. They invited (or tried to invite) a representative sample of the Ukrainian population. One of the specificities of the format is that people can vote throughout the program whether they agree or disagree with the speakers like the first Ukrainian president, Kravchuk who appealed to the Crimean people (in Russian!). What comes out of this for me are a number of points that seem to score well in this constituency and that the new Ukrainian government would be well advised to heed. 1. The Ukrainian government should make clear to the Crimean population that it will receive more autonomy than it has had in the past few decades. Kravchuk even mentioned that the Constitutional Assembly has worked out a proposal for that - and if they have, they should really come out with this sooner rather than later. 2. Ukraine (in whatever form) WILL go to Europe. Which means that it will gradually start normalizing economicaly, politically. Crimeans have a choice between two models here 2. The Pridnestrovie- threat. He made clear that if the referendum passes, Crimea will become a hot zone just like Transnistria (a crime-infested part of Moldova where elements of the former 14th Russian Army has controlling events since the war there in the early 90s). More good points were made that seemed to work (at least for THIS public). 3. An official apology. This point was made most eloquently touchingly by Svyotslav Vakarchuk, the leader of the popular (and much beloved by me personally too) rock group Okean Elzy who apologized as a Ukrainian citizen for the fact that Ukraine has ignored the Crimean voice for 23 years. That is a clear winner, and how typical is it that it comes NOT from a politician or from the official Ukrainian government, but from a guy like this. They really will have to find a role for him and Ruslana in the redefinition of the rules of the game I talked about. 4. Now is not the time to heat things up (let the Russians do what they want, but were (all) Ukrainians and we do NOT work like this. 5. Referenda should not be held in the heat of the moment, but rather when people can think clearly. [I wll keep editing this post as I keep watching the program.] BTW many things also did NOT seem to fly (the Crimean Tatar extremist threat; the infrastructure threat You depend on us for water, etc.; international peacekeeping forces)
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 00:39:58 +0000