Russian Politics Toward Ukraine: was there Ever a Strategic Partnership?

Abstract

The hypothesis of this research was that these states never had a rich level of strategic partner-ship (despite the officially proclaimed status), but always remained a sort of “negative strate- gic dependence” because of the high level of asymmetry in their relations. I. Zhovkva proved that the attribute of strategic partnership is community of strategic interests without its further reflections existing relations are superfluous. G. Perepelytsia marked that scientists must distinguish two definitions of strategic partnership – as a level of the attained cooperation and as an instrument of state foreign policy. In the given article strategic partnership is examined in two measures. The first part is sanctified to the use of the concept of strategic partnership in the foreign policy of the Russian Federation (on the example of Ukraine), and second to accordance of level of their cooperation proclaimed strategic partnership. After 1991, the goal of Moscow was ‘a friendly and neutral Ukraine.’ The relations were built primarily on an economic basis, but even then Russia widely used a ban on the import of some goods as a political instrument. After 2004, problems in Russian-Ukrainian relations related to the Russian military base in Crimea and the basing of the Russian Black Sea Fleet aggravated. Kremlin tried to destruct Ukraine rather than let it go its own way these witnessed against the contemporary concept of strategic partnership, which was the foundation of Russian politics towards Ukraine. Rather, the RF used very old policy of ‘stick and carrot’ (low gas prices and other economic preferences as the carrot, responsibility for ‘compatriots’ as the stick). The Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation was denounced as well as all Russian-Ukrainian agreements on the Black Sea Fleet, so, the RF itself refuses from using ‘strategic partnership’ as instrument of its policy towards Ukraine.