This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen
on .
It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
Putin Says Deal With Ukraine Was a Good-Will Gesture
Buoyed by a Deal With Russia, Ukraine’s Leader Tries to Reassert His Authority
(about 11 hours later)
MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday explained his decision to rescue Ukraine with a $15 billion bailout and discounts on natural gas as a gesture of good will given the close historic ties between the two countries.
KIEV, Ukraine — President Viktor F. Yanukovich moved on several fronts on Thursday to reassert his domination in Ukraine, two days after receiving what appeared to be an economic lifeline in the form of at least $15 billion in aid from Russia and a substantial reduction in the price of Russian natural gas.
“I will be very frank with you, and don’t take it as an irony — we very often use the term ‘brother nation’ or ‘sister nation,’ ” Mr. Putin said, seeming buoyant and supremely confident at his annual news conference here.
Painting himself as the benign father figure of his nation of 46 million people, Mr. Yanukovich held forth at a “press conference” with what appeared to be handpicked Ukrainian journalists, some of whom, however, boldly challenged him. The session lasted 100 minutes and was broadcast live on national television.
“We see the current situation, both political and economic, is quite difficult,” Mr. Putin said. “So if we say it is a sister nation, we should do what family members do. We should support our sister nation when in dire straits. This is the No. 1 reason why this decision was taken.”
He repeated previous assurances, broken on at least one occasion, that there would be no violent move to clear out the thousands of protesters who have occupied Independence Square and a central boulevard in Kiev, the capital, for more than three weeks. Yet he also strongly warned foreign visitors or outside powers against interference.
Mr. Putin’s announcement of the loan and gas deal on Tuesday threw a lifeline to Ukraine’s embattled president, Viktor F. Yanukovich, who has been facing not only a severe and deepening economic crisis but also weeks of civil unrest from protesters who have occupied Independence Square and seized control of several public buildings in Kiev, the capital.
“It is very important that this is our interior matter, that any other countries do not interfere in our interior matters and do not believe that they can hold sway here as they want on Maidan, or not on Maidan,” Mr. Yanukovich said.
The loan from Russia, using money from its national welfare fund, spares Mr. Yanukovich — at least for the moment — from further negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, which in exchange for an aid package had demanded systemic economic reforms, including some tough austerity measures.
He was using the common name of Independence Square, which has come to symbolize resistance to his rule and to his move away from a wide-ranging trade deal with Europe that his government suspended in November. “I am strongly against that someone come to our country and teach us how we should live here,” Mr. Yanukovich said.
Mr. Putin’s move to offer unilateral assistance is not without risks. The rules for investing money from the Russian national welfare fund require long-term bond ratings of at least AA, while Ukraine’s current rating from both Fitch and Standard & Poor’s is B- with a negative outlook.
He also reminded unidentified politicians, who he suggested were simply trying to seize power, to forget “such revolutionary processes.”
But the bailout also underscored Russia’s economic and strategic interests in Ukraine and Mr. Putin’s resolve in keeping Ukraine within the Russian sphere of influence.
“We have a Constitution. We have laws,” Mr. Yanukovich said. “There are dates when elections are coming. Wait for elections and the Ukrainian people will speak their word.”
Russia maneuvered aggressively to dissuade Mr. Yanukovich from signing political and trade agreements with the European Union and, by offering the bailout package, Mr. Putin ensured that Mr. Yanukovich would not revive those accords anytime soon.
The next presidential election is set for Feb. 26, 2015, but opposition leaders and Western diplomats pointed to irregularities in the legislation that could allow a vote next year.
To Mr. Putin’s evident glee, his bold steps left European officials stunned, and scrambling for a response.
In a separate move that appeared aimed at defusing antigovernment sentiment, the Ukrainian Parliament approved a law offering amnesty to anyone detained or charged in the Maidan protests. The law, introduced by five deputies from the governing Party of Regions, passed by a vote of 339 to 2.
Mr. Putin traditionally holds a large news conference in December, spending hours answering questions about the past year. Compared with a year ago, when he seemed tense and appeared to be in pain from a lingering back injury, Mr. Putin on Thursday was in high spirits and eager to spar with reporters.
Attempts by the journalists to clarify the deal that Mr. Yanukovich and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia announced in Moscow on Tuesday did not yield much more information.
In recent months, he has recorded a number of foreign policy successes that have established Russia as a force in counterbalancing Western dominance of world affairs. They have included granting temporary asylum to Edward J. Snowden, the former contractor for the National Security Agency who exposed aggressive American surveillance programs; protecting his longtime ally, President Bashar al-Assad, from an American military strike by proposing a plan to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons; and swooping in to help Ukraine.
The timing and size of the installments in which Russia would buy Ukrainian bonds were unclear. By contrast, the reduction in the price of Russian natural gas clearly will be reviewed every three months.
In just over a month, Mr. Putin will play host to the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, which he seems clearly to view as integral to his legacy as Russia’s pre-eminent leader of the 21st century. Ahead of the Olympics, Russia has come under criticism for its human rights record, and also for some new legislation, including a law banning propaganda on nontraditional relationships that is widely viewed in the West as an effort to suppress homosexuality.
In Washington, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who on a recent visit to Kiev addressed the protesters and met with Mr. Yanukovich, was sharply critical of Mr. Putin on Thursday.
In response to a question about a clash of cultures between Russia and the West, Mr. Putin said that Russia was merely defending its values and traditions, and he suggested that the West was trying to impose its views on others.
“President Putin has pulled out all the stops to coerce, intimidate and threaten Ukraine away from Europe,” Mr. McCain said in an appearance at the Atlantic Council, a foreign policy group.
“It is not about criticizing somebody,” Mr. Putin said. “It is about protecting us from aggressive behavior on the part of some social groups, which I believe do not just live in a way they like, but they try to aggressively impose their opinion on other people and other countries.”
Mr. McCain signaled that American lawmakers were prepared to impose sanctions on Ukraine if officials cracked down on the demonstrators.
In response to a question, Mr. Putin said that he had not met personally with Mr. Snowden, whose disclosures about surveillance programs have changed the way many governments, including some of Washington’s closest allies, view their relationship with the United States.
Although the thousands braving the cold on Independence Square still voice their determination to stay until they are sure of real change, their mood in general has been deflated since word of the agreement with Russia.
“I was not lucky to meet Snowden personally,” Mr. Putin said. “I have many tasks at hand.”
“Nobody is getting ready to leave,” said Dmitri Shchetynin, 28, a youth organizer from Chernovtsy, in western Ukraine. “We will stand here to the end.”
Asked about his relationship with President Obama, in the context of the Snowden situation, Mr. Putin said, “I envy him. I envy him because he can do all this and he is not going to be punished for it.” He also joked: “Well, espionage is one of the oldest professions, along with some other professions that I will not elaborate about.”
But others headed home. Halina Zhuk, who owns a jewelry store in Ternopil, in western Ukraine, walked to the train station on Thursday. After three days on Maidan, she said, she was leaving, uncertain of what else to do.
On another security topic, Mr. Putin denied that Russia had deployed short-range ballistic missiles to Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave nestled between Lithuania and Poland, but said that the country may do so as a counterbalance to American efforts to install a missile defense shield in Europe.
“In order to see a painting, you need to walk away from it,” she said. “I need time to think. Then I’ll understand. But it was right to stand on the square. If you do nothing, you might wake up tomorrow in Russia.”
“We haven’t made that decision,” Mr. Putin said, responding to a question from a state-run television channel about reports that the missiles were located in the enclave. “They should calm down,” he said.
Oksana
Lyachynska and Andrew E. Kramer contributed reporting from Kiev, and Michael R. Gordon from Washington.
A spokesman for the ministry of defense confirmed this week that the missiles were deployed in western Russia after a German newspaper reported that the missiles were deployed in Kaliningrad, citing satellite surveillance photographs.
The missiles have a maximum range of about 250 miles and can carry a conventional or nuclear payload.
Mr. Putin was perhaps must ebullient in discussing his most recent foreign policy triumph: besting the West in a contest for sway over Ukraine.
He said that Russia, in moving to block the European Union’s accords with Ukraine, had acted in the best economic interests of Russia and of Ukraine. He said that Russia would have had no choice but to close the door to Ukrainian goods — largely machinery and industrial exports — leaving Kiev relying heavily on agricultural products sold to Europe.
“They will have problems selling their machinery and equipment, because they mostly go to the Russian market and I doubt they will be able to increase volumes of exports of agriculture to the European market,” Mr. Putin said.
He said that European farmers would be loath to make sacrifices for the benefit of Ukraine. “Try to explain to farmers,” Mr. Putin said, “try to explain to them that they need to limit their production for the sake of Ukraine.”
“Not bureaucrats, not officials, but common people who work on the land,” he added. “I would like to see their reaction.” Without manufacturing exports to Russia, Mr. Putin said of Ukraine: “They would become an agricultural annex.”
Economic experts have said that Russia could protect its interests without the severe trade sanctions it had threatened in response to the accords with Europe. Other analysts have said that Mr. Putin’s economic arguments were largely being used to justify his defense of strategic and political interests.
Many Ukrainians say they viewed the accords with Europe as the key to a brighter political and economic future, in large part because European laws and standards would require improvements to the Ukrainian judicial system and would help root out entrenched corruption that has long gripped the Ukrainian government and business sectors.
Mr. Putin stressed the historic, cultural, linguistic and other ties between Russia and Ukraine, which is the most populous of the former Soviet republics. “We had to take this decision because we have a very special relationship with Ukraine,” Mr. Putin said, “not for the sake of the Ukrainian leadership but for the sake of the Ukrainian people.”
