UKRAINE'S QUEST FOR INDEPENDENCE: THE FUEL FACTOR

In: The Pacific review, Band 47, Heft 1, S. 67-90

Abstract

SINCE THE PROCLAMATION OF UKRAINE'S INDEPENDENCE IN DECEMBER 1991, WESTERN ATTENTION HAS FOCUSED PRIMARILY ON THE MILITARY AND POLITICAL PROBLEMS ATTENDANT ON THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW, POPULOUS, AND POTENTIALLY POWERFUL STATE IN SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE. GENERALLY LOST IN THE EXCITEMENT HAS BEEN THE CONDITION OF THE UKRAINIAN ECONOMY, WHICH HAS REGRESSED FROM BAD TO WORSE AND COULD POSSIBLY COLLAPSE, LEADING TO THE BREAKDOWN OF THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORDER AND, ULTIMATELY, TO THE LOSS OF INDEPENDENCE. THE CURRENT WOES OF THE ECONOMY CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO TWO SEPARATE BUT INTERRELATED CAUSES: (2) A STUBBORN REFUSAL TO INTRODUCE MEANINGFUL ECONOMIC REFORMS AND (2) THE LACK OF FUEL RESOURCES NEEDED TO POWER THE ECONOMY. THIS STUDY FOCUSES ON THE SECOND PROBLEM, KYIV'S EFFORTS TO SECURE THE REQUIRED FUEL FROM ITS TRADITIONAL SUPPLIERS -- RUSSIA AND TURKMENISTAN -- AS WELL AS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST, PRIMARILY IRAN. FOREIGN POLICY ISSUES AND QUESTIONS OF NATIONAL INTEREST HAVE COMPLICATED UKRAINE'S QUEST FOR FUEL AS RUSSIA, IN PARTICULAR, BENEFITS FROM A WEAK UKRAINE.