I’m basing my assessment on what she did as U.S. ambassador to my homeland, Armenia, between 2008 and 2011. While no official announcement has been made, Yovanovitch is expected to succeed Geoffrey R. Pyatt later thi year.
My sense is that the power structure in Kyiv will be wary of Yovanovitch, who showed guts by taking on then-President Leonid Kuchma when she was U.S. deputy chief of mission in Ukraine from 2001 to 2004. She blew the whistle on Kuchma’s agreement to sell sophisticated Kolchuga radar systems to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq for $100 million in 2002 — an allegation that Kuchma denied.
Marie L. Yovanovitch, principal deputy U.S. assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, is expected to succeed Geoffrey R. Pyatt as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine this year. (Courtesy)
Examples of courage
Yovanovitch’s courage in the Kolchuga affair, by the way, has led to Donbas “media” trashing her even before she’s settled in as ambassador in Kyiv. Why? Because Kuchma, who stole more money from the Ukrainian public than any president except ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, is a favorite in Donbass, where he greased many palms.
Why will the current Ukrainian leadership be wary of Yovanovitch?
For one thing, it’s likely to conclude — rightfully — that she is appalled by the administration of President Petro Poroshenko continuing to allow venal oligarchs to play key roles in government and politics.
The leadership is also likely to suspect — again, rightfully — that Yovanovitch is appalled by its refusal to root out corruption, including preventing the prosecutor general from bringing corruption charges against big-time thieves on Yanukovych’s team.
The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is committed to the Minsk process to achieve a negotiated solution to the conflict between Kyiv and the Ukrainian separatists — because, as flawed as the process is, it’s the best hope for peace at the moment.
Expect Yovanovitch to do what she can on the ground in Kyiv to move the process forward.
Mending Turkish-Armenian ties
I’m basing this assessment on her support for Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s attempt at rapprochement with Turkey in 2008 and 2009 — an effort that unfortunately ended in failure when Turkey’s parliament refused to ratify protocols to normalize the countries’ relations.
Turkey severed relations with Armenia and closed its border over ethnic Armenians seizing the Nagorno-Karabakh region from Azerbaijan in a war in the early 1990s.
As she will be the case in the Minsk process, Yovanovitch was the on-the-ground torch bearer in Armenia of Obama’s quest to improve relations between Armenia and Turkey, a key NATO ally.
Yovanovitch opposed both corruption and political thuggery in Armenia, so she can be expected to do the same in Ukraine.
Her opposition to the thuggery showed up in a diplomatic cable she wrote that was one of tens of thousands that Wikileaks made public. That dispatch in 2008 dealt with a brawl that one of Sargsyan’s nephews started in a disco in Armenia’s capital of Yerevan. The fight led to serious injuries, including one participant losing an eye — and nothing happening to the nephew.
Yovanovitch’s cable was one of a number that U.S. diplomats in Armenia wrote that documented Armenian politicians or their relatives using violence against others — and, because of their positions, never being held accountable.
Human rights champion
Yovanovitch was a fervent defender of human rights in Armenia, so Ukrainians can expect her to be active on that front as well.
She not only pressed Armenia’s leaders to do a better job on human rights, but she also worked to get civil society more engaged. She was particularly active on the human-rights front during nationwide protests against the 2008 election that ushered in Sargsyan.
Thousands who had opposed Sargsyan, and who won because of election fraud, took to the streets to show their displeasure.
Police responded by killing 10 protesters and by beating and imprisoning hundreds of others.
Yovanovitch decried the violence and questioned the fairness of the vote.
Her tireless campaigning led to the U.S. State Department bestowing its Diplomacy for Human Rights Award on her in 2009. That honor goes annually to the American ambassador who has displayed “extraordinary commitment” to defending human rights and promoting democratic governance.
Yovanovitch, who was born in Canada into a family of immigrants from Russia, majored in history and Russian studies s at Princeton University, and speaks Russian.
In addition to being the U.S. ambassador to Armenia, she was ambassador to Kyrgyzstan from 2005 to 2008. So by family and university background, and diplomatic experience, she is steeped in the ways of the former Soviet Union.
The Ukraine ambassadorship will be her toughest assignment yet. It will be interesting to see how she rises to the challenge.
Armine Sahakyan is a human rights activist based in Armenia. Follow her on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/ArmineSahakyann
