Hanna Hopko is not your average lawmaker.
Rather than having a background in business or politics, the former EuroMaidan Revolution activist and co-founder of the Reanimation Package of Reforms has worked as an anti-tobacco campaigner, an environmental activist and as a television journalist.
With such a varied resume, it’s no surprise that Hopko, the head of Ukraine’s parliament committee on foreign affairs, has a lot to say about Ukraine’s foreign policies and the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections.
Speaking during a three-hour interview with the Kyiv Post in her simply decorated office on Sadova Street, overlooking the Cabinet of Ministers building, Hopko, an independent lawmaker, covered topics ranging from Nord Stream 2, the controversial Russian gas pipeline project that bypasses Ukraine, to her own political ambitions.
But whatever the topic, one theme unites everything she has to say: the threat the Kremlin poses to Ukraine.
Nord Stream 2
One of the biggest threats she sees is Nord Stream 2, and she is doing everything she can to rally the international community to stop the undersea pipeline project, which she sees as a risk to Ukraine’s status as a gas transit country.
Many of Ukraine’s allies, including the United States, also strongly oppose the construction of the pipeline, which will enhance Nord Stream 1, Russia’s direct gas pipeline to Germany. When completed, the network can transport 110 billion cubic meters of gass annually — possibly depriving Ukraine of gas transit worth $3 billion annually.
U. S. President Donald Trump spoke against it at the 2018 NATO Summit in Brussels in mid-July, as did Francis Fannon, the assistant secretary at the U. S. State Department Bureau of Energy Resources, who visited Kyiv at the end of July.
That pleased Hopko, but she still wants to see more action.
“Statements are good, but we would like to see a new sort of Javelin — new sanctions against the companies that are involved in building Nord Stream 2,” Hopko said, referring to the anti-tank missiles recently supplied to Ukraine by the United States for defense against Russian-led forces in the Donbas.
So far five draft bills have been submitted to the U. S. Congress on imposing sanctions against Russia as part of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which was adopted a year ago.
“It’s important to impose new sanctions to deter the Kremlin from taking aggressive steps,” she said. “And it is really important to stop Nord Stream 2… let’s stop feeding the beast.”
She said the pipeline was an existential threat to Ukraine as well as a “huge” risk to European security, as the Kremlin will use Russian state gas company Gazprom as much as it can to gain geopolitical leverage in the region.
Europe should instead be looking to diversify its gas supplies, she said. For example, only 93 billion cubic meters of gas was transported through Ukraine in 2017, whereas the country’s gas transit network has a capacity of almost 150 million cubic meters.
“If Germany says they need more gas, then it could be transported through (Ukraine),” Hopko said. The European Union can also put pressure on Russia to allow gas to come from Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, she said.
“Besides exporting gas, Russia is exporting corruption to the EU by Schröderizing this sector, and this is really very dangerous,” Hopko said, referring to former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who is now one of the managers of the Nord Stream 2 project.
“And this is why it’s one of the missions of Ukraine to stop Russia corrupting EU member states.”
Then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden walks with Hanna Hopko, now a member of the Ukrainian parliament, near one of the barricades of EuroMaidan Revolution during his visit in Kyiv on April 22, 2014. On the visit, Biden accused Russia of “trying to pull Ukraine apart” two months after Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych fled power and pledged Washington’s strong support. (AFP)
Military purposes
Ukraine is now trying to persuade Denmark to refuse to allow the pipeline to pass through its territory, while trying to convince Germany that the pipeline comes with high political costs.
“Russia is investing in different experts and paying big money just to show that this is a commercial deal, nothing related to geopolitics,” she said. She warned that with Russia’s record of using the tactics of hybrid war, the pipeline could easily be used for “military purposes.”
“This is why we expect to see a reaction from NATO.”
Another country Ukraine is trying to pressure diplomatically is Austria.
On Aug. 15, the day of Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl’s wedding, Hopko wrote a tweet strongly criticizing Kneissl for inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to her wedding.
“From now on, Austria can’t be a mediator in Ukraine. Period,” Hopko tweeted.
“To invite Putin, this is a real strike against European values, and it shows that Putin is not in isolation; how could we trust such partner?” she said. “We also have (Austrian politician Martin) Sajdik as the OSCE’s (ambassador to the Minsk trilateral contact group). I think we need to demand that he be replaced.”
Hopko’s tweet sparked questions from activists, journalists and even Austrian members of parliament over Austria’s neutrality with regard to Russia’s war on Ukraine in the Donbas.
Deoligarchization
But Ukraine has its own homework to do as well, Hopko stresses: The country’s oligarchs still have a strong grip on the economy — especially in the energy sector.
More than 30 percent of the cases opened by the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine concern corruption in the energy sector, Hopko says.
“(They concern) big oligarchs like Oleksandr Onyshchenko, Dmytro Firtash, Rinat Akhmetov, and many others.”
One way to root out corruption would be for Ukraine to simplify its licensing rules for gas extraction, Hopko said.
“Instead, we see Russian companies… and Russian oligarchs investing, using corruption and protection from various people in Poltava Oblast,” Hopko said. “So this is a question for the National Security and Defense Council, as we have a list of sanctions against more than 1,700 people, including Russian oligarchs.”
Boycotting channels
Meanwhile, Firtash’s energy schemes are still ticking over — even as he sits under arrest in Austria, fighting extradition requests from Spain and the United States on corruption charges that he denies. But a more immediate problem is the influence he still wields on Ukraine through the media, Hopko said.
“Taking into account that Firtash is still a key owner of Inter, one of Ukraine’s most popular TV channels, various people have vested interests in using it to promote their activities on the eve of the presidential and parliamentary elections,” said said.
Hopko said she was boycotting oligarch-owned channels such as Channel 112, which was recently bought by Russia-Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, NewsOne, now owned by Andriy Portnov, a former deputy head of the Presidential Administration under runaway former President Viktor Yanukovych, and Ihor Kolomoisky’s 1+1 media group.
Oligarch control of such channels make Ukraine vulnerable not only to the vested interests of Ukrainian business, but those of the Kremlin as well, she said.
Upcoming elections
“The key for us for the next two years is to prove our ability to (act independently) in international politics,” Hopko said. “Russia will try to cast doubt on this by showing there is internal competition between various elites for power.”
One priority for Hopko is staffing the Central Election Commission with new members — the terms of some of current ones expired up to four years ago. Parliament should also adopt a new electoral code ahead of the presidential, parliamentary and local elections, she said.
But efforts are under way to delay the adoption of the new code, with lawmakers submitting thousands of proposed amendments to the new legislation — “amendment spam,” Hopko called it.
Apart from that, Ukraine has to secure its voting infrastructure against attempts to falsify voting or disrupt it via cyberattacks, she said, adding that Canada, the United States and the European Union are to send missions to train the central election commission to protect the integrity of the elections.
“I think that Putin will use these elections, the high level of disappointment, people’s dissatisfaction with reform,” Hopko said. “And we have seen lots of pro-Russian politicians… using pro-Russian narratives…”
Putin will try his best to bring in pro-Russian politicians “under the mask of talking about the neutrality of Ukraine, or not calling Russia an aggressor, talking about peace, about economic prosperity, no NATO,” she said.
Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl and Russian President Vladimir Putin dance during her wedding on Aug. 18 in Gamlitz, Styria, Austria. Kneissl’s invitation of the totalitarian ruler raised international criticism. (AFP)
Hopko for president?
Hopko won’t be drawn into a discussion about her own political ambitions, although her name frequently pops up among reform-minded Ukrainians as a possible candidate for president.
She would not say whether she would run for president either in this presidential election or in future ones. However, she did say the country was still not ready for an independent candidate.
“I think for the time being we still will be choosing between bad and worse, and society is not ready to support a real candidate,” she said. “(But) I truly believe that one day, after many mistakes, there will be a state-oriented candidate that society will be ready to elect.”
Hopko doesn’t plan to stay in parliament forever. She said she was ready to quit many times, and is now tired of parliamentary “intrigues” and “games.” Formerly belonging to the 26-seat Samopomich Party faction in parliament, Hopko was expelled from the party after defying its leadership and voting on Aug. 31, 2015 in favor of a bill on decentralization of power in Ukraine.
A devout Christian, she said she prefers to follow her moral conviction “to bring in young reformers and women, and try to show people that politics can be different.”
“For me, it’s not important just to be reelected. It’s important to bring in a new political force — one that could be a strong voice advocating for change in Ukraine, and representing the change-makers generation.”
