The United Kingdom has posted a new diplomat to Ukraine. Ambassador Simon Smith picks up where Leigh Turner left off. Before departing for Turkey last summer after four years in Ukraine, Turner was one of the most active and recognized diplomats, due to his blogging and frequent public appearances. In his first interview in Ukraine, Smith talked with the Kyiv Post about Ukraine’s complicated relationship with the European Union and how British-Ukrainian economic relations can be improved.
Kyiv Post: How do you find working and living in Ukraine, after moving from Austria, where you served as British ambassador?
Simon Smith: It obviously didn’t come as a surprise to me, because I was lucky enough to have been able to say “this is the job I want.” I knew a good deal about Ukraine as a country. I knew a lot about what had happened in those years since my first visit to Kyiv in 1994.
KP: You’re taking a diplomatic post at a time when relations between the European Union and Ukraine are at a dead end due to Ukraine ignoring a number of EU requests, particularly to end the prosecution of opposition leaders. What’s the way out?
SS: I don’t come here with the perception that the EU-Ukraine relationship is at a dead end … Yes we have specific issues on our common agenda at the moment, things that we would like to see – like the free and fair conduct of elections and so on, and they are extremely important. But I think it’s also very important that we keep this long-term perspective.
KP: Do you think Ukrainian authorities acknowledge those issues and the importance of solving them?
SS: I was invited to participate in the Yalta European Strategy meeting. I was very struck then by how open and frank the debate was. That at least led me to the conclusion to say ‘yes,’ to a large extent I think people in many parts of the Ukrainian government, even more broadly people in many parts of Ukrainian public life – yes they do understand what the issues are.
KP: What do you think the Ukrainian government should do in addressing West’s concerns regarding the legitimacy of the trial of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko?
SS: It is no secret and representatives of the British government have been on record in the past on this, expressing concern and doubt that the procedures applied in the trials of Mrs. Tymoshenko and also (jailed former Interior Minister Yuri) Lutsenko leave some considerable room for doubt and concern as to whether the proper processes were applied.
KP: Will Great Britain join a growing international movement, notably involving the U.S., in potential issuance of sanctions and visa bans for Ukrainian businesspeople and politicians suspected of human rights abuses and other crimes?
SS: It would be a measure of considerable despair and frustration if we were now to start thinking about what sort of punishments or sanctions (to use). I (am confident) these are issues that we can work through on the basis of common understanding and as things stand the whole discourse about sanctions or punishments is really not something for now.
KP: But doesn’t the mere fact that the association and free trade agreements have been put on pause suggest that such diplomacy doesn’t work?
SS: It is a long (and) complex process. I think we need to be imaginative, in some respects patient, but we also need to be open and honest, very clear and unambiguous. We, at the EU, have been very unambiguous about what we see as the obstacles.
KP: With opposition leaders jailed, is there still a way for the West to consider the Oct. 28 parliamentary elections as free and fair?
SS: Whatever the assessment of the election on the day is, yes I think it is a factor that you have to take into account in any assessment of the extent to which an election is free and fair. It’s a fact that leading figures in opposition parties are prevented from taking part in the election because they are in prison.
KP: Do you plan to write a blog in Ukraine, just as former Ambassador Turner, who found it to be a powerful diplomatic tool?
SS: All options are on the table. I am very keen to work both with the media and with the broader public audience in a way that helps me and my colleagues here get our messages across in the most effective way.
KP: Turner’s blogs were quite outspoken. Do you agree with such type of diplomacy or do you prefer a quieter approach?
SS: There are times when it’s the right judgment that you need to be very forthright (and) outspoken in order for the message to get across and there are times where a more subtle message is the better way to do things. I think the key thing is that … if you’ve got something to say, people will listen.
KP: Having worked in Russia, what do you think Ukraine could do better in establishing equal partner relations with Russia, while being so dependent on gas?
SS: By and large I think Ukraine does pretty well in terms of focusing on what sustains it as an independent sovereign country…It makes no sense to look at all these (projections) of how much energy you are going to need without looking (at) how much … energy you are wasting or using inefficiently.
KP: How do you think British-Ukrainian economic relations could be developed further?
SS: I’ve heard already a number of businesspeople representing large businesses who talk of the way in which tax authorities deal with them as if to say we have a (specific) target of collecting taxes. To be honest, this was not a new thing. This is the way in which the tax authorities would behave often in Russia …I came to this country absolutely convinced that it has extraordinary potential and it can realize a lot more of the potential that it has. (Concerning) all the business environment handicaps, those are problems where if they are not addressed, then Ukraine … will fall short of that potential.
Kyiv Post staff writer Maryna Irkliyenko can be reached at [email protected].
