AP
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, shakes hands with Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov before the start of their meeting at the
Russian Ambassador's Residence to discuss Ukraine, in Paris on Sunday.
Mr. Kerry travelled to Paris for a last minute meeting with Mr. Lavrov.
Russia and the United States have agreed to work for a diplomatic
solution in the Ukraine crisis through an "inclusive constitutional
reform," the two country’s top diplomats said after their meeting in
Paris.
Emerging from four-hour talks at the Russian embassy in the French
capital late on Sunday Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry summed up the essence of their agreement
in remarkably identical statements even though they spoke at separate
press encounters.
After stating that Russia and the U.S. differed on the causes of the
crisis in Ukraine, Mr. Lavrov and Mr. Kerry said they had agreed on the
importance of «finding a diplomatic solution» towards four priority
goals:
- assure minority and language rights;
- disarm irregulars and provocateurs;
- launch an inclusive constitutional reform;
- hold free and fair elections.
The verbatim identical statements would suggest Mr. Lavrov and Mr. Kerry had put their agreement in writing.
While the constitutional reform came closer to the end of the announced
list of priorities, it is clearly by far the most important part of the
Russian-American agreement.
However, as often is the case with such agreements, the devil is in the detail.
Moscow and Washington seem to have different views on what should be the
end result of the constitutional reform process. Mr. Lavrov stated in
no uncertain terms that Ukraine should transform itself from a unitary
state into a federation with broad autonomy rights for its regions.
Mr. Kerry, for his part, insisted that it is up to Ukrainians to decide "what kind of definitions work for them."
"It’s not up to us to make any decision or any agreement regarding federalisation," Mr Kerry said.
Mr. Lavrov, while agreeing that "nobody can impose any configuration on
Ukrainians," made it clear that federalisation was the only way to
prevent Ukraine from splitting along the east-west fault lines.
"The west, east and south profess rather opposite values. In order for
Ukraine to function as a single state, all its regions without exception
must strike compromise," Mr. Lavrov said.
The new Ukrainian government has angrily rejected federalization, saying
it would amount to “complete capitulation of Ukraine, its
dismemberment, and the destruction of Ukrainian statehood.”
The U.S. opposes the federal structure for Ukraine for the same reason
as Kiev does – the reform would give Russian-speaking eastern and
southern regions veto power over a possible decision by the central
government to join NATO or the European Union.
It remains to be seen who gets the upper hand in the constitutional
reform battle, but Russia has masterly played its hand at the Paris
talks. Hours after Mr. Kerry voiced “strong concern” about “very large
Russian force” near Ukraine’s borders that is “creating a climate of
fear and intimidation” and sternly demanded from Mr Lavrov the “drawdown
and redeployment” of the forces, Ukrainian media reported that Russia
had begun pulling back its troops from the Ukrainian border.
This enables Mr. Kerry to claim diplomatic success, which could well be
the main purpose of the Russian force buildup in the first place.
