Symbols and... "The House of the Hunter", a historic building ready to host today the second round of talks between Russia and Ukraine, in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park in western Belarus.
The Russian side was the first to arrive at the negotiating site yesterday, while the delegation from Kiev was expected in the early hours of the morning, with Belarus reserving the role of warm host for both sides.
Commonwealth instead of USSR
Apart from the two delegations, however, the "protagonist" in the Russian-Ukrainian negotiation process is the venue of the bilateral talks itself, as a choice of the Russian side, as the current processes aimed at finding a solution to the recent crisis in Ukraine are inextricably linked to the last moments of the Soviet Union. In particular, on December 8, 1991, the leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine secretly sat at the same negotiating table as they signed the "Belavezha Accords", which provided for the dissolution of the then Soviet Union and its replacement by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Thus forming a looser union, the three leaders announced that a new alliance would be open to all republics of the former USSR, but also to other states with similar goals, breaking down Soviet ideological barriers. Two days later, on 10 December, the agreement to establish a Commonwealth was ratified by the parliaments of Ukraine and Belarus, followed on 12 December by a vote in the Russian parliament, formally denouncing the 1922 Treaty of Creation of the USSR and ushering in a new era for the three neighbouring countries.
Less than 15 days later, on 25 December 1991, the USSR dissolved itself, prompting the resignation on the same day of Mikhail Gorbachev, who declared that "due to the situation created by the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States, I am resigning as President of the Soviet Union". His political future, moreover, had been vaporised months ago, when in early August of that year Boris Yeltsin shook hands with the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus, Leonid Kravchuk and Stanislav Suskevich respectively, effectively putting Gorbachev on the sidelines.
The members of the CIS
By essentially signing the "death certificate" of the USSR in December 1991, the three leaders attempted to give a strong impetus to the Commonwealth at the same time, which included - in addition to the three founding states - 11 other republics, namely Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Georgia and Moldova.
According to its founding act, the Commonwealth coordinated the policies of its members in the fields of the economy, foreign relations, defence, immigration and environmental protection, and was to be governed by a supreme council, in which the heads of state of the member countries participated automatically. The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS ) was, however, dealt a major blow in the autumn of 2008, when Georgia expressed its intention to withdraw after the events in South Ossetia, while Ukraine took a similar stance following the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
In this historical context, today's talks between Russia and Ukraine - and with Belarus as a long-standing mediator - cannot fail to trigger rapid developments on the war front, which has been raging with an escalation of military operations in the last twenty-four hours on the part of Moscow, but also with dozens of dead and wounded.
However, the Russian side comes to the talks confirming that its agenda includes a ceasefire, according to the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky. "Belarusian special services are fully ensuring security in Belarus and our (Russian) military has ensured a safe passage for their (the Ukrainian delegation's) movement through Ukraine," Medinsky said, according to TASS.
At the same time, the holding of the second round of talks was confirmed yesterday by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, who, in a Facebook post, said he was ready for new contacts, but without ultimatums. "The Ukrainian delegation is ready for negotiations, provided there are no ultimatums from the Russian side, and there is no exact time for the meeting," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said yesterday. "Now we are ready for negotiations and diplomacy, but we are not ready to accept any Russian ultimatum It is not known at the moment when the next negotiations will take place," RIA Novosti further described, quoting Kuleba.
In the Russian camp, hope was expressed yesterday by the Kremlin against the backdrop of the arrival of the Ukrainian delegation for negotiations by Dmitry Peskov, but he avoided revealing the exact venue of the bilateral meeting. On the contrary, the location of today's meeting between Russia and Ukraine was "betrayed" by the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, capturing the venue of the negotiations between the two sides, namely the historic talks table at the "Hunter's House".
It should be noted that the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Gomel, Belarus on February 28 lasted about five hours, and according to the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, the participants in the dialogue managed to find some points on the basis of which it is possible to envisage common positions, part of which cannot be ruled out to be publicly expressed in the coming days.
Source: protothema.gr
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