The experienced professor highlighted that «Ukraine has to form its foreign policy without interference of other countries». He noted that the major mistake of Ukraine was its belief that the Western powers, particularly the United States, would carry out an incursion for the protection of Ukraine from Russian aggression. The expert agreed that Ukrainian government believed so since the West assured them of that. The expert stressed that «The U.S. will fight only when its government will be convinced that Ukraine is its key interest. Unfortunately, as of today, Ukraine is not a key interest for America».
Also professor Ingo NATUFE analyzed the development of Russia’s foreign policy after breakup of the USSR when Russia faced a fundamental problem to build its foreign policy irrespectively of the past. «The primary goal of Russian foreign policy was to keep a role of a global player on the territory of the former USSR. The second goal is to convince the Western partners that Russia is not the USSR. The most important task for Russia is to form the foreign policy with regard to Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Belarus and other countries of the former USSR», he said.
Mr. NATUFE noted that in recent years the concept of Russia’s foreign policy was not built on the partnership with the West, but on competition. «That concept was integral part of marxism-leninism. Russia does not want cooperate with, but contend and compete with the West” he said. Also the professor told the audience that Russia usually follows two lines of behavior in foreign policy. The first one is based on building friendly relations without using force, and the second - on using force. The professor noted that this policy did not change from the one existing during the Soviet era, when «the struggle with Western countries was carried out».
FOR INFORMATION:
The Open World Discussion Club is an educational project by Arseniy Yatsenyuk Foundation for socially active youth. Its goal is to educate a new generation of responsible leaders. Every month the Foundation initiates lectures with renowned experts, political and civic activists for discussing ways to solve social problems efficiently in Ukraine and in the world.
