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Thu, Jun 20 2013

Gryshchenko carries on in best tradition of Soviet foreign ministers

Tue, Mar 27 2012 10:37 CET

byAskold S. Lozynskyj - The Kyiv Post

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Gryshchenko carries on in best tradition of Soviet foreign ministers

Ukraine's foreign minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko
Photo: Reuters

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko’s recent response to the opinion article of five European Union foreign ministers was a paradigm reminiscent of Soviet diplomacy, led from 1957 to 1985 by Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. Granted, it was amusing because it was so egregious. After all Gryshchenko is a copycat of Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and they are alumni of the same school.

Perhaps the most entertaining statement is in the introduction where Gryshchenko states: "For me it is not perception that matters but facts." He then submits five misrepresentations, spins them like an old Soviet apparatchik, and offers them as a diplomatic rebuke to his foreign counterparts. Having spent time in the West, Gryshchenko cannot possibly believe that anyone is buying this nonsense, but nonetheless, he feels personally satiated because he feels he has one upped his detractors.

Gryshchenko then asserts that Ukraine is "committed to European values" and offers not facts but his perception that Ukraine is "not sliding but striding towards full integration." The difference between sliding and striding can only be a matter of perception. He then offers last year’s completion of negotiations with the EU as proof of progress, failing to mention that nothing was initialed, signed or ratified last year and only because Ukraine failed to do its part.

Read more at Kyiv Post

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