Ukraine unable to overcome crisis without global players' mediation - German analyst
MOSCOW. May 7 (Interfax) - Ukraine can overcome its crisis only if aided by global mediators and through embracing a federal governance system, in which eastern regions could be economically oriented toward Moscow and the west toward the EU, says Alexander Rahr, the academic director of the German-Russian Forum.
"In my viewpoint, Ukraine's federalization, or perhaps it makes sense to call this something else, for instance, decentralization or regionalization, could create the right situation in the country. The regions in the east, which are economically oriented toward Russia, could employ their potential, and the western regions could be economically oriented toward Romania and Poland, with which they have more in common than with Russia," Rahr said at the presentation ceremony of a lecture course titled 'Time for Russia' arranged by the Civil Society Development Foundation together with the Higher School of Economics in Moscow on Wednesday.
The Kyiv authorities could deal only with foreign and defense policy, Rahr said. "Foreign and defense policy should be within Kyiv's purview. And all hopes are for a more representative government, so that it should represent the south, the center, and the west," he said.
It would be good to create an atmosphere that would be acceptable in both eastern and western regions of Ukraine, Rahr said. "It is necessary to create a situation in which local elites and the population in the east and in the west could feel comfortable," he said.
A negotiating process in Ukraine is difficult, as it is hard for the global players to find a compromise, Rahr said. "As for a way out of this situation, the biggest problem is that, as long as we work against each other, we are not looking for common stabilization ways for Ukraine," he said.
Asked by Interfax to comment on a referendum on the Donetsk region's status slated for May 11, Rahr said, "I think nobody will accept these results, and they will remain as some sociological expression of the people living there, which would be taken into consideration from the sociological point of view."