3
sanctioned the kidnapping and murder in late 2000 of investigative journalist Georgiy
Gongadze.
5
Closer co-operation was reinforced with the meeting in January 2001 between
the two Presidents when a 52-point military cooperation accord was signed. The signing of
the border treaty in which Russia finally delineated the shared land borders with Ukraine
also indicates closer co-operation.
6
In a clear sign of Russia’s interests in co-operating
economically with Ukraine, Russia and Ukraine announced plans to jointly manage gas
pipelines to Europe.
7
Indicating that relations were improving more generally, Russia also
initiated the appointment of President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine to the head of the CIS.
Kuchma suggested that his appointment should help overcome fears in Ukraine about
Russia’s imperial ambitions.
8
This paper investigates the extent to which NATO can facilitate and encourage good
neighbourly relations between Russia and Ukraine. Since the early 1990s, Western liberal
democracies and many European institutions, such as NATO, have been engaged in a
diverse range of security and defence diplomacy activities in Eastern Europe and the newly
independent states of the former Soviet Union with the broad aims of transforming former
Soviet satellite states’ civil-military so that they meet the liberal and democratic norms of the
West and their security organisations, as well as downsizing and developing military
interoperability. This paper explores NATO’s military assistance programmes to Russia and
Ukraine, as this is an important element of its defence diplomacy programmes in the former
Soviet Union. NATO has been selected, as this is an influential organisation with a large
multilateral military assistance programme to both Russia and Ukraine. NATO’s role and
future role in the European geostrategic space also shapes the external environment in
which both states interact.
4
For an opposing view see Leonid Polyakov, ‘Current Russia-Ukrainian Rapprochement: Forward or
Backward? A Rejoinder’, Security Dialogue, Vol 33/2, June 2002, pp.171-176.
5
For the effect Kuchmagate had on Ukrainian society see, Taras Kuzio, ‘Kuchmagate continues to
dominate Ukrainian Politics’, Prism 7/1 January 30, 2001.
6
‘Russia and Ukraine sign Border Treaty’, The Associated Press, Wednesday January 29 2003. The
contentious issue of the Sea of Azov was not addressed.
7
Michael Lelyveld, ‘Russia/Ukraine: Questions Linger About Gas Consortium’, RFE/RL, 4 February
2003.
Convention