Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. In terms of the history of Crimea-Ukraine, mention has been made of 1914. However, I would like to mention 1853 when ostensibly the religious rights of citizens in the Holy Land, as it was then known, provoked a war within the Crimea between Russia, Britain and France and the former Ottoman Empire. Apparently the aim of the war was to prevent Russia from gaining territory at the expense of the Ottoman Empire. This is not the first time that we have seen a tussle for geo-political domination in the Crimea.
I agree, to some extent, with my colleague, Senator Norris but I am a little more critical of the situation. An interesting article was published in The Sunday Business Post by Dr. Erin Baumann which analysed the motivations, for want of a better word, behind Russian President, Vladimir Putin's, actions regarding the Ukraine. She outlined an interesting history of Russia's interests and said they were not motivated by a desire to assert Russia's power or establish its position as the centre of the Eurasian sphere of influence, rather to protect itself against what it sees as a loss of critical influence in an important part of the world in terms of its own concerns. She pointed out, for example, that since 2008 with the establishment of the EU's eastern partnership programme, Russia has been increasingly wary of European influence in its near sphere. It responded by setting up a customs union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan in 2010. Effectively, she said that we need to look at what motivated Russia to take action.
Dr. Baumann also made the point that the only way to oppose the establishment of Russia's domination in Eurasia was to have a strong and unified European Union. She pointed out, and I completely agree with her, having lived through what happened in the former Yugoslavia, that the crisis in the Ukraine has demonstrated the limits of the EU's capability to be a strong and unified foreign policy actor because of the different interests of the 28 member states. She pointed out, as we all know, the dependence of some of our colleagues on Russia's gas and oil. She also pointed to the Association of European Businesses which promotes the interests of European companies doing business within the Russian Federation, and other parts of that world, as forces that stand in the path of a more cohesive action by the EU member states. I noticed in a recent report about sanctions that we are awaiting a report from the Commission on the impact of sanctions on EU member states. Therefore, we are quite clearly putting our own interests ahead of the interests of those people we profess to care about who live in the Ukraine. I found that quite disturbing. She concluded that the EU can only effectively respond by developing a coherent and unified foreign policy which we clearly do not appear to have.
Having said all that I would like, to some extent, to support what Senator Norris said about the internal situation in the Ukraine. The crisis did not happen yesterday or the day before. We must remember, aside from our own geopolitical and economic interests, that the Ukraine is facing its greatest internal crisis for over 20 years and since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

We must also bear in mind that there have been significant ethnic difficulties within Ukraine, which the events of recent months have brought to the surface. For example, in 2004 there was the so-called Orange Revolution where citizens protested in the aftermath of the presidential elections, which were said to have been corrupt. Voters were intimidated and there was electoral fraud, there was civil disobedience, strikes and sit-ins, and the Supreme Court was forced to annul the original results and hold a re-election. In spite of that, there have been numerous political corruption scandals as part of the regular political life in the Ukraine, with all the contenders we hear about every day of the week - Yanukovych, Tymoshenko - all of whom have expressed what would be regarded as questionable attitudes towards democracy. I thank Steven Balbirnieof UCD's University Observerfor some of his comments.
Successive administrations have defined themselves on whether they were pro-Russian or pro-European. There has been bad behaviour on both sides. There has been tit for tat by both government and opposition, with both banning political parties in their local administrative areas which were under their respective control. This has obviously fanned the flames of the situation in the Ukraine, with outside powers wading in not to help resolve what is effectively a domestic issue but to protect their own geopolitical interests. In terms of the current situation, Russia has made it clear that it regards Crimea as part of its sovereign territory, regardless of what anybody has to say about it. The US and the European Union appear weak in terms of their negotiating efforts, and the Government in Kiev is not without its own responsibility for the situation, acting aggressively and making inflammatory remarks while, it would appear, refusing to rein in ulta-nationalist groups that have been going into eastern Ukraine, apparently, in mobs to terrorise Russian locals. I believe that what we are seeing in eastern parts of the Ukraine, such as Kharkiv and Donetsk, is that locals are trying to separate not due to some plot orchestrated by Moscow but because they do not feel the Government in Kiev is protecting them from ethnic violence. Whether we believe Russia has desires to annex more of the Ukraine, or simply wants to protect its interests in the Black Sea, or whether this is part of its attempts to protect what it regards as Russian civilians in eastern Ukraine, one way or the other I do not believe the European Union has covered itself in glory in position.
Perhaps I can make a controversial statement. In Ireland, of all the countries in the world, we should be well aware of a situation in which we need to respect different national identities within the same State. We are not unique. We see a similar situation within Cyprus. I think we are being overly simplistic in our statements in regard to the Ukraine. I am not convinced that the long-term solution to the situation in Ukraine is not to have freely held democratic referendums to decide, once and for all, whether there is a genuine desire to split Ukraine along ethnic lines. If that is the case I do not think we should ultimately be afraid of it.