Mr. Francis M. O'Donnell:

The Deputy may or may not know that Russia waged an economic against the Ukraine many months before Yanukovych pulled back from signing the association's agreement. In other words, there was an element of blackmail in Russia's treatment of Ukraine at that point in time.
With the association process, in absorbing the acquis communautaire,a number of chapters will be very problematic, especially the agricultural area for the Ukraine, for example, and in some other areas. Like all of the other countries that have joined the EU, Ireland has gone through this process more or less. Ireland has had its fisheries issues and other countries have had reservations about one thing or another. It is through the process of discussion and dialogue that one eventually sorts things out.
I shall explain what I think has happened. President Putin saw a threat and sees a threat in western liberal traditions and in western liberal thinking. If one understands what goes on in the Kremlin then one will understand the following. Anything that speaks of a greater open society, more liberal values or sharing of them, and various freedoms that are only recent in this country for certain communities is seen as a threat by President Putin. He is extremely conservative, he is politically fairly autocratic and even some of the political elite in Russia are very concerned about what is happening in Russia. As I mentioned in my paper, only yesterday Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister of Russia, drew a comparison between the liberties and rights that Putin espouses for Russian speakers as if they are ethnic Russians - which is not the same thing - in Ukraine and the denial of the same rights to people in Russia. There has been a gradual pulling back from these things.
Clearly, at the intelligence level there had been an insufficient grasp of what was likely to happen with the partnership and an insufficient understanding of the risks. I think we were all taken by surprise by the alacrity with which Russia manoeuvred itself into Ukraine or Crimea and into which it has an exit. One can be fairly sure that because of the sophistication with which this has been done that - and they say that it was almost bloodless though not entirely - this has been in the planning for a very long time. It is not the sort of thing that just comes about by chance. In the west we did not realise what was going to happen. Pat Cox's role was a very important one. I would not say that there was diplomatic ineptitude. I am not competent to judge the competence of the European Union's diplomats. With regards comparisons with Georgia and the fact that Armenia pulled out, we should have seen something more in that situation but we did not.
A question was asked about fascists. Let me also mention the issue of anti-semitism. About eight years ago when I was the resident co-ordinator in Ukraine we had a very serious problem on the streets of Ukraine. I would say there was a rise of xenophobia. Even people who were Spanish did not look Slavic enough and were occasionally beaten up and tortured. There was huge concern for Japanese, Indian, Oriental and African students who were being regularly beaten up. This was all being done by a tiny fringe group of neo-nazi extremists.
In response I mobilised the international community. We created what was called the diversity initiative which was implemented by UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration. We got President Yushchenko at the time to acknowledge the problem and take action. He instructed the SBU, which is the secret service headed today by Valentyn Nalyvaichenko who was also the head of it at the time though not in the interim. Mr. Nalyvaichenko took immediate action against these people and the foreign ministry set up a unit to monitor the situation. There was excellent dialogue and communication between the international community and the Government at that time in order to deal with this crépusculeof extremism.
Extremists exist as they exist in most countries in Europe. One has far less risk and less incidents are experienced today in Ukraine, for example, by the Jewish community than one has in Paris, London, Munich or Berlin. It is true that there was one rabbi who said that all of the Jews should leave Ukraine. His call was immediately contradicted by the most widely recognised chief rabbi of Ukraine - there is more than one - Yaakov Dov Bleich, who is head of one of the Hasidic movements. Rabbi Bleich clearly said this was not the case and there was no major risk to the Jewish community in Ukraine and, in fact, a lot of the anti-Semitic activity was motivated clandestinely from Russia. This statement was backed by Rabbi Alexander Duchovny who is the chief rabbi of the progressive Jewish movement in Ukraine. It was also picked up by a rabbi who is himself a native of Simferopol in Crimea. Both rabbis wrote to Mr. Putin telling him to please back off and to stop playing the Jewish card in Ukraine, that this is not an issue and he does not need to make it an issue. If one read the articles of The Times of Israelone would also see that this situation is largely the case. We should not exaggerate the importance of this matter. It is always a risk in any western society as much as in any eastern European country. Fanning the problem does not help and that is what has been done by Russian propaganda.
Fascism exists. Most of us would not be happy to see some fascist members of Svoboda or the Right Sector take part in some of the activities in Ukraine, let alone in the current cabinet of the Government. Let me explain what happened. Mr. Yanukovych accepted the memorandum, that he signed with three foreign Ministers who had arrived and also the Russian envoy, and reverted to the constitution of 2004. He then refused to sign the Bill that would have done so and fled the country. The Rada Parliament, acting under the terms of the agreement, reverted to the constitution of 2004 and in the absence of an effective head of State - because he had fled the country - appointed a speaker and a cabinet composed of democratically elected members of the Verkhovna Rada to assume office. How anybody could question the legitimacy of such a parliament? One cannot. If I am not mistaken, Italy currently has a Prime Minister who is not an elected member of Parliament. Has anybody created a fuss about Italy? I do not think so. Each country has its constitutional traditions. Is there a need for constitutional reform in Ukraine? Absolutely and that has been recognised by the major political parties. They need to adopt, or consider at least, a lot of the recommendations of the Venice Commission which will bring them to a meaningful place. This is a work in progress. The Irish Constitution is not perfect, just look at how many times we have had to amend Bunreacht na hÉireann.
With regards the OSCE mission, Tymoshenko told protestors to stay put on the Maidan which was probably not a good move. Some mistakes were also made on the Ukrainian side. It was obviously a mistake by Rada to try to remove the status given to the Russian language. The acting president did not endorse the bill so it was a red herring.
It was also probably a mistake to dissolve the Berkut forces. The regime simply disowned them and allowed them to be recruited en masseby the Russians in Crimea and elsewhere. The proper thing to do would have been to rein in the Berkut security forces. The regime should have ensured that the Berkut were properly under civilian control and would not engage in the sorts of things that have happened in Crimea and now in Kharkov and Lugansk.
The question of including the Global Elders was raised. The Global Elders is a group of former statesmen and stateswomen, which includes our own Mary Robinson. It was led by the late Nelson Mandela but its current Chair is Kofi Annan whose birthday was yesterday. I have been agitating, so to speak, to get this group of distinguished world leaders to go to Moscow.

I have been told they were going to go later in the year and that they wanted to keep their powder dry. I went back to them again on this and they said they would bring the trip forward. I do not know how soon it will be. Does it have the support of the UN, EU or Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade? I have no idea but I have written to the Department to urge it to support a measure like this.

The non-functioning of the Security Council is tragic. It needs to be reformed and the committee knows my views on that. Is there any appetite for reform? There was in recent years and when we had the Millennium Declaration around the turn of the Millennium, there was much promise and hope. I remember how following the events of 11 September 2001, the thought of what a moment of truth crossed my mind. US foreign policy does not always work, there are lessons to be learned here and there. There might have been a real reaching out to the underprivileged in this world. What happened then? We had the riposte to the events of 11 September; the war on terror; the rolling back of civil liberties in many countries; increasing repression, even in western countries; and all of what we have today with cyber-security issues. Our lives have changed forever as a result. It is tragic. The dividend we should have got with the peace situation in the world in 2000 was blown asunder when all the financing that would have been available to really achieve the Millennium Development Goals and more than that, many of the principled ideas that are in the Millennium Declaration itself had to go towards security, the war on terror, higher insurance premiums and all the rest so it is very difficult to try to recover that ground.

The situation we are now facing where Russia as a responsible guarantor of the international post-Second World War order has flagrantly violated the fundamental norms of peace and security must be a wake-up call around the world that we need to reform the international instruments we have for our protection. It is a nonsense that the five largest arms-exporting and producing countries in the world should be the ones who are guaranteeing our security.