AMBASSADOR TAYLOR INTERVIEW WITH 1+1
December 20, 2007
Q: What would be your comment to President Putin’s comment that the United States is dividing Ukraine into Pro-American and Pro-Ukrainian (Russian?) forces, supporting Pro-American forces here in Ukraine?
A: I would say that since this is a comment on the United States policy towards Ukraine, I think that we can have something to say about this. I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of politicians in Ukraine, and I haven’t found any that would call themselves pro-Russian or pro-American. All the ones I’ve talked to would call themselves pro-Ukrainian. There is no nation in the world that supports Ukrainian territorial integrity, sovereignty, independence – no nation in the world supports this more strongly than the United States Government.
We all recall the events of 2004 where the Ukrainian people demanded free and fair presidential elections. The international community, certainly in Europe and certainly in the United States, supported the Ukrainian demands for free and fair elections. Free and Fair elections then took place. Since then there have been two free and fair parliamentary elections here in Ukraine, and these elections in Ukraine were observed by credible international observers to be free and fair unlike some elections in other parts of this region.
In 2006 the Ukrainian people elected a Rada that formed the government led by Mr. Yanukovich, and we were very pleased to work very closely with that government. In 2007, the Ukrainian people, in a free and fair election, elected a Rada and Mrs. Tymoshenko has just formed a government based on those elections. We look forward to working with Mrs. Tymoshenko’s government as well.
In the past year Mr. Yanukovich had a good visit to the United States; Mrs. Tymoshenko had a good visit to the United States. Both were received at the highest levels of our government.
I think all of this is well known in Moscow.
Q: When you are talking about the international community and U.S. support for the transformation that took place here in 2004, are you talking about only moral support or some other support that was granted.
A: We’re certainly talking about political support. We’re talking about moral support. We have given a lot of support over time to independent media and a range of political parties of all colors.