Russia and Ukraine Lock Horns Over Naval Base

MOSCOW-They have bickered over NATO expansion, energy prices and how to commemorate a 1930s mass famine. Now, Russia and Ukraine are locked in a new dispute over a naval base in the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol.The base lies in Crimea, a verdant, mountainous peninsula that was part of the Russian Empire and later Soviet Russia until Khrushchev gave it to Ukraine in 1954. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Ukraine kept control of the region, but signed a lease allowing Russia to base its Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol until 2017.Earlier this month, however, Moscow’s mayor, Yuri M. Luzhkov, called for Russia to assume ownership of the port. In remarks delivered from the naval base on the 225th anniversary of the Black Sea Fleet, the mayor said that Khrushchev had never intended to give Sevastopol to Ukraine and urged a review of the current arrangement.Many Russians, and some of Crimea’s ethnic Russian majority, would like to see Russia regain control of the region, particularly Sevastopol, which, as a strategic port city, they consider integral to Russia’s national security.The statements rankled Kiev, which, in response, banned Mr. Luzhkov from entering Ukraine, saying his comments threatened Ukraine’s national interests.Moscow, already annoyed by Kiev’s Western-leaning policies and particularly angered by its drive to join NATO, vowed to retaliate.“Regarding the Ukrainian decision to ban Moscow’s mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, from entering the territory of Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry informs that Russia has been forced to take adequate measures against those Ukrainian politicians who, with their actions and words, do harm to the Russian Federation,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.Ukraine’s deputy justice minister appears to be the first official to suffer retribution. After the minister, Evhen V. Kornichuk, suggested this month that Vladimir V. Putin, Russia’s newly appointed prime minister, be banned from Ukraine as well, Moscow has made it clear that Mr. Kornichuk would not be welcome in Russia.“Considering what Evhen Kornichuk said in his public address, we assume that he will not be planning to visit the Russian Federation,” Andrei Nesterenko, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said on Thursday.A spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry could not confirm on Friday whether Mr. Kornichuk had been officially banned nor whether more entry restrictions would follow.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/24/world/europe/24ukraine.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

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