Ukraine aims to develop defense cooperation with Russia before it joins NATO

The Prime Minister of the Ukraine, Victor Yanukovich, ordered Vice-Premier Vladimir Radchenko to “urgently begin preparations for the negotiations with Russia on developing cooperation in the defense complex”. He emphasized that Russia is the main partner of the Ukraine in the military sphere today. "However, - he said, - the volumes of such cooperation are annually reduced".

Photo: Ukraine aims to develop defense cooperation with Russia before it joins NATO

According to Yanukovich the cooperation volumes in the defense complex shrink because of the numerous statements of the Ukrainian politicians concerning the intention of the Ukraine in the near future to join NATO. Russia has stated it as clear as a day that if the Ukraine prefers joining NATO - Russia will build the military-industrial complex without participation of the Ukrainian companies. Now the Ukrainian leader urges to clearly express priorities, “certainly, together with our strategic partners”.

However, these statements seem too late today. Ever since the brake up of the Soviet Union there has been a clear trend in Russia to set up own manufacturing of everything that remained abroad. The policy of the Ukraine just speeded up the inevitable process. Time proved that Russia is successfully following this policy. Today Russia still has huge underutilization of the production capacities in the defense complex. Therefore taking over the production that used to be in other soviet republics is economically advantageous (and politically wise). Of course, there are some technical and organizational problems, but this requires nothing else but a little time. If we thoroughly analyze the military cooperation between Russia and any of the former soviet republics it won’t have principle projects related to the next generation hardware.

Yuri Seleznyov
Pravda.ru