But with Ukraine paralyzed by domestic political feuds and suffering a deep economic recession, Biden will find a country less interested in the United States and NATO and more preoccupied with its internal problems.
The streets of Kiev were shut down as a security precaution for Biden’s visit. Ordinary Ukrainians, however, were largely indifferent to the vice president’s arrival, and newspapers had little coverage ahead of his visit. Biden’s trip comes two weeks after Obama met President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow and told him he wanted to “reset” relations.
“This is the balancing trip by Biden to Obama’s Moscow visit, but the balance is very different to that under the Bush administration,” said Christopher Granville, of Trusted Sources, an emerging market research firm in London.
President Viktor Yushchenko, who vaulted to power in the 2004 Orange Revolution, has angered Moscow with an aggressive bid for Ukraine to join NATO and his promotion of Ukrainian nationalism. But Yushchenko’s term ends early next year, and polls show he is very unlikely to win re-election in the Jan. 17 poll. The favorites to succeed him, including Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, prefer a less confrontational approach toward Russia.
“For Ukraine, the most important issues are U.S. guarantees of Ukraine’s security, the determination of future Ukrainian-U.S. cooperation in defense and also the continuing support from the United States of Ukraine’s process to enter NATO,” Yushchenko’s deputy chief of staff, Andriy Goncharuk, said last week.
Yushchenko has made NATO accession the linchpin of a policy of Western integration and told Moscow that it must vacate its naval base in Sevastopol in 2017, when Russia’s lease runs out.
Many observers say the combination of Russia’s base, Ukraine’s NATO aspirations, and Crimea’s mostly Russian-speaking population is a diplomatic tinderbox waiting to explode.
Biden is expected to signal support for Ukraine, but the Obama administration is less strident than Bush in backing Yushchenko’s NATO bid.
He will also tell the country’s leaders that Washington is concerned about the political paralysis gripping Ukraine and will urge Yushchenko and Tymoshenko to “live up to the promise of the revolution,” Biden’s national security adviser, Tony Blinken, told reporters Friday.
A snap poll by the English-language Kyiv Post found that 66 percent of respondents wanted Biden to tell Ukraine’s leaders: “Get your act together” while only 5 percent selected “Resist Russia with all your might.”
Biden is also expected to call for reforms in the energy sector. He will leave Kiev on Wednesday for Georgia.
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