| 摘要 | The US yesterday warned Ukraine of the repercussions of rigging its presidential election, but at the same time stepped back from an open confrontation with Russia over the crisis.
“If the Ukrainian government does not act immediately and responsibly, there will be consequences for our relationship, for Ukraine’s hopes for Euro-Atlantic integration, and for individuals responsible for perpetrating fraud,” Colin Powell, secretary of state, said shortly after Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich was declared the official winner in Kiev.
But before the US took retaliatory measures, Mr Powell said, there was still time for outgoing president Leonid Kuchma to re-examine the results and investigate allegations of widespread abuse and fraud.
The US has already denied visas to several prominent Ukrainians close to the government. Officials said the US would also consider suspending aid and freezing accounts.
However, experts said the ramifications of the electoral crisis went beyond Ukraine’s borders to the heart of the evolving US relationship with Russia.
The stakes were high, Zbigniew Brzezinski, former US national security adviser, told a conference at the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
“If Ukrainian democracy fails then Russian imperial visions are rewarded,” he said. The US had to tell Russia, “baldly” but in private, that it could not have a “free ride” in Ukraine.
Mr Powell said he had a “good” telephone conversation with Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister.
“And what we are doing now is to use diplomacy and use political actions to resolve this. We’re not looking for a contest with the Russians over this,” Mr Powell added.
Relations between President George W. Bush and President Vladimir Putin have already come under strain from what the US perceives as the Kremlin’s bid to stifle Russian democracy and project Russian power beyond its borders.
But, asked about Mr Putin’s overt support for Mr Yanukovich, Daniel Fried, a senior White House official, said the US would not let the Ukraine crisis spill over.
“It’s not for us to make this an east-west issue. We are not going to make this about Russia or other countries,” he told the AEI conference, which was attended by Ukrainian diplomats to Washington who also rejected the results.
Analysts said the US could put pressure on Mr Putin by warning him in private that a violent outcome in Ukraine backed by Russia would result in its expulsion from the Group of Eight industrialised countries and an end to its aspirations to join the World Trade Organisation.
But they also doubted that the US would want to risk its close security relationship with Russia. |
