KIEV — Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych makes his first foreign trip to Brussels on Monday, but the gesture of goodwill toward Europe may ring hollow days later when he goes to strike concrete deals with the Kremlin.
Soon after Yanukovych's inauguration on Thursday, his critics dismissed the significance of the Brussels visit, in part because the EU flag was removed from Kiev's European Square for the first time in five years.
But Anna German, his deputy chief of staff, said Yanukovych would pursue a balanced foreign policy and would dedicate his first week in office to making Ukraine "a bridge between East and West."
"We will begin building that bridge in Brussels and finish it in Moscow," she said in an interview.
This marks a drastic shift away from Yanukovych's predecessor, Viktor Yushchenko, who had broken ties with Russia to seek membership in the European Union and NATO, in both cases without success.
"Our policy is dictated by the crisis situation in our economy," German said. "We are in need of support from our friends both in the West and the East."
The Brussels visit, she said, will involve general discussions about energy security and a possible deal on visa-free travel, while the talks in Moscow on Friday are expected to be more substantive.
"From the Moscow visit we expect concrete agreements," German said. "This is not just a cordial visit, but a very pragmatic visit."
Supporters of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko lament what they see as an effort to turn Ukraine into a Kremlin vassal state. Tymoshenko lost the presidential election to Yanukovych and remains his political enemy.
"The EU flag was taken down, and that is a bad sign," said the deputy head of her political party, Sergei Sobolev.
The flag was placed there after the 2004 Orange Revolution brought Yushchenko, who campaigned for European integration, to power.
Now analysts say links to Europe painstakingly built under the Orange leadership will take a back seat to renewed ties with Russia.
"The Russian vector will be the dominant one in Yanukovych's policies," said Vadim Karasyov, director of the Institute of Global Strategies, a Kiev think tank. "The Western vector will be used for Yanukovych's image making and to calm his critics."
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