– NATO...Are Its Final Days Just Ahead

"We Don't Need NATO"
Russian Daily On-line

Yesterday in Odessa the US and Ukraine began their "Sea Breeze 2007" joint exercises, the most extensive exercises this year to be carried out on Ukrainian territory. The beginning of the exercises was marred by clashes between law enforcement and opponents of Ukraine's increasingly close relationship with NATO.

In actuality, the Sea Breeze 2007 exercises are multinational. The Ukrainian and American sailors in Odessa are working together with officers, observers, and naval divisions from eleven countries: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Greece, Canada, Latvia, Macedonia, Moldova, Germany, Romania, and Turkey. In total, 2,500 people are participating in the exercises, which will last until July 22 and are taking place in the southwestern quadrant of the Black Sea and on the territory of the Odessa and Nikolaev regions. Sea Breeze 2007 also includes 22 ships and numerous airplanes.

"The exercises have great significance for all sides; during this joint work we plan to acquire useful practical experience," said first vice-admiral of the Ukrainian Navy Viktor Maksimov, the leader of the exercises. "The exercises are aimed at organizing the cooperation of forces on the Black Sea and are exclusively peacekeeping in character," clarified Rear Admiral Robert Clark, the director of the US Navy's Maritime Partnership program in Europe.

Nevertheless, the organization of the exercises has so far been fraught with difficulties. After the ceremonial opening and press conference, the officers were met at the exit of the building by a demonstration organized by representatives of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU), who shouted slogans such as "We don't need NATO" and "NATO, get lost" and carried signs denouncing the North Atlantic alliance.

Once the participants in the exercises had managed to get to the port of Odessa and shut the port's gate behind themselves, several PSPU demonstrators appeared outside the gates anyway. A short distance away, several hundred members of the Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU), led by the party's leader Pyotr Simonenko, were also gathered for a demonstration. "These exercises will bring nothing useful for Ukraine," said Mr. Simonenko confidently at the picket, which lasted for a little over an hour. The Communists were joined in their opposition by a picket organized by Black Sea Cossacks and members of the social organization United Fatherland. "We oppose the deployment of foreign troops on our soil, because that could lead to war between Slavic peoples," said Black Sea Cossack leader Oleg Dryanin.

After an hour, the epicenter of events had moved to near the entrance to the port's military harbor, where a crowd of several hundred demonstrators, including representatives of the KPU, United Fatherland, a Russian organization called Proryv ("Breakthrough"), the PSPU, and the Black Sea Cossacks. Half an hour after the start of the demonstration, several dozen sailors came out of the gates and cordoned off the entrance to the harbor. After speaking with them, Ukrainian Communist leader Pyotr Simonenko was allowed inside, where he disappeared for more than thirty minutes. After the journalists had left, the demonstrations swiftly packed up their signs and dispersed as well.

The demonstrations did not pass without any physical clashes, however. Yesterday around a hundred supporters of the PSPU who had set up tents in the town of Odessa refused to obey a court order to take them down and resisted violently when the police came to clear them away. A scuffle ensued between the protestors and the police. Odessa City Hall called the actions of the opponents of the naval exercises "a gross violation of a court decision from July 5 that forbade any protest actions while the Sea Breeze 2007 exercises are being conducted." Undaunted, PSPU leader Natalia Vitrenko promised to employ "bolder methods of struggle" if "the authorities attempt to ban events directed against the NATO exercises."

Gennady Savransky (Kiev), Oleg Zorin