Kerry in Sochi: Ukraine’s 15 minutes of fame is probably over

May 13, 2015 01:32

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (C) shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin as U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Tefft (L) watches at the presidential residence of Bocharov Ruchey in Sochi, Russia May 12, 2015 (Reuters / Joshua Roberts)

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Meeting, Politics, Russia, USA

John Kerry’s Sochi meetings with Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov hardly dissolved years of mistrust between Washington and the Kremlin. However, they probably signaled the end of Ukraine’s period as a global cause célèbre.
In 1968, at an art exhibition in Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, the celebrated artist Andy Warhol was the star attraction. In the programme notes he wrote that “in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” What was probably a throwaway comment for the painter has become an internationally renowned catchphrase. While the modern art icon was being grandiloquent, it’s amazing how many non-entities manage to attain his prophesied quarter-hour, or even much more than that.

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Warhol, born Warhola, had ancestral ties to both Slovakia and Ukraine. It’s fair to say that the latter has proven his theory repeatedly over the past 18 months. It’s actually incredible how a country that is relatively economically and culturally insignificant has managed to hijack the news agenda for so long. Nevertheless, it’s finally clear that Ukraine’s 15 minutes are over.
John Kerry didn't travel to Sochi because he fancied an early summer jaunt to Russia’s tourist showpiece. He flew to the Black Sea pearl to do business. Serious business. By doing so, he signaled that Washington is finally prepared to leave the Ukraine crisis behind and re-engage with Russia on other matters more pressing to humanity. There are deeper headaches than the future of a corrupt, critically divided, failed state on Europe’s edge.