with Moscow. Kravchuk refused to retain the common armed forces and currency inside the Commonwealth of Independent States. On 2 July 1993, the Ukrainian parliament approved the statement; 'Ukraine advocates the creation of an all-embracing international system of universal and all-European security and considers participation [therein] a basic component of its national security'. Ukraine under Kravchuk welcomed the idea of NATO enlargement. As president, he never opposed the expansion of the Alliance or the possibility of a future Ukrainian membership to NATO. This was reflected in his disdain for military cooperation with Eurasian structures, such as the Tashkent CIS Collective Security Treaty, in favour of European security structures. He said that "the best guarantee to Ukraine's security would be membership to NATO." He repeated his support for an immediate Ukrainian membership to NATO in 1994. Ukraine and Russia argued over many issues, including how the Soviet Navy's Black Sea Fleet should be divided. In May 1992, Russia's Supreme Soviet voted to declare the Soviet government's 1954 grant of Crimea to Ukraine an illegal act. Ukraine opposed this decision. The status of the Russian Black Sea Fleet's presence in Sevastopol and the Crimea was not resolved by a 20-year lease agreement until 1997, three years after Kravchuk left office. Under Kravchuk's leadership, Ukraine's economy slumped as corruption linked to privatization of Soviet-era industry thrived. Ukraine's economic woes caused a decline in Kravchuk's political popularity, sparking governmental infighting. Political tension reached a point in the fall of 1993 that the then-prime minister, Leonid Kuchma, resigned. By 1994, in less than three years of Kravchuk's presidency, the country's GDP had shrunk by 40 percent. Kravchuk ran for a second term as president in 1994 but was defeated by his former Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma, with his loss being attributed to the rampant graft and the stagnant economy. Post-presidency Soon after his defeat in 1994, Kravchuk joined the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) (SDPU(o)). He served as a member of the Verkhovna Rada from 1994 until 2006. In February 2003, Oleksandr Moroz, the leader of Ukraine's Socialist Party, accused Kravchuk and other 300 public high-ranked officials of being members of the Freemasons. During the 2004 presidential elections Kravchuk actively supported the candidacy of Viktor Yanukovych, and was a member of the Yanukovych team that negotiated with the opposition in the aftermath of that disputed election. In November 2004 he told the media that