EDITORIAL: The latest from Ukraine (09/25/05)

EDITORIAL

The latest from Ukraine

If you're confused about this week's developments in Ukraine, there's no need to apologize. It was one of those weeks ... just about when you thought you'd figured things out, something else happened and you were confused again. And that was the case through deadline day for us - Thursday - when the Verkhovna Rada voted to approve Yurii Yekhanurov as Ukraine's new prime minister, this after failing to approve him two days earlier.

First there was the soap opera revolving around ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Was she in the opposition? Or was she trying to call a cease-fire, or make peace, or perhaps even reunite with her fellow Orange Revolutionaries? Who knows? On September 14 she said she and Viktor Yushchenko could rejoin forces for the parliamentary elections of March 2006 if the president would "recognize his mistake"; one week later she said she was ready to work with the president to form a new Cabinet if he made peace with her. "I am ready to give him a helping hand," she said on September 21. But, on September 9 she had suggested on TV that orange and blue (the color of the Yanukovych campaign) make up the Ukrainian flag, asserting that she wants to unite Ukraine.

In the meantime, President Yushchenko was holding consultations with leaders of Ukraine's parties and the Verkhovna Rada's factions. The result was some sort of amorphous Declaration of Unity and Cooperation for the Future. Among the signatories to the pact was Viktor Yanukovych's Party of the Regions, but not the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. Mr. Yushchenko also met with Mr. Yanukovych, his archrival from the 2004 presidential race; each man claimed the other had requested the meeting.

The newfound unity wasn't strong enough, however, to have the president's nominee for prime minister approved by Parliament on September 20. Mr. Yekhanurov missed approval by three votes (he needed 226 for a simply majority).

Mr. Yekhanurov was ultimately confirmed on a second vote by the Rada - this time with 63 votes to spare. Interestingly, just half an hour before the vote Mr. Yushchenko signed some sort of pact with Mr. Yanukovych. That was the bombshell of the week. Stay tuned - the details are sure to leak out.

In short, it was a week during which enemies became partners and partners became opponents. A pertinent question is: has the loss of team spirit, as President Yushchenko described the unraveling of his first government, now been followed by the loss of a team? And what lies ahead for Ukraine? The first indication should come with the appointment of the Cabinet of Ministers; Prime Minister Yekhanurov has said that two-thirds of his Cabinet will be composed of new people.

The chief goal of the new government - one that has been articulated by both the president and his prime minister - is stability. But will the cost of stability be stagnation as all of Ukraine looks ahead to the parliamentary elections? Will pragmatism mean a loss of ideals? And what will happen to the reforms pledged during the Orange Revolution? And let's not forget the charges of corruption leveled earlier this month, the new revelations that Russian oligarch Boris Berezovskii financed the Yushchenko campaign, and the signs that Ukraine now appears to be leaning toward working within the Single Economic Space favored by Moscow. All these matters, and more, await clarity.

In a nutshell, as our Kyiv Press Bureau chief tells us: "It's a wait-and-see situation." We'll try to sort it all out as more information comes in.

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