IN THE PRESS: Commentaries about Ukraine's political crisis (10/02/05)

IN THE PRESS: Commentaries about Ukraine's political crisis

Wall Street Journal Europe editorial of September 22 titled "Orange Crushed":

The "Orange Revolution," a color so improbably apt, brought to life a new Ukraine eager to shed its Soviet dross and claim its freedoms. Less than a year later, the good vibrations are gone.

The return of politics as usual came earlier than Ukrainians might have wanted, but in itself isn't surprising. The two heroes of Kiev's [sic] Independence Square demonstrations, Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko, have acrimoniously parted ways. ...

Many people have rushed to pronounce the Orange Revolution dead. Opponents of Ukrainian democracy - foremost in a Kremlin visibly nervous that this experiment might catch on in the neighborhood - want to declare last year's political turnover a fatal mistake. ...

To these doubters, Ukrainians can respond that democracies are seldom placid. ... Ukraine's current crisis grew out of the Orange Revolution. It's not a betrayal of it.

A little context helps put the recent news in perspective. As in every other peaceful turnover in Europe over the last 16 years, the pro-democracy forces in Ukraine were a motley group united by a single objective: the overthrow of the ancien regime. Once President Leonid Kuchma and his cronies surrendered power in the face of massive street demonstrations against fraudulent elections last year, the glue that held this coalition together weakened. ... In an ideal world, this marriage of convenience might have lasted longer to reassure the populace and investors. ...

By moving to clean house now, Mr. Yushchenko gains extra time to position his allies for next spring's parliamentary elections, which are unusually important. ...

The Washington Post editorial of September 19 titled "Ukraine's Orange Split":

Ukraine's democratic revolution has ended the way most do, with the victorious coalition dividing into factions that are now battling each other. For the most part, this is a healthy development. The Orange Revolution movement that overturned a corrupt and autocratic regime last year was united by the cause of democracy and independence from Russia.

Once that was achieved, ideological and policy differences were bound to surface. In Ukraine's case, President Viktor Yushchenko, a moderate and market-oriented reformer, has finally split with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who espouses populist and statist policies. No violence has accompanied their rupture, and a parliamentary election scheduled for March provides a good opportunity for the country to choose between them. ...

Transitions Online (Prague) commentary of September 12 titled "Ukraine: A Tintin Moment":

... Yushchenko's problem is in part because of the lifestyle of his son, Andriy. A liking of a playboy lifestyle is in itself nothing exceptional and there are limits to the paternal influence of even a president. The problem is how 19-year-old Andriy is thought to have come to his money (and platinum mobile phone): by copyrighting some of the symbols of the Orange Revolution.

When the president's family effectively privatizes the revolution, ordinary people can legitimately ask whether the president will also privatize the presidency.

There also have to be questions about how much Yushchenko has understood that the revolution involved setting radically better standards. As a recent book by the Ukraine expert Andrew Wilson indicates, politics in the post-Soviet region is often "virtual politics," a world of manipulation and deceit.

But at some point, the world of "virtual politics" ends and real politics begins; some accusations need real answers. At least twice, Yushchenko has failed to understand that journalists have asked legitimate questions about people close to him: first, when earlier this year he labeled questions about Justice Minister Roman Zvarych "intrigues" and then when he called a journalist "a hitman" when he asked about his son's income (an echo of Tymoshenko, as it happens, as she had accused journalists of acting as "hired killers" in the Zvarych affair). ...

The Economist, "Ukraine's Political Crisis: And then they woke up," September 15:

... The political event that has divided the government, which Mr. Poroshenko says is the root cause of the debacle, is the parliamentary elections next March. Under a constitutional reform agreed last year, some powers are to be transferred from the presidency to a prime minister nominated by Parliament.

The Yushchenko and Tymoshenko factions were supposed to stand together; Mrs. Tymoshenko, who never met a rabble she didn't try to rouse, will now be a formidable opposition leader. In a turnaround startling even by the standards of Ukrainian politics, Mr. Yushchenko is flirting with supporters of his opponent in last year's president vote, Viktor Yanukovych.

Mrs. Tymoshenko has taken to sporting a blue ribbon alongside her orange one. Previously opposed to the constitutional reform, she now says it may be a lesser evil than an over-mighty presidency.

Who will benefit from this farce?...

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