Blogging the democratic revolution
Aussie Girl, the lovely writer of Ukraine affairs at Ultima Thule, including her wonderful coverage of the Orange Revolution, has died this weekend of cancer. She was only 59. She was one of the sunniest and most insightful presences on the Internet. She was also one of the best bloggers – sharp, to the point and on target. She always was interested in my Russia coverage, which I blogged occasionally on due to my interest in the origins of communism. She always was on target on her observations and she occasionally sent me just the nicest notes. Losing her is…
One of the first things I did when I arrived in Kiev was take the subway to Maidan, the setting of Ukraine????????s Orange Revolution in which over one million people camped out and protested against phony elections. It is now a scene of perpetual nostalgia for those cold days and nights when the one thing keeping them warm was the feeling that, for once, good things were going to happen. There would be free and fair elections, the criminals in government would get their due, and the corruption that plagues everything from multi-billion dollar deals to traffic tickets would be…
In January of this year, Gazprom ???????turned-off???????? the gas to Ukraine. The reason? Some say it was economically motivated ???????? Ukraine pays substantially less than the fair market price. So, Gazprom was merely acting as any other economically driven company would. However, perhaps the more frequent explanation for the gas crisis is that it was politically motivated. The common answer under this heading is that Russia used Gazprom as a foreign policy tool/weapon to punish Ukraine????????s new found Western focus. Yet there is a third explanation which I believe is closer to the truth: Russia and Gazprom believe that Ukraine…
Hey everyone, You’ll have to excuse the lack of posting for the last couple of days. I’ve been in the Czech Republic and have just arrived in Kiev after a 36 hour train ride. The weather has been absolutely Soviet. We’re just hanging out in an internet cafe at Maidan right now, organizing things and preparing to get our visas for Belarus. I will be interviewing many people here in Ukraine as well as in Belarus about democratization activities and political progress over the next week. Tons of video, audio, and pictures to come, though I can’t say how much…
In the early hours this morning, Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko accepted the nomination of Viktor Yanukovich for prime minister. Mr. Yanukovich was the 2004 presidential candidate who fraudulently won the first round of elections which sparked the ‘Orange Revolution.’ Though an embarrassing blow to Yushchenko and his one time ally Yulia Tymoshenko, this development was widely expected. The ‘Orange’ forces made several missteps over the past year and the backlash was to be expected. So, it would seem that the pro-democracy government has now been replaced by the corrupt, pro-Russian Yanukovich. But as with all things, the situation is far…
In his Washington Post article, Jackson Diehl argues that the recent ‘crises’ in Lebanon & Ukraine (two democratic revolution countries) will provide a dilemma for the Bush administration: should the United States continue to promote democracy even when it yields anti-West countries? The question really boils down to this: were the democratic revolutions about installing pro-West regimes in place of anti-West regimes or were they about installing democracies in place of dictatorships? Though I think Diehl overestimates the likelihood of Ukraine returning to authoritarianism, his larger point has wide ranging implications. Is America really promoting democracy because democracies are peaceful…
Given the events of the past several weeks, it is easy to conclude that Ukraine????????s fragile democracy is in danger. Indeed it is. But to admit this is not the same as concluding that the Orange Revolution is over. Whether or not the Orange Revolution has ended (or is about to end) depends largely on what the goal of the Orange Revolution really was. For example, if the goal was to install a pro-West government, then, yes, the Orange Revolution is in danger. It is likely, regardless of whether new elections are called, that Viktor Yanukovich will become Prime Minister.…
We can now say the the Orange Revolution is officially over. The once-orange Socialist Party has changed sides and teamed up with pro-Russia Viktor Yanukovich’s Party of Regions, along with the Communists, and forged out a new coalition agreement nominating him for the position of prime minister. And they have the votes to get it through. A year and a half later, politically Ukraine is in the same place it was before. Ukraine’s Western-leaning Orange coalition fell apart in acrimony Friday less than a month after its formation, boosting the fortunes of the pro-Russian opposition in this former Soviet republic.…
So after 3 months of squabbling the Orange Coalition is back on. But for how long? The quick details by the way are; that Yulia Tymoshenko will be Prime Minister, Yuriy Yekhanurov, no wait Roman Bezsmertny, oh hold on, maybe Petro Poroshenko will be Speaker of Parliament. Yes it seems certain forces are trying to mess things up from the offset. One of Tymoshenko’s previous demands had been that Poroshenko, the man with murky rumours swirling around his head, would not hold the powerful Speakers post. In fact this morning one of her Bloc’s spokespeople confirmed this, with former P.M.…
Think back to March 26 2006. Belarussians were on the street protesting against Lukashenka, an Afghan Christian convert risked the death penalty, London Mayor Ken Livingstone had just called the U.S Ambassador a ‘chiseling little crook’, and the Commonwealth games had just concluded. Whilst some sort of closure has been brought to all of those events, one news story from the week wrangles on. Ukraine went to the ballot box 4 months ago – a government has still yet to be formed. For those of you who have not been following the story, it will not take long to explain…
Well, as we approach nearly 2 months since Ukraine’s first democratic elections of the century, the political wrangling continues. Any Kiev watchers will be familiar with the daily news stories coming out from Our Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko’s Bloc, The Party of Regions and the Socialists in regard to coalition building talks. Every evening a brief Google news search highlights constant backstabbing, foot-stamping and occasionally outright lies passed on to the international media. Today, one such story emerged from the oh so reliable ITAR-TASS. For the busy, a brief summary: Our Ukraine (Viktor Yushchenko’s pro-European, Liberal Bloc) and the Party of…
You might not have guessed this right off, but Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez has been watching Ukraine’s Orange Revolution intently. This Sunday, for the first time, he made a statement about his fear and loathing of it. On his weekly Sunday television variety show, ‘Alo President’ he made this following remark, addressed to his opposition. El Universal reports: Ch????vez wondered where his rivals for next December 3rd presidential election are. He reiterated that his opponents are determined to denounce electoral fraud. He said the dissent, with US support, would establish a “pink revolution,” just like the “gringos” did in Ukraine.…
Parliamentary elections held in Ukraine yesterday ushered in the resurgence of the Regions of Ukraine bloc, led by former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich. Pundits are mockingly calling it the ???????Blue Revolution,??????? and after seeing over half the results counted, one would be hard-pressed to deny that Yanukovich has adapted to the new environment and has become an adept politician on his own ???????? with the help of a few American PR firms and a campaign style similar to the old Orange one of 2004. He has changed positions, calling for Ukraine to join the EU and serve as a bridge…
The province of Transdniester is one of the most screwed up places in Europe. Arms, drugs, and sex trafficking run rampant, and are even used to fund the government. Elections are for show. And the leaders pay their respects not to the people, but to Russia, whose military is propping up the government. It broke away from Moldova over a decade ago and established an authoritarian separatist government that, without Russia, would be completely unfeasible. Negotiations have been under way for years, especially in recent months, trying to bring the province back into Moldova while retaining some of its own…
Remember that whole deal between Russia and Ukraine that ended the gas crisis that the press and diplomats all over the place were cheering over like a teenage boy getting his first lap dance? Well, if you’ve been reading Publius then you’d know that there was some pretty shady behind-the-scenes dealing going on. Ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the fireband corruption fighter of the Orange Revolution, revealed the true details of the plan several days ago and — uh oh! — it looks like the Yushchenko government was conveniently hiding a couple of details from the public; details that ultimately expose…
Here are some articles about RosUkrEnergo, the middle-man company being used in the gas deal between Russia and the Ukraine, and the particularly shady way it’s involved. – RFE/RL goes into the history of the company and why it was created. Let’s just say it involved a certain ex-president of Ukraine, a certain current president of Russia, some “unnamed Ukrainian investors,” and millions of dollars shuffled under the table at the top of both governments. – David McDuff posts several articles dealing with the scandal. – Abdymok notes that after Tymoshenko’s cabinet was dissolved, and former SBU head Oleksandr Turchynov’s…
Our favorite babe of politics has come out swinging in the settlement of the gas dispute between the Ukraine and Russia, and will be challenging the deal in court. The reason has little to do with the actual price negotiated, but much more to do with the single issue that she really stands out on: corruption. Apparently, the intermediary company is a bit shady; and by a bit shady, I mean a lot shady, and was once at the center of a Tymoshenko-led organized crime investigation nixed by the Yushchenko government. Neeka sums up the details. But, as noted above,…
The gas crisis that has shaken relations between the Ukraine, Russia, and the European Union is now over. The air is clearing, but whatever the politicians are saying now, the damage has been done. So the question begs: who came out on top of this? Or perhaps we should be asking who came out on bottom, and though the answer may seem counter-intuitive at first, the answer is Russia. President Putin was embarrassed late last year when his favored candidated in the Ukrainian presidential election, Viktor Yanukovich, was defeated by pro-Western candidate Viktor Yushchenko following the Orange Revolution. Demand for…
Instead of letting them phase in following the New Year, President Yushchenko wants to hold a popular referendum on the constitutional changes that were agreed upon during the Orange Revolution last year. I smell a — dun dun dun — political ploy! KIEV (Reuters) – President Viktor Yushchenko said on Friday constitutional changes reducing his powers from the New Year could destabilise Ukraine and suggested he might call for a referendum on the matter. The changes, approved by parliament a year ago at the height of Ukraine’s “Orange Revolution”, were part of a deal to win broad agreement on restaging…
Yesterday’s The Messenger (an english-language Georgian daily) covers the formation of a new political party out of smaller opposition groups, primarily the Conservatives and the Republicans. This new party shares in the heritage of the Rose Revolution, although it now finds enough room for disagreement with the ruling National Movement: Several leading members of both the Conservative and Republican parties originally were members of the pro-government party but broke away over the last 20 months, disenchanted by the policies of the government. “I can say for sure that we are a revolutionary opposition, in that we supported the Rose Revolution.…
This doesn’t look very good. Baku, 17 October 2005 (RFE/RL) — Azeri opposition leader Rasul Quliyev has been stopped by Ukrainian police in the Crimean capital of Simferopol en route to Baku, where he was returning after nearly 10 years in exile, RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service reported. Former parliamentary speaker and Democratic Party of Azerbaijan Chairman Quliyev planned to return to Baku today to participate in the country’s legislative elections next month. He has lived in exile in the United States since 1996. When Quliyev’s charter plane stopped in the Ukrainian city of Simferopol en route to Baku, the Ukrainian authorities…
With the announcement of a new set of cabinet ministers, the Ukrainian government is getting back to normal. Economic projections are starting to be hopeful about the future, at least in the short term, and in the very least it means some stability for awhile. But politics in Ukraine is far from normal right now. The split between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko has effectively left a lot of Ukrainian voters disillusioned with the former and cautious about the latter. Yushchenko signed a deal with arch-rival Yanukovich in order to get Yekhanurov approved as the prime minister, while Tymoshenko went to Russia…
Even though he missed approval by only three votes the other day, President Yushchenko’s pick for prime minister, Yuriy Yekhanurov, was easily approved by the parliament. But you’ll never guess who gave him the necessary votes. Dan McMinn has the count. Ä1Å Communist Party faction (0 out of 56 votes of MPs), Ä2Å Regions of Ukraine (50 out of 50), People’s Party (45 out of 47), Ä3Å Our Ukraine People’s Union (44 out of 45), Ä4Å Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc – (7 out of 41), Ä5Å Socialist Party (25 out of 25), Ä6Å Ukrainian People’s Party (23 out of 23), Ä7Å…
The Kyiv Post has a hilarious, lively, and insightful editorial about the political games going on in Ukraine. But here’s the best part, which seriously takes Yushchenko and Tymoshenko to task for their latest jockeying. And one more word for Tymoshenko, and indeed for Yushchenko: talk of rigging the political reform process one way or the other should not be heard again. On Sept. 19 it emerged that the Tymoshenko Bloc might try to move up constitutional reforms from their scheduled date on Jan. 1. The move would give Tymoshenko a shot at becoming a vastly more powerful prime minister…
After Ukrainian President Yushchenko disbanded the government of Yulia Tymoshenko, he appointed Yuriy Yekhanurov as the new prime minister. However, in order to become installed permanently, the Verkhovna Rada must approve him by majority vote. Well, it looks like that won’t be happening. (AP) – The Ukrainian parliament on Sept. 20 rejected the candidacy of acting Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov. Yekhanurov won only 223 votes, three less than he needed to be named to the job. President Viktor Yushchenko had tapped Yekhanurov to replace his Orange Revolution ally, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whom he fired on Sept. 8. The…