Ukraine After Yushchenko: Editor’s Introduction

[Muzh]

Boe, Mendy, I'd like to hear your comments.
 

This issue of Russian Politics and Law provides a range of viewpoints on Ukrainian political dynamics over the last few years. Some authors see the 2004 events as a true revolution, while others argue that it was not one because the country’s political system did not undergo any kind of fundamental transformation. The extent to which the authors see the Yanukovych presidency as potentially threatening to Ukrainian democracy also varies.
 

http://russiamil.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/ukraine-after-yushchenko-editor%e2%80%99s-introduction/

[Boethius]

That was interesting, and I'd like to read the whole article.


I agree to some extent, however some of those "elites", such as Tymoshenko and Yushchenko were created.  Yushchenko would not have risen to where he was without significant Western aid.


Muzh, I believe it may have been you who posted a link some time back.  What was more interesting to me were the comments I read after the article.  One was from an American scholar of Ukrainian descent, who summed up very well the anti democratic and corrupt leanings of the elite, and the deleterious effect it was having on Ukrainian society.  He was involved in a project that funded Ukrainian students, immersing them in democratic principles, the responsibilities of the elite to society as a whole, and how, if those students returned in Ukraine, they, perhaps, would change it, though he recognized this was a tall order (He posted asking for donations to the programme).  That is the only hope, I think.  Currently, one set of bandits is merely replaced with another set, and the majority of the populace suffers in either case.