Five years on in Kiev

ON DECEMBER 3rd 2004 jubilant crowds flowed into a snowbound Kiev’s Independence Square, waving their orange flags, to celebrate a court decision to annul Ukraine’s rigged presidential election two weeks earlier. They cried and they danced—and the world was gripped by the sight of a sleepy Ukrainian people waking up to defend their freedom.

Days later, their hero, Viktor Yushchenko, his face disfigured by a mysterious poisoning, promised change. “Everything will change in Ukraine from today. We were independent for 14 years but we were not free…We should roll up our sleeves and work honestly from morning till night for this country.” He promised that bandits would go to jail, honest types would replace corrupt officials and judges would no longer take bribes—and that in five years’ time Ukrainians would be proud of their achievements. For a time Ukraine became fashionable the world over.

All that enthusiasm has now turned to fatigue. Ukraine’s under-reformed economy teeters on the edge of national bankruptcy, the rule of law is elusive, courts remain corrupt and the parliament resembles a trading platform for business tycoons in which deals are made and seats bought and sold. In April 2005 some 53% of Ukrainians said their country was on the right track. Now 81% believe it is heading in the wrong direction. Ukraine lies 17th from bottom in the latest global index of economic freedom, below Russia and Belarus.

It is to the credit of the voters that the failure of Mr Yushchenko and his team has not discredited the very concept of democracy, as happened in Russia in the 1990s. In the election Mr Yushchenko was unceremoniously booted out, gaining just over 5% of the vote. Viktor Yanukovich, the bad guy in 2004, got 35%, against 25% for Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister, who energised the crowds in 2004 but has since fallen out bitterly with Mr Yushchenko. The two front-runners will now face each other in a second round on February 7th.

Ukraine is as divided as ever, with the industrialised, Russian-speaking east and south backing Mr Yanukovich and the centre and west supporting Ms Tymoshenko. The only politician who did well all over the country was Serhiy Tyhypko, a former banker who ran and then quit Mr Yanukovich’s campaign in 2004. He fought the best campaign and took 13% of the vote despite, or more likely because of, being absent from politics in the past five years.

Source:economist.com/