Now that Yanukovich has won, has Ukraine finally rejected the Orange Revolution and returned to Russia’s fold?
Not so fast.
In one of the great ironies of the election, Yanukovich’s clean campaign and victory in the most transparent election in his country’s history embodied the values of the 2004 revolution that ousted him, while Timoshenko’s refusal to accept defeat demonstrated a betrayal of her own pro-democracy movement.
For the Ukrainian people, this election was not about the country’s orientation towards Russia or the West: Both candidates offered a pragmatic rapprochment with their Eastern neighbour, while the US, notably, sat on the sidelines – a welcome indication of Obama’s saner Europe policy. If anything, Yanukovich has frequently stressed his independence from the Kremlin (announcing his first visit to Brussels, not Moscow), and it was Timoshenko, not Yanukovich, whom the Kremlin had earlier looked forward to doing business with.
That the voters rejected Yuschenko not because of his pro-Western stance but his failures to curb corruption and improve the economy proves that, despite the neo-con spin, it was those basic issues – and not some mythical cold-war clash – on which the Orange Revolution itself was built.
For despite all their divisions concerning Russia, Ukrainians are united in their anger at the lack of political transparency and economic performance, and the success or failure of Yanukovich’s government will depend on fixing the everyday problems dogging ordinary people, not on geo-politics.
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