Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Dictatorship?
The protests of 2013 are seen by many as a repeat performance of the Orange Revolution
of 2004, a popular pro-Western uprising that forced a rerun of disputed elections. The
man behind the alleged electoral fraud was Viktor Yanukovych, who was finally elected
the country's president in 2010. Many at the time feared Yanukovych and his oligarch-
backed Party of the Regions would curtail press freedom and dismantle democracy in the
country. So, a few years down the line, has Ukraine descended into dictatorship? Well,
not quite. Opposition parties function quite freely (if occasionally hassled by police),
protests are still permitted on Kyiv's squares (then normally broken up by riot police),
and a few newspapers and TV channels still attempt investigative journalism. But in gen-
eral, Ukraine feels less free than it did in 2009, with journalists experiencing intimidation
and sometimes violence, members of protest groups (such as Femen) effectively exiled,
and any successful businesses under threat of confiscation by the Yanukovych family.
And as long as ailing opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko languishes in jail, the overrid-
ing atmosphere in the country will be one of pessimism and fear of what the regime and
its associates might do next.
Divided Nation
Even the most optimistic Ukrainians would admit that theirs is a divided nation. The op-
position is led by Ukrainian-speaking politicians with their support base in the west of
the country, but President Yanukovych represents the interests of the Russian speaking
east and south. East of the Dnipro River the Orthodox Church rules supreme; west
Ukrainians observe a mishmash of faiths. The east bathes in a very selective nostalgia for
the Soviet Union, while west Ukrainian nationalists rename streets after Stepan Bandera
(controversial WWII leader of the Ukrainian Nationalist Organisation) and hanker to be
enveloped in the EU's Russia-proof bubble. The Carpathian Hutsuls quip ominously of
insurgency while the Donbas middle class expresses relief that 'their bandit' (as a
tongue-in-cheek saying now goes) is in power. West Ukrainians march on Kyiv to protest
against the regime while the regime buses in Crimeans and Donetskites to march 'against
fascism' (as the banners in summer 2013's marches read). 'How do these people live to-
gether?' you might ask yourself - but somehow they do. Of course it's very much in all
local politicians' interests to keep the country divided into their power bases and many of
the differences are exaggerated. But a divisive history still makes waves here, and Ya-
nukovych's regime and its tactics are just the latest to crash onto Ukraine's troubled
shores.
