Eastern Ukraine - Ukraine - page 457

Yushchenko won. The tent city was dismantled just in time for Yushchenko's swearing in
on 3 January 2005.
A highly individual, entertaining and quite moving short photo-essay,
www.theorangerevolution.com looks back at the false dawn of 2004.
The Orange Glow Fades
Alas, the course of true reform never did run smoothly in Ukraine (to paraphrase a Time
magazine observation on Russia) and anyone hoping for a fairy-tale ending would be
swiftly disappointed. Less than a year after they had stood shoulder to shoulder on the
maydan in Kyiv, the Orange Revolution's heroes had fallen out with each other.
Anyone able to follow the ins and outs of Ukraine's political scene after the Orange
Revolution probably should have got out more. In the late naughties the blonde-braided
Yulia Tymoshenko, a weak president Yushchenko and a resurgent Viktor Yanukovych en-
gaged in an absurd political soap opera featuring snap elections, drawn-out coalition
deals, fisticuffs in parliament and musical chairs in the prime minister's office. Russia
turned off the gas at opportune moments and the West got bored and moved on. The up-
shot was complete disillusionment with the Orange Revolution among the population
and Viktor Yanukovych's victory in the April 2010 presidential elections.
The Yanukovych Years
Many feared that upon coming to power Yanukovych and his oligarch-backed, east-based
Party of the Regions would begin to gnaw away at democracy, press freedom and human
rights. Allegedly behind the electoral fraud that sparked the Orange Revolution, these
guys had form. The new president confirmed everyone's misgivings in 2011 when Yulia
Tymoshenko was put on trial for abuse of office (basically for signing a 2009 gas deal
with Russia that annoyed a few wealthy regime string pullers). This was seen in the West
and by most commentators as nothing short of a political show trial and a successful at-
tempt by the new regime to rid itself of any meaningful opposition. Intimidation of critic-
al journalists, provocative language laws sceptically brought to parliament just two days
after the Euro 2012 final (ensuring the country didn't stay united for too long), jailing of
other members of the previous government, inaction on corruption and a whole list of
controversial laws and provocative campaigns have followed.
In late 2013, president Yanukovych's refusal to sign an Association Agreement with
the European Union (EU) led to huge protests in Kyiv and Lviv (as well as other West