Posted on February 16, 2010 - by Venik

Ukrainian Elections

“Liberast” is the term coined in Russia in the 1990s that is finding its way into the English language. As you might have already guessed, this term combines the words “liberal” and “pederast”. I don’t think you will have any trouble figuring out the intended meaning of this portmanteau. Western liberasts often use Ukraine as an example of a successful post-Soviet democracy. Why? Because the tremendous mess Ukraine makes of every major and minor government election campaign is misconstrued as a sign of a striving civil society.

Ukrainian political activism for the most part is the result of growing realization that with every passing year the country is falling farther behind not just its former Comecon comrades in the west, but also behind Russia. Somehow Ukrainian nationalists can live with the reality of being behind Estonia in terms of economy and quality of life, but falling behind Russia – a superpower that eats estonias for breakfast – makes yushchenkists lose their composure.

Yanukovich was elected fair and square. Just as he was elected in 2004. The only difference now is that the nationalist movement in Ukraine had six years to discredit itself in the public eye not to mention eat through generous Western donations. The Orange “revolutionaries” can no longer afford to bankroll massive public demonstrations in an attempt to steal the elections. All they can do now is take the matter to court and hope they get a judge who is a secret admirer of Stepan Bandera.

Every day of this political instability costs Ukraine’s tormented economy tens of millions of dollars. For all practical purposes, Ukraine’s government is bankrupt and is being held together with some short-term foreign loans and a lot of good intentions. Timoshenko couldn’t care less and she will use every means at her disposal to tie down Yanukovich in court for as long as possible. She will do that even though she is not an idiot and she knows full well that she has no shot at presidency. Timoshenko will do this just because it makes her feel better.

Election by rioting mob or election by politicized judicial system are hardly viable alternatives for Ukraine. In the past decade Ukraine has been the political battleground for Russia and the US jostling for influence in the post-Soviet power vacuum. Despite an early setback, the Kremlin is coming out a winner in this one. The US isn’t suffering too much though. Ukraine, however, is sinking deeper into political chaos and financial insolvency. The blame lies squarely with the Ukrainians themselves, who were just a little too eager to follow foreign influences in their quest for international approval.

Ukrainians imagined that what they had under their blue-yellow flag and golden trident was a real country with a long history of independent statesmanship. What they actually had was a myth of independent Ukraine perpetrated by foreign-sponsored nationalists. With all the flag-waving excitement going around, Ukrainians simply forgot that their country never actually existed until just a few years ago.

As a Ukrainian, it is difficult for me to admit this, but truth needs to be told. I wish Ukraine had hundreds of years of statehood tradition to fall back on in difficult times like these. But it doesn’t: whatever it had since 1992 is all the relevant background there is. It turned out building a real state with real economy required more that what Yushchenko with his Soviet banking industry background could find in Wikipedia’s article about democracy.

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