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Another Perspective
Ukraine’s Man of the Hour
An unusual guest at Washington’s Nuclear Summit.
The name of one man attending this week’s Nuclear Summit in Washington was “mud” only four years ago. Today he is the president of his country.
He is Viktor Yanukovich, elected president of Ukraine in February. Four years ago he and Viktor Yushchenko were contesting for the presidency, the first “open” campaign after decades of strongman rule in that former Soviet republic.
Yanukovich comes from the eastern part of Ukraine with a heavy concentration of pro-Russian voters. Yushchenko was supported primarily by Western Ukrainians who favored closer ties with the West, perhaps even membership in NATO.
At one point, Yushchenko was the victim of a mysterious poisoning which partially disfigured his face. Russian operatives were widely blamed. Although Yanukovich was not involved, there was considerable speculation — certainly in the Western press — that he was somehow in cahoots with the Russians to win the election. The outcome was contested, amid charges of ballot irregularities. Yushchenko finally was declared the winner, after thousands of young Ukrainians occupied Kiev’s central square for days, vowing not to leave until Yushchenko was declared the victor. At the moment he was very popular, including with many members of the Ukrainian diaspora in the United States who were pleased that is married to an American.
The pro-democracy atmosphere was heady, but Yushchenko and his prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko were at swords points from the beginning. The economy began to slide,
inflation soared. The Russians stopped shipping natural gas to Ukraine over a price dispute. From spring 2008 to early 2009 the country’s gross domestic product fell by 20 percent.
By the time of this year’s election, Yanukovich had become a more polished speaker and candidate. He was facing Tymoshenko. He won a clear victory. Yushchenko ran a distant fourth. Since then, Yanukovich has moved quickly to consolidate his control of the government. He appointed an ally as prime minister and assembled a coalition of individual members who, along with his own party’s contingent, give him a parliamentary majority.
Investors like the turn of events. The Kiev stock market has gone up 30 percent since Yanukovich became president. The Russian natural gas price contretemps has been settled for now. Yanukovich has submitted a prudent budget and has renewed an International Monetary Fund program that had been stalled for months and had caused much economic anxiety.
At the same time he has made sure that Ukraine maintains friendly relations with the European Union while also keeping Moscow closely informed of his moves to stabilize his country’s economy.
So, a man who was seen as a pariah just four years ago, comes to Washington as the Man of the Hour. The frosting on his particular cake is a scheduled private meeting at the White House with President Obama.
(Mr. Hannaford is a member of the Committee on the Present Danger.)
About the Author
Peter Hannaford was closely associated for a number of years with the late President Reagan, beginning in the California Governor’s office. His latest book is Presidential Retreats.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (33) | Leave a comment
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Lena Tkachuk| 4.12.10 @ 7:38AM
Don't be fooled by this article. It is clearly a PR puff from Yanukovych's people. The fact is that it was Yanukovych's pursuance of profligate social seending programs that cause the IMF to stall. In his 2 months in office he has introduced authoritarian measures, trampling over the constitition and initimading the constitutional court to reverse an earlier decision. He has disbanded civic society groups and NATO and Euro-Atlantic integration coordination bodies. As for him being a polished speaker, Mr Handford should tell us why he cowardly shied away from televised head to head debates with Mrs Tymoshenko during the election campaign. Oh, he also forgot his gaffes, like mistaking Kosovo for Montangero and his derogratory remarks about women. Please don't let them pull the wool over your eyes. This man has not reformed.
Roman B| 4.13.10 @ 4:09AM
To be fair it says "more polished." But not good enough to debate on television.
Roman B| 4.13.10 @ 4:11AM
"more polished" meaning better than when he ran in 2004.
Roman Vasylenko| 4.12.10 @ 8:10AM
Lena Tkachuk's comments are merely the same tired, divisive talking points from Yulia Tymoshenko that annoyed most Ukrainians and caused her to lose the presidential election. Viktor Yanukovich's pragmatic, non-confrontational and non-ideological style should serve him well as Ukraine's president.
Chrystyna D. Melnyk | 4.12.10 @ 1:06PM
You are kidding right? and you call yourself a Ukrainian? Pragmatic, Non-confrontational? He's a convict ....
nemo| 4.12.10 @ 8:43AM
Roman, you should be ashamed of yourself, you have Ukrainian last name but you go out of your way to endorse a convict - symbol of FRAUD and unti-Ukrainian politics. So you are a simpatiser of Donetsk Mafia taking over your country, how good for you! Is in your home town statue of Stalin elected already? How about Soviet flags everywhere? Just remember for as long as this conman is on the top, Ukraine will not have a future, but it seems it is what you want, isn't it?
Roman Vasylenko| 4.12.10 @ 9:29AM
Nemo, pitchfork wavers like yourself do no credit to our aspirations for an economically prosperous and independent Ukrainian state. Yanukovich should be judged on his performance as president - nothing else. As we have already seen, cheap insults, confrontation, and obsession with the past won't take the country anywhere.
Lavrenty Beria| 4.13.10 @ 8:23AM
I am married to a Ukrainian and was in Kiev during the Orange Revolution. The Blues were pretty reasonable and saw their side as pragmatic. Orange sided people were more idealistic, but everyone was civil. No one was throwing punches or even trying to start a fight. I likened the whole affair to be like a football match in terms of animosity and atmosphere. I once sided with Yuschenko and Timoschenko, but after four years, all I saw was the same cronyism and theft of state resources as always. No investment in the crumbling infrastructure, no efforts made to rid Ukraine of dependency on Russian oil and natural gas, lots of sweetheart deals with Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs, no effort to attract foreign investment or to rebuild Ukraine's industrial base. Yuschenko's son a flabby, stupid, spoiled ne'er do well running around in the Kiev club scene squandering state money driving a state funded Ferrari instead of setting the example for the young of Ukraine, etc. Word of this got around quickly in the country and it made Yanukovich seem less evil as a result. Ukraine elected him and he ran a fair and open campaign. The economy does well there because the state players are too busy stealing to get involved with over regulation. I say give him a chance. Former criminal or not, he seems to have good sense and it may be in the nation's best interest to avoid a direct confrontation with Moscow and still go about its goals for self determination. It is the pragmatic course of action and Ukrainians are a very pragmatic people, so it may even prove to be a natural fit as well as the best course of action.
PolishKnight| 4.14.10 @ 10:18AM
I am also married to a Ukrainian and she voted for Yushchenko and later "none of the above" in the runoff and was disappointed that Timoshenko didn't win nonetheless.
I found it amusing because I only voted in the American presidential election because she begged me to hold my nose and vote for McCain because Obama would be a disaster. So I found it amusing that when she had a lesser of two evils, she opted to throw her vote away out of protest and still was disappointed.
She also largely agrees with Laventy. Yuschenko
and Timoschenko behaved badly and took the economy down and largely only succeeded in a pro Ukrainian social agenda (Ukrainian language adoption and nationalism). That's all very well and good, but to bring up an old American election jingle, "where's the beef?"
It's funny how the Orange revolution is a neat parallel for the leftist jubilation over Obama's election victory. They thought that the birds would sing and they would have a perfect socialist utopia like Sweden (without so many European Americans, of course). That is not working out as they planned, either.
Interested Conservative| 4.12.10 @ 10:46AM
I have no Ukrainian heritage, nor Eastern European of any sort, and only dimly understand that Yanukovich is more pro-Russian than his predecessor.
With all that said, though, this phrase sounds like something from TASS circa 1965 - "economically prosperous and independent Ukrainian state".
Who doesn't want that? And is "Ukranian state" different from "Soviet Socialist Republic"? If Ukraine is not economically prosperous whose fault is it?
Is Russia simply buying fealty from its former subject domains?
Is it simply making Germany its collection agent for energy exports?
When is the next "election" in Ukraine? When is the next election in Ukraine?
axbucxdu| 4.12.10 @ 12:47PM
I fear the next "election" in Ukraine will follow the next genuine election in Mother Russia...I hope we're still alive to see it.
B Trachenko| 4.12.10 @ 1:38PM
Since Yuschenko was a democratic winner, the other opposing candidate was being viewed as antidemocratic, antinational and prorussian 5 years ago. All this was not necessarily true then and it may be even less true today. A credit and respect should be granted to the new president - he was chosen by Ukraine after all. His predecessor despite being democratic was not a success. Let's forget the old talks, give him some time and see the new actions unbiasly.
Roman B| 4.13.10 @ 4:01AM
Yes, Yuschenko was the democratic candidate. The reason Yanhukovich was viewed as antidemocratic was not because he opposed Yuschenko but because he was guilty of falsifying votes and rigging the election, among other equally anti-democratic moves.
Terry| 4.14.10 @ 1:19PM
You must be living in a dream world. Give Yanukovych time, time for what to do more damage like Obama is doing to the United States. You should be ashamed. All of the Ukrainian people did not vote for him, have you heard of bribery. They paid a lot of people to cast their ballot for Yani, but they didn't pay them. So much for the truth. Don't ask to respect this person, he is Putin's puppet and a crook, just like the one we have in the WH.
jimmy| 4.12.10 @ 5:49PM
It would be a good day for the world if Obama and Yanukovych if they would just take tour to view the Chernobyl meltdown. A ten minute walk around the old reactor core should extract the truth from them...
Svitlana Gnatyuk| 4.13.10 @ 12:39AM
I am a US Citizen, currently visiting Ukraine. I will not offer my opinion, just a fact. Local uneducated citizens were promised 100 to 200 hryvnis ($12 to $24) to vote for Yanukovich. They did. And they did not get paid. They are feeling pretty stupid right now (their words). This happened in the village I am currently living in and the villages nearby.
Vlada Bankrut| 4.13.10 @ 9:48AM
Yanukovych won the election fair and square. Orange voters decided to stay home and not vote. That explains why Tymoshenko was about 800,000 votes behind Yanukovych. Orange voters were fed up with the infighting between her and Yushchenko and the lies of her campaign. The mess she left in the economy is a disaster and she should go to jail for using state money to fund her campaign and all the gifts she gave to people in order they vote for her. Thank God Tymoshenko is gone from public office -- perhaps now we can get some stability and reform!
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