Report Ukraine / Europe
Independent, yes, but free? During celebrations of the nineteenth anniversary of Ukraine's independence, Kiev, 24 August 2010.

Back to the Stalinist future

The clocks run backwards in the Ukraine: hardly six months have elapsed since the last elections and nearly nothing remains of the “Democratic Awakening” that rocked the nation in 2004. Writer Yuri Andrukhovych depicts the “internal occupation” of his country and implores Europe to watch closely what’s happening there.

Published on 24 August 2010 at 14:39
Independent, yes, but free? During celebrations of the nineteenth anniversary of Ukraine's independence, Kiev, 24 August 2010.

It’s high time I got a grip on my subconscious. I don’t like my dreams at all. They’ve been troubling me for several months now. More or less ever since Ukrainian reality began to resemble the dream. It will take at least 10 years, announce the optimists. In other words at least two terms of office for the incumbent president.

My dreams are about an assassination attempt. I’m the last link in a chain of conspirators. I have a marksman’s rifle with a scope. My mission is to save the country by shooting a high-ranking official. He’s a good target: big and portly as he is. But I just can’t seem to pull the trigger. It’s bad having dreams like that. I’m ashamed.

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Towards a “Russia 2”?

“Is the Ukraine still a democracy?" asks Viktor Tkachuk, head of thePeople First Foundation, in an article published by theEUobserver: "Absolute power backed by virtually unlimited financial resources is now in the hands of the president and the people he chooses. Ukraine has become a classic oligarchy, with the opposition offering little more than empty rhetoric." "The ideals of the Orange Revolution were betrayed,” he declares on the European news site, adding: “The constitutional checks and balances for a functioning democracy, with a government and an opposition, have already been weakened by the new administration, as deputies brazenly sell their votes to the highest bidder. The last semblances of democratically elected, party-based politics are fading, only to be replaced by what will one day be a one-party state ruled not by the people, but by a self-elected, self-styled elite, ruled only by the power of money.” In a word, "Ukraine is simply adopting the Russian model.”

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