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“Ukraine is changing course”, headlines Gazeta Wyborcza, reporting on Viktor Yanukovych’s victory in the second round of presidential elections on 7 February. Yanukovych defeated Yulia Tymoshenko, one of the leaders of Orange Revolution that prevented him from taking power in 2004. In an editorial the Warsaw daily observes that “the Ukrainians elected a president who seemed evil incarnate five years ago. They opted for post-Soviet stability rather than European unpredictability.” Borys Tarasyuk, former foreign affairs minister, believes that social conflict in Ukraine will intensify now as the pro-Moscow Yanukovych plans to make Russian the second official language and allow the Russian Black Sea fleet remain in Crimea.
These fears are not shared by Cornelius Ochmann, expert from Germany’s Bertelsmann Foundation : “He will continue to modernize the country, and nobody can stop the growth of free media and private economy. Nor will he bury Ukraine’s European aspirations – as the country’s integration with the EU is a matter of decades rather than years”.
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