Heralded for its Orange Revolution five years ago, Ukraine is coming apart at the seams

[marmar]

from In These Times:




Orange Fades to Black
Heralded for its Orange Revolution five years ago, Ukraine is coming apart at the seams

By Fred Weir


KIEV, Ukraine—As the global financial crisis intensifies, some journalists have begun placing bets on which country is likely to crack first and dissolve into anarchy. If you’re into that sort of thing, the smart money might be on Ukraine, a nation with a government that was borderline dysfunctional and an economy that was unsustainable even before the financial firestorm hit.

Ukraine’s economy has gone into a nosedive, its banking system is paralyzed and millions of people have lost their livelihoods in recent months. Everyone has a story of a lost job, overdue loans or life savings frozen in inaccessible bank accounts.

One man, a laid-off Kiev construction worker, says he has sent his family to live with relatives in the countryside, assuming that at least there will be something to eat. That’s a chilling echo from the depths of Ukrainian history.

But it’s the political drama that keeps grabbing everyone’s attention. Apparently oblivious to the galloping crisis, the former heroes of the Orange Revolution, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and President Viktor Yushchenko, are locked in a bureaucratic trench war that only one of them will survive. Any anti-crisis measure taken by one is immediately contradicted by the other: Presidential appointees are struck down by the Tymoshenko-led parliament, while regional leaders across the sprawling and deeply divided former Soviet country of 50 million increasingly take local economic matters into their own hands. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4276/orange_fades_to_black

[ck4829]

1. Bush Administration backed governments - What are they up to now?

Bush backed Yushchenko, and the Administration made big deals about irregularities (Although the US had similar irregularities in 2004) during the election.

I bet Colombia is not faring under any better under Bush's buddy in Latin America, Uribe.

[applegrove]

2. When economies fell apart in the 1920s and 1930s many people chose

fascism to get stability. I pray that isn't the case with this world meltdown.

[jwirr]

3. I echo your concern. This is my greatest fear and was the day *ss

became the pResident.