I have been following news of the violent crackdown on Ukrainian protestors with dismay. While the departure of Viktor Yanukovych from Kiev may be a positive development, the situation on the ground remains touch-and-go in my estimation. On a happy note, Orange Revolution organizer and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko (widely viewed during her ministerial tenure as the world's best looking head of state) may be freed from prison.
Back in 2005, I worked as an equipment operator for The Gates project in Central Park, a vast outdoor art installation in which over 7,000 orange banners (Christo and Jean-Claude insisted they were saffron-colored) were erected in Central Park. One of my co-workers on the project was a Ukrainian artist who took great pleasure in the project as the orange banners flapping in the wind reminded her of the revolution taking place in her homeland. Eight years later, would she have anticipated the bloodshed in the streets of Kiev?
To a large extent, the unrest in the Ukraine represents the failure of late 20th/early 21st Century American foreign policy. I was about to type that I believe the United States should have given the Ukraine more aid in the aftermath of the Orange Revolution, but I came to the realization that the problem encompasses more than the Ukraine. The United States totally blew a great opportunity by not implementing a program similar to the Marshall Plan in the former Soviet Union and its breakaway republics. After the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union dissolved, the United States government basically "spiked the football" and walked away. There was no attempt to rebuild the nation's economy or to create the institutions necessary for democratic governance. Of course, with the creeps from the Chicago School of Economics having inordinate sway over the contemporaneous regime, this was doubtless a feature, not a bug. In the absence of a civil society, the mineral wealth of the world's largest country by landmass could be looted. Of course, the long-standing problem posed by the Iranian regime is also rooted in a bid to loot the natural resources of a nation.
The current problem spots in the world, with the exception of North Korea (which is merely the playground of a mad cult of personality), are all places where the United States has failed to live up to its stated ideals, all in the interests of oligarchs. I sure hope that the Ukraine can recover from the violence that has shaken it this week, but I have to hang my head for a moment when considering the last century's lost opportunities to foster healthy societies throughout Eastern Europe.
That's really a gross over-simplification. Ukraine has struggled between Europe and Russia at least since the Soviet Revolution. The country itself is deeply divided between a pro Russian East and a VERY pro Europe West, with a longstanding semi-autonomous government in Lviv standing in resistance to Russian dominance.
ReplyDeleteC'mon, man, the US has had many failings in foreign policy over the years, but to describe the recent events in Ukraine as a "failure of American policy" and not even MENTION Russia's influence in those events from across a shared border is really over the top...
I think Crooked Timber has a worthwhile post on the Ukraine.
ReplyDelete~
On a happy note, Orange Revolution organizer and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko (widely viewed during her ministerial tenure as the world's best looking head of state) may be freed from prison.
ReplyDeleteSadly, Tymoshenko's own history is a trail of corruption... at the last election, the Ukrainians had a choice between her and Yanukovych, and chose the latter, hoping that his clique of pro-Russian kleptocrats would at least be more competent than Tymoshenko's clique of pro-European-Union kleptocrats (there was also the issue that both candidates had been close Putin allies, so there was no real anti-Russian option). The objections to her prison term for embezzlement were not so much that the charges were trumped up, and more that they created too much of an incentive for her equally-guilty successors not to lose elections.
Do you remember when the noise coming out of the Wingnut Welfare network was all pro-Yanukovych and anti-Tymoshenko, accusing her party of anti-semitism? Partly because the Obama administration had been fostering links with the Ukraine opposition (so boo hiss to the latter), and partly because they were taking Yanukovych's money.
C'mon, man, the US has had many failings in foreign policy over the years, but to describe the recent events in Ukraine as a "failure of American policy" and not even MENTION Russia's influence in those events from across a shared border is really over the top...
ReplyDeleteMy main point is that the pernicious influence of Russia is indicative of a real failure to help Russia transition to a democratic society. If we had invested the resources to usher in reform, the Ukrainians would probably not be torn between Russia and the West.
I think Crooked Timber has a worthwhile post on the Ukraine.
Thanks, old chum!
Do you remember when the noise coming out of the Wingnut Welfare network was all pro-Yanukovych and anti-Tymoshenko, accusing her party of anti-semitism? Partly because the Obama administration had been fostering links with the Ukraine opposition (so boo hiss to the latter), and partly because they were taking Yanukovych's money.
Yeah, I believe the subject was covered at the Mothership...
at the last election, the Ukrainians had a choice between her and Yanukovych, and chose the latter, hoping that his clique of pro-Russian kleptocrats would at least be more competent than Tymoshenko's clique of pro-European-Union kleptocrats
ReplyDeleteKleptocracy is a hallmark of the Chicago School of Economics policies.
I don't think Russia WANTS to transition to anything like a real democracy; frankly, right now, America is transitioning OUT of that state herself. Russia, with Putin's enthusiastic help, is working it's way back to an autocracy and I expect to see the crude mobsters literally 'ennobled' any day now.
ReplyDeleteI fear for the Ukraine when Russia's new tsar remembers that it was "Tsar of all the RussiaS" as a title once….
This is a really good point. Led by China, Russia and the USA we're seeing an evolution of the very concept of democratic governance. The idea is that the giving the people the freedom to produce revenue for the state is a key to wealth and power, and that means they have to be not only FREE to produce wealth for themselves, but the system must be set up in such a manner to support those corporate goals.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, while there is a significant amount of personal freedom in these hybrid systems, there is no POLITICAL freedom. The leadership, including the security state and the corporations themselves determine who is in power and what they do.
The era of the iron-fisted dictator a la Saddam Hussein is ending, but ending with it is also the era of the liberal democracy...
If we had invested the resources to usher in reform
ReplyDeleteLack of resources was not the problem, in Ukraine or in Russia. Perhaps the Baltic states managed their own reform and post-Soviet transition slightly more gracefully because they had less to loot.
Of course it helped that they left the Soviet Union at a stage when Moscow was not in the hands of drunken pirates.