generalspeaking

A Nation Divided (With International Assistance)

The 28-member European Union presented as a life-saver, so to speak, to Ukrainians, coping with a dismal economy and high unemployment. An economic alliance with the EU was seen by at least half of the country's citizens as the path leading to future prosperity. Most European countries regard their association with the EU as similar paths to success, warranted or not. There is great comfort in knowing that a far larger body is looking out for your interests collectively, that a common 'bank' exists from which withdrawals can be made.

Ukraine came deliriously close to signing that deal with the EU, until the balking president of the country thought he could do better, and conferred with President Vladimir Putin. Viktor Yanukovych has his support among the Russian-speaking east and south of the country that still looks upon the Russian federation as their natural ally in all things. Ties to the mother country die hard. Amazing, given their satellite status under the rule of the USSR, given the history of the Holdomor, and the secret police state they shed with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

But people grow nostalgic and they prefer to recall the memorably good things about a repressive regime that valued them as appendages able to supply Russia itself with an abundant wheat crop when Russian collective farms proved incapable of producing enough to feed the country, for under communism everyone was equal, everyone earned the same salary, received the same subsidies, therefore no one needed to exert themselves to achieve any measure of self-respecting excellence.

Ukrainians watch a session of parliament Tuesday on a video wall at Kyiv's Independence Square. The divide between each side in Ukraine's crisis is deepening.   Photograph by: Angelos Tzortzinis, AFP, Getty Images , The Associated Press

It is the Ukrainian-speaking western and central regions of Ukraine that have the long memory, that recall the dismal misery and bleakness of the Soviet 'partnership' and who wouldn't touch it again under any circumstances. It is they, approximately the other half of the country's population, that yearn for collaborative dependence on the good auspices and future promises of the European Union, happy enough that the EU is willing to reciprocate.

Human rights and democratic freedoms appeal to this demographic. Both issues writ large in this old-new Russia which has lapsed back into admiration for its years under Joseph Stalin and the perceived memory of the comfort of communism and collectivism. State subsidies to placate the aggrieved and the poverty-stricken with its magnanimity appear more valuable and appropriate than 'human rights' and 'democratic freedom', which they translate as the freedom to starve.

Ukraine, in fact, has already, infamously, experienced the freedom to starve, and they did, in their glorious millions.  In Kyiv's Independence Square the crowds are addressed in Ukrainian, but there is overlap, and both Ukrainian and Russian are spoken at the barricades where protesters accuse President Yanukovych of bloodstained hands. Alternately those accusing the president are themselves accused of being nationalists prepared to tear the country asunder.

And there is mischief, as well, with the traditional challengers sparring with one another through intermediaries; Russia having the willing ear of the president, and the United States discreetly prompting and encouraging the opposition, prepared to speak nicely to the Ukrainian president as well, to help usher the country back toward its nascent agreement with the European Union.

In a December poll, fifty percent of Ukrainians supported the protests, and 43 percent opposed them. A rather neatly polarized country. There has also been rising support for both President Yanukovych and the main opposition leaders. Vitali Klitschko's support rose from 16% to 22%, and Arseniy Yatsenyuk's to 12 percent from its previous 6 percent.

But the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and U.S. assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland whisper and conspire to support Mr. Yatsenyuk, disfavouring Mr. Klitschko, even while Moscow heralds the primacy of Mr. Yanukovych. The two, Russia and the United States, working diligently behind the scenes to manipulate the outcome of a matter integral to the future of Ukraine which Ukrainians themselves must come to grips with in pursuing the best possible options for themselves.

Without a resolution to solve the growing crisis and the violence accompanying it, the country risks utter alienation, one solitude from the other.

"The temperature of society is growing. I told the president that we have to immediately take a decision, because the future of Ukraine depends on this decision."
Vitali Klitschko, Ukraine opposition leader

Labels: Conflict, European Union, Russia, Ukraine, United States

posted by Pieface @ Thursday, February 06, 2014