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Blemished by government-controlled media bias and declared fraudulent by the opposition, Ukraine's contested presidential elections have all but paralyzed Europe's fastest growing economy. While Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych was declared the winner in the November 21 runoff election, opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko's has not accepted defeat but instead has stated that the vote was rigged. Westward-leaning Yushchenko has maintained a position of defiance, bolstered by credible reports of vote irregularities in industrial eastern Ukraine. The governments of the United States and Europe have called for a review of the vote and international mediators from Poland, Lithuania, Russia and the European Union are working to end the crisis. Braving freezing temperatures, in thus far nonviolent protest hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have taken to the streets since in support of Yushchenko. Ukraine's supreme court and parliament are considering the facts and a new vote remains a possibility. The current controversy portends much more than a dispute over elections. In what many consider to be an example of President Putin's foreign policy agenda for what Russia calls its "near abroad," Russia's government had taken an active role in supporting Yanukovych. Some analysts believe that the relationship between President Putin and President Bush, allies in the fight against global terrorism, is likely to be significantly altered by the events that led up to the crisis in Ukraine.
This month CIAO examines Ukraine.
From CIAO's database:
Foreign Trade Policy Strategy for Ukraine
Relics of Cold War: Europe's Challenge, Ukraine's Experience
Year of Poland in Ukraine. Year of Ukraine in Poland — Cooperation between Polish and Ukrainian Non-governmental Organizations (PDF)
Ukraine and Russia: Two Countries-One Transformation (PDF)
Corruption in Ukraine: Essence, Scale, and Influence (PDF)
The Demographic Situation in Ukraine: Present State, Tendencies, and Predictions (PDF)
Connections, April 2002
Outside Links*:
OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine
http://www.osce.org/ukraine/
Briefing by Secretary of State Colin Powell
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/38738.htm
Report by the Russian Information Agency Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?msg_id=5152479
Report on Eastern Europe and the Media from Media Tenor
http://www.medien-tenor.com/easterneurope04.htm
Freedom in the World 2004: Ukraine
http://www.freedomhouse.org/pdf_docs/research/freeworld/2004/ukraine2004.pdf
(PDF)
* Outside links are not maintained. For broken outside links, CIAO recommends the Way Back Machine [http://www.archive.org/].
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