I must admit I first because aware of Ukraine and its politics for all the wrong reasons. I was struck by how its prime minister resembled a Russian nesting doll. Yulia V. Tymoshenko wore her long blond hair in a braid that encircled her head, much like a crown. Every TV appearance she was doll-like perfect with that Rapunzel-like braid. TODAY, Tymoshenko continues to languish behind bars. In December, when members of the Russian punk rock band, Pussy Riot, were released from prison after serving almost all of their two-year sentence, it was rumored Tymoshenko also would be released. Such action would gain at least a modicum of approval for Yanukovych by anti-government protestors.
Besides being Ukraine’s first female leader, Tymoshenko was in her own right a successful businesswoman, making off like a bandit in the fossil fuel industry after the fall of the U.S.S.R.
When she became prime minister for the second time in 2007, it was on the platform she would help lead the Ukraine away from Russia and into relationship with Europe.
Tymoshenko was defeated for re-election in 2010 by Victor Yanukovych, who shortly after he took office had Tymoshenko imprisoned after a sham trial for “abuse of power.” Her sentence is for seven years.
Before she became a victim of Eastern European politics, Tymoshenko, 53, had earned the nickname the “gas princess” because of her and her husband’s vast fortune from dealing with natural gas imports — Ukraine’s prime energy source — from Russia. Forbes magazine once listed her as one of the most powerful and wealthy women in the world.
By training, she is a cybernetics engineer and an economist.
Ukraine’s president has been pressured by Russia’s Vladamir Putin to stop courting Europe and fall back in line with Russia. Putin controls the spigot to Ukraine’s dependency on fuel and frequently jacks up prices if things don’t go his way.
Putin sees Ukraine as a crucial part of his plan to reintegrate former Soviet republics into a new Eurasian union that would rival the European Union.
For Ukrainians, however, an alliance with the EU is about more than cheap fuel. Partnering with the West allows economic and political freedoms that will never come about through Putin.
The riots against Yanukovych’s government are now four months in the making. Much of downtown Kiev has been reduced to rubble from the military firing on protestors.
Though his instincts — not to mention the majority of Ukrainians — probably tell Yanukovych his country would be better served if he stepped down, the dictator is having a hard time relinquishing power.
The same story can be told of any number of countries around the world, including Syria, North Korea, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Yemen and Somalia.
When it’s honest, democracy is a most beautiful thing.
— Susan Lynn
When it’s honest, democracy is tops
