Newsday December 02, 2004
ELECTION DIVIDES NATION The battle for Ukraine
SOURCES: TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL; BBC.COM; CHICAGO TRIBUNE; CIA WORLD FACT BOOK; TIME.COM; BRAMA.COM; INFOUKES.COM; GLOBALSECURITY.ORG; WIKIPEDIA.COM
December 2, 2004
Ukraine, independent since 1991, faces the possibility of a new presidential election as parliament voted to oust the ruling government and European mediators met to help ease a political crisis that has seen the country torn between two men.
One, Viktor Yushchenko began as an ally of President Leonid Kuchma, working in his administration. The other, Viktor Yanukovych, is Kuchma's current protege.
After managing to reduce the impact of the Russian debt default in 1998, Yushchenko was appointed prime minister by Kuchma, and many analysts believe Kuchma was preparing him to become his successor.
As the country's economy improved, with salaries and pensions paid on time and corruption reduced, nobody doubted the prime minister's loyalty to the president.
Yushchenko resisted calls by the liberal and nationalist opposition to become their leader, even as his popularity across the country sharply contrasted with Kuchma's poor ratings.
Kuchma was re-elected in 1999 to another five-year term with 56 percent of the vote. But in 2001, the president dismissed Yushchenko, who accepted the opposition leadership offer, becoming head of the "Our Ukraine" bloc, which at the next parliamentary election managed to gain enough votes to seriously challenge the authorities.
Yushchenko, a reformer bent on integrating the former Soviet republic with the West, started the presidential campaign as Ukraine's most popular politician, and it took an enormous propaganda effort on state-run TV channels to make a real contender out of his rival, Viktor Yanukovych, a tough-minded prime minister poised to nestle the country deep under the Kremlin's wing. There were numerous attempts to discredit Yushchenko, but nothing had a greater impact than his alleged poisoning, which left scars and blisters on his face weeks before the crucial vote and which his team claims was yet another dirty trick by opponents.
Kuchma's reign has been far from peaceful. After Yushchenko's ouster, violence erupted, and protesters called for the Kuchma's impeachment and resignation.
Kuchma had been "caught on tape" calling for the demise of a journalist critical of the government. That journalist was found decapitated. Kuchma admitted it was his voice on tape, but denied any wrongdoing. Plus, he was believed to have shipped arms to Iraq, despite an embargo, but the irritated United States eased up when Ukraine promised to send 1,600 troops to the region.
So now, the disputed election of Nov. 21 threatens the country with the spectre of separatism. The Supreme Court of the land continues to hear an appeal by Yushchenko to annul the outcome. Supportive European Union members are involved in discussions over the deadlock.
The challenger: Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Yushchenko's transformation over the past 12 months has made him almost unrecognizable to those who knew him before.
Start with his face. Part of the 50-year-old's astonishing popularity with Ukrainian voters had previously been attributed to his movie-star looks.
Then came a private dinner in September with Ihor Smeshko, the head of Ukraine's internal security services, after which Yushchenko fell gravely ill. He was rushed to the hospital for what his campaign says was chemical poisoning, but which President Leonid Kuchma's government insisted was just a case of food poisoning. He emerged looking as though he had undergone a Jekyll-to-Hyde makeover, with reddened, blistered and puffy skin.
But it's not just his physical features that have changed.
Yushchenko's entire personality seems altered by what he sincerely believes was an attempt on his life. The old face may be gone, but the man who would lead hundreds of thousands of rapt Ukrainians into the streets was born. He emerged from his three-week hospital stay a man possessed.
He returned to address parliament with a fire and vitriol that surprised and motivated.
"Look at my face; listen to my voice; these are small indications of what happened to me. Look hard at me. This is not caused by cuisine or food as some might say. ... This has been caused by a political regime in this country. We are talking about political cuisine that kills," he told parliament. "Don't ask who is next. It could be any one of us." For many he represents a historic chance to forge new ties between Ukraine and the West.
- Toronto Globe and Mail
The declared winner: Yiktor Yanukovych
Ukraine's 54-year-old prime minister has the look of a Soviet-era party boss.
He's a big man - 6-ft., 6-in. tall and 240. His official biography gives a nod to his "youthful indiscretions," which included a stint in prison for violent crimes.
But the poor boy from Yenakiyevo became a mechanical engineer, a factory manager and governor of Donetsk before President Leonid Kuchma hand-picked him two years ago. He holds the equivalent of a PhD in economics. His published handwritten documents reveal that he makes numerous spelling mistakes in Ukrainian; in particular, he was unable to write his title, position or wife's name properly. Not a problem since his election pledge included making Russian - his language - the official state language.
Since his appointment, Ukraine has seen economic growth. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been a supporter.
It seems as if Yanukovych is trying to smooth through this election dispute without violence and bloodletting. Last week, he was touting freedom of the press on the one hand, while also denouncing his rival for trying to mount a "coup."
The man declared president by Ukraine's electoral commission amid an outcry over alleged poll fraud is seen by some as the best candidate to secure a safe retirement for the man he would replace.
His opponents have often made fun of his appearance, but he has played up his physical prowess, stressing his skills as a parachutist and a pilot. So it stands to reason he was ridiculed when an activist pelted him with an egg, sending him to intensive care - just for a few hours. He quickly went on television to say he felt sorry for the "wayward" youngster who attacked him.
History
882: Scandinavians known as the Rus take Kiev; Urkaine is center of Kievan Rus, Europe's largest state, for 200 years.
988: Leader accepts eastern Christianity, beginning Byzantine influence.
Early 1400s: Kievan Rus incorporated into Lithuania, eventually in to Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1840s: Civil war; Poles retain parts of western Ukraine, Russians get rest.
1921: Treaty of Riga brings Ukraine into the fold of the Soviet republics.
1932: Millions die as a result of what was surely a preventable famine engineered by Josef Stalin.
1937-38: Purge throughout Soviet Union target all categories of people; many are executed or exiled.
1941: Occupation by Germany (ends in 1943). 1986: Disaster at Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
1991: Independence following collapse of USSR.
Economy
After Russia, the Ukraine was the most important economic component of the former Soviet Union, producing about four times the output of the next-ranking republic. It generated more than one-fourth of Soviet agricultural output, and its farms provided substantial quantities of meat, milk, grain, and vegetables to other republics. Its heavy industry supplies equipment and raw materials to industrial and mining sites in other regions of the former USSR. Ukraine depends on imports of energy, especially natural gas, to meet some 85 percent of its annual energy requirements. Shortly after independence, the government liberalized most prices and built a framework for privatization, but resistance to reform led to some backtracking. In general, growth has been undergirded by strong domestic demand, low inflation, and solid consumer and investor confidence. Growth was a sturdy 8.2 percent last year despite a loss of momentum in needed economic reforms.
The geography
The regions of Kharkiv, Lugansk and their neighbors to the south (Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Odesa and Crimea) are home to Ukraine's 11 million ethnic Russians. This ethnic distribution, and the different history of the two parts of Ukraine, have created the eastwest divide that continues to tug at political allegiances.
The people
Ukraine's population is about 50 million, which represents about 18 percent of the population of the former Soviet Union.
Ukrainians make up about 73 percent of the total, and ethnic Russians about 22 percent.
The industrial regions in the east and southeast are the most heavily populated, and the cities account for about 70 percent of the population. The predominant religions are the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
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