Ukraine - A "Bonked" Revolution

BLAZE Travel Guides - Kyiv, Ukraine, March 2009

The running route advised by BLAZE Travel Guides' "Running the World - Kyiv, Ukraine" - leads directly through Maydan Nezalezhnosti, or Independence Square. This was the site of the country's 2004 Orange Revolution, in which an estimated 500,000 people came together on the city streets to protest the controversial election victory of Victor Yanukovich, the country's pro-Russia prime minister. The protest, the most recent of Eastern Europe's "Velvet Revolution", led to the installment of opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko in the country's executive role, and the success of the Orange movement was largely viewed as a Ukrainian turn to the West.


Therefore, it was disappointing for many when Sunday's presidential election resulted in Viktor Yanukovich defeating Yulia Timoshenko. The former's victory seems to indicate a defeat for the Orange Revolution, the hopes, and the dreams, which manifested themselves so strongly five years ago.


But many people BLAZE met on the streets of Ukraine would explain that the Orange revolutionaries did not lose the political footrace with Yanukovich and his pro-Kremlin policies. They bonked. That is, once the Orange people were in power, the movement was unable to deliver on its policies of economic refurbishment and social possibility. After a six-year marathon of hard, cold, and bitter disillusionment, it's no surprise that Ukraine hit the wall. Unable to continue on their current course they gave up, threw up, and threw their weight behind the power a very different party, one that sympathizes more with the country's mighty neighbor to the north.


What does this mean for the country's coming years? At this time election results are yet to become official, and the reaction of the largely pro-European Western Ukrainians are yet to be seen. But one thing seems clear: the course time on Ukraine's race to the West is running low, and it seems ready to run out before the country reaches the finish line.