The unfolding crisis in the Ukraine, which has damaged the economy and brought to the fore serious divisions within the country is a matter for deep concern. The developments that led to this situation should be seen as damaging scars on the social and political life of a geopolitically important country which is still emerging from the rigidities of state control.
There is of course doubt about the validity of the election. It is typical of all emerging democracies that the governing old guard should seek to hang on to power by such political machinations. It was also impressive that so many supporters of the defeated candidate Viktor Yushchenko should have taken to the icy streets of the capital Kiev and other major cities to protest the result.
But what has happened since has been distorted by the media in both Russia and the West. Many US and European papers have represented the Russian-speaking supporters of Yanukovich in the east of the country as malevolent storm troopers who were bussed into the capital to confront pro-Yushchenko demonstrators. There was much speculation that the two sides would come to blows and dramatic reports of high tension on the streets, which invariably included warm praise for Yushchenko because he had urged his people to avoid violence. At the same time, reports appeared suggesting that the EU and the US were funding the opposition campaign and maintaining that electoral fraud had also been perpetrated by Yushchenko supporters.
The only thing at all clear from these events is that the Cold War which we all hoped had gone away has been revived alarmingly in the fledgling democracy of the Ukraine. Politicians in the West were yesterday reacting to the decision to re-run the final round of the election on Dec. 26 as if it were their victory and a shot across the bows of President Putin and the Russian state, while sullen Moscow commentators were interpreting it as yet another humiliation by the West.
None of this is constructive and all of it ignores the interests of the Ukrainians themselves. The fact that there was no fighting between rival supporters in Kiev and elsewhere was due to the common sense of both parties. The fact that administrators from the east of the country put on hold thoughts of secession is due to their moderation. There are at least two valid strains of political opinion in the Ukraine and both need to be treated with respect. The Ukrainians, it seems, are currently doing a better job of this than outsiders, who have no business interfering.
Certainly the rerun election needs to be seen to be fair and honest but the people who need to believe in the results are not the Americans nor the Russians nor the Europeans but the Ukrainians themselves and they alone. In that outside forces can help ensure the process is run properly, they do have a role. But beyond that they should have no say whatsoever. The old Cold War camps must stop playing their geopolitical games or they could plunge the Ukraine into conflict and chaos. The stark truth is that Moscow, Brussels and Washington should all bow out.
