{"id":357,"date":"2005-03-04T10:02:00","date_gmt":"2005-03-04T10:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jcm.org.uk\/blog\/2005\/03\/04\/ukrainian-implications\/"},"modified":"2008-02-27T13:31:57","modified_gmt":"2008-02-27T13:31:57","slug":"ukrainian-implications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/2005\/03\/ukrainian-implications\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukrainian implications"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Berlin Sprouts has a nice overview of some <a href=\"http:\/\/berlinsprouts.blogspot.com\/2005\/03\/another-blow-for-russia.html\">potential post-Orange Revolution developments on Europe&#8217;s easternmost fringe<\/a>, three and a bit months after it all kicked off in Kiev, which nicely complements <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washtimes.com\/upi-breaking\/20050302-101005-9245r.htm\">this Washington Times piece<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ultima Thule, meanwhile, has some <a href=\"http:\/\/aussiethule.blogspot.com\/2005\/03\/axis-of-evil.html\">worrying rumours about possible Russian reactions<\/a> to the apparent push for greater democracy in these former Soviet states, including a translation of a Russian article about the threat posed to Putin by the GUUAM states (Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan). Transitions Online, meanwhile, suggests that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tol.cz\/look\/TOL\/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&amp;IdPublication=4&amp;NrIssue=105&amp;NrSection=4&amp;NrArticle=13661&amp;tpid=9\">Putin must now look to Kazakhstan<\/a> to maintain the Russian dream of an ex-Soviet economic alliance.<\/p>\n<p>Others are also suggesting that Yushchenko&#8217;s victory is having ramifications even further afield, and that <a>Lebanon is consciously modelling its current attempts to shake off foreign dominance on Ukraine&#8217;s peaceful revolution<\/a>. Others are asking <a href=\"http:\/\/thefleablog.blogspot.com\/2005\/02\/freedom-marches-into-lebanon.html\">questions about the possible outcomes in Lebanon<\/a> which sound eerily familiar to those of us who were following Ukrainian events back in November.<\/p>\n<p>Orange Ukraine, meanwhile, provides a <a href=\"http:\/\/orangeukraine.squarespace.com\/journal\/2005\/3\/2\/a-better-kind-of-normal.html\">comparison between events in Ukraine in February 2005 with those of February 2004<\/a>, which shows that although some things have improved, the mere installation of Victor Yushchenko as president has not been enough to sort out the country&#8217;s problems. <\/p>\n<p>Dan at Orange Ukraine also mentions &#8211; and dismisses &#8211; those allegations of Yushchenko having fascist connections. Suggestions he was anti-Semitic cropped up back in November &#8211; but it wasn&#8217;t clear to what extent these were merely propaganda. It also wasn&#8217;t clear whether the propaganda was put out by his enemies or his friends, as by all accounts in some parts of Ukraine being hostile to Jews could well be a vote winner&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Over at Neeka&#8217;s Backlog, Veronica Khokhlova also mentions this worrying neofascist undercurrent in Ukraine &#8211; notably the news of <a href=\"http:\/\/vkhokhl.blogspot.com\/2005\/03\/several-times-during-orange-revolution.html\">the beating of an African-American diplomat in an apparently racist attack in Kiev<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In Ukraine &#8211; as in other parts of the world which have recently seen a more democratic system of government introduced, there are some improvements, but still a lot of work to be done. It&#8217;s all very well getting rid of the &#8220;wrong&#8221; government, but a lot of hard graft is required to make lasting changes. The glamour of the revolutionary period may now be a fading memory, but the EU should keep an eye on events in the GUUAM states &#8211; this could be the start of something big, or it could be the herald of yet more chaos. Either way, it will have important implications for the EU&#8217;s relations with Russia and its other neighbours to the east.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Berlin Sprouts has a nice overview of some potential post-Orange Revolution developments on Europe&#8217;s easternmost fringe, three and a bit months after it all kicked off in Kiev, which nicely complements this Washington Times piece. Ultima Thule, meanwhile, has some &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/2005\/03\/ukrainian-implications\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[182],"class_list":["post-357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ukraine","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}