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More than presidency at stake in Ukraine
EFLEven while we are waiting to see how the crisis finally ends, however, certain victors and vanquished can already be glimpsed, blinking with surprise in the bright orange light. Yushchenko is a victor even if he fails to win the presidency -- this former member of the Ukrainian post-communist establishment is now an international symbol of democratic rights. His opponent Yanukovych is, on the other hand, a loser even if he wins since -- however well he governs -- he will be "damaged goods" internationally and unable to win Ukraine the investment and better relations with Europe that it needs for more balanced economic trade and development. Another loser is Russia's President Putin who unwisely invested vast political capital in Yanukovych. It is odd that Putin, who has shown such diplomatic skill in dealing with the United States, should have misread the historical signs so badly in Russia's "near abroad." But it is a mistake with potentially huge consequences for Putin's grand strategy of rebuilding Russian power through an economic alliance with Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and other former Russian possessions. A third loser is French President Jacques Chirac and those European leaders who want the European Union to be an anti-American counterweight to America. International crises involving Russia tend to remind Europeans that the United States remains a very valuable ally in a dangerous and unpredictable world. Fantasies of a superpower Europe seem insubstantial delusions by comparison with this tested alliance. The final losers are the U.N. and Kofi Annan. The U.N. has been invisible. As Kofi Annan has been trying to keep his head above oil, he has issued his usual appeal for restraint. But this crisis has brought forth the heroes of the Cold War from retirement -- Vaclav Havel, Lech Walesa and Margaret Thatcher -- to encourage the orange revolutionaries. And Annan cannot begin to compete with their moral authority or the legitimacy they can bestow. Would that all things could work so well Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2004-11-30 |
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