...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...'s Ukrainian adventures have received their answer in the weekend's parliamentary elections to the Verkhovna Rada in a substantial majority for those favouring closer links with the EU, a confirmation of the mandate in May in the election of President Petro Poroshenko.
Both his party and that of the more hawkish Arseniy Yatsenyuk, currently prime minister, and likely to be reappointed, have together taken over 40 per cent of the seats in the 450-seat parliament. With no voting in the "people's republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk, controlled by rebels, or in the annexed Crimea, as many as 27 seats ‐ 12 in Crimea and 15 in eastern Ukraine ‐ will remain unfilled, at least initially.
Significantly, the neo-Nazi far-right, demonised by Moscow for its alleged influence in Kiev, did very poorly ‐ one of the main groups Right Sector received only 1.6 per cent. One pro-Russian party will be represented, the Opposition Bloc, on ten per cent of the vote.
The substantial majority for reform and pro-EU policies should make easier embarking on a programme to restore the state's finances and crack down on corruption, but may provoke strong opposition in the streets to inevitable cuts in state jobs. And, most immediately, the prospect of a cut-off of Russian gas looms if Ukraine does not quickly come up with a debt payment of $1.5 billion.