Buying Tymoshenko
Lee on Sep 09 2008 at 8:38 pm | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Lee's Page
As the European Union commendably attempts to pull Ukraine closer into the safety of the West, Russia has reportedly earmarked $1 billion to fund suddenly pro-Kremlin Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, against heroically pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko in the 2010 presidential election.
One billion. If true, it seems Russia is ready to make an enormous commitment to the subversion of democracy in her neighbor…and it’s a frighteningly expensive investment to allow to fail.
It is more than a little disturbing how effortlessly and suddenly Tymoshenko changed course over Georgia, into almost perfect alignment with Viktor Yanukovych, the purely pro-Moscow candidate. Until quite recently Yulia was as pro-Western as Carrie Fischer (ahem), and even endorsed NATO membership and Russian containment. Whether out of corruption or a pragmatic adjustment to Russian hegemonic ascendancy (fear), her abrupt shift is not good. Yushchenko for his part thinks she’s bought and paid for and has ordered state security services to investigate her for treason. Cheney tried mightily to rescue pro-Western unity between the two, but surely failed.
The danger for the West is Yushchenko’s profound unpopularity in Ukraine. The right man might have no chance of being reelected in 2010. Thus the choice could be between Tymoshenko or Yanukovych. According to a new poll by the Ukrainian Forum & Sociology Institute, Yanukovych leads Tymoshenko 27.8 to 22.5, Yushchenko polls an irrelevant 4.7%. Yanukovych believes in Russian solidarity as a principle, Yulia is either cautious or corrupt. You support Yushchenko, but choose Yuila in that situation and hope for the best. Anyone have $1.1 billion handy in Washington?
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