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Ukraine

Leonid Kravchuk was Ukraine's first president from 1991 to 1994. He removed Ukraine's nuclear weapons and oversaw high inflation rates. Leonid Kuchma succeeded him and was president from 1994 to 2005, taking a more pro-Russia stance. Viktor Yushchenko became president after the 2004 Orange Revolution, which protested election fraud. However, political instability continued as Yushchenko and rival Viktor Yanukovych jockeyed for power. Key oligarchs like Yulia Tymoshenko also vied for influence in Ukrainian politics.

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173 views

Ukraine

Leonid Kravchuk was Ukraine's first president from 1991 to 1994. He removed Ukraine's nuclear weapons and oversaw high inflation rates. Leonid Kuchma succeeded him and was president from 1994 to 2005, taking a more pro-Russia stance. Viktor Yushchenko became president after the 2004 Orange Revolution, which protested election fraud. However, political instability continued as Yushchenko and rival Viktor Yanukovych jockeyed for power. Key oligarchs like Yulia Tymoshenko also vied for influence in Ukrainian politics.

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mx02
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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Ukraine/Україна/Украи́на

Political Overview
• Ukrainian Independence 24
august 1991
• First president: Leonid
Kravchuk (Леонід Кравчук)
• Pro-Western, for a sovereign
Ukraine. Removed Nuclear
Weapons from Ukraine (to
Russia)
• December 1991 to July 1994.
• member of the Ukrainian
Politburo in 1989
• chairman of the
Verkhovna Rada in 1990
Kravchuk p2
- Most prominent acts: Ukrainian annual inflation rates from 1992 to
1994 reached the world's highest record of 10000%.
- Delay of payout of salaries for many years
- Collapse/sell out of the global merchant fleet (Black Sea Steamship
Company).
- After his term in office, joined the Dynamo Group, known the as Anti
U.S./Anti N.A.T.O. political party SDPU.
Political Overview part 2
Second president: Leonid
Kuchma (Леонід Данилович
Кýчма)

- Prime Minister of Ukraine in


1992
- July 1994 to January 2005 (re-
elected in 1999 )
- Pro-Russia: referred to
Russian as ‘an official
language’, though pro-
N.A.T.O.
- Involvement in murder of
Georgiy Gongadze, co-founder
of Ukrayinska Pravda
(Ukrainian Truth). One of 10
journalists ‘murdered’ between
1995 and 2004
• Pavlo Ivanovych Lazarenko
(Павло Івáнович Лазарéнко)
, Prime Minister under Kuchma.

• Appointed by Kuchma in 1996


• Survived several assassination
attempts
• Business partner of pm-to-be
Yulia Tymoshenko, maintained
a monopoly on import of
Russian Natural Gas together.
• Illegally entered the U.S.A.
Suspected and arrested on
accounts of money-laundering,
corruption and fraud and
convicted to 9 years in prison
in a U.S. federal prison, case
currently being reviewed as
several convictions were
dropped.
• Suspected of involvement in
several murder cases like that
of Vadym Hetman; creator of
the National Bank of Ukraine.
Political Overview part 3
• Elections of 2004.
• Battle between Pro-Russian
Yanukovych (Party of Regions)
and Pro-Western Yushchenko
(Nasha Ukraina)

• 2 rounds. First round: fraud on


behalf of Yanukovych, followed
by the Orange Revolution
• Yushchenko poisoned
(allegedly by henchmen of
Yanukovych).
• Re-election led to victory for
Yushchenko (see next slide)
Political overview part 2

-Note: on both sides, high percentages of votes for 1 side for example
1) L’viv Oblast and surrounding regions: 90+ percentage vote for
Yushchenko.
2) Donetsk Oblast, autonomous region Crimea: high percentage votes for
Yanukovych.
ПОРА! Orange revolution, a mass protest against the election fraud and the
communist/Modern Russian behaviour of succession-by-appointment.
A revolution fitting in a pattern initiated by the ousting of S.Milosevic
and the Rose Revolution in Georgia.
After the Orange Revolution
• Crisis and political unstability
• Appointments and dismissals,
most significant that of Yulia
Tymoshenko, prime minister
• Archrival Yanukovych
becomes prime minister,
predominantly to enforce ties
with Russia, boosting
economic development
• Gas crisis: Russian state
company Gazprom, cuts off
gas delivery to Ukraine due to
outstanding debts, affecting
the whole of Europe
2007 elections
• April 2, 2007: Parliament dissolved, early elections in October 2007.
• Orange Revolution-style protests engaged by Party of Regions
(Yanukovych), occupation of Maidan; the independence square in
Kyiv
• 3 main contenders: Party of Regions (Yanukovych), Nasha Ukraina
(Yushchenko), Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko.
• Victory; Party of Regions though speculation of fraud in Donetsk,
Crimea.
• Surprising victory of Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko, making a new coalition
between Nashia Ukraina and Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko and perhaps
Lytvyn, possible.
• Tymoshenko to be Prime Minister once again instead of
Yanukovych, despite pressure of Vladimir Putin by calling in a debt
of nearly 1 billion dollars.
Ukraine, election results 2007
Additional
• Note 1:) Much like Russia, Ukrainian political parties rely heavily on
support from the armed forces, the intelligence services and the
Oligarchs.
• Oligarchs:Tymoshenko; the self-proclaimed gas-princess, Viktor
Pinchuk; son-in-law of Kuchma, Rinat Leonidovich Akhmetov;
Richest Ukrainian, sponsor of Yanukovych and mafia boss. Unlike
Yanukovych, never convicted. Member of Parliament for the Party of
Regions.
• Tymoshenko and Akhmetov, as well as Yanukovych are possible
candidates for the presidential elections in 2010.
• Note 2:) It is very unlikely that Ukraine will join the E.U. though
memberships of both N.A.T.O and the WTO are not impossible,
main obstacle remaining: the Russian Federation
Media
• Principal source of information:

- Ukrainian Pravda

- Interfax Ukraine

- BBC in Ukrainian

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