Yushchenko’s Decision Receives Mixed Reviews
August 9

While some Moscow-based news sources portray Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko’s decision to nominate former rival Viktor Yanukovych for the post of Prime Minster, as the death of the Orange Revolution, many Western observers view this as the beginning of true democratic debate in Ukrainian politics.  The events leading up to this decision drew much attention from local parties, as well as those in Moscow, Brussels, and Washington. Not surprisingly, along with the wide variety of observers comes a wide variety of analysis.

According to Alan Cullison from The Wall Street Journal, Yanukovych’s nomination was the result of cracks in the Orange coalition. Feuds with former ally Yulia Tymoshenko resulted in actions that cost Yuschenko’s party a great deal of popularity, Cullison says. He also cites Katya Malofeyeva, an analyst at Moscow brokerage firm Renaissance Capital, who says that while Mr. Yushchenko could have avoided nominating Yanukovych by forming a coalition with Ms. Tymoshenko, it was clear that he did not want to. The group would have had a thin majority in Parliament, and its members, which included Socialists, industrialists and populists, were too disparate to work together, she said.

Moscow-based analysts Vladimir Solovyev & Mikhail Zygar Kommersant portrayed the decision to nominate Yanukovych as a serious defeat for Yushchenko. Under the headline “Yushchenko Chooses the Lesser Evil: Yanukovych is back in power”, they describe the political situation thus:
“Yushchenko suffered new defeats in the morning. The Party of Regions
made him sign the national unity agreement with their terms. Points
suggested by the presidents were revised and re-written by Yanukovich's
associates.”

The author of Wall Street Journal Op Ed piece “Viktory in the Ukraine: Orange Revolution Betrayed? More Like Vindicated” disagrees that this is the end of the Orange Revolution. The article points out that Yanukovich’s Party of the Regions received the largest share of any party with 32% of the vote, in elections that, thanks to the Orange Revolution, were the “liveliest, freest and fairest in Ukraine's history.” Giving power to a less popular party would have been simply undemocratic, according to the article.

One State Department official agrees.  "Mr. Yanukovych has come
to the prime ministership in the old-fashioned, democratic way: He worked
hard for votes, he campaigned, he politicked," spokesman Sean McCormack
said.

Carlos Pascual, of the International Herald Tribune, echoes many Western observers when he points out that while some Western governments may not have preferred Yanukovych, it is the manner in which he came to power that really matters. “There is some good news in the country's current political mess.” Pascual states,
“Multiparty politics is alive. It can be bare-knuckled, ugly and corrupt, but
it also involves real debate over how to advance Ukraine's development as a
state with ties to the Euro- Atlantic community and with decent relations
with Russia.”