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Viktor Yanukovich won yesterday’s presidential runoff in Ukraine. He was the loser in Ukraine’s Orange Revolution back in 2004. But times have changed. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Mykola Riabchuk of the Uraine Center for Cultural Studies in Kiev about yesterday’s election results.
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MARCO WERMAN: The last time Ukrainian politician Victor Yanukovich won an election, there was a revolution. That was in 2004. Protestors denounced the election as fraudulent and the Orange Revolution brought a pro-Western government to power. Yesterday Ukrainian voters expressed their disillusionment with that government. Victor Yanukovich defeated one of the leaders of the Orange Revolution, Yulia Tymoschenko. Mykola Riabchuk is a senior research fellow at the Ukraine Center for Cultural Studies in Kiev. He says that despite the results of the election, the legacy of revolution is alive and well in Ukraine.
MYKOLA RIABCHUK: Ukraine five years ago became free country. Ukraine avoided flight toward [phonetic] tyrannies which is the case of majority of post-Soviet republics. And the very fact that Yanukovich benefited from this is another proof of democracy. Unlike five years ago, today he won in free and fair elections.
WERMAN: Mr. Riabchuk, were you in the streets of Kiev in 2004 during the Orange Revolution?
RIABCHUK: Yes, of course, as most people in Kiev. Not only I’ve been in the streets, but there were dozens of people who passed through my apartment. Many of them had to sleep on the floor. We hosted many people. I remember that atmosphere which was really great and very good order. I couldn’t expect that Ukrainians could behave in such orderly way, actually. So I believe that if these people managed to prove they are civic culture, at least within two weeks, there is good reason to believe they would be able also eventually to prove civic behavior within a longer period, maybe permanently. So, still I believe you can have good chances to become a functional democracy, but of course this is a very difficult period because we have old habits which die hard and we have all this Soviet legacy which is not only totalitarian, but also colonial legacy and it’s very difficult to overcome.
WERMAN: So, if you were essentially part of the Orange Revolution in 2004 and you hosted these other protestors at your home I’m wondering how you feel about this election. Are you disappointed in the results?
RIABCHUK: Yes, I’m disappointed in the results, but I did not expect that Tymoschenko would become a great candidate, great President. Probably she would have been lesser of two evils. She’s more charismatic, she’s more active, she’s more ambitious and she’s more Europe oriented. But you know, my major disappointment was not with the result of these elections, but with the failure of Orange leaders to deliver their promises because the entire Orange team failed to introduce rule of law in the country. This is the main thing which should be done in Ukraine. Any new leader should start with this.
WERMAN: So Mr. Riabchuk, what will change now in Ukraine?
RIABCHUK: Well I believe we have to improve our performance and this is not only politicians, but also it’s a requirement for the entire society. So we have to pass this very painful and painstaking way of development. But basically I believe Ukraine is going in the right direction despite all the zigs and zags. I like formula of my colleague Alexander Motyl who says that Ukraine is muddling through.
WERMAN: Muddling through.
RIABCHUK: But after the revolution I would put the emphasis on the word through. Not on the muddling, but through. We have free society with real political competition, free mass media and basically people like this. So I believe that revolution is alive and well despite some failures. I believe that even Yanukovich, maybe he’s not a new person, but he is a person who is in a new environment. He came to understand that winner Ukraine would not get everything. That politics in Ukraine is not zero-sum game.
WERMAN: Mykola Riabchuk in Kiev, Ukraine senior research fellow at the Ukraine Center for Cultural Studies there. Thank you so much.
RIABCHUK: Thank you.
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