Reforms and Performance under Yanukovich: 2010–14

Abstract

The irony of the above citation is striking. Its reasonableness and concordance with the desires of a growing majority of Ukraine’s population contrast starkly with Yanukovich’s increasingly autocratic and kleptocratic behavior. Its apparent forcefulness makes all the more puzzling his decision to reverse course on the EU and refuse to sign the AA a mere three months later. It is common to dismiss the Yanukovich presidency as a kleptocratic regime that eventually fell to the power of massive popular demonstrations. It was that, yes, but the citation hints that the full story is much more complex and interesting. To start with, one must not forget he won the January 2010 election, deemed to be fair and clean, without the fraud of 2004, and he did so with a very clean majority of more than 3%.

“For Ukraine, association with the European Union must become an important stimulus for forming a modern European state. At the same time, we must preserve and continue deepening our relations and process of integration with Russia.”

—Viktor Yanukovich, speech at the Festive Celebration of Independence Day, 24 August 2013 (www.president.gov.ua).