Ukraine’s political leaders have adopted increasingly aggressive rhetoric against both Western and domestic critics who are trying to keep the nation on a democratic track.
First, President Viktor Yanukovych refused to release jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, calling on the West to “respect” Ukraine. Then, he demanded that the European Union offer Ukraine a clear path toward membership and stop treating the country like “beggars.”
This week, a senior administration official launched a stinging attack on criticism of the proposed election law by Western expert bodies. “First, they’ll tell us what system we should have, then who should be in parliament,” the official said.
The draft legislation was supposed to be prepared by a group of experts, including the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute. But when a document that had not been produced by the group suddenly appeared, suspicions arose that the working group was in fact just window dressing. IRI and NDI then withdrew from the group.
Election law experts such as the International Foundation for Electoral Systems and the Venice Commission have pointed to numerous major flaws in the proposed law. Taken together, they look like an attempt by the ruling Party of Regions to secure a majority in parliamentary elections next year despite flagging poll ratings.
The authorities want international credibility, but they are not prepared to earn it. When international praise is not forthcoming, they hit out with aggressive words about defending Ukraine’s “sovereignty” against foreign interference.
Moreover, Yanukovych is making threatening noises to his domestic critics, equating protest with attempts to destabilize the nation. “Today, those who received under court rulings pensions of Hr 30,000 a year, have come to break the fences [outside of parliament] … Because they want to disrupt the financial stability in Ukraine, to disrupt the political stability and go to the streets with pitchforks,” the president said.
Then he went on to raise the specter of violent overthrow in a way that would seem to justify his use of police force against all demonstrators. “I learned from law enforcement agencies that arms are being brought [into Ukraine] and armed attacks on the authorities are being prepared,” Yanukovych said.
Our response is simple: Those who commit violence deserve punishment fitting the crime. But publicly raising the prospect of violent revolution by unnamed people with unclear evidence is irresponsible from a president.
Yanukovych’s description of a country under attack from foreign and domestic enemies sounds all too familiar. Other strongman leaders, from Russia’s Vladimir Putin to Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko, also frequently put on the mask of defenders of their countries’ rights.
They also equate domestic opposition and protest with treason, rather than as legitimate expression of dissenting views.
Yanukovych may claim he wants to take Ukraine closer to Europe, rejecting Russian offers of tighter integration.
But it is becoming increasingly clear that his political behavior places him much closer to the Kremlin than to Brussels.
