Reform Watch
OP-ED
Brian Mefford: End of the EuroMaidan honeymoon
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (3rd R), Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk (2nd R) and veterans look at Honour Guard soldiers marching in front of the Memorial of the unknoun soldier in Kiev on May 9, 2015 during a ceremony to mark 70 anniversary of the end of WWII. Tanks and rocket systems rolled through the rebel bastion of Donetsk in east Ukraine on May 9 as pro-Russian insurgents feted 70 years since victory over Nazi Germany in WWII. Imitating a vast military parade being held simultaneously in Moscow, some 1,500 separatist fighters marched through the rebel-held city clutching red Soviet flags and several portraits of Stalin. AFP PHOTO/GENYA SAVILOV
End of the Euromaidan Honeymoon: The Parliamentary dismissal of Security Service of Ukraine Chief Valentin Nalyvaychenko at President Petro Poroshenko’s insistence, marks the end of the Euromaidan honeymoon for Ukraine. While the marriage of pro-Western partners from civil society and government remains intact, the romantic era of Euromaidan is now officially over as daily realities set in. In many ways, it is comparable to President Viktor Yushchenko’s firing of Yulia Tymoshenko as prime minister just eight months after his inauguration following the 2004 Orange Revolution. While Nalyvaychenko served 16 months in his return as Head of the SBU, his dismissal is a leading indicator of problems in the unity of the governmental coalition.
