Reform Watch

Taras Kuzio: Karatnycky resumes his apologia

By Taras Kuzio.

Published Jan. 14, 2016 at 2:19 am

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych (3rd L), former Ukrainian presidents Viktor Yushchenko (L), Leonid Kravchuk (2nd L), Leonid Kuchma (2nd R) and Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov (R) attend a service marking the end of the year 2013 in the center of Kiev on December 20, 2013. EU chair Lithuania hit out at Kiev on December 20, saying the European Union remained open to signing a partnership accord with Ukraine but "not necessarily" with Viktor Yanukovych's government. The Ukrainian government last month unexpectedly halted work on key political and free trade agreements with the European Union, sparking the largest demonstrations since the pro-democracy Orange Revolution in 2004.

Photo by AFP

Adrian Karatnycky aroused many suspicions during the short-lived Viktor Yanukovych presidency that were analysed by Zenon Zawada (http://ukrainianweek.com/Politics/117605), me (https://archive.kyivpost.com/article/opinion/op-ed/time-for-a-reality-check-104145.html) and other Ukraine experts. Up to Yulia Tymoshenko’s imprisonment on trumped up charges in 2011, Karatnycky wrote numerous op eds apologising for Yanukovych’s authoritarian, anti-Ukrainian and eventually murderous regime. Yanukovych and 30 of his senior allies are on the Interpol wanted list for crimes ranging from murder to mass corruption. Defended assiduously by Karatnycky in 2010-2011 and later, Presient Yanukovych was a traitor who called for Russia to militarily intervene in the Crimea, a mafia don who bankrupted Ukraine and a murderer who ordered riot police to use live rounds against unarmed protestors.

Read the opinion here