May 25, 2014 Presidential Election
OP-ED
Taras Kuzio: Ukraine’s citizens have defeated Putin’s ‘New Russia’ – now Poroshenko must defeat Ukraine’s oligarchs
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko speaks to newly graduated police officers during an official ceremony in Kyiv, on July 4.
The good news is that Russian and Donbas separatist leaders have called an end to the "New Russia" project, which had targeted eight Russian-speaking Oblasts of eastern and southern Ukraine for separatist agitation and union with Russia. The bad news is that while it always was a mistake to assume Ukraine's Russian-speakers were fans of president Vladimir Putin, Ukraine's political vacuum and its selective "de-oligarchisation" are allowing diehards from the former ruling Party of Regions grouped in the Opposition Bloc and funded by Ukraine's powerful gas lobby to retain influence in eastern and southern Ukraine.
