Russia's War Against Ukraine
Taras Kuzio: Viktor Yanukovych, Mr. 50 percent
President Viktor Yanukovych's New Year's Eve greeting to Ukrainians to start 2014. He would have less than two months left of his presidency.
Viktor Yanukovich has been a state official all his working life, first in transport, then as a regional governor of Donetsk, twice as prime minister under presidents Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yushchenko and finally as president. Corruption has always plagued the Ukrainian state but the extent of rapacious greed fundamentally increased after Yanukovich was elected. He and Nikolai Azarov, his prime minister, did not focus on economic growth but on asset stripping and corporate raiding.
