1998-2004
The failed test
|
|
Having consolidated power and gained control over resources, theoligarch-controlled regime in Ukraine faced systemic external pressure. The government only responded to some challenges from outside. If not for the Orange Revolution in 2004, Ukraine could have ended up under the complete external control of the Russian Federation
-
In 1998-2004, the government seemed to be “the most powerful ever,” said Viktor Medvedchuk, one of the major antagonists of the time. It was the era of a perfectly controlled parliamentary majority, large yet ineffective opposition, and a mass media dominated by the ideas imposed from above. Still, the oligarch system failed to use this resource to either develop the country or at least duly protect its interests and sovereignty.
-
The first vulnerability of the system was corrupt scams for resource supply, privatization tenders or determining control over leading industrial plants. Under these circumstances, those who acted to please Russia got access to strategic enterprises and industries in Ukraine. Western investors did not rush to invest in an unpredictable and corrupt country thus offering zero counteraction to the promoters of Russian interests.
-
Another weak point was human resources policy, based on favoritism and narrow corporate interests. Top government positions were ultimately held by people who not only worked to drag Ukraine into the Russian orbit, but also openly boasted about it.
-
The third vulnerability was that the leaders of the oligarchic system lost contact with the people of its own countryand sees no need for such contact. Even though they understood the true roots of the Kuchmagate cassette scandal rooted (from the very start, Leonid Kuchma himself spoke of the signs of the work of secret services, the origin of which he later named as being Russian). the Ukrainian government never did find the courage to start an honest dialogue with Ukrainian society. Instead, took the path of satisfying the Kremlin’s whims and at best, trying to soft-pedal them.
-
Ultimately, the indicated “specific features” of the oligarch regime resulted in the state’s negative reputation in the world, thus limiting its maneuverability in responding to external threats and pursuing its own interests.
In this section:
The Wind from the East
The Energy (In)Security of Ukraine
Related publications:
|
-
The culture of 'Muscovite Rus' came to form from two heterogeneous sources. The seed of the religious and artistic culture reached Muscovy from southeastern Europe (Byzantium, the Balkans) through Kyiv. On the other hand, the foundation of the political and legal culture came to Muscovy from 'Ulus Jöchi', better known as the Golden Horde. As a result, the Russian "spiritual culture" took the shape of a familiar European facade, behind which a non-European state infrastructure hid.
7 April, 2022,
-
German chancellor Olaf Scholz says Putin’s comments on US biological weapons seemed like an ‘implicit threat’
23 March, 2022,
-
It is us, Ukrainians, and all the citizens of this country, who must keep studying our own history. To defend our land and our country, we must know it better.
20 March, 2022,
-
86.6% of Russians tolerate and support the potential assault on the territory of the European Union, including: Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and others as evidenced by the results of the sociological survey conducted by “Active Group”
18 March, 2022,
-
Ukrainian troops with anti-tank weapons set ambushes, while their enemy slowly encircles cities to besiege them
12 March, 2022,
-
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forced more than a million people to flee their homeland in just a week
3 March, 2022,
|