I don’t know how much Ukraine has been in the news in U.S. during the past several weeks, but just in case you haven’t heard, there’s been a big shake-up in the government. I don’t know many details because, honestly, I don’t follow the political situation very closely. It takes quite a bit of effort to get Ukrainian news in English with our current technological capabilities, and sometimes we just don’t have the time to wait for the slow-as-molasses Internet connection to deliver the news. Anyway, apparently the president, Victor Yushenko (leader of last fall/winter’s Orange Revolution) “fired” the government. This includes lots of top leaders and the prime minister, Yulia Timoshenko. Apparently there were accusations of corruption and interfering with government work for all sorts of personal/monetary gains. The all-to-familiar story here, of shady financial deals and whatnot getting interfering with running a lawful, corruption-free society.
It’s hard to know who to believe and what exactly is going on. We, of course, hear a range of opinions. Several times a week we walk past Lenin Square in the center of the city and see banners proclaiming a “Ukraine without Yushenko,” and many of the people we rub shoulders with agree with such sentiments. This summer when there wasn’t hamburger at the store we asked our language teacher about it, and she shrugged her shoulders and replied in a sarcastic tone, “I don’t know, ask our president.” A similar finger-pointing response came up again later in a discussion about the prices of groceries in general, which have risen noticeably since we arrived last November. One positive change in bureaucracy we’ve happily noticed is the waiver of visa requirements for Americans who plan to visit Ukraine for short amounts of time. (A $150 discount incentive for those thinking about visiting …) So although the news magazines we read from the West paint a dreary picture of the “Orange Revolution gone wrong” and the old ways of corruption and cronyism taking over again, I don’t think anyone really knows what will happen. For us, it’s just wait and see.
Laura
