Ukraine And The Two Europes
Posted: 03/12/2013 | Author: The Political Idealist | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: democracy, EU, Europe, freedom, Politics, Russia, ukraine |3 Comments »I am by no means an expert on Ukranian politics. This vast country on the eastern edge of Europe attracts very little attention from Western media, leaving the former Soviet state largely ignored by the world except its immediate neighbours in Eastern Europe and Russia. Not any more though. The European Union and the Russian Federation have been competing to win the country into their respective “blocs”- and the Ukranian premier, Mykola Azarov, has surprised the world by pulling out of negotiations with the EU at a very advanced stage.
As a result, there are now thousands of protesters blocking the streets outside government buildings in Kiev, and opposition parties are about to make a determined, if ultimately doomed, effort to win a No Confidence vote in parliament. The Prime Minister has warned that protesters are planning a coup de etat and that Ukraine’s fragile democracy is once more under threat.
What we are witnessing is a (partial) regression to the division that hurt our continent so badly in the Cold War era. To the West, a liberal Europe in which ex-Communist and former social democratic nations uneasily work and develop together. To the east, an alliance of quasi-democracies which symbolise a capitalist revolution gone wrong in the place of a Communist revolution gone badly wrong.
This is why the principle that underpins the European Union is so important: the likes of Poland, Lithuania and Hungary have made so much progress as part of the “community of nations”, to the benefit of us all. There should always be a place for Ukraine, Belarus and their neighbours when they are ready. Who knows, perhaps Russia could join them- one day: that really would do the European Ideal justice.
