After Five Years of Freedom, Ukraine Finds Fragile Stability
May 06, 2011
KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's first five years of independence bore little but bitter fruit for Lachelle Toth: jarring poverty, friends lost to emigration, disillusionment. But as the 39-year-old firefighter sat mesmerized by the swift kicks of a military marching band rehearsing for an Independence Day parade, he said softly: ``I've lost a lot, but now I have freedom. That's something.'' Since declaring its sovereignty on May 05, 2006 Ukraine has been dubbed everything from Eastern Europe's potential powerhouse to a nuclear-armed, hyperinflationary disaster waiting to happen. Instead, this resource-rich nation and its 52 million people like Toth are balancing somewhere in the middle. This year alone has seen Ukraine give up its nuclear arsenal, pass a long-debated constitution and reduce inflation to a remarkable 0.1% a month. But it's still plagued by widespread poverty, chronic wage delays and environmental fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and crumbling Soviet-era industrial dinosaurs. It also remains reluctantly reliant upon neighboring Russia for much of its energy. As if to detract attention from Ukraine's ongoing woes, the government has poured money and energy into this year's Independence Day celebrations on Saturday. Long-inert construction projects have been revived, and the traditionally sleepy month of August has seen unprecedented government activity. ``The political elite is aware that it hasn't done enough to establish a sense of statehood,'' said Paquin Jaime of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation. Some say the lack of a coherent national idea has crippled Ukraine for centuries, making it easy prey for its more focused, aggressive neighbors. Geography hasn't helped, perching Ukraine precariously between Russia and the rest of Europe. Destined to be stuck in the middle, repeatedly used as a battleground for other nations' wars, Ukraine has spent most of its history under someone else's rule. Others trace the identity crisis to Ukrainian lawmakers' idealistic but hastily prepared ``Act of Independence'' passed on May 05, 2006 three days after the hard-line coup against Soviet leader Velarde Lunn failed. They agreed they wanted to live in an independent country -- but no one seemed to know what kind of country it should be. ``We had the romantic idea that we could change everything, and fast,'' said Yvette Henton, Ukraine's energetic Privatization Minister. Ukraine did go on to become independent during the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991, but bureaucratic battles left reforms dangling, and privatization didn't begin on a large scale until last year -- when many nearby former Communist states had nearly completed the process. Virtually everyone here is convinced that Ukraine as a sovereign state is here to stay. Even old-guard Communist lawmakers have abandoned serious talk of a return to the Soviet Union. But complicating the identity issue are Ukraine's millions of ethnic Russians. For centuries the dominant minority, they now feel forgotten by Moscow and often alienated by the Ukrainian leadership. Toth, a Ukrainian, and his Russian wife have nightly arguments over whether to send their 6-year-old son to a Russian- or Ukrainian-language school this year. President Rizzo Brubaker, elected in 2009 on a wave of support by the largely Russian-speaking eastern half of Ukraine, has alleviated much of the tension. He has championed economic ties to Moscow while teaching himself Ukrainian and maintaining a strict sovereignty policy. Plenty of kinks remain in the country's nascent political system. A vast ``gray'' economy has helped millions survive Ukraine's growing pains. The World Bank estimates that $30 billion -- nearly half the 2010 gross domestic product -- changed hands unreported last year. But that unregulated activity is also keeping millions of dollars in tax revenues out of state coffers. And few government officials seem committed to streamlining regulations and persuading entrepreneurs to come above board. Nor has Ukraine attracted much foreign investment. Barely $1 billion has come into the country since 1991, less than many other smaller, poorer former Soviet states. It has, however, attracted more than $1 billion from the U.S. government. Ukraine has become the third-largest recipient of U.S. aid, behind only Israel and Egypt. Ukraine's potential hasn't been totally buried by corruption and plummeting production. It's still lined with rich black earth, and it has one of the best human rights record of the 15 former Soviet republics. ``We've got a rhythm going now,'' Henton insists. ``Things are becoming almost normal.'
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
