The decision by several European leaders to skip Euro 2012 football games played in Ukraine next month is a smart, well-calibrated way to express disgust with President Viktor Yanukovych’s persecution of political opponents.
The world, including Yanukovych, has admitted that the conviction and seven-year prison sentence of ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Oct. 11 is based on a flawed Soviet-era law that criminalizes political decisions with a vague “abuse-of-office” charge. Even many of Tymoshenko’s detractors would admit that she should not be imprisoned for reaching a gas agreement with Russia as prime minister in 2009, no matter how unfavorable the terms.
Yet, instead of changing course, Yanukovych’s cronies in the Prosecutor General’s Office are piling on more investigations against Tymoshenko.
European leaders are correctly ratcheting up the diplomatic pressure. Already, Yanukovych’s authoritarian ways have cost Ukraine an association agreement and a free-trade deal with the European Union. The costs will soon go higher.
Isolating Yanukovych is one of the only tools left and it may work. He embarrassingly had to cancel a planned summit in Yalta on May 11-12 after most of the 18 invited Central European leaders said they would not attend because of human rights abuses in Ukraine.
The decision to skip football games played in Ukraine is a strong message, not only to Yanukovych, but to the oligarchs who support him. They will be denied bragging rights for hosting the games. It is simply too hard on the conscience to be sitting next to Yanukovych in luxury stadium boxes while Ukraine is regressing as a democracy.
Fortunately, the decision to shun Yanukovych will not hurt the games. Most of the tickets have been sold. Most sport fans probably care a lot more about the games than politics. The Union of European Football Associations, the organizer, is assured of a profitable championship since TV rights were sold long ago, luxury skyboxes are sold out and corporate sponsorships are numerous.
Most importantly, unlike Olympics that have been boycotted in the past, the athletes will be playing the games. It would have been unfair to ask football teams and spectators to stay away.
The Russians, Poles and others say that sports should not be politicized. But sports have always been about politics. UEFA’s decision in 2007 to award Ukraine co-hosting rights was as much about politics as it was about marketing football in Eastern Europe. The hope was that a democratic Ukraine would be able to showcase how far it has shed its Soviet past.
While Ukraine remains one of the most democratic of the former Soviet republics, it is veering back into authoritariansm. Can Yanukovych become the next Vladimir Putin or Alexander Lukashenko? He can, unless the billionaire oligarchs who back him press for a change in course. They are not. Instead, they seem as interest in ever in cashing in.
The president is so unpopular among the people who elected him in 2010 that it is doubtful his Party of Regions can win an honest parliamentary election in October.
The Euro 2012 games will go on and we will enjoy them and hope that the visitors see the great beauty of this nation’s people and places. Still, much like the 1936 Olympics in Germany and the Cold War games of 1980 Moscow and 1984 Los Angeles, this sports classic will go down in history as a missed opportunity for Ukraine. For that, only the Yanukovych administration is to blame.
