In a European Square ceremony celebrating the June 11 start of visa-free travel for Ukrainians to most of the European Union, President Petro Poroshenko said the achievement represented the final and irreversible break from the Russian Empire and Ukraine’s Soviet past.
Quoting Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov (1814-1841), Poroshenko said: “Farewell, unwashed Russia, land of slaves, land of lords. And you, blue uniforms, and you, folks obedient to them.”
Poroshenko said Ukraine and Russia are “finally independent from one another – in political, economic, gas, energy and even spiritual spheres.”
Not so, Petro. Visa-free travel isn’t the end of Ukraine’s journey to becoming a prosperous European democracy. It is only one more step in a long journey.
Because of Poroshenko’s failure to combat corruption, uproot the oligarchy and dismantle Soviet institutions, Ukraine remains shackled to its Soviet past. Ukrainians deserved visa-free travel long ago, but Poroshenko and previous leaders delayed and obstructed.
Now Poroshenko wants to ride visa-free travel triumph to re-election victory in 2019. But Ukrainians have their eyes open. Most Ukrainians believe that the nation is going in the wrong direction and Poroshenko deserves more blame than anyone else.
Far from being independent from Russia, bilateral trade shot up 40 percent between the two nations in the first four months of 2017. Meanwhile, the full benefits of the EU-Ukraine free trade agreement are not happening because lawmakers lag in adopting EU standards.
There’s a long list of unfulfilled promises and unfinished reforms: land, pension, election, state-owned enterprises, judicial system and on and on. And Poroshenko, it’s fair to say, has lost the trust of civil society.
This is reminiscent of Ukraine’s hosting of the Euro 2012 football championships, an achievement that ex-President Viktor Yanukovuch touted as proof that Ukraine is a full-fledged European nation. We all know how that turned out. While visa-free travel is a great advancement, it alone does not make Ukraine a democracy. There is too much work ahead. Poroshenko needs to lead, follow or get out of the way.
