This defiance of democratic standards should not be ignored. The right path for the European Union and Ukraine’s Western friends is to spurn President Viktor Yanukovych’s insincere attempts for closer ties and continue the freeze on International Monetary Fund loans while keeping dialogue open.
While visiting Poland on Nov. 15, Yanukovych rebuffed entreaties by German President Christian Wulff and Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski to backtrack in the political persecution under way in Ukraine, not only against Tymoshenko, but also against leading members of the former government who continue to languish in jail.
Parliament on Nov. 15 rejected a bid to change the Soviet-era abuse-of-office law that Tymoshenko was found guilty of breaking.
A kangaroo court convicted Tymoshenko on Oct. 11 and Judge Rodion Kireyev sentenced her to seven years in prison, a verdict that the former prime minister is appealing.
“Other directions of Tymoshenko’s activity are being investigated,” Yanukovych told reporters in Wroclaw. “Time goes by and today we cannot predict how all this will end.”
How “all this ends” in terms of European integration is badly.
The stage is being set for a disastrous Ukraine-European Union summit on Dec. 19, when Ukraine once had hopes of signing trade and visa-liberalization deals.
The only way for the EU to maintain credibility about values is to take a hard line against the democratic retreat under way. It is clear that Yanukovych’s actions have forced the 27-nation bloc into this position.
Not only is the opposition being persecuted under the guise of an anti-corruption fight, but Yanukovych has signed into law a measure that will throw a veil of secrecy around court rulings.
And late on Nov. 17, lawmakers adopted a new election law that many will watch to see whether it gives Yanukovych’s Regions Party an unfair edge in next year’s parliamentary contest.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s leaders appear to be increasingly willing to gamble the nation’s strategic economic interests for the sake of cheaper Russian natural gas and loans from the Kremlin, whose leaders detest democracy.
And as average businesses get squeezed, Yanukovych’s administration continues to carve up Ukraine, possibly getting ready to dispose of the last batch of prized state-owned business assets at fire-sale prices through uncompetitive privatization tenders.
Whose interests are being served here?
Not the majority of Ukrainians, who stand by democratic European values.
We want Ukraine to become a member of the EU as much as anybody else.
But Yanukovych has decided otherwise by his actions.
