Huff Post: Back to the ‘bad old days’ in Ukraine: Does a distracted U.S. even care?
Her trademark wrap-around braid gone, her body covered in bruises from alleged mistreatment by prison guards, and her spirit seemingly weakened by untreated, debilitating back pain and several days of hunger strike -- the woman we've seen in the news this week barely resembles Yulia Tymoshenko - -the passionate, thoughtful and elegant leader of the Orange Revolution, Ukraine's 2004 nonviolent uprising against a corrupt election process and system.
That revolt, which led to the installment of decidedly pro-Western Tymoshenko as Ukrainian prime minister over the old guard, pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych, represented a "seismic shift Westward in the geopolitics of the region." It kicked off a period of great democratic development and hope, which many fear is coming to a very quick end, what with Yanukovich having barely defeated Tymoshenko in the 2010 presidential election, followed by Tymoshenko's cleverly-timed 2011 imprisonment after her "conviction" over "office abuse" charges.
Read more here.
That revolt, which led to the installment of decidedly pro-Western Tymoshenko as Ukrainian prime minister over the old guard, pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych, represented a "seismic shift Westward in the geopolitics of the region." It kicked off a period of great democratic development and hope, which many fear is coming to a very quick end, what with Yanukovich having barely defeated Tymoshenko in the 2010 presidential election, followed by Tymoshenko's cleverly-timed 2011 imprisonment after her "conviction" over "office abuse" charges.
Read more here.