The rule of
law is indeed at stake in Ukraine, as are the long-term prospects for peace and
stability in Eastern Europe, not to mention the aspirations of the Ukrainian
people for an independent and prosperous future.

In Ukraine,
the rule of law is manifestly represented by the people occupying Independence
Square, not the occupants of the government buildings they are besieging.
 We can be certain of this because Ukraine’s most prominent opposition
figure, Yulia Tymoshenko, is in prison, convicted of the types of corruption
that are standard operating procedure for the regime of current President
Viktor Yanukovych. Under Yanukovych’s leadership, Ukraine has been ridiculed as
a “kleptocracy” and has earned Ernst and Young’s ranking as one of the most
corrupt governments in the world.  The deficiencies in the legal and
judicial system of Ukraine are notorious, including selective prosecution,
corruption and bribery, nepotism, cronyism and an unacceptable lack of
transparency. If the people of Ukraine take defiant action against a corrupt
government, they should be supported by the international community, not
discouraged.

But the last
straw for the Ukrainian people, and the imminent threat to the international
community, is that President Yanukovych has proposed the ultimate corruption,
selling Ukraine’s European birthright to Russia for the Biblical “mess of
pottage.”  Rejecting the long-sought invitation to join modern Europe –
which was conditioned, of course, on the obligation to adhere to the rule of
law, starting with the release of Tymoshenko — Yanukovych seems determined to
turn instead toward the open arms of Russia, which is blackmailing Ukraine to
join an alternate “free trade” zone centered in Moscow.  Who believes that
those open arms portend a warm embrace from Mother Russia?

Two decades
ago, Ukrainians brought an end to the Soviet Union by overwhelmingly voting for
independence, thereby opening the door to the possibility of an alternate
future for Ukraine based on reestablishing its historic ties to Europe and,
yes, the rule of law. The authors of this article, on an October 1991 visit to
Kyiv to urge election reform, were joyfully photographed in Independence Square
in front of a half-demolished statue of Lenin. That photograph is among our
most cherished possessions. If given the opportunity today, Ukrainians would
again overwhelmingly reaffirm those aspirations. Yet their corrupt president is
on the verge of delivering them back into the grip of a recrudescent evil
empire which they rejected so emphatically a generation earlier.

Why, one
might ask, is our own State Department so timid in the face of the overwhelming
potential for both good and evil in this current situation?  Rather than
turning a blind eye toward corruption in Ukraine and aggression in Moscow, now
is the time for America to stand up for the rule of law in Ukraine in a
tangible and meaningful way, by unequivocally supporting not only the
protestors’ rights to speak and assemble but also the justice of their cause.
 

In the U.S.,
it is often said that “freedom is not free.”  The 19th Century African-American
abolitionist Frederick Douglass responded to those who sought to discourage his
defiant actions against slavery as follows: “Those who profess to favor
freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing
up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the
ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral
one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it
must be a struggle.”

The Kyiv
protesters are paying the price of freedom in Ukraine. As our thoughts go out
to the tens of thousands of Ukrainian patriots camped in the cold streets, we
are reminded of a defining moment in American history, and we have to wonder –
what would our State Department have advised George Washington and his army,
struggling through the harsh winter of 1777 at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania?
Hopefully, it would not have been to refrain from defiant action

Mr. and Mrs. Huntwork, both
lawyers and graduates of Yale Law School, have worked extensively on legal
reform efforts in Ukraine since before the time of independence. Most recently,
they were delegates to the Oct. 16-18, 2013 Canadian Ukrainian Parliamentary
Program in Ottawa, Canada.