World Affairs Journal: Hard times ahead for Ukraine
This year has been exceptionally difficult for Ukraine’s economy, and 2013 is unlikely to be any better. Popular discontent with the inability of the Yanukovych regime to provide the population with decent living standards contributed greatly to the Regionnaires’ poor showing in the October parliamentary elections in which, despite significant fraud, they managed to scrounge up only 30 percent of the popular vote. As the economy goes into tailspin, popular opposition to the president and his rapacious party of power will grow and Viktor Yanukovych will face an unenviably stark if richly deserved choice: either to ignore reform and attempt to shore up his crumbling rule with force or to promote economic reform by loosening his hold on political power.