What
Do Yushchenko And
Yanukovich Stand For?
By Patrick Richter
01 December 2004
WSWS
Neither
of the two official factions fighting for power in Ukrainethe
group led by opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko and that led by
the current prime minister, Viktor Yanukovichrepresents the interests
of the broad masses of the population.
Both appeal partly
to legitimate interests and needsYushchenko to the demand for
democracy and hostility to a regime characterised by authoritarian methods,
the suppression of media freedom and the manipulation of elections,
and Yanukovich to fear of the devastating social consequences that would
result from the complete opening of the country to Western capital and
the weakening of the traditionally close relations between Russia and
the industrial areas of eastern Ukraine.
But these appeals
are deceitful. They serve to mask the interests of a narrow elite whose
wealth and power stand in glaring contradiction to the poverty and political
exclusion of the broad masses. These appeals find a resonance because
many decades of Stalinist rule have left an inheritance of confusion
and political disorientation in the working class.
One can get a good
idea of the kind of democracy sought by the Yushchenko camp
by looking at Hungary, Poland and other Eastern European countries where
right-wing and ultra-right parties compete to offer international corporations
the best conditions for the exploitation of the domestic working class.
It speaks volumes about the character of this democratic
opposition that it is supported by organizations such as the US-based
National Endowment for Democracy, which was heavily involved in attempts
to overthrow Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Yanukovich represents
the cliques of oligarchs that have taken over Ukrainian heavy industry
over the past fifteen years. They have grown enormously wealthy, and
are determined to retain the political power that ensures their continued
enrichment.
Both groups, and
their respective parliamentary factions, are more or less openly manipulated
and receive support from abroad.
The Western media
has reported and decried at length the interference by Russian President
Vladimir Putin in support of Yanukovich. Putin regards the events in
Ukraine as a threat to vital Russian interests.
Following the Baltic
states entry into the European Union (EU), the stationing of American
troops in Central Asia (including former Soviet republics), and the
regime change in Georgia organised by Washington, Moscow fears it will
be isolated should Ukraine fall under the control of a pro-western government.
Russia is threatened with the loss of influence over one of the most
important industrial regions of the former Soviet Union and the loss
of control over the export routes of its most important raw materials,
oil and gas.
The Western media,
on the other hand, has barely commented on the role of the US and the
EU, which have intervened to manipulate the presidential election in
Ukraine in a somewhat less public manner, but on a greater scale than
Russia. Their support for the opposition ranges from the training of
activists, to political counselling, to the infusion of millions of
dollars. They have openly sided with Yushchenko in the aftermath of
the November 21 runoff election, which was won by Yanukovich, according
to election officials controlled by the sitting president, Leonid Kuchma.
The massive and
unrestrained intervention of the Western powers has aggravated the internal
conflict and brought the country to the brink of civil war.
What forces are at work?
The power struggle
in Ukraine has brought to the surface a conflict that has long been
smouldering within the dominant elite. Yushchenko and his most important
supporter, Yulia Tymoshenko, represent that part of the ruling layer
that is determined to impose a radical opening up of the country to
foreign capital.
Between 1993 and
1999, Yushchenko was head of the countrys central bank. He then
served as prime minister for one-and-a-half years. He led the opposition
alliance Our Ukraine, which had the strongest parliamentary
faction following elections two years ago. Posing as a Western reformer,
Yushchenko is seeking to break up the political-economic clan
structures and ostensibly develop and strengthen democratic
institutions. He wants to lead Ukraine into NATO and the European
Union, and endorses Western-style capitalism.
He is supported
by the nationalist Batkywschtschyna Party led by the millionaire (or,
according to some sources, billionaire) former vice-prime minister Yulia
Tymoshenko. The methods by which she attained her wealth can be compared
to those of the worst of the oligarchs and mafia bosses in the Yanukovich
camp. Her appeals for liberty and democracy
against the Kuchma regime, to which she owes her wealth, are utterly
cynical.
Tymoshenko, who
is 44, comes from the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk. She
came to Kiev at the beginning of the 1990s with her acquaintance Pavel
Lasarenko. The two followed Kuchma, who also originates from Dnepropetrovsk.
In 1996, Lasarenko
became prime minister and, along with Tymoshenko, amassed considerable
wealth. Tymoshenko developed a mechanism for exchanging Russian oil
and gas for Ukrainian industrial goods, under conditions where a substantial
share of the proceeds ended up in the coffers of the company she had
personally foundedUnited Energy Systems.
Lasarenko came into
conflict with various oligarchs and was ditched by Kuchma in 1998, in
connection with a corruption scandal. Lasarenko currently sits in a
US prison on charges of money laundering. Tymoshenko managed to worm
her way out of the affair and was appointed deputy to Prime Minister
Yushchenko in 1999.
In its edition of
November 26, the Guardian newspaper of Britain quotes from a book by
Matthew Brzezinski, Casino Moscow, which devotes an entire chapter to
Tymoshenko, describing her as an eleven-billion-dollar-woman.
Tymoshenko, having concentrated 20 per cent of the wealth of the country
under her control while the country as a whole starves, is reportedly
guarded by an entire unit of former Soviet special forces.
She now presents
herself as a leader of the democratic opposition, although in the acquisition
of her personal fortune she engaged in practices no less dirty and bloody
than those of her adversaries in the Yanukovich camp.
Following the break-up
of the Soviet Union, a section of the old Stalinist leadership divided
substantial parts of the Ukrainian economy amongst itself in the course
of privatisation, utilizing criminal methods to accumulate obscene levels
of wealth. At the same time, the country was wracked by growing poverty.
The principal target for the privatisations was Soviet-era industry,
concentrated in the east of Ukraine, which is rich in iron ore and coal
deposits. The area is dominated by mines, engineering facilities, and
armaments plants. These are the economic sectors upon which Kuchma and
Yanukovich rest.
Yanukovich is chairman
of the regional party and former governor of the eastern Ukrainian heavy-industry
area centred in Donetsk. He is the political representative of the Donetsk
oligarch clans led by Rinat Achmetov, who, with an estimated fortune
of two billion dollars, is regarded as the richest man in Ukraine.
Kuchma, who has
ruled as president since 1994, was director of a large arms company
in Dnepropetrovsk and a high-ranking KGB functionary during the Soviet
period. Kuchma represents the Dnepropetrovsk oligarch clans, together
with his son-in-law, Viktor Pinchuk, himself an oligarch and former
prime minister.
Economic ties between
Ukraine and Russia were extremely close during the Soviet era, and remained
close after the collapse of the USSR and Ukrainian independence. This
is reflected in the interlocking interests of the various factions of
oligarchs. Some 83 per cent of the Ukrainian aluminium industry, for
example, is Russian-owned.
The dependence of
Ukraine on Russian oil and gasfour-fifths of its needs are supplied
by Russiaunderlies its close economic relations with its neighbour
to the east. Russia uses this dependence to maintain its influence over
Ukraine. By rationing the flow of energy, Russia is able to apply considerable
pressure.
Russian energy companies
such as Lukoil and Gazprom, which have close links to the Russian state,
operate in Ukraine as de facto branches of the Russian foreign ministry,
and the former Russian prime minister and Gazprom chairman, Victor Chernomyrdin,
has been ambassador to Ukraine since 2001.
Since taking office
in 1994, Kuchma has sought to develop an independent role for Ukraine,
attempting to achieve a balance in relations between Russia, on the
one hand, and the US and Europe on the other. He initiated a drive to
lead Ukraine into the European Union and NATO, striving at the same
time to strengthen the economic influence of the Confederation of Independent
States (CIS), the umbrella body of the various states that emerged from
the break-up of the Soviet Union. The CIS is dominated by Russia.
Ukraine took part
in a project, which has since petered out, to revive the silk roada
commercial route between Europe and Asia that bypasses Russia. Georgia,
Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldavia participated in this project in
1998-99 under the auspices of the European powers. At the same time,
Ukraine under Kuchma was one of the biggest recipients of American financial
aid.
For his part, the
current leader of the opposition, Yushchenko, was already working closely
with Western capitalist interests in the 1990s. As chairman of the Ukraine
central bank, he succeeded in maintaining relations with Western banks
and institutions and securing further credits during the ruble crisis
that rocked Russia and the other countries of the former Soviet Union
in 1998. This improved his reputation amongst the clans of oligarchs,
who hoped he would help them achieve better relations with the US and
Europe. In December 1999, Yushchenko was appointed prime minister.
However, since the
1999 Kosovo war and the removal of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic,
these interests have been forced to recognize that US imperialism would
not hesitate to continue its aggressive drive for domination and take
them on. Yushchenko himself threatened to close unprofitable mines and
steel plants, thereby directly threatening the power base of the oligarchs
in the east of Ukraine.
Tymoshenko, then
the vice-prime minister and responsible for energy trade with Russia,
came into conflict with the pipeline baron and son-in-law of Kuchma,
Pinchuk. She was removed from office in January 2001 and remanded, subject
to investigations. Yushchenko was relieved of his office in April of
the same year.
Following the Rose
Revolution in Georgia, which, with US support, led to the removal
from office of Eduard Shevardnadze in November 2003, Kuchma once again
sought to cuddle up to Moscow. Further attempts to accommodate Washington,
such as the dispatch of 1,600 soldiers to Iraq, failed to impress the
Bush administration.
The US continued
with its aggressive strategy and groomed opposition candidate Yushchenko.
He has close relations with Madeline Albright, the secretary of state
in the Democratic Clinton administration, Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national
security advisor under former president Jimmy Carter, and the financier
George Soros. Donations from institutes established by Soros have helped
develop and finance the Ukrainian student movement Pora
(It is Time) along the lines of similar movements in Serbia
and Georgia. Pora has been in the forefront of the demonstrations in
support of the opposition.
Popular support
for the opposition relies partially on hopes that a change of government
can only improve the catastrophic social situation of the country. Since
the dissolution of the Soviet Union, average monthly income in Ukraine
has dropped to $30. In the cities, it is barely more than $60, and in
Kiev, approximately $100. Spending power plummeted by 40 per cent between
1989 and 1999.
Social and welfare
structures and facilitiesstrongly linked to the factories in Soviet
timeshave been devastated. Life expectancy has sunk to 73 years
for women and 62 years for menafter Russia, the lowest rates in
Europe. In the meantime, the rate of new AIDS victims is one of the
highest in the world. Four million inhabitants have left Ukraine over
the past few years, and deaths of miners are exceeded only by China.