2007年VOA标准英语-Ukrainians Disillusioned With Orange Revolution

The ongoing¹ political stalemate in Ukraine is a far cry from the heady days of the so-called "Orange Revolution" in 2004. In this report from Washington, Senior Correspondent André de Nesnera looks at the current state of Ukrainian politics.

Viktor Yushchenko, 10 Apr 2007

There was great euphoria in Ukraine then and confidence that the "Orange Revolution" would usher³ in a new era.

But Robert Legvold, a Ukraine and Russia expert at Columbia University in New York, says the euphoria quickly dissipated.

"And it dissipated because the 'Orange Revolution' coalition⁴ couldn't hang together, was not effective," said Robert Legvold. "Yushchenko has not been a decisive and well-organized president. He's made one mistake after another. As a result of the compromises they'd reached in order to arrive at some kind of peaceful settlement of the fall events in 2004, they created a very weak presidency⁵, a strong parliament which almost guaranteed gridlock because that had been, to an extent, the nature of Ukrainian politics even beforehand. And in that context of political gridlock, Yushchenko has shown himself to be evermore ineffective."

Viktor Yanukovych, 02 Apr 2007

David Marples, a Ukraine expert at the University of Alberta (in Canada), says Yanukovych's political comeback was remarkable⁸.

"But there, one has to consider again Yushchenko's actions on taking the presidency," said David Marples. "It was always one of compromise with past foes⁹ which is very commendable¹⁰, but in political life is often a passport to political suicide, because he gave Yanukovich the opportunity to come back and he made compromises at every point. Yanukovich should be dead and buried, and it was up to Yushchenko to do that, and he failed to do it quite markedly."

Experts say another reason why Ukrainians have become disillusioned¹¹ with President Yushchenko is that his administration has been tainted¹² by allegations of corruption¹³.

Margarita Balmaceda, a Ukraine expert at Seton Hall University (in New Jersey), says a glaring example is the agreement reached between Kyiv and Moscow early last year regarding Russian gas supplies.

"As more and more details of this agreement and all the corruption behind it started to come out into the press - because the press is quite free now - people really realized that you do not have a radically¹⁴ different political game now as you had before the 'Orange Revolution' [people realized there was no change in the political system]," noted¹⁵ Margarita Balmaceda. "And people see, once again, that politics are being conducted without them, that they are not sitting at the table, and people are disillusioned, and people do not feel part of this political process."

About a year ago, the Gallup Organization asked Ukrainians their views about the country's political leadership. The results indicated that only 26 percent of those questioned approved of their political leaders.

The Gallup Organization is expected to update its findings in the next few months. Analysts say it will be interesting to see whether the approval ratings are even lower.