Two and a half years after the "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine saw the end of Viktor Yanukovych and the rise of Viktor Yushchenko, the country is in political paralysis. The former found his way back into the system as Prime Minister while the latter has had trouble implementing his reform program as President. To settle the issue, and after days of talks, the two have agreed to fresh elections in the fall.
I don't know what it really takes to rule a country, but sixteen years after the Soviet Union broke up it's clear some have done it right while others have gotten way off the rails. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are now all EU members and are set to adopt the Euro as early as 2010. They have also acceded to the Schengen acquis and will join the "borderless" continent regime at the end of the year, making it possible to drive from Tallinn to Lisbon without border checks -- unthinkable even just a few years ago.
Belarus is a Soviet-style dictatorship, Russia is a personality cult surrounding Vladimir Putin, and the "Stans" have become breeding grounds for radical strands of Islam with the governments there powerless to stop it.
Ukraine started out its new found freedom with a lot of promise, but since then has squandered it and quite frankly the patience of the world community. Seeing all the opportunities lost in my parents' former homeland of Croatia (as well as its unspoken but well known zeal to annex Bosnia-Hercegovina at some future date), I don't expect much better from Ukraine even after September. But stagnation is not a solution. It will either regress into oppression once more or it will move forward and not turn back.
Caving into Putin's dreams of restoring Greater Russia would not be the answer, however.
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