Remember all those cool-looking kids calling for “democracy” and waving orange banners at that giant rock concert that styled itself Ukraine’s “Orange Revolution”? No one but us “democrats” here — right?
Wrong.
John Laughland, among others, warned us about the ideological coloration of the “orange revolutionaries,” but dissenting voices were in a minority. Now that the “revolution” has given way to a government, however, the character of the new regime is becoming apparent. An editorial in the pro-Yushchenko Kyiv Post wonders if the Orange Revolution is turning red, on account of the socialist measures recently enacted — including price controls on gas and meat — and now that same newspaper has revealed that a pro-government member of the Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, recently attended a conference in Kiev, the theme of which was “Zionism as the Biggest Threat to Contemporary Civilization.” The Kyiv Post reports “the conference included calls for the deportation of Ukraine’s Jews.” An honored conference guest: David Duke. The Rada member in attendance: Levko Lukyanenko, a supporter of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s party.
Okay, so maybe this is a marginal figure, not representative of the “orange” mainstream.” Nope. In this little biography, Lukyanenko is described as not only a member of the Rada, but a former ambassador to Canada and a founding member of the Helsinki Watch Group, not to mention “the co-author of the Declaration of Ukrainian National Sovereignty and the author of the Act of the Proclamation of Ukrainian Independence.” On April 20, he was presented with the title “Hero of Ukraine” by President Viktor Yushchenko.