The first anniversary of Ukraine’s U.S. government-backed -and-subsidized “Orange Revolution” provoked this bitter comment from Yevgen Zakharov, co-chair of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group, who last year was manning the barricades in Kiev against the supposedly evil Leonid Kuchma:
“Turns out it wasn’t a revolution after all. All the same people are still in power. It’s just that those who were first in line before are now second in line, and those who were second in line are now first. But all the same names are at the front of the line.”
How does that song go? “Meet the new boss — same as the old boss.”
Amazingly, the European Union has just awarded Ukraine “free market” status — this is said of a country where meat prices are set by the government, and price controls are so stringent that, in many localities, meat is unavailable at any price. As Matthew Schofield of Knight-Ridder reports:
“Yushchenko’s team increased pensions after retirees complained they could no longer afford meat. At the same time, however, he shut down the black market meat import business, fulfilling a pledge to fight corruption. The result? Demand from pensioners for meat grew, while supply decreased. Prices doubled, leaving pensioners again complaining that they couldn’t afford meat and making matters worse for millions more Ukrainians.”
That’s a “free market” that only the EU could love!
In the wake of this phony “pro-Western” revolution, corruption wafts its way through Ukrainian society like a poisonous fog. As the Times of London informs us:
“Reporters revealed that Andriy, his 19-year-old son, drove a top-of-the-range BMW and spent hundreds of dollars in fashionable Kiev nightspots. It later emerged that the President’s son owned the rights to the logos and slogans that helped to sell the Orange Revolution.”
Gee, how did Yushie Junior get those “rights”?
After the U.S. government poured millions of taxpayer dollars into financing this phony “revolution,” this is what they have to show for it: a Ukraine still crippled by corruption, and, as Yushchenko’s former chief of staff (who resigned in disgust) put it: “Corruption is even worse than before.”
Ukraine is still mired in statism and corruption, but, oh wait … one thing has been accomplished.
Just remember: you read it here — and here, and here — first.