Pluralism by default

Ukraine and the law of communicating vessels

Viktor Yushchenko's election victory in September 2007 opened up an opportunity for improvement of Ukraine's democratic institutions, writes Mykola Riabchuk. The current crisis, a symptom of "pluralism by default", represents a setback for those hopes. [English version added] [more]

How I became a Czech and a Slovak

Mykola Riabchuk recalls how the politics of the Prague Spring filtered through to Ukraine until the crackdown on "bourgeois nationalism" five years later; and how, during perestroika, the roles were reversed and he brought banned literature to friends in Czechoslovakia. [more]

Bad peace vs. good war

Ukrainian democracy might be chaotic and immature -- but at least it's democracy. Nevertheless, there's still a lot to do before the country achieves anything like stability. [more]

Farewell to the cargo cult

The current stand-off in the Ukraine is a result of "incomplete revolution". The failure to establish democratic structures has allowed the mechanisms of authoritarianism back into Ukrainian politics. [more]

Is the West serious about the "last European dictatorship"?

Western civil society should stop tolerating cynical realpolitik towards Belarus and put pressure on their governments to blacklist offending officials. [more]

Ukraine at the crossroads

Can a state based on blackmail be reformed?

What will it take to really change the Ukrainian political system? [more]

Ukraine: the not-so-unexpected nation

Mykola Riabchuk on the history of Ukrainian independence and the ideological background of Victor Yushchenko's "Orange Revolution". [more]

Ukraine: One State, Two Countries?

Does the Ukrainian political elite use the country's deep sense of political ambivalence to stay in power? [more]

Ukrainian Media: Still "not so free"

In his analysis of the Ukrainian media landscape, Mykola Riabchuk maintains that a situation when people have plenty of rights on paper but cannot employ them in reality has largely persisted in the post-Soviet space. [more]