Seven years after she rallied crowds in Kiev during Ukraine’s Orange Revolution, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko appeared in court Wednesday on charges of abuse of power. The blond-braided firebrand says President Viktor Yanukovych — the loser of the peaceful uprising who scored a shock comeback in 2010 — is trying to crush political opposition using trumped-up charges; Yanukovych says the charges have nothing to do with politics. But some worry that the trial is yet another sign that Ukraine, once a beacon for democratic change in a region of authoritarian regimes, is losing its luster.
When Tymoshenko roused tens of thousands of protestors in the capital’s central square in the winter of 2004, she was leading a movement that was supposed to signal a democratic breakthrough in Eastern Europe, much like the Arab Spring now sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. Fed up with rampant corruption and authoritarian control, Ukrainians had taken to the streets after what they believed was an attempt by Yanukovych, the incumbent’s hand-picked candidate, to steal the election.
“Everyone understands that this is selective justice, as corruption in Ukraine spreads well beyond one party or political figure,” says Olga Shumylo-Tapiola, an analyst at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels. “But the E.U. has to think longer term.”
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