The Agony of the Orange Putsch in Ukraine

The present radical change in the political situation in Ukraine came about at the beginning of August, first of all, because the Orange Coalition, that was the winner in the March parliamentary elections, in the course of three months was unable to come to any agreement for a candidate to become the Premier Minister or to appoint people to all the government posts.

As a result, the Socialist Party of Ukraine, which, together with the block "Our Ukraine" of Viktor Yushenko came onto this block and defeated the Orange Coalition and thus formed the majority, together with the Party of the Regions of Viktor Yanukovich and also with the Communists.

The dramatic development of the two unworkable Orange Revolution governments had its effect on the internal and external situation in Ukraine.

In this regard we have to realize that this development has effected the political situation of Bush’s America – the organizer and financier of these orange revolutions in Ukraine - now it is practically abandoning its child, even though giving it its birth.

How can we explain this? At that time when Yushenko was pushed into office, he showed that he could not govern the country or carry out the plans of his American mentors.

Besides, the situation in the world had seen a very large growth of anti-Americanism, because of its imperialist policies all over the world after the fall of the USSR. On top of that, Russia had started to defend its interests and not always followed the dictates of American initiatives, as it did follow before.

The influence of Russia during the orange revolution was not very effective in Ukraine and it did not hamper US policy in Ukraine, but now this new coalition has made it possible to use the Russian card and thus become the ruling force in Ukraine.

Yushenko took all this into account and agreed to the candidature of Yanukovich to become Prime Minister. After this there were other parties that came into the government. But we cannot be so excited with this development either, because they are not for concrete friendship or unity with Russia, but for their own well paid seats in parliament and other perks that come with it to fill their pockets with.

Mr. Yanukovich is fond of proclaiming that his policy is neither pro-Russian nor pro NATO, but only pro-Ukraine. This could be a starting point towards setting the stage for progressive forces to get Ukraine back into cooperation with Russia.

What is ahead, we shall have to see. For us, the cardinal fact is that for the first time in 15 years since the demise of the USSR, Communists instead being in opposition are now part of the government.

But from one side, their participation in the government is as a foreign object inside a body, but on the other hand, there will be internal squabbles and alignments to get back to the aims of the orange revolution. Yanukovich and his helpers know this. Therefore in order to stay in power he allowed this small fraction of Communists to hold some very important posts in the government. The struggle in parliament is just beginning.

In the last election, according to my point of view, the Communists took a correct position of not voting for either candidate. Now the Communists are together in parliament with one of these parties. Was this a correct decision by the Communists of Ukraine?

Not only correct, but a truthful position at this time. Is there no conflict of interest? No. But, why not?

In this very situation when there appears to be a good opportunity to have influence, to eliminate any remains of the reactionary orange revolution ideology, at this critical time, they made the right decision.

The main problem for the Communists is the question of how to cooperate with these elements in parliament, to have their own principles which they must never abandon in order to have the trust of the people, or to give in to these elements and lose the respect of the Ukrainian people.

There must never come this "X" day when these Communist representatives in parliament will get so used to their warm seats, government positions, to be kicked out as was done to the CPRF and the Socialists of Ukraine before.

That is why it was good to hear one of the leaders of the communists say that they will not always support the coalition, whatever it might cost them.

This position, if utilized in the correct way, will give them the opportunity to defend the interests of the working class, to get back the trust of the people …and to get ready for the future battles.