DOESMN'T SEEM A HARD CHOICE:

Ukraine's destiny is being decided on the streets, in the courts - and in the Kremlin (Simon Sebag-Montefiore, 27/11/2004, Daily Telegraph))

If Kiev's brave street protesters triumph over tyranny, corruption and electoral fraud, the Ukrainian revolution will soon glory in one of those wonderful nicknames, such as Georgia's Rose Revolution. My favourite was Estonia's Singing Revolution. What would this be? The Silk Revolution? The Dancing Revolution? Probably the Orange Revolution, after the opposition's colours. But Ukraine has a Soviet-dominated army and security police who are quite capable of turning this into a tragedy. There could be blood, not roses, on the streets of Kiev.

The biggest country in Europe west of Russia will become either a liberal democracy or a Russianised kleptocracy. Even as power seems to be draining away from outgoing President Kuchma and his heir, Victor Yanukovich, Ukraine stands at the crossroads of its very existence. Russia again faces the dilemma of its manifest destiny.

Ukraine is not just a rusty Soviet dump, but a fascinating, charmingly complex melting pot. Yes, it's split between Russian Orthodox East and Roman Catholic West with its more Polish/Austrian experience. Kiev itself is the ancient birthplace of Rus and Orthodoxy. Then there is the glorious Black Sea coast, a land of wine and luxury.

I spent much time there researching my biography of Potemkin, who annexed the Crimea and southern Ukraine, ending an earlier version of Ukraine - the independent Cossack republic of the Zaporoche Sech. He then founded many of Ukraine's southern cities, such as the famous naval base, Sebastopol, and Odessa. Take that decadent, cosmopolitan city: one of my favourites. Odessa was planned by the Spaniard de Ribas, built by the French Duc de Richelieu, populated by Jews, Italians, Russians, Ukrainians, beloved of writers such as Pushkin. The most beautiful girls in the world sip Crimean champagne in the open-air cafés of Deribaskaya. Or the seaside paradise of Crimea. Under a liberal democratic regime, Kiev, Crimea and Odessa will become alluring entrepots of tourism and commerce. Today, Ukraine is drab, depressed, corrupt, as Soviet as the direst Russian provinces.

They've already named it the Chestnut Revolution.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 27, 2004 9:54 PM