Page 21 - bne_newspaper_May 5 2017

Opinion
May 5, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 21
ALACO DISPATCHES:
Fathoming Ukraine’s faltering transition
Jonathan Melliss of Alaco
I have been back to Kyiv on several occasions since my first trip in 2009 towards the end of the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko. It is an attrac- tive place, but beyond that it is difficult to think of anywhere I have visited in the former Soviet Union that has changed as much in the last eight years.
On a superficial level, a de-communisation policy has seen streets, cities and monuments renamed in recent years, reducing taxi drivers to levels of frustration previously reserved for the local foot- ball team, Dynamo Kyiv, which went from 2009 to 2015 without winning a title.
More substantively, the conflict in the Donbas has plunged the country into a financial crisis, evident on arrival in the city. While the airport, newly reno- vated for the Euro 2012 football tournament held in the country, gives the impression of economic development, the impact of war and recession hits you as soon as you notice the hryvnia-dollar rate at currency exchanges.
In the space of eight years, Ukraine has gone from being a reasonably-priced destination to what must be the cheapest country in Europe. The devaluation of the national currency is a boon for tourists, but one can only imagine the effect it has had on large swathes of public workers who have seen their spending power fall considerably.
Other changes are apparent elsewhere in the capital. The Ukrainian yellow and light blue flag has become ubiquitous in the centre, adorning buildings and benches. Waiters, shop assistants
Visitors to a shrine to the victims of the 2014 Euromaidan protests in Kyiv's Independ- ence Square.
and barmen are increasingly likely to greet you
in Ukrainian rather than Russian. Symbols of the protests that led to the Ukrainian revolution of 2014 are still very visible on Kyiv’s Independence Square, with candles and flowers clustered to- gether as well as photographs and small plaques in memory of the departed. A restaurant named the Last Barricade displays other memorabilia, including charred helmets, makeshift shields used in the fighting and debris from the paving slabs used as missiles.
Considering the momentousness of Euromaidan, the emergence of a more overt sense of national identity is understandable. Of course, for some, the new assertion of a specifically Ukrainian iden- tity is worrying. Public opinion is clearly polarised over the events of the last few years and Ukraine’s current prospects. All anyone seemed to agree on during my brief stay was the ineffectiveness of the present authorities, whose track record leaves a lot to be desired.
Much publicised purges have led to the removal of thousands of Yanukovych-era officials and a flurry of appointments of international superstar reformers. But save for certain high profile suc- cesses, change, as experienced by the majority of the population, has been for the worse.
Given that President Petro Poroshenko, who has featured in all Ukrainian governments since the Orange Revolution, was a minister in the dis- graced Yanukovych regime, it is not surprising that his commitment to genuine change has been