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May 25, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 9
IRI poll paints a pretty grim picture of life and politics in Ukraine
Ben Aris in Berlin
The centre for insights in survey research, a pollster that is part funded by the US Agency or International Development (USAID), just published an extensive survey on attitudes in Ukraine and it makes for pretty grim reading.
To summarise the main results in broad brush strokes, the government of Ukraine has failed to fulfil the promise of the “Revolution of Dignity,” it has lost the youth who won't vote and see little future in their own country, while their parents retain very mixed feelings about what their relations with Russia should be or membership of Nato.
With presidential election slated for next year President Petro Poroshenko is in trouble and
will have his work cut out if either he or his eponymous parliamentary fraction are going to retain power. However, the poor showing of the other parties suggests that Ukrainians don't like any of their leaders and in general feel the country has lost its way.
That will be a problem for Ukraine’s western allies that have repeatedly backed individuals rather than the process as part of a more general policy of wooing Ukraine away from Russia’s orbit of influence. It began with linking Ukraine’s Association Agreement to the release of opposition leader, former prime minister and head of Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party Yulia Tymoshenko, who had been jailed by former president Viktor Yanukovych. Then Washington