Hurrah! The Orange Revolution Begins to Take Root

It's a wonderful day for Ukraine and for the cause of political and economic freedom!

Today, the reform-minded and committed democrat, Viktor Yuschenko, is president of Ukraine. His first piece of business: a summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Putin openly tampered with Ukraine's presidential elections and backed the old guard's attempts to stiff-arm democracy. Because eastern Ukraine has strong bonds with Russia and much of its population waxes nostalgic for the bland certitudes of Soviet dictatorship, Yushchenko needs to placate Russia in order to avoid seeing his country burst in two.

What the experience in Ukraine demonstrates is that democracy can best be achieved and advanced via the following methods:

• When an aroused people, spontaneously and otherwise, rouse themselves to refuse tyranny and do so peacefully.
• When the community of democratic nations and international institutions refuse to accept the outcome of elections that are obviously the result of despotic manipulation.
• When people around the world are mobilized to pray.

These three ingredients were clearly observable in the waning days of Soviet hegemony of Germany as well. (Other factors in the fall of the Soviet Union and the destruction of its empire included the inherent weaknesses of Communism, the rising expectations for freedom created by perestroika and glasnost, and the Soviet Union's enormous economic problems born of too much military spending, especially expenditures for battling insurgents in Afghanistan.)

The Ukrainian model ought to be of interest to the Bush Administration, I think.

Le Sabot-Moderne covers President Yushchenko's inauguration from the ground and includes that site's excellent trademark photographs.

This story talks about Yushchenko's first full day in office. It's important for him, both domestically and in relation to Russia, to play nice with Putin even as he presses for closer and more fruitful ties with the West.

This item, from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, recounts reactions from some of the Cleveland-area's large Ukrainian-American community.