Abandoned Maidan

The second anniversary of the “Orange Revolution” passed routinely

Yesterday, the Kiev Maidan of Independence did not see the official celebrations dedicated to Freedom Day. Only about a thousand people, mostly pensioners, celebrated the second anniversary of the “Orange Revolution” in the capital’s square. The contrast between today's everyday Maidan and the bright orange crowds of two years ago is striking.

In 2004, from 300 to 500 thousand people protested in the capital’s square against the falsification of the presidential elections, where the main rivals were “orange” Viktor Yushchenko and “blue and white” Viktor Yanukovych. Yesterday, passers-by showed no interest in the demonstrators; some irritably made defiant remarks. Not far from the Maidan, opponents of the “Orange” were selling orange glasses for 10 hryvnia ($2), assuring that with their help it would be possible to examine the “Orange’s” achievements.

President Viktor Yushchenko preferred a televised address to personal communication with the people on the Maidan. “It would be advisable to come up with an initiative to consolidate around a new political project of the democratic forces of Ukraine,” said the Ukrainian president.

Yushchenko held a gala reception at the Mariinsky Palace, where he invited his main rival in the 2004 elections, current Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Both politicians are diligently demonstrating political reconciliation. The Prime Minister yesterday called the revolution the starting point of a new relationship between the government and citizens. He assured that the “blue and white” profess the same “democratic values” as the “orange”.

Thanks to the mistakes of Yushchenko and his team, the Blue and Whites created a ruling coalition, and their leader, after the constitutional reform, has greater powers than the president. The only politician who still talks about continuing the revolution is opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko. She refused to come to both the Maidan and the presidential reception, since the “orange” “have nothing to be proud of yet.” Yesterday she was away from Kyiv - in Brussels. At a conference dedicated to the “orange” future of Ukraine, she said that the “orange” team will return power through the constitutional court, which will repeal the constitutional reform that redistributed presidential power in favor of the parliament and the prime minister. Before the summer of 2007, early parliamentary elections will take place, where the “blue and white” will be defeated, Tymoshenko believes. Due to declining living standards and rising prices, Prime Minister Yanukovych’s power “relies less and less on the support of the population,” she said.

People themselves no longer seem to trust anyone. “We were used to divide power,” thirty-year-old Kiev resident Irina, whose entire family defended the entire “Orange Revolution” on the Maidan, told a Vremya Novostey correspondent. - I won’t go to demonstrations either for Yushchenko or Yanukovych. I don’t trust anyone anymore.” It is significant that today a civil action will take place next to the Maidan, where both the “orange” and the “blue and white” will be judged. Its organizers promise to ridicule the tendency of Ukrainian politicians towards “premature bronzedness” and “idolization” using all available methods.

Svetlana STEPANENKO, Kyiv