Viktor Yushchenko

Viktor Yushchenko PDF Author: Dennis Abrams
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
ISBN: 1438104782
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 121

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Book Description
With his election to the Ukrainian presidency, Viktor Yushchenko became a hero throughout the world for his courage in the face of nearly overwhelming adversity. After three elections (two of them marred by fraud), one attempted murder by poison, one r

Viktor Yushchenko

Viktor Yushchenko PDF Author: Dennis Abrams
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
ISBN: 1438104782
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 121

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Book Description
With his election to the Ukrainian presidency, Viktor Yushchenko became a hero throughout the world for his courage in the face of nearly overwhelming adversity. After three elections (two of them marred by fraud), one attempted murder by poison, one r

Revolution in Orange

Revolution in Orange PDF Author: Anders Åslund
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
"This volume explores the role of former president Kuchma and the oligarchs, societal attitudes, the role of the political opposition and civil society, the importance of the media, and the roles of Russia and the West"--Provided by publisher.

How Ukraine Became a Market Economy and Democracy

How Ukraine Became a Market Economy and Democracy PDF Author: Anders Åslund
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0881325066
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Book Description
One of Europe's old nations steeped in history, Ukraine is today an undisputed independent state. It is a democracy and has transformed into a market economy with predominant private ownership. Ukraine's postcommunist transition has been one of the most protracted and socially costly, but it has taken the country to a desirable destination. Åslund's vivid account of Ukraine's journey begins with a brief background, where he discusses the implications of Ukraine's history, the awakening of society because of Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms, the early democratization, and the impact of the ill-fated Soviet economic reforms. He then turns to the reign of President Leonid Kravchuk from 1991 to 1994, the only salient achievement of which was nation-building, while the economy collapsed in the midst of hyperinflation. The first two years of Leonid Kuchma's presidency, from 1994 to 1996, were characterized by substantial achievements, notably financial stabilization and mass privatization. The period 1996–99 was a miserable period of policy stagnation, rent seeking, and continued economic decline. In 2000 hope returned to Ukraine. Viktor Yushchenko became prime minister and launched vigorous reforms to cleanse the economy from corruption, and economic growth returned. The ensuing period, 2001–04, amounted to a competitive oligarchy. It was quite pluralist, although repression increased. Economic growth was high. The year 2004 witnessed the most joyful period in Ukraine, the Orange Revolution, which represented Ukraine's democratic breakthrough, with Yushchenko as its hero. The postrevolution period, however, has been characterized by great domestic political instability; a renewed, explicit Russian threat to Ukraine's sovereignty; and a severe financial crisis. The answers to these challenges lie in how soon the European Union fully recognizes Ukraine's long-expressed identity as a European state, how swiftly Ukraine improves its malfunctioning constitutional order, and how promptly it addresses corruption.

Understanding Ukrainian Politics: Power, Politics, and Institutional Design

Understanding Ukrainian Politics: Power, Politics, and Institutional Design PDF Author: Paul D'Anieri
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317452992
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Ukraine made headlines around the world during the winter of 2004-05 as the colorful banners of the Orange Revolution unfurled against the snowy backdrop of Kyiv, signaling the bright promise of democratic rebirth. But is that what is really happening in Ukraine? In the early post-Soviet period, Ukraine appeared to be firmly on the path to democracy. The peaceful transfer of power from Leonid Kravchuk to Leonid Kuchma in the election of 1994, followed by the adoption of a western-style democratic constitution in 1996, seemed to complete the picture. But the Kuchma presidency was soon clouded by dark rumors of corruption and even political murder, and by 2004 the country was in full-blown political crisis. A three-stage presidential contest was ultimately won by Viktor Yushchenko, who took office in 2005 and appointed Yulia Tymoshenko as premier, but the turmoil was far from over. The new government quickly faltered and splintered. This introduction to Ukrainian politics looks beyond these dramatic events and compelling personalities to identify the actual play of power in Ukraine and the operation of its political system. The author seeks to explain how it is that, after each new beginning, power politics has trumped democratic institution-building in Ukraine, as in so many other post-Soviet states. What is really at work here, and how can Ukraine break the cycle of hope and disillusionment?

Ukraine's Orange Revolution

Ukraine's Orange Revolution PDF Author: Andrew Wilson
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300112904
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
A close-up account of the 2004 popular revolution in Ukraine, and what it means

The KGB's Poison Factory

The KGB's Poison Factory PDF Author: Boris Volodarsky
Publisher: Frontline Books
ISBN: 1848325428
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
In late November 2006 the world was shaken by the ruthless assassination in London of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Lt Col of the Russian security service (FSB). The murder was the most notorious crime committed by the Russian intelligence on foreign soil in over three decades. The author, Boris Volodarsky, who was consulted by the Metropolitan Police during the investigation and remains in close contact with Litvinenko’s widow, is a former Russian military intelligence officer and an international expert in special operations. His narrative reveals that since 1917 – beginning with Lenin and his Cheka – the Russian security services have regularly carried out bespoke poisoning operations all over the world to eliminate the enemies of the Kremlin. The author proves that the Litvinenko’s poisoning is just one episode in the chain of murders that continues until the present day. Some of these assassinations or attempted assassinations are already known, others are revealed here for the first time. Uniquely Volodarsky has had a personal involvement in almost every each of the 20 cases, from the radioactive thallium poisoning of the Soviet defector Nikolai Khokhlov in Frankfurt in September 1957 to the ricin ‘umbrella murder’ of the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in London in 1978. "Here, for the fan of murder thrillers and modern history alike, is a cracking good read. In brilliant light we see what lay for nearly a century behind the London polonium poisoning of British citizen Alexander Litvinenko, former Russian. It was just one recent hit by the world's most prolific serial killer -- the Russian state. With original research guided by his insider's eye and scholarly care, Boris Volodarsky recounts scores of murders. Assassination emerges as state policy, as institutionalized bureacracy, as day-to-day routine, as laboratory science, as a branch of medicine researching ways not to stave off death but to deliver it in apparently innocent or accidental forms, and as engineering technology, devising ever-new devices to meet each new requirement, from umbrella tips and cigarette cases and rolled-up newspapers -- to Litvinenko's teacup." Tennent H. Bagley, former CIA chief of Soviet Bloc counterintelligence.

Sustaining America's Strategic Advantage

Sustaining America's Strategic Advantage PDF Author: Joel R. Hillison
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Written for foreign policy practitioners, scholars, and students, this book offers critical insights into the modern landscape of international politics and warfare and explains how the United States can sustain its strategic advantages in the 21st century and beyond. From the level of grand strategy to more intricate security issues, this book explores how the United States can sustain its strategic military and political advantages around the world. Developing and implementing effective national policies; fostering strong diplomatic and geopolitical ties with allies in Europe, the Indo-Pacific, and the Middle East; and managing an effective defense enterprise are key, according to the authors, to competing on a shifting international security landscape. Advancing the literature on grand strategy and outlining emerging critical issues in security, this book offers an overarching framework for strategy; an analysis of crucial security-related topics, such as cyber warfare; and informed opinions on components of competitive success, such as irregular warfare and partner building. Written by well-respected scholars, security professionals, and foreign policy practitioners, this book goes beyond focusing on hard power to consider how the U.S. can leverage its education institutions and a worldwide network of allies and partners to sustain its strategic advantage now and in the future.

Kuchmagate

Kuchmagate PDF Author: Volodymyr Tsvil
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1481768689
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 455

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Book Description
28 November 2000 was the day when the foundations of a young and fragile Ukrainian democracy were fundamentally shaken. The national deputies and the entirety of the Ukrainian population became aware of the records made by the former officer of the State Security Service, Mykola Melnichenko, which implicated the then President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, in being involved in the murder of an independent journalist Georgiy Gongadze. The tape affair, or as it became known in the West, the 'Kuchmagate', was an unprecedented event in the history of modern Ukraine. Kuchmagate and the collapse of the Orange idea is a story told by Volodymyr Tsvil, a close associate of the main characters involved in the scandal, who himself was directly involved in the affair. Tsvil provides a unique insight into the events that followed immediately after the outbreak of the Kuchmagate and reveals a web of complex relationships between major Melnychenko and a plethora of politicians, journalists, governments and NGOs who were keen to obtain the contents of these records and use them for their own purposes. The story of Kuchmagate and the collapse of the Orange idea, however, is not merely a description of events which inspired the Orange revolution in 2004. Many Ukrainians entertained the hope that new people in the government could deliver their promises for a just and free society. These hopes were shattered by the same politicians' insincerity and personal interest in political expediency demonstrated during the Kuchmagate. The hopes of ordinary Ukrainians that justice would prevail were sidelined and largely forgotten. Today, the Orange coalition and its leaders are forgotten, marginalised or even imprisoned. In contrast, the Kuchmagate affair is alive and to the present day is far from being solved. The main question of who ordered the murder of Georgiy Gongadze remains unanswered. In order to find an answer to this and many other questions, more details about the Kuchmagate should be revealed to the public. Tsvil's book makes one the first contributions to this cause, providing first-hand information about the development of the scandal in a clear and objective manner.

Corruption in Ukraine

Corruption in Ukraine PDF Author: Oleg Bazaluk
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443898147
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
Using the methodology of geophilosophy, this book expands the understanding of Ukraine as a limitrophe state, as a frontier between two world cultures, the East and the West. It explains the relationship between the totally corrupt Ukrainian political system and the geographic location of the country. Drawing from open source information, the book constructs psychological portraits of five presidents of Ukraine and various members of their inner-circle in order to show their role in the formation and consolidation of the corrupt mentality of Ukrainian authority. As shown here, such mentalities of Ukrainian rulers, and their Soviet nomenklatura past, have, to a large extent, determined the course of history for the entire country. The book will appeal to a wide range of readers interested in the issues of geopolitics, geophilosophy, and national identity.

A Terrible Country

A Terrible Country PDF Author: Keith Gessen
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735221324
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
“Hilarious. . . . To understand Russia, read A Terrible Country.” —Time "This artful and autumnal novel, published in high summer, is a gift to those who wish to receive it." —Dwight Garner, The New York Times "Hilarious, heartbreaking . . . A Terrible Country may be one of the best books you'll read this year." —Ann Levin, Associated Press A New York Times Editors' Choice Named a Best Book of 2018 by Bookforum, Nylon, Esquire, and Vulture A literary triumph about Russia, family, love, and loyalty—from a founding editor of n+1 and the author of Raising Raffi When Andrei Kaplan’s older brother Dima insists that Andrei return to Moscow to care for their ailing grandmother, Andrei must take stock of his life in New York. His girlfriend has stopped returning his text messages. His dissertation adviser is dubious about his job prospects. It’s the summer of 2008, and his bank account is running dangerously low. Perhaps a few months in Moscow are just what he needs. So Andrei sublets his room in Brooklyn, packs up his hockey stuff, and moves into the apartment that Stalin himself had given his grandmother, a woman who has outlived her husband and most of her friends. She survived the dark days of communism and witnessed Russia’s violent capitalist transformation, during which she lost her beloved dacha. She welcomes Andrei into her home, even if she can’t always remember who he is. Andrei learns to navigate Putin’s Moscow, still the city of his birth, but with more expensive coffee. He looks after his elderly—but surprisingly sharp!—grandmother, finds a place to play hockey, a café to send emails, and eventually some friends, including a beautiful young activist named Yulia. Over the course of the year, his grandmother’s health declines and his feelings of dislocation from both Russia and America deepen. Andrei knows he must reckon with his future and make choices that will determine his life and fate. When he becomes entangled with a group of leftists, Andrei’s politics and his allegiances are tested, and he is forced to come to terms with the Russian society he was born into and the American one he has enjoyed since he was a kid. A wise, sensitive novel about Russia, exile, family, love, history and fate, A Terrible County asks what you owe the place you were born, and what it owes you. Writing with grace and humor, Keith Gessen gives us a brilliant and mature novel that is sure to mark him as one of the most talented novelists of his generation.