Yanukovich may have been elected democratically, but there’s fear, now turning into certainty, that the next election will not be fair. Below are the key highlights of his presidency, hopefully giving credence to the notion that it’s more than a simple protest against an unpopular president and that he has lost any legitimacy of a democratic leader:
- in 2010 he rewrote the constitution, changing the country from what they call parliamentary-presidential (parliament in charge) to presidential-parliamentary (office of the president is the highest seat of power) This was allowed to happen because Ukraine doesn’t have a truly independent judicial system. The police, the judges, bureaucrats- it’s all corrupt.
- in 2011, he jailed his main opposition rival former prime minister Y. Tymoshenko, as well as former Interior Affairs Minister Y. Lutsenko on trumped up charges. Former, for damages that were caused to the state when she negotiated a gas deal with Russia in 2009. Latter, for charges of “abuse of office” - allegations for things like overpaying $5000 to his driver, to giving a handgun as a present to a retiring officer, etc. International community was quick to condemn these arrests as politically motivated.
- November 30 2013 took it to a totally new level when police was ordered to disperse what until then had been a two week old, small, and very peaceful by today’s standard, protest. Police were chasing the protesters for blocks, beating them when they’re down. Everything that followed - the tractor, the molotovs, was the result of seeing images like these http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdRSXESoQd0
- on January 16 2014, Yanukovich fraction in the parliament voted for the so-called “dictatorial laws”. Voting was done without allowing the lawmakers to previously read the legislature, by show of hand, and counting of the votes in 5 seconds. Among others, the laws disallowed protests that have not been “sanctioned” by the government, introduced 2 year prison terms for defamation (if you recall, Ukraine doesn’t have an independent judicial system so this is viewed as direct threat by the free press in Ukraine); 10-15 year terms for mass disruption and very broadly defined “extremist activities”. Everybody and their mother in the international community have condemned these laws as undemocratic. Btw, the Tea Party would definitely fall in Yanukovich definition of “extremist”.
This list doesn’t include gross cases of corruption (Yanukovich’s son,a dentist by profession, became a multi millionaire, +$100M USD, within the last few years), intimidations and attacks on journalists and opponents (ex. Chornovol), and now most recently, use of live ammunition on the protesters, as well as kidnappings and tortures, ex. I. Lutsenko, Niskoguz, Verbitsky (dead)
As recent mass demonstrations across Ukraine show, the 100,000 “extremists” are now backed by almost half of the nation. In the other Ukrainian thread there’s a map of cities that the protesters now control who are refusing to follow Yanukovich’s government.
There have been cases where a democratically elected leader becomes a tyrant. A certain Austrian in the 1930s comes to mind. If one seizes power democratically, what certainty is there that he will relinquish it later on? None, unless there are strong institutions already in place, and Ukraine obviously doesn’t have them. At least in the US you know Barry will be going in 2016. One of the key demands of the protesters are free democratic elections. The Ukrainians protests feared, and now they know, that a fair democratic is not possible under this guy. Thus we see what we see
There are several points in your post that are simply not true, lets stick to the facts here:
- in 2010 he did not rewrite the constitution, in fact the constitution was rewritten in 2004 by invalid amendments, that were overturned in 2010
- the charges against Tymoshenko are very much substantiated. Her criminal career goes all the way back to the 90s and was charged for the first time as early as in 2001. She is simply a corrupt politician, she embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars.
- it is a perfectly understandable and expected thing for the authorities to disperse an illegal gathering which is disrupting the lives of ordinary citizens. Or maybe you think the police didn’t have the right to disperse the OWS commies as well?
- the harsher penalties instituted in January are in my mind absolutely justified considering the violence the protesters have been generating