UKRAINE is in turmoil—again. Protesters are blocking streets and chanting Bandu het! (“Bandits out!”). Smoke again permeates Kiev’s chilly air. The police are again trying to clear out protesters’ tents. The scale is smaller than four years ago, when demonstrators on Maidan square overthrew the corrupt regime of President Viktor Yanukovych. But once again, Ukraine’s viability as a state is at stake.
The catalyst of the latest upheaval is Mikheil Saakashvili, a former president of Georgia who entered Ukrainian politics after the Maidan uprising to help fight corruption. After serving as governor of the Odessa region, Mr Saakashvili turned against Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s president, who responded by stripping him of his Ukrainian citizenship while he was abroad. (He had already lost his Georgian citizenship.) Bundled through a border post by his supporters, the stateless Mr Saakashvili defiantly re-entered the country and, on December 3rd, staged a...Continue reading
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