Viktor Yanukovich, Ukraine’s president, says he has made a strategic choice to integrate his country more closely with Europe, rather than succumb to the velvet promises of an iron-fisted Russia. Yet the conviction to seven years in prison of his bitter political foe, Yulia Tymoshenko, takes the country a big step further away from achieving this goal.
Since his election in early 2010 Mr Yanukovich has shown a greater affinity for Russian-style authoritarianism than western democratic values. He has rolled back gains of the Orange Revolution of 2004, which deprived him of power after a rigged election and made Ms Tymoshenko a popular, if flawed, hero. Old presidential powers have been restored and enhanced, while the influence of parliament and the prime minister has been weakened. The media, once vocal in its criticism of government, has been muffled and opposition politicians have been singled out by prosecutors in a barely independent justice system.
The conviction of Ms Tymoshenko, on the questionable charge of exceeding her authority as prime minister in negotiating a gas contract with Moscow, is merely the latest in a string of disturbing developments.