WHEN a country has had to attack one of its own airports, seen a chunk of territory seized by a neighbour and watched armed insurgents overrun another portion, it might seem odd to argue that restoring peace is not its leader’s hardest challenge. But Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s new president, faces an even bigger task: to dismantle the corrupt, oligarchic system of government that helped create Ukraine’s turmoil—a system in which Mr Poroshenko himself participated.Given not just Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the instability fomented by the Kremlin in eastern Ukraine, but a wrecked economy and a free-falling currency, it is commendable that the presidential election of May 25th went ahead at all. Likewise it is a good thing that Mr Poroshenko won in the first round, sparing the country a run-off, and with strong support everywhere except in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where armed separatists largely prevented voting. For all the Russian hysteria about Ukrainian “fascists”, far-right candidates notched up only 2%—much less than many nationalists in the European elections on the same day. And Mr Poroshenko is a more palatable president than Yulia...
from The Economist: Leaders http://ift.tt/1nxrbRi
No comments:
Post a Comment