Ukrainian politics. Old ghosts and new

Corruption scandals still plague Kiev's would-be revolution

SOME people trace the start of Ukraine's “revolution” to 2000, when Georgi Gongadze, a journalist, was murdered; then-president Leonid Kuchma was implicated by secret tape-recordings (doctored, said Mr Kuchma); and crowds took to the streets, albeit smaller than the ones who helped Victor Yushchenko win the presidency last year. This week, a parliamentary commission again implicated Mr Kuchma and an ex-interior minister, who shot himself in the head (twice) in March, in the newsman's abduction. That casts a shadow over Ukraine's whole political class; even Mr Yushchenko was a loyal prime minister during the Gongadze affair.

Meanwhile, other old faces, and habits, are resurfacing. On September 20th, Yuri Yekhanurov - Mr Yushchenko's proposed replacement for Yulia Timoshenko, the prime minister whom he sacked, along with her cabinet, on September 8th - was narrowly rejected by parliament. Corruption charges involving various sacked officials, which triggered the crisis, are swirling on; a sub-scandal has erupted over the president's alleged ties with Boris Berezovsky, an exiled Russian tycoon.

After a meeting with parliamentary leaders, Mr Yushchenko riskily, but successfully, submitted his candidate to another ballot. He may have bought extra votes by bargaining over the new cabinet, and over a constitutional reform that would shift some power from the president to parliament next year. He was sounding sceptical over that change last week, but most other parties want it.

Even though he got his way, he has been forced into humbling political courtships. Dealing with Victor Yanukovich, an ungracious loser in last year's presidential race, would till recently have seemed absurd - except in Ukraine's shape-shifting political culture. Maybe Mr Yushchenko erred in naming Mrs Timoshenko, a volatile populist, as premier; smearing her after sacking her was foolhardy, though both are sounding milder now.

A gently optimistic view is that the prospect of next year's parliamentary elections made a bust-up in Kiev inevitable. A glum one is that the immaturity of Kiev's politicians, and their ties with big business, may wreck the revolution.

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