Collapse and a New Beginning
The Ukrainian Revolution and Its Enemies
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
At the end of February 2014, President Viktor Yanukovych’s regime collapsed when Ukraine’s elites withdrew their allegiance. The groundwork for this development had been laid by the Maidan protest movement and the blood-soaked attempt to crush it. Parliament voted to impeach Yanukovych and chose an interim president and care-taker government. Within a short period, it was possible to avert a state crisis and bring about a reorientation of foreign policy. But Ukraine was then plunged into turmoil, because Russia’s leadership refused to accept the turnover of power in Kiev. Claiming to rebuild “historical Russia”, Russia annexed the Crimea and destabilized the country’s east by means of covert intervention. Obviously, Moscow’s goal is to bring Ukraine back under Russian hegemony.
(Osteuropa 5-6/2014, pp. 9–40)