Article: Yanukovych no longer deserves benefit of doubt

The op-ed article "Motyl: Yanukovych no longer deserves benefit of doubt" by Alexander J. Motyl was published on 21 August 2010 on the website of the weekly "Kyiv Post", the leading English-language newspaper in Ukraine.

The full text of the article can be read free of charge here:

www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/op_ed/detail/79309/

Excerpts: "Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych [...] was given the benefit of the doubt by most Western and Ukrainian analysts (me included) and a significant portion of the Ukrainian electorate. [...] We believed that five years of opposition would have led Yanukovych and his authoritarian Party of Regions to shed their authoritarian inclinations and embrace democracy. [...] The vast majority of democratically inclined analysts and Ukrainians have now turned against Yanukovych – and with a vengeance. [...] Yanukovych and his party have proceeded to dismantled [sic] democracy [...] in just a few months. [...] Not moderates, but radicals act this quickly, this comprehensively, this fundamentally. Indeed, the comparison with Hitler’s Gleichschaltung in 1933 comes to mind. Recall that he too came to power in a fair and free election ..."

It isn't clear whether the article appeared in print too.

Alexander J. Motyl is Associate Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University.