NEW YORK TIMES COLUMN: …First of all, the impressive “Euromaidan” movement signals that Europe is still an attractive model of development. To be sure, Ukrainians are not naïve about the benefits of association, they are aware of the crisis in the euro zone, and they have registered the E.U.’s lukewarm attitude toward them. Still, a majority views the path to Europe as the only way out of the post-Soviet slump, its cleptocracy and corruption, stalemate and semi-authoritarianism…
Secondly, Ukraine’s (and Europe’s) success or failure will determine the fate of the entire Eastern neighborhood of the E.U. If Ukraine, as the largest neighbor by far, moves toward democracy, rule of law, a market economy and European integration, this will reverse a trend that has seen much of the post-Soviet space sink into autocracy, oligarchy and dependency on Russia. The future of budding democracies, such as Georgia and Moldova (and outright dictatorships, such as Belarus), hinges on the direction Ukraine takes today.
Finally and whether it likes it or not, the E.U. is being drawn into geopolitical competition with Russia. Under returnee-president Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin pursues Russian hegemony over the post-Soviet space, a strategy that rises and falls with Ukraine. If Europe takes to appeasement rather than shielding Ukraine and other neighbors from Moscow’s bullying, it will only embolden a domestically autocratic and internationally aggressive Russia… (more)
