Transcript
STEPHEN PIFER: For those of us who have watched Ukraine over the past several years, it’s been a mixture of both optimism and some frustration. The Orange Revolution generated a lot of optimism, including in people who saw the opportunity that Ukraine might realize its potential and become a modern European democracy, fully integrated into Europe and Euro-Atlantic institutions.There also, though, has been some frustration, as we’ve seen that Ukraine all too often seems to pass up opportunities to make good on its promise.
Now, 2009 poses a number of challenges for Ukraine. First and foremost, as with many countries, Ukraine has to deal with the economic and financial crisis that it faces. A second challenge, in that Ukraine has a difficult political situation in that there are division between the president and the prime minister that sometimes hinder the ability of the executive branch of Ukraine to work as effectively as it might. And Ukraine also faces a complex international situation. Its large neighbor on the right, Russia -- it has a difficult relationship with Ukraine, as we saw last January with the gas war. And there’s probably some uncertainty now, in terms of relations with Europe, where Europe is thinking through how far to go with Ukraine, particularly on the issues of institutional engagement.
So to help us understand these challenges and the tasks before Ukraine, I can’t think of anybody better than Dr. Hryhoriy Nemyria to help us figure this out.
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