The Conflict

In the 1991 wake of the Soviet Union's collapse, Ukraine emerged as one of 15 newly sovereign states. Aside from a brief period at the end of World War I and the Russian Revolution, Ukraine had not been an independently governed nation since the seventeenth century. The recent, post-Soviet history of Ukrainian independence has been dominated by half-steps toward political and economic transitions, persistently stalled by power struggles, corruption, and scandal.

Political

• The discovery in November 2000 of a murdered journalist known for his contempt for the governing officials, and the emergence of evidence implicating the newly reelected president in the murder, have darkened political moods in Ukraine.
• There is reason to believe that the citizens—not to mention international aid donors and lenders—will soon reach the end of their...