As Ukraine Disintegrates, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko Gets A Standing Ovation In The U.S. Congress

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko addressing a joint meeting of Congress in the US Capitol in Washington. © REUTERS/ Kevin Lamarque

As Poroshenko Gets Standing Ovations in Western Capitals, Ukraine Disintegrates -- Dmitry Babich, RIA Novosti

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is touring the United States and Canada, addressing legislatures and getting standing ovations. The problem is, however, that such an enthusiastic reception in North America and the West in general is usually seen as sort of a bad omen for political leaders from the former Soviet Union.



Nearly ten years ago, the anti-Russian former president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, was met with the same ovations and flowers on both sides of the Atlantic. Within four years, however, Yushchenko’s presidency had led to a chain of conflicts inside Ukrainian society and he lost the next election, getting a humiliating 4 percent of the vote. The last Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, lost power in 1991 when his popularity in the West was at its peak: “Gorby-mania” culminated in his getting the Nobel Peace prize in late 1990, just as wars were being fought in Nagorno–Karabakh and Moldova.



So much for the kind of leaders who get praise in the modern West and for the “objectivity” of all sorts of committees and endowments (Nobel and otherwise) which lavish praise and prizes on these persons.



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My Comment: I rarely post a commentary post (by itself) from RIA Novosti on this blog .... especially on the Ukraine crisis where it is overly pro-Russian and over the top critical of the Ukraine government. But there is a lot of truth in this commentary .... especially on the main point that Ukraine as a united country is now finished. Everyone that I know in Ukraine .... family and friends .... told me that they voted for Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in May in the belief that he would pursue the compromises and accommodations necessary to bring peace .... that his election would be a new start to a new Ukraine. Unfortunately .... he pursued a different course .... a war policy against the east in the misguided belief that victory would be quick and that Russia would not intervene. He was wrong on all accounts, and what makes the entire situation even more tragic is that this civil war and the death and destruction that it caused should never have occurred.



Ukraine today is a country is in free-fall. Deeply divided along linguistic and regional lines. The stories that I hear from my family who are still living in Ukraine is truly heartbreaking. Unemployment is rising. Inflation is rising. Opportunity for the young disappearing. Small and medium businesses closing. No money or not enough .... and definitely not enough natural gas to heat ones home in winter. Rampant corruption. Tensions and worries rising.



So .... Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko gets his standing ovations in the U.S. Congress and a brief visit to the Oval Office .... but back home .... in the real world .... everything is imploding.