Is the Orange Revolution Over or Did It Never Happen

Abstract

Viktor Yanukovich’s victory in the Ukrainian presidential election Sunday has predictably sparked a spate of commentary that Ukraine’s Orange Revolution has come to an end. This conclusion seems natural given that it was the same Yanukovich’s efforts to steal the 2004 presidential election that led to the Orange Revolution. At first glance, it is difficult to imagine a more clear symbolic rebuke to the western oriented reform agenda of President Viktor Yuschenko, who defeated Yanukovich in 2004, but received only 5% of the vote in the first round of this election, and to Yulia Timoschenko, the other major leader of the Orange Revolution, who lost to Yanukovich on Sunday, than Yanukovich’s victory.