Oligarchs in Ukrainian Foreign Policymaking: Examining Influences in Transnational Politics

Abstract In this research I argue that the oligarchic interests in Ukraine are key components in understanding how Ukraine’s leaders built the country’s foreign relations with the EU and Russia in the post-Orange revolution period, under the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko and in the first two years of Viktor Yanukovych, from 2005 to 2012. The uncertainty of the Ukrainian political transition put distinct constraints on its political actors and prompted them to rely on economic elites rather than voters to secure personal political gains, thereby opening the foreign policy decision-making process to the interests of oligarchs who stood behind the two presidents.