Yeah I echo what you say!!!
I know several people who were very active in the Orange Movement at Maidan,they all now reluctantly concede that life was better for them under Kuchma, something I never dreamed I would hear them saying,the pensioners certainly echo these sentiments as well.
The rampant inflation this year has more than cancelled out any rise in salary that locals have had!
The only people who have prospered under Yushenko are the rich, the poor and elderly certainly find life tougher in Ukraine than 5 years ago.
Dont let no amount of brand new Lexus and cafes selling coffee for 30gr a cup fool you into thinking any different!
Good old unbiased Russian journalism! What could possibly be the thinking behind a piece (in English) being commissioned about how Ukraine has gone downhill since Yushchenko took over....?
Except for the fact that the author is not Russian and the newspaper is not Russian owned either!
Anders Åslund (pronounced [andəʂ oːslʉnd]) (born 1952) is a Swedish economist and expert on economic transition from centrally planned to market economies. Åslund served as an economic adviser to the governments of Russia and Ukraine and from 2003 was director of the Russian and Eurasian Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Åslund was a firm believer and architect in the controversial "shock therapy" measures that were applied to the Russian economy. [1][2][3]
He has been a senior fellow at the Washington-based Peterson Institute since 2006.Whilst life on the surface might be better in Ukraine the people of Kiev have no more choice of shopping, entertainment etc than a Russian regional city like Samara or nizhny Novgorod. Take away the cathedrals, and as someone else said the women, and there ain't a lot left.
