Bush Revolution

It’s been six years now. When George W. Bush began his second presidential term, a majority of Ukrainians launched themselves into the streets in order to demand free and democratic elections against the control of the Communist leaders who still ruled the country. It became known as the Orange Revolution.

The support of the U.S. administration was decisive, as was the leadership of Yulia Timoshenko. Just like the late ‘90s, when President Clinton was the key man in the liberation of the Balkans by ordering NATO to throw Milosevic out of power, his successor George W. Bush, was in charge of helping those ex-Soviet Republics, like Ukraine and Georgia, which Moscow still considered its backyard.

Barack Obama has not demonstrated any interest in continuing to assist the consolidation of these two democracies. The Ukraine has to integrate itself into the E.U. and Georgia into NATO. Both have requested, but without the help of Obama — who decided to remove the anti-missile shield — Moscow is in no hurry to fulfill their wishes.