Since the tumultuous days of the Orange revolution, Ukraine has lost a lot of its newsworthy cachet. Aside from some isolated items about oligarchs or unseemly parliamentary practices (such as locking up the leader of the opposition), not a lot of attention has been paid to Ukraine’s evolving “strategic position.”
As one former senior political adviser said to me during a recent visit, “Ukraine will be a central, worldwide story in the coming year.”
At issue is the imminent choice for Ukraine — potentially helping to reinvigorate the faltering European Union by joining as an associate member, or as the paradox would have it, aid in the ambitions of President Vladimir Putin of Russia to rebuild a semblance of the old Soviet Empire….
