Bardak, 2010 Style

I've just added tags to the blog, and one of them is simply titled "bardak." In the years of national democracy (or democratic chaos), fisticuffs in the Rada was a common occurrence. After Yanukovych promised to take Ukraine along a pragmatic course, today's bar fight is more of the same. It turns out that no matter who is in power, or who is in opposition, the Rada is still a bardak. This time, eggs and tomatoes were launched and smoke bombs went off. AP picked it up. Ukraine is, once again, a laughing stock in the Western press. Despite the end of "orange chaos," RT couldn't also help but relish in one more display of Ukraine's democracy in action.

In all seriousness, there is a trend emerging -- the orangeists, now in opposition, appear to be employing the same tactics used by the blues during 2004-2009. One example is today's blockade of the Rada. Last week, the Ternopil oblast rada called for impeachment and criminal charges against Yanukovych for selling out the BSF extension for a "discount" of Russian gas. Furthermore, the right-wing Svoboda party in the Lviv oblrada called for launching proceedings against the president. This is strikingly similar to the moves of the regional oblrady in the east and south in 2006 who made proclamations calling for the official regional language to be Russian, or declared their region an "anti-NATO zone."

It is written in Ukraine's Constitution that Ukrainian is the official state language. On the other hand, opposition leader Arseny Yatseniuk says that the BSF deal contradicts Articles 17 and 156 of the Constitution of Ukraine, under which the lease extension of the Black Sea Fleet should take place only after amending the Constitution of Ukraine, which is subject to approval by national referendum. Therefore, the Yanukovych-Medvedev bilateral deal itself is less democratic than the bardak waged by the opposition in parliament.

While many will see this fight as some new development (the orange opposition behaving badly), it is hardly new. If anything, this egg-battle in the Verkhovna Rada is a wonderful example of the approval of "pragmatic" politics.