Lviv Today publisher Peter Dickinson on the challenges facing Ukraine’s post-Orange generation of young patriots as they face up to the country’s new geopolitical direction After five years of post-Orange press freedoms, an ill wind appears to be blowing through the country’s media sector. It took President Kuchma a decade in office before the nation’s journalists finally came out in protest against state censorship, but the new Yanukovych administration has provoked the same reaction within just three months. Journalists at a number of national channels threatened strike action in May in response to the selfcensorship and biased news reportage which they claim has accompanied the arrival of the new government. Meanwhile, commentators complain that the free-for-all of modern Ukrainian political debate has been replaced by a sanitized version of events which bears an uncanny resemblance to the humourless coverage favoured by the Kremlin’s power vertical.

Does Yanukovych’s victory represent the end of the Orange Revolution or its final vindication? Media coverage of Ukraine’s 2010 presidential elections has understandably focused on the geopolitical implications of Viktor Yanukovych’s headline-grabbing victory. Many analysts have declared that Yanukovych’s win marks the final nail in the coffin for the increasingly discredited Orange Revolution and signals Ukraine’s return to the Kremlin’s exclusive sphere of interest. While the long-term geopolitical ramifications of the presidential elections are certainly unlikely to favour the country’s European ambitions, it is also possible to argue that Yanukovych’s victory is in fact the final vindication of the Orange Revolution and proof positive that however damaged it may be, Ukrainian democracy remains capable of giving voice to the mood of the electorate. A Yanukovych presidency may be anathema to many Ukrainians, but anyone who considers themselves a sincere democrat must also acknowledge that his victory has been a textbook example of democracy at work, warts and all.

Ukraine suffered a severe blow across the employment market in 2009. Unemployment skyrocketed, underemployment was rampant, many employees began entering other employ- ment spheres, and a vast number of employees were living in fear that their heads would be next on the chopping block. Those that managed to hang on often saw salary cutbacks, bonuses slashed, shortened work days and wages that were not paid out in a timely fashion.

The ninth annual Lviv International Economic Foreign gathered a wide range of corporate, government and international investment sector representatives to the Lviv Oblast spa resort town of Truskavets in the Carpathian foothills 1-2 October. The event has long since been the biggest regional gathering of its kind in West Ukraine, and this prominence was reflected in the keynote speeches delivered by President Viktor Yushchenko and PM Yulia Tymoshenko.