Greenland Tag

1. Federalization

In Ukraine, parties on the losing end of the electoral process take turns demanding federalization or even secession. The idea's been floating around for years; The Svoboda party, formerly known as the Social Nationalist Party of Ukraine, includes decentralization in their official platform.  After Viktor Yanukovich, whose power base is located in Ukraine's Russian- speaking south-west won presidential elections in 2008, the Svoboda stronghold of Galicia was talking secession.  Their head, Oleh Tyahnybok, is currently against federalization, however:

Regarding the idea of federalization, this structure suits Russia, where in some regions ethnic minorities make up a majority of the population such as Tatarstan, Kalmykia, Ingushetia, Buryatia and others. The idea of Ukrainian federalization is nothing more than another underhanded attempt to weaken Ukrainian statehood and subordinate Ukraine to Putin's geopolitical ambitions.

That Ukraine is a homogeneous society would be news to people mildly familiar with the country. The current push for federalization is spearheaded by, among others, Ukrainian Communists as well as Vladimir Putin, who, while massing his troops on Ukraine's border, continues the talk of extending self-rule of Ukraine's regions, something that Russia does not allow.  Federalization is a frequent demand of separatists in the south-east. Mikhail Dobkin, the former Kharkiv mayor and gubernatorial appointee of the deposed Yanukovich, is running for president on the platform of federalization. Dobkin, however, is not a serious candidate because a) his Party of Regions is all but dead; b) he's a bona fide Jew in a country where politicians go out of their way to hide their Jewish roots and c) he doesn't appear to have support outside of Kharkiv. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="529"] [Ukrainian GDP by region. Dnipropetrovsk governor and second richest person in the country Ihor Kolomoisky had formed his own security force in the wake of Maidan's victory][/caption]To be sure,  federalization is not a popular idea, and Ukrainians view centralized government as the perfect expression of the nation-state. And yet it continues to be tossed around by all sorts of politicians, among them the mayor of the western-most city of Lviv, Andriy Sadovy.  Proponents of federalization include high profile Western figures, most notably, Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics Roger Meyerson.