The Foreign Service Journal, December 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2016 45 Three Challenges At the same time, Ukraine faces three major challenges that, if unresolved, could trump the passion of millions who stood on the Euromaidan in downtown Kyiv in 2013 and 2014. The first challenge is the crush- ing burden of a corrupt economy. Endemic corruption has threat- ened Ukraine’s stability ever since the Soviet era, when bribes and kickbacks of all kinds were universal. Today the country’s economy is run by roughly a dozen oligarchs, who are unan- swerable to consumers and even the Parliament (Verkovna Rada). State enterprises—more than 1,800 of them at last count and all over- staffed—lose money but continue to operate. This problem is widely recognized. Vice President Joe Biden has traveled to Kyiv regularly to urge the Ukrainian leadership to press on with the battle against corruption. It should be noted that President Petro Poroshenko, himself an oligarch, came to power in 2014 on a wave of popular resentment toward the previous president, the criminally corrupt Viktor Yanukovych. Now, however, Porosh- enko pleads for patience from the general population, even as key pro-reform ministers like Aivaras Abromavicius, who was in charge of the economy and trade, continue to resign. As one student at The Kyiv-Mohyla Academy told me last fall: “When it comes to corruption, the clock is ticking. After all, both the Orange Revolution and the Euromaidan were driven by demands for justice. We may need a third Maidan.” The Western Lifeline European and American assistance to Kyiv has made a real difference over the years. But the second challenge to political stability is closely bound up with the first: uncertainty that Western aid will continue to sustain the beleaguered Ukrainian economy. One example is academic and student exchanges, such as the Fulbright Program. I had the good fortune to direct this from its inception in 1998, and over the first two years the number of Ukrainian grants doubled. That movement upward has continued to the present, and now offers Ukrainian high school students the opportunity to attend schools across America. The same priceless oppor- tunity has come to younger faculty (instructors and assistant professors) to spend up to an academic year in the United States upgrading their teaching skills. Our economic assistance is also impressive, encompassing energy subsidies and U.S. exports of iron and steel, farm prod- ucts and aircraft. Two years ago, we also facilitated a four-year, $40 billion International Monetary Fund bailout; but persis- Today the country’s economy is run by roughly a dozen oligarchs, who are unanswerable to consumers and even the Parliament. SASHAMAKSYMENKO/WIKIMEDIA Euromaidan protests in Kyiv, 2013.