Recession Bleeding Out Colored Revolutions

Yesterday's defeat of Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko, who was swept into power five years ago in the country's "Orange Revolution," does not bode well for the prospect of democratic reforms in Eastern Europe.  A BBC report says unequivocally that most Ukrainians "have lost faith in the power of protest."  The Economist, meanwhile, leads off its coverage with a description of a website that allows people to sell off their votes.  Having lived under totalitarian cynicism for half a century, Ukrainians and other Eastern European populations maintain a lingering skepticism of democratic movements, which is what made the Orange Revolution, and the Rose Revolution in Georgia, so remarkable.  However, the recession has severely undermined the already-vulnerable administrations these Revolutions produced.  Granted, the recession is destabilizing administrations the world over.  But restoring to power a pro-Russian autocrat like Yushchenko's principal challenger, Victor Yanukovych, will have distressing geopolitical implications.