“To Europe together with Russia”: Ukrainian foreign policy during Leonid Kuchma’s presidency

Abstract

The present paper discusses the following research questions: To what
extent did President Kuchma’s mistakes made during his final presidency
have impact on Ukraine’s inability to conduct systemic reforms (e.g. combating
corruption, development of the foundations for a stable state based on
the rule of law with free market economy)?, Can it be stated that the lack
of radical reforms and mistakes in Ukraine’s foreign policy during Kuchma’s
final presidency contributed to the outbreak of the Orange Revolution, and
also enabled Viktor Yanukovych to take leadership and in fact resulted in
the Euromaidan? Can the final stage of Kuchma’s presidency (2001–2004),
especially in terms of foreign policy, be characterised as multi-directional
with the emphasis on the rapprochement with Russia?