ABSTRACT
This chapter asks whether the coming to power of Viktor Yushchenko in the wake of 2004s Orange Revolution brought about significant changes in energy policy and the role of energy rents in the Ukrainian political system. In analyzing this issue, it considers three main questions: First, up to which point were there significant changes in Ukraine’s energy policy under the new government? Second, how has the change of political elites-to the extent that this has really happened-affected the functioning of the energy rents system? Third, was there a serious attempt to dismantle the energy corruption system? We will look at these questions through the prism of the Yushchenko government’s energy policies in the first year and a half after coming to power in January 2005, and of the gas supply agreements signed with Russia on January 4, 2006.2 The way these questions are answered provides important clues for understanding why the era of the Orange Revolution lasted for as short a time as it did, and why it did not live to realize its dream of a freer, less corrupt Ukraine. We take as the end point of our analysis Viktor Yanukovych’s return to power as prime minister on August 4, 2006; we also discuss selected events of the post-August 2006 period as relevent.
