Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World

by Adam Tooze

That Ukraine needed a change was undeniable. Even after the losses of 2008–2009 were made good, according to official figures average incomes in 2013 were barely higher than in 1989. Unlike in its neighbors to the west, the post-Communist transition in Ukraine had produced a generation of stagnation. While a tiny minority grew fabulously rich, the standard of living for the least well-off was kept at a tolerable level only by a system of pensions and energy subsidies that consumed 17 percent of GDP. In 2008 the IMF had provided emergency assistance. But the program came with demands for changes in taxes and benefits that made it impossible for a government to sustain legitimacy. By the time of the February 2010 election, much of the population was deeply disillusioned. Ukraine was falling further and further behind not only its Western neighbors but Putin’s Russia too. President Yushchenko effectively withdrew from the electoral race,