Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World

by Adam Tooze

In the spring of 2008 the decision by Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko to apply for NATO membership—eagerly applauded by the Bush administration, Poland and the other East Europeans—split Ukrainian politics. Whereas President Yushchenko threw in his lot with the West, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko favored the policy of balance between Russia and the West that Kiev had pursued since independence and that had made her personal fortune as a kingpin in the gas trade. The war in Georgia in August 2008 divided what was left of the political legacy of the revolution of 2004.57 Then, before the cease-fire in the Caucasus had more than a few weeks to settle, Kiev was rocked by the financial crisis.