In late 2004, the whole world was following the peaceful Orange Revolution in Ukraine.
Protesters clad in orange, a campaign color of the pro-democracy candidate Viktor Yushchenko, took to the streets to protest the rigged presidential election results which showed Yushchenko’s opponent Viktor Yanukovych as winning the election.
These events were viewed from a romantic perspective in Western media, while local journalists often called it a “rebellion of millionaires against billionaires.” They referred to the wealth of people from the closest circle of the two opposing candidates.
In Ukraine’s fast-paced politics, the Orange Revolution may seem ancient history. But it is worthwhile to remember it.
To better understand Ukrainian politics, one should look at how the lives of the main beneficiaries of the Orange Revolution changed in 15 years later. The lack of principles and the desire to use politics to amass wealth, led to their complete degradation and metamorphosis. Today, many of them find themselves in the camp they opposed during the Orange Maidan.
David Zhvania
During the last week, one of the main organizers of the 2004 Orange Revolution, a former lawmaker of many convocations of Ukrainian parliament David Zhvania, bombarded media with his statements.
Zhvania regularly appears on TV where he obediently recites the same statement: He says that he was engaged in political corruption on behalf of ex-President Petro Poroshenko and even paid a bribe of 5 million euros to an unnamed European politician in exchange for his backing.
He claims to have been a member of an “organized criminal group” that “seized power” during the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution. In general, Zhvania’s messages closely follow the narrative promoted in Ukraine by pro-Russian forces about the alleged seizure of power in Ukraine by agents of the West and U.S. philanthropist George Soros.
These TV appearances don’t mention which country Zhvania is speaking from. It’s been a while since he was seen in public.
In recent years, Zhvania’s political influence has fallen considerably, but his desire to live an opulent life and support his two families, one of which is based in Switzerland, hasn’t vanished.
Zhvania’s political background is controversial. He has been involved in a few scandals connected with Russia. When his political influence was great, he was engaged in supplying fuel to Ukraine for nuclear power plants from Russia. In 2004, Zhvania was allegedly involved in a plan by Russian oligarchs to kidnap Russian presidential candidate Ivan Rybkin in Ukraine.
There was another dubious story, in which Zhvania had a part, that almost ended tragically as well. Shortly before the Orange Revolution, Zhvaniya took Yushchenko to a dacha (summer house) of a deputy head of the State Security Service. There, the future president was allegedly poisoned with dioxin, after which his disfigured face made the front pages of all the publications in the world. The deputy head of the State Security Service then fled to Russia.
Zhvania’s erratic statements today are exemplary of the unenviable fate of the main organizers of the Orange Revolution.
All of them were members of an informal club, Yushchenko’s closest entourage, which was jokingly dubbed “Dear Friends” in the media. Yushchenko would often start speeches with the phrase “Dear Friends” and very quickly it became a meme that mocked his attitude to the perception of corruption within his inner circle: The dear friends seemed to always get what they wanted.
Mykola Martynenko
Another outstanding member of the “Dear Friends” group was Mykola Martynenko, who for many years was Zhvania’s business associate. These days they are irreconcilable enemies.
However, Martynenko was even less fortunate than his ex-friend — he is under investigation in four European countries. He denies all accusations and calls this a “provocation of pro-Russian forces,” although he took bribes in francs, not in rubles. After the huge money transfers were discovered by the Swiss authorities, they launched an investigation and charged the former Ukrainian lawmaker with money laundering as part of an international corruption probe.
He is accused of laundering 2.8 million euros through Switzerland banks and an offshore company registered in Panama. Prosecutors allege Martynenko received kickbacks from Czech engineering company Skoda in return for awarding it contracts to supply equipment to the state-owned operator of Ukraine’s nuclear plants, Energoatom. This summer Martynenko was sentenced to 28 months in prison by a Swiss court.
After the Orange Revolution, Martynenko combined receiving kickbacks with his job as a lawmaker and the head of the parliament’s Energy Committee. This continued until he voluntarily resigned in 2015.
One of the advisors to then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden later told me that Martynenko’s departure from parliament was a condition for continuing the dialogue between the U.S. authorities and then-Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk, who was close to Martynenko. Similarly, in 2016, the U.S. demanded that then-President Petro Poroshenko dismiss then-Prosecutor-General Viktor Shokin, who discredited himself. Later this move became the center of the anti-Biden campaign by U. S. President Donald Trump, which led to his impeachment in 2019.
Yevhen Chervonenko
Another member of the “Dear Friends” group was a man named Yevhen Chervonenko. During the Orange Revolution, he was responsible for Yushchenko’s security, and in return was appointed minister of transport after Yushchenko had become a president. He stayed on the job for less than a year. After that, he missed the power so much that he even agreed to go down a couple of levels and lead one of the departments in the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Today, Chervonenko hosts his talk show on a pro-Russian TV channel in Ukraine, which reportedly belongs to Viktor Medvedchuk, a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In his broadcasts, Chervonenko supports the narrative about the malicious forces of the West that are trying to rule Ukraine. He contradicts the 2005 version of himself a lot.
Oleksandr Tretyakov
Oleksandr Tretyakov was the fourth member of the club of Yushchenko’s “Dear Friends.”
Yushchenko lived at his home during the Orange Revolution, and in return, Tretyakov received the post of the first assistant to the president, though, like Chervonenko, he also worked for a short time — less than a year.
After that, Tretyakov quit politics, but in 2014 he was elected a lawmaker and simultaneously became one of the beneficiaries of the gray market of “slot machines,” which generated huge unaccounted-for profits due to the ban on casinos in Ukraine.
But in 2020, this ban was lifted, which means that his “gold mine” was gone. A year earlier, in 2019, Tretyakov, then an oligarch of the first league, lost the parliamentary elections to a restaurateur who ran under Zelensky party’s banners.
Petro Poroshenko
One member of the “Dear Friends” club turned out to be the luckiest: It was Petro Poroshenko.
In 2005, after the victory of the Orange Revolution, he was to become the prime minister, having received this post as a reward for his investment in Yushchenko. He was even shown his new office, but at the last moment, Yushchenko changed his mind and gave the post of the prime minister to another star of the revolution — Yulia Tymoshenko. This move fueled their conflict with Poroshenko, which eventually brought down the entire structure of Yushchenko’s power.
At the end of August and beginning of September 2005, a major corruption scandal took place, which led to the dismissal of all “Dear Friends” from power. But Poroshenko made one of the most successful comebacks in Ukrainian politics and became president in 2014.
The fiasco of 2005, which tarnished President Yushchenko’s team, was caused by the traditional features of Ukrainian politics. In it, everything is based on nepotism, building an informal grid of “close people” and a fundraising pyramid scheme.
Few politicians think about creating strong independent bodies that will work under any president. As a result, even the most successful politicians of the “Orange team,” like Poroshenko and Tymoshenko, also suffered from their own mistakes. Fixation on undercover personal agreements and search for profits prevented them from building an independent justice system. And in the end, they both experienced the “charm” of this system, accusing the prosecutor’s office and the courts of political persecution. Their mistakes hit them like a boomerang.
The lesson from the failure of the “Orange Team” is that even the most peaceful and democratic revolution can betray its principles if its leaders are focused on their interests instead of protecting the public good and building strong institutions.
Sergii Leshchenko is a Kyiv Post columnist, investigative journalist, and former member of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament.
