Oksana Shulyar is a political adviser to the Chairman of Ukraine’s parliamentary committee on European integration. She served as a diplomat at Ukraine’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs. At the time of the Orange revolution she worked at the Ukrainian think-tank, Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation. She holds Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University.
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Published in: HomeThe struggle after people power winsWith peaceful but forceful civic mobilization in 2004, Ukrainians managed to reverse a rigged presidential election. Later, disappointed in politicians who failed to deliver on promises of political and economic change, many Ukrainians distanced themselves from politics, thereby helping Victor Yanukovych become president in 2010. Civil society moved its residual activism from political to social problems, which could strengthen civil society as it prepares to counter democratic backsliding.