«Ukrainian Transit»-6. Ukraine – is not Belarus

Abstract

The events in the Republic of Belarus have attracted general attention. They overshadowed the Ukrainian political drama and sparked a desire to compare these two socio-political bifurcations. From the point of view of policy analysis, it is useful and relevant to compare what is happening in the two Eastern European countries, to look more closely at what they have in common and what they differ from each other. In general, the first approximation is their orientation. The differences, which are not insignificant, are due to objective physical parameters and historical and cultural characteristics, the characteristics of the two societies and States, and the different foreign policy context. In both cases, there has been a process of modernization that began in the late 1980s, with significant national adjustments and external stimuli or, conversely, deterrents. Accelerated modernization for both countries, involving well-known interaction and mutual assistance, remains a common goal for them, as it is for all newly independent states in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. This is the main conclusion of the proposed brief analysis.