The Soviet poison still hasn’t dispersed in a Ukrainian backwateraine was drummed up to create a foundation for political manipulation. At the pro-Yanukovych forum in Severodonetsk this weekend, the governor of the Kharkiv region, Yevhen Kushnaryov, quoted lines from a WWII-era song that roused the Soviet masses to fight against fascism. But now the song was supposed to mobilize representatives of the south-eastern regions of Ukraine to unite around President Leonid Kuchma’s protege. The only difference was that Kushnaryov changed the phrase “cursed horde” to “orange plague.”

My shock was as strong as Kushnaryov’s effusion was malevolent. The winds of the Soviet times, which seemed to have died out, were blowing again.