To describe Ukraine’s politics as muddy would be an understatement, but there are some increasingly disturbing signs that Victor Yanukovich, (the would-be president who was at the wrong end of the Orange Revolution, but who unfortunately re-emerged as the winner in this year’s presidential election) has yet to shake off the authoritarian temptation.

In a piece from earlier this week, the Guardian took a look at the almost certainly tragic “disappearance” of journalist Vasyl Klymentyev (a rare independent voice in eastern Ukraine’s largely Russophone Kharkhov) and put it into wider context:

For journalists, Klymentyev is a chilling symbol of how press freedoms are being curtailed in Ukraine seven months after the election of Viktor Yanukovych, the country’s new pro-Russian president. Yanukovych, his critics say, has set about reversing the gains of the 2004-10 Orange Revolution, in which newspapers and TV flourished. Reporters talk of a new era of fear and censorship.
Last week Kiev’s district court stripped two independent opposition television stations, TVi and 5 Kanal, of their licences. TVi has fallen off the main airwaves, while 5 Kanal – which came to prominence with its coverage of the 2004 pro-democracy demonstrations – has had its audience severely reduced. The winner is Valeriy Khoroshkovsky, owner of the pro-Yanukovych Inter Media television empire – and head of Ukraine’s SBU security service.
In a report last week the watchdog Reporters Without Borders said broadcast media pluralism in Ukraine was being “seriously eroded”, warning of a “disturbing level of hostility towards journalists on the part of the authorities”, including “physical attacks”.
Ukraine’s apparent lurch towards authoritarianism has alarmed EU leaders and MPs. Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, expressed her concerns during a visit to Kiev last week.

As is clear from the piece, Ukraine is still a long way from becoming a Putinstan, but Merkel is right to be worried.