Page "Political parties in Ukraine" Paragraph 3

In the first years after Ukrainian independence political parties in Ukraine where centred around intellectuals and former Soviet dissidents.

After 1991 parties where formed around politicians who had achieved power ; these parties where often a vehicle of Ukrainian oligarchs.

Scholars have defined several " Clans " in Ukrainian politics grouped around businessman and politicians from particular Ukrainian mayor cities ; the " Donetsk-clan " ( Rinat Akhmetov, Viktor Yanukovich and Mykola Azarov ), the " Dnipropetrovsk-clan " ( Yulia Tymoshenko, Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Pinchuk, Sergey Tigipko and Pavlo Lazarenko ), the " Kiev-clan " ( Viktor Medvedchuk and the brothers Surkis ; this clan has also been linked to Zakarpattia ) and the smaller " Kharkiv-clan ".

Professor Paul D ' Anieri has argued ( in 2006 ) that Ukrainian parties are " elite-based rather than mass-based ".

While former Ambassador of Germany to Ukraine ( 2000 – 2006 ) Dietmar Studemann believes that personalities are more important in Ukrainian politics than ( ideological ) platforms.

" Parties in the proper meaning of this word do not exist in Ukraine so far.

A party for Germans is its platform first, and its personalities later.