04/05/2011 | Hadjibei

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/new/blogs/motyl/Yanukovych_vs_Kuchmaand_Dershowitz

A. Motyl:

It’s a fair bet that Yanukovych figured that giving Kuchma his comeuppance would be an easy way to score some points. Little did he know that the case will turn out to be a major-league embarrassment for him and his regime. Probably prompted by his son-in-law, the Western-oriented oligarch and Davos Man, Viktor Pinchuk, Kuchma hired star American defense attorney, Alan Dershowitz of Harvard University, to represent him. The supremely smart and impressively articulate Dershowitz—

whose right earlobe has a higher IQ than the entire Ukrainian government—

will run circles around the Yanukovych mugs, asking impossible questions, probing into unflattering corners, and exposing the Ukrainian political elite as a bunch of vindictive, petty, stupid, corrupt, and criminal dolts with no experience of genuine rule of law, especially as practiced by one of the world’s toughest lawyers.

Dershowitz’s intervention may or may not save Kuchma, but it will surely damn Yanukovych. Unsurprisingly for an overextended sultan, Yanukovych has—once again—maneuvered himself into a cul de sac. If he decides to duck by dropping the charges against Kuchma, he will look indecisive and dumb. If he decides to go ahead with the case, he will look decisive and dumber. Heck, with a little luck, Dershowitz could succeed in doing what the hapless Ukrainian opposition has thus far failed to do—bring the Yanukovych regime to its knees. It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of guys.