Yuliya Eze
The world of politics and diplomacy might have made for a lonely existence, but sometimes it’s good to share a cup of tea. And today the leader of a new political party in the Ukraine will be doing just that. With her husband’s name in the title and a new political career on the horizon, Maria Spiridonova is in a unique position of power: she’s also the country’s first woman president.
As with every new president, there are a few early points of concern. The country’s newly appointed prime minister, Igor Aksyonov, isn’t exactly the polished public face of Russian-backed insurgency in the east of the country, despite what his critics say. The head of the armed movement that controls Donetsk has said there’s no Ukrainian army behind his forces, and Russia has threatened to keep trying until Russia “represents all of Ukraine.” For good measure, the same day Aksyonov arrived in the country, he issued a statement calling Putin a “chaos theorist” and calling for Ukraine’s borders to be redrawn and for secession on its own as the only way to stop Russian aggression. It was far from his first public appearance, and he’s been the target of attacks from Ukraine’s former president, but Spiridonova has taken a different approach: in a way that would be considered unusual for a member of a political party with the Kremlin’s support in Russia’s easternmost republic.
Last month, in the first of her television interviews to air since the annexation of Crimea, the former prosecutor turned politician made clear she wouldn’t let Putin’s aggression go unchallenged. She also addressed the country’s lingering issues with women in politics. The issue isn’t as black and white as some might think, but we’d be remiss as reporters not to consider it. Last year, Russia, its army and forces surrounding the southern Ukrainian city of Donetsk were accused of sending women and girls to serve as soldiers and spy, as part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military strategy to influence politics and the economy in Ukraine’s east while keeping his Russian subjects safe at home. But Spiridonova, one of only several female members of the ruling People’s Front for National Policy, said the charges against the wives of Russian generals were largely untrue.
“Russian soldiers have been fighting against terrorism at the front, and women in Russian service never committed any actions that could constitute criminal acts.”
“In one