New Year's eve is time for summing-up and making plans for the future. Political analyst, chairman of the Institute of Ukrainian Politics Kost Bondarenko tells ForUm in rapid-fire interview about most remarkable events of 2013 for Ukraine and Ukrainians, and the outlook for the year 2014.


- Kostyantyn Petrovych, how can you characterize year 2013? 

- It won’t be unexpected if I say that 2013 was the year of great hopes, many of which did not come true.

It was the year of hopes of pro-European part of the society, awaiting Association Agreement and FTA with the EU. It was also the year of hopes of the second part of society, expecting Ukraine to join the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Opposition politicians also had expectations. In particular, Arseniy Yatseniuk hoped his rating would grow up and "surpass" that of Vitali Klitschko, and so on. Everybody had hopes. And every part of the nation, every political force remained obviously not absolutely happy with the year 2013.

- What will 2014 bring?

- This will be the year of presidential election campaign. All the processes in Ukraine will be determined by the preparation for presidential elections. Accordingly, any action of politicians will be tested on chances of successful surviving the campaign.

- Does it mean that early parliamentary elections won’t be held since it is important to keep the Parliament as a platform for the election campaign?

- Holding early elections is possible only in case if the President approves extraordinary elections.

- When will the next political, not calendar, year begin?

- It has already begun. We already live in trends, which will be determinant in 2014.

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