Three years after the Orange Revolution, Ukraine’s leaders seem as far away as ever from creating lasting political stability. President Viktor Yushchenko, Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister, and Viktor Yanukovich, the opposition leader, plunge Kiev into political turmoil almost daily, talking of new constitutions, parliamentary dissolutions, and more early elections.

Yet this divided political elite has presided over an unprecedented surge in the economy, with investment soaring, wages rising and unemployment on the way down.