Tuesday, December 28, 2004

New President in Ukraine

I meant to post this yesterday:
KIEV, Ukraine - Opposition leader Victor Yushchenko declared victory today in Ukraine's fiercely contested presidential election, telling thousands of supporters that they had taken their country to a new political era after a bitterly fought campaign that required an unprecedented three ballots and Supreme Court intervention against fraud.
Now, I'm not Ukrainian, but I was really happy to read the news on Monday and see that Yushchenko had won this election. I guess I was rooting for the underdog since he wasn't the favored guy by Vladimir Putin...
Yanukovych, 54, backed by Kuchma and Russian President Vladimir Putin, is strongest in industrialized, Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine. He has said he would strengthen ties with Moscow, and his constituencies include miners, factory workers and ethnic Russians.
...and since apparently there had been some forces at work trying to kill him off...
Yushchenko, whose face remains badly scarred from dioxin poisoning he blamed on Ukrainian authorities, has recovered enough that he should be able to serve as Ukraine's president, but he will continue to need treatment for months if not years, his doctors and foreign specialists said.
...I brought this up in a Dec 5 posting. Then noticed in a Dec 17 newspaper article that Yanukovych stated he would not give in easily if Yushchenko won on the 26th. Glad to see the "good guy" win. It's possible you won't be able to view the web-article (link). I tried to view it again today, got blocked by some login thing, and had to ...uh... *cough* ...get around it. That's all I'll say.

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