"Ukraine leader in battle to keep post; Polls indicate he lags rivals" by James M. Gomez and Daryna Krasnolutska, Bloomberg News | January 14, 2010
PRAGUE - President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine has feuded with Russia and struggled to forge links with the European Union since taking power in the 2004 Orange Revolution. Voters may now turn to his rivals to mend ties with both the East and the West.
Yushchenko is unlikely to survive the first round of the presidential election Jan. 17, according to two December polls in which 3.7 percent of respondents supported him.
Related: Agent Orange Revolution Turns Sour
Opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych, who favors closer links with Russia, and Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko placed first and second and probably will face each other in the second round, Feb. 7.
So WHO lost the Ukraine? Obama reaping another Bush policy failure, 'eh?
A Yushchenko departure may bolster Ukrainian markets, unfreeze a $16.4 billion bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund, and ease conflicts with Russia, said Sacha Tessier-Stall, head of foreign policy at the International Centre for Policy Studies in Kiev.
Translation: A POWER SHIFT has taken place!
“No matter who wins, there will be an improvement,’’ said Tessier-Stall. “Yushchenko exacerbated tensions with Russia, thinking it would get himself into the EU. But he failed to see that bad relations with Russia are bad relations with the EU.’’
So they are dumping him, huh?
Yushchenko was swept to power in 2004 in the so-called Orange Revolution, when millions of demonstrators demanded new elections. A court ruling found that Yanukovych’s initial victory was based on fraud.
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And I truly do not understand the censorship cuts in the Globe web version, readers:
Yushchenko yesterday said the election would be “a national referendum about Ukraine’s European future.”
Both Timoshenko, 49, and Yanukovych, 59, have promised better relations with Russia and publicly supported concluding a free-trade agreement that has stalled over European objections to the country’s economic management.
“I want a new president to be flexible,” 60-year-old accountant Valentyna Lozova, an undecided voter, said yesterday in Kiev. “I want the president to be oriented to the European Union, but at the same time the president must set up good relations with all neighbors. I do not like conflicts.”
No, MOST PEOPLE DO NOT!
It is ONLY a NARROW SECTOR that PROFITS from them that does.
The former Soviet republic’s disputes with Russia led to two gas cutoffs to Europe, in January 2006 and in January last year, as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of stealing the fuel. Yushchenko, 55, Timoshenko and state-run NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy denied the charge....
Translation: Russia has Europe's freezing balls in its grip.
A Dec. 12-24 poll by the International Institute of Sociology in Kiev found Yushchenko would get just 3.7 percent of the vote, putting him in fifth place. Timoshenko had 15.8 percent and Yanukovych led with 30.3 percent. The margin of error was 2 percentage points and more than 4,000 people were surveyed....
Nothing about the poisoning in my BG.
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Also see: Ukraine Unknowns and Omissions
