Word: yanukovych
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Just days before Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's scheduled inauguration on Feb. 25, his defeated rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, withdrew her petition to annul the election. She then challenged the government to hold a no-confidence vote, believing that opponents do not have enough support to oust her. The infighting threatens to further destabilize Ukraine's political system, which is still recovering from 2004's Orange Revolution...
...country's Feb. 7 presidential election, former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych defeated sitting Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko by 3.5 percentage points. Though the vote received high marks from international election monitors, Tymoshenko refused to concede and signaled that she may ask for a recount. Tymoshenko may be hoping for a repeat of the Orange Revolution that followed the 2004 presidential election; that uprising ousted Yanukovych after he was accused of electoral fraud. Any election appeals must be lodged by Feb. 17, when Kiev will declare the results official...
...beyond that image, Yanukovych will have to give substance to his rhetoric and show a real commitment to democratic principles and reforms of the opaque energy sector. He will also need to force Big Business to play by the rules. Success there will depend on how he handles his powerful corporate backers, who are pulling him in different directions. One wing of supporters is made up of industrialists from the East who are interested in European markets; the other reportedly makes its money from the gas trade with Russia. "Yanukovych is very much influenced by the circles around...
Another key will be the government he forms, assuming he ousts Tymoshenko as Prime Minister. The Russian authoritarian model is not tempting to many of the oligarchs who back Yanukovych. "They don't want to become politically dependent on Russia. They're worried they'll meet the same fate as [Mikhail] Khodorkovsky," says Viktor Nebozhenko, a political analyst in Kiev, referring to the jailed Russian tycoon...
Whichever path Yanukovych takes, there is little doubt that the unambiguously pro-Western policies of Yushchenko will come to an end. The new President has outlined a vision of a neutral Ukraine and, citing low domestic support, will not push for membership in NATO, although he has said continued cooperation would be "beneficial." But this doesn't necessarily signal a complete end of orange, as many commentators have predicted. After all, the protests five years ago were first and foremost about the people's right to choose their leader. "I think Ukrainians will be embarrassed about their choice," lamented...