Word: yushchenko
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Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko may have overcome Russian political interference and dioxin poisoning to triumph during the 2004 orange revolution, but he's now at risk of losing his hold on power. On April 2, Yushchenko ordered the dissolution of Ukraine's single-chamber parliament, the Rada, to make way for early elections in late May. In response, the Rada, which is dominated by his opponents, declared the order unconstitutional, blocked funding for the new election, voted to replace the current election commission with the one that was fired for rigging the 2004 election, and referred the crisis...
...Both the instigator and probable beneficiary of the turmoil: Yushchenko's nemesis, Viktor Yanukovych, whose 2004 defeat was hailed by the West as a victory for democracy. Ironically, Yanukovych has used all the instruments of Ukrainian politics and democracy to undo Yushchenko's authority...
...sense he's had an easy time of it. Since their victory, the liberal, pro-Western orange politicians have squandered their once-enormous political momentum by squabbling and infighting. Yuliya Tymoshenko, leader of the byut party and a prime driver behind the orange revolution, initially became Yushchenko's Prime Minister but soon fell out with him amid mutual accusations of frustrating the orange ideals...
...coincided with political reform, which transferred considerable powers from the office of the President to the Rada and the Rada-nominated Prime Minister. After controversial parliamentary maneuvers and alliance building, Yanukovych became Prime Minister and immediately set out to encroach on the President's diminishing powers. Yanukovych has purged Yushchenko's nominees from his own cabinet. The Rada and the Cabinet now oppose the President's policies, aimed at joining the European Union and NATO, playing on fears of joining the Western alliance fanned by Russian propaganda. The ever looser Orange alliance of Tymoshenko and Yushchenko was being abandoned...
...prospect of that led to Yushchenko's decision to dissolve the Rada. Tymoshenko offered to patch up relations in the face of a common and rising enemy. But it may be too late. Even a Constitutional Court ruling may not be enough to heal the rift between two democratically elected but violently opposed branches of Ukraine?s government...