Decapitated Ukraine Grows New Head

The runoff presidential election in Ukraine is over. The winner’s name has not been announced officially yet, but everyone knows that Ukraine will have another Viktor at the head - Viktor Yanukovych - who won 48.28 percent of votes. His rival, Yulia Tymoshenko, nips at his toes with 46.11 percent.

Photo: Decapitated Ukraine Grows New Head

Ukraine’s Central Election Committee is to announce the results of the vote during the next ten days.

Spokespeople for Yulia Tymoshenko’s Bloc said that they would challenge the results of the presidential vote in Ukraine at court.

Yanukovych’s Party of Region accuses its rivals of large-scale falsifications too. Specialists say that Tymoshenko may try to repeat the scenario of 2004, when she joined efforts with Viktor Yushchenko to revise the results of the vote.

Vladimir Kornilov, the director of the Ukrainian Department of the Institute for the CIS, said in his interview with Pravda.Ru that Tymoshenko would obviously continue the struggle for presidency.

“The difference in the votes is not that big – it fluctuates somewhere between 600-700 thousand. There will be mass actions of protest. Even if she tries to repeat the history of 2004, she is not likely to succeed. The Party of Regions is prepared for such a turn of events. They already organize street actions to support their candidate.

“This time, Yanukovych managed to mobilize his electorate, especially in the east of the country, where the turnout was not lower than in the west, where people mostly voted for Tymoshenko. She made a big mistake in her pre-election agitation. The activities of her bloc were mainly aimed against the east of Ukraine, which made the people vote against her,” the specialist said.

“Ukraine’s relations with Russia will improve no matter who eventually takes the president’s office. Yushchenko and his team did their best to worsen Ukraine’s relations with Russia as much as possible,” the scientist of politics said.

Ukrainian scientist of politics Vladimir Skachko said he was sorry about the small advantage which Yanukovych took over Tymoshenko during the runoff vote.

“Yanukovych was passive in his reaction to Tymoshenko’s remarks when she called him “a former prisoner.” He should have recollected some episodes of her criminal past too,” Skachko said.

“Now that Yanukovych is the winner, Ukraine’s relations with Russia will obviously improve. If Tymoshenko won, she would haggle on everything with Russia, especially on gas,” he added.

“She won’t win the fight. She lost. Yanukovych is not going to give away his victory to her again,” the expert said.

Sergey Balmasov
Pravda.Ru

Read the original in Russian