Posted on 04/18/2007 7:42:17 AM PDT by A. Pole
KIEV (Reuters) - Riot police pushed aside protesters massed outside a Ukrainian courthouse on Wednesday, allowing judges inside to assess whether embattled President Viktor Yushchenko acted legally in ordering a snap election.
About 4,000 protesters backing Yushchenko's call for an early election -- but opposing the Constitutional Court's examination of the presidential decree -- had been waving flags outside the building from early morning.
The sitting got under way after about an hour's delay, with 15 of the 18 judges present.
Yushchenko, long at odds with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich over Ukraine's future direction, has dissolved the chamber and ordered a snap parliamentary election for May 27.
The prime minister and his allies have asked the Constitutional Court to assess the decree, though court officials say it will take some time to issue a ruling.
Both leaders, rivals since "Orange Revolution" protests swept Yushchenko to power in 2004, pledge to abide by a court decision and suggest they may compromise on an election date.
But the opposition under former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who lobbied hardest for a new election, has denounced the Constitutional Court as biased and said it will have nothing to do with any ruling.
[...]
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Orange Revolution bump
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These protestors are there only because they got paid by Moscow and bussed in.
Protesters on BOTH sides have to be paid. Few people can afford prolonged full time demonstrations, not only on Ukraine :(
That is a lie - the million Orange Protestors from 2 years ago where not paid and you seem intent on spreading Kremlin propaganda
I am not talking about specific demonstration, this is true in general. Most of people if they were to demonstrate for more than one or two days, would have to be paid. For a few million dollars you can buy a lot of protests in the Ukraine, whether pro-Western or pro-Russian.
There are plenty of potential sponsors who have too much time and money on their hands:
Berezovsky told the magazine he had spent $50 million in financing Ukraine's "Orange Revolution" in 2004 which brought pro-Western presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko to power on the back of massive street protests.
"It means that here (in Russia) it is necessary to spend half a billion (dollars)," he said.
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