yanukovich is the duly elected president.
He is now the legally impeached former president.
I get that you feel more comfortable with Presidents for Life like Putin and Chavez, but Ukrainians see things differently.
“yanukovich is the duly elected president.”
You are making a false statement.
1. Yanukovych may or may not have been lawfuly elected and/or lawfully inaugurated. There is some evidence his supposed election was rigged by massive vote fraud that was legally challenged. There is also some evidence of unconstitutional irregularities in the way the court dismissed the complaint/s of this vote fraud. There is some controversial evidence to indicate Yanukovych was inaugurated at a time in which the constitution prohibeted while the challenge of vote fraud was still undetermined. So, the question of whether or not Yanukovych was lawfully elected and inaugurated remained/remains in question.
2. Since Yanukovich was the de facto President whether or not he was also the de jure President, let’s assume for the sake of discussion he WAS the lawful President. The fact remains Yanukovich ceased being the de facto or the de jure President of the Ukraine the moment he chose to vacate the office of the President, commit treason against the state, and defect to his Russian paymasters to escape prosecution for his crimes in the Ukraine. There is nothing in the Ukrainian constitution that permits the President to commit treason against the state, abandon his office and duties, and flee the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian courts to evade criminal prosecution. Consequently, Yanukoviych IS NOT the President of the Ukraine whether or not he ever was.
#. In the event a President and successors vacate the office of the president, it is the constitutional duty of the parliment to appoint an acting president to perform the duties of the office pending the election of a new president. The parliament fuflfilled that constitutional duty by appointing an acting president and schedule the election of a new president. The former President and wanted criminal suspect, his Russian paymasters, and his pro-Russian seperatists are attempting to use lethal force and insurrection to obstruct the election mandated by the Ukrainian constitution.
So, Yanukovich is certainly not “the duly elected president” today, whether or not he ever was in the past.