Posted on 01/21/2005 8:50:51 AM PST by anonymoussierra
KIEV (AFP) - Kiev once again turned orange as Viktor Yushchenko prepared to assume power after months of turmoil and set off on his avowed course of bringing Ukraine out of historic Russian influence and toward the West.
Ahead of the reformer's inauguration Sunday, the Ukrainian capital busily wrapped itself into the orange color of his presidential campaign -- orange banners hung from buildings, adorned billboards and fluttered under the falling snow as flags.
"All of the organizational questions have been decided," Kiev mayor Oleksander Omelchenko said proudly Friday.
Yushchenko will take the oath of office at noon on Sunday in parliament, with an informal ceremony following on Kiev's central Independence Square, the epicenter of the "orange revolution" that he rode to power.
[snip]
The 50-year-old former central banker and prime minister will become the third president of an independent Ukraine, taking over after 10 years of authoritarian-leaning rule by outgoing leader Leonid Kuchma.
His mass "orange" protests echoed on the world stage with Cold War-like rhetoric between Russia and the West and a myriad of top foreign officials were due to attend the ceremony, including six heads of state.
[snip]
Among the foreign dignitaries will be US Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites), Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and NATO (news - web sites) chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. Russia was to be represented by Sergei Mironov, speaker of the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who will not attend due to previous engagements, travelled nonetheless Friday to Kiev where he had lunch with Yushchenko and also met Kuchma.
Solana, along with Poland's Kwasniewski, partook in three rounds of roundtable talks amid Ukraine's election saga.
Yushchenko's inauguration will cap months of political turmoil and uncertainty that roiled this nation.
[snip]
He will begin his presidency with a one-day visit to Russia on Monday to meet with President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites), who supported his electoral rival Viktor Yanukovich in the campaign, and soothe the tensions that flared between Moscow and his team amid the "orange" protests.
The next day he will set off for a four-day tour of Europe that will aim, observers say, to turn Europe's support during the election campaign into concrete actions.
"Ukraine for the first time has conducted a democratic election and has a good chance to integrate into Europe," said Oleksander Dergachyov, an analyst. "But aside from moral support, we need to get real guarantees and investments from European governments."
Yushchenko was swept to power on a wave of mass demonstrations that the opposition organized after the now-discredited November vote and that have become known here as the "orange revolution."
The protests touched off an unexpected tidal wave of popular support, as hundreds of thousands of supporters clad in the orange color of Yushchenko's campaign streamed to Kiev, and echoed on the world stage as Moscow backed Yanukovich while Brussels and Washington lined up behind Yushchenko.
They also marked the second year in a row that a pro-Western leader headed popular protests that swept aside a Russia-friendly regime in a former Soviet republic, after a "rose revolution" in Georgia in late 2003.
ping Ukraine
Ukraine readies for Yushchenko's long-awaited inaugurationExcerpt:KIEV (AFP) - Kiev once again turned orange as Viktor Yushchenko prepared to assume power after months of turmoil and set off on his avowed course of bringing Ukraine out of historic Russian influence and toward the West.
Ahead of the reformer's inauguration Sunday, the Ukrainian capital busily wrapped itself into the orange color of his presidential campaign -- orange banners hung from buildings, adorned billboards and fluttered under the falling snow as flags.
"All of the organizational questions have been decided," Kiev mayor Oleksander Omelchenko said proudly Friday.
Yushchenko will take the oath of office at noon on Sunday in parliament, with an informal ceremony following on Kiev's central Independence Square, the epicenter of the "orange revolution" that he rode to power.
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Yushchenko vs. Yanukovych/Ukraine election ping list!. . .don't be shy.
Now we can top it off splendidly with those elections in Iraq next week.
Talk about HISTORY IN THE MAKING!
Yes! ..... Yes! ..... and ..... Yes! :^D
Free :}}}}}}}}Thank you
Thanks for the post and ping. :^D
BTT
I think most people in America have forgotten about Ukraine. It's not really that we have such short attention spans, but people are heavily influenced by what the media chooses to present, and once a topic is out of the news cycle it rarely comes back.
We are well along the path toward forgetting the tsunami.
"We are well along the path toward forgetting the tsunami."I will not"forgetting the tsunami"persons America good friend Thank you
BUSH AND YUSH!!!
As Shakespeare wrote in George W:
Thus conscience doth make cowboys of us all.
Exactly!!And you know what? (Looks at watch). By this time tomorrow,
he should be in the driver's seat.
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