Posted on 01/09/2006 7:39:25 PM PST by jb6
KIEV, Ukraine — After last week's signing of a five-year natural gas agreement with Russia, President Viktor Yushchenko was basking in self-congratulation. "I would call it a brilliant achievement," he told Ukraine's NTN television.
But former ally Yulia Tymoshenko thought otherwise. "Only a person with a huge New Year's hangover can call this a success," declared Tymoshenko, who was a partner in the 2004 Orange Revolution that brought Yushchenko to power and was his prime minister until last fall. "It's clear that the government has systematically and consciously betrayed the national interests of Ukraine."
Just a little more than a year ago, the duo were a "dream team" that stood, hands clenched triumphantly together in the air, in Kiev's Independence Square. For much of the world, they came to symbolize democratic aspirations throughout the former Soviet republics.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
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