Ukraine vote as tensions high in close-run election

[Adsos Letter]

Source: Reuters

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainians voted on Sunday for a new president in a run-off between Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich which could bring a new bout of instability to the country.

Analysts see a narrow Yanukovich victory but Tymoshenko has threatened to call for protests in a replay of the 2004 "Orange Revolution" if she deems the vote unfair.

A decisive outcome should reset the ex-Soviet republic's relations Russia, which plummeted under pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko, and decide the speed of Ukraine's path into the European mainstream.

Challenges to the result will further hurt confidence in the crisis-hit economy and may delay talks with the International Monetary Fund, which suspended its $16.4 billion bailout plan on broken promises to control state spending.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61520W20100207

[Kurska]

1. The orange revolution ate its own guts.

Sad, how that turned out.