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Pragmatism after the Revolution

Yushchenko Reaches Agreement on New Ukraine Government

With his former partners in the Orange Revolution now sparring bitterly, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko reaches an agreement to form a unity government that will also include his one-time political nemesis, Viktor Yanukovych. Together, the leaders hope to unite the country.

Crippled by an inability to kickstart Ukraine's economy, implement crucial reforms and its inability to reduce its reliance on Russian natural gas, Kiev's pro-West Orange Revolution appears poised for a quiet death this week.

Months after Ukraine plunged into a political crisis because of inconclusive March election results, President Viktor Yushchenko on Thursday reached a deal that would create a coalition government with his political nemesis, Viktor Yanukovych. The decision came just hours after the official deadline expired for him to resolve the political impasse that had gripped Ukraine since uncertain election results in March. Yushchenko's decision effectively ended the possibility of holding new elections.

"I have decided to put forward Viktor Yanukovych for the post of Ukraine's prime minister," Yushchenko said. Yushchenko said that this appointment was the only way to unite the pro-Russia east with the pro-Western west, and only way to end the political crisis and jumpstart political reform.

REUTERS

Viktor Yanukovich will now become Ukraine's prime minister.

The political stalemate in Ukraine began in March, when national elections failed to produce a clear winner. Yushchenko had been largely unpopular because of his inability to negotiate cheap gas prices with Russia and his failure to unite the deeply divided country. In the end, Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party had the poorest showing at 14 percent, putting it into third place. Yanukovich's Party of Regions came into first and Tymoshenko's into second.

Yanukovich, who was defeated by Yushchenko in December 2004 during the Orange Revolution, is known for his pro-Moscow stances and for looking negatively on Ukraine's prospects of joining NATO and the EU.

"I think that now is the very moment we must unite Ukraine," Yushchenko said.

In order to create a united front in the coalition, Yushchenko made Yanukovich sign an agreement that stated that he hoped would rope the leader into the current administration's pro-Western stane. Among other things, the 27-point plan calls for Ukraine to continue to seek European Union and World Trade Organization membership and to cooperate with NATO. However, it also includes carrots for the pro-Russian side, with a pledge to consider joining a free trade zone promoted by Russia that would also include Kazakhstan and Belarus. It also makes Ukraine the country's official language, but drops the word "only," which would have been an exclusionary act against the country's Russian minority population in the east.

Thursday's loser is Yushchenko's former partner in the Orange Revolution, Yulia Tymoshenko. Following the March election, it had been expected that the former prime minister, who was forced out of office in September 2005 after a falling out with Yushchenko, would return to the post. However, talks collapsed in July because of opposition in parliament, where members barricaded the podium and blocked a vote that would have brought Yushchenko and Tymoshenko to power.

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