Ukraine, in the wake of its Orange Revolution, has earned the image of a leading post-Soviet country regarding the pace of liberal reform. However, this perception of the country is to a large extent a kind of payment in advance rather than a reflection of actual results.

If Tymoshenko wants to stay in office, she needs to patch up or enlarge the coalition before the parliament’s summer vacation or block the parliament’s work by raising debatable and provocative issues or besieging the rostrum.

Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovych have the highest ratings as potential candidates for the presidency. The only difference is that this past winter Tymoshenko was 1-2 percent ahead of Yanukovych and now their standings are exactly opposite.

Yushchenko is not ready to agree to an honorable post of parliamentary president yet. Tymoshenko showed her readiness to prolong his term as president without any elections under the condition of substantial reduction of his authority.

If one million “active citizens” get the right to initiate, amend, or abrogate any law and even the Constitution, then the parliament may not only lose its status of the sole legislative body...

It is conventionally believed that in the first hundred days a new government enjoys its highest rating of popular trust and ought to use this circumstance for reforms and innovations. In this sense the new Ukrainian leadership has simply wasted its first 100 days.

There is an interesting and very plausible version: it is Viktor Baloha who put parliament out of operation. Allegedly, it was his idea to send the notorious letter to the NATO Secretary General.

President of the center for economic development on the logic of reform and the choice of means discrediting the noblest goals.

A meeting with Volodymyr Ohryzko, Foreign Minister of Ukraine, opens a series of ZN interviews with the new Cabinet members.

Ukraine's parliament on December 18 confirmed Yulia Tymoshenko as prime minister, returning the controversial pro-Western politician to power three years after the Orange Revolution catapulted her to a short-lived, divisive premiership.

It is not even the matter of her astounding charisma and the iron will – Yulia Tymoshenko managed to sense the optimal propaganda strategy capable of uniting the both banks of the Dnieper, both parts of Ukraine.

The elections are over, and various political forces are busy distributing powers amongst them, although the time is ripe for discussing Ukraine’s post-election economy.

DMITRY VYDRIN

The fact that two Verkhovna Rada legislators, Igor Rybakov and Yuri Bout, have withdrawn from the democratic coalition casts doubt on its prospects.

YURY YAKIMENKO

I believe that President Yushchenko and Prime Minister Tymoshenko will prolong the truce till the autumn. If there are no political convulsions, no coalition reformating and if the early elections are not held before October-November, one can hope that relative political stability will be maintained in Ukraine for a longer time.

VITALY BALA

I would not exaggerate the importance of the Kyiv mayoral elections in terms of their influence on the political situation in the country as a whole. Though, of course, the elections were of great importance.

DMITRY VYDRIN

It seems that Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko wants to be dismissed. She does not want to resign, she would like to be fired.

VITALY BALA

The President Yushchenko’s wish to push through his version of the constitutional reform played a mean trick on him. The President and his team did not expect that Prime Minister Tymoshenko would offer such resistance.  And Tymoshenko took the initiative.

ALEXEY GOLOBUTSKY

In 2004 it came as a compromise in a sense. But Constitution is not a document for compromise, for it is a state-forming document rather than a political one.

VITALY BALA

“100 days” implies carte blanche for any government. A government can do almost whatever they like within that period: reshuffle the Cabinet, put forward reforms or pursue their own economic policy. In other words, a government is given a free hand.

YURY YAKIMENKO

As regards the conflict between the President and the Prime Minister, they compete with each other for almost everything. Virtually all of important decisions or steps taken by the Cabinet evoked a reaction from the President’s Secretariat.

VADIM KARASYOV

It seems that the Russian authorities make it clear that as long as Tymoshenko is Prime Minister, Russia doesn’t want to be Ukraine’s partner.

VITALY BALA

Tymoshenko’s seeking to remove the RosUkrEnergo company from the the chain of the gas supplies and transit should be considered as an element of her presidential campaign. "Gas relations" with Russia became one of her weak points during her first premiership.

VADIM KARASYOV

The election of Yuliya Tymoshenko as Ukraine’s Prime Minister is the evidence of the fact that parliamentary-electoral mechanism of government formation is being created in Ukraine.

VITALY BALA

From now on Tymoshenko’s appointment as Premier is a matter of principle. I believe that the democratic coalition is sure to have her appointed as Ukraine’s Prime Minister.  

IGOR BURAKOVSKY

The fact that building the Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense and Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc coalition has taken almost two months after the early parliamentary elections indicates difficulties on both sides.

Eurasian Home publishes the article “Third Anniversary of the Orange Revolution. On Renewal of Ukraine’s Political Regime” by Oleksandr Paskhaver and Lidia Verkhovodova from the Center for Economic Development, Kyiv, Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has lost a lot since the heady days of his country’s Orange Revolution – executive power (due to constitutional changes), voter support (due to endless infighting) and international prestige (for lack of reform). More recently, his reputation as a martyr for democracy has also come under threat.

Last weekend saw the visit of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to Moscow, where she met with Vladimir Putin for the first time since he went from being Russia’s president to heading his country’s government. During the joint press conference both premiers chose their words carefully, demonstrating the sensitivity of current Russian-Ukrainian relations.

There is an old joke in Ukraine: two Ukrainians find a bottle containing a genie who grants them each a wish. The first Ukrainian requests and gets what he wants; the second Ukrainian uses his wish to cancel the wish of his countryman. The joke is that envy to the detriment of one's own interests is part of the Ukrainian national character. Certainly this seems to be the case with the country’s politicians.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and his one-time ally Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko have increasingly traded blows over the country’s budget, privatization, energy policy and, most recently, the Kyiv mayoral elections; however, when it comes to foreign policy, the two politicians who rose to power during Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution show unusual and possibly even unintended solidarity.

Over the holiday-filled weekend, Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov arrived in the history-filled city of Sevastopol to challenge the history and geopolitical relations of Ukraine and Russia. The official purpose of Mr. Luzhkov's visit was to take part in the celebration of the 225th anniversary of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which fell on Europe Day (May 11) and just after Victory Day (May 9).

It’s no secret that Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko have not enjoyed good relations for a long time. But ever since the two politicians found themselves neck and neck in the stretch for the presidency, their simmering mutual antipathy has flared up into open hostility.

On May 25, around two million voters in Kyiv will elect a new mayor. It will be an early election, as was the case with the last parliamentary poll in September. But more importantly for the business clans and political blocs taking part, the two month race to control the Ukrainian capital, which started on March 26, will be a dress rehearsal for the presidential elections scheduled for late next year.

The presidential campaign in America is still a three-way race between Obama, Clinton and McCain. But in Ukraine, where the elections are still two years off, it’s everyone against Yulia Tymoshenko. Appearing before a government meeting on Wednesday, March 26, the fiery female politician said her opponents had already begun attempts to undermine the fragile pro-Western majority in parliament.

On March 26, the campaign for early mayoral elections kicks off in Kyiv. Current mayor Leonid Chernovetsky was elected to office exactly two years to the day in 2006, but his political opponents believe that he's already overstayed his welcome. So on March 18 they put together a parliamentary majority to approve early elections for May 25.

Just into his fourth year as president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko is beginning to act a lot like the man he replaced during the country's Orange Revolution. Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma is often remembered for waffling on Western integration, crushing freedom of speech and overseeing a state apparatus steeped in corruption.

The only thing that causes Ukrainians to passionately take sides, cry foul and then throw up their hands in disappointment more than their football is their politics. More than just a game, politics the Ukrainian way is about unquestioning loyalty to one’s team to the point of bending every rule in the book for the sake of a victory chock-full of financial incentives.

Yulia Tymoshenko was approved as Ukrainian prime minister on December 18. This marks the beginning of Ms. Yulia's second stint as head of government. She was nominated both times by pro-Western president Viktor Yushchenko, whom she helped rise to power during the country's 2004 Orange Revolution, and then hold on to authority during this year's power struggle.

There is more than one way for a state leader to abuse his power, and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko is practicing the 'softest' way of all. You can't call him a dictator who imposes his will on his people, as it's not clear what Mr. Yushchenko's will is - beyond the fact that he wants to stay in power, as do all state leaders.

Ukraine held general elections on September 30, but power sharing in the country remains to be decided in subsequent voting devoid of public participation and full of backroom intrigue. For a second time in a row, Ukraine has pulled off an internationally accepted demonstration of the people's will, with rank and file citizens putting an end to a crippling stand off between their two highest executive leaders.

With parties heir to Ukraine's Orange Revolution perched to retake full control of the country’s executive, Orange president Viktor Yushchenko is again demonstrating the kind of dubious indecision that cost them the government in the first place. His one-time revolutionary sidekick, opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, was the real winner in the September 30 snap elections, earning enough votes to come back as premier.

The queen of Ukrainian politics, opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, was the unofficial victor in Ukraine’s snap elections on Sunday, with exit polls indicating she will head the next government. But Tymoshenko’s ascension to power will be anything but a sexy saunter, as her enemies are unlikely to allow themselves to be sidelined by a pretty populist.

There was a time when educated Ukrainians didn't read the latest bestseller translated from English, or Dostoyevsky (pardon - Taras Shevchenko). During the middle ages, the literate were versed in what are called the Lives of Saints. The typical plot of these religious works is the struggle of a God-fearing Christian against heathens, nature or sinners. Times and tastes have changed, of course.