Le Sabot:

Yushchenko comes off much tougher than he did at the press conference announcement, which only gave the bare points. But this has been a day that gave with one hand and took back with the other.

- Yushchenko has lifted the blockades. But he's vowed to keep to the streets until he gets a solid date on a new vote, and changes in the voting laws. He's given the working group 24 hours to come up with them.

- Yanukovych was voted out as PM, taking away his ability to steal votes administratively. He has refused to accept this, and Kuchma can veto the vote, if he wants to spend the political capital doing it.

- Yushchenko is standing firm in his demand for a repeat of the 2nd round, rather than the completely new elections Kuchma wants.

I saw a statement by Solana, the chief EU intermediary, that it could take up to a month to perform the necessary legal changes. Kuchma is saying it might take three months to have a new vote. Bartender, I'll have whatever they've been drinking. There's no way the Opposition is going to let their people sit in the snow for 3 months. The only way even the one month time-frame is conceivable is if it comes with some sort of iron-clad, double-strength insurances. And I'm having trouble thinking of what those could be.

It begins to look like the situation might be resolved without bloodshed, and for once the country might be truly united, rather than torn into two: a Ukranian segment and a satellite of Russia.

Posted by: Attila at 12:27 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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