Christian Science Monitor: Ukraine, fiery Tymoshenko revives Orange hopes
After a stunning upset in last week's election, the former prime minister is poised to lead a fresh Orange coalition.
MOSCOW – With her trademark peasant braids and fiery talk of radical change, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has come roaring back from the political wilderness. After producing a stunning upset in Ukraine's emergency parliamentary polls last week, she is poised to retake the prime ministry as head of a fresh Western-leaning Orange coalition.
Her momentum gives the flagging pro-democracy Orange Revolution a new lease on life after more than a year of political stalemate. But despite this, many Ukrainian political players are wary of Ms. Tymoshenko's return – even her recently reconciled ally, President Viktor Yushchenko.
"There is a rational basis for Yushchenko and Tymoshenko to cooperate in the long term, to revive the stalled Orange agenda" of making sweeping market reforms and bringing Ukraine closer to the European Union and NATO, says Oleksandr Sushko, an analyst with the independent Institute for Euro-Atlantic Integration in Kiev. "This is a moment in which many things that have been on hold might become possible again."
Yet as coalition talks in Kiev drag into their second week, there is an unmistakable note of worry over the imminent return of Tymoshenko to government.
"Tymoshenko constantly demands full and total power," says Viktor Nebozhenko, director of Ukrainian Barometer, an independent Kiev think tank, and a former member of Tymoshenko's campaign team. "She has a high level of personal charisma, but she also tends to be a demagogue. She can't make compromises, she can't manage a partnership. Her personality is too strong." …
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