Verkhovna Rada speaker asks Timoshenko to admit her defeat
KIEV, February 9 (Itar-Tass) -- Verkhovna Rada Speaker Vladimir Litvin has urged Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko to recognize Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovich’s victory in the Ukrainian presidential election.
“The election result is obvious, that is the victory of Viktor Yanukovich. I think everyone must acknowledge that, primarily his rival Yulia Timoshenko,” Litvin told the Inter channel.
The rating of Timoshenko in the second round of the presidential election shows that her political position is strengthening, Litvin said. “She did not lose. In fact, her political weight grew considerably,” he noted.
The winner and the loser must stop the confrontation, and their political forces must start the dialog, in particular at the parliament, Litvin said.
Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovich received a direct mandate from people in the Ukrainian presidential election, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Raisa Bogatyryova said.
“The world applauds to the winner, Viktor Yanukovich. The applause will be even bigger for Yulia Timoshenko if she publicly recognizes the election result announced by the Central Elections Commission, just like the political leaders of contemporary democracies do,” she said.
“A pragmatic socioeconomic development program, a predictable course of preservation of democratic institutions and a foreign policy of compromise and accord triumphed over social populism and a policy of lie and non-transparent decisions, which serve as irritants and cause profound internal and external conflicts,” Bogatyryova said.
Timoshenko must admit her defeat in the Ukrainian presidential election, Yanukovich told CNN on Tuesday.
“Timoshenko may convert from the Orange Revolution heroine into the Orange Revolution executioner if she does not accept the will of the Ukrainian people, does not recognize election results but continues to push Ukraine into political chaos,” he said.
Strong Ukraine leader Sergei Tigipko, who ranked third in the January 17 round of the Ukrainian presidential election, thinks it senseless to dispute the final election outcome.
The election is over, and the result will be unchanged regardless attempts of the Yulia Timoshenko team to bring up the issue at court, he said.
“The election is over. Certainly, the Yulia Timoshenko team will apply to courts, but there will be no new Maidan,” he said. “The outcome of the second round testifies to the genuine political rivalry between the two candidates, and that is good for Ukrainian democracy.”
The election rating of Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovich has reached 48.96%, while the rating of Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko amounts to 45.47%, the Ukrainian Central Elections Commission said as 99.98% of votes have been counted.
A total of 4.36% voters rejected both candidates.
Yanukovych will not be a pro-Russian president
Ukraine has elected a new president, and Russia now has a chance to improve relations with it. However, it is still unclear if Viktor Yanukovych is a partner with whom Russia can develop a common view of strategic cooperation.
Viktor Yushchenko has been replaced with a reasonable leader who is capable of coming to an agreement with Russia and who even speaks Russian better than Ukrainian. However, the almost assured victory of Yanukovych in the presidential election does not mean that the mood in Ukraine will return to the pre-Orange Revolution year of 2004.
In one sense, Russia's relations with Ukraine will become even more difficult because it will have to decide who will pay for the new friendship, and on what conditions.
Yanukovych should strive to prove his superiority over his predecessors, who turned out to be politically bankrupt. To do so, he will need financial assistance, as Ukraine's external sovereign debt currently exceeds $100 billion. Therefore, he will have to take out a large loan, and it is clear to whom he will turn for it.
In addition, the leader of the Party of Regions has said more than once that he thinks Russia's decision to increase oil and gas prices for Ukraine was unfair.
On the other hand, Yanukovych is unlikely to be able to consolidate power like Vladimir Putin did in Russia or Mikheil Saakashvili in Georgia. Cultural and political differences between Ukraine's regions run deep, the relationships between the leading businessmen in Yanukovych's team are not idealistic. Yulia Tymoshenko and other political forces will not simply drop off the map.
Russia's relations with Ukraine could become even worse than its relations with Belarus, because President Alexander Lukashenko can make independent decisions, while Yanukovych will have to carefully weigh his every move when bargaining with Moscow to prevent suspicion of collusion or a rejection of Ukraine's "European bent." Ukraine's political elite and society will scrutinize his every step.
On the other hand, there are several aspects in the new president's policy that could benefit Russian-Ukrainian relations. Yanukovych is likely to halt the anti-Russian policy Yushchenko implemented with Tymoshenko's silent consent, both because of common language and the ideological preferences of the Party of Regions and of course for lack of funds.
Ukraine's accession to NATO will likely be taken off the agenda, along with arms supplies to Georgia, which means a lot to Russia.
Source: Kommersant
Yanukovych 3.48% ahead of Tymoshenko - Ukraine final vote tally
12:57 10/02/2010
Viktor Yanukovych received 48.95% of the vote in the second round of Ukraine's presidential election, 3.48% ahead of his opponent, election authorities said on Wednesday after completing the vote count.
With 100% of votes counted, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko had 45.47%, a Central Election Commission official said.
A plurality of votes is required to win the second round of the presidential election.
KIEV, February 10 (RIA Novosti)
http://en.rian.ru/world/20100210/157831854.html
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