Sleazy Stunt By Yanukovych

This evening on Ukrainian national television, Yanukovych announced that he must commit all of his energy to:

confirm his election victory. That is why I decided to go on leave in order to campaign.

The one thing that I ask of the President, the Speaker of the Parliament
and the Parliamentarians is that they allow this government to continue its work until the end of the election period...

What is particularly odious about his "leave" is that's it's an old Soviet trick, one used in the past by the likes of Zvahilsky. It's a trick because Ukrainian law provides that while an official is on leave or ill, he may not be fired. So Yanukovych effectively prevented his own firing, something which should happen because the Verkhovna Rada passed a the vote of no confidence in Yanukovych and his government.

In the rest of his speech, Yanukovych continued the nonsense he spewed during the debate with Yuschenko, that is that he (Yanukovych) is the representative of the new and Yuschenko is the representative of the old:

Today, everyone is convinced that the battle with the remains of the 'old' authorities, i.e. the so-called opposition, is impossible without battling their allies in the current government. After the second tour, the connection between the old and administrative resource became obvious.

What has happened in the last several weeks is an attempt to 'deal with' a politician who is too independent...

Perhaps Yanukovych's independence is reflected by his fawning over Putin. Or his dependence on Russian money. Or perhaps his relationship with Akhmetov.