Ukraine's embattled premier Yulia Tymoshenko said Saturday she has withdrawn her legal challenge to the results of the presidential runoff election that she lost by a narrow margin earlier this month.
So Viktor Yanukovych will take office in 5 days.
But hey, that's what the Ukrainian people want. They're free to be stupid and self destructive as much as any people on this planet. Though you have to put a good deal of blame on the Ukrainian Orange Revolution leaders to govern well and deprive voters of the hope that a man who can suck up enough to Moscow will solve their problems.
Perhaps I'm being overly pessimistic. Perhaps democracy in Ukraine will survive this one vote and not deterioriate into the mockery of elections that Russia now has. Perhaps Ukraine won't fall into Russia's orbit and become just a bigger version of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Perhaps. But if I was a betting man, that's not how I'd bet.
