A Tale of Three Politicians

Once upon a time in Ukraine, there was a lovely golden-haired woman named Yulia who chose to wear her hair up in a twisted braid, much like Princess Leia. There was a man named Viktor and another man named Viktor. We shall call them Viktor-West and Viktor-East. Viktor-West liked the United States and Europe. Viktor-East preferred Russian ways and customs.

Well, all of these people somehow ended up on the same playground. Viktor-West decided that he would run for President; Viktor-East also decided to run for President. Before the vote, Viktor-West started to look awful – something was happening to his face and skin. Lo-and-behold he found out that someone was poisoning him. Not a moment too soon, he got medical treatment and started to recover.

Viktor-West managed to recover well enough to continue to run against Viktor-East in the Presidential Election, and the people voted. Viktor-East won… or did he? Some people said, “Wait this election was rigged, crooked, unfair. We are going to demonstrate because we want to have a re-vote.” Our friend, Yulia , was one of the leaders of this Orange Revolution and everyone wore Orange and waved Orange flags. Well, the people were allowed to re-vote. Viktor-West was the winner this time and became the President. There was a lot of speculation about who poisoned him. This crime is still unsolved. After a while, the Parliament appointed Yulia as Prime Minister. Something happened, and at some point, Yulia was dismissed from her position.

That left the Prime Minister’s position open and guess who was appointed by the Parliament? Viktor-East. So now, Viktor-West works with Viktor-East as the leaders of Ukraine. Yulia started her own political party, visited the U.S., and got lots of attention for being pretty and pro-Western.
Now there are demonstrations of tens of thousands of people. On Sunday, the Chicago Tribune reported that 70,000 had gathered Saturday in “Independence Square” in the heart of downtown. Each party is represented. The fuss? Well, Viktor-West has the power to dissolve the parliament which would allow people to re-elect the officials, thus making Viktor-East's position precarious. Viktor-West says he’s serious this time… we’ll see what happens. For many, this is the time Ukraine will decide whether it will embrace the values of the “East” or the “West”.
Photos of Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovych courtesy of Wikipedia
Photo of Viktor Yushenko courtesy of WorldPress.org