New Hope in Ukraine
The Russian controlled government of Kuchma had left Ukraine in financial ruins and it's citizens fleed the country by the millions.
In 2004 elections, Ukrainians took to the streets after government in power tried to rig the elections to continue the regime.
"U.S. businessman George Soros has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had advised his then Ukrainian counterpart Leonid Kuchma to use arms against protestors during the country's presidential elections in 2004,...Fortunately, Kuchma did not take his advice, Soros was quoted by Interfax as saying at a news conference in Kiev on Friday"(June 3, 2005; http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/6/3/203045.shtml).
After the court threw out the results of that election and ordered a new one in December, Viktor Yushchenko narrowly won against Russian President Putin-backed Viktor Yanukovych, a twice convicted candidate. Yushchenko, 51, was sworn in as president of Ukraine Jan. 23. Yushchenko was an accountant appointed in 1993 to head thecountry's central bank. His performance there led to his appointment as premier in 1999. When President Leonid Kuchma dismissed him after two years, he joined the opposition where his popularity grew.
Yushchenko poisoned with dioxin
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During the campaign, Yushchenko was poisoned with dioxin, disfiguring his once handsome face with cloracne and causing him so much discomfort he needed injections for pain directly into his spine on the campaign trail. He attributes the poisoning to a dinner he had at the home of the No. 2 official of Ukraine's secret service. Yushchenko complained to him at the dinner about government agents trailing him and his campaigners. Yushchenko has promised a thorough investigation of corruption and misdeeds
that allegedly flourished during his predecessor's 10 years as president.
(By Abdon M. Pallasch, Staff Reporter
Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago, Illinois, April 5, 2005)
President Yushchenko meets President Bush
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President Bush has pledged $60m to the Ukraine - not a vast sum of money,
but a sign at least of its continuing commitment. The United States is
supporting Ukraine's membership of the World Trade Organisation and
Nato - though President Bush warned that membership of the North Atlantic
organisation was 'not a given'.
But the US does expect the new Ukraine government to clamp down on illegal arms exports in return. The White House says that Mr Yushchenko's ministers are acting in a responsible manner to investigate the sale of strategic cruise missiles to Iran and China during the rule of the ousted leader, President Leonid Kuchma. (By Jonathan Beale, BBC State Department correspondent Washington, D.C., BBC NEWS, UK, Tuesday, April 5, 2005)
During his 2005 U.S. visit, Yushchenko was honored with the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, presented annually to public servants who have made courageous decisions of conscience without regard for the consequences.(Wednesday, April 6, 2005 http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/04/06/congress.yushchenko.ap/index.html)
