Yushchenko's Popularity Slides in Ukraine
By MARA D. BELLABY, Associated Press Writer
KIEV, Ukraine - Maria Onishchuk rushed to Kiev's Independence Square last fall to stand shoulder to shoulder with tens of thousands, waving orange flags and chanting "YU-SHCHEN-KO!"
Nine months later, she's back. But now, the 60-year-old grandmother is standing under the red flag of Ukraine's Socialist Party, demonstrating against the man she helped usher into the presidency.
Disappointment is catching up with President Viktor Yushchenko, whose 7-month-old government is being battered by corruption allegations, political infighting and economic problems.
"We thought life would get better ... but it turns out the Orange Revolution was just a fairy tale," Onishchuk said at a protest this week.
Prices are rising, and the economy is slowing. Yushchenko's chief of staff quit, warning that a corrupt circle of advisers surrounds the president. The head of the powerful Security and Defense Council resigned Thursday for the same reason. [..]
The center's latest poll, conducted a month ago, found that for the first time since the Orange Revolution, the percentage of Ukrainians who think the country is headed in the wrong direction exceeds those who think it is in good shape.
Forty-three percent said Ukraine is on the wrong path, a jump from 23 percent in April. About 32 percent felt the country is doing well, down sharply from 54 percent last spring. [..]
The poll was conducted before the latest corruption allegations against Yushchenko's administration, which was swept to power largely on his promise to root out the corruption that thrived under his predecessor, Leonid Kuchma.
Yushchenko also promised to create a million jobs a year, raise living standards and put Ukraine's 48 million people on equal footing with their powerful neighbor, Russia.
Even supporters say he overreached.
"No government in the world could deliver on all the expectations. Some were really irrational," said Inna Pidluska, a political analyst at the Europe Foundation. [..]
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, responsible for the government's day-to-day business, decided on a populist course of raising monthly pensions, paying off salary arrears and boosting other spending.
But as the government bumps up its spending, the economy is slowing. The official projection now says the economy will grow by about 6 percent this year, half the gain of 2004.
Analysts think Yushchenko is likely to opt for more short-term spending programs to appease voters because he needs to do well in March parliamentary elections. Constitutional changes will hand many of his powers to lawmakers.
But another populist budget could derail economic reforms being demanded by foreign investors. Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn warned that Ukraine can't afford another year of such a "social budget."
Ukrainians are gloomy over the rising cost of food, utilities and fuel. The government's decision to strengthen the currency, the hryvna, against the dollar ate away at the buying power of its salary and pension increases.
"Even salo is becoming unaffordable," complained Onishchuk, referring to the seasoned lard that Ukrainians consider a staple. The price for a pound has jumped from 72 cents to $2.55, she said. [..]
For all the disappointment, Ukrainians still like Yushchenko significantly more than Kuchma, whose approval rating was around 10 percent. Yushchenko's ratings vary, but most polls say more than 50 percent of Ukrainians approve of at least some of his moves [..].
"I'm not a romantic, I understand it takes time," said Oleh Skripka, lead singer of the popular band Vopli Vidoplyasova, which performed on Independence Square during the Orange Revolution protests.
This year, Skripka turned down a request for a repeat performance for the parliamentary vote.
"I do want to help the new government ... but (it) needs to get back in touch with the people who really took it to heart, who suffered for its success," Skripka said.
Ukraine's Yushchenko Fires Tymoshenko's Government
Created: 08.09.2005 13:58 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:03 MSK
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said on Thursday he was sacking the government of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Reuters reports.
He made the announcement at a news conference called amid allegations of high-level corruption that led to the resignation of two top officials earlier in the day.
Yuri Yekhanurov, currently governor of the Dnipropetrivsk region, will now take the office. Yekhanurov is a close ally of Yushchenko and has strong reformist credentials. He was deputy PM under Yushchenko in 2000-2001. He is not a political heavyweight though and has no political group of his own.
"The team started to decay," Yushchenko told journalists Thursday.
"I am signing the government and the Security Council Secretary's resignations. I entitle Yuri Yekhanurov to form a new government. I set the new team the one task of working together as a team," Reuters quoted Yushchenko as saying.
Yushchenko took office in the ex-Soviet state of 47 million in January after a pro-Western "Orange Revolution" forced officials to overturn his defeat in a previous presidential election.
The crisis is the more serious for him since Yushchenko pledged to stamp out the corruption widespread under former president Leonid Kuchma.
Earlier Thursday Yushchenko's close aide Petro Poroshenko said he had stepped down as secretary of the National Defense and Security Council. Viktor Boyko, head of Ukraine's State Reserves Committee, also submitted his resignation Thursday.
BREAKING NEWS
This is brief version.
Full version is available for subscribers only.
Yuschenko appoints Yekhanurov acting prime minister
Kyiv, September 8 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko has appointed Yuriy Yekhanurov acting prime minister of Ukraine.
The presidential press service reports this on Thursday.
'Orange princess' defects to Ukrainian opposition
By Andrew Osborn in Moscow
Published: 10 September 2005
A day after he sacked his scandal-riven government, the Ukrainian President, Viktor Yushchenko, was accused of having destroyed the political alliance that swept him to power in the orange revolution.
His former prime minister, who was fired along with the rest of the government on Thursday, signalled in a television appearance that she was joining the opposition to the President. "Today we are two different teams," she said. "I think these two teams will go their own way."
Julia Tymoshenko's supporters indicated that they no longer had faith in Mr Yushchenko after his decision to fire the government over allegations of corruption and infighting. Known as the "orange princess"because of her pivotal and glamorous role in the orange revolution, Ms Tymoshenko said her dismissal was "very unfair".
At a cabinet session on Thursday she lamented the fact that what she viewed as a crusading government had its term cut so brutally short. "Our orange government did more in its seven months than other governments did in 14 years," she said.
Her supporters said she had fought against the corruption that apparently tainted some of her ministerial colleagues.
Ms Tymoshenko said of the President: "He practically ruined our unity, our future, the future of the country. I think this step is absolutely illogical."
Mr Yushchenko tried to avoid controversy and held talks with parliamentary factions to try to get approval for his choice of prime minister, a low-profile Russian-born technocrat called Yuri Yekanurov. Mr Yekanurov's job will be to run an administration that the long-suffering Ukrainian public perceives to be free of corruption, cronyism and power struggles, flaws which steadily ate away at the credibility of the "orange" government.
Mr Yushchenko's newly appointed chief-of-staff, Oleh Rybachuk, promised change. He vowed that the incoming government would be wholly transparent and that its new members would not have significant business interests that may affect their decision-making. "We will keep our promises," he said.
Mr Rybachuk also signalled that the President would be putting his own house in order and would be drawing a line under an embarrassing scandal that has embroiled Andrei Yushchenko, his son. Mr Yushchenko Jnr has raised eyebrows by driving a sports car he could not afford on his modest income, and by living a high-profile sybaritic lifestyle. But Mr Rybachuk said the President would fully declare his family's income. "I don't know what his family budget balance is like, but you will see it. The public has the right to know." Nor, he added, would Yushchenko Jnr continue to lead his high-rolling lifestyle.
Mr Yushchenko's main problem now is his erstwhile ally Ms Tymoshenko. The newspaper Ukrainskaya Pravda said he would have to be on his mettle. " The revolution is over," said the paper. "Evolution has begun. That there is no love lost between the President and the Prime Minister has been a well-known fact. The main danger for President Yushchenko now is that Julia Tymoshenko may develop into a rival in next year's election as she will represent the parties symbolising the orange revolution."
A day after he sacked his scandal-riven government, the Ukrainian President, Viktor Yushchenko, was accused of having destroyed the political alliance that swept him to power in the orange revolution.
His former prime minister, who was fired along with the rest of the government on Thursday, signalled in a television appearance that she was joining the opposition to the President. "Today we are two different teams," she said. "I think these two teams will go their own way."
Julia Tymoshenko's supporters indicated that they no longer had faith in Mr Yushchenko after his decision to fire the government over allegations of corruption and infighting. Known as the "orange princess"because of her pivotal and glamorous role in the orange revolution, Ms Tymoshenko said her dismissal was "very unfair".
At a cabinet session on Thursday she lamented the fact that what she viewed as a crusading government had its term cut so brutally short. "Our orange government did more in its seven months than other governments did in 14 years," she said.
Her supporters said she had fought against the corruption that apparently tainted some of her ministerial colleagues.
Ms Tymoshenko said of the President: "He practically ruined our unity, our future, the future of the country. I think this step is absolutely illogical."
Mr Yushchenko tried to avoid controversy and held talks with parliamentary factions to try to get approval for his choice of prime minister, a low-profile Russian-born technocrat called Yuri Yekanurov. Mr Yekanurov's job will be to run an administration that the long-suffering Ukrainian public perceives to be free of corruption, cronyism and power struggles, flaws which steadily ate away at the credibility of the "orange" government.
Mr Yushchenko's newly appointed chief-of-staff, Oleh Rybachuk, promised change. He vowed that the incoming government would be wholly transparent and that its new members would not have significant business interests that may affect their decision-making. "We will keep our promises," he said.
Mr Rybachuk also signalled that the President would be putting his own house in order and would be drawing a line under an embarrassing scandal that has embroiled Andrei Yushchenko, his son. Mr Yushchenko Jnr has raised eyebrows by driving a sports car he could not afford on his modest income, and by living a high-profile sybaritic lifestyle. But Mr Rybachuk said the President would fully declare his family's income. "I don't know what his family budget balance is like, but you will see it. The public has the right to know." Nor, he added, would Yushchenko Jnr continue to lead his high-rolling lifestyle.
Mr Yushchenko's main problem now is his erstwhile ally Ms Tymoshenko. The newspaper Ukrainskaya Pravda said he would have to be on his mettle. " The revolution is over," said the paper. "Evolution has begun. That there is no love lost between the President and the Prime Minister has been a well-known fact. The main danger for President Yushchenko now is that Julia Tymoshenko may develop into a rival in next year's election as she will represent the parties symbolising the orange revolution."
Democracy in Ukraine: The bitter taste of the orange revolution
Amid scandal and political paralysis, the promise of a new era for Ukraine under Viktor Yushchenko has already begun to look hollow. Now Amnesty International has joined the chorus of critics with allegations of police torture.
Andrew Osborn reports
Published: 28 September 2005
The Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko will be feted by the Queen in London next month and lauded by Cherie Blair for his role in last year's "orange revolution", which ended a decade of Soviet-style authoritarianism. The Royal Institute of International Affairs has decided to make him the first recipient of its prestigious Chatham House Prize, an honour bestowed on "the individual deemed to have made the most significant contribution to the improvement of international relations in the previous year".
The veteran Ukrainian politician has become accustomed to international plaudits since last December, when he succeeded in overturning the results of a rigged election by bringing thousands of protestors onto Kiev's streets before going on to decisively defeat his discredited rival in a re-run. Time magazine has since named Mr Yushchenko among the 100 most influential people in the world and he has received substantial recognition in America, including the sought-after John F Kennedy Profile in Courage award.
Few leaders of former Soviet republics get the chance to address the US Congress or receive the rapturous reception which he did. Fewer still find themselves in the running for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. However, Mr Yushchenko appears to be falling victim to a phenomenon which plagued a past winner of the Peace Prize, Mikhail Gorbachev. He was admired in the West for his role in peacefully bringing about an end to Communism but despised at home.
Mr Yushchenko is sliding ever closer to the same paradox. Respected abroad, many are already accusing him of betraying the ideals of the orange revolution he fathered. His critics allege that he has become so dazzled by international praise that he has taken his eye off the ball and presided over the replacement of one corrupt elite with another. That he has broken his revolutionary promises, befriended the very people he railed against during the revolution, failed to stamp out corruption nationally let alone among his own inner circle and not made a sufficient break with the discredited methods of his Soviet-era predecessor Leonid Kuchma. His critics' message is stark: the revolution has not delivered on its early promise and shows no signs of doing so.
Amnesty International yesterday added its voice to a growing chorus of criticism, accusing him of doing too little to stamp out police brutality and torture. The human rights group said that, although Mr Yushchenko's government had paid lip service to its concerns, little had been done since January when he took office. "Despite promising words from the new government, Amnesty International and local human rights organisations have received allegations of torture and ill-treatment in police detention in the six months since the new government came to power," it said in a statement. The Ukrainian authorities said they were not yet ready to respond to the report.
Mr Yushchenko is unlikely to welcome Amnesty's findings but what is likely to worry him more is the serious disenchantment setting in among many of his supporters. His main problem is that the "orange government" he put together at the beginning of the year no longer exists. Earlier this month he sacked his entire government after cabinet members began to publicly accuse one another of corruption and cronyism. Mr Yushchenko said petty infighting had brought the government to a standstill.
The most high-profile victim of his house-cleaning was his charismatic yet controversial prime minister, Julia Tymoshenko. Known as the "orange princess" because of her glamorous looks and decisive role in marshalling the crowds last year, Ms Tymoshenko was for many Ukrainians a symbol of the revolution. Analysts argue that Mr Yushchenko's decision to dismiss her and many of her closest aides from government has riven the orange movement in two and cost the president valuable support.
Apparently undeterred, Mr Yushchenko yesterday continued the process of naming members of his new government without Ms Tymoshenko's involvement. A relatively obscure Russian-born technocrat called Yuri Yekhanurov has taken her job as premier and Mr Yushchenko now faces the unsettling prospect of facing off against Ms Tymoshenko at the ballot box in elections at the end of March.
Once comrades-in-arms, the two have metamorphosed into bitter political enemies and Ms Tymoshenko makes no secret of the fact that she wants power at Mr Yushchenko's expense. In his bid to claw his way back to contention the Ukrainian President has struck a pact which appears to negate at a stroke the purpose of the orange revolution.
In essence, the revolution was about overturning the rigged election victory of Viktor Yanukovych, Mr Yushchenko's pro-Russian rival. Many of those who gathered in Kiev's Independence Square wanted Mr Yanukovych jailed for election fraud and other alleged crimes. Yet last week Mr Yushchenko was pictured on Ukrainian TV shaking his rival's hand after signing a deal with him which secured 50 extra votes in order to win a parliamentary vote on the appointment of his new premier.
In the eyes of his disillusioned supporters, he paid too high a price for the 50 votes when he granted Mr Yanukovych and his supporters a legal amnesty. Writing in the authoritative The Ukraine List, the analyst Mychailo Wynnyckyj said it was a betrayal. "Nine months after leading hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians into the streets to protest against falsified elections, the President signed 'a memorandum of understanding' with his former adversary ... in which he agreed to support the drafting of a law that grants amnesty to all those who committed or were complicit in falsifying the results of Ukraine's November 2004 vote!"
The pro-government daily Ukrayina Moloda also raised an eyebrow. "This alliance will dismay many supporters of both Yushchenko and Yanukovych," it wrote. "One of these politicians symbolises democracy, the other authoritarianism. This means that once more East and West and business and power will be mixed up. Many of those who stood on Independence Square will view this as a betrayal."
Many of the original revolutionaries also wanted Mr Kuchma, Mr Yushchenko's predecessor, to be held to account for alleged corruption. But according to Ms Tymoshenko, speaking in a recent interview with the Russian daily newspaper Izvestia, a decision has been taken to let him off the hook. She said: "Yushchenko has explained to everyone that Kuchma is not to be touched. He said that Kuchma is a former head of state and is therefore not to be hunted like a rabbit. He will be allowed to keep all his property, even unlawfully acquired property. In effect Kuchma has been granted a pardon."
Ms Tymoshenko also accuses her former boss of knowing "in detail" about corruption at the heart of his inner circle and doing nothing to stop it. She singles out the activities of Petr Poroshenko, a confectionery tycoon who headed the country's National Security Council until the government's recent dismissal and who came into open conflict with her. Mr Poroshenko, a close friend of Mr Yushchenko's, categorically denies her accusations that he was trying to block the renationalisation of key state assets so that they could be sold to wealthy Russian businessmen. An investigation is underway.
Mr Yushchenko has also seen his corruption-busting image tainted by revelations about the lifestyle of his 19 year-old son, Andrei, who is known in the Ukrainian media as "the Son of God". Last summer, Yushchenko Junior was revealed to be enjoying a sybaritic lifestyle, driving a rare BMW around Kiev, and brandishing a mobile phone and a watch beyond the wildest dreams of most Ukrainians. Mr Yushchenko weathered the scandal by publicly berating his son but the damage was done. There is also the troubling unsolved murder case of a leading investigative journalist.
Georgiy Gongadze's decapitated body was found in a forest outside Kiev two weeks after he was abducted in September 2000 while investigating allegations of corruption at the heart of Leonid Kuchma's government. Mr Yushchenko has repeatedly promised to bring the perpetrators to justice and indeed three former policemen are in custody and have apparently confessed to the murder.
But to the public's frustration, the people who ordered the killing remain at large. Earlier this month, the international organisation Reporters Without Borders criticised the Ukrainian authorities for dragging their feet. Mr Yushchenko tried to stem criticism by posthumously awarding Mr Gongadze the title "Hero of Ukraine" but the gesture won him little favour with Lessia, the journalist's mother. "Nobody informs me about anything and nobody contacts me," she said recently. "If it wasn't for journalists the case would have been forgotten long ago. Yushchenko and Kuchma are alike. Nothing has changed. I will not go to Yushchenko. I will not offer him my hand."
To add to Mr Yushchenko's woes, the Ukrainian economy is not doing well. Economic growth has slumped to 2.8 per cent this year compared with 12.1 per cent last year, prices are perceived to have risen unacceptably and there have been problems keeping the country's petrol stations supplied. Mr Yushchenko and his supporters blame the sacked Ms Tymoshenko, who played a large role in managing the economy. She says the figures look bad because in the past all the data was falsified. Mr Yushchenko has also accused his erstwhile ally of trying to use her post to get a $1.5bn tax bill owed by her former firm written off. She denies the claim and has said she would sue him under different circumstances.
It is all a far cry from last December, when the duo stood hand in hand in front of tens of thousands of jubilant supporters and promised to build a new Ukraine. A poll by the Kiev-based think-tank Razumkov last week showed that Mr Yushchenko's personal rating had plummeted to 19.8 per cent in September from 48 per cent in February. Ms Tymoshenko's rating, though a touch higher at 21.4 per cent, was little better. The polling organisation concluded that Ukrainians' overall trust in the government was "rapidly declining, and ... is approaching levels characteristic for the final days of ex-president Leonid Kuchma's rule".
Mr Yushchenko may have won the international community's respect but if he is to win back the goodwill he has squandered domestically in just nine months he has some work to do.
Yushchenko Seeks New Power Base in East of Ukraine [article in German]
Translation of excerpt:
"One doesn't need much luck in life, one just needs to come from Dnipropetrowsk", the Ukrainian proverb says. Indeed, the East-Ukrainian industrial city has always played an important role in Ukrainian politics. Ex-President Leonid Kuchma once ran the local rocket factory, the newly resigned Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko was born here, and her successor Yuri Yechanurov was until recently the Governor of this city and its region.
The Ukrainian President Viktor Yushtshenko was well aware of the significance of Dnipropetrowsk, when he appointed his ally Yechanurov in a top position here at the beginning of this year. And that he is now taking him to Kiev as his new government chief, has increased the popularity of the President in the city. This is all the more important for Yushtshenko, as he is obviously forced to look for new allies in the east of the former Soviet republic after the falling apart with Timoshenko.
Yushtshenko's orange revolution was mainly carried by the intellectuals and the farmers in the West of the Ukraine. In the industrial workers' regions of the east on the other hand the former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich [..] had his bulwark. Since the falling apart of Yushtshenko and Timoshenko and the subsequent split in the orange camp, the President is now concerned about acquiring a stronger basis in the east. [..]
Ukrainian love story pairs a billionaire's daughter with a Leeds rocker
By Andrew Osborn in Moscow
Published: 03 October 2005
An aspiring heavy metal musician from Yorkshire has married into the closest thing Ukraine has to a royal family, exchanging vows with the daughter of the glamorous former prime minister Julia Tymoshenko.
Sean Carr, 36, who used to run a chain of shoe-repair shops in Leeds and Bradford, married Yevgenia Tymoshenko, 25, in a 16th-century hilltop monastery in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital.
His image and past have caused controversy in Ukraine, where Yevgenia's mother is one of the country's leading politicians and a woman tipped to win back her job as Prime Minister next year.
The Tymoshenkos are a wealthy and powerful family. Julia Tymoshenko is known as the Goddess of the (Orange) Revolution because of the role she played in helping Viktor Yushchenko to overturn the results of a rigged election and win power in December last year.
She went on to become Prime Minister but lost her job last month when President Yushchenko sacked the government over a corruption scandal. Ms Tymoshenko has since vowed to stand against Mr Yushchenko in elections next year.
Yevgenia has lived in the UK since the age of 14 and is in the process of completing her studies at the London School of Economics. She met Mr Carr while on holiday in Egypt last year.
His background is rather different from his new wife's. He sings in a band called the Death Valley Screamers, rides a Harley Davidson motorbike, owns a rottweiler called Salem and has a giant tattoo on his stomach of an alien "escaping".
His band plays in Kiev's local bars and recently released its first CD in Ukraine, which appears to be selling well.
He also has a young daughter by a former partner who has given an interview to a British tabloid newspaper in which she said that Mr Carr regularly beat her up and in 2002 broke her teeth, upper jaw and collarbone.
Mr Carr was found guilty of assault and was sentenced to two years' probation and ordered to take relationship and anger management counselling.
He and his new partner were initially reported to be planning a wedding at Ripley Castle in Yorkshire but to have changed their plans to avoid adverse publicity.
If Julia Tymoshenko has any doubts about her new son-in-law she has not expressed them publicly, saying only that Mr Carr is a "kind, educated and inspired person" who makes Yevgenia, her daughter, very happy and appears to "adore" her.
The wedding ceremony went smoothly yesterday. There was bagpipe music and Ukrainian folk songs and Mr Carr and the Death Valley Screamers were due to perform at the reception afterwards.
Many of the some 150 guests sported colourful tattoos and piercings. The couple briefly posed for photographs but had decided they would not take questions from journalists.
The duo have said they intend to settle in Ukraine and start a family.
Journalists were anxious to see whether Mr Yushchenko would attend the wedding in order to ascertain the state of relations between him and Julia Tymoshenko, but he did not appear to have been invited.
An aspiring heavy metal musician from Yorkshire has married into the closest thing Ukraine has to a royal family, exchanging vows with the daughter of the glamorous former prime minister Julia Tymoshenko.
Sean Carr, 36, who used to run a chain of shoe-repair shops in Leeds and Bradford, married Yevgenia Tymoshenko, 25, in a 16th-century hilltop monastery in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital.
His image and past have caused controversy in Ukraine, where Yevgenia's mother is one of the country's leading politicians and a woman tipped to win back her job as Prime Minister next year.
The Tymoshenkos are a wealthy and powerful family. Julia Tymoshenko is known as the Goddess of the (Orange) Revolution because of the role she played in helping Viktor Yushchenko to overturn the results of a rigged election and win power in December last year.
She went on to become Prime Minister but lost her job last month when President Yushchenko sacked the government over a corruption scandal. Ms Tymoshenko has since vowed to stand against Mr Yushchenko in elections next year.
Yevgenia has lived in the UK since the age of 14 and is in the process of completing her studies at the London School of Economics. She met Mr Carr while on holiday in Egypt last year.
His background is rather different from his new wife's. He sings in a band called the Death Valley Screamers, rides a Harley Davidson motorbike, owns a rottweiler called Salem and has a giant tattoo on his stomach of an alien "escaping".
His band plays in Kiev's local bars and recently released its first CD in Ukraine, which appears to be selling well.
He also has a young daughter by a former partner who has given an interview to a British tabloid newspaper in which she said that Mr Carr regularly beat her up and in 2002 broke her teeth, upper jaw and collarbone.
Mr Carr was found guilty of assault and was sentenced to two years' probation and ordered to take relationship and anger management counselling.
He and his new partner were initially reported to be planning a wedding at Ripley Castle in Yorkshire but to have changed their plans to avoid adverse publicity.
If Julia Tymoshenko has any doubts about her new son-in-law she has not expressed them publicly, saying only that Mr Carr is a "kind, educated and inspired person" who makes Yevgenia, her daughter, very happy and appears to "adore" her.
The wedding ceremony went smoothly yesterday. There was bagpipe music and Ukrainian folk songs and Mr Carr and the Death Valley Screamers were due to perform at the reception afterwards.
Many of the some 150 guests sported colourful tattoos and piercings. The couple briefly posed for photographs but had decided they would not take questions from journalists.
The duo have said they intend to settle in Ukraine and start a family.
Journalists were anxious to see whether Mr Yushchenko would attend the wedding in order to ascertain the state of relations between him and Julia Tymoshenko, but he did not appear to have been invited.
a former partner who has given an interview to a British tabloid newspaper in which she said that Mr Carr regularly beat her up and in 2002 broke her teeth, upper jaw and collarbone.
Uzbekistan Revolt Trial Condemned by U.S.; EU Bans Arms Exports
Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. condemned as unfair the convictions of alleged leaders of a revolt in Uzbekistan in May as the European Union banned arms sales and imposed travel restrictions over the Uzbek government's response to the uprising.
Uzbekistan's Supreme Court yesterday convicted 15 people of attempting to overthrow the constitution and create an Islamic state, Agence France-Presse cited Chief Justice Bakhtiyor Zhamolov as saying in the capital, Tashkent.
``These convictions are based on evidence that isn't credible and trial that isn't fair,'' State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said yesterday in Washington, according to an e-mailed transcript. ``We and the Europeans have been very outspoken in calling for an independent investigation.''
Uzbekistan's government said in May 187 people were killed when the uprising in the eastern city of Andijan was put down by security forces. Human rights groups said several hundred people, most of them civilians, may have died and the U.S., EU and United Nations led calls for an international probe into the killings.
The Council of the EU yesterday banned travel to EU countries by 12 Uzbek officials, including Interior Minister Zakirjan Almatov and Defense Minister Kadir Gulamov.
Five defendants were sentenced to 20 years in prison and the others to jail terms ranging from 14 years to 17 years, AFP said. The verdicts and sentences cannot be appealed, it said.
``You've got convictions based on a less than transparent process and less than credible evidence,'' Ereli said. The U.S. will maintain its calls on the Uzbek government to ``act consistent with international standards.''
EU Embargo
The EU embargo will apply to exports of arms, military equipment and other equipment that might be used for ``internal repression,'' the Council said in a statement on its Web site.
``The Council decided to adopt these measures in the light of the excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by the Uzbek security forces during the Andijan events in May and following the refusal of Uzbek authorities to allow an independent international inquiry into these events,'' it said.
The incident in Andijan began when fighting broke out after armed men protesting a trial of Islamic extremists broke into a jail and freed prisoners.
A clampdown followed as police and soldiers in Andijan and nearby towns fired on protesters, most of them civilians opposed to the regime of President Islam Karimov. The Uzbek government blamed Islamic extremists for the violence.
Demanding Investigation
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization in May called for a UN investigation of the incident and said the military alliance would reassess its relationship with Uzbekistan. Karimov's government rejected demands for an independent probe.
Uzbekistan, a landlocked nation of 26 million people, was the first Central Asian country to allow the U.S. to use a military base in the anti-terrorism war that began in 2001.
The U.S. uses the Karshi-Khanabad airfield in the south of the country in support of operations in Afghanistan. The Uzbek government in July told the U.S. to withdraw its forces from the base by the end of the year.
Karimov yesterday signed a defense treaty with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The accord grants each country the right to use military sites located on their territories ``should it prove necessary,'' Russia's Interfax news agency reported yesterday, citing a clause in the treaty it obtained.
The U.S. has increasingly faulted the human rights practices of the Karimov government.
The U.S. withheld $10.5 million in aid, including $6.87 million in military aid, in the fiscal year 2004 because the State Department couldn't certify that Uzbekistan was moving toward multiparty democracy.
As much as $22 million, including $11.7 million in military aid, is in danger of being withheld this year for the same reason, department spokeswoman Joanne Moore said in June.
The country received $87.4 million in aid from the U.S. in 2003, according to U.S. government data. The former Soviet republic, slightly larger than the U.S. state of California, is the world's second-biggest exporter of cotton and an oil and gold producer. Karimov has led the country since 1991.
Ukraine's Orange Revolution Leaders May Re-Unite for Elections
Created: 20.11.2005 13:18 MSK (GMT +3)
MosNews
Politicians who spearheaded last year's "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine must unite to bar an election comeback by the administration they ousted, sacked prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko was quoted by Reuters as saying Saturday.
Three days before Ukraine marks the anniversary of the mass protests, Tymoshenko and officials of a party backing President Viktor Yushchenko have pledged to mend a debilitating split which shattered public confidence in the revolution's leaders.
"I think we can unite before the elections or perhaps after them. I will make every effort to unite our forces," a beaming Tymoshenko told a packed news conference. Ukrainians will vote in parliamentary elections in March 2006.
"Revenge headed by (Viktor) Yanukovich as a possible candidate for prime minister is very real. We must not let down our guard."
Yanukovich, then prime minister and backed by Russia, was initially declared the winner of the presidential election over the pro-Western Yushchenko. But weeks of protests led to a Supreme Court decision annulling the vote on grounds of mass fraud and Yushchenko won a re-run.
Tymoshenko was Yushchenko's main ally, rousing crowds in Kiev's Independence Square, and was made premier in January.
Yushchenko fired her in September after months of in-fighting which split the administration into two camps, each accusing the other of corruption.
Tymoshenko proclaimed herself a victim of intrigues and vowed to get her job back by beating the president's allies in poll next March.
The split badly dented the standing of both leaders.
Opinion surveys credit Yanukovich's Regions Party, strongest in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, with 20% support.
Tymoshenko's Fatherland party enjoys 15-17% while Our Ukraine, linked to the president, trails with 10-12%. Both derive much support from nationalist western regions and the liberal stronghold of Kiev.
Our Ukraine voted on Friday to start talks on an electoral pact with Tymoshenko's camp.
"I think today we will meet and discuss the best way to pool our efforts," Tymoshenko said. "The election will not be easy. We will have two poles again. But for us it is more difficult this time. We are not united and many voters are disappointed."
As politicians gear up for the anniversary festivities, voters who trudged through snowy streets to the protests now express disillusion.
Prices of staples are on the rise and consumers have faced fuel and meat shortages. Months of rows culminated in a slanging match in September between top aides over alleged corruption.
Tymoshenko said unity could restore voters' confidence.
"The revolution was not in vain. I believe it created a new country, a new nation. We are ready for a political fight. And we are ready to win," Tymoshenko said, pledging to stand alongside Yushchenko at the festivities. "I am sure the square will become another launching pad for victory."
