[Update: Joe St just informed me that it looks like Yushchenko is going to rush out to Moscow tomorrow to allow him to keep his promise to Russia. I will put in a link as soon as I get one. I think I'll probably hold off on that until tomorrow when I can get an article to go with it, and try to get pictures up today instead. Thanks Joe.]

Speaking of doing everything at the last minute, the late date of Yushchenko's inauguration may have gotten him in a pickle. He has promised that his first trip abroad will be to Russia. However, according to this Reuters article (courtesy of Action Ukraine Report) he has had a change of plans:

UKRAINE'S YUSHCHENKO LOOKS WEST ON FIRST TRIP By Pavel Polityuk, Reuters, Kiev, Ukraine,

Wed, Jan 19, 2005 KIEV - Ukrainian president-elect Viktor Yushchenko, his inauguration stalled by legal challenges, is to make his first foreign visit to a major European institution, officials said Wednesday, in an apparent snub to Moscow. The Council of Europe, a continent-wide rights body based in the French city of Strasbourg, said Yushchenko was expected to address its parliamentary assembly Tuesday in what would be his first official trip outside Ukraine. He had pledged to make his first trip abroad to Moscow.

I would doubt it is a "calculated snub" by Yushchenko, because there's no reason for it and it goes against his current aims of soothing Russia. I would just call it really poor timing.

He really needs to get to this Councile of Europe meeting (which is on January 25, two days after his inauguration) to improve Ukraine's chances of getting things like the status of a market economy in Europe. But he's got to be really embarrassed he's going to have to break his word to Russia. He isn't even officially President and already he's going to have to deal with foreign policy blunders. Bummer.