In a move guaranteed to madden us all with anticipation, Yushchenko just made Yuliya his Acting Prime Minister before rushing off to Russia. This makes it highly likely that she will be chosen Prime Minister when he gets back. Petro Poroshenko was elected to the head of the Security Council.

As a rather politically well-informed Ukrainian pointed out to me on the train ride to Kyiv, After Yuliya left United Energy Systems, the company at which the government alleges she did all her thieving, that company ended up in the hands of Pinchuk. (I’m going to need to fact-check if this is actually true) Without it, I don’t think she has any significant business holdings. (Again with the fact-checking) If he upgrades Tymoshenko’s status from “acting” to “active”, and she truly isn’t a major business player, then this makes taking Yuliya on as PM Yushchenko’s first campaign promise kept—to reduce the conflict-of-interest problems that arise when major businesspeople control the government.

Actually, if the secret agreement between him and Yuliya, in which he promised to make her PM if he was elected President actually took place, then this would be two promises kept at once.

Yushchenko’s third kept promise of the day (on a roll already) was that he would visit Russia first. Today he met Vladimire Putin. From what Lesya and I heard from friends who watched it on TV, Putin shifted in his seat so much and looked so uncomfortable, you would have thought he had the world’s worse case of gas. That is, you would have thought so had Yushchenko not been sitting right next to him as calm as you please.

Before leaving for Russia, Yushchenko met with religious leaders in Sofia Kyiv Church (now a museum) There the leaders prayed for his presidency. Yushchenko joined them, going down on his knees for part of the service. (there is a picture here on the Kyiv Post main page, at present)

As an additional note, I’ve read an article in the NYT on Yushchenko’s inauguration speech that doesn’t seem to reflect the way I think Yushchenko talks. But I’d rather y’all made your own judgments and talked to me, rather than spinning it my own way. The Nasha Ukrayina site has this translation of his speech to Maidan. It also has this address to the Verkhovna Rada on his inauguration.