Discoshaman (from www.postmoderclog.com) and I, wielding our journalistic credentials, (I get all giddy just thinking about my new credentials) went searching for Yanukovych supporters today, Friday December 3rd.

We headed straight for the train station, because the word was they were there. "Thousands of Yanukovych supporters have come to Kiev to rally outside the city's main train station," said a Los Angeles Times article of a week ago.

When we got there we asked a station security guard how to get to the Yanukovych camp. He said, "go straight in the front doors of the station and turn left," the Yanukovych supporters were meeting inside the building! No tents for these folks, it seemed.

When we got inside, this is what we saw:

Yushchenko, Yushchenko, Yushchenko, nothing but Yushchenko. His supporters had a whole wing of the train station. This was particularly surprising to me, as I had traveled by train in the run-up to the election, and had seen Yanukovych campaign material in every ticket selling booth in the building. (and, as I've pointed out at least a half dozen times, anti-Yushchenko material on the trains)

Not only were Yushchenko supporters everywhere, they'd set up a table with free medicine. They had another table where they served free tea. (about 7,000 cups a day) They had stacks of water and medicine and food all piled up in a corner, and one of the fellows said there was a whole contingent of supporters staying there.

The Yushchenko people were just dying to talk to us. They told us about all the medicine and food they'd given away. They talked politics. One man was exceptionally excited; he was a big, plump forty-something looking fellow with a long-whiskered mustache. He was from out west.

"I asked to take a picture of some of the Yanukovych supporters once. They got suspicious, asked me why, I think they could hear my accent. So I told them I was taking their picture to show my friends in L'viv that they don't have horns," he said, then laughed heartily at his own joke. We tried to keep the conversation on the Yanukovych supporters. Had they dropped in then?

"Oh they came by a few times. The last couple days they came here to eat because they don't have anything over there. The government gave them some money when they got here, but nothing since then."

Had there been any problems? "No, not at all. We just invite them in. Sometimes we talk politics. You know, they'd tell us that America - it's just trying to eat up everything. Bite off pieces of the country, or just swallow up the whole thing."

"Of course, I ask them why - they don't really know," he said, then got a mischievous look on his face, "I tell them, if America's trying to eat up everything, then why does your Akhmetov keep his money in American banks? Why isn't he afraid they'll just gobble it up? And you know, their eyes just got big. 'But they just don't have [banks] like that around here,' they say. Well of course!"

We chatted for a bit longer; our new friend did most of the talking.

"Sometime we'd shout slogans back and forth, for fun. 'Yushchenko!' we'd cry. 'Yanukovych!' they'd cry. 'East and West together!' we'd cry. And they wouldn't have anything, they'd just cry 'Yanukovych!' again. They didn't have any other cheers."

A bit later we thanked the man for his help and headed out to look for the Yanukovych camp. He said he thought it was on the second floor. We went up there and asked the women guarding the pay lounge. No Yanukovych supporters here, they hadn't even heard of any being there. The same was true of the lounge on the other side of the second floor. The same was true at the other end of the station. The cleaning lady didn't know, the train station security guy didn't know, even the Berkut officer patrolling the place didn't know.

So we went back to the Yushchenko people, and none of them knew either, the guy we talked to originally figured they must be gone. We went outside and looked around; one cabdriver suggested going to a sports stadium where they'd had a rally once. Finally, as we walked away from the station down the street looking to see if maybe they were just nearby, we walked by some women who were cleaning the sidewalks on the way to the station.

"Oh, I don't know of any Yanukovych supporters being here," they said. Two of them turned to the third, and she thought for a minute.

"There were some here before though," she said.

"Really?" both of us said at once.

"Yes, they used to be set up over there on the left side of the station. They got in here about Thursday or Friday last week. They were here a couple days, they left again... oh Sunday, would you say?" she asked her two coworkers.

"Yeah, I think it was Sunday, one of them said."

We thanked the woman profusely for her help and walked away. Discoshaman and I have decided we're going to have to look a lot harder if we're going to find Yanukovych supporters in this town.

Meanwhile, the tents on Khreshchatyk remain. I hear they have even more than last Friday.