Bleak in Kyiv

Things are nothing but bleak in Kyiv. One--it rains all the time. Two--they turned off the hot water yesterday. Three--Spain killed Ukraine 4:0 in Ukraine's first World Cup appearance. Four--President Yushchenko's political party Our Ukraine officially began negotiations with the much maligned and oft' hated Party of the Regions, the very foes we stood in Maidan two years ago to prevent them from railroading their way into power. For those who are just joining us, eleven weeks ago Ukraine had parliamentary elections and no single party won a majority (much like what happened in Germany and Italy recently). Thus, the three parties that led the Orange Revolution--Our Ukraine, Tymoshenko's party (the gas princess), and the Socialists--negotiated for eleven weeks and it all collapsed this week. It seemed they had agreed that Tymoshenko would be the prime minister since her party got the most votes. Then, the head of the Socialists (who got around 6% of the vote) decided he wanted to be speaker of the parliament. It seemed Our Ukraine wanted to choose that spot and everything just fell apart. Today, Our Ukraine announced it would start negotiating with the Party of the Regions. I personally believe most of the leaders of the Party of the Regions are criminals and should be in jail for what they tried to do two years ago. I know that there is a lot that we don't know but I do know that if a coalition is formed between Our Ukraine and the Party of the Regions, I will go to Maidan and burn my orange scarf, the one I wore during the revolution. I then may head for the airport because I just can't stomach the idea of living in a country where one party would so betray such high ideals. Maybe it's just a scare tactic. They have till the end of the month to form a government.

It continues to rain.