Vote-rigger Viktor to visit Brussels

By Andrew Beatty

Date: 09/02/06

Viktor Yanukovich, the man whose attempts to rig Ukraine's 2004 presidential elections led to the 'Orange revolution', is to visit Brussels in the coming weeks.

Yanukovich, whose political career lay in tatters just 12 months ago, will visit the European Parliament ahead of the 26 March legislative elections.

With his Party of Region's faction polling well and Yanukovich vying for the prime minister's post, the EU-Ukraine parliamentary delegation has decided to invite him to visit the Parliament.

He will follow a stream of Ukrainian politicians who have been coming into Brussels in recent weeks attempting to garner EU support ahead of the elections.

Last week saw the visit of Foreign Minister Boris Tarasyuk and opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

Yanukovich had been groomed by former president Leonid Kuchma as his successor and received strong Russian backing during the elections.

After the collapse of the orange coalition and the sacking of then prime minister Tymoshenko by President Viktor Yushchenko, Yanukovich's Party of the Regions surged in the opinion polls.

The party is vowing to hold a referendum on NATO membership and is appealing to pro-Russian sentiment inside the country, particularly the east. Yanukovich has pledged to make Ukraine a bridge between the EU and Russia.

Article reports on forthcoming visit to the European Parliament in Brussels by Viktor Yanukovich whose attempts to rig the 2004 Presidential elections in Ukraine led to the 'Orange Revolution'. In the lead up to Ukraine's Parliamentary Election in March 2006 Mr Yanukovich's Party of the Regions is doing well in opinion polls and he is vying for the post of Prime Minister. He has been invited to Brussels by the EU-Ukraine parliamentary delegation.