Yushchenko stripped of power

Kiev, Ukraine

Ukraine’s Parliament humiliated President Viktor Yushchenko this week by taking away just about all his powers. Yushchenko, the leader of his country’s 2004 democratic Orange Revolution, has been steadily losing influence since he was elected president. Last year he and his erstwhile ally, Yulia Timoshenko, were fighting so much that they could not agree on forming a government; he had to appoint his archrival, the pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovich, prime minister. This week, Timoshenko’s party voted with Yanukovich’s party to strip the president of the right to veto the choice of prime minister. Yushchenko said the parliament had no constitutional right to change the president’s duties. He vowed to appeal.

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