[An Nahar] Ukraine's new interim president said on Sunday that he was open to dialogue with Russia as long as Moscow respected his country's decision to seek closer ties with the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
"We are ready for a dialogue with Russia... that takes into account Ukraine's European choice, which I hope will be confirmed in (presidential) elections" set for May 25, Oleksandr Turchynov said in a television address.
| Given that the Sochi Olympics have ended, I give Vlad about three days to make his move, and the Ukrainians won't like it when he does... |
A new era opened in Ukraine Sunday as parliament gave itself three days to form a new government after impeaching a defiant President Viktor Yanukovych and calling early elections following a week of carnage.
Yanukovych's whereabouts remained a mystery amid claims he tried and failed to escape the country and was hiding out in the east, his historic power base, where localized, minor festivities erupted overnight.
But his rule appeared all but finished as journalists combed through his abandoned presidential residence looking for incriminating documents and the opposition-controlled parliament set a Tuesday deadline for the formation of a new government and appointed its own new speaker, Oleksandr Turchynov, as interim president.
On Kiev's Independence Square, where many people were killed this week, life creaked back to normal as onlookers filed through giant, makeshift barricades set up to keep security forces at bay after anti-government protests erupted in November.
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