VOA标准英语2010年-Yanukovych Victory in Ukraine Still a

Bilboards of Ukraine's Prime Minister and presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko with the words, "Defend Ukraine," left, and presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych with the words "For Yanukovich," right, in Kyiv, 03 Feb 2010

Ukraine’s Central Election Commission certified¹ Viktor Yanukovych as the winner in last week’s presidential runoff election (7 February), and Parliament has set his inauguration² for 25 February.  However, his rival – Yulia Tymoshenko, the current Prime Minister – is challenging the election results in court, claiming that fraud on the part of the Yanukovych camp has robbed her of more than a million votes.  On Wednesday, the Supreme³ Administrative⁴ Court ruled to put the election results on hold, pending⁵ a review of Ms. Tymoshenko’s appeal.

Economic and Political Woes⁶

The Ukrainian economy is in shambles⁷ while the two leaders of the 2004 Orange Revolution – President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Tymoshenko – have engaged in political bickering⁸.  It’s a situation that helped pave the way for Mr. Yanukovych’s comeback in a tight election that centered on domestic concerns.  Foreign affairs and issues such as the rivalry⁹ between Russia and the West took a back seat, according to Eurasia expert Paul Goble.

“I think the first thing to understand is that he’s not going to succeed at all unless he is able to unite Ukraine,” Goble said.   And that means reaching out both to those people who look east to Russia and to those people who look west, he explained.

Regarding Ukraine’s economic problems, the new president will need to look to Russia, Goble said.  “I think one of the big questions is whether Moscow will offer concessionary prices and payment programs on oil and gas that might allow him to jumpstart the Ukrainian economy.”

Democratic Development

Many analysts¹⁰ say last week’s election demonstrated that Ukraine is still a functioning democracy, although the 2004 Orange Revolution and its leaders were widely discredited¹¹.   “Compared with other countries in the region, like Belarus to the north or Russia to the east, when there is an election, we don’t necessarily know who is going to win,” Goble observed.

Prime Minister Tymoshenko has challenged the results of the election in court, despite the fact that European election monitors described the voting as honest and fair.  But independent Ukrainian journalist Yevhen Hlibovitsky in Kyiv says he thinks Ms. Tymoshenko is unlikely to prevail in her challenge of the elections results and sooner or later she will be forced out of the Prime Minister’s seat.  “Something that is quite revealing about her latest actions is that the value of democracy, which was at the core of the Orange Revolution, seems to be diminishing when she loses, so it’s actually a question as to whether she believes in the choice of the voters when she loses,” Hlibovitsky observed.   “Many Ukrainians are quite disappointed in the election process, even those who were voting for Yanukovych,” he said.  “But at the same time, this is a functioning democracy.”

Russian journalist Masha Lipman of the Carnegie Moscow Center agrees.  “Even though Yulia Tymoshenko tried to challenge the results, she will do so in the court, not in the streets,” Lipman said.
 
Daunting¹² Job Ahead

Just after the election, Mr. Yanukovych was quoted in the Russian media as saying that his government would need to convince people that it could improve their lives.  Now he is likely to have that chance, Lipman said.  “The economy is in terrible shape.  The poor performance of the government, torn by all sorts of disputes, led to a terrible crisis in Ukraine.  And Ukraine is hit by this world crisis worse than most countries,” she observed.

Furthermore, Mr. Yanukovych won the election with only a small margin¹³, about 3.5 percentage points, Lipman noted¹⁴.  “And he already made it clear that he doesn’t want Yulia Tymoshenko to be his prime minister, but it’s not clear what is worse – to have her as a very tough political opponent or to have her as a nominal¹⁵ ally if she stays as prime minister – but an ally who wants to take your job,” Lipman said.

Balancing Act between Russia and Europe

With Mr. Yanukovych likely to withstand Ms. Tymoshenko’s court challenge, Hlibovitsky suggests, he will have to perform a delicate balancing act between Russia and Europe.  “But the clear loser in this situation is the United States because it will have decreasing influence in the area.”  Ukraine will remain a leader among the post-Soviet¹⁶ states, Hlibovitsky said.  “It has the best democracy, if we exclude the Baltics, and for the first time it showed that the scenario¹⁷ is really unpredictable.  Ukraine is basically providing an alternative that is quite inspiring for the former Soviet republics,” he added.

Many analysts suggest that a Yanukovych presidency¹⁸ would signal a movement away from the West and towards Moscow.  But Lipman says that view is a bit simplistic.  “If we take Yushchenko as a point of reference, anybody would look pro-Moscow.  Yushchenko was a terrible irritant for Moscow.  And his victory back in the days of the Orange Revolution was associated with the utter humiliation¹⁹ of Russia and of Vladimir Putin in particular.”

President Yushchenko’s policies were totally unacceptable to Russia, especially his determination that Ukraine would become a member of NATO, Lipman emphasized.  “This being said, I don’t think there is a chance for Moscow to have at the top of the Ukrainian administration somebody who is totally pro-Moscow and not pro-Europe.  The very situation of Ukraine – geographic²⁰, political, economic, cultural, and historical – puts it in between these two poles, Russia on the one hand and Europe on the other hand.”  According to Lipman, there is “no way” for any President of Ukraine to pick one and not the other.
 

1 certified   

a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的

参考例句：

• Doctors certified him as insane. 医生证明他精神失常。
• The planes were certified airworthy. 飞机被证明适于航行。

2 inauguration   

n.开幕、就职典礼

参考例句：

• The inauguration of a President of the United States takes place on January 20.美国总统的就职典礼于一月二十日举行。
• Three celebrated tenors sang at the president's inauguration.3位著名的男高音歌手在总统就职仪式上演唱。

3 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

4 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

5 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。

6 woes   

困境( woe的名词复数 )； 悲伤； 我好苦哇； 某人就要倒霉

参考例句：

• Thanks for listening to my woes. 谢谢您听我诉说不幸的遭遇。
• She has cried the blues about its financial woes. 对于经济的困难她叫苦不迭。

7 shambles   

n.混乱之处；废墟

参考例句：

• My room is a shambles.我房间里乱七八糟。
• The fighting reduced the city to a shambles.这场战斗使这座城市成了一片废墟。

8 bickering   

v.争吵( bicker的现在分词 )；口角；（水等）作潺潺声；闪烁

参考例句：

• The children are always bickering about something or other. 孩子们有事没事总是在争吵。
• The two children were always bickering with each other over small matters. 这两个孩子总是为些小事斗嘴。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 rivalry   

n.竞争，竞赛，对抗

参考例句：

• The quarrel originated in rivalry between the two families.这次争吵是两家不和引起的。
• He had a lot of rivalry with his brothers and sisters.他和兄弟姐妹间经常较劲。

10 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

11 discredited   

不足信的，不名誉的

参考例句：

• The reactionary authorities are between two fires and have been discredited. 反动当局弄得进退维谷，不得人心。
• Her honour was discredited in the newspapers. 她的名声被报纸败坏了。

12 daunting   

adj.使人畏缩的

参考例句：

• They were faced with the daunting task of restoring the house.他们面临着修复房子的艰巨任务。
• Starting a new job can be a daunting prospect.开始一项新工作有时会让人望而却步。

13 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

14 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

15 nominal   

adj.名义上的；(金额、租金)微不足道的

参考例句：

• The king was only the nominal head of the state. 国王只是这个国家名义上的元首。
• The charge of the box lunch was nominal.午餐盒饭收费很少。

16 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

17 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

18 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

19 humiliation   

n.羞辱

参考例句：

• He suffered the humiliation of being forced to ask for his cards.他蒙受了被迫要求辞职的羞辱。
• He will wish to revenge his humiliation in last Season's Final.他会为在上个季度的决赛中所受的耻辱而报复的。

20 geographic   

adj.地理学的，地理的

参考例句：

• The city's success owes much to its geographic position. 这座城市的成功很大程度上归功于它的地理位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Environmental problems pay no heed to these geographic lines. 环境问题并不理会这些地理界限。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法