Russia's War Against Ukraine
OP-ED
Timothy Snyder: Ukraine is on the edge of democracy
A handout picture taken on May 22, 2014 released by the Yulia Tymoshenko's press office shows Ukrainian presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko giving a speech during an election campaign trip to the northern Ukrainian city of Chernigiv. Ukraine's glamorous but polarising ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko was triumphantly released from prison during the pro-Western uprising in Kiev but is now a longshot in on May 25, 2014 presidential ballot due to mistrust of the corruption-stained old guard.The most influential female politician to have emerged from the former Soviet Union appears to retain an unquenched thirst for office despite nearly three years behind bars on abuse of power charges drawn up by allies of Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian who narrowly beat her in the 2010 vote and whose regime was toppled after bloody street fighting in February.
This Sunday, millions of men and women will go to the urns in Ukraine to exercise their civil right to vote for a new president. Opinion poll after opinion poll shows that the vast majority of Ukrainians throughout the country, including in the southeast where Russian intervention has sparked a violent separatist movement,wish to remain in Ukraine and want to take part in the election.
