Ungovernability: Cheney's "Orange Revolution" In Ukraine In Turmoil

May 25 (LPAC)--The vaunted "democracy" project in the Ukraine faced another crisis yesterday, when President Viktor Yushchenko, installed by the 2004 Bush-Cheney "orange revolution" fired the General Prosecutor Svyatoslav Piskun, because of Piskun's alleged "political views," widely understood to be loyalty to the Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovych, the key rival to Yushchenko.

The crisis escalated today, reported the Italian business daily, Il Sole 24 ORE , when Piskun--who has been twice fired and reinstated by President Yushchenko himself, forced himself back into his own office, protected by officers of the Interior Ministry. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (a U.S. government supported news agency) claim that "pro-government" (i.e., pro-Prime Minister Yanukovych) forces of the Interior Ministry clashed with officers of the "pro-presidential [i.e. Yushchenko] State Protection Directorate," putting the capitol of Kiev into turmoil.

Prime Minister Yanukovych rushed back to Kiev from a trip, and the Ukraine Parliament was rapidly called into session to attempt to deal with the crisis. Interior Minister Vasili Tsushko called the firing of the Prosecutor General, "an attempted coup d'etat."

By late afternoon on Friday, Yushchenko had signed a decree mandating that the Interior Ministry troops report directly to him instead of to the government, reports the Russian news service, RIA Novosti . There is no sign as of Friday night, Eastern time, that the crisis is over.