Monday, December 27, 2004

Ukrainian Freedom!

It's undebatable, if not official. Viktor Yushchenko, the Western-leaning, reform-minded Ukrainian presidential candidate has won (again) in the Ukrainian presidential election. Exit polls put his lead at around 15-20 points, the vote tally (which seems a far sight more accurate than the November travesty) gives Yushchenko a nearly 10-point lead with more than 98% of precincts reporting. This is great news for Ukraine.

With a reformist president and more open political and business climates, the investment opportunities in Ukraine will increase geometrically and the foreign investors may no longer fear to put their money in the country, something that weighed on investment decisions under the Kuchma/Yankukovych regime. Hopefully for the Ukrainians, by 2009 Kyiv's condition will resemble the Prague boom of the 1990s.

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