Yushchenko takes charge

Today Viktor Yushchenko took over as president of Ukraine. After his swearing-in ceremony before Ukraine's Parliament, he went to Kyiv's Independence Square. There, he addressed a crowd of his Orange Revolution acolytes directly, noting that Ukraine would be independent and would work toward integrating with Europe and the EU. Most notable, at Yushchenko's swearing-in, "[t]he presidents of seven countries were in attendance -- Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and Moldova -- all ex-communist states committed to European integration." That says it all.