Lack of enthusiasm...

For anyone out there who might still check on this blog, I'm sorry. There has been little content on here, entertaining or not, in the past few weeks. Truth is, I've been kind of busy. I'm caught up in "Lost: Season 1" and Ukrainian lessons. Those are the two things duking it out for the majority of my time. There're are other things, like spending quality time with friends and family, and also spending unquality time with friends (and by this I mean carousing... it empties the wallet and sours the liver, but I still love all of you for it.)

Anyway, this is a big news story. It might have an effect on my volunteer period in Ukraine. It might not. One way or another, Ukraine will be interesting.

This is from the NY Times. I copied it. Without permission.

MOSCOW, Sept. 8 - President Viktor A. Yushchenko of Ukraine dismissed
his prime minister and the rest of the cabinet today as internal
divisions and accusations of corruption splintered the political
coalition that led last year's popular uprising against his
predecessor's autocratic government.

Mr. Yushchenko appointed a regional governor and former aide, Yury I.
Yekhanurov, as acting prime minister, replacing Yulia V. Tymoshenko, a
fiery reformer whose leadership proved politically popular, but also
divisive and debilitating in government.

One of her strongest allies, the chairman of the Ukrainian Security
Services, Oleksandr V. Turchinov, who had not been dismissed, resigned
in protest almost immediately afterward. He warned that Mr.
Yushchenko's decision "threatened the national security of Ukraine,"
the service's spokeswoman said in a telephone interview, citing his
resignation letter.

Mr. Yushchenko, in somber remarks broadcast on national television,
said he had acted to end internal struggles for power among those who
organized what became known as the "Orange Revolution," when tens of
thousands poured into the streets of Kiev to protest a fraudulent
presidential election last fall.

He described his decision as a reluctant, though necessary one, saying
pointedly that as president he "should not baby-sit" his squabbling
aides.

"Ukraine was losing momentum, including economic pace," he said, as
transcribed and translated by the British Broadcasting Service. "I
think members of my team listened to the president but did not hear
him. And today I have cut the Gordian knot, however difficult it may
be."

Barely seven months after his inauguration promised a newly
transparent and democratic era, Mr. Yushchenko has found himself
facing a political crisis - with his closest aides not only deeply
divided, but also facing accusations of the sort that dogged his
predecessor, Leonid D. Kuchma.

He announced the government's dismissal only hours after the second
senior aide in a week resigned, accusing Mr. Yushchenko's government
of creating "a system of corruption." Oleksandr O. Zinchenko, his
former campaign manager, resigned as chief of staff last Saturday and
later accused the administration of being "even worse" that Mr.
Kuchma's. That thrust into public internal divisions that have
simmered for months, hindering the government's work.

A third aide at the center of the accusations, Petro Poroshenko, the
secretary of the newly empowered Security and Defense Council, also
announced his resignation today. He denied accusations of corruption,
but said he would step aside to avoid the appearance of thwarting an
investigation into the charges. "For me, honor and dignity remain a
higher value than my post," he said in a statement, Interfax reported.

Since taking office, Ms. Tymoshenko and Mr. Poroshenko emerged as
powerful rivals within the government, vying for influence and
political power. Yulia Tishchenko of the Ukrainian Center for
Independent Political Research in Kiev said in a telephone interview
that Mr. Yushchenko's crisis was a result of a new government
structure that gave both officials greater powers than their
predecessors had, though overlapping ones.

"Each of the members of the new team wanted to get as much authority
as they could, which was not good for the system," she said.

At the heart of the internal divisions - and evidently the source of
the accusations of corruption have been the government's efforts to
review some of the dubious privatizations that took place during Mr.
Kuchma's presidency. Ms. Tymoshenko has been a proponent of reviewing
dozens of privatization deals, at times contradicting Mr. Yushchenko's
more modest goals to review only some of them.

The latest conflict involved a court ruling that overturned the 2003
privatization of a major steel factory, Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant. The
new owner, Viktor Pinchuk, Mr. Kuchma's son-in-law and one of the
country's richest men, appealed, but in the meantime minority
shareholders elected a new management team.

Mr. Pinchuk and the plant's workers rallied last week, declaring the
shareholders meeting illegal and confronting riot police sent to
enforce the court's order in a tense standoff. Mr. Pinchuk, in an
interview at the time, accused Ms. Tymoshenko of trying to wrest
control of the plant for her allies.

In his remarks today, Mr. Yushchenko referred to the showdown, saying
that while the court's order was "deeply correct," he lamented "the
intrigues behind the scenes" that nearly resulted in an armed clash.

"The finale of the story had nothing to do with attempts to hand the
company from a gang over to the state," he said, "but it appeared that
it was handed over from one gang to another. Therefore the people had
a right to protest."

He did not elaborate.

It remains to be seen whether Mr. Yushchenko's action will staunch a
slippage of popular support among Ukrainians, whose enthusiasm for his
democratic, market-oriented reforms appears to have diminished because
of inflation and signs of an economic slowdown, as well as the
government's in-fighting.

It is not even certain that the parliament - fractured into blocks led
by many of those dismissed today - will confirm Mr. Yekhanurov or the
cabinet he forms.

Ms. Tymoshenko, who leads her own faction in the parliament, did not
immediately comment on her dismissal, but aides said she would hold a
news conference in Kiev on Friday.

Her dismissal came as Ukraine's political parties, including those
opposed to Mr. Yushchenko's government have begun jockeying for
support in advance of parliamentary elections next March. Those
elections have added significance because of an agreement that
resolved the disputed presidential elections.

Mr. Yushchenko, Mr. Kuchma and parliamentary leaders cleared the way
for a rerun of last November's disputed runoff that initially declared
Yiktor F. Yanukovich the winner by agreeing to expand the authority of
the parliament, giving its deputies the power to choose a prime
minister and the rest of the government.

Ms. Tishchenko said that the parliamentary faction led by Ms.
Tymoshenko showed signs of winning greater support, at the expense of
the party Mr. Yushchenko once led, Our Ukraine.

Mr. Yushchenko referred poignantly and personally to the country's
current state, citing the poisoning that disfigured his face on the
eve of last year's election - a crime that has yet to be solved.

"A year ago I ran for president not to see key state institutions
struggling to find understanding and failing to find accord and mutual
trust," he said. "That is not what I sought as I have been walking for
a year with a face that is not mine."