Quotes of the Day

Only nine months after the Orange Revolution that swept away a corrupt and cruel regime on a wave of people power, Ukraine's would-be reformers are running out of juice. Last week President Viktor Yushchenko fired his entire government, including former ally Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko, after mutual accusations of corruption by their teams. Prices are skyrocketing; foreign investors are gun-shy as severe shortages of gasoline, meat and sugar spread. The President's move was "absolutely illogical," said Tymoshenko in a televised speech, blaming the crises on Yushchenko's cronies.

The Cabinet implosion was triggered by the dramatic resignation of Olexander Zinchenko, the President's Chief of Staff, who furiously denounced as corrupt Yushchenko's top aide Olexander Tretyakov and Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Petro Poroshenko, among others. At a press conference, Zinchenko pointedly questioned the origins of Poroshenko's business empire, allegedly worth $350 million. "Bribery and corruption are worse than before the orange revolution," he said — only to see Poroshenko enter the hall in a rage to counter the charges. Zinchenko said he had passed "incriminating documents" to the Security Service and the Prosecutor General. Both offices pledged to investigate.

The big question is how the feud between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko will play out. The post of Prime Minister is to get major new powers on Jan. 1, rendering the President much weaker. Yushchenko's own popularity has been slumping anyway in the wake of revelations that his son has been driving a $140,000 BMW imported in violation of customs laws, and that his family has trademarked the symbols of the orange revolution. These include the word Yushchenko and the slogan i believe, I know, we can, both against an orange background, as well as the word tak! (yes) written over a lucky horseshoe. The Kommersant-Ukraine daily newspaper estimates the trademarks are worth some $100 million a year.

Last week Yushchenko tried to limit the damage by admitting that "many new faces have come to power, but the face of power has not changed." But a top Tymoshenko aide, Vitaly Chepinoga, told Time that Yushchenko "does not have any solutions to offer," and that to rescue the orange revolution, "Tymoshenko is determined to start it all over again from scratch." That means launching a broad people's movement and winning the March parliamentary elections. At least the orange revolution has made it likely this fight will take place at the polls, not in the streets.

• YURI ZARAKHOVICH
• Former allies in Ukraine's people's revolution fall out over allegations of corruption from all sides