By Ivan Anderzhanov
Ukraine’s new President Viktor Yanukovich vowed today to make his country "a bridge between East and West" after being sworn into office in Kyiv.
Yanukovych, who narrowly defeated Ukraine’s prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko to secure the post, said Ukraine is simultaneously part of Europe and of the former Soviet Union and should serve as a non-aligned bridge between both.
He said Ukraine will adopt a foreign policy which will allow it to gain maximum results and beneficial relations with Russian, the European Union and the US.
Yanukovich, the son of an ethnic Belarusian locomotive driver, also said he would put Ukraine on a "path of accelerated development" to save Ukraine from socio-economic collapse and called for cooperation between president, parliament and government.
In one of his first action as presidents, Yanukovich said he had reduced the costs of maintaining a presidential administration by 20 percent. The money saved would go to the fifth of Ukrainians living in poverty, according to a statement from his office.
Yanukovich was declared the winner of the presidential election in 2004, but the legitimacy of the vote was questioned and he faced accusations of stealing the race. Demonstrations against the validity of his result eventually led the result being overturned in what become the ‘Orange Revolution’.
Evidence of a rosy-intended path to European Union and Nato membership have long since been pulped following years of bickering between Tymoshenko and the outgoing Viktor Yushchenko.
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