Really hard to get back to writing. Seems like I have nothing to say.

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Here's a link to a translation on Belarus I did last Friday on Gobal Voices.

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Kyiv is so nice now that the weather's nice. We did have snow on Friday, though, and that was shocking.

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In politics, everyone's waiting for Yushchenko to pick coalition partners.

On Savik Shuster's Svoboda Slova on Friday, Bezsmertnyi and Zvarych were giggling at what Tymoshenko was saying, and it didn't look good. It looked like she's got a bigger dick and they know it, but since they're in power and she's not, they're using their time there to humiliate her - while they still can.

And Tymoshenko wasn't prepared to answer an obvious question from, of all people, Communist leader Symonenko. He asked about all those Kuchma guys on her bloc's list - he did name the names, but I don't remember any except Zhevago - and she told Symonenko he himself was the main Kuchmist ("sam durak" type of answer, Mishah said: something like, "me a fool? no, you're a fool!"). And then she moved on to something else and ended it all with a vague, "You shouldn't doubt their integrity because they're accountable to me personally" type of thing. Not convincing at all. I would've liked to hear about each of those guys: why they are worth it - despite their past political affiliation. Perhaps, there isn't much to tell and they aren't worth it. Or too much to tell, but all of it would prove Symonenko right.

And Symonenko incorporated a little bit of Orthodox Christianity into his speech: he asked Bezsmertnyi to bring him the 'good news' (blagaya vest'; don't remember what exactly he wanted to hear about, wasn't listening too carefully to him), alluding to the holiday of Annunciation (Blagoveshchenye) that was celebrated that day. I can't stop being shocked by how skillful the Communists are at exploiting the really short memory of some Ukrainian Christians (one of my favorite examples of such exploitation is here). And Bezsmertnyi inserted this tiny bit into his reply: "I'm not Archangel Gabriel to bring you the good news."

Anyway, we're all waiting for the news of the coalition, good or bad.

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It feels good to be writing again. I hope I'll be able to continue. Thank you all!