Unian report that Yanukovych addressed 20,000 people in the centre of Karkiv, Ukraine's second-biggest city, today [Thursday]. Even though they say most of those present were bussed in, and that a portion of the crowd drifted away at the start of the presentations, it was not a bad turn-out.
I've blogged previously about Tymoshenko's 'travelling roadshow' which has also drawn quite large attendances.
But where are NSNU?
A commentator in 'Ukrainska Pravda' complains of the lack of interest by the orange parties in campaigning in eastern and southern Ukraine, and of absence of sincere dialogue with electors there. All this is demoralising for the 'orange' portion of the electorate in those regions, who feel let down since the orange revolution. 'You just have to explain [to the folks in these regions] that they are important to Ukraine..' he pleads.
Dmytro Vydryn, a wily Ukrainian 'political consultant' [and now BYuT VR candidate] in an interesting interview in 'Kyiv Post' claims that after the elections, there is a 60% chance of a RU-NSNU coalition, and 40% chance of a NSNU-BYuT coalition. He speculates that negotiations have been going on between NSNU and RU since last August-September. Maybe that's why NSNU's campaign is so lacklustre - they know that the result is a done-deal, so why bother?
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