Ukraine's pro-Western coalition collapses

Ukraine's governing coalition collapsed yesterday, the parliamentary speaker said, raising the prospect of the country being knocked off its pro-Western course and left leaning more towards Moscow.
"I officially announce the collapse of the coalition of democratic forces," announced parliament speaker Arseny Yatsenyuk.
Less than four years after President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko united in the "Orange Revolution," their political marriage lies not for the first time in ugly tatters.
Tymoshenko was expected to resign after the announcement and start trying to build a new coalition.
She should continue functioning as prime minister until the formation of a new cabinet, which must happen within 30 days -- by mid-October -- or Yushchenko can call new elections.
It is expected that her party, the Tymoshenko Bloc, will either form an alliance with the pro-Russian opposition Regions Party or new elections will be held -- experts have mooted December 21 as a possible date.
The political crisis began when Yushchenko pulled his Our Ukraine party out of the coalition on September 3 after Tymoshenko sided with the pro-Moscow opposition to pass new laws.
Yushchenko, who believed the laws would be used to reduce his power and facilitate his possible impeachment, bitterly described the vote against him as a bid by Tymoshenko to establish a "dictatorship" and complained of a parliamentary "coup."
Tymoshenko in turn accused the president of having "destroyed" the governing coalition by pulling out of the alliance with her party.
Tymoshenko and Yushchenko were the icons of the 2004 pro-Western Orange Revolution and have each been considered Western-leaning politicians despite persistent and sharp disagreements on domestic political issues.