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The people of Ukraine elected Yanukovych as president in 2010, according to the 2004 constitution. Upon coming to power, he, let's say, pressured the Constitutional Court, and it ruled to revert to the 1996 constitution.
This constitution granted the president significantly more powers. In other words, the people of Ukraine did not grant him such powers; Yanukovych simply usurped power. From that moment on, his legitimacy was highly questionable.
Countries with a century of democratic institutions and fair courts have nothing in common with authoritarian regimes or countries that are only at the beginning of their path to democracy.
The Party of Regions, back in 2002, under President Kuchma and Prime Minister Yanukovych, set a course towards the EU and NATO. Under President Yushchenko, Ukraine continued to follow this course. President Yanukovych also continued to state that Ukraine was heading towards Europe until last November. After Yanukovych decided to deviate from this path, the Maidan protests began.
Cobra, answer a simple question: how many more years will Putin rule Russia? If Russians have the opportunity to change something through elections? And of course, the answer "as many as Lukashenko rules Belarus" will not satisfy me.
From today, bells in Czech churches across the Czech Republic are ringing in support of Ukraine and in memory of those who died on the barricades in Kyiv.