Election may set Ukraine on pro-Russia course

UKRAINIANS voted in a parliamentary election yesterday that could tip the divided ex-Soviet republic back toward Russia just 16 months after the Orange Revolution protests helped set it on a Westward course.

An opposition party advocating improved ties with Moscow and a halt to Ukraine’s efforts to join NATO is expected to win the most seats in the 450-member parliament.

Elsewhere yesterday, the EU called on its European partners today to protest at Belarusian violence against demonstrators and the detention of opposition leader Alexander Kozulin.