New president Yushchenko faces tough challenge

Viktor Yushchenko’s path to the Ukrainian presidency was one of the most tortuous of any modern leader’s: three elections in as many months, weeks of mass demonstrations, lengthy court battles and grisly detours to Vienna for treatment of a near-lethal poisoning.

Today’s swearing-in of Yushchenko as president capped an astonishing success story, but the road ahead doesn’t appear much straighter.