Ukraine: Opposition makes accusation of deceit

Pro-Russian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovcyh today accused Ukraine’s president of deceiving the nation to seize power during the 2004 Orange Revolution mass demonstrations.

“That was a fraud intended to seize power and look what they did with it,” Yanukovych said at a rally of supporters in downtown Kiev. “They kept creating crises which Ukrainian people struggled to overcome.”

Yanukovych’s Party of the Regions is poised to beat out President Viktor Yushchenko’s party and get the most votes in Sunday’s parliamentary elections.

Yanukovych has made a stunning comeback from the defeat he suffered in 2004 when a court stripped of him of his fraud-marred presidential victory and ordered a rerun, which was won by Yushchenko.

The court’s decision came amid mass rallies in Kiev that became known as the Orange Revolution.