February 6, 2010 Saturday ProfileUkraine’s Premier Stumps for Her Turn at the Top By CLIFFORD J. LEVY IVANO-FRANKIVSK, Ukraine SHE took the stage at a theater for one of her last speeches before Sunday’s presidential election, and the setting seemed apt: here was a politician as riveting and ambitious and unpredictable as any heroine in an epic play. Just her name — Yulia! — has become shorthand for her stardom. But Ukraine may no longer be as eager to embrace Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko as it was during the 2004 Orange Revolution, when she led a pro-Western, anti-Kremlin movement. (And along the way, hit upon using a blond peasant braid as a nationalist statement.) No matter that Ms. Tymoshenko once represented the hope that the countries of the former Soviet Union could build a stable, democratic future. She is trailing in the polls and trying to rouse supporters who are dispirited by a limp economy and Ukraine’s bickering government. Even in this we...
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