Orange Revolution

The Orange Revolution was a series of protests in Ukraine that lasted from November 2004 to January 2005. It stemmed from what appeared to be a fraudulent election pitting the conservative candidate Viktor Yanukovych against the pro-Western candidate Viktor Yushchenko. Eventually, after court decisions and run-offs, Yushchenko became Ukraine's president.

This year, Yushchenko failed to clinch a spot in the election. That left the loser of five years ago, Yanukovych, to run against the more liberal Yulia V. Tymoshenko, who had also taken part in the revolution. Yushchenko won this time in a fair election, due in large part to the failure of the Orange government to make way economically. So it might look like the Orange Revolution lasted a relatively short time, but now Ukrainians enjoy more freedom of speech and have gone through a fair election process.