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Tue 02 Feb 2010Division and squabbling end Ukraine's 'revolution'
ANALYSIS:Viktor Yanukovich’s presidential win is the result of bickering rivals blowing it in a country with a talent for flux, writes DAN McLAUGHLIN
UKRAINE HAS a long history of evading easy definition. Divided and reunited many times over the centuries, its territory has drifted between Russian, Polish, Austrian and Lithuanian control, its allegiances moving from east to west or looking Janus-faced both ways at once, towards Europe and Moscow. Even the name, Ukraine, is commonly traced back to a Slavic root meaning “borderland”, suggesting a liminal space of shifting identities.
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