A record number – more than a hundred – of foreign delegations has been invited to the ceremony, which promises to be rather modest one.

Back in 2005 when former Ukraine’s president Viktor Yushchenko was elected, over US$1 million was allocated from the state budget for the event. This time around, according to the Party of Regions, when the country is experiencing serious financial turmoil, there will be a far more modest sum spent on the inauguration ceremony of Viktor Yanukovich.

For Yanukovich it is a truly happy day because, after the questionable defeat in the third round of elections back in 2005 – the events that led to the so-called Orange Revolution – he has really emerged from political oblivion.

In the second round of presidential election on February 7, he gained a little less than 49 per cent of the vote, while his rival Yulia Timoshenko gained a little less than 46 per cent. The remainder went to the “Against All” candidate.

Later, Timoshenko publicly announced that she would not accept the results and that she believed the voting was falsified in the east and south of Ukraine. She took the case to the highest administrative court of the country, which in fact suspended the decision of Ukraine’s Central Election Commission for several days. However, Timoshenko, quite surprisingly for many, then decided to withdraw the case from the court and Yanukovich was officially declared the winner of the ballot.

Viktor Yanukovich has already outlined the main issues of his future policies for the next several years.

The main priority for him, according to what he has said, would be, of course, resuscitating the country’s economy. He has also mentioned that there will be major changes in the foreign policy of Ukraine.

Over the last five years in Ukraine, which could be described as the Orange Era that followed the Orange Revolution, Kiev was looking to the West in its foreign policy. Now, Yanukovich says that his priorities in foreign relations will be reviving ties with Russia and the CIS countries.

But despite these plans, his first official visit as the country’s president will take place on March 1 to Brussels, which also means that Yanukovich is very much interested in building ties with the EU as well.

Still, the citizens of Ukraine do not know what exactly to expect from the new administration and its president. There is a lot of talk going on about the fate of Yulia Timoshenko and whether or not the country will see a new Prime Minister soon.

Nevertheless, the election saga in Ukraine is over for now and everyone is waiting to see what steps the new president will take.