Orange Revolution dividing families, friendships

UKRAINE: Kiev-based marketing manager Victoria hates politics

UKRAINE: Kiev-based marketing manager Victoria hates politics. One week ago she fought with her best friend, Julia, over the rights and wrongs of Ukraine's disputed election, and they haven't spoken since. Chris Stephen reports from Kiev.

"It was a big argument, and now we don't talk," says Victoria. "She was my best friend for seven years and now everything is finished. I am sick of all this."

Victoria supports Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, whose supporters wear blue, and are outnumbered many times over in this city by the orange of the opposition's Mr Viktor Yushchenko.

I met her yesterday afternoon during a snowfall outside the Central Election Commission headquarters, a grey squat building that is one of the focal points for this city's ongoing street demonstrations.

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Victoria was part of a crowd of about 500 blues supporters, heavily outnumbered by those wearing the orange of the opposition.

The two sides were intermingled, with knots of people - blue and orange - engaged in fierce debate. Fingering the blue ribbon attached to her bag, Victoria told me about the personal cost of this Orange Revolution.

"It's breaking up lots of friendships. Among my friends, some are orange, some are blue, and this is causing problems." And not just friendships.

Victoria's family is now at war with itself. "I am from the east, my parents still live there, they voted blue, and now they are fighting with my brother who lives out in the west and voted orange, and I am here, stuck in the middle, trying to mediate," she says, her eyes downcast.

Now she worries about news from the east that it is poised to break away from the rest of the country. "I don't want the country divided like that. This is Ukraine - we should be able to live together."

Doctor Tatiana Lavrenchuk, wearing the orange ribbon of the opposition, has a different problem: her seven-year-old daughter, Tanja, has begun teasing children of parents who voted for Mr Yanukovich. "Even the children play politics now. I tell her not to go cursing the children of those who voted the other way, but it is no use." Tanja's face brightens at the mention of Mr Yushchenko, a name that has achieved iconic proportions this week. "Yushchenko!" she squeaks. I ask her why she likes him. She screws up her face, shuffles her feet. "Don't know."

An argument develops with a young man with a blue banner proclaiming for Mr Yanukovich. The man says the Prime Minister won the election fair and square, and Tatiana tells him no, the vote was rigged. Little Tanja stands in front of her mother, squinting up as they argue, fingers stabbing, heads shaking. When the man abruptly walks off, Tatiana tells me: "You have to be careful what you tell a child. I tell Tanja that this was not a fight, it was simply a discussion. I explained my point of view, and so did he."

All across Ukraine, the acrimony over last weekend's election grows deeper by the day. Local papers speak of marriage break-ups over the issue.

"We can't talk about it at home any more. My father is with the blues," said Valentina (45), an orange ribbon tied around the sleeve of her black fur coat. "A few weeks before the election they raised the pensions, and so my father says he is loyal to Yanukovich. I tell him this is a bribe, but he doesn't listen. My mother is with the opposition, so are my brothers, but my father has to be different. Christmas time, when we are all together, is going to be very difficult."

The opposition is pleased that the Orange Revolution has become a genuinely popular movement, with politics moving out to embrace every section of society. But the flip-side to this is that rows and acrimony are now tearing at families and friendships. Ukrainians are finding out that the closer the friend, the more wounding is the fight.

Victoria considers my suggestion that she patch things up with Julia, but says the words passed were too bitter. "I don't know if we will talk again. I don't really want to." For Julia and Victoria, read East and West Ukraine, a country whose social fabric is being torn further with each passing day.