The crisis in Ukraine deepens. President Yushchenko has dissolved parliament and called a snap election probably for 7 December. There is a good report by RFE/RL. There is also a slightly more detailed report in UkrainianJournal.

In one sense, this seemed like a surprising move, because recent stories had indicated that in recent days former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko had been back-pedalling somewhat and had been willing to revive the coalition with President Yushchenko’s movement. However, the president’s decision and the extremely bitter rhetoric that he used in his dissolution announcement against former prime minister Tymoshenko suggests that any post-election deal will be difficult to reach.

UkrainianJournal reports that the deal that was once proposed between the Tymoshenko block and the Party of the Regions was scuppered because the latter wanted the premiership and Tymoshenko refused to step down. Of course, the Party of the Regions may have calculated that this would happen in the hope that an election would be called and that it would benefit from the situation.