OPINION: Third Maidan Unlikely As It Needs Western Support To Succeed

MOSCOW, May 26 (RIA Novosti), Daria Chernyshova – The Third Maidan or another Orange Revolution is unlikely to happen in Ukraine, now that that the Western-backed candidate has won the presidency in Ukraine, President of the American University in Moscow Edward Lozansky told RIA Novosti.

"The victory of "Chocolate King" in the first round was to be expected,” Lozansky said. "Now we have to wait if "Gas Princess” and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko will follow through with her threats of the Third Maidan. However, the probability for that are pretty small since the West more or less gave up on Yulia and without Western support no Maidan or Orange Revolution has any chances for success,” Lozansky told RIA Novosti.

Several exit polls showed that billionaire Petro Poroshenko is winning the presidential race held Sunday in the first round with over 50 percent of votes. His closest rival, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, is coming second.

Lozansky noted that an urgent top-level meeting was needed to normalize the situation in Ukraine and to avoid further bloodshed in the crisis-torn country.

"A lot, of course, will depend on Washington and Brussels. I think that if they are serious about normalizing situation in Ukraine, an urgent summit between Obama, Merkel, Putin, Xi Jinping and Poroshenko is absolutely essential. UN Security Council at this point cannot do the job,” Lozansky said.

Ukraine’s Acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said Sunday that the special operation in the South-Eastern Ukraine would continue after the election in order to "protect the result of the voting.”

"It is pretty doubtful that he [Poroshenko] would be able to disarm "Pravy Sector" [The Right Sector] militants and without that the federalization advocates of South East will not disarm either,” Lozansky told RIA Novosti.

"Poroshenko's call for "direct dialogue" with the people in Donetsk and Luhansk and the need to normalize ties with Russia sound good but I think the first few days-weeks will tell us if this was just campaign rhetoric or serious policy strategy," Lozansky noted.

RIA Novosti