But it also looks certain to cause far worse problems than it solves by provoking an anti-Western and anti-Ukrainian reaction in neighboring Russia that could wreck his dreams.

For while Yushchenko played down somewhat during the election campaign his passion to fully integrate the second most populous former Soviet republic into the institutions of the West, there is no question about his deeply felt commitment to fulfilling that goal.

Ukraine's next president is determined to make his potentially rich land, the historic breadbasket of Russia and the Soviet Union, a full member of both the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He is also determined to reverse his nation's miserable economic performance since achieving independence at the beginning of 1992 following the disintegration of the Soviet Union by pushing through far more effective free-market reforms than the country has yet experienced. Despite the reported curtailment of presidential powers as part of the deal that made possible the re-run of the Nov. 21 election, Yushchenko's determination - combined with the decisive popular mandate he has now won - gives him a fighting chance at achieving those ambitious goals.

In the short term, Ukraine's peaceful and non-violent but highly dramatic and far-reaching Orange Revolution has brought the United States and the major nations of Europe closer together than they have been since the U.S.-led and driven invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

The Bush administration and all the major Western European governments shared their skepticism and criticism over the highly controversial results of the second round election run off the first time it was held on Nov. 21. Both sides of the Atlantic joined together in pressuring incumbent President Leonid Kuchma to bow to the pressure of an outraged Ukrainian public to make sure the second round run-off was held again, this time under honest and clearly transparent circumstances.

Yushchenko is likely therefore to enjoy important economic as well as diplomatic support from Washington, Brussels and the major European capitals as he drives ahead with his economic reforms. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in particular are likely to go out of their way to give him generous credit.

However, this honeymoon period is unlikely to last long among any of the parties involved.

First, the increasingly evident determination of the Bush administration to destabilize and possibly even topple the government of Syria is likely to rapidly blow away the rose-colored sentiments that have slowly started to return to Transatlantic relations.

Second, if the violence in the Middle East escalates again in both Iraq and Syria, with the looming danger that Iran may be drawn in, international oil prices, still enormously high in the mid $40s per barrel, could go through the roof and back over $50 a barrel. That is especially bad news for a Ukraine dependent for its oil and natural gas on Russia and on a Kazakhstan that has to put Moscow's goodwill before Kiev's in its own energy dealings.

For there is no doubt that a furious Russian President Vladimir Putin, fresh from his success in smashing the huge Yukos oil corporation, will use the Kremlin's preeminent clout in the Russian energy sector to squeeze an increasingly independent and westward-looking Ukraine and squeeze it hard.

Only last week, Putin presided over the purchase of Yuganskeftegaz, also known as Yugansk, the core production unit of Yukos, by the hitherto unknown Baikal Finans Group, which was quickly revealed as a shell company for the Kremlin-dependent Rosneft oil company, itself heading for a merger with the preeminent Russian natural gas corporation Gazprom. And Yugansk all by itself produces more oil per year than the entire nation of Indonesia.

Since it is in Russia's strategic interest that Yushchenko fail in his unprecedented program, the most obvious way to discredit Ukraine's next president will be to push the price of energy for Kiev sky-high and force Yushchenko to appear to his people as the architect of hardship and ruin, not peace and prosperity.

Moscow is also likely to stir up regional resentment against the new government in Kiev in Ukraine's most populous and heavily industrialized - and most Russified - areas in the Don Basin, or Donbass.

The one thing the Kremlin can safely be counted upon not to do is play the gracious loser and let Ukraine go full ahead in its drive to fully integrate with the West. For the implications of doing so would be colossal in their effects.

Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Ukraine finally became a fully independent nation for more than a couple of years for the first time in three and a half centuries, it remained firmly welded to the Russian economic and strategic spheres through the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Yushchenko wants to change all that. He, in fact, wants to make Ukraine an integral and intimate member of the European family for the first time since the horrendous Mongol question and the fall of Kiev more than 750 years ago. If he succeeds, Russia will be banished from the European heartland, no longer a super - or even a major - power despite its awesome nuclear arsenal, weaker and more marginalized in Eurasia than it has been since the first half of the 17th century.

No Russian government could accept that prospect with equanimity and expect to survive. Putin, who strongly supported Yushchenko's pro-Moscow opponent Viktor Yanukovych in the presidential race, has waged a relentless, implacable war despite high casualties in tiny Chechnya for the past five years to preserve the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation. He certainly will not.

Only last Thursday, Putin gave an unprecedented tongue-lashing to the European Union and its leaders over their enthusiasm for the events in Ukraine. His comments confirmed the angry tone of anti-European and anti-American comments coming from both Russian officials and media outlets sympathetic to the Kremlin. A far-ranging transformation in relations may soon follow.

Yushchenko should therefore make the most of his honeymoon in power while it lasts. The road he has chosen to lead his country upon is filled with traps and dangers, and the successful outcome he remains confident of achieving is by no means ensured.

All rights reserved. � 2004 United Press International. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by United Press International. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of United Press International.

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