Viktor Yanukovych, foe of the Orange Revolution, inaugurated as Ukraine’s president

Viktor Yanukovych inaugurated as Ukraine president

KIEV, Ukraine — Viktor Yanukovych has been inaugurated as Ukraine’s president, five years after his first bid failed amid massive protests over vote fraud.

Yanukovych took the oath of office Thursday morning in the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament that has been the scene of intense maneuvering by his rival Yulia Tymoshenko to try to keep her post as prime minister.

Yanukovych narrowly defeated Tymoshenko in presidential elections Feb. 7. Tymoshenko alleges vote fraud, but she has dropped a court case on the claims.

Tymoshenko led the 2004 Orange Revolution protests that paved the way for a rerun of a presidential election in which Yanukovych had been declared winner. He lost the repeated vote to Viktor Yushchenko.