Wednesday marks the second anniversary of Ukraine’s “orange revolution”, on the crest of which Viktor Yushchenko became the president.

A year later, he signed a decree on the celebration of the Day of Freedom on November 22.

“Ukraine was independent for 13 years, but it became free just in those ‘orange’ days,” he then said.

The mass actions on Independence Maidan (square) that rolled in Kiev from November 21 to December 8, 2004, rallied hundreds of thousands.

However, expectations of most of citizens have not come true.

According to sociologists, people have grown disappointed in the “orange”, and this affected Yushchenko’s rating too.

The latest polls suggest that less than 10 percent of people trust Yushchenko, as against 60 percent in the heady initial days of his rule.

The revolution has brought a rift not only in society, but also in the “orange” camp.

Failing to have its share of power, the bloc of Yulia Timoshenko, who was Yushchenko’s ally at the “orange” prime, went into a rigid opposition. The pro-president- turned-moderate opposition block Our Ukraine is close to a collapse these days,

Nonetheless, Yushchenko is sure that over the two years since the “orange’ revolution “Ukraine has gone a path that it can be proud of”.

He cited as achievements of the revolution the freedom of speech, democratic elections of the parliament in this year’s March and the establishment of dialogue between authority and business.

However, the president is unlikely to come to Independence Square on Wednesday. His office said Yushchenko would trip to regions instead.

In the opinion of observers, the message from Timoshenko prompted him this step.

Members of her bloc warned that showing up at the Maidan, Yushchenko could meet an “excessive reaction of many participants in the meeting”.

One of the bloc’s leaders, Nikolai Tomenko, said that most of politicians had no moral right to come to Independence Square on the anniversary day, as they failed to uphold and protect its values.

One of noticeable Ukrainian politicians, Stepan Gavrish, said that the “orange” team discredited both Yushchenko and the very “idea of the Maidan”.

Members of the “orange” team should show pluck “to make an account on the central square of the capital”, he said.

The leader of the ruling Party of Regions, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich believes that celebration should not be made of the “orange” revolution.

“I am sure that we should not make any feast of it. We should hold discussions and state that there was the event that gave us the positive and the negative,” Yanukovich said.

Nonetheless, the parliamentary faction Party of Regions is going to hold a “unification Maidan” on another square in central Kiev.

About 40,000 people are expected to attend this meeting.

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