Viktor Yanukovych the United States' War on Terrorism. In 2004, as the Prime Minister, Yanukovych participated in the controversial Ukrainian presidential election as the Party of Regions candidate. Yanukovych's main base of support emerged from the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine, which favor close ties with neighbouring Russia. In the first round of voting held on 31 October 2004, Yanukovych took second place with 39.3 percent of the votes to opposition leader Viktor Yuschenko with 39.8 percent. Because no candidate passed the 50 percent threshold, a second round of voting was scheduled. In the second round of the election, Yanukovych was
Viktor Yanukovych is my rule of politics." In spite of his claim, on 22 September 2007, during 2007 Ukrainian Parliamentary Election campaign, while delivering a speech in Vinnytsia, he compared Yulia Tymoshenko's performance as Prime Minister to "a cow on the ice" (" Вона прем'єр-міністр, як корова на льду...", "She is as prime minister as a cow on the ice") most likely referring to her skills and professionalism as a prime minister. Other cases of strong colloquialisms used by Viktor Yanukovych include the incident when he called former president Viktor Yushchenko "a coward and a babbler", as well as the speech in