Yushchenko poisoning case reopened: Report

Yushchenko, expected to return to Ukraine as early as Sunday to campaign for the Dec. 26 re-run of the presidential poll, told reporters in Vienna he was ‘‘happy to be alive’’.

And he predicted that ‘‘the regime that was in place for 14 years in Ukraine is now living its last days’’. Yushchenko likened Ukraine’s upheaval after the now-discredited run-off presidential election to the fall of the Soviet Union or the Berlin wall. Thousands of Yushchenko supporters brought Kiev to a virtual halt for more than two weeks to demand a new poll.

‘‘We had not seen anything like that for the past 100 years.I believe it would be appropriate to compare this to the fall of the Soviet Union or the fall of the Berlin wall,’’ he said.