Ukrainian despair at politicians in Russia gas row

By Sabina Zawadzki and Guy Faulconbridge

KIEV, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Ukraine's gas dispute with Russia is unlikely to have won any popular support for Kiev's deadlocked political elite ahead of the first presidential election since the 2004 Orange Revolution.

The row with Russia has left Ukraine with no gas supplies for nine days, accelerating the economy's fall into what is expected to be the worst recession in a decade.

President Viktor Yushchenko's advisers have painted Moscow's actions as "blackmail" to extract an unfair price for gas from Ukraine, which Yushchenko wants to steer towards Europe.

But Ukrainians, exasperated by Yushchenko's bickering with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, have started to feel the chill in the form of heating reductions in the dead of winter.

Yushchenko and Tymoshenko, allies in the 2004 "Orange Revolution" that incensed Moscow, have been at each other's throats for a year, paralysing the political system before a presidential election in 12 months' time.

"The politicians have placed the people so deep in manure that they have lost all confidence in politicians," said Sergei, owner of a small catering business. "I don't know where Ukraine is heading. It's like a ship with a drunk captain."

Many analysts saw the constant squabbling between Yushchenko, a dry former central banker, and Tymoshenko, the emotional former gas magnate turned social crusader, as political manoeuvring before the presidential poll.

But Ukrainians have already voted in two parliamentary elections since 2004 and seen four governments making little progress with major economic reforms or modernisation.