The Last Czar?(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)

Ukraine: Sooner rather than later, the U.S. must make it plain to Vladimir Putin that it puts the people's will first, even ahead of his political future and friendship.

The scenes we've seen lately from Kiev remind us that the Soviet Empire didn't just vanish into thin air 15 years ago. The so-called "prison house of nations" ruled first by czars and then by Communist bosses may officially have ceased to exist. But to the young who have taken to the snowy streets of Ukraine's capital demanding true freedom and democracy, the empire is still real and a threat.

Back in Moscow, Russia's president also seems not wholly convinced that the empire is dead. Putin's conduct suggests that he sees Ukraine as a wayward child that needs to be reunited with Mother Russia, voluntarily in the best case, but by force or fraud if need be.

Putin's Ukrainian allies took the fraud route when they tried to put the pro-Russia prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich, over the top in last month's presidential runoff. But the cheating was too flagrant to hide (hundreds of precincts in Russia-friendly regions logged turnouts over 100%). Hardly anyone but Putin has accepted Yanukovich as the victor.

The rest of the world seems to be coming around to a solution that strikes us as fair and obvious: To replay the runoff, this time with plenty of outside observers and open news coverage. The sooner Ukraine's current government accepts this course, the better for Ukraine's people.

But that probably won't be the end of the story, even if Western-leaning opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko wins in a squeaky-clean vote. Unless Putin and his oligarch ...