The CW? Ignore it. Opinion: Never mind the headlines. Ukraine's Orange Revolution is alive and well.

Byline: Adrian Karatnycky (Karatnycky, the former president of Freedom House, heads the Orange Circle, a New York NGO founded to assist Ukraine's democratic transition.)

Listening to the fevered commentary that greeted the two most recent East European elections, you'd think the Soviet Union had risen from the dead. In both Belarus and Ukraine, the pundits fretted, pro-Moscow troglodytes had dominated the polls. In Ukraine, the results seemed to crush the fragile hopes of the Orange Revolution, barely a year old. In Belarus, fledgling protests were quickly squelched, dashing hopes for change.

But look again. Belarus certainly remains Europe's last dictatorship. And yes, voters in Ukraine gave a plurality to Viktor Yanukovych, the former prime minister, figurehead of the old regime and friend of the Kremlin, while the Orange Revolution's hero, President Viktor Yushchenko, placed a dismal third. But this was a setback for one party, not for the democratic spirit of the Orange Revolution.

Put aside the fact that this was the first fully free and fair ballot in the country's history, and look at the numbers. While Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party lost ground, other Orange parties made it up. In the end, 55 percent of Ukraine's new Parliament will be held by groups that led the Orange Revolution--identical to the victory in December 2004. Charismatic Yulia Tymoshenko's party won nearly 30 percent of seats, making her the likely prime minister in an Orange coalition.

Nor is rival Yanukovych's strong showing all it seems. Without a legislative majority, the Regions Party cannot dictate any backward ...