Embattled by months of acrimonious street protests and increasingly isolated, Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich went on sick leave.  At face value, it either leaves a political vacuum in Kiev or deliberately obscures what decisions are being made at the top.

“Today is the first day of the illness.  He has a high temperature.  We are not doctors, but it is clear that a high temperature does not go down in a single day,” said a to western journalists.  “The doctors will do all they can so that he can recover quickly.”

Protesters are skeptical.

“This smacks of a ‘diplomatic illness’,” said Rostislav Pavlenko, a member of former heavyweight boxer Vitali Klitschko's Udar party.  “It allows Yanukovich not to sign laws, not to meet the opposition, absent himself from decisions to solve the political crisis.”

Yanukovich was last seen in Parliament, herding legislators to approve an amnesty deal for people arrested during the two months of massive demonstrations

It’s not completely clear who is running the country.  The Prime Minister stepped down this week, and an interim PM with close ties to Yanukovich has stepped in. 

But Moscow is now holding off on fulfilling its part of the deal that Yanukovich signed instead of a long-awaited economic and political union with the European Union, the thing that angered protesters in the first place.  Russia won’t purchase US$2 Billion in Ukrainian government bonds until a new government is in place.