Posted on 09/17/2004 7:57:47 AM PDT by Lukasz
Of course, the best ones are from Chechnya! :-)
Nice work, thanks for posting it.
The current Ukrainian regime is watched with a lot of suspicion, given the heavy-handed rule of the two Leonids, Kravtchuk and Kutschma (I'm not sure about the orthograph of this name). I hope there will be some viable democratic alternative.
As for integrating Ukraine in Europe, I guess we should first work on making the integration of Eastern Europe a stunning success. IMHO, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic have many more assets than the ex-Soviet republics, and these assets should not be endangered by expanding the EU too quickly.
To be clear, my opinion is that Ukraine should fulfill all necessary conditions like all other new members. I only protest when such guy like Prodi saying that Ukraine will never be in EU. For Ukraine it is very important, to have motivation to work.
Absolutely. But as there is something like overreaching, I feel the Eastern European countries will first "feel at home" and tighten their economic ties with the rest of the EU before we "spring another country" on them.
I agree, on the other side I read recently that Prodi said that if Georgia is willing to become an EU candidate country they should faster reforming their country. Georgian president thinks that they need 7 years and then they will able to start negotiations with EU. If Prodi said this that means two things, first that Turkey sooner or later will be in, and second that Armenia and Azerbaijan will be the next countries. Do you think that he want to leave Ukraine in Russian sphere of influences?
I don't think so - I suppose he's as queasy about Ukraine joining in as he can be about Turkey, given the rather dubious record on democracy and human rights there.
When there were wheat shortages last year, the response of Kutschma was to declare the bakers were guilty and to lock some of them up. Now they seem to be in the business of intimidating and even murdering opposition leaders. Hardly the guys you'd invite to your house on the spot.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.