Posted on 11/23/2004 5:56:02 PM PST by wagglebee
Would-be Czar Vladimir Putin has taken a giant step toward reasserting the regional hegemony of the former Soviet Union by stealing the election in the Ukraine right under our noses.
As an unpaid, volunteer adviser to Viktor Yushchenko, the democratic candidate for president, I have seen, first hand, how Viktor Yanukovich, the Putin candidate backed by a rogue coalition of Russian Mafia, oil barons, former KGB officials and Communists, stole the election and thwarted the obvious will of the voters.
While the former Soviet Union was composed of many smaller nations, now independent, the key was the combination of Russia and the Ukraine. Russia’s 145 million people and the Ukraine’s 45 million are the core of what was the Soviet Empire. Reuniting them has to be the primary goal of any aspiring Russian czar.
But the people of the Ukraine don’t want Russian domination. The election contest pitted Viktor Yushchenko, who got the virtually solid support of the 60 percent of the population that is Ukrainian by ethnicity against Yanukovich, who won equally united backing from the 40 percent that is ethnically Russian.
The result was obvious: Exit polls (more accurate in Ukraine than when our own TV networks do them) showed Yushchenko winning by more than 10 points. But the final results announced by the government, which supported Yanukovich, showed a small margin in favor of the Russian-backed candidate.
Putin regarded the contest as so important that he personally visited the Ukraine in the weeks before the election to campaign for his candidate, a clear violation of the most elementary standards of independence and protocol. His former KGB henchmen – and once and future Communists – combined with Russian organized crime figures and oil barons to pump money into the race and to intimidate voters on the ground.
Yushchenko, a pro-Western former prime minister, survived two assassination attempts to make the race. At the start of the contest, he was run off the road while driving in the Ukraine. When he walked away from the wreck, the opposition poisoned him. Hospitalized in Vienna, his doctors diagnosed the poison, which mimicked a stroke in its symptoms, and nursed him to a full recovery.
If they couldn’t commit murder, Putin’s boys decided to commit larceny and did all they could to stack the election. Their totally controlled print and television media – all the information outlets in the nation – refused to give any favorable coverage to Yushchenko and biased all their news toward Yanukovich. We couldn’t even buy advertising space in any mass media outlet.
But, undaunted, Yushchenko’s supporters got their message out by hand, ditributing leaflets and flyers to every single household in the nation several times each week.
When, finally, the forces of freedom won the election, Putin’s operatives rigged the count and released totally phony results showing their stooge to be the winner.
The stakes could not be higher. If the Ukraine and Russia combine, as Putin clearly wants, the old Soviet Union will be back on the road to regional domination and the old ambitions of global power will return. And 45 million people will be cheated of the right to determine their own future.
We in the West are at best distracted and at worst willing to cede to Putin regional control in return for his assistance in the war on terror. This is a mistake of the same order of magnitude the allies made in the 1930s in dealing with Hitler.
The theft of the Ukrainian election is parallel to Germany’s decision to march into the Rhineland. And our refusal to notice or act is akin to the French and British policy of turning the other way.
Freedom may be on the march in the Middle East, but it is in full retreat in Eastern Europe.
So, again, the echo of the Nixonian question about China: Who lost the Ukraine?
They are not weasle words. It is simply that you decided, long before I wrote that statement, thay you hate me, and you decided you wanted me out of this forum, at very least, and in your ideal world, somehow prosecuted. You have fantasies about dispatching me as you undertake action which you have convinced yourself is upholding and defending the Constitution, although it is nothing of the sort. So, when I wrote that statement, you smelled blood, and decided, by taking that middle sentence out of context, that you could use it to move in for the kill. Too bad, I am still here. And I won't let up. You will never win. I will never stop.
Yusgchenko > Yushchenko
Generally, sedition and seditious conspiracy are prosecutable.
You have fantasies about dispatching me as you undertake action which you have convinced yourself is upholding and defending the Constitution, although it is nothing of the sort.
When you wrote that sentence, you made it pretty clear that you do not wish to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States; you made it clear that you want a putsch.
Perhaps not today, but someday, you will be held to account, particularly after DHS and DISCO get through their massive case backlogs.
RE: Perhaps not today, but someday, you will be held to account, particularly after DHS and DISCO get through their massive case backlogs.
I am thinking about civil legal action against you. This is a threat upon my person. I take it very seriously. Have you filed a frivolous tip on me? If so, you are the utmost of cowards. You vendetta against my person is pathetic.
RE: When you wrote that sentence, you made it pretty clear that you do not wish to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States; you made it clear that you want a putsch.
Bull$#@(
I described something which might result if the Constitution were to fail outright. My belief is that illiberal supports must be restored otherwise the Constitution is at risk. That's your real issue. Those supports. My guess is you have some vested economic interest or are somehow otherwise compromised in such a manner that my proposal for more illiberal supports really threatens you in some way.
The standard excuse of parlor pinks and other would-be revolutionaries.
He's one I would tend to keep an eye on, simply because he's prattling on in such a fashion while sworn to defend the very same Constitution.
Abuse complaint filed, my second ever since joining Free republic back in 2001. Just to let you know.
He was partly paralyzed and severely scarred after the poisoning (it was probably ricin).
Stuff it.
Sad. He was clearly a vigorous man prior.
If he survived ricin, he's one of very few to do so (the 99% percentile lethal dose is very small).
Of course. Russian Mafiya can be trusted with democracy but we should keep an eye on parlour pinks like General Franks. I'll keep that in mind.
Don't know what happened there with 192. What I wrote was ...
Sad. He appears to have been a vigorous man, prior.
Going after me, well, I am a bringer of controversy, so that I can understand. But going after Franks, this dude is beyond the pale. To think that he was, if not lying about it, in the Marines, a termite, with these sorts of thoughts, for all those years. How many more are out there, like him, within the ranks of both active duty and retirees?
Putin only throws mafia barons who don't play ball with him into jail.
Your postings do a fine job of showcasing your sanity level.
And your point is? The "you people" in that post referred to a bunch of Putin cheerleaders who are slinging disinfo around and telling me they want to get me sent to Gitmo. What, are you part of that Grandest of Challencellor Palpatine Poohbah Hutchoids cabal as well?
You are the one who said, "Whereas, five years ago I would not have contemplated them, I now am learning about how things such as monarchy or authoritarian Rightists forms of government might be installed."
You are the one talking sedition/treason, not Poohbah.
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