Posted on 12/02/2004 6:55:29 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Embassy Row
By James Morrison
Published November 9, 2004
Ukraine undecided
A chief adviser to the Ukrainian prime minister sees uncanny parallels between his boss's campaign for president and last week's U.S. presidential election.
The Nov. 21 runoff between Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and Viktor Yushchenko, a former prime minister, is too close to call. Each candidate received about 39 percent in the first round of voting on Oct. 31. Ukrainians appear divided between Mr. Yanukovych's rural supporters and Mr. Yushchenko's urban ones.
Also, as in the American election, billionaire George Soros, who poured millions of dollars into efforts to defeat President Bush, is also spending millions on the campaign against Mr. Yanukovych, said Eduard Prutnik, the prime minister's adviser, on a visit to The Washington Times yesterday.
"It's very much alike. We hope the outcome will also be the same," he said, predicting a victory for Mr. Yanukovych by about five percentage points.
Iraq is also an issue, with Mr. Yanukovych pledging to keep Ukraine's 1,600 troops within the U.S.-led coalition and Mr. Yushchenko promising to withdraw them within weeks if he is elected.
One of Mr. Prutnik's goals on his visit to Washington this week is to try to explain why Mr. Yanukovych would be a better U.S. ally than his opponent, who is supported privately by some State Department officials and publicly by many Ukrainians in the United States.
"Unfortunately, people in this town want to speak in terms of black and white, making one 100 percent positive and the other 100 percent negative," Mr. Prutnik said.
Critics suspect Mr. Yanukovych of harboring authoritarian tendencies like the current president, Leonid Kuchma, who is supporting the prime minister. They also claim Mr. Yanukovych is too close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and would bring .....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
I searched and didn't find this posted already.
Also, as in the American election, billionaire George Soros, who poured millions of dollars into efforts to defeat President Bush, is also spending millions on the campaign against Mr. Yanukovych, said Eduard Prutnik, the prime minister's adviser, on a visit to The Washington Times yesterday.
Can this be true? I would have thought for sure Soros would back Yanukovych, not campaign against him.
Maybe Soros is trying to repair his reputation. Whatever the case, Soros is clearly not someone who can be accused of having a healthy intellect. Perhaps he's so stupid he's come full circle, and for once is backing the right guy.
What's the expression? Even a monkey can be right some of the time?
haha! I think ya'll are on to something there. Thanks. :^)
Well, Yanukovych won by around 800K votes in the end. And it was from a neat east west divide of the country, not urban-rural.
Take a line at the middle of the Moldavia-Ukraine border, and draw a lazy arc up and to the right to just west of Kharkov. Everywhere east and south of that line voted 60-90% for Yanukovich, with heavily urbanized and industrialized Donetsk going for him by over 90%, and Kharkov by over 70%. Everywhere west and north of that line voted 60-90% for Yushchenko, with L'viv going for him by over 90%, and K'yiv by over 70%. The only closely divided region was the rural area southeast of K'yiv.
Results here - http://ic-www.cvk.gov.ua/wp0011e
I'm glad you said that -- that the Catholic Church, etc., support the reformers. Else I was thinking -- 'if George Soros supports this, perhaps I need to rethink it.'
We are not being told the real story here.
Besides both guys names beginning with Y, we have been told for a week now that $oreA$$ and GW are supporting the same guy.
my guess is he has money in it. that he's bet alot on purchasing businesses in the area, and they would only payoff if yushchenko wins. or something like that.
Nah, if Russia starts expanding its hegemony, it will be another reason to support a strong America; Soros would hate that.
Do you have a link where it says the Ukrainian Catholic Church backs Yuschenko? I'd be really shocked because he is the pro-abortion, and pro-sodomy candidate.
Yanukovich said he's going to commit to the War on Terror. He's keeping the troops in Iraq, unlike his opponent. He has the rural support, which in my opinion is better than the urban, look at who wins the US similar areas. There are a lot of God fearing good people even in the cities, but as a percentage of a local population, its more likely they're rural. I'm saying this as a city dweller, as a percentage of the population in an area, there is likely to be a higher percentage of the population of good people in rural areas. Numbers wise the city may have more, but they're outnumbered by those secularists who want death on demand and sodomy for all. Yanukovich is much more conservative socially. And did I mention, he's for keeping their troops there, so 1600 more of ours are able to go elsewhere?
where have you heard that? imho, the race there is alot more basic then any of these specific issues. the election is about freedom from russia and communism.
I just clicked on your link to the Yuschenko+socialist Canadian MP site. Nowhere could I find a link saying the Catholic Church supports this candidate in any way shape or form. Please, if you find a link, I really want to see it.
You know, maybe Yanukovych isn't so bad after all. If George Soros hates his guts, he must be okay.
There was a lot of links on the other threads describing this election. In several of the threads linked material shows that Yuschenko does in deed support abortion. Many also show that he is pro sodomy. I'll dig some of the threads up.
Irrelevant. Yanukovych's attempt to steal the election will not be permitted to stand.
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