Posted on 12/29/2004 9:44:25 AM PST by Lukasz
As European leaders hailed the apparent victory of Ukraine opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko as a triumph for democracy worldwide, The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Russia might refuse to recognize Mr. Yushchenko as the new president of his country. A statement issued by Moscow Wednesday said that electoral observers from the West were "not objective" when they said the election process was free of tampering. Meanwhile, the Herald reports an observer mission from the Russia-dominated Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) alleged that it had "found" huge electoral fraud that favored Yushchenko. Among the possible violations, reports Ukrainska Pravda, was "election propaganda, which is prohibited during the voting day, in the form of numerous orange marks in the streets."
Tuesday, the Ukraine Central Election Comission announced that Yushchenko, known for his pro-Western stance, had won the election by 2.8 million votes. "In principle, we have the result," said Yaroslav Davydovych, the head of the commission. "I don't know who can doubt it."
Moscow had originally pledged it would honor the outcome of the election even if its favored candidate, current Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, did not win. And in a gesture towards Moscow, Yushchenko had told the Russian newspaper, Izvestia, that one of his first priorities as the new leader of Ukraine would be to "set straight his countries's 'deformed ties' with Russia."
But the Turkish news website Zaman Online reports that members of the CIS, especially Russia, see the Ukraine's election results – brought about by the "Orange Revolution" – as a "revolution threat" and "indicated that this was the most serious foreign policy test for Russia since 1991."
Zaman Online also reports that Dmitri Trenin, the Deputy Head of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace's Moscow office, says the election results have different, but "extremely critical" meanings for Russia, the European Union (EU), and the US.
"Russia joined the game and supported the presidential candidate too late. Ukraine will remain the same as it was in the old days. The most significant question is with whom Ukraine will integrate and cooperate. Yushchenko wants to integrate with the West. This will take a long time. Will the enlarged EU ship be able to carry anyone else?" Trenin says the key lies beyond the suggestions of Russia and EU. He also disclosed that Ukraine, which might be the US' most powerful regional ally along with Poland in the future, is also very significant for the EU because of the tension it raises in Russian relations. The Daily Telegraph reports that the new allegation from Moscow may "derail attempts to bring a swift end to Ukraine's protracted political crisis and may usher in a new crisis in already strained relations between the West and Moscow."
Mr. Yanukovich has refused to resign and vowed never to acknowledge Yushchenko's victory. He has also accused the United States of "interferring" in the election, and Tuesday night appealed to Ukraine's Supreme Court to overturn the election results, just as Yushchenko was able to do after the initial election.
On Wednesday, however, Yanukovich was prevented from holding a cabinet meeting on Wednesday when hundreds of Yushchenko supporters surrounded a government building and refused to allow cabinet ministers to enter.
Sounds like a repeat of what happened in the USA.
ping!
I should know but I havent been following...who is the good guy and bad guy in this election mess?
Goodness, Lukasz, Uncle Vlad is really tearing a page out of Stalin's book. "We do not recognize the Polish government in exile in London, our objective analysis is that the Lublin Committee should take all relevant decisions...with our friendly supervision, ah, I meant advice, of course"
How are your countrymen reacting to Iuschchenko's victory ?
I believe that Putin will roll the tanks inside of six months.
Repeating myself, this could get violent very easily. W better give Putty a phone call.
So who controls the nukes in Ukraine?
Sounds exactly like the Commie sleepers in this country : Hillary, Bill, Algore and Terry et al., said about president Bush in 2000. The Soviet Union is still lurking just around the corner, wating to jump out and consume EUrope again.
No doubt.
I vaguely recall that the Ukraine gave them to the Russians.
In the "evil" corner, you had present PM Yanukovitch, ex-Communist apparatchik IIRc, very cosy with the Ukrainian robber barons that control the privatized business and the underground, and a good friend of Vlad Putin.
In the "good" corner, you have the newly-elected man, Iuschchenko. Favorite in the elections, he seems to have faced fraud, and was even poisoned with dioxin by some bigwigs in Ukraine's secret services which are closely linked to the ex-KGB Vlad Putin used to be a member of.
The previous round of the election, which had Yanukovitch win, has been cancelled by their Supreme Court under cries (and evidence) of vote-tampering, voters intimidation and general fraud. The recent election has been a re-run of the second turn of the election, and Iuschchenko has been declared the winner, which has pissed off Putin considerably, to the point he now says Russia won't recognize the new Ukrainian government. And to make matters even murkier, Yanukovitch seems very reluctant to concede victory and to step down.
By good guy/bad guy...you mean the one that we're backing?
Yushenko is considered the good guy by Ukrain's equivalant of "red staters". Yanukovich is an old school communist like Putin, and backed by him.
Russia may kiss my red and white ass.
Ukraine -- Banana Republic of the North
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