Russia's Ukrainian Bashing Fifth Column

Putin's Fifth Column in the West While from differing sides of the political spectrum, I admire Jake Rudnitsky a lot. He prints the truth for an alternative newspaper inside Putin's Russia. He's just put out a great column about Russia and the anti-Yushchenko critics in the West. Some of it will be familiar to readers of Le Sabot, but he adds a lot of new information.

For example, he has this about Jonathan Steele, Kuchma concubine: "Steele has gone on at least two 5-star Kremlin-sponsored junkets in the last four months, and not surprisingly, he is also taking the Kremlin's line."

He also gives some background on the Russia Club which Yanukovych apologists like Steele and Sergei Markov belonged to: "It was the brainchild of Gleb Pavlovsky, the powerful Kremlin spin doctor and one of the chief propagandists of the Yanukovich campaign." Markov is a Putin crony best known for claiming that the Orange Revolution is a "Polish conspiracy." Those nefarious Poles. . .

Read what Rudnitsky has to say about the British Helsinki Foundation -- it's truly damning. The good news is that their support of dictators like Milosevic has dropped their funding about 99% since 2001.

Unreconstructed Euro-Lefties, Pat Buchanan and hired gun "intellectuals" -- an unsavory bunch. Almost as grotesque as the authoritarian politicians they're defending.

Should I add this Newsweek interview with former KGB counterintelligence head Viktor Cherkashin to my list of commie propaganda regarding Ukraine?

BROWN: Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned this fall by a toxin experts say may have come from Russian intelligence services. Is that a likely scenario?
CHERKASHIN: No. The KGB works on political objectives. To get some sort of secret document from the White House is one thing, to arrange an attack on a high-ranking White House official is another. After 1991 the KGB has very few rights left. It is absolute nonsense that they would be physically eliminating someone, much less in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic. In general, I have my doubts about whether Yushchenko was poisoned at all. It looks more like a dermatological problem.

" I admire Jake Rudnitsky a lot."

If you knew him or saw him in action over in Moscow you probably wouldn't admire him. He and his "We won't grow up Frat Boys" who publish "The Exile" (www.exile.ru) are pretty disgusting. Yes, ocassionally they do get it right (rarely).

BTW, these are the same folks (American expats) in Moscow who protested against Kosovo, against Iraq, etc., outside of the Russian White House (They were sucking up to the Russians who in turn thought these guys were traitors to their own country - backfired on them). Take a read of their publication and tell me if you still admire him (or them).

From New York Metro.com

Intelligencer
Live From Kiev
Many Ukrainians from the New York area traveled to their ancestral home to be official observers in the much-watched December 26 Presidential Election, won by opposition leader (and poison victim) Viktor Yushchenko. Kate Pickert spoke with some of them.

By Kate Pickert

Damian Kolody
27, Maplewood, New Jersey
Freelance Cameraman and Editor
“Kiev’s got a different feeling than after the first vote. It’s more calm, and more touristy. People are making CDs, selling clothes. This is my third time in Ukraine. Now I’m thinking I might even want to live here. It’s, like, finally seeing this identity explode. On Election Day, we got a call that there were some problems at a polling place. We saw that one of the ballot boxes wasn’t latched. People got pretty aggressive about us being there. It never got physical, because we left, but there was a lot of tension.”

Askold lozynskyj
52, East Village
President of the Ukrainian World Congress
“I’ve been an observer for more than ten years, and I had never seen an election like November 21. They compiled these extravagant lists of voters, but many of them didn’t exist. And all the outstanding ballots were just stuffed in the ballot box. [During the second election] I was expecting Kiev to be basically just a good time—young people drinking and carousing. But they were extremely serious. I didn’t see a single drunk. I didn’t see a single act of violence.”

Roman Kyzyk
51, Park Slope
Partner in two Manhattan Private Equity Firms
“It’s electric here. One night, I had a sense of the 1800s in Union Square. I ran into twenty people—New York election brats. Kiev is Mecca now. . . . Only a small percentage of people live like we do. There’s a Fendi store and then grandmotherly types selling rolls for a pittance. . . . I was fortunate to be in the polling station where Yushchenko voted. He went in with his kids, which is not allowed. He looks worse than he does in the photographs. He looks like a leper. But he wears it very well.”

Yaroslaw Dobriansky
22, Upper West Side
Film Major at Hunter College
“This was my first trip to Ukraine. My father was born there. A friend of mine had mentioned my name to her godmother who wanted to sponsor someone. On Election Night, there was one person who turned to us and said he wanted to give us a present. A translator told us it would be rude not to accept. He gave my brother a medal of honor he got from the Soviet Union. He gave me his Special Forces medal from serving in Afghanistan.”

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.