Ukraine's Orange Revolution undone?

The Christian Science Monitor ^ | Fred Weir

[A. Pole]

MOSCOW – President Viktor Yushchenko reached across the Orange Revolution's barricades Thursday and nominated his arch rival to lead Ukraine's government out of nearly five months of political paralysis.

The deal, reached as a constitutional deadline that expired Wednesday night, creates a "grand coalition" between the pro-Western Mr. Yushchenko's Our Ukraine movement and Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions, which favors closer ties with Russia. Ukraine's parliament, the Supreme Rada, is expected to elect Mr. Yanukovych as prime minister on Friday.

Critics suggest the accord has betrayed the Orange Revolution and played into Moscow's hands. Some, including Yushchenko's former ally Yulia Tymoshenko, who heads the second largest party in parliament, say they will boycott the Rada and call their supporters into the streets to protest.

[...]

Yanukovych won a pledge that joining the organization would have to be approved by Ukrainians in a referendum. "The prospect of NATO membership for Ukraine is very fragile," says Masha Lipman, an expert with the Carnegie Center in Moscow. "Polls show the majority of Ukrainians do not support the idea at this time."

[...]

But a poll conducted in mid-July by the independent Kiev International Institute of Sociology found that if fresh elections were held, voter turnout among exhausted Ukrainians would be a low 56 percent, and Yanukovych's Party of Regions would win an outright majority of 50.3 percent of the votes. And Yushchenko's fiery Orange rival Tymoshenko would take 22 percent and Yushchenko's own Our Ukraine movement would receive less than 10 percent.

[...]

[spanalot]

"Yanukovych's Party of Regions would win an outright majority of 50.3 percent of the votes"

This poll is highly suspect - The top 3 parties only comprise 50% of the electorate - neither does it reflect the fact that The socialists will not support Morz, the whore that sold out to big $.

[spanalot]

"I don't think either side is "controlled" by Moscow"

Romie, it was only 1947 that the Russians staged another famine in Ukraine to eliminate 1.5 million more enemies of communism..

And why don't you entertain us on how Yushchenko poisoned himself and nearly killed his own son and nearly bombed his own offices?

Moscow bought this phoney anticrisis coalition and Tymoshenko will lead a successful opposition in the next election.

[GarySpFc]

Giving pockmarks to Yushchenko?

And where is your evidence, or is your accusation another example of empty sloganeering? Could it have been the Ukrainian KGB working at the bidding of Kuchma? Could it possibly have been Yulia Tymoshenko? I find it strange that Yushchenko has stated he now believes Russia was not behind the poisoning, but you speak with such great certainty. Yes, it could have been the Russian FSB, but we don't know that, do we?

[GarySpFc]

Moscow bought this phoney anticrisis coalition and Tymoshenko will lead a successful opposition in the next election.

Surprise, surprise, sweet little Yulia Tymoshenko, the Queen of Evil and Gas Thivery is supported by our resident nazi.

[A. Pole]

Could it possibly have been Yulia Tymoshenko?

It could. She had a motive - a jealousy about being the prettiest politician.

"Mirror Mirror On the Wall, Who's the Fairest of Them All?" Not Yushchenko anymore!

[Romanov]

Um, rubbish. Again. And not surprising.

Say, spannie, have you legally registered as a lobbyist for foreign interests? You really should. How's it feel to be an "American in Name Only"?

[spanalot]

Romie,

I see your personal attacks on me with false slanders comes on the heels of my outing you as a fraud (there is no post- Viet Nam war that you joined "to fight the commies" that also qualifies for your membership in the VFW).

Is that the best you can offer? To make up lies about me?

Pretty lame.

[Romanov]

Spitballs at a battleship spanalot, aka, "PINO (Patriot in Name Only)." There are at least three FR members who have served with me and others who know of my service based on figuring out my identity (something you lack the requisite reasoning and analytical skills, obviously, to do).

But do tell us more about your trip to the Soviet Union in the 70s when other Americans your age were fighting your communist relatives in Vietnam.

[GarySpFc]

Could it possibly have been Yulia Tymoshenko? It could. She had a motive - a jealousy about being the prettiest politician.

Could it possibly have been Yulia Tymoshenko? It could. She had a motive - a jealousy about being the prettiest politician.

Tymoshenko also is known for stealing $11.5 billion in oil from the Russians. The oligarchs in charge of the pipeline have continued their lucrative tradition up until the time of the last contract. Add to them Kuchma who had everything to gain.

[spanalot]

"Tymoshenko also is known for stealing $11.5 billion in oil from the Russians"

Complete B.S. - unless you listen to the Moscow Partyline.
Her boss was nailed for pilfering $250M and it impossible that an underling did 50 times that.

[GarySpFc]

Complete B.S. - unless you listen to the Moscow Partyline.
Her boss was nailed for pilfering $250M and it impossible that an underling did 50 times that.

ROFLOL! I forgot the Queen of Evil and yourself support the Ukranian Nazis. Are you saying she became a billionaire with her seamstress company? Where does she get the money to support her private fleet of 3 jets? How does she support a company of Spetsnaz for bodyguards? There is more than enough information from Ukrainian sources to show the dark side of Yulia.

In his book "Casino Moscow," Matthew Brzezinski, nephew of Jimmy Carter's national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, describes the Tymoshenko of the 1990s as the "eleven-billion-dollar woman" who controlled just under a fourth of the Ukrainian gross domestic product. Brzezinski also claims that the US government has evidence of payments Tymoshenko made to the dubious former Ukrainian prime minister Pavel Lazarenko, who is currently in prison in San Francisco serving a sentence for fraud and money-laundering. From time to time, Lazarenko gives advice to his former protégé in the form of interviews conducted from his prison cell. If US authorities are in fact concealing evidence that could implicate Tymoshenko in Lazarenko's illegal dealings, the prime minister could be held hostage on two fronts. Russia too says it has dirt on Tymoshenko and the Moscow chief public prosecutor announced in April that an old warrant for the arrest of Tymoshenko had been reinstated.
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,356694,00.html

Tymoshenko To Be Completely Crushed

So is Fleet Street on crack or what?

[W]as not Putin trying to prop up an unconscionable dictator? Maybe, but it is naive to think that the election was a clear clash of baddies and goodies. No one disputes that the election was at the very least deeply flawed. But it is childishness to imagine that all the abuse was on one side. Yulia Tymoshenko, for example, whom we saw on TV preaching democracy beside Viktor Yushchenko, made herself a billionaire from nothing in 10 years. The fruit of honest enterprise alone? It seems unlikely. A truly convinced democrat? Perhaps.

Finally, as to the charge of corruption among Yushchenko's supporters -- particularly Ms. Tymoshenko -- click here, here, and here for more background (and here's a link to Tymoshenko's web site). I have no doubt that Yushchenko and his supporters are not as clean as the driven snow. However, while Tymoshenko's stage of primitive accumulation seems well past, Yanukovich's supporters are still in their prime and show no signs of changing tack.

Had she been an international tennis star, a Hollywood actress or a supermodel, Yulia Tymoshenko's face would have long been familiar from a thousand front pages and magazine covers. As a woman who in the space of a few years has merely managed to become a multi-billionaire and deputy prime minister of one of Europe's largest countries, however, she has remained - until recently - obscure to the world. http://www.guardian.co.uk/ukraine/story/0,15569,1360112,00.html

[spanalot]

Leave it to you to conduct the Cheerleading section for the EU!

[GOP_1900AD]

So they avoid civil war by trying to be two faced.

[A. Pole]

So they avoid civil war by trying to be two faced.

Anything wrong with that?