Posted on 05/27/2014 2:50:10 PM PDT by tcrlaf
Edited on 05/27/2014 2:59:46 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Petro Poroshenko, the newly elected president of Ukraine, inherits a low-grade civil war against separatists backed by Russia, an economy rapidly descending into recession and a fragmented political system in which most power lies with a lame-duck, unrepresentative parliament. But as he sees it, he does have one thing going for him: For the moment, at least, a decisive majority of Ukrainians are behind him.
“This is the first presidential election when all the regions of Ukraine had the same winner,” he told me Monday night, in his first interview since winning a clear majority in a crowded first-round ballot. “You can consider it a referendum. Ninety-six percent of Ukrainians voted for the unity of the country. Eighty-five percent supported a candidate for European integration. So the president has a unique chance to unite the country and has a level of support which he never had before.”
Poroshenko may be overstating his case. In two eastern Ukrainian provinces that lean toward Russia, most people were unable to vote because of disruption by the separatist militias that Moscow backs. But he did defeat candidates representing pro-Russian parties across the Russian-speaking regions — he even won a majority among the 6,000 people from occupied Crimea who managed to vote. The aggression of Russsian President Vladimir Putin may have tipped a decisive majority of Ukrainians toward support for a unified country that seeks economic integration with the West.
If so, it will be a political tailwind that Poroshenko badly needs. As president, the 48-year-old billionaire businessman, who made his fortune manufacturing chocolate, will have direct authority only over defense and foreign affairs. His first challenge will be to rebuild a demoralized and decrepit Ukrainian army on the fly while trying to eliminate the threat posed by the heavily armed mix of militants and Russian agents holding key infrastructure in the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk.
For that, the new president thinks he will need more help than he has been getting from the United States. “I don’t have the impression that [sanctions] are strong enough — I think more aggression is possible,” he told me, speaking softly and fingering a string of beads after a long post-election day. “And when aggression starts, no sanctions help.”
The status quo in Ukraine can no longer be maintained with Russian money, so they need a new sugar-daddy.
But hey, we can just borrow some more Chinese cash to pay for this, right? Or print some more Obamabucks, deflating our currency even more??
Global welfare state.
Excellent. Now I understand why the FR Borscht Brigade was whining about him so much.
He’s not going to get it.
I don’t know....There’s a man with a pen still on the loose.
Not really.. There’s that treaty whereby the U.S. agreed to defend the Ukraine if they’d give up their nukes, so they gave up their nukes.
He’s a billionaire. Let him finance his own war.
U.S. will spend around $20 billion in 2015 on military presence in Afghanistan despite narrowing mission, National Security Advisor says.
Since I’ve been paying into the system so long can I have some “global assistance” too?
Send US military to help defend a country of white people?
I do not see it happening...
Let the Krauts foot the bill. It’s their back yard, not ours.
Maybe Procul Harem could take some of their girls?
And Michelle would want to get involved if the Ukes could show their school lunches weren’t diverse in all the food groups.
E-mail whitehouse.gov some photos of golf flag poles stuck in a cow pasture?
They can get in touch with me directly if they want more grant-writing ideas.
Have Ukraine pass a second amendment, and encourage all families to own a firearm. Neighbor problem solved.
Ukraine is already awash in guns, and has been..
That said, it’s one those “When owning a gun is criminal offense, only the criminals will have guns” kinda country’s. and they have LOTS of criminals.
Per Wiki, there is a gun registry, handguns are sparse (legally), citizens are not allowed to own rifled weapons, and only limited types of “hunting weapons” are allowed.
And this in the most violent European state, BEFORE the troubles began. The mafia’s ruled much of the country, not the central government, or were often one and the same.
There is not and has never has been any such treaty with Ukraine. As we learned in grade school Civics, a treaty must be submitted to the United States Senate for ratification by a two-thirds vote. The Clinton Administration never submitted the 1994 Budapest Memorandum to the Senate for ratification, therefore it never became a treaty. It was a cynical ploy by the US and UK to get Ukraine to go along with what President Clinton and Prime Minister Major wanted, and there was never any intention to honor the agreement with American and British blood. We are not obligated to do squat for Ukraine -- and that is a good thing, since nothing that can happen there has any impact whatsoever on our national security.
It is the later. We get all our money from the Fed. In fact, China stopped buying our IOUs.
Back peddling the LIES for your KGB boyfriend Putie !
You really are pissed Putie has not been able to set up the New Iron Curtain and enslave the Ukraines !
You poor little Soviet Tyrant groupie!
You have issues. Seek help.
“Back peddling the LIES for your KGB boyfriend Putie !
You really are pissed Putie has not been able to set up the New Iron Curtain and enslave the Ukraines !
You poor little Soviet Tyrant groupie!”
REALLY??
Are you going to allow this crap?
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