Posted on 11/23/2004 5:56:02 PM PST by wagglebee
Would-be Czar Vladimir Putin has taken a giant step toward reasserting the regional hegemony of the former Soviet Union by stealing the election in the Ukraine right under our noses.
As an unpaid, volunteer adviser to Viktor Yushchenko, the democratic candidate for president, I have seen, first hand, how Viktor Yanukovich, the Putin candidate backed by a rogue coalition of Russian Mafia, oil barons, former KGB officials and Communists, stole the election and thwarted the obvious will of the voters.
While the former Soviet Union was composed of many smaller nations, now independent, the key was the combination of Russia and the Ukraine. Russia’s 145 million people and the Ukraine’s 45 million are the core of what was the Soviet Empire. Reuniting them has to be the primary goal of any aspiring Russian czar.
But the people of the Ukraine don’t want Russian domination. The election contest pitted Viktor Yushchenko, who got the virtually solid support of the 60 percent of the population that is Ukrainian by ethnicity against Yanukovich, who won equally united backing from the 40 percent that is ethnically Russian.
The result was obvious: Exit polls (more accurate in Ukraine than when our own TV networks do them) showed Yushchenko winning by more than 10 points. But the final results announced by the government, which supported Yanukovich, showed a small margin in favor of the Russian-backed candidate.
Putin regarded the contest as so important that he personally visited the Ukraine in the weeks before the election to campaign for his candidate, a clear violation of the most elementary standards of independence and protocol. His former KGB henchmen – and once and future Communists – combined with Russian organized crime figures and oil barons to pump money into the race and to intimidate voters on the ground.
Yushchenko, a pro-Western former prime minister, survived two assassination attempts to make the race. At the start of the contest, he was run off the road while driving in the Ukraine. When he walked away from the wreck, the opposition poisoned him. Hospitalized in Vienna, his doctors diagnosed the poison, which mimicked a stroke in its symptoms, and nursed him to a full recovery.
If they couldn’t commit murder, Putin’s boys decided to commit larceny and did all they could to stack the election. Their totally controlled print and television media – all the information outlets in the nation – refused to give any favorable coverage to Yushchenko and biased all their news toward Yanukovich. We couldn’t even buy advertising space in any mass media outlet.
But, undaunted, Yushchenko’s supporters got their message out by hand, ditributing leaflets and flyers to every single household in the nation several times each week.
When, finally, the forces of freedom won the election, Putin’s operatives rigged the count and released totally phony results showing their stooge to be the winner.
The stakes could not be higher. If the Ukraine and Russia combine, as Putin clearly wants, the old Soviet Union will be back on the road to regional domination and the old ambitions of global power will return. And 45 million people will be cheated of the right to determine their own future.
We in the West are at best distracted and at worst willing to cede to Putin regional control in return for his assistance in the war on terror. This is a mistake of the same order of magnitude the allies made in the 1930s in dealing with Hitler.
The theft of the Ukrainian election is parallel to Germany’s decision to march into the Rhineland. And our refusal to notice or act is akin to the French and British policy of turning the other way.
Freedom may be on the march in the Middle East, but it is in full retreat in Eastern Europe.
So, again, the echo of the Nixonian question about China: Who lost the Ukraine?
BTTT!!
He said exit polling is a very easy thing to do -- it's impossible to screw it up, unless it is done deliberately. And now exit polling has a bad name.
They not only realize, they are plants to spew communist, pro-Russian crap here and confuse unsuspected FReepers. JB6, ELUMINATE, and others are prime example.
Ukrainians had enough already, Ukraine is on fire, huge demonstration to protest election fraud by pro Putinskies and demanding either recount or resignation of fraud Yanukovych.
The EU and Soros are the enemies of the USA. If anything is good for them it HAS TO BE bad for the USA in some way, at sometime, IMHO.
5.56mm
You are the MAN!! If youare a gal... then you are the WOMAN!!
I do not trust the EU. It is a combination of the commies and the fascists... it will support an economic war against the USA... Soros/MOVEON is it's agent!!
Just watch... the EU is not the friend to any real American. Afterall, they loved JOHN KERRY!!
Perhaps you ought to get on back to your buddies in the EU and ask them who paid for all the votes for their candidate in Ukraine. Can you spell 'SOROS'???
I pretty much have blown as gasket with these folks. For years I have had a slight, but charitable, benefit of a doubt about these characters. But now, to me, they are either SVR or dupes thereof, and not much else.
Oh, yes it does. Germany and its poodle, France... why they really run the EU show.
I spoke about the VOLUNTARY divorce. If western Poles wanted to join Germany and eastern Poles wanted to unite with their eastern neighbours it would be only fair to let them split.
Do you deny that in the eastern parts of Ukraine Yanukovich has clear majority while in the western parts Yushchenko? Do you? Let people go the way they want and Godspeed to them.
And who, pray tell... are you to call a person, like me who actually fought commies in Korea, a commie plant or apologist for Putin?
RE: And who, pray tell... are you to call a person, like me who actually fought commies in Korea, a commie plant or apologist for Putin?
If you are not SVR, and I give you the benefit of a doubt regarding that specific item, you are duped by them.
You are nice but that divorce is NOT what the EU wants. They want it all. Just like they want all the USA. You know... not just the BLUE STATES!!
I certainly have slammed both France and Germany regarding their stance on Iraq. That said, let us not forget that there are parties there vying for future power who are pro Western, pro Christian and pro USA. Innately, Germany and France are of the Western Tradition, as was and will be the Ukraine. If you are unfamiliar with what I mean by "the Western Tradition" then I suggest you and all the other Pootypoot chest beaters here start at once to learn about it.
At best, you are a dupe.
I am not duped by anybody, weido!!
I am not duped by anybody, weirdo!!
At best you are full of poop!
Well, you're a dupe of al-Qaeda, advancing their agenda, so I think you're somewhat worse. When DISCO reviews your posts on FR, they're probably going to stuff you in Gitmo for the duration.
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