Russian missiles on Polish border

Sure it is a military alliance.
Just like relations between Russia and Belarus have also military aspects - to counter NATO influence.

That's why it doesn't surprise me, that you - a Russian - are happy with deployment of those missiles. If I were a Russian I'd probably share your view.

But I'm a Pole, a citizen of a country, that is a member of the NATO alliance, being a faithful and crucial ally of U.S.

Within following 2-3 years Poland's new fleet of F-16s will become a crucial element of NATO defense system (which means U.S. too)- at least in this part of the world.
Pretty soon we may have American military installation on our ground too.

So these missiles installed in Belarus may be aimed at American aircrafts too. Of course if they are installed there at all, if they don't go to Iran actually.

In either case it may be considered as strange, that an American is cheering this situation.

Ha what an unemotional post.

Fact is Russia has been dispensing with Polish interventionalists since 'false dmitry'.

Poland backed bigot, and abortion money launderer Yushchnko in Ukraine, they could care less about morals as long as there's economic incentive for them.

http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2004/cr120704.htm

HON. RON PAUL (Republican) OF TEXAS
BEFORE THE US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE
December 7, 2004

U.S. Hypocrisy in Ukraine

Mr. Chairman: President Bush said last week that, "Any election (in Ukraine), if there is one, ought to be free from any foreign influence." I agree with the president wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, it seems that several US government agencies saw things differently and sent US taxpayer dollars into Ukraine in an attempt to influence the outcome.

We do not know exactly how many millions - or tens of millions - of dollars the United States government spent on the presidential election in Ukraine. We do know that much of that money was targeted to assist one particular candidate, and that through a series of cut-out non-governmental organizations (NGOs) - both American and Ukrainian - millions of dollars ended up in support of the presidential candidate, Viktor Yushchenko.

Let me add that I do not think we should be supporting either of the candidates. While I am certainly no supporter of Viktor Yushchenko, I am not a supporter of his opponent, Viktor Yanukovich, either. Simply, it is none of our business who the Ukrainian people select to be their president. And, if they feel the vote was not fair, it is up to them to work it out.

How did this one-sided US funding in Ukraine come about? While I am afraid we may have seen only the tip of the iceberg, one part that we do know thus far is that the US government, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), granted millions of dollars to the Poland-America-Ukraine Cooperation Initiative (PAUCI), which is administered by the US-based Freedom House.

PAUCI then sent US Government funds to numerous Ukrainian non-governmental organizations (NGOs). This would be bad enough and would in itself constitute meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation. But, what is worse is that many of these grantee organizations in Ukraine are blatantly in favor of presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko.

Consider the Ukrainian NGO International Centre for Policy Studies. It is an organization funded by the US Government through PAUCI, but on its website you will find that the front page in the English section features a prominent orange ribbon, the symbol of Yushchenko’s party and movement. Reading further on, we discover that this NGO was founded by George Soros’s Open Society Institute. And further on we can see that Viktor Yushchenko himself sits on the advisory board!

And this NGO is not the only one the US government funds that is openly supportive of Viktor Yushchenko. The Western Ukraine Regional Training Center, as another example, features a prominent USAID logo on one side of its website’s front page and an orange ribbon of the candidate Yushchenko’s party and movement on the other. By their proximity, the message to Ukrainian readers is clear: the US government supports Yushchenko.

The Center for Political and Law Reforms, another Ukrainian NGO funded by the US government, features a link at the top of its website’s front page to Viktor Yushchenko’s personal website. Yushchenko’s picture is at the top of this US government funded website.

This May, the Virginia-based private management consultancy Development Associates, Inc., was awarded $100 million by the US government “for strengthening national legislatures and other deliberative bodies worldwide.” According to the organization’s website, several million dollars from this went to Ukraine in advance of the elections.

As I have said, this may only be the tip of the iceberg. There may be many more such organizations involved in this twisted tale.

It is clear that a significant amount of US taxpayer dollars went to support one candidate in Ukraine. Recall how most of us felt when it became known that the Chinese government was trying to funnel campaign funding to a US presidential campaign. This foreign funding of American elections is rightly illegal. Yet, it appears that that is exactly what we are doing abroad. What we do not know, however, is just how much US government money was spent to influence the outcome of the Ukrainian election.

Dozens of organizations are granted funds under the PAUCI program alone, and this is only one of many programs that funneled dollars into Ukraine. We do not know how many millions of US taxpayer dollars the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) sent to Ukraine through NED’s National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute. Nor do we know how many other efforts, overt or covert, have been made to support one candidate over the other in Ukraine.

That is what I find so disturbing: there are so many cut-out organizations and sub-grantees that we have no idea how much US government money was really spent on Ukraine, and most importantly how it was spent. Perhaps the several examples of blatant partisan support that we have been able to uncover are but an anomaly. I believe Congress and the American taxpayers have a right to know. I believe we urgently need an investigation by the Government Accounting Office into how much US government money was spent in Ukraine and exactly how it was spent. I would hope very much for the support of Chairman Hyde, Chairman Lugar, Deputy Assistant Secretary Tefft, and my colleagues on the Committee in this request.

President Bush is absolutely correct: elections in Ukraine should be free of foreign influence. It is our job here and now to discover just how far we have violated this very important principle, and to cease any funding of political candidates or campaigns henceforth.

Nobody cares. Since nobody is planning on limited rogue state nuclear strikes on Belarus, why would anybody care where they put defensive weapon systems?

You're a citizen of a country that says it opposes abortion on one hand, and then backs the leader of a pro abortion NGO that gives millions to abortion clinics on the other.

You're a citizen of a country that says it opposes socialism on one hand, and then backs a former communist for president next door. One who tanked the economy, cheated in his election, has ties to anti-semitic groups, has since renationalized industries, and is rewriting names uninteligibly on ballots to disenfranchise voters.

With such an obvious disparity between what Poland SAYS it beleives and what it openly supports, anyone with sense would want to protect themselves against two-faced Polish interventionalism.

Well you got a nice little theory going there, so lets apply that 'foreign' concept to our own elections and send the commie leftist liberals back to their origins. I am so sure there is NOT one dime of 'commie' dollars put forth in any of our elections. sarcasm

http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/2006-69-31.cfm

March 21, 2006
He Was Born Skvortsov, on the Rolls He's Shpak
By Oksana Yablokova
Staff Writer
CHERNOVTSY, Ukraine -- Thousands of Ukrainians with Russian last names may not recognize their names on voters' rolls when they try to vote in parliamentary elections Sunday.

Their names have been translated into Ukrainian.

Central Elections Commission officials are urging regional officials to recheck the rolls, and lawmakers have taken steps to allow voters to challenge the spelling of their names in court. But opposition politicians are warning that many voters in the country's east and south could end up disenfranchised.

Taras Chernovil, the deputy campaign chief of the pro-Moscow Party of the Regions and a leading candidate, accused local election officials of intentionally making mistakes while translating voters' Russian names into Ukrainian.

Chernovil, a current lawmaker and No. 4 candidate on the Party of the Regions list, said mistakes had included changing Medvedev to Vedmidev and Skvortsov to Shpak. Skvorets and shpak mean "starling" in their respective languages.

The translations will make it impossible for people to vote because the names in their passports will not correspond with the ones on voters' rolls, he said in a recent interview while campaigning in Chernovtsy, in western Ukraine.

He said local election officials were following orders from the Central Elections Commission in Kiev.

Commission officials could not be reached for comment. But Tatyana Makridi, a spokeswoman for the ruling bloc, Our Ukraine, said regional and local administrations in the eastern and southern regions were responsible for the voters' rolls and any mistakes on them. "These are authorities who were elected under the previous regime before the 2004 [presidential] election," Makridi said.

She refused to comment on why it was necessary to translate Russian voters' names into Ukrainian, saying it was a question for the Central Elections Commission.

Critics say the effort to translate the rolls into Ukrainian is part of a so-called Ukrainization campaign aimed at strengthening national identity. The drive took off in earnest after President Viktor Yushchenko's Western-leaning team came to power in 2004 during the Orange Revolution. It has encountered fierce resistance in the eastern and southern regions, where most people speak Russian.

As part of the drive, parliament last year passed legislation that ordered television stations to run Russian-language shows and movies in Ukrainian. Russian-language schools have been closed, prompting a wave of protests last summer and fall in the Crimean Peninsula. Party of the Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych addressed a pro-Russian language rally of about 10,000 supporters in the Crimean city of Simferopol on Sunday.

Vasily Stoyakin, director of the Center for Political Marketing in Kiev, said translations of voters' rolls and the obligatory translation of Russian programs on television shows that the Ukrainization campaign has gotten out of hand. "This is a foolish campaign that can be characterized as one of Yushchenko's failures," Stoyakin said.

But Igor Popov, head of the Ukrainian Voters' Committee, a nongovernmental group, suggested that the translation mistakes on the rolls had nothing to do with the campaign. "This is an issue of the elections being poorly organized. These are not translations by people. The names were translated by a computer program," Popov said, adding that blocks of names had also fallen out of the rolls due to a failure by the computer program.

He estimated that 5 percent to 10 percent of all rolls were either incomplete or contained mistakes. "I personally had to go verify and correct my wife's name three times," he said.

Election officials have acknowledged problems with the rolls but insisted that they were working to correct them.

Yaroslav Davydovich, head of the Central Elections Commission, urged local officials earlier this month to check the rolls without waiting for voters to complain. "It is their responsibility," Davydovich said, Ukrainian news agencies reported.

Yushchenko has called on voters to check their names on voters' rolls in advance.

Also this month, the parliament approved amendments to the federal election law that will give voters the right to appeal mistakes made in their names in court up to three hours before polling stations close on election day.

Chernovil was skeptical that the legislation would help people vote on Sunday. "In this situation, courts won't be able to handle all the complaints," he said.

He also complained about entire apartment blocks and streets being excluded from voters' lists.

His Party of the Regions is expected to lead Sunday's elections with at least 27 percent of the vote, according to the latest poll released by Razumkov Center, a polling agency. Yushchenko's Our Ukraine is expected to place second, with 17 percent, while a bloc led by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is expected to receive 13 percent.

However, it appears that the Party of the Regions will need need a coalition ally to form a majority in the new parliament, which under a 2004 constitutional reform will receive unprecedented powers, including the right to name the prime minister and most of the Cabinet.

That's why it doesn't surprise me, that you - a Russian - are happy with deployment of those missiles. If I were a Russian I'd probably share your view.==

I'm not happy the deployment. It is just squander th emoney which may be used elsewhere. BUT the precausions has to be make.

NATO proved that it is offensive allience. So Russia and especially nonnuclier Belorus has to have something to counterbalance growing polish threat.

I hope th eprices on oil and gas will rise further to let Poland pay for this countermeasures.

BTW those S-300 won't shoot no F-16s if they won't appear in skies over Belorus.

Happy, not happy - words don't matter here.

I mean, that you probably support this move as a Russian.

And some here support it too, being Americans.

Which I think is weird.

BTW - I think, that Poland has no ground to complain about this situation.

We simply must to purchase some counter measures.

Actually if you'll recall there was public outrage when China donated to Clinton.

It's amazing that anyone would advocate that crap overseas too.

Now you're thinking fair.

I mean, that you probably support this move as a Russian. ==

This move is symmetric answer. Hence I regret that the money spent. Russia should seek for anti-symmetric ways which save money.

It would be better if Russia produced just one "country buster" warhead of 100MT yield and put it on new Topol-M anti-ballistic missile and pointed it on Warsaw. This new weapon may cost just few millions of dollars which is negligible to cost of those new polish F-16s. And in same time it will prove to polish publics that if someone try to compromise the security of Russia she will find the ways to spoil them thier pleasure:).

BTW I red somewhere about there were plans to design new "asteroid buster" warhead with yield of 1TT like(1000MT) to defend Earth of asteroids. SO Russia may ask international fundings (EU money) on this task and in same time she may finance her new "country busters" production by that moneys.

If Putin or his successor pulls that trick I will applaud:)

That does sound like a better option!

Why only to aim it at Warsaw?

Wouldn't it be better to launch it immediately (with pleasure, of course) and to get rid of all those problems with Poland at once and forever?

You could always explain, that such a move was fully justified because Poles named a roundabout in Warsaw after Dzohar Dudayev.

I can't recall asking for your opinion.

I'll tell you, that if I'm to choose between discussion with a servant and with a master, I definitely prefer the latter one.

That's why I want to exchange comments with RusIvan, not you.

We just oppose a guy (Puti), who support Islam all around the world.

I don't recall asking your.

Perhaps you don't understand the nature of an online forum. Is it because you prefer a socialist dictatorship and you have no idea what a free republic is?

Methinks so.

You just choose nationalism over morals. Everytime.

No, we chose Christianity over your Islam and atheism.