Posted on 02/07/2010 10:40:07 AM PST by Steelfish
Ukraine Exit Polls Say Yanukovych Has Won Election
Exit polls from Ukraine's presidential election indicate opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych has narrowly won. Mr Yanukovych is given a lead of 3-5% over Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. President Viktor Yushchenko lost in the first round. If correct, it would be a remarkable comeback for Mr Yanukovych, who was swept aside five years ago by the Orange Revolution. He would be expected to make Ukraine's foreign policy more pro-Russian.
The BBC's Richard Galpin in Kiev says the result would be an extraordinary indictment of the Orange Revolution leaders' failure to deliver on their promises, which has left people deeply disillusioned. Mud-slinging Mr Yanukovych was a presidential candidate in the last election in 2004, which was found to have been rigged in his favour, sparking the Orange Revolution.
Yulia Tymoshenko earlier said she would take supporters to the streets He is now expected to change Ukraine's foreign policy - which has been pro-Western and anti-Moscow. Mr Yanukovych had secured 48.7% of the vote, against Mrs Tymoshenko's 45.5%, according to the National Exit Poll. Another exit poll, by ICTV, said he took 49.8%, against 45.2% for his rival.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Your limited understanding of the region is not suprising given that you are stuck in a cold war frame of reference.
The “west” has been transitioning into a world wide State supported socialist corporatist framework for about 100+ years happening much faster in the last 20 plus years. If that’s your definition of “west” you can have it. Truth is you have no definition of ‘west’
You don't understand the definition of "West" because you've never been part of it.
Membership in the Russian Orthodox Church is pretty much mandatory for FSB operatives. I jest, but not too much.
Would have been a model President if elected.
Discussing foreign affairs is just so complicated. I suppose I cannot appreciate the nuance.
sorry for errors and typoes.
It should be: “a kind of curtain” , not a “king of veal” :-))
It’s much too late for me...
Now Obama has something to crow about.
The margin of victory was the same as Obama’s. Wonder what’s the Ukrainian equivalent of the SEIU and ACORN are?
Maybe they have Locals there too.
How come the Commies don’t know that Stalin started WW2, and only 20% of Russian males alive in 1923, were still alive in 1946?
Simple message. That’s all we have to tell the Commies, and no-one, man or woman, will ever vote for them again.
The old Soviet Union is all getting back together I see.
Yuschenko was also a devout conservative Christian leader
Yulia, I am not sure about though.
Currrents stats show that as the two main ethnic groups: Ukrainian: 77% Russian: 17%
Ukraine's problems with Russia are not cut and dry. Even back in the 1700s, the Russian empire had annexed most of the Ukraine's landmass for its own use. After WW2, Russia seized it as a spoil of war, installed full communist leadership throughout, and maintained a culture of "Russification" for decades. Many ethnic russians migrated there during the cold war period. Ukraine was one of the breadbaskets for the USSR with large state run farms. Many large factories were built. It also held a massive military strategic value for Russia. Many military bases and nuclear missile sites were located there.
Russia still fights to maintain Ukraine as part of its "sphere of influence". The key being the Russian navy's black sea port located in the city of Sevastopol in the Crimea region. Ukraine only became an independant country in 1991, but considering all the ethnic russians still living in the eastern and southern parts, Russia still wants to have as much political and economic control as possible over it. Russia looks upon Crimea the same way they look up Georgia. That its land that belongs to them, even if the borders say otherwise. Russia is paranoid that if Ukraine politically and culturally aligns itself with NATO and the US, that they will lose the power of a perpetual lease on Sevastopol.
Thus Russia plays games like issuing passports to anyone in the Crimea region so they can claim they are all Russian citizens living there and in need their protection.
Thus Russia also will go to any lengths, including political assasinations, to maintain its control over the Ukraine.
You are willing to sell your soul to the devil in otder to believe in illusions.
You’re delusional.
Yuschenko: vulgar, presided over the devolution of Uktaine; power grabber; etc.
Time to go
Take a look at electoral map of Ukraine. The part of Ukraine which was for centuries a part of the Commonwealth (Poland & Lithuania) votes for native Ukrainians, either Yushchenko or Tymoszenko. The parts that were never within Poland votes for Russians.
This means only one. Ukrainian heritage and consciousness didn't survive under Russia and this speaks for itself, unfortunately.
Clearly, I have not welcomed Vladimir Putin into my heart and accepted him as my Savior.
Is it Christian?
NO and anyone how glorifies the Soviet state is being disingenous at best and evil at worst.
BUT
Krushchev, Brezhnev, Chernenko, and half the Soviet Politburo were Ukrainians. They not only governed Ukraine but the whole USSR and half of Europe including Slovakia.
My point is that one cannot look at ethnicity when discussing the region. Or the world.
Anybody is better than your saviors - Soros and OBummer.
Russian debt as a percentage of GDP is peanuts compared with the US under Obummer.
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