Alegeri in Ukraina

Президент Польши Александр Квасьневский вылетел в Киев для переговоров с Леонидом Кучмой по поводу урегулирования политического кризиса на Украине.
По словам представителя польского внешнеполитического ведомства, переговоры будут проходить вне Киева.
Квасьневский также намерен встретиться с верховным представителем ЕС по единой внешней политике и политике безопасности Хавьером Соланой. //

www.gazeta.ru
 
Solana încearcă că medieze la Kiev


Simpatizanţii opoziţiei au petrecut o a cincea nopate pe străzile Kievului
Mii de susţinători ai opoziţiei au înconjurat clădirea guvernului în semn de protest faţă de rezultatul alegerilor de duminică. Ei spun că vor bloca accesul în clădire până ce liderul opoziţiei Victor Iuşcenko este declarat învingător al scrutinului prezidenţial. De altfel adeversarul său, primul ministru Victor Ianukovici, a fost împiedicat pentru scurt timp să intre în sediul guvernului.
Acesta ar fi obţinut cele mai multe voturi la alegerile de duminică, însă Curtea Surpemă a decis să nu publice rezultatele oficiale până ce nu va analiza contestaţia înaintată de opoziţie, care se plânge de fraudarea alegerilor.

"Azi incepem o blocadă paşnică, ne-agresivă a cabinetului de miniştri precum şi a consiliului suprem de apărare. Urmează să organizăm o blocadă similară la administraţia prezidenţială. Însă vreau să vă asigur că va fi un protest paşnic", spunea unul din participanţi.

Între timp, reprezentatul Uniunii europene in chestiuni de politică externă, Javier Solana, este aşteptat şi el la Kiev unde va încerca să medieze conflictul dintre putere şi opoziţie.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/romanian/news/story/2004/11/041126_ucraina_solana.shtml
 
With the country in a deadlock and the moves and countermoves accelerating, Yushchenko appeared several times during the day with Lech Walesa, the Nobel laureate and founder of the Solidarity movement in Poland. Walesa had come to Kiev to urge both sides to refrain from violence and to negotiate.
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His sentiments seemed clearly with the opposition.
.
"All of my life I have been fighting for these ideals," he said in a brief appearance before journalists. "There is no free Poland without a free Ukraine.
.
Later, on the stage in Independence Square, Walesa told the thousands of assembled demonstrators that he admired their spirit and would support their efforts. He urged them not to relent.
.
Ukraine has been locked in a political stalemate since Monday, when preliminary results of the presidential runoff election on Sunday suggested a three-point victory by Yanukovich.
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International observers reported extensive and highly organized state fraud to assist the prime minister and, as demonstrators began streaming into the capital, Western governments, including the United States, urged Kuchma not to make the results official.
.
Kuchma's government validated the results Wednesday.
.
The events on Thursday showed the thinking behind the coordinated actions of Kuchma and Yanukovich.
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Yushchenko has a very large and organized following, including a savvy youth movement that appears to have the energy and endurance to demonstrate for an extended time. The mood in the capital is unmistakably behind him, and Western leaders and governments have backed his call for investigations into fraud, and for a fair election to determine the presidency.
.
But for all of the moral support that has been attached to his democracy drive, Yushchenko had until Thursday failed to bring essential elements of Kuchma's government to his side, and members of Yanukovich's campaign and Kuchma's inner circle said they believed he might have crested.
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Sergei Vasilyev, head of Kuchma's information department, described the demonstrations as "political theater." Many signs had not been encouraging for the opposition.
.
Yushchenko's effort to challenge the vote in Parliament failed when he could not muster a quorum to convene a special session, and he was similarly unable to prevent the Central Election Commission from assembling a quorum to rush through results that declared him the official loser.
.
And while Ukraine's military, police and intelligence services had not moved against him, through Thursday evening they had not shown strong signs of support, and had done little to discourage the bands of Yanukovich supporters who had begun wandering the capital, often taunting the opposition.
.
Sergei Tihipko, Yanukovich's campaign manager, said the offer to negotiate Thursday, beginning with the four concessions by the prime minister, were meant to begin calming the streets after what he called the prime minister's irrevocable victory.
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"Now we can speak of the steps to take to release the tension," he said. He also said he was unworried by any court challenges, and that the victory would stand. "Nobody, even the Supreme Court, can cancel it."
.
Soon thereafter, when the court ruling suggested that Yushchenko still had a chance, it was the opposition that claimed the momentum had shifted.
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"It means that now we can forget about a Yanukovich inauguration in the near future," Rybachuk said. "It will mean that we can forget about it at all."
.KIEV Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, the official winner of Ukraine's disputed presidential election, offered a series of concessions to his opposition Thursday, hoping to break the political impasse even as a court decision left open the possibility of a legal challenge to his legitimacy as president-elect.
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A frantic legal and political battle was under way for public authority and perception, and the first results from the court appeared to be in favor of Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition candidate.
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Yanukovich's offer included guarantees of legal amnesty to members of the opposition and a pledge to protect opposition and minority political rights, to encourage more independent voices in the Ukrainian media and to shift unspecified powers from the presidency to the Supreme Rada, the legislative branch.
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The offer was made on national television, even as tens of thousands of people continued their antigovernment rallies in the capital that Yanukovich hopes to lead.
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It was promptly rejected by Yushchenko, who had filed suit in Supreme Court seeking to overturn the official election results. His staff predicted that the challenge would prevail.
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"We will never, never accept the results of this election," said Oleg Rybachuk, a member of Parliament and Yushchenko's chief of staff, saying it had been tilted in the prime minister's direction "by gross fabrication." Yushchenko spent the day trying to expand his support and secure symbolic victories, while also trying to gain legal traction against the government in court and to gauge the effects of a national strike that he hopes will force Yanukovich, and Leonid Kuchma, the outgoing president, to nullify the results.
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In an early ruling Thursday, the court ordered that the election results not be published by the government in newspapers until allegations of fraud and electoral abuse be reviewed.
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The order, while inconclusive in itself, buoyed the opposition and was met with roars of approval in Independence Square.
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"This Supreme Court decision is a benchmark in the fight to overturn the election," Rybachuk said in a telephone interview, not long after the results were announced.
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He said the opposition's reading of the law was that until election results were published in government notifications they were not binding, and that Yushchenko had managed to stop their publication just in time.
.
But minutes later, the independent Channel 5 reported that the government was rushing its election notification to print. The report could not immediately be corroborated.
.
With the country in a deadlock and the moves and countermoves accelerating, Yushchenko appeared several times during the day with Lech Walesa, the Nobel laureate and founder of the Solidarity movement in Poland. Walesa had come to Kiev to urge both sides to refrain from violence and to negotiate.
.
His sentiments seemed clearly with the opposition.
.
"All of my life I have been fighting for these ideals," he said in a brief appearance before journalists. "There is no free Poland without a free Ukraine.
.
Later, on the stage in Independence Square, Walesa told the thousands of assembled demonstrators that he admired their spirit and would support their efforts. He urged them not to relent.
.
Ukraine has been locked in a political stalemate since Monday, when preliminary results of the presidential runoff election on Sunday suggested a three-point victory by Yanukovich.
.
International observers reported extensive and highly organized state fraud to assist the prime minister and, as demonstrators began streaming into the capital, Western governments, including the United States, urged Kuchma not to make the results official.
.
Kuchma's government validated the results Wednesday.
.
The events on Thursday showed the thinking behind the coordinated actions of Kuchma and Yanukovich.
Click to expand...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/11/25/news/ukraine.html
 
Chişinău, 26 noiembrie, INTERLIC. Astăzi Ministerul de Externe a remis spre difuzare agenţiei INTERLIC un comunicat de presă cu următorul conţinut: “Republica Moldova regretă faptul că alegerile preşedintelui Ucrainei din 21 noiembrie 2004 s-au dovedit a fi lipsite de criterii obiective pentru recunoaşterea rezultatelor acestora de către cetăţenii Ucrainei şi comunitatea internaţională. Republica Moldova îşi exprimă îngrijorarea faţă de caracterul netransparent al procesului de votare. Cu o nelinişte deosebită constatăm scindarea societăţii civile ucrainene şi, de asemenea, distorsionarea evidentă a normelor şi principiilor democratice fundamentale, în baza recunoaşterii necondiţionate a cărora sunt edificate relaţiile dintre statele noastre.

Fiind ataşate priorităţii unor relaţii de bună vecinătate durabile cu Ucraina şi poporul ei, autorităţile Republicii Moldova consideră că nu există temei pentru recunoaşterea rezultatelor alegerilor noului şef al statului ucrainean.”
______________________

Eu vreau sa zic ca autoritatile noastre au facut tot ce trebuie :ciupel:
 
ciofu said:
Eu vreau sa zic ca autoritatile noastre au facut tot ce trebuie :ciupel:
Click to expand...

SUA si UE striga "Frauda Electorala!" de 4 zile, uite ca s-au trezit si comunistii. Ce sa zic, mare isprava au mai facut.
 
De ce?
Pentru ca Ministerul de Externe in comunicatul sau au enuntat un mesaj total obiectiv si conform eticii diplomatice
 
ciofu said:
De ce?
Pentru ca Ministerul de Externe in comunicatul sau au enuntat un mesaj total obiectiv si conform eticii diplomatice
Click to expand...

da, e bine formulat

DAR trebuia făcut cu 2-3-4 zile în urmă..
 
zeidrik said:
Cand cei mari vorbesc, cei mici tac si asculta...
Click to expand...

da, există "mici" prin mărime/grosime/înălţime/capacitate/bogăţie, dar există şi "mici" prin curaj/suflet/demnitate. RM şi România sînt, din păcate, mici cam prin ambele definiţii
Cel mai grav e cînd incepi singur să crezi că eşti mic şi e mai bine "să taci şi să asculţi" şi să te dai bătut. Spirit de sclav.

Înainte ca să înceapă "criza" din Ucraina, nimeni în UE nu lua în serios o viitoare aderarea a Ucrainei la UE şi toţi considerau Ucraina ca o "grădină" a Rusiei.
Cînd s-a început criza "marile ţări" a Europei nu prea vroiau să se implice, ca nu cumva să-l supere pe Putin, marele prieten a lui Chirac şi Schroder. Numai mica Polonia a făcut un lobbying enorm pentru ca să fie luată în consideraţie opţiunea europeană a Ucrainei. Şi a reuşit[/i]
 
http://www.rian.ru/rian/intro.cfm?nws_id=745417
КИЕВ, 27 ноя - РИА "Новости". Парламент Украины принял в целом пункт постановления о признании недействительными результатов голосования 21 ноября.
Как передает корреспондент РИА "Новости", это решение при необходимых 226 голосах поддержали 255 депутатов.

Согласно проекту, голосование 21 ноября предлагается признать состоявшимся с нарушениями закона и не отвечающим волеизъявлению народа.
27.11.04 16:30
 
Evident asta este ce si-a dorit Yushenko. Si oare sa fie amu el castigator in turul 2 care v-a fi dinnou? Iarasi bani se cheltuie, evident banii pentru Yanukovichi vin din bugetul de stat al Ucrainei.
 
29 Noiembrie, 2004 - Published 00:30 GMT


Regiunea Donetsk din Ucraina cere autonomie
Susţinătorii premierului Viktor Ianukovici din estul Ucrainei au anunţat că duminica viitoare vor organiza un referendum privind obţinerea unei semi-independenţe faţă de centru.

Consiliul local din Donetsk, unde Viktor Ianukovici a fost guvernator, survine pe fondul protestelor neîncetate ale susţinătorilor candidatului opoziţiei, Viktor Iuşcenko, care susţin că alegerile prezidenţiale de duminica trecută au fost fraudate.

Premierul pro-moscovit Viktor Ianukovici a fost declarat oficial câştigător dar Curtea Supremă de Justiţie a decis ca rezultatele să nu fie publicate în Monitorul Oficial până ce nu ia o decizie şi în privinţa reclamaţiilor de fraudă înregistrate în timpul scrutinului.

O decizie ar urma să fie luată luni.

Observatorii internaţionali au reclamat şi ei fraude masive în votul de duminica trecută iar Uniunea Europeană şi Statele Unite au precizat că nu recunosc ca legitim rezultatul alegerilor.

Preşedintele Leonid Kucima, aflat la sfârşit de mandat, a cerut celor doi rivali- Viktor Ianukovici şi Viktor Iuşcenko- să negocieze o soluţie de compromis.

Guvernul de la Moscova, care iniţial l-a felicitat pe premierul Inukovici pentru victoria în alegeri, a dat de înţeles acum că ar putea susţine ideea reorganizării alegerilor.

Uniunea Europeană a cerut deja un nou scrutin.

"În pragul unei catastrofe"

Pe acest fond, consiliul regiunii Donetsk a decis să organizeze un referendum, pe 5 decembrie, privind autonomia regiunii în interiorul Ucrainei.

“Nu vom tolera ceea ce se întâmplă acum în Ucraina”- a declarat guvernatorul Anatoli Blizniuk membrilor consiliului local.

"Am dovedit că punctul nostru de vedere trebuie luat în considerare”.

Premierul Ianukovici a vizitat regiunea Donetsk, unde se bucură de mare susţinere, declarând, după o întâlnire cu oficialii zonei, că scrutinul prezidenţial a adus Ucraina în pragul unei catastrofe.

“Mai e un pas până la haos. Când se prima picătură de sânge va fi vărsată, nu va mai fi cale de oprire”.

Premierul Ianukovici a declarat însă că nu susţine decizia consiliului regional privind organizarea unui referendum.

Regiunea Donetsk se află în estul Ucrainei, o zonă în care predomină vorbitorii de limbă rusă.

Între timp, zeci de mii de susţinători ai opoziţiei continuă protestele în capitala Ucrainei, Kiev.

Liderul opoziţiei, Viktor Iuşcenko, s-a adresat mulţimii spunând că “aceia care ridică acum problema separatismului vor fi traşi la răspundere potrivit Constituţiei”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/romanian/news/story/2004/11/printable/041129_ucraina_autonomie.shtml

Донецкий облсовет решил провести референдум о предоставлении области статуса республики

КИЕВ, 29 ноября. /ИА "Новости - Украина"/. Сессия Донецкого облсовета в воскресенье приняла решение провести областной референдум о предоставлении Донецкой области статуса республики в составе федерации, передает "5-й канал" украинского телевидения.

Проведение референдума назначено на 5 декабря.

До 30 ноября рекомендовано всем местным органам власти создать комиссии по проведению референдума.

Облсовет признал легитимным решение ЦИК о победе на выборах Виктора Януковича и признании его избранным президентом Украины.

Облсовет также выразил недоверие Верховной Раде, принявшей решение о признании недействительными результатов выборов президента Украины. Один из пунктов гласит: "Выразить недоверие Верховной Раде, заигрывающей с оппозицией и самозванцем Ющенко".

Съезд также принял решение о создании местной милиции.

Съезд в своем постановлении предупредил "о развитии чрезвычайной ситуации в стране" в связи с действиями оппозиции в Киеве.





РИА Новости - ИА "Новости-Украина" © 2002-2004.
При перепечатке и цитировании ссылка на агентство обязательна

http://newsukraina.ru/print_version.html?nws_id=320216
 
reactia opozitiei

КИЕВ, 29 ноя - РИА "Новости". Оппозиция потребовала от президента Украины Леонида Кучмы уволить премьер-министра Виктора Януковича, глав администраций Донецкой, Луганской и Харьковской областей, возбудить уголовное дело против "сепаратистов и раскольников Украины" и приступить к формированию нового состава Центральной избирательной комиссии. Об этом заявила, выступая в воскресенье вечером на площади Независимости, один из лидеров оппозиции Юлия Тимошенко.
Если в течении 24 часов Кучма не выполнит требования, оппозиция начнет его преследовать и блокировать по всей стране, сказала она.

По словам Тимошенко, в понедельник оппозиция планирует внести на рассмотрение Верховной Рады законопроекты об отставке правительства Виктора Януковича и начале формирования коалиционного правительства. Уже сейчас можно говорить, что в Верховной Раде есть признаки формирования парламентского большинства, которое поддерживает кандидата в президенты Виктора Ющенко, отметила она.

Тимошенко сообщила, что в понедельник большая часть участников акции протеста оппозиции направится к зданию Верховного суда Украины, где будет рассматриваться иск сторонников Ющенко о признании недействительными второго тура выборов президента в нескольких округах, в том числе в Луганской и Донецкой областях.

Она отметила, что если в понедельник власть не выполнит требования оппозиции, то уже во вторник сторонники Ющенко начнут блокировать автомагистрали.

Тем временем сессия Донецкого областного совета приняла в воскресенье решение провести областной референдум о предоставлении Донецкой области статуса республики в составе федерации, сообщил "5-й канал" украинского телевидения.

Проведение референдума назначено на 5 декабря.

Облсовет признал легитимным решение ЦИК о победе на выборах Виктора Януковича и признании его избранным президентом Украины и выразил недоверие Верховной Раде, принявшей решение о признании недействительными результатов выборов президента Украины.

На сессии было принято решение о создании местной милиции.

В Северодонецке (Луганская область) в воскресенье прошел Всеукраинский съезд народных депутатов, участники которого также признали официальное постановление ЦИК Украины легитимным и в полной мере отвечающим нормам конституции.

"Мы сегодня находимся на грани катастрофы, на грани пропасти", - заявил выступивший на съезде Янукович. Он призвал "не прибегать ни к каким радикальным мерам". "Как только прольется первая капля крови, мы это остановить не сможем", - сказал украинский премьер.

"В случае прихода к власти не легитимного президента участники съезда оставляют за собой право на адекватные действия по самозащите интересов граждан", - говорится в решении съезда, единогласно поддержанном его участниками.

"При самом худшем кризисном варианте развития общественно-политической обстановки в стране, будем едины и решительны в защите волеизъявления народа Украины, вплоть до проведения референдума по вопросу возможного изменения административно-территориального устройства Украины", - подчеркивается в заявлении.

Съезд принял решение создать Межрегиональный союз органов местного самоуправления Украины. Руководство союзом будет осуществлять координационный совет, постоянным местом работы которого станет Харьков.

Президент Украины Леонид Кучма назвал незаконными идеи создания юго-восточной автономии, которые высказывались на депутатском съезде в Северодонецке.

Первый вице-премьер, министр финансов Украины Николай Азаров предупредил, что правительство примет "адекватные меры" к тем структурам, которые в связи со сложившейся в стране ситуацией прекратили перечислять деньги в государственный бюджет.

Ранее сообщалось, что губернатор Харьковской области Евгений Кушнарев заявил на митинге в Харькове, что областные власти прекращают перечислять деньги Киеву.
http://www.rian.ru/rian/intro.cfm?nws_id=745912
 
Wall Street Journal

Standoff in Ukraine Is Intensifying

Yanukovych's Backers Issue
Threat to Declare Autonomy
If Election Is Invalidated
By ALAN CULLISON and YAROSLAV TROFIMOV
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 29, 2004; Page A3

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine 's pro-Russian presidential candidate, Viktor Yanukovych, raised the specter of the breakup of the country, as an assembly of his supporters in Russian-speaking eastern and southern regions threatened to declare autonomy should his official victory in last week's disputed election be invalidated.

The decision, by several hundred regional lawmakers at a gathering attended by Moscow's mayor near Russia's border yesterday, intensifies a weeklong standoff between Mr. Yanukovych, the serving prime minister, and his westward-leaning rival, Viktor Yushchenko. Each man now says he has been elected president in the tainted Nov. 21 ballot. With tens of thousands of opposition protesters shutting down access to key government buildings in the capital, neither side appears to be ready to take power.

Mr. Yanukovych, who was backed strongly by the Kremlin, seemed to lose the support of another erstwhile backer, departing Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma. A special meeting of Ukraine 's national security and defense council, chaired by Mr. Kuchma, condemned autonomy moves in the south and east of Ukraine as illegal, and pledged that no force will be used against Mr. Yushchenko's backers, who now control much of downtown Kiev.

POLITICAL STANDOFF

Mr. Yanukovych left Kiev and traveled to his power base in eastern Ukraine as opposition protesters appeared to be gaining in their bid for a new round of elections. On Saturday, Ukraine 's parliament voted to declare the last polling invalid and to pass a vote of no-confidence in the Central Election Commission, which counted the votes. Though the parliament resolution was nonbinding, it gave new legitimacy for the opposition's claim of massive fraud; Mr. Yanukovych retorted that parliament had no right to pass judgment on such issues.

Mr. Yushchenko wants a new round of elections, supervised by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and held on Dec. 12. He also demanded the replacement of the current members of the Central Election Commission, the resignation of Mr. Yanukovych as prime minister before the poll, and the ousting of all those local and central-government officials involved in falsification.

These demands could be fulfilled by Mr. Kuchma and by Ukraine 's Supreme Court, which already suspended the certification of Mr. Yanukovych's victory and which is scheduled to consider fraud claims today.

While the court may resolve the dispute over who won last week's election, its ruling may not be respected enough to end the country's crisis. In the past, it has rarely defied Mr. Kuchma's authority, and both sides may see a ruling as a product of political deal-cutting rather than objective decision making.

"We are in a constitutional no-man's land," said Roman Zvarych, a member of Mr. Yushchenko's opposition faction in parliament. "We need to reach a political consensus." He said demonstrators will listen to a Supreme Court decision only "if we get assurances that the Supreme Court is acting in an objective fashion."

As delegates from south and eastern Ukraine voted in favor of a December referendum "to determine the region's status" at their assembly in the town of Severodonetsk, Mr. Yanukovych told delegates that events in Kiev had pushed Ukraine to "the brink of catastrophe. There is one step to the edge."

Mr. Yushchenko quickly denounced the autonomy threats, telling a rally of supporters that Ukraine is single and indivisible, and urged Ukraine 's attorney general to open a criminal case against regional officials behind the autonomy movement.

"The authorities who have lost the election have now taken up a very dangerous card -- political separatism," he said.

Already, several eastern regions have stopped transferring taxes to the central budget, drawing stark condemnation from Finance Minister Mykola Azarov. He warned of an economic meltdown in a country that has posted one of the world's highest growth rates in recent years.
 
Wall Street Journal

The Communist Curse

By DAVID SATTER
November 29, 2004

The confrontation over the Ukrainian presidential election results will determine the future not only of Ukraine but also of Russia. In this sense, the decision that will be made by Ukraine -- whether it will be ruled by laws or by men -- is the most important that has faced a former Soviet republic since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The Ukrainian election campaign bore absolutely no resemblance to a fair contest. Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition candidate, was denied media coverage and was almost certainly poisoned. Viktor Yanukovich, the prime minister, won because, according to an independent watchdog group, 2.8 million ballots were falsified in his favor. There were impossibly high turnouts recorded in Yanukovich strongholds, for example, 96.3% in the Donetsk district and 88.4% in Lugansk, and all but nine opposition poll watchers were barred from 2,000 polling stations in these regions.

Despite this, Vladimir Putin congratulated Yanukovich on a "convincing victory" and the elections were described as "transparent, legitimate and free" by observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States. The support by Russia for obviously tainted elections has been attributed to Russia's desire to prevent Ukraine from slipping out of Russia's "gravitational field." Mr. Yushchenko, who is pro-Western, supports Ukrainian membership in the European Union and NATO whereas Mr. Yanukovich is against Ukraine 's early adherence to either organization and supports instead its participation in a "single economic space" including Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

More important than the blow that a Yushchenko victory would give to Russia's desire to dominate the former Soviet space, however, is the blow it would deliver to the emerging authoritarian regime in Russia. The last three presidential elections in Russia were no fairer than the one in Ukraine , and if the Ukrainians are successful in assuring a peaceful transfer of power, it will give new hope to those who want to see democracy triumph in Russia as well.

Mr. Yanukovich is the candidate of the government of President Leonid Kuchma, a regime that is corrupt and criminalized even by the unsavory standards of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Mr. Kuchma, the former director of a Ukrainian rocket factory, handed the Ukrainian economy over to a group of communist bureaucrats-turned-businessmen who proceeded, as in Russia, to use their corrupt connections to officials to pillage the country's resources at the expense of its hapless population.

The root of the oligarchs' wealth was Russian gas bought at low prices and sold in Ukraine at a huge markup. The oligarchs enjoyed government-sanctioned monopolies, so their profits were enormous and they often did not even pay for the gas because the government guaranteed their credit. The oligarchic clans expanded into regional conglomerates, taking over steel, energy and chemical production, and insulated themselves against competition with the help of tax exemptions and government subsidies.

The oligarchic system did little good for Ukraine , once, by some measures, the most productive of the Soviet republics. GDP fell by 10% a year in the '90s and Ukraine attracted less foreign investment than even Romania and Moldova. In 1997, the World Economic Forum ranked Ukraine 52nd out of 53 European countries in terms of competitiveness. The system remained in place, however, because the regime controlled parliament, suppressed the media, and, when all else failed, resorted to terror.

Each of Ukraine 's three dominant oligarchic clans has its own parliamentary party. The Kiev-based clan of Hryhory Surkis and Viktor Medvedchuk, which has a stake in the gas industry and power utilities, controls the Social Democratic Party, which has 39 seats. The Dnepropetrovsk group, headed by Viktor Pinchuk, who is married to Mr. Kuchma's daughter, controls four big steelworks and directs the Labor Ukraine faction, which has 42 seats. The Donetsk group, a regional conglomerate that became rich on coal subsidies and is headed by Rinat Akhmetov, is represented by the "Regions" faction, with 40 seats. After the March 2002 elections, the grip of the nine oligarchic factions in parliament was weakened but they still controlled a majority of the 450 deputies.

The only break in this situation came with the appointment of Mr. Yushchenko as prime minister in late 1999, after the Russian financial crash in August 1998 threatened to push Ukraine into default. In his brief tenure, Mr. Yushchenko cut state funding, reducing corruption and creating equal conditions that increased competition and production. He also made serious efforts to crack down on bribe-taking and reform the gas sector. He was removed in a no-confidence vote organized by the oligarchic parties and the communists in April 2001.

Besides controlling parliament, the regime manipulates the press. Hostile newspapers were shut down and independent journalists threatened. Channel 5, the only independent TV station, has been disconnected in one region after another, its managers subject to arrest. At the same time, the non-resisting media has been controlled by secret instructions from the presidential administration. So the four state-controlled national TV stations ignored Mr. Yushchenko during the election campaign while giving saturation coverage to Mr. Yanukovich.

Finally, oligarchic control is enforced with contract killings. In the '90s, Ukraine was the scene of hundreds of such killings, the victims including journalists and politicians. Suspicions that the authorities were themselves behind a large number of these killings were always widespread. The event that, for many, removed all doubt, was the murder of Georgy Gongadze, editor of Ukrainskaya Pravda, an Internet publication that specialized in exposing corruption among oligarchs. In November 2000, his headless body was discovered in the woods outside Kiev. A month later, a leader of the socialist party played a tape in parliament in which Mr. Kuchma is heard suggesting to aides that Gongadze be got rid of: "Deport him. Let the Chechens kidnap him." The tape was provided by a guard who secretly taped Mr. Kuchma's office.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, the republics that emerged as 15 independent states shared an unenviable inheritance. Presented as an economic system, communism, in fact, was an attempt to absolutize political goals for the purpose of destroying morality. This unprecedented attempt to substitute the man-made for the God-given could not but destroy the sense of individual responsibility for millions of people who lived in the former Soviet space.

A result of the absolutization of power in the former Soviet Union is that democracy has taken root only in the Baltic republics. In the other republics -- with the possible exceptions of Moldova and Georgia -- elections exist to confirm a decision that the authorities have already made. Until a few days ago, it appeared that Ukraine was about to strengthen this tradition. It was symbolic of the cynicism of the present Ukrainian leadership that the deputy head of Mr. Kuchma's administration reacted to the apparent poisoning of Mr. Yushchenko that has left his face pockmarked and partially paralyzed by suggesting that he should hire a food taster.

The popular revolt against the falsified election results in Ukraine has now spread from Yushchenko partisans to members of parliament, journalists working for state TV, and even members of the security forces. It could, if successful, reverse the relationship between rulers and ruled in Ukraine in a way that is dramatic enough to change the entire political psychology of the former Soviet space. It is for this reason that Mr. Putin has been so adamant in congratulating Mr. Yanukovich on his "victory." The example of a free Ukraine will morally isolate the Russian leadership, making clear that Russia can either join the civilized world or preserve authoritarian rule, but not do both. In this, Ukraine may repay a country that brought it communist enslavement with an example of freedom, and with the preconditions for a new start.

Mr. Satter, affiliated with the Hoover Institution, the Hudson Institute, and Johns Hopkins, is the author of "Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State" (Yale, 2003).
 
Mircea kaag induce in eroare

MirK said:
The British Helsinki Human Rights Group (BHHRG) considera ca partizanii lui Iuscenco au comis un numar important de iregularitati in timpul alegerilor :

http://zadonbass.org/news/message.html?id=6541
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Cine sunt BHHRG? Un grup obscur, care nu are nici in clin, nici in maneca cu Comitetul Helsinki pentru Drepturile Omului, si care a declarat alegerile din Belarus drept libere si corecte. Cu alte cuvinte niste idioti utili ai dictatorilor Lukashenko si Milosevici.

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/British Helsinki Human Rights Group
The British Helsinki Human Rights Group, often abbreviated to the British Helsinki Group, is an Oxford-based non-governmental organization which monitors human rights in the 57 member states of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Despite its name, the BHHRG is not an official Helsinki Committee; the United Kingdom's official Helsinki Committee is the British Helsinki Subcommittee of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group. This apparently deliberate confusion has prompted the International Helsinki Federation to publicly disclaim any connection with the BHHRG.
The BHHRG has a policy of only publishing reports from first-hand observers, concentrating particularly on election monitoring in the OSCE countries. It has been criticised by other human rights activists and genuine Helsinki Committees for publishing views which are markedly at odds with the generally accepted picture of affairs in Europe. For instance, it condemned the November 2003 revolution in Georgia as a coup d'etat; it has strongly criticised Western support for the Serbian opposition to Slobodan Milosevic; it has claimed that elections in Belarus have met democratic standards; it has campaigned against immigration to the United Kingdom. On the other hand, it has also identified serious problems in many of the former communist countries that have been the subject of concern for other human rights organisations and governments.

The membership and political orientation of the BHHRG is somewhat obscure. A number of prominent right-wing British Eurosceptic anti-interventionists (notably the Oxford academic Mark Almond) appear to be heavily involved, which perhaps explains the slant of some of the BHHRG's views. A common theme in many of its reports has been a critical view of perceived Western "meddling in the internal affairs" of central and east European countries, notably Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Belarus.
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Can a lobbyist for dictators work as a journalist?
http://www.ukar.org/barcla/barcla01.html
 
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