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Ukraine: Voters Go To Polls In Crucial Presidential Vote
By Askold Krushelnycky

The second and decisive round of Ukraine's presidential election began this morning and many Ukrainian and foreign observers believe the result will decide whether Ukraine deepens its democracy and turns to the West or is drawn closer into Moscow's orbit and heads down the increasingly autocratic route of Russia and Belarus. The two candidates are the pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and the pro-democracy leader of the opposition Our Ukraine coalition, Viktor Yushchenko, who narrowly won the election's first round on 31 October. International observers said the first round was deeply flawed and backed many of the opposition allegations accusing the government of using dirty tricks and intimidation to help Yanukovych. The opposition has vowed it will hold mass demonstrations if the government again uses massive fraud to influence the results of today's election. Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma has vowed that the vote will be honest, while also warning that "certain political forces" are trying to seize power, seen as a clear allusion to Yushchenko.


For more coverage of the presidential election in the Ukrainian language, see our Ukrainian Service website

Kyiv, 21 November 2004 (RFE/RL) -- Ukraine's second, decisive round of the presidential election began early this morning with the opposition making allegations that the government was using fraud to help its candidate Prime Mkinister Viktor Yanukovych.

The opposition "Our Ukraine" coalition led by candidate Viktor Yushchenko, said that the government was bussing the same people around different polling stations so they could vote multiple times using specially issued absentee voting documents.

Many state employees have come forward across the country in recent days to say they were being forced to take part in absentee voter fraud if they wanted to keep their jobs. The opposition and election observers said the method had been used massively in the first round.

Students from the pro-opposition youth group, Pora, layed down in front of buses this morning that they alleged were carrying such fraudulent voters, preventing them leaving. They shouted "shame" and "strength through unity" during the protest.

Most of the people boarding the buses refused to speak but one man, who did not give his name, said they were not going to vote but were all going on a picnic.

"These people are going out for a picnic. The weather is bad in Kyiv so they are off for a picnic," he claimed.

Some 27 million registered voters are expected to cast ballots at more than 35,000 polling sites.

Voting was proceeding peacefully in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Much of the country was hit by snow storms yesterday. Today was sunny in Kyiv without snowfall but cold with plenty of ice.

That, said Oleksandr Vanurykhin, the head of one polling station in a school on a steep hill, was preventing many voters from coming: "In comparison with the first round about half the people have come to vote. We understand that this is because of the bad weather. There is ice and lots of people are afraid of falling over and being injured. There are a lot less elderly people than last time."

Serhiy Kivalov, chairman of Ukraine's Central Election Commission, said a policeman was murdered at a voting site in the village of Molodetska in the central Cherkassy region.

Kivalov said voting in Molodetska was temporarily halted. No further details were immediately available.

Kivalov said voting was also stopped in the western Volyn region after unknown persons stole a polling site's safe containing voting lists.The opposition and its sympathizers, like the Pora group, have warned that they will stage massive demonstrations in the capital and elsewhere beginning tonight if they believe the results of the election are falsified by the government.

Yanukovych and the person who nominated him as the regime's candidate, incumbent President Leonid Kuchma, have accused the opposition of preparing to use terrorism and violence to bring about a revolution.

In a television address last night where Kuchma abandoned any neutrality, he praised Yanukovych, and wore a tie in Yanukovych's blue and white campaign colors.

Kuchma warned the opposition was calling for violence and would provoke bloodshed: "II assure you that the government will do everything to ensure that the second round of the election will happen peacefully. The government will not allow the democratic process of the election to be transformed into nondemocratic violence which is revolution."

He said the opposition might try to use exit polls to prove the government had falsified the vote but that only the results announced by the Central Election Commission (CEC) will be taken into account.

"We all know that revolutions are planned by dreamers, are accomplished by fanatics, and the resulting situation is exploited by dishonorable people. There will be no revolution."

Troops, armored cars, and barbed wire encircled the CEC this morning.

Yushchenko is pro-Western and has a track record of democratic reforms and fighting corruption when he was prime minister from 2000 to 2001. He says cooperation with Russia is important but advocates European Union and NATO membership.

Yanukovych is pro-Russian and sees Ukraine's future in a Moscow-led Single Economic Zone comprised of Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. He has courted Ukraine's millions of ethnic Russians, promising dual nationality and that Russian would become a second state language.

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Exit Poll Shows Yushchenko Ahead In Ukrainian Election

21 November 2004 -- An exit poll indicates that opposition challenger Viktor Yushchenko is ahead of Moscow-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine's presidential race today.


The exit poll shows Yushchenko has collected 58 percent of the vote and Yanukovych 39 percent.

The poll was conducted under a program funded by several Western governments, including the United States. It was based on responses by 20,000 voters at polling places throughout the country.

The election was tense, with supporters from both sides claiming widespread irregularities. Election Commission officials say voter turnout was strong.

(AP/AFP/Reuters)

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Ukraine poll 'won by opposition'

Initial exit polls from Ukraine's fiercely fought presidential election point to a run-off win for pro-Western opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko.
He is predicted to get 58% of the vote, against 39% for the Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovych.
Turnout was thought to have been high despite plummeting temperatures.

Mr Yushchenko narrowly won the first round on 31 October. He has threatened mass protests if the second round result is falsified.


Counting was to begin immediately after the polls closed at 1800GMT, with the first official results expected to be announced in the coming hours.

The Central Election Commission is being guarded by at least four water cannon and two armoured personnel carriers.

The opposition has called for thousands of people to gather in Kiev's main square overnight to register their concern about the vote.

However the BBC's Helen Fawkes in Kiev says it could take some time for the final figures to be known.

After the first round, it was 10 days before the overall result was released.

Then Mr Yushchenko garnered 39.87% of the vote, compared to Mr Yanukovych's 39.32%.
International observers and the opposition said the first round was a step backwards for democracy in the former Soviet republic of 48 million people, alleging widespread fraud and intimidation.

Dirty tricks

Exit poll figures released by three groups of Ukrainian pollsters have all put Mr Yushchenko ahead, the Ukrainian news agency Unian reported.

The margin of victory they are predicting ranges from almost 20% to 3.5%.

Both sides have complained of problems during voting.

The authorities are investigating the killing of a policeman who was guarding ballot papers in a village in central Ukraine. The motive for the killing is not known.

Police said eight ballot boxes were set on fire in a western pro-Yushchenko part of Ukraine, AFP news agency reported.


Kiev is on high alert, with extra police and soldiers on the streets.

Both the US and the European Union say future relations with Ukraine depend on Sunday's vote being conducted fairly.

During the campaign Mr Yushchenko, prime minister between 1999 and 2001, claimed to have been the victim of intimidation and dirty tricks, including an alleged poisoning attempt.

His critics portray him as an American puppet who will do anything to gain power, including inciting civil unrest.

Moscow has made it clear it is fully behind Mr Yanukovych.

Shadow of violence

On the eve of the run-off ballot, Mr Kuchma - who is finishing his second consecutive term as president - warned in a televised address to the nation that the authorities would not allow the democratic process of the election "to turn into undemocratic violence."

"There will be no revolution, but elections worthy of a European country in the 21st Century."

Mr Kuchma implied that the opposition was threatening to take power by force.

"The authorities will never allow an aggressive minority to dictate political logic. We are already hearing calls for violence," he said.

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Ukrainian PM Leads Vote Tally

22 November 2004 (NCA) -- Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych holds a slim lead over opposition challenger Viktor Yushchenko in Ukraine's presidential runoff, according to early returns from the balloting.


With 75 percent of the vote counted, Yanukovych led Yushchenko by a margin of 0.93 percentage points with 48.65 percent of the vote to Yushchenko's 47.72 percent.

Yushchenko, who met with election officials overnight, accused authorities of electoral fraud and called on his supporters to demonstrate on Independence Square today.

Yushchenko led all exit polls last night by margins ranging from 2 percentage points to 19 percentage points.

Serhiy Kivalov, head of the Ukrainian Central Election Commission (CEC), this morning denied that the actual count was slanted in either candidate's favor but conceded that both candidates would likely appeal, alleging tainted regional results contributed to the overall count.

(Reuters/dpa/AP)

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Op maandag 22 november 2004 14:59 schreef Monidique het volgende:
De OVSE zegt dat het niet volgens de democratische normen is verlopen. De Russisch-gezinde kandidaat heeft in ieder geval zoveel stemmen dat hij niet meer ingehaald kan worden.

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Op maandag 22 november 2004 15:04 schreef Drugshond het volgende:

[..]

Dat wordt dus weer een boel gelazer . . . . als de verkiezingen niet eerlijk zijn (waarom worden ze dan gehouden ?!?)

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Second round of Ukrainian election failed to address election irregularities and lacked transparency
KYIV, 22 November 2004 - The second round of the presidential election in Ukraine on 21 November did not meet a considerable number of OSCE commitments, Council of Europe and other European standards for democratic elections. As in the first round, state executive authorities and the Central Election Commission displayed a lack of will to conduct a genuine democratic election process, concluded the International Election Observation Mission in a preliminary statement released today.

Between the two rounds, the Mission reported cases of public sector employees and students being pressured to support the current Prime Minister, Mr. Viktor Yanukovich. Nevertheless, a vibrant civil society demonstrated once again a high level of interest and engagement. Despite serious shortcomings in the process the second round of the election offered voters a choice, although campaign conditions were not equal.

"With an even heavier heart than three weeks ago, I have to repeat the message from the first round; this election did not meet a considerable number of international standards for democratic elections," said Mr. Bruce George, President emeritus of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the Special Co-ordinator for the short-term observers. "The deficiencies have not been addressed. The abuse of state resources in favor of the Prime Minister continued, as well as an overwhelming media bias in his favor."

The Head of the delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Mr. Doros Christodoulides, said: "There were some encouraging aspects which we did not see in the first round, such as a televised debate of the main candidates on state TV and redress, even if only partial, to the imbalanced media coverage. But we are greatly disappointed by the inflammatory campaign language, which increased prior to the second round."

Mr. Marek Maciej Siwiec, Head of the European Parliament delegation added: "The opportunity to improve the electoral process between the two rounds was not used. However, some improvement on media coverage was noticed. It is encouraging that the people of this country did once again express great interest in the election, manifesting a strong democratic spirit. Our delegation will now report back to the parliament with suggested recommendations."

"The figures and reports about the unjustified increase in the use of absentee voter certificates and the even higher increase of mobile voting, cast a shadow over the genuineness of the results," said Mr. Lucio Malan, Head of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly delegation. "Moreover the turnout in some territorial election commissions in Donetsk, exceeding 98.5 per cent, and increasing by 21 per cent after the first round, are unrealistic and highly suspicious."

Ambassador Geert-Hinrich Ahrens, Head of the OSCE/ODIHR's long-term observation mission, stressed that the electoral process was not concluded and urged transparency, especially in the tabulation of the votes. "While this was certainly a competitive election, it was not conducted on a level playing field. However, there is still time for the authorities to take every measure to reassure voters that the results were accurately processed."

On election day, voting was conducted in a generally calm manner. However observers assessed election day less favourably than in the first round, particularly in the central and eastern regions.

Observers noted more serious violations, including some isolated incidents of violence, and a pattern of intimidation, including directed towards observers, polling commission members and individual voters. In a significant number of polling stations, commission members had been dismissed. In some instances, unauthorized persons were interfering in or directing the process, or otherwise attempting to influence voters.

The observers' assessment of the ballot counting process was worse than on 31 October, including poorer overall organisation, and more questions were raised about the accuracy of results reported. Problems included lack of sufficient attention to ballot security and counting procedures. In almost 40 per cent of polling stations, unauthorized persons were present, including police and local government officials.

The IEOM included 563 observers from the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. A final report will be released approximately six weeks after the completion of the electoral process.

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Both Candidates Claim Victory in Ukrainian Run-Off
By Askold Krushelnycky

Both candidates in yesterday's Ukrainian presidential election claimed to have won. With nearly all of the vote counted, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said the government candidate, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, edged ahead of opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, by 3 percent and was in an unassailable lead. Yushchenko accused the government of fraud, and tens of thousands of his supporters have gathered in the capital, Kyiv, as the streets are filled with security forces' vehicles.


Kyiv, 22 November 2004 -- The atmosphere was tense today in Kyiv as tens of thousands of opposition protesters crammed into the city's Independence Square to demonstrate against what they call the government's falsification of yesterday's presidential election.

The government candidate, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, was claiming victory by a narrow margin over opposition "Our Ukraine" coalition leader Viktor Yushchenko. Central Election Committee (CEC) Chairman Serhiy Kivalov said final results would be available later today, but that the figures showed Yanukovych had won."We together won. The Ukraine people won. That's a fact. I'm not going to talk about various predictions. We are talking on the basis of the true will of the people. We won and that's it."

"Viktor Yanukovych gained 49.42 percent of the vote; Viktor Yushchenko gained 46.7 percent," he said. "Therefore we have the following result: Yanukovych, Viktor Yanukovych, gained 14,942,478 votes; Viktor Yushchenko 14,120,791 votes."

Yushchenko told supporters today that the government had committed flagrant fraud and that he and other opposition leaders would never accept a Yanukovych victory: "We together won. The Ukraine people won. That's a fact. I'm not going to talk about various predictions. We are talking on the basis of the true will of the people. We won and that's it."

The opposition alleges massive stuffing of ballots. They say many Yanukovych supporters were issued special absentee voting documents so that the same person voted many times at different polling stations.

Yushchenko said the opposition was demanding the cancellation of results in places where they believed there was strong evidence of falsification: "Today we are making demands. We demand the invalidation of results in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, particularly in those areas where representatives of opposition parties were not allowed to take their places on local election committees."

There were hundreds of reports yesterday of breaches of election law, with the opposition making most of the complaints.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe today confirmed the vote fell short of international standards. Bruce George, the chief of the OSCE observer mission, said: "The second round of the Ukrainian presidential election does not meet a considerable number of OSCE conditions and Council of Europe and other European standards for democratic elections."

The OSCE criticized the Ukrainian government for requiring some state employees to acquire and hand over to superiors absentee ballots. George said ballots were collected at the workplace "on an organized basis," leaving open the possibility of fraud.

Yanukovych and his mentor, incumbent President Leonid Kuchma, accused the opposition of readying a revolution to overthrow the government.

On the eve of the election Kuchma went on television to warn that the government would do everything to prevent a revolution: "We all know that revolutions are planned by dreamers, are accomplished by fanatics, and the resulting situation is exploited by dishonorable people. There will be no revolution."

The opposition is calling on parliament to act over the alleged falsification and to condemn the CEC.

"We are demanding an extraordinary session of parliament be held to examine the questions revealed by the election of November 21," Yushchenko said. "We declare distrust of the Central Election Commission and we say that yesterday the commission became a passive, and sometimes active, participant in manipulation and falsification of the results."

Yushchenko has called on supporters from other regions to come to Kyiv. Young people from the Pora (It's Time) group were setting up tents in the square for a prolonged stay. With temperatures below freezing, the weather was making it uncomfortable for opposition supporters to stay outside for a long time.

Fears of clashes mounted as there were reports that thousands of Yanukovych supporters, escorted by police, were arriving from eastern Ukraine.

Yushchenko is viewed as pro-Western. He says cooperation with Russia is important but advocates European Union and NATO membership.

Yanukovych sees Ukraine's future in a Moscow-led Single Economic Zone, comprised of Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. He has courted Ukraine's millions of ethnic Russians, promising dual nationality and that Russian would become a second state language

quote:

Kyiv City Council Has No Confidence In Election Results

Kyiv, 22 November 2004 -- News agencies are reporting that Kyiv's city council has expressed no confidence in official results that give yesterday's presidential election victory to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.


News agencies say the city council has urged parliament not to recognize the Central Election Commission's figures, which show Yanukovych beating his rival Viktor Yushchenko by roughly 49 to 47 percent.

Earlier, city council officials in the western Ukrainian cities of Lviv, Ternopil, and Ivano-Frankivsk recognized Yushchenko as Ukrainian president, also expressing no confidence in official vote figures.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of opposition supporters are gathered in Kyiv, protesting the official results. Security there is tight, with police guarding the Central Election Commission building.

(RFE/RL Ukrainian Service/Interfax-Ukraine/ITAR-TASS/Reuters/AFP/dpa/AP)

quote:

Ukraine gripped by vote stand-off

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have thronged major cities, protesting at an election result they consider flawed.
Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko told supporters to stage a civil disobedience campaign.

The cities of Kiev and Lviv refused to recognise the official victory for Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.

While Russia accepted the result, a US observer alleged "concerted and forceful" fraud, and the EU called on Ukraine to review Sunday's election.

"We are very concerned about the news we have had about the outcome," said Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, representing the EU.

Don't leave Independence Square until victory

Viktor Yushchenko
He said all 25 EU member states would be calling in Ukrainian ambassadors "to convey our message of serious concern".

Moscow, which backed Prime Minister Yanukovych, recognised the election result.

"I have congratulated Viktor Yanukovych for his victory," said President Vladimir Putin's personal envoy, Boris Gryzlov.

Observers for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said Sunday's run-off vote fell far short of European democratic norms.

Mr Yushchenko, seen as the pro-Western candidate, told thousands of people who braved sub-zero temperatures in the capital, Kiev, not to leave the rally "until victory".

"We are launching an organised movement of civil resistance," he said, denouncing what he called the "total falsification" of the vote which followed days of acrimonious wrangling over the results of the first round.

'Media bias'

Kiev city council refused to recognise the results, and urged parliament to follow suit.

Thousands of people turned onto the streets in the western city of Lviv, where the city council said it would only take orders from Mr Yushchenko.

The central electoral commission said with more than 99% of the vote counted, Mr Yanukovych had 49.4% while Mr Yushchenko had 46.7%.

But the opposition says it has recorded many thousands of irregularities - including very high turnouts in government strongholds.

Mr Yanukovych was backed by incumbent President Leonid Kuchma.

Exit polls earlier suggested that Mr Yushchenko had been on course for victory with a lead of at least six percentage points.

"The second round did not meet a considerable number of [international] commitments for democratic elections," said Bruce George, head of the OSCE mission in Kiev.

The OSCE also reported serious irregularities in the first round.

"The abuse of state resources in favour of the prime minister continued, as well as an overwhelming media bias in his favour," Mr George said.


The group said Sunday's violations also included intimidation of observers and voters.

The authorities are investigating the killing of a policeman who was guarding ballot papers in a village in central Ukraine. The motive for the killing is not known.

Mr Yushchenko's supporters say they do not believe the official turnout figure of 96% in eastern Ukraine.

"I believe in my victory but the government... has staged total fraud in the elections in the [eastern] Donetsk and Lugansk regions," Mr Yushchenko said.

Kiev was on high alert, with extra police and soldiers on the streets, and riot vehicles outside the central electoral commission.

During the campaign, Mr Yushchenko, prime minister between 1999 and 2001, claimed to have been the victim of intimidation and dirty tricks, including an alleged poisoning attempt.

His critics portray him as an American puppet who will do anything to gain power, including inciting civil unrest.

quote:

Mr Yushchenko's supporters say they do not believe the official turnout figure of 96% in eastern Ukraine.

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Op maandag 22 november 2004 20:19 schreef GeFrenzy2 het volgende:
Op het nieuws zag ik ook al de Georgische vlag in de menigte...

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EU-lidstaten roepen ambassadeurs Oekraïne op matje

Uitgegeven: 22 november 2004 10:36
Laatst gewijzigd: 22 november 2004 16:16

BRUSSEL - Alle 25 lidstaten van de Europese Unie gaan de ambassadeurs van Oekraïne op het matje roepen om opheldering te vragen over de gang van zaken bij de presidentsverkiezingen. Ook gaat Nederland als EU-voorzitter samen met de Organisatie voor Veiligheid en Samenwerking in Europa (OVSE) de autoriteiten in Kiev vragen om de verkiezingsuitslagen tot nu toe te herzien. Dat hebben de EU-ministers van Buitenlandse Zaken maadag besloten in Brussel.

Volgens minister Bot van Buitenlandse Zaken, die het Europese overleg voorzit, is de EU "erg bezorgd over het nieuws dat tot nu toe naar buiten is gekomen". "De tweede ronde van de verkiezingen voldoet niet aan de internationale graadmeters."


Bot riep de Oekraïense autoriteiten ook op hun kalmte te bewaren. "We vragen aan eenieder kalmte te tonen en zich te uiten op een niet-gewelddadige manier", aldus Bot.

EU-gezant voor het buitenland Solana is de unie "extra teleurgesteld, omdat we van te voren hadden aangegeven dat het soort zaken die zich toch hebben afgespeeld niet mochten gebeuren". Volgens Solana is er daarover ook contact geweest met de huidige president Kuchma.

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Op maandag 22 november 2004 18:34 schreef Monidique het volgende:

[..]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4031981.stm

Nee, dat geloof ik ook niet helemaal.

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Analysis: What's Next For Ukraine?
By Jan Maksymiuk

RFE/RL's Eastern Europe analyst, Jan Maksymiuk, discusses the likely outcomes of the ongoing protests in Ukraine and argues that the election is the most significant event in the country's 13 years of independence.


As tens of thousands of people are protesting for a second day in Ukraine, the pressure on the Ukrainian authorities is increasing.

Local councilors in several cities in western Ukraine, including Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk, have adopted resolutions claiming that they will recognize only Yushchenko as the legitimate president and supporting the opposition's call for a general strike.

The Kyiv City Council has passed a resolution expressing distrust in the Central Election Commission (TsVK). The opposition has also managed to collect 150 signatures among parliamentary deputies to call for an emergency session on 23 November to discuss the situation in the country and pass a vote of no confidence in the TsVK. It is not clear how such a vote, if passed, could influence the official results of the 21 November ballot. Parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn told journalists on 22 November that any resolution of the Verkhovna Rada on the TsVK would be only a "political gesture."

The reaction of the West is another crucial factor. However, the West's remonstrations against the Ukrainian ballot seem to carry little weight with the Ukrainian authorities. For them, much more important was the position of the Kremlin, which did not conceal its sympathies for Yanukovych during the election campaign. On 22 November, Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly congratulated Yanukovych on his election victory, saying that "the battle has been hard-fought, but open and honest."

Will The Authorities Yield?

It appears highly improbable that the Ukrainian authorities will yield under the current upsurge of anti-Yanukovych protests and declare Yushchenko the winner.

Two other options seem to be more likely: either the authorities will wait with Yanukovych's inauguration until the antigovernment rebellion exhausts itself or, if the protests prove to be persistent and well attended, the presidential ballot may be declared invalid and incumbent President Leonid Kuchma will continue to rule for another half a year in order to prepare a new election.

Yet, irrespective of the final outcome of the current standoff in Ukraine, it will be very problematic, if not impossible, for Kuchma to assure the political continuity to his regime, which he repeatedly urged during the election campaign.

Ukraine seems to have waken up for a new political life, in which millions of people are no longer wishing to silently endure electoral manipulations, official lies, and autocratic ways of governance.

Seen from this perspective, Ukraine's presidential election of 2004 appears to be the most opportune event in Ukraine's 13 years of independence for politicians, both from the pro-Yanukovych and pro-Yushchenko camps, to practice the difficult art of political compromise in order to ensure the unity of the bitterly divided nation.

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Russia Should Not Meddle In Ukrainian Elections — Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev has declared that Russia should not interfere with the results of the Ukrainian presidential election. “Everything should be within the bounds of democracy. Ukraine cannot be fractured,” he said.

The former president of the USSR was talking to reporters at Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg, Interfax news agency reported. “It is important for the process to end democratically. These elections in Ukraine are very important,” he said.

His statement came after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin along with Boris Gryzlov, the speaker of the Russian parliament’s lower house, both congratulated the Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich on his disputed presidential victory.

According to Gorbachev, the new Ukrainian president has to take into account the opposition’s point of view and find ways to collaborate. “It is crucial for Ukrainian citizens to resolve this without outside influence,” he added.

quote:

Spanning in Oekraïne loopt verder op

Uitgegeven: 23 november 2004 20:00
Laatst gewijzigd: 23 november 2004 22:34

KIEV - De spanning in Oekraïne over de omstreden presidentsverkiezingen is dinsdagavond verder opgelopen. Bij het presidentiële paleis in de hoofdstad Kiev protesteren tienduizenden mensen tegen de verkiezing van de pro-Russische regeringskandidaat Janoekovitsj. Zij worden tegengehouden door honderden zwaarbewapende ordetroepen. Oppositieleden hebben inmiddels verzekerd dat er geen bestorming van het paleis zal plaatsvinden.

De Oekraïense oppositie is van plan woensdag met vertrekkend president Koetsjma over de omstreden presidentsverkiezingen te onderhandelen. De oppositie wil met het overleg de groeiende politieke crisis bezweren, verklaarde oppositieleidster Timosjenko tegen het Russische persbureau Interfax.


Koetsjma riep dinsdagavond op om te onderhandelen. Hij bezwoer de openbare orde te handhaven. Hij veroordeelde de betogingen van de oppositie als politieke farce en noemde de protesten zeer gevaarlijk en waarschuwde voor "onvoorziene gevolgen".

'Oranje revolutie'

De bezieling bij de oppositie is groot. Zij spreken over de oranje revolutie, verwijzend naar de politieke kleur van oppositieleider Joesjtsjenko. "We gaan naar het presidentieel paleis op vreedzame wijze, zonder iets kapot te maken. Of ze geven ons hun macht, of we nemen haar over", aldus parlementariër Julia Timosjenko. Ze zei daar te blijven totdat de nieuwe president begonnen is met werken.

De verliezer van de Oekraïense presidentsverkiezingen, de hervormingsgezinde en pro-Westerse Joesjtsjenko, had zichzelf eerder dinsdag tot president uitgeroepen. De oppositieleider besloot zich niet neer te leggen bij de door hem, maar ook internationaal betwiste uitslag van de verkiezingen afgelopen zondag.

Joesjtsjenko greep dinsdag naar de macht nadat het Oekraïense parlement in een buitengewone zitting bijeen was gekomen om te besluiten over de geldigheid van de officiële verkiezingsuitslag. Omdat slechts 191 van de 450 afgevaardigden waren komen opdagen, konden er geen geldige besluiten worden genomen.

De meerderheid boycotte de spoedzitting. Het ging daarbij om aanhangers van president Koetsjma en van diens gewenste opvolger, premier Janoekovitsj.

Burgeroorlog

Oppositieleider Joesjtsjenko waarschuwde dat het land in een burgeroorlog kan afglijden, mocht de "schandalige" uitslag niet worden verworpen. Uiteindelijk riepen zijn aanhangers in het parlement hem uit tot winnaar.

Joesjtsjenko las de presidentiële eed voor, met de hand op de bijbel. Daarna sprak hij vanuit een raam de tienduizenden aanhangers toe, die zich al enkele dagen op het plein voor het parlementsgebouw ophouden. "Onze gezamenlijke actie zal leiden tot politiek succes", beloofde Joesjtsjenko de betogers, die een hertelling van de stemming eisen.

Steun

In Lviv en andere steden in het westen gingen eveneens tienduizenden mensen de straat op om hun steun aan Joesjtsjenko te betuigen. Ook in de oostelijke stad Charkov zijn duizenden mensen de straat opgegaan om hun steun aan de oppositie te betuigen.

In Donezk is juist voor premier Janoekovitsj gedemonstreerd. Ook het regionale parlement van de Krim schaarde zich achter Janoekovitsj. De afgevaardigden lieten weten de winst van de regeringskandidaat voor het presidentsschap te erkennen.

Tegelijkertijd uitten ze felle kritiek op de oppositie die door de demonstraties de territoriale integriteit van het land in gevaar zou brengen.

Waarnemers

Volgens Joesjtsjenko, de oppositie, maar ook volgens buitenlandse waarnemers en regeringen verliepen de presidentsverkiezingen niet eerlijk.

quote:

Op dinsdag 23 november 2004 17:37 schreef Drugshond het volgende:
Bron CNN : Ukraine poll: 'Civil war' warning

quote:

[...]
Officials said that with 99.38 percent of precincts counted, Yanukovych had 49.42 percent to Yushchenko's 46.70 percent.

An exit poll, conducted under a Western-funded program, had given Yushchenko 54 percent of the vote to Yanukovych's 43 percent. Another poll put Yushchenko ahead by 49.4 to 45.9 percent.
[...]

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Op dinsdag 23 november 2004 23:24 schreef Marvin-THE-MARTiAN het volgende:

[..]


[..]

Is er al meer nieuws omtrend de tellingen; afgezien van het feit dat de OVSE grote onregelmatigheden had geconstateerd en dat de oppositie de uitslag van de stemmingscommisie als onwettig heeft verworpen?

quote:

National holiday:
Independence Day, 24 August (1991)

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De Oekraïne is in gevaar.

Beste vrienden,

Momenteel vinden er in Kiev belangrijke democratische gebeurtenissen plaats. Helaas zijn mensen zelfs in de Oekraïne gedesinformeerd hierover, vooral in de zuidelijke en oostelijke delen van de Oekraïne, Rusland, Wit-Rusland, Moldavië, en andere landen van de voormalige Sovjet-Unie
Deze informatieblokkade veroorzaakt misverstanden over de situatie.
Op 21 december vondt er een precedentloze, vooraf door de regering geplande, valse stemming over het presidentschap van ons land plaats. De cynische vervalsing zag ik met eigen ogen. Volgens het communique van de Centrale Telcommissie (CVK) won de kandidaat van de regeringspartij, Janoekovitsj. Dit is een arrogante leugen. Ons volk erkent de resultaten van de CVK niet en startte een ongehoorzaamheidsactie.
In Kiev zin al speciale militaire brigades (Spetznatz) uit Rusland, op verzoek van het samenvallende regime. Het gevaar van een gewelddadige variant bestaat.
Ik roep alle Oekraïeners, eerlijke mensen, op om de nieuwe president van de Oekraïne, de werkelijk door het volk gekozene, Viktor Juschenko te steunen, kom zo mogelijk naar Kiev om de democratie en het recht te verdedigen.

quote:

door Frans Timmermans

'Waar olifanten vechten, wordt het gras vertrapt’, is het Afrikaanse spreekwoord dat van toepassing lijkt op de situatie in Oekraïne. Rusland applaudisseert bij de verkiezing van de bevriende kandidaat Janukovitsch tot president, terwijl de EU en de VS wijzen op de massale stembusfraude die er nodig was om de pro-westerse kandidaat Jushenko uit het presidentiële paleis te houden. Omdat de buitenwereld zich zo nadrukkelijk met de situatie bemoeit, is het een kwestie die de binnenlandse politiek van Oekraïne ver overstijgt. In de straten van Kiev zou dezer dagen wel eens de beslissing kunnen vallen of Europa een nieuwe tweedeling te wachten staat.

De Oekraïnse stembusfraude is even duidelijk als onbeschaamd. In sommige steden stijgt de opkomst boven 100% uit, waarbij meer dan 95% van de kiezers voor Janukovitsch zou hebben gestemd. Dat zijn percentages waar de meeste dictaturen zich voor zouden schamen. Buitenlandse waarnemers doen verslag van intimidaties bij de stembureaus, van honderden namen die achteraf nog eens aan de kieslijsten worden toegevoegd, van massaal misbruik van de media. De zittende macht in Oekraïne is er alles aan gelegen op het pluche te blijven, want wat er op het spel staat is niet alleen een wisseling van de wacht, maar wellicht een fundamentele keuze voor de koers van het land. Janukovitsch zal in de voetsporen willen treden van de autoritaire en niet bepaald brandschone president Koetschma, die zijn land, na een aanvankelijk redelijk onafhankelijke koers, steeds meer onder toezicht van Moskou heeft gebracht. De innige band met Moskou werd gezien als de beste manier om de politieke en financiële belangen van de machthebbers veilig te stellen. Net als in Rusland, zijn het in Oekraïne de aan de president verbonden veiligheidsdiensten die aan de touwtjes trekken, daarbij financieel gesteund door een coterie van oligarchen. Van persvrijheid is nauwelijks sprake, oppositieleiders en journalisten moeten vrezen voor hun leven. Oekraïne is geen rechtsstaat en kent geen functionerende vrije markteconomie. Kortom, Oekraïne gaat onder Koetschma dezelfde weg als Rusland onder Poetin. Met Janukovitsch zou deze weg worden voortgezet, met als uitkomst dat de Oekraïnse onafhankelijkheid uiteindelijk alleen nog maar op papier zou bestaan.

Jushenko belooft een pro-westerse koers te varen. Hij lijkt daarbij een meerderheid van de Oekraïners achter zich te hebben. Een eerlijke stembusstrijd zou hem de zege hebben opgeleverd en daarom verdient hij het ook president te worden. De praktijk zal moeten uitwijzen of hij vervolgens de koers van het land ook zal kunnen verleggen. Toen hij president van de nationale bank was en ook later in zijn functie van premier, heb ik hem meerdere keren ontmoet en hoewel hij een voorzichtige hervormingskoers voer, maakte hij niet de indruk echt de confrontatie met de machten rond Koetschma aan te willen gaan. Een vergiftigingspoging, waarbij hij bijna het leven liet, hebben misschien de rebel doen ontwaken in deze anders zo rustige huisvader. In ieder geval verdient hij onverkort onze steun bij zijn keuze voor een Europees Oekraïne.

Hoe de strijd ook uitpakt, de verdeeldheid binnen Oekraïne, altijd al de achilleshiel van het land, is er alleen maar door vergroot. In het Oosten van het land voelen de meeste inwoners een diepe verwantschap met Rusland, terwijl men in het Westen de Russen soms hartstochtelijk haat. Daarmee is de keuze voor de ene of voor de andere kandidaat ook deels een regionale keuze. Wint het Westen, vreest het Oosten daarvan de dupe te zijn en andersom. Arm Oekraïne, dat in de loop der eeuwen steeds speelbal is geweest van grote buitenlandse machten!

Nu lijkt weer hetzelfde te gebeuren, want de geopolitieke dimensie van deze verkiezingen overstijgt ver de Oekraïnse landsgrenzen. Oekraïne is tot nu toe een blinde vlek op de politieke kaart van Europa. En dat terwijl het land evenveel inwoners heeft als Frankrijk, in het hart ligt van het Europese continent en in omvang groter is dan de grootste EU lidstaat. Als dat land kiest voor een autocratische koers naar Moskous model, zal er een nieuwe scheidslijn komen te lopen, dwars over het Europese continent, tussen democratische en ondemocratische landen. De EU zit daarmee met een zeer instabiele Oostgrens: autoritaire regimes in Belarus en Oekraïne; een instabiel Moldavië en een kruitvat op de Kaukasus. Het voert te ver hier de oude dominotheorie weer van stal te halen, maar het is zeker niet in ons belang als landen aan onze oostgrens zich afwenden van de democratische en moderniserende ontwikkelingen die 10 landen in Centraal en Oosteuropa het lidmaatschap van de EU hebben opgeleverd. Ondemocratische landen zijn inherent instabiel en zullen vroeger of later een bedreiging voor vrede en veiligheid gaan vormen. Een democratische Oekraïnse rechtsstaat zou enorm kunnen bijdragen aan de democratisering in de regio en zou zelfs een gunstige invloed kunnen hebben op ontwikkelingen in Rusland. Er staat dus nogal wat op het spel, in de straten van Kiev.

quote:

Op dinsdag 23 november 2004 22:45 schreef Marvin-THE-MARTiAN het volgende:
Ik hoop dat men wijs genoeg is en geen burgeroorlog ontketent. Want het mag danwel niet "super-goed" gaan met Oekraine, maar met een burgeroorlog verliest iedereen. Putin speelt op dit moment een smerig spel en ik hoop dat hij bijtijds "teruggevloten" kan worden voordat Russische troepen zich hiermee gaan bemoeien.

quote:

Op dinsdag 23 november 2004 17:03 schreef ultra_ivo het volgende:
Het meeste angst heb ik nog voor een Roemeens scenario, bussen/'treinen vol mijnwerkers die naar de hoofdstad gestuurd worden om de oppositie in elkaar te slaan.

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In the east, where many people feel as much Russian as Ukrainian, there have been protests in support of Mr Yanukovych.

Russia TV has reported that thousands of miners from the eastern Donbass region have taken special trains to Kiev to back the prime minister.

quote:

Oppositie Oekraïne roept op tot algemene staking

Uitgegeven: 24 november 2004 19:54
Laatst gewijzigd: 24 november 2004 21:19

KIEV - De Oekraïense oppositieleider Joesjtsjenko heeft woensdagavond opgeroepen tot een algemene staking in Oekraïne. Met de landelijke "politieke staking" wil de oppositie tegen de uitslag van de presidentsverkiezingen protesteren, waarbij zijn pro-Russische tegenstander won.

Tijdens zijn toespraak voor tienduizenden aanhangers in Kiev zei hij dat hij de overwinning van zijn rivaal Janoekovitsj niet erkent. Hij waarschuwde voor een "burgerconflict" in het verdeelde land.


De Oekraïense kiescommissie riep de pro-Russische premier Janoekovitsj woensdagmiddag officieel tot winnaar uit van de presidentsverkiezingen. Hij vergaarde 49,46 procent van de stemmen, tegen 46,61 procent voor zijn rivaal Joesjtsjenko.

Eerder

De commissie had de uitslag al enkele uren eerder bekend willen maken. Volgens het Russische persbureau Interfax weigerden enkele leden het protocol te ondertekenen.

Volgens de oppositie en internationale waarnemers is er met de uitslag gerommeld. Maandag had de kiescommissie al laten weten dat de voorsprong van Janoekovitsj op zijn pro-westerse rivaal Joesjtsjenko niet meer was in te halen.

De tienduizenden demonstranten op het plein voor het presidentiële paleis in de hoofdstad Kiev reageerden op het nieuws met het roepen van 'Schande, Schande'. In het parlement braken kleine opstootjes uit tussen oppositieaanhangers en die van Janoekovitsj na het horen van de officiële uitslag.

Niet accepteren

De Verenigde Staten hebben besloten de officiële uitslag van de Oekraïense presidentsverkiezingen niet te accepteren. Volgens minister Powell van Buitenlandse Zaken verliep de stembusronde onwettig.

De bewindsman dreigde de huidige machthebbers woensdag met consequenties als zij niet onmiddellijk maatregelen nemen. Volgens Powell is het nog niet te laat om een oplossing te vinden "die de wil van de Oekraïense bevolking respecteert".

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Ukraine: What Legal Recourses Are Open To The Opposition?
By Jean-Christophe Peuch

One of Ukraine's top magistrates yesterday has advised opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko to file a legal appeal against the 21 November disputed election results with the Supreme Court. The magistrate said the current political standoff could only be resolved through the judiciary. Analysts say indeed the courts might be the opposition's only recourse for overturning the results.


Prague, 24 November 2004 (RFE/RL) -- Ukraine's opposition presidential contender Viktor Yushchenko yesterday appealed to parliament to pass a nonbinding vote of no-confidence in the country's Central Election Commission (TsVK).

The opposition failed to gather a quorum of lawmakers, and instead Yushchenko's took a symbolic oath of office.

Yushchenko's opponent, government candidate Viktor Yanukovych, and outgoing President Leonid Kuchma condemned the move, saying it was illegal.

The no-confidence vote would have had no constitutional basis, but analysts in Kyiv say it may have had an important political impact. Serhyi Segeda is deputy director of a Kyiv-based independent think tank known as the International Center for Policy Studies (MtsPD)."For the opposition to win this election, it has to prove that the results in such and such polling station of the [eastern] Donetsk or Luhansk regions were falsified. It is difficult to achieve, but it is possible."

"With regard to the legitimization of the president's power, such a [no confidence] vote would have had no significance. But it would have given the opposition a tremendous moral boost by showing it had won the support of the country's supreme legislative body. It would also have had a great significance for self-governing bodies [such as regions and municipalities]," Segeda says.

"Kyiv and the Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Volyn, Ternopil, Vynnitsya and Ryvne regions have already disavowed the Central Election Commission and half of them have recognized Yushchenko as president. If such a [symbolic] vote had taken place [in national parliament], that would have triggered a wave throughout Ukraine that, hopefully, would have included [pro-Yanukovych] eastern Ukraine."

As Yushchenko and his supporters now consider their options, one of Ukraine's top magistrates yesterday advised the candidate to seek justice through the judiciary.

In comments made to the private Channel 5 television station, Mykola Shelest -- who heads the High Council of Justice, the body responsible for appointing judges -- said that, in his view, "only the Supreme Court can help settle the current dispute."

Segeda of the MtsPD says the only legal recourse open to the opposition is to lodge legal complaints before regional courts, then turn to the Supreme Court. But he warns that may prove problematic.

"With regard to the [invalidation] of the election results, the only means the opposition has at its disposal to obtain justice is to appeal against returns filed by each individual polling station. Legally, it is impossible to invalidate the overall outcome of the vote and it is equally impossible to invalidate the results in such or such election constituency. It has to be done on a station-to-station basis," Segeda says.

"For the opposition to win this election, it has to prove that the results in such and such polling station of the [eastern] Donetsk or Luhansk regions were falsified. It is difficult to achieve, but it is possible. It is also necessary because this is the only legitimate recourse open to the opposition if it wants to prove that the results of the TsVK are illegitimate and do not reflect reality."

One of the technical problems facing the opposition, Segeda says, would be to provide regional courts documentary evidence of fraud.

This might be difficult. In Ukraine's predominantly Russian-speaking eastern regions, where Yanukovych garnered the most votes, opposition election observers were barred from polling stations or dismissed from local election commissions before the vote took place.

In addition, to appeal against results coming from the east of the country -- given that there are thousands of polling stations there -- Segeda says the opposition would need an "army of competent lawyers," which it may not have.

Finally, decisions reached by regional courts have the force of law only after a certain number of days, during which they can be overruled through appeals.

In the meantime, the CEC late Wednesday declared Yanukovych the winner of the
presidential election with 49.46 percent of the votes, against Yushchenko?s
46.61 percent.

Zoya Kazanzhy, the TsVK spokeswoman, had warned earlier these figures would have only a "preliminary character," since the constitution allows for 15 days to finalize the results.

But Segeda believes the decision to release the final returns well ahead of the legal deadline testifies to the authorities' willingness to speed things up.

"The government must morally compensate for what happened on Tuesday [23 November] when Yushchenko took a symbolic oath of office," Segeda says. He said one way to compensate for this would be to have Yanukovych inaugurated as soon as possible to undercut the momentum of the street protests.

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Ukraine: Neighbors Watch Election Protests With Keen Interest
By Jeremy Bransten

The images from Kyiv of tens of thousands of flag-waving demonstrators, ready to defend democracy and stand up to a government they feel no longer represents them, brings to mind the revolutions that swept Eastern Europe in 1989. They also recall last year’s Rose Revolution in Georgia that swept the regime of Eduard Shevardnadze from power. What kind of impact are events in Ukraine likely to have on countries such as Belarus, Azerbaijan, or the Central Asian states -- where pro-democracy movements have also long existed, but remain repressed by authoritarian governments?


Prague, 24 November 2004 (RFE/RL) -- The dramatic events in Ukraine are still unfolding and no one is predicting how they will turn out. Will Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych survive the wave of demonstrations and Western condemnation and ascend to the presidency he claims is his? Or will Viktor Yushchenko’s protest movement mushroom into a popular revolution that sweeps the old guard from office, in a victory for representative democracy?

However things turn out, every move is being closely watched around the CIS. Some suggest a Yushchenko triumph could provide a boost to pro-democracy movements in countries such as Belarus and Azerbaijan. While others say that even a successful revolution in Ukraine has little chance of being repeated anywhere else.

Belarus is perhaps the biggest question mark. Last month, the world watched as police in Minsk beat back and arrested demonstrators protesting the outcome of a referendum vote that ostensibly will allow President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to hold on to power. The police showed their willingness to use violence and the pro-democracy protestors their inability to muster broad support from the population."A Yushchenko victory, which would be a victory with broad support from the population, could inspire the Belarusian electorate, the democratic electorate. It could give them strength and renewed confidence."

Would a Yushchenko win in neighboring Ukraine change the equation -- emboldening demonstrators and a population that has remained largely passive up to now? Opposition leader Mikola Statkevich seems to believe so, as he tells RFE/RL. But he warns that if Yanukovych emerges as the victor, with Moscow’s backing, then the democracy movement in Belarus will have been further weakened.

“If the democratic opposition comes to power in Ukraine as the result of the elections, it would mean that the things happening in Belarus are an anomaly. And any anomaly, so to say, dissolves rather quickly. But if they work in Ukraine according to the ‘Belarusian scenario,’ it would mean that our country only leads a sad trend,” Statkevich says.

Independent sociologist Valery Karbalevitch, also speaking from Minsk, agrees. He notes that aside from Georgia, there has not been a change in the post-communist old guard in any of the CIS countries since the fall of communism, so a Ukrainian “revolution” could serve as an important example.

"A Yushchenko victory, which would be a victory with broad support from the population, could inspire the Belarusian electorate, the democratic electorate. It could give them strength and renewed confidence. Up to now, across the CIS, the political forces or clans that came to power have not given up their power. I am talking about Russia, Central Asia -- where the rulers are in office for life -- Azerbaijan where there has been a father to son succession," Karbalevitch said.

But Karbalevitch says there is an interesting twist. Lukashenka, unlike Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been careful not to ally himself too closely with Yanukovych. This is reflected in Belarusian television’s coverage of the story, which has been at times more balanced than Russian state-controlled broadcasts.

And that is because, paradoxically, a Yushchenko win might carry some advantages for the Minsk regime, according to Karbalevitch. If Moscow’s relations with Kyiv were to suffer, Russia would almost certainly draw closer to Lukashenka. Conversely, if Moscow and Kyiv become even closer allies, Russia is likely to be less generous in its subsidies to Minsk.

"Ideologically, Yanukovych is closer to Lukashenka and his regime, because Yushchenko is a pro-Western politician etc.... But Lukashenka understands that if Yanukovych emerges as the victor, relations between Belarus and Russia will be worse. But if Yushchenko triumphs, Moscow will stay close to him, to Lukashenka. He understands this and that is why he has tried not to put all his eggs in one basket and has kept his distance and neutrality," Karbalevitch says.

Over the next three months, all of the Central Asian countries -- except for Kazakhstan -- will hold legislative elections that will once again focus attention on the imperfect state of democracy in the region. Could a triumph for Yushchenko’s forces in Ukraine inspire change? Regional expert Alex Vatanka, editor of “Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessments” does not think this is likely.

He notes that Ukraine’s democratic forces have been building up to this week’s events for several years, gaining local representation and parliamentary seats that allowed them to form a powerful bloc. The overwhelming support for these parties in western Ukraine combined with the government’s apparent reluctance to unleash massive force against its opponents, gives Yushchenko and his allies a chance at pulling off their revolution. None of those factors exist in Central Asia.

"You don`t have the kind of internal momentum as you had in Ukraine and at the same time, whatever momentum there might be, you can bet your money that the response from the state will be very harsh," Vatanka says.

Geography also plays an important role. Vatanka argues that the United States and Europe feel they cannot sit back and allow democracy to be so obviously repressed in Ukraine -- a large European country of key strategic importance -- which also represents a counterweight to Russia.

That is unfortunately not the case in Central Asia. There, alliances with governments that promise to cooperate in the fight against terrorism, appear to take precedence over support for dissident democrats.

"Following the enlargement of the European Union, it's bordering places like Slovakia and Poland. They're next door and there are huge issues you've got to worry about -- security issues. You need Ukraine to cooperate on a number of big issues such as security, border control, immigration, transnational crime. Therefore, [for Europe] to sit back and say 'let's just see how things unfold' isn't really an option," Vatanka says.

Despite the long odds for democracy advocates in Central Asia, opposition representatives say the events in Ukraine are giving them hope. Exiled Uzbek opposition leader Muhammed Solih, had this message, which he conveyed to RFE/RL by telephone.

"We support the struggle of the Ukrainian opposition for democracy, under the leadership of Viktor Yushchenko. Ukraine's democratic forces have come through the first stage of this struggle with honor. We wish them a final victory. This victory will be a victory for those who still believe in, and have not lost their faith in freedom," Solih says.

As Ukrainians determine the fate of their nation, the eyes of the world -- and their neighbors are focused on them.

(RFE/RL’s Belarus and Uzbek services contributed to this report)

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Analysis: What Might A 'Yanukovych Presidency' In Ukraine Bring?
By Roman Kupchinsky


If rapidly unfolding events in Kyiv do not reverse Viktor Yanukovych's seemingly insurmountable lead in official figures that have emerged in the wake of the Ukrainian presidential runoff on 21 November, his official triumph will not have been totally unexpected.


Most Western election monitors agree that enormous pressure was brought to bear on local officials, government agencies, and the media by the administration of Leonid Kuchma to ensure Yanukovych's election.

Yanukovych would assume leadership of a bitterly divided country. In such cases, the procedure might presumably be to attempt to heal rifts in society and at the same time fulfill campaign promises to the electorate. Given that many voters are alleged to have been coerced or paid to cast their ballots for him (some are believed to have cast them often), Yanukovych might arguably be more flexible in this respect.

Campaign Pledges

Nonetheless, he would be expected to make good on some of his campaign pledges. Promises to increase government salaries and pensions are unrealistic and would require flooding the economy with new hryvnyas, and unless he was willing to risk a major rise in inflation, such economic promises would have to be shelved and more realistic measures adopted.

His proposal for dual Ukrainian-Russian citizenship would require a change in the constitution, a difficult task under the best of circumstances but an even more formidable one under the pall of perceptions of electoral foul play.

In light of the furor it might cause amid postelection bitterness, Yanukovych's advisers might well urge him to bury his divisive pledge to make Russian the country's second official language.Relations between these neighboring states could deteriorate to some degree under a Yanukovych administration.

As for Yanukovych's foreign policy, the West and Russia would need to carefully monitor his behavior on the following issues:

1. Ukrainian-Russian relations

The hyperactivity of the Russian political establishment in promoting Yanukovych is a debt that Yanukovych would be expected to repay in full. Any future Ukrainian government would likely acquiesce to Russian President Vladimir Putin's relentless drive to integrate large sectors of the Ukrainian economy with Russia's.

One important factor in the Ukrainian-Russian relationship is more difficult to decode: Does Yanukovych view himself as president of Ukraine or as governor of the "South Russian gubernia"? Do the managers of the Donetsk and other Ukrainian clans and financial-industrial groups wish to see Russian ministers interfere in their business dealings?

Anatolii Chubais recently proffered a concept of Russian "liberal imperialism," it should be kept in mind, which was not warmly received by the Ukrainian political or business elite regardless of their support or antipathy for Yanukovych.

The Single Economic Space (SES) would likely expand and become a more or less permanent feature in the region. This body, created at President Putin's initiative, seeks to first coordinate and then merge the economic might of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan into what some insist on calling a "customs union" or a "free trade zone" while others see it as another example of Russian economic imperialism.

If a President Yanukovych did the unlikely and allowed Putin a free hand in setting policy for the SES, the economic-imperialism view would likely predominate and the Ukrainian economy would be seen as becoming more beholden to Moscow. How this would affect potential investors is difficult to gauge.

As it stands today, a great deal of Ukrainian economic growth is dependent on cheap Russian and Turkmen energy resources. If Putin were to play the "gas card," which he mistakenly did in the case of the much more pro-Russian Belarus, a Yanukovych administration might respond in kind and block the gas pipeline that supplies 90 percent of Russian gas destined for Europe. By doing so, Ukraine could prevent billions of dollars from going to the Russian treasury.

The chances of this taking place would be slim, however. In all likelihood, a Yanukovych administration would be unlikely to veer far from the policies set by its predecessor. Yanukovych would weave and bob as the situation demanded in order to maintain a balance between Ukrainian corporate interests and those of its Russian neighbors.

Nonetheless, Yanukovych would not be expected to undo deals such as the one signed on 16 November whereby Russian state oil-pipeline company Transneft assumed control over Ukraine's oil-pipeline system for 15 years.

He is also conscious of the fact that beginning in January 2005, Ukraine will not be able to buy the 36 billion cubic meters of gas it needs every year directly from Turkmenistan but rather must do so from Russian Gazprom, in which the Russian state now holds a controlling stake.

2. Ukrainian-Polish relations

Relations between these neighboring states could deteriorate to some degree under a Yanukovych administration. The Industrial Union of the Donbas has been involved in a dispute with Polish authorities over its desire to buy the Huty Stali Czestochowa steel mill due to Polish resistance to sell them that valuable asset. Yanukovych would likely lobby on behalf of the Industrial Union of the Donbas and risk being rejected in order to prove his loyalty to the Donetsk Clan.

Yet it is unlikely that Yanukovych would turn away from Poland altogether, given that Poland might remain his only open window to the West and Ukraine's only backer of the country's eventual EU membership.

3. Ukrainian-U.S. relations

Washington would certainly take a dim view of the manner in which Yanukovych was elected. His victory, however, might not have any great impact on relations between the two countries, given that relations were already visibly strained during the last five years of the Kuchma administration. Kuchma's alleged intention to sell an advanced radar system to Iraq, the still-unsolved murder of Internet journalist Heorhiy Gongadze, the reversal of the Odesa-Brody pipeline -- all have served to isolate Ukraine in Washington's eyes.

Ukrainian military participation in Iraq was meant to pacify the United States and rehabilitate Ukraine in the eyes of the Washington. Moscow understood this and did not protest when Ukrainian forces were dispatched to Iraq. Yanukovych has promised to withdraw this contingent and would likely keep that pledge.

4. The rise of the Donetsk clan

There can be little doubt that the strength and power of the Donetsk clan, the informal group of individuals and companies that controls much of industrial and financial life in the Donetsk region, would grow immeasurably under a Yanukovych administration. The old adage that "Kyiv makes policy while Donetsk makes money" is no longer accurate: Donetsk now makes both, and anyone who challenges this postulate might find himself in serious trouble.

The rise of the Donetsk clan would clearly affect Ukrainian steel and rolled-pipe exports to Russia, the largest buyer of those commodities. It is projected that by 2020, Russia will need to build up to 27,000 kilometers of new, large-diameter gas pipeline. Many of the enterprises that construct those items are controlled by the Donetsk clan and Viktor Pinchuk, a parliamentarian and outgoing President Kuchma's son-in-law, through his Interpipe group. This would help temper Russians from using the "energy card" against Ukraine.

5. Transparency and civil society

The rise of the Donetsk clan, many of whose cadres might be appointed to senior posts in a Yanukovych administration, would signal few advances for legality and rule of law in Ukraine in the coming five years. A clan purportedly built on violence, assassination, and ruthlessness could hardly be expected to bolster civil society.

Transparency would thus remain a largely alien concept in Ukraine.

In practical terms, law enforcement would thus remain largely under the control of the presidential administration, "guidance" of the press would remain the norm, and the scandals of the Kuchma administration might go unpunished.

The question of Ukrainian membership of NATO and the European Union saw little forward movement during the Kuchma years, and would be unlikely to gather momentum under Yanukovych. It should be noted that at least some of the motivation for keeping Ukraine isolated from the West lies in NATO and the European Union not wishing to upset Russia.

Russia by and large maintained official silence during deliberations on EU and NATO expansion, but Moscow was always present in the minds of Europeans eager to avoid angering their major supplier of energy by getting too cozy with Ukraine

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Powell Says U.S. Cannot Accept Ukraine Election Result

24 November 2004 -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said today the United States cannot accept as legitimate the result of Ukraine's presidential election.


Powell told reporters at the State Department that the 21 November runoff election failed to meet international standards.

"We cannot accept this result as legitimate because it does not meet international standards and because there has not been an investigation of the numerous and credible reports of fraud and abuse," Powell said.

The secretary of state urged Ukraine's government to respect the will of the people and warned that if it failed to do so, there would be consequences for the relations between the two countries.

He spoke shortly after election officials in Ukraine declared that Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych won the balloting.

Following the announcement, opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko said he does not recognize the victory of his opponent.

Yushchenko, addressing a crowd of supporters in Kyiv, called for a nationwide general strike.

(AP/Reuters/AFP)

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Op woensdag 24 november 2004 22:09 schreef ultra_ivo het volgende:
*knip*

quote:

Op woensdag 24 november 2004 22:24 schreef afzuiginrichting het volgende:
[...]
Laat het Westen dit niet op de spits drijven. Het juiste resultaat van onderhandelingen zou een onderzoek en nieuwe verkiezingen moeten zijn.

quote:

Op woensdag 24 november 2004 16:22 schreef dVTB het volgende:

[..]

Je doet voorkomen alsof het de schuld van de Oekraïners zou zijn wanneer het tot bloedvergieten komt. Dat vind ik een verkeerd beeld: die mensen komen slechts op voor hun democratie. Als er bloed vloeit, ligt de schuld daarvoor volledig bij Poetin, die overigens al eerder aantoonde dat hij bloedige conflicten niet uit de weg gaat. De vraag is slechts of de oproerpolitie zal zwichten voor de toenemende druk van de bevolking, of dat ze krampachtig de kant blijven kiezen van de corrupte Poetin-trekpoppen.

quote:

Op woensdag 24 november 2004 22:43 schreef Marvin-THE-MARTiAN het volgende:

Goed Bush heeft de meerderheid -legaal- verkregen

quote:

Op dit moment gebeuren er in de Oekraïne historische evenenmenten. Maar de huidige regering probeert op alle manieren het volk te desinformeren. De staatstv meldt leugenachtige berichten dat vrijwel de hele bevolking de "nieuw gekozen" president steunt.
Maar er zijn ook andere bronnen van betrouwbare informatie. Bezoek zelf de onder genoemde pagina's en informeer je vrienden hierover.

http://pravda.com.ua
http://www.korrespondent.net
http://www.silanaroda.com
http://www.pora.org.ua
http://5tv.com.ua

[knip]
Honderden en duizenden 'supporters' van Janoekovic worden verplicht naar Kiev gestuurd. Men bedreigt mensen met ontslag Ook uit mijn stad Lugansk vertrok vandaag een speciale trein naar de hoofdstad met honderden mensen. Mensen uit Kiev, informeer de assistenten van Joesjenko hierover.

quote:

Op donderdag 25 november 2004 00:14 schreef Joost-mag-het-weten het volgende:
Tja, Poetin wil graag van Oekraine een soort 2de "Belarus" maken , een gelegaliseerde dictatuur die als buffer voor Rusland dient ...

Arm Rusland en buurlanden , na het communisme hebben ze te lijden onder het Poetinisme ...

quote:

Op donderdag 25 november 2004 00:24 schreef NorthernStar het volgende:

[..]

Bekijk het van hun kant. Ze hebben de koude oorlog en daarmee hun invloedssfeer verloren. Eerst hun achtertuin en nu moeten ze lijdzaam aanzien hoe nu ook hun 'voordeur' en 'hal' aan hun invloed onttrokken wordt. De Kaukasus en Centraal-Azië ligt al gevoelig, kun je nagaan hoe de Oekraine voelt.

quote:

"Fraude 2,8 miljoen stembiljetten"

***************************************
KIEV Bij de Oekraïense verkiezingen is
met minstens 2,8 miljoen stembiljetten
geknoeid in het voordeel van premier
Viktor Janoekovitsj.Het onafhankelijke
Oekraïense kiescomité (CVU) meldt dat
in de krant Oekraïens Dagblad.

Volgens plaatsvervangend voorzitter van
het CVU Koshel betreft het de grootste
verkiezingsfraude in de geschiedenis
van het land.De fraude zou systematisch
zijn uitgevoerd en er zouden minstens
85.000 plaatselijke functionarissen in
het hele land bij betrokken zijn.

De kiescommissie meldde gisteren dat
Janoekovitsj met 49,39% van de stemmen
de verkiezingen heeft gewonnen.

quote:

Op donderdag 25 november 2004 12:05 schreef HarigeKerel het volgende:
Jeetje, ik zou op het eerste gezicht niet denken dat het de zelfde man is

quote:

Bron : Nu.Nl
Poetin feliciteert Janoekovitsj

Uitgegeven: 25 november 2004 12:09
Laatst gewijzigd: 25 november 2004 12:10

MOSKOU/KIEV - De Russische president Poetin heeft donderdag de Oekraïnse premier Viktor Janoekovitsj gefeliciteerd met zijn overwinning in de presidentsverkiezingen van afgelopen zondag. Het volk van Oekraïne heeft voor de stabiliteit gekozen, volgens Poetin. Dat berichtte het Kremlin donderdag.

Poetin feliciteerde Janoekovitsj maandag al, maar hij krabbelde de volgende dag terug omdat de einduitslagen nog niet binnen waren. De oppositie in Oekraïne heeft de verkiezingen als frauduleus afgedaan en betoogt al dagen massaal tegen de regering.

Verkiezingen

Oppositieleider Viktor Joesjtsjenko claimt de verkiezingen te hebben gewonnen. De voormalige Poolse president Lech Walesa is donderdag naar Kiev gegaan om te proberen te bemiddelen tussen het kamp van Janoekovitsj en dat van Joesjtsjenko.

quote:

Op donderdag 25 november 2004 12:31 schreef Drugshond het volgende:

[..]

Poetin weet dat er veel gedoe is rond deze verkiezingen, maar toch kiest hij partij..... Zou dat indirect ook zijn steun zijn om het conflict te verharden ?

quote:

Op donderdag 25 november 2004 12:49 schreef Joost-mag-het-weten het volgende:
Ondertussen heeft hij toch al zijn "felicitaties" aan de "verkozen" president ingetrokken.

quote:

Op donderdag 25 november 2004 12:49 schreef Joost-mag-het-weten het volgende:

[..]

Ondertussen heeft hij toch al zijn "felicitaties" aan de "verkozen" president ingetrokken.

quote:

Op donderdag 25 november 2004 19:29 schreef schatje het volgende:
[afbeelding]

(bron: Telegraaf)

Tjee, toen ik die foto zag moest ik meteen aan Carly, Rose en Emily denken. James Stenbeck ontvoerde de dames naar een Spa in België, waar een arts genaamd Dr. Weston experimenten op hen uitvoerde door stiekem een smerig goedje toe te dienen. Het gevolg hiervan was dat het verouderingsproces bij de dames versnelde en waardoor ze binnen een paar weken tijd het uiterlijk van bejaarde mensen kregen .

Dat van Viktor Joesjtsjenko is echter werkelijkheid .

quote:

Op donderdag 25 november 2004 19:29 schreef schatje het volgende:
[afbeelding]

(bron: Telegraaf)

Tjee, toen ik die foto zag moest ik meteen aan Carly, Rose en Emily denken. James Stenbeck ontvoerde de dames naar een Spa in België, waar een arts genaamd Dr. Weston experimenten op hen uitvoerde door stiekem een smerig goedje toe te dienen. Het gevolg hiervan was dat het verouderingsproces bij de dames versnelde en waardoor ze binnen een paar weken tijd het uiterlijk van bejaarde mensen kregen .

Dat van Viktor Joesjtsjenko is echter werkelijkheid .

quote:

Op donderdag 25 november 2004 19:34 schreef HarigeKerel het volgende:

[..]

Ohja die aflevering toen waren ze ook nog even in Nederland
ATWT

quote:

Op donderdag 25 november 2004 19:48 schreef telamomtepoepn het volgende:
ik heb alles gevolgd vanaf augustus en met alle zekerheid - zeker 2 hetzelfde personen. En ik ben onwijs blij dat Joeschenko in Wenen het ziekenhuis in ging en niet in Kiev - 100% zekerheid dat Koetsma ervoor zou zorgen dat de arts van hem omgekocht wordt met als einde dood van Joeschenko.
wat ook nog raar is - russische media(ik spreek russisch en oekraiens, kan ze beide dus volgen) zegt tegen de oost-Oekraieners met alle zekerheid dat Joeschenko nog niet hersteld is en ongeschikt is om het land te regeren. Dit terwijl al alle artsen bevestigd hebben dat hij hersteld is

quote:

Het Oekraïense hooggerechtshof gaat de klacht van oppositieleider Joesjtsjenko over kiezersbedrog onderzoeken. Totdat de klacht is bekeken, is het niet toegestaan de omstreden resultaten van de presidentsverkiezingen officieel te publiceren.Door het besluit van het hof kan de winnaar van de presidentsverkiezingen, de Russisch-gezinde Janoekovitsj, niet worden geïnstalleerd. Het hof wil zich maandag over de kwestie buigen.

quote:

VIENNA, 25 November 2004 - OSCE Secretary General Jan Kubis will visit Ukraine on Friday and Saturday to explore ways in which the 55-nation security body can contribute to a resolution of the political standoff following the presidential election.

At the request of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy, the Secretary General will hold consultations with state officials, senior representatives of political parties and representatives of the international community in Ukraine.

The Chairman-in-Office on Wednesday expressed concern over the present situation in Ukraine.

quote:

KIEV/WARSCHAU - Het Oekraïense hooggerechtshof gaat de klacht van oppositieleider Joesjtsjenko over kiezersbedrog onderzoeken. Totdat de klacht is bekeken, is het niet toegestaan de omstreden resultaten van de presidentsverkiezingen officieel te publiceren.

Door het besluit van het hof kan de winnaar van de presidentsverkiezingen, de Russisch-gezinde Janoekovitsj, niet worden geïnstalleerd. Het hof wil zich maandag over de kwestie buigen.


De pro-westerse Joesjtsjenko had eerder donderdag zijn protest tegen de Centrale Kiescommissie ingediend. Waarnemers spreken over een eerste overwinning van de oppositie in het conflict over de verkiezingen.

Fraude

De oppositie onder leiding van Joesjtsjenko vindt dat de Moskou-getrouwe premier Janoekovitsj door fraude winnaar is geworden. Ook tal van buitenlandse waarnemers stellen dat er op grote schaal is geknoeid. Joesjtsjenko houdt vol dat fraude hem de overwinning heeft gekost.

Om de oplopende spanning tussen machthebbers en hun tegenstanders te verminderen, willen buitenlandse toppolitici bemiddelen. Op verzoek van de vertrekkende Oekraïense president Koetsjma gaan de Poolse president Kwasniewski en eventueel zijn Litouwse ambtsgenoot Adamkus proberen een oplossing voor de politieke crisis te vinden.

Geen geweld

Kwasniewski wil aansturen op een onderzoek van de omstreden stembusuitslag en op een rondetafelconferentie met vertegenwoordigers van de strijdende partijen. Kwasniewski vindt wel dat machthebbers en oppositie moeten beloven af te zien van geweld.

Oppositieleider Joesjtsjenko erkende dat een buitenlandse bemiddelaar noodzakelijk is om de crisis "met vreedzame middelen" op te lossen. Hij benadrukte dat de onderhandelingen niet achter de schermen plaats moeten vinden maar in het openbaar. "Ik weet dat het moeilijk onderhandelen is met deze machthebbers", hield Joesjtsjenko zijn aanhangers voor op het Onafhankelijkheidsplein in Kiev. Hij verscheen daar met de Poolse oud-president Walesa, die door de oppositieleider was benaderd om te bemiddelen.

Staking

Joesjtsjenko riep de strijdkrachten op zich aan te sluiten bij de algemene staking die hij eerder afkondigde. Zijn politieke medestandster Julia Timosjenko vroeg de bevolking tijdens de staking spoorwegen, autowegen en luchthavens te blokkeren en gebouwen van de overheid te omsingelen. In de stad Lviv legden veel leraren hun werk neer.

Opnieuw dromden tienduizenden aanhangers van de oppositie in het centrum van Kiev samen om hun steun te betuigen met Joesjtsjenko. Ook 's nachts trotseerden talrijke aanhangers de vrieskou. Uit onvrede over de gang van zaken rond de verkiezingen diende de Oekraïense onderminister van Economische Zaken, Haiduk, zijn ontslag in. Samen met een openbaar aanklager is hij de eerste hoge overheidsfunctionaris die opstapt naar aanleiding van de omstreden stembusgang.

quote:

DEN HAAG - Premier Balkenende noemt het resultaat van de presidentsverkiezingen in Oekraïne niet acceptabel. "De EU kan het resultaat van de verkiezingen niet accepteren zoals het er nu ligt", aldus de premier donderdag na afloop van een top tussen EU en Rusland in Den Haag, die hij voorzat.

Bekijk video: Modem/ Breedband


Daarmee stond de premier lijnrecht tegenover de Russische president Poetin, die de Oekraïense regeringskandidaat Janoekovitsj donderdagochtend voor vertrek naar Den Haag zelfs al feliciteerde.

Fouten herstellen

Balkenende concludeerde dit op basis van een rapport van waarnemers van de Organisatie voor Veiligheid en Samenwerking in Europa (OVSE). Hij drong er ook op dat de Oekraïense autoriteiten alle klachten onderzoeken en de fouten herstellen. "De toekomst van Oekraïne moet in handen liggen van het Oekraïense volk. Niet de Europese Unie beslist, maar het Oekraïense volk zelf."

Balkenende riep verder ook op tot dialoog. Alleen op dit punt leek de Russische president Poetin het echt eens met de EU. Poetin stelde na afloop van de top dat "alle problemen in Oekraïne moeten worden opgelost via de wet". "De democratische wetten zijn van toepassing in Oekraïne. Er is gekozen op basis van een kieswet die door het Oekraiense parlement is aangenomen en waarvoor de oppositie de hoofdauteur was."

Afkeuren

Poetin zei verder dat "wij niet het recht hebben ons op wat voor manier dan ook te mengen in het verkiezingsproces in Oekraïne of onze mening op te dringen". "Het is helemaal niet nodig het resultaat van buiten goed of af te keuren." Hij ontkende verder op vragen van Russische media dat zijn land passief is geweest.

De Russische president waarschuwde de EU voor het aanwakkeren van de chaos in zijn buurland. "Ik ben ervan overtuigd dat wij ethisch niet het recht hebben een grote Europese staat tot chaos te brengen. We moeten meningsverschillen niet uitspelen en niet aanzetten tot wanorde op straat. Dit moet aan de hand van de grondwet worden opgelost, op vreedzame wijze."

quote:

Op vrijdag 26 november 2004 04:52 schreef telamomtepoepn het volgende:
1+1 en Inter = twee van de drie staatszenderrs hebben vcanaf nu beloofd om waarheid uit te zenden...................ik weet zeker dat het goed gaat aflopen

quote:

Op donderdag 25 november 2004 22:28 schreef ultra_ivo het volgende:
Timothy Garton Ash bevestigde in de NRC mijn vermoedens dat OTPOR bij het geheel betrokken is. Oekraïense oppositieleden hebben les gekregen van OTPOR-leden (studenten uit Belgrado) in het op een geweldloze manier ten val brengen van een ongewenste regering.

quote:

Op vrijdag 26 november 2004 18:49 schreef GeFrenzy2 het volgende:

[..]

Heeft OTPOR trouwens een normale homepage? Otpor.com is alleen een plaatje...

quote:

Op vrijdag 26 november 2004 20:28 schreef Onverlaatje het volgende:
Webcams !

http://onverlaat.net/kiev/

quote:

Ukraine rivals seek end to crisis

Outgoing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma says the two rivals in the country's election crisis have begun a dialogue and reject any use of force.
He also said a joint working group had been set up.

The meeting - in the capital, Kiev - is taking place in the presence of European and Russian mediators.

Mr Kuchma earlier urged opposition supporters, who dispute the result of the weekend poll, to put a stop to their mass protests in Kiev.


Mr Kuchma is meeting the country's rivals for the presidency, Viktor Yanukovych and Viktor Yushchenko.

It is the first time the rivals have met since standing against one another in the disputed presidential election on Sunday.

The meeting included European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus and Boris Gryzlov, speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has expressed concern about foreign involvement in the crisis.

"In some European capitals, there are some forces that are attempting to draw some new border lines across Europe," he is quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

US President George W Bush said the international community was watching developments carefully.

"People are paying very close attention to this, and hopefully it will be resolved in a way that brings credit and confidence to the Ukrainian government."

'Coup attempt'

In the eastern region of Luhansk, the council has voted in favour of setting up a separate republic, the Ukrainian news agency (UNIAN) reports.

The agency says the council voted by 84 votes to one in favour of forming an executive committee that will assume full powers in the region.

It was also reported that another member of Ukraine's central election commission had withdrawn her signature from the country's official presidential election results, leaving 10 of the 15 names on the document, Ukrainian news agencies say.

The official results have to be signed by a majority, ie eight members of the commission, for them to remain valid.

In Kiev, Prime Minister Yanukovych has accused the opposition, who is blocking access to government buildings, of attempting to stage a coup.

He told a large crowd of his supporters in Kiev that they should do everything they could to stop it.

More than 10,000 of his supporters have also gathered at the city's railway station, and are said to be awaiting his instructions.

Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko's campaign appears to be gaining momentum as police cadets and TV stations have come out in support of him, say correspondents.

Hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters are gathered in central Kiev, waving orange banners and singing after spending their fifth consecutive night on the streets.

Thousands more protesters surrounded nearby government buildings, including the residence of President Kuchma, as part of a campaign of civil disobedience.

Parliament has announced it will hold an emergency debate on Saturday to discuss the political crisis.


Click here to see a regional breakdown of the official results
Mr Kuchma appeared in a televised address earlier on Friday urging "this so-called revolution" to end.

"Calm your passion. Any revolution must end with peace. The sooner this revolution, this so-called revolution, is over, the better it will be for the people whose fate concerns us so much," he said.

Controversial results

According to the official election result, the pro-Russian Mr Yanukovych won with 49.46% of the vote against Mr Yushchenko's 46.61%.

But supporters of Mr Yushchenko, who favours closer ties with the EU, say the authorities oversaw massive fraud and independent observers reported widespread abuses.

Ukraine's Supreme Court suspended the presidential poll result on Thursday to consider the opposition's complaints.

The court insists no final assessment of the election can be made until it has examined Mr Yushchenko's appeal against the electoral authority's decision on Monday.

Correspondents say the Supreme Court has in the past shown itself to be independent-minded. It cannot invalidate the whole election, but can force regional recounts.

quote:

Donetsk rallies around its man
By Lina Kushch
BBC News, Donetsk


The scene in Donetsk is the mirror image of the scene in Kiev.

Here people are celebrating victory - the victory of Viktor Yanukovych. There is a party atmosphere with music every evening in the central square.

On Thursday, a small group of about 100 supporters of Viktor Yushchenko held a rally in the square before the discotheque started up.

The staff of Mr Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party and the Socialist Party had nothing to do with it, on the grounds that it could provoke violence.

The demonstrators shouted "Yushchenko! Yushchenko!" and "We are for honest elections!" as a group of young men stood by shouting "Yanukovych! Yanukovych!" and casting insults.

They told me they had just returned from demonstrating in Kiev, where they were a small minority, compared with the vast crowds of Yushchenko supporters.

There was no fight, but there could have been. The authorities here supported Mr Yanukovych, and they might not try very hard to prevent attacks on Yushchenko supporters.

Local man

People in Donetsk voted for Viktor Yanukovych because he is "our man". He was born here, he worked here, for five years he was governor and they know him.

Mr Yushchenko is a stranger. He is seen as nationalist, partly because he speaks Ukrainian instead of Russian, the native language of people here.

People also associate him with America and the West, whereas the mood here is pro-Russian.

It would be hard to say that Mr Yanukovych succeeded in doing a huge amount for Donetsk in his period as governor. It was a difficult time - there were delays paying wages and pensions and the coal industry was in trouble.

But he did what he could for the region.

Donetsk makes up 10% of Ukraine's population and provides 20% of GDP.

Everyone knows this, but Mr Yanukovych often draws attention to the fact and argues that the region's wealth should be spent here instead of feeding the rest of the country - he made a lot of this during the election campaign.

People do not accept allegations made by his opponents that he is linked to the "Donetsk Mafia". They see things differently - they think it is good that he has lobbied in Kiev over the years on behalf of local businesses.

Moreover, they resent the fact that Mr Yushchenko, in his time as prime minister, scotched Mr Yanukovych's attempts to set up a regional energy company, independent from the rest of the Ukrainian energy system.

Miners' trump card

Hoardings and light box posters bearing the words "Yanukovych, president of Ukraine" started going up three hours before the Central Electoral Commission officially declared him the winner.

On the whole, people reject the claims that there was widespread falsification here during the election while Yushchenko supporters say:


their people were expelled from electoral commissions on the eve of the vote

observers and journalists were prevented from entering polling stations

turnout - which reached 100% in one in six polling stations in the region - was implausibly high.

Most people do not see anything strange in this though others, who are more politically aware, realise that the election may not have proceeded exactly as it should have.

If, at any point, Mr Yushchenko is declared president the situations in Kiev and Donetsk will reverse.

The Donetsk miners - who of course did not answer Mr Yushchenko's strike call - will stop work and go to Kiev, leaving the country without coal in the middle of winter.

Mr Yushchenko's supporters will take down their tents outside parliament and the presidential administration and the miners will erect theirs in their place.

quote:

Russian troop presence in Ukraine alleged

"Some 800 Russian spetsnaz troops, perhaps as much as 1000, are in Ukraine armed to their teeth," Tarasyuk, a former foreign minister, told Poland's parliament

"Spetsnaz is preparing to meet the Ukrainian people in the heart of Ukraine, in its capital ... . Our deputies saw first hand spetsnaz troops at the presidential administrative building, armed with machine guns and live ammunition."

quote:

123 Teletekst za 27 nov
***************************************
Joesjtsjenko:stemmen op 12 december

***************************************
KIEV Oppositieleider Joesjtsjenko heeft
in het gesprek met premier Janoekovitsj
verklaard dat hij op 12 december nieuwe
presidentsverkiezingen wenst te houden
onder een nieuwe kiescommissie.

Die verkiezingen zouden onder controle
van de OVSE moeten plaatsvinden.Hij
wees het voorstel af om de rechter naar
de onregelmatigheden bij de stembusgang
van zondag te laten kijken.

In het centrum van Kiev zijn nog steeds
duizenden betogers in de vrieskou op de
been.Zij blokkeerden regeringsgebouwen
in de stad.Ook veel aanhangers van de
pro-Russische premier Janoekovitsj zijn
naar de Oekraïense hoofdstad gekomen.
************************zie ook 122 ***

quote:

Op zaterdag 27 november 2004 00:58 schreef zakjapannertje het volgende:

[..]

''...Hij wees het voorstel af om de rechter naar
de onregelmatigheden bij de stembusgang
van zondag te laten kijken...''

hmm, hoe kan je dan echt lering uit zoiets trekken dan, of komt er een parlementaire enquete later oid

quote:

How the US and Britain are intervening in Ukraine’s elections

...Contrary allegations — such as those of fraud committed by Yushchenko-supporting local authorities in western Ukraine, carefully detailed by Russian election observers but available only in Russian — go unreported. So too does evidence of crude intimidation made by Yushchenko supporters against election officials. The depiction is so skewed that Yushchenko is presented as a pro-Western free-marketeer, even though his fief in western Ukraine is an economic wasteland; while Yanukovych is presented as pro-Russian and statist, even though his electoral campaign is based on deregulation and the economy has been growing at an impressive clip. The cleanliness and prosperity of Kiev and other cities have improved noticeably.

There is, however, one thing which separates the two main candidates, and which explains the West’s determination to shoo in Yushchenko: Nato. Yanukovych has said he is against Ukraine joining; Yushchenko is in favour. The West wants Ukraine in Nato to weaken Russia geopolitically and to have a new big client state for expensive Western weaponry, whose manufacturers fund so much of the US political process.

quote:

Op zaterdag 27 november 2004 01:48 schreef HarigeKerel het volgende:
Alsof de OVSE wel onafhankelijk is
Jammer voor Poetin maar hij heeft deze slag verloren.

quote:

Russian Political Scientist Blames Polish Conspiracy for Ukraine Election Crisis

Renowned Russian political scientist Sergei Markov told reporters in Moscow on Thursday that the ongoing political crisis in Ukraine was in fact a Polish conspiracy with the aim of imposing Polish patronage over Ukraine and thus raising Polish influence within the European Union.

“Yushchenko’s electoral campaign has been developed within the Polish diaspora abroad and its ideological basis was prepared by former U.S. national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski and his two sons,” the Newsru.com web-site quoted Markov as saying.....

....He added that the original plan is for Poland to impose its patronage over Ukraine. Polish politicians are seeking more influence within the European Union, currently dominated by France and Germany, and to achieve this, they want to become patrons of the whole of Central and Eastern Europe, the Russian analyst said.

quote:

Oekraïens parlement noemt verkiezingen ongeldig

Uitgegeven: 27 november 2004 11:59
Laatst gewijzigd: 27 november 2004 14:37

KIEV - Het parlement van Oekraïne is van mening dat de tweede ronde van de presidentsverkiezingen van zondag ongeldig is en niet de wens van het volk weergeeft. Dat is de uitkomst van de spoedzitting over de omstreden verkiezingen, die het parlement zaterdag hield.

De pro-Russische premier Viktor Janoekovitsj won de verkiezingen, maar volgens de oppositie en internationale waarnemers is er massaal gefraudeerd tijdens de stembusgang en bij het tellen van de stemmen. Oppositieleider en presidentskandidaat Viktor Joesjtsjenko en zijn aanhang erkennen de uitslag niet.
Ruim vierhonderd afgevaardigden van zowel regering als oppositie namen deel aan de spoedzitting. Zij stemden in ruime meerderheid voor de afkeuring van de verkiezingen.

quote:

Ukrainian MPs reject poll result

Ukraine's parliament has declared last Sunday's presidential poll invalid.
MPs backed a resolution saying the result of the run-off election was "at odds with the will of the people".

Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych was declared the winner, but challenger Viktor Yushchenko has alleged fraud and refused to accept the result.

While the parliament cannot overturn the result, its views may carry weight with the supreme court, which meets on Monday to examine the fraud claims.

The parliament met in emergency session in the capital Kiev to discuss the crisis, and its proceedings were broadcast live on all national TV channels and to thousands of opposition protesters gathered outside the building.

A majority of MPs also passed a vote of no-confidence in the country's Central Elections Commission, which like the other vote was not legally binding.


Click here to see a regional breakdown of the official results
Ahead of the vote on the resolution, parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn told MPs that the most realistic solution would be to invalidate the poll.

"The logical issue to be raised is to declare the election politically invalid because the true will of the people is now impossible to establish," he said.

Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot - speaking for the European Union - said the "ideal outcome" for Ukraine would be to hold new elections.

Mr Bot told reporters in The Hague that a new poll should take place before the end of this year.

The EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, who has been taking part in mediation efforts in Kiev, has described last Sunday's vote as fraudulent, adding that future relations with Ukraine depend on a democratic resolution.

Street protests

Mr Yushchenko has called on thousands of his supporters to remain camped on the streets of Kiev until they achieve victory.

Rival protests have been staged in the eastern city of Donetsk by supporters of Mr Yanukovych. Many of them say the eastern region of Ukraine would secede rather than accept Mr Yushchenko as head of state.

Mr Yanukovych and Mr Yushchenko held talks on Friday, but agreed only to continue talking and to seek a peaceful solution.

Saturday's Ukrainian parliament meeting was its first gathering since a chaotic session earlier this week when Mr Yushchenko symbolically took an oath of office.

The rival candidates have set up a working group to discuss possible solutions which was also expected to meet on Saturday.

Independent observers, including some from the EU, have said the elections were flawed.

Moscow, however, has publicly backed Mr Yanukovych and says the dispute should be settled in the courts and not on the streets.

Mr Yushchenko's party wants the repeat vote to be held on 12 December, under the supervision of the Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Mr Yanukovych has accused the opposition, which has been blocking access to government buildings, of attempting to stage a coup.

According to the official election result, the pro-Russian Mr Yanukovych won with 49.46% of the vote against Mr Yushchenko's 46.61%.

The supreme court suspended the presidential poll result on Thursday to consider the opposition's complaints.

quote:

US campaign behind the turmoil in Kiev


With their websites and stickers, their pranks and slogans aimed at banishing widespread fear of a corrupt regime, the democracy guerrillas of the Ukrainian Pora youth movement have already notched up a famous victory - whatever the outcome of the dangerous stand-off in Kiev.
Ukraine, traditionally passive in its politics, has been mobilised by the young democracy activists and will never be the same again.

But while the gains of the orange-bedecked "chestnut revolution" are Ukraine's, the campaign is an American creation, a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in western branding and mass marketing that, in four countries in four years, has been used to try to salvage rigged elections and topple unsavoury regimes.

Funded and organised by the US government, deploying US consultancies, pollsters, diplomats, the two big American parties and US non-government organisations, the campaign was first used in Europe in Belgrade in 2000 to beat Slobodan Milosevic at the ballot box.

>>verder

quote:

Op zondag 28 november 2004 08:36 schreef ultra_ivo het volgende:
De beschuldigingen van Amerikaanse propgaganda en invloed heb ik ook al gehoord. Ik vind het nu wat overtrokken. Zeker is er een economisch belang bij, maar met George Soros als hoofdfinancier is democratie toch de hoofdinsteek. En ik zou zeker niet gaan knuffelen met Koetsjma alleen maar omdat de VS wat steun aan Joetsjenko geeft. Dit soort koude oorlogsdenken heeft al teveel ellende veroorzaakt.

quote:

Op zondag 28 november 2004 19:22 schreef NorthernStar het volgende:


Ik denk dat het gewoon de realiteit is. Het establishment gaat de dienst uitmaken, het is alleen nog de vraag welke. En als je dan weet dat er niks spontaans is aan dit soort 'rozenrevoluties' maar gewoon wordt georganiseerd door de 'powers that be' vind ik het enigzins treurig om die mensen daar te zien staan.

Ongeacht de uikomst stond al vast dat deze confrontatie er zou komen dus hoezo democratie?

Het maakt niet uit wie wint, de burgers verliezen altijd imo.

quote:

Op zondag 28 november 2004 19:26 schreef HarigeKerel het volgende:

De mensen die ik gesproken heb die onlangs nog in Georgie hebben verbleven zijn van mening dat het sinds de laatste putsch daar wel beter toeven is voor de burgers.
Dus dat burgers altijd verliezen betwist ik.

quote:

Het Oosten van de Oekraine zou aansluiting bij Rusland willen las ik onlangs, wellicht dat dat de prijs is waar Rusland zijn ogen op heeft.

quote:

Op zondag 28 november 2004 19:38 schreef HarigeKerel het volgende:
Opzich is het wel "jammer" dat het nu plaats heeft gevonden voor Rusland want zoals het nu met de economie van Rusland gaat zou ik mij best kunnen voorstellen dat de Oekrainers over 10 jaar zouden demonstreren voor een hechtere band met Rusland ala wat Loekasjenko ook in gedachte had maar wat er maar niet van lijkt te komen.
Mij maakt het verder weinig uit maar intressant is het wel.

quote:

Op zondag 28 november 2004 20:49 schreef ultra_ivo het volgende:
of je nu door de kat of de hond gebeten wordt....
Toch zie ik hier niet zo'n enorm zware hand van Washington, eerder een zware hand van Brussel

quote:

Op zondag 28 november 2004 21:12 schreef Monidique het volgende:
Ik vind de situatie nu, waarin regio's dreigen met afsplitsing, bijzonder interessant. Ik acht het goed mogelijk dat, mocht Joesjenko president worden, de regio's zich ook daadwerkelijk afsplitsen en dan, samen met Wit-Rusland, opgaan in een nieuwe soortement Slavische federatie.

Uiteraard is dit met de natte vinger in de lucht, want ik ben nooit in 't land geweest of weet er ook maar iets van.

quote:

...
Many Russians have never fully accepted Ukraine's breakaway from the Soviet Union in 1991, analysts say. A poll conducted last weekend by the Moscow-based Levada Center found that nearly 70 percent of Russians do not consider Ukraine a foreign state.

"Historically, many Russians in the ruling elite still, after 13 years, consider Ukrainian independence to be an aberration," said Markian Bilynskyj, an analyst with the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, a Kiev-based group advocating democracy. ...

quote:

Judges step into Ukraine crisis

Ukraine's Supreme Court is considering claims of massive fraud in the presidential elections, amid calls to prevent the country breaking up.
The court has begun hearing opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko's appeal against the official poll result.

Supporters of his rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, have said they will hold a referendum on autonomy if Mr Yushchenko is declared winner.

But the court has now said it will not issue any ruling on Monday.


Partition fears

Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma said on Monday he could not accept any division of Ukraine, after talks with regional leaders who have threatened to demand autonomy.


Click here to see a regional breakdown of the official results
"My position is that we cannot allow the division of Ukraine," Mr Kuchma said in televised remarks.

His warning was echoed by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who said "the unity of Ukraine is fundamental".


Speaking in Brussels after a meeting with EU and Nato ambassadors, he said dialogue must continue in Ukraine and "what we have to avoid is the outbreak of violence".


Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer agreed that maintaining Ukraine's territorial integrity was essential.

"The sense of belonging to one nation is very important and on that basis a solution should be found," he said.

Fears of a split in Ukraine intensified after the eastern Donetsk region on Sunday scheduled a referendum on autonomy.

Officials from some other regions also met to consider seeking autonomy in case Mr Yushchenko - a pro-Western liberal - becomes president.

The parliament of Donetsk region will hold an emergency session on Tuesday to consider the plan to hold a referendum on 5 December.

Focus on court

Near the court building in central Kiev, several thousand rival supporters stood together, shouting "Yu-shchen-ko!" and "Yanu-ko-vych!" and waving the orange flags of the opposition and blue-and-white Yanukovych flags.

Last week the court suspended the official results, which saw Mr Yanukovych, who is seen as pro-Russian, declared the winner with 49.46% of the vote to Mr Yushchenko's 46.61%.

Mr Yushchenko's team has submitted thousands of allegations of ballot-rigging to regional courts and one complaint to the Supreme Court.

But the government has also lodged 7,000 complaints of irregularities to regional courts.


Mr Yushchenko has declared himself the rightful winner, alleging massive fraud. His concerns have been backed by international observers.


The Russian government has suggested it might reverse its opposition to a new election. The EU has already called for a re-run.

But the Supreme Court could take up to a week to reach a decision.

The court - seen as relatively independent - cannot invalidate the whole election, but it can uphold a complaint and order a partial or full recount.

It could on the other hand proclaim Mr Yanukovych the winner.

The BBC's Jonathan Charles in Donetsk says the referendum warning and the more measured response of other eastern areas is clearly meant to be a threat - a way of putting pressure on the crisis talks.

Addressing his supporters earlier, Mr Yushchenko made it clear he would not tolerate a break-up of the country.

"Those people who will raise the issue of separatism will be held criminally responsible under the Ukrainian constitution," he said.

Meanwhile, the head of Mr Yanukovych's campaign team, Serhiy Tyhypko - who also headed the Ukrainian central bank - has resigned from both posts.

Mr Tyhypko said Mr Yanukovych had been badly advised to support moves in the Donbass towards a referendum on autonomy. He said talk of splitting Ukraine was "madness".

quote:

Behind the scenes at Kiev's rally
By Stephen Mulvey
BBC News, Kiev

Ukraine's non-stop political rally in Kiev's main square is becoming something close to a state within a state.

It has a population of hundreds of thousands, leaders and a flag.

There is no need for currency, because everything from food to clothing and medication is free.

On Sunday, a map was issued under the title: "Free Territory".

It shows the main buildings around the square where demonstrators can get information, eat, drink, go to the toilet or doss down for the night.

Loudspeakers blast

If the territory were to have a name, it should probably be Maidan, after the Ukrainian for Independence Square - Maidan Nezalezhnosti.

A slogan sometimes blasted from the loudspeakers is: "Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Maidan! Glory to Yushchenko!"

In the first days of the rally, messages were broadcast from loudspeakers telling demonstrators that they could re-charge their mobile phones in such-and-such a building, or calling for volunteers to unload mattresses or felt boots from a lorry.

In the same way, they recruited electricians and plumbers to get their buildings into shape.

Now activists say the operation has become more slick.

One of the key Maidan nerve centres is the former Lenin Museum. Goods donated by well-wishers are collected and distributed here, while food is cooked and served.

It is run by several commandants, working in shifts, backed up by numerous co-ordinators and has thousands of visitors each day.

The timetable is as follows:

0800 - Wake up
0800-1000 - Breakfast
0930 - Announcement of programme for the day
1000-1400 - Cleaning (building closed)
1400-1700 - Lunch
1700-1800 - Cleaning (building closed)
2000-2200 - Dinner
0000 - Lights out
One of the services on offer is an accommodation agency. Sympathisers call up to offer rooms for the night, and demonstrators in search of shelter are put in touch with them

The tent village strung out at various points along the city's famous main street, the Hreshchatik, is only for the most die-hard protesters.

This is partly because it is cold - one night it was -10C - and partly because there is a fear that the police could storm the camp and disperse or arrest its inhabitants.

One of the deputy commandants of the tent village outside the main post office, 21-year-old law student Natalia Tkachuk, says that despite the discomforts she will not leave until victory has been attained.

Student protest

"My father agrees that we have to struggle for democracy but my mother cries constantly and appeals to me to come back," she says.

"She tries to stop me leaving home - but there is nothing that could stop me."

Natalia is the deputy leader for the Kiev region of a student protest group called Pora, modelled on the Serbian group Otpor, which played a key role in the ousting of Slobodan Milosevic.

In spring she attended lectures in Kiev by Otpor leader Alexander Maric.

On the coldest nights, Natalia says, she and her friends dress each other in coat after coat, until they resemble mummies.

Despite the success in organising essential services, chaos still reigns in some areas.

The huge numbers of people in the tent camps were uncontrollable for a time, Natalia says, though administration is now improving.

The Trade Union building on the Maidan, used as an a campaign headquarters, is still completely swamped with people at some times of day.

Leaders of groups arriving from villages and towns across the country have to register here for meal tickets. They surge up and down a narrow staircase shoulder to shoulder and cheek by jowl, frequently getting jammed solid.

"Honestly, we were not ready for this," says Anatoly Kobylyatsky, who describes himself as an activist as well as a journalist with the Pravda Ukraini newspaper.

"We were expecting 30,000 or 40,000 and we got 10 or 20 times as many."

quote:

Premier Oekraïne opent deur naar nieuwe stembusgang

Uitgegeven: 29 november 2004 14:10
Laatst gewijzigd: 29 november 2004 16:55

KIEV - De Oekraïense premier en presidentskandidaat Janoekovitsj zal instemmen met een nieuwe stembusgang in twee oostelijke regio's als blijkt dat daar tijdens de presidentsverkiezingen van 21 november inderdaad massaal is gefraudeerd.

Dat zei de eerste minister maandag op televisie. Hij refereerde aan twee regio's in het oosten van het land waar volgens de oppositie is gesjoemeld met de uitslagen, in het voordeel van de pro-Russische Janoekovitsj.

quote:

Op zaterdag 27 november 2004 15:40 schreef Drugshond het volgende:
Prima hoor deze bijdrages..... zo lees ik inhoudelijk de situatie in de Oekraine...van wat daar leeft onder de bevolking. Ben benieuwd wanneer daar de fluwelen/kastanje revolutie een feit is.
En wat wit-Rusland dan nog gaat doen ?!....in ieder geval zullen ze het er niet makkelijker op krijgen.

quote:

Op maandag 29 november 2004 20:21 schreef Tijger_m het volgende:
Staar je nu niet blind op een zogenaamde revolutie van het volk, dat is het bepaald niet, het is een strijd tussen groot-kapitaal en apparatsjiks.

quote:

Op maandag 29 november 2004 20:29 schreef Joost-mag-het-weten het volgende:

[..]

Is dit niet vooral een strijd tussen het Katholieke westelijke deel van Oekraine , waar de "moderne" industrie en landbouwgebied ligt , en het Orthodoxe oostelijke deel van Oekraine , de mijnstreek , met de "oudere" sovjet-industrie ?

quote:

Zeker is er een economisch belang bij, maar met George Soros als hoofdfinancier is democratie toch de hoofdinsteek.

quote:

Russian President Putin planning to glue together the most powerful superpower coalition in the world - India, China, Russia and Brazil

This will challenge the superpower supremacy of America as well as the European Union. The Chinese are concerned about American and European influence over the world. So is India, Brazil and Russia.

quote:

Op dinsdag 30 november 2004 03:17 schreef Merovingian. het volgende:

Het was niet direct je bedoeling....maar absoluut bedankt voor de "Soros remark".

quote:

Op dinsdag 30 november 2004 03:38 schreef Merovingian. het volgende:
Putin is trouwens al enige tijd druk aan de weg aan timmeren. Dit is bv een recent bericht, wat de zoveelste bevestiging is van tientallen eerdere berichten:
[..]

IndiaDaily (ze vergeten Iran en NK als "front landen" van Rusland en China)

Dit is een groot probleem aangezien deze landen rondom 80% van de olie en gasreserves zitten, waar de VS en EU waanzinnig afhankelijk van zijn. (Beide continenten zijn gepiekt...EU eind 1999)

In Zuid-Amerika, Noord & West-Afrika, het Midden-Oosten en in Rusland zelf staan deze 3 blokken (EU, US & het Putin/China blok) steeds meer te trekken voor macht. Ook in Georgië en Tjetjenië is de constante touwtrekkerij te zien. En nu zie je het ook weer in Ukraine....Het Putin-blok tegen de EU, hoewel de media Rusland graag afspiegelen als een pro-westers land sinds de val van de muur. Ze moeten niks hebben van de EU, Navo, of de klassieke NWO.

quote:

Op maandag 29 november 2004 23:00 schreef Joost-mag-het-weten het volgende:
Die Uniaatskerk maakt volgens mij toch echt deel uit van de Katholieke kerk hoor, al is ze inderdaad sterk Orthodox beinvloed, maar dat zijn zowat alle "Katholieke" kerken binnen Oost-Europa.

quote:

Maar je kunt toch moeilijk ontkennen dat het "hart" van de machtsbasis van Yuchenko in dat deel van Oekraine ligt ? Maar zoals je zegt , het "Westerse" deel van Oekraine is véél verdeelder dan het "Russische" deel , maar ze hebben hun "haat" tov Rusland en het huidige regime gemeenschappelijk.

quote:

Journalisten staatsmedia lopen over naar Oekraïense oppositie
Uitgegeven op 30 november 2004 om 19:56 uur, bijgewerkt om 20:16

Tientallen journalisten van de staatstelevisie en andere nieuwsmedia in Oekraïne hebben zich de afgelopen dagen aangesloten bij de oppositie. Weinigen gingen echter zover als doventolk Natalja Dimitroek, die vorige week op eigen initiatief het nieuws voor gehoorgestoorden wijzigde. Terwijl de luisteraars van de nieuwslezer te horen kregen dat de overwinning in de presidentsverkiezingen naar premier Viktor Janoekovitsj ging, kregen de doven een hele andere boodschap.

,,De uitslagen van de Centrale Kiescommissie zijn vervalst, geloof ze niet", gebaarde Dimitroek. Zij gaf vervolgens de overwinning aan oppositiekandidaat Viktor Joesjtsjenko en verontschuldigde zich omdat ze in het verleden gedwongen was te liegen. ,,Ik zal het niet weer doen", gebaarde ze.

Ondertussen is bezorgdheid gerezen over geweld tegen journalisten die de zijde van de oppositie kiezen. De groepering Verslaggevers zonder Grenzen eist een onderzoek naar de mishandeling van Henadi Ribtsjenkov, een verslaggever van het oppositieblad Oekraina Tsentr in het oosten van het land. Ribtsjenkov werd vorige week gemolesteerd. Zijn belagers gaven hem te verstaan voortaan Janoekovitsj te steunen.

De vertegenwoordiger mediavrijheid van de Organisatie voor Veiligheid en Samenwerking in Europa (OVSE), Miklos Haraszti, waarschuwde de Oekraïense autoriteiten dinsdag tegen intimidatie van journalisten en het uit de lucht halen van kritische programma's en stations. Haraszti zei dat uitzendingen van TV5, een station dat de oppositie steunt, in de regio's Donetsk, Loehansk, Charkiv en Oezjorod worden geblokkeerd. In Loehansk en Donetsk zijn ook de uitzendingen van een ander oppositiestation, TV Era, uit de lucht gehaald. Daarnaast zijn in Loehansk 35.000 exemplaren in beslag genomen van een nieuwsbrief die de oppositie steunt. Ook zijn er verslaggevers mishandeld.

quote:

161 tt-TV1 161 do 02 dec 17:37:36
buitenland ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

VOORLOPIG VERANDERT NIETS IN KIEV
­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­
De Oekraïnse premier Viktor
Janoekovitsj weigert op te stappen.
Nochtans heeft het Oekraïnse parlement
woensdag een motie van wantrouwen tegen
zijn regering aangenomen.

Janoekovitsj zegt dat hij premier
blijft tot er nieuwe verkiezingen
komen.

Janoekovitsj en Joesjtsjenko zijn nu
trouwens overeengekomen dat ze zich
zullen neerleggen bij het oordeel van
het Hooggerechthof over de voorbije
verkiezingen.

Het Hooggerechsthof is nog steeds
bijeen om te onderzoeken of er fraude
is gepleegd bij die stembusgang.

quote:

Poetin tegen nieuwe verkiezingen Oekraïne
Uitgegeven op 02 december 2004 om 17:55 uur, bijgewerkt om 18:02

De Russische president Vladimir Poetin heeft zich donderdag na een onderhoud met zijn Oekraïense ambtgenoot Leonid Koetsjma uitgesproken tegen nieuwe verkiezingen in Oekraïne. Volgens Poetin heeft oppositieleider Viktor Joesjtsjenko de politieke situatie in Oekraïne gedestabiliseerd en is er geen aanleiding voor het herhalen van de tweede stemronde, zoals Joesjtsjenko eist. ,,En daarna nog een stemronde, en daarna nog een, net zo lang totdat het gewenste resultaat wordt bereikt?", aldus een sarcastische Poetin.

Volgens de Russische president, die de pro-Russische Viktor Janoekovitsj steunt, moet de Oekraïense oppositie zich neerleggen bij de verkiezingsnederlaag van Joesjtsjenko. Poetin herhaalde zijn waarschuwing aan het Westen zich niet te mengen in de crisis in Oekraïne. Koetsjma heeft nieuwe presidentsverkiezingen voorgesteld om uit de politieke crisis te geraken die sinds de omstreden tweede stemronde op 21 november is ontstaan.

Bush zei donderdag dat als er nieuwe verkiezingen komen, wat op dit moment de meest waarschijnlijke uitkomst lijkt van het overleg tussen regering en oppositie, die vrij moeten zijn van ,,buitenlandse invloeden". Zonder het uit te spreken lijkt Bush echter niet zoals Poetin op Europa te doelen, maar op Rusland, dat niet graag ziet dat Oekraïne zich aan de Russische invloedssfeer onttrekt. Koetsjma verklaarde dat Russische bemoeienis bij de verkiezingen in Oekraïne ,,vanzelfsprekend en gewenst" is.

In de Oekraïense hoofdstad Kiev bleef de situatie donderdag rustig. Na een woensdag gesloten akkoord over het beperken van demonstraties bij overheidsgebouwen, wachten de meeste oppositie-aanhangers de uitspraak van het hooggerechtshof over de stembusgang van twee weken terug af. De verwachting is dat het hof donderdag of vrijdag uitspraak doet. De rechtsgang over de verkiezingen wordt iedere dag uitgezonden op de Oekraïense televisie.

[Copyright 2004, Novum Nieuws / Associated Press]

quote:

IMF Sponsored "Democracy" in The Ukraine - by Michel Chossudovsky

Opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko......is not only supported by the IMF and the international financial community, he also has the endorsement of The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) , the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace , Freedom House and George Soros' Open Society Institute , which played a behind the scenes role last year in helping "topple Georgia's president Eduard Shevardnadze by putting financial muscle and organizational metal behind his opponents." (New Statesman, 29 November 2004)

....In 1993, Viktor Yushchenko was appointed head of the newly-formed National Bank of Ukraine. Hailed as a "daring reformer", he was among the main architects of the IMF's deadly economic medicine which served to impoverish The Ukraine and destroy its economy....

...Yushchenko as Head of the Central Bank was responsible for deregulating the national currency under the October 1994 "shock treatment":

- The price of bread increased overnight by 300 percent,
- electricity prices by 600 percent,
- public transportation by 900 percent.
- the standard of living tumbled

quote:

165 165 tt-TV1 vr 3 dec 17:44.39
buitenland ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

DE 2E RONDE IN OEKRAINE IS ONGELDIG
­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­
Volgens het Oekraïense Hooggerechtshof
was de tweede ronde van de presidents-
verkiezingen ongeldig. Dat betekent dat
er nieuwe verkiezingen moeten komen.

Hoe en wanneer die moeten plaatsvinden,
blijft voorlopig onduidelijk.

Vorige week had de kiescommissie huidig
premier Viktor Janoekovitsj tot winnaar
uitgeroepen, maar dat werd betwist door
tienduizenden aanhangers van oppositie-
leider Viktor Joesjtsjenko.

Janoekovitsj en uittredend president
Leonid Koetsjma zijn er voorstander van
dat de verkiezingen volledig worden
overgedaan, de oppositie wil alleen een
nieuwe tweede ronde.

quote:

Ukraine court annuls poll result

Ukraine's Supreme Court has annulled the second round of the presidential election - upholding opposition claims that it was fraudulent.
Presiding judge Anatoly Yarema said a new vote must be held by 26 December.

Pro-Western candidate Viktor Yushchenko had challenged the result, saying it was rigged in favour of the pro-Moscow Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovych.

The court criticised the election commission and ordered it to prepare a re-run between the two contenders.

The commission had declared Mr Yanukovych the winner following the 21 November election, which was criticised by Western observers.

The prime minister and the outgoing President Leonid Kuchma had pressed for a completely new election - possibly with a new candidate.

But Mr Yushchenko wanted a re-run of the second round only, in order to capitalise on the momentum he has built up with thousands of his supporters thronging the streets of the capital for three weeks, says the BBC's Steven Eke in Kiev.

Both sides in this conflict have said they will abide by the court's decision, which is final.

Fireworks

"We order the central election commission to set a date for a new runoff vote... in accordance with the law," Judge Anatoly Yarema said.

Tens of thousands of opposition protesters who had converged on Kiev's central square awaiting the verdict cheered, waving blue-and-yellow Ukrainian and orange opposition flags and chanting "Yushchenko! Yushchenko!".

Fireworks crackled through the sky.

"This is a great victory of all people who have been standing at the square, a great victory for Ukrainian democracy," said opposition lawyer Mykola Katerinchuk.

There has been no comment from the Yanukovych camp.

The BBC's Jamie Coomarasamy reports from Kiev that the Supreme Court's ruling has shown Ukraine's democracy at work.

Mr Yushchenko's insistence on a re-run of only the second round of the election was backed by Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of Ukraine's western neighbour, Poland.

But President Putin of Russia had backed calls for an entirely fresh poll to pre-empt further challenges and re-runs.

Mr Putin has also expressed concern about a possible split between the west of Ukraine, which generally supports Mr Yushchenko, and the east, which tends to lean towards Russia.

quote:

Ukrainian Court Quashes Election Results

3 December 2004 (RFE/RL) -- The Ukrainian Supreme Court has declared the presidential runoff election of 21 November illegal and canceled the results based on an appeal from the country's opposition leadership.


The Supreme Court issued the ruling in an announcement in Kyiv that was broadcast live moments ago after appeals from both candidates.

Supreme Court Chairman Anatoliy Yarema, delivering the court's ruling after five days of deliberations, said a "repeat vote" is required.

He said the ballot should take place three weeks counting from 5 December -- meaning 26 December -- suggesting it would be a repeat of the November runoff.

Both opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko and his opponent, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, have pledged to honor the Supreme Court's decision.

The case revolved around claims of fraud submitted by Yushchenko, the opposition candidate who says the 21 November runoff was rigged in favor of Prime Minister Yanukovych, who was declared the winner by the Central Election Commission.

The Supreme Court finished questioning witnesses and examining evidence yesterday.

Hundreds of opposition supporters were gathered near the court house in Kyiv today to await the ruling, with thousands of others convened on Kyiv's Independence Square, the center of opposition protests since the runoff.

quote:

Ukraine Mired In Fresh Standoff

5 December 2004 -- Ukraine's pro-Western opposition was today locked in a fresh standoff with the government that is raising fears over preparations for a repeat of the country's flawed late-November presidential election.


Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma is insisting on constitutional reforms that would dilute the powers of the next president.

Political analysts say opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko is the front-runner to win the presidency in a new two-man runoff against Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych that is tentatively slated for 26 December.

Yushchenko supporters in parliament are refusing to back constitutional reforms proposed by Kuchma that would undermine presidential powers.

Opposition supporters held fresh street protests in the capital today.

The latest stalemate follows a landmark ruling on 3 December by Ukraine's Supreme Court that invalidated the 21 November presidential poll as being riddled with fraud.

Checks and Imbalances

The new impasse led to an abrupt adjournment yesterday of an emergency legislative session aimed at paving the way for new balloting. The parliament, or Verkhovna Rada, abandoned plans to continue the weekend session and instead adjourned for 10 days.

Some political analysts suggest that Kuchma's aim as he steps down after 10 years of rule is to maintain his influence through parliament, where his support is still strong.

They note that the reforms would transfer power from the president to the parliament on appointing all top government posts except for the prime minister, defense, and foreign ministers. The president's candidates for those three posts would need to be approved by lawmakers.

The dispute also has blocked important changes to Ukraine's electoral law that the opposition says are needed to prevent similar fraud to that which has sparked two weeks of intense public demonstrations.

The parliament adjourned without taking any action on the proposed election reforms or constitutional changes.

Kyiv Rallies Continue

Correspondents reported that thousands of demonstrators were massed today at government buildings and on Kyiv's central Independence Square. They are vowing to stay until the path is clear for the repeat presidential balloting expected on 26 December.

At a Kyiv rally last night, Yushchenko told supporters that Kuchma must replace Ukraine's Central Electoral Commission and dismiss the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych -- the pro-Russia presidential candidate whose cabinet lost a no-confidence vote in the parliament on 1 December.

"Until the president issues a decree dismissing members of the Central Electoral Commission and sets up new commission, until he dismisses the de jure government and adopts the ruling on the election on 26 December, all dialogue is useless," Yushchenko said.

Yushchenko's campaign team wants the electoral changes to be approved before the repeat vote. It wants any constitutional changes to be considered after the elections.

Kuchma, who backed Yanukovych during the run-up to the presidential vote, accuses the opposition of reneging on pledges to prove both electoral reforms and constitutional curbs on the presidential powers.

International Pressure

Kuchma has appealed for Russian and European mediators to return to Kyiv for talks tomorrow.

An aide to Aleksander Kwasniewski said today that the Polish president will mediate that new round of negotiations. EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, and Russian Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov are also expected to participate.

Also today, the chairman-in-office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Pasi, urged Ukrainian officials to allow international observers full access to the new presidential vote process. He also called for the voting to comply with OSCE standards of fairness, and he requested that Ukraine's authorities ensure "an honest campaign and impartial state media."

Pasi called on the OSCE's 55 member states to send election observers to help monitor the voting in the expected 26 December runoff.

Yushchenko Cites Threats

Opposition leader Yushchenko said in separate interviews published today that he is receiving death threats and that his family has gone into hiding for fear of their safety.

The remarks came in separate interviews with BBC televison and Britain's "Sunday Telegraph" newspaper today. Yushchenko also said he had expected an attack on his person during the run-up to the now-annulled presidential election.

Yushchenko said he is still determined to find out the facts behind the mystery illness that disfigured his face during the election campaign. He referred to that illness as a result of poisoning and said he will soon reveal to the world "all the details of what they gave me to look like this."

quote:

Ukraine: Opposition Says Government, Electoral Body Must Be Purged Before Runoff
By Askold Krushelnycky

An atmosphere of euphoria and triumph was lingering among thousands of opposition supporters gathered in the center of Kyiv today following last night's Supreme Court decision ordering a new presidential runoff on 26 December. The stage is now set for a re-run between pro-Western opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko and Moscow-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. RFE/RL reports from the Ukrainian capital that members of the opposition are calling for a change in the makeup of both the government and the central electoral body.


4 December 2004 (RFE/RL) -- Yushchenko declared victory yesterday for his so-called orange revolution after the country’s Supreme Court ruled that the 21 November presidential vote was invalid and ordered a new vote.

He told supporters to stay in the streets until incumbent President Leonid Kuchma has sacked the government and replaced the election commission that presided over the vote that has now been ruled dishonest.

Lawmakers today met to discuss potential changes to the makeup of the Central Election Committee.

Opposition Deputy Yuriy Klyuchkovskiy said that changing the electoral body is essential.The opposition also hopes to press through a resolution approved on 1 December to fire Yanukovych and his government.

"The present composition of the Central Election Commission took part in deeds that were the opposite [of the honest conduct] they were supposed to engage in," Klyuchkovskiy said. "In these circumstances, it seems to me that the president, under the constitution, is simply obliged to remove the credentials of the [election commission] members and propose new members according to the laws governing the [commission] in consultation with the various factions of parliament."

Further Opposition Demands

The opposition also hopes to press through a resolution approved on 1 December to fire Yanukovych and his government.

Kuchma has not accepted the nonbinding measure to remove Yanukovych.

Ivan Lozowy, a political commentator and head of the independent Kyiv-based Institute for Statehood and Democracy, said the makeup of both the government and the election commission must change in order to ensure the next round is fair.

"The re-run of the second round can only be more or less fair, transparent, and honest if there are significant changes to those responsible for the conduct of those elections. That is, first and foremost, the members of the CEC, members of regional election administrations, and the minister of internal affairs -- who, even now, has not launched any criminal investigation into the massive electoral fraud which the Supreme Court has ruled took place."

Yanukovich has indicated he will stand in the 26 December runoff.

Some opposition members have speculated that Yanukovych might ultimately withdraw. If that happens, Yushchenko would need only to win the support of a majority of those who turn up to vote.

Achieving those numbers could be relatively easy, unless there is a large-scale boycott of the vote.

Avoiding Splits

A boycott could lend strength to separatist leanings in eastern and southern Ukraine, where some politicians have reportedly proposed the formation an autonomous entity opposed to Yushchenko.

One senior opposition member, parliamentary deputy Petro Poroshenko, said a Yushchenko victory will bring the country together, not divide it.

"We will stop the attempts to split the territorial integrity of the country," Poroshenko said. "I am sure that the east and the west, the south and the north, will vote for Yushchenko. I am sure that we can expect a united Ukraine to bring an upsurge in social development and the economy, and an end to the political crisis. We have shown that the constitution and the law have become a reality in Ukraine."

International mediators were due to hold fresh talks with both sides in Kyiv today. Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and his Lithuanian counterpart, Valdas Adamkus -- who were both expected to participate -- today canceled their trips.

quote:

Outsiders warned off Ukraine poll

Ukraine's opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko has urged foreign nations not to interfere in the re-run of the presidential poll.
He told the BBC the only role for the world's community was to help ensure the 26 December balloting was fair.

West-leaning Mr Yushchenko faces a rematch with PM Viktor Yanukovych, after the Supreme Court ruled that the 21 November poll was fraudulent.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been openly backing Mr Yanukovych.

Mr Putin made two visits to Ukraine in the run-up to the original vote.

Mr Yushchenko himself has been accused of being a US puppet by the Yanukovych camp.

Tens of thousands of pro-Yushchenko supporters continued to hold their rallies in the capital, Kiev, and around Ukraine, buoyed by the court's decision on Friday to stage a repeat re-run.

Mr Yanukovych described the ruling as an unconstitutional measure but said he would contest the re-run.

The prime minister's supporters - mainly in eastern and southern Ukraine - vowed to vote for him again.

Ukraine 'not divided'

"The election of the president of Ukraine is exclusively an internal issue for 47 million Ukrainians," Mr Yushchenko told BBC1's Breakfast with Frost programme, speaking through an interpreter.

"I'm calling on all our international partners and neighbours to recognise one thing - that only the people of Ukraine could resolve this issue and their opinion should be respected.

"We need assistance in one thing only - to strengthen the measures for having honest, transparent and democratic elections," Mr Yushchenko added.

He also said that Moscow had nothing to fear from Ukraine if he were to win the elections.

"Russia will always be our neighbour," Mr Yushchenko said, without elaborating.

He also dismissed suggestions by some analysts that Ukraine was facing possible disintegration.

"I think that it is a completely wrong view to think that Ukraine is divided into west and east. Ukraine is not divided either by geography or language or religion," Mr Yushchenko said.

"No-one should even think that Ukraine is losing its territorial sovereignty or integrity."

Trading accusations

Mr Yushchenko was speaking a day after the emergency parliamentary session debating key electoral law changes to prevent fraud had been adjourned until 14 December after opposition factions failed to reach agreement.

Ukraine's Socialists and Communists had earlier promised to vote for the amendments if the opposition supported a constitutional reform aimed at trimming presidential powers.

But the deal collapsed after the Yushchenko camp said they would consider the constitutional changes only after the electoral amendments were approved.

Mr Yushchenko blamed the government of trying to stall the electoral reform, while outgoing President Leonid Kuchma - who handpicked Mr Yanukovych as his successor - accused the Yushchenko camp of sabotaging the deal.

"The opposition isn't fulfilling practically any of the agreements reached at a round table that involved European politicians," Mr Kuchma said, calling international mediators back to Kiev for a new round of talks on Monday.

quote:

Ukraine's 'goddess of revolution'
By Marina Denysenko
BBC News, Ukraine


Orange-clad protesters call her "Goddess of the Revolution" while outgoing President Leonid Kuchma and some of the oligarchs - Ukraine's business and political elite - are believed to hate her.

Glamorous Yulia Tymoshenko, one of the key figures of the ongoing Orange Revolution in Ukraine, ignites passion on both sides.

She is a close ally of Viktor Yushchenko, the leader of the Ukrainian opposition that believes he won the bitterly disputed presidential run-off on 21 November.

Recent events have elevated Ms Tymoshenko's popularity to new heights, literally. On one occasion, riot police guarding Mr Kuchma's office raised their shields to allow her through to where talks were being held.

On another, she perched on top of a bus, from where she whipped the crowd into a frenzy with her calls for the government's resignation.

"I would even prefer her to be the president," one of the Kiev protesters says.

Controversial character

In her speeches, Ms Tymoshenko has referred to Mr Kuchma as a "red-haired cockroach".

And when talking about the supporters of Viktor Yanukovych, who claimed victory in the election, she suggested they should hang themselves on the blue and white scarves they wear.

Her opponents say she is demagogic and pretentious.

She sports an elaborate hairdo reminiscent of a peasant plait, meant to appeal to ordinary Ukrainians.

But her followers point to her intelligence and charisma.

Ms Tymoshenko is seen as one of the candidates for the post of prime minister in post-Kuchma Ukraine, and that makes many Ukrainians feel uncomfortable.

They point to her controversial past when in the 1990s she reportedly made a fortune from questionable gas trading.

She was briefly arrested in February 2001, but the next month a court in Kiev quashed all the charges and annulled the arrest warrant.

She became one of the key players in Mr Yushchenko's government of 1999-2001, launching an all-out assault on the oligarchs' interests in Ukraine's highly corrupt energy sector.

As the result of her efforts, some $2bn were re-directed into the state budget.

Ms Tymoshenko's critics say that once she is in power she is likely to be driven by revenge for those oligarchs in the energy sector.

Lady Yu's charisma

Her radicalism is offset by the more moderate tactics of Mr Yushchenko.

"If Tymoshenko had been in charge, the breakthrough would have already been achieved," BBC Kiev office head Svitlana Dorosh says.

But local observers agree that Mr Yushchenko's team needs such a personality. With a new poll just days away, it is essential to keep the momentum of the street protests going, they say.

And the charisma of Lady Yu may be indispensable.

Mr Yushchenko's flamboyant aide is adored by the crowds that seem to have forgotten that she used to be an oligarch herself.

quote:

Tegenslag voor oppositie Oekraïne

Uitgegeven: 4 december 2004 17:27
Laatst gewijzigd: 4 december 2004 22:06

KIEV - De Oekraïense oppositie heeft zaterdag een tegenslag moeten incasseren. Het parlement in de hoofdstad Kiev ging niet akkoord met een wijziging van de kieswet, die fraude moet voorkomen.

De pro-westerse oppositie drong op veranderingen aan om een herhaling van de misstanden bij de presidentsverkiezingen op 21 november te voorkomen. Het hooggerechtshof verklaarde die stembusronde, met regeringskandidaat Janoekovitsj als winnaar, ongeldig wegens kiezersbedrog.


Spoedzitting

De oppositie wil dat de nieuwe presidentsverkiezingen op 26 december wel eerlijk en democratisch verlopen. Maar de tegenstanders van de huidige regering kregen tijdens een spoedzitting in het parlement geen meerderheid achter zich. De regeringsgezinde parlementariërs weigerden over het voorstel te stemmen, waarop de zitting tot 14 december werd verdaagd.

De weigering was een reactie op de houding van de oppositie tegenover andere hervormingen. De aanhangers van de pro-westerse presidentskandidaat Joesjtsjenko hadden geen zin om tegelijkertijd over een omstreden beperking van de macht van de president te beraadslagen. Joesjtsjenko verwacht de winnaar te worden van de verkiezingen op tweede kerstdag.

Janoekovitsj

Zijn uitdager wordt opnieuw de pro-Russische Janoekovitsj. De aanvankelijke winnaar van de recente verkiezingen stelde zich zaterdag kandidaat voor de nieuwe stembusronde.

Minister Lavrinovic van Justitie schaarde zich achter de uitspraak van het hooggerechtshof om de vorige ronde ongeldig te verklaren. Hij noemde het vonnis legaal en zei dat iedere Oekraïense burger de uitspraak moet respecteren. In een bolwerk van Janoekovitsj, de oostelijke stad Donetsk, gingen echter duizenden mensen te straat op uit woede over de uitspraak van de rechters.

Maar ook tienduizenden aanhangers van de oppositie bleven in Kiev demonstreren. De Joesjtsjenko-aanhangers willen hun zogenoemde oranje revolutie pas beëindigen als premier Janoekovitsj en zijn bondgenoot president Koetsjma hun functie hebben neergelegd.

Overleg

Bemiddelaars uit Europa en Rusland overleggen maandag in de Oekraïense hoofdstad Kiev voor een derde maal over de politieke impasse in het land. Dat heeft het bureau van president Koetsjma zaterdag meegedeeld.

De Oekraïense president had de bemiddelaars eerder zaterdag al opgeroepen weer naar Kiev te komen voor nieuw overleg. Volgens de vertrekkende president houdt de oppositie zich niet aan afspraken die in twee eerdere gesprekken zijn gedaan.

'Spanningen'

"Dat leidt tot toenemende spanningen in het land", aldus een verklaring van Koetsjma's bureau. De president heeft er zaterdag ook over gebeld met de Nederlandse premier Balkenende, de huidige EU-voorzitter.

EU

Premier Balkenende heeft de Oekraïense president Koetsjma zaterdag in een telefonisch gesprek hulp aangeboden in de periode tot de nieuwe verkiezingen op 26 december.

De Europese Unie is bereid waarnemers te sturen voor die nieuwe stembusgang. Maar, benadrukte Balkenende als huidige voorzitter van de EU in zijn gesprek met Koetsjma, het is in eerste instantie aan de Oekraïners zelf om de verkiezingen te organiseren. Balkenende drong er opnieuw bij Koetsjma op aan dat de situatie in het land vreedzaam moet worden opgelost. Balkenende zei dat zaterdag in de marge van de laatste normen en waardenconferentie in Rotterdam.

Balkenende heeft ook nog gebeld met de Poolse president Kwasniewski, een van de bemiddelaars in de politieke crisis van Oekraïne. Ze hebben afgesproken dat de uitspraak van het hooggerechtshof over de geldigheid van de verkiezingen het kader is van de verdere dialoog naar een vreedzame oplossing. Polen is momenteel voorzitter van de Raad van Europa.

quote:

Ukraine dominates security forum

The European security organisation is meeting to discuss an enlarged election monitoring mission to Ukraine for the re-run presidential ballot.
The head of the OSCE, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy, said the observers would ensure the new poll on 26 December was free and fair.

Ukraine's opposition leader, Viktor Yushchenko, faces a rematch with PM Viktor Yanukovych.

The Supreme Court ruled that the 21 November poll was fraudulent.

Foreign ministers from the 55-nation Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe are meeting on Monday in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.

They are due to decide whether to nearly double the number of poll monitors to 1,000.

Mr Passy urged Ukrainian authorities to ensure the new vote was clean of fraud.

"In particular, we expect to see a fair campaign and unbiased reporting in state-controlled media," he said, the Associated Press news agency reported.

However, Russia's ambassador to the OSCE said the agency's monitors had double standards,

"Sometimes they are not objective in their assessment of the electoral process... they should be helping (the new democracies in Eastern Europe), not criticizing unfairly," Alexi Borovadkin told the AFP news agency.

Russian influence

Earlier, West-leaning Mr Yushchenko warned foreign nations not to interfere in the poll except to help ensure balloting was fair.

"The election of the president of Ukraine is exclusively an internal issue for 47 million Ukrainians," Mr Yushchenko told BBC1's Breakfast with Frost programme.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had been openly backing Mr Yanukovych

Mr Putin made two visits to Ukraine in the run-up to the original vote.


Mr Yushchenko has been accused of being a US puppet by the Yanukovych camp.

Moscow has accused western countries of interfering in Ukraine's affairs through their support for Mr Yushchenko.

The OSCE conference will test how well the post Cold-War framework of co-operation between Russia and Western nations can deal with the strains over Ukraine, says the BBC's European affairs correspondent William Horsley.

Russia and some of its close neighbours are proposing a change in the OSCE's charter so that it focuses more on fighting international terrorism and less on issues of democracy and human rights within states.

Such a clear shift would not be acceptable to many member countries, but Mr Passy said the conference was expected to say that fighting terrorism was the top priority.

quote:

Ukraine crisis: Ask our expert

Ukraine is gripped by a complex political crisis as hundreds of thousands of people continue to demonstrate over the hotly disputed presidential election.

Allegations of vote-rigging have led to calls for a fresh poll.

The BBC News website's Stephen Mulvey, an expert on the region, is in Kiev and is closely following developments.

If you have any questions about the situation in Ukraine and what might happen next, you can send your questions to him using this form.

Here are some of your questions so far:


THREAT TO UNITY
Marc Wallace, Chicago, Illinois, US: I have read about some referendums that would split the country. Do you see any threat to Ukraine's unity?

Stephen's answer: I talked to the head of the Donetsk regional council, Boris Kolesnikov, on Friday. He is widely regarded in Kiev as a dangerous separatist. However, in his conversation with me and another BBC correspondent, he said he was firmly against separatism or any measures that would split the country. He is planning a referendum in January in which the people of the Donetsk region will vote on whether Ukraine should become a federation. The idea is to give the regions more power, and to trim the powers of the centre. Donetsk, which has 10% of Ukraine's population and contributes 20% of its GDP, would give less money to the centre. But Mr Kolesnikov argued that federalisation would strengthen Ukraine, in fact that it would "save" the country (without specifying from what). He pointed out that the election had revealed deep divisions, which he said ought not to be ignored. I am unsure what danger, if any, such a referendum holds for Ukraine's unity. It is certainly an issue that raises strong passions. But Donetsk cannot vote for federalisation by itself. To become law, a proposal on federalisation would need to be adopted by the Ukrainian parliament and by a national referendum, and this will not happen.


SPREADING STRIFE
Alex, Moscow, Russia: Do you think current events in Ukraine will encourage people to take to the streets in Belarus and/or other countries in the region?

Stephen's answer: I find this a very difficult question to answer. I think it is clear that the events in Georgia last year, and in Serbia before that, have had some influence on the protesters in Kiev because they showed what could be achieved. However, each country is different. It may be that there are insufficient numbers of opposition supporters for the same to happen in Belarus and Russia, and no opposition leaders with mass appeal. In Russia, in particular, the government may enjoy greater legitimacy. The state apparatus may also be more resilient. Also, bear in mind that it is not only the opposition in these countries that will be looking at this phenomenon and wondering how to apply it to their situation. The governments too will be developing strategies to tackle it.


PARTY PLATFORMS
Colin Jackson, Leigh-on-Sea, England: What do the parties in Ukraine represent? Are they right-wing, left-wing, religious, ethnic or what?

Stephen's answer: One of the paradoxes of this election is that the election platforms of the two main candidates are not hugely different. Neither is left-wing, and religion does not come into it. In practice, Mr Yushchenko has the support of most of the Ukrainian-speaking part of the population, and Mr Yanukovych has the support of most of the Russian-speaking part of the population, at least in the towns and cities of the east and south, but I do not think many people would describe this an ethnic divide. It is more of a cultural issue. In so far as policy issues have stirred voters, Mr Yushchenko's desire for a rapid drive towards integration with the West has alienated some in the south and east who fear it would spoil relations with Russia, and Mr Yanukovych's proposal to make Russian a second official language and to introduce the possibility of dual citizenship (Ukrainian and Russian) has alienated voters in nationalist western regions. But personal issues have also entered into the race: Mr Yushchenko's American wife, Mr Yanukovych's biography (including two jail terms), and the ties between Mr Yanukovych and Leonid Kuchma, the outgoing president, have all had an effect.


JOINING EU
Ivan Safonov, Methuen, Massachusetts, US: What are the chances for Ukraine to join the EU in the near future? If a pro-Western president is chosen who is promising the possibility of joining the EU but fails to attract help from the West while at the same time breaking the relationship with Russia, wouldn't that hurt Ukraine much more?

Stephen's answer: Viktor Yushchenko says he would like to start membership talks with the European Union and Nato within five years, if he becomes president. However, this is probably over-optimistic. A few years ago the EU enlargement commissioner, Guenter Verheugen, said Ukraine was as close to joining the EU as Mexico was to joining the US. Mr Yushchenko says he would not break the relationship with Russia. He says Russia is bound to remain a key trading partner, and claims that trade with Russia grew dramatically during his two-year premiership in the 1990s. The Economist has suggested that Mr Yushchenko, a liberal, might prove more accommodating to Russian business interests than Mr Yanukovych, who has close ties to some of Ukraine's home-grown oligarchs.

Giles Adcock, Valencia, Spain: Are the Ukrainian people generally excited at the prospect of future membership of the EU, or does the majority want closer ties and a stronger union with Russia?

Stephen's answer: It is hard to tell what the majority want. There are undoubtedly many who are hoping, ultimately, to join the EU, and many who regard the West with distrust. Some people make the point that they do not want to be anyone's puppet, neither Russia's nor Europe's. It is Ukraine's clearly stated policy to seek EU membership and to integrate as far as possible with Euro-Atlantic security structures, namely NATO. This policy was originally designed partly to shield Ukraine from any "imperial" ambitions that Russia may have in the region, but was not intended to prevent a close and constructive relationship with Moscow.


POLITICALLY DIVIDED
Mike, Vancouver, Canada: We hear that Ukraine is split geographically, what kind of minority political support does each of these two candidates receive in the other's power base?

Stephen's answer: The nine regions in the south-east where a majority voted for Viktor Yanukovych, according to the official results, have a combined population of about 23 million. The total population of Ukraine is 48.5 million. These figures come from the census of 2001. I have no hard data on the minority political support each candidate has in the other's power base. The election results, as published by the Central Election Commission, suggest that in some eastern regions support for Mr. Yushchenko is very low indeed, and equally that support for Mr. Yanukovych in the westernmost regions is minimal. It is possible that ballot stuffing has exaggerated this lack of support for the "other" candidate in some cases, but I have no doubt that it exists in reality.


GLOBAL SUPPORT
Zoë Young, London: How much and what kind of support has Yushchenko's campaign received from the US, and how does this compare with Russia's support for Yanukovych's campaign?

Stephen's answer: The US reacted very strongly to the evidence of falsification, once election monitors had published their report, but had not openly endorsed Mr Yushchenko's candidacy. The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, by contrast, wished Mr Yanukovych luck, and appeared with him in public during the election campaign. This may well have alienated some Ukrainian voters who were undecided who to vote for.


YANUKOVYCH CONVICTION
Giovanni Munoz, Rome, Italy: Do people know about the fact that Mr Yanukovych, was convicted several years ago in Donetsk? Under Ukrainian law why does that fact not prevent him from becoming president?

Stephen's answer: He says he was wrongly convicted, but one of the reasons people often give for voting for Mr Yushchenko is that they felt it was not right for someone who was once jailed for assault to be their president. Since then a court has wiped his criminal record clean, accepting his claim to have been wrongly convicted.


SUPREME COURT
Stefan, Odessa, Ukraine: Why is the supreme court taking so long to come to a decision?

Stephen's answer: The sessions of the court are broadcast live on television. The judges are hearing oral evidence, and have been handed thousands of pages of documents. I have not heard anyone argue that there is anything suspicious in the judge's failure to deliver a quick ruling. By Friday the court was already hearing closing arguments.


RUSSIAN TROOPS
Tom Harrington, Gilford, New Hampshire, US: I've heard it said that there are Russian troops in Kiev. Is there any evidence of this?

Stephen's answer: I have seen no evidence of Russian troops in Kiev. I have heard reports of Russian troops in Odessa, but I have not been there, have not seen them, and I am generally sceptical. I have not even seen any Ukrainian soldiers in Kiev, and even police have been practically invisible in the areas where the main demonstrations are occurring, at least since I arrived on Saturday. Riot police guarding the presidential administration are protected by three well-organised rows of protesters, to prevent any possible hostile action against them by provocateurs or drunks. Occasionally the protesters turn their large television screen around to face the police so that they can see what is happening elsewhere in Kiev and in the country. One place in Ukraine where there have been, and always are lots of Russian servicemen is Sevastopol, Crimea. This is the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.


NEW ELECTIONS
Andrey, Lisichansk, Ukraine: What is the probability of new elections without the current candidates? How would Serhiy Tihipko, the ex-Chairman of the National Bank, and Socialist leader, Oleksandr Moroz ballot in the new elections?

Stephen's answer: Some people hold the view that if the election is held again from scratch, as President Leonid Kuchma wants, then none of the candidates who stood in the first election are eligible to stand. This is not true. It was indeed a provision that existed in an earlier election law, but it is not in the current election law. So, if there is a new election, Viktor Yushchenko will run again. However, Mr Yushchenko is not in favour of a new election. He will not willingly settle for anything other than a re-run of the second round of the election that has just taken place. More than one person has suggested to me that if Serhiy Tihipko had been the pro-government candidate, rather than Viktor Yanukovych, the election would have been much more evenly balanced. He is an intelligent, 44-year-old, relatively photogenic politician, who could have a big future in Ukrainian politics. Unlike Mr Yanukovych, he has never spent time in jail. The Socialist leader, Oleksandr Moroz, did not fare well in this election, but that may not prevent him running again.


IMPACT ON THE REGION

Andrew, Richmond, US: What sort of implications could such a victory for the pro-West candidate have for other governments in the former Soviet Union? And what effects will this have on Russia's own political and foreign policies?

Stephen's answer: There is no doubt that Ukraine's experience is being watched closely in neighbouring states and in the Caucasus. In fact some pro-democracy activists from Belarus came to Kiev to pass on their experience to the Ukrainian student action movement, Pora. Everyone here also recognises the similarity between events in Ukraine and those in Georgia a year ago - whether they approve of them or not. And on Thursday Ukrainian opposition leader, Yulia Tymoshenko, said Ukraine would "export its revolution" to Russia. Whether this is possible or not, is another matter. Russia has been keen to promote umbrella organisations grouping together the states of the former Soviet Union, for example the Commonwealth of Independent States. But these grand projects have achieved very little, and have not in fact provided Russia with an effective mechanism to project its power abroad. During his election campaign Viktor Yushchenko made clear that he saw Russia as a major trading partner, and pointed out that trade with Russia had risen sharply during his period as prime minister. He said he envisaged relations with Russia developing further in this way - through shared economic interests rather than ambitious political declarations.


VOTER FRAUD

Dwight Stagner, Atlanta, Georgia, US: What evidence is there of widespread voter fraud? And is violence likely in this confrontation?

Stephen's answer: A considerable amount of evidence was cited by the OSCE observers. I do not currently think that violence is likely, but it cannot be ruled out as a possibility in the longer term.


Click here to read the election monitors' key findings

UKRAINIAN PEOPLE

Andrey, Russia: What is your personal opinion as an outsider: are Ukrainians like Russians?

Stephen's answer: I do not think Ukrainians are like Russians. In many countries, national consciousness began to emerge in the 19th Century, and this is true of Ukraine too. The Soviet Union acknowledged the difference between Ukrainians and Russians by recording some citizens as Russians and some as Ukrainians in their official documents. If most of the citizens of Ivano-Frankivsk identify themselves as Ukrainian, there is no ethnologist or historian who can tell them that they are wrong.

quote:

Op maandag 6 december 2004 02:14 schreef HarigeKerel het volgende:
Joesjtsjenko zou een Amerikaanse vrouw hebben volgens een artikel in "Het Parool".
Een Westerse vrouw... dat heeft Shakavilli ook al, toeval?


[afbeelding]
Die vlecht van Yulia Tymoschenko was erg mooi, deed een beetje denken aan Heidie eigenlijk

Ze heeft ook een eigen website waar je haar vragen kan stellen
http://www.tymoshenko.com.ua/eng/

quote:

Op maandag 6 december 2004 22:48 schreef Stereotomy het volgende:
_{Ja, heb ook vrienden in Kiev tussen de tenten zitten, en nee op dit moment schieten ze niet echt goed met elkaar op}

quote:

Op maandag 6 december 2004 22:38 schreef ultra_ivo het volgende:
Heb je iets meer info Praag?

quote:

Op woensdag 8 december 2004 13:43 schreef HarigeKerel het volgende:
Oh, dan begrijp je mij verkeerd hoor, ik beschuldig je nergens van!

quote:

Solana wijst Poetin terecht

10:03:47

PARIJS - De verklaringen van de Russische president Vladimir Poetin, waarin hij waarschuwt voor het westen ,,met koloniale helm'', gaan te ver. Dat zegt de Europese Hoge Vertegenwoordiger voor het Buitenlands Beleid Javier Solana vandaag op de Franse radiozender Europe 1.
,,Europa is bezorgd om een eerlijke en goed georganiseerde stembusslag in Oekraïne'', merkte hij op. ,,We hebben geen kandidaat.'' De Hoge vertegenwoordiger wees erop dat ,,Poetin in zijn tweede mandaat een veel directere man is, vastberadener misschien en dat hij zich meer bezig houdt met burenkwesties. Landen zoals Oekraine, Moldavië en Georgië houden president Poetin meer bezig dan voordien.''

,,Poetin heeft niet het recht zich intern te mengen in Oekraine, net zomin als wij dat hebben'', stelde Javier Solana, die maandag voor de derde keer Kiev bezocht om er te bemiddelen in de politieke crisis.

Poetin klaagde maandag de inmenging van het westen in Oekraïne aan en waarschuwde voor een belerende macht ,,met een koloniale helm'' die de samenleving verdeelt en de tegenstanders, zoals in Belgrado, met raketten en bommen zou kunnen bestraffen.
08/12/2004 - afp, dpa - ht

quote:

Poetin: geen bezwaar tegen toetreding Oekraïne tot EU
Uitgegeven op 10 december 2004 om 16:55 uur, bijgewerkt om 17:04

De Russische president Vladimir Poetin heeft vrijdag gezegd dat Rusland er geen bezwaar tegen heeft als Oekraïne zou toetreden tot de Europese Unie. ,,Als Oekraïne bij de EU wil en daar welkom is, kunnen we alleen maar blij zijn", zei Poetin na afloop van een onderhoud met de Spaanse premier José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Hij zei dat Rusland niet bezorgd is over de discussie of de uitbreiding van de EU ook Oekraïne moet omvatten.


De afgelopen weken heeft de Russische president juist fel geageerd tegen de bemoeienis van West-Europa met de crisis in Oekraïne, vanuit de kennelijke angst dat een verkiezingsoverwinning voor oppositieleider Joesjtsjenko het land uit de Russische invloedssfeer los zou maken.

,,Wij hebben een speciale relatie met Oekraïne, economieën die nauw met elkaar verbonden zijn en een grote mate van industriële samenwerking", zei Poetin. ,,Dus het opnemen van dat deel van onze economie in de Europese structuur zou, hoop ik, ook een positief effect hebben op Rusland."


[Copyright 2004, Novum Nieuws / Associated Press]

quote:

Op vrijdag 10 december 2004 17:21 schreef HarigeKerel het volgende:
Eigenlijk denk ik dat de Oekraine beter af is onder de vleugels van de Russen met een verdrag op het gebied van vrijhandel met de EU.

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Op vrijdag 10 december 2004 17:36 schreef ultra_ivo het volgende:

Merkwaardige stelling. Mogen de Oekraïeners er niet zelf over beslissen?

quote:

Ik was ook verbaasd toen ik van de week de voorpagina van Elsevier voorbij zag komen die een soortgelijke stelling impliceerde. Rechts Nederland dat voor een grotere invloed van Rusland is? Kun je dat eens wat nader verklaren?

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Joesjtsjenko wil toetreding Oekraïne tot EU

Uitgegeven: 11 december 2004 11:53

LONDEN - De Oekraïense oppositieleider Viktor Joesjtsjenko roept de Europese Unie op Oekraïne toe te laten na de politieke hervormingen die het land de laatste weken heeft doorgemaakt. Dat zei Joesjtsjenko in een interview met The Financial Times dat zaterdag werd gepubliceerd.

"Oekraïne wacht op concrete stappen in antwoord op dit democratische en politieke proces dat nu in Oekraïne plaatsvindt. Wij verwachten analoge stappen van de EU", aldus de oppositieleider. Hij stelt een plan voor van vier punten volgens welk Oekraïne lid kan worden van de Unie.


De Europese Unie heeft tot dusver steeds voorstellen van Oekraïne om op lange termijn lid te worden afgewezen, aldus de krant. In tegenstelling tot de huidige president Koetsjma, die vooral op Rusland is georiënteerd, is Joesjtsjenko pro-Westers.

Verkiezingen

Op 26 december worden nieuwe presidentsverkiezingen gehouden, nadat het hooggerechtshof had bepaald dat de eerdere verkiezingen van november ongeldig waren. Algemeen wordt aangenomen dat Joesjtsjenko de stemmenslag wint.

De Russische president Poetin liet vrijdag weten dat een eventuele toetreding van Oekraïne tot de EU een zaak van de Oekraieners zelf is. Tijdens de verkiezingen van november stonden Poetin en de EU lijnrecht tegenover elkaar. De EU weigerde de overwinning van de door Moskou gesteunde premier Viktor Janoekovitsj te erkennen, omdat die tot stand is gekomen door fraude.

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'Joesjtsjenko vergiftigd met dioxine'
Gepubliceerd op zaterdag 11 december 2004
De Oekraïense oppositieleider en presidentskandidaat Viktor Joesjtsjenko in in september slachtoffer geworden van een dioxinevergiftiging. Dat heeft een Oostenrijkse arts die hem heeft onderzocht, zaterdag bekendgemaakt.

"Er is geen twijfel mogelijk", aldus Michael Zimpfer, directeur van de Oostenrijkse kliniek waar Joesjtsjenko is
onderzocht en behandeld. "Er waren hoge concentraties dioxine, zeer waarschijnlijk oraal toegediend". De giftige stof verkaart het pokdalige gezicht van Joesjtsjenko, die er voor september nog uitzag als een jeugdige leider. Als hij niet behandeld was, zou hij hoogstwaarschijnlijk aan het vergif zijn gestorven, aldus de artsen.

Derde partij
Volgens de arts staat niet onomstotelijk vast dat er sprake is geweest van een opzettelijke vergiftiging. Wel noemde hij het waarschijnlijk dat de giftige stof is toegediend door een "derde partij". Wie hiervoor verantwoordelijk is, moet volgens hem door een rechter worden uitgezocht.

De ziekte, die al heeft geleid tot wilde speculaties binnen en buiten de Oekraïense landsgrenzen, heeft vooral Joesjtsjenko's gelaat ernstig aangetast. De oppositieleider heeft zijn politieke tegenstanders ervan beschuldigd dat ze hem wilden vermoorden.

De vergiftiging zou hebben plaatsgevonden in de periode dat Joesjtsjenko druk aan het campagnevoeren was voor de recente verkiezingen, die nu door het hooggerechtshof ongeldig zijn verklaard.

Volgens de artsen is Joesjtsjenko niet permanent verminkt, maar kan het nog wel twee jaar duren voor zijn huid weer normaal is.

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Op zaterdag 11 december 2004 18:00 schreef twentemeisje het volgende:
Echt vreselijk wat er met zijn gezicht is gebeurd de afgelopen tijd...

[afbeelding]

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U.S. invests millions in Ukraine politics

Money assisted Yushchenko's candidacy and underwrote polls

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has spent more than $65 million in the past two years to aid political organizations in Ukraine, paying to bring opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko to meet U.S. leaders and helping underwrite exit polls indicating he won last month's disputed runoff election.

U.S. officials say the activities don't amount to interference in Ukraine's election, as Russian President Vladimir Putin alleges, but are part of the $1 billion the State Department spends each year trying to build democracy worldwide.

No U.S. money was sent directly to Ukrainian political parties, the officials say. In most cases, it was funneled through organizations such as the Eurasia Foundation or through groups aligned with Republicans and Democrats that organized election training, with human rights forums or with independent news outlets.

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Yale Phi Beta Kappa, Rhodes Scholar, Council on Foreign Relations, Carnegie Endowment, Bilderberg 1994(deze niet in biografie ), VN en meerdere denktanks (Die laatste 2 zijn alleen interessant icm met de voorgaande 5)

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Op dinsdag 14 december 2004 09:50 schreef GeFrenzy2 het volgende:
Het lijkt wel of de Koude Oorlog nooit is opgehouden...

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dezelfde exitpolls die slechts een sample hadden van ca. 25.000 voters, op de totale batch van meer dan 35 miljoen Oekrainse stemmers. Minder dan 1%. Ik bedoel, komop. Dit is toch niet serieus meer?

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Op woensdag 15 december 2004 02:43 schreef Merovingian. het volgende:
Normaal pakt men 1000 of 2000 kiezers bij verschillende districties over het land. Dat is altijd nauwkeurig geweest ivm de laatste telling, op momenten dat er geen fratsen uitgehaald zijn. Dat kleine batches betrouwbaar kunnen zijn is alles wat ik aan wilde geven.

Dat beide kanten lopen te frauderen is wat anders.

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Verkiezingen / 'Oekraïne stemt nu zonder angst'
door Wendelmoet Boersema
2004-12-24

De Oranje revolutie heeft de Oekraïners bevrijd van hun angst voor de autoriteiten. Toch is de laatste ronde van de presidentsverkiezingen deze zondag geen gelopen race.


MOSKOU - De wind giert door de mobiele telefoon van Kiril Trandasil, afgevaardigde van het parlement op het schiereiland de Krim. Trandasil voert als een van de weinigen in deze pro-Russische autonome republiek van Oekraïne voor de derde keer campagne voor oppositie-kandidaat Viktor Joesjtsjenko. ,,De burgemeester van het dorp heeft net onze bijeenkomst verboden, maar we laten ons niet tegenhouden. Ik klim zo het podium op voor mijn toespraak'', buldert Trandasil in zijn toestel.

De verkiezingsstrijd in Oekraine heeft zijn scherpe kanten niet verloren. Toch is er iets veranderd sinds de oranje menigtes de straten van Kiev en andere steden twee weken lang bezet hielden. ,,We hebben onze kracht gevoeld en kunnen nu hopen op eerlijker verkiezingen'', aldus afgevaardigde Trandasil. ,,Bij de plaatselijke kiescomités zijn de mensen ontslagen die schaamteloos voor kandidaat Viktor Janoekovitsj werkten. En er zijn zondag meer waarnemers dan ooit.''

In totaal zullen zondag 12000 waarnemers toezien op de stemming in de 24 Oekraïense regio's, en de autonome republiek De Krim. De OVSE stuurt 1000 mensen, de EU doneerde 3 miljoen euro voor waarnemers uit Europa en uit de voormalige Sovjet-Unie. De leden van het Centrale Kies comité, door de hoogste rechters van het land begin december openlijk veroordeeld voor fraude, zijn vervangen.

De afgelopen dagen leek Janoekovitsj al voorzichtig te berusten in een nederlaag. In de peilingen staat de huidige premier ruim tien procent achter op zijn tegenstander Joesjtsjenko. Janoekovitsj hengelde in het tv-debat openlijk naar een plekje in de regering, mocht hij verliezen. Maar Joesjtsjenko zei gisteren dat daarvan geen sprake zal zijn.

De kracht van de Oekraïense civil society -het scala aan maatschappelijke en politieke organisaties dat de motor vormde achter de straatprotesten- kwam ook voor experts onverwacht.


,,Een ongeëvenaard verzet'', aldus socioloog Andriy Bytsjenko van het onafhankelijke Razoemkov-Centrum. ,,Zelfs toen Oekraine onafhankelijkheid verwierf, was er niet zo'n enthousiasme en doorzettingsvermogen. Burgers hebben hun angst om voor hun mening uit te komen verloren. Dat is voelbaar op straat en we meten het ook in ons onderzoek'', aldus Bytsjenko. Volgens hem zijn ook de media de laatste drie weken meetbaar objectiever. ,,Voorheen was het veel en goed over Janoekovitsj, weinig en slecht over Joesjtsjenko.''

Pora wil de opgedane ervaring na de verkiezingen inzetten bij steun aan burgerbewegingen in landen als Wit-Rusland, Armenië en Kazachstan. Volgens Joesov zijn er 'prille plannen' om als politieke unie verder te gaan.

Het Onafhankelijkheidsplein in Kiev, het epicentrum van de straatprotesten van de opposite, zal zondagavond meteen na het sluiten van stembussen opnieuw volstromen met oranje aanhang. Dan zullen de resultaten van de exit-polls bekend zijn. Afgelopen woensdag hield Joesjtsjenko op het plein een laatste verkiezingstoespraak. Katja Demtsjoek was erbij. ,,Ik had al bijna heimwee naar onze dagelijkse demonstraties'', zegt Demtsjoek. ,,Het waren de belangrijkste momenten in mijn leven. Ik hoop dat we dit jaar de straten nog eenmaal oranje kunnen kleuren.''

Helemaal gerust op een glad verloop is ze niet. ,,Ik ben zondag opnieuw waarneemster voor Joesjtsjenko. Wij zullen het tellen van de stemmen op camera vastleggen, zodat ze ons niets kunnen verwijten.''

quote:

Ukrainians hold election re-run

Ukrainians have begun voting for a new president in a repeat ballot called after outrage over fraud led to the cancellation of the result.
Pro-Western opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko is strongly tipped to defeat Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, whose 21 November win was widely discredited.

Correspondents say the margin of victory will be almost as important in a country with a sharp east-west split.

About 12,000 foreign observers are monitoring the vote across the country.

Thousands of supporters of Mr Yushchenko, in their distinctive orange colours, are camped out in freezing conditions on the main street in the capital, Kiev

They have been on the Khreshchatyk since Mr Yushchenko called foul after the November result was announced.

Public support for Mr Yanukovych is still strong in the industrialised east and the south of the country.

However, the candidate once seen as the favourite of the Ukrainian establishment and neighbouring Russia trailed badly in final opinion polls - up to 14 points behind the Western-orientated Mr Yushchenko.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he will accept, and work with, whoever wins the poll on Sunday.

'No alternative'

In a dramatic last-minute intervention on Saturday, Ukraine's Constitutional Court overturned curbs on voting from home - one of the electoral changes brought in after the November result was cancelled.

The move restores the right to a ballot of a broad range of people unable to attend a polling station, and is thought to favour Yanukovych supporters.

They were given until 2000 (1800 GMT) on Saturday to apply for a vote.

Home voting was a key area of contention between the rival camps, with accusations that it was used to perpetrate fraud through the stuffing of ballot boxes.

However, the court's ruling makes it far less likely that Sunday's result can be challenged on constitutional grounds by either side.

Yaroslav Davydovych, head of the national election commission, stressed that the election would not be affected.

"Voting must take place tomorrow," he told reporters on Saturday.

"Let me emphasise this again - there is no alternative. Within a few days, we will mark half a year since the beginning of the election campaign."

Bitter campaign

Allegations of vote-rigging were just part of a campaign characterised by alleged dirty tricks.

In a televised debate between the two rivals, which at times seemed to degenerate into a shouting match, Mr Yushchenko accused the government of "trying to steal Ukraine's future".

In Monday's debate, Mr Yanukovych suggested that his former allies, led by outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, had joined his rival's "orange coup".

Doctors recently confirmed that Mr Yushchenko, who developed a dramatic disfiguring skin condition in September, had been poisoned with dioxin.

The opposition leader has suggested he was poisoned at a dinner with heads of the Ukrainian security service (SBU) - an allegation denied by the SBU.

Geert-Hinrich Ahrens, head of the largest group of election monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said he hoped for a definitive result on Sunday.

"It is very much to be hoped because I don't know what the alternatives are," he told Reuters news agency.

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Ukraine: Marathon Election Heading Toward 26 December Resolution
By Askold Krushelnycky

Ukraine's marathon presidential election process has already triggered an "Orange Revolution" and shattered the mould of the country's postcommunist politics. On 26 December it enters its decisive phase with the rerun of an election last month that was declared massively fraudulent by the opposition and international monitors. Ukraine's Supreme Court agreed the vote had been heavily distorted in favor of the government candidate, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, and ordered a fresh election. The vote pits opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, who advocates Ukraine's entry into NATO and the European Union, against Yanukovych, openly backed by the Kremlin, to replace the outgoing Leonid Kuchma.


Kyiv, 23 December 2004 (RFE/RL) -- Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko told tens of thousands of supporters in the center of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, yesterday that although he believed the tide had turned against the government, the election on Sunday (26 December) would not be an easy matter.

He urged them to cast their ballots, keep an eye on polling stations, and to be on their guard against opponents he said may try to disrupt the vote. "Everyone must come out [to the polls] so that the result is totally convincing, so that there is no temptation to cheat or disrupt the ballot," he said.

The opposition says that it suspects that government forces, now facing the likelihood of defeat, may try to wreck the election by using violence or openly stuffing ballot boxes.

Under Ukrainian law, incumbent President Leonid Kuchma could remain in power until the result of new elections -- five months hence.

Hryhoriy Omelchenko, an opposition parliamentarian and former colonel in Ukraine's intelligence forces, claims to have evidence that automatic rifles and other weapons have been distributed to criminal groups linked to politicians in Yanukovych's east Ukrainian support base in the city of Donetsk.

That report could not be independently confirmed, but Omelchenko said he believes any violence could be used as an excuse to nullify the vote. The opposition hopes another guarantee of a fairer vote will be the large number of foreign and Ukrainian election monitors on hand.

The vote has been cast in historic terms. Many politicians and observers say that if Yushchenko wins, Ukraine will make a turn toward the West. They say a major change in policy like this could doom Russian President Vladimir Putin's ambition to build a new Moscow-led economic union comprising Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia.

The flawed 21 November election brought hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, with flags, ribbons, and articles of clothing in Yushchenko's orange campaign colors, into the center of Kyiv and other cities.

Yanukovych has tried to rally his supporters by casting the demonstrators as carrying out a "coup d'etat." Addressing a rally of supporters in the southern city of Kirovohrad, Yanukovych repeated that he wants closer ties with Russia. He said he would introduce Russian as a second state language and offer dual Ukrainian-Russian nationality.

"I want you to know that those people who come out to vote for the 'orange coup' in this election are voting against the Ukrainian people. They are acting against those who should be the real owners of Ukrainian land," Yanukovych said.

Yanukovych said tens of thousands of his supporters are prepared to converge on Kyiv if he does not win.

Last month, after the Supreme Court declared the 21 November election fraudulent, the opposition forced through parliament a package of measures designed to limit the scope for cheating on 26 December.

The former head of the Central Election Commission and the prosecutor-general, both accused of colluding in the fraud, were removed. The law has been changed to curb the use of false absentee voter documents to vote multiple times in different polling stations. This was alleged to have given the government candidate 3 million extra votes.

The opposition hopes another guarantee of a fairer vote will be the large number of foreign and Ukrainian election monitors on hand.

Finnish member of parliament Kimmo Kiljunen, a former vice president of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly, believes the 26 December election will be more honest than the previous ones.

"We should have now fair elections in Ukraine. Now we do have more hope than before and the major reason for the hope, obviously, is that there have been certain changes in the legislation in Ukraine. The absentee voting system is different than [it was] before. Very important, obviously, is that there are certain guarantees that in the electoral committee there are supposed to be observers and representatives from both sides," Kiljunen said.

Yushchenko, whose face remains badly disfigured by dioxin poisoning he blames on the authorities, predicts he will receive at least 60 percent of the vote.

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Bitter Divisions Rife in Ukraine as Voting Nears
By STEVEN LEE MYERS

Published: December 25, 2004

KIEV, Ukraine, Dec. 24 - More than a month after a disputed presidential election paralyzed the country and strained international relations, Ukraine prepared for a new vote on Sunday that has raised hopes that a final, amicable end to its deeply divisive political crisis is near. Those hopes may be premature.

Prime Minister Viktor F. Yanukovich, the candidate declared the winner of an election ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court, has asserted that the results of Sunday's vote will be illegitimate and vowed to challenge them in court. His supporters, meanwhile, have threatened to take to the streets in their own version of the mass protests that brought Kiev and other cities to a halt in November.

Demonstrations and legal challenges could prolong the dispute still further, despite a widely held belief here and abroad that victory by his opponent, Viktor A. Yushchenko, is all but inevitable.

Mr. Yanukovich said in an interview late Wednesday night that new election laws aimed at limiting absentee ballots and voting at home, which Mr. Yushchenko's supporters said had been abused to rig November's vote, would disenfranchise millions of voters, including the elderly and disabled.

Four dozen members of Parliament allied with Mr. Yanukovich have already filed a legal challenge with the country's Constitutional Court, which deliberated for a second day on Friday.

"We are going to have new lawsuits," Mr. Yanukovich said, reprising a theme he has repeated over and over as he barnstorms around the country in what amounts to his third race against Mr. Yushchenko. "The election will be considered illegitimate, regardless of who wins."

Since the Supreme Court's decision earlier this month and a subsequent compromise with President Leonid D. Kuchma and Parliament to overhaul the country's political system, Mr. Yushchenko appears well positioned to win. Opinion polls show him leading comfortably heading into Sunday's voting.

Signaling an unease felt by many, though, Mr. Yushchenko has tried to sustain the energy of those who took part in the mass demonstrations against the fraudulent results that briefly declared Mr. Yanukovich the country's next president.

"Each citizen must come out, so that the result is totally convincing, so that there is no temptation to cheat or disrupt the balance," he told supporters who massed again on Independence Square in Kiev on Wednesday.

Mr. Yanukovich, on leave from his job as prime minister, remains defiant and, he said, confident that he has the support of a majority of Ukrainian voters, despite the accusations of ballot stuffing, which he insists never took place in the regions that provided the bulk of his support.

It is a measure of how much the electoral dispute has upended politics here that Mr. Yanukovich, the man who served under Mr. Kuchma for two years and was chosen as his favored successor, now campaigns as an angry outsider.

On the campaign trail he has repeatedly criticized his erstwhile patron, as well as the wealthy oligarchs who remain intricately entwined in Ukraine's politics. Denied some of the government resources that aided his first two campaigns and deprived of the overwhelmingly fawning coverage he once received on national television networks loyal to Mr. Kuchma, Mr. Yanukovich has begun to sound as Mr. Yushchenko did in the first two rounds of voting.

Mr. Yushchenko, he said, was seizing power in an anti-constitutional putsch, aided by Mr. Kuchma and the United States. "It is power without limits, which does not recognize Ukrainian law, the Constitution, human rights," Mr. Yanukovich said. "It recognizes only force and money."

Regardless of the widespread violations the Supreme Court cited in ordering a new election, Mr. Yanukovich represents nearly half of Ukraine's voters, especially those in the predominantly Russian-speaking regions of the south and east.

Even his lowest poll numbers show him supported by more than 40 percent of voters, and the depth of anger among them will be a significant challenge for Mr. Yushchenko to overcome, should he win.

Mr. Yanukovich's rallies lack the size and fervor of Mr. Yushchenko's, but the atmosphere of anger and bitterness is palpable. In Poltava, a provincial capital east of Kiev, a couple of hundred people gathered in the cold on Wednesday evening outside a television studio where Mr. Yanukovich aired his grievances.

One after another his supporters climbed a small platform and angrily denounced the United States, NATO, religions other than Russian Orthodoxy and the specter of rising prices and foreign expropriation of Ukraine's farmlands. Most of all, they derided the "orange revolution" that overturned the election's results and set the stage for a new vote on Sunday.

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"Try not to use obscenities," the rally's moderator implored.

"Anyone has the right to express their opinion, but they had no right to block buildings," said Anna Solovyova, 18, a university student who joined the rally in support of Mr. Yanukovich in Poltava, referring to the mass protests that paralyzed Kiev after Nov. 21. She voted for Mr. Yanukovich in the first round of the election on Oct. 31 and in the November runoff and said she would vote for him again, because "he represents stability."

Another student, Oleksandr Kalinin, who drove to Poltava as part of Mr. Yanukovich's campaign, said "psychological pressure" from Mr. Yushchenko, Europe and the United States had soured many Ukrainians. The "orange revolution," he said, involved "too much emotion."

"Sometimes emotion flows to aggression," he said.

In Poltava and its surrounding region, a largely rural area famous for being the birthplace of Gogol and the site of Peter the Great's defeat of Sweden in 1709, 60 percent of voters supported Mr. Yushchenko in the runoff on Nov. 21. But 34 percent voted for Mr. Yanukovich, making it a battleground for the third round, in which both candidates are still scrambling for votes in what remains a competitive race.

The region's governor and the city's mayor are Yanukovich supporters, as is the general director of the official regional television station, Ltava, which devoted a full hour to a live interview with Mr. Yanukovich. Mykola I. Lyapanenko, the station director, expressed disgust at Mr. Yushchenko's campaign. "Actually it resembles 1937," he said. Stalin's purges were at their height that year.

Mr. Yanukovich's support among regional leaders - all of them appointed by Mr. Kuchma - remains a source of concern for Mr. Yushchenko's supporters. Those leaders still have sway over government resources, television channels and even state employees, who have reportedly faced pressure to vote for Mr. Yanukovich.

Anatoly T. Kukoba, deputy director of Mr. Yushchenko's campaign in Poltava, said the new election laws and a revision of local election commissions would minimize the possibility of fraud, which he said deprived Mr. Yushchenko of 10 to 12 percentage points in the last vote. He said he remained wary about the fairness of the next round.

"We only want an honest struggle," he said.

Mr. Yanukovich, in the interview, portrayed himself as the candidate who would unify, not divide the country, a picture that is somewhat at odds with the outpouring of public dissent over the Nov. 21 results, which showed Mr. Yanukovich winning by 870,000 votes.

He said he had repeatedly sought a compromise with Mr. Yushchenko to amend the changes curtailing absentee and home voting and to move up the effective date of constitutional changes, adopted by the Parliament on Dec. 8, to pass some powers of the new president to the prime minister. Under the agreement between Mr. Kuchma and Parliament, the changes are not to take effect before next September at the earliest.

"If before the election Yushchenko does not answer my questions, the prospect of the election's failure on Dec. 26, of the recognition of this election as illegitimate, or that the president will not be considered legitimate, is very high," Mr. Yanukovich said.

His position and statements by some of his supporters have kept tensions high. Already rumors have spread of plans for demonstrations and counterdemonstrations, of arms being distributed, of the possibility that the election could, even now, be somehow scuttled.

In Kiev, the tent city at the core of the mass protests still occupies the city's main street, Kreshchatik, though the number of protesters has dwindled significantly. Pavel Ananyev, a 19-year-old from Sumi who recently finished his army service, has been there since Nov. 21. He expressed hope that the crisis was nearing an end and that Mr. Yushchenko would become president, but added a word of caution.

"We will wait until the votes are counted," he said. "Probably we will have to celebrate New Year's here."

quote:

De Oranje revolutie heeft de Oekraïners bevrijd van hun angst voor de autoriteiten. Toch is de laatste ronde van de presidentsverkiezingen deze zondag geen gelopen race.

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Election official murdered in Ukraine

DNIPROPETROVSK. Dec 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) - The chairman of a district election commission has been murdered in the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk.

The 66-year old elections official is believed to have been killed by his adopted son after a quarrel, caused by overdrinking on Saturday morning, spokesman for the Dnipropetrovsk Police Aleksey Shcherbatov told Interfax. "The son cut his father's throat and hid the body in the basement," he said.

Members of the 37th district elections commission in Electoral District 26, where the incident occurred, said their chief had not reported to work on Saturday morning and they sent a colleague to his home, where he learned about the tragedy.

The elections commission has elected a new chairman.

The murdered elections official was presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych's representative.

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Verkiezingen Oekraïne kennen rustig verloop

Uitgegeven: 26 december 2004 09:39
Laatst gewijzigd: 26 december 2004 15:24

KIEV - De laatste ronde van de presidentsverkiezingen in Oekraïne kenden zondag een rustig verloop. Stembureaus in het hele land gingen 's ochtends om acht uur op tijd open. Tot het middaguur waren er relatief weinig meldingen binnengekomen van onregelmatigheden, maakte de Centrale Verkiezingscommissie bekend.

De opkomst bij de stembusgang lag in de eerste uren iets lager dan bij de voorgaande rondes. Rond elf uur lokale tijd had gemiddeld bijna 18 procent van het electoraat zijn stem uitgebracht.


In de hoofdstad Kiev, waar oppositieleider Joesjtsjenko favoriet is, lag dat cijfer op 16,38 procent. In Simféropol op de Krim dat overwegend premier Janoekovitsj steunt, was dat 23 procent.

Hartaanval

Incidenten bij de 33.300 stemlokalen in het hele land zouden zich niet hebben voorgedaan. Twee verkiezingsfunctionarissen kwamen om. In Dnjepropetrovsk schoot een beschonken persoon een familielid dood die aan het hoofd van een stembureau stond. In de regio Lviv kreeg een waarnemer een hartaanval kort nadat de bureaus waren opengegaan. Geen van beide voorvallen had invloed op de stembusgang.

In totaal 300.000 Oekraïeners houden toezicht in stemlokalen vergezeld door 12.000 buitenlandse waarnemers. Aanhangers van Joesjtsjenko beschuldigden zondagochtend hun tegenstanders ervan te pogen de verkiezingen te beïnvloeden in een aantal stemlokalen in Kharkiv, Odessa, Zaporizhia en de regio Dnjepropetrovsk.

Ongeldig

De ruim 37 miljoen stemgerechtigden in Oekraïne mogen opnieuw naar de stembussen, omdat de uitslagen van de verkiezingen van 21 november ongeldig werden verklaard. Na massale volksdemonstraties georganiseerd door de oppositie tegen de uitslag stelde ook het hooggerechtshof vast dat er massaal fraude was gepleegd en dat de tweede ronde over moest.

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Presidential Vote Under Way In Ukraine

26 December 2004 -- Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych are facing off today in a repeat presidential election in Ukraine, triggered by a fraudulent runoff vote and large street protests.


Both candidates cast their ballots in the capital, Kyiv.

Yushchenko told reporters that "what we did during the last 30 days was a tribute to our ancestors."

Yanukovych said he had voted "for the future of the Ukrainian people."

Central Election Commission Chairman Yaroslav Davydovych said all polling stations had opened on schedule and that voting is proceeding normally.

Sandra Gayle, an election monitor from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), also told reporters the balloting has so far been smooth.

Gayle: "It's going very well. We haven't found any violations. It's all going to plan. We're very happy with it. And everyone's very excited about the election."

Reporter: "Do you think it will be much better this time?"

Gayle: "I think so, yes."

Some 12,000 foreign observers are monitoring the voting.

Yanukovych officially beat Yushchenko in their first runoff on 21 November, but the Supreme Court later ruled the vote invalid.

First results are not expected until tomorrow.

(Reuters/AP)

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Joesjtsjenko verzekerd van overwinning

Uitgegeven: 27 december 2004 07:05

KIEV - Viktor Joesjtsjenko is verzekerd van zijn overwinning bij de Oekraïense presidentsverkiezingen, nu bijna alle uitslagen binnen zijn. Dit hebben functionarissen van de kiescommissie maandagochtend gezegd.

Na het tellen van meer dan 90 procent van de stemmen staat Joesjstjenko op 54 procent, terwijl Janoekovitsj blijft steken op 42 procent.

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Verkiezingen / 'Dit keer gaat het eerlijk in Oekraïne'
door Wendelmoet Boersema
2004-12-27 - geef uw reactie op dit artikel

Bij de vorige verkiezingsronde in Oekraïne werd veel gefraudeerd met het thuisstemmen. Dus wordt er nu nauwkeurig op toegezien dat iedereen zich aan de nieuwe regels houdt.


OLEKSANDRIJA - Even voorstellen: twee chloptsi, prima Oekraïense kerels. Sergej Sjin, een etnische Koreaan met Kazachstaanse wortels, en Vladimir Pisantsjin, etnisch Rus, geboren in Siberië. Vandaag zetten zij zich, alweer voor de derde keer, met hart en ziel in voor de eerlijke verkiezing van hun president. ,,Voor wie wij zijn? Wij zijn voor Oekraïne'', zeggen de beide agrarische ondernemers in koor.

Het is net licht geworden als de modderige witte Lada van Sergej koers zet richting de dorpjes in de omgeving van Oleksandrija. Deze stad ligt niet in Oost-, noch West-Oekraïne, maar in de centrale zuidelijke regio Kirovohrad. Bij de vorige ronde stemde hier de helft voor de oppositie-kandidaat Viktor Joesjtsjenko, en iets minder dan de helft voor zittend premier Viktor Janoekovitsj. ,,Maar die verhouding is aan het schuiven. De autoriteiten voelen dat de overwinning hen ontglipt en we zien veel bobo's in de stad ineens met oranje sjaaltje (Joesjtsjenko's verkiezingskleur, WB) lopen'', ratelt Vladimir er op los. In het Russisch, of eigenlijk in het soerzjik, Russisch doorspekt met Oekraïense woorden.

De belangrijkste opdracht van de mannen is dit keer: toezien dat op de kiesbureaus de procedures van het stemmen per absentie-biljet en het thuisstemmen nauwkeurig gevolgd worden. Vooral met deze procedures is in de vorige ronde massaal gefraudeerd. Bij het eerste kiesbureau in Prijoetovka, onder de rook van een enorme suikerfabriek, staat de eerste kiezer al in de startblokken. De drie grote doorzichtige stembussen glimmen, op de bodem ligt het startprotocol van de kiescommissie. De voorzitster vertelt hoe in de eerste ronde Janoekovitsj nipt won, in de tweede Joesjtsjenko en dat ze hoopt vanavond er eentje te nemen op de definitieve overwinning. Maar dat laatste is niet voor de krant, vanzelfsprekend, zegt ze met glimmende oogjes. Sergej en Vladimir constateren dat ze hier hun zaakjes op orde hebben.

Verder gaat de tocht, langs bochtige modderige weggetjes, langs zwarte akkers, langs meertjes waar vissers op het halfondergelopen ijs zitten te kleumen. Sergej geeft een ruk aan het stuur en redt een kakelende kalkoen van de kerstdis. Welkom in Janoekovitsj-dorp, grappen de mannen over Konstjantinivka, de volgende stop. Hier woont het meeste personeel van hun bedrijven. Boekhoudster Natalja Pogrebnjak is voor de zittende macht. ,,Joesjtsjenko is een mooi-prater, een gladde bankier'', zegt ze in het Oekraïens. ,,Ik ontsla je'', dreigt Vladimir, die voor Joesjtsjenko heeft gestemd. ,,We moeten toch met elkaar verder, en daar zullen deze verkiezingen weinig aan veranderen'', zegt Natalja.

Minder tevreden zijn de mannen in het volgende dorp. De kiescommissie van Protopopovka heeft niet helemaal begrepen dat voor stemmen aan huis een doktersverklaring nodig is. En dat de verklaring van de thuisstemmers handgeschreven moet zijn. En, o jee, de meeste oudjes en zieken zijn al bezocht en hun kiesbiljetten zitten in een verzegelde bus. ,,Opzij zetten en niet meer gebruiken. U moet dit melden aan het centrale comité en mag die stemmen waarschijnlijk niet meetellen'', deelt Vladimir de verbouwereerde voorzitster Jekaterina Malachatkova mee.

Hij legt uit dat deze zaken pas gisteren door het Constitutioneel Hof in een laatste wetswijziging zijn vastgesteld. Tijdens de tweede ronde op 21 november was Malachatkova het enige lid van de kiescommissie uit het Joesjtsjenko-kamp. ,,Bij het stemmen tellen gebeurde er iets raars'', vertelt ze achter haar tafel op fluistertoon. ,,Opeens zag ik een extra pakje kiesbiljetten, geteld en wel voor Janoekovitsj. Pas 's nachts realiseerde ik me dat het bedrog was, en dat onze oude voorzitster dat pakje er tussen moet hebben gelegd. Zij beweerde dat het gevallen was.''

Voor deze ronde zijn de kiescommissies overal in het land vervangen en evenwichtig samengesteld op politieke kleur. ,,Was het eerder gebeurd, dan hadden we geen derde ronde nodig gehad'', verzucht Malachatkova. ,,En dan was ik nog vriendinnen met de oud-voorzitster, mijn buurvrouw. Ze haat me nu omdat ik een proces heb aangespannen.''

Bij het andere kiesbureau in Protopopovka treffen we de bewuste buurvrouw, opnieuw als lid van de kiescommissie. Valentina Teretnetsjenko weet van de prins geen kwaad. ,,Geen klachten hier'', blijft ze herhalen. ,,Ook dit keer gaat het eerlijk.'' Ook dit keer? Ongewild verbetert ze: ,,Dit keer.''

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Yushchenko 'wins in Ukraine poll'

Ukraine opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko has won the re-run of Sunday's presidential election, election officials have said.
With 90% of the votes counted, he has an unassailable 12 point lead over Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.

But the official result may not be announced for days, with possible legal challenges from Mr Yanukovych.

The original vote, won by Mr Yanukovych last month, was annulled due to widespread fraud.

Sunday's re-run was monitored by 12,000 international observers.

Mr Yushchenko was quick to declare victory, speaking to reporters at about 0000 GMT, while the counting was still in its early stages.

"I want to say this is a victory of the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian nation," he declared. "We were independent for 14 years, today we became free.

"Today, in Ukraine, a new political year has begun. This is the beginning of a new epoch, the beginning of a new great democracy."

Contested results?

Shortly afterwards he addressed tens of thousands of jubilant opposition supporters in Kiev's central Independence Square, thanking them for their support and urging them to remain in the square until he was officially declared as the winner.

Yushchenko supporters, in their distinctive orange colours, celebrated the anticipated victory with a concert and a fireworks display.

As polls closed, Mr Yanukovych - who has not conceded defeat - vowed to lead "a strong opposition" if he lost, saying it would be "senseless" to negotiate with his rival.

An aide, Nestor Shufrich, later told reporters it appeared likely the numbers would put Mr Yanukovych in second place.

But he added: "We don't admit defeat. If the results of the vote are contested in certain precincts, the outcome of the election could be different."

Election fatigue

The Ukrainian Committee of Voters, a voters' rights organisation, said in an initial statement it could see no grounds to talk about mass irregularities in Sunday's re-run.

Many Ukrainians, going back to the polls for the third time in less than two months, said they wanted to put an end to the country's bitter political crisis .

Public support for Mr Yanukovych - once seen as the favourite of the Ukrainian establishment and neighbouring Russia - has been strong in the industrialised east and the south of the country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he will accept, and work with, whoever wins.

Bitter campaign

Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma suggested the loser should concede within two days.

"Dear God, let this be the final vote. I'm sure it will be," he said.

Mr Kuchma backed Mr Yanukovych in the earlier vote - but the prime minister had recently attacked the president, presenting himself as an anti-establishment candidate.

Allegations of vote-rigging in the original ballot were just part of a campaign characterised by alleged dirty tricks.

Doctors recently confirmed that Mr Yushchenko, who developed a disfiguring skin condition in September, had been poisoned with dioxin.

The opposition leader has suggested he was poisoned at a dinner with heads of the Ukrainian security service (SBU) - an allegation denied by the SBU.

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Orange army starts to party
By Yaroslav Lukov
BBC News website, Kiev

The orange army was ecstatic watching the big TV screen set up on Kiev's main Independence Square when opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko finally appeared at his headquarters, well after midnight.

"It has happened! This is the victory of the Ukrainian people!" Mr Yushchenko said to loud cheers from reporters.

He later went on to the Independence Square - known here simply as Maidan - to thank his supporters personally.

But he urged Maidan's tent city to stay on to be ready to defend the victory.

The crowd had already been chanting "Yushchenko - President!" for some time, realising that the gap between their candidate and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych - although based on exit polls only - could hardly be breached.

In fact, the party started soon after the poll ended at 2000 (1800 GMT) with thousands of Mr Yushchenko's supporters pouring to the square in response to his earlier call.

People were singing and dancing as some of Ukraine's best-known musicians performed on stage in anticipation of Mr Yushchenko's victory.

And they exploded with loud cheers when the results of three exit polls were announced.

"We're winning, we're winning!" shouted a group of young girls standing next to me, flashing V-signs for victory.

"We can scent our victory in the air! Soon we'll be able to fully enjoy the taste of it!" said one of the musicians.

'No talks'

Other people were more cautious, predicting a delay in announcing of the official results because of possible legal wrangling.

"We'll stay on Maidan until Mr Yushchenko is sworn in as next president," said Taras, who has been living in the tent city for several weeks.

As polls closed, a grim-looking Mr Yanukovych gave a news conference at his Kiev headquarters.

"I'm waiting for my victory, but if I lose I am absolutely sure... that any negotiations [with Mr Yushchenko's camp] are senseless," he said.

The prime minister - who had earlier repeatedly urged his rival to make a deal - said he was ready to form an opposition and defend relentlessly his voters' rights.

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Russians rush to re-think Ukraine
By Steven Eke
BBC Russia analyst


It appears that Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko has won a decisive victory over Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych in the re-run of the country's presidential election.

Nowhere has Ukraine's political crisis been followed more closely than in Russia.

It is widely accepted that the outcome of this election will help to shape the relationship between these two historically bonded nations, which continue to share economic, social and religious links.

It will also help to determine Russian foreign policy over the coming years, particularly during the remaining time President Vladimir Putin has in office.

Litmus test


When Mr Putin came to power in 2000, he promised to restore Russia's influence in what he termed "the zones of traditional influence" - or the republics of the former Soviet Union.

Ukraine has been a litmus test of Russia's capacity to influence events in the neighbouring countries.

And it appears that capacity is limited after the defeat of Mr Yanukovych, the candidate Moscow directly backed with money, moral support, advertising and TV airtime.

Already, Russian commentators have rushed to set out what they see as the consequences for Russia, and for Russo-Ukrainian relations.

Some are distancing themselves from the policy of backing Mr Yanukovych, and the public recognition of his 'victory' after a second round marred by allegations of widespread fraud.

The hard-line, nationalist MP Dmitry Rogozin has promised that the top Kremlin spin-doctors, who helped to shape the Yanukovych campaign, will "pay" for their failures.

Speaking live on Ukrainian television, Mr Rogozin said they were "guilty of creating the wrong image of Russia among Ukrainians". Their contribution consisted of portraying Mr Yushchenko as a Nazi, an anti-Semite, anti-Russian and pro-American.

Predictions

Ultimately, the Kremlin spin-doctors may have reinforced anti-Western stereotypes already widespread and deeply embedded in Russian society. This is clearly reflected in the doom-laden predictions of the Russian left.

One communist newspaper, Pravda, says the result means "the complete loss of our gas and oil export routes to the USA or the European Union". It also voices the fear that Mr Yushchenko's election means "Russia no longer exists as a world-class power". Pravda blames Washington for this.

Centrist commentators portray a very different situation.

A writer for business publication Kommersant claims the outcome of Ukraine's political crisis means "the Orange Revolution virus will now spread to Russia".

He writes: "It will not take long to dismantle the new Russian totalitarianism".

Media sources close to the Kremlin have stayed away from an assessment of Ukrainian exit polls. Instead, they have concentrated on the happy atmosphere in Kiev, and the apparent absence (so far) of reports of mass violations.

'Angry tones'

Mr Yushchenko has said that, in the event of his election, Russia would be the first foreign country he visited.

Ukraine's high level of dependence on Russia means u-turns in its policies towards its bigger, richer, northern neighbour are unlikely.

But there are likely to be long-term consequences in Russia.

Perhaps there will be a rejection of the policy of preserving influence at all costs, tied with a greater acceptance that the empire is no more.

It would seem more likely, given recent events, that an increasingly angry tone in public statements about the wider world may emerge, particularly regarding the US and Europe.

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Kamp Janoekovitsj dient honderden bezwaren in (video)

Uitgegeven: 27 december 2004 13:13
Laatst gewijzigd: 27 december 2004 17:12

KIEV - Medestanders van de Oekraïense premier Janoekovitsj die ogenschijnlijk de presidentsverkiezingen van zondag heeft verloren, hebben honderden bezwaarschriften ingediend tegen het verloop van de stembusgang.

De Centrale Kiescommissie maakte maandag bekend dat het 550 bezwaren heeft ontvangen, aldus het Russische persbureau Interfax.

Bekijk video:
Modem/ Breedband


Na telling van bijna alle stemmen (98,1 procent) ligt oppositieleider Viktor Joesjtsjenko met 52,3 procent voor op Janoekovitsj die 43,9 procent kreeg. Campagneleider Tsjornovil van de premier sprak na het sluiten van de stemlokalen op zondag meteen al van massale fraude.

Zeker 1,5 miljoen kiesgerechtigden die slecht ter been zouden zijn, konden niet stemmen door een nieuwe wet die thuisstemmen verbiedt. Janoekovitsj zou hierdoor disproportioneel zwaar getroffen zijn, aldus Tsjornovil.

Oekraïense waarnemers denken niet dat de protesten veel uit zullen halen en betwijfelen of het kamp van de premier wel voldoende bewijzen in handen heeft om de zaak hard te maken.

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Janoekovitsj niet akkoord met verkiezingsnederlaag

Uitgegeven: 27 december 2004 17:35
Laatst gewijzigd: 27 december 2004 17:37

KIEV - Het team van de pro-Russische Viktor Janoekovitsj stapt naar het hooggerechtshof in Oekraïne om de nederlaag van de premier in de presidentsverkiezingen van zondag aan te vechten. Het team van Janoekovitsj repte van onregelmatigheden bij de stembusgang, die door de pro-westerse Viktor Joesjtsjenko zijn gewonnen.

Een woordvoerder van Janoekovitsj repte "van systematische schendingen" bij de derde ronde van de verkiezingen. Na de vorige ronde op 21 november van de presidentverkiezingen wendde Joesjtsjenko zich tot het hooggerechtshof. Het hof oordeelde daarop dat de verkiezingen van 21 november moesten worden overgedaan wegens fraude.


Voorzitter Barroso van de Europese Commissie verwelkomde maandag de zege van Joesjtsjenko. Hij noemde zijn zege "een goede dag voor de banden van Oekraïne met de EU". Ook riep hij alle partijen in het land op de uitslag van de stembusgang te accepteren.

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Ukraine's Opposition Wins Vote, But Rivals Hint At Challenge
By Askold Krushelnycky

Kyiv/Prague, 27 December 2004 (RFE/RL) -- Ukrainian opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko had an unassailable lead over rival candidate Viktor Yanukovych with more than 98 percent of votes counted from yesterday's presidential election, but Yanukovych still had not conceded defeat late today and allies suggested he would challenge the results in court.


Figures from the Central Electoral Commission showed Yushchenko with over 52 percent of the votes counted earlier today, compared to less than 44 percent for Yanukovych.

Turnout was over 77 percent, the commission indicated.

Yushchenko declared victory early this morning in a rally in the capital Kyiv.

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski has already congratulated the opposition leader on his victory, according to a press release from Kwasniewski's office quoted by Reuters.

New Challenge To Results?

But sources within Prime Minister Yanukovych's campaign suggested tonight -- as Yanukovych remained silent over the result -- that they intend to challenge the results of the latest vote with the Supreme Court.

A Yanukovych ally, Nestor Shufrych, charged falsification, saying the Yanukovych team will appeal.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) took a different view, saying today that the vote shows the country has taken "a great step forward toward free and fair elections."

The head of the OSCE observer mission, Bruce George, said this was the general view among the monitoring organizations.

"I am much happier to be in a position to announce that it is the collective judgment of these organizations represented here that the Ukrainian elections have moved substantially closer to meeting OSCE and other European and international standards," George said.

However, George added that the election was not perfect and that the mission's final report will detail what observers saw as its shortcomings.

European Union High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana called on Ukraine's political leaders to work together to unite the country after the divisive election.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell broke the official silence in Washington today over the vote and called the Ukrainian election "a historic moment for democracy." He said it appeared the Ukrainian people had had the opportunity to choose their own government and added the election appeared to have been "full and free."

Early Signs Of Opposition Win

Yushchenko spent the day celebrating what he predicted was a victory during an overnight opposition rally following the balloting.

"Dear friends, I would just like to say, for 14 years we were independent, but we weren't free," Yushchenko told the crowd. "For 14 years there was tyranny in all of Ukraine, the tyranny of [outgoing President Leonid] Kuchma, [his predecessor Leonid] Kravchuk, and [Prime Minister Viktor] Yanukovych. Today we can say that is all in the past; before us lies an independent and free Ukraine."

The repeat vote appeared to have taken place with no major electoral violations. The vote was monitored by some 12,000 international observers, with foreign scrutiny heightened following flawed late-November voting that was eventually declared invalid by the Ukrainian Supreme Court.

"Today we are turning the page of disrespect for people, of lies, censorship, and violence," Yushchenko said. "The people who were dragging Ukraine into a hole are at this moment becoming [a part of] the past. A new epoch is beginning of a new great democracy. Many tens of millions of Ukrainians have dreamed of this."

Ukraine's Central Electoral Commission indicated early this morning that Yushchenko had secured enough votes to ensure him victory.

Overnight Jubilation

In the early hours this morning, after three separate exit polls showed he had a big lead, Yushchenko went to Independence Square in the heart of the capital to address his supporters.
They welcomed him with the same chants of "Yushchenko" that have echoed around the capital and the country for the past month in a nonstop protest against the government. It was in that same square that hundreds of thousands of Yushchenko supporters gathered on the evening of 21 November to protest the massive fraud perpetrated by the government in that day's first presidential runoff.

The protests began 17 days of demonstrations that have since become known as the "Orange Revolution" -- for the orange color the Yushchenko campaign adopted.

Yushchenko, flanked by his wife and senior political allies, bowed today to supporters and said: "My first thanks are to you. The people proved their power. They rebelled against probably the most cynical regime in Eastern Europe."

International Plans

Yushchenko has said his ambition is for Ukraine to join NATO, the European Union, and the World Trade Organization (WTO). He has said that he will cooperate with Moscow as an equal but added that the era during which Ukraine was treated as a subordinate was over.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin had openly backed Yanukovych, arriving in Ukraine on the eve of two earlier rounds of elections, in October and November, to boost Yanukovych's chances. Putin was quick to congratulate Yanukovych for his official victory on 21 November, a win marred by sufficient fraud to prompt the Supreme Court to order the new vote.

Yanukovych supported Putin's plan to re-create a Moscow-led bloc, comprising Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia. That scheme now looks doomed.

Yanukovych courted Ukraine's large ethnic-Russian minority -- around 9 million of the country's 48 million population -- with promises that Russian would become a state language.

Russia's interference had caused resentment among opposition supporters. Many of Yushchenko's close colleagues suspect Russia of involvement in the nearly fatal poisoning of the opposition leader in September that has left his face badly disfigured. The EU and the United States rebuked Putin for meddling in the election.

East-West Divide

But the results from yesterday's vote suggest once more that Ukraine is deeply divided, with the western and central regions backing Yushchenko while the east mostly supported Yanukovych.

Yanukovych's senior political allies in some of the eastern regions threatened in November to seek autonomy, something they have since moved away from. A member of parliament from the Social Democrat Party-united, which supported Yanukovych, Ihor Shurma, suggested some kind of devolution might happen -- but not for a while.

"Perhaps a federal model will be beneficial for Ukraine, but not today. Ukraine is not ready for that today," Shurma said. "Economically it's not strong enough. At present it faces many risks. Therefore, it is not appropriate to raise this question at this time."

In an early hint that he might accept the results of yesterday's vote, Yanukovych promised to form a robust opposition in parliament to any Yushchenko-appointed government.

The leader of his campaign team, Taras Chornovyl, even predicted Yanukovych supporters in parliament would attract some of Yushchenko's current political allies, including the Socialists and the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc, to fight the parliamentary elections scheduled for 2006 as a coalition.

"If Yushchenko indeed does become president, then I think that in the near future politicians like Yuliya Tymoshenko and others will join us," Chornovyl said.

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Ukraine: Will The Country Now Orient Itself Toward The West?
By Jeremy Bransten

Now that opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko appears to have clinched a majority in the Ukrainian presidential vote, what are the likely implications for Ukraine's foreign policy, its relations with the West and Russia?


Prague, 27 December 2004 (RFE/RL) -- Throughout the electoral campaign and the demonstrations he led through the streets of Kyiv, Yushchenko promised his people big changes if they elected him president.

Speaking this morning in the Ukrainian capital, Yushchenko said the decisive moment had at last arrived in the form of "a new epoch of a new, great democracy" to replace a period of "disrespect for people, of lies, censorship, and violence."

Yushchenko is being listened to closely not only in Kyiv, but also in Moscow, Brussels, Washington, and other capitals. The leader of the "Orange Revolution" has said the changes he intends to bring to Ukraine are as much about internal reforms as they are about foreign policy.

Although he campaigned on a vow to undo the legacy of outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, Yushchenko's foreign-policy platform is ironically a throwback to Kuchma's early program -- at least as it was presented to the world.

When he first came into office, Kuchma talked about closer EU integration. He signed a special partnership agreement with NATO and even raised the possibility of membership of the alliance.

An Evolving Foreign Policy

After Kuchma's popularity at home and abroad sank as he became mired in corruption scandals, he turned to Russia as his new ally, saying Ukraine needed a "multivector" foreign policy that balanced eastern and western interests.

In reality, analyst Taras Kuzio of George Washington University in the United States suggested, Kuchma had no real foreign policy -- just a lot of promises and temporary alliances designed to keep him and his clan in power.

Kuzio, interviewed by RFE/RL before the vote, said he expected Yushchenko to end this "pretend foreign policy" and follow through on the goals Kuchma originally set out.

"What we'll have is no longer a mismatch between domestic and foreign policies," Kuzio said. "We'll no longer just have empty rhetoric. We'll have more concrete substance to those foreign policy objectives, which have already been raised on the agenda, which are EU and NATO membership. It's not Yushchenko who's going to be raising the issue of NATO and EU membership. They have been Ukrainian objectives for a while but not serious objectives."

Alexander Rahr, an expert on the region at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin whom RFE/RL also interviewed before yesterday's election, said he would expect fundamental changes in Ukraine's foreign policy under Yushchenko

Yushchenko is going to take back are announcements, statements, made by President Kuchma concerning Ukraine's future foreign policy," Rahr said. "When Kuchma said he couldn't foresee Ukraine in NATO and the European Union within the next couple of years, he made a clear point about reorienting his foreign policy towards Russia. I think this will change under President Yushchenko. Yushchenko will say that the intention of Ukraine's foreign policy is directed towards integration with Western military, economic, and political structures and not so much in the future with Russia. I think this will bring fundamental change, and we can expect it."

Although Ukraine's geopolitical re-orientation, if it occurs, would affect relations with Russia, experts have said they believe economic ties are not likely to suffer. While prime minister, Yushchenko showed he was open to Russian business investment in Ukraine.

But as for the rest of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), that is another matter.

Kuchma pursued a free-trade zone linking Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and Kazakhstan. But Kuzio said that if its economic value cannot be justified -- especially if Western investment starts to pour into Ukraine -- then it will become a casualty of the Yushchenko administration.

"There will be, I believe, a short period of coldness in relations with Russia. That's because of Vladimir Putin's overt intervention in the Ukrainian elections and also because of the strong suspicions that Russia is behind the attempted poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko," Kuzio said. "But the best way to understand the transformation would be: continued pragmatic economic cooperation with Russia, no longer any interest in the CIS joint-economic space together with Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan."

EU Membership?

The big question is how the European Union, which played a leading role in mediating and end to the electoral crisis, might react to Ukraine's westward swing. Former European Commission President Romano Prodi once famously declared that Ukraine had as much chance of joining the EU as New Zealand.
Is Europe ready for Ukraine and its 47 million people? Rahr said he does not believe EU membership is a realistic prospect for Kyiv.

"For many Europeans, Ukraine is still too big, too difficult, too far away, with a too complicated economic system, too much corruption," Rahr said. "So I think there are a lot of arguments which will be made inside the European Union against giving Ukraine a full-fledged prospect for membership in the European Union."

But Rahr said he does see prospects for a special partnership with the EU. He said he believes countries like Poland and Germany are interested in such a relationship and will push for the EU to adopt a dynamic and pro-active policy toward Ukraine.

"I expect countries like Poland, probably even Germany but also the Baltic states and the new leadership in Romania, to try to force the other group members in the European Union to change the direction towards Ukraine," Rahr said.

As the United States' relations with Russia go through a rough patch, experts believe Washington will show renewed interest in upgrading its ties with Ukraine as well.

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Donetsk wary of Yushchenko
By Jonathan Charles
BBC News, Donetsk, Ukraine

Eastern Ukraine was never going to give a warm welcome to the election winner.

In this mainly Russian-speaking part of the country, which looks more towards Moscow than eastern Europe, Viktor Yushchenko is regarded with deep suspicion.

Gloom has descended on the city of Donetsk, which voted overwhelmingly for his rival, Viktor Yanukovych.

People here had been threatening to march to Kiev to protest at what they see as an election hijacked by the West. But in the cold light of day they are taking their lead from their political leaders.

Mr Yanukovych has been calling for calm and promised that there will be no street demonstrations or calls for eastern Ukraine to separate from the western part of the country.

Most people I have spoken to say that instead, they will work out what they can do to oppose Mr Yushchenko in the medium and long-term. Sasha, in his 30s, told me: "I hear that Yushchenko wants to come to Donetsk to tell us that we can all be friends, but don't expect us to love him".

The people of Donetsk are now turning their thoughts to the next parliamentary elections.They hope that Mr Yanukovych will do well in those and can form a strong parliamentary opposition to Viktor Yushchenko.

They will also be watching the new president closely as he tries to reform the economy. The east likes to think of itself as Ukraine's economic powerhouse, full of coal mines and factories.

Economic concerns

Some miners have said that if Mr Yushchenko tries to cut the national budget and subsidies for the mines, leading to pit closures and job losses, then there will be strike action. The miners not only dislike the new president's pro-Western politics, they are also concerned about his economics.

Many workers in Donetsk say the whole economy is based here, and if necessary, they will bring it to a standstill.

Others in Donetsk have more specific concerns.

Ukraine's wealthiest businessman, Rinat Akhmetov, lives here and is one of the oligarchs whom Mr Yushchenko regards as having too great a role in politics. He was a supporter of Mr Yanukovych, but he, too, is now sending out messages that he is prepared to work with the new president.

Mr Yushchenko has said that he wants to investigate the $880m privatisation of a steelworks which was bought by Mr Akhmetov, suggesting it was sold too cheaply.

Mr Akhmetov told me: "I wasn't the organiser of the sale, only one of the bidders, and if the new president wants to investigate then that's up to him".

However, he also made it clear he thought it was time to reform the economy and he supported the idea of improving relations with the European Union. Such an olive branch to Mr Yushchenko is unlikely to be reciprocated, though.

Businessmen like Mr Akhmetov can expect to have much less influence in future - another sign that life in eastern Ukraine and the rest of the country could be very different in the months to come.

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Analysis: Ukraine looks west
By Paul Reynolds
World Affairs correspondent, BBC News website

The presidential election result in Ukraine is another striking example of the "people power" which has swept central and eastern Europe over the last 15 years.

The "Orange Revolution" will take its place alongside the "Velvet Revolution" in former Czechoslovakia, the "Rose Revolution" in Georgia and all the other revolutions which might not have a name but which certainly had an effect.

These peaceful revolutions have transformed the political landscape of Europe. And just as the changes in other countries led to questions about EU and Nato membership, so the election of Viktor Yushchenko will inevitably do so in Ukraine.

The European Union is likely to have to re-examine its rather hands-off attitude to potential Ukrainian membership.

Liberalism triumphs

The EU will not want to engage in triumphalism against Russia, whose President Vladimir Putin openly backed Viktor Yanukovych in the first, disputed election.

But the boundaries of modern Europe have now been pushed further east, and Russia itself is finding that its immediate western neighbours have diverged from the authoritarian path it has trod under Mr Putin. The long-term effect on potential liberalisation in Russia itself will be interesting to watch.

There will be voices in the EU calling for swift action to consolidate Ukraine's new position, which will be far more open to western ideas of political and economic reform.

When he was appointed prime minister by President Leonid Kuchma in 1999, Mr Yushchenko, who once headed Ukraine's national bank, initiated a series of economic reforms.

These measures ran up against entrenched interests, led by a combination of communists and Ukraine's oligarchs who had done well out of post-communist rule. He lost office in 2001, but those same policies can now be expected to make a return appearance.

At the moment, Ukraine has a partnership agreement with the EU and is regarded as one of the countries to be fostered under the so-called European Neighbourhood Policy, which is designed to extend friendship but not membership.

The partnership agreement does foresee the development of free trade in exchange for political reforms, but this process might now not only be speeded up but superseded altogether.

Looking west

Ukrainian membership of the EU could well be on the agenda before too long.

In an article on 7 December for Open Democracy, an online political magazine, Katinka Barysch and Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform argued: "The EU should, and probably will, rethink its long-standing position that Ukraine 'has as much reason to be in the EU as New Zealand', in the words of Romano Prodi, the recently departed European Commission president".

The authors did counsel against the EU "making a big noise about Ukraine becoming an EU member". But experience elsewhere in eastern Europe has been that a rapid change in a country's internal politics is usually followed by a rapid change in its external relations.

There might not be a big noise, but some noise can be expected.

As for Nato, it already has a partnership agreement with Ukraine, though Ukraine has never walked through the open door to membership that Nato has offered. That, too, might change, though Mr Yushchenko's need to keep strong relations with Russia and his own nationalist sentiments could act against it.

No US puppet

Mr Yushchenko is unlikely to be a client of the West, especially not of the United States, despite claims from those opposing him that his Ukrainian-American wife Kateryna wields great influence. A significant neo-conservative figure in her day, she held office in the human rights bureau at the US State Department in the Reagan administration.

Mr Yushchenko has supported a withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Iraq and its 1,600-strong force there could be brought home, though probably not before the Iraq election on 30 January.

The real winners are those Ukrainians who use the same words and phrases as one heard in the other peaceful revolutions - words like "truth", "rule of law," decency" and "normality."

The previous regime epitomised the rule of those who had not quite thrown off the old ways of doing things. They claimed to have changed, but underneath it was not that different.

One symbolic moment for me came when I accompanied the Prince of Wales on a visit to Ukraine in 1996. He had just arrived for a lavish dinner in some state palace in Kiev when all the lights failed. They had to drive a Mercedes up to the front door to shine its headlights into the room.

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Overigens, HarigeKerel, dergelijke triomfreactie's van buiten maken het alleen maar moeiljker om nu verzoening in de Oekraïene te krijgen.

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Op maandag 27 december 2004 12:09 schreef du_ke het volgende:
Het verschil is nog niet overdreven groot eigenlijk !

En die oost-west verdeeldheid gaat ze nog opbreken .

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Viktor Yushchenko

Wearing the white hat (‘gooood) for the Western media is Viktor Yushchenko. Putting himself forth as the Bolivar or Washington of his country, Yushchenko has credentials which should frighten anybody who believes that he is the embodiment of democratic values. While on the surface more appealing than his rival Viktor Yanukovich, a thuggish pal of the post-Wall, pro-Russian oligarchy,

Yushchenko has a chequered career as a rabid free marketer, “a key figure in the system of ‘crony capitalism’ which has enriched the few at the expense of the many” according to writer Justin Raimondo. The latter rose to power as head of the Ukrainian central bank in the early 1990s. It was Yushchenko who was the main architect of “the bitter medicine” of the IMF structural reform which debilitated the Ukrainian economy and sent the longevity average of Russian males from 65 to 58 in the 1990s.

This savage shock treatment increased the price of bread by 300 per cent overnight, sent electricity prices soaring 600 per cent and public transportation by 900 per cent. Real wages fell by 75 per cent in relation to the 1991 level. The GDP declined by 60 per cent. At this time the country’s average monthly wage was $80 per month. One can surmise that Viktor Yushchenko’s pay packet was substantially higher.

bron

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Who is Viktor Yushchenko?

The IMF Sponsored Candidate

In 1993, Viktor Yushchenko was appointed head of the newly-formed National Bank of Ukraine. Hailed as a "daring reformer", he was among the main architects of the IMF's deadly economic medicine which served to impoverish The Ukraine and destroy its economy.

Following his appointment, the Ukraine reached a historical agreement with the IMF. Mr Yushchenko played a key role in negotiating the 1994 agreement as well as creating a new Ukrainian national currency, which resulted in a dramatic plunge in real wages.

The 1994 IMF package was finalized behind closed doors at the Madrid 50 years anniversary Summit of the Bretton Woods institutions. It required the Ukrainian authorities to abandon State controls over the exchange rate leading to an impressive collapse of the currency.

Yushchenko as Head of the Central Bank was responsible for deregulating the national currency under the October 1994 "shock treatment":

The price of bread increased overnight by 300 percent,
electricity prices by 600 percent,
public transportation by 900 percent.
the standard of living tumbled
According to the Ukrainian State Statistics Committee, quoted by the IMF, real wages in 1998 had fallen by more than 75 percent in relation to their 1991 level.( http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2003/cr03174.pdf )

Ironically, the IMF sponsored program was intended to alleviate inflationary pressures: it consisted in imposing "dollarised" prices on an impoverished population with earnings below ten dollars a month.

Combined with the abrupt hikes in fuel and energy prices, the lifting of subsidies and the freeze on credit contributed to destroying industry (both public and private) and undermining Ukraine's breadbasket economy.

In November 1994, World Bank negotiators were sent in to examine the overhaul of Ukraine's agriculture. With trade liberalization (which was part of the economic package), US grain surpluses and "food aid" were dumped on the domestic market, contributing to destabilizing one of the World's largest and most productive wheat economies, (e.g. comparable to that of the American Mid West).

By 1998, the deregulation of the grain market had resulted in a decline in the production of grain by 45 percent in relation to its 1986-90 level. The collapse in livestock production, poultry and dairy products was even more dramatic.

(See http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2003/cr03174.pdf )

The cumulative decline in GDP resulting from the IMF sponsored reforms was in excess of 60 percent (from 1992 to 1995).

Propaganda in support of the "Free Market"

Under these circumstances, why would Yushchenko, who was closely associated with the process of economic destruction and impoverishment be so popular? Why has the public image and political reputation of an IMF protoge, namely Mr. Yushchenko remained unscathed?

What the neoliberal agenda does is to build a consensus in "the free market reforms". "Short term pain gain for long term gain" says the World Bank. "Bitter economic medicine" is the only solution, much in the same way as the Spanish inquisition was the consensus underlying the feudal social order.

In an utterly twisted logic, poverty is presented as a precondition for building a prosperous society. This consensus presents a World of landless farmers, shuttered factories, jobless workers and gutted social programs as a means to achieving economic and social progress.

To sustain the consensus and convince public opinion, requires "turning the World upside down", creating divisions within society, distorting the truth and ensuring, through a massive propaganda campaign, that no other viable political alternative to the "free market" is allowed to emerge.

Why is Yushchenko so popular? For same reason as George W. Bush, running on his record of war crimes is popular.

And because his opponent, outgoing Prime Minister Yanukovich does not represent a genuine political alternative for The Ukraine, which forcefully challenges the international financial institutions and the interests of Western corporate capital, which are destroying and impoverishing an entire nation.

The 2004 election in the Ukraine was built on a massive propaganda and public relations campaign, supported by the US, with money payoffs by Washington for political parties and organizations committed to Western strategic and economic interests. In turn, US intelligence, working hand in glove with various foundations including the NED, has consistently supported this process of civil society manipulation. The objective is not democracy, but rather the fracturing and colonization of the former Soviet Union.

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Tymoshenko: 'I'll Be Next Ukraine Prime Minister'

"PA"

Ukraine’s fiery opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko has said she expects nothing less than to be the country’s next prime minister, given her stalwart support for Viktor Yushchenko, whose presidency is increasingly likely.

Tymoshenko has said that a written agreement she and Yushchenko signed when she joined his coalition leaves no alternative than for her to head a new government once Yushchenko is inaugurated.

“I believe that Viktor Yushchenko will follow our formal agreement – created when we signed our coalition agreement,” said Tymoshenko, whose elaborately braided hair, hip orange outfits and sharp tongue have earned her thousands of worshippers among the opposition.

Asked if there was another possible choice for prime minister, she replied: “There are no other alternatives.”

Preliminary election results show Yushchenko winning a sound victory in the December 26 court-ordered revote, but final results have yet to announced, pending the Central Election Commission’s final hearing on the appeals filed by his opponent, Viktor Yanukovych.

The commission said yesterday that it expected to announce final results today, at which point Yanukovych is expected to lodge an appeal to Ukraine’s Supreme Court.

Despite the delay, Yushchenko has already started discussing his first steps as president and begun talks to name his Cabinet. His office has refused to say who will be tapped to be prime minister, but Tymoshenko’s name is a regular on the list of those being considered.

“I don’t have any doubt that parliament will support my candidacy if Yushchenko will propose it to the parliament,” Tymoshenko said yesterday. She would need a simple majority of support from the 450-member parliament to win the post.

Side-by-side with Yushchenko and more than anyone else, Tymoshenko was the political face of the mass movement dubbed the “Orange Revolution” – when thousands of opposition supporters flooded the streets of Kiev following the November 21 fraud-marred second-round vote.

She jumped on the backs of trucks to rally the crowds, clamoured over a riot police line and repeatedly called for a forcible seizure of power from the opposition’s stage on Independence Square. At her behest, protesters stayed on the streets.

The Supreme Court annulled the election, citing mass fraud, stripped Yanukovych of his victory and ordered the December 26 revote. When Yushchenko took the stage to declare victory, the crowd alternated chants of “Yu-shchen-ko! Yu-shchen-ko!” with “Yulia! Yulia!”

Some critics have suggested that naming Tymoshenko to the prime minister’s job could deepen the division between western and eastern Ukraine, a rift vividly exposed during the election.

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Op woensdag 5 januari 2005 05:50 schreef Stereotomy het volgende:


http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3961135

Ben benieuwd hoe snel de Westerse media eindelijk doorkrijgt dat we het hier over een radicale oligarch hebben die qua tact en corruptie (in de gashandel) geen steek beter is dan Yanukovich.

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Op woensdag 5 januari 2005 18:05 schreef N_I_ het volgende:
Hopelijk zal het Zuid-oosten van Oekraïne zich afscheiden van de arme West-Oekraïne want laten we nou eerlijk zijn. De grenzen kort na de val van de SU zijn veel te snel kunstmatig vastgesteld. Als het Zuid-Oosten zich aansluit bij Rusland zal dat voordeel opeleveren voor beide landen. UShenko brengt alleen maar onheil met zich mee.

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Op maandag 22 november 2004 21:42 schreef HarigeKerel het volgende:

[..]

Tja, daar had de door de CIA gesteunde putsch wel succes, de Oekraine zal nog even moeten wachten

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Op donderdag 6 januari 2005 17:52 schreef N_I_ het volgende:


Het grappige is dat je ook nog gelijk hebt gekregen...

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Many Russian and Ukrainian analysts have hesitated to place primary responsibility on the Kremlin or Putin for misjudging the Ukrainian situation. Instead they have been blaming the "aggressive tactics" of a gaggle of Russian campaign consultants who began arriving at Kyiv's Borispol Airport sometime in July, RFE/RL's Russian Service reported on 28 December.

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Of course, if Yanukovych were about to assume Ukraine's presidency, it is not difficult to imagine Pavlovskii and others taking credit for his victory. In an interview with "The Washington Post" on 2 January, former political adviser Dick Morris explained how he managed to contribute a key element of President-elect Viktor Yushchenko's strategy without ever managing to actually visit Ukraine. Morris told the paper that an acquaintance from a previous overseas campaign put him in touch with Yushchenko's campaign manager. Because of unspecified "security concerns," he met with Yushchenko campaign officials in an undisclosed East European capital. According to Morris, his main contribution to the campaign was to urge exit polling on election day and the immediate publication of those results. In this way, according to Morris, Yushchenko's campaign would draw supporters to the streets to celebrate -- thus presenting Ukrainian authorities with an angry mob if they tried to tamper with the vote.

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MOSCOW Jan 24, 2005 — Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko, visiting Moscow on a trip to mend relations after a bitter election campaign, appointed top ally Yulia Tymoshenko as prime minister Monday a move likely to anger the Kremlin.

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Op maandag 24 januari 2005 18:36 schreef Stereotomy het volgende:
Olé, het feest gaat beginnen:
[..]

Bron: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=437697

... en afwachten maar wat er gaat gebeuren. Een van de wijzigingen in de wet was dat de President (Yuschenko) minder macht zou krijgen, en meer macht naar de Premier (Timoshenko ) en het parlement (waar het me niet zou verbazen als Moroz en Kinakh, boos dat ze geen hoge positie in de nieuwe regering hebben gekregen, partij kiezen voor Yanukovich). Vette kluif voor Yuschenko dus.

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De volgende stap is dus Wit-Rusland,

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de Russen zelf zullen nog wel een jaar of 30 zelf aanmodderen maar zullen dan bij de EU of NAVO komen uit angts voor China...

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Hij wil ook maar wat graag bij de EU, en snel ook
Niet "de Joden" (dat is altijd zo'n dooddoener) maar de EU en VS zitten hier achter.

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Op maandag 24 januari 2005 19:02 schreef HarigeKerel het volgende:
Dan zien wij het gewoon geheel anders, da's oke.

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Ja maar wie profiteren hier het meeste van in Oekraïne zelf? Het is geen geheim dat de meeste oliegarchen in Rusland joden zijn die over de rug van de bevolking miljarden verdienen. Welke bevolkingsgroep profiteert van de 'oranje revolutie' het meeste in Oekraïne? Nu israel hierin gespot is vrees ik het ergste voor de Oekraïners.