Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

U.S. wants Ukraine to be model for Russia

Russia is still trying to recover from a Cold War defeat in which they lost vast amounts of territory, one half of gross domestic product and 10 years of male life expectancy.

The chaos and corruption that have accompanied democracy have made many Russians long for the totalitarian past, thus the desire for security, order and law most probably outweighs the desire for democracy.

It is the freedom that democracy bestows that best allows a foreign country to steal a nations assets. Putin will step on Russian freedoms, he has no choice, he will be judged by what degree.

And now these American ‘advisors’, who according to Jonathan Steele have been directing and funding the entire Yushchenko operation, just as they did in the former Yugoslavia, with money pouring in not only from the U.S. Treasury but also from billionaire George Soros, who has his own interests in Ukraine and the former Soviet Union, would love to further decimate the Russian people with another attempt at democracy.

According to the Ukrainian Center for Political and Economic Research (UCPER), a poll of the mostly pro-Yushchenko Ukrainian NGOs reveals that foreign sponsors pick up 60 percent of the tab, including:

"'Vidrodzhenya' (Revival) sponsored by George Soros - 36.3%, 'Freedom House' (the U.S.) - 22.7%, 'Poland-America-Ukraine Cooperation Initiative' - 22.7%, USAID - 22.7%, National Endowment for Democracy (the U.S.) - 18.2%, the World Bank - 13.6% (the total percentage exceeding 100%, since the respondents often named several sponsors)."

Ms. Timoshenko, who boasts of having a fleet of six jets at her disposal, no doubt picks up the rest.
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The true motive of these advisors may be see in the Khodorkovsky affair which was not only an abortive effort to gain control of Russian oil but may be considered by way of gaining seats in the Russian Duma an attempted invasion.
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-Am

U.S. wants Ukraine to be model for Russia

PUTIN, THOUGH, BACKS THE STATUS QUO

By Warren P. Strobel And Jonathan S. Landay

KNIGHT RIDDER WASHINGTON BUREAU

Posted on Sun, Dec. 05, 2004
WASHINGTON - A victory for pro-Western forces in Ukraine could embolden democrats in Russia and other former Soviet states who've been on the defensive in recent years.

"If Ukraine becomes a pretty good democracy, it's going to give hope to Russian civic activists who are quite dispirited" by Russian President Vladimir Putin's anti-democratic moves, said Adrian Karatnycky, a senior scholar at the pro-democracy group Freedom House who observed the Ukrainian election.

Ukraine "could be the leading edge of a political warm front," Karatnycky said.

Reformers in Russia and elsewhere are closely watching the democratic revolution flowering on the streets of Kiev. Foreign diplomats and backers of opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko have used the latest communications technology, including mobile phones with cameras, to transmit news to Web sites.

The rest of the world views the Nov. 21 election that Yushchenko lost as fraudulent. His dramatic and so far successful challenge to it is a remarkable turnaround for Ukraine's image.

Despite its 48 million people, large size and delicate position between the European Union and Russia, Ukraine has been low on the Bush administration's foreign-policy agenda. The country was widely seen as gripped by authoritarian rule, corruption and economic mismanagement.

Now, much is at stake in Ukraine: the potential for democracy to spread and the possibility of a nasty confrontation between the United States and Russia, which President Bush is struggling to avoid.

Putin openly backed the candidacy of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. He made two campaign appearances for him, continuing a long Kremlin tradition of heavy-handedness in Ukraine.

The White House, which needs Putin's help on countering terrorism and in nuclear crises in Iran and North Korea, has tried to avoid an East-West confrontation while backing Yushchenko's demand that the Nov. 21 result be tossed out.

"The issue in Ukraine is not a Russia-versus-the-West issue. It is the issue of democracy both in Russia and in Ukraine," former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said.

Brzezinski, speaking at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said a peaceful resolution of the crisis would give "an enormous boost" to pro-democracy forces in Russia.



http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/world/10343246.htm