Yushchenko is pushing a little too hard in my opinion. This I think might lend credence to the fact that this election is not solely about leaning toward the US and the EU but rather another means to control and surround Russia and then China.
As far back as August 27, 2004 Yuschenko’s campaign team was supposedly preparing to declare the presidential election invalid if Yanukovych won. This really bothers me. http://www.ukrnow.com/content/view/495/
To have himself sworn-in when the final results have yet to be announced tells me Yushchenko’s backers are too anxious and that perhaps the August press release is unfortunately accurate. Thus if Yanukovych won by a substantial and uncontestable margin Yuschenko would declare the election invalid or this was never an election or democratic process in Yuschenko’s eyes to begin with.
I will say if Yushchenko keeps on his present path he will not hesitate to tear Ukraine violently apart. Then again a president having the best interests of his country at heart is almost unheard of recently. I get the impression Yushchenko had no intention of losing and if the unthinkable happened, and it may have, he has from day one planned on violence.
At this point who is to know who is legitimate?
The Yanukovych camp has countered with some 750 charges of fraud and intimidation, mainly in western Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Russian media has cited exit polls conducted by SOCIS/Social Monitoring pollsters giving Yanukovych 53 percent of the vote to Yushchenko's 44 percent.
I keep going back to the fact that Yuschenko wanting to arouse sympathy and indignation against the opposition claimed he was poisoned. The authenticity of this claim apparently was never settled one way or another.
Yushchenko is Saakashvili’s counterpart and like Saakashvili he has an agenda from Bush.
It is unfortunate that the two leading candidates are so obviously flawed because Ukraine needs a change but it should be a candidate whose allegiance is to Ukraine. If not they may find out they do have more to lose.
The Ukraine election has pitted the West against the East and at the approximate time of the debacle Putin decides he may lift euro share of reserves.
Russia May Lift Euro Share of Reserves: Euro Trades Near Record; Nov. 23 #msg-4638512
We’ve watched Put play around with oil now the dollar???
The Russian troops are in Transdniester. #msg-3736648
Moldova has sought peaceful solutions to its ethnic and security problems, including offering the largely Russian population of the separatist Transdniester region broad autonomy. Bolstered by the presence of Russian troops, Transdniester continues to hold out for independence, thus denying Moldova control over significant industrial assets and its border with Ukraine. Transdniester -- a narrow stretch of land situated along the Dniester River between Moldova proper and Ukraine -- broke away from Moldova in 1990 over fears the Soviet republic would seek reunification with neighboring Romania. In 1992, Moldova and Transdniester fought a short war that ended with a Russia-mediated settlement enforced by Russian troops already stationed in the region. No country has recognized the self-proclaimed Transdniester Republic. The Russian arsenal in Transdniester belongs to the former 14th Soviet Army -- later the Russian Army -- which has been deployed in the region for decades. The 14th Army -- which several years ago changed its name to the Transdniester Operative Group of Russian Troops -- still has some 2,500 soldiers in the region, which Moscow says are necessary to guard the weapons and ammunition depots. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/transdniester.htm
Russia denies sending troops to Ukraine, as protests continue
Moscow, Nov 23 (UNI) Russia today denied media repots that it was sending troops to Ukraine, as hundreds of thousands of supporters of opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko marched to the building of Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, from the Independence Square in the centre of Kiev, the capital of ex-Soviet republic.
''Reports in some media outlets about Russian interior servicemen being sent to Ukraine are not true, and I categorically deny them,'' Interfax quoted the spokesman for the Russian Interior Ministry Col.
Vasily Panchenkov.
''There are no soldiers of the Interior Ministry forces outside Russia,'' he added.
An extraditionary session of the Rada has been convened to express no confidence in the Ukrainian Central Election Commission and annul the results. Mr Yushchenko has accused the Commission of falsifying the vote.
Ukrainian security forces warned the protesters that they were ready to crack down on any manifestation of lawlessness.
Russian television stations reported that supporters of Yushchenko, continued to hold rallies throughout Ukraine, for the second day today, protesting against the results of the Sunday's presidential round-off which gave victory to incumbent pro-Moscow Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich by a narrow margin of about 3 per cent.
Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday telephoned Mr Yanukovych from Brazilia and congratulated him on his officially declared victory in Ukraine's presidential election.
During the talks, Putin and Yanukovich emphasized that ''the struggle had been heated but open and honest and that the victory was convincing,'' Putin's spokesman Alexei Gromov told Interfax.
Earlier, today about 100,000 protesters, carrying orange flags, wearing orange scarves and ribbons, marched from the Independence Square to the parliament building, Russian media reported.
Residents of Kiev and other regions had been pouring to the square since morning to participate in the rally. They brought food and warm clothes for those who are staying in tents put up on the square and on the city's central Kreshchatik street.
Pro-Yushchenko rallies were also held in the cities of Vinnytsya, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivno, Kharkiv and Donetsk-on-Kreshchatyk.
Priests of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church conducted a service, where representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate were present.
As the Rada met in its emergency session, Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn ruled out the possibility that a state of emergency would be declared in Ukraine.
''I rule out a state of emergency,'' he told reporters, adding that ''Declaring a state of emergency would involve broader resistance.'' Monitors for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have already criticized the election results, saying the vote fell far short of European democratic norms.
Expressing ''deep concerns,'' the US has threatened to review its relations with Ukraine if the government failed to investigate the opposition accusations of vote-rigging.
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