This does not square with the accuasations that Moscow is back to its "Soviet tactics". Who in their right mind does not think that the KGB has very effective posions that leave little or no trace. The accusations that he was posioned by endotoxin made much more sense. Endotoxin is made by the bacteria in human intestine and the proper preparation of endotoxin would be hard to distinguish from what is already in your body. Some reports I have read from American sources said he was posioned in September, yet where was all the media attention then?
Yushchenko snubbed as EU insists there's no room for Ukraine Anthony Browne, Brussels
December 11, 2004 THE European Union has rebuffed Ukraine's Western-backed presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko after he told a US newspaper his main priority if elected would be to embed Western values by taking the country into the union.
It is official EU policy, however, that Ukraine cannot join. "Our position has not changed. Membership is not on the agenda," said a spokeswoman for the European Commission, the EU's powerful executive.
The commission unveiled a partnership plan yesterday for greater co-operation with Ukraine once it holds free and fair elections, but it excluded membership.
Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who takes up the rotating presidency of the EU next month, said: "I can only warn against offering Ukraine the prospect of full membership.
"We need a special relationship with Ukraine that does justice to its strategic importance."
Ukraine's possible membership is an acutely awkward subject for European leaders. "We just try to avoid the question when asked," said one EU diplomat.
"The fact that Ukraine never applied has made the decision easier, but now it is far more difficult."
Although keen to support democracy in the largest country wholly in Europe, EU leaders are concerned that the bloc's inability to say "no" to potential members means it is growing too big to control. In May, the EU expanded to 25 members by accepting 10 mainly poor Eastern European countries, including Poland and Hungary. Bulgaria and Romania are joining in 2007, and Turkey, which is almost entirely in Asia, is already on track to become the biggest, and poorest, member in about 10 years' time. The Balkan states, including Croatia and Macedonia, have also been accepted as potential members.
Many politicians fear the EU simply will not be able to cope with another country as poor, large and chaotic as Ukraine. Allowing Ukraine in would also open the door for other countries such as Belarus, Moldova, Georgia (which recently said it wanted to join), Azerbaijan and Armenia, bringing the total to almost 40 countries.
To control its expansion, the EU set an arbitrary official limit that its eastern border would be the western border of the former USSR, with the exception of the three Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
Romano Prodi, the former president of the European Commission, said Ukraine was as likely to become a member "as New Zealand".
However, if Mr Yushchenko wins the election on December 26, the EU will probably be faced with irresistible pressure to allow Ukraine to join. The new Eastern European members, three of which have a border with Ukraine, are keen to curb instability on their doorstep by letting Ukraine in.
One Eastern European diplomat said: "We should not cut it off. People are asking, 'If Turkey can join, why not Ukraine?' It is clearly much closer to Europe."
The British Government, which has always been a strong supporter of enlargement and is Turkey's main backer, is non-committal on Ukraine. France, like Luxembourg, is strongly opposed, concerned that it will turn the EU into a simple free-trade zone.
Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, said: "The fact that Turkey is joining means it is only a matter of time before Ukraine becomes a candidate.
"There is no good reason for it not to join. The (commission policy) opposing Ukraine is simply not credible, and France will have to follow the majority view on this."
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