Our oligarchs have allied with a faction of Ukrainian oligarchs and have elected U.S. backed Yushchenko just as they previously installed U.S. stooge Saakashvili.
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 to underwrite exit polls indicating he won last month's disputed runoff election. #msg-4798970
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili is now appearing in Ukraine with opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko in what can only be considered a puppet show.
A lot of planning, work and money have gone into efforts to design a US model for promoting democracy around the world. The model's first success was notched in Serbia. Funded and organized by the US government, which deployed US consultancies, pollsters, diplomats, the two big American parties and US non-government organizations (NGOs), the campaign defeated Slobodan Milosevich at the ballot box in Belgrade in 2000.
Richard Miles, the US ambassador in Belgrade, played a key role in the campaign to oust Milosevich. In November last year, as US ambassador in Tbilisi, Miles reapplied the same method successfully. Thanks to his coaching, US-educated Saakashvili brought down Eduard Shevardnadze. When the US ambassador in Belarus, Michael Kozak, a veteran of similar operations in Central America, notably in Nicaragua, organized a near identical campaign to try to defeat the Belarus strongman, Alexander Lukashenko, he failed. "There will be no Kostunica in Belarus," the Belarus president declared, referring to the United States' Belgrade success 10 months earlier. #msg-4696890
However, PACE delegates have issued a number of warnings to Saakashvili who is not quite as democratic as he should be. A report on the functioning of democratic institutions in Georgia debated after Saakashvili addressed the assembly raises concerns at recent political developments in that country. #msg-4634515
Now Yushchenko has said he would consider replacing the country's appointed governors. Before the court-ordered revote, some eastern governors raised the prospect of seeking autonomy if Yushchenko were to win.
Let’s see if Yushchenko holds a fair election for new governors.
-Am
Georgia leader backs protesters in Ukraine 12/31/2004, 11:31 a.m. ET By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC The Associated Press
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, whose own rise to power was an inspiration to many in Ukraine's so-called Orange Revolution, toured the sprawling tent camp set up by opposition supporters on Kiev's tree-lined street, telling the crowd Friday he backed their protest movement.
Saakashvili traveled to the Ukrainian capital for the New Year holiday to show his support for backers of opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko.
Yushchenko — winner of the weekend rerun of Ukraine's annulled presidential election — and outgoing President Leonid Kuchma were scheduled to meet separately with Saakashvili, who has displayed his support for the opposition leader by regularly wearing an orange tie — Yushchenko's campaign color.
"I couldn't support you as an official during your revolution, but I was with you and I feel myself again a resident of Kiev," Saakashvili, who studied international law in the Ukrainian capital, told the crowd in Ukrainian.
People massed around him, chanting "Georgia!" and "Well done!"
Saakashvili took office on a wave of peaceful protests in November 2003 dubbed the "Rose Revolution" — and like Yushchenko he was touted as a reformer aiming to change a government seen having grown corrupt or heavy-handed since independence from the Soviet Union. Yushchenko supporters consider the Rose Revolution to be inspiration for their own.
Saakashvili, Yushchenko and Kiev Mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko were expected to appear shortly before midnight Friday at Kiev's main New Year's celebration on Independence Square, the epicenter of opposition protests.
"There's nothing extraordinary in the fact that I'll meet the New Year in Ukraine. I'll still address my own people, especially since there are no technical problems now. And Viktor Yushchenko and the Ukrainian people need support," Saakashvili said.
Election officials Thursday rejected Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's appeal of the presidential revote results, saying he had not proved there were mass violations. Yanukovych's campaign team vowed to take its appeal to the Supreme Court.
Sunday's revote was ordered by the high court following mass protests in Kiev sparked by the fraudulent Nov. 21 election that handed victory to the Kremlin-backed Yanukovych. The preliminary results showed Yushchenko winning solidly.
Yanukovych submitted 27 volumes of complaints to the commission, claiming that at least 4.8 million people — mainly the disabled and sick — were deprived of their right to vote by election reforms introduced after the first runoff.
The complaints also included allegations about lack of ballots, illegal campaigning on election day and problems with voter lists.
The 15-member Central Election Commission unanimously rejected the appeal.
International monitors reported no mass falsifications in Sunday's voting — in contrast to their criticism of the Nov. 21 second round.
Still, Yanukovych has refused to concede defeat.
"We will call all of our supporters, of which there are 15 million ... to not recognize Yushchenko as a legitimate president," said Taras Chornovyl, Yanukovych's campaign manager.
Meanwhile, Yushchenko began planning his new administration, telling reporters he created a committee to fill top Cabinet positions.
In New Year's greetings posted on his Web site, Yushchenko said the country has made a "great step forward."
"The vote has changed the country and it changed us," he said.
The Western-leaning Yushchenko has pledged to fight corruption and nudge Ukraine closer toward Europe while maintaining "friendly ties" with Russia.
He also said he would consider replacing the country's appointed governors. Before the court-ordered revote, some eastern governors raised the prospect of seeking autonomy if Yushchenko were to win.
Yanukovych draws his support largely from Ukraine's east, where pro-Russia sentiment is high, while Kiev and Ukraine's west are strongholds of support for Yushchenko.
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