Ukraine's Presidential Elections

[PhiPsiRuss]

By Alexandra Zawadil

VIENNA (Reuters) - Poisoning remains one of the possibilities behind Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko's illness during election campaigning, Medical experts investigating his ailments said on Wednesday.

Yushchenko fell ill in September while on the presidential campaign trail and was flown to Austria for treatment. He later accused the authorities of trying to kill him with poison.

The Times newspaper in Britain on Wednesday quoted West-leaning Yushchenko's personal physician in Vienna, Mykola Korpan, as saying that the opposition leader had been poisoned in an attempt on his life.

The rest of this article is here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ko_hospital_dc

[PhiPsiRuss]

By ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The United States will send 100 observers to Ukraine for this month's scheduled presidential election, a rerun of voting that Ukraine's top court had found illegitimate. _

The U.S. observers will be part of a 960-member team fielded by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe for the Dec. 26 vote. The United States will also spend $3 million toward election monitoring, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Wednesday.

The rest of this article is here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...e/us_ukraine_1

[PhiPsiRuss]

By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer

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 to 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 like the Carnegie Foundation or through groups aligned with Republicans and Democrats that organized election training, with human rights forums or with independent news outlets.

But officials acknowledge some of the money helped train groups and individuals opposed to the Russian-backed government candidate — people who now call themselves part of the Orange revolution.

The rest of this article is here: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...ine_election_3

[PhiPsiRuss]

By SUSANNA LOOF, Associated Press Writer

VIENNA, Austria - Dioxin poisoning caused the mysterious illness of Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, a doctor said Saturday, adding that the poison could have been put in his soup. _

"There is no doubt about the fact that Mr. Yushchenko's disease has been caused by a case of poisoning by dioxin," said Dr. Michael Zimpfer, director of Vienna's private Rudolfinerhaus clinic.

Zimpfer said Yushchenko's blood and tissue registered concentrations of dioxin — one of the most toxic chemicals — that were 1,000 times above normal levels.

"It would be quite easy to administer this amount in a soup," Zimpfer said, adding that tests showed the dioxin was taken orally. "There is suspicion of third party involvement."

Tests run over the past 24 hours provided conclusive evidence of the poisoning, Zimpfer said.



The rest of this article is here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...hchenko_health

[TheEpitome1920]

I have just caught up on what is going on. THAT is HORRIBLE. Do they have any idea who did it?

[PhiPsiRuss]

Originally posted by TheEpitome1920
I have just caught up on what is going on. THAT is HORRIBLE. Do they have any idea who did it?

I don't think so. What happened to Yushchenko, in terms of the poisoning, terrible.

Also, what I think is so important, is what may now be happening in Russia (sliding back from democratic reforms,) and how this possible slide-back is manifesting in Russia's willingness to support a fraudulent election of a government that is sympatico with Russia. The dominant sphere of nations are those that share Atlanticist views. These are basically the NATO nations. On the European side of the Atlantic Ocean, the EU is the European specific organization that represents this. As it expands, Europe's economic interdependence expands, and with this, peace and prosperity expands among these nations. Yushchenko wants to bring Ukraine into this sphere (which is also tied into North America,) and away from Russia's shrinking sphere. I've hoped, since the fall of the Berlin Wall (which I watched on CNN in my Phi Psi house,) that Russia, and other former Warsaw Pact and USSR nations, would become part of this. So far things have moved in this direction.

I wish that Putin would see that Ukraine becoming part of the EU (which is anything but a done deal) would help pave the way for Russia's eventual membership, and that this would be a good thing for Russia.

[PhiPsiRuss]

On the left is Yushchenko on March 28, 2002. On the right is Yushchenko on December 6, 2004.

[Peaches-n-Cream]

This is terrible. I just read this article in the NY Times about the dioxin poisoning. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/in...12ukraine.html

He looks like an entirely different man in those before and after pictures. He is lucky to be alive.

[PhiPsiRuss]

VIENNA, Austria - Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko left a Vienna clinic on Sunday after being diagnosed with dioxin poisoning, saying he was just "happy to be alive."

.
.
.

Doctors say he will be able to return to the campaign trail, but that it could be two to three years before his face heals.

The entire article is here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...hchenko_health

[IowaStatePhiPsi]

Funny how they deny marriage and other human rights here and strive to support democracy elsewhere.

U.S. Hypocrisy in Ukraine


HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS
BEFORE THE US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE
December 7, 2004
U.S. Hypocrisy in Ukraine
Mr. Chairman: President Bush said last week that, "Any election (in Ukraine), if there is one, ought to be free from any foreign influence." I agree with the president wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, it seems that several US government agencies saw things differently and sent US taxpayer dollars into Ukraine in an attempt to influence the outcome.
We do not know exactly how many millions - or tens of millions - of dollars the United States government spent on the presidential election in Ukraine. We do know that much of that money was targeted to assist one particular candidate, and that through a series of cut-out non-governmental organizations (NGOs) - both American and Ukrainian - millions of dollars ended up in support of the presidential candidate, Viktor Yushchenko.
Let me add that I do not think we should be supporting either of the candidates.
While I am certainly no supporter of Viktor Yushchenko, I am not a supporter of his opponent, Viktor Yanukovich, either. Simply, it is none of our business who the Ukrainian people select to be their president. And, if they feel the vote was not fair, it is up to them to work it out.
How did this one-sided US funding in Ukraine come about? While I am afraid we may have seen only the tip of the iceberg, one part that we do know thus far is that the US government, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), granted millions of dollars to the Poland-America-Ukraine Cooperation Initiative (PAUCI), which is administered by the US-based Freedom House.
PAUCI then sent US Government funds to numerous Ukrainian non-governmental organizations (NGOs). This would be bad enough and would in itself constitute meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation. But, what is worse is that many of these grantee organizations in Ukraine are blatantly in favor of presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko.
Consider the Ukrainian NGO International Centre for Policy Studies. It is an organization funded by the US Government through PAUCI, but on its website you will find that the front page in the English section features a prominent orange ribbon, the symbol of Yushchenko’s party and movement. Reading further on, we discover that this NGO was founded by George Soros’s Open Society Institute. And further on we can see that Viktor Yushchenko himself sits on the advisory board!

And this NGO is not the only one the US government funds that is openly supportive of Viktor Yushchenko. The Western Ukraine Regional Training Center, as another example, features a prominent USAID logo on one side of its website’s front page and an orange ribbon of the candidate Yushchenko’s party and movement on the other. By their proximity, the message to Ukrainian readers is clear: the US government supports Yushchenko.
The Center for Political and Law Reforms, another Ukrainian NGO funded by the US government, features a link at the top of its website’s front page to Viktor Yushchenko’s personal website. Yushchenko’s picture is at the top of this US government funded website.

This May, the Virginia-based private management consultancy Development Associates, Inc., was awarded $100 million by the US government “for strengthening national legislatures and other deliberative bodies worldwide.” According to the organization’s website, several million dollars from this went to Ukraine in advance of the elections.
As I have said, this may only be the tip of the iceberg. There may be many more such organizations involved in this twisted tale.
It is clear that a significant amount of US taxpayer dollars went to support one candidate in Ukraine. Recall how most of us felt when it became known that the Chinese government was trying to funnel campaign funding to a US presidential campaign. This foreign funding of American elections is rightly illegal. Yet, it appears that that is exactly what we are doing abroad. What we do not know,
however, is just how much US government money was spent to influence the outcome of the Ukrainian election.
Dozens of organizations are granted funds under the PAUCI program alone, and this is only one of many programs that funneled dollars into Ukraine. We do not know how many millions of US taxpayer dollars the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) sent to Ukraine through NED’s National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute. Nor do we know how many other efforts, overt or covert, have been made to support one candidate over the other in Ukraine.
That is what I find so disturbing: there are so many cut-out organizations and sub-grantees that we have no idea how much US government money was really spent on Ukraine, and most importantly how it was spent. Perhaps the several examples of blatant partisan support that we have been able to uncover are but an anomaly. I believe Congress and the American taxpayers have a right to know. I believe we urgently need an investigation by the Government Accounting Office into how much US government money was spent in Ukraine and exactly how it was spent. I would hope very much for the support of Chairman Hyde, Chairman Lugar, Deputy Assistant Secretary Tefft, and my colleagues on the Committee in this request.
President Bush is absolutely correct: elections in Ukraine should be free of foreign influence. It is our job here and now to discover just how far we have violated this very important principle, and to cease any funding of political candidates or campaigns henceforth.

[PhiPsiRuss]

Originally posted by IowaStatePhiPsi
Funny how they deny marriage and other human rights here and strive to support democracy elsewhere.

Please leave non-sequiturs out of this thread. There is nothing hypocritical about supporting national self-determination.

[IowaStatePhiPsi]

so you're saying it's ok for the US to spend millions to influence another country's election and thus ok for foreign nations to spend millions to influence US elections?

Because currently the US balks at foreign countries attempting to influence US elections but gladly influences the elections of other nations. And that is where Rep. Paul finds the US to be hypocritical.

[PhiPsiRuss]

Originally posted by IowaStatePhiPsi
so you're saying it's ok for the US to spend millions to influence another country's election and thus ok for foreign nations to spend millions to influence US elections?

Because currently the US baulks at foreign countries attempting to influence US elections but gladly influences the elections of other nations. And that is where Rep. Paul finds the US to be hypocritical.

I already posted about the U.S. spending money on Ukraine's elections earlier in this thread.

Lets get this thread back on track to Ukraine. If you want to discuss this other issue, start another thread.

[IowaStatePhiPsi]

Originally posted by PhiPsiRuss
Lets get this thread back on track to Ukraine.

It is about the Ukraine- and the gov't trying to fuck up Ukraine's election with their support of Yushenko.

[PhiPsiRuss]

Originally posted by IowaStatePhiPsi
the gov't trying to fuck up Ukraine's election with their support of Yushenko.

That's a total B.S. answer Look at all of the events in context, and just from an "I hate America and will look for any tangent to trash America" angle.

The elections were not "fucked up" by American influence. Apparantly, no one outside of Russia believes this but you. Nations like France, which want to curtail American influence on other parts of the World, are with America on this one. Just about everyone is with America on this one. This is Russia vs. the rest of the World, and I'm with the rest of the World. I'm even more with America. Most of all, I'm with Ukrainian self-determination.