{news} Updates on Ukraine elections from USGP-International Committee members

[Justine McCabe]

Dear all, 
Below are comments by two USGP International Committee members on the elections in Ukraine. Those of Bahram Zandi (MD) are followed by a post by Richard Walton (RI).
Peace, 
Justine 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: bahram 
To: usgp-int at gp-us.org 
Sent: Thursday, November 25, 2004 11:06 PM
Subject: USGP-INT My Ukraine visit


Hi All,

I was in Ukraine in between their two rounds of presidential elections.  I visited the Green Party office in Kiev and met briefly with the president, Mr Kononov and the vice-president and international secretary, Mr. Kurykin.  The Green Party of Ukraine had no candidates in this presidential elections, but they told me that even though they don't agree completely with Mr. Yuschenko (the pro-west candidate), they support him in this elections.
Talking with other Ukrainians, I heard comments similar to Alexander's, Richard Walton's friend.

bahram

Richard Walton <richard at soup.org> wrote:
  Hi: I'm sure many of you are puzzled but interested by the situation in
  the Ukraine. Today I received an analysis of the situation from a friend
  who lives in the Ukraine. Some years ago Aleksandr came to Bryant 
  University on an international program and by great good fortune he got
  to stay with me for a month, including a Thanksgiving dinner with the
  same friends with whom I had dinner today.
  I wrote to Aleks asking what the hell is going on in the Ukraine, a
  country I visited two or three years ago, travelling across it, and
  Russia, with Aleks. So I have a particular interest.
  This is what he wrote. However, I should tell you that although Aleks
  has lived in the Ukraine for twenty or thirty years, he is an ethnic
  Russian, he believes Russian should be an official language in the Ukraine
  [now, as I understand it, only Ukrainian is and although the languages are
  quite close they distinct languages] and I think it is fair to say that he
  is at least somewhat a Russian nationalist. Also he lives in eastern
  Ukraine, a region with closer ties and with more Russian speakers, than
  the west which is largely Ukrainian and is looking to the west whereas the
  east looks toward Moscow. Indeed, Russian president Putin went to the
  Ukraine during the election campaign and made it plain that Russia
  preferred the guy who has now claimed victory amidst many claims of fraud.
  Aleks is an intelligent, fair and honest man but in times of
  nationalist fervor it would not be surprising if he were affected by his
  pro-Russian views. Nonetheless, he does raise some interesting points. I
  just hope the Western press is open-minded and fair when it addresses the
  complex situation in the Ukraine. Peace. Richard Walton.

  >Dear friend Richard,

  >You remember our trip across Ukraine... Nice country, not bad people. But
  >at that time though we talked much I didn't accent upon the fact that the
  >Ukrainian citizens to the West of the river Dnieper and the Ukrainian
  >citizens to the East of the ancient river consider themselves(in the
  >majority) as two peoples!

  >The first and the second rounds of the presidential elections 2004 in
  >Ukraine clearly demonstrated that fact. The Western regions voted in
  >favour of pro-Western Mr. Yushchenko (marked orange in the election map -
  >the color chosen by Mr. Yuschenko's team)and the part of the country
  >where I live now was in favour of the acting prime minister Mr.
  >Yanukovich(marked blue and white in the election map. These are two
  >colors of the Russian flag...).

  >I'm not going to deeply dig the historic well but I'd like to say that
  >during several decades of the Soviet power Governments of the Soviet
  >Union favoured great funds to build huge electric power stations
  >(including two of them which can be seen through the windows of my
  >apartment), metallurgical and automobile plants, a lot of coal and iron
  >mines. All this having been done to the great detriment of the Russian
  >Federation. I know exactly what I mean.

  >In early 70-s of the last century I crossed Russia in all directions and
  >saw dreadful poverty of the Russian countryside. I was shocked by the
  >wealthy look of Ukrainian villages, settlements and cities when I first
  >came to Ukraine in 1974. The Ukraine was the most prosperous republic
  >among the Soviet ones.

  >The wealth of this republic was mainly being grown in the Eastern part by
  >professionals and rank-and-file workers who were directed by the
  >Communist Party or came from Russia voluntarily. They were called
  >"enthusiasts". They had to live in terrible living conditions for many
  >years till their "objects started giving production for Motherland".

  >The share of the Eastern regions of modern Ukraine in the economy of the
  >country can be hardly overestimated. More than 2\3 of the national
  >product is produced on the left bank of the Dnieper. Naturally a great
  >number of plants, factories and so forth are closely connected with their
  >partners in Russia.

  >When the Soviet Union was ruined (yes, Passive Voice...) the majority of
  >the Ukrainian plants went bankrupt and came to a standstill. Only during
  >the last two years (the period of Mr. Yanukovich's primeministership) the
  >national economy felt fresh breath and started giving something for
  >people's living.

  >The metallurgical workers, the miners, the majority of the inhabitants in
  >the East of Ukraine clearly understand that the economic, social,
  >cultural and even family life would be seriously deteriorated by tearing
  >all those ties with Russia. That is why the majority of the population in
  >the Eastern regions is against those pro-Western politicians who does not
  >accordingly appreciate the role of the East in the historic development
  >of the country.

  >The people here do not understand why the Russian language became
  >officially second-handed in the country where 97% speak it as their first
  >or second native language. Why not two official state languages? The
  >acting president Mr. Kuchma had been elected the president of Ukraine
  >twice. His promise to make Russian the second state language in Ukraine
  >gave him the voices of the Eastern voters. He betrayed them twice. Now
  >Mr. Yanukovich declared the same ace... and people do hope to get the
  >right to think in their own native language which is hated by Western
  >Ukrainian nationalists many of whom are the members of Mr. Yushchenko's
  >team.

  >More and more people understand why Mr. Yushchenko pays a lot more
  >attention to the West. He has to work off the huge money sponsored to him
  >mainly by the American sources.

  >Does the US government consider him to be democratic after his wild
  >action of taking an oath on the Bible in the Ukrainian Parliament before
  >the final election results were officially announced by the
  >Constitutional Body? The Constitution was completely ignored by the man
  >who declared himself the only president of this poor-poor Ukraine.

  >Could this man be the guarantor of the basic country's law if he lacks
  >ordinary patience to wait till the official results announced by the
  >Central Election Body elected by the whole of the Parliament? Thus he
  >completely neglected the rights of fifteen million people (mine as
  >well)who preferred Mr. Yanukovich as the next president.

  >Could this man be a critically minded person of high sense of
  >responsibility if he follows all the provocative advice of his
  >she-assistance Mrs. Yuliya Timoshenko who is being officially looked for
  >by the Interpol for her international swindling? Now she squelingly
  >addresses thousands of Kievans, students and pupils of senior classes of
  >high schools as well as those grown-ups who rode to the center of the
  >capital from the western regions. She calls them to seize the official
  >building, post-offices and so on... The excellent example of the
  >politician-revolutionary who think that the more she provokes the
  >instability in the country the easier will be the reserve way to the
  >country of absolute democracy - the USA. American politicians would
  >easily forget about her economic crimes due to her "outstanding role in
  >opening the eyes of the Eastern barbarians to the Western democracy".

  >Divide the Slavs and rule. Divide the Slavs by their own hands. The only
  >thing needed in this case is money, better much money in the hands of the
  >definite pro-American politicians. People in the East of Ukraine see it.
  >They don't want to be replicas of characters of idiotic Hollywood
  >piff-paff and mad-sexy movies.

  >The historic memory of the Slavs determines the other way for the Earth's
  >civilization as a whole. It is not the way of boundless and senseless
  >consumerism but the harmless way of soul's development.

  >The American officials are used to apply two or even more standards to
  >the political situations in this or that country. It depends not on their
  >own honesty but only upon profitability of the event to the interests of
  >the ruling echelon of the American state.

  >It concerns the Ukrainian elections too. During the first round of the
  >presidential election there had been much more different violations in
  >the Eastern regions as well as in the Western ones. But the European and
  >American observers did not cry so loud as they do now when the quantity
  >of violations during the second round considerably decreased.

  >All this because in the first round pro-Western candidate led 0.5% After
  >the second round the candidate lagged 3% behind pro-Russian candidate.
  >About 5000.00 foreign observers closely watched the elections. It was
  >unprecedented. That shows how strategically important the Ukraine is in
  >the eyes of those politicians who dreams about the world of the one great
  >stars-and-strips gendarme able to praise and punish any country or any
  >people in any country according to its "divine" principles and "pure"
  >morals.

  >So, Richard, it turns out that the confrontation of the two high ranking
  >Ukrainian politicians during the presidential elections 2004 is only the
  >surface of the iceberg. And this iceberg is our little world - the Earth.
  >We turn it into iceberg by praising one God - material profit, by
  >enforcing one way of thinking to the whole of mankind.


  >Best regards, Richard.
  >Your Russian-Ukrainian friend, Aleksandr-Olexandr

  "The only way out of our crisis (terrorism) is to reduce the anger of the
  most rational, thus also reducing the constituency of the least rational."
  Sam Smith.

  "When they come for the innocent without crossing over
  your body, cursed be your religion and your life." Anon. But often
  quoted by Dorothy Day.
  -- 
  -----------------------------------------------------------
  "Richard Walton" 
  -----------------------------------------------------------


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