Putin Ridicules Idea of a New Election in Ukraine

[Rose Siding]

KIEV, Ukraine, Dec. 2 - The departing Ukrainian president, Leonid D. Kuchma, flew to Moscow today and met with the Russian leader, Vladimir A. Putin, who interjected himself into Ukraine's political crisis by ridiculing the idea of holding a new presidential election.

"The re-run can be held twice, three times, 25 times until one of the parties gets the desired result," Mr. Putin told Mr. Kuchma at an airport near Moscow in a meeting that was shown on television.

The two men met even as lawmakers here wrangled over the details of an agreement that was intended to lead to a new runoff election and the Supreme Court continued its hearings into charges of fraud.

Mr. Kuchma brokered Wednesday night's agreement between the two men aspiring to succeed him. But he had nevertheless opposed the idea of a new election and told Mr. Putin today that he did not know "a single country whose laws would allow such a re-run."

http://nytimes.com/2004/12/02/international/europe/02cnd-ukra.html?hp&ex=1102050000&en=7c6944c9439ede29&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[saracat]

1. My, Isn't he a George clone!

[Endangered Specie]

2. Sorry, Putin, you dont run Ukraine anymore.

[KittyWampus]

3. Putin And Bush Are Reminding Me Of Bert And Ernie

they are a freaking comedy routine... except this isn't funny.

[tom_paine]

7. Nope. Hitler and Stalin

And just like those previous two dictators who united just as Comrade Putin "endorsed" his Soulmate Boosh*...the honeymoon won't last forever, or even much longer.

Two monstrous dictators will eventually grow to loathe each other, no matter how closely aligned their policies are.

Like Bush and Putin or Hitler and Stalin.

Saaaaay, maybe Bush and Putin can divide Ukraine in half, with the Russians taking the Eastern half and Amerika "liberating" the Western Half.

Sound familiar?

[reorg]

4. your quotes do not seem to be part of the referenced article

but a summary with a certain spin. Is this in compliance with forum rules?

The actual NYT quote is different. Putin was not ridiculing a new election, but rather:


>> ... Mr. Yushchenko's position that any new election should feature only the two runoff candidates - Mr. Yushchenko himself and Mr. Yanukovich.

"A rerun of the second round may also produce nothing," Mr. Putin told Mr. Kuchma in remarks broadcast at length on Russia's state television, which also appears in Ukraine, as monitored and translated by the B.B.C. "What happens then? Will there have to be a 3rd, a 4th, a 25th round until one of the sides obtains the necessary result?" ... <<



http://nytimes.com/2004/12/02/international/europe/02cnd-ukra.html?hp&ex=1102050000&en=7c6944c9439ede29&ei=5094&partner=homepage


ed. for clarity and url

[wordout]

5. good catch reorg

thanks!

A senior Western diplomat in Kiev, speaking before the two leaders met, suggested that Russia had put itself in a very difficult position. "I think the Russians don't know what to do," he said. "They are stunned by developments."

-------

well, mister anonymous interfering western diplomat, i believe mr Putin has deliberately AND with calculation put Russia itself into this very difficult situation. and you are weak to do anything about it.

[reorg]

6. addition

These guys at the NYT appear to be changing their on-line versions of stories by the minute. Now the headline of the quoted article reads:

"Putin Meets Ukraine Leader and Scoffs at Calls for New Runoff"


So the initial poster probably did not summarize or change anything, the NYT apparently do that themselves.

[Rose Siding]

8. True- the title read as I posted it at the time

[Chicago Democrat]

9. Guess Cold War is on and its getting warm in here...

Yikes...

Oh please no war with Puti...psycho nutso Bushi

[0007]

10. Sounds exactly like James A. Baker II in the 2000 election.