Ukraine in snap election warning

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has threatened to dissolve parliament and call elections after the collapse of the country's ruling coalition.

Mr Yushchenko's supporters walked out in protest following new laws trimming the president's powers.

The laws were introduced by the pro-Russian opposition and backed by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's party.


Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7595667.stm

---

Should prove interesting given current circumstances.

[tekisui]

1. Uh-oh.

Ukraine is what the Russia/Georgia conflict has been eying. Really the NATO/Russia conflict, who can get them first. I will be watching this.

[bushmeister0]

2. Indeed . . .

From a previous post.

Russia seems to want to hold onto the Crimean port of Sevestapol: Regarding the deal that says the Russians have to move out after 2017.

"Both Russia and Ukraine call for full and undeviating observance of the 1997 agreements, but attach different meanings of this phrase in some major respects. Crucially, Ukraine cites the 20-year time limit on the lease, calling for the Russian Fleet’s complete removal from Sevastopol and handover of the base to Ukraine by 2017. Russia, however, hopes to take advantage of a clause that permits the prolongation of that term by mutual consent. . .

This stricture alludes to Ukrainian proposals to start planning in advance for the termination of the Russian lease in 2017 and relocation of the Fleet to the Russian coast. Moscow, however, would limit the discussion to the Fleet’s 'presence and functioning' in Ukraine (prebyvanie i funktionirovanie) -- a phrase that recalls almost literally the Russian position during the negotiations with Georgia over Russian military bases in that country.

The Russian side, however, avoids discussing that issue, biding its time and almost certainly hoping to pressure or cajole a future Ukrainian government into prolongation by mutual consent. Until now, all Ukrainian governments irrespective of political color have been holding firm on this issue."

http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?a...

Hmmm . . . "mutual consent."

Let's see how firmly they hold when winter comes.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bushmeister0/55

[Judi Lynn]

3. Ukraine’s coalition turns on itself

Ukraine’s coalition turns on itself
By Roman Olearchyk in Kiev

Published: September 3 2008 10:04 | Last updated: September 3 2008 10:59

Ukraine’s pro-western coalition descended into chaos on Wednesday as western leaders seek to demonstrate their support for Kiev following Russia’s intervention in Georgia.

Ministers backing President Victor Yushchenko walked out of a cabinet meeting on Wednesday after their Our Ukraine party threatened to quit a coalition with the bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister.

Addressing the nation, President Yushchenko accused Ms Tymoshenko’s bloc of plotting an ”anti-constitutional coup” by voting in tandem with communists and the Moscow-leaning Regions party in favour of legislation to cut the president’s authority. “Without a doubt, the collapse of the coalition was a well-planned action,” he said. He threatened to dissolve parliament unless politicians agreed a new coalition. The partners still have up to 40 days to try to reconcile their differences.

The west has been paying heightened attention to Ukraine because like Georgia it is a former Soviet republic keen to join both the Nato alliance and the European Union.

More:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4c94fe04-7996-11dd-bb93-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

[Ghost Dog]

5. These are high-level international political power games.

Ukraine, we are told, "like Georgia it is a former Soviet republic keen to join both the Nato alliance and the European Union".

This should be correctly phrased: the present Government of Ukraine, like Georgia's current regime, is keen to join both the Nato alliance and the European Union.

With a change of Government that could become: the present Government of Ukraine, like Georgia's current regime, is keen to join the Russian Federation.

As to what the People really feel (and based on what history, what contemporary information), ah, there's the rub: What newly-minted democracy is yet capable of expressing that, in all its complexity?

Indeed, to what degree does the democracy of the USA, or anywhere else, at present, express the People's thoughts, feelings and will (and based on what history, what contemporary information)?

[Ghost Dog]

4. "pro-Russian opposition" spin, uh huh. So why doesn't the BBC describe

the now crippled Government as "pro-neocon", or at least "pro-NATO", for example (edit: as the FT more-or-less does above)?

[Odin2005]

20. Pro-West -s pro-Neocon in you mind?

:eyes:

[Ghost Dog]

23. Not in general, but in this case they still seem to be calling the shots,

or at least that's the way much media would have it.

[oldskool]

6. Same thing going on in Canada.

and around the world.It's called Globalization resistance.

[WriteDown]

7. Very suspicious timing...

Soon Russia may have to send forces into the Ukraine to help :sarcasm:.

[TheLastMohican]

9. Things are quickly unfolding

I wonder whether the CIA has smarter backups for those two idiots Yushenko (the "orange revolution" guy) and Saakashvili (the "rose revolution" guy).
My take will be Tymoshenko substituted for Yushenko, and Burdzhanadze substituted for Saakashvili. These ladies can prolong the neo-con agenda of New American Century and poke the russian bear some more.

[WriteDown]

11. You are disparaging Yushenko?

I actually feel the worst for him. Guy has been through a lot. I am just waiting on Super Putin to be declared the world's strongest man.

[reorg]

12. Well, he certainly can dish it out, too

Seems he accuses his former campaign manager and friend now of poisoning him back in 2004.

FORMER YUSHCHENKO ALLY CALLS PRESIDENT’S POISONING CLAIMS A MYTH

By Pavel Korduban

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

...

Davyd Zhvania, the sponsor of the populist People’s Self-Defense bloc (NS) ... — a businessman of Georgian descent, Yushchenko’s former close ally, and the godfather of his son ...

...

Speaking in an interview on May 30, Zhvania sensationally claimed that Yushchenko was not poisoned with dioxin in 2004 (RFE/RL, May 30). He said Yushchenko suffered from an attack of pancreatitis caused by ordinary food poisoning, and that his face was subsequently disfigured not by dioxin but by an inflammation not related to the poisoning. Yushchenko’s team, he said, decided to sell it to the public as deliberate poisoning (Komsomolskaya Pravda Ukraina, July 2).

...

Zhvania also denied the widespread belief that Yushchenko was poisoned at a dinner with the then head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Ihor Smeshko, and his deputy Volodymyr Satsyuk on September 5, 2004. “It was a beautiful myth for a post-Soviet country. Look how it sounds: former KGB people wanted to kill a democratic president,” Zhvania told the Ukrainian edition of a popular Russian daily (Komsomolskaya Pravda Ukraina, ibid). Zhvania did not deny that he organized that dinner as the then deputy head of Yushchenko’s election HQ. He said that Yushchenko’s security as a presidential candidate was discussed there (Ukrainska Pravda, July 7-8). ...

http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2373271

[WriteDown]

14. This is too funny....

I would hold Zhvania's statement in more regard had it not been completely refuted by an international team of doctors.

[reorg]

15. Not sure why you think it's so funny, but the doctors in the clinic where he was treated

were not so sure about poisoning. In the beginning:

Thursday, December 02, 2004
Poison or bad sushi? What ails Yushchenko?
Associated Press—Vienna, Austria

...

Medical experts say they may never know for sure what befell Yushchenko. But the illness, whatever it was, has dramatically changed his appearance since he first sought treatment at Vienna's private Rudolfinerhaus clinic on Sept. 10.

...

By the time Yushchenko checked out of the clinic last month after returning for follow-up treatment, physicians said they could neither prove nor rule out that he had been poisoned. Dr. Nikolai Korpan, who oversaw Yushchenko's treatment in Vienna, said the cause of his illness remained "totally open."

Doctors were unable to confirm suspicions of poisoning because Yushchenko first checked into the clinic four days after the symptoms appeared—too late for tests to show if poisoning had occurred, Korpan said.

At Rudolfinerhaus, Yushchenko underwent a week of intensive treatment for several illnesses, including acute pancreatitis, a viral skin disease and nerve paralysis on the left side of his face, Korpan said.

Clinic director Michael Zimpfer said doctors were unable to explain some of Yushchenko's symptoms, particularly his strong backaches. He said they could not rule out stress or a viral infection. ...

http://www.solutionassoc.com/truthfire/blog/2004/12/poison-or-bad-sushi-what-ails.html

Later, Korpan, a surgeon from the Ukraine, and Zimpfer, the President of the clinic’s Supervisory Board, suddenly changed their mind - whereas the medical director of the clinic held a press conference and claimed that the unqualified Korpan had "falsified" the diagnosis. He was then massively threatened and personally accused by Yushchenko of “perhaps having made me lose the presidential election”. However, he stuck to his judgement that there was no indication of poisoning. He had to immediately resign from his post for this crime. Later still, a team of unnamed doctors from the US was flown in, and a laboratory in the Netherlands found dioxin in probes that had been sent in long after Yushchenko had fallen ill ...

John Rosenthal
Monday, December 13, 2004
The Strange Case of Dr. Wicke or Questions Surrounding the Alleged Poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko (with Update)

... the actual medical director of the clinic, Dr. Lothar Wicke, resigned from his post on December 9: i.e., one day before Viktor Yushchenko was set to return to Vienna for the latest round of tests to determine the origins of his mysterious illness. This was in fact Yushchenko’s third visit to the clinic since early September when the symptoms of his illness first appeared. Neither the AP nor the Times piece mentioned either that in the meanwhile Dr. Wicke had dismissed the allegation of poisoning as scientifically unfounded and made known, moreover, that he had been threatened by Yushchenko’s entourage with unspecified "means" or "measures" should he persist in denying the charge. ...

(blog with a number of links to a number of newspaper articles)

http://trans-int.blogspot.com/2004/12/strange-case-of-dr-wicke-or-questions.html

[WriteDown]

16. From the article you originally posted....

"Asked why he did not reveal this earlier, Zhvania said that he did not want the spirit of the pro-Yushchenko Orange Revolution in November-December 2004 to be curbed. Zhvania said that the tests which showed the presence of dioxin in Yushchenko’s body were fake (BBC, June 3). An international group of doctors who treated Yushchenko after 2004 denied this allegation. They said that 90 percent of the dioxin has been removed from his body since then (Channel 5, June 11)."

[atreides1]

8. Democracy In Action

Gotta Love It!!!

[bemildred]

10. Will Bush's "color revolution" stooges survive Mr Bush in office?

Stay tuned.

[hogwyld]

13. I sort of hope that Ukraine realigns itself to Russia

that way, the missile defense issue goes away for a while, NATO expansion stops dead in it's tracks, and Russia has a buffer zone to protect it from the neo-con crusade across Europe. This will also have the effect of lowering internation tensions.

[Odin2005]

19. I hope Ukraine joins NATO and the EU.

So I'm a neo-con now because I think Russia needs to quit treating other ex-Soviet countries like Russia's property? :eyes:

[TheLastMohican]

25. Ukraine will never be in NATO

Russia and Ukraine are two inseparable entities.
Dividing them was like dividing East and West Germany.
People in Ukraine are against NATO and further pushing it to join may come at the expense of Ukraine's breakup.
Nobody needs it.

[Odin2005]

27. BS. n/t

[TheLastMohican]

28. You tell me its BS

I see a line of middle fingers to Cheney on his way from Kiev airport.
The guy decided to take a tour de force around vassal countries. haha

[oldskool]

17. The sad thing Obama and Biden agree

with this. They just lost my vote.

[Odin2005]

18. The Russia Apologism in this thread makes me sick.

Russia is being imperialistic and DUers shout "Go Russia" simply because Putin is anti-West.

[dipsydoodle]

21. Oh

[TheLastMohican]

26. So nice to stick labels on everyone

I have many friends down there both ukrainian and russian, and they are all sick of american imperialism and nosy behaviour and want Ukraine and Russia to be one again.
Now go ahead and fire those neo-con cannons.

[bemildred]

22. Ukraine's tenuous double act

"A dictatorship of stupidity, irresponsibility and chaos" - the words of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko giving her blunt assessment of Viktor Yushchenko's actions as president.

The two former Orange Revolution allies are supposed to be in a coalition government together, formed just over nine months ago. But any notion of co-operation, or even civility between the two rivals, has long since vanished.

There were two immediate causes behind the latest outbreak of hostilities. And both occurred during one parliamentary sitting on Tuesday.

Firstly, the prime minister's faction blocked a motion condemning Russia's recent actions in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7597112.stm

[bemildred]

24. Fears for Ukraine as pro-west coalition fails

Edit: Gee, who could have predicted this?

Ukraine's pro-west coalition collapsed yesterday, plunging the country into political uncertainty, hitting financial markets and undermining recent efforts by western leaders to show their support for Kiev following Russia's intervention in Georgia.

President Viktor Yushchenko threatened to dissolve parliament and call snap elections unless a new coalition can be formed, blaming the crisis on supporters of Yulia Tymoshenko, his firebrand prime minister.

While Mr Yushchenko and Ms Tymoshenko joined forces in the 2004 Orange Revolution and both support west-oriented policies, they have engaged in a bitter personal power struggle that has persistently handicapped the government.

The upheaval comes just before Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, arrives in Kiev this week with a message of support for Ukraine and a few days before Mr Yushchenko is due to travel to France for a European Union-Ukraine summit. Kiev is seeking membership of both the EU and Nato and wants to secure increased western backing to counter growing Russian political and economic pressure.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bccca6a2-7a1a-11dd-bb93-000077b07658.html