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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Great Famine Anniversary in Ukraine

2007-11-23

KRASYLIVKA, Ukraine (AP) - After authorities broke into Yakiv Atamanenko's home in autumn of 1932 and confiscated the family's food, his mother and two brothers died of starvation and their bloated bodies were tossed among others in a freshly dug grave on the outskirts of this farming village. Atamanenko and other survivors here said one of their neighbors, Oleksandra Korytnyk and her husband, ate their two children. "They cut their children into pieces and ate them," recalled Atamanenko, now a frail, gray-haired 95-year-old. In the end, he and others said, the Korytnyks died as well. On Saturday, Ukraine marks the 75th anniversary of the terrible famine of 1932-33, engineered by Soviet authorities to force peasants across the former U.S.S.R. to give up their privately held plots of land and join collective farms. Millions perished. Now President Viktor Yushchenko is leading an effort to gain international recognition of Holodomor—or death by hunger, as it is known here—as a crime rather than merely a disaster, by labeling it an act of genocide. Which it clearly is, walter duranty to the contrary. Long kept secret by Soviet authorities, accounts of the great famine still divide historians and politicians, not just in this nation of 47 million but throughout the former Soviet Union. Some are convinced that the famine targeted Ukrainians as an ethnic group. Others argue authorities set out to eradicate all private land owners as a social class, and that the Soviets sought to pay for the U.S.S.R.'s industrialization with grain exports at the expense of starving millions of its own people. Race-based racism and genocide, as opposed to class-based racism and genocide. The dictator Josef Stalin's collectivization drive affected the entire U.S.S.R, but was particularly calamitous for Ukraine, which had some of the former Soviet Union's richest agricultural land. The campaign coincided, as well, with the Kremlin's efforts to root out a growing Ukrainian nationalist movement. Estimates of the number of people who perished in Holodomor differ, but there is no doubt the death toll was horrific. Yushchenko estimates 10 million Ukrainians died, while Stanislav Kulchitsky, a Ukrainian historian, believes the number is closer to 3.5 million. Authorities set production quotas for each village. But these quotas generally exceeded crop yields and in village after village, when farmers failed to meet their targets, all their food was confiscated. Residents were prohibited to leave their homes—effectively condemning them to starvation. In Krasylivka as many as 1,017 people—roughly the village's present day population—died in the course of that terrible year, according to a list of the victims compiled by village authorities. Elders say the famine nearly wiped out the village. Villagers tell stories of their neighbors collapsing in the street and dying. Driven to despair, people ate whatever they could scrounge: leaves, dirt, birds, dogs, rats and—several witnesses said—even each other. Olena Yaroshchuk, 94, her wrinkled face framed by a green kerchief, said she filled her aching stomach with grass. "Those who could survived, those who couldn't—that was the end of it, one house after another—almost all died," she said. Kulchitsky, a leading famine researcher, argues the famine was a genocide aimed at Ukrainians who resisted Soviet rule. "The conditions authorities created for the Ukrainian peasantry were incompatible with life," he wrote in a recent article. But Heorhiy Kasyanov, a top historian with the National Academy of Sciences, says the issue is more Nuanced™ subtle. "There is no hard evidence that there were concrete statements or actions aimed at destroying ethnic Ukrainians by someone else. I don't have a clear answer whether or not it was genocide." The Ukrainian parliament has already labeled the famine genocide. So has the United States, and some other countries. But Russia, the legal successor to the Soviet state, resists the label. Under international law, genocide is defined as deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial or ethnic group. Moscow insists the famine also targeted other groups, including Russians and Kazakhs. "There are no grounds to talk about genocide. We can talk about 'sociocide'—the extermination of peasants, a political crime on the part of Soviet leadership," said Andrei Petrov, a historian with the Russian Academy of Sciences. But another Russian historian said Holodomor was one of many acts of genocide by Stalin against the peoples of the former Soviet Union. "It was genocide in the direct sense of this word—it is the killing of people, the killing of the Ukrainian people," he said. "The same must be done for the Kazakhs, the Russians and peoples of other territories." Ukrainian politicians are themselves divided on the topic. The genocide vote in parliament last year was boycotted by the party of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who draws his support from Russian- speaking eastern Ukraine, as well as the Communists. Even in Krasylivka, people say the issue is complicated. Many survivors blame the Soviet government for the famine. But many also say that the cruelty of the local authorities compounded the tragedy.

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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Ukraine's pro-West parties on brink of victory

2007-10-03

Russia threatens to cut off gas supplies Pro-Western parties on Wednesday looked certain to win Ukraine's parliamentary election, with firebrand leader Yulia Tymoshenko likely to become prime minister amid fears of new tensions with neighbouring Russia. President Viktor Yushchenko was to announce the formation of a coalition with Tymoshenko, his partner in the 2004 pro-democracy Orange Revolution, the presidential administration said. With 99.24 percent of ballots counted, their Orange coalition had won 45 percent of the vote. The Regions Party, headed by their bitter rival, pro-Moscow Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, had 34.21 percent. Yanukovych could in theory assemble a rival coalition with 43.5 percent of the vote, just 1.5 percentage points behind the Orange team. Russia accuses democracy movements in the ex-Soviet Union of serving the interests of Western governments and the return of the Orange team was likely to irritate increasingly powerful President Vladimir Putin. The first sign of trouble came Tuesday, just as early results indicated possible victory for the Orange team, when Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom warned it would cut gas supplies next month if Ukraine failed to pay debts of more than one billion dollars. Ukraine rushed its energy minister to Moscow for talks as the political tensions remained high in Kiev. Sunday's election was held to end months of political chaos in this ex-Soviet republic of 47 million people, but the slender margin of victory for the pro-Western camp meant further wrangling was inevitable. The results indicated that the 450-seat Rada, or parliament, was likely to be heavily divided, with the Orange coalition's majority numbering only a few seats. The dispute with Russia over payments for gas sparked alarm in the European Union, which heavily depends on Ukraine for the transit of Russian energy. The the EU Commission calling for a "swift settlement" to the dispute. Although Gazprom insists that its policies are based entirely on business needs, critics accuse the giant exporter of bullying former Soviet republics that get too close to the West. "It could be Russia's way of saying that if Tymoshenko doesn't give up her prime ministerial ambitions she could have very big problems," a source closely connected to the government told AFP. Russia's Kommersant newspaper said the link was clear. "Gazprom, which held off discussing gas deliveries to Ukraine before the elections, was not slow to react to their results. Victory by the Oranges cannot suit either Russia or Gazprom," the daily wrote Wednesday.

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Europe

Ukraine Prepares for Sunday Election

2007-09-29

The party of Ukraine's prime minister, who has championed the country's Russian-speaking east, appeared to hold the lead Friday before parliamentary elections, prompting a last-minute reconciliation between his divided, Western-oriented opponents. Sunday's vote was called early to end a political deadlock pitting forces loyal to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych against those of President Viktor Yushchenko, elected following the mass protests in 2004 that became known as the Orange Revolution. But experts predict the electorate will split their votes between Yanukovych's forces and those led by Yushchenko and his occasional ally, Yulia Tymoshenko. Yanukovych's Party of Regions, which draws its support from the mainly Russian-speaking east and south, appears likely to get the most votes, giving him a strong chance of remaining prime minister, according to the most recent polls. But Tymoshenko, the blond-braided former prime minister and Orange Revolution heroine, is also a likely contender for the premier's job. Voters in the Yanukovych strongholds of the industrial east are eager to maintain Ukraine's traditional ties to Russia. The parties of Tymoshenko and Yushchenko are more popular in central and western regions, where nationalist feelings run higher and voters hope to expand ties with Europe and the West. Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko is expected to come in second, trailed by the pro-Yushchenko Our Ukraine-People's Self-defense group. But if they follow through on a last-minute decision to work together, their combined forces could outnumber Yanukovych's in the parliament, called the Verkhovna Rada. All three parties held last-minute rallies in central Kiev on Friday. Yushchenko has called for unity between the once-estranged Orange forces, hinting he could support Tymoshenko as prime minister. ``I would like to say that we only have one option: forming a democratic coalition. Period,'' Yushchenko said while meeting with Tymoshenko on Thursday. ``There won't be any other coalition.'' Yuriy Lutsenko, leader of Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense, predicted that a majority coalition between his party and Tymoshenko's would be forged the day after the vote. ``I am convinced that ... Ukraine will get a pro-Ukrainian democratic majority,'' he told thousands of supporters in downtown Kiev on Friday. Tymoshenko has long called for such a pact, and she cheered the president's decision. ``I believe in our victory, the victory of the democratic team, which - having learned from its mistakes - will work even more effectively,'' she told reporters.

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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Ukraine marks 73rd anniversary of Stalin's famine horror

2006-11-25

Holding candles and standing silent, thousands massed on a fog-shrouded square Saturday to mourn 10 million Ukrainians killed by a famine orchestrated by Soviet leader Josef Stalin — an ordeal many insisted must be recognized as genocide. Some 33,000 people died every day during the 1932-33 famine, wiping out a third of Ukraine's population in a calamity known here as Holodomor — Death by Hunger. Cases of cannibalism were widespread as desperation deepened. Those who resisted were shot or sent to Siberia. "I do not ask — I demand that the Ukrainian parliament recognize Holodomor as genocide," President Viktor Yushchenko told the crowd on Mykhaylivska Square in a short address followed by a minute of silence and the tolling of bells. Stalin provoked the famine to coerce peasants into giving up their private farms and joining agriculture collectives being formed across the Soviet Union. Villages were ordered to provide the state with set amounts of grain, but the demands typically exceeded crop yields. As village after village failed to meet their quotas, officials seized all food and residents were barred from leaving — condemning them to starve. Farmers in Ukraine, which was the breadbasket of the U.S.S.R., fiercely resisted and bore the brunt of the man-made disaster. Russia's government has warned the leaders of this former Soviet republic against using the term genocide, saying the event should not be "politicized." Some Ukrainian lawmakers agreed, proposing it be termed a "tragedy" instead. The Kremlin argues Stalin's campaign did not specifically target Ukrainians and also affected Russians and Kazakhs. But historians say the overwhelming majority of victims were Ukrainian, and the famine coincided with Stalin's effort to crush growing Ukrainian nationalism. Yushchenko appealed to Russia to "stand by our side" and recognize the mass starvation as genocide. "With this high example, demonstrate the human empathy that is inherent to the Russian people," he said. "How can it be called anything but genocide," said Kateryna Kryvenko, 78, who recalled crying at the feet of Soviet officials as they ransacked her family's village home, carting off what little food her family had managed to hide under a floorboard. She said authorities took everything, and her father and three brothers and sisters died. During the Soviet era, the mass starvation was a closely guarded state secret, but information trickled out over the years. Ten nations, including the United States, recognize the famine as genocide, a crime under international law defined as the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political or cultural group. Ukraine's parliament speaker, Oleksandr Moroz, said Saturday that he supports recognizing the mass starvation as genocide and said the president's bill calling for that designation would come before parliament this week. Some lawmakers from Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's Russia-leaning Party of Regions suggested adopting a more moderate term, but party member Taras Chornovil predicted the president's version would pass. Yanukovych joined Yushchenko in Saturday's commemoration, which included a silent procession by people carrying white banners representing every Ukrainian region. Black ribbons hung from the banners. "The tragedy is of such a scale that it is hard to even imagine," said Oksana Yatsyuk, 18.

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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Orange Gold

2005-04-16

Ukraine's successful Orange Revolution is rekindling interest in using the oil pipeline from Odessa on the Black Sea to Brody on the Polish border, opening a way for Caspian oil from Kazakhstan to reach Europe. For this project to work, the pipeline would need to be extended all the way to the Baltic Sea at Gdansk, as originally intended. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko recently said that this extension should be a priority for a Europe looking to diversify energy supply sources and transport options. Ironically, the pipeline's potential value as an alternative and viable supply route for Europe's energy needs is exactly the reason why it hasn't been built yet. Initially planned by Ukraine and Poland with U.S. political support, the Odessa-Brody section was completed in 2002. The following year, the Ukrainian and Polish governments and the European Commission agreed on extending the line to Gdansk. However, these plans have come to nothing so far mainly because Russia and its state-connected oil companies have stood in the way, politically as well as literally. Sitting astride the overland transit routes for Kazakhstan's oil, Russia took advantage of its transit monopoly to prevent Kazakh oil producers from using the Odessa-Brody pipeline. Russia has no interest in facilitating a competitor's access to European markets. On the contrary, Moscow seeks to maximize its market share and price leverage, thwart the EU's supply diversification strategy, and ultimately exploit Europe's growing dependence on Russian energy for its political objectives. As a result, the Odessa-Brody pipeline remained dry and idle for more than two years for want of access to Caspian oil. With the then-ruling regime of President Leonid Kuchma tilting politically toward the Kremlin, the stage was set in 2004 for the "reverse use" of this pipeline. Instead of pumping Caspian oil northward, it is carrying Russian oil southward to Odessa for export by tanker through the Turkish Straits to the Mediterranean basin. sounds like the revolution came just in time to Kiev The Russian-British company Tyumen Neft-BP (TNK-BP) is the main user of the pipeline in the reverse mode. Agreements signed last year envisage pumping nine million tons annually for a three-year period from Russian fields operated by TNK-BP and various Russian companies. However, the volumes being pumped since then amount to only a fraction of that figure. The pipeline therefore operates at a substantial loss for the Ukrainian government, which is unable to recoup its investment or even cover the full maintenance costs. Ukrainian officials are right to believe that the reverse-use idea was always politically motivated -- namely to thwart the originally intended use of the pipeline to transport Caspian oil to EU countries. Russian oil producers have very little commercial interest in the Odessa-Brody route, which they underutilize mainly in order to block access of Caspian oil. At a recent international business forum in Kiev, Ukrainian, Polish and European Commission experts renewed talks on the extension project. The EU even opened a credit line for the technical and commercial feasibility study on extending the pipeline into Poland. The construction is expected to take three years and cost €450-500 million. Receiving oil via Poland through existing pipeline links could be particularly interesting for Germany. The Ukrainian government seeks a commitment of 10 million tons of Caspian crude oil annually, with guarantees of uninterrupted supply for this project. Ukrainian and Polish business proposals are based on Kazakhstan's projected oil output growth to as much as 100 million tons by 2010 from some 50 million tons at present. The true potential for Kazakh oil production is of course also a function of the availability of transport routes and consumers and can only be fully assessed once Ukraine and Poland initiate the formation of a consortium to extend the pipeline to Gdansk with EU backing. Mr. Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko propose using oil from the giant Tengiz field in the northwest of Kazakhstan, which is majority-owned and operated by ChevronTexaco. At the moment, Tengiz oil is being pumped to Russia's Black Sea port Novorossiisk through a major pipeline owned and operated by the ExxonMobil-led Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC). Ukraine intends to initiate discussions with the producers and transporters of Kazakh oil, Russia's Transneft state pipeline monopoly, and the Kazakh government to carry Tengiz oil from Novorossiisk by tanker to Odessa. An alternative option would involve shipping the oil from Kazakhstan on the short trans-Caspian route to Azerbaijan, and pump it through BP's existing pipeline to Georgia's Black Sea port of Supsa, for shipment to Odessa and on to Poland. The attraction of this last option is twofold: It is shorter than the route via Russia, and it would provide the first direct link between the Caspian basin and Europe. As a result, it would be safe from any Russian political manipulation. Mr. Yushchenko and the German and Polish ministers of foreign affairs, Joschka Fischer and Adam Rotfeld, discussed the project at their meeting in Kiev. Since then, there has been a flurry of other meetings. In late March, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and Mr. Yushchenko discussed the financing of the project while Mr. Kwasniewski and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliev examined the transit options to Odessa. The presidents of Georgia and Kazakhstan, Mikhail Saakashvili and Nursultan Nazarbayev, just held talks in Kazakhstan to discuss the possibilities of oil deliveries via Azerbaijan and Supsa to Odessa. However, Moscow will almost certainly continue opposing the northward use of the Odessa-Brody pipeline and its extension for the transport of Caspian oil. This is why U.S. political support is so crucial. In 2003, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney prevailed on then-Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych to suspend the decision on reverse use, pending supply offers from American companies in Kazakhstan. But the Kuchma-Yanukovych regime ignored that offer and agreed to the reverse-use for Russian oil. This time around, Moscow may find the combined pressure from Washington, the American oil companies in Kazakhstan, and the transit and consumer countries of the oil pipeline too strong to withstand. Success of this project would finally begin to arrest Europe's worrisome slide into overdependence on Russia for its energy supplies. we'll see ... Putin won't give up easily ... I wonder if this pipeline will be sabotaged by 'insurgents' out of Moscow -- physically, if they can't stop it politically

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Europe

CSI Kiev looking into Yushenko poison plot

2005-02-15

It was a clear September night when Yevhen Chervonenko left presidential hopeful Viktor Yushchenko healthy and in good spirits ahead of a secret meeting at a dacha near Kiev. Chervonenko, at the time Yushchenko's head of security and now Ukraine's new transportation minister, said he usually went everywhere with Yushchenko and even tasted his food. But that night was an exception. Yushchenko was going to the dacha to dine with Ukrainian Security Service chief Ihor Smeshko and his deputy, Volodymyr Satsyuk. "I was told that I was not required that night because the organizers wanted the meeting to be confidential," Chervonenko said in an interview. Yushchenko's bodyguards also were not allowed to accompany him, he said. The only member of his team who went along was his campaign manager, David Zhvania. Yushchenko, who was already leading Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych in the polls, had requested the Sept. 5 meeting to discuss the election campaign and death threats he had begun receiving in July. The men sat down for a meal of boiled crayfish, a salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and corn and beer, followed by cold meats washed down with vodka and cognac. The next day, Yushchenko fell seriously ill and his body was racked with pain, Chervonenko said. Slowly, a mask of bumps and cysts crept across his once-handsome face - symptoms that he had ingested a dose of pure TCDD, the most hazardous dioxin, Vienna doctors later determined. Now that Yushchenko is Ukraine's president, difficult questions are being raised about who could have wanted him out of the race so badly that they were willing to kill him. Interviews with members of Yushchenko's camp and former KGB officers suggest a shadowy Ukrainian-Russian plot most likely involving members of the security services of both countries and quite possibly members of the former Ukrainian government or organized crime figures that feared losing wealth and influence.

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Europe

Protesters Pressure Yanukovych to Concede

2004-12-29

Beating drums and chanting "resign," supporters of apparent presidential winner Viktor Yushchenko blocked his election opponent from presiding at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday as tensions persisted in this former Soviet republic. Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych showed no signs of cracking, refusing to surrender his post and telling journalists he would challenge the results of Sunday's runoff vote before the Supreme Court. Parliament passed a no-confidence vote for Yanukovych on Dec. 1, but the law gives him 60 days to submit his resignation, and he has called parliament's move illegal. "It is a matter of my principles not to submit a resignation," Yanukovych said. "I know why they insist on that ... they are shivering with fear." Yanukovych was declared the winner of a Nov. 21 presidential vote, but hundreds of thousands wearing Yushchenko's orange campaign color massed in Kiev for day after day to protest election fraud. The Supreme Court eventually annulled the ballot, forcing Sunday's rerun, which preliminary results showed Yushchenko winning easily.

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Europe

Yushchenko Declares Victory

2004-12-27

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko declared victory Monday in Ukraine's fiercely contested presidential election, telling thousands of supporters they had taken their country to a new political era after a bitterly fought campaign that required an unprecedented three ballots and Supreme Court intervention against fraud. ``There is news: It's over. Now, today, the Ukrainian people have won. I congratulate you,'' he told the festive crowd in Kiev's central Independence Square, the center of weeks of protests after the fraudulent and now-annulled Nov. 21 ballot in which Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych had been declared the winner. Careful, Vic, not all the votes are counted yet. A few wards on the East Side have yet to deliver ... ``We have been independent for 14 years but we were not free,'' Yushchenko said. ``Now we can say this is a thing of the past. Now we are facing an independent and free Ukraine.'' With ballots from just over 87 percent of precincts counted, Yushchenko was leading with 54 percent compared with Yanukovych's 42 percent. Yushchenko did not appear to be making inroads in his opponent's territory so much as solidifying his dominance in places that had already supported him. Yushchenko told journalists and others crammed into his campaign headquarters that Ukraine had opened a new era that would include neither current President Leonid Kuchma nor Yanukovych, the prime minister and candidate hand-picked by Kuchma to be his successor. Earlier in the evening, a dejected-looking Yanukovych told reporters in Kiev ``if there is a defeat, there will be a strong opposition.'' But he did not concede, saying ``I am ready to lead the state,'' and hinted he would challenge the results in the courts. ``We will defend the rights of our voters by all legal means,'' he said, ruling out negotiations with Yushchenko were the opposition leader to win. Some 12,000 foreign observers had watched Sunday's unprecedented third round to help prevent a repeat of the apparent widespread fraud on Nov. 21 that prompted the massive protests inside the nation and a volley of recriminations between Russia and the West. Both campaigns complained of violations, but monitors said they'd seen far fewer problems. ``This is another country,'' said Stefan Mironjuk, a German election monitor observing the vote in the northern Sumy region. ``The atmosphere of intimidation and fear during the first and second rounds was absent ... It was very, very calm.'' The Central Election Commission estimated that turnout was around 75 percent.

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Europe

Exit Polls Give Yushchenko the Presidency

2004-12-26

Three exit polls projected Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko the winner by a commanding margin over Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych in Sunday's fiercely fought presidential rematch. A glum-looking Yanukovych told reporters "if we fail, we will form a strong opposition." He did not concede defeat, saying "I am ready to lead the state" and hinted that he would challenge the results in court. The first official results are not expected until Monday morning. The exit polls tracked an unprecedented third-round presidential election, which was watched by an army of foreign observers stationed at polls to prevent the kind of fraud that sparked weeks of protests in the streets of Kiev, the capital, and sent a flurry of recriminations flying between Russia and the West after last month's court-annulled run-off. The state-funded Ukrainian Institute of Social Research and Social Monitoring Center showed Yushchenko winning with 58.1 percent of the vote and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych garnering 38.4 percent. The margin of error was 2 percentage points. The Western-funded Razumkov Center of Political Studies and Kiev International Institute of Sociology showed Yushchenko winning with 56.5 percent and Yanukovych collecting 41.3 percent of the vote, with no margin of error given. A third exit poll, by Frank Luntz, a pollster for the U.S. Republican Party, and Douglas Schoen, of the Washington-based market research company Penn, Schoen & Berland, showed Yushchenko winning with 56 to Yanukovych's 41 percent, Schoen said. The margin of error was 2 percentage points. The contest was a momentous political event for Ukraine, a nation of 48 million people torn between an eastward-expanding European Union (news - web sites) and NATO (news - web sites), and an increasingly assertive Russia, its former imperial and Soviet-era master. Yushchenko, a former Central Bank chief and prime minister, hopes to take Ukraine closer to the West and to push through economic and political reforms. The Kremlin-backed Yanukovych, the current prime minister, emphasized tightening the Slavic country's ties with Russia as a means of maintaining stability. Yushchenko has promised to uproot the corruption which saw the former Soviet republic's wealth concentrated in the hands of about a dozen businessmen. Yanukovych has promised to continue work to boost Ukraine's economy — which enjoys the fastest growth rate in Europe — and pledged an increase in wages and pensions. Serhiy Shetchkov, 53, a Kiev voter, said he had cast his ballot for Yushchenko — "of course." "He is an economist and that's what the country needs right now," he said after slipping his ballot into a transparent box at Kiev's Music Conservatory. "I'm not as interested in all this talk about the European Union versus Russia. I'm interested in someone who can raise the standard of living, raise pensions, create more jobs." The political crisis has highlighted the rift between Ukraine's Russian-speaking, heavily industrial east and cosmopolitan Kiev and the west, where Ukrainian nationalism runs deep. Yanukovych backers fear discrimination from the Ukrainian-speaking west, and some eastern regions briefly threatened to seek autonomy if Yushchenko were to win the presidency. "I am voting for independence (of eastern Ukraine), an end to feeding those lazy westerners! My vote goes to Yanukovych," said Hrihoriy Reshetnyak, a 44-year-old miner who cast his ballot in the prime minister's eastern stronghold, Donetsk. Yushchenko, whose face remains badly scarred from dioxin poisoning he blamed on Ukrainian authorities, built momentum for the Supreme Court-ordered third vote with round-the-clock protest by supporters, echoing the spirit of the anti-communist revolutions that swept other East European countries in 1989-90. "What we did during the last 30 days was a tribute to our ancestors," Yushchenko told reporters after voting in Kiev's trade union building. "I know they are looking at us from heaven and they are applauding." His backers launched the demonstrations after Yanukovych was named the winner of the fraud-marred Nov. 21 presidential runoff. The Supreme Court later annulled the results and ordered Sunday's repeat vote, which is being monitored by more than 12,000 international observers. The political crisis sparked arguments between Russia, which had backed Yanukovych and insisted that the vote had been free and fair, and the West, which stubbornly held out for a new contest. Each side accused the other of undue interference in Ukraine's affairs. "We hope for a free, fair vote that meets international standards and results in an outcome truly reflecting the will of Ukraine's people," said U.S. State Department spokesman Noel Clay. Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma said he hoped the results will stick this. "In my opinion, the one who loses should call and congratulate the winner ... and put an end to this prolonged election campaign." Pollsters said they heard the same sentiment of fatigue from voters. "I think the public is looking for this to be over," said Douglas Schoen, a pollster for the U.S. Democratic Party who teamed up with Frank Luntz of the country's rival Republican Party to conduct an exit poll of 10,000 voters. "The public is looking to move ahead," he said, adding that Ukrainians "are more excited about what the future might bring them." By 3 p.m., the Central Election Commission had reported 55.2 percent turnout with 90 percent of Ukraine's precincts reporting. Despite the huge presence of foreign observers, both campaigns complained of some violations. Yanukovych's campaign alleged that Yushchenko campaign material was found near some voting booths. Yushchenko's headquarters, meanwhile, complained that the names of the dead were included on a voter list in Donetsk. In spite of fears of violence, no major incidents were reported by Sunday evening. As the voting wound down, about a dozen pro-Yushchenko protesters sat around campfire in the opposition tent camp, drinking hot tea, while nearby someone played the guitar. Three men wearing Yanukovych's white-and-blue scarves stood outside the camp's makeshift barriers, watching. The two groups didn't talk to each other. On Saturday, the Constitutional Court ruled against some amendments passed earlier this month that would have allowed only people with certain disabilities to vote at home. The court said all those unable to reach polling stations because of a disability or ill health must be allowed to vote at home. But it was unclear if the ruling would help or hurt Yanukovych, who enjoys strong backing from the elderly and disabled. His campaign workers had planned to ferry many homebound elderly to the polls, and logistics may have prevented more from taking advantage of the last-minute ruling.

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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Eve Of New Vote: New Ukraine Twist

2004-12-26

On the eve of Ukraine's hotly contested presidential vote, the nation's highest court on Saturday threw out some of the election law changes aimed at battling fraud, a possible setback for opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko. The Constitutional Court ruling poses a last-minute logistical challenge to election officials and could provide grounds for a protracted dispute over the results of the vote -- a repeat of a November vote that was thrown out because of fraud. The ruling came as Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych took a legally required day off from campaigning before Sunday's vote, and some 12,000 international observers -- the largest election monitoring mission ever launched -- fanned out across the country. Sunday's vote marks the culmination of a month of upheaval in Ukraine, marked by huge protests in the streets of Kiev by Yushchenko supporters; a Supreme Court ruling that voided Yanukovych's victory in the Nov. 21 vote; tension between Russia -- which backs Yanukovych -- and the West, and revelations that Yushchenko, a pro-Western reformer, was poisoned by dioxin. Saturday's court decision brought a new twist in the final hours before polls open. The court ruled that amendments allowing people with only certain disabilities to vote at home were unconstitutional, and it ordered that all who were unable to reach polling stations because of a disability or ill health be allowed to vote at home. Saturday's ruling could benefit Yanukovych, who pushed for the restrictions to be lifted, saying they would deprive millions of their right to vote. However, it could also throw an unexpected monkey wrench into his campaign team's announced plans to help disabled voters reach polling stations. They are considered a key source of backing of Yanukovych because the prime minister raised pensions during his two years in office.... Nope. No shenanigans this time.

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Europe

Yushchenko Warns Against Election Violence

2004-12-25

Opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko called on the government Friday to prevent any violence in this weekend's crucial presidential repeat vote, as the two campaigns rallied their supporters on the final day of campaigning. In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia has not meddled in the affairs of ex-Soviet republics _ in a reference to Ukraine _ but accused other nations of having done so. "We haven't engaged in any behind-the-scenes policy-making on the post-Soviet space, and that, to some extent, limits instruments we can use to defend our interests ... unlike our partners which have used them actively," Putin told the State Council, made up of Cabinet members and provincial governors. Putin's blatant support of Yushchenko's rival, Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, strained the Russian leaders' relations with the West. Putin has since said he is ready to work with Yuschenko if he wins.

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Europe

Pooty can work with Yuschenko

2004-12-21

DONETSK, Ukraine - Supporters of presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko traveling in a convoy of 50 orange-draped cars ran into a roadblock of his rival's backers Tuesday and failed to carry their campaign into this industrial city — a center of opposition to Yushchenko. With five days until Sunday's court-ordered rerun of Yushchenko's runoff election against Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, the faceoff underscored the division in this former Soviet republic of 48 million people between the expanding European Union (news - web sites) and a reinvigorated Russia. But in a conciliatory gesture, Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites), who has strongly backed Ukraine's prime minister, said Tuesday that he could work with an administration headed by Yushchenko, a former prime minister and head of the Central Bank. "We have worked with him already and the cooperation was not bad," Putin said during a visit to Germany. "If he wins, I don't see any problems."

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