Ukraine In Turmoil
This article was written before the Western-inspired demonstrations took place and the attempt to have the US-backed candidate for President of the Ukraine declared a winner. George Duravetz was a member of the Canadian-USSR Association for many years. He now lives in Ukraine.
In the January issue of NSC we will have an overview of the election and we shall see that Western agencies were involved!
Ukrainian Presidential Election Second Round was held on November 21, 2004
Ukraine is gearing up for the second round of the Presidential election to be held on November 21st. It will be a run off between the two top candidates in the first round held on October 31st. The opposition leader Victor Yushchenko has a slight lead of 155,816 votes over present Prime Minister, Victor Yanukovich. Yushchenko received 11,125,395 or 39.87% of the popular vote, while Yanukovich received 10,969,679 or 39.32% of the popular vote. Yushchenko won a clear majority in 16 western and northern oblasts and the city of Kyiv, while Yanukovich won an overwhelming majority in the 10 heavily populated eastern and southern oblasts and the Crimea. A total of 27,314,448 or 74.56% of Ukrainian citizens voted out of a total of 36.5 million. By western standards, this is a very high turn out.
The four follow up candidates were Socialist leader Alexander Moroz, 1,594,405 or 5.81%, Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko, 1,375,419 or 4.97%, Progressive Socialist leader Nataliya Vitrenko, 423,007 or 1.53% and a former Prime Minister Anatoli Kinakh with 258,727 or .93%. The remaining 20 candidates –many of whom were suspected of being ‘technical’ candidates whose purpose was to split the opposition- received less than 1.0% each. As of now, Alexander Moroz and Anatoli Kinakh have thrown their support behind Victor Yushchenko, while Petro Symonenko and Nataliya Vitrenko have pledged to support Victor Yanukovich. However, it remains to be seen whether ordinary voters will follow their leaders.
One thing that arises out of this election is the demise of the Communist Party. It has declined from absolute control 13 years ago to receiving 5% of the popular vote. They have further compromised their credibility with their dwindling supporters by pledging to support a candidate that is wholly supported by the corrupt oligarchs and criminal mafia.
Their support of Yanukovich rests on his promise to integrate Ukraine with Russia, introduce dual citizenship and make the Russian language the second official language in Ukraine. The Communist Party has always been a Russian proxy in Ukraine and true to form they have shown their true colours. Loyalty to mother Russia comes before Ukrainian national interests.
Barring any outright falsification of voting procedures or manipulation of voters lists, the results promise to be close. The stakes are high for both candidates and for the people of Ukraine. The outcome will decide for years to come whether Ukraine will join the European community and integrate into their social and political structures, or whether Ukraine will become a part of what could be a newly reconstituted Russian Empire along with Byelorus and Kazakhstan. If this happens, there are fears that Ukraine could very well become an autonomous region within the Empire supplying its military-industrial complex with raw materials, agricultural products and manpower.
The Russians fully realize what is at stake and have thrown their vast financial and media resources behind Yanukovich. Russian language TV channels both in Russia and in Ukraine have put out a steady stream of pro Yanukovich propaganda while Yushchenko is completely ignored. They play on the fear of the large Russian speaking population in the southeast that is if the "nationalists" from Western Ukraine win, they will be forced to speak Ukrainian and the border with Russia will be closed. (40% of Ukrainian citizens have relatives living in Russia and visit them often.) Ukraine will then join NATO and become a client state of the European Union. Some western journalists such as John Laughland of the Spectator in Britain have taken up this pro-Russian line.
The ultra wealthy oligarchs, who have bought up many large Ukrainian industrial and commercial enterprises, using the vast Communist Party funds that disappeared after the collapse of the Soviet Union, have everything to lose. Yushchenko has promised, if elected, to reorganize the security services in order to clean up corruption, tax evasion and the outright theft of state and public property. The embezzlement of state funds by corrupt ministries and tax commissions will also be addressed. This has caused a panic in many circles. The corrupt mayor of Kyiv, Alexander Olmelchenko, has already publicly stated that, "Yushchenko can never be President." Factory directors and industrial managers have called meetings of their employees and threatened them with dismissal if the voting results are not favourable for Yanukovich.
The Russians have called into play their Fifth Column or Trojan horse in Ukraine. Last night The Patriarch of the "Ukrainian" Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate, Vladimir (Sabadan) appeared on national TV stating the he has given his holy blessing to Victor Yanukovich as the only candidate that deserves to be President of Ukraine. Throughout the villages and towns of Ukraine Priests belonging to the Moscow Patriarchate have harangued their parishioners from the pulpit to vote for Yanukovich.
If not, they reserve the right to deny baptisms, marriages and burials to those who have openly defied them. It’s an open secret that priests in local areas have received considerable financial gifts from government and Russian authorities. Adopting a completely different position is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kyiv Patriarchate, Ukrainian Catholic Church, and the Ukrainian Evangelical Baptist Church who at a joint-press conference only asked that the elections be fair and honest and that people vote according to their consciences. What a travesty, that this gang of political opportunists in the Moscow Patriarchate, posing as the emissaries of Christ in Ukraine are doing everything in their power to destroy the newly found independence of this struggling nation! Yet they have the support of highly placed individuals in the hierarchy of the Orthodox Churches in Canada and the U.S. because they are "canonical".
Yushchenko has challenged Yanukovich to a public debate on national TV. The latter – after initially refusing unless Yushchenko apologized for his comments regarding Yanukovich’s criminal youth – has finally accepted and the debate will take place on November 15. In all fairness, it must be stated the both Yushchenko and Yanukovich fall short of being brilliant public speakers, although Ukrainians have also grown weary of good ‘salesmen’. It took 10 days after the first round for the Central Election Commission to tabulate the returns and publicly announce the final results of the first round. The Yanukovich observers had registered thousands of complaints of violations of the Ukrainian electoral law in order to tie up the electoral process. All of them had to be investigated before a final statement could be issued. Furthermore, revised voters’ lists have to be drawn up after unanimous complaints from international observers and agencies.
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The role of the Americans vis-à-vis Ukraine is rather ambiguous. Officially a stream of high-level American officials has visited Ukraine, such as Colin Powell, Condeleesa Rice, Madeline Albright, Zbigniew Brezinski and Henry Kissinger, some of whom were invited to Ukraine by President Kuchma’s oligarch son-in-law and media magnate Victor Pinchuk. All have declared that the only American interest in the Ukrainian election is that it be transparent and democratic. Furthermore, The United States is ready to cooperate with any candidate that wins the election fair and square. However, American national interests go beyond Ukraine. Having installed a string of military bases stretching from Croatia in former Yugoslavia to Romania and Bulgaria in the Balkans and on to Georgia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kirghizstan on the Afghan border, the Americans have outflanked and isolated the Russians in their own backyard. To sweeten Russian bitterness and resentment, the Americans would not be loath to leave Ukraine in the Russian sphere of influence. Russian control would relegate Ukraine to the permanent status of a colonial backwater. Americans are also cognizant of the fact that Ukraine possesses a vast underdeveloped industrial and economic potential in addition to a highly educated and skilled labour force. If allowed to develop freely, Ukraine could pose a serious economic challenge to American and Western European interests. Neither the U.S. nor Western Europe needs this challenge to their economic hegemony. Furthermore, Russian compliance and cooperation in America’s "War on Terrorism" must include some kind of payout. One final complication for the Americans is that Yushchenko has pledged to bring Ukrainian troops home from Iraq where their presence is seen by many Ukrainians as President Kuchma’s attempt to win back his reputation after it was badly tarnished by charges of his alleged involvement in the murder of journalist Gongadze and the Kolchuga radar scandal. Thus, Ukraine may very well be the sacrificial lamb.
One thing that is clear is that the present Ukrainian government in power will resort to any means fair or foul to retain control of the state apparatus. They have too much to lose should by some miracle Yushchenko and his team win this election.
George Duravetz, Canadian Observer for the Presidential election and correspondent for the German Mennonite community newspaper, The Steinbach Carillon.
Before we went to press, here are the latest developments.
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